The First Lesson in Enforcing Justice

The First Lesson in Enforcing Justice

Uchiha Chisen turned around and saw a black-haired girl standing behind him, hesitation written all over her face.

"Senior Chisen, I... I..."

Izumi suddenly froze up. Under Senior Uchiha Chisen's gaze, she could not help growing nervous.

She could muster the courage to speak with other seniors, even Patriarch Fugaku.

But before this Senior "Uchiha Chisen," she was so nervous that she did not even know what to say!

"Speak."

Uchiha Chisen spoke.

Izumi jolted and hurriedly introduced herself. "My name is Uchiha Izumi! I participated in this year's Konoha Military Police Force recruitment assessment. When Patriarch Fugaku told me to choose an examiner, I... I chose you, Senior Chisen, as mine."

Yet, faced with the sharp scrutiny in the eyes of the Military Police Force senior before her, her voice gradually grew quieter.

By the end, she did not even dare raise her head to meet Uchiha Chisen's eyes.

"An examiner? You chose me?"

Uchiha Chisen looked at the girl and assessed her expressionlessly. "You look rather frail, but at least you have courage."

Uchiha Chisen forced out a smile that did not reach his eyes. "Passing my assessment is simple. If, within one month, you do not make me want to kill you, then you pass."

"Oh, wait. A rat is trying to run away."

Izumi: "???"

Huh?

Just as Izumi stood there bewildered, she watched in shock as Uchiha Chisen suddenly drew the Ninja Sword at his waist.

The blade carved a silver arc through the air, and a splash of crimson blood entered Izumi's field of vision.

The next second.

She watched helplessly as a short man suddenly collapsed headfirst onto the ground.

—The man's left leg had been severed!

"Aaaahhh!!!"

The short man's agonized screams and the bloody stench spreading through the air both assaulted Izumi's mental fortitude.

She instinctively took half a step back.

Cold sweat poured from her forehead as nerves overtook her.

"Uchiha Izumi." Uchiha Chisen flicked the blood from his blade.

"Ah?" Izumi, who was worrying whether the man on the ground would bleed to death, hurriedly looked up in alarm.

Uchiha Chisen frowned. "When I call your name, you answer 'Present.'"

"Oh... ah, present!"

Izumi hurriedly corrected herself.

"You want to join the Konoha Military Police Force with a voice that quiet?" Uchiha Chisen said coldly. "I cannot hear a word you are saying. Is this your resolve to join the Military Police Force? Can someone like you uphold justice? You might as well go home and be a good little girl!"

Patriarch Fugaku had been right. Senior Chisen really was strict. On their very first meeting, she had already been chewed out thoroughly.

Izumi could only steel herself.

Her little face turned red from the effort.

"Present!!!!"

Only when the coldness in her senior's eyes eased slightly did Izumi let out a small breath of relief.

"Um..." Izumi hesitated.

"Speak."

She hurriedly reminded him, "Senior, if that man on the ground is not treated quickly, he may bleed to death."

"How long can he live?" Uchiha Chisen calmly asked a question Izumi had not expected.

She answered rapidly, "He could go into shock within ten minutes."

"Plenty of time." Uchiha Chisen said to Izumi, "Newcomer, I have a task for you."

Izumi swallowed hard. "Senior, I have not learned medical ninjutsu. How about... we take him to Konoha Hospital instead?"

Uchiha Chisen glanced at her. "Who said I was taking him for treatment?"

"Ah?" Izumi had lost track of how many times she had been bewildered today.

She stammered, "You mean..."

Uchiha Chisen handed her the Ninja Sword, and Izumi instinctively reached out to take it.

Without the slightest change in expression, Uchiha Chisen said, "Prove your resolve to join the Konoha Military Police Force. Take this sword and interrogate him. Ask him—where is the child's corpse? You have only ten minutes. If you cannot get an answer, get lost. Do not come looking for me tomorrow."

Inter... interrogate?

Izumi was dumbfounded. She could not help looking around. This was one of Konoha's busiest streets. Sweeping her gaze over the surroundings, she could not even count how many people were on this street!

Interrogate a civilian whose leg had been cut off, openly and in broad daylight?

And why interrogate him about "the child's corpse"?

Was this how the Uchiha Konoha Military Police Force always operated? Or was this simply Senior Uchiha Chisen's personal way of doing things?

She tried to sneak a glance at Uchiha Chisen's eyes.

She discovered that her senior's gaze was gradually turning colder.

Izumi suddenly shuddered.

The warnings from Patriarch Fugaku and that female Military Police Force senior flashed through her mind.

—"Do not defy his orders if you want to stay alive."

—"Good luck. Sometimes, surviving is also a matter of luck."

Izumi was afraid.

She gripped the Ninja Sword, whose hilt still retained some warmth, and cold sweat continuously seeped from her smooth, fair forehead.

Her overwhelming desire to survive drove her forward several steps. She interrogated the short man, who was clutching his severed leg and howling, "W-Where... where did you hide that child's corpse?!"

A flash of panic crossed the short man's pained, despairing eyes.

"Q-Quick... take me to Konoha Hospital! Aaaahhh!"

Rather than answer Izumi's utterly unconvincing interrogation, he cried out in terror, "My head is getting dizzier, and I am losing more and more blood. Am I going to die?! Save me, quickly! I do not want to die! Q-Quick, save me!!!"

I do not want to die either! Izumi screamed inwardly.

"Where exactly did you hide the child's corpse?"

Izumi tried her best to remain calm. She believed Senior Chisen could not have asked her to question him about this for no reason. She pressed him repeatedly, "Only if you answer my question quickly can I take you to Konoha Hospital. You cannot hold on for more than a few minutes!"

The short man continued screaming in terror. "I do not know anything about any child! I do not know anything! Please, save me!"

"Senior..."

Izumi wanted to cast a pleading look toward Uchiha Chisen, only to find that he stood there with his arms crossed, watching coldly.

She could not read the slightest trace of emotion from those indifferent eyes.

Suddenly, she felt as though she could not breathe.

This feeling...

Izumi knew it well.

Years ago, on Nine-Tails Night, when she encountered that enormous Nine-Tails monster, she had felt the same thing—the suffocating despair of knowing her life was about to vanish!

Izumi's desire to survive once again overwhelmed her sympathy. Hardening her heart, she seized the Ninja Sword and pressed it against the short man's neck. Gritting her teeth, she said, "Last chance! Where is the child's corpse?!"

The sharp blade had already rubbed a line of blood across the short man's neck.

The short man's eyes widened in terror. The faint pain in his neck threw him into a panic. "I... I did not mean to... I did not want to kill her. You have to believe me! You really have to believe me! She... she was my daughter, after all..."

"I was only playing with her at the time. I... I did not think she would die... I threw her into the dry well in the courtyard."

Izumi could not help staring blankly.

The short man's halting words revealed information that shook her to her core—the man Senior Chisen had ordered her to interrogate in public had actually killed his own daughter! And he had thrown his daughter's corpse into a dry well!

He was a murderer!

"Newcomer. This is your first lesson in enforcing justice after joining the Uchiha Konoha Military Police Force." Uchiha Chisen's voice slowly sounded behind Izumi. "—Always carry out the orders I give you."

"Do not question them."

"Do not resist them."

"Do not make mistakes."