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NAJ Chapter 173: Blood in the Utatane Compound
🕑 Added 2025-08-21 23:02:14 +0000 UTCLate at night. Two shinobi of the Utatane clan, reeking of alcohol, staggered back into their clan compound, supporting each other as they s
Late at night.
Two shinobi of the Utatane clan, reeking of alcohol, staggered back into their clan compound, supporting each other as they swayed unsteadily along.
One of them let out a drunken hiccup, his expression dazed, and slurred incoherently, “You just said that these past few days, Koharu-sama has been so upset by that guy called Uchiha Keizumi that she can’t even eat or sleep properly.”
“Hic! Then why doesn’t she just get rid of that Uchiha? She’s a senior advisor of Konoha, after all. And I heard she even took over the Root organization…”
“Taking out an Uchiha should be easy, right? Even if that guy… is supposedly some kind of monstrous wielder of Lava Release.”
The other shook his head, exhaling a foul wave of liquor-stained breath. “You’ve been away from Konoha for more than half a year. You just got back, so maybe you don’t know how terrifying Uchiha Keizumi really is. Do you know why Koharu-sama was able to take over Root? It’s because Uchiha Keizumi killed Shimura Danzō!”
“That battle shook all of Konoha. The Root organization, from top to bottom, was practically bathed in his blood. When Koharu-sama first took over, she even had to bring in new people just to keep Root running.”
“For someone who killed a Konoha elder to still be living freely in the village, untouched even by the Hokage himself… you can imagine just how hard it would be for Koharu-sama to take him down.”
As he spoke, another thought suddenly drifted into his muddled mind.
With another hiccup, he muttered, “These days, Koharu-sama has been investigating clansmen who’ve committed misdeeds. Seems like she plans to send those who’ve done wrong outside the village for the time being…”
“Otherwise… if those people ever run into Uchiha Keizumi, there’s no way they’d escape. They’d be killed for sure.”
“By the way, you’ve been gone for over half a year. You didn’t do anything bad out there, did you? If you did, you’d better report it to the clan elders right away.”
“That way, they can arrange to get you out…”
But just as he said this much, the drunken Utatane shinobi suddenly froze.
Through his alcohol-clouded eyes, shock flickered as he raised his head toward the silhouette standing on the roof ahead.
That figure stood silently on the upturned eaves, a pair of scarlet Sharingan gazing down upon the Utatane compound.
Those cold, indifferent eyes looked as though they were staring at a field of corpses.
A chill, sharp enough to pierce the bones, surged through him—sobering him up at once.
“Sharingan… an Uchiha…” He swallowed hard, squinting desperately against the moonlight to try and see the face of the one before him.
“Hey! Who the hell are you?!” The other drunken shinobi, still leaning against him, shouted carelessly—completely ignoring the fact that their clansmen were sleeping inside. “Hic! This is the Utatane compound! You, an Uchiha—”
[Splurt—]
A sudden ninja blade pierced clean through his back. Frail flesh and bone offered no resistance to the razor edge, and his words were cut off in an instant.
The ninja blade that had pierced clean through twisted slightly before a pale, slender hand slowly drew it out.
Blood sprayed forth with a splurt from both the chest and the back wounds.
A good portion of it even splashed onto the other Utatane clansman standing nearby.
The hot, sticky blood stunned him for a moment.
Instinctively, he reached up and touched his face, now smeared with it.
“...Blood!!!”
The haze of drunken stupor shattered instantly, replaced by terror.
Spinning around in panic, he saw a girl in the uniform of the Uchiha Police Force calmly wiping the blood from her blade.
On her shoulder crouched a ninja cat, while at her side stood another kunoichi, slightly taller, with short hair.
He heard the short-haired kunoichi ask, “How… did you know he was an evildoer?”
He heard the girl reply, “As long as our devotion to [Absolute Justice] is sincere, we can receive the gift of Keizumi-senpai. This… is the dōjutsu of the Sharingan that Keizumi-senpai implanted in me. It gives me the power to see through the evil within others. But I have to focus with all my concentration to use it, while Keizumi-senpai only needs a glance to see it.”
“In a moment, I’ll point out exactly who the wrongdoers are. Then the two of us just need to execute them together. The time limit is only tonight—we must finish quickly. Once the Utatane clan’s evildoers are executed, we move immediately to the Mitokado clan.”
The short-haired kunoichi gave a slight nod. “Understood.”
Utatane clansman: “!!!”
“Keizumi-senpai”? Keizumi… hiss! Could that man standing on the rooftop really be Uchiha Keizumi?!
And these two kunoichi—were they his subordinates?
As his clansman collapsed lifelessly to the ground beside him, the flush of alcohol drained into sheer horror on his face.
Panic and dread surged in equal measure.
Just as he thought his own death was coming next, he realized the two kunoichi had passed right by him.
Right—!
He hadn’t done anything wicked… had he?
Wait!
The clansmen exposed for committing evil deeds hadn’t yet been relocated out of the compound! They were still inside the Utatane residence right now! Shouldn’t he start shouting, wake them up, warn them—?
But as the thought flashed through his mind, he looked up again, only to find Uchiha Keizumi’s scarlet, three-tomoe Sharingan locked directly on him!
"Gulp!"
He swallowed hard.
If he dared to raise his voice, wouldn’t the next second be the one when his head hit the ground?!
…
That night, Koharu had a nightmare.
She dreamt that her relations with Uchiha Keizumi had completely broken down, and she led the entire Utatane clan, together with all of Root, into a desperate battle to the death against him.
But that “lava monster” was too terrifying. One by one, she watched Root shinobi and the shinobi of her clan fall beneath his molten fury.
The entire Utatane clan had become a sea of blood.
The stench of it lingered endlessly at the tip of her nose.
Wait…
Why did the smell of blood feel so real?
Koharu suddenly jolted awake, heart still pounding with lingering dread. Realizing it had only been a dream, she let out a faint breath of relief—until she noticed something was wrong.
“Why… is there still the smell of blood?”
She smelled it again.
It was strong—overwhelmingly strong.
A dark premonition surged in her chest. Throwing off her blanket, she hurriedly pulled on some clothes and rushed out the door.
The scene before her eyes left her utterly frozen.
Beneath the pale moonlight—
One corpse after another of Utatane shinobi lay scattered in pools of blood, crimson spilling freely from their wounds.
Some had been slain with a single cut to the throat, some with a strike straight through the heart, and others bore bite marks on their necks, as if from venomous serpents.
She spotted a Utatane special jōnin, panic etched across his face, desperately raising his blade to block an attacker’s strike. But in that instant, the other assailant flicked out a kunai that sank directly into his throat!
“Ghh—ah!”
The special jōnin staggered backward, one hand gripping his sword, the other clutching his bleeding neck. He stumbled a few steps before collapsing powerlessly to the ground.
Bathed in moonlight, Koharu recognized the assailants—their faces disturbingly familiar.
“Mitarashi Anko!!!”
“Uchiha Izumi!!!”
Forcing the names out through clenched teeth, Koharu’s fury boiled over, her clouded eyes blazing with a killing intent stronger than ever before. But then, she suddenly jerked her head upward, gaze drawn to a presence above.
“Uchiha Keizumi!!!”
She had come face to face with the one person in the world she least wished to see.
And when she saw his Sharingan fixed in her direction, a chill gripped her spine. She knew all too well how terrifying Uchiha Keizumi’s Mangekyō Sharingan truly was.
The tragic end of Danzō was still vivid in her memory.
“Uchiha Keizumi! What are you doing?!”
Unable to bear his gaze, Koharu averted her eyes, her twisted expression contorting as she shouted through gritted teeth.
“Carrying out justice.”
Those simple words rang out in the blood-soaked silence of the night, sharper and clearer than any blade.
The veins on Koharu’s forehead throbbed violently.
She wanted to glare at Uchiha Keizumi with hatred and fury, but under the weight of his Mangekyō’s power… she could only turn that fierce, venomous glare toward Anko and Izumi instead.
“Anko! You… you were a special jōnin of Konoha I personally promoted with my own hands! Is this… betrayal? Betrayal against me?!”
Her furious voice tore through the night.
Mitarashi Anko fell silent for a moment. Then, drawing in a deep breath, she lifted her gaze, her expression grave.
“Koharu-sama, you are a senior advisor of Konoha. Yet you turn a blind eye to the crimes and atrocities committed by members of your own clan. Before questioning whether I’ve betrayed you—shouldn’t you be questioning yourself? Are you truly loyal to Konoha’s Will of Fire, or not?”
“Where the leaves dance, the fire will never die. The burning leaves will illuminate the village and nourish new buds—this was the Will of Fire that the First Hokage set down for Konoha. But if some of those leaves have already turned into worms gnawing at the trunk and the young shoots, shouldn’t those rotten leaves be cut away?”
“As a senior advisor, have you done that? If you truly had, then why are there so many evildoers among your clan? Are you really faithful to the Will of Fire?”
Koharu: “???”
Never had she imagined that after her accusations, what she would receive in return was a string of pointed questions from Mitarashi Anko!
A mere junior of Konoha… actually questioning whether she, a senior advisor of the village, was loyal to the Will of Fire?
How could someone who had once been Orochimaru’s disciple have the right to question her?
And when had she ever betrayed the Will of Fire?
