The uniforms of the Konoha Police Force bore, besides the Uchiha clan crest, Konoha's distinctive emblem.
Every Hidden Mist shinobi present saw it clearly.
If Terumi Mei and Ao hadn't been walking at the front—making the Mist shinobi lurking in the dark hesitate—those hidden troops would probably have rushed out and attacked already.
After all, molded for years by the Blood Mist policy, Kirigakure is intensely xenophobic.
Any outsider who steps into Mist territory without an official invitation from the village leadership has only one end: death.
Just then, a Kirigakure jōnin, flanked by several Mist shinobi, came striding up with a deep frown. He swept Biwa Jūzō, Uchiha Chizumi, and Uchiha Izumi with a hostile glare, then looked to Terumi Mei, confused.
"Terumi-sama, what is going on?" His voice sounded cold and numb at first listen, as if years of killing had pared away most of his emotions.
Eyes locked on Terumi, he didn't lower his guard. "If I'm not mistaken—the Mizukage left not long ago with more than thirty Mist Anbu to hunt down the rogue Biwa Jūzō.
"But—
"Why is it you and Ao who have returned? Why is the target, Biwa Jūzō, standing here? And why are two Konoha shinobi with you?
"Where is the Mizukage? Where are the Anbu? Terumi-sama, everyone in the village needs a reasonable explanation."
Pressed by his cutting questions, Terumi drew a long breath.
She glanced around; she could feel many Mist shinobi hiding in the dark right now, wary even of one of their own.
Clearly, because of Biwa Jūzō and the two Uchiha from Konoha, many in the village no longer trusted her.
The problem was, Terumi had no idea how to answer him on the spot.
Was she supposed to say, in front of all these people—that the Mizukage was killed by Uchiha Chizumi, and that she and Ao watched the whole thing from the shadows without stepping in?
That would make her look exactly like a traitor.
Just as Terumi fell silent, a cool, flat voice sounded from behind her: "Because the Mizukage is dead—killed by me. That's all."
Uchiha Chizumi finished speaking.
Terumi's face went rigid; beside her, Ao felt his scalp prickle.
Neither of them had imagined Chizumi would say that in front of so many Mist shinobi.
So this is the nerve of the man who dared assassinate the Daimyō of the Land of Fire?
Sure enough, the nearby Mist shinobi were stunned by his words.
In the night—both the seen and the unseen—all eyes locked onto Uchiha Chizumi.
"Hey! Konoha ninja! Watch your mouth!"
A Mist shinobi with a face full of jagged scars bulged his eyes and took a few steps forward. "Do you even know where you are? The Bloody Mist isn't a place where some Konoha shinobi can spout nonsense! If not for showing Terumi-sama a little respect, you'd already be a corpse!"
Terumi: "…"
She wanted to kick this idiot. Don't drag me into it. If Uchiha Chizumi sets his sights on me, I'm not sure I can survive even a single exchange.
Chizumi ignored the man, the hostile stares around him, and the restless killers lurking in the village fog.
He simply began to speak on his own: "The Blood Mist policy has plunged the entire Land of Water into poverty, backwardness, chaos, and suffering. Even the damp air here is saturated with the stench of sin.
"Whether it's the village leadership who enforced the Blood Mist policy; the ignorant shinobi and civilians who supported it; the nobles, the daimyō, and shinobi clans who profited from it; or the opportunists who exploited the chaos of the Land of Water to commit unforgivable crimes—
"They are all villains whose sins cannot be forgiven."
The instant those words—which many Mist shinobi found baffling—fell, the air itself seemed to heat up.
A number of elite Mist shinobi felt something was off.
Terumi Mei, closest behind Chizumi, narrowed her eyes.
She could feel waves of scorching heat rolling off his back.
"This guy…" Cold sweat slid down Terumi's spine. The killing intent pouring from Uchiha Chizumi was unmistakable.
His voice kept coming: "Countless Blood Mist villains have twisted the Land of Water's moral compass to the point that 'justice' no longer exists. Without just order, this country has become a cradle for evildoers, spawning sins too ugly to look at, every hour of every day.
"As long as these Blood Mist villains aren't wiped out, the Land of Water will keep sinking into the abyss of evil. Countless innocents will keep struggling in this living hell—"
"Hey! What are you rambling about?" A Mist jōnin, sensing the atmosphere turning, tried to cut him off.
But the so-called rambling Konoha ninja was walking straight toward him as he talked.
"As soon as the basic survival of ordinary people becomes an unsolvable problem—and no one in the nation cares—that means this place is almost beyond saving."
His calm gaze swept across every Mist shinobi in sight.
"Fortunately—in a place this sick, there are still a few misfits. Because they exist, the 'critical patient' that is Kirigakure still has a chance to be saved."
By then Uchiha Chizumi was already in front of that Mist jōnin—less than three meters away.
"Stop! Konoha ninja! Don't come any closer!"
Sweat beaded on the jōnin's forehead. He couldn't tell if it was nerves or heat.
Because it felt blisteringly hot nearby—and with winter closing in, Kirigakure shouldn't be this warm.
That abnormality made him tense up. His hand slid to the sword at his waist.
He was ready to draw.
"Kiritani Tetsuzō." When Uchiha Chizumi spoke the name, the jōnin's pupils shrank.
Before he could answer, Chizumi continued, "Do you remember the last person you killed—was it on a mission? Or were your hands just itching, so you wiped out a family of five somewhere in the Land of Water?"
In that instant, Kiritani Tetsuzō still hadn't realized what Chizumi was about to do—but Terumi and Ao had.
Ao's face blanched. He shouted, "Uchiha Chizumi, wait—"
Too late. The arm Kiritani had resting on his hilt snapped with a sharp crack, and the hiss of steel leaving a scabbard cut through the night.
A heartbeat later, his head slid off to one side, blood spraying from his severed neck.
The scabbard at his waist hung empty.
No one knew when the blade had appeared in Uchiha Chizumi's hand.
"The first."
Chizumi's cold voice snapped the Mist shinobi back to themselves. Disbelief filled every glare directed at him.
No one expected a Konoha shinobi to kill on Mist soil—
And to decapitate a jōnin in an instant.
And this Konoha ninja was someone Terumi-sama herself had brought back to the village.
What was she thinking?
"Tetsuzō-sama!!!" The Mist shinobi behind Kiritani turned pale, but their training held. Steel rasped free as they charged Uchiha Chizumi without hesitation.
Terumi tried to stop them—but before she could get the words out, a blur of blade flashed past her eyes.
Chizumi's figure vanished.
When she snapped her gaze aside, he was already behind the group that had rushed him.
The sword in his hand was slick with thick blood.
One by one, the Mist shinobi froze, then crumpled as if all strength had been drained from them.
Most were headless corpses.
As their bodies hit the ground, their heads separated cleanly.
The iron stink of blood flooded every nose.
"Most," because there was one left alive.
The lone survivor, both arms severed, sat collapsed on the ground, staring dumbly at the stumps at his elbows, as if he still didn't understand what had happened. A Kirigakure chūnin reduced to a terrified fool.
"Stop! Nobody move!!!" Terumi shouted at the top of her lungs.
She wasn't shouting at Uchiha Chizumi—but at the stunned Mist shinobi in hiding who were about to strike.
Unfortunately—
Terumi's clout in Kirigakure wasn't yet what it would be in the future.
Seeing their comrades cut down by a Konoha ninja, the hidden Mist shinobi bared their killing intent and showed themselves. They would not allow a Konoha ninja to strut around the Bloody Mist like this. Where would that leave the village's pride?!
In an instant, layers of ghostly fog swept across the village. Figures flickered within it, darting for angles and openings.
"…This is bad."
Cold sweat streamed down Terumi's back.
Of everyone here, perhaps only she and Ao knew that Uchiha Chizumi was someone you absolutely could not provoke.
She had witnessed that apocalyptic battle with her own eyes. This man was stronger than a tailed beast.
And he didn't think like a normal shinobi.
He might really level Kirigakure.
And he absolutely had the power to do it.
"The Land of Water has been closed off too long. Our shinobi haven't had much contact with the outside world for years. They have no idea what kind of power this Konoha ninja wields."
Face tight, Terumi snapped to Ao, "Ao! Go find the Elder! With the Mizukage dead, he's the only one whose authority can command the village!
"If the shinobi here treat Uchiha Chizumi as an enemy, they're all dead men!"
Ao nodded sharply, wasted no words, and sprinted into the fog.
"…Decisive guy. He won't even stick around to hear anyone out—"
Biwa Jūzō drew a deep breath.
He hadn't forgotten he was a rogue from the Mist, nor that he had chosen to stand with Uchiha Chizumi.
He hefted the Kubikiribōchō, ready to join the fight—
When Izumi suddenly stepped forward to block him.
Jūzō blinked.
The girl from Konoha said, "You'll end up killing Mist shinobi who don't qualify as evildoers."
"???"
Huh?
While he was still baffled, Izumi explained softly, "Do you know why Chizumi-senpai left one survivor just now? Because that man isn't an evildoer. His motive for striking wasn't criminal malice.
"So Senpai only severed his arms and didn't take his life."
"Senpai has the ability to see the evil in others. In his eyes, no sin in Kirigakure can hide. He always knows who must die—and who can be spared and given one chance."
Jūzō froze again.
So Uchiha Chizumi does leave people a way out?
Oh—right.
If he really killed everyone, I probably wouldn't still be alive.
Just then, he saw the girl draw the ninja blade at her waist.
Before Jūzō could ask, Izumi moved forward and explained as she went, "I also have the power to see the evil in others. It's a power Chizumi-senpai granted me.
"Friendly tip: if you're sincere enough about Absolute Justice, you'll gain it too."