Ikeizumi's voice thundered in Izumi's ears.
She took a deep breath of the increasingly pungent bloodied air.
As she slowly stood, she could still hear the man's weakening moans at her feet.
"I've told you everything... please save me... I don't want to die..."
Izumi pressed her lips together.
For a freshly graduated Genin of barely a month, this ordeal was overwhelming.
"Where do you live?" Learning the man was a beast who killed his daughter, Izumi felt no empathy. She led the interrogation, seeking the child's corpse.
When the man weakly gave an address, Izumi summoned courage and turned to Ikeizumi, "Senior, should we split up? I'll take him to the hospital, and you can search for the child's body?"
Ikeizumi replied coldly, "New recruit, do you know what punishment drunken murder receives in Konoha?"
Izumi was stunned, "Life imprisonment?!"
Ikeizumi shook his head, "Ten years. After ten years, such a thorough villain can live in the sunlight again. If he behaves well, he might get out in seven or eight years."
"Do you think that's just punishment?"
Izumi timidly answered, "Ten years... seems too short. It doesn't seem proportional."
The twelve-year-old Uchiha Genin's moral baseline instinctively found the sentence too lenient.
Is killing in Konoha so cheap? Or is drunken murder forgivable?
"Justice that is not absolute is never justice. Evil will never receive its due punishment," Ikeizumi said. "No need to split up or take him to the hospital. Take him directly to the address he gave."
"Also."
Ikeizumi took back the bloodied sword, sheathed it, and added, "Remember to 'drag' him. You will drag this scum of the ninja world and follow me."
Izumi's face was full of shock.
Senior Ikeizumi was probably among the most extreme members of the Uchiha clan.
She swallowed hard and looked at the man.
Drag him?
Hiss!
...
Izumi felt immense pressure.
Under the fearful and astonished gazes of civilians and ninjas alike, she gritted her teeth, grasped the man's collar tightly, and struggled to keep pace with Ikeizumi.
The man's gruesome severed leg scraped the ground as he screamed and struggled in terror.
Izumi felt pangs of sympathy but, recalling the suffocating coldness in Ikeizumi's gaze when she hesitated during the interrogation...
She forced herself to harden her heart.
She dared not look back, imagining the man's scarlet blood drawing a long, straight line across the street.
She sensed the fearful looks from nearby Konoha civilians, as if they saw her as an accomplice to evil.
The man's cries grew weaker...
Until...
There was no sound at all.
Izumi was startled and hurriedly looked back, exclaiming to Ikeizumi, "Senior Ikeizumi, he's unconscious!"
Ikeizumi paused but did not turn. He asked lightly, "Can you wake him?"
"I'll check..."
Izumi cautiously checked the man's breath, trembling as she replied, "It seems... it's too late. He... this man is dead!!!"
Izumi was momentarily stunned.
The senior continued, "Letting him die so easily is insufficient to atone for the crimes he committed. My original plan was for you to drag him to his home. After retrieving the child's corpse, you would execute him in front of it."
"Moreover," Uchiha Ikeizumi glanced back, "I intended for you, the newcomer, to test your mettle."
Izumi was speechless.
"Se-senior..." she weakly protested, "I have read the Military Police Force's code of conduct. It states that once a criminal is captured, corporal punishment is prohibited. This was a regulation added by the Third Hokage."
Ikeizumi asked, "New recruit, do you think the exalted Third Hokage truly represents [Justice]?"
Izumi dared not reply.
Ikeizumi fixed his gaze on the girl, who bore only half Uchiha blood, and said slowly, "To be a proper member of the Military Police Force, you must first understand who the enemies of [Justice] are. All the 'evil' in the ninja world is the enemy of [Justice]."
"The ninja world has been ravaged and riddled with countless evils. Only by enforcing [Justice] with absolute and thorough methods can we restore the ninja world to its proper path."
Including the Hokage? Izumi only dared to filter this thought silently, too afraid to ask aloud.
"Including the Hokage," Ikeizumi added without hesitation, as if reading her mind.
Izumi was shocked.
What she did not know was that, at the very moment the short man died from blood loss and unconsciousness, a "golden finger" prompt appeared before Ikeizumi's eyes.
[Notification! You have successfully killed a "Red Name" villain! Your chakra has been slightly enhanced! Congratulations, you have obtained: Gambling Technique Manual ×2]
[Name: Uchiha Ikeizumi]
[Age: 18]
[Identity: Member of Konoha Uchiha Military Police Force]
[Rank: Jonin]
[Kekkei Genkai: Sharingan, Melt Release]
[Taijutsu: Uchiha Swordsmanship, Shuriken Throwing, Kunai Combat Techniques…]
[Ninjutsu: Great Fireball Technique, Phoenix Flower Fire, Great Fire Extinguishing, Mind Transfer Technique…]
[Others: Culinary Arts, Calligraphy, Gambling, Bedroom Arts…]
[...]
This was the golden finger Ikeizumi awakened upon arriving in Konoha.
He could see all people's "evil," whether past or future, clearly.
Those who had committed unforgivable evil bore a crimson frame above their heads, known as [Red Name].
Those destined to commit unforgivable evil bore a white frame, known as [White Name].
Killing them not only enhanced his chakra but also allowed him to acquire their ninjutsu, taijutsu, kekkei genkai, secret techniques, skills, and experience.
The golden finger perfectly aligned with Ikeizumi's doctrine of [Absolute Justice].
In just a few years, his hands had been stained with the blood of countless villains.
He had dulled several ninja swords.
The "Melt Release" listed under Kekkei Genkai was a starter gift from the golden finger.
The golden finger's description read: Greetings from a devotee of [Absolute Justice] from the sea.