Terumī Mei naturally had no idea that Uchiha Keizumi was still lamenting that he was not strong enough. Seeing that he seemed to have tacitly accepted her reasoning, Mei finally let out a sigh of relief.
Although many people were still destined to die at Keizumi's hands, being able to secure a comparatively lenient outcome already left her fully satisfied.
"Ringo Kukurin. Eleven years ago, in order to seize gold, you murdered the mission client, Ishida Susumu, and afterward falsely claimed..." Temporarily acquiescing to Mei's approach, Keizumi shifted his gaze toward another Kirigakure jōnin. The box above this man's head was also so red it was nearly black.
"Wait! We really did make a lot of mistakes in the past, but we've changed now! Does this so-called justice not even give people a chance to turn over a new leaf?!" Seeing Keizumi fix his gaze on him like the god of death, Kukurin forced himself to step forward despite his terror. "The Village of the Bloody Mist was always a place where the strong devoured the weak. We were victims too! Is wanting not to die a crime as well?!"
To save his own life, Kukurin, who had once fervently praised the 'Bloody Mist' policy, brazenly switched sides, putting on the full pose of a victim himself.
Quite a few conservative shinobi were just about to burst into curses, but under the hints of their companions, they quickly caught on as well and loudly echoed Kukurin's accusations.
Some of the quick-witted ones even brought up several examples in succession. For instance, killing a companion in order to graduate from the ninja academy, or being forced to kill just to protect oneself—there had been no other choice.
And secretly reporting teammates and neighbors had also been to avoid being implicated by association. In short, every wrong was the fault of the Bloody Mist policy. They had only been forced to stain their hands with blood in order to survive.
Although Mei had already used Genji's name to guarantee Keizumi's Sharingan ability, with so many Kirigakure shinobi present, he surely could not truly leave them no path to survive at all, could he?
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, big brother, this really isn't very interesting of you. Back then, you used to praise the Bloody Mist policy all day long." Standing among the crowd, Ringo Ameyuri suddenly laughed, clearly disdainful of her brother's shameless back-and-forth.
"Shut up!" Kukurin felt the veins at his temple bulge violently, hating only that he had not conveniently strangled this so-called sister to death back then as well.
He had clearly been their father's eldest son, yet he had not inherited the Ringo Clan's hereditary Lightning Release. Instead, it was the bastard born from that lowly woman who had become a famous Lightning Release prodigy.
At that thought, Kukurin's expression changed drastically. He suddenly remembered Keizumi's ability. In other words, everything he had done in the past had already been seen by him?
"...Five years ago, you poisoned your own father to death, then raped and murdered your stepmother..." Keizumi completely ignored Kukurin's clownish display and continued reciting his crimes in a flat, methodical voice.
"Kukurin!" Ameyuri, who had just been mocking her scumbag brother moments ago, was struck as if by a thunderbolt. In an instant, the tragedy of that year replayed through her mind, and immediately she let out a howl like a wounded beast. "I'll kill you!"
Blazing with rage, lightning erupted all over Ameyuri's body as she charged at Kukurin like a bolt of lightning, completely abandoning evasion and her own defense. The short blade in her hand slashed desperately at the enemy who had murdered her mother.
Her reputation as a Lightning Release prodigy was no exaggeration. Though only a chūnin, Ameyuri was able to unleash a desperate strike powerful enough to threaten a jōnin.
Unfortunately, the gap in strength was not so easily bridged. Kukurin, nearly twenty years older than Ameyuri, was a genuine Kirigakure jōnin. No matter how dazzling a strike capable of threatening a jōnin might be, before a real jōnin, it still fell just short.
"Then you can go die together with that bitch!" Kukurin had also cast everything aside. He was going to die anyway, so he might as well drag that bitch woman's bastard down to hell with him!
The two drew their blades almost at the same time. When Ameyuri's short blade slashed toward Kukurin, Kukurin's blade had already gotten there first, falling toward her braid.
Keizumi, who had not yet finished reciting the crimes, looked at Kukurin with a trace of helplessness. Letting a scumbag like this die too cleanly was clearly not just. But he also had no reason to stop a victim's relative from taking revenge. At most, he could only silently add one more cast of the Eye of Judgment to Kukurin, letting him feel just how grievously sinful his own 'evil' was before death.
Slash!
A human head rolled to the ground. With one side of her braid severed, Ameyuri's figure shot back like lightning. Clutching her short blade, she stabbed Kukurin's body dozens of times in one breath, then drove his enemy's head brutally into the mud with a vicious stomp, grinding it down without pause.
"Die, die, die, die, die!!!" In her fury, Ameyuri stomped Kukurin's head completely into the mud. Fortunately, it had rained a while ago, softening the soil on the ground. Otherwise, Kukurin's head would most likely have been stomped into a pulp.
Keizumi had no intention of stopping her and simply watched in silence as Ameyuri completed her revenge.
Of course, the main reason was that there was not even a box above Ameyuri's head. That meant she was truly innocent. Not to mention that she was already a chūnin—even among Kirigakure's genin, those who could manage to have no box at all were not many. Most people, to a greater or lesser extent, had white names above their heads.
Especially the older ones—almost every one of them had a 'record' of killing a companion. That was because, in Kirigakure's past, if one wanted to graduate from the ninja academy, one had to personally kill a classmate to qualify for graduation.
The brutality of the Village of the Bloody Mist was evident from that alone. Although that rule was later abolished, it was not because of any awakening of conscience, but because under that rule there had emerged an unprecedented murderer, Momochi Zabuza, who killed every single one of his peers.
Only then, out of fear that others would imitate him, did Kirigakure's higher-ups abolish the rule. After all, what they wanted to select was a sufficiently ruthless generation of Kirigakure shinobi, not a murderer of whom there would be only one each year.
Thud!
Just as Keizumi was about to continue the executions, Ameyuri, having finally vented her fury, suddenly dropped to her knees directly in front of him. Before Keizumi could speak, she slammed her head hard against the ground.
"Thank you very much!!!" Ameyuri wanted to cry loudly, yet she bit her lip hard, refusing to let herself cry. She had already avenged her parents. Next, it was time to repay that grace. "Please allow me to follow in your footsteps! I, Ringo Ameyuri, will become your sharpest blade!"
"There is no need for this. I did not execute Kukurin in order to avenge you. Everything I did was solely for the sake of carrying out justice." Keizumi glanced at the girl prostrated before him and, despite her emotion, still declined Ameyuri's request.
Being able to unleash such a dazzling strike at around ten years of age was indeed astonishing, but Ameyuri was not the same as Uchiha Izumi.