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NAJ Chapter 32: Meow and Bones
🕑 Added 2025-06-12 23:49:48 +0000 UTC"Meow! Keizumi-sama! We’ve got a problem!"
The black ninja cat didn’t stick around to wait for Izumi. It had rushed back in a hurry to report to Uchiha Keizumi.
Panting heavily, the ninja cat cried out, "Keizumi-sama, Uchiha... Uchiha Itachi has returned to the village, meow!!!"
"He’s a Konoha shinobi. Isn’t it perfectly normal for him to return?"
Uchiha Keizumi showed no visible emotion.
The cat froze for a second, then said, "But didn’t you say before that Uchiha Itachi would one day commit unspeakable atrocities? Keizumi-sama, you have the power to see the future evil in people, right? And your predictions have never been wrong!"
Uchiha Keizumi’s footsteps paused slightly. He said, "If you knew someone would commit unspeakable evil in the future, but they hadn’t yet acted on it... what would you do?"
The ninja cat looked troubled. "I’m just a ninja cat. My brain’s not built for these kinds of deep philosophical questions..."
"...Maybe..." the black cat said meekly, "...I’d try to stop them somehow?"
Uchiha Keizumi said calmly, "I tried to warn the clan head, and his wife too. Told them to get Itachi’s brain checked—there’s something seriously wrong with their eldest son. I also warned Uchiha Shisui. I told him he’d regret protecting Itachi."
"I’ve made many efforts to 'prevent things in advance.' But if someone still chooses to fall into the abyss willingly, to become a beast of their own accord... then all I can do is purge evil with [Absolute Justice]."
Suddenly—
A voice called out from the distance, loud and clear.
"Senpai! I-I found the missing persons list!!!"
The Uchiha girl came running over, clutching a stack of files in both hands.
Izumi finally came to a stop in front of Uchiha Keizumi. The young girl was panting heavily, completely out of breath, her cheeks flushed, and her body bent over as she tried to catch her breath. Still, she quickly extended her hands to offer the documents.
“Se…senpai, this is the list of all missing persons from Konohagakure over the past five years. None of them have been found to this day. There are a total of 176 missing individuals.”
Even as she said the number, Izumi herself couldn’t help but feel stunned.
And that was only the number of officially recorded missing persons.
There were surely more who hadn’t made it into the statistics—especially certain missing shinobi, who may have carried secrets of their own.
People with secrets naturally wouldn’t appear on Konoha’s official missing persons list.
Uchiha Keizumi didn’t take the list from her hands. At that moment, another voice rang out, drawing closer: “Keizumi-sama! We found more bones, meow—and quite a lot this time!”
Tachibana Jirō rushed over with his feline descendants in tow.
Several of the ninja cats were carrying various fragments of bones in their mouths.
“All found in the sewers, meow!”
With practiced ease, Tachibana Jirō leapt lightly onto Izumi’s head and added, “But we’re not sure if they all belong to the same person.”
One by one, the ninja cats dropped the bones they were carrying.
Uchiha Keizumi crouched down and picked up one of the fragments.
“Rookie. Eliminate all male missing persons for now.”
He gave the instruction.
Izumi blinked. “Senpai, do you already know the victim’s gender?”
Uchiha Keizumi straightened up and replied, “This is the inferior pubic ramus of the pelvis. In males, the angle is generally less than 90°, forming a narrow V shape. In females, it’s greater than 90°, more of a wide U or wide V shape.”
He then pointed to another piece on the ground.
“That’s a piece of the supraorbital ridge. In males, it’s typically thicker, more pronounced, and sloped. In females, it tends to be flatter, with a more vertical or slightly sloped forehead.”
Izumi was dumbfounded.
How many corpses had Keizumi-senpai handled to develop such an ability—to identify gender just by looking at bones?
Suddenly—
Izumi noticed her senpai’s brows furrow slightly.
As if he had discovered something new.
She watched him pick up two fragments with teeth embedded in them. After examining them closely, he said, “Rookie, narrow the age range to between five and thirty. Focus on the photos in the list and look for any missing females who appear to have slightly protruding teeth.”
Izumi quickly responded, “Yes, Senpai!”
As she rapidly flipped through the documents, she couldn’t help but ask, “Senpai, why the age—?”
But before she could finish the question, Keizumi-senpai cut her off coldly, seeing right through her thoughts.
“Because there are two different skeletons. Also, pay attention to the surnames. I suspect the two sets of remains belonged to a mother and daughter.”
“Based on the cross-sections of the cuts, the bodies were likely dismembered using the same tool—most likely by the same person. Possibly even killed on the same day.”
“Judging from the size of the fragments, the bodies were cut into at least over a hundred pieces. The fact that we’ve managed to recover some of them is already quite lucky.”
Izumi’s hand trembled slightly.
T-two bodies?
M-mother and daughter?
“One adult, one child. The older victim was likely between twenty and thirty years old. The younger was probably between five and eight,” Uchiha Keizumi said calmly.
Meanwhile, Izumi, spooked to her core, frantically flipped through the file in her hands.
Using the filtering criteria her senpai had just given her, she soon found two missing persons with the exact same surname.
“Senpai! I found them!”
She forced herself to stay composed and quickly reported: “Yamada Ryōsako, twenty-seven years old, disappeared four years ago. Her husband passed away earlier. She had one daughter. Yamada Nobumi, four years old, also went missing four years ago. Her father was deceased, and her mother was Yamada Ryōsako.”
Uchiha Keizumi asked, “What do you think we should do next?”
Izumi was caught off guard—she hadn’t expected her senpai to throw the question back at her.
Ah, that’s right!
Maybe this was Senpai’s way of testing her abilities!
Izumi immediately said, “We should find out where they lived before their deaths, investigate their relationships with neighbors and relatives, and also look into their financial situation at the time. Most importantly, we need to investigate who inherited the Yamada family’s assets after they died.”
That was one of the basic procedures outlined in the Uchiha Police Force’s trainee manual on how to solve a case.
Izumi still remembered a fair bit of that foundational theory.
“Let’s go,” Uchiha Keizumi said to her. Then, turning to Tachibana Jirō, he added, “Bring the bones back to the police force.”
“Yes, Keizumi-senpai!”
“Yes, Keizumi-sama!”
…
“Hey, Yamada! The Hokage-sama’s eldest son’s funeral is tomorrow, you know! What the hell are you spacing out for?! The Hokage-sama personally told us that the ceremony has to be flawless—dignified and grand—so the departed can rest in peace in the Pure Land.”
“If you’re not in the right state, take the day off. If something goes wrong at the funeral tomorrow, someone like you—just an ordinary civilian—won’t be able to bear the Hokage-sama’s wrath. And our funeral hall’s reputation will be ruined too!”
The man addressed as 'Yamada' suddenly jolted.
He shook his head and forced a stiff smile. “Maybe I just didn’t sleep well last night, that’s all. I’m fine.”
But even he didn’t understand why he felt so uneasy.
Could it be…
No…
Impossible.
“I made sure to clean up everything…” Yamada muttered under his breath, in a voice only he could hear. “And it’s been so many years… there’s no way they’d find out.”
…
“Hokage-sama, tomorrow is Shinnosuke’s funeral. You are the Hokage of Konoha—you must at least show some spirit.”
A masked female ANBU knelt behind Sarutobi Hiruzen and spoke softly.
Sarutobi Hiruzen let out a deep sigh.
He turned around and looked at the woman standing before him. His expression was complex as he said, “You must be suffering too, just like me. After all… you and Shinnosuke were married for many years. You two shared a strong bond as husband and wife…”
“Hokage-sama, I don’t think grief serves any purpose. What’s done cannot be undone. All I can do now is ensure Shinnosuke finds peace in the afterlife, take care of Konohamaru in the days to come… and remember this hatred. That’s all.”
Hiruzen could hear the hoarseness in her voice.
Perhaps this daughter-in-law of his—now a widow—had already cried more times than she could count.
After a long silence, Hiruzen said, “Nadeshiko… I know you bear deep hatred toward Uchiha Keizumi, but—”
“I know.”
Sarutobi Nadeshiko interrupted, “Hokage-sama, I understand the bigger picture. I won’t let hatred cloud my judgment. Hokage-sama, I’d like to request half a day off—to spend some time with Konohamaru.”
Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed inwardly.
“…Go.”
