Mei Terumi naturally had no idea that Uchiha Chizumi was still lamenting how weak he was. Seeing that he seemed to have tacitly accepted her framing, Mei finally let out a sigh of relief.
A lot of people were still destined to die at Uchiha Chizumi's hands, but being able to secure a relatively lenient outcome was already enough to satisfy her.
"Ringo Kūkūrin. Eleven years ago, you murdered your client, Ishida Susumu, to steal his gold, then afterward claimed…" Temporarily indulging Mei's approach, Uchiha Chizumi shifted his gaze to another Kirigakure jōnin. The frame above this man's head was just as dark red as black.
"Wait! We really did make plenty of mistakes in the past, but we've repented now! Does this so-called justice not even allow people a chance to turn back?!" The moment Uchiha Chizumi fixed on him like the god of death, Kūkūrin, terrified, forced himself to step forward. "The Bloody Mist was always a law-of-the-jungle place. We were forced into it too! Is it a crime just to not want to die?!"
To save his own skin, Kūkūrin—who had always fervently praised the Bloody Mist policy—instantly switched sides, acting as if he were one of its victims.
Quite a few conservative shinobi were about to curse him out, but under the hints of their comrades, they quickly caught on and began loudly echoing Kūkūrin's accusations.
Some of the quicker minds even brought up examples on the spot. Killing a classmate just to graduate from the Ninja Academy. Being forced to kill to protect oneself. Secretly reporting teammates and neighbors just to avoid getting implicated by association.
In short, every fault lay with the Bloody Mist policy. They had only gotten blood on their hands because they were forced to protect themselves.
Although Mei had already invoked Elder Genji's name to guarantee the truth of Uchiha Chizumi's Sharingan ability, with so many Kirigakure shinobi present, he couldn't seriously mean to leave them absolutely no path to survive… could he?
"Tch tch tch, big brother, that's a little pathetic. You used to praise the Bloody Mist policy all day long." Ringo Ameyuri, standing in the crowd, suddenly laughed, clearly full of contempt for her brother's shameless flip-flopping.
"Shut up!" Kūkūrin felt the veins at his temples bulge. He only regretted that he hadn't strangled this so-called little sister to death back then too.
He was clearly their father's eldest son, yet he had inherited none of the Ringo clan's ancestral Lightning Release. Instead, the bastard born by that cheap woman had become a famous Lightning Release prodigy.
The instant that thought crossed his mind, Kūkūrin's face changed drastically. He suddenly remembered Uchiha Chizumi's ability.
In other words, everything he had done in the past had already been seen by him too?
"…Five years ago, you poisoned your own father to death, and raped and murdered your stepmother…" Uchiha Chizumi completely ignored Kūkūrin's clownish outburst and continued reading off his crimes in a flat, methodical tone.
"Kūkūrin!" Just moments ago, Ameyuri had been mocking her scumbag brother, but now she looked as though she'd been struck by lightning. In an instant, the tragedy from years ago flashed through her mind, and she let out a cry like a wounded beast. "I'll kill you!"
Wrapped in crackling lightning, the enraged Ameyuri shot toward Kūkūrin like a bolt of thunder. She abandoned all thought of dodging or protecting herself, slashing recklessly at the enemy who had murdered her mother.
Her reputation as a Lightning Release prodigy was no lie. Though only a chūnin, Ameyuri unleashed a desperate strike powerful enough to threaten a jōnin.
Unfortunately, the gap in strength wasn't so easily bridged. Nearly twenty years older than her, Kūkūrin was a genuine Kirigakure jōnin. No matter how brilliant Ameyuri's strike was, something that could threaten a jōnin still fell just short against a real one.
"Then go die with that bitch!" Kūkūrin had already given up. He was going to die anyway, so he might as well drag that woman's bastard down to hell with him!
The two drew their blades almost at the same moment. As Ameyuri's short sword slashed toward Kūkūrin, Kūkūrin's blade arrived a step earlier, cutting through one of her braids.
Uchiha Chizumi, who hadn't even finished listing Kūkūrin's crimes, glanced at him with a trace of helplessness. Letting trash like this die too quickly clearly wasn't just, but neither did he have any reason to stop a victim's family member from taking revenge.
So all he could do was silently add one shot of the Eye of Judgment, letting Kūkūrin experience the weight of his own evil before he died.
Slash!
A head rolled to the ground.
With one braid severed, Ameyuri flashed back like lightning, gripping her short blade and stabbing Kūkūrin's body dozens of times in one breath. Then she kicked his head hard into the mud and stomped on it again and again.
"Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!!!"
In her fury, Ameyuri literally drove Kūkūrin's head deep into the mud. Thankfully, it had rained earlier and softened the ground. Otherwise, his skull probably would've been crushed into pulp under her heel.
Uchiha Chizumi made no move to stop her. He simply stood there and watched silently as Ameyuri completed her revenge.
Of course, the main reason was that there wasn't even a frame above her head. That meant she was truly innocent.
Never mind that she was already a chūnin—even among Kirigakure's genin, there weren't many who were completely frameless. Most people, one way or another, still carried a white name.
Especially the older ones. Almost everyone had a "record" of killing a comrade.
That was because, in the old Kirigakure, graduating from the Ninja Academy required personally killing one of your classmates.
That alone showed just how brutal the Bloody Mist truly was.
Although that rule was abolished later, it wasn't out of any sudden awakening of conscience. It was because that rule had produced an unprecedented monster—Momochi Zabuza—who slaughtered every single one of his classmates.
Only then did the Kirigakure higher-ups abolish the rule, fearing someone might imitate him again. After all, what they wanted was a generation of sufficiently ruthless Kirigakure shinobi—not a village that produced only one mass-murdering monster per year.
Thud!
Just as Uchiha Chizumi was about to continue the executions, Ameyuri—having finally vented her rage—suddenly dropped to her knees right in front of him. Before he could even speak, she slammed her forehead hard into the ground.
"Thank you so much!!!" Ameyuri wanted to burst into tears, but she bit her lip so hard she refused to let herself cry. She had already avenged her parents. Now it was time to repay the favor. "Please allow me to follow in your footsteps! I, Ringo Ameyuri, will become the sharpest blade at your side!"
"There's no need for that. I didn't execute Kūkūrin to avenge you. Everything I do is solely for justice." Uchiha Chizumi looked down at the girl prostrated before him. Though impressed, he still declined her request.
For someone around ten years old to unleash such a stunning strike was indeed remarkable.
But Ameyuri was not the same as Uchiha Izumi.