As the man's head rolled to the ground, Keizumi set his bloodstained shinobi blade against Sakikawa Keiji's collarbone, the dulled edge pressing directly to the skin of his neck.
From the headless corpse beside him, a spray of hot blood splattered across half of Sakikawa's face. The heat of it made his eyes shift involuntarily to the side—
—and the sight of the headless body reflected in his pupils.
"Murder! Murder!!" The horrified screams of the crowd, the sound of them scattering like startled birds and beasts, the cries rising one after another—all hammered at Sakikawa Keiji's mind.
A sudden heat spread between his legs.
The thin trickle of urine mingled with the blood pooling on the ground.
"Ten years ago… did you violate an innocent woman, driving her to hang herself to escape the shame?"
Keizumi's voice in his ear now was like the low whisper of a demon.
And Sakikawa could never have imagined… that this was how his so-called "evidence" would be obtained.
His…
Legs gave out.
"Y-yes… yes…" Sakikawa Keiji's voice trembled uncontrollably. He felt like he'd run into a complete madman today. No wonder ninja didn't have the best reputation in the Land of Fire—none of them were normal!
Faced with the looming threat of death…
He confessed.
Uchiha Keizumi said, "See? I told you the evidence would come quickly."
[Pchhk—]
The dulled blade dragged sharply along Sakikawa Keiji's neck. It wasn't sharp enough to fully sever the head, leaving a strip of skin still connecting the terror-frozen face to the body.
The head lolled grotesquely, hanging by that last patch of flesh.
Only when the spurting body collapsed heavily to the ground did it finally go still.
In less than half a minute… two men lay dead in the capital of the Land of Fire—killed in full view of the public.
"…"
Mitarashi Anko, who had witnessed everything, was at a loss for words. She knew Keizumi was extreme—his willingness to kill even fellow village shinobi had already proven that. But… until now, he had always acted when few people were around.
This time—
He had killed openly. And this wasn't Konoha; the name of the Uchiha Police Force held no weight here. This was the capital of the Land of Fire.
If she remembered correctly, Uchiha Police Force shinobi had no law enforcement authority in the capital.
Tch…
Could it be… he didn't know? After all, that ninja cat had said this was his first time in the capital.
A chill ran down Anko's scalp. She couldn't even explain why a "prisoner" like her was worrying about a cold-blooded enforcer.
…
"Tch, where'd this lunatic come from…"
In the panicked, chaotic crowd—shaken by the midday killing of two samurai—a man concealed under a well-hidden guise furrowed his brow slightly.
Through a gap in the onlookers, his gaze fell on Keizumi. He murmured under his breath, "That outfit… looks a lot like the Uchiha Police Force from Konoha…"
Ordinary Uchiha shinobi carrying out missions outside the village was nothing unusual; but an Uchiha Police Force ninja appearing beyond Konoha's borders—this was the first time he'd seen it.
"This shouldn't have anything to do with me… I've been gone from Konoha for fifteen years. Surely no one remembers me anymore."
But just as he turned to leave, his peripheral vision caught Keizumi's gaze turning in his direction.
It was as if a magnitude-ten earthquake shook his soul.
Impossible!
Could an Uchiha Police Force shinobi's appearance in the capital really be because of him?
No!
It could just be coincidence…
It could…
The thought had barely formed when he caught a flash of crimson in the Uchiha's eyes.
And in the final instant before the genjutsu of the three-tomoe Sharingan took hold, one last thought flashed through his mind—Looks like he really did come for me!
Unfortunately—
It was too late.
The three-tomoe Sharingan's illusion had already pierced through the dense crowd and into his mind in an instant, leaving his expression vacant.
His arms locked tightly against his sides, his legs clamped together, and his face twisted into a strained grimace—like a man bound by an invisible force he could never break free from.
It was as if he had been thrown into the depths of the sea—he sucked in a sharp breath, then clamped his lips shut, holding it in with all his strength.
His face turned first a dark blue, then pale, the veins in his neck twitching under the strain.
The people standing near him began to notice something was wrong.
Just as one of them reached out to pat his shoulder, the man stiffened and collapsed straight backward. His eyes were wide open, the whites shot through with crawling red veins, his face a deep, lifeless blue.
Within the genjutsu of the Sharingan, he had suffocated to death.
"The third one." Uchiha Keizumi's eyes faded back to normal as a notification flashed before him for killing another red-name criminal.
This one had merely been a Konoha genin who'd turned rogue.
Nothing of real value dropped from him.
Mitarashi Anko stared in shock at the man in the crowd who had collapsed, his face still frozen in that suffocated blue. The mix of disbelief and curiosity inside her finally burst out.
"That man… was he also a criminal?"
She didn't understand.
When Keizumi killed fellow Konoha shinobi, she could at least imagine it was because he knew them well enough to know their crimes.
But those two samurai and this man in the crowd—surely Keizumi didn't even know them? There was no possible connection between them.
Wait—hold on!
Anko suddenly spotted the real point—if there was no chance they'd ever met, then how could Keizumi name the two samurai so precisely, and detail the crimes they'd committed?
She was stunned.
For a moment, her mind felt like it wasn't working properly.
"Keizumi-sama's eyes can see the evil a person has committed in the past—and the evil they will commit in the future."
Tachibana Jirō's voice drifted into her ears. "Don't go doubting Keizumi-sama's judgment so casually, girl!"
G-girl…
If a person had called her that, Anko might have felt a little pleased. But coming from a cat, it only felt patronizing.
Still, remembering that as a prisoner her "human rights" might indeed be lower than those of a cat, she decided not to argue.
No—
The point was that Uchiha Keizumi had eyes that could see both past and future evil!
He actually possessed such an ability?!
Anko was shaken to the core.
…
Meanwhile—
"Huff… caught up."
Jiraiya's gaze swept over a group of children up ahead, ranging from about five to fourteen years old. Among them, at the very front, he spotted a striking figure.
"Tsunade…"
A flicker of complicated emotion crossed his eyes. Since leaving the village to hunt down Orochimaru's trail across the shinobi world, he hadn't seen Tsunade in years.
And now, this meeting would be happening because of the commotion caused by one Uchiha Keizumi.
"Hiding back there and sneaking around—don't you think that's a bit underhanded?"
The sharp, unmistakable voice of Tsunade carried clearly to his ears.
Up ahead, she had stopped without him noticing.
Her expression was cold as her gaze flicked to the rear. She was absently rubbing her fists together, the way she always did when itching for a fight. If the stalker didn't show himself soon, she might just lose her patience.
"W-wait! Hold on!"
Feeling a phantom ache in his ribs, Jiraiya gave a visible shudder. He hadn't forgotten the miserable day, years ago, when he'd foolishly tried to peek on Tsunade… and ended up hospitalized from the beating that followed.
Jiraiya quickly leapt down from the tree, raising both hands to show he meant no harm.
"It's me!"
His sudden appearance sent the children into a panic—after all, a scruffy-looking older man with spiky white hair rarely made a reassuring impression.
Though Uchiha Keizumi's three-tomoe Sharingan had once placed these children into a blissful genjutsu, allowing them to temporarily forget the horrors they had endured in the underground chamber beneath the Tanzaku Town dance hall…
The deep-seated fear they felt toward men of that type could not be erased, even by such an illusion.
Dozens of children rushed to hide behind Tsunade. In the short days they had been with her, they had learned she was incredibly strong—strong enough to shatter a massive boulder with a single punch.
This big-sister figure with the ample chest was someone who could protect them.
"It's fine," Tsunade said, resting her hand gently on one child's head, trying to calm her fears.
Her expression grew complicated as she looked at Jiraiya.
Clearly, she had not expected to meet an old friend after so many years in such an abrupt way.
"What are you doing here? And you were following me, weren't you?"
Her sudden double question made Jiraiya scratch his head.
He answered honestly, explaining the reason he had been tailing her.
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