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NAJ Chapter 18: One Step Further, and You Die
🕑 Added 2025-06-04 00:31:41 +0000 UTC“Rookie,” Keizumi said slowly, “you’re only half right.”
“Absolute Justice has no room for sentiment. To truly uphold it, one must adopt completely ruthless methods. The reason such conflicts must be stopped—”
“—is because Absolute Justice does not allow any form of evil to parade around in broad daylight.”
“Even if you know that letting two evils destroy each other would ultimately benefit justice and harm no one… even then—”
“To allow evil to act unrestrained right in front of you is already a betrayal of Absolute Justice.”
“Rookie. Never entertain the idea of letting one evil run loose, hoping it’ll take the other one down with it. If anything goes slightly off course, and they don’t take each other out…”
“That decision will only allow one of them to grow so powerful, even Absolute Justice won’t be able to suppress it.”
To Uchiha Keizumi, the Uchiha Hawk Faction’s planned coup wasn’t inherently evil—because, after all, it was only a plan.
But the way they intended to carry it out—their rampant lawlessness, their distortion of justice, their deranged behavior—
That was evil, in Keizumi’s eyes.
And he knew it so clearly—
Because he could see it. Right there in those interlaced red-and-white rectangular frames.
Evil, laid bare for all to see.
Only then did Keizumi finally acknowledge Uchiha Setsuna’s darkening expression.
And what he said next ignited fury in Setsuna’s chest.
“This road is closed.”
“Any who try to pass—will die.”
Uchiha Setsuna couldn't help but tighten his grip on the top of his cane. His age-worn fingers, covered in deep creases, had turned noticeably pale from the force.
His once-cloudy eyes had begun to flush red—his Sharingan, with its three tomoe, now locked firmly onto Uchiha Keizumi ahead.
"Keizumi, say that again?!" His voice dropped slightly, but the darkness in his expression carried an unmistakable sense of oppression.
But Uchiha Keizumi didn’t repeat himself as asked.
Instead, he activated his own pair of three-tomoe Sharingan.
Even so, his meaning and attitude were already more than clear.
"Uchiha Keizumi! Are you even still one of us? A true member of the Uchiha clan?" another hawkish elder of the Uchiha clan shouted, pointing at Keizumi.
His tone seethed with anger: "Everything we’re doing now is for the future of the Uchiha! Yet here you are, standing in our way—are you planning to betray the clan?"
"And besides... wasn’t it you who brought the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki to the Uchiha compound in the first place? And now you’re turning around and stopping us from going after that fox demon incarnate? What exactly is your angle?"
Though the elder said a lot, he didn’t dare take a single step forward.
Finally, Uchiha Keizumi spoke: "To you, everything I’ve done up to this point must seem contradictory, doesn’t it?"
The elder blew out his beard in fury, eyes wide: "Hmph! It is contradictory!"
Keizumi replied calmly, "Perhaps that smooth, utterly wrinkle-free brain of yours never considered another angle—
That from the very beginning, I’ve never stood on the same side as pests like you who bring disaster to the ninja world."
As he spoke, he slowly began walking forward.
"But don’t misunderstand—I’m not on the same side as the clan head either."
Uchiha Setsuna’s eyelids twitched violently. "Pests...?"
He had dedicated himself diligently and tirelessly to the future of the Uchiha clan, convinced he had a clear conscience.
He had even been thrown into Konoha’s prison by that damn Second Hokage because of it.
And now, in Keizumi’s eyes, he was nothing more than a pest of the shinobi world?
Setsuna could barely contain his rising fury.
"You little bastard!!" the other hawkish Uchiha erupted in indignation.
Keizumi narrowed his eyes, letting his gaze sweep over their throats, their chests, their foreheads... lingering briefly over every vital point.
"Enough!!!"
A loud voice bellowed from behind Uchiha Keizumi.
"If outsiders saw us Uchiha fighting among ourselves, what kind of image would that be? Put your ninja swords away, all of you!!!"
Sensing the disturbance outside, Uchiha Fugaku had arrived.
He walked up beside Keizumi, fixed a flat gaze on the hawkish elders before him, and said sternly: "Gentlemen, I am the current head of the Uchiha clan. The conflict between the village and the clan is something I’ve considered carefully. And as for the boy Uzumaki Naruto—no one is to lay a hand on him!"
"Fugaku..." Uchiha Setsuna frowned deeply.
But before he could speak, Fugaku cut him off: "Elder Setsuna, I respect your seniority in the clan and call you 'elder' out of courtesy—but I ask you to respect my decisions as well."
"Moreover, I’m doing this for the greater good of the Uchiha. Besides, I’ve already sent someone to transfer Uzumaki Naruto to the Konoha prison. There’s no point in you being here anymore."
Fugaku had already anticipated that something like this might happen.
That’s why he’d arranged to have Naruto moved immediately.
Ignoring the dark looks from the hawkish elders, Fugaku then turned back toward Keizumi and said firmly, "Keizumi, put away your blade. That’s an order from your clan head."
Keizumi let it go in one ear and out the other.
Fugaku: "..."
He realized that the killing intent in Keizumi’s eyes had not lessened in the slightest.
In fact, he had the distinct impression that if he said one more word, Keizumi might turn on him and strike him down then and there.
To have such a subordinate…
What a headache!
"Elder Setsuna, it’s time for you to leave," Fugaku shifted his pressure toward another target. He locked eyes with Uchiha Setsuna and said coldly, "Do you really intend to continue this standoff with Keizumi and me?"
"Fugaku..."
Uchiha Setsuna took a deep breath.
"You're too indecisive. One day, you'll regret the choice you've made today. What you're doing is pushing the Uchiha’s future into the abyss."
"I am the clan head, Elder Setsuna."
Fugaku, fierce-eyed as ever, might act submissively toward outsiders—but within the clan, he was firm and uncompromising.
At least…
He hadn’t yet been pushed to the brink by the hawkish faction.
"Hmph!!!"
Setsuna’s eyes, stormy and shifting, lingered for several seconds on Keizumi’s cold and indifferent young face.
It was as if he were branding this peculiar, out-of-place young Uchiha into his memory forever.
"We’re leaving!"
…
"Phew…"
The tension had nearly overwhelmed Izumi to the point of collapse. Now, she could finally exhale.
She had been terrified that after a deadly clash with Root’s operatives, Keizumi-senpai would then launch into another battle against his own kin.
If this was what it meant to live by [Absolute Justice], then it was far too thrilling for comfort.
It felt like everyone in Konoha had become an enemy!
"Hm?"
"Eh!"
Suddenly, she saw Keizumi-senpai toss his ninja blade in her direction. Startled, she hurried to catch it by the hilt, then carefully sheathed it back into its scabbard.
At that moment—
The voice of the clan head, Fugaku, reached her ears.
"Keizumi, that killing intent you just showed them... was it real?"
Uchiha Keizumi answered, "I always mean what I say. If they had taken one more step, they would’ve died."
Fugaku drew in a long breath.
"Even if their methods are a bit extreme, they’re still your clansmen. Sometimes, there’s no need to show such hostility to your own blood."
Though his words appeared to advise restraint, Fugaku was actually alluding to Keizumi’s inexplicable hostility toward his eldest son—Uchiha Itachi.
To this day, Fugaku still couldn’t figure out what offense Itachi had committed.
From what he knew, Itachi wasn’t the type to offend anyone.
Keizumi replied coolly, "I don’t like repeating myself, especially not on the same day."
Fugaku was taken aback.
"You mean... [Absolute Justice] makes no distinction between public and private?"
He recalled that line from Keizumi vividly.
"Hah... so you were serious after all..."
Even though he had suspected as much, speculation in one’s mind and hearing it confirmed aloud were two entirely different psychological shocks.
Fugaku fell silent for a moment.
Then he offered a reminder: "Even though you and I may differ in philosophy, you’re also not aligned with them. At the very least, you don’t want to see the village fall into chaos. But just be careful—Setsuna and the others... they can be quite extreme at times."
Keizumi shot back: "Among all the Uchiha who’ve awakened their Sharingan, is there anyone who isn’t extreme?"
Fugaku was momentarily speechless.
He had to admit...
There was some truth to that.
Then Keizumi added indifferently, "I still suggest you have that son of yours go see a psychiatrist. I’ve suspected all along that something’s wrong with his head."
Fugaku: "..."
…
"Never before has a junior dared to treat me with such disrespect! That boy... the look in his eyes just now—he was ready to kill me!"
Far down the road, Uchiha Setsuna was slamming his wooden cane into the ground again and again with urgent, heavy thuds—thump, thump, thump.
His deeply wrinkled face was dark with gloom.
"He... is not loyal to the Uchiha!!!"
