"Phew!"
Inside Konoha, Uchiha Izumi slowly exhaled. She clapped her hands once and turned to Naruto and Sasuke behind her. "You two little brats mustn't get discouraged just because we didn't encounter any murderous criminals tonight. That kind of reaction is very wrong."
She tapped Sasuke's forehead with her finger, then ruffled Naruto's hair, her face stern as she scolded them. "Let me ask you a question—do you think it's better to face murderous criminals every single day so that Absolute Justice can be carried out daily, or better to spend an entire night circling Konoha and only catch two thieves?"
Her words left Naruto and Sasuke exchanging puzzled glances.
Sasuke furrowed his brow and muttered, "If we don't run into murderous criminals… then how do we carry out Absolute Justice? Isn't that what we're supposed to believe in—Keizumi-sensei's Absolute Justice?"
Naruto quickly jumped in, unwilling to be outdone. "Justice means punishing those murderous criminals with absolute and thorough means, doesn't it?"
Just as Sasuke couldn't stand being overshadowed by Naruto, Naruto couldn't stand the thought of suddenly being surpassed by Sasuke. For some reason, a strange sense of rivalry kept stirring between them.
"You two little punks—your thinking is all wrong!"
Off to the side, Anko stood with arms crossed. "True justice is to make the shinobi world, and Konoha itself, a better place. If murderous villains appeared every single day, then would [Absolute Justice] be useful—or useless?"
"To carry out justice with absolute means is meant to lessen the countless evils that plague this world. The fact that we only caught two thieves tonight proves that Keizumi's Absolute Justice has had an extremely positive effect on Konoha's order."
At only seven years old, Naruto and Sasuke hadn't yet fully formed a proper sense of morality.
Hearing Anko's words, they only half-understood.
What they roughly grasped was this—if the day came when no murderous criminals appeared, then that would mean the shinobi world had truly become better.
"Then…"
Naruto muttered weakly, "If we kill off every murderous criminal we run into, wouldn't that also mean we'll stop running into murderous criminals?"
Anko: "...You little brat! You really need to read more books! Did you even listen to a single word I just said?!"
She grabbed Naruto by the collar and drove two fingers hard into his temples, making him wail in pain.
"Speaking of which…"
Watching this scene, Izumi shifted her gaze toward the distant full moon and murmured, "Ever since we split up at the Police Force headquarters, why haven't we seen Keizumi-senpai or Jirō-senpai?"
…
Outside Konoha.
Uchiha Keizumi, shinobi blade in hand, wasted no more words on Obito—still posturing in his imitation of "Uchiha Madara." Freeing one hand, he flew through one-handed seals at blistering speed.
Opening his mouth wide, Keizumi spewed forth a mass of searing magma that twisted in midair into a blazing dragon, lunging straight toward Obito's position.
Obito, Zetsu, and Tobi's eyes all darkened at once.
They immediately split and dodged in three different directions.
[Boom!!!]
The magma dragon slammed into the ground with devastating force, carving out a crater more than ten meters wide.
Flames licked at the rim, while within the pit molten magma still churned, glowing orange-red. The waves of heat rolling outward were enough to leave no doubt of its deadly temperature.
"Truly impossible to reason with, either of them," Zetsu muttered. The remark referred not only to Uchiha Keizumi—but also to Obito.
Landing on the ground, Zetsu slapped its palms against the earth. "Wood Release!"
In an instant, countless roots erupted from beneath the ground, twisting and writhing upward like a swarm of colossal serpents, enough to make the scalp prickle with dread at a single glance.
The endless roots sought to engulf Uchiha Keizumi whole.
On another front—
The vortex-faced White Zetsu, Tobi, let out a gleeful laugh before launching his own attack. Behind him, the towering 20-meter wooden giant raised its fist and slammed it down toward Keizumi.
Beneath the mask, Obito's face darkened further. With a cold snort, his right eye spun into the Mangekyō Sharingan. Space around his body visibly warped as massive shuriken shot forth from the Kamui dimension, whistling straight for Keizumi!
At the same time, Obito himself surged forward, closing in without fear.
"Tch, planning a three-on-one? Uchiha Keizumi, I'll—"
On the sidelines, Jūzō started forward, ready to join the fight. But just then, the moonlight above was suddenly blotted out by a looming shadow.
Looking up, his eyes widened in shock.
A colossal cat had appeared above him at some unknown moment, hurling itself straight toward the wooden giant's fist.
[Boom!!!]
The massive cat's head collided against the giant's fist. Even as its body skidded back several dozen meters upon landing, claws tearing trenches into the earth, it had still managed to block the strike.
"Damn it… Don't you dare underestimate a ninja cat, meow!"
Tachibana Jirō's fur stood on end, his face twisted into a feral snarl.
Jūzō instantly realized—this was still Uchiha Keizumi's ninja cat!
And this cat… it could use some kind of jutsu to enlarge itself? It looked strangely similar to the Akimichi clan's Multi-Size Technique.
"Wood Release…"
On the other side, Uchiha Keizumi lowered his gaze to the countless roots churning wildly at his feet. He completely ignored the massive shuriken whistling toward him from behind. Instead, he crouched slightly, pressing one hand against a surging root beneath him.
"What a coincidence."
"I have it too."
In an instant, Zetsu realized in shock that he had lost control over part of the roots. Before his eyes, several of the writhing roots suddenly shot upward more than ten meters high, curving around to stab rapidly toward Obito's back.
The endless roots collided head-on with the giant shuriken Obito had fired from the Kamui space.
"Wood Release?!"
Zetsu finally reacted, his black-and-white face twisted in disbelief. "Uchiha Keizumi has the Wood Release?!"
Even Obito behind Keizumi froze for a moment.
But he didn't stop. The roots that stabbed toward him posed no threat, phasing straight through his body without touching him.
"Hmph!"
In the blink of an eye, Obito closed the gap, appearing right at Keizumi's back. He thrust out one hand, the scarlet Sharingan burning with killing intent, trying to place his palm directly on Keizumi.
But the next instant, his expression faltered—Uchiha Keizumi suddenly spun around, blade in hand, and swung decisively at his outstretched palm.
[Slice—]
Obito's lone visible eye widened as he watched his severed hand fall to the ground. His gaze, filled with disbelief, lifted slowly to Keizumi's cold, expressionless face.
The other side had seen through it—
the hidden weakness of his right eye's Kamui ability!
A chill realization ran through Obito. His original plan had been to touch Keizumi's body and drag him directly into the Kamui space.
Even if Keizumi possessed some elemental ability akin to liquefying his body like the Hydrification Technique, such tricks would mean nothing before a space-time dōjutsu.
But the premise was that Obito had to materialize his hand outside the Kamui space in order to make physical contact. Only then could he trigger the eye's ability and absorb his opponent.
Who could have expected—that in Keizumi's eyes, his Kamui ability was laid bare, like a naked girl stripped of all concealment.
No secrets at all!
It was as if this man had known all along—that to use Kamui, Obito would have to partially materialize his body.
But how did he know?!
How could he possibly know?!
In Obito's heart, it felt as if hundreds of bombs had gone off at once. Thankfully, his mask hid the disbelief twisting his features; otherwise, he would have utterly lost all semblance of Uchiha composure.
At that very moment, Uchiha Keizumi's eyes met his own. The shock already filling Obito's gaze deepened into raw terror.
"Mangekyō Sharingan!!!"
"Judgment."
Uchiha Keizumi uttered the words slowly. From his left eye, a trickle of blood welled and slid down his cheek.
Obito's pupils shrank sharply as he hastily shifted his gaze away. Even knowing that while in Kamui's intangibility he was nearly invincible, he still retreated quickly, driven by instinctive fear.
"Looks like it didn't work."
On Keizumi's impassive profile, rivulets of magma flowed faintly. The blood seeping from his eye was quickly scorched away by the heat.
He looked calmly at Obito, who appeared completely unaffected, realizing that his left eye's Mangekyō ability could not penetrate Obito's fully intangible state.
But that was within his expectations. This had only been a small test. If it succeeded, it would have been a great profit; if it failed, he lost nothing.
To him, the gradual weakening of eyesight from using the Mangekyō—even the risk of blindness—was not much of a drawback.
Because from time to time, during his executions of justice in Konoha, he had received plenty of rewards related to "enhanced vision in both eyes."
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