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NAJ Chapter 28: The Fourth Lesson
🕑 Added 2025-06-11 03:32:53 +0000 UTC"Keizumi-senpai, that… that ANBU ninja named Sarutobi Shinnosuke—was he your sensei? And… does he have a close relationship with Lord Third Hokage?"
Along the way, Izumi felt that Keizumi was walking unusually slowly.
The heavy silence between them made her increasingly uneasy.
Mustering up her courage, she finally broke the silence with a cautious question.
"He was once my jōnin instructor," Uchiha Keizumi said. "A few years ago, during the outbreak of the Third Great Ninja War, he led me into battle. His surname is Sarutobi, so of course he’s related to the Third—he’s his eldest son."
Izumi: "!!!"
She hadn’t caught all the details of the conversation between Keizumi-senpai and the ANBU during their fight—it had been too intense for her to even get close.
She never imagined that Sarutobi Shinnosuke was actually the son of the Hokage!
Izumi involuntarily swallowed hard, her palms sweating profusely.
No matter how much she wiped them, they wouldn't dry.
After all, hadn’t they just gravely offended the Third Hokage himself? But then… why had the Hokage simply let her and Keizumi walk away?
He’d shown up with a whole squad of ANBU, clearly intent on holding them accountable.
"Then, Hokage-sama, he…"
Izumi’s anxious question was cut short as Uchiha Keizumi interrupted her.
"Don’t worry. Since the Third didn’t choose to detain me just now, it means he’s honoring Shinnosuke-sensei’s final request."
He glanced at the visibly nervous Izumi and added, "You don’t need to worry about ANBU sneaking up to your bedside in the middle of the night."
It felt like Keizumi had once again seen straight through her thoughts.
"Oh!"
Izumi nodded awkwardly.
She didn’t really understand the deeper undercurrents at play, nor when the Hokage’s son had left behind any kind of last words.
But if Keizumi said it was fine—
Then… it was probably, maybe, most likely fine?
Just then, Izumi suddenly felt a weight press down on her head, like something heavy had landed there, prompting a startled cry from her.
A strange voice, with an odd accent, sounded right above her forehead: "Meow. Rookie, let Keizumi-sama have a moment of peace, nya! Stop with all the questions, nya!"
Izumi immediately shut her mouth.
In this small trio of two people and one cat, her status was probably the lowest.
Even lower than the cat’s.
"You don’t need to overthink this," Uchiha Keizumi said calmly. "Sarutobi Shinnosuke strayed down the wrong path. He was already in the abyss and didn’t even realize it. Only at the moment of death did he finally understand—but even then, he held no regrets."
"The shinobi world has become so sick that even a jōnin elite can fall into the abyss and think it’s nothing unusual. And this kind of thing—will happen countless times in different corners of the shinobi world."
"Rookie, this is your fourth lesson."
"No matter what righteous excuse others might use to justify 'evil,' you must carry out absolute justice without hesitation. Even if it means turning your blade against those dearest to you."
Izumi engraved each of Uchiha Keizumi’s words deep into her heart.
"Understood, senpai!" she replied solemnly.
…
At the same time—
Konohagakure.
"Danzō-sama, what exactly is Root trying to do?"
Uchiha Fugaku stood at the front of a formation of Uchiha Police Force members, confronting Danzō and a contingent of Root operatives.
Behind Fugaku, his fellow Uchiha glared fiercely at the Root ninja ahead.
The atmosphere was extremely tense.
On the verge of erupting into violence.
Fugaku’s expression had turned cold as he locked eyes with Danzō, his tone stiff and stern: "A member of the Uchiha Police Force—Uchiha Keizumi—encountered an emergency situation outside the village and needed support. I led the rest of the force to provide backup. That’s perfectly reasonable, isn’t it?"
"And yet, Danzō-sama… here you are, blocking our path with a squad of Root operatives. What exactly are you trying to do?"
As he spoke—
Fugaku couldn’t help but glance repeatedly at the bandages covering Danzō’s body.
He remembered what Uchiha Keizumi had confided to him about Danzō’s trump card.
If Keizumi hadn’t been mistaken… then beneath those white bandages, there might be one Sharingan after another!
A shadow clouded Fugaku’s gaze.
“Hmph.” Danzō turned slightly, visibly uncomfortable. Fugaku’s reaction confirmed his suspicions— that cursed Uchiha brat had clearly revealed the secret to Fugaku.
Damn it!
That boy really was the greatest threat in the entire village. He could only hope the monkey had already taken care of him.
Danzō stood his ground, unmoving. There was no way he’d let Fugaku go support Uchiha Keizumi.
Coldly, Danzō said, “The Hokage has already taken ANBU to ‘provide support.’ The Uchiha clan’s involvement is unnecessary. Besides, your authority ends at the borders of Konohagakure. Outside the village, the Uchiha Police Force holds no jurisdiction.”
When it came to dealing with the Uchiha, Danzō’s vocabulary didn’t include the words 'courtesy' or 'respect'.
Fugaku was briefly stunned.
He gave Danzō a long, hard look, then said, “With additional support from the Police Force, Hokage-sama’s operation would be over even faster. Danzō-sama, please allow us to leave the village and assist.”
Danzō’s eyes turned slightly colder.
“Fugaku, are you planning to defy the orders of the village leadership?”
Behind him, the Root operatives had already placed their hands on their weapons.
The Uchiha ninja did the same, tension rising rapidly.
“You—” A younger, more impulsive Uchiha was about to speak up when Fugaku swiftly stopped him.
Fugaku shot him a sharp warning glance.
Then he turned back to Danzō.
“If, because of your interference, the Uchiha clan inexplicably loses a prodigy with dual Kekkei Genkai… I will report this directly to the Hokage.”
Danzō snorted coldly.
Just then—
A Root operative who had been observing the distance stepped forward and whispered to Danzō, “Danzō-sama, the commotion over there has been quiet for over ten minutes. If I’m not mistaken, the Hokage’s squad has already arrived—and they’ve suppressed the conflict using some unknown method.”
Fugaku heard it too.
His brows knit tightly.
Danzō, meanwhile, curled his lips into a cold smile. His objective had already been achieved.
Narrowing his eyes, he said, “Fugaku, it appears everything’s already been resolved. So why are you still gathering so many Uchiha here? Or could it be… you have some other agenda? Hmm, Fugaku?”
Fugaku’s fists clenched—
But then relaxed.
“…Disperse,” he said, taking a deep breath. His face remained expressionless as he addressed the Uchiha behind him.
“Clan Head!” many Uchiha called out, clearly reluctant.
It wasn’t necessarily that they were all eager to assist Uchiha Keizumi—
Rather, they were furious at being distrusted. That insult burned more than anything.
“I said—disperse!”
Fugaku repeated, gritting his teeth.
...
As of now, even the Anbu likely hadn’t finished tallying the casualties. No one knew for sure how many people had died or been injured at the secret research facility tonight.
But Uchiha Keizumi knew.
A total of sixty-three people had died.
The number of Anbu and research staff was nearly equal.
Swept clean by the surge of molten lava, more than half of the facility had been incinerated. He hadn’t left a single marked enemy alive—aside from the Anbu reinforcements who arrived afterward.
The 'rewards' Keizumi had received from the research staff were mostly 'research knowledge', and the vast majority pertained to the Sharingan and Wood Release cells.
Beyond that, he had also encountered many experimental results that made him furrow his brows in disgust—twisted and disturbing human trials.
They made him feel as though his mind had been tainted.
Fortunately, the rewards obtained from the red-named Anbu were more conventional—mostly scrolls containing ninjutsu and taijutsu techniques.
“And then… there was Shinnosuke-sensei’s ‘legacy.’”
“An S-rank sealing technique… the Sealing Technique: Three Directions Seal.”
Keizumi’s face remained expressionless. No matter what reward he obtained from a marked enemy, he never felt joy. There was never a trace of delight in him.
The more red-named enemies there were in the shinobi world, the stronger his justice could become—but it also meant the world itself was sinking deeper into sickness and corruption.
Keizumi undressed.
He stepped into the bathroom.
Twisted the knob.
Scalding water—hot enough to burn ordinary skin—poured down on him without restraint.
He stood there, unmoving, as the boiling torrent struck his body.
His crimson Sharingan—with all three tomoe—remained open.
Even when the steaming water ran into his eyes…
It didn’t matter.
“Shinnosuke-sensei,” he murmured, “when justice is confined to the standpoint of Konohagakure alone, it’s no longer justice. Only by enforcing Absolute Justice and purging the entire shinobi world can we prevent more people like you—those lost in darkness without even realizing it.”
...
The next morning.
Izumi was once again jolted awake by a nightmare. This time, she had dreamed of the Hokage giving the order—leading thousands of Anbu to arrest her and Keizumi.
What awaited them… was the cruelest punishment the village had ever devised.
Even her mother—Uchiha Hazuki, who had always stood by her side—had been implicated, reduced to a prisoner of the village.
And then…
Izumi woke up in a panic.
The very first thing she did was sit bolt upright. She rushed to the window, carefully pulling the curtains open to peek outside. When she saw there were no Anbu agents watching her home, she finally let out a breath of relief.
“It was just a dream!”
Her heart was still pounding.
She patted her cheeks and hurried to wash up, get dressed, and eat breakfast. After bidding her mother Hazuki goodbye, she stepped out of the house—only to suddenly freeze.
“Wait!”
“Keizumi-senpai never said where we’re supposed to meet today!”
Should she go to the Ichiraku Ramen shop he mentioned a few days ago?
But what if he wasn’t there?
Hmm…
“I’d better go to his house,” she decided. She could ask around among the older folks in the Uchiha district.
After all, the Uchiha compound wasn’t that big—someone was bound to know where he lived.
