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NAJ Chapter 59: Judgment by Fire
🕑 Added 2025-07-01 21:58:03 +0000 UTC“Keizumi!”
Fugaku could no longer conceal his Mangekyō.
The tomoe in his eyes began to twist and reform, sharpening into an eerie, blade-like pattern unique to the Mangekyō Sharingan.
“The Uchiha Clan must not come into fundamental conflict with the village. The Uchiha Clan must not end up in the future you spoke of!”
His voice trembled with tension as he clenched his jaw. Chakra surged from his body, his ocular power condensing fiercely in his Sharingan.
Two pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan locked eyes at that moment.
“Keizumi, Danzō has been taken away. There's no need for you to resist any further. I have my own way of enforcing justice in Konoha. And I have the authority to decide who carries out that justice.”
Sarutobi Hiruzen cast a surprised glance at Fugaku, masking the wariness in his eyes before speaking in a low voice to Keizumi.
“The power you now wield should not be used against fellow shinobi of the village.”
He made a renewed promise: “I will handle Danzō appropriately. I’ll give you a proper answer—one that satisfies you.”
“Keizumi…”
Hiruzen drew a deep breath. The ANBU around him were poised to move, and even Fugaku was visibly tensed. Meanwhile, the Konoha shinobi beyond the perimeter—those not of the Uchiha Clan—stood hesitantly, unsure of what to do.
Then Hiruzen solemnly declared, his voice calm yet firm: “I won’t hold you accountable... No, I should say—you’ve done nothing wrong today. Because what you did was an act of justice. Your justice. Just as I, too, carry out mine.”
“The village needs stability. It needs balance. I hope that one day, you’ll be able to look at these matters from my perspective. And when you do, perhaps then... you’ll understand why I did what I had to do today.”
He spoke with heartfelt sincerity, trying to guide Uchiha Keizumi with a sense of fatherly earnestness.
But the moment he saw Keizumi’s cold, indifferent gaze—
Hiruzen knew.
His words...
...probably weren’t making much of a difference.
“Keizumi, I—huh?!”
Just as Hiruzen began to speak again, a sudden chill ran down his spine. His hair stood on end—because he saw it clearly: A trail of bright red blood slowly slid down from Uchiha Keizumi’s right eye.
Hiruzen instantly sprang backward in alarm.
“Keizumi!!!”
Fugaku’s face darkened as he swiftly formed hand seals, trying to stop Keizumi’s next move.
Around them, the ANBU unsheathed their blades and launched into action.
The powder keg...
...had exploded.
“Wait!!”
Hiruzen’s sudden shout rang out across the square, freezing everyone in place.
The powder keg...
...had gone quiet again.
“I’m fine…”
Hiruzen’s expression was still shaken, clearly rattled by what had just happened.
He could tell that Keizumi had definitely used the Mangekyō Sharingan in his other eye. And yet… he hadn’t felt anything himself. So—who was the target of that jutsu?
Or perhaps…
Was the technique only just activated a second ago?
Wait...
A flash of realization crossed Hiruzen’s mind.
“Danzō!!!”
...
At the same time—
Among the Root shinobi who had rushed to carry Danzō away, one happened to be somewhat proficient in medical ninjutsu. He was desperately trying to heal Danzō, casting jutsu again and again, yet it was as if none of it worked at all.
Danzō continued to scream in agony, his face twisted beyond recognition. The Root shinobi couldn’t even begin to imagine—what kind of unspeakable torment was their Danzō-sama experiencing in this moment?
Only Danzō himself truly knew.
His consciousness was almost completely consumed by a torment born from the depths of his soul. It felt like every inch of his spirit was being violently torn apart, again and again.
To Danzō, death felt only a step away.
In his youth, he had undergone brutal training—harsh enough to rival torture—enduring pain no ordinary man could withstand.
But he swore:
Even if all that pain were combined, it wouldn’t equal even one-thousandth of what he felt right now!
He screamed.
He wept.
He wanted to fall to his knees and beg that inherently evil little Uchiha bastard for mercy!
Right now, even if the boy demanded that he become the personal plaything of every last male in the Uchiha clan—brutally used and humiliated—Shimura Danzō would still agree without the slightest hesitation—AAAAHHHH!!!
If only he could still control his body…
He absolutely would!
The agony and despair dragged on, each second longer than a year. His spirit verged on collapse—his very mind fading away.
“Danzō-sama! Danzō-sama!! DANZŌ-SAMA!!!”
The urgent shouts from the Root shinobi jolted what little remained of his awareness.
No longer clutching his head, Danzō used his last thread of will to twist his ten fingers with all the strength he could muster, his face contorted like a beast in its death throes.
One Sharingan slowly faded, its light extinguished.
And then—
[Boom!]
With a thunderous blast, Danzō’s scream abruptly changed. His entire body suddenly erupted in a blaze of crimson flames! The fire surged from seemingly nowhere, engulfing his form in an instant and startling the surrounding Root shinobi into letting go.
But one of them was just a moment too slow.
A single fingertip made contact with the blazing Danzō—and that was enough.
The eerie fire spread from the fingertip across his entire arm in the blink of an eye.
It bypassed flesh entirely and began to scorch his soul directly.
Within seconds, the flames had wrapped around his whole body—
Ending him in exactly the same way as Danzō.
“AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!”
The wretched scream—ripped from the agony of both flesh and spirit—echoed as the unlucky Root shinobi was reduced to ashes by a curse fire that should never have existed in this world.
There was no time left to extinguish the flames—not that it would’ve mattered. These were hellfire, and hellfire could not be extinguished.
In an instant, the Root shinobi’s body shriveled into a husk, his flesh blackened and charred by the searing blaze.
And his very soul was dragged down into Hell by the Heaven’s Punishment Flame spreading from Danzō’s body!
This… was the dōjutsu of Uchiha Keizumi’s right eye.
Even the slightest brush with the Heaven’s Punishment Flame meant instant death—body and soul both obliterated.
Let alone Danzō, who had been directly engulfed by it.
Danzō 'died' even faster than the unlucky Root shinobi—reduced to a warped, scorched corpse lying motionless on the ground, until the Izanagi technique activated once more.
Suddenly, the corpse’s flesh began to swell with life. Danzō, face contorted and gasping raggedly, appeared kneeling on one knee.
The Heaven’s Punishment Flame had vanished.
Panting hard, his face pale and drenched in cold sweat, Danzō looked as if the despair of countless innocent deaths still lingered in the depths of his soul.
Beads of sweat dripped like rain from his chin. His muscles trembled uncontrollably, and his pupils twitched with violent spasms.
One more of the countless Sharingan embedded in his right arm had gone completely dark.
“...Danzō-sama?!”
The voice of a Root shinobi reached Danzō’s ears—but he didn’t seem to hear it.
His upper and lower teeth chattered wildly. The pain etched into the very depths of his soul had carved itself into his memory, ready to surge forth as phantom visions at any given moment.
A sense of utter despair gnawed endlessly at his fragile spirit.
Not even Izanagi could erase the trauma now.
And yet…
“At the very least… huff” Danzō rasped to himself in a hoarse whisper, “at least I survi—hmm?!”
He didn’t even finish the sentence before his pupils contracted in shock.
His eyes snapped to his feet—where a cluster of crimson, ghostly flames had spontaneously ignited from thin air.
His breath caught in his throat.
He recognized these flames instantly.
It was the very same fire that had already 'killed' him once!
“How is this POSSIBLE?!”
His panicked scream made it clear: Danzō’s composure had shattered. The pain—searing flesh and soul alike—surged through him once again as the Heaven’s Punishment Flame raced from his feet to his waist in an instant.
Another blink, and he was engulfed in hellfire once more!
“AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!” The soul-deep agony triggered Izanagi for a second time.
Even as his body reformed, Danzō’s face was frozen in raw terror.
Just seconds later, that twisted, aged face contorted once again in dread—
The Heaven’s Punishment Flame ignited once more.
“How can this be…”
“SssssAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!”
