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NAJ Chapter 41: The Sins Yet to Come
🕑 Added 2025-06-18 03:34:09 +0000 UTCJust as Izumi’s face froze in shock and confusion, she suddenly heard Keizumi’s voice.
But it didn’t seem like he was speaking to her. It sounded like he was talking to Itachi-kun.
“I see one of the greatest evils in the shinobi world within you. I saw it before, and I see it again now. No matter what sort of ripple this butterfly stirs in Konohagakure, the 'evil' in you seems unchanged.”
Uchiha Keizumi’s voice was even colder than Uchiha Itachi’s.
He stared quietly at the space above Itachi’s head.
His eyes could clearly see the dense lines of text hovering there.
One horrifying future sin after another—all formed from white letters. Each character was as tiny as a mosquito, but all crowded together, they created a chaotic and overwhelming scene.
These…
These were the heinous crimes that Uchiha Itachi would commit one year from now—on the Night of the Massacre!
The victims included the elderly, women, children—even infants.
Men and women, young and old. Shinobi and civilians alike.
No one was spared.
Itachi’s brow twitched slightly. The evil within me? He didn’t quite understand what Uchiha Keizumi meant by that. Deep down, he had never once believed that he had any connection to evil.
At that moment—
Izumi, still lost in confusion as she stepped inside, suddenly seemed to realize something. Her pupils trembled with shock as she gasped, “Senpai… your eyes—are you saying they can actually see the 'evil' in Itachi-kun?!”
Eyes…?
Both Uchiha Itachi and his father, Uchiha Fugaku, instantly latched onto that one crucial word.
Suddenly, they realized that when Keizumi said he could see evil, it might not have been a metaphor.
It might have been quite literal.
And Izumi clearly knew something about Keizumi that they didn’t.
Most likely—something related to the Sharingan.
“…Yes. I saw it,” Uchiha Keizumi said calmly. “Uchiha Itachi, the evil in you constantly stirs my urge to kill. But reason tells me—your evil did not occur in the past, nor is it happening now.”
Itachi’s eyes flickered slightly.
Fugaku seemed to grasp something in that moment.
“…Keizumi, what exactly did you see in Itachi?” Fugaku met Keizumi’s gaze. He tried hard to suppress the turmoil in his voice, but the concern beneath his calm tone was impossible to hide.
He asked, “Your eyes… can they see things we cannot? Is this a power unique to you, Keizumi? Have you awakened that legendary ability?”
Uchiha Keizumi stood up. After taking a few steps forward, he stopped just one meter away from Uchiha Itachi. One was 18 years old, the other 12; the difference in height was several dozen centimeters.
Unconsciously, Itachi moved one foot back by a few centimeters. His chakra also began to gather in his eyes instinctively.
They were simply standing too close.
So close that if the other made a move against him—even if his eyes and brain could react in time—his body would never be able to dodge it.
And yet—
Itachi realized that Keizumi was merely reciting something in a calm, detached tone. Something he seemed to be reading from somewhere unseen. Before he began, he added a short introduction: “Uchiha Itachi—let’s count the evils of your future, shall we?”
For reasons he couldn’t explain, Itachi suddenly felt a strange tightness in his chest.
It was as if Keizumi could see straight through him.
As if not a single secret remained on his body.
“One year from now, on a certain night, Uchiha Hazuki will die—stabbed through the heart with a shinobi blade. The assailant: Uchiha Itachi.”
Keizumi’s voice was distant, almost ethereal as he read.
Itachi. Fugaku. Izumi.
All three froze in place.
“Uchiha Hazuki… isn’t that—”
Especially Izumi. Her eyes locked onto Itachi as if by instinct, horror spreading across her face. Her breath nearly caught in her throat.
“Isn’t that… my mother?”
“One year from now? Keizumi, you—” Fugaku’s attention had turned to something else entirely—this terrifying ability to seemingly see the future.
If this truly had something to do with Keizumi’s eyes, then it had to be the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Suddenly, past fragments began connecting in Fugaku’s mind. He began to understand why Keizumi always seemed to know what crimes someone had committed. Why his case resolution rate had always remained at 100%. Why he had never once accused an innocent person.
It had to be… some extraordinary Mangekyō ocular technique!
Itachi remained frozen. “The evil… I will commit?”
Keizumi didn’t care how the three of them were reacting. He simply continued reading in that same detached tone.
“On the same night, Uchiha Keiko will be decapitated by a shinobi blade. The assailant—Uchiha Itachi.”
Fugaku’s eyes suddenly widened.
Uchiha Kei… that was a childhood friend of his. The man now ran a small noodle shop near the Uchiha compound.
"That same year, that same night—Uchiha Izumi is killed within a Sharingan genjutsu. The assailant: Uchiha Itachi."
In that instant—
Fugaku’s gaze snapped to Izumi, who had already frozen in place.
Her trembling eyes slowly turned toward Itachi.
Itachi, too, instinctively glanced back at her.
“Keizumi, you—” Fugaku’s mind was overflowing with confusion and countless questions. His expression was now laced with shock and dread.
But before he could finish the sentence, Uchiha Keizumi’s next words struck him speechless.
“That same year, that same night—Uchiha Mikoto is killed in the main room of her home.”
At that moment, Fugaku’s fist clenched tightly. His pupils quivered slightly, and his breathing fell into sudden disarray.
Even Uchiha Itachi, lost in an endless daze, suddenly lifted his head in shock.
“The assailant,”
“Uchiha Itachi.”
“That same year…”
“That same night…”
Then, one name after another spilled from Keizumi’s lips—each one unique, never repeated. Their causes of death varied slightly, but all bore a horrifying familiarity.
Some were stabbed clean through the chest with a shinobi blade.
Some were decapitated.
Some had their throats slit.
Others were killed at range by thrown kunai or shuriken—
All of them methods Itachi excelled at. Quick. Precise. Lethal.
Each name carried the Uchiha surname. Many were names Fugaku recognized.
Among them… were numerous clan members who had never awakened the Sharingan. Ordinary Uchihas. Not even shinobi.
And the killer who ended them all—
Without exception—
Was Uchiha Itachi.
Fugaku could no longer keep count of how many names Keizumi had spoken.
Until… he heard his own.
At that point, he felt himself going numb.
“This,” Keizumi said, voice like cold iron, “is the evil I see within you, Uchiha Itachi. This is the evil that will come to pass. It will happen one night, one year from now. The night of the Uchiha Massacre. From that point forward, the Uchiha clan… will cease to exist.”
At some point, Keizumi’s hand had closed around Itachi’s neck.
The motion had been slow enough that even a civilian could’ve avoided it.
But Itachi hadn’t moved.
“Now,” Keizumi asked quietly, “do you still need to ask why I tried to kill you years ago?”
...
Uchiha Itachi had never imagined that he would receive such an answer from Uchiha Keizumi.
He looked up and met Keizumi’s eyes.
Those sharp black eyes—was it really possible that they could see through the 'evil' he would commit in the future?
That in the days to come… he would personally annihilate the entire Uchiha clan?
Itachi couldn’t even begin to describe what he was feeling.
Shock?
Disbelief?
Horror?
Or perhaps a mixture of all of them?
So much so that when Uchiha Keizumi suddenly reached out and grabbed him by the throat, Itachi didn’t even try to resist.
He simply stood there, motionless, quietly enduring the faint suffocation as those five fingers slowly tightened around his neck.
His lips trembled slightly. With great effort, he asked, “The future your eyes have seen—will it definitely come to pass?”
He didn’t know why…
But when he realized that among all the people Keizumi had mentioned, his younger brother Sasuke wasn’t one of them—
A subtle sense of relief stirred within him.
And that, in itself, proved something: even without asking the question, he already believed that Keizumi truly possessed the ability to perceive future evil.
“Itachi-kun! Keizumi-senpai has never been wrong about anyone! Even the Hokage’s eldest son—he saw the evil in him too! That’s a power not even the Hokage could deny!”
The one who answered wasn’t Uchiha Keizumi, but Izumi, her voice already trembling with tears behind them.
The girl had long since placed unconditional trust in every word Keizumi said.
She believed that Keizumi-senpai would never lie.
Which meant…
No matter whether it was her, or her mother—someday in the future, both would die at the hands of Uchiha Itachi.
She couldn’t accept it.
Her vision blurred without her even realizing it, and Izumi hurried to wipe the corners of her eyes.
Clenching her teeth, she finally voiced the question that even Fugaku beside her had most wanted to ask: “Itachi-kun… why would you do something like this? I’m your friend! My mom has never wronged you! And everyone in the Uchiha clan—they’ve never done anything to hurt you either!”
“There are so many kind people in the clan! Even Keizumi-senpai never went after them—and that proves they’re truly good people! So why would you kill even them?”
“You told me yourself how much you loved Konoha!”
Izumi truly couldn’t understand. The Itachi she remembered was introverted, yes—but at the very least, he was kind.
At the very least, he was a shinobi who deeply loved his village… So why would he raise his blade against his own people in Konoha?
Itachi didn’t answer.
He was still thinking.
