In the blink of an eye, more than a hundred conservative ninja—who, joined together, were enough to trample flat most of the nations of the shinobi world—were reduced to ashes by Uchiha Keizumi, just like that!
The Kirigakure ninja who witnessed it all with their own eyes immediately fell silent as cicadas in winter. No matter what objections they had held before toward Terumī Mei's decision, at this moment they all consciously shut their mouths.
Before this kind of monster that could hardly be called human, all resistance was nothing but futile.
The only thing worth being grateful for was that what Keizumi upheld was Absolute Justice. Otherwise, Kirigakure might not even have had the chance to continue existing.
Seeing that the Kirigakure ninja had finally calmed down from their agitation, Mei let out a breath of relief, yet at the same time faintly felt uneasy.
After personally witnessing Keizumi's overwhelming strength, the fury that had been burning on the faces of the Kirigakure ninja and in their eyes had already quietly gone out, replaced instead by fear of and submission to this godlike power.
Clang, clang, clang...
Along with a string of sounds of kunai and ninja blades hitting the ground, the Kirigakure ninja all dropped to their knees, completely submitting at Keizumi's feet.
Even Mei secretly sighed and bent one knee halfway to the ground, offering the highest respect to the man before her who seemed like a god.
Perhaps, back then, the predecessors had also felt this powerless when facing Senju Hashirama, which was why they had given the First Hokage the exalted title of God of Shinobi.
Human strength ultimately could not contend with a god. At this point, Mei could only console herself that way.
"...In the name of Absolute Justice, I will grant this land new life..."
After dismissing the Complete Body Susanoo, Keizumi slowly walked up to the Kirigakure ninja and looked calmly at them with his pair of blood-red eyes. "Those willing to follow me may stay. Those unwilling may leave now."
After clearing out two batches of red names one after another, the Kirigakure ninja now were basically white names across the board. Although there were still a few with frames showing faint signs of turning red, sins of that degree were still within Keizumi's tolerance.
More precisely, the priority of settling crimes of that degree was slightly lower than advancing the cause of justice in the Land of Water. When Absolute Justice truly descended upon this land entangled in evil, it would not be too late to settle those sins afterward.
While the Kirigakure ninja were kneeling at Keizumi's feet, after asking for Biwa Jūzō's opinion, Uchiha Izumi selected a town located midway between Kirigakure and the capital of the Land of Water as the first step in carrying out Absolute Justice.
The main reason she chose that town was that, as the largest black market in the Land of Water, it was very likely also the place with the highest concentration of criminals in the country.
Even before stepping into Seagull City, Izumi had already mentally prepared herself for the sight before her to be a dense mass of red frames, with vicious outlaws steeped in grave sins everywhere.
After all, this was a gathering place for villains that even Jūzō had specially "recommended." Murder, arson, and the like might well be everyday occurrences here.
Yet what Izumi had not expected was that Seagull City gave her an astonishingly good first impression. It was not that there were no criminals here, but rather that the number of people with red names was far lower than she had imagined.
The vast majority were ordinary people with worried faces and ragged clothes. Of the few exceptions, most were mainly white names as well, and only now and then did someone with a red name appear.
Rather than a town, the whole of Seagull City was more like an oversized slum. With its low earthen houses, dilapidated shops, and roads long fallen into disrepair, it was hard to imagine that this was one of the largest towns in the Land of Water.
"Ahem, when I passed through here a few years ago, Seagull City hadn't declined this... badly yet."
Faced with the puzzled look Izumi cast at him, even with Jūzō's thick skin, he felt a bit embarrassed at this moment. But soon his eyes filled with killing intent. "Those vermin all deserve to die!"
"Let's split up first and investigate the situation here. Keizumi-senpai taught me that without investigation, one has no right to speak."
Izumi nodded, then lifted Tachibana Jirō off her shoulder and set him on the ground. "Jūzō-senpai, please don't rush into killing people either. We must not let a single bad person go, but even more so, we must not slaughter the innocent!"
"Tch, I got it."
Jūzō sounded a little impatient, but he also knew that Izumi was leading this trip. Only her eyes could identify every criminal, so he could only reluctantly agree.
"Wait, meow! I have to split up too? You're going to investigate evil without bringing meow along?"
Only Tachibana Jirō, who had been put on the ground, was thoroughly displeased. He was the old... cat who had followed Keizumi the longest, yet those two hateful humanoid mounts had made a decision without even asking his opinion!
"Since we're splitting up to investigate, the more perspectives and directions we investigate from, the better. And those bad people will definitely be wary of outsiders."
Izumi raised one finger and, imitating Keizumi's tone when he spoke, said very seriously, "But if the one doing the investigating is Jirō-senpai, then even bad people will let their guard down, right?"
"That's true... meow. Sure enough, for this kind of key mission, this meow has to act personally!"
Jirō beamed with feline delight. At last he forgave these two rude juniors, then quickly disappeared into the rundown alley with his plump body swaying.
Watching Jirō's retreating figure vanish, Izumi rubbed her shoulder helplessly. Though saying this felt a little unfair to Jirō-senpai, was Keizumi-senpai really not considering helping Jirō-senpai lose weight?
"If you run into danger, remember to fire a signal. The people here aren't easy to deal with..."
Jūzō hesitated for a moment, but still took out two specially made signal flares from his ninja tool pouch and handed them to Izumi. "Be careful and don't die."
Although the Uchiha girl before him was not weak, Jūzō still did not dare be careless. For Seagull City to become the largest black market in the Land of Water and operate for decades, the power of the mastermind behind it was beyond question.
If it were a frontal clash, then with Izumi's three-tomoe Sharingan, dealing with ordinary jōnin should not be a problem. But the ninja hired by the black market might well be missing-nin from Kirigakure, and that bunch of ruthless bastards were no joke.
"Mm, I understand. Jūzō-senpai, please be careful as well."
Izumi did not refuse Jūzō's goodwill, but she did not think there would be a time when she would need to use those two signal flares.
She might always have been following behind Keizumi, helping him with things, but thanks to the improvements she had accumulated thus far as a believer of justice, Izumi was no longer the inexperienced new recruit of the Police Force she used to be.
If it really came to a fight, then without considering the gap in combat experience and mindset, Jūzō—whose strength was seventy percent tied to the Kubikiribōchō—might not even be Izumi's match.