Uchiha Chizumi walked down Konoha's main street, a girl following behind him, holding a ramen box and chopsticks, slurping up the now soggy noodles as she walked.
Most of the passersby who caught sight of Uchiha Chizumi clearly looked a little unnatural.
Some kids who had been playing noisily were immediately pulled back by their parents and scolded not to misbehave.
Clearly, these people had heard of Uchiha Chizumi's "reputation."
Or perhaps their relatives or friends had once committed crimes and received Uchiha Chizumi's "special attention." They were either now dead by his blade or serving hard time in Konoha's prison.
"Uh… h-hello!"
Uchiha Chizumi halted, for a Konoha villager suddenly ran up and blocked his way.
The man held a box in his hands, and with great courage, offered it to Uchiha Chizumi with both hands, head lowered, speaking quickly:
"Thank you for catching the men who murdered my fiancée three months ago! I've been so depressed since then that I didn't come to thank you sooner. Please… please accept this small token of gratitude!"
Uchiha Chizumi didn't bother to remember every name in the Uchiha clan, nor did he care to recall every person who had died under his blade.
But the victims who had been harmed by "evil," those he remembered very clearly.
The sorrowful man before him was a Konoha civilian-ranked genin named Takigawa Osamu, twenty-five years old.
Three months ago, his fiancée had been assaulted and killed by drunken men.
Uchiha Chizumi had tracked down the three perpetrators.
"I didn't catch them," Uchiha Chiquan said calmly. "I killed them all."
The man lowered his head and said, "That's precisely why I'm even more grateful to you."
"Please…"
"Please, you must take my thanks!"
Uchiha Chizumi shook his head and walked around the grief-stricken man. When he came up behind him, he spoke again:
"I'm sorry this world — corroded by 'evil,' riddled with festering wounds — has let you down. If you've truly made up your mind, then there's no need to give me this gift. Give it to someone who truly needs it."
Uchiha Chizumi paused a moment, his face expressionless, then added two more sentences:
"If you're still hesitating, then treasure your life. I will prove to you that this world can become better."
The slurping sound of ramen behind him had gone silent at some point.
From her senpai's words, Izumi vaguely guessed what might be happening. She stared in shock at the man whose eyes were now brimming with tears.
The man muttered, "Thank you… thank you…"
Izumi watched his staggering figure fade into the distance.
For a moment, she opened her mouth, but no words came out.
"Senpai, he… he wouldn't be…" Izumi ventured carefully.
"This isn't the first," Uchiha Chizumi replied. "When you see enough of these cases, don't grow numb. Once you grow numb, your justice will rust along with it. And rusted justice… is a betrayal of justice."
Izumi was just about to speak when suddenly it felt like something slammed into her head.
And whatever it was weighed at least ten kilos!
The impact made her cry out in surprise, her neck bending under the weight.
At that moment, a slightly odd-accented voice suddenly spoke from right on top of her head:
"Lord Chizumi, there's a situation. My children discovered a buried corpse on the outskirts of the village. Judging by the soil traces nearby, it was most likely buried last night."
Izumi froze.
The strange voice continued:
"Many traces at the scene have been deliberately erased. The burial site was staged to look different. This suggests the perpetrator is highly skilled. Most likely a ninja committed the crime."
With that said—
Izumi watched wide-eyed as an orange figure leapt off her head, landing on the ground with a surprisingly graceful posture.
"A… cat?" she suddenly realized. "A ninja cat!!!"
—It was an orange ninja cat, so absurdly fat it looked like a giant orange drumstick.
Izumi had an epiphany.
No wonder it was so heavy!
Could this orange ninja cat be Chizumi Senpai's summoning beast?
"Lead the way," Uchiha Chizumi first said to the ninja cat, then to Izumi: "Rookie, follow me."
Whoosh—Whoosh—
The ninja cat and Uchiha Chizumi turned into afterimages, disappearing in a flash, leaving only two retreating figures, one large and one small.
Startled, Izumi didn't have time to think; she tossed the ramen into a nearby trash bin and hurried after them.
…
Izumi pushed herself to the limit, keeping close behind. Even though all she could see was Senpai's back, at least she wasn't falling far behind. She figured either the ninja cat was too fat to run fast, or Chizumi-Senpai was deliberately slowing his pace so she wouldn't be left behind.
After all, Chizumi Senpai was a jōnin of Konoha. If a jōnin went all out, how could someone like her possibly keep up?
Before long—
Izumi reached the outskirts of Konoha, plunging into a dense forest, where she finally found Chizumi-Senpai and the orange ninja cat had stopped, standing a short distance ahead.
"Phew…"
She wiped the sweat from her brow.
A little tired.
"Lord Chizumi, is this your new sidekick?" the ninja cat asked while licking its paw, speaking human language:
"Lord Chizumi's last two sidekicks didn't even last a day. I wonder how long this new one will hold out."
Izumi timidly interjected, "Today is my second day as Chizumi Senpai's student."
"Meow? Huh?"
The ninja cat stared at Izumi in surprise, raising a single paw at her — Izumi guessed it was trying to give her a thumbs-up:
"You actually made it to day two? You've got potential, girl!"
"Uchiha Izumi."
"Here!!!"
Izumi didn't dare keep chatting with the cat. She immediately stood at attention and shouted loudly.
Uchiha Chizumi said, "Get down there and bring the body up."
"Yes, Senpai." Izumi jogged over, finding a large pit at Chizumi's feet, its edges covered in fine claw marks, like a cat had dug it out.
At the bottom of the pit was a mud-covered female corpse.
The corpse's forehead was caved in, her face smeared with blood, frozen in an expression of shock and terror — as though, even at the moment of death, she was filled with utter disbelief.
Izumi jumped down immediately.
She brought the body up.
Thanks to her experience from yesterday, this time it went far more smoothly.
"Female victim, name unknown, estimated age forty to forty-five, killed instantly by a blunt-force strike. No extra markings on the body — likely cleaned intentionally by the perpetrator. Definitely experienced. Most likely a ninja."
Uchiha Chizumi said slowly, "Jirō the Orange."
"Meow!" the ninja cat, Jirō, responded.
"Go to the police force, get someone to bring the body back," Uchiha Chizumi ordered. "Rookie, come on. Let's take a walk around the village."
"Yes, Lord Chizumi."
"Yes, Senpai… huh?"
Izumi hesitated, swallowed nervously, then summoned her courage to ask softly,"Senpai, aren't we going to investigate?"
Uchiha Chizumi replied, "Walking around Konoha is investigating. Check your ninja tools, and be ready to execute justice at any time."
Izumi: "???"
…
(End of this chapter)