The Hokage was also an enemy of justice

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

"The Lava Release kekkei genkai... what outrageous destructive power!"

Breathing in the smell of sulfur that even his mask could not keep out, Kakashi swept his gaze over the surrounding area.

Shock flickered in his dead-fish eyes.

Ahead of him, slowly cooling magma covered the ground, which had been scorched into pits of every size and depth. A full half-street of houses seemed to have been erased from existence. The heat lingering in the air still made Kakashi uncomfortable.

Magma continued to drip from the edges of many ruined buildings. Anyone who did not know better might have thought they had arrived at the mouth of an active volcano!

Kakashi also spotted the bodies of two Root ninjas.

Only half of one body remained. The other half was nowhere to be found.

The second had a gaping hole through his chest and had also been severed at the waist.

Kakashi stood with his hands in his pockets, feeling rather troubled.

Those two bodies would be easy enough to deal with... they could simply gather the remains and have someone deliver them to Root.

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

Uchiha Chisen really had gone overboard!

Still...

Perhaps he was one of the few ninjas in the village who still remembered the Fourth Hokage!

Kakashi recalled what Uchiha Chisen had said.

"Only then can we honor the Fourth Hokage's sacrifice."

Absolute justice, huh...

It was not such a bad thing.

Just as Kakashi sank into thought, he suddenly saw a petite figure stagger to her feet nearby. She also appeared to be wearing the uniform of the Konoha Military Police Force.

He watched the Uchiha girl hurry after Uchiha Chisen.

Kakashi thought for a moment.

Then chose to ignore her.

Elsewhere.

"I... I won't do it again... could you put me down first? I can actually walk on my own, you know."

"Um... could you not lock me up for so long? If Iruka-sensei finds out, he'll be really disappointed in me."

"I really know I was wrong..."

Naruto sounded less confident with every sentence, his voice growing quieter and quieter until he was choking back sobs.

Fat tears slid uncontrollably down his small face.

Naruto truly regretted it.

He knew he had caused a disaster this time. A single prank had led to half a street in Konoha being erased from existence!

That meant many people had lost their homes because of his prank.

It seemed people had even died because of it!

But he discovered that the man carrying him could not even be bothered to acknowledge him!

"Ch-Chisen-senpai, wait for me!" A weak cry came from behind Uchiha Chisen and Naruto.

Uchiha Chisen slowed his steps, and a girl hurried to catch up.

Her face was pale.

Her steps were unsteady, too.

"I'm sorry, senpai. I... using my Sharingan earlier took too much out of me, and I accidentally passed out..." Izumi was so ashamed she wished she could crawl into a crack in the ground. She felt she had been far too much of a burden.

On the Nine-Tails Night, she had awakened her Sharingan at five years old, with all three tomoe from the start. Her talent for awakening it was unprecedented in the Uchiha Clan.

But...

To everyone's astonishment, Izumi had far too little chakra. Her chakra and ocular power simply could not sustain her Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

If chakra were measured in units of "one Kakashi," Izumi had, at most, zero point zero one Kakashis.

Among her fellow Ninja Academy graduates, her chakra reserves were near the bottom, if not dead last.

"Uchiha Izumi."

"Present!!!" Hearing Chisen-senpai call her name, Uchiha Izumi instinctively snapped to attention.

"I'll test you with two questions. What do you think of what just happened?" Uchiha Chisen glanced at the weak girl beside him.

"What just happened?"

Izumi froze.

She hazily recalled the clash between Chisen-senpai and Konoha's Root before she had accidentally fainted. Then she remembered the confrontation between Chisen-senpai and the Hokage that she had witnessed after waking up.

The whole conflict had started with nothing more than a child playing a prank and causing a minor disturbance in the village.

Yet it had escalated into so many clashes.

This...

Was it worth it?

As that thought flashed through Izumi's mind, she suddenly remembered the "absolute justice" Chisen-senpai always spoke of, and all the incomprehensible "evil" bred by the sickness of the Shinobi World.

A father who murdered his daughter; a son who murdered his mother.

Those two incidents alone had shattered her worldview and completely changed how Izumi saw the Shinobi World.

They had also given her a deeper understanding of Chisen-senpai's "absolute justice."

A much deeper understanding.

"I think... you did nothing wrong, senpai." Izumi drew a deep breath, her small face serious. "No matter how minor an evil is, if we don't restrain it or punish it, if we just keep tolerating it, sooner or later it will grow into something worse."

Izumi gathered her thoughts and continued, "Senpai, I've always wanted to protect Konoha. But before, I never knew how I could do that."

"After meeting you, I think I know what to do. If we do everything we can and use our own strength to purge the evil in Konoha, one day the village will become a better place."

"That's how I understand 'absolute justice'!"

Uchiha Chisen said calmly, "Rookie, you're no longer at zero points. You've earned at least ten."

Izumi asked timidly, "Senpai, what's the maximum score?"

"One thousand."

Izumi: "..."

Well, as long as it isn't a negative score.

"Senpai, what's the second question?" Izumi asked tentatively.

Uchiha Chisen said, "What do you think of my 'backing down' just now?"

Izumi was taken aback.

"Senpai, I don't think you were backing down!" Izumi gritted her teeth, her small face earnest. "In all of Konoha, you may be the only person quietly holding to 'absolute justice.' Even the other senior members of the police force keep misunderstanding you, but you've been upholding justice all alone from the very beginning."

"If you had insisted on fighting the Hokage and the others, Konoha's 'justice'..." Izumi took a deep breath, gradually growing bolder. "Might have had no one left to protect it. The village probably wouldn't produce another person like you."

"You're beating around the bush too much."

Uchiha Chisen interrupted her. "To carry out 'absolute justice,' you need absolute power. Otherwise, you end up with what happened just now."

"Remember this frustration. Remember this anger. Remember how the 'evil' of the Shinobi World revels above our heads."

Izumi nodded firmly.

"Sooner or later, I will purge them all in the name of 'absolute justice.'" Openly and without the slightest hesitation, Uchiha Chisen said something that left Izumi dumbfounded. "Including the Hokage!"

"This is the third lesson I'm teaching you. Politicians only care about their power and their so-called balancing act. In their eyes, 'justice' is optional."

"The Hokage is also an enemy of justice."

Izumi's brain froze.

Still carrying Naruto, Uchiha Chisen turned his attention for the moment to the "rewards" for killing three red-name criminals.

Yes.

Three!

Danzo had rewritten an unfavorable reality with Izanagi, but as far as his golden finger was concerned, he had already killed Danzo once.