"Lord Hokage, the Uchiha Police Force needs to be reined in!"
Inside the Hokage's office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had just finished working through half of his paperwork when a shinobi came in with a complaint. The Hokage listened patiently.
"Today, members of the Uchiha Police Force assaulted someone in broad daylight! They cut off a civilian's leg, then dragged him through the street like it was some kind of public parade. The blood trail stretched for hundreds of meters."
"A lot of villagers saw it happen, including many children. Lord Hokage, isn't this kind of behavior well beyond the role of law enforcement?"
"Won't actions like this only make the village more uneasy?"
The shinobi speaking wasn't anyone important in the village — neither strong nor influential — but he had one advantage: his surname was also Sarutobi.
He was a younger member of the Hokage's own clan.
Hiruzen's brows furrowed. "What's the condition of the injured man who was dragged?"
The shinobi shook his head. "When I saw how arrogant the Uchiha were acting, I rushed straight here to tell you. I didn't check the man's condition. But…"
"If someone's leg is cut off and they don't get treatment immediately, they probably won't live for more than a few minutes."
Hiruzen's expression tightened further.
Then something occurred to him, and he asked, "Which Uchiha were present?"
The shinobi hesitated. "It was Uchiha Chiquan… and besides him, there was a young Uchiha girl I didn't recognize."
"Chiquan?"
Hiruzen's brows eased slightly.
Under his younger clansman's astonished gaze, Hiruzen clasped his hands behind his back and said quietly, "If it was Chiquan, then he must have had his reasons."
"Lord Hokage, but—"
Hiruzen cut him off. "You rushed here to tell me this because you think Uchiha Chiquan's actions will hurt your bathhouse business, isn't that right?"
"Go home. This is a matter for the Police Force. I trust Chiquan will give me an explanation soon enough. He's always been… unconventional."
The Hokage paused, then gave his verdict. "Yes, his methods are extreme. But in all these years, he's never committed a fundamental wrong."
"…Understood, Lord Hokage."
The young Sarutobi left, frustrated that his complaint had gone nowhere.
"Chiquan…"
Hiruzen walked over to the window, gazing out.
"Do you love the Will of Fire more? Or the 'absolute justice' you speak of? I've always thought you and Itachi were alike — Uchihas who truly loved this village."
He murmured to himself.
Meanwhile—
In a secluded single-house residence on the outskirts of the village, Izumi was breathing heavily as she let go of the corpse whose skin had been scraped raw.
She had planned to leave the short man's body where it lay.
But without her senior's permission, she worried that abandoning the criminal's corpse might anger him.
So… muttering silent apologies in her heart, she forced herself to endure the discomfort, dragging the body behind her as she followed Uchiha Chiquan.
All the way to the dead man's home, she didn't dare look back at the state of the corpse.
She could imagine… it wasn't a sight for the faint of heart.
"Do you think he looks pitiful?"
Chiquan saw straight through the girl's thoughts. Izumi's face made her emotions easy to read.
"There's someone even more pitiful," he said, turning his gaze to an old well sealed with a concrete slab. His tone deepened. "Get the child's body out of that dry well."
Izumi jolted at his words. "Yes, senpai!"
She ran over, but before she even touched the well, a sharp stench hit her nose.
This… was that the smell of a corpse?
She steeled herself and carefully shifted the concrete slab aside.
The foul odor burst forth completely, making her instinctively hold her breath. Even so, her eyes stung from it.
She gritted her teeth.
With a leap, she descended — but just before touching the bottom, she used the tree-climbing chakra technique to brace her feet against the wall of the well, avoiding any risk of stepping on the body.
In the daylight filtering down, she could see a blanket at the bottom, rolled tightly into a ball. Something was inside.
A guess began to form in her mind.
Moments later, she emerged from the well, carrying the blanket that reeked of decay. She placed it gently on the ground.
"If you need to vomit, do it," Chiquan said, noticing the way her delicate features were twisting. "The first time you smell a corpse, it's like that. Even some hardened killers can't stop their body's reaction."
Izumi's face was pale, but she shook her head. She couldn't say why — only that it felt wrong to behave crudely in front of such a pitiful child.
Even if… that child had already been killed.
Then Chiquan came over. He knelt down and unwrapped the blanket.
Izumi's pupils trembled.
She turned away instantly—
—and vomited.
She didn't want to. She even felt a deep sadness for the victim. But the visceral nausea was unstoppable; her entire breakfast came up.
"Look at her," Chiquan ordered. "Don't look away."
Izumi wiped her mouth, turned back, and fixed her shaking gaze on the small corpse.
Chiquan's voice was calm but heavy. "Over a dozen marks from blunt force. Arms and legs broken multiple times. Large areas of flesh torn. Blood at the nose, ears, and mouth — probably severe internal injuries."
He stood. "Cause of death was strangulation. This child died in agony, after at least an hour of sustained torture."
Izumi murmured, shaken, "An hour… If she had cried for help during that hour, someone nearby should have heard her. There are neighbors here…"
"The one who hurt her was her biological father," Chiquan said simply. "Maybe, to her, her father was the person she loved most."
Izumi froze.
"Uchiha Izumi."
"Ah? Here!!" She snapped to attention.
Chiquan's gaze locked on hers. He asked each word with precision: "Do you still think that man was pitiful?"
Izumi bit her lip, head lowered.
"I was wrong, senpai."
"The mission of the Uchiha Police Force," Chiquan said, "is to erase this kind of 'evil' completely. Only by enforcing our justice with absolute, uncompromising methods can we crush the diseased corruption of the shinobi world."
"Take both bodies back to headquarters. Your performance today was unsatisfactory, but not enough to make me want to kill you. Tomorrow — meet me at Ichiraku Ramen."
A shiver ran down her spine.
"Yes, senpai."
(End of Chapter)