I'm in the Dragon Clan, bound to the Naruto Counterattack System

"Photos taken by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department yesterday at the Takawan coastline."

Inuyama He's voice broke the silence in the sword shop. He placed a surveillance photo on the small table and knelt on the tatami mat without saying a word.

Tachibana Masamune struck the crimson blade with his hammer, sending dazzling sparks flying as they collided.

Once the blade was partially formed, Tachibana Masamune used pliers to pick up the blade blank and walked to the quenching tank in the corner of the room, which was filled with clear well water.

Tachibana Masamune lowered his head to examine the sword blank, the bright red metal reflecting in his focused eyes.

"Head of the Inuyama family, do you think this quenching will be successful?" Tachibana Masamune asked Inuyama Kazuhiro behind him, then suddenly plunged his arm into the water, plunging the red-hot blade blank into the water.

"Sizzle~" A piercing sound of steam came, and scalding hot steam spread out.

In traditional knife forging, quenching is the most important step, the step that infuses the blade blank with soul. Countless hammerings beforehand are all for this moment. If quenching fails, no matter how exquisitely the blade is forged, it is just a piece of unusable scrap iron.

Tachibana Masamune stared at the shadow of the sword underwater, and when the mist dissipated, he slowly lifted the sword blank out of the water.

The blade had lost its red-hot glow and turned dark gray, gleaming with a cold, hard light in the sunlight.

Tachibana Masamune tapped the back of the knife lightly with his fingers, producing a clear, resonant "ding" sound. He smiled with satisfaction.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Tachibana Masamune placed the sword blank on the stone table, went to Inuyama He's side, and picked up the photograph to look at it.

In the photo, Yuan Zhisheng stands ramrod straight, his right hand gripping the armrest tightly, but a faint smile appears on his usually expressionless face. Beside him, Cheng Sui holds the steering wheel with one hand, his hair standing on end in the wind.

A barely perceptible glint of malice flashed in Tachibana Masamune's eyes, but he quickly composed himself, a warm smile spreading across his face as he gently stroked the photograph: "Isn't this wonderful? It's been a long time since I've seen Chisei smile like this. It seems he's found some good friends."

Inuyama He stood up, bowed to Tachibana Masamune, and said in a deep voice, "It is my fault for failing in my duties. I accept the patriarch's punishment."

Tachibana Masamune smiled, picked up the steaming teapot beside him, and poured a cup of green tea for Inuyama He and himself.

"Inuyama-kun, please don't take it to heart. No one expected that the Demon Clan would find out that a specialist from headquarters had arrived in Japan." Tachibana Masamune sat opposite Inuyama He and took a sip of tea. "If we really want to assign blame, I, as the head of the clan, should be the one most deserving of punishment. It's all because of my mismanagement that the Demon Clan has become so rampant."

"Please don't say that, patriarch. We have seen what you have done for the family over the years."

"So Inuyama-kun doesn't need to take this to heart. Besides, this might not be a bad thing for Chisei," said Tachibana Masamune.

Inuyama He sat back down, somewhat puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Chisei is like a piece of fine steel." Tachibana Masamune picked up the cooled blade blank from the stone table. "But to forge him into the best sword, hammering alone won't suffice."

Looking at the two people in the photo, Tachibana Masamune said meaningfully, "A knife that is too hard is bound to break. The most important thing is to maintain toughness while being hard."

"But the headquarters specialist is with the young master now. What if he finds out about the family's secrets? Besides, the young master has also been investigating the Demon Clan recently," Inuyama He asked.

"Don't worry, I've already thought of a solution," said Tachibana Masamune. "Since we can't restrain him with force or extravagance, we can use other methods to keep him out."

"What does the patriarch mean?"

"We can expose him to the public, so that he will be hindered at every turn, and he will have a lot of power but be unable to use it."

"But what if the public finds out about our mixed-race heritage..."

"Don't worry, I'm confident." Tachibana Masamune interrupted Inuyama He in a soft voice.

Inuyama He nodded and got up to leave.

"By the way," Tachibana Masamune called out to Inuyama He, a gentle smile on his face, "I'd like to trouble you, Mr. Inuyama, to go to the police station. It's not good for a young person to have a bad record."

"Yes!" Inuyama He nodded, accepted the order, and withdrew.

After Inuyama He left the sword shop, Tachibana Masamune sat back down at the stone table, staring at Cheng Sui's face in the photograph, speechless for a long time.

After a long while, he picked up the photo and threw it into the stove, his face ashen.

……

Tokyo, Shinjuku, Park Hyatt Tokyo.

Inside the presidential suite.

Cheng Sui leaned back on the sofa by the window, with the Executive Department's laptop on his lap. It contained a locally deployed Norma program, which could be used to contact Norma even if the firewall across Japan was turned on.

Cheng Sui moved his fingers across the keyboard. This was an essential procedure for the execution department specialists when they went out on missions. They had to upload mission logs every day. This was to record the details of the mission in detail, and also to confirm the specialists' safety. If no logs were uploaded for more than two days, Norma would report the message to the execution department headquarters.

When writing about the Ghost Clan, Cheng Sui hesitated for a moment, but ultimately chose to delete that part, keeping only the section about his attack.

Before sending him to the hotel, Genji asked him casually if he could temporarily refrain from revealing the Demon Clan to headquarters.

Cheng Sui agreed not only because he and Yuan Zhisheng had shown mutual trust, but also because he couldn't guarantee that if the Secret Party learned that there was a group of dangerous mixed-race people in Japan, they wouldn't send a large number of agents over.

If the Secret Service really takes a major action, it may make the already somewhat chaotic situation even more complicated, which would be detrimental to their ability to complete the system's mission.

"Hey junior, what did you and that gangster's son do today?" Fingel walked out of the bathroom, wearing only a towel covering his lower body, and holding a glass of orange juice. "And what were you two talking about that men do?"

Cheng Sui snatched the orange juice from Fingel's hand and took a delicious sip: "He told me that there's an organization called the Demon Clan in Japan, and that's what attacked me."

Fingel lay back on the sofa, completely unconcerned about his exposed cleavage, and lazily said, "Although that person doesn't seem like the type to lie, you should still be careful, junior. You can never be too careful. My graduation this year depends on you."

Cheng Sui rolled his eyes at him and tossed the computer to him: "Well, you'd better put in some effort. From now on, you'll be in charge of writing the internship log. Just be careful not to write anything about the Ghost Clan."

"No way, junior," Fingel wailed, "you really believe that gangster's son? And you're even helping him cover up what's going on in Japan?"

Cheng Sui stretched and said, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

Fingel curled his lip in disdain, his fingers tapping on the keyboard: "Tch, why do you A-levels all act like this, thinking you can handle everything?"

"Senior, weren't you an A-level student before?" Cheng Sui raised an eyebrow. "Are you even criticizing yourself?"

Fingel's fingers suddenly stopped, his gaze drifting into the distance, as if he were looking at Greenland from many years ago through the screen. The cold seawater washed over his chest, and the cries for help from his companions faded away. He once thought he was invincible, until that sea completely buried his pride.

After a long silence, he muttered under his breath, "That's all in the past."