Open Your Eyes! Look What This Is

This was thrilling!

Until now, Uchiha Ling had only sparred with classmates his own age at school. Tonight, he had run into a spy from an enemy village!

Uchiha Ling raced along the wall beside him, chasing after the spy.

Running along a wall was easier when he kept both arms swept back in a ninja's running stance instead of swinging them. It helped him keep his balance.

The spy specialized in speed. His Body Flicker Technique and running speed were both exceptionally fast.

Uchiha Ling suddenly felt that something was off.

There was no way the spy would escape. He was bound to be caught.

So why was he running so hard? Was he just afraid to die and trying to stay free a little longer?

In his previous life, Uchiha Ling had watched footage of police car chases in the United States. One major reason criminals drove so recklessly was to find a chance to throw away evidence like guns or drugs. Another was to buy their accomplices time to commit their crimes.

Espionage missions between ninja villages were brutal. Anyone who became a spy had to be prepared to die.

The spy's desperate flight might be a chance to discard something. It could be evidence, or intelligence he intended to leave somewhere hidden once he had put enough distance between himself and his pursuers.

At that thought, Uchiha Ling leaped onto a roof and surveyed the area from above.

He spotted the spy—and a sight that made him wince.

In a courtyard fifty meters to his left, two Konoha Ninja in standard flak jackets watched the Uchiha Military Police Force ninjas at work. One smoked while the other stood with his arms folded. Neither showed the slightest intention of helping.

On the street to his right, kunai flashed into the hands of a young couple. They had kept the weapons hidden in their sleeves even while relaxing, but when they saw that the pursuers belonged to the Uchiha Military Police Force, they sat back down on their bench.

The man even crossed his legs and whispered to the woman, as if they were watching a joke unfold.

The Uchiha Military Police Force had almost no public support.

With so many ninjas in Konoha, it would have taken only two or three people blocking the spy's path to stop him from running so freely.

In his previous life, people back home talked about the police and the public being one family. Here, their relationship was more like the one in the United States: trust had fractured, violence fed more violence, heavy-handed policing was routine, and hostility on both sides formed a vicious cycle.

Back home, asking a police officer for directions was perfectly normal. In the United States, an officer might instinctively reach for his gun the moment someone approached to ask.

It was like the Military Police Force ninjas he had seen storm into the school to arrest a student not long ago. They had shown no warmth at all. They were rough even with children.

Uchiha Ling looked away and resumed his search for the spy.

There he was. The spy burst around a street corner and darted into another alley.

Uchiha Ling raised an eyebrow. Something was amiss.

A small sphere slipped from the spy's sleeve. It was too dark to see what it was.

With a flick of his foot, the spy kicked it into the gap beneath a nearby trash can.

Just as he thought!

He had known the spy's frantic sprint served no purpose on its own.

A second later, Uchiha Yashiro and the others rounded the corner, having missed the spy's move entirely.

Once they were farther away, Uchiha Ling jumped down beside the trash can, drew a kunai, and swept the sphere out from underneath it.

It was a wax-sealed sphere. There was probably a slip of paper inside.

This was likely the last piece of intelligence the spy had left for a contact or handler. It was incredibly valuable.

Sphere in hand, Uchiha Ling hurried after Uchiha Yashiro and the others.

He had gone only one street before he saw the spy pinned to the ground.

The spy had swaggered around the school and beaten down students, but against a Military Police Force veteran like Uchiha Yashiro, he had not even gotten a chance to strike.

To be honest, Uchiha Ling had just indulged in a fantasy of defeating the spy as a mere student, far surpassing Uchiha Yashiro and the others' expectations. Too bad Yashiro had given him no chance.

Uchiha Tekka saw Uchiha Ling approach and said:

"You're just a kid. Why did you follow us so closely? Aren't you afraid of interfering with the Military Police Force's mission? Or of dying at that spy's hands?"

Uchiha Yashiro said nothing, but he also thought Uchiha Ling had no business being there.

The boy was too young. Yashiro had heard how well Uchiha Ling performed at the Ninja Academy, and the clan leader had praised him too. But seeing someone so young act so recklessly was a profound disappointment.

"Senior Yashiro, may I say a few words to the spy?" Uchiha Ling asked.

Uchiha Tekka frowned. "Do you think this is some interrogation game? That you can get intelligence out of him with a few words?

"If it were that easy, what would we need the Military Police Force's Interrogation Unit for?"

Uchiha Ling ignored Tekka and looked only at Uchiha Yashiro.

Yashiro recalled Fugaku's praise for Uchiha Ling. There was no need to clash with a talented junior of the Uchiha Clan over something so trivial.

"Go ahead. But this spy's identity is sensitive, so speak up. I want to hear what you say to him."

"Speak up? Is that a good idea? Uh, all right. I'll speak up."

Uchiha Ling walked over to the spy and shouted:

"Which village did you come from, you idiot? Your village must have the worst luck in the world to send you here as a spy!

"If all your village's spies are like you, how long will it be before the whole place is wiped out?"

Uchiha Yashiro was speechless. The genius their clan leader had praised was hurling insults at an enemy spy?

These spies had long since made peace with dying. What good would taunts do?

Yashiro was already considering whether he would have to swallow his pride and order a Yamanaka Clan ninja to use the Mind-Reading Secret Technique to obtain intelligence.

After a moment's thought, Yashiro dismissed the idea. It would make the Uchiha Clan look helpless when it came to gathering intelligence.

Uchiha Tekka rolled his eyes. He could not understand how he had lost to a lunatic like this.

That night when he had sparred with Uchiha Ling, Uchiha Ling had insulted him so badly he suffered a Defense Break. Was this some peculiar mental disorder of Uchiha Ling's? Did he just love insulting people?

Just then, Uchiha Ling took out the wax-sealed sphere:

"Hey, idiot! Turn around! Open your eyes! Look what this is!

"Come on, take a look! What do you think it is?

"You kicked the intelligence under a trash can. Well, I was watching for exactly that.

"I—"

Uchiha Ling was about to keep going when a large hand clamped over his mouth.

"Be quiet! Stop talking!" Uchiha Yashiro said urgently. "Why would you tell him you found his backup plan? We could have used that to our advantage!"

Yashiro was alarmed because the spy's eyes had gone wide, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints. His face had turned deathly pale, and sweat poured down his forehead.

The spy was plainly in despair. The spy had suffered a Defense Break. Uchiha Ling had not been lying: he really had uncovered the spy's secret.

If the spy had not known they had found it, they might even have uncovered his handler and contacts.

[A ninja near the host has suffered a Defense Break. The Defense-Breaking System is activating...]

Uchiha Ling was delighted. Following them all this way had been worth it.