Our Uchiha Clan Is "Thriving"!

Izumi carried both the criminal's and the victim's corpses back all by herself. Along the way, she had no idea how many people had stared at her strangely, leaving her so embarrassed that she did not dare raise her head the entire time.

Fortunately, no one misunderstood her because of it. Perhaps her Uchiha Clan attire had spared her some trouble.

By the time she finally forced herself to return to the Konoha Military Police Force's headquarters...

And finally saw Senior Chisen again...

Izumi's emotions, taut as a drawn bowstring, finally eased considerably.

But...

She soon noticed that the various gazes of many seniors in the Konoha Military Police Force were all focused on her.

Izumi had truly experienced this feeling of being stared at like some rare animal once before.

It inevitably made her nervous again.

"Put the bodies here and leave them to them. Someone will handle them. Now, come with me to see the clan head." Senior Chisen's cold voice fell on Izumi's ears, yet it unexpectedly gave her a sense of reassurance and security.

Much of her inexplicable nervousness dissipated as well.

It felt as though she had gained someone dependable to lean on.

"Yes, Senior!!!"

Izumi hurriedly answered.

As Uchiha Chisen walked into the Military Police Force Building, he asked the black-haired girl behind him without looking back, "As a member of the Konoha Military Police Force, if you encounter an ordinary criminal resisting arrest while enforcing the law, what should you do?"

Is this...

Is Senior Chisen testing my theoretical knowledge?

Izumi gained a bit of confidence.

To join the Konoha Military Police Force, she had spent a whole month memorizing the Police Force's code of conduct handbook, not missing a single word.

The reason she had been qualified to take the Konoha Military Police Force recruitment examination was naturally because she had passed the written theory test.

And...

She had passed with a perfect score!

She clearly remembered what the handbook said—when enforcing the law, if an ordinary person resisted arrest, appropriate measures could be taken depending on the severity of the situation.

Put simply, if the resistance was not severe, they could use gentler means to restrain them; if it was excessively fierce, they could use a little violence, though at most it would make the criminal fall flat on their face.

After all, the criminal was just an ordinary person.

Not some dangerous shinobi.

"First, try to restrain them with gentler mea..." Izumi quickly gave the standard answer.

But halfway through her sentence...

She suddenly froze.

Because she recalled what Senior Chisen had done today when enforcing the law against the short man who had tried to run away. It seemed completely different from what was written in the Police Force's code of conduct handbook.

Izumi swallowed the rest of her words. She felt that Senior Chisen was not the kind of law enforcer who followed rules to the letter, so she changed her answer and replied timidly, "Perhaps... more violent methods should be used?"

As it happened, Uchiha Chisen slowed to a stop, for they had arrived at Uchiha Fugaku's office in the Military Police Force Building.

Uchiha Chisen said blandly, "Newcomer, I hope your reason for giving that answer was not to flatter me. Remember, [Absolute Justice] stems from absolute enforcement. The degree of enforcement differs in different times."

"Right now... this is the time when the shinobi world has been most severely eroded by 'evil.' Harsh laws are needed in troubled times. Even when faced with only a trace of 'evil,' we must strike with an iron fist and show no mercy."

She...

She got it right.

Although that answer was not the standard answer from the code of conduct handbook.

Still...

Izumi felt that Senior Chisen's ideas were far too extreme. She believed that the troubled era in the shinobi world had ended long ago. The Third Shinobi World War had been over for years, and the Nine-Tails' Rampage had also passed years ago.

Though there were still minor frictions in the shinobi world, it was not to the point of being a troubled era, was it?

At the very least...

Looking at the Uchiha Clan, weren't they all thriving? Weren't their lives getting better and better?

Senior Chisen seemed a little too pessimistic!

Of course.

She only dared to mull those thoughts over in her heart. She absolutely did not dare say them aloud.

Knock!

Knock!

Knock!

The knocking interrupted Izumi's thoughts. When Fugaku's steady, powerful voice from inside said, "Come in," Uchiha Chisen pushed open the door and entered with the slightly nervous girl.

"Chisen? And... Uchiha Izumi?" Fugaku was slightly taken aback.

"You tell him." Uchiha Chisen casually said, then found a chair and sat down. With one leg crossed over the other, he idly rubbed and toyed with the armrest, which had nearly been polished glossy from all the handling.

"Ah?"

Only when Fugaku's gaze fell on Izumi did she realize that Senior Chisen had been speaking to her.

And Patriarch Fugaku seemed to have long grown accustomed to Senior Chisen's rather impolite behavior.

After all, Senior Chisen had not even greeted Patriarch Fugaku!

Could the two of them have some kind of conflict?

The strange thought flashed through her mind, and Izumi hurriedly said, "Lord Fugaku, today, Senior Chisen and I..."

Thus.

Izumi had no choice but to recount everything that had happened today in full detail.

Fugaku's brow furrowed as he listened, his expression nearly identical to that of the Third Hokage.

"Chisen, the way you handle things is a little too extreme." Fugaku sighed. His expression turned stern as he said gravely, "It is precisely because of this that we Uchiha have drawn the village's wariness. I know you are carrying out justice, and I know you have your own views on justice. But sometimes, justice requires considering the situation and exercising restraint."

"You should also understand... the village has become increasingly distant toward the Uchiha, hasn't it? Our Uchiha Clan was even forced to relocate to the very edge of the village. There is no room left for us to retreat. We can only take certain measures to salvage some of our reputation."

"But the way you are..."

Looking at this young Uchiha Jonin, Uchiha Chisen, Fugaku felt a headache coming on.

He considered Uchiha Chisen outstanding. He had awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan at a very young age, possessed the highly unusual "Lava Release," and was the Uchiha Clan's only ninja with double Kekkei Genkai.

Perhaps one day, this child would awaken the legendary Mangekyō Sharingan.

And become another pillar of the Uchiha Clan.

But...

This outstanding Uchiha's ideals were utterly incompatible with his own.

No!

Uchiha Chisen's ideal of Absolute Justice was even incompatible with the entire Uchiha Clan.

Whether it was the Hawks, who advocated standing up to the village to the bitter end and even wanted him, the patriarch, to plan a coup; or the Doves, who favored negotiations, reaching an agreement with the village higher-ups, and attempting to resolve matters peacefully... neither side had any common ground with Uchiha Chisen.

Because Uchiha Chisen's stance on justice was not on the side of the Uchiha Clan, but on the side of the "fairness" and "justice" within his heart.

Alone, he had formed a faction of his own within the Uchiha Clan.

That was why he stood alone.

That was why he fit in nowhere.

Uchiha Chisen lifted his eyelids and met the gaze of the famed Fugaku the Fierce Eye. He said, "You want me to weigh things more carefully, selectively make compromises when carrying out justice, and ease relations with the village, right?"

"There's no need to put it so bluntly," Fugaku said.

Yet he tacitly admitted it.

"My way of doing things will not change. Rather than advising me to rein myself in, you should keep your beast of a son under control. Better yet, have him see a psychologist. I think it's necessary." With no common ground, there was no point in saying more. Uchiha Chisen rose and left.

Fugaku's expression froze.

To slander a father's child like that in front of him.

Even Uchiha Fugaku could not help but feel a surge of anger.

But...

This sort of thing seemed to have happened many times already. For some reason, Uchiha Chisen simply found Itachi deeply unpleasant.

Once, he had even attacked Itachi. If Shisui had not been there at the time, Itachi might have already come to harm.

Fugaku's face darkened as he stared at Uchiha Chisen's departing back.

Izumi, meanwhile, looked left and right in complete confusion.

She could sense the office's drawn-sword tension, and even more so Patriarch Fugaku's restrained fury. She had even secretly glimpsed Patriarch Fugaku quietly clenching his fist.

She also had no idea why Senior Chisen had such a strong grudge against the patriarch's son.

Eh?

Wait!

Patriarch Fugaku's sons... weren't those Itachi and Sasuke?

Izumi was confused all over again.

It seemed she had chosen a truly extraordinary examiner.

The future looked bleak!

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