Writing a will in advance was essential

Fugaku took a deep breath, suppressing his irritation, and looked at Izumi, who stood at a loss in his office.

"Uchiha Izumi."

"Here!!!"

The girl's shout nearly startled Fugaku. Keeping a stern face, he reminded her, "You don't need to be so loud."

Two blushes visibly crept onto Izumi's pretty, embarrassed face.

It was all because of Senior Chisen's training. Whenever someone called her name, she shouted "Here!" almost reflexively, afraid that responding even a little too slowly would anger him.

"Even I don't know why Chisen has such a problem with Itachi. Perhaps their personalities simply clash?"

Fugaku mused, "You needn't take what Chisen just said to heart. I know you're one of Itachi's few friends. Right now, he really needs friends by his side."

"Because..."

"His best friend has already left him."

Izumi knew who Patriarch Fugaku meant by "Itachi's best friend."

Itachi had mentioned him to her before-in fact, quite often. Whenever he brought up that person named Uchiha Shisui, the usually taciturn Itachi would become positively talkative.

"Uchiha Izumi..."

"Here!!!"

Fugaku: "..."

Izumi: "..."

Izumi clasped her hands in front of her, so embarrassed she wished the ground would swallow her. She hurriedly bowed in apology. "I'm terribly sorry!"

"Ahem."

Fugaku offered kindly, "If... you feel Uchiha Chisen isn't suited to being your examiner, I can pull a few strings and choose someone more suitable for you."

Fugaku worried that Uchiha Chisen would be the ruin of this girl.

Of course.

By "ruin," he didn't mean her virtue, but her life. Uchiha Chisen had a history of that!

When Fugaku had said earlier that Izumi was one of Itachi's few friends, he had actually been lying.

After Shisui's death...

This child, Uchiha Izumi, was the only friend Itachi had left.

However harsh and demanding he was toward his son-even though he had once done things to awaken Itachi's eyes that nearly destroyed their bond-Fugaku still considered himself a father.

A father...

Should at least spare some thought for his child's circumstances.

Izumi froze.

"Change examiners..." She hesitated. Senior Chisen certainly put her under enormous pressure, and the slightest mistake could earn her a merciless dressing-down.

But.

Izumi gritted her teeth, raised her head, and said earnestly, "Lord Fugaku, I joined the Konoha Military Police Force to become a qualified law enforcement officer! Senior Chisen may be strict, but I believe he'll train me into a capable, outstanding officer!"

"Today was only my first day working with him, but he's already taught me so much. Perhaps we just need some time to get used to each other."

Izumi had never met anyone as committed to justice as Uchiha Chisen.

Even if his methods were somewhat extreme, even if he seemed to have some misunderstanding about Itachi.

He was definitely a good person!

"I see..." Fugaku sighed. He had already made his meaning perfectly clear, but the girl still insisted on staying with Uchiha Chisen. There was nothing more he could do except remind her, "Remember, don't disobey his orders. Treat him as your superior."

"Yes, Lord Fugaku!"

Izumi nodded solemnly.

The next day.

With faint dark circles under her eyes, Izumi dragged herself out of bed. She hadn't slept well last night, suffering several nightmares in a row. Her mind had been filled with the bodies of that criminal and that child, and she had even dreamed of Senior Chisen berating her for an entire day.

She wondered how the Military Police Force had handled the criminal's and the victim's bodies...

And just how hopeless must that child's mother feel now?

Her husband was dead, and so was her child. Worse, her child had died at her husband's hands. It was simply too tragic.

Izumi rubbed her eyes, shook those scattered thoughts out of her head, tugged up the pajamas that had slipped off her shoulder during her restless sleep, then glanced at the alarm clock beside her bed.

She snapped wide awake.

The shock nearly stopped her breathing.

"Oh no!"

"N-nine o'clock! I'm done for! I forgot to set the alarm last night! And I forgot to tell Mom what time to wake me up!"

There was no time to change into her Military Police Force uniform, much less eat breakfast. Izumi rushed out through the door barefoot, her fair little face drained of color.

Only to find...

Her mother, Uchiha Hazuki, was talking with her senior, Uchiha Chisen, outside the door.

Then.

She watched helplessly as Senior Chisen turned his gaze toward her.

An absurd thought suddenly came to Izumi. Would my corpse look a little better if I killed myself?

"Oh... Izumi, you're awake?" Uchiha Hazuki, who had raised her daughter alone, wore an apologetic look on her still-lovely face. "When Lord Chisen came to see you, I was going to wake you up, but he told me not to. He said... he wanted to see just how long you'd sleep."

Izumi's expression went blank.

She felt utterly dazed.

She felt she didn't have long to live. She should have listened to that senior female Uchiha and written a will in advance. It would have come in handy very soon.

"S-Senior..."

Izumi's voice trembled.

Uchiha Chisen looked at the girl, whose eyes had lost all their light from fear and helplessness, and said expressionlessly, "Get changed. You're two hours late today, so you'll work four hours of overtime tonight. You've also lost every weekend off this month."

"Yes... huh?"

"...What?"

Izumi froze, staring in disbelief at Senior Chisen, whom the other senior officers had all but described as "a demon king who kills trainees without hesitation."

For a moment, everything felt dreamlike, as if she still hadn't woken up.

"You thought I'd kill you. Is that it?"

Izumi: "..."

She couldn't hide a single thought from Senior Chisen!

Uchiha Chisen said flatly, "The day you betray justice, I will indeed kill you without hesitation. You have thirty seconds. If you aren't standing in front of me within thirty seconds, you fail your assessment. Then you can crawl back under your covers and sleep until tomorrow morning."

Izumi jolted.

"Yes, Senior!"

She hurriedly turned and shut the door, stripping off her clothes as she ran. A series of clatters and crashes came from inside. At the twenty-nine-second mark, a second-floor window slid open, and Izumi hastily leaped out, landing steadily in front of Uchiha Chisen.

"Hah, hah..."

Izumi's little heart was still pounding. Her Military Police Force uniform sat crookedly on her, as though she had thrown it on at random.

She stood cautiously beside Uchiha Chisen.

Her head lowered, she didn't dare make a sound.

"Lord Chisen, Izumi is a special child. Her personality is different from the other Uchiha in the clan. If she causes you any trouble, please, Lord Chisen..."

Before Hazuki could finish, Uchiha Chisen interrupted her. "All I care about is whether she can do her job properly. Let's go."

Clutching the hem of her clothes, Izumi obediently followed behind Uchiha Chisen.

Just then, she suddenly noticed that he was carrying something.

It looked like a takeout bag from Ichiraku Ramen.

"I don't make a habit of wasting food." Uchiha Chisen casually tossed it over, startling Izumi into hastily catching it.

Izumi immediately remembered that Senior Chisen had said yesterday that they would meet at Ichiraku Ramen this morning.

She felt so ashamed that her eyes reddened.

"I'm sorry, Senior..." Her voice caught slightly.

"Rookie, what you should be sorry for is the justice delayed because you were late."

Izumi held the bag from Ichiraku Ramen.

Her little head remained bowed.

"I'm sorry..."