Capital of the Land of Fire.
Late at night.
Under the orders of the daimyō of the Land of Fire, the Twelve Guardian Ninja had gathered in full—except for one: Nauma was absent.
And so, the Twelve Guardian Ninja had become Eleven.
The formation of the eleven present clearly indicated two opposing factions.
One faction was led by Sarutobi Asuma, advocating for balance between the Hokage of Konohagakure and the daimyō of the Land of Fire.
The other faction, led by Kazuma, believed that the Hokage should not exist at all, and that all ninja should fall under the daimyō's direct command.
Five belonged to the former.
Six to the latter.
Relations between both sides had long been strained, but under the daimyō's mediation, they had managed to gather for now.
"Tsk, tsk… Uchiha Keizumi… definitely quite famous. I hear he's a dual kekkei genkai user, yeah? Sharingan and Lava Release. Tch, just hearing that sounds like a nightmare to deal with."
Kazuma—born with prematurely white hair and a savage scar carved across his face—fixed his gaze on Asuma and sneered, "Asuma, would you mind if we kill the Hokage before we deal with Uchiha Keizumi? After all, that guy kept this whole incident hidden from Daimyō-sama. He didn't even send anyone to retrieve Kyōsuke-sama's body. As the Hokage of Konoha… just what is he playing at?"
Asuma furrowed his brows.
To be honest, he had no desire to work alongside these six radical maniacs.
Compared to hunting Uchiha Keizumi, these six were far more interested in hunting the Hokage of Konoha—Sarutobi Hiruzen!
But…
He had already lost Nauma on his side. With only five men remaining, he wasn't even sure they had enough strength to take down Uchiha Keizumi.
And against someone like Uchiha Keizumi, there would be only one shot. Under those circumstances, he had no choice but to cooperate with these six.
"Don't forget what Daimyō-sama personally instructed you."
Asuma shot back coldly, "Our target this time is Uchiha Keizumi—no one else. And the daimyō made it clear: this time, you are to follow my orders."
His eyes narrowed as he added with a steely edge, "And if you dare raise a hand against the Hokage of Konoha—I'll kill you before you can even try."
Kazuma let out a twisted, guttural laugh and met Asuma's gaze without the slightest fear.
But he didn't push the conversation any further in the Hokage's direction.
"Let's not waste time on pointless talk."
Asuma cast a wary glance at Kazuma, then gave the order in a low voice: "Move out!"
The Eleven Guardian Ninja set off immediately.
…
The next morning.
Uchiha Sasuke had hardly slept at all, weighed down by a storm of thoughts.
His mind was still echoing with Uchiha Itachi's cold sarcasm… his mother's sorrow and helplessness… his father's silence after they got home… and the words that man—Uchiha Keizumi—had said to his mother last night.
"What did he mean I can't understand what it means to bear justice?"
With sleep still heavy in his eyes, Sasuke grumbled under his breath, "And what does he mean I'm not even as good as Uzumaki Naruto? That guy's just the class dead-last…"
Sitting at the table and gnawing on his breakfast, his gaze drifted over—only to land on the chair Itachi usually sat in.
His hands froze mid-motion.
Confusion, anger, frustration, fear… a swirl of conflicting emotions made Sasuke fall silent. He didn't know how to feel about his older brother anymore—didn't know whether he should hate him or not.
It was too complicated for a seven-year-old child.
With no appetite, Sasuke headed to the Ninja Academy alone.
The moment he stepped into the classroom—
He was scanning the room, looking for that dead-last.
"…Where is he?!"
In his memory, that guy usually arrived pretty early. Every time Sasuke came in, he'd see him already there. But today… he was nowhere to be found.
And Sasuke could clearly feel that many of the students were looking at him with strange expressions.
He knew exactly why.
They must've heard about the Uchiha Clan Massacre that would happen a year from now. And more than that, they'd heard about Uchiha Itachi's brutal methods.
It was impossible not to feel affected. Right now, Sasuke simply couldn't ignore those stares.
His mind was a mess.
He didn't know how long he waited, but just as class was about to begin, a scruffy figure suddenly came rushing through the door.
Sasuke looked up—and immediately caught sight of that unmistakable golden hair.
"…Why does this guy look so filthy?"
Sasuke frowned.
There was a hint of distaste on his face.
But Uchiha Keizumi's words once again flashed through his mind, prompting Sasuke to suddenly stand up. Under the gaze of the entire class, he walked over to Uzumaki Naruto and, despite Naruto's puzzled look, sat down right beside him.
"Dead-last, what's your relationship with him?" Sasuke asked, his tone filled with unconcealed dissatisfaction.
Naruto immediately scowled. "Hey, hey, hey! What do you mean dead-last?! I have a name—Uzumaki Naruto! And besides, if you don't say who 'he' is, how am I supposed to know who you're talking about?!"
Sasuke caught an unpleasant whiff of sweat and instantly regretted sitting next to him. He subtly shifted a little farther away and said, "I'm talking about… Uchiha Keizumi."
Naruto: "!!!"
"You know him?!"
Naruto was completely shocked.
Sasuke's small face showed a trace of pride. "He's part of the Uchiha Clan. My father is the head of the Uchiha Clan. How could I not know him? And you still haven't answered my question."
That stumped Naruto. What was his relationship with Uchiha Keizumi, exactly? Even he wasn't quite sure how to describe it.
Hmm…
Naruto muttered, "I asked him to teach me [Absolute Justice], and he agreed to… Tch! That's it!"
Naruto's face lit up in sudden realization. "He's my sensei!!!"
Sasuke: "???"
Sasuke was stunned.
Uchiha Keizumi—a man even his father feared and his mother had personally gone to for help—had actually taken this filthy, scruffy, dead-last Academy loser as his student?!
And yet, when his own mother pleaded for him to embrace justice, that same man had said he wasn't even as good as Uzumaki Naruto?!
In what way was he worse than Naruto? Was it in understanding justice?
Sasuke's little face twisted into a wonderfully complex expression.
"…Hey! Dead-last!"
Sasuke bit his lip, glancing off to the side without meeting Naruto's eyes. In a hesitant, awkward voice, he asked, "What… exactly is justice?"
…
"Uchiha Keizumi! Why won't you just let me go already?! That was so many years ago—I don't even remember how I did it back then!"
On a street somewhere in Konoha—
A terrified chūnin was screaming in panic, completely broken.
"And it's not like I killed someone from Konoha! Not even someone from the Land of Fire! Why would you attack a fellow villager over some outsider?!"
"I'm a Konoha shinobi just like you! And yet you try to kill me for the sake of some outsider—do you even deserve to call yourself a shinobi of Konoha?!"
Uchiha Keizumi held his ninja blade at an angle, slowly advancing step by step.
"Why?"
By the time that Konoha chūnin's pupils dilated in horror, Keizumi had already passed by him—and at some point, the blade in his hand had been stained with a vivid, glaring red.
"Because eliminating the evils of the shinobi world is the duty and obligation of justice. What I just mentioned is but one of your many crimes. Letting a pest like you go would be a disgrace to justice itself."
A large head had already rolled to the ground.
The now-headless body collapsed with a heavy thud.
"Senpai, that's the second one for today!" Izumi announced as she scribbled into a small notebook. "A lot of shinobi who'd been away on missions have come back recently… I never imagined that, despite how normal they looked on the surface, they'd done so many filthy things behind the scenes."
Even as she said it, Izumi felt a chill.
Of course, that chill wasn't from Keizumi-senpai's bloody methods—she had long grown used to those.
What truly unnerved her was the sheer depth of sickness and distortion that plagued the shinobi world. It had gone far beyond what she'd imagined.
In her mind, Konohagakure had always been one of the better shinobi villages among the many in the world.
And the average shinobi of Konoha? Shouldn't they be of decent quality?
But the darkness hiding within the village…
Still sent shivers down her spine.
As she put away her notebook, Izumi hesitated, then asked, "Senpai, didn't you say you wanted to develop followers of justice? So why did you refuse Mikoto-san and Sasuke-kun last night? Even if Sasuke-kun doesn't quite understand justice yet, couldn't we gradually guide him to accept your [Absolute Justice]?"
But Uchiha Keizumi replied simply, "He will come to understand justice on his own."
Izumi blinked in surprise.
She only heard Keizumi-senpai continue: "The existence of Uzumaki Naruto is what will drive him to seek justice. Because between him and Uzumaki Naruto… lies a bond of fate that cannot be severed."
…Eh?!
Sasuke-kun and Uzumaki Naruto… share an unbreakable bond of fate?
Why did that sound… kinda weird?
Aren't they both boys?
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