Nara Dan waved it off.
"It was my duty."
"Heh. Still, thank you, Jonin Nara."
Several members of the Police Force stared at Nara Dan's muscles, which had yet to shrink back down and were straining against his loose clothes. They could barely get the words out.
This kind of sheer physical violence was often more intimidating than the power of ninjutsu.
"It's not over yet."
Nara Dan didn't care how others reacted to him. Then again, ever since he'd taken up taijutsu, people had never treated him normally.
"One got away."
Nara Dan had struck decisively and at incredible speed, but the spies weren't pushovers. They had Secret Techniques for concealing their presence and movements. While Nara Dan killed three of them, the one with the faintest presence had slipped away.
"What do you think?"
The members of the Police Force exchanged glances. One of them replied,
"They probably have someone else waiting to help them, but Anbu is already on the way."
Though the Sharingan couldn't match the Byakugan's vision, it was still enough to take in everything within several hundred meters.
"I suggest we go after them now, so we don't have the added trouble of letting them escape."
Nara Dan's meaning was clear. The spies weren't the Police Force's responsibility, but they couldn't escape blame for letting them infiltrate the village.
"But that person seems to have a way to hide their presence. How are we supposed to find them?"
One of the Red White Fan members raised the question. This sort of work really was Anbu's specialty; the Police Force wasn't suited to it.
"Heh."
Nara Dan gave a teasing smile.
"Those spies tried to mislead me with ninjutsu, but I could smell that reek of water on them with my eyes closed."
"They're Mist Ninja."
At this, the Konoha shinobi exchanged glances. Two of the more quick-witted ones immediately took a step back.
"I'm not very strong. I'll stay behind and send word."
"I'll stay behind to maintain order."
Apparently not expecting the two to be so in sync, the shinobi who'd stepped back exchanged glances, embarrassment flashing briefly in their eyes.
Nara Dan didn't care in the slightest. He hadn't expected these spoiled brats, who spent their days slacking off in the Police Force, to be any use anyway.
His gaze swept lightly over the Konoha shinobi. "Remember to keep up."
He leaped up, chakra surging beneath his feet as he raced across the rooftops.
Not long after Nara Dan left, reinforcements from Anbu and the Police Force arrived at the same time.
"What's the situation here?"
"Were any civilians hurt?"
The Police Force members who'd stayed behind waved a hand and pointed to the first spy, lying sprawled on the ground nearby.
"Yikes."
"His bones and internal organs are completely shattered."
"Was it Lady Tsunade?"
The Police Force and Anbu asked for details as they surveyed the scene.
A nearby building had completely collapsed. The explosion-like scarring on the ground suggested that something had been blasted away and slammed into the building's load-bearing wall.
The blood in the air and the spy lying on the ground, beaten nearly to pulp, left no doubt that he was the one who'd been sent flying.
The other two bodies were just as gruesome. One had been killed by a fist driven through his skull; the other, by a fist punched straight through his heart.
The scene was plain to read: whoever had done this possessed overwhelming strength. The spies hadn't been able to fight back at all.
"N-No, it wasn't Lady Tsunade."
A veteran Anbu shinobi shook his head firmly.
It wasn't that he knew Lady Tsunade had developed Hemophobia. That was top-secret intelligence, known only to a handful of Konoha's highest-ranking officials.
His judgment was based on having seen Lady Tsunade in action. Though her destructive power was formidable, she would never do something as bloody as punching straight through a person's body with her bare hands.
After all, women liked to stay clean. Chakra could keep blood off their skin, but few women could stomach it psychologically.
"Lady Nara Dan was the one who did this, wasn't he?"
Another veteran Anbu shinobi nodded, stating the obvious.
"It was Nara Dan? Well, that explains the scene."
At the mention of his name, all the shinobi reacted in unison. First came recognition, then wariness, with fear and respect mingling in their expressions.
The shinobi who'd stayed behind to pass on the information nodded as well.
"It was Jonin Nara Dan. Those spies were terribly unlucky. They ran straight into him while he was walking down the road, and then..."
The shinobi who'd stayed behind to relay the news suddenly trailed off. What happened next went without saying.
"I see. Where is Nara Dan now?"
The veteran Anbu shinobi nodded and continued asking questions.
"He went after the remaining spies."
The Chunin who'd stayed behind answered. He was a little puzzled. He knew Nara Dan had been promoted to Jonin, but also that he was only a Special Jonin.
Yet these Anbu and Police Force shinobi were all addressing him as "sir."
Not every Jonin in Konoha was addressed that way.
Aside from the heads of the major clans and the Hokage, only shinobi whose strength and achievements far surpassed those of an ordinary Jonin were usually honored with that title.
The Sannin and the White Fang were classic examples.
Nara Dan was only a newly promoted Special Jonin. Even if he was quite strong, that hardly seemed enough for these old hands to call him "Lord Nara."
As he wondered about it, the shinobi who'd stayed behind voiced his doubts.
To his surprise, everyone present gave him a strange look, including the members of his own clan in the Police Force.
"Kid, you haven't been out of the Academy long, have you?"
The veteran Anbu shinobi broke the awkward silence first and patted the young shinobi on the shoulder.
"That's right. I graduated a year ago."
The shinobi who'd stayed behind was uneasy. He didn't know why the mood had suddenly changed, or why everyone was looking at him so strangely.
"Really? Ah, to be young again. You can still work in the Police Force."
"Go ask your Jonin instructor or some of your clan's elders when you get back."
"Then you'll understand that Lord Nara isn't an ordinary Jonin."
Unexpectedly, even the Police Force members from the same clan didn't react to the Anbu shinobi's pointed jab at their unit. They simply gestured toward the disabled spy and the two corpses below.
"So, what should we do with these?"
"We'll take over from here. If we leave now, we should still be able to help that lord clean things up."
The veteran Anbu shinobi nodded with practiced ease. He sent someone to secure the lone survivor, then the others formed Hand Seals and vanished.
Not far from the scene, a Hot Spring Inn was still open for business. Inside, a portly man who looked like a merchant was bathing alone.
He was naked from the waist up, his body completely relaxed. If not for the way his eyes kept watch over his surroundings and his heart pounding without pause, an ordinary person would have taken him for just another wealthy merchant enjoying a soak.
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