It was obvious that during the time they had been imprisoned by the gangs, these people had suffered terribly.
"My name is Uchiha Chizumi. Remember that name. No matter what you've gone through in the past, from this day forward, everything will change."
Uchiha Chizumi simply swept his gaze over the frames above the slaves' heads. As expected, most of them had committed a few minor offenses here and there, but fortunately they were mostly petty crimes like theft.
"[Absolute Justice] is about to descend upon the Land of Water. The mistakes you made in the past can be overlooked—but let me make this clear first: if anyone commits crimes again, or goes back to harming others, then in the name of [Absolute Justice], I will pass judgment without mercy."
The slaves looked at one another, but no one dared say anything.
They couldn't even resist the gangs—so there was no way they would dare speak against Uchiha Chizumi, the man who had wiped those gangs out.
Besides, he didn't seem to mean them any harm. Under those circumstances, nobody was foolish enough to make trouble for themselves.
Grrr…
Just as Uchiha Chizumi was about to announce that they were free, a little girl in the crowd nervously clutched her stomach. She had only been brought here today, and before that she had already gone several days without food.
Of course the gang's thugs hadn't gone out of their way to feed her dinner. She had been telling herself that if she could just survive tonight, maybe things would get better tomorrow. She never expected a group of justice-minded people to drop from the sky and save them.
Uchiha Chizumi activated his Byakugan and quickly estimated the amount of grain in the warehouse before announcing decisively,
"Everyone here may take two sacks of grain from the warehouse. After you return, tell the people in the city that each person may come here and claim one sack of grain."
Then he added:
"And finally—congratulations. You are free."
The moment his words fell, the warehouse went dead silent.
Only the little girl's growling stomach reminded the slaves that they weren't hallucinating.
"We're free! We're really free!"
"Grain… we can each take two sacks of grain?!"
"This is amazing! We won't have to starve anymore!"
…
At last, the slaves could no longer suppress their joy and broke into cheers.
If Uchiha Chizumi hadn't looked so imposing, someone might very well have tried to lift him into the air and celebrate.
"Izumi, you'll be in charge of the distribution. Keep order here and handle what comes next."
Uchiha Chizumi didn't have much time to waste. Although the one here was only a Wood Clone, his real body had to keep supervising the Kirigakure shinobi as they carried out justice, leaving him with little attention to spare for Seagull City, which had already entered the cleanup stage.
"Yes, Chizumi-senpai! Leave it to me!"
Uchiha Izumi answered confidently, looking as though she wanted to slap her chest and make a bold promise right in front of him.
"You stay here too, Kitsujiro."
Uchiha Chizumi glanced at the fat orange cat perched on his shoulder. For once, his calm gaze shifted just a little.
Maybe this guy really did need to lose weight.
"The Land of Water still isn't safe enough. If anything dangerous happens, use Reverse Summoning and call me."
"Meow! Leave it to me!"
Kitsujiro had absolutely no idea his weight had caught Uchiha Chizumi's attention. Right now, all he was thinking about was setting rules for the people of Seagull City later so they'd never dare catch cats to eat again.
"…That's all, then."
Uchiha Chizumi stared at Kitsujiro's huge belly for a long moment, but in the end he held back and said nothing about dieting.
After all, with Uchiha Izumi standing there as a junior, he had to leave Kitsujiro at least a little dignity. There would be time to remind him later.
Just then, Biwa Jūzō walked back into the warehouse carrying a bloody head in his hand. The slaves who were in the middle of hauling grain all cried out when they saw whose face it was.
Not because they were frightened by a severed head.
But because the man it belonged to was none other than Funaya Yūjirō, the overlord of Seagull City's underground black market.
"Chizumi-sama, I brought back this bastard's head."
Biwa Jūzō dropped respectfully to one knee before Uchiha Chizumi and set Funaya Yūjirō's head on the ground.
Compared to when he had left to give chase, Jūzō now had several fresh wounds on his body. Clearly, hunting Funaya Yūjirō down hadn't been entirely smooth.
Even so, he had still brought the man's head back in the shortest time possible. And judging by the frozen terror still left on Funaya Yūjirō's face, he had not died peacefully.
"You've done well. From here on, you and Kitsujiro will help keep order."
Uchiha Chizumi only glanced at the head Jūzō had brought back before losing interest. After giving Uchiha Izumi a few final instructions, he dismissed the Wood Clone and turned his attention back to Kirigakure.
Destroying the underground black market was only a small step in carrying out [Absolute Justice]. There was still a mountain of work left for the two humans and one cat to deal with in Seagull City afterward.
But with Seagull City as an example, Uchiha Chizumi had also gained a new idea for how to reform the Land of Water.
Wiping out every sinner might save Seagull City in the short term—but as long as the demand for an underground black market remained, the tragedy would return sooner or later.
So if he truly wanted a lasting solution, then [Absolute Justice] had to be spread across the entire shinobi world. Only then could the roots of evil be cut off for good.
"Chizumi-sama, the first teams sent out to carry out justice have already departed…"
Mei Terumi, now dressed in the Mizukage's ceremonial robes, came to report to him personally.
For a Kirigakure village now teetering in the storm, the existence of a Fifth Mizukage was undoubtedly the best way to steady people's hearts.
So with Genji's powerful backing, Mei Terumi had become the Fifth Mizukage at astonishing speed, almost seamlessly. In fact, the letter notifying the Land of Water's daimyo was only sent out after Mei had already taken the seat.
And yet Mei Terumi felt no joy or excitement whatsoever about becoming the Fifth Mizukage.
All she felt was the crushing weight on her shoulders—and anxiety for the future.
"I know. Don't worry. Lady Katsuyu will guide them properly."
Uchiha Chizumi's attitude toward this newly appointed Mizukage was fairly mild. After all, Mei Terumi really had contributed a great deal when it came to advancing [Absolute Justice].
"You look like you have something else to say."
Seeing Mei hesitate as though she wanted to speak but couldn't quite bring herself to, Uchiha Chizumi simply pointed it out directly.
"Yes. The situation in the village right now is… not very good. We're critically short on manpower, and a large number of missions have piled up. If Kirigakure goes too long without sending shinobi out on assignments, then our share of mission work will likely keep shrinking…"
Mei carefully watched Uchiha Chizumi's expression. If she could help it, she really didn't want to bargain with him over this—but with Kirigakure's future at stake, she had very few options left.
"My thought was… would it be possible to allow Kirigakure to pull out some… no, a small number of people to handle a few time-sensitive missions?"
Uchiha Chizumi frowned slightly.
Mei's request wasn't unreasonable. Forcing Kirigakure to completely abandon the missions that kept the village alive was unrealistic.