Absolute Justice in Naruto

Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Naughty Kid Caught



Until Uchiha Chizumi left with that Uchiha girl, Hiruzen Sarutobi still couldn't understand what part of his words had been taken as an insult.

He pinched a bit of tobacco into his kiseru pipe, struck a match, and, as he lit the tobacco, drew softly on the mouthpiece.

"Phew …"

A faint cloud of smoke swallowed his weather‑worn face. Hiruzen muttered, "We can now be fairly certain that Chizumi won't be a threat to Konoha. Satisfied, Danzo?"

No sooner had he spoken than a supposed "Anbu bodyguard" stepped out of a corner of the office.

After only a few paces, the figure began to change—

He turned into an elderly man swathed in bandages, with only one eye showing and a dark, sinister aura.

This was the man who controlled Konoha's "Root," the master who attracted every bit of blame in the shinobi world—

Shimura Danzo!

"Uchiha Chizumi glanced this way the moment he walked in," Danzo said, narrowing his single eye toward the door. "He must have noticed me immediately."

The hostility and aloofness in that eye were not hidden in the least.

He then looked at Hiruzen. "Hiruzen, you can't guarantee that Chizumi didn't say those things on purpose precisely because he sensed my presence. His methods are so extreme they're practically evil—typical Uchiha!"

"You heard him yourself: even if the Hokage stood in his path, he'd still swing his blade. A brat that innately vicious has no place in Konoha."

Hiruzen frowned. "Danzo, I know exactly what you're plotting. You are not to lay a hand on Uchiha Chizumi. He's one of the Uchihas I've placed my hopes on—just like Itachi."

"His extreme approach is rough around the edges, but it's brought a new wind of justice to the village, forcing certain ill‑intentioned people to rein themselves in."

Hiruzen rapped the desk. "Chizumi's presence has pros and cons for the village—so far, the pros outweigh the cons."

"Hmph." Danzo gave a dark snort. "Pros outweigh cons? That's just your weakness talking. You'd only say that because the ones who died today were from the Moonlight clan."

"If the victim had been a Sarutobi, would you still be wearing that face, Hiruzen?"

Hiruzen answered flatly, "I speak for the public good, not private feeling."

Danzo admitted to himself that the monkey had almost made him laugh.

"Letting an innately evil Uchiha swagger around Konoha dispensing his so‑called Absolute Justice is playing with fire! One day you'll regret it, Hiruzen!"

Danzo stared hard at him.

Hiruzen met the gaze. "Danzo, you never remember your station. In Konoha I am the Hokage. You are merely its shadow."

"When I say Chizumi is off‑limits, he is off‑limits. Don't forget: Root exists only because I allow it. One order from me and Root is dissolved for good."

Hiruzen's eyes narrowed. "As Hokage, my authority is limitless. You wouldn't want me to prove it, would you?"

Danzo's eye bulged. "You damned monkey—"

"Hmph!!!"

Seeing further talk was useless, Danzo left, face dark with suppressed fury.

Bang—

The heavy slam of the door made plain how hard it was for him to choke down his anger.

"Chizumi still isn't back yet?" At the Uchiha Police Force headquarters, Fugaku Uchiha stared glumly at four corpses.

"No," answered a police corps coroner.

Fugaku let out a heavy breath. "He's struck at another Konoha shinobi clan. This will push the rift between the Uchihas and the village even closer to the point of no return."

That was what worried him most.

To be honest, Uchiha Chizumi's deeds were extreme but undeniably correct—so correct that Fugaku often struggled to fault them.

Yet that very correctness was a deadly curse for the already precarious Uchiha clan.

Ever since the Nine‑Tails incident, the clan had been under suspicion.

Clans that once had decent ties with the Uchiha had grown colder by the year.

Among some civilians the Uchiha name was sinking fast.

That external pressure only emboldened the hard‑liners within, tightening the screws on Fugaku's leadership.

And today…

Several more Uchiha had met him in private, demanding a thorough plan for a coup against Konoha.

"Sigh …"

Fugaku exhaled. Besides his elder son Itachi—and the late Shisui—was there really no clan member who wouldn't give him headaches?

"U‑U‑Uchiha Chizumi is coming!!!"

At that moment, a quivering cry laced with terror shattered the calm of a Konoha street.

A pick‑pocket, wrist deep in someone's purse, jerked stiff, face deathly pale.

He stuffed the wallet back in a panic, and, without daring to look for Chizumi's location, flung himself to the ground in the lowest "dogeza" bow.

"I surrender! I surrender! I'll confess every crime to the Police Force! Please don't kill me!" he wailed, drenched in sweat.

At the far end of the street, two villagers who'd been hurling foul curses at each other instantly swapped them for sunny smiles, slinging their arms around each other like best pals.

Another villager who'd just tossed litter hastily scooped it up and jammed it into his pocket.

"So… so intense …" Izumi finally grasped just how fearsome Chizumi‑senpai's reputation was in Konoha.

She'd spent all her time buried in books at the Academy and had never paid attention to famous figures outside.

Izumi thought: if Chizumi‑senpai would just stroll the village a few times a day, Konoha's crime rate might drop by several percentage points!

"Brat, stop right there!!"

Another angry shout quickly burst the eerie quiet.

"Who'd stop? If you catch me, I'm dead meat!"

A second shout replied—the first an adult's voice, the second a child's.

Izumi turned, puzzled.

She saw a blond kid tearing down the street in a blind panic, chased by a man wielding a rolling pin.

Wherever they passed, chickens and dogs practically took flight.

The blond runt kept snatching random objects from the street and hurling them back to slow his pursuer, throwing the whole road into chaos and forcing passers‑by to dive aside.

Just as the blond kid flashed by Izumi, she caught, out of the corner of her eye, Chizumi‑senpai's hand shooting out.

The kid, still in mid‑sprint, was plucked clean off the ground—

Caught.


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