Chapter 300: The Current State of the Village
"We're finally back in Konoha!"
Uchiha Izumi looked at the gates of Konoha not too far in the distance, a flicker of pure joy dancing in her eyes.
After being away from the village for so long, Izumi truly missed Konoha's diverse and bustling street foods. After all, if one ate too many of those bland military ration pills, they would genuinely start to feel nauseous!
"Is Tsunade's Hokage election about to begin?"
"Will things end up blowing to blows when the time comes, meow?"
Kojirō was similarly full of energy and anticipation. When they originally departed the village, Tsunade was already positioning herself to contest the position of the next generation's Hokage against the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. Now that they had returned, it was just about time for the most thrilling climax of the political struggle to unfold.
Kojirō secretly felt that an old fox like Sarutobi Hiruzen wouldn't surrender the supreme seat of Hokage quite so easily!
"With Lord Ikeizumi's backing, Lady Tsunade will absolutely step up as the next Hokage!"
Izumi cradled Kojirō closely, vocally reinforcing her unwavering loyalty and support toward Tsunade's campaign.
"Let's go. Back into the village."
Uchiha Ikeizumi, however, didn't offer any excessive commentary. Over the entire course of the return march, he had continuously felt his own biology, alongside his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, undergoing a subtle, profound transformation that he couldn't entirely define.
Even though Nagato's defeated Six Paths hadn't explicitly yielded a drop of Yin-Yang Release, Ikeizumi could instinctively perceive that he was now capable of tentatively blending the elemental forces of Yin and Yang within his body, allowing him to materialize constructs similar to Nagato's black receivers.
Regarding the specific applications of this newborn authority, Ikeizumi knew he would need to dedicate structured time to fully test and map out its limits.
It didn't take long after Uchiha Ikeizumi crossed the threshold back into Konoha before Sarutobi Hiruzen, Tsunade, and even Jiraiya received the intelligence report. Yet upon learning of his return, their underlying moods varied drastically.
Sarutobi Hiruzen felt a wave of relief, yet it was simultaneously laced with a heavy layer of profound despondency.
He was relieved that Uchiha Ikeizumi had ultimately chosen to return to Konoha rather than defecting across the sea. However, his despondency stemmed from the absolute certainty that with Ikeizumi's return, his own tenure as Hokage had officially reached its definitive end.
Tsunade's personal approval rating across the village was already soaring to unprecedented heights. When factoring in the immense block of shinobi who fiercely championed the doctrine of Absolute Justice, Hiruzen genuinely had no idea how he could possibly construct a path to victory in the upcoming electoral vote.
Contrasting Hiruzen's complex emotional turmoil, Tsunade merely offered a flat, indifferent "Oh" when the intelligence report crossed her desk, before returning to her paperwork without a secondary thought.
Though she was fully apprised of the devastating purge Ikeizumi had executed across the Land of Water, Tsunade had already subconsciously elevated Ikeizumi to the exact same peerless pedestal occupied by her grandfather, Senju Hashirama. Because she viewed him through that specific lens, she found his reality-warping accomplishments to be entirely expected.
Actually, Jiraiya's assessment isn't entirely wrong; every few decades, anomalous shinobi who completely defy the standard laws of common sense will inevitably manifest within the ninja world.
The last generation produced my grandfather, who brought an end to the Warring States period, alongside Uchiha Madara. Though grandfather's hidden village model failed to completely eradicate the cycle of war, it at least secured a localized, generational peace.
If Uchiha Ikeizumi operates on the exact same world-shaping tier as grandfather, then perhaps his Absolute Justice truly possesses the capacity to anchor a far more durable, absolute peace across the entire ninja world.
Tsunade let her mind wander across random theories. She secretly suspected that the elder toads of Mount Myoboku might have genuinely glimpsed a strand of the true prophecy, but the actual manifestation of that destiny simply didn't align with the specific political outcomes they desired.
After all, if a "Child of Prophecy" was a structural necessity of fate, did her grandfather's monumental feat of ending the brutal Warring States era not qualify him for the title?
As for that loud, hyperactive brat named Naruto whom Jiraiya heavily prioritized—at least from Tsunade's current perspective, she truly failed to discern a single trait that set him apart from any standard genin.
"Uchiha Ikeizumi is back in the village..."
Meanwhile, over at the Ninja Academy, Jiraiya appeared thoroughly drained of energy as he went through the motions of teaching his class. He genuinely couldn't comprehend what kind of bizarre, intoxicating charisma the doctrine of Absolute Justice possessed to leave Uzumaki Naruto so utterly infatuated with it.
Even throughout the entire duration of Ikeizumi and Izumi's extended deployment outside the Land of Fire, Naruto and Sasuke had tirelessly and enthusiastically patrolled the streets day and night to enforce "Absolute Justice." To any uninformed outsider, the two brats looked as though they were already full-time, decorated officers of the Konoha Police Force!
As for the sweeping changes taking root across Konoha, Jiraiya had obviously observed them. But all he saw was a village of citizens walking on eggshells, living in constant, terrified paranoia under the suffocating shadow of Absolute Justice, stripped of even a fraction of genuine personal freedom.
"I can perceive it... that kid, Uchiha Ikeizumi, has grown significantly more terrifying!"
"He has reached a threshold where even the natural energy of the world is instinctively trembling away from his presence!"
Fukasaku stared off in the direction of Ikeizumi's chakra signature, his expression deeply grave. Mount Myoboku possessed its own highly specialized sensory ninjutsu—or more accurately, sensory senjutsu. They were capable of mapping out the precise metrics of an individual's threat level based entirely on the flows and currents of natural energy.
And within Fukasaku's sensory net, the current Uchiha Ikeizumi manifested as an anomaly that caused natural energy itself to shrink back in instinctual fear.
However, what the Elder Toad Sage failed to realize was that the natural energy wasn't cowering before Ikeizumi because of his sheer, raw power. Rather, after securing the Water Contract, Ikeizumi had begun consciously and unconsciously siphoning and consuming the natural water elements of the environment.
Those siphoned water elements were systematically broken down and converted into pure chakra to nourish and replenish Ikeizumi's physical reservoirs. If Ikeizumi were to live long enough, he possessed the literal, terrifying capacity to single-handedly dehydrate the entire geography of the ninja world into a barren, arid wasteland.
"Yeah!"
"Lord Ikeizumi is finally back in Konoha!"
Inside the academy grounds, Uzumaki Naruto let out a boisterous, ecstatic shout the absolute moment he caught wind of Ikeizumi's return.
He felt as though an eternity had passed since he last stood in Ikeizumi's presence. Though he had never stopped executing justice on his own terms, he always harbored an irrepressible instinctual desire to draw closer—just a little bit closer—to Ikeizumi's shadow.
After all, only by following directly behind Ikeizumi could he truly grasp and comprehend the authentic, unfiltered weight of Absolute Justice!
"Those cockroaches who thought they could sneak around and launch their pathetic little schemes the moment Lord Ikeizumi left the village won't be getting a single wink of sleep tonight!"
A razor-sharp, chilling smile carved its way onto Sasuke's face.
Further down the courtyard, Hinata's eyes similarly lit up with a brilliant, focused intensity. She remembered with absolute clarity that it was Uchiha Ikeizumi who had stepped forward to personally sever the shackles of the Hyūga compound, liberating her and her younger sister from the main house.
As for why the prestigious heirs of the Main House would choose to abandon the Hyūga clan altogether—well, that was a matter outsiders had zero business questioning!
Perhaps... just perhaps, I can submit a formal petition to Lord Ikeizumi to help liberate the members of the Hyūga Branch House as well...
The thought bubbled up uncontrollably within Hinata's mind. Ikeizumi's extended absence from the village hadn't allowed the internal friction of the Hyūga clan to cool down; instead, as time marched forward, the internal political state of the clan had collapsed into an increasingly chaotic mess.
Particularly with Sarutobi Hiruzen and Tsunade completely ignoring the internal logistics of the Hyūga clan, the remaining traditionalists had actually rushed to elect a brand-new "Main House" lineage, and were actively proceeding with the selection of secondary Main House council members!
It was entirely due to the reality that Hyūga Neji currently lacked the overwhelming military force required to shatter the paradigm on his own. Otherwise, there were moments where Neji genuinely felt the urge to systematically slaughter every single one of those decrepit, archaic elders of the Branch House and Main House alike, cleansing the clan once and for all.
Over the past few days, Neji had even found himself contemplating a bizarre paradox: perhaps a monster like Uchiha Itachi shouldn't have been born into the Uchiha line at all. If Itachi had been born a Hyūga, and had systematically liquidated the entire clan from the highest elder down to the youngest infant, wouldn't this deeply entrenched cycle of sin and subjugation have vanished entirely from the face of the earth?
"The systemic crisis of the Hyūga clan must be brought to a definitive resolution as quickly as possible!"
Neji's gaze gradually solidified into an unshakeable, icy determination. His personal strength was currently insufficient to purge the foundational sins of the Hyūga infrastructure, but the moment he petitioned for Uchiha Ikeizumi's direct intervention, he knew every shred of the Hyūga clan's historic corruption would be ruthlessly erased from existence.
And amidst the diverse array of reactions rippling across the village, there was another individual who let out a massive, profound sigh of relief upon hearing that Uchiha Ikeizumi had officially set foot back in Konoha.