Uchiha Akainu turned around and saw a long-haired, black-haired girl standing behind him, looking quite hesitant.
"Akainu-senpai, I... I..."
Izumi suddenly stammered, feeling naturally nervous under the intense gaze of Uchiha Akainu-senpai. It was strange, usually, she could gather enough courage to talk to other senpais, even Lord Fugaku himself. But in front of this "Uchiha Akainu-senpai," she was so nervous she didn't know what to say!
"Speak," Uchiha Akainu commanded.
Izumi flinched and quickly introduced herself, "My name is Uchiha Izumi! I participated in this year's Police Force recruitment exam. When Lord Fugaku told me to choose an examiner, I... I chose you, Akainu-senpai!"
However, as she spoke, her voice grew softer and softer under the sharp, scrutinizing gaze of the Police Force senpai. By the end, she couldn't even bring herself to look Uchiha Akainu in the eye.
"Examiner? You chose me?" Uchiha Akainu looked at the girl and stated expressionlessly, "Even though you seem quite frail, at least your courage is commendable."
Uchiha Akainu forced a fake, mirthless smile. "Passing my exam is simple. Don't make me want to kill you within a month, and you'll pass."
"Oh, wait a moment. There's a rat trying to escape."
Izumi: "???"
Huh?
As Izumi stood there bewildered, she watched in shock as Uchiha Akainu suddenly drew the ninja blade from his waist. The blade arced through the air, a flash of silver, and then a shocking crimson color entered Izumi's vision.
The next second, she watched helplessly as a short man suddenly collapsed to the ground. His left leg had been severed!
"Ahhhhhhh!!!"
The small man's agonizing screams and the metallic smell of blood in the air assaulted Izumi's senses and tested her psychological limits. She instinctively took half a step back, sweat beading on her forehead from the tension.
"Uchiha Izumi." Uchiha Akainu flicked the blood from his blade.
"Huh?" Izumi, worried about the man on the ground bleeding to death, quickly looked up in a panic.
Uchiha Akainu frowned. "When I call your name, you are to respond with 'Yes, sir!'"
"Oh... ah, Yes, sir!" Izumi hastily corrected herself.
"Such a quiet voice, and you want to join the Police Force?" Uchiha Akainu said coldly. "I can't even hear what you're saying. Is this your resolve to join the Police Force? Can someone like you truly uphold the word [Justice]? You might as well just go home and be a good little girl!"
Lord Fugaku was right; Akainu-senpai really is strict. This was their first meeting, and she was already being chewed out. Izumi could only brace herself, her face turning red from the effort.
"YES, SIR!!!!"
Seeing the coldness in her senpai's eyes soften slightly, Izumi breathed a small sigh of relief.
"Um..." Izumi hesitated.
"Speak."
She quickly warned, "Senpai, if this man on the ground isn't treated soon, he might die from blood loss."
"How much longer can he live?" Uchiha Akainu asked indifferently, a question that completely caught Izumi off guard.
She answered quickly, "He might go into shock within 10 minutes."
"That's plenty of time," Uchiha Akainu told Izumi. "Rookie, I have a mission for you."
Izumi gulped. "Senpai, I haven't learned medical ninjutsu. How about... we take him to the Konoha Hospital?"
Uchiha Akainu glanced at her. "Who said anything about taking him for treatment?"
"Huh?" Izumi had lost count of how many times she'd been bewildered today. She stammered, "Senpai, do you mean..."
Uchiha Akainu handed over his ninja blade, and Izumi instinctively reached out to take it. With an unreadable expression, Uchiha Akainu said, "Prove to me your resolve to join the Police Force. Take this blade and interrogate this guy. Ask him: 'Where is the child's body?' You have only ten minutes. If you can't get the answer, then get out. You don't need to come back and see me tomorrow."
Inter...
Interrogate?
Izumi was dumbfounded. She couldn't help but look around. This was one of the busiest streets in Konoha Village. Her gaze swept over her surroundings; she couldn't even count how many people were on this street! Interrogating a civilian with a severed leg out in the open here? And why was she asking about a "child's body"? Was this the usual practice of the Uchiha Police Force? Or was it just Uchiha Akainu-senpai's personal way of doing things?
She tried to sneak a glance at Uchiha Akainu's eyes. She noticed that her senpai's gaze was gradually turning colder. Izumi was suddenly startled. The warnings from Lord Fugaku and that female Police Force senpai flashed through her mind.
— "Do not defy his orders, if you wish to live."
— "Good luck. Sometimes, just surviving is a form of luck."
Izumi was scared. She gripped the hilt of the ninja blade, which still held some warmth, cold sweat continuously breaking out on her smooth, fair forehead. A strong will to survive made her take a few steps forward and interrogate the short man who was clutching his severed leg and wailing. "You... where did you hide... hide the child's body?!"
A flicker of panic crossed the short man's eyes, filled with pain and despair.
"Quick... quick, take me to Konoha Hospital, ahhh!" He didn't answer Izumi's hesitant interrogation but instead cried out in terror, "I'm getting dizzier and dizzier, and I'm bleeding more and more! Am I going to die?! Please save me, I don't want to die! Quick... quick, save me!!!"
"I don't want to die either," Izumi cried out silently in her heart.
"Where did you hide the child's body?" Izumi tried to calm herself, believing that Akainu-senpai wouldn't make her ask this question for no reason. She said quickly, "You only need to answer this question, and then I can take you to Konoha Hospital. You don't have many minutes left!"
The short man continued to scream in terror, "I don't know what child, I don't know anything! Please, save me!"
"Senpai..." Izumi tried to cast a pleading look at Uchiha Akainu but found that her senpai was standing with his arms crossed, observing with cold eyes. She couldn't read a single shred of emotion from those indifferent eyes.
She suddenly had a suffocating illusion. This feeling... Izumi knew it well. Years ago, on the night of the Nine-Tails attack, when she encountered that massive Nine-Tails monster, she had experienced the same feeling—that desperate, suffocating sensation that her life was about to end!
Izumi's will to survive once again overshadowed her sympathy. Hardening her heart, she grabbed the ninja blade, held it against the short man's neck, and gritted her teeth. "Last chance! Where is the child's body?!"
The sharp blade had already drawn a thin line of blood on the short man's neck. The short man's eyes widened in terror, the faint pain in his neck making him panic. "I... I didn't mean to... I didn't mean to kill her. You have to believe me! You really have to believe me! She... she was my daughter, after all..."
"I was just playing around with her at the time. I... I didn't expect her to die... I threw her into the dry well in the yard."
Izumi was stunned. The short man's disjointed words revealed information that shocked her to her core—the man Akainu-senpai had asked her to interrogate in broad daylight had actually killed his own daughter! And he had thrown her body into a dry well! This was a murderer!
"Rookie. This is your first lesson in joining the Uchiha Police Force to execute [Justice]." Uchiha Akainu's voice slowly echoed behind Izumi. "—Always execute the orders I give you."
"Without question."
"Without resistance."
"Without failure."
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