Uchiha Keizumi asked, "How long do you plan to stay in the village?"
Jūzō shot him a glance before replying, "I'll leave once those three stop waiting for me outside. At that point, I won't return to Akatsuki. I'll find another group, somewhere I can belong."
"No."
Keizumi said, "You need to return to Amegakure, return to Akatsuki—and deliver the secrets you know to Konan."
Jūzō's eyes widened. "Hey, hey, isn't it a bit much to toy with my life like that? I clearly can't beat those three!"
His face was written full of resistance.
"I'll go with you."
That sudden line from Uchiha Keizumi made half of Jūzō's resistance crumble.
He blinked. "You…"
"Don't tell me—you've set your sights on Akatsuki?"
Jūzō faintly recalled that Keizumi's nindō was [Absolute Justice]. In this man's eyes, an organization like Akatsuki, stirring wars across the smaller nations, would surely be one of the targets Absolute Justice demanded be purged.
Sure enough—
Keizumi's next words confirmed his suspicion: "Within Akatsuki are many who are the very source of evil that Absolute Justice must mark for judgment. Uchiha Obito, Orochimaru… these people all require justice's trial."
"Akatsuki's existence has gathered this brood of villains together. That saves me from scouring the shinobi world to hunt them down. Wiping them out in one sweep—that is both the duty and the obligation of Absolute Justice."
Jūzō drew in a long breath. "You're probably the only one in the whole shinobi world who'd dare say something like that."
Recalling Keizumi's eerie ocular jutsu, he added, "And maybe… maybe you really could pull it off."
He knew that if he agreed to Keizumi's plan, it would mean betraying Akatsuki.
But he also knew he had no choice.
"I'll leave Konoha at dawn."
No sooner had Jūzō said this than something occurred to him. He asked, "This is your true body, right?"
"Wood Clone."
Uchiha Keizumi spoke plainly.
Jūzō: "…"
No.
What?
He had thought Uchiha Keizumi intended to act as his personal bodyguard. But who could have guessed—the man only saw him as a "key," a tool to find Akatsuki's base in Amegakure!
If only a Wood Clone was going with him, then wasn't its only function just to serve as a locator?
Jūzō's expression stiffened. "What if we run into Uchiha Obito on the way, still refusing to give up? Why isn't your true body coming with me?"
"There are still matters in Konoha," the Wood Clone replied. "The true body needs to purge the evils before him one by one, and more importantly, to lay the foundation for the framework of Absolute Justice here in the Land of Fire. This will be Absolute Justice's first attempt."
With that, Keizumi's Wood Clone fell silent, simply fixing his gaze on Jūzō.
Not a single word more, yet even as a mere clone, it left Jūzō breaking into a cold sweat.
The pressure he felt was like staring down that genin, Might Duy.
"Cough! Fine—we'll leave in the morning."
Jūzō could not withstand it any longer.
He could only believe that somewhere within this Wood Clone, Keizumi had hidden some trump card to keep him alive. After all, with Absolute Justice as his creed, he wouldn't send an innocent man to his death… right?
…
The next morning.
At dawn.
The news of Uchiha Itachi's death at Uchiha Keizumi's hand spread quickly through the village.
And within the Uchiha compound, it stirred a storm.
"That traitorous bastard Uchiha Itachi is finally dead!"
Sasuke, dazed as he prepared to head to the Ninja Academy, suddenly overheard a police force ninja speaking with barely contained excitement to his comrade.
"He hid in Konoha all that time, too afraid to show his face, and in the end Keizumi caught him—and killed him outright."
"If Uchiha Keizumi had killed anyone else, I might have had complaints. But if it's Itachi he killed, then I have to applaud!"
"After all, that beast wanted to slaughter the entire clan!"
The other man, also from the police force, clicked his tongue. "So last night's commotion must've been their fight, huh? Itachi really was a genius of the Uchiha. But compared to Uchiha Keizumi—someone who can stand shoulder to shoulder with Shisui—he was still far behind."
"Fugaku always avoided speaking about that son of his, clearly trying to protect him. But now? The only thing he can protect is a corpse."
'Actually… not even a corpse.' That thought flickered through Sasuke's mind as he walked past.
Itachi's death had become little more than a backdrop to Absolute Justice.
His end seemed only to further validate Keizumi-sensei's Absolute Justice in the eyes of many clansmen.
And within the clan, there was little respect left for Father.
They even called him Fugaku by name, without the title of Clan Head.
Perhaps this was because he had sheltered Sasuke's older brother.
'Justice shouldn't be swayed by family ties. Even bonds of blood—once they touch the taboos of justice, once they fall into the abyss of sin—must be cut without hesitation.'
Sasuke tried to convince himself with a solemn face.
…
At the same time.
Within the Hyūga clan.
Neji had not slept a single moment the previous night. His spirit looked worn and weary.
He barely finished a light breakfast and was just about to head to the Ninja Academy when he suddenly noticed several branch family shinobi walking past him, their expressions dark and unsettled.
Neji could see the indignation etched on their faces.
It was an expression he knew well—because he himself often wore it.
He drew in a deep breath, immediately stepped forward to block their path, and raised his head to ask: "What happened?!"
The branch family shinobi halted. They studied Neji for a moment and quickly recognized him.
"You're Hizashi-sama's child…"
One of them was about to speak, but the man beside him tugged at his sleeve.
He could only force a thin smile and say, "It's nothing. Not something someone your age should get involved in."
A bad premonition seized Neji. Gritting his teeth, he spoke out his guess directly: "Someone died, didn't they? If it were a normal death, you wouldn't try to hide it from me. So—was it a branch family member who died because of the Caged Bird?"
Their silence…
…was the answer.
"Why? For what reason?" Neji's fists clenched tight, his teeth biting down on his lip as he pressed them: "Don't tell me—the main family needed another scapegoat again?"
"Ah…"
One of the branch shinobi, ignoring the restraint of his companion, sighed. His face darkened as he said to Neji, "A branch elder secretly tried to unravel the Caged Bird seal, without the main family's knowledge. But somehow, perhaps just by ill fortune, the main family discovered it."
"Whether his attempt was truly succeeding or merely delusional, the fact is—he broke the Hyūga clan's rules. And in doing so, he committed the greatest taboo of our house."
"The main family elder activated the Caged Bird curse upon him. And because that branch elder was already old, he could not withstand the agony it brought. His body gave out, and he died."
He added quietly, "It happened last night, at around four in the morning."
Then the branch shinobi crouched slightly and ruffled Neji's hair.
"There's no need to grieve. You'll get used to it. This… is our fate. A bird in a cage will never fly free. So long as you don't defy the clan's laws, you won't meet the same end."
Neji staggered back a few steps, dazed.
"Just because it's a rule—does that make it right?" he lifted his head again and asked the branch family shinobi before him.
One of them replied, "A rule that endures long enough, and everyone grows used to it—that makes it right. The branch family cannot break the rules; the Caged Bird binds us. The main family will never change them; they're the beneficiaries. In time, the rule is the rule."
When those words fell, silence spread among all present, Neji included.
…
"'The rule is the rule.' 'What becomes habit is right.' 'No one can break the rule.' 'This is our fate.'" One phrase after another echoed endlessly in Neji's mind.
All the way until he reached the Ninja Academy. All the way until he entered his classroom.
Neji still carried that dazed, distracted look.
Unconsciously, his hand reached up to rub the bandage tied across his forehead.
Hidden beneath it was the mark of the Caged Bird.
[Thud!]
Suddenly, Neji felt himself bump into someone. He heard a cry of surprise and saw the other fall to the ground.
Snapping back to himself, Neji frowned and looked down. There on the floor sat a boy with thick brows and a strange braided hairstyle, clutching his knee and sucking in cold breaths.
"Hey, Neji, don't mind that guy." A fellow academy student patted Neji on the shoulder. "He can't even learn the basics of chakra flow through the meridians. Even the sensei says he might never manage a single ninjutsu. He's got zero talent to be a ninja."
"Yet he insists every day that he'll become one. Tch, a dead-last like him could never be a ninja! There's no such thing as a ninja who can't use ninjutsu. He doesn't belong in our world, Neji—you don't need to bother with him."
Neji brushed aside the hand on his shoulder.
His cold gaze swept over the boy who had spoken. "Your attitude reminds me of the kind of person I despise most. Looking down from on high, as if you can strip away someone's life at will—as if you can treat a life as nothing more than a scapegoat."
The classmate froze in place.
Neji started to step past Rock Lee, but as soon as his foot lifted, he hesitated and set it back down.
He reached out and helped Lee to his feet.
"Sorry. I ran into you." With that, he stepped past and went to his own seat.
Justice should be like this.
Neji repeated it to himself in his heart.
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