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NAJ Chapter 78: The Seed of Justice
🕑 Added 2025-07-10 21:24:14 +0000 UTC“Open your eyes.”
But when Uchiha Keizumi’s cold voice rang out, Naruto realized—this terrifying man scared him even more than the scene in front of him.
Driven by sheer survival instinct, he forced himself to muster the courage and opened his eyes.
“Rookie, take notes. Victim Number One: male, around 7 to 8 years old. Multiple sites of blunt force trauma and compression injuries resulting in shattered bones. At first glance, the caved-in skull appears to be the main cause of death, but look closely—there are strange markings on the side of the neck. It's likely he was struck hard there while still alive, causing a cervical fracture.”
“That… was the true cause of death.”
Seven or eight years old…
Clutching his mouth with both hands, Naruto’s small face turned red as he fought desperately not to throw up—his eyes widened in shock.
That boy was about his age…
Could he have been a student at the Ninja Academy too?
Uchiha Keizumi moved to the side and pulled back another white sheet—this time, what Naruto saw shattered what little composure he had left.
A sickening wave of vomit gushed through his trembling fingers before he could stop it.
His blue pupils quaked violently.
“Victim Number Two: female, around 2 to 3 years old. Her body was crushed under heavy debris, but that likely wasn’t the fatal injury. There’s food lodged in her throat—she choked on it. It seems she was knocked unconscious during a meal.”
It was as if Uchiha Keizumi intended for Naruto to witness every single corpse with his own eyes.
And Naruto’s reaction—his emotional devastation—seemed of no concern to him whatsoever.
He pulled back the third sheet.
“Victim Number Three: male, estimated age between 29 and 31. While there are also marks from fallen rubble, the fatal wound is here—on the chest. This wasn’t caused by collapsing structures. It’s a clean puncture, clearly made by a sharp weapon.”
Then he uncovered a fourth body.
“Victim Number Four: female, age…”
After seeing all four corpses—each one mangled in a horrific way—Naruto stood frozen. His entire body had gone numb, and the light had vanished from his eyes as he stared blankly at the final victim.
“Uzumaki Naruto.”
Being suddenly called by his full name sent a shiver through Naruto’s whole body.
“I-I’m sorry!” he blurted, nearly in tears. “I shouldn’t have thrown up! I can clean it up—I promise…”
But the terrifying man didn’t scold him.
Instead, he said flatly, “This is the evil of the shinobi world.”
The evil of the shinobi world…
Was he referring to this murdered family?
No!
No, that’s not right!
Naruto suddenly understood—
He meant the killer.
"The twisted, pathological shinobi world breeds a kind of evil—an evil that brings slaughter, suffering, and disaster to innocent people. The family of four you've seen today… they were all victims of that evil."
Uchiha Keizumi asked quietly, “Do you think they were pitiful, Uzumaki Naruto?”
Naruto wiped the corner of his mouth, lips trembling slightly as he muttered, “They were killed… of course they were pitiful.”
Uchiha Keizumi continued, “As evil crept closer to them, they had no idea. The whole family was still happily eating dinner together. Then a murderer appeared—blade in hand—and without mercy, stole their lives.”
“And that killer… may be feeling rather pleased with himself right now. Because of the chaos last night, the building collapse crushed all four bodies. If someone inexperienced were to handle this case, it might be classified as an accident and closed.”
“In that case, the killer would face no punishment whatsoever. And justice—would suffer a defeat.”
Naruto had never experienced the love of a father or mother.
He had never felt what it was like to have dinner with family.
But as Uchiha Keizumi’s words sank into his ears, Naruto couldn’t help but start visualizing the scene in his mind.
—A warm family of four laughing and chatting at the dinner table…
Until, under the cover of night, an uninvited guest forced his way into their home.
—The three-year-old girl was the first to be struck unconscious as she ate.
But the food lodged in her throat caused her to suffocate and die.
—The husband, shocked and enraged, stood up—
Only to be swiftly stabbed through the chest by the killer.
—Before the wife could even scream, the murderer drove another blade into her chest.
—The seven-year-old boy ran in terror—
But was chased down, struck in the neck with a single blow, and killed instantly.
A whole family. Wiped out.
By the time he imagined that far, Naruto didn’t dare let his mind go any further.
The scene he’d pictured in his head hit harder than the gruesome corpses he had seen with his own eyes. He stood frozen, overwhelmed with shame and guilt for having thrown up earlier.
“How… how could someone do something like that?” Naruto muttered to himself, nose stinging. “This is wrong… Even if people in the village can’t live in peace, it should never come to this!”
He cast a dazed glance at the other corpses scattered around the morgue.
Then he looked up at Uchiha Keizumi, whose face showed no hint of surprise—only a grim familiarity with it all.
Naruto lowered his voice and asked quietly, “Does this… happen a lot?”
“It never stops,” Uchiha Keizumi replied. “Every hour. Every moment.”
Uchiha Keizumi added coldly, “And this is only the evil bred by a single shinobi village—Konohagakure. Across the vast shinobi world, this kind of evil… is just the tip of the iceberg.”
“This shinobi world is sick. So sick that many people are infected without even realizing it. That sickness has twisted their thoughts, distorted their morals—corroded their very bottom line as human beings.”
Naruto stood stunned for several seconds.
“This… this isn’t how it’s supposed to be…”
For the first time, Naruto raised his head and met Uchiha Keizumi’s eyes head-on, his voice trembling with desperation.
“The shinobi world—it's not supposed to be like this, right?”
Keizumi didn’t answer.
Instead, he asked another question.
“Uzumaki Naruto. Now that you’ve seen just the tip of the iceberg of this evil… What is it that your heart wants to do most?”
His voice drifted into Naruto’s ears, low and haunting: “Follow your true feelings. Speak aloud the one thing you most want to do right now.”
At the very moment Uchiha Keizumi finished speaking—
Fugaku burst into the morgue, hurried and breathless.
And when he saw the golden-haired Nine-Tails jinchūriki standing right there in front of him—
His mind went completely blank.
“Keizumi! You—”
But Fugaku didn’t even finish his sentence before Naruto’s sudden shout cut through the room: “I… I want the murderer to pay! A person who could do something like this shouldn’t walk away without punishment! I want their whole family to rest in peace in the Pura Land! This… this is what I want to do!”
Naruto’s voice grew quieter and quieter.
In the end, fear overtook him again.
His sudden burst of courage lasted no more than three seconds before flickering out.
Uchiha Keizumi said calmly, “Remember this belief you're feeling right now.”
Naruto, still hanging his head, froze in place.
“This belief… is called justice.”
Uchiha Keizumi continued in a slow, measured voice: “In that very instant, you carried the will to act on justice. Never forget that outrage. Never allow yourself to grow numb.”
“Justice…” Naruto murmured under his breath.
Fugaku’s pupils contracted slightly.
Watching it all unfold before his eyes, he suddenly realized exactly what Keizumi was doing—
He was planting the seed of his own idea of absolute justice inside the Nine-Tails jinchūriki!
Fugaku drew in a sharp breath.
Was this even allowed?
This had to be crossing the Third Hokage’s bottom line!
“Keizumi… what exactly are you doing?”
Even though he already knew the answer in his heart, Fugaku still couldn’t stop himself from asking—
Because some tiny part of him still clung to the hope…
That Keizumi’s answer would completely contradict everything he feared.
Uchiha Keizumi cast a glance at Fugaku and declared without hesitation, openly and without shame, “The shinobi world needs more absolute justice.”
“…”
In that instant, the last shred of hope in Fugaku’s heart was shattered.
His tightly held breath collapsed into a silent defeat.
“Keizumi! That’s Uzumaki Naruto you’re talking to!”
“You can instill your shinobi ideals into anyone else within the Uchiha Clan—but not him.
Don’t you understand how special he is?!”
Fugaku could no longer contain his emotions.
“Keizumi! What you’re doing… you’re pushing the Uchiha Clan into a corner! Don’t forget why we were forced to relocate to this compound in the first place!”
All these years, Fugaku had done everything he could to ease the concerns of Konoha’s higher-ups regarding the Uchiha.
He’d lost count of how many times he’d made concessions.
How many times he’d chosen compromise for the sake of the village.
And on top of that, he had to endure constant pressure from the hawkish factions within the Uchiha Clan itself.
But he bore it all.
Because in his heart, he believed—if only he were given more time, maybe three to five more years, or even seven or eight—he could finally convince the upper echelons that the Uchiha harbored no ambitions of rebellion.
That the Uchiha Clan could be trusted.
And yet—
Twice now, Uchiha Keizumi had brought the Nine-Tails jinchūriki into the Uchiha compound…
And both times, he had instilled in him the doctrine of absolute justice.
With those actions, he had smashed all of Fugaku’s years of effort into dust—with a single blow.
Once could be dismissed.
But twice?
How was Fugaku supposed to stay composed?
