A new "believer" in [Absolute Justice]

Inuzuka Maki dazedly recalled the boy who, years ago, had turned Lord Orochimaru's research base into a sea of magma and fire.

Back then... many of his colleagues had died at that boy's hands.

If the Hokage hadn't arrived in time to stop that Uchiha boy, who possessed both Lava Release and the Sharingan...

Even Inuzuka Maki would probably have died that night!

Inuzuka Maki had thought he would never again meet that terrifying, demon-like Lava Release ninja.

He had never expected...

That boy to stand right before him tonight!

They had met again!

Inuzuka Maki could swear he would never mistake that face.

Even though the boy was several years older now, even though his face had matured and lost much of its youthful innocence... its basic contours hadn't changed.

Inuzuka Maki hurriedly snapped out of his daze, without even having time to wonder how the intruder had slipped inside unnoticed. He reached for the wall on his left at lightning speed, trying to activate the alarm mounted there.

"Huh?"

But suddenly, his vision blurred, and he saw an arm flying high into the air, filling his view and blocking the alarm.

That looked like...

His own hand!

As blood splashed across his horrified face, a clear red line appeared across Inuzuka Maki's neck. Blood soaked his neck like water gushing from a pipe that couldn't be plugged.

A head, its expression frozen, rolled off his neck.

Uchiha Chisen had already stepped past the headless corpse before anyone noticed.

In an indifferent voice, he told Uchiha Izumi, whose pupils trembled behind him, "Rookie, these are the ruthless methods you must possess to practice absolute justice. You need killing intent more thorough than that of 'evil' itself to purge the Shinobi World's 'evil,' one by one."

"And... you must show no mercy!"

As Uchiha Chisen finished speaking, he flicked a sharp kunai to his left with a backhanded throw.

The kunai sliced through the air and, in the blink of an eye, struck a ninja who had noticed the disturbance and come to investigate.

"Urgh!!!"

The ninja struck in the neck hastily clutched his throat, the overwhelming sensation of suffocation filling him with endless terror.

He couldn't even understand why an "enemy" had attacked today.

Why hadn't the Anbu standing watch outside sent a warning?

Uchiha Chisen paused briefly, then told Izumi behind him, "Rookie, go put him out of his misery. Let me see whether your resolve for justice is really as firm as you claim. Here's a reminder: he took part in inhumane human experiments. His hands are stained with the lives of war orphans."

Izumi's small, sweat-slicked hand gripped her kunai tightly.

She walked toward the ninja struggling on the ground and said through gritted teeth, "Senior... at first, I was very afraid of you, because there were so many bad rumors about you in the Konoha Military Police Force. When I first met you, I had a lot of misconceptions about you."

Izumi stopped before the ninja clutching his neck. Her bright, beautiful eyes gazed into a pair filled with terror and pleading.

"But after spending these past few days with you, I know you're nothing like those rumors. You were never the 'murderous demon' they called you. Everything you've done has been for justice."

She gripped the kunai with both hands and raised it high.

Her arms trembled slightly.

"The [Absolute Justice] you believe in let me see a 'light' in this world that truly belongs to goodness. Your justice is the justice that I, Uchiha Izumi, want to follow."

Izumi's arms stopped trembling, and her pupils steadied as well.

Her senior had said this man's hands were stained with the lives of war orphans. He had also said this man had taken part in inhumane human experiments.

Then...

Before [Absolute Justice]...

He...

Had to be purged!!!

Izumi drove the kunai down hard into the forehead of the ninja at her feet. The force was so great that it pierced the thin metal plate of his Konoha forehead protector and sank into his skull with a wet squelch.

[Ding! The believer in [Absolute Justice] you cultivated has successfully killed a "red-name" evildoer! Your chakra has increased slightly! Congratulations, you have obtained a drop: new skill, "Dog Training"]

[Uchiha Izumi has also received a small chakra increase!]

Uchiha Chisen looked in surprise at the panting girl's back.

This was the first strange change his golden finger had undergone in all these years.

Had Izumi's resolve earned his golden finger's recognition?

Or...

Watching the girl stagger unsteadily to her feet and stare blankly down at the blood on her hands... Uchiha Chisen had already found the answer to the question that had surfaced in his mind.

"Uchiha Izumi."

"Here!!!" Izumi shouted instinctively, then abruptly realized what she had done. Her little face turned deathly pale. She knew she'd messed up.

Oh no!

Had that thoughtless shout just ruined Senior Chisen's infiltration plan?

However...

When she came back to her senses in panic and looked at Senior Chisen, already bracing for a furious tongue-lashing... the scolding and reprimands she expected never came.

She heard Senior Chisen tell her in an utterly level voice, "Rookie, your stupidity alerted the enemy. I'm deducting one thousand and ten points."

All color instantly drained from Izumi's face.

He said the maximum score was one thousand, and I'd only earned ten points before. If he deducted one thousand and ten now... gasp! Wouldn't that put me in the negatives?

If my score went negative, would...

He kill me?

"Your score is now zero." Uchiha Chisen could already see the Anbu ninja rushing over at the noise.

Izumi froze.

She watched blankly as Senior Chisen, alone with his sword, charged without hesitation toward the three Anbu ninja rushing over. The words "zero points" still echoed in her mind.

"So... just for a little while back there..."

"I had a perfect score?!"

She found that the psychological shadow of her first kill had vanished in an instant.

"You're Uchiha Chisen?" One Anbu ninja immediately recognized Uchiha Chisen, who was quite well known in Konoha. Realizing the newcomer had hostile intentions, he promptly drew his ninja sword and confronted him. "What are you doing here? I'm warning you, stop right there!"

Beside him, another Anbu ninja's pupils contracted, and he immediately warned, "Careful! There's blood on his blade! Don't look into his eyes!"

Unfortunately...

It was too late.

Two of the three Anbu ninja who had rushed over at the noise suddenly froze, clearly affected by Sharingan genjutsu.

The remaining Anbu ninja went pale with shock.

Fortunately, he was an elite Anbu and reacted quickly. Before Uchiha Chisen could close in, he immediately formed hand seals and barked in a low voice.

"Genjutsu: Release!"

At the same time, the Anbu ninja took out two shuriken and threw one at each of his companions-not because he had lost his mind, but because he wasn't confident he could dispel the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan Genjutsu. He was trying to force his companions out of the genjutsu by making their bodies feel pain.

He succeeded.

The other two Anbu ninja dazedly came to their senses.

And at that moment, Uchiha Chisen, his eyes scarlet, arrived in a flash and closed to point-blank range.

The ninja sword in Uchiha Chisen's hand swept toward one man's throat.

Clang-

The clash of metal rang out sharply.

The strike had been blocked.

"Hah, hah..." The Anbu ninja gripped his ninja sword, his arms trembling slightly, sweat pouring down his back. "Sharingan Genjutsu... it's terrifying. Good thing... we're the well-coordinated Anbu Trio. Luckily, one of us was able to help break the genjutsu."

"Is that so?"

Uchiha Chisen's voice rang out from behind all three of them. "What gave you the illusion that the genjutsu had been broken?"

What!??