Absolute Justice in Naruto

Sarutobi Hiruzen departed with two Anbu squads, leaving Kakashi and six Anbu operatives to handle the aftermath.

"Lava Release Kekkei Genkai… the destructive power is outrageous!"

Through the sulfur stench that even his mask could not block, Kakashi's gaze swept in every direction. A ripple of shock passed through his tired "dead‑fish" eyes.

In front of him cooling magma carpeted the ground. The earth was scorched into countless craters—large and small, deep and shallow. Half an entire street of buildings looked as though they had been erased from existence, and the heat that still hung in the air made Kakashi feel distinctly uncomfortable.

Rivulets of lava were still dripping from the edges of many ruins; anyone who did not know better might think they were standing at the lip of an active volcano.

Kakashi also spotted two Root shinobi corpses.

One body was missing its entire lower half, whereabouts unknown.

The other had a gaping hole through the chest and had been severed at the waist.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck in mild distress.

Those two corpses were easy enough—tidy them up and have someone return them to Root.

But how was he supposed to clean up this devastated street?

Uchiha Chizumi had really gone overboard.

Then again… perhaps he was one of the few ninjas left in the village who still remembered the Fourth Hokage.

Kakashi recalled what Chizumi had said earlier:

"Only this way can we be worthy of the Fourth's sacrifice."

Absolute Justice…

Not a bad ideal, really.

As Kakashi pondered, he noticed a small figure not far away staggering to her feet, wearing the uniform of the Uchiha Police Force. The Uchiha girl hurried off in the direction Chizumi had gone.

Kakashi thought for a moment—and decided to ignore it.

…

Elsewhere

"I‑I won't do it again… Could you put me down first? I really can walk on my own.

Um… can I not be locked up for too long? Iruka‑sensei will be so disappointed…

I truly know I was wrong…"

Naruto's voice grew smaller with each sentence; by the end he was already choking back sobs. Big teardrops rolled uncontrollably down his cheeks.

He genuinely regretted it.

He knew he had caused a huge disaster—one prank, and half a street of Konoha had been wiped away! Many people were now homeless because of him. It even seemed people had died.

Yet the man carrying him paid him absolutely no attention.

"Ch‑Chizumi‑senpai, wait for me!" a frail voice called from behind Chizumi and Naruto.

Chizumi slowed, and a girl quickly caught up. She was pale and unsteady on her feet.

"I'm sorry, senpai… I passed out after using my Sharingan—the drain was too much…" Izumi was mortified, wishing she could crawl into a hole for being such a burden.

On the night of the Nine‑Tails attack, she had awakened the Sharingan at age five—with all three tomoe at once, an unprecedented prodigy of the Uchiha. But, to everyone's shock, her chakra reserves were pitiful; she simply could not sustain a three‑tomoe Sharingan. If one "Kakashi" were a unit of chakra, Izumi had at most 0.01 Kakashi. Among her Academy peers she was near the bottom in chakra capacity.

"Uchiha Izumi."

"Here!!" She snapped to attention at Chizumi's call.

"I'll test you with two questions. First: What's your view of what just happened?" Chizumi asked, glancing at the exhausted girl.

"Just now…?"

Izumi froze. She recalled, hazily, the clash she saw between Chizumi and Root before fainting, and after waking, the confrontation with the Hokage. The whole chain had started from a child's prank that stirred minor chaos—yet it had led to this many conflicts.

Was it… worth it?

That thought triggered memories of Chizumi's phrase "Absolute Justice" and the many evils born of the shinobi world's sickness—

—A father killing his daughter; a son killing his mother.

Even those two worldview‑shattering events had upended Izumi's outlook and deepened her understanding of Chizumi's goal.

"I think… senpai did nothing wrong," she said after a deep breath, face earnest. "Even a tiny evil, if left unchecked and unpunished—if endlessly indulged—will eventually swell into a greater evil."

Collecting her thoughts, she continued: "Senpai, I've always wanted to protect Konoha, but I didn't know how. After meeting you, I think I understand: if we purge the evil in Konoha with all our strength, one day the village will truly become better. That's what Absolute Justice means to me!"

Chizumi responded blandly, "Rookie, you're no longer at zero. Call it ten points."

Izumi asked timidly, "Senpai, what's a perfect score?"

"One thousand."

"…Right."

Well, at least it wasn't negative.

"Senpai, the second question?" she prompted.

"What do you think of my 'retreat' just now?" Chizumi asked.

Izumi blinked.

"Senpai, I don't think that was retreat!" she said firmly. "In all of Konoha, perhaps only you persist in Absolute Justice. Even other senior officers in the Police Force misunderstand you, but from start to finish you alone uphold justice.

"If you had insisted on a physical clash with the Hokage, Konoha's justice…"—she inhaled, courage rising—"might have been left without a guardian. The village may never see another person like you."

"You're being too roundabout," Chizumi cut in. "To enforce Absolute Justice you need absolute power; otherwise you'll end up like we did earlier.

"Remember this humiliation, remember the anger, remember how the 'evil' of the shinobi world dances over our heads."

Izumi nodded hard.

"One day, I will purge them all in the name of Absolute Justice," Chizumi declared, openly and without hesitation—leaving Izumi dumbstruck. "Including the Hokage."

"That's your third lesson. Politicians care only for their power and their so‑called balance. To them, the word justice is optional.

"The Hokage is also an enemy of justice."

Izumi's brain locked up.

Still dangling Naruto by the collar, Uchiha Chizumi turned his attention to the "rewards" for killing three red named criminals.

Yes—three.

Even Danzo, who rewrote unfavorable reality with Izanagi, had already been killed once.