Inside the ruined secret research base, the battle between Uchiha Keizumi, Sarutobi Shinnosuke, and the summoned Great Ape had reached its peak.
"ROAR!!!"
The Great Ape lifted a concrete pillar weighing over ten tonnes. With a thunderous bellow, he charged forward, brandishing the massive column toward Uchiha Keizumi.
Meanwhile, Sarutobi Shinnosuke circled around to Keizumi's rear. Gritting his teeth, lightning began to surge from the center of his right palm.
"Lightning Release…"
"Blade of Lightning Technique!"
Blinding currents of electricity formed a blade two meters long, which slashed down hard toward Keizumi's back. At the same time, the giant concrete pillar came crashing forward, threatening to flatten everything in its path.
[Slash!!!]
[Boom!!!]
The blade of lightning cleaved Keizumi cleanly in two. At the same time, the massive column crashed down with a heavy thud, smashing the lower half of his bisected body deep into the ground.
"Shinnosuke, be careful! Something's off—it doesn't feel right!" the Great Ape suddenly shouted a warning.
Shinnosuke's eyes widened.
Because the Uchiha Keizumi he had just split in two… was now slowly standing up, molten chakra writhing where his body should have been torn apart.
"Hydrification Technique?" Shinnosuke froze in disbelief. He had already lost count of how many hidden techniques Keizumi had revealed.
"Shinnosuke! Dodge, now!!!" the Great Ape shouted in a panic.
"If you were good with Water Release, maybe this fight could've lasted a little longer," Keizumi muttered.
His right arm flexed, and his five fingers bent slightly—his entire limb taking on the shape of a grotesque magma hound, its gaping jaws snapping open as it lunged toward Shinnosuke's chest.
"Farewell… Shinnosuke-sensei."
"Shinnosuke! Get out of the way!!!"
This time, the voice came from the long-delayed arrival of the Third Hokage—desperately shouting, panic-stricken.
The searing, crimson magma summoned by Uchiha Keizumi was not something the fragile, glass-cannon-like bodies of shinobi could ever hope to withstand.
The ferocious Magma Hound tore through Sarutobi Shinnosuke's chest without resistance.
It incinerated his flesh and organs in an instant, reducing them to charred remains.
His eyes, already wide open, bulged even further in agony.
He opened his mouth and coughed up a mouthful of thick, congealed blood.
The massive hole blown through his torso—nearly severing him in half—left no doubt as to the battle's outcome.
When Uchiha Keizumi slowly pulled his arm back, Sarutobi Shinnosuke's body collapsed at once, all strength gone. He dropped to his knees, then crashed heavily to the ground.
"Shinnosuke!!!"
A figure rushed over at full speed, immediately cradling the fallen Shinnosuke in his arms.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes filled with tears, his breathing turned ragged, and his wrinkled hands trembled violently as he tried in vain to cling to his eldest son's slipping life.
"Cough... cough..."
Barely hanging on to his last breath, Sarutobi Shinnosuke slowly turned his head, his blurred gaze landing on Uchiha Keizumi, who stood right beside him.
"Cough... cough... Your justice..." he gasped in broken phrases. "Truly... decisive. So, all those things I did... you saw them as that corrupt, huh? Now that I think about it... yeah, none of it was exactly noble…"
"Keizumi..."
"It's just that... our stances differ. You can't... you can't take on the entire shinobi world alone. Your justice... most people can't accept it. You have to make your justice... become Konoha's justice. But you... you never did listen to me anyway."
"Old man…"
"Cough... cough... And don't bother handing me over to the Yamanaka Clan to probe my memories. Everything that brat told you—it's all true. He still sees right through good and evil, just like always."
"I'm dying from magma burns..."
"But why… does my body feel so cold…"
"…So cold…"
As Sarutobi Shinnosuke used the last of his strength to slowly close his eyes, his breath faded into stillness.
Even in his final moments, he could not agree with Uchiha Keizumi's idea of 'justice'.
He didn't think Keizumi was wrong.
But...
He didn't think he was right, either.
"Kei... Keizumi..." The agony of losing his son made Sarutobi Hiruzen's aged frame tremble violently.
He looked up, locking eyes with Uchiha Keizumi. His jaw clenched tight, pupils quivering, bloodshot veins creeping across the whites of his eyes.
The words he forced out were as strained as his grief: "Did it really have to come to this? Couldn't you have come to me, the Hokage, and talked it over? Was it truly necessary... to kill Shinnosuke?"
"He was my eldest son! Your former jōnin instructor! Keizumi! Even if your so-called justice has made you cold enough to disregard the bond between sensei and student—couldn't you at least consider me, just once?!"
One accusation after another, beginning in sorrow, ending in a roar of rage.
At this point, Sarutobi Hiruzen could no longer even recognize what emotion he was feeling.
Nor could he decide how to deal with what had just happened.
"Third Hokage, I'm a member of the Police Force," Uchiha Keizumi said, staring down at Shinnosuke's corpse. The light of the surrounding fire and molten glow reflected off his face, making it impossible to read his expression.
He spoke slowly: "When I saw my former instructor fall into darkness, all I could do… was let him die understanding why. That's all."
Sarutobi Hiruzen stood in silence for a long time.
Under the watchful gaze of the elite ANBU gathered behind him, he slowly staggered to his feet and lifted his son's body into his arms.
Could he truly say that Uchiha Keizumi was wrong?
Even Shinnosuke, in his dying breath, had said Keizumi wasn't.
But Sarutobi Hiruzen still burned with fury.
Fury… tinged with murderous intent.
He was not just the Hokage of a village.
He was a father.
And in this moment, he had countless urges to give the order—let the ANBU behind him charge and cut Uchiha Keizumi down on the spot.
But...
Shinnosuke's final words had already made such an act impossible.
He had admitted that, although his actions had been beneficial to the village, they were morally corrupt on a personal level.
Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't tell...
Was this just the nonsense of a dying man, his mind clouded by pain?
Or were those words spoken with the last remnants of his clarity?
If it was the latter, then perhaps Shinnosuke's true intent had been to legitimize Uchiha Keizumi's act of killing him—to grant it the justification of absolute justice.
Shinnosuke...
He had fulfilled the final duty of a jōnin instructor.
He had once failed to protect two genin who had made grave mistakes. Now, it seemed he was trying to protect the last one.
Sarutobi Hiruzen let out a deep sigh.
'Is this the legacy you've chosen to leave me, Shinnosuke?'
His thoughts were a chaotic mess.
Despite living so many years... despite having grandchildren now... he suddenly found himself confused by how complicated human nature could be.
He clenched his fist, then released it.
Clenched it again, and let go...
He repeated this over and over—no one knew for how long.
"Uchiha Keizumi. Tomorrow, submit a detailed action report. Hand it to the ANBU. There's no need for you to see me."
At last, he spoke.
"Hokage-sama!" one of the ANBU from the Sarutobi clan exclaimed, startled. His voice brimmed with urgency as he shouted from Hiruzen's side, "Sarutobi Shinnosuke was one of your closest aides!"
Hiruzen lowered his gaze.
"Hokage-sama…" The ANBU member was about to continue when a hand landed on his shoulder. He turned around in surprise.
It was Hatake Kakashi, also wearing an ANBU mask, who gently shook his head.
"Let the Hokage-sama have a moment to himself."
Kakashi's voice was quiet but heavy.
"Shinnosuke-senpai's final words... they were a kind of farewell. And the Hokage-sama... he heard it too. Though he and Uchiha Keizumi stand on different sides, in the end, Shinnosuke still showed deep respect for his former student."
"He was willing to become a fallen leaf, burnt to ash, in order to nurture the growth of the one he once saw as the most rebellious of them all. Sarutobi Shinnosuke-senpai truly embodied Konoha's Will of Fire. And with his death, he showed his student that the Will of Fire... is not so different from absolute justice."
With that...
Kakashi's gaze drifted to Uchiha Keizumi—only to find the 'sensei-slayer' had already turned and walked away.
The sound of Keizumi's footsteps echoed clearly in the quiet.
But the Hokage said nothing to stop him.
He didn't order the ANBU to pursue him.
He simply continued holding Sarutobi Shinnosuke's gradually cooling body in his arms.
'Neither Sarutobi Shinnosuke-senpai nor Uchiha Keizumi were wrong.'
—That thought suddenly appeared in Kakashi's mind.
And that raised a deeper question:
Then what was wrong?
If neither of them was wrong,
...was it this shinobi world itself?
Kakashi couldn't find the answer.
…
"Let's return to the village, rookie," Uchiha Keizumi said quietly. "Tonight will be a sleepless night."
"Yes, senpai."