Chapter 42: Training a Successor of Absolute Justice

When Sarutobi Hiruzen returned, a Sarutobi clan shinobi started forward to welcome him—only to notice, not far away, a figure wearing the uniform of the Uchiha Police Force.

His pupils contracted. He hurriedly asked, "Hokage-sama, that man over there…?"

"Pay him no mind."

Hiruzen's face remained calm, yet anyone could hear the strain in his voice, as if he were suppressing something.

Silently, Hiruzen walked to Sarutobi Shinnosuke's coffin and stood behind his daughter‑in‑law, Sarutobi Nadeshiko.

At that moment he heard Nadeshiko speak:

"Hokage-sama, please don't worry about me. I've calmed down. Everything… everything must be for the village's greater good, mustn't it?"

Hiruzen stayed silent for a while.

Feeling a twinge of guilt—though only a little—he finally said,

"I have my own burdens. Nadeshiko, you know as well as I do what state Konoha is in. The village needs a fearsome shinobi to deter the vultures outside our walls.

"We've already lost Sakumo; Orochimaru defected; Jiraiya left; Tsunade left; Shisui is gone. Uchiha Chizumi is now one of the few pillars the village has left.

"And… Chizumi's very existence discourages certain ambitious people inside the village, including some within the Uchiha clan.

"Even if Shinnosuke were alive, he would have done just as I'm doing. Both of you were my right and left hands. He understood me—you should too."

Nadeshiko nodded lightly. "I understand, Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen sighed. "Thank you—for the sake of Konoha."

Then he raised his voice to warn the Sarutobi clansmen who, on seeing Uchiha Chizumi, were growing indignant and restless:

"No one is to act rashly! He is here only to arrest a criminal!"

Yamada Toshijirō also saw Uchiha Chizumi.

Even though he felt the odds of his own exposure were low, instinct made him edge backward, hiding himself at the rear of the crowd.

"H‑hiss… I just remembered!" he heard a companion gasp. "Uchiha Chizumi—the plague of the Police Force… Crap, is he heading this way?"

Toshijirō's heart lurched.

Cold sweat dampened his palms.

Whatever sliver of hope remained was snuffed out by Chizumi's emotionless voice:

"Yamada Toshijirō. Deeply in debt. Four‑plus years ago, after your elder brother Yamada Toshiichirō died, you tried to seize his estate but failed. In your rage you murdered his widow and daughter, dismembered their bodies, and disposed of the remains."

That icy, affectless voice struck Toshijirō's ears like a death knell.

He watched in horror as his companions scrambled away from him, staring as though he were a monster.

Terrified of Chizumi, they quickly cleared a path, exposing Toshijirō completely.

He could only stare as Chizumi walked up and stopped two meters away.

He dared not meet the eyes of this man who was more than ten years his junior.

The fine rain could not soothe his terror.

Wiping water from his face, he lowered his head and forced out, his mouth dry, "I… I don't know what you're talking about."

"Uchiha Izumi."

"Here!!" Izumi stepped out from behind.

"Interrogate him."

Izumi blinked, took a deep breath, steeled herself, and answered, "Yes, senpai!"

She knew exactly what "interrogate" meant—Chizumi had once ordered her, in broad daylight, to extract a confession with bloody torture.

This time would doubtless be the same.

And now it was not merely in public, but under the Hokage's gaze—clearly a new test for her.

The pressure was heavy, yet lighter than the weight of disobeying Chizumi.

Thinking of the mother and daughter reduced to fragments of bone, the hesitation in her eyes vanished.

She drew her ninja blade and advanced.

"H‑hey! W‑what are you doing?!" Cold sweat poured down Toshijirō's face as he stumbled back, but the girl's frosty gaze pressed in step by step.

"You have two choices," Izumi said, imitating her senior's tone.

"One: refuse, and I kill you and let the Yamanaka Clan scour your memories.

Two: confess everything you did four years ago."

"I told you—I don't know—AARGH!!"

Toshijirō shrieked.

Grabbing his groin, he collapsed, agony blanching his face.

"You have thirty seconds to decide."

Gritting her teeth, Izumi kicked him over again.

Her eyes hardened; she drove the blade through his left palm, pinning it to the ground.

"AAAGH!"

"Twenty‑nine."

Remembering the shattered bones, she twisted the blade—half the hand came off.

"Twenty‑eight."

"Twenty‑seven."

A flick of her sword—an ear flew sky‑high. Blood splattered, then was washed away by rain.

"Twenty‑six."

…

"Hokage-sama! This is torture! And… during Shinnosuke's funeral—in front of you!"

A friend of Shinnosuke cried out, "Isn't this forcing a confession? Maybe he's innocent but will admit guilt under such abuse!"

"This sort of conduct is already—"

Hands clasped behind his back, Hiruzen gazed into the distance.

He cut in quietly:

"Uchiha Chizumi often disappoints me in many ways. Yet in law enforcement—no matter how extreme his methods—the results leave me no room to refute.

"When Chizumi decides someone is a murderer, that person is a murderer. He has never been wrong."

Fixing his eyes on Izumi's back, he murmured,

"Training a successor to your 'Absolute Justice,' are you, Chizumi…?"

Shinnosuke's friend was stunned that the Hokage would defend the man responsible for his own son's killer—and amazed that Chizumi seemed almost mythic in the Hokage's eyes.

How could anyone never make a mistake?

…

"AAAH! I confess! I confess!!"

Civilian bones are softer than a shinobi's; he had never endured true ninja training.

Pain racked his body; the pressure of the Uchiha Police crushed his spirit. The fragile defense in his mind collapsed.

Weeping, he screamed, "Don't kill me!"

"Yes, I killed my brother's wife and daughter! When I asked them for money, that damned woman said she'd never lend to a gambler right to my face!

"They ignored family first—no, they were outsiders! They wanted to steal my brother's inheritance!"

From breakdown to self‑justification took less than ten seconds.

Grinding his teeth, he shouted in fury,

"I was only cleaning the house for my brother!

I did nothing wrong! Why arrest me?

Why not arrest that woman who stole the inheritance? You're all unfair!!!"

"You—"

As he looked up at Chizumi, he suddenly saw a pair of crimson, three‑tomoe Sharingan fill his vision.

His rage froze, turning to terror, as though beholding scenes no one else could see.

"AAAHHH!!"

Izumi blinked: Chizumi had cast a Sharingan genjutsu directly into his mind.

She did not know what nightmare Toshijirō was enduring—

—but she felt he deserved it.

"Rookie," Chizumi said softly, "This is the 'evil' of the shinobi world. Even with the blade of justice at their throat, they never repent. Gentle laws cannot redress the dead."

"With your Absolute Justice, bring justice to the victims."

"Kill him."

~~~

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