The Military Police Force!

Li didn't resist. He simply nodded. He didn't regret killing that ninja, nor did he think he'd done anything wrong. Being killed only meant that his opponent hadn't been strong enough; no one else was to blame. If Li had died today, he wouldn't have hated the ninja either, because everything that had happened would have been due to his own lack of ability.

"Wait! This has nothing to do with Li. That ninja was trying to kill me. Li only killed him to save me!" Kushina finally came to her senses. Seeing Li being taken away, she forgot her fear and hurriedly tried to explain.

"This has nothing to do with you. The Military Police Force will decide what's right and wrong once we get there!" The two Uchiha Clan members shot Kushina a cold look, feeling very displeased. If not for this kid, Li wouldn't have killed anyone. Although the Uchiha Clan held considerable power in Konoha, killing a Konoha Ninja in the open, right in the village, was bound to be difficult to explain to the Hokage. Who knew what trouble it might bring down on the Uchiha Clan again?

"But...!"

"That's enough, Kushina. Don't say anything else. I killed him, and this has nothing to do with you. Don't worry, I'll be fine." Li didn't want Kushina to worry, so he gave her a faint smile.

Kushina wasn't stupid. She knew Li was only saying that to put her at ease. She was about to say something, but then she saw him give a slight shake of his head. His eyes had turned black again, and there was something inscrutable in them. Perhaps no one else would have understood, but somehow Kushina did: Li was saying that he didn't regret it.

In the end, Kushina could only watch as the two Uchiha Clan members led Li away. They carried off the dead ninja, too, while no one paid Kushina any attention. She stood there muttering to herself, unsure what to do. She had only just arrived in Konoha, and Li was the only person she knew. Even if she wanted to find someone to help, she had no idea where to start.

"Right, I'll go find Uchiha Mikoto!" Kushina suddenly remembered the Uchiha girl who liked to follow Li around. Without wasting another moment, she hurried toward the Uchiha Clan Compound.

"Li, what happened? Why did you suddenly kill someone in Konoha?"

Inside the Military Police Force headquarters, its chief, Uchiha Hao, glared at Li with a dark expression. If it had been anything else, it wouldn't have been a problem, but murder was different. Even princes were subject to the same laws as commoners. No matter how powerful the Uchiha Clan was, they didn't want to turn the entire village against them. Now that Li had killed a Konoha Ninja, the victim's family might go to the Hokage and make a scene. If they did, Li would be punished.

"Mercy toward an enemy is cruelty toward yourself. When he insulted the Uchiha Clan and called us worthless, I wanted to kill him. But then I thought he was still young, so I decided to teach him a lesson and leave it at that. I didn't expect him to be so stupid as to sneak up on Kushina..."

"You killed someone from Konoha for an outsider? What kind of behavior is that? You're the greatest genius in the Uchiha Clan. You could have as many friends as you wanted. Why would you do something like this for someone like her?" Uchiha Hao angrily cut Li off before he could finish.

"Because he was my enemy. Mercy toward an enemy is cruelty toward yourself. I let him go, and he still tried to sneak up on Kushina. This made me realize that an enemy must be completely eliminated. Even if someone used to be my comrade, if they dare to become my enemy, I won't hold back!" Li gave a cold snort. His eyes turned crimson, and his Two-Tomoe Sharingan appeared as his emotions stirred. He stared coldly at Uchiha Hao.

"Two tomoe?" Uchiha Hao drew in a sharp breath when he saw Li's eyes, stunned. He was only six, yet he'd awakened the Two-Tomoe Sharingan. What kind of genius was this? The Uchiha Clan had six or seven hundred members, but only a little over three hundred had awakened the Sharingan. There were only a handful of dozen three-tomoe eyes, and just over a hundred pairs of Two-Tomoe Sharingan. What an enormous disparity! What's more, the youngest Uchiha to awaken the Two-Tomoe Sharingan was at least fifteen, while the oldest was already over thirty. That showed just how difficult it was to awaken the Sharingan—and how much harder it was to advance it. Yet this six-year-old child had already traveled a road that took others at least a decade to complete...

I have to protect him, even if it means falling out with the Third Hokage! Once his shock subsided, Uchiha Hao settled on this thought. Li was the greatest genius the Uchiha Clan had ever known. Even Madara Uchiha hadn't been quite as remarkable at this age. If Li could grow up safely, the Uchiha Clan's return to the glory of the Sengoku era would be within reach. And with no powerhouse like Hashirama Senju to stand in their way, what could Konoha possibly do to stop them?

Still, Li's last words had caught Uchiha Hao's attention. Mercy toward an enemy is cruelty toward yourself? Enemies must be completely eliminated? Even if someone used to be a comrade, he wouldn't hold back if they became an enemy? Who taught him to think like that?

Could his parents' deaths have left him scarred? Uchiha Hao couldn't help remembering how calmly Li had reacted a year ago when he'd heard that his parents were dead. The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Most children would have cried and made a scene after hearing that their parents had died, but Li hadn't said a word or even shown any grief. There were only two explanations: either Li had never felt any affection for his parents, or his grief had been overwhelming. Uchiha Hao believed the second explanation.

Thinking of Li's parents filled Uchiha Hao with guilt again. If he hadn't acted so rashly back then, they wouldn't have fallen into the enemy's ambush, and both of them might not have died.

"Li, do you hate the people who killed your parents?" Uchiha Hao hesitated briefly before asking.

"No." Li shook his head, answering without a moment's thought.

"Why? They killed your own parents!" Uchiha Hao narrowed his eyes slightly, unable to believe it.

At that, Li looked up at Uchiha Hao. His dark eyes were utterly calm. After a long pause, he said, "Every injustice is caused by a lack of ability. My parents died because they weren't strong enough. That was their own mistake. As their child, it's my responsibility to help them correct their mistake. So what is there to hate?"

Did he really feel no hatred? Li didn't know. He didn't feel much affection for the parents he had in this world. Born into a clan like this, his parents had put the clan's honor first and hadn't given him much love. Most of the time, he'd been left at home alone, raised by a nanny. But on the other hand, they had given birth to him, and no blood tie could change that. When he'd first heard they'd been killed, he'd felt only a wave of sorrow. Then those words had come to him in an instant. At that moment, Li had become even more certain: only strength was the means to survive. Ability was what mattered most.