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NAJ Chapter 15: When Justice Destroys
🕑 Added 2025-06-02 23:34:27 +0000 UTCHiruzen left with two ANBU squads, leaving Kakashi and six other ANBU members behind to clean up the aftermath.
“Lava Release Kekkei Genkai... The level of destruction is insane!”
Even with his mask on, the smell of sulfur in the air was so strong that Kakashi could still sense it clearly. His gaze wandered around in all directions.
A trace of shock flickered in his perpetually droopy eyes.
In his line of sight—the ground ahead was littered with lava that was just beginning to cool. The earth had been scorched, forming numerous pits of varying sizes and depths. Nearly half a street's worth of buildings looked like they'd been wiped away from existence. The oppressive heat still lingering in the air made Kakashi feel somewhat uncomfortable even now.
Molten rock continued to drip from the edges of many ruined buildings. Anyone unfamiliar with the situation might think they had stumbled into the mouth of an active volcano.
Kakashi also saw two corpses belonging to members of the Root.
One of them was missing half his body—the rest nowhere to be found.
The second had a massive hole blown through his chest and had been cut clean in half at the waist.
Kakashi scratched his head in mild frustration.
The two corpses weren’t hard to deal with... Just tidy them up and have someone return them to the Root.
But how was he supposed to handle the wreckage of this devastated street?
Uchiha Keizumi really went overboard…
Still...
Maybe he was one of the few left in the village who remembered the Fourth Hokage.
Kakashi recalled what Uchiha Keizumi had said.
—“Only this way can we honor the Fourth's sacrifice.”
Absolute justice, huh...
Not bad at all.
Just as Kakashi was lost in thought, he suddenly noticed a small figure not far away staggering to her feet. The person also seemed to be wearing the uniform of the Uchiha Police Force.
As he watched the Uchiha girl rush off in the direction Keizumi had left,
Kakashi hesitated for a moment—
Then chose to ignore her.
…
Elsewhere—
“I... I won’t do it again… Could you please just put me down now? I can actually walk on my own.”
“Umm… Could you maybe not lock me up for so long? If Iruka-sensei finds out, he’ll be really disappointed in me.”
“I really know I was wrong…”
Naruto's voice grew weaker with each sentence, his tone softer and shakier. By the end, he was choking back sobs.
Big, round tears slid down his cheeks uncontrollably.
Naruto truly regretted what he had done.
He knew this time he had caused a huge mess. One prank had resulted in half the streets of Konoha being wiped off the map!
In other words, a lot of people had lost their homes because of him.
And apparently… people might have even died!
But he realized that the man carrying him didn’t care in the slightest about anything he was saying!
“Ke–Keizumi-senpai, wait for me!” came a weak cry from behind Uchiha Keizumi and Naruto.
Keizumi slowed his pace, and a young girl hurried to catch up.
She was pale,
And her steps were unsteady.
“I’m sorry, Senpai. I… I passed out earlier after using my Sharingan. I used up too much chakra…”
Izumi was so ashamed she wished she could crawl into a hole. She felt like she had completely held everyone back.
On the night of the Nine-Tails' attack, she had awakened her Sharingan at the age of five—with all three tomoe immediately active. Her eye-opening talent was unprecedented in the Uchiha clan’s history.
But—
To everyone’s astonishment, Izumi’s chakra reserves were pitifully small. Her chakra, combined with her ocular power, couldn’t sustain the abilities of a three-tomoe Sharingan at all.
If chakra were measured in 'one Kakashi' units, Izumi had maybe 0.01 Kakashis worth.
Among her peers who had graduated from the Academy, her chakra levels were either at the bottom or near it.
“Uchiha Izumi.”
“Here!!!” At the sound of Keizumi-senpai calling her name, Uchiha Izumi snapped to attention instinctively.
“I’ll ask you two questions. First, what’s your opinion on what just happened?” Keizumi glanced at the weakened girl beside him.
“Just now…?”
Izumi froze.
In a daze, she recalled the clash between Keizumi-senpai and the Konoha Root that she had witnessed right before fainting. Then after she came to, she had seen the confrontation between Keizumi-senpai and the Hokage himself.
The entire conflict had started because of a child’s prank, which triggered a minor disturbance in the village.
And yet, it had escalated into such a complex web of tension and conflict.
Was it really...
Worth it?
As this thought flashed through Izumi’s mind, she suddenly recalled what Keizumi-senpai always spoke of—Absolute Justice—and all the twisted 'evils' born from the distorted shinobi world that she could never quite understand.
—A father who killed his own daughter;
—A son who killed his own mother.
These two mind-shattering events alone were enough to completely overturn Izumi’s worldview.
And as for Keizumi-senpai’s Absolute Justice—
She now held a far deeper understanding of it.
“I think… Senpai didn’t do anything wrong.”
Izumi took a deep breath, her young face resolute.
“No matter how small the evil may be, if it’s not restrained or punished, and is allowed to fester, it will eventually grow into something far worse.”
Gathering her thoughts, she continued, “Senpai, I’ve always wanted to protect Konohagakure. But I never knew how I could actually do that.”
“It wasn’t until I met you that I started to understand. As long as I use my own strength to purge the evil within the village, one day, Konoha will become a better place.”
“That’s how I understand Absolute Justice!”
Uchiha Keizumi replied flatly, “Rookie, you’re not at zero anymore. At the very least, I’d give you a ten.”
Izumi timidly asked, “Senpai… what’s the full score?”
“A thousand.”
Izumi: “…”
Well—
As long as it’s not a negative score, I guess…
“Senpai, what about the second question?” she asked, testing the waters.
Uchiha Keizumi said, “What’s your opinion on my so-called ‘hesitation’ just now?”
Izumi froze.
“Senpai, I don’t think that was hesitation at all!”
She bit her lip and said earnestly, “In all of Konoha, you may be the only one still upholding Absolute Justice in silence. Even if the others in the Police Force misunderstand you, you’ve stood alone from beginning to end, defending justice.”
“If you had insisted on clashing physically with the Hokage just now, then Konoha’s ‘justice’…”
She took a deep breath, her courage gradually building. “…might have had no one left to protect it. I don’t think there will ever be another person like you in this village.”
“You’re beating around the bush too much.”
Uchiha Keizumi cut her off: “To carry out Absolute Justice, you need absolute power. Otherwise, things will always end up like they just did.”
“You must remember this humiliation. Remember this rage. Remember how the ‘evil’ of the shinobi world celebrates on top of us.”
Izumi nodded vigorously.
“One day, under the name of Absolute Justice, I will cleanse them all,” Uchiha Keizumi declared, bold and unapologetic.
“Even the Hokage included.”
That statement left Izumi dumbfounded.
Still holding Naruto by the scruff, Uchiha Keizumi shifted his focus to the 'rewards' for killing three red-named criminals.
Yes—
Three!
Danzo, who had used Izanagi to rewrite reality to avoid death, had already been killed once by Keizumi’s golden finger.
[Ding! You have successfully killed three 'red-named' villains! Your chakra has increased slightly! Congratulations, you have obtained: 1. Wind Release chakra nature; 2. Shadow Imitation Technique; 3. Wild Water Wave Technique!]
[Name: Uchiha Keizumi]
[Age: Eighteen]
[Affiliation: Konoha Uchiha Police Force Member]
[Rank: Jōnin]
[Kekkei Genkai: Sharingan, Lava Release, Transparent Release]
[Taijutsu: Uchiha-Style Kenjutsu, Shurikenjutsu, Kunai Combat Techniques...]
[Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu, Fire Release: Majestic Destroyer Flame, Lava Release: Great Eruption, Lava Release: Chakra Armament, Shadow Imitation Technique...]
[Other Skills: Culinary Arts, Calligraphy, Gambling, Bedroom Techniques...]
[……]
The Wind chakra nature must’ve dropped from Danzo.
With this addition, [Fire, Earth, Water, Wind, Lightning]—the five basic chakra natures—Uchiha Keizumi now possessed them all.
And the Wind chakra, taken specifically from Danzo, who excelled in Wind Release, was clearly not ordinary.
It had quickly become one of Keizumi’s most prominent chakra natures.
Now it stood on equal footing with his Fire and Earth affinities.
At the same time, it meant the Wind Release jutsu he had previously seized in the name of justice could finally be put to good use.
As for the Shadow Imitation Technique and the Wild Water Wave Technique...
They were just minor bonuses by comparison.
Danzo was definitely a 'treasure trove' of a man. And given how infamous and abominable his sins were, Keizumi once again felt the itch—his urge to slaughter evil couldn’t be suppressed no matter how hard he tried.
However...
When the Police Force headquarters finally came into view, he had no choice but to forcibly rein in that murderous intent, at least a little.
As long as Danzo still lived in the shinobi world—
Justice would not be absent.
