Absolute Justice in Naruto

Uchiha Setsuna unconsciously tightened his grip on the top of his cane; the time‑worn fingers, veined with age, turned noticeably pale from the force.

His once‑cloudy eyes had already flushed scarlet—the three‑tomoe Sharingan—locking unflinchingly on the Uchiha standing ahead: Uchiha Chizumi.

"Chizumi, you… say that again?!" His tone sank; the gloom in his face pressed down like a weight.

Uchiha Chizumi did not oblige him by repeating the words.

He simply opened his own pair of three‑tomoe Sharingan.

Even without words, his attitude—and meaning—were perfectly clear.

"Uchiha Chizumi! Are you still a member of the Uchiha clan or not?" another hawkish elder jabbed a finger at him.

Voice thick with anger, he barked, "Everything we're doing right now is for the future of the Uchiha! You stand in our way—are you planning to betray the clan?"

"And let's be clear: you were the one who dragged the Nine‑Tails jinchūriki into our compound. Now you turn around and block us from seizing that demon fox? What are you playing at?"

Though he blustered, he did not dare step forward.

At last Chizumi spoke. "In your eyes, everything I'm doing now looks contradictory, doesn't it?"

The elder huffed, beard puffed, eyes wide. "Hmph! Self‑contradictory, plain as day!"

Chizumi answered evenly: "Perhaps that smooth, perfectly unwrinkled brain of yours never considered another angle— from beginning to end, I have never stood on the same side as vermin like you who bring disaster to the shinobi world."

He talked as he walked toward them, unhurried. "But don't be mistaken—I'm not on the clan head's side, either."

Setsuna's eyelid twitched violently. "Ver… min…?"

He had toiled tirelessly, wholeheartedly for the Uchiha's future—so he believed, with a clear conscience. Years ago he had even been flung into Konoha's prison by that damned Second Hokage for the cause.

Yet in Chizumi's eyes he was a pest of the shinobi world?

Setsuna's temper was about to burst.

"You wretch!!" The remaining hawkish Uchihas boiled with fury.

Chizumi narrowed his eyes; his gaze drifted across their throats, hearts, foreheads—every vital point.

"Enough!!!"

A thunderous shout rang out behind Chizumi. "What disgrace if outsiders see the Uchiha fighting each other! Sheathe your blades—now!"

Sensing the disturbance, Uchiha Fugaku had arrived.

He strode to Chizumi's side, faced the elders, and with a face like stone declared, "Gentlemen, I am the current head of the Uchiha. The friction between the village and our clan is mine to weigh. As for that boy, Uzumaki Naruto—no one here is permitted to lay a finger on him."

"Fugaku…" Setsuna's brow knit tight.

But before he could speak, Fugaku cut him off. "Elder Setsuna, I respect your seniority and call you 'Elder.' Please extend the same respect to my decisions."

"Moreover, what I am doing serves the Uchiha's bigger picture. Besides, I have already sent Uzumaki Naruto to Konoha's Prison—your coming here is pointless."

Fugaku had foreseen exactly this scenario—so he had Naruto moved at once.

Ignoring the elders' dark faces, he turned again, this time to Chizumi, his voice firm: "Chizumi, put the sword away. That is an order from your clan head."

The command went in Chizumi's left ear and out the right.

Fugaku: "…"

He realized the killing intent in Chizumi's eyes had not lessened at all.

He even had the illusion that one more word from him might make Chizumi swing that blade his way.

Having such a subordinate… what a headache!

"Elder Setsuna, you should leave," Fugaku redirected the pressure, locking eyes with Setsuna. "Do you intend to keep confronting Chizumi and me here?"

"Fugaku."

Setsuna drew a deep breath. "You are too soft. One day you will regret today's choice. You are dragging the Uchiha's future into an abyss."

"I am the Clan Head," Fugaku replied.

Meek before outsiders, he was anything but within the clan—at least for now, he had not been forced to the brink by the hawkish faction.

"Hmph!!!"

Setsuna's stormy gaze lingered several seconds on Chizumi's cold young face, as though trying to burn this incompatible youth into memory.

"We're leaving!"

"Phew…"

The knife‑edge tension had almost made Izumi faint; at last she could breathe.

She'd feared that, having just fought Root operatives, Senior Chizumi would end up fighting his own clan next.

Living by absolute justice was simply too nerve‑racking—like every soul in Konoha was the enemy!

"Hmm?"

"Eh!"

Suddenly she saw Chizumi toss his sword to her. Startled, she caught the hilt and carefully slid the blade back into its sheath.

At that moment she heard Fugaku speak: "Chizumi, that killing intent toward them just now—were you serious?"

Chizumi answered, "I always mean what I say. Had they taken one more step, they would have died."

Fugaku inhaled. "Their methods may be extreme, but they're still your kin. Sometimes you don't need to display that level of hostility toward your own clan."

What he really meant was Chizumi's inexplicable hostility toward his eldest son, Uchiha Itachi.

Fugaku had never understood what Itachi could have done to offend Chizumi—Itachi wasn't the type to provoke others.

Chizumi replied coolly, "If I've explained something once in a day, I won't repeat it."

Fugaku froze.

"You mean… Absolute Justice makes no distinction between public and private?" He recalled Chizumi telling him that line before.

"…So you truly were serious," he sighed. Suspecting it was one thing—having it confirmed felt entirely different.

After a long silence he offered a warning: "Your ideals differ from mine, but they also differ from theirs. At least you don't want the village plunged into chaos. Just be careful—Setsuna and the others can be… extreme."

Chizumi shot back, "Name one Uchiha who's awakened the Sharingan and isn't extreme."

Fugaku choked on the answer.

…Point taken.

Chizumi added, ice‑cold, "I still advise you: have that son of yours see a psychologist. I've suspected from the start there's something wrong with his head."

Fugaku: "…"

…

"No youngster has ever dared belittle me like that! That brat… the look in his eyes—he meant to kill me!"

Far away, Setsuna hammered his wooden cane into the ground, the rhythm a sharp thud‑thud‑thud.

His deeply wrinkled face was black with anger.

"He… he's disloyal to Uchiha!!!"

~~~

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