Uchiha Ikeizumi turned and saw a black-haired girl standing hesitantly behind him.
"Senior Ikeizumi, I... I..."
Izumi suddenly faltered. The intense gaze from Senior Uchiha Ikeizumi made her instinctively nervous. She could typically summon the courage to converse with other seniors, even Clan Head Fugaku. Yet, in the presence of this "Uchiha Ikeizumi" senior, she found herself so anxious she couldn't articulate her words.
"Speak." Uchiha Ikeizumi commanded.
Izumi jolted and quickly introduced herself: "My name is Uchiha Izumi! I participated in this year's Military Police Force recruitment assessment, and when Clan Head Fugaku asked me to choose an examiner, I... I chose you, Senior Ikeizumi, to be my examiner." However, facing the sharp, scrutinizing gaze of this Military Police Force senior, her voice grew progressively softer. By the end, she dared not even meet Uchiha Ikeizumi's eyes.
"Examiner? You chose me?" Uchiha Ikeizumi looked at the girl and, with an expressionless face, commented, "Though you appear frail, your courage is commendable." Uchiha Ikeizumi forced a mirthless smile: "Passing my assessment is quite simple. Within a month, just don't give me cause to want to kill you, and you will have passed the assessment."
"Oh, wait, a rat is trying to escape."
Izumi: "???"
As Izumi stood bewildered, she was shocked to see Uchiha Ikeizumi suddenly draw the ninja sword at his waist.
The blade sliced through the air in a silver arc, a streak of crimson blood flashing across Izumi's vision.
In the next moment, she watched in horror as a short man suddenly collapsed to the ground.
—His left leg had been severed!
"Ahhhhh!!!"
The man's agonized screams and the pervasive metallic scent of blood overwhelmed Izumi's psychological endurance. Instinctively, she took a half step back, sweat beading on her forehead from nervousness.
"Uchiha Izumi," Uchiha Ikeizumi flicked the blood off his blade.
"Ah?" Izumi, worried the man might bleed to death, quickly looked up in alarm.
Ikeizumi frowned, "When I call your name, you must respond with 'Here.'"
"Oh... ah, here!" Izumi hurriedly corrected herself.
"Such a faint voice, and you want to join the Military Police Force?" Ikeizumi said coldly. "I can barely hear you. Is this your resolve to join? Can someone like you uphold the ideal of [Justice]? Better go home and be a good girl!"
Fugaku's warning was right—Senior Ikeizumi was truly severe. This was their first meeting, and Izumi was already being harshly reprimanded.
Summoning all her strength, her face flushed red.
"Here!!!"
Seeing the coldness in Ikeizumi's gaze soften slightly, Izumi exhaled in relief.
"Well..." Izumi hesitated.
"Speak."
She quickly reminded him, "Senior, if the man on the ground isn't treated soon, he might bleed out and die."
"How long does he have?" Ikeizumi asked unexpectedly.
Izumi answered rapidly, "He could lose consciousness within ten minutes."
"Plenty of time," Ikeizumi said. "New recruit, I'm giving you a task."
Izumi swallowed nervously. "Senior, I haven't learned medical ninjutsu. Shouldn't we take him to the Konoha hospital?"
Ikeizumi glanced at her. "Who said we're taking him there?"
"Ah?" Izumi was once again stunned. "You mean...?"
Ikeizumi handed her the sword, and she instinctively took it.
His expression remained impassive as he said, "Prove your resolve to join the Military Police Force. Take this blade and interrogate this man. Ask him—where is the child's corpse? You have ten minutes. If you don't get an answer, don't bother coming back tomorrow."
Interrogate?
Izumi was dumbfounded. She glanced around. This was one of Konoha's busiest streets. How could she openly interrogate a civilian with a severed leg here? And why interrogate about a child's corpse?
Was this standard Military Police procedure? Or was this Ikeizumi's personal method?
She tried to sneak a look at Ikeizumi's eyes, only to find them growing colder.
Izumi was struck with a sudden chill.
The warnings from Clan Head Fugaku and the female Military Police senior flashed through her mind:
—"Don't disobey his orders if you want to survive."
—"Good luck. Sometimes surviving is luck itself."
Fear gripped her.
Clutching the still-warm sword, cold sweat poured from her smooth forehead.
Driven by a fierce will to survive, she stepped forward and interrogated the man clutching his severed leg, "Where... where did you hide the child's corpse?!"
A flash of panic crossed the man's anguished eyes.
"Take... take me to Konoha hospital, please!"
He did not answer her weak interrogation but instead shouted in terror, "My head is spinning, and the blood is flowing fast! Am I going to die? Save me! Please... save me!"
I don't want to die either—this was Izumi's silent cry.
"Where exactly did you hide the child's corpse?"
She forced herself to remain calm, convinced that Ikeizumi would not have her ask this question without reason. "You must answer quickly if you want me to take you to the hospital. You won't last much longer!"
The man continued to scream in panic, "I don't know any child! I know nothing! Please, save me!"
"Senior..." Izumi sought help from Ikeizumi but found him standing with arms crossed, watching coldly.
She could read no emotion in those indifferent eyes.
A suffocating sensation overwhelmed her.
This feeling...
Izumi knew it well.
Years ago, during the Nine-Tails' attack, when facing the monstrous beast, she had felt the same despair—the choking sensation of impending death.
Her will to survive surpassed sympathy. Resolute, she pressed the blade against the man's neck, teeth clenched, "Last chance! Where is the child's corpse?"
The sharp blade scraped a thin line of blood across the man's neck.
His eyes widened in terror, the faint pain disorienting him. "I... I didn't mean to... I didn't want to kill her. Believe me! You have to believe me! She... she was my daughter…"
"I was just playing with her. I... I didn't expect her to die... I threw her into the dry well in the yard."
Izumi was stunned.
The man's fragmented confession revealed a shocking truth—this man, whom Ikeizumi had ordered her to interrogate publicly, had killed his own daughter and disposed of her body in a dry well.
A murderer.
"New recruit. This is your first lesson in executing [Justice] as a member of the Uchiha Military Police Force," Ikeizumi's voice came slowly from behind her. "Always obey my orders."
"Without question."
"Without resistance."
"Without error."