Uchiha Yayoi

When Sahara Mizu heard his name called, he involuntarily came to a stop.

But it was not because of the girl's voice in front of him.

In the center of his vision—

Above the girl's head floated a faint white halo.

"Shallow Heart Knot"

At that moment, even his heartbeat quickened by half a beat.

After an entire day, one had finally appeared!

"Cough."

"Captain Yayoi."

But before the girl could say anything more, another, slightly older female ninja could not help but remind her. The hand at her side carefully tugged at the corner of her clothes.

Only then did Uchiha Yayoi remember that she was still on duty. She immediately tightened her expression and turned her face slightly, as if unwilling to let him see her highly intimidating Sharingan.

Even her tone reverted to its initial cold composure, though there was a slight unnatural pause when she spoke:

"Um. Your inspection is complete."

"If further cooperation is needed, please report to the Uchiha Police Force promptly for follow-up investigation upon receiving a notice."

The girl's tone was very official, but not official enough.

There was a faint trace of subtle emotion mixed into it.

"—Captain Yayoi?"

The female ninja beside Uchiha Yayoi slowly emphasized her words.

You only gave him a cursory glance, didn't you?

At the same time, her intimidating Sharingan turned toward Sahara Mizu.

Uchiha Yayoi turned her head and secretly pursed her lips, but she still could not help sighing. Under her assistant's watchful eye, she walked over to Sahara Mizu, activated her Sharingan, and looked him over a few more times before helplessly changing her tune.

"All right."

"Sorry for disturbing you today. Please return to work."

Sahara Mizu looked at the lingering flames on the ground, the charred corpses, the bodies sprawled across the floor, and the blood splattered everywhere from slit throats.

No matter how badly he needed Heart Points, he knew this was not the place to talk.

Besides.

From the corner of his eye, the female ninja, who looked to be in her early twenties, stood beside Uchiha Yayoi and fixed his every movement with the vigilance of someone watching a thief, as if she were ready to strike him down on the spot at any moment.

"Then, thank you for your hard work?"

"Mm."

The girl continued maintaining that official, aloof attitude in front of everyone and nodded almost imperceptibly.

However, as they passed each other.

"I'll treat you to dinner next time."

Uchiha Yayoi tilted her head and muttered softly into his ear.

Sahara Mizu smiled as if he did not care. After one last glance at the pale white halo above her head, he headed downstairs beneath the murderous glare of the other female ninja.

Yet after leaving the Uchiha Police Force's line of sight, he seemingly casually glanced into the distance, a faint smile lingering at the corner of his lips.

The moment that Fire Release attack appeared, "Mr. Kojima" had already vanished.

His reaction was pretty quick.

Only after seeing Sahara Mizu disappear into the stairwell from the corner of her eye did Uchiha Yayoi secretly let out a breath of relief.

But when she caught sight of the scorched marks on the floor left by her Fire Release earlier, she could not help gritting her teeth again.

Damn it!

Wasn't Mizu's office on the second floor?!

She had thought her entrance, wrapped in the might of Fire Release, looked rather impressive. But now, just thinking about how Mizu had seen her showy behavior made Uchiha Yayoi's cheeks burn uncontrollably.

The image she had maintained for so long when they were teammates was definitely going to shatter!

At that thought, it was as though a heavy storm cloud loomed over Miss Yayoi's head. Her swelling Yin Release Chakra seemed to make the tomoe in her Sharingan spin even faster.

Uchiha Yayoi, fifteen years old.

A Special Jonin specializing in Fire Release.

Currently the captain of Squad Three, First Division, Uchiha Police Force.

The "Cheating Cat" in Miss Sahara Yukie's words.

Until two years ago, she had been Sahara Mizu's genin squad teammate from the same class.

Throughout their three years as teammates, she had worked hard to play the role of a gentle, cheerful, lively, kind Ninjutsu Type teammate.

"Creak—"

Someone's back teeth suddenly ground together with a faint, harsh sound.

But what had happened had already happened. No amount of anger would help now.

"Whew."

The girl exhaled deeply, then abruptly turned toward the other side. Her demeanor instantly shifted back to its original crisp decisiveness as her scarlet Sharingan swept toward a ninja at the very end of the crowd who was preparing to slip away. She barked coldly:

"Who said you could leave?"

"Everyone, line up! Take out your Ninja Tool Bags and scrolls for inspection! No hiding anything!"

"Directly affiliated Anbu are to leave on their own and report to Lord Third Hokage."

"Rinko, Mu! Check the remaining people! Tekka, Yuna, come with me to inspect the traces."

"Yes!"

A chorus of endless complaints immediately filled the air.

After all, it was not only the Intelligence Agency that had been working overtime lately. Everyone was extremely busy.

After this round of inspections, they would definitely be getting home late again.

Unfortunately, the other Uchiha were clearly not as easygoing with acquaintances as Miss Yayoi. Once their Sharingan activated, it naturally carried an extraordinary Yin Release intimidation, and their searches of the staff were meticulous.

Of course, these procedures were necessary as well.

Seeing this, Namikaze Minato in the crowd relaxed slightly.

Even the Uchiha Police Force had no authority to inspect Anbu personnel—but due to certain upper-level conflicts that could not be openly discussed, the two sides occasionally confronted each other for various reasons.

A peaceful resolution like today's was a good thing.

Still, before leaving, Namikaze Minato instinctively turned to look at the bodies on the ground and awkwardly tightened his grip on the Three-Pronged Kunai in his hand.

He felt an inexplicable sense of unease.

Even if they were members of a suicide squad, their resistance had been far too weak.

He was not the only one with that question.

Uchiha Yayoi crouched down and carefully examined the lingering chakra reactions on the bodies with her Sharingan, her brows tightly furrowed.

Had the real big fish still not surfaced?

That afternoon, at the Udagawa Riverbank.

Sahara Mizu had just finished eating. His empty lunch box and disposable chopsticks rested on the railing, while he leaned against the riverside barrier with both hands, gazing across the river that separated the Nara Clan Compound from Central Street and staring straight toward the opposite bank.

Rice grains mixed with tiny paper balls trickled from his hand into the river.

From a distance, he looked like any ordinary idler casually feeding fish.

If the fish beneath the surface catching those grains of rice and paper balls were not specially trained Summoning Fish.

Only three of them contained accurate intelligence written entirely in cipher that required special methods to decipher. The rest were merely diaries full of teenage angst from rebellious adolescents, not something outsiders should see.

This was a second layer of insurance.

Thus, the intelligence stolen from the Sealed Archive was silently transferred into the hands of his superior.

However, that was not the most important matter.

Leaning against the riverside railing, Sahara Mizu kept his eyes closed, as if resting.

Yet his "Six Eyes," looking into the far distance, watched the figure of "Mr. Kojima," who had escaped the Hokage Building after changing disguises several times.

Just as he had said before.

Even in order to obtain "Heart Points," Sahara Mizu could no longer continue hiding as he had in the past.

Whether it was to gain more "bonds," or to free himself from the burdensome intelligence work and obtain greater freedom of action, he needed to reveal a certain degree of his "true strength."

Sahara Mizu had understood this from a very early age.

In this cruel world centered around ninja, nothing was more important than the word "strength."

As long as one was strong enough, even a fool could become Hokage, control a nation, and fulfill an ambition that sounded utterly unrealistic.

However, for an ordinary chunin working in the Intelligence Division, even with sufficient strength, he needed to be even more cautious.

He could not alert the enemy and expose his other, more important identity.

For that, he had to wait for a suitable opportunity.

For example.

Someone like "Mr. Kojima" was well suited to playing the villain.

Your weight better be greater than I estimated.

That was what Sahara Mizu thought.

I'm terribly sorry, I forgot to schedule today's chapter.

I wonder if anyone noticed. ε=(ο｀*)))