The sharp katana slit the gangster's throat with a light, graceful motion. Before the blood could even spray out, Uchiha Izumi had already appeared behind him—just in time to face the second enemy.
"Die!"
The second thug didn't even realize his companion was already dead. His vision blurred for an instant, and then he saw Izumi in front of him. Instinctively, he swung his blade at her.
"In the name of [Absolute Justice]…"
But in the sight of Izumi's three-tomoe Sharingan, the thug's movements were practically in slow motion. She gave the sins inside the frame above his head a quick glance, then followed the same routine as always—genjutsu, control, one slash to the throat.
"Sentenced to death!"
Compared to Biwa Jūzō's broad, brutal style, Izumi still took a moment to look over each enemy's crimes before killing them. Even so, her efficiency at eliminating the gang's thugs was no lower than Jūzō's.
"Nicely done, meow! Kill every last one of these rotten bastards!"
The only one not fighting was Kitsujiro, perched on the second-floor railing of the warehouse and shouting encouragement. In truth, it was the starving civilians who had been eating cats—but after following Uchiha Chizumi for so many years, Kitsujiro understood perfectly well that blame belonged where it was due.
If these people hadn't deliberately engineered a famine, Seagull City's civilians would never have been driven to the point of catching cats and rats just to survive.
"Caught one little rat causing trouble…"
Just as Kitsujiro was getting so worked up that he wanted to jump into the fight himself, a strange voice suddenly sounded behind him.
"Hm… if we're holding a funeral, what kind would you like?"
"Meow?!"
Startled out of his fur, Kitsujiro spun around and saw a sturdy man with long green hair stepping out of the darkness. In his hands were two oddly shaped short blades crackling with dazzling lightning.
"Well then, if you won't say, I'll choose for you. I'll give you a funeral of lightning!"
Kurosuki Raiga flashed a deranged grin. Without waiting for Kitsujiro to answer, he crossed the twin Lightning Blades in his hands, and the arcs of electricity crawling over them lunged at Kitsujiro like venomous snakes.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Serpent!"
But the instant the lightning was unleashed, Kitsujiro—eyes wide—instinctively slammed his paw down on the railing and activated the ninjutsu he had practiced countless times.
Poof!
A cloud of smoke burst out, and a figure appeared between Kitsujiro and Kurosuki Raiga, catching Raiga's lightning release with his bare hands.
"That was close, meow! Scared the fur off me!"
Kitsujiro stared nervously at the flashes of lightning flickering in the smoke. He wasn't an ordinary housecat, but ninja cats still couldn't be compared to actual shinobi. If that lightning technique had landed on him just now, even if it didn't kill him, it would've skinned him alive.
"I believe I warned you before, Kitsujiro…"
The smoke quickly cleared, revealing the figure who had blocked the lightning with his bare hands—a handsome young man with a cold expression and a Konoha forehead protector. It was Uchiha Chizumi, the same man who had single-handedly crushed all of Kirigakure not long before.
"The Reverse Summoning Jutsu is not for using me as a shield."
If some other Kirigakure shinobi had been standing there instead, they probably would've turned and fled without hesitation. But Kurosuki Raiga was a rogue ninja from Kirigakure, and Seagull City was far enough away from the village that news from Kirigakure had not yet reached him.
"Sorry, Lord Chizumi, meow. It was an emergency, there was no other way, meow…"
Kitsujiro forced an awkward laugh as his tail swished back and forth. He knew he'd done something stupid. If the one he had reverse summoned hadn't been Uchiha Chizumi, but some ordinary shinobi instead, getting hit with a Lightning Release attack right at the start would probably have cut their combat power in half.
Still, Kitsujiro hadn't been reckless enough to get someone truly killed. The thing he reverse summoned was only one of Uchiha Chizumi's Wood Clones. Otherwise, with Kitsujiro's chakra reserves, even with the target cooperating, there was no way he could've pulled over the current Chizumi himself.
"A Konoha ninja? Fine. Makes no difference. If we're holding a funeral, what kind would you like?"
Kurosuki Raiga glanced at Chizumi's forehead protector with obvious disdain, reminded of that skin-tight monstrosity from Konoha who had nearly wiped out the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
And that only made Raiga's killing intent rise even higher. If a moment ago he had only wanted to get rid of a troublesome rat, now he was settling old and new grudges together. More than anything, he hated Konoha ninja.
"You, a man steeped in unforgivable sin…"
Uchiha Chizumi barely glanced at the red frame above Kurosuki Raiga's head before losing interest. Raiga's evil was off the charts. Even in Kirigakure, a village overflowing with "talent," he would've counted as top-tier scum.
"Eye of Judgment!"
"If you won't choose, then I'll choose for you! We'll use my favorite—lightning funeral! Lightning Release: Lightning—Aaaaghhhhhh!!!"
Kurosuki Raiga had just started grinning like a madman, his Lightning Blades not yet fully activated, when he met Uchiha Chizumi's blood-red eyes. The Mangekyō technique housed in Chizumi's left eye—the Eye of Judgment—activated instantly.
The next second, Raiga's inhuman scream echoed throughout the entire warehouse, startling even the gang's thugs who were still in the middle of fighting.
Biwa Jūzō and Uchiha Izumi both used the moment to disengage, swallowing soldier pills to restore their stamina and chakra as quickly as possible.
Ignoring Kurosuki Raiga—now rolling on the floor and howling like a beast—Uchiha Chizumi calmly swept his eyes over everyone inside the warehouse. The disgust on his face was so intense it practically took form.
Even in the infamous Kirigakure, there were at least some shinobi whose evil was relatively minor—or who could even be called innocent. But in this warehouse, aside from Uchiha Izumi and Biwa Jūzō, almost every single person still moving freely was a red-name. And most of them weren't just red—they were dark purple or nearly black, utterly steeped in unforgivable evil.
Compared to the lot of them, even Kurosuki Raiga looked unremarkable. Especially one man who turned and ran the moment he heard Raiga's scream—the contents of the frame above his head were several times more horrific than even that beast Uchiha Itachi.
"Lord Chizumi, everyone here is rotten to the core, meow! They drove the city's civilians so far that they had to survive by eating cat meat, meow!"
Kitsujiro shouted indignantly. After following Uchiha Chizumi for so many years, this fat orange cat had seen more villains than he could count—but evil on the level of Seagull City's underground black market was truly one of a kind.
"I understand. You've all done well."
Uchiha Chizumi glanced at Biwa Jūzō, drenched in blood, and Uchiha Izumi, who was faintly out of breath, before calmly looking toward the remaining gang bosses and their thugs.
"Heaven's Wrath Flame!"