When Sarutobi Hiruzen returned, a ninja from the Sarutobi Clan went to greet him, only to notice a figure nearby wearing the uniform of the Konoha Military Police Force.
His pupils contracted, and he hurriedly asked Sarutobi Hiruzen, "Lord Hokage, that man..."
"Pay him no mind."
Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head grimly, but anyone could hear that something was off about his tone.
It sounded as though he was struggling to hold something back.
Sarutobi Hiruzen silently walked over to Sarutobi Shinosuke's coffin and stood quietly behind his daughter-in-law, Sarutobi Fuyuko.
Then.
He heard Sarutobi Fuyuko speak. "You needn't worry about me, Lord Hokage. I've calmed down. Everything... everything must come second to the village's greater interests, mustn't it?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen remained silent for a long moment.
He felt some guilt, but only some. "I have my reasons, Fuyuko. You understand Konoha's current situation as well as I do. The village desperately needs a ninja with a fearsome reputation to deter troublemakers from other villages."
"Konoha has already lost Sakumo. Orochimaru defected, Jiraiya left, Tsunade left, and Shisui is gone. Uchiha Chisen is now one of the village's few remaining pillars."
"And..."
"Uchiha Chisen's presence can also deter certain ambitious people within the village, including some members of the Uchiha Clan."
Sarutobi Hiruzen paused before continuing, "Even if Shinosuke came back to life, he would do the same as me. You and he are my right and left hands. He understood me, and you should understand me too."
Sarutobi Fuyuko nodded gently. "Lord Hokage, I understand it all."
Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed softly. "Thank you for bearing this for Konoha."
Then.
Sarutobi Hiruzen warned the Sarutobi Clan members who had grown indignant and restless upon seeing Uchiha Chisen.
"None of you are to act rashly! He's only here to arrest a criminal!"
Yamada Binjiro had also spotted Uchiha Chisen.
Though he believed there was little chance of being exposed, he instinctively took several steps back.
He carefully hid himself behind the crowd.
"Wait, I remember now!" Yamada Binjiro heard his companion gasp in realization. "Uchiha Chisen, isn't he that scourge from the Konoha Military Police... damn it, that man... is he heading toward us?"
Yamada Binjiro's heart lurched.
Cold sweat instantly slicked his palms.
And Uchiha Chisen's cold voice extinguished his last shred of hope. "Yamada Binjiro. Burdened with substantial debts, you attempted to seize your elder brother Yamada Binichiro's estate after he died of illness over four years ago, but failed. In your rage, you murdered the wife and daughter he left behind, then dismembered and disposed of their bodies."
To Yamada Binjiro, that utterly cold, emotionless voice was undoubtedly the Shinigami tolling his death knell.
He saw his companions hurriedly distance themselves from him in shock, staring at him in horror.
Terrified of Uchiha Chisen, those same companions hastily cleared a path for him.
The figure Yamada Binjiro had struggled to hide was left completely exposed.
Yamada Binjiro watched helplessly as Uchiha Chisen approached and stopped quietly two meters away.
He did not dare look directly at this young man, who was more than a decade his junior.
The drizzling rain did nothing to soothe his terror.
He wiped the rain from his face and kept his head lowered, forcing himself to sound calm despite his dry mouth. "I... I don't understand what you're saying."
"Uchiha Izumi."
"Here!!!" Izumi immediately stepped out from behind him.
"Interrogate him."
Izumi froze. She took a deep breath, quickly braced herself, and answered at once, "Yes, sir!"
She knew what Chisen meant by "interrogate."
The very first time she had met him, he had ordered her to interrogate a criminal.
And she had inflicted bloody torture on that criminal in broad daylight, in full public view!
This time...
It would probably be exactly like last time.
And.
Izumi also realized that this would not only happen in public, but under the gaze of the Hokage standing nearby! Perhaps this was another test Chisen had set for her.
She felt considerable pressure.
But compared with the pressure of defying Chisen's orders, this hardly seemed worth mentioning.
Then she thought of the mother and daughter who had been reduced to shattered bones.
The hesitation and uncertainty in Izumi's eyes visibly faded.
She drew her Ninja Sword.
And took several steps forward.
"Hey! You... what are you doing?!" Cold sweat poured down Yamada Binjiro's face. He backed away repeatedly in panic, never expecting the girl before him, her gaze slightly cold, to keep advancing.
"You have two choices now." Izumi felt she was becoming a bad person, but against scum like this, perhaps even the most extreme methods were justified.
Trying to imitate Chisen's tone, she said, "First, you refuse to cooperate, I kill you, and the Yamanaka Clan examines your memories. Second, you tell us everything you did four years ago."
"I told you! I don't understand what you're... Aaaaargh!!!"
Yamada Binjiro suddenly let out a piercing scream.
He hastily clutched his crotch and dropped to his knees, his face turning deathly pale from the indescribable pain.
"I'm only giving you thirty seconds to think."
Izumi steeled herself and kicked him again, knocking him onto his back.
Her gaze sharpened. She drove her blade through Yamada Binjiro's left palm, pinning it to the ground.
"Aaaaaaargh!!" Yamada Binjiro kept screaming.
"Twenty-nine."
Recalling the shattered bones that had made her hair stand on end, Izumi twisted her wrist, and the blade instantly sliced away half his palm.
"Twenty-eight."
"Twenty-seven."
Izumi swept her Ninja Sword across, sending an ear flying high. The spray of blood was quickly washed away by the rain.
"Twenty-six."
"Lord Hokage! This is clearly torture to extract a confession! And... they're doing it at Shinosuke's funeral, right in front of you!"
A friend of Sarutobi Shinosuke's spoke to Sarutobi Hiruzen in horror. "Isn't this forcing a confession through torture? Perhaps that man is innocent, but the abuse leaves him no choice but to confess."
"This behavior is already..."
Sarutobi Hiruzen gazed into the distance with his hands clasped behind his back.
He interrupted, "Uchiha Chisen has often disappointed me greatly in many respects. But... when it comes to enforcing the law, no matter how extreme his methods are, the results he ultimately delivers have always left me unable to argue."
"When Uchiha Chisen identifies someone as a murderer, that person... is unquestionably a murderer. He has never been wrong, not once."
Sarutobi Hiruzen stared at the girl's back.
He murmured softly to himself, "Are you preparing to train a successor to [absolute justice], Chisen...?"
Shinosuke's friend had never expected the Hokage to speak up for the man who had killed his own son.
And.
Wasn't the Hokage making Uchiha Chisen sound a little too infallible?
How could anyone never make a mistake?!
"Aaaah! I confess! I confess!!!"
A civilian's resolve was ultimately much weaker than a ninja's. After all, he had never undergone any rigorous ninja training.
The pain coursing through his body and the crushing pressure of facing the Uchiha Clan's police force had already broken him mentally.
His psychological defenses, already wavering at Uchiha Chisen's appearance, completely collapsed at that moment.
With tears and snot streaming down his face, he shouted in terror, "Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"
"I... I did kill my brother's wife and daughter! When I asked them for money, that damned woman told me to my face that she'd never lend money to someone addicted to gambling!"
"They were the ones who disregarded our family ties first! No! That's not right! They were outsiders to begin with! They just wanted to keep my brother's entire estate for themselves!"
Yamada Binjiro went from an emotional breakdown to suddenly finding excuses for his actions.
Not even ten seconds had passed.
He clenched his teeth and shouted hysterically, even working himself into a furious rage. "I was just cleaning up my brother's household for him!"
"I didn't do anything wrong! What right do you have to arrest me?!"
"Why don't you arrest that woman who stole my brother's estate?!"
"You're not fair at all!!!"
"You..."
As Yamada Binjiro raised his head in agitation to look at Uchiha Chisen, a pair of scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan suddenly entered his sight.
Those Sharingan seemed to fill his entire field of vision.
Yamada Binjiro's expression gradually shifted from anger to terror.
He seemed to be seeing something no one else could see.
"Aaaaaaargh!!!"
Izumi froze for a moment, then quickly realized that Chisen had directly subjected him to Sharingan Genjutsu!
Izumi did not know what horrifying scenes Yamada Binjiro saw in the Genjutsu, or what terrifying illusions he was experiencing.
But...
She thought he had brought it upon himself!
"Rookie, this is the 'evil' of the Shinobi World. Even with justice's blade already at their necks, they still refuse to repent. Lenient laws cannot secure justice for the dead."
Uchiha Chisen said quietly, "Then use your [absolute justice] to secure justice for the dead."
"Kill him."
Before you continue