Chisen-senpai Was Clearly Carrying Out Justice!

Even the Anbu probably had yet to tally how many people had been killed or injured at the Secret Research Base that night.

But Uchiha Chisen knew.

Sixty-three people had died in total!

The Anbu Ninja and researchers had been almost evenly split.

Under the scouring Magma Torrent, more than half of the Secret Research Base had been "cleansed" by searing magma. He had not left behind a single Red Name—apart from the Anbu Ninja who arrived afterward.

The "rewards" the researchers in the Secret Research Base gave Uchiha Chisen were all kinds of "research knowledge," most of it related to the Sharingan and Wood Style Cells.

There were also numerous results from human experimentation that made even Uchiha Chisen frown when he saw them.

They made him feel as though his mind had been dirtied.

The "rewards" dropped by the Red Name Anbu Ninja, however, were much more normal—ninjutsu or taijutsu Experience Books.

"And Shinosuke-sensei's 'legacy.'"

"An S-rank sealing technique... Three Directions Sealing."

There was not a trace of a smile on Uchiha Chisen's face. No matter how many times rewards dropped from Red Names, he never felt pleasantly surprised, nor did he take any joy in it.

The more Red Names there were in the Shinobi World, the stronger he could become by carrying out justice. But that also meant the Shinobi World was growing ever more gravely diseased.

Uchiha Chisen removed his clothes.

He stepped into the bathroom.

He turned the tap.

He let the scalding water, hot enough to burn an ordinary person's skin, pour freely over his body.

Uchiha Chisen kept his scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan open.

Even when drops of boiling water fell into his eyes,

it did not bother him in the slightest.

"Shinosuke-sensei, when justice is limited to Konoha's position, it is no longer justice. Only by purging the entire Shinobi World with [Absolute Justice] can we prevent more and more people like you—people trapped in the abyss without even realizing it—from appearing."

He muttered softly.

The next day.

Early morning.

Izumi was once again jolted awake by a nightmare. This time, she dreamed that the Hokage had given the order and led tens of thousands of Anbu Ninja to arrest both her and Chisen-senpai.

What awaited her and Chisen-senpai was the harshest torture in the entire village!

Even her mother, Uchiha Hazuki, who had depended on each other for survival, had been implicated and become one of the village's prisoners.

And then...

Izumi woke up in fright.

The first thing she did after waking was scramble out of bed. She pulled open the curtains and cautiously looked outside. Only when she saw no Anbu Ninja watching her did she finally let out a breath of relief.

"It was a dream!"

Izumi still felt lingering fear.

She patted her cheeks, quickly washed up, changed clothes, ate breakfast, and said goodbye to her mother, Uchiha Hazuki. But the moment she stepped outside, she suddenly remembered something.

"Gasp!"

"Chisen-senpai didn't seem to say where we were supposed to meet last night!"

Should she go to the Ichiraku Ramen he had mentioned a few days ago?

What if senpai was not there?

Um...

"I should go to senpai's house instead." Izumi decided to ask some of the uncles and aunts in the Uchiha Compound.

The Uchiha Compound was only so big. She would surely be able to find out where senpai lived!

However,

Izumi suddenly realized that something felt off about the atmosphere in the Uchiha Compound.

So early in the morning, many people had already gathered in small groups.

They seemed to be heatedly discussing something.

Curious, Izumi moved closer to listen.

"I heard the Third Hokage's Eldest Son is dead... Do you know if the news is true? Lots of people have been spreading it since this morning, and I heard the person who killed the Third Hokage's eldest son was Uchiha Chisen!"

"Who knows? I only heard about it not long ago myself."

"Uchiha Chisen... This guy killed Root Ninja before, and now he's killed the Hokage's eldest son. I think he supports our Uchiha's resistance against the higher-ups too, doesn't he?"

"But I heard several Radical elders led by Elder Setsuna had extended an olive branch to him before, only for him to refuse."

"Say, now that Uchiha Chisen has killed the Hokage's eldest son, won't the village use this opportunity to make a move against us Uchiha?"

"Tch, that irritating guy really knows how to stir up trouble..."

"..."

Izumi broke out in a cold sweat as she eavesdropped.

Oh no!

How had last night's incident somehow spread so quickly?

Only one night and half a morning had passed!

Instinctively, Izumi felt something was wrong. It was as if someone had deliberately revealed the matter to the villagers, but she had no proof.

Izumi stopped and asked around as she walked, eventually finding out where Uchiha Chisen lived.

"This... is Chisen-senpai's house?"

She raised her head in confusion and looked at the utterly ordinary two-story house before her.

It felt a little too plain.

"You're early today, rookie." A sudden voice nearly made Izumi jump.

She turned around.

Chisen-senpai was somehow standing behind her!

Izumi hurriedly replied, "I'm already worth zero points in Chisen-senpai's eyes. If I'm late again, I'll probably go into negative points. So... so I wanted to leave earlier."

Uchiha Chisen nodded. "Let's go."

"Yes, senpai!"

Izumi cautiously followed behind Uchiha Chisen. She was worried that Chisen-senpai might hear some of the less-than-friendly remarks from their clansmen, and what she feared soon happened.

The two of them passed several Uchiha Clan ninja, who seemed so engrossed in their discussion that they failed to notice either of them.

They were discussing nothing but some rumors from the previous night.

As Izumi passed them, her delicate brows suddenly furrowed.

After looking worriedly at senpai's back, she suddenly gritted her teeth, turned around, and said, "What nonsense are you talking about?! Chisen-senpai did not kill the Hokage's eldest son for no reason! He isn't some murderer! He was carrying out justice!"

O-oh no...

Izumi nearly stopped breathing. She had never expected herself to suddenly argue with others without thinking.

When she realized that the Uchiha ninja who had been discussing the matter so intensely were looking over at her in confusion,

cold sweat streamed down Izumi's face.

But...

Those Uchiha ninja were even more nervous than she was. Their faces stiffened one after another, because they had finally noticed that Uchiha Chisen was standing right in front of them!

Izumi had already thrown caution to the wind. She said, "The Hokage... the Hokage's eldest son was in charge of a Secret Research Base! And he conducted many experiments that could not see the light of day!

"He even killed Konoha volunteers who had willingly become test subjects! He abducted many war orphans and used them as test subjects too! His hands were stained with blood, and his soul had long been corrupted by sin!"

"Good is good, and bad is bad! He was bad! Even if he was the Hokage's eldest son, that... that could not change the truth! Even the Hokage's eldest son himself admitted it!"

"Someone like that had been roaming free in Konoha all this time. No one had ever dared to bring him to justice."

"Don't you think that's tragic? Yet instead, you're saying Chisen-senpai killed people indiscriminately?"

"What are you all doing?!!!"

It was...

It was over!

Izumi realized that, in her impulsive attempt to defend senpai on her own,

she had accidentally revealed things that seemed to be secrets.

Gasp.

It seemed she had also ruined the Hokage's eldest son's reputation.

The things she had just said... surely they would not, in the blink of an eye...

spread throughout all of Konoha, right?