Rusty Justice Is a Betrayal of Justice

Uchiha Chisen walked down a Konoha street, followed by a girl carrying a box of ramen and chopsticks, slurping up the now-soggy noodles as she walked.

Most of the pedestrians on the road looked visibly uncomfortable when they saw Uchiha Chisen.

Some children who had been playing around were hurriedly pulled back by their parents and scolded for misbehaving.

Clearly, these people had heard of Uchiha Chisen's "fearsome reputation."

Or perhaps their relatives and friends had committed crimes and received Uchiha Chisen's special attention. They were either souls slain by his blade or serving hard time in Konoha Prison.

"H-Hello!"

Uchiha Chisen paused because a Konoha villager suddenly ran up and blocked his path.

The man held a box in his hands. Gathering his courage, he offered it to Uchiha Chisen with both hands, lowered his head, and hurriedly said, "Thank you for catching the people who murdered my fiancée three months ago! I've been so depressed lately that I never got the chance to thank you. P-Please accept this token of my gratitude!"

Uchiha Chisen could not remember the names of every member of the Uchiha Clan, nor did he deliberately remember who had died beneath his blade.

But he remembered the victims harmed by "evil" vividly.

The grief-stricken man before him was a Konoha civilian Genin named Takigawa Osamu, twenty-five years old.

Three months ago, his fiancée had been violated to death by drunken men.

Uchiha Chisen found the three culprits.

"I didn't catch them." Uchiha Chisen slowly said, "I killed them all."

The man lowered his head. "That is precisely why I am even more grateful to you."

"Please..."

"Please, you must accept my gift!"

Uchiha Chisen shook his head. He walked around the grief-stricken man, then spoke again as he passed behind him. "I'm sorry that this diseased world, riddled with holes from being corroded by 'evil,' has disappointed you. If you have truly made your decision, there is no need to give the gift to me. Give it to someone who truly needs it."

After pondering for a moment, Uchiha Chisen added calmly, "If you are still hesitating, cherish your life. I will prove to you that this world will get better."

At some point, Izumi's ramen-slurping had stopped.

From Chisen's words, she vaguely guessed something. She stared in shock at the man, whose eyes had already filled with sorrowful tears.

The man murmured, "Thank you... Thank you."

Izumi watched his staggering retreating figure.

For a moment, she wanted to speak but held back.

"Senior Chisen, he... couldn't possibly..." Izumi tentatively asked.

"He isn't the only one." Uchiha Chisen said, "When you see more things like this, do not become numb. Once you become numb, your [justice] will rust because of that numbness. Rusty justice is a betrayal of justice."

Izumi had just been about to speak when she suddenly felt as though something had "smashed" into her head.

And that thing had to weigh at least twenty pounds!

It struck her hard enough that she cried out, her neck bending under the weight.

Just then, a voice with a somewhat peculiar accent suddenly sounded from atop Izumi's head. "Lord Chisen, there's a situation. My children found a buried corpse on the outskirts of the village. Judging by the soil marks nearby, it was very likely buried last night."

Izumi froze.

The strangely accented voice continued, "Many traces at the scene were deliberately erased. The person who buried the body also staged the scene, which means they were likely a professional. There's a high probability that a ninja committed the crime."

Having said that—

Izumi watched helplessly as an orange figure leaped down from her head and landed gracefully on the ground.

"A cat?" She suddenly realized. "A Ninja Cat!!!"

—It was an orange Ninja Cat, so absurdly fat that it looked like a giant orange chicken drumstick.

Izumi suddenly understood.

No wonder it was so heavy!

Could this orange Ninja Cat be Senior Chisen's summoned beast?

"Lead the way." Uchiha Chisen spoke to the Ninja Cat first, then said to Izumi, "Rookie, keep up."

Whoosh—

Whoosh—

The Ninja Cat and Uchiha Chisen turned into afterimages and sped away. In the blink of an eye, only two backs—one large and one small—remained.

Izumi was so startled that she had no time to think. She casually tossed her ramen into a nearby trash bin and hurried after them.

Izumi did her utmost to keep close behind them. Although all she could see was Senior Chisen's back, she could at least follow him from a distance. She figured either the Ninja Cat was too fat to run quickly, or Senior Chisen was deliberately controlling his speed so she would not be left behind.

After all, Senior Chisen was a Konoha Jonin. If a Jonin sprinted at full speed, how could she possibly keep up?

Before long—

Izumi reached an area on Konoha's outskirts. Only after plunging into a dense forest did she discover that Senior Chisen and the orange Ninja Cat had stopped and were standing not far ahead.

"Whew..."

She wiped away her sweat.

She was a little tired.

"Lord Chisen, is this your new lackey?" Izumi saw the Ninja Cat licking its paw as it spoke in human language. "Lord Chisen's first two lackeys couldn't even last a day. I wonder how long this new lackey of yours can hold out."

Izumi weakly interjected, "Today is the second day since I became Senior Chisen's trainee."

"Meow? Huh?"

The Ninja Cat looked at Izumi in surprise and raised a cat paw toward her. Izumi felt it was probably trying its best to give her a thumbs-up. "You actually made it to the second day? You've got potential, girl!"

"Uchiha Izumi."

"Here!!!"

Izumi did not have time to chat with the Ninja Cat. She hurriedly stood at attention and shouted.

Uchiha Chisen said, "Go down there and bring up the corpse."

"Yes, Senior." Izumi hurried over in a jog, only to find a large pit at Senior Chisen's feet. There were many tiny digging marks around the edge, as if they had been made by cat claws.

At the bottom of the pit lay a mud-covered female corpse.

The corpse's forehead was caved in, her face covered in dried blood. A frozen expression of terror remained on her face, as though even in the moment of death, she had been filled with disbelief.

Izumi jumped straight down.

She brought up the corpse.

Having gained experience yesterday, she was much more practiced this time.

"Female victim, identity unknown, approximately forty to forty-five years old. She died from a single fatal blow with a blunt weapon. There are no other traces on the body; they were likely deliberately cleaned by the perpetrator. They were indeed experienced. There's a high probability it was a ninja."

Uchiha Chisen slowly said, "Kijiro."

"Meow!" Kijiro the Ninja Cat answered.

"Go to the Konoha Military Police Force and have someone bring the corpse back." Uchiha Chisen said. "Rookie, let's go. We're taking a walk around the village."

"Yes, Lord Chisen."

"Yes, Senior... Huh?"

Izumi hesitated. Still, she swallowed nervously and gathered her courage to ask weakly, "Senior, aren't we going to investigate?"

Uchiha Chisen said, "Taking a walk around Konoha is the investigation. Check your ninja tools and be ready to carry out justice at any time."

Izumi: "???"

Thank you to the three readers "Rice Ball Tastes Like Sea Breeze," "Book Friend 20171105032951556," and "Book Friend 20250417100639436" for your generous support!

Thank you to all readers for your monthly ticket support!