Konoha: The Absolute Justice of the Uchiha

Chapter 155 Orochimaru in Action! The True Value of Konoha's Scoundrels
When Hyuga Neji woke up the next day, he heard that at the clan meeting the previous night, no branch family faction had been chosen to replace the main family.

Seven or eight different factions argued fiercely.

During that process, some members of the clan who did not understand their actions also followed Neji's example and left the clan meeting midway.

After all, not every branch family ninja covets the position of the main family.

this morning.

Neji Hyuga did not accompany Hinata Hyuga to the Ninja Academy; he no longer needed to be her "bodyguard." Arriving at the Ninja Academy alone, Neji vaguely sensed that some of the students were staring at him with strange looks.

He immediately realized that the news of what happened to the Hyuga clan last night had spread, and probably the entire Hidden Leaf Village knew about it.

as predicted.

Whispers reached Hyuga Neji's ears.

"I heard... that he was the one who brought Uchiha Ikezumi to the Hyuga clan, and then Uchiha Ikezumi arrested all the members of the Hyuga clan's main family and imprisoned them in Konoha Prison."

Neji frowned. This person must have heard wrong, because there were still a few innocent people left in the Hyuga main family.

"I remember his name is Hyuga Neji, right? He's a genius in his second year at the Ninja Academy. He's only a second-year student, but he can already fight to a draw with a sixth-year student who's about to graduate. He's a very strong guy."

"It's best not to get close to him. He was able to bring Uchiha Ikezumi to the Hyuga clan, so who can guarantee he won't bring her to our ninja clan?"

"Speaking of which, there's a girl named Hinata Hyuga in the first year of the Ninja Academy. She's supposedly the eldest daughter of the Hyuga main family. Could she have been arrested by the Uchiha police force as well?"

"Why don't you go ask Hyuga Neji?"

"Why would I ask? Who knows if someone who betrays the ninja clan might stab us in the back?"

"..."

Some troublemakers in Konoha have had these traits since childhood.

They always manage to isolate everyone equally through backbiting.

Hearing the whispers, Hyuga Neji's expression remained unchanged. In his pursuit of "absolute justice," he was completely indifferent to what others said about him.

He had already prepared himself mentally for this.

after all……

In his stereotype, that Uchiha Ikezumi-sama had also suffered isolation from the village's gossip. In fact, compared to his own experience, Ikezumi's isolation was perhaps even worse. Why should he care?
Neji had unknowingly begun to instinctively imitate Izumi.

"Hey! Hyuga Neji!!!"

A familiar call came from not far away. When Neji turned around, he saw Naruto Uzumaki with half a nearly expired rice ball in his mouth, mumbling, "Slow down, wait for us!"

Behind Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, unable to bear the embarrassment of being made a fool of himself, retorted: "Loser, can you at least swallow your rice ball before you speak?"

Neji suddenly noticed that behind the two of them was a girl with light blonde hair.

"Hyuga Neji, let me introduce you."

Naruto swallowed the rice ball whole, then stepped aside, revealing Yamanaka Ino behind him.

"Yamanaka Ino!"

Naruto grinned and said, "She's actually one of the followers of 'Absolute Justice' too! She was even a follower of it before Sasuke and me!"

...There was a piece of seaweed stuck between my teeth.

Neji silently recited a phrase in his mind.

Then, turning his attention to Yamanaka Ino, he asked, "The Yamanaka clan?"

"Ah."

Ino nodded slightly, glancing casually around the room before suggesting to Hyuga Neji, "There's no need to pay attention to what those people at the Ninja Academy are saying. Their values ​​and morals have been corrupted by the morbid ninja world, leaving them stuck in a distorted state. If they don't change in the future, they will one day fall into the abyss of sin and pay the price."

Neji wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he always felt that this girl named Yamanaka Ino was more mature than Naruto and Sasuke.

"I know."

he responded.

……

In the corridor of a hotel in Konoha, a man dressed as an ordinary businessman from out of town passed by Shizune without making a sound.

His mind was tense, and his muscles were taut, attracting curious glances from passersby.

However, Shizune didn't find anything strange or unusual about him for the time being, and it wasn't good to stare at a passerby for no reason, so she looked away and left with Tun Tun in her arms.

The man went into his room and closed the door.

"Phew... I actually ran into Tsunade's disciple." He slowly breathed a sigh of relief, and a small white snake emerged from his sleeve.

He hurriedly lowered his head and apologized to the white snake, saying, "Please forgive me, Lord Orochimaru. It was my fault for failing in my duties, and I almost let Tsunade's disciple discover your white snake clone."

"Hehe, it's alright, we haven't been discovered yet, have we?"

The tiny white snake spoke in human language, its voice strikingly similar to Orochimaru's, with a slightly sinister and hoarse tone.

The white snake continued, "The Hyuga main family was almost wiped out by Uchiha Ikezumi... Heh heh, this actually gives me the best opportunity to collect Byakugan. Because the main family members who weren't marked with the Caged Bird Seal have no branch family guards."

The man was taken aback: "Lord Orochimaru, do you really want me to break into Konoha prison and hunt down the Hyuga main family's Byakugan?"

The White Serpent glanced at him coldly: "Why hunt Byakugan in prison? Aren't there a few Byakugan outside Konoha prison that are laid out on the table, 'at our mercy'?"

"Are there still a few main clan ninjas who haven't been captured yet? For example... Hyuga Hiashi's two daughters."

Orochimaru was interested not only in the Sharingan.

He was also very interested in the white eye.

He always felt that these two different eyes might have some similarities, and that this bloodline limit, passed down for over a thousand years, might hold some secret he didn't know about. Orochimaru was willing to try and research anything for the sake of immortality.

He used to find no opportunity to earn a cold shoulder.

Because the main branch ninjas of the Hyuga clan rarely go to the battlefield, and the main branch ninjas are usually accompanied by branch branch ninjas as the main branch's guards.

Those brainwashed and ignorant members of the Hyuga branch family were truly willing to sacrifice their lives to protect the Byakugan of the main family.

but.

Today, however, Orochimaru saw an opportunity!
The Hyuga branch family can no longer protect the branch family members who have fallen from the sky to the bottom of the valley, and the two daughters of the ninja Hyuga Hiashi will certainly not have any branch family guards to protect them.

"You have a new mission," the small white snake said ominously. "Seize Hinata Hyuga and Hanabi Hyuga's Byakugan. Alive or dead, it doesn't matter. The Byakugan is the key."

The spy, posing as a businessman from out of town, immediately felt a chill.

"Yes! Lord Orochimaru!"

……

Poof——

The decapitation sword severed the head of a bandit. Pipa Juzo planted the heavy sword in the ground and looked helplessly at Uchiha Ikezumi's wooden clone beside him.

He couldn't help but ask, "If we had just run at full speed for another hour, we could have crossed the border of the Land of Fire and reached the Land of Rain. Why bother with these bandits?"

The wooden clone pulled the ninja sword from the bandit leader's chest.

It flicked the blood off its blade and replied expressionlessly, "[Absolute Justice] cannot ignore evil that can be eradicated within its power."

Say it.

Uchiha Ikezumi's wood clone turned to Biwa Juzo and said, "Release all the innocent people who have been kidnapped in the bandit's den."

Pipa Juzo: "..."

I am a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist! A Jonin, an elite from Kirigakure! A rookie from Akatsuki!

I was already being dragged here to deal with a bunch of bandits, how could I possibly be ordered around by a mere wooden clone of yours?

His slightly widened eyes stared at the wooden clone.

He stood motionless.

But he discovered that Uchiha Ikezumi's wood clone completely ignored him and headed straight for the bandits' lair. This also brought Biwa Juzo back to his senses—oh, he wasn't ordering him to be a free laborer, he just wanted him to lend him a hand.

You should have told me earlier!
Pipa Juzo coughed lightly, shouldered his Executioner's Blade, and followed without making a sound.

Breathing in the faint smell of blood in the air, we entered the bandits' lair.

Pipa Juzo was stunned.

He stared in astonishment at the prison-like buildings before him, and saw that the small, cramped wooden cells held many naked men and women. Looking around, he guessed there were probably more than thirty people there.

He also saw two or three people who had died in the cages, but the bandits had not moved the bodies. As a result, the bodies had rotted and stank, emitting a disgusting stench.

If only Juzo Biwa hadn't crawled out of a pile of corpses in the Blood Mist Village.

He was so overwhelmed by the pungent smell that he almost threw up what he had eaten that morning.

"Most of the mountain bandits in the Land of Fire are engaged in evil deeds such as robbery, theft, and slave trading."

The wooden clone's voice echoed softly: "Or rather, most mountain bandits in the ninja world engage in such heinous acts. Few people care about them because there are too few ninjas and the ninja world is too vast. And most of them are in cahoots with the local nobles, and the samurai employed by those nobles are even less likely to come and fight against the mountain bandits."

It asked Hibiki Juzo, "You gave me the opportunity to go to the Land of Water before, which means you can't stand the oppressive rule of the Land of Water under the Blood Mist policy of Kirigakure, and you can't stand all the evil deeds that challenge your inner moral values."

"If you encountered such bandits in the Land of Water, and knew what they were doing, and knew that ordinary people from the Land of Water were being persecuted by them, would you still find it troublesome?"

Pipa Juzo remained silent for a few seconds.

“I think I understand why you have such a polarized reputation in Konoha,” Juzo Biwa sighed. “Those who want to be helped by your justice and have a clear conscience will support you. Those who don’t want you to meddle and have a guilty conscience wish you would choke to death if you took a sip of water.”

……

Hinata Hyuga was late for school today. This was the first time she had walked alone from the Hyuga clan's compound to the ninja academy. Before, she was always Neji's little tagalong. When she reached the door of Iruka's class, Hinata clasped her hands in front of her, standing anxiously and silently outside the door.

Seeing her like this, Iruka on the podium sighed inwardly.

"come in."

He didn't blame Hinata for being late, because Iruka also knew what had happened to the Hyuga clan. But who could be blamed? Perhaps only the adults of the Hyuga main family.

Their actions have cost them dearly, and have also put a small number of women and children from the Hyuga main family in an extremely passive position.

Just as Hinata lowered her head and sat back down in her seat, Ino Yamanaka suddenly stood up and raised a hand: "Iruka-sensei, may I sit next to Hinata Hyuga?"

Sakura Haruno, who was not far from Ino, was taken aback. She lowered her voice and said to Ino, "Ino, what are you doing? It's best not to get involved with the Hyuga clan for a while."

Ino shook her head slightly at Sakura, but didn't say anything more.

“…Okay.” Iruka thought for a moment and nodded.

Yamanaka Ino moved to a different seat. Instead of paying attention to the lesson, she gently nudged Hinata next to her.

This poke made Hinata shudder.

"Are you scared?" Ino asked quietly, a question that only she and Hinata could hear.

"……Um."

Hinata interlaced her fingers together and then separated them, repeating this action continuously.

Perhaps it was the concern in Yamanaka Ino's tone that made Hinata lower her guard a bit. Hinata said in a low, confused voice, "Father has been imprisoned in Konoha Prison, and some of the closer elders in the main family are also in Konoha Prison. It's just me and my sister left at home."

“Last night, I couldn’t sleep... I didn’t sleep at all. I was scared... I was scared that I would be arrested too. I don’t even really understand... why Father was put in prison?”

"I only heard some members of the branch family say that... Father treated the members of the branch family very badly, and then he was arrested."

Her tone was halting and somewhat stuttering, and her voice was so low that Ino could barely hear what she was saying.

However, Ino could probably tell that the eldest daughter of the Hyuga main family was very introverted.

After thinking for a moment, she said, "Have you done anything bad? For example, have you ever harmed any members of the Hyuga branch family?"

"I didn't!" Hinata shook her head frantically.

“Then you have no need to be afraid,” Ino said. “Because that lord’s ‘absolute justice’ only targets those who do evil. Since you haven’t done anything wrong or hurt anyone, why are you afraid of being arrested?”

Hinata, however, heard another layer of meaning: "Father was arrested because he hurt someone?"

"You really don't know?" Ino glanced at Hinata suspiciously.

How can someone be so naive and innocent? They're clearly in the middle of a whirlpool, and even their own father has been arrested, yet they're completely oblivious to everything.

If others don't tell her, she won't try to find out the truth through other channels; she just passively waits for the truth to come out.

This person...

Is she really the eldest daughter of the Hyuga main family?
Hinata didn't dare look at her: "Nobody wants to talk to me. Last night, Neji only said some strange things and then left."

After a moment of shock, Ino recalled the "insider information" about the Hyuga clan that her father had told her that morning.

She organized her thoughts and asked, "You should know about the Caged Bird Cage of the Hyuga clan, right? The main Hyuga clan, led by your father, Hyuga Hiashi, uses the Caged Bird Cage to control the branch family's ninjas, thereby holding the power of life and death over the branch family's ninjas."

"In other words, the adults of your main family are using the Caged Bird Seal to treat the ninjas of your branch family as slaves. Do you think it's right for your Hyuga main family to do this?"

Hinata was stunned.

Hinata suddenly recalled the time when her Uncle Hizashi was still alive, when he had cried out in agony in front of her, clutching his head.

Is that the Caged Bird Seal? Is that what Father made Uncle Hizashi suffer so much?
Hinata suddenly couldn't speak.

“You’re just confused about this, not blaming absolute justice, which shows you’re at least kind,” Yamanaka Ino said. “You can ask Hyuga Neji what the Caged Bird is, what the main family did to the branch family, and what Hyuga Hiashi, as the clan head, did for the branch family.”

"He may have been unwilling to talk to you before for various reasons, but as someone who upholds absolute justice, he will definitely give you a reply. Once you receive his reply, you will have your answer. Because it is a duty of justice."

Hinata murmured a word that Ino kept repeating.

"Absolute justice..."

……

As noon approached, Hinata vaguely realized that it was time for her to eat her lunch after seeing many ninja academy students taking out their elaborate bento boxes.

But when she reached out, she found nothing. She suddenly realized that there was no one in the house who could make her a lunchbox anymore.

Although one of the main branch's special Jonin was instructed by Hyuga Hiashi to look after Hinata.

But the other party clearly had no experience in taking care of children.

Hinata reached into her pocket and found a few bills—her allowance. The hunger in her stomach forced her to leave the ninja academy and buy herself lunch.

"Ah Qiu——"

She sneezed, shrank her neck, and looked up at the leaves on the roadside trees, which were already half yellow.

'It seems autumn has arrived... Although my father is very strict with me, he always reminds me to wear an extra layer of clothing in the autumn so I don't catch a cold...'

Hinata muttered to herself in disappointment.

As she walked, she realized she had come to a place called "Ichiraku Ramen". Smelling the delicious aroma from outside, Hinata swallowed hard and mustered her courage to go inside.

"You... hello..."

Just as Hinata was about to speak to the "hand-cooked" owner of Ichiraku Ramen, she suddenly saw a tall figure from behind, and recognized his very familiar attire. Beside him was a very fat orange cat, which, from behind, looked like a large orange chicken leg.

The few banknotes Hinata had just taken out of her pocket fluttered to the ground.

A look of terror visibly appeared on her delicate face.

When Hinata saw the other person slowly turn around, and when she met those cold eyes, her fear reached its limit.

Her body instincts made her uncontrollably back away, and tears welled up in her bright, watery eyes.

Tears of fear seemed about to spill from her eyes at any moment.

Hinata's body trembled with intense unease and fear.

Own……

I met the man who imprisoned my father in Konoha Prison!
Uchiha Ikezumi's gaze moved down from Hinata Hyuga and landed on the banknotes with a total value of five thousand ryo.

He took a step forward, and just as Hinata was about to burst into tears, Uchiha Ikezumi bent down and picked up the banknote.

He returned the money to Hinata, who accepted it with trembling hands.

"Four bowls of classic ramen, large portions," Uchiha Izumi said to his opponent.

Just as he was about to respond, Uchiha Ikezumi changed his mind and interrupted him: "Wait... Nine Bowls, please."

Tachibana Jiro glanced at Uchiha Ikezumi, then at Hinata Hyuga behind him, who was too scared to move.

It hesitated for a moment, then asked in confusion, "Lord Ikezumi, isn't something a little off? Usually, it's two bowls for me and two bowls for you. Meow, even if Lord Ikezumi wanted to treat this brat from the Hyuga main family to a bowl today, it would only be five bowls, meow."

After pausing for a few seconds and not receiving a reply from Uchiha Ikezumi, Tachibana Jiro coughed awkwardly.

It changed the subject, speaking earnestly to the trembling Hinata: "Kid, there's no need to be so afraid of Lord Ikezumi. If Lord Ikezumi wanted to capture you, he would have done so yesterday. Why would he have kept you here until now, meow?"

Twenty minutes later.

Tachibana Jiro then took back everything he had said earlier.

It stared in disbelief at Hinata Hyuga, who had devoured four bowls of ramen all by herself and was still eating. It couldn't help but glance at the brat's somewhat flat stomach, revealing an undisguised look of existential skepticism.

"Looks like we'll have to order a few more bowls."

Uchiha Ikezumi, who was already full, calmly replied without any surprise.

Tachibana Jiro: "???"

Jiro Tachibana watched helplessly as seven-year-old Hinata ate five more large bowls of ramen, piling up the empty bowls one by one.

Then I heard the little brat say in a slightly trembling voice, "I'm full."

Feeling her stomach was already seven-tenths full, Hinata was in a daze. She didn't even know why she had sat down, why she had accepted this terrifying man's invitation, or why he was treating her to ramen.

Perhaps because I didn't dare to refuse, under the other person's gaze, I could only grit my teeth and keep stuffing ramen into my mouth, and even drank all the ramen soup.

Before I knew it, I was already 70% full.

Beside him, after a few seconds of silence, Tachibana Jiro couldn't help but ask, "Nyan, does Hyuga Hiashi usually abuse you?"

Tachibana Jiro could never have imagined that a person could eat food that was larger than their own body size!
Is she a reincarnation of a starving ghost? Or has she never eaten anything since she was a child?
She suspected that Hiashi Hyuga was abusing her.

That's understandable, isn't it?
"……what?"

Hinata didn't react in time.

Just then, she heard the terrifying man sitting next to her speak: "Hinata Hyuga, you should leave the Hyuga clan first."

Hinata was taken aback.

Uchiha Ikezumi said indifferently, "With so many people in the Hyuga branch family, there will always be some crazy people who don't like you. After all, you are the eldest daughter of Hyuga Hiashi and the heir to the Hyuga main family. Never underestimate the extent of human evil. If you don't want to die for no reason, don't stay there."

"I will arrange a new place for you to stay."

……

……

(End of this chapter)