TitoVillar
patreon
NAJ Chapter 55: No Redemption for the Wicked
🕑 Added 2025-06-29 19:57:29 +0000 UTC“…Picked them up during the Third Great Ninja War.”
Danzō forced the words out, one syllable at a time, between gritted teeth.
Technically, he wasn’t lying.
Except for the Mangekyō Sharingan he had taken from Shisui, the rest had been stolen during the war—his Root operatives had exhumed the eyes from fallen Uchiha corpses on the battlefield.
Hiruzen glanced at the Uchiha shinobi nearby, whose anger was surging like an unchecked tide. He stepped forward and stood beside Fugaku, his hands folded behind his back, the expression on his aged face clouded with fury.
“Danzō!”
His voice rang out.
“Every person who died in the Great Ninja War—civilian or shinobi, common-born or from a clan—they were all heroes of Konoha!”
“Are you saying you desecrated the bodies of our fallen heroes!?” Hiruzen bellowed.
“They gave their lives for this village—and you would exploit their corpses for your own gain?!”
“I will not allow someone who committed such disgraceful acts to continue leading the Root division! As of this moment, you are no longer its commander!”
His voice was loud, firm—and seething with fury.
Everyone present could hear him clearly.
Fugaku turned slightly, glancing in surprise at the Third Hokage standing next to him.
A senior leader of the village, stripped of his rank in just a few sentences? And right in front of so many people?
Was this… the true authority of the Hokage?
Many among the Uchiha frowned. Something about this still felt off—but for the moment, they didn’t know what to say.
“Monkey! What are you saying?!”
The one who reacted most intensely was none other than Danzō himself.
His anger toward the Uchiha was instantly redirected at Hiruzen.
“You’re stripping me of my position?!” His pupils trembled, his voice cracking from rage and disbelief. The betrayal cut so deep that he abandoned all formalities and shouted Hiruzen’s old nickname—'Monkey'—right to his face.
Danzō’s hoarse voice rose even higher.
“You don’t have the right, Monkey! I’ve bled for Konoha! I earned my place through merit and sacrifice!”
But Hiruzen’s fury only burned hotter.
“I am the Hokage of Konoha! I have the authority to dismiss anyone from office!”
He enunciated each word with thunderous clarity: “I—am—the Hokage!”
…
“Is Hokage-sama really thinking about us shinobi clans with kekkei genkai?”
A Hyūga jōnin standing at the edge of the crowd murmured in doubt.
“Hokage-sama is aiming for three birds with one stone.”
Hyūga Hiashi spoke flatly, his expression unreadable.
He gazed into the distance, toward Hiruzen’s back, and said, “The Uchiha are unusually furious. By dismissing Danzō, Hokage-sama is buying time—cooling their anger, even if only slightly. At the same time, punishing someone who secretly harvested kekkei genkai from fellow shinobi does bring some relief to clans like ours.”
“And finally…”
Hiashi turned his gaze to a young Uchiha.
One of tonight’s central figures.
“This is Hokage-sama doing his best to protect Danzō. Otherwise, with Uchiha Keizumi's personality, he would never let Danzō off so easily. The last time, Hokage-sama intervened to stop them. But here they are again, in conflict.”
“Hokage-sama knows he may not be able to step in next time. He has to cut off the hatred at its root. Removing Danzō from power, making sure he never resurfaces—especially not in front of Uchiha Keizumi—is the cleanest solution.”
Hiashi’s calm words left the Hyūga shinobi behind him deep in thought.
Did this mean, in Hokage-sama’s eyes, Uchiha Keizumi was more important than Danzō?
“Hiashi-sama, does this mean tonight’s farce is... finally over?” one Hyūga asked cautiously.
“Mm.” Hiashi nodded slightly, his tone still indifferent.
“By all logic, it should be over now.”
—But is Uchiha Keizumi someone who plays by logic?
That last thought never left Hiashi’s lips—
Because the answer came to him before he could.
…
“Third Hokage, isn’t this enough?”
Uchiha Keizumi’s cold voice abruptly interrupted the clash between Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō.
…
Hiashi’s expression turned complicated. He sighed quietly.
“He’s truly unfathomable... He refuses to take the way out offered by Hokage-sama.”
“Looks like tonight won’t end so easily after all.”
...
The moment Uchiha Keizumi’s voice rang out, a faint sense of foreboding rose within Sarutobi Hiruzen.
In front of all the Konoha shinobi, he had openly stripped Danzō of his position without giving him the slightest courtesy, tearing off all pretense. It was exactly the course of action Hyūga Hiashi had proposed.
This was the toughest stance Sarutobi Hiruzen could conceive.
And at the same time, it served to placate the bloodline limit clans of Konoha.
But unexpectedly, it wasn’t enough to pacify Uchiha Keizumi.
“You little brat—what are you trying to do!?” Danzō snarled viciously, his sharp and sinister gaze locked onto Uchiha Keizumi.
He hadn’t forgotten—it was this cursed Uchiha kid who, in just a single day, had slaughtered over a dozen of his Root subordinates.
Even his summoning beast, Baku, hadn’t been spared. That was the loss that pained Danzō the most.
It had been his strongest summoning beast, and a partner who had fought beside him for many years.
Losing Baku was equivalent to losing a massive source of power.
Yet Keizumi paid him no mind. Wearing a blank expression, he addressed Sarutobi Hiruzen directly: “So that’s your solution, Third Hokage? Removing Shimura Danzō from office—this is how you handle it?”
Sarutobi Hiruzen opened his mouth, but before he could utter a single word, Keizumi added coldly: “How cozy—snakes and rats in one nest, shielding each other, colluding in the shadows.”
Hiruzen’s old face darkened at once.
He hadn’t expected Keizumi to curse him outright.
Fugaku also sensed things were getting out of hand. “Keizumi…”
“You’re far too weak, Fugaku,” Keizumi cut him off, casting him a sidelong glance. “In your eyes, all the things Danzō has done to the Uchiha Clan, to innocent civilians—are they so easily forgiven?”
He didn’t even bother using words like 'Clan Head' or 'Patriarch'.
“And besides…”
Keizumi continued coldly, “What right do you have to forgive Danzō? Who gave you the authority to trivialize such crimes—to pretend they never happened?”
Fugaku’s stern expression twisted in clear dismay.
For some reason, he could feel that several of the clansmen around him were starting to look at him… differently.
…
Among the crowd of masked shinobi from the Anbu, Kakashi’s face showed a trace of helplessness.
He had known from the start—anything involving Uchiha Keizumi was never going to end quietly.
Especially now that Uchiha Keizumi had grown wings—become increasingly untouchable.
There were barely a handful left in all of Konoha who could still rein him in.
Maybe…
If the Hokage hadn’t come here personally, bringing so many Anbu with him…
Even the Hokage himself might not have been able to control Uchiha Keizumi.
“…Hmm?”
Kakashi faintly sensed something—like a gaze falling onto him from afar.
He turned his head and glanced into the distance.
His eyes narrowed.
It seemed there was a figure on the rooftop of a distant building, but in the brief moment it took to blink, the silhouette vanished.
...
“Sharp as ever… Kakashi.”
Far away, concealed beneath a shadow, stood a masked man cloaked in black. His voice murmured with a hint of hesitation and doubt.
“Was it just my imagination…? I don’t know why, but I could’ve sworn that Uchiha Keizumi glanced this way too.”
He wasn’t entirely sure. That moment of eye contact had left him vaguely unsettled.
But he dismissed the thought soon after.
Back then, he had needed Minato-sensei’s protection just to survive a clash with Uchiha Keizumi.
But now… he no longer believed himself inferior to Keizumi.
…
“Shimura Danzō.”
Under the watchful eyes of the entire village, Uchiha Keizumi met Danzō’s furious, shadowed gaze without the slightest expression on his face. His voice was calm and flat: “The evil you carry… is the deepest I’ve ever seen within Konoha. So vast, it defies counting—so vile, it defies description.”
“When petty thieves commit minor crimes, they’re arrested and imprisoned for half a month as a warning to others. Yet you—after slaughtering so many innocent lives and committing countless atrocities—what right do you have to stand here, unscathed, barking like a mad dog?”
“You, whose sins could fill entire volumes—why are you still allowed to breathe?”
Veins bulged on Danzō’s forehead as fury surged within him. He knew he couldn’t stay silent.
Even that old monkey had turned on him—he could rely on no one now but himself.
Gritting his teeth, Danzō barked, “You insolent brat! All I did was collect a few Sharingan from the battlefield during the Great Ninja War! Removing me from office… that’s already the harshest punishment possible! Or are you trying to use this so-called absolute justice as an excuse to cloak your own bloodlust and act like a righteous executioner?”
He struck first, trying to force the blame onto Keizumi.
But Keizumi remained utterly unmoved. He simply asked: “Is that so? Then how do you explain Shisui’s Sharingan?”
Danzō’s pupils contracted sharply. His gaze toward Keizumi was now filled with disbelief.
This cursed Uchiha kid…
Could he really… see through everything?
The surrounding Uchiha shinobi, already surrounding Danzō with hostile intent, erupted in shocked uproar.
Sarutobi Hiruzen’s expression shifted as if deep in thought.
The Anbu present stared at Danzō with visible suspicion.
And the other shinobi—both bloodline clans and civilian ninjas—now looked at Danzō with startled, unsettled eyes.
