"Captain, everyone's here."
Uchiha Tekka stood behind him with more than a dozen Uchiha clansmen. These were all the ninjas on duty in the Uchiha Military Police today.
Normally, at this hour, most of them would still be patrolling places like Konoha's commercial streets and food stalls.
Even though the Shinobi World War had already dragged on for eight years, the lives of Konoha's ordinary civilians had not been affected too badly.
Fighting and dying was the business of ninja-sama. What did that have to do with commoners?
The Five Great Ninja Villages all had an unspoken understanding on that point.
But the smaller villages were not so disciplined. When life became too hard, they would simply seize the property of the civilians in their own villages by force or trickery.
Some ninja from small villages even chose to defect outright just to avoid the combat missions assigned by their village, becoming rogue ninja instead, relying on the fact that their villages lacked the strength to hunt them down.
As a result, civilians from those small villages began fleeing in an organized stream toward the Five Great Ninja Villages, and the most suitable place to settle was naturally Konoha.
So while the number of Konoha's ninja had decreased, the population of ordinary civilians had actually risen during the First Shinobi World War.
That made Konoha's commercial activity even more prosperous, which in turn kept the Uchiha Military Police constantly overworked.
The more people there were, the more strange incidents appeared. Petty thefts and all kinds of bizarre trouble popped up endlessly, and it all had to be handled by the Military Police.
Not only that, among those coming into Konoha were not just ordinary civilians, but also spies from the major ninja villages hiding among them. The Uchiha Military Police also worked with the Hokage's Anbu to secretly deal with those spies.
"Captain, what could be so important that you called over all the personnel on duty? We've been swamped these past few days."
"Yeah, Captain, what exactly is happening with the expansion of the Military Police's staffing? Hokage-sama still hasn't given us an answer. We just don't have enough people right now. We need to pull in some ordinary members from the clan. We're just managing civilians anyway, so it's not like they absolutely have to be ninja."
"..."
Uchiha Inabi stood behind Uchiha Tekka, grumbling.
He and Tekka were twins, and during the war they had been in the same squad as Haru.
The two of them were not officially registered as Konoha ninja. Their names were not even on the village roster.
They were ninja raised within the clan itself, effectively private troops belonging to the Uchiha. Since the First Shinobi World War had lasted a full eight years, even some of the clan's private forces had been drawn onto the battlefield.
The brothers had a very good relationship with Haru. After all, they had fought on the battlefield together, and Haru had once saved Inabi's life.
The moment he entered the room, Inabi started noisily complaining about the whole pile of troubles from recent days.
"Captain, I really don't want to be pulled back from the front lines. Dealing with all these trivial little matters every day is worse than just letting me fight on the battlefield."
"Captain??"
Haru said nothing. He just kept staring at Inabi.
That gaze made Inabi uneasy.
The last time their captain had been this serious was when several of them had been trapped inside a cave by more than a dozen Cloud Village jonin. If Haru had not suddenly exploded in strength and slaughtered his way through them, they would all have died there.
"Captain, I didn't say anything wrong, did I?"
Inabi forced an awkward smile while throwing pleading looks at his brother Tekka.
"Inabi, shut your mouth. The captain hasn't even spoken yet, and you're the only one rambling nonstop."
Tekka knocked Inabi on the head with his hand, then turned toward Haru and waited for him to speak.
When the other Uchiha clansmen saw Inabi shut up, they wisely fell silent as well.
Although Haru had always presented himself as friendly within the clan and treated everyone with warmth, having come from a world where he had received nine years of compulsory education under the red flag, spending his days quietly building up his luck and drawing from the wheel to strengthen himself, no one dared offend him.
On the battlefield, Haru was a monster.
Wrapped in lightning, with brilliant flashes concealing murderous sword light, his enemies would lose their heads in an instant.
Haru had not become a captain of the Military Police through nepotism.
He had earned that position through battlefield merit.
It was obvious that everyone present could feel that Captain Haru's attitude today was different.
"Inabi, you were just complaining that Hokage-sama has been refusing to expand the Military Police's staffing, right?"
Haru released Manji from his hands, stood up, stretched his body a little, and then looked at Inabi as he spoke.
"Is there something wrong with that?"
Inabi rubbed his head. That hit from his brother Tekka had really hurt.
"Hmph."
Haru let out a cold laugh.
"I'm afraid the expansion of the Uchiha Military Police's staffing will have to be delayed for quite some time. Hokage-sama won't get the chance to approve it anymore."
"Because I just received word that Hokage-sama has already died during the negotiations with the Raikage."
Haru's words were like a heavy hammer smashing down onto the heads of everyone present. Every Uchiha there felt dizzy.
"Captain?"
"You're not joking, right? Hokage-sama is dead?"
"And he died during negotiations?"
Uchiha Tekka's voice was filled with disbelief. Tobirama's death felt absurd to him.
That man had always been famous for his cunning.
The older members of the clan who had survived since the Warring States Era would always add words like crafty, black-hearted, and full of sinister schemes whenever they cursed Tobirama in everyday conversation.
Some of the more pessimistic elders had even declared that a sly bastard like Tobirama would probably outlive even them, and that the Uchiha clearly had no chance for decades to come. After all, no one in the clan could outscheme that black-hearted monster. Heaven truly did not favor the Uchiha.
Tekka had grown up hearing those words from the clan elders.
Among the old survivors of the Warring States Era, some hated Tobirama down to their bones. But due to the circumstances, all they could do was curse him with their mouths.
And even while cursing him, they all remained strangely united on one point:
Senju Tobirama was the kind of person who lived forever.
"Do you think this is the kind of thing I would joke about?"
Haru looked at Tekka seriously.
"According to the information I received, Kinkaku and Ginkaku, subordinates of the Second Raikage, launched a coup and attacked both the Second Raikage and Tobirama-sama at the negotiation table."
"The Second Raikage died. Tobirama-sama was heavily injured, and while fleeing with his escort unit, he was pursued by Kinkaku and Ginkaku's elite force. In the end, to cover the escort unit's escape, he lured away the pursuing force alone and died in battle."
Haru briefly explained the course of events.
Tekka felt his head swelling.
If the person standing in front of him were not Haru, Tekka would have wanted to slap him.
What kind of nonsense was this?
What did he mean, the Hokage covering the escort unit's retreat?
What kind of escort unit would let the leader of an entire village stay behind to protect their escape?
Even if they survived like that, wouldn't it still be utterly shameful?
(End of Chapter)
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