A Proper Talk

Night fell.

In a messy, foul-smelling room, Naruto lay on his bed, sound asleep.

Whoosh. Light flickered, and a figure appeared beside him.

Using the Flying Thunder God mark he had left behind last time, Zhengye's main body teleported over.

The moment he arrived, he first checked the surroundings.

Fortunately, Naruto knew to draw the curtains before sleeping—or perhaps he had simply forgotten to open them.

Although Zhengye sensed that there were more ANBU outside, none of them were from the Hyuga Clan.

Not wasting any time, Zhengye held Naruto's head and flooded in with his ocular power.

Whoosh!

In an instant, his surroundings shifted.

He returned to that dim underground prison.

The enormous fox eyes within had already opened.

"Why have you come again?" The Nine-Tails' voice carried a hint of confusion.

After all, Zhengye was not controlling him. Last time, he had actually told him to get acquainted with Naruto sooner. It had been utterly ridiculous.

Uh, don't tell me he's here for the same reason this time?

Zhengye stared at the Nine-Tails expressionlessly. "It seems you didn't take what I said last time seriously."

The Nine-Tails snorted out a blast of scorching breath and lay down in the prison without a care.

"Your Mangekyō Sharingan can only control me at most. What can you do if I refuse to cooperate?"

"Unless you help me tear open the seal and let me out."

The Nine-Tails was already inside the Eight Trigrams Seal. Zhengye either had to reach into the seal or open it.

Otherwise, even if the Mangekyō Sharingan controlled the Nine-Tails, it could do nothing else.

"Do you think that with this seal, there's nothing I can do to you?"

For no reason, the Nine-Tails' heart skipped a beat, but he still forced himself to remain calm. His eyes narrowed, and his fox pupils became thin slits.

"Then come in, if you can."

Naturally, Zhengye had considered this before coming.

He gave a cold smile as the pattern in his Three-Tomoe Sharingan burst apart.

Mangekyō Sharingan.

Ocular technique, Amenotokotachi!

An invisible, crushing pressure descended upon the Nine-Tails.

The Nine-Tails' brow twitched, but he only felt slightly uncomfortable. "Manipulating gravity? Interesting."

He had lived for many years and had seen countless strange techniques. Even gravity manipulation only surprised him slightly.

"With this little gravity, you think you can teach me a lesson... huh?"

By the last few words, the Nine-Tails had already realized something was wrong.

As Zhengye's Mangekyō Sharingan turned, the gravity weighing upon him was increasing at a rate of doubling every two seconds.

In just ten seconds, the Nine-Tails was already under five times normal gravity.

"Damn it... you Uchiha!"

The Nine-Tails opened his massive jaws and let out a wild roar!

The fur all over his body stood on end.

Yet his nine tails, which should have been lashing about wildly, were completely pinned down and could not even rise.

The Nine-Tails trembled all over, his limbs shaking like sieves.

Zhengye likewise felt his ocular power draining away at incredible speed, like mercury spilling across the ground.

Seeing that the Nine-Tails was still holding on, Zhengye's expression hardened as he poured in even more ocular power.

The gravity doubled again!

With a hum, even the air around them seemed to thicken.

"Urgh, roar!!"

The Nine-Tails let out a pained wail and, with a bang, was crushed to the ground.

Terrifying cracking sounds came from his body—the sound of bones breaking under the pressure.

Zhengye stared fiercely at the Nine-Tails.

Even within the seal, he could still grievously wound the Nine-Tails.

If the Nine-Tails refused a toast only to drink a forfeit, Zhengye would not mind making him lie there for several months.

Pinned to the ground, the Nine-Tails had large amounts of bloody foam bubbling from his mouth, yet he could not even open it.

The outrage and fury in his eyes had turned to terror, and now there was even fear and retreat in them.

Zhengye let out a breath. Seeing the Nine-Tails like this, he released his ocular technique.

"Urgh..." Once the gravity vanished, Kurama took a deep breath, finally dispelling the feeling of his chest being crushed flat.

"D-Damn it..."

Anger and fear flickered in the Nine-Tails' eyes as he shrank back in fright.

But the pride of the Nine-Tails prevented him from begging for mercy.

Zhengye knew the Nine-Tails was a tsundere and did not expect him to speak. Instead, he warned him, "If something like this happens to Naruto again and you still do nothing, I'll come see you again next time."

With that, his figure flickered and vanished from the place.

"Phew..." Only after Zhengye left did the Nine-Tails release a long breath.

He felt as though every part of his body had been crushed, pain relentlessly assaulting him.

Damn it, do I... really have to listen to him?

Zhengye withdrew from Naruto's mental world.

An immense wave of pain struck him, and his vision repeatedly darkened.

He reached up to touch his eye sockets, and a trace of blood stained his fingertips.

Hiss... that took a lot out of me.

Although the Nine-Tails was inside the seal, that only made him a living target that could not run away.

Moreover, Zhengye had not forcibly controlled him. He had used an ocular technique to attack him.

The ocular power consumed this way was far greater than he had expected.

Still, Zhengye did not regret it. He could add points anyway. At worst, he would put more points into spirit; that should make up for it.

He had originally planned to sneak out from here, but his current condition was too poor.

Zhengye took out the imitation Flying Thunder God Kunai from his clothes.

With a whoosh, he instantly returned to his own room. Fortunately, he had marked his home in advance, or it really would have been difficult to get back.

He looked down at the Flying Thunder God Kunai. The number of uses on it had become 0/3, and it then shattered and disappeared completely.

Zhengye shook his head. Not even bothering to wash up, he lay down on the bed and fell into a deep sleep, his eyes aching.

Hokage's Office.

The Third Hokage smoked unhurriedly as he flipped through the complaint forms on his desk one by one.

Nearly all of them were complaints against the Police Force.

Either they involved violent law enforcement, or people being arrested at random.

However, unlike before, when only the Uchiha Clan was the subject of complaints, members of other ninja clans were now involved as well.

Although those villagers and ninja clans might have all been related in one way or another.

They were fundamentally different from the main branches of truly powerful clans.

The Third Hokage simply tossed aside complaints against other clans.

Only complaints against the Uchiha Clan were set aside separately.

The Third Hokage stacked them up. There were around thirty complaints, an extremely high proportion.

Then he picked up another document and began reading it.

It was an ANBU investigation into the Police Force's current procedures.

The scouting positions identified public security issues, and the combat positions immediately made arrests, without attempting any mediation.

After being brought straight back to the Police Force, the villagers were interrogated by ninja clan members skilled in interrogation.

Furthermore, villagers taken to the Police Force who had committed serious offenses were subjected to inhumane torture.

Their limbs were first broken, then a group of rookies reset the bones and treated them, and finally they were imprisoned.

The Police Force was now practically hell.

Anyone who had gone there would never dare go back.

The key issue was that even those guilty of grave crimes were not sent to Konoha Prison.

The Third Hokage continuously tapped his fingers against the desk.

The Uchiha are clearly establishing a second system of control.

I need to test their bottom line.

He pressed a button on the desk. The door opened, and an ANBU slipped inside.

"What is Jiraiya doing right now?"

The ANBU immediately replied, "Lord Jiraiya is drinking with courtesans in the pleasure district."

The Third Hokage snorted irritably.

Seeing the time, he shook his head as well.

Forget it. I'll deal with it tomorrow.