The One Who Hurt Her Was the Father She Loved

"Lord Hokage, the Konoha Military Police Force needs to be reined in!"

Inside the Hokage Building.

Having just finished dealing with half of his official documents, Sarutobi Hiruzen patiently listened to a ninja's complaint. "Today, members of the Konoha Military Police Force injured someone in broad daylight on the street! They cut off a civilian's leg and dragged him through the streets in a 'parade.' The blood trail stretched for several hundred meters."

"Many villagers saw it, and a lot of children saw it too. Lord Hokage, hasn't this behavior by the Konoha Military Police Force gone beyond the bounds of law enforcement?"

"Wouldn't law enforcers like this only make everyone in the village more uneasy?"

A ninja who held no important status in the village and possessed no extraordinary strength... could come directly to the Hokage to complain only because his surname was also "Sarutobi."

He was a junior member of the Hokage's clan.

Sarutobi Hiruzen frowned and immediately asked, "How is the injured person who was dragged?"

The ninja shook his head and replied, "Seeing how overbearing the Uchiha were, I couldn't help but come straight to you, Lord Hokage. I didn't pay attention to the victim's condition. But..."

"If someone's leg has been cut off and they don't receive treatment in time, they may not survive more than a few minutes."

Sarutobi Hiruzen's brow furrowed tightly.

Then, he suddenly seemed to recall something and asked another question. "Which Uchiha clan members were present?"

The ninja hesitated. "Uchiha Chisen... besides him, there was also an Uchiha girl I didn't recognize."

"Chisen?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen's brow relaxed.

Under the astonished gaze of his junior clansman, Sarutobi Hiruzen actually clasped his hands behind his back and said quietly, "If it was Chisen, then he must have had his reasons for doing so."

"Lord Hokage, but—"

Sarutobi Hiruzen cut him off directly. "You hurried here to tell this old man about it only because you think Uchiha Chisen's actions will affect your bathhouse business, isn't that right?"

"Go back. This is a matter for the Konoha Military Police Force. This old man believes Chisen will soon give me an explanation. After all, he has always been so unconventional."

Sarutobi Hiruzen paused, then passed judgment on Uchiha Chisen's actions. "Chisen's methods are indeed extreme. But over these years, he has never committed a single mistake of principle."

"...Yes, Lord Hokage."

The young Sarutobi Clan member's complaint had failed, and he could only leave in frustration.

"Chisen..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen walked to the window and looked outside.

"Do you love the Will of Fire more, or the Absolute Justice you speak of? This old man has always believed that you and Itachi were the same kind of people—Uchiha who loved the village deeply!"

He murmured to himself.

Meanwhile.

Inside a secluded standalone house somewhere in Konoha, Izumi panted lightly as she let go of the corpse, whose skin had been scraped raw.

She had originally intended to leave the short man's body where it was for the time being.

But without receiving an order from her senior...

Izumi was worried that casually abandoning a criminal's corpse might anger him.

So...

She could only mutter "Sorry" in her heart while gritting her teeth against her discomfort and dragging the corpse after Uchiha Chisen.

They continued all the way to the short man's home.

She did not dare look back even once to see what had become of the criminal's body.

It was probably...

too horrible to look at.

"Do you think he's miserable?" Uchiha Chisen saw through the girl's thoughts at a glance. The tiny expressions on Izumi's face could not hide what she was thinking. He said, "Someone even more miserable is inside that well."

He looked at the dried-up well covered by a concrete slab. His tone sank slightly as he ordered, "Bring up the child's corpse from the well."

Uchiha Chisen's voice made Izumi shudder.

"Yes, Senior!"

She jogged over, only to suddenly catch a pungent smell.

Is this... the smell of a corpse?

Izumi steeled herself and carefully shifted the concrete slab aside. The pungent odor was fully released, startling her into holding her breath instinctively. Yet the fumes still made her eyes sting.

She gritted her teeth.

Then she flipped over and jumped down.

Just before reaching the bottom of the well, Izumi immediately used the Chakra technique for walking on trees, sticking both feet to the well wall so that she would not accidentally step on the child's corpse below.

By the sunlight shining in, she saw a cotton quilt at the bottom of the well. It had been wrapped into a ball, and there seemed to be something inside.

A vague guess formed in her mind.

Not long after.

Izumi emerged from the dried-up well carrying the quilt, which gave off a thick stench, and gingerly placed it on the ground.

"If you want to throw up, then do it. It's like this the first time you smell a corpse. Even some ninjas who kill without batting an eye can't withstand their body's instinctive reaction." Uchiha Chisen glanced at the girl's pretty face, whose features were nearly twisted together.

Izumi's face had gone pale as she shook her head.

She could not explain why. She simply instinctively felt that she should not do something so improper in front of such a pitiful child.

Even if...

the child had already been killed.

Then, Izumi saw Uchiha Chisen walk over. She watched as the senior crouched down and opened the wrapped quilt.

Izumi's pupils trembled.

She hurriedly turned her head away.

—She threw up.

Even though she did not want to, and there was even a sorrow in her heart that resonated with the child's suffering, the physical nausea was beyond her control. She immediately vomited up all the breakfast she had eaten that morning.

"Look at her," Uchiha Chisen said. "Don't look away."

Izumi wiped her mouth.

She turned back, her trembling gaze falling on the tiny corpse.

Still crouching, Uchiha Chisen said, "There are no fewer than a dozen marks from blunt-force beatings on her body. Her hands and feet have been fractured multiple times. Many areas are mangled and bloody. There are traces of blood around her nose, ears, and mouth. Her internal organs were likely severely damaged."

He stood up and continued, "The fatal wound was the ligature mark around her neck. This child died in great pain. Before her death, she endured at least an hour of agonizing torture."

Izumi murmured in shock, "An hour... If this child had cried loudly for help during that hour, someone should have come to save her, right? There were neighbors nearby too..."

Uchiha Chisen merely said, "The person who hurt her was her biological father. Perhaps, to her, her father was the person she loved most."

Izumi froze.

"Uchiha Izumi."

"Ah? Here!!!" Izumi hurriedly straightened up and shouted.

Uchiha Chisen stared into the girl's eyes and questioned her word by word, "Do you still think that man was miserable?"

Izumi pressed her lips together and lowered her head.

"Senior, I was wrong."

Uchiha Chisen said, "What our Konoha Military Police Force must do is eradicate every kind of 'evil' like this. Only by carrying out our Justice through absolutely thorough means can we suppress the diseased, corrupt atmosphere of the Shinobi World."

"Take both corpses back to the Konoha Military Police Force. Your performance today was unsatisfactory, but fortunately, it wasn't bad enough to make me want to kill you. Tomorrow, assemble at Ichiraku Ramen."

Izumi shivered.

"Yes, Senior."