The merchants on Fourth Commercial Street clapped and cheered as they watched the Konoha Military Police Force escort the prisoners away.
"You can always count on the Military Police to get things done!"
"Captain Xuanye really is our rock. That monthly security fee is worth every penny!"
"With Lord Xuanye looking out for us, let's see who dares come here to eat and take things without paying!"
The ninja tool shop owner was even more profuse in his thanks.
But Xuanye could no longer hear any of this flattery.
He was leading the main group back to the Military Police building at a leisurely pace.
The underground interrogation room at Military Police headquarters.
Xuanye sat sprawled in a chair, took a sip of the hot tea a team member had brewed for him, and stared with a faint, ambiguous smile at Mito Qingteng, who was tied to a cross opposite him.
Mito Qingteng, the only son of Hokage Advisor Mitokado Homura.
To outsiders, this brat was a princeling at the very top of Konoha, someone no one dared cross.
But to Xuanye, he was nothing more than a fat pig ripe for slaughter.
Never mind him-even if Mitokado Homura himself came to make trouble on the commercial street, he would still be arrested according to the rules and fleeced.
Over the course of three Shinobi World Wars, the ninja on the front lines had shed blood and risked their lives, while those two old bastards in the rear, Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, had taken the opportunity to profiteer from the wars and line their pockets.
The village had been run into the ground, while these parasites in high places had gorged themselves.
Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi might have had some political skill, but even he could not overcome being surrounded by the useless teammates the Second Hokage had left behind.
A bunch of old bastards who cowered before outsiders and came down hard on their own-Konoha had only itself to blame for its decline.
"Come clean. When did you become a traitor to the village?"
Xuanye set down his teacup and casually dropped a bombshell.
Mito Qingteng froze on the spot, his eyes going wide. "That's a vicious lie! When did I ever betray Konoha?!"
Was he kidding?! My father might be a Hokage Advisor, but if I'm really charged with betraying the village, not even a god could save me!
"Stubborn to the end."
Xuanye shook his head. Not bothering to waste any more words on him, he waved to the interrogators beside him, then stood and walked straight out of the room.
The moment the door closed, heartrending screams rang out from the interrogation room.
On the Military Police's turf, Xuanye's word was law.
As for whether extracting a confession through torture would cause trouble?
Sorry, but when Xuanye first took over the Military Police, he had sent his newly drafted public security regulations and interrogation regulations to the Hokage building and had the Third Hokage personally sign and stamp them.
Now he was following the regulations, with every right to do so. He was practically hoping Mitokado Homura would come storming over in a rage and make a scene, so he could deal with the father too.
That accusation of betraying the village had been something Xuanye made up off the cuff.
The routine was simple: slap a serious accusation on him as soon as he came in. If the brat was tough enough to hold out, he would be hit with an enormous fine under the ordinary public security regulations.
If he could not take it and confessed to anything and everything, Xuanye could take the signed confession and legitimately raid Mitokado Homura's home to shake him down.
His regular expenses were high, after all, and he had hundreds of men under him waiting to be fed. If he did not get money out of corrupt officials like these, who else would he get it from?
The money in Mitokado Homura's home was dirty to begin with. Xuanye felt no guilt whatsoever about taking it for himself to spend.
Just as Xuanye was considering how to squeeze ten million ryo out of Mitokado Homura, the screams in the interrogation room suddenly stopped.
Vice Captain Uchiha Shanyang hurried out with a document bearing a bloody handprint, his expression exceptionally grave.
"Captain, he confessed to everything!"
"That fast?"
Xuanye was a little surprised. He had not even finished half a cigarette, and this princeling had already folded?
He casually took the confession and skimmed it, nearly laughing aloud when he finished.
"Well, damn. One casual bluff, and I actually flushed out a mole selling us out!"
What an unexpected windfall! After just two lashes, this spineless fool had actually spilled all the closely guarded secrets that could cost him his head!
The contents of the confession were simple and straightforward, but enough to send shockwaves through the Konoha High Command.
With constant clashes along the Land of Fire's borders, the Third Hokage had sent quite a few experts from the Hyuga Clan to hold the front lines, giving Kumogakure a very hard time.
Unable to keep fighting, Kumogakure had started considering peace negotiations.
To secure absolute control at the negotiating table, Kumogakure had sent spies into Konoha to gather intelligence, hoping to determine Konoha's current war reserves, its financial limits, and the Third Hokage's true position.
All it had taken was a little seduction and money from Kumogakure's spies to turn Mito Qingteng.
For a pittance, this idiot had sold every confidential document in his father's study to Kumogakure!
After reading the confession, Xuanye immediately understood something.
No wonder Kumogakure's delegation had been so outrageously arrogant when they came to Konoha for negotiations in the original story, even daring to abduct Hinata Hyuga right inside Konoha and ultimately forcing Hizashi Hyuga to his death!
It turned out Kumogakure had already learned all of Konoha's secrets through Mito Qingteng and knew that its treasury was empty and its leadership feared war!
The Fourth Raikage might have looked like a hulking brute, but he certainly did not lack cunning.
In truth, Kumogakure had also impoverished itself fighting the war, but they had seen right through Hiruzen Sarutobi's weak, compromising nature and used maximum pressure to tear a chunk of flesh from Konoha.
If the Third Hokage had dared overturn the negotiating table and stand his ground to the end, Kumogakure would absolutely have backed down immediately.
Xuanye curled his lip and handed the confession back to Shanyang. "Keep interrogating him. Get every time and place he made contact with Kumogakure out of him. Don't miss a single detail."
"Understood! How should we deal with him once we're done?"
Uchiha Shanyang glanced at the wall clock and cautiously asked for instructions.
Clocking out on time was the captain's ironclad rule. Once he was off work, they could not bother him even if the sky fell.
"Make a copy of the confession and toss it straight onto the Third Hokage's desk."
Xuanye yawned, waved a hand, and headed out the front door.
He had arranged to have barbecue with Kurenai Yuhi that evening. As for how much chaos the confession would cause over at the Hokage building, he could not be bothered to care.
He left the office building and clocked out right on time!
[Ding! Today's competent police captain mission has been tallied!] [Hidden reward obtained: a massive increase in Sharingan ocular power!]
The instant the notification in his mind ended, a scorching current surged into Xuanye's eyes.
Three tomoe spun rapidly in his eyes, connecting in the blink of an eye to form an intricate Mangekyō pattern.
But the enhancement was far from over!
The Mangekyō's markings continued to rearrange themselves as threads of dark golden light merged into his blood-red pupils. His previously restless ocular power settled completely, becoming unfathomably deep.
The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, achieved in one leap!
Xuanye blinked, taking in a world several times clearer than before, and nodded in satisfaction.
The hidden rewards from daily missions were distributed in installments. After three years of accumulation, today they had finally pushed his Sharingan to the level of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
At this rate, if the system happened to be in a good mood one day and rewarded him with some Yang Release Chakra, advancing straight to the Rinnegan would come naturally too.
Xuanye was not actually all that fixated on the Rinnegan, though.
With his current mental attribute, even if he stood still and let Madara Uchiha cast Infinite Tsukuyomi, that little genjutsu would not even break through his defenses.
Besides, the Rinnegan's rings of purple ripples looked like an onion. They were simply too ugly to suit his handsome face.
By comparison, the Jōgan or Tenseigan looked better.
"When I have some free time, I might as well take a stroll on the moon."
Rubbing his chin, Xuanye ambled toward the barbecue restaurant.
"Come to think of it, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's true body is still sealed inside the moon. I wonder what that old lady who's been lonely for over a thousand years looks like now..."
Before you continue