Let the Bullets Fly

Late at night—

When it was discovered that the three bullies had not gone home, someone found their cold bodies in the heavy snow. Unfortunately, they had already gone stiff.

After calling in the captain of the Police Force, Fugaku activated his Sharingan and examined the crime scene amid the snow. Aside from the kunai on the three victims, he found a half-burned trash can in the neighboring alley. There were no other clues.

[Fugaku Uchiha]

The footprints had long been buried by the wind and snow. Even the scent had been stripped away by the blizzard; not even ninja hounds would be able to smell anything.

The kunai had not been the three victims' fatal wounds. They had lain in the snow for too long, lost too much blood, and frozen to death. Some cigarette butts were also found beside the trash can. They might have caused the fire, though it had not spread because of the snowstorm.

The kunai became the only remaining clue. At the very least, they proved that a ninja had committed the crime. He packed the three kunai away as evidence, summoned ninja hounds from the Inuzuka Clan, and had them identify the scents on the kunai. The hounds immediately dashed off, following the trail toward the killer.

The Police Force and the Inuzuka Clan followed the ninja hounds to the food street. The hounds' target turned out to be the sake on the diners' tables. The smell of alcohol was strongest here.

"What's going on?" Fugaku asked, watching the ninja hounds stare at the tables before turning to the Inuzuka ninja.

"There's a sake smell on the kunai. The killer may have just been drinking, then passed through that alley and got into a conflict with those three," the Inuzuka ninja explained. He had smelled the kunai himself. That was indeed the scent.

What puzzled him most was that all three kunai carried a strong sake smell, but no other scent at all.

Of course there was no other scent. Lin Chuan had handled the gloves and kunai himself. Without direct evidence or witnesses, indiscriminate murder cases were the hardest to solve. Who said there was no such thing as a perfect crime?

"What kind of person would get into a conflict with three children?" With the kunai lead cut off, Fugaku could only start with their relationships. He looked over the investigation report his subordinates had delivered.

The three did not come from any major clan. They were merely from ordinary Konoha families. As for their personalities and social connections... they were hard to describe in a single sentence.

The three were usually arrogant and tyrannical, bullying everyone around them, including Hinata Hyuga and Naruto Uzumaki. That evening, they had even given Naruto Uzumaki a vicious beating. Many people had seen it.

Seeing the report, Fugaku's head immediately began to ache. Neither Hinata Hyuga nor Naruto Uzumaki was a suspect he could decide to investigate on his own. He could only take the report to the Hokage Tower and report the case's progress to Hiruzen Sarutobi.

After reading the report, Hiruzen Sarutobi gently placed it on the table, puffed twice on his pipe, and pondered for a moment before saying to Fugaku, "Say that wanted criminals escaped and accidentally injured them during the pursuit. Increase security at the school from now on, and compensate the three families..."

"Lord Hokage, who was pursuing the wanted criminals?" Fugaku looked at the Third Hokage. Was this old bastard planning to make the Police Force take the blame again?

Because of the Nine-Tails' Attack, Konoha's higher-ups had openly and secretly pinned the blame on the Uchiha. Were they going to dump another crime on the Uchiha just because a few people had died?

"Just say it was the ANBU," Hiruzen Sarutobi replied indifferently. He knew how to soothe the pain in the villagers' hearts.

However, Konoha's king of scapegoats would quietly exert his influence...

"Understood, Lord Hokage." Hearing that the ANBU would take the blame, Fugaku breathed a sigh of relief. He had been under immense pressure lately. The clan was discussing rebellion, and these trivial matters no longer mattered. The Uchiha were close to being unable to contain themselves.

After Fugaku left, the Police Force issued an announcement. With Hiruzen Sarutobi's signature on it, the announcement was fairly credible.

The next day, Hiruzen Sarutobi visited the three families and provided appropriate compensation for the ANBU's failed pursuit of wanted criminals and the accidental injury of civilians.

Everyone thought that would be the end of it, but some ill-timed rumors began to spread quietly. They merely replaced "the ANBU's failed pursuit" with "the Police Force's failed pursuit."

It was only the name of a department that changed, but the seeds of hatred had long been planted. Moreover, the Police Force run by the Uchiha had already drawn widespread resentment. As public opinion fermented, a lie repeated a thousand or ten thousand times became truth. Even if the Police Force had not done it, people would insist that it had.

Once the blame was dumped on the Uchiha, they could not shake it off. After all, the Police Force was entirely made up of Uchiha. There was no one else.

Shimura Danzō, that old schemer, understood the damage public opinion could cause all too well. Public opinion was a political tool that could be manipulated, a sharp blade that could create heroes or kill without leaving a trace. Public opinion could devour people. The White Fang of Konoha had died because of it.

Lin Chuan had not expected that merely nudging the timeline a little would bring the Uchiha clan's destruction forward. Even the tiniest transmigrator could stir up a hurricane!

At that moment, the instigator still knew nothing of it...

After the weekend ended, Lin Chuan continued trudging through the snow to school in the morning.

However, his bargain-bin dad was now beside him. He had probably received a notice from the school. A violent assault had occurred in the village, and children needed to be accompanied by guardians on their way to school. Along the road, Lin Chuan saw many children being led by their parents. It seemed he could not make another move.

When he arrived at the classroom, he heard his classmates discussing the incident. Some said the three hateful brats had offended the wrong people and gotten taken out. Others said they deserved it, since they must have bullied plenty of people. Some claimed the Police Force had accidentally injured them while pursuing wanted criminals, while others said it was the ANBU. In short, there were all sorts of opinions.

Naruto's expression changed when he heard the news. He really had clashed with those three guys. He had only been unable to beat them and gotten badly beaten instead. Now that something had happened to them, would he be in trouble too?

Sasuke's expression was just as ugly. He had heard plenty of nasty rumors. Many people claimed the Police Force's failure had allowed wanted criminals to accidentally injure the three victims. In short, all kinds of vicious words were being aimed at the Uchiha.

Listening to everyone's discussion, Lin Chuan, the true culprit, could not help sighing in relief. He knew exactly who had done it. He had not expected the Police Force and ANBU to take the blame, nor had he expected it to create such a massive public backlash. He felt that he had more or less cleared himself of suspicion.

After all, there were kunai, alcohol, cigarette butts, and a fire. Who would suspect an elementary school student?

Of those three things, one was a ninja weapon, while the other two were part of a ninja's lifestyle. None had anything to do with him, a Ninja Academy student. He could remain perfectly hidden.

However, he could not keep obtaining Life Points this way. The first time could be dismissed as an accident, but doing it several times would become premeditated murder. He did not intend to act again until after graduating from the Ninja Academy.

What followed was another boring day of classes. He found that the entire school was under strict lockdown. He could not even skip class to grind hard. Instead, he was caught by Uchiha from the Police Force, hauled back, and tossed over the wall into the snow.

No wonder no one pleaded for those people when their clan was wiped out. They were far too rough. Fortunately, the snow was soft, so he was not injured. He could only follow the proper procedure and wait for his bargain-bin dad to pick him up after school.

The wait was boring, so he opened the talent point interface. Now that he had Life Points, he wanted to see whether he could spend them on attributes and build his genius persona.

[Talents: [Ninjutsu: 3+] Taijutsu: 3+] Genjutsu: 3+] Wisdom: 3+] Strength: 3+] Speed: 3+] Spirit: 3+] Seals: 3+] Total: 24]

But when he tried to add a point to his Spirit talent, a prompt unexpectedly appeared in his mind...

[Insufficient Life Points. Failed to increase Spirit.]

"What the hell? Damn game designer, I clearly still have three Life Points..."

He clearly had three Life Points. Why had the increase failed? Could the talent system not work the way he thought it did?

Damn that game designer! If they had not watched Naruto, they should not have designed a game around it. What kind of garbage point-allocation system was this? He had Life Points, yet he was not allowed to use them.

Everyone knew that a ninja's eight basic attributes were equivalent to eight talents. Each talent could be raised to ten. Ten was merely the limit of ordinary ninja data, not the limit of certain freakish cheaters. That was beside the point for now.

If every talent could be maxed out at ten, then he would have eighty talent points in total. He currently had twenty-four, so he only needed fifty-six Life Points to max out every talent.

But the message that his Life Points were insufficient completely overturned his previous guess. If talents were not exchanged at a one-to-one rate with Life Points, then perhaps the number of Life Points required depended on the talent level.

His Ninjutsu talent was currently three. To raise it to four, he would most likely need four Life Points rather than one.

If that was the case, then he was in trouble. To max out one talent, he would need 4+5+...+10=49 Life Points. To max out all of them, he would need 392 Life Points.

Fifty-six Life Points and 392 Life Points were not remotely the same concept. The difference was sevenfold. Was that damn game designer refusing to play fair? The difficulty of maxing out his talents had shot up seven times! Trash interface, trash talents, trash game designer—were they even going to let him play?

He had taken such a huge risk for just three Life Points. Thinking about needing another 389 Life Points, he found that beef suddenly did not taste so good anymore. No wonder the rescue missions awarded ten times as many Life Points. So this was where that damn game designer had been waiting for him!

"May that damn game designer have a son without a—"

After cursing the game designer, he realized that beef really did taste good. If he chose to save people instead, he would only need to save thirty-nine people. But were there even that many people for him to save?

He remembered that during the Chunin Ninja Exams, Gekko Hayate died, as did examinees from other villages. The Sound Four and Kimimaro also died.

Those were the dead people he could reach. As a Konoha ninja, saving Gekko Hayate should be easy. Although he did not know how that damn game designer judged the requirements for saving someone, as long as he played a crucial role in the rescue, it should count. He could fire off a distress flare for Gekko Hayate.

As for the remaining examinees from other villages, did he have to save them too?

Before the Forest of Death exam began, Orochimaru killed a Grass ninja team. How the hell was he supposed to save them? Was that saving people or courting death? Even a hundred lives would not be enough for Orochimaru to kill!

Maybe he should let go of his urge to help others, respect their fates, enjoy his own good life, and stop interfering in other people's lives. Everyone had their own path to walk.

What did it have to do with him? He did not eat beef. Anyone expecting him to save people was dreaming.

Unless the person was easy to save and he did not need to risk his life, he might as well forget it!

Still, he might be able to pick up some easy opportunities with the Sound Four later. Neji's group of four could also be easy opportunities. By "pick up opportunities," he did not mean killing Neji's group. They were ninjas from the same camp, after all, and killing comrades was best avoided. Besides, the reward for saving people was higher.

What was more, he would not kill Neji. Neji was a pitiful genius. Lin Chuan did not eat beef; he lived however he pleased and did whatever felt right to him.

Whoever made him unhappy, he would make unhappy. At worst, he could trade one life for one life. He would not die anyway. Having a cheat made him bold.

Once he revived, if that person had died, he would dig up that person's grave. If that person had not died, he would trade lives with them again.