Solving the Case

In the Flower Capital, within the Flower Street, Heiji was patrolling with three young ninjas.

Heiji didn't know why, but today, not only the one from the Uchiha Clan, but the other two brats had also become unusually quiet.

However, Heiji didn't have the time to dwell on whether they had been arguing...

Throughout the morning, several more thefts occurred in the Flower Street. The thieves were not only targeting the wealthy, but they were no longer limited to mere "pickpocketing," having escalated to breaking into inns to steal.

For a moment, Heiji felt both anxious and furious.

Shortly after, just as afternoon arrived...

Three adults—two men and one woman—who looked like anything but upstanding citizens, skulked toward a pawnshop in the west of the city that had mosquito netting hanging outside but no signboard.

According to the investigation records Akaseki had seen in the case files earlier, this was the pawnshop the Government Office was focusing on.

Moreover, looking at these pawnshops now, although they hung the mosquito netting that marked them as such, the lack of a signboard did indeed fit the characteristics of a black market operation.

The gang of thieves that was so severely damaging the image of the Flower Capital might not actually be fencing their stolen goods here, but that didn't matter. Akaseki had come here to play the role of a "greenhorn" to lure those people out, not to actually find them.

Clang—

Akaseki pushed the door open without ceremony and walked in.

The shopkeeper behind the counter drooped his eyes to look at the three of them, then asked lazily, "Pawning or selling outright?"

"No pawn ticket needed, I'll sell the whole lot to you," the man Akaseki had transformed into said in a muffled voice, dumping a large bundle of items onto the counter.

Hearing Akaseki say this, the shopkeeper's expression flickered, and he sat up with a bit more energy, rummaging through the items Akaseki had thrown onto the counter.

"Cheap rags, oil-stained old clothes..." The shopkeeper picked up a fur coat first.

"Bah! Where are your eyes? You call this a rag? This is clearly bright, fiery red fox fur, top-quality thick fur! And rags... there's no such thing as a rag this thick; this is heavy fur for blocking the wind!" Akaseki said with a menacing look.

The shopkeeper, however, was not in a hurry, merely smiling slightly. "Don't be impatient, don't be impatient. We can discuss this in detail; harmony brings wealth! You might be new to the Flower Capital and don't know that the Authorities have been tightening their grip lately, so prices are naturally a bit lower."

"If the Authorities are tightening their grip, that's all the more reason to raise the price! Don't you understand the principle that the rougher the waves, the more expensive the fish? If you're scared, why are you even running a pawnshop here?" Akaseki said dismissively.

Standing to the side, Ranwu and the Shadow Clone Technique of Minato listened in silence as Akaseki and the pawnshop staff haggled using underworld slang...

This was a job that really required Akaseki.

Because of the nature of the Uchiha Clan's work, Akaseki had picked up some underworld jargon through osmosis.

The pawnshop keeper and Akaseki bargained item by item. During this time, the three of them noticed something amiss, but instead of being anxious, they were pleased. Pretending not to have noticed anything, Akaseki continued to haggle slowly with the shopkeeper, until...

Bang—

The pawnshop door was kicked open violently. A menacing brute stepped forward, glanced at the three of them, and then said to the shopkeeper, "Big business!"

"Well, my apologies to the three of you. The shop has matters to attend to; you should try another place," the shopkeeper said with a sinister smile.

Seeing this, the three of them were neither anxious nor angry, and instead immediately walked out of the pawnshop...

Once outside, they saw that the street had indeed been cleared. Over a dozen burly men armed with various weapons were now blocking the street with an aggressive air.

Clearly, chasing the three of them out was just to make it easier to attack!

The pawnshop owner had already quietly notified these people while he was stalling for time inside.

"So you're the three who have been pickpocketing on the Flower Street lately? To be so bold as to cross the line, do you have a few extra heads to spare?" the leader of the brutes said coldly.

Crossing the line meant they had poached on someone else's territory.

Seeing the three of them walk out of the pawnshop so obediently, the group assumed they were scared, and one by one, they began to cackle with strange, mocking laughter.

"It seems you are the ones who least want the Konoha ninjas to stay here?" Ranwu asked in return.

"What?" The other party was stunned by the question.

"In that case, you should know something about the previous pickpocketing incidents, right?" Minato said with a smile—though now, his Shadow Clone had transformed into a pockmarked brute, and his smile looked particularly twisted.

"Spears, crescent shovels, long-handled blades... these weapons don't look like tools for petty theft. It seems the theft ring in the Flower Capital has a larger violent gang backing them up," Akaseki said, looking at their weapons.

"Who, who exactly are you people?" These men were clearly beginning to panic.

Poof—

With a burst of smoke, Minato vanished from where he stood.

"Nin, ninjas! They're ninjas!"

"Run..."

"Don't be afraid, there are only two of them, and... they can't possibly be legendary jonin."

"That's right, let's fight them!"

"Go notify the boss first..."

At the same time, Minato, who was currently on the Flower Street, suddenly had his expression shift, clearly having learned something.

Heiji remained completely unaware. A moment later, the brute who had just burst into the pawnshop ran over in a panic and whispered something to Heiji...

Heiji heard this and first looked at Minato and the others with surprise.

"What is it? Constable Heiji, do you have any leads?" Minato asked with a smile.

"That's right, a violent incident occurred over on West Street; it might be ninjas from other hidden villages!" Heiji said immediately.

"Ninjas? Then we must hurry over there." Minato said calmly, despite the urgency of his words.

"Y-yes, that's right, Tietou... you take these three lords over there, I'm going to... find some help!" Heiji said immediately.

Heiji turned to leave as soon as he finished speaking, but Minato used a Body Flicker to appear right in front of him: "I must insist that Constable Heiji come with us."

"Ninja Minato, this is..." Heiji feigned confusion, though he already understood it was a trap. Mid-sentence, he suddenly lunged at Minato and drew a short blade from his lapel!

"Get lost!" Heiji shouted angrily to bolster his courage.

However...

Thwack.

Minato nimbly dodged and tapped him on the neck, causing Heiji to lose consciousness instantly.

West Street.

Akaseki and Ranwu had already returned to their original forms; after all, fighting while in the state of a Transformation Technique was inconvenient. They were already maintaining Water Clones and Earth Clones, so maintaining a Transformation Technique on their own bodies was too much of a distraction.

Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!

Akaseki spat out a massive fireball, sending the mob of thugs wailing and rolling on the ground in agony.

These people were not ninjas, though most of them possessed a small amount of Chakra—possessing Chakra did not mean one was a ninja. After all, it had only been thirty-some years since the chaotic Warring States period; while ninja villages basically monopolized the inheritance of ninjutsu, there were countless methods for refining Chakra scattered among the common folk.

However, aside from ninjas, only the samurai of the Land of Iron were worth noting. Even if other civilians had a bit of Chakra, they were only at the level of local thugs, bullies, or bandits, with status and hiring costs even lower than those of rogue ninjas.

As a member of the Uchiha Clan, Akaseki didn't have much of a psychological barrier, even when "killing enemies" for the first time, and the wafting scent of charred flesh didn't cause him much discomfort.

On the contrary, Ranwu frowned at this moment, looking slightly surprised: "Hmm? Your Great Fireball Technique... it seems a bit stronger than before?"