Hatred Toward Uchiha Chisen

Izumi finally ran up to Uchiha Chisen. The girl was so exhausted she was out of breath, her little face slightly flushed as she bent over and gasped heavily, yet she still hurriedly held out the documents with both hands.

"Sen... Senior, this is the list of everyone who has gone missing in Konoha over the past five years. None of the people on this list have been found so far. There are a total of one hundred and seventy-six missing persons."

Even Izumi herself was taken aback when she stated that number.

And those were only the missing persons officially recorded.

There had to be others who had gone unrecorded, especially missing ninja, who might have carried many secrets themselves.

Naturally, people who harbored secrets would not appear on Konoha's missing persons list.

Uchiha Chisen did not take the list, because at that moment, another voice approached from afar. "Lord Chisen, we found more bones, meow! And this time, there are quite a lot of them!"

Kijiro hurried over with its cats and grandcats.

Quite a few Ninja Cats were carrying all sorts of bone fragments in their mouths.

"We found them all in the sewers, meow!" Kijiro made a light leap, skillfully jumping onto Izumi's head as it said, "We just aren't sure whether they belong to the same person."

One Ninja Cat after another set down the bones they had brought.

Uchiha Chisen crouched down and picked up one of the bone fragments.

"Rookie, exclude the male missing persons for now."

Izumi froze. "Senior, do you already know the victim's gender?"

Uchiha Chisen stood up and said, "This is the subpubic angle. In males, it is generally a narrow V shape with an angle of less than ninety degrees. In females, it is a broad U shape or broad V shape with an angle greater than ninety degrees."

He pointed to another bone fragment on the ground. "That is the brow ridge. In males, it is thick and prominent, with obvious backward sloping; in females, it is relatively flat, with a vertical or slightly sloped forehead."

Izumi listened in utter astonishment.

Just how many victims' corpses had Senior Chisen handled to develop the ability to determine a corpse's gender at a glance from its bones?

Suddenly.

Izumi sharply noticed Senior Chisen frown.

It seemed he had made some new discovery.

She saw him bend down and pick up two bones embedded with teeth. After examining them for a while, he said, "Rookie, narrow the age range to five to thirty. Study the photos on the list and pick out missing women who appear to have slightly protruding teeth."

Izumi hurriedly replied, "Yes, Senior!"

As she hastily flipped through the documents, she boldly asked out of curiosity, "Senior, why the age—"

Once again, before she could finish, Senior Chisen saw through her thoughts and coolly cut her off. "Because there are two different sets of remains. Also, pay attention to the missing persons' surnames. I suspect the two sets of remains belong to a mother and daughter."

"Judging from the cross-sections where the bones were cut, the culprit likely used the same tool to dismember both bodies. There is a high probability the same person committed the crime. They may even have been killed on the same day."

"Based on the size of these bone fragments, their bodies were cut into at least a hundred pieces after they were killed. We are fortunate to have found even some of them."

Izumi's hand nearly trembled.

T-Two bodies?

M-Mother and daughter?

"One large, one small. The older victim should have been between twenty and thirty years old, while the younger victim should have been between five and eight." Uchiha Chisen spoke calmly.

Izumi, meanwhile, felt chills crawl down her spine as she frantically searched through the documents in her hands.

Based on the criteria Senior Chisen had provided, Izumi quickly found two missing persons with the exact same surname.

"Senior! I found them!"

Trying her best to calm herself, she quickly said, "Yamada Ryoko, twenty-seven years old, disappeared four years ago. Her husband died early, and she had one daughter; Yamada Nobumi, four years old, disappeared four years ago. Her father died early, and her mother was Yamada Ryoko."

Uchiha Chisen asked, "What do you think we should do next?"

Izumi froze, not expecting her senior to throw the question back at her.

Right!

Perhaps this was a test of her abilities!

Izumi immediately replied, "Find where they lived before their deaths. Investigate their relationships with their neighbors and relatives, as well as their financial circumstances before they died. Focus especially on who inherited the Yamada family's estate after their deaths."

This was part of the Konoha Military Police Force internship manual's section on solving cases.

Izumi had remembered quite a bit of this basic theoretical knowledge.

"Let's go." Uchiha Chisen spoke to Izumi first, then told Kijiro, "Take the remains back to the Konoha Military Police Force."

"Yes, Senior Chisen!"

"Yes, Lord Chisen!"

"Hey, Yamada! Tomorrow is the funeral of the Hokage's eldest son. What are you spacing out for?! The Hokage instructed us to make sure the funeral is held beautifully and with all due grandeur, so the deceased can go peacefully to the blissful Underworld."

"If you're not feeling well, take leave right away. Otherwise, if you make some mistake tomorrow and something goes wrong at the funeral, how could ordinary civilians like us possibly bear the Hokage's wrath? Our funeral home's reputation would be ruined too!"

The man called "Yamada" suddenly jolted.

He shook his head and forced out a faint smile. "Maybe I just didn't sleep well last night. I'm fine."

Even he himself did not know why he felt so unsettled.

Could it be...

No...

Impossible.

"I cleaned everything up properly..." Yamada muttered in a voice only he could hear. "And it's already been so many years. How could anyone possibly find out?"

"Lord Hokage, Shinosuke's funeral is tomorrow. You are Konoha's Hokage, after all. You need to pull yourself together."

A female Anbu Ninja wearing a mask spoke softly behind Sarutobi Hiruzen.

Sarutobi Hiruzen let out a deep sigh.

He turned around and looked at the female Anbu before him, his expression complicated. "You are suffering just as much as I am, aren't you? After all... you and Shinosuke had been married for many years, and your relationship as husband and wife was very good..."

"Lord Hokage, I do not think suffering is useful. What has happened cannot be changed. All I can do is let Shinosuke go peacefully to the Underworld, take good care of Konohamaru in the future, and remember this hatred. That is all."

Sarutobi Hiruzen could hear the hoarseness in her voice.

Perhaps this daughter-in-law of his, who had suffered the loss of her husband, had already cried more times than anyone could count.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was silent for a long while before saying, "Fuyuko, I know you hate Uchiha Chisen, but..."

"I know."

Sarutobi Fuyuko said, "Lord Hokage, I will keep the village's greater interests in mind. I will not let hatred cloud my judgment. Lord Hokage, I would like to take half a day off to go home and spend time with Konohamaru."

Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed inwardly.

"Go."