"We're finally back in Konoha!"
Looking at the village gates in the distance, Uchiha Izumi couldn't help the flash of joy in her eyes.
After being away for so long, she had really started missing all the little snacks Konoha had to offer. After all, if you ate soldier pills for too long, they genuinely started making you sick.
"So Tsunade's Hokage election should be starting soon, right?"
"Do you think things are going to get violent, meow?"
Kitsujiro was excited too. When they had left the village, Tsunade was already preparing to compete with the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, for the position of the next Hokage. Now that they were back, it was about time for things to reach the most dramatic part.
Kitsujiro didn't believe Hiruzen Sarutobi would hand over the Hokage's seat that easily.
"With Lord Chizumi supporting her, Lady Tsunade will definitely become Hokage!"
Holding Kitsujiro in her arms, Izumi voiced her full support for Tsunade.
"Come on. Let's head back."
Uchiha Chizumi didn't say much. On the journey back, he had felt both his body and his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan undergoing changes he didn't fully understand yet.
Even though Nagato's Six Paths hadn't yielded Yin–Yang Release, Chizumi had a vague sense that he could already begin fusing Yin Release and Yang Release on his own—enough to create things similar to the black rods.
He would need time to explore how to use this new power.
Not long after Uchiha Chizumi returned to Konoha, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Tsunade, and even Jiraiya all received the news.
Their reactions, however, were very different.
Hiruzen felt relieved—but along with that relief came a trace of disappointment.
What relieved him was that Uchiha Chizumi had still chosen to return to Konoha. What disappointed him was that with Chizumi back, his own time as Hokage had probably truly run out.
After all, Tsunade's support was already extremely high, and once you added in the ninja who supported Absolute Justice, even Hiruzen himself had no idea how he was supposed to win this Hokage election.
As for Tsunade, when she heard the news, she simply gave a quiet "Oh," and that was the end of it.
She already knew what Uchiha Chizumi had done in the Land of Water, but perhaps because she had begun to place him in the same category as her all-powerful grandfather, Senju Hashirama, she found it almost natural.
"In a way, Jiraiya isn't entirely wrong. Every so often, the shinobi world really does produce ninja you can't judge by normal standards."
"The last time, it was Grandfather and Uchiha Madara, who brought the Warring States era to an end. Grandfather's hidden village system didn't completely eliminate war, but at least it created regional peace."
"If Uchiha Chizumi is that kind of person too, then maybe Absolute Justice really can make the shinobi world more peaceful."
Tsunade's thoughts wandered.
She was starting to think those toads from Mount Myōboku really had foreseen something—but whatever they foresaw probably wasn't what they thought it was.
After all, if there truly was such a thing as a Child of Prophecy, then didn't her grandfather, Senju Hashirama—who ended the Warring States era—count as one?
As for the boy Jiraiya had pinned all his hopes on, Naruto… for the time being, Tsunade honestly couldn't see anything especially unusual about him.
"So Uchiha Chizumi came back…"
Jiraiya, meanwhile, was in the Ninja Academy teaching as hard as he could, yet still looking completely drained.
He genuinely couldn't understand what kind of allure Absolute Justice held that had made Naruto Uzumaki so obsessed with it.
Even after Uchiha Chizumi and Uchiha Izumi left Konoha, Naruto and Sasuke still spent every day enthusiastically upholding Absolute Justice. Someone who didn't know better might've thought the two of them were already members of the Konoha Police Force.
Of course Jiraiya had seen how Konoha had changed.
But what he saw was a village where the civilians lived cautiously under the shadow of Absolute Justice, without even the slightest sense of freedom.
"I can feel it—that boy Uchiha Chizumi has gotten even stronger."
"So strong that even natural energy seems to be vaguely afraid of him."
Fukasaku looked in the direction of Uchiha Chizumi.
Mount Myōboku had its own sensory arts—more accurately, sensory sage techniques. By tracking the flow of natural energy, they could judge how powerful someone was.
And in Fukasaku's perception, natural energy itself now seemed to fear Uchiha Chizumi.
What Fukasaku didn't know, however, was that natural energy wasn't afraid of Chizumi because of his strength. It was because, ever since obtaining the Water Covenant, Chizumi had been unconsciously consuming the world's water.
That water was being broken down into chakra and absorbed into his body.
If Uchiha Chizumi lived long enough, he might eventually be able to turn the entire shinobi world into a land of drought through his own power alone.
"Yes!"
"Lord Chizumi is finally back in Konoha!"
At the academy, the moment Naruto learned Chizumi had returned, he burst out in excited shouting.
He felt like it had been ages since he'd last seen him. Even though Naruto had continued carrying out justice in his own way, he kept feeling the urge to get closer and closer to Uchiha Chizumi.
After all, only by following Chizumi could he truly understand what Absolute Justice was supposed to look like.
"The people in the village who started making little moves again while Lord Chizumi was away are definitely going to lose sleep now."
Sasuke's lips curved into a smile as well.
Even farther away, Hinata's eyes lit up too. After all, she remembered that it was Uchiha Chizumi who had taken her and her younger sister away from the Hyūga clan.
As for why the heir of the main branch had to leave the Hyūga clan…
Let's not get into that.
"Maybe… maybe I could ask Lord Chizumi to help the Hyūga branch family…"
The thought rose uncontrollably in Hinata's mind.
Chizumi's departure hadn't calmed the internal turmoil of the Hyūga clan at all. If anything, the chaos had only gotten worse with time.
Especially since neither Hiruzen Sarutobi nor Tsunade had done anything about the Hyūga situation, the clan had now gone so far as to reselect a so-called main family—and was even continuing to select more main branch members.
At this point, the only reason Neji hadn't already started slaughtering the old branch-family hardliners was that he still wasn't strong enough.
Over the last few days, Neji had even found himself thinking that maybe Uchiha Itachi had been born into the wrong clan. Maybe he shouldn't have been born an Uchiha at all—maybe he should've been born into the Hyūga.
Because if someone wiped out the Hyūga clan from top to bottom, then maybe there really wouldn't be so much sin left.
"The matter of the Hyūga clan needs a final decision as soon as possible."
Neji's eyes slowly grew firm.
His own strength wasn't enough to eradicate the Hyūga clan's corruption, but if he sought help from Uchiha Chizumi, then Chizumi could definitely make all the clan's evil disappear.
And besides all that, there was one more person who, upon hearing that Uchiha Chizumi had returned to Konoha, let out a deep breath of relief.
~~~
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