Out of Shisui’s expectations, he waited for quite a long time, but Uchiha Shingen didn’t even bat an eyelid.
He just kept flipping through that magazine, completely engrossed.
He seemed to have no intention of taking action whatsoever…
Why?!
In the distance.
The thief weaving through the crowd grew increasingly arrogant, even frequently casting provocative glances in Shisui’s direction.
This was practically a blatant provocation!
Shisui finally couldn’t hold back.
With a Body Flicker, he darted forward, pinning the thieving culprit firmly to the ground right in the middle of the crowd.
He was just about to speak.
The thief beneath him suddenly opened his mouth and coughed up a massive puddle of blood.
His face instantly turned deathly pale, making him look exceptionally miserable.
“An Uchiha killed someone!”
An alarmed shriek exploded from the surrounding crowd.
“The Police Force is bullying a terminally ill, dying man!
What has Konoha come to…”
In an instant, the surrounding civilians closed in, forming a tight circle.
No one dared to actively attack an Uchiha shinobi.
But those pairs of eyes, brimming with anger and absolute disgust, stabbed into Shisui like physical blades.
“I didn’t do anything!
This guy was stealing!”
Eager to prove his innocence, Shisui roughly pulled open the man’s jacket.
But all he saw was an emaciated body covered in gruesome scars.
The money the man had just stolen had vanished without a trace.
A Summoning Jutsu?
He has accomplices!
Shisui cursed inwardly, realizing the severity of the situation.
There were countless shinobi in Konoha who had retired from the front lines due to heavy injuries.
After losing their primary source of income, many resorted to similar dark paths.
Dealing with such individuals was incredibly tricky, even for the seasoned officers of the Military Police Force.
Shisui was sharp enough to realize this, but that didn’t mean the ordinary civilians around him could see through the layers of deception.
Or rather, they were simply much more willing to believe a narrative where an arrogant Uchiha bullied the weak.
After all, this exact script had played out countless times in Konoha’s history.
This would only deepen the festering conflict between the village and the Uchiha!
But before Shisui could even open his mouth to explain, the man he had pinned down began to wail, issuing mournful, tragic accusations.
“Me?!
Stealing?!”
“I went to the battlefield for Konoha!
I fought enemies countless times on the razor’s edge between life and death, leaving me with nothing but this body full of scars!
And in the end, I have to suffer your slander…”
“I might as well have died under an enemy’s blade back then!”
The more he spoke, the more agitated he became.
Every word wept blood; every sound held tears.
He painted a flawless image of a tragic hero who gave everything for Konoha, only to be ruthlessly persecuted by the Konoha Military Police Force.
Only a fleeting sliver of cunning hidden deep within his eyes exposed his true thoughts.
Clearly, this was premeditated.
Or rather, this was a deliberate frame-up specifically targeting the Uchiha.
“I…”
Standing in the center of the hostile crowd, Shisui felt as if he had been plunged into an icy abyss.
Someone in the back noticed their money was missing, but their realization was instantly swallowed by the overwhelming tide of condemnation, failing to stir a single ripple.
The commotion grew louder and louder, drawing even more people from all directions.
If things were allowed to escalate and alert the Konoha higher-ups—or even worse, the Third Hokage—it would be impossible to wrap up cleanly!
Just as Shisui was spiraling into panic, a familiar, steady voice rang out from behind him.
“I apologize.”
“This was our mistake.
The Konoha Military Police Force will take full responsibility for this incident.”
Uchiha Shingen pushed his way through the crowd.
He stepped up and immediately shot an angry glare at Shisui:
“I told you earlier, you cannot be rash when doing things.
Don’t be rash!”
“You can’t even distinguish basic right from wrong.
Your impulsiveness will only smear the Police Force’s reputation!”
“Go back to the precinct and spend three days in solitary confinement!”
Shisui had just opened his mouth to defend himself when he was firmly pressed down by Tezuka, who had hurried over after hearing the uproar.
Tezuka shot him a sharp look, and Shisui immediately swallowed his words and quieted down.
Seeing the situation under control, Shingen reached into his jacket and took out a thick wad of bills.
In front of everyone, he stuffed the money into the “injured” thief’s hands and comforted him in a gentle tone:
“Take this as my personal compensation to you.
If you encounter any similar hardships in the future, you can come find me directly.”
With that said, Shingen turned to face the crowd, his voice peaceful yet unwavering:
“The Police Force will not let a bad person go, but we will also not arbitrarily wrong a good person.”
“This was our oversight, and we will absolutely not deny it!”
The thief shot Shisui a deeply provocative glare.
Clutching the wad of bills tightly, he put on a mask of lingering indignation, stumbled to his feet, squeezed through the crowd, and quickly walked away.
He waved the bills in his hand, utterly unable to conceal the smugness dancing in his eyes.
So what if they are Uchiha?
When faced with public outrage, they still have no choice but to compromise and pay up!
Seeing Shingen step up, many in the crowd who recognized him immediately relaxed, and murmurs of praise began to ripple through the street.
“As expected, only Shingen-kun can truly understand our hardships!”
“He’s different from the other Uchiha.
He doesn’t have that awful arrogance, and he can actually empathize with the pain of others.”
“If everyone in the Konoha Military Police Force was like Shingen-kun, it would be wonderful!”
“At the end of the day, he’s still an Uchiha.
No matter how well he fakes it, it’s just an act!”
…
The crowd gradually dispersed.
The chattering voices were a noisy blur, but they fell with absolute, piercing clarity upon Shisui’s ears.
He finally understood why Uchiha Shingen was able to completely dominate the Police Force’s public approval ratings.
Just based on this on-the-spot reaction speed and masterful crisis management, he was leagues above the other clan members.
But Shisui found himself utterly unable to understand this world.
Why was it that when he wholeheartedly tried to do the right thing, he ended up as a vicious thorn in everyone’s side…
yet Uchiha Shingen, who didn’t even want to lift a finger initially, ended up as the object of everyone’s gratitude?
This was absolutely nothing like what the Ninja Academy taught!
“You don’t understand, do you?”
Tezuka glanced at him, instantly reading the turmoil on the boy’s face.
Shisui nodded tightly, unable to resist looking forward.
Uchiha Shingen had already returned to his infuriatingly lazy state.
He was slouching as he walked, idly flipping through the racy magazine in his hands, completely lacking the tension of someone who had just expertly defused a massive public relations disaster.
The man was frighteningly relaxed.
Shisui took a deep breath.
Recalling everything that had just happened, he put away any lingering underestimation and felt a genuine wave of gratitude toward his superior.
“Captain, thank you.”
Shingen didn’t even lift an eyelid from the page.
He simply nodded in response and cautioned casually:
“Forget the confinement.
That was just for the outsiders to hear.
Next time, before you make a move, use your brain to think about the consequences and the political impact first.”
“Understood.”
Shisui agreed, but the burning question in his chest forced him to press the issue:
“Captain, I don’t understand why it turned out like this.
I was clearly helping the victim.”
“I will gladly accept my punishment later, but I need to know why.”
Shingen finally snapped the magazine shut.
He looked at Shisui with a rather surprised expression.
Most Uchiha clan members were incredibly arrogant and proud.
Even if they knew they were dead wrong, they wouldn’t necessarily be willing to bow their heads; stubbornly doubling down was common practice.
Shisui was clearly a different breed.
At the very least, his attitude was highly respectable.
This made Shingen even more convinced that Shisui was an indispensable key character in the grand plotline, perhaps even a protagonist.
Furthermore, with a subordinate asking for guidance so humbly, if he as the captain didn’t offer a few pointers, it would make him seem rather unreasonable.
Shingen paused his steps and asked in return:
“You took action just now.
Was the problem solved?”
Seeing Shisui shake his head, Shingen asked again:
“Was the impact on the relationship between the village and the Uchiha positive or negative?”
“Negative.”
“Did you protect the pride of the Uchiha?”
“No.”
“Was the criminal brought to justice?”
“No.”
“Is Konoha’s public order better or worse off?”
“Worse…”
Shisui’s head buried lower and lower, his voice dropping to a mosquito-like buzz.
He genuinely looked like a child deeply ashamed of making a terrible mistake.
Seeing that the point had firmly landed, Shingen said:
“So you see.”
“You tried your absolute hardest, yet you solved absolutely nothing, and things developed in the worst possible direction.
It would have been far better if you had just done nothing from the start.”
“But…”
Shisui raised his head, his innate sense of duty instinctively wanting to argue.
But when he met Shingen’s calm, bottomless gaze, the words caught painfully in his throat.
Shingen said it for him:
“Were you going to say that doing nothing is a dereliction of duty?”
“Yes!”
Shisui said stubbornly.
Shingen shook his head, continuing to impart his personal philosophy:
“Whether it is a dereliction of duty or not isn’t something we get to judge ourselves.
It’s judged by your superiors, by the civilian masses of Konoha, and ultimately, by the Hokage.”
“What matters isn’t how much you actually did, but how much they think you did.”
“So, looking at it from that perspective, do you think we neglected our duty today, or did we masterfully defuse a malicious incident that could have escalated all the way to Lord Third’s desk?”
Shisui clamped his mouth shut, looking like a sealed gourd, but a violent ideological battle was raging in his mind.
The Will of Fire education he had received all his life screamed that Uchiha Shingen was wrong, yet the cold, hard results of the incident perfectly corroborated Shingen’s words.
Moreover, this pragmatic, underhanded approach wasn’t “Uchiha” at all.
An incredibly uncomfortable feeling, like a fishbone stuck in his throat, made Shisui stiffen his neck and ask back:
“Is this really how the Konoha Military Police Force does things?!”
Shingen slowly shook his head.
“No.
This is how I do things.”
Shisui pressed on, a hint of frustration leaking out.
“So we’re just going to let those petty thieves go?!”
“Who said that?!”
The corners of Shingen’s mouth curled into a dangerous smirk.
“The hard-earned, blood-and-sweat money I saved up from going to work every day isn’t that easy to walk away with.”
“Let the kunai fly for a while!”