"Little Jiraiya, Uchiha Izumi is not the Child of Prophecy either."
Perched on Jiraiya's shoulder, Sage Shima spoke as they watched a young Uchiha girl in the distance who had just apprehended a domestic abuser. "She does have a sense of right and wrong, but she lacks conviction of her own."
"She leans too heavily on Uchiha Keizumi's [Absolute Justice] as her nindō. Rather than the Child of Prophecy from the Great Elder's dream, she is more like a puppet of [Absolute Justice]."
"What's more…"
Shima shook her head. "If she had only recently begun following this creed, there might still be hope. But she has already been deeply poisoned by this extreme form of justice. Her devotion to Keizumi has reached a point beyond remedy."
"In this state, Little Jiraiya, you cannot possibly take her as your disciple—let alone guide her to bring true reform to the shinobi world."
On his other shoulder, Sage Fukasaku added, "Move on to the next one, Little Jiraiya."
Jiraiya let out a long sigh, his gaze finally pulling away from Uchiha Izumi.
"The next one… Uchiha… hmm…"
He pulled out his notes and paused briefly.
With a pen, he crossed out the name "Uchiha Itachi." Then he said, "The next candidate—Uchiha Sasuke. He's close to Keizumi, and since they're both Uchiha, there may even be some blood relation between them."
…
"Kakashi-senpai, should we inform the Hokage about this? After all, something like this has happened in the Hyūga Clan, and Uchiha Keizumi is involved as well. I fear trouble will break out there today."
From the shadows, the ANBU shinobi Yamanaka Ryōshin watched as the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki followed Keizumi toward the Hyūga compound. He couldn't help whispering to Kakashi beside him.
This spot was the best for concealing their presence, so both men had chosen it—
—one tasked with monitoring the jinchūriki, the other with overseeing him.
Kakashi, his dead-fish eyes half-lidded, turned his gaze onto Ryōshin.
At that moment, silence said more than words.
Yamanaka Ryōshin: "…"
He instantly realized his mistake. As the junior ANBU, he should have taken it upon himself to report directly to the Hokage. Instead, he had tried to push the responsibility onto Kakashi-senpai under the pretext of "asking for his opinion."
"I'll go!"
He vanished in an instant.
"Hyūga Clan… Caged Bird…" Kakashi murmured as he watched the figures of Uchiha Keizumi, Uzumaki Naruto, and the others grow smaller in the distance. "If I recall correctly, that boy Hyūga Neji's father was Hyūga Hizashi of the Branch House. That means he too lost his father at a young age."
"And if memory serves, Hizashi died willingly for the Main House. Yet this child mistakenly believes the Main House forced his father to act as a scapegoat. What happened today must have stirred those feelings, so he chose to seek help from Absolute Justice."
Kakashi knew well the hidden truths of that time.
"Ha…"
Whatever thought crossed his mind brought a shadow over his eyes.
…
Inside the Hyūga compound.
After giving his eldest and second sons final instructions, Hyūga Jinsuke leaned on his cane and, under the escort of a Main House special jōnin, prepared to temporarily leave the village.
As he walked along the path, he clearly noticed the heavy resentment in the eyes of many Branch House shinobi who looked his way.
In response, he gave only a faint "hmph." That blatant air of contempt inflamed the Branch House even more.
Watching Jinsuke's back as he hobbled away, one Branch House shinobi's face was dark as ink, his teeth nearly grinding to pieces.
"That old bastard! The way he looked at us just now—he was outright scorning the Branch House! He doesn't even consider the lives of the Branch House as human lives!"
Seeing his companion on the verge of losing control, another Branch House shinobi quickly stepped forward to hold him back.
"Calm yourself. He's one of the Main House elders!"
"Damn it, so what if he is? Does that give the Main House the right to stand above us forever? Have they forgotten we were once part of them? Have they forgotten we share the same bloodline? Just because we're branded with the Caged Bird, we're forced to endure this treatment from the Main House? I don't understand it!"
"No one does. But… with the existence of the Caged Bird, the Branch House is fated to be no more than the Main House's vassals. Besides, Jinsuke's kind of vile character is probably just a minority among them."
"Enough—if we break the rules by accident, that old bastard will trigger the Caged Bird seal again."
Hearing the faint whispers of anger behind him, Jinsuke truly did consider activating the Caged Bird once more.
For he could sharply sense that one of the Branch House youths had birthed the thought of killing him.
In the past, he would certainly have given such a person a harsh lesson—
—to remind them that some thoughts were not for Branch House shinobi to even dream of. The Branch House's fate was to protect the Main House, even at the cost of their lives. It was so in the past, it is so now, and it will always be so.
But today…
It was best not to stir further trouble.
Just then, however, Jinsuke noticed the special jōnin escorting him suddenly freeze in his tracks.
Frowning, Jinsuke turned his head, only to see the jōnin's face twisted in shock and fear as he stared in one direction.
Jinsuke followed his gaze.
And in that instant—
His breath nearly stopped. The cane in his hand slipped and fell to the ground with a crack.
His Byakugan widened to their fullest.
A single name burst from his lips uncontrollably.
"Uchiha Keizumi!!!"
…
"Hehehe… killed Uchiha Itachi, did he? How amusing."
Deep within an underground laboratory somewhere in Konoha, Orochimaru's expression brimmed with twisted delight as he muttered to himself, "Sarutobi-sensei, your indulgence of Uchiha Keizumi makes me positively envious."
Clearly, one of Orochimaru's newly planted spies in the village had passed this intelligence along through a special jutsu.
Through the same channel, he also learned that both Jiraiya and Tsunade were present in Konoha.
This drew a sharp click of the tongue from him. His lips curled into a sinister smile as he rasped, "Seems I'll have to delay the plan a little."
He slid his hand aside, revealing the sheet beneath it—across the top were scrawled the words Konoha Crush Plan, Version Two.
He crumpled the page into a ball. Beneath it lay another sheet.
Written there: After killing Sarutobi Hiruzen, how to apply pressure on the various Konoha factions and seize power? How to harness Konoha's resources to research the secrets of immortality…
Line after line of densely written notes filled the paper, countless questions that even now Orochimaru had yet to answer.
He stared at it briefly before tucking it into a scroll.
"But Jiraiya and Tsunade—they are not my greatest obstacles."
"The true obstacle is none other than the vessel I value most."
"Hehehe…"
"Uchiha Keizumi, you're becoming more and more troublesome."
His smile deepened, cold and venomous, his aura brimming with lethal intent.
…
"Orochimaru doesn't get along with many in Akatsuki. Even as a newcomer, I could tell who the most out-of-place one was among them."
Hoisting his Kubikiribōchō over his shoulder, Jūzō spoke: "And it's obvious Orochimaru is that one."
His throat was parched. Normally, he would have been the coldest in the group—
—but after realizing someone even colder stood beside him, the oppressive silence had become unbearable.
"Why don't you say anything?" Jūzō finally pressed. "Don't tell me you've no interest in Orochimaru. I've heard plenty of the things he's done. With your so-called Absolute Justice, surely he's on your kill list, isn't he?"
"Your intel is worthless," the wood clone said flatly. "Best tell me something I don't know."
"…"
Awkwardly, Jūzō realized that, despite being a member of Akatsuki, he actually knew less about the organization than Uchiha Keizumi did. In this situation, he was the one who felt like the outsider.
"You—"
He was just about to say more when suddenly a faint scent of bloodlust pricked at him. His pupils narrowed to pinpoints.
In an instant, Jūzō swung his massive blade up to guard.
[Clang! Clang! Clang!]
Three shuriken, seemingly from nowhere, struck the broad back of the Kubikiribōchō, throwing up sparks as they skittered off the steel.
"Tch!" Jūzō's eyes turned cold as he warned the wood clone at his side: "We've been targeted. Or rather, I've been targeted. It's not Uchiha Obito or those two humanoid creatures—if it were them, I'd already be bleeding."
The moment the words fell, a dense white mist rose up all around, rolling out layer upon layer until it engulfed everything.
Jūzō suddenly split his mouth into a grin.
"Ha! I know who it is…"
"Bloody Mist shinobi from Kirigakure! Looks like they've come to clean up a rogue."
"Hey!"
A sudden thought struck him. "You're just one of his wood clones—don't tell me I have to split my focus to protect you too?"
"No need."
The reply was just two curt words. In the same instant, the wood clone drew the blade at its waist, casually deflecting a sharp kunai that had come flying from an impossibly tricky angle.
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---