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NAJ Chapter 37: You Can’t Spell Justice Without Just Die
🕑 Added 2025-06-15 04:08:26 +0000 UTC“On my way to find you, I happened to run into him. The ‘evil’ he committed shone like a lightbulb in the dark—impossible for me to ignore.”
The sudden voice triggered a blaring alarm in Uchiha Onigawara’s mind.
He could no longer afford to stay hidden. In a flash, he relocated to a spot he believed would offer flexibility in both retreat and response. Then he looked up.
Two pairs of three-tomoe Sharingan met in midair.
Uchiha Onigawara recognized the figure instantly.
“Keizumi?!!”
Uchiha Onigawara had a vivid impression of his nephew. He’d seen many extreme Uchiha in his life—and counted himself among them.
But…
He still felt utterly outclassed in the presence of Uchiha Keizumi.
Even though he was a full twenty years older!
Uchiha Onigawara had already assumed a ready-to-strike stance. The corpse of the 'spy ninja' at his feet turned his face dark with dread, and the killing intent welling up in Keizumi’s eyes made his hair stand on end.
He drew in a deep breath and asked warily, “Keizumi… did you come here to take me down?”
“Yes.”
Keizumi’s curt and unambiguous reply made Onigawara’s heart sink instantly.
He clenched his teeth. “We’re blood relatives! Keizumi, why don’t you leave Konoha with me? You know full well what people say about you in this village. No one in Konoha recognizes your way of the shinobi. Not even the Uchiha clan accepts you. What reason do you have to stay here?”
“Keizumi, you’re a dual-kekkei genkai prodigy of the Uchiha. And I’m no slouch either. If we team up, there’s nowhere in the entire shinobi world we couldn’t go. We could ensure the Uchiha bloodline survives—outside of Konoha!”
But as Onigawara kept talking, his heart gradually sank.
Because he realized—none of it was moving Uchiha Keizumi.
He hardened his expression and bit out each word: “Keizumi, think of your late mother! I’m her younger brother! I’m your only remaining blood relative—the only family you have left!”
“Are you finished?”
Keizumi looked down, face expressionless, and asked the question coldly.
“…Finished.”
Onigawara forced himself to swallow the discomfort in his chest.
Keizumi replied, “‘Evil’ is still evil. The [Absolute Justice] I uphold does not make exceptions just because we share blood. Besides—I don’t even have the right to pardon you.”
Damn it… this brat is fanatical beyond words!
Uchiha Onigawara’s face was a mask of grim disbelief.
He regretted hiding here. If he’d chosen any other place, maybe he wouldn’t have run into this heartless demon.
Then Keizumi spoke again, his tone utterly calm: “Uchiha Onigawara, the mere fact that you regret crossing paths with me means you’re already beyond saving. To me, you are so vile it makes justice itself want to vomit.”
Onigawara’s face twisted in disbelief.
Was it really that easy for him to read my thoughts?
And that damn brat—
“Fire Release—"
"Great Fireball Technique!!!”
Without hesitation, he flew through the hand seals.
A massive fireball launched upward, roaring toward Uchiha Keizumi.
The roaring flames scorched the wooden walls around them until they blackened and charred.
The blaze cast an orange-red glow across the lower half of Keizumi’s face.
But Uchiha Keizumi, after forming a one-handed seal, didn’t dodge. Instead, he leapt downward—straight into the heart of the Fireball Jutsu.
Flames engulfed him in an instant.
Yet, within the blink of an eye, he broke through the devouring fire.
As Keizumi landed on the ground, several droplets of molten lava dripped from his body, sizzling into the earth and leaving shallow pits that steamed with pale white smoke.
But the area was empty now—
Uchiha Onigawara had already vanished.
Only the corpse of the spy ninja remained.
Keizumi glanced down at the footprints on the ground.
His eyes narrowed.
Then he darted off—chasing in the opposite direction of the tracks.
...
“Why the hell did that brat Keizumi awaken Lava Release…? We share the same bloodline, yet I only have the Sharingan, and he’s some kind of dual-Kekkei Genkai prodigy!”
Onigawara gritted his teeth, his jealousy flaring as he darted through the alleys.
Of course, he never believed a simple Fire Release could harm Uchiha Keizumi.
It had merely been a way to slow him down.
Even one second of delay might be enough to escape.
But then—
“Uchiha Onigawara is here!!!”
He’d dodged Keizumi only to run into a squad from the Police Force.
Hearing the shout, Onigawara’s expression turned grim.
His Sharingan immediately locked onto several incoming projectiles.
He twisted to the side—
Shuriken zipped past his cheek, one of them even slicing through his skin.
A Police Force ninja had already closed the distance, sword in hand.
Onigawara ducked low.
He slipped past the incoming blade and struck upward—
A fierce punch slammed into the attacker’s wrist, and his fingers clamped down with iron force. With a sharp twist—
[Crack!]
The ninja let out a bloodcurdling scream.
Onigawara snatched the sword.
He hooked the opponent’s ankle with one foot, throwing them off balance—
Then drove the blade downward—
“Hmm?!”
Just as the tip of the blade was about to pierce the man’s chest, Onigawara’s Sharingan detected a flicker of heat from the right.
A flash of molten light streaked across his vision.
He instinctively leapt backward.
Then he saw it—and his heart seized.
The sword he had just taken was missing its blade.
Where the metal had been, glowing red-hot molten slag dripped from the stump.
“…Lava Release?!”
The last person he wanted to see appeared once more in his line of sight.
Onigawara clenched his teeth.
“Keizumi! Must you really go so far—even against your own kin?!”
“Justice must be enforced.”
“No kinship is spared.”
Keizumi’s right arm had fully transformed into molten magma—
It swelled with surging pressure, pulsing like liquid fire, and the sulfurous stench thick in the air made Onigawara’s pupils contract.
Suddenly, Onigawara’s vision blurred.
Keizumi vanished from sight.
By the time he locked eyes on him again, the boy was less than three meters away.
Too fast!!!
“Water Release—!”
Onigawara swore this was the fastest he had ever formed seals in his life.
“Great Waterfall Technique!!!”
A torrent of crushing water surged toward Keizumi.
At the same time, Keizumi’s swollen magma arm thrust forward.
With the motion of his arm, the molten limb expanded rapidly, transforming into a massive lava fist—
It slammed head-on into the oncoming flood.
The magma...
It swallowed the Water Release whole!
The horrifying scene before him caused the Police Force ninja—whose sword had been stolen—to scramble away in panic, rolling and crawling to escape.
Even so, the splashing scalding water and, more lethally, the flying molten lava still managed to hit him.
His face was burned by the boiling water, and the searing pain was so intense that he nearly shattered his own teeth from clenching his jaw.
Several drops of lava grazed him, and the Police Force vest he wore began to melt under the extreme heat.
Frightened, the ninja ripped the vest off immediately.
His pupils trembled in lingering shock.
“So this is what combat between jōnin looks like… I probably don't even deserve to intervene. What was I thinking, trying to stop Uchiha Onigawara alone?”
If Uchiha Keizumi hadn’t stepped in just now, he might already be dead at Onigawara’s hands.
...
“The commotion came from over here! Uchiha Onigawara must be in this direction!”
Multiple Uchiha Police Force members surged in from all sides.
Pair after pair of Sharingan eyes swept the area, scanning for any trace.
They were careful not to let Onigawara slip past unnoticed.
Even Uchiha Fugaku, the Chief of the Police Force, had personally joined the pursuit.
He led from the front, rushing ahead of the others.
Just then, as a breeze blew across his face, Fugaku’s nose twitched.
He caught a whiff—sharp and acrid, but unmistakably familiar.
“…Smells like sulfur…”
“...Keizumi?!”
...
"Huff… huff… the difference…"
Uchiha Onigawara stumbled back several steps, horror-struck as he stared at where his ten fingers had just been—now completely gone. His palms throbbed with searing pain.
Cold sweat streamed down his face.
“The difference… How could it be this big…?”
He let his arms fall limp at his sides, eyes locked on Uchiha Keizumi, who was slowly walking toward him.
Veins bulged at Onigawara’s temples as he roared, “Your strength rivals anyone in the village—even the Hokage! And yet you still fight for Konoha?!”
“Do we proud Uchiha have to become the Hokage’s lapdogs? Are you going to end up like Uchiha Itachi—one of us in name, but a traitor to our clan?!”
[Whoosh—]
Just in time, Uchiha Fugaku arrived at the scene.
And sure enough, he found Keizumi face-to-face with the battered Onigawara.
Fugaku instantly grasped the situation.
This child, Keizumi… wasn’t just reliable.
He was seriously prepared to uphold justice, even if it meant destroying his own kin!
His so-called [Absolute Justice]—
It wasn’t a slogan.
It was a way of the shinobi he intended to follow with his life.
But in the next second, Fugaku heard Keizumi speak: “I’ve never served Konoha. And someone like Uchiha Itachi… he and I are not the same.”
Keizumi’s tone grew quiet, almost cold.
“Give me a chance to kill the Hokage one-on-one, and I wouldn’t hesitate. Unfortunately, while he trusts me in some ways… he also seems to fear me. He’s always surrounded by ANBU.”
Fugaku: “...???”
