Naruto: Uchiha's Absolute Justice

Chapter 33: The Will of Fire

Uchiha Ikeizumi's scorching crimson lava was not something a ninja's "glass cannon" fragile body could withstand.

The monstrous lava demon hound inevitably pierced through Shinnosuke Sarutobi's chest.

It rapidly charred his flesh and internal organs.

This made Shinnosuke Sarutobi's already wide eyes even rounder.

He opened his mouth and vomited a mouthful of coagulated blood.

The gaping hole in his chest, which had almost severed him at the waist, already foreshadowed the ultimate end of this battle.

As Uchiha Ikeizumi slowly withdrew his arm, Shinnosuke Sarutobi's body lost its support, slumping to his knees and then collapsing heavily onto the ground.

"Shinnosuke!!!"

A figure swiftly arrived and immediately helped the fallen Shinnosuke Sarutobi into his embrace.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes, like a tiger's, welled with tears, his breathing became rapid, and his aged, wrinkled hands trembled incessantly, attempting to hold onto his eldest son's life in this manner.

"Cough… cough, cough…"

Shinnosuke Sarutobi, clinging to his last breath, slowly turned his head, his blurred vision falling upon Uchiha Ikeizumi, who stood right beside him.

"Cough, cough… Your justice…" he said intermittently, "is truly… decisive… Is what I did really so morally corrupt in your eyes? Come to think of it, ha, they truly weren't good deeds…"

"Ikeizumi…"

"The only thing wrong is that your position is different from ours. You cannot… oppose the entire ninja world alone. Many people cannot tolerate your justice. You must make your justice Konoha's justice! However, you… seem to never listen to my admonishments."

"Old man…"

"Cough, cough… You don't need to hand me over to the Yamanaka clan to scour my memories. Everything this brat tells you afterward is true. He, as always, can see through good and evil."

"Even though I was burned to death by lava…"

"But my body is so cold…"

"…Truly cold."

As Shinnosuke Sarutobi exerted all his strength to slowly close his eyes, his breathing also completely ceased.

Until the very last moment of his life, he still held an opposing view of Uchiha Ikeizumi's "justice."

He didn't think Uchiha Ikeizumi was wrong.

But…

He also didn't think it was right.

"Ike… Ikeizumi…" The pain of losing a child made Hiruzen Sarutobi's aged body tremble.

He looked up, meeting Uchiha Ikeizumi's gaze, his jaw clenched tightly, his pupils trembling slightly, and his whites of his eyes heavily bloodshot.

The words Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke at this moment were almost forcefully squeezed out: "Was it necessary to make things this tense? Was there nothing you could discuss with me, the Hokage? Was it… was it necessary to kill Shinnosuke?"

"He's my eldest son! He was your former Jonin instructor! Ikeizumi! Even if your justice makes you cold-blooded enough to never consider the bond between master and student, can't you consider me?!"

Question after question, from unbearable grief at first, to furious roaring at the end.

Hiruzen Sarutobi could no longer distinguish his emotions.

Nor could he decide how to handle this matter.

"Third Hokage, I am a member of the Police Force." Uchiha Ikeizumi gazed at Shinnosuke Sarutobi's corpse. Under the surrounding firelight and lava's crimson glow, his expression was obscured.

He slowly said, "When I saw my former Jonin instructor fall into darkness, all I could do was let him die with understanding. That is all."

Hiruzen Sarutobi was silent for an unknown amount of time.

Under the gaze of the large group of elite ANBU ninja behind him, he staggered to his feet and picked up his eldest son.

Could he say Uchiha Ikeizumi was wrong? Shinnosuke, in his dying moments, had already said Ikeizumi was not wrong.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart was filled with anger.

Even with chilling killing intent.

He was the Shadow of the Village, and also a father. He had countless thoughts of directly giving the order for the ANBU ninja behind him to swarm and kill Uchiha Ikeizumi on the spot.

But…

Shinnosuke's dying words had blocked such an action. Shinnosuke admitted that what he had done, though good for the village, was a morally corrupt and evil deed.

Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't tell… Were these the delirious ramblings of Shinnosuke in his dying moments, his consciousness fading?

Or were these the words Shinnosuke spoke with his last shred of rationality?

If it was the latter, then Shinnosuke's purpose was probably to grant legitimacy of [Absolute Justice] to Uchiha Ikeizumi's act of killing him, wasn't it?

Shinnosuke…

He fulfilled his final duty as a Jonin instructor.

He had failed to protect his two errant Genin students back then, and now he was trying to protect his last student.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed deeply.

Is this the dying message you left for me, Shinnosuke?

Hiruzen Sarutobi's thoughts were chaotic.

Despite having lived for so many years, despite even having grandchildren, he suddenly felt somewhat bewildered by how complex human nature could be.

He clenched his fists, then loosened them.

Clenched them, then loosened them…

This repeated for an unknown duration.

"Uchiha Ikeizumi. Tomorrow, give me a detailed report of your actions. Just hand it over to the ANBU; you don't need to see me."

He finally spoke these words.

"Hokage-sama!" An ANBU ninja from the Sarutobi clan, after a moment of愣神, anxiously called out beside Hiruzen Sarutobi: "Shinnosuke Sarutobi was one of your right-hand men!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes lowered.

"Hokage-sama…" Just as this Sarutobi clan ANBU ninja was about to say something more in a hurry, a hand suddenly rested on his shoulder. He turned back in surprise.

Kakashi Hatake, also wearing an ANBU mask, slightly shook his head.

"Let the Hokage-sama calm down alone."

Kakashi's expression was complex: "Senior Shinnosuke's dying words were his last will. And Hokage-sama also understood Senior Shinnosuke's last words. Although his stance was different from Uchiha Ikeizumi's, in his last moments, he still expressed great respect for his former student."

"He was also willing to become a burning, ash-strewn fallen leaf, nurturing the student he saw as most rebellious. Senior Shinnosuke truly embodied Konoha's [Will of Fire]. He also used his life to tell his student that Konoha's Will of Fire is not much inferior to absolute justice."

After speaking.

Kakashi's gaze fell on Uchiha Ikeizumi, realizing that this "teacher-killer" had already turned and left.

Uchiha Ikeizumi's footsteps as he left were very clear.

But the Hokage did not speak to stop him, nor did he order them, the ANBU ninja, to pursue him. He simply held Shinnosuke Sarutobi's gradually cooling corpse in silence.

Senior Shinnosuke and Uchiha Ikeizumi were both not wrong.

—This thought suddenly emerged in Kakashi's mind.

Then the question was, what went wrong?

If neither of them was wrong, then was it this ninja world that was wrong?

Kakashi couldn't figure it out.

...

"Let's return to the village, rookie."

Uchiha Ikeizumi slowly said, "Tonight will be a sleepless night."

"Yes, Senior."

....

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