"Sarutobi Kazunori."
When Keizumi spoke the next name, it was Mayatsuki's "honest husband" who suddenly lifted his head, eyes filled with panic.
Keizumi's voice pressed on: "Three days ago, after your wife publicly mocked you before others, saying you were no good in that regard—you, in a twisted state of mind, crept into your own daughter's room that very night, trying to prove you were still a man."
Mayatsuki, collapsed in despair, suddenly stiffened.
Realization struck her, and she turned on her husband in horror and rage.
"Sarutobi Kazunori!" she screamed, heedless of the great figures gathered all around. Her emotions erupted, raw and unrestrained: "I knew it—these past days, why Sakurako has been acting so strange, so withdrawn, no matter how I asked she wouldn't speak! So it was you!"
"You beast! You animal! You are her father, her own flesh and blood! And she is only ten years old—what the hell were you doing? Are you even human? Do you have any shame, any shred of morality left in you?"
"I'm the beast? I'm the animal?" Sarutobi Kazunori's face flushed red with both panic and fury as he shouted back, "And what about you—hiding from me that you once bore another man's child? How do you explain that?"
"You cut that baby to pieces and flushed it down the sewer! Tell me, isn't that even more monstrous than what I did? Doesn't that make you the greater animal, the greater beast? You're the one who's less than human!"
"And besides—how do I know that Sakurako isn't some bastard child of yours by another man? For all I know, she's not even my real daughter!"
The veins stood out along Mayatsuki's neck as she shrieked back: "She is our daughter! Do you think I don't know whether or not she's truly yours? You beast!!"
Somewhere within her, a surge of terrifying strength burst forth.
Springing to her feet, she lunged sideways, seizing the kunai strapped to the waist of a nearby Sarutobi clan chūnin.
Her face, pale and twisted, she drew the blade without hesitation and drove it toward her husband.
[Shhk!]
The kunai sank into Kazunori's abdomen, twisting his features in agony as a terrified scream tore from his throat.
"Ahhh! You've gone mad!!" Sarutobi Kazunori kicked his wife away with all his strength, frantically yanking the kunai from his stomach.
At once, blood spurted out with a sickening gush.
Disheveled, hair flying wildly, Mayatsuki scrambled up again, throwing herself at him with a hysterical cry: "You beast! You animal! Die!!!"
Terrified and desperate, Sarutobi Kazunori, face twisted in pain, clutched the blood-soaked kunai in his hand and drove it toward his wife's chest.
[Shhk—]
The scene dragged on for what felt like thirty whole seconds. Yet not a single person present, not even the Sarutobi shinobi standing right beside them, stepped in to stop the bloody spectacle.
The Sarutobi clan watched with eyes full of emotions too tangled to put into words.
They saw Sarutobi Mayatsuki's eyes glaze over as her body went limp and collapsed.
They then watched as Kazunori, clutching his abdomen, blood gushing endlessly between his fingers, finally toppled to the ground as well.
The stench of blood spread thick through the air.
It invaded the nostrils of everyone present.
Sarutobi Hiruzen had already closed his eyes in torment. He had not intervened to stop it. His moral compass had bound him in silence, inaction. And in that silence was admission—that the words of Uchiha Keizumi rang true even for him.
Utatane Koharu, too, was at a loss for words. She could only stare as Keizumi once again stood upon the height of "justice."
The worst part was—
She had never imagined the Sarutobi clan hid such vile filth within.
Had Hiruzen been so consumed with the burdens of the Hokage that he no longer had the time to discipline his own clan?
Koharu fell silent.
Because…
She realized that the dozen members of her own clan who had died at the hands of Keizumi's followers were likely no better than the Sarutobi—only guilty of different kinds of filth.
"Jiraiya. Do you think my actions deserve to be called the justice I claim to uphold?"
Keizumi's calm, unwavering voice pierced Jiraiya's chest. He opened his mouth, but not a word came out.
Jiraiya stood silent for several long seconds. Then he let out a weary sigh.
And quietly, he stepped two paces to the right—clearing a path.
This movement made Koharu's eyes fly wide.
"Jiraiya…"
But before she could say more than his name, Jiraiya's heavy voice cut her off: "Adviser Koharu, forgive me. This situation… is beyond anything I can intervene in. Keizumi's actions are indeed extreme, but Konoha's indulgence of people like them is just as wrong. Don't put me in an impossible position."
And at that moment, Jiraiya vaguely understood why the shinobi world needed a Child of Prophecy—why it needed a savior.
As Keizumi had said: this shinobi world was twisted, diseased.
Everyone's thoughts, everyone's morals, were warped by its dysfunction.
Jiraiya drew in a deep breath, his resolve sharpening.
The shinobi world needed the transformative change that only the Child of Prophecy could bring.
And he—he would be the one to guide that child.
Koharu, seeing Jiraiya's stance, could not help but shift her gaze onto Tsunade.
"Tsunade!"
"Don't call me."
Her eyes were shrouded in shadow. She stood with her back to them all, her pale skin trembling slightly—the sight of blood had rattled her.
Forcing her shaking gaze upward toward the bright moon above, she said: "From the very beginning, I never thought Uchiha Keizumi was wrong. The chaos of the shinobi world is like an age of turmoil. And in times of turmoil, if harsh measures are not used, then how can anything ever change?"
"…Hiruzen!"
Utatane Koharu turned again toward Sarutobi Hiruzen, who still had his eyes closed.
"Haa…"
Hiruzen let out a long, heavy breath. When he finally opened his eyes, Koharu saw desolation within them—and, more than that, deep self-reproach.
He must have been shaken to the core by the filth festering in his own clan!
A bad premonition welled up in Koharu's heart.
"Take them… away."
At last, Hiruzen spoke.
These words were directed at Uchiha Keizumi.
"Bring them to the Police Force," Hiruzen said, his voice sounding years older as he sighed under the weight of so many watching eyes. "Investigate thoroughly. If evidence of their crimes is found, then deal with them as the law demands."
At those words—
Several Sarutobi clansmen who had not yet been named by Keizumi widened their eyes in shock.
They realized—
Their Hokage, their own clan's head… had abandoned them!
"Hokage-sama!"
The first to be named, Sarutobi Kyōya, panicked the most. Everyone in Konoha knew of Keizumi's extreme methods. If he were taken away, and if the Yamanaka clan searched his memories, his past crimes would surely be laid bare…
He didn't even dare imagine what his fate would be.
The corpses of that husband and wife lying on the ground might very well be his own destiny soon.
Frantic, Kyōya shouted: "I'm a Sarutobi clansman! I have family ties with you! My cousin's uncle is your cousin's brother-in-law—surely, surely we're connected by blood that can't be severed!"
"I can return all the money I embezzled over the years! I can give a generous sum of compensation to the family of the villager who was crushed to death! I can even share intelligence I know about Kumogakure spies—"
"I… I…"
Shoving past the Sarutobi clansmen in front of him, Kyōya stumbled and staggered his way right up to Hiruzen: "I can even stay in Konoha's prison for ten years! Or twenty—thirty if I must!"
—After all, as long as he behaved well in prison, half his sentence would be reduced. Even if the maximum was thirty years, halved it would only be fifteen. After fifteen years, he would still only be in his forties…
Of course, those shameless calculations he would never dare say aloud before Hiruzen.
Otherwise—
Such utterly disgraceful words might have earned him a slap to the face right then and there.
[—Smack!!!]
The sudden, ringing sound made Kyōya's entire body seize up.
The desperate pleading expression on his face froze as well.
His head had been knocked sharply to the side by Hiruzen's palm, a vivid red handprint blooming across his cheek.
The burning sting left him utterly dumbfounded.
"In the Sarutobi clan that I lead—there is no room for petty men who sell out their village for money!"
Before all present, Hiruzen could not possibly shield his clansman. The fury blazing across his face was from the heart.
"Kyōya! You've disappointed me beyond measure. Your actions are no different from those of a rogue ninja who betrayed Konoha!"
Not harming Konoha's most fundamental interests—this was Sarutobi Hiruzen's bottom line when it came to covering for others. It was also the very same bottom line that had allowed him to shield Danzō time and again in the past.
Yet—
The deeds of Sarutobi Kyōya had clearly shattered that bottom line in Hiruzen's heart.
The thought that he had summoned the entire ANBU tonight… only to protect such a clansman…
And worse, that so many had witnessed his intent with their own eyes…
Hiruzen's aged face now burned with shame.
As Hokage, he had utterly disgraced himself!
His authority and prestige had taken another heavy blow!
And once again…
He was being forced to "compromise" with Keizumi!
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