Mitokado Homura led five ANBU squads into the Hyūga clan compound.
At a glance, a bizarre plant stood before them. The plant itself was spattered with fresh blood; below it, blood and gore were smeared everywhere—along with two severed heads. A little off to the side, a severed arm lay on the ground.
A young Hyūga clutched his stump and groaned in pain.
Many Main House shinobi glared at Uchiha Keizumi, but, daunted by his overwhelming strength, not a single one dared to move. As for the Branch House shinobi, they stood off to the side like spectators at a play.
They looked quite pleased to see the Main House in serious trouble.
'Whew… looks like I didn't come too late,' Homura let out a breath in his mind. At least, for now, not that many were dead.
He spoke to Uchiha Keizumi at once. "Keizumi, whatever this is, we can talk it out. Ahem—at the very least, take that shinobi blade off the man's neck first."
But he realized Keizumi ignored him.
Keizumi's voice was cold as he addressed the Main House elder, Hyūga Naru, whose face had gone stiff. "If you want to be part of the chaos—if you want to be the first 'chicken' [Absolute Justice] kills to warn the monkeys—I don't mind granting you that honor today."
Hyūga Naru: "…"
This Uchiha junior, utterly lacking in courtesy, had actually said the words "kill the chicken to warn the monkeys" out loud!
By ordinary logic, he ought to be unyielding to the extreme right now—even if it meant having his head cut off, he must not retreat half a step.
After all, the Hokage had already sent people; the senior adviser Mitokado Homura was here on the scene.
But…
He could feel the shinobi blade's edge, pressed to the skin of his neck, biting deeper—step by step.
He could feel his neck starting to bleed; dark, warm blood ran down, staining his collar red.
"You—"
Hyūga Naru clenched his teeth. His hard stance deflated at once, but he still forced out a line: "Uchiha Keizumi, you'll regret this!"
Then he shut his mouth, his old face locked into a stiff, ugly mask.
This response left the Main House shinobi aghast.
The clan head, Hiashi, had already backed down under Uchiha Keizumi's [Absolute Justice]; and Elder Hyūga Naru hadn't held firm for even two minutes. Was there truly no one who could rein in Keizumi's rampage?
"…Hiashi, what exactly happened?" Homura sensed the mood was wrong. He turned to Hyūga Hiashi, whose expression was a downcast tangle of emotions, and asked.
At the same time, when the blade was finally lifted from his neck, Hyūga Naru exhaled in relief, immediately stepping back several paces to put distance between himself and Uchiha Keizumi.
Clutching the wound at his neck, he gritted his teeth and answered Homura on Hiashi's behalf. "Adviser Homura! Uchiha Keizumi intends to throw our entire Hyūga Main House into prison!"
"He won't spare even an elder of the Main House like me—he even wants to lock this old man up for twenty years!"
"Adviser Homura! How can justice act so wantonly?!"
Homura blinked. Keizumi wanted to lock up the entire Hyūga Main House?
This…
To be honest, that was far lighter than the catastrophe Homura had been bracing himself for. At first, he'd thought Uchiha Keizumi meant to butcher the Hyūga Main House to the last.
That was why he had rushed over in such haste—afraid that if he came late, the entire Hyūga clan would be awash in blood.
"What 'wanton,' meow?" Tachibana Jirō said with open disdain. "When you were using the Caged Bird curse mark to enslave the Branch House, why didn't you call that wanton?"
A faint, almost imperceptible glint passed through Mitokado Homura's eyes.
For Konoha, trimming the Hyūga Main House's power and easing the Branch House's shackles would do more good than harm.
The Main House, after all, was only a small fraction—some thirty people in all, many of them well into their eighties.
The Branch House made up the majority, and half of them were in their prime. Even the most gifted student in the Academy right now, Hyūga Neji, belonged to the Branch.
To put it bluntly:
That so-called "pure Byakugan lineage" the Main House kept talking about was nothing more than an excuse to leech off the Branch.
Homura knew perfectly well that, at the beginning, the Hyūga clan's Caged Bird seal had only one function: the "self-destruction of the eyes." Later, some Main House shinobi decided they wanted to be lords over others, and they altered the Caged Bird curse into a tool for enslaving the Branch.
'But no matter which side I favor, I'm bound to offend the other. Hiruzen, you've handed me a tough problem!' Homura's thoughts raced.
Side with the Main House, and he could gain their friendship; the village had always found it hard to intervene in Main House affairs, but after this, perhaps it could.
Side with the Branch House, and he could win the Branch's friendship, secure the support of most Hyūga, curb the Main House's power, help the clan grow to fill Konoha's shortfall in strength—and Keizumi would shoulder half the Main House's hatred on the village's behalf, avoiding a clash with Keizumi as well.
That last one… that's the key!
Homura had his answer.
Meeting the hopeful gazes of Hyūga Hiashi, Hyūga Naru, and the others, Homura hid the odd glint in his eyes.
He cleared his throat, looking very much at a loss—as if he had wrestled with it for a long time—and in the end he only sighed.
"Hiashi, about this matter…"
"The village is not in a position to intervene."
Hiashi froze. Hyūga Naru's eyes went wide.
The other Main House shinobi were equally stunned. One by one, they fixed disbelieving looks on Mitokado Homura. If even the village wouldn't take the Main House's side, how were they supposed to stand up to Uchiha Keizumi?
"Adviser Homura!"
Clutching the wound at his neck, Hyūga Naru panicked.
But before he could speak, Homura cut him off coldly. "Whether your Main House has stood on the Branch's neck to siphon off their benefit, whether you have used the Caged Bird curse to enslave Branch shinobi—no one knows it better than Hiruzen and I."
Hyūga Naru's face went slack.
Homura slowly let out a breath, looked back to Hyūga Hiashi, and adjusted the reading glasses on the bridge of his nose. "Hiashi, don't blame this old man for not taking the Main House's side. Taking a stance still means drawing a line between right and wrong."
"If the Main House's conduct were beyond reproach, the village would naturally stand with you. But search your heart—can you truly say the Main House has not enslaved the Branch?"
"Your ancestors created the Caged Bird curse mark to protect members of the Hyūga clan—not so you, their descendants, could add functions that inflict pain."
Mitokado Homura paused, then went on. "I've read some of the Hyūga's old records. The original meaning of 'Caged Bird' was to place clansmen coveted by outside enemies within a cage—like a bird sheltered by its cage."
"But as time passed, the meaning of the Caged Bird curse mark shifted—to imprison the bird in the cage forever, never to break free, subject to the will of whoever holds the cage."
"Hiashi, your Hyūga clan…"
"It's time to change."
Hyūga Hiashi stood there, stunned. It took him several seconds to grasp that even the Hokage was prepared to press down on the Main House.
Hiashi could not understand it.
Under his leadership, the Hyūga had kept to a low profile in Konoha. They had obeyed the village leadership's orders without complaint, never once talking back.
So why had things come to this?
He fell into a deathly silence, feeling the Hyūga Main House cut off and alone.
And right now, there was even less reason to expect the Branch House to speak up for the Main.
Hiashi drew a long breath.
Solemn and steady, he asked Mitokado Homura, "Is this also the Hokage-sama's position?"
"It is this old man's," Homura replied.
It was indeed Hiruzen's view, but Homura did not drag him into it. Some things could not be known as the Hokage's will.
Then Homura added, "This time, this old man supports Keizumi."
"…I understand."
After closing his eyes for a few seconds, Hiashi opened them again and turned to Uchiha Keizumi. "As clan head, I have used the Caged Bird curse mark on a Branch clansman—and that person was my own younger brother. How many years must I be imprisoned?"
At that moment, Hiashi found himself utterly calm—no anger, no hatred.
Only the helplessness that comes when the tide of fate bears down.
"Ten years."
The number that fell from Uchiha Keizumi's lips sent ripples through Hiashi's calm.
"What if I shoulder all the Main House's guilt?"
At last, Hiashi dared to meet Keizumi's eyes. "If you imprison me for a hundred years, will you pardon the rest of the Main House?"
At those words, more than a few Main House shinobi felt their eyes burn red.
"Hiashi-sama! We don't need to—"
"Silence!" Hiashi's hands were clenched into fists inside his sleeves. He knew they were trembling, yet he forced his voice to remain calm and even. "Imprisonment… is already the best outcome for the Hyūga Main House. If I alone can bear it, no end would be better."
He knew some among the Main House were on the verge of resisting.
But—
Under Uchiha Keizumi's predatory stare, and with even the Hokage refusing to stand with the Main House—
Resistance led only to death.
Only compromise held a chance of survival.
"No." Uchiha Keizumi spoke flatly. "But those whose offenses are relatively lighter can have their sentences reduced by other means—for example, by serving the shinobi world in a positive way while awaiting punishment. Among the thirty-odd members of the Main House, only seven qualify."
He added, "You, Hyūga Hiashi, are not among them."
Hiashi's fists had gone rigid—but at last, he let them loosen.
"Very well. The Hyūga Main House…"
"…is willing to accept punishment," he said, hollow with resignation.
The spark of resolve the Main House shinobi had managed to kindle was crushed by Hiashi's words. The proud spine that had kept the Main House so high was snapped by his own hand.
Hyūga Naru, elder of the Main House, held his tongue as well.
He knew the Main House had run out of chances.
No one stood on the Main House's side.
The Main House… had lost.
…
"The era of the Hyūga Main House ruling over the Branch House ended in under 30 minutes—in fact, you could say it ended the instant Uchiha Keizumi set foot inside the Hyūga compound…"
Watching it all unfold, Hatake Kakashi was shaken to the core.
He suddenly realized he might have done the "wrong thing" with good intentions.
He had sent his ninken Pakkun to summon the Hokage in hopes of quelling a potential internal clash within the Hyūga clan.
Who could have guessed that once Mitokado Homura arrived, the clash would intensify—
—intensify to the point that the Main House had no power to resist, crushed outright by the rolling tide.
"Hmm…" Kakashi's expression turned odd. "Maybe 'intensify' isn't even the right word, since at least the killing stopped. Who would have thought the Hokage would also stand with Keizumi? Maybe the Main House should be thanking me for saving their lives."
Of course, he only dared mutter that to himself.
Say that in front of the Main House now…
That would be rubbing salt into the wound.
They'd probably all come for his head.
…
Hyūga Neji lifted his gaze to the desolate face of Hyūga Hiashi.
At that moment Neji felt unmoored, as if all this were a wondrous, logic-defying dream.
But the dull throb in his cheek—swollen where Tachibana Jirō had poked him—told him otherwise.
Only reality could be this illogical. The cage the Main House had clamped over the Branch had been unfastened, just like that.
Neji couldn't help glancing again at Uchiha Keizumi.
Keizumi's expression was unchanged. That cool face showed no joy, no relief—like he'd done something so trivial it wasn't worth celebrating.
"This is the tide of justice." Uchiha Keizumi's voice sounded then. Neji realized the words were meant for him, and he hurried to listen.
"When justice is strong enough… sometimes all it takes is a few words to raise a sweeping tide that crushes every evil."
"The premise is that you must remember your deeds truly serve justice—not that you borrow justice's name to do evil with great power."
At this, Keizumi lowered his eyes and glanced at Hyūga Neji.
He went on, "If you're interested in justice—if you feel you've begun to understand it, and you have the resolve to carry it out, and beyond that, the conviction to shoulder justice's duties and responsibilities—"
Hyūga Neji's face—swollen where it had been poked—suddenly showed shock.
And beneath the shock, a sliver of barely contained joy.
"From now on, you'll be with Naruto and Sasuke."
With that, Uchiha Keizumi withdrew his gaze. As he turned, presenting his back to the Main House, he addressed Hyūga Hiashi: "Take the clansmen I named just now to the Police Force building. Of course, you can also choose to defy justice."
Hiashi felt that if he chose to resist, he might be the one to die in the very next second.
The entire Main House could be washed in blood.
This young man—Uchiha Keizumi—was absolutely capable of doing it.
"…Very well."
…
Before long.
Wearing a complicated expression, Mitokado Homura returned to the Hokage Residence with five ANBU squads in tow, and recounted in detail everything that had happened within the Hyūga clan that day.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's hand froze around his pipe as he listened.
"All the Main House members were taken away?" After a long silence, Hiruzen's face looked even more conflicted than Homura's.
Homura shook his head. "Not every member of the Main House is guilty. Some who are very young were spared by Keizumi."
"For example… Hiashi's two daughters."
Hiruzen nodded. "That's very much Keizumi's way. He always draws a clear line—who is involved and who is not. If you're involved, he won't let a single one go; if you're not, he won't spare you even a glance."
Homura sighed. "Though we kept Keizumi from unleashing a massacre on the Main House—which is a relief all around—his punishments still feel a bit too severe."
"Especially some of the Main House chūnin and jōnin. Keizumi says to lock them up for seven or eight years, even a dozen or twenty. Losing that portion of Hyūga shinobi will weaken Konoha's strength."
"We can only hope the numerous Branch House members produce a few more prodigies to fill the vacancies left by the Main."
Hiruzen drew on his pipe. "Keizumi can imprison them for a dozen or twenty years; this old man can also see them released early. But the necessary pressure cannot be omitted. Let those Main House people spend some time in Konoha Prison—grind down that sharp edge and arrogance."
"What Keizumi did today is, in fact, a good thing for Konoha. He achieved what I haven't managed in decades."
At this, Hiruzen's expression grew even more complicated.
What the Will of Fire had failed to accomplish for so many years, Absolute Justice had accomplished with hard, unflinching methods.
Where, exactly, had things gone wrong?
This was far from the first time Hiruzen had failed to make sense of it.
…
Konoha Cemetery.
"Itachi…"
Gazing at Uchiha Itachi's plain cenotaph—at the words carved on the stone, "Tomb of Uchiha Itachi"—Fugaku, standing alone before the grave, couldn't help drawing a deep breath.
He found he still couldn't calmly accept that his eldest son had been killed.
On reflection, though, that was only human.
Besides—
Uchiha Itachi had been his most outstanding son, the one on whom he had placed his greatest hopes.
By comparison, in Fugaku's eyes, Uchiha Sasuke—who had chosen to put his faith in [Absolute Justice]—already counted as an arm turned outward, someone who had disappointed him to the core.
Especially after Keizumi killed Itachi, Sasuke still insisted on following [Absolute Justice].
That left Fugaku with complicated feelings—
and deepened his disappointment in Sasuke all the more.
"Chief Fugaku!" At that moment, a shinobi of the Uchiha Police Force came hurrying over.
Though Fugaku was still the Uchiha clan head, the Police Force shinobi no longer addressed him that way.
The shinobi first cast an undisguised, disdainful glance at Uchiha Itachi's tombstone. Then he looked away—as if keeping his mind clean by not seeing—and said to Fugaku, "Uchiha Keizumi just returned to the Police Force with a large number of criminals—more than thirty!"
At the name "Uchiha Keizumi," a flicker of complicated emotion passed through Fugaku's eyes.
He pressed it down at once. He did not mind that the other man hadn't called him clan head; after that last clan assembly, his authority had plummeted.
Fugaku frowned. "More than thirty? That many? Who are they?"
"All Hyūga shinobi!" the Police Force shinobi replied. "Among them is the Hyūga clan head, Hyūga Hiashi!"
Uchiha Fugaku: "???"
He grasped, then and there, how serious this was. Who could have imagined Uchiha Keizumi wouldn't stop? After killing Itachi, he'd gone to make trouble for the Hyūga—and had even arrested the Hyūga clan head.
Fugaku set a white flower before Uchiha Itachi's tombstone.
Then he said no more.
Without hesitation, he hurried back.
Left alone, the Uchiha Police Force shinobi glanced again at Itachi's tomb. He clicked his tongue in contempt.
"Died so quickly…"
"He got off easy—that ungrateful wretch."
…
Rushing back to the Police Force, Fugaku found, sure enough, that the building was filled with Hyūga shinobi.
There were nearly more Hyūga in the building than Uchiha.
After all, most Police Force shinobi were out patrolling the village; only a few were stationed at headquarters.
Fugaku also keenly noticed that none of the Hyūga in the building bore the Caged Bird curse mark on their foreheads.
Which meant—
They were all Main House shinobi!
This…
Had Keizumi brought in every last Hyūga Main House shinobi? And why were the Main House shinobi this cooperative? Had they not resisted at all?
A bad feeling settled over Uchiha Fugaku.
With actions like this, Keizumi was pushing Uchiha–Hyūga relations down to the freezing point—and would only give the Hokage cause to suspect the Uchiha yet again.
Because the Hokage surely knows that many among the Uchiha have taken a liking to [Absolute Justice]. Keizumi's [Absolute Justice] now basically stands for the Uchiha.
In the Hokage's eyes, if today the Uchiha can arrest the entire Hyūga Main House, will they be able to arrest the Hokage himself tomorrow?
"Keizumi!"
Catching sight of Uchiha Keizumi's back as these thoughts flashed through his mind, Fugaku hurried forward, stepped in front of him, and with a set face demanded: "What on earth is going on?"
"What exactly have you done?"
…
Meanwhile.
Hyūga clan.
"It still feels like a dream…" A Branch House shinobi stared at the few Main House members left—only women and children—and murmured, "Have we of the Branch House really stood up?"
A Branch House elder could not hide his excitement. "Yokogari's death wasn't meaningless. His death brought Uchiha Keizumi here, and Keizumi's arrival has silenced the Main House completely!"
As he spoke, he walked up to Hyūga Neji and said with feeling, "Neji, you knew to draw Uchiha Keizumi into this. Hizashi would surely be proud of you."
Just as Neji was about to speak, he suddenly heard a Branch shinobi saying from not far off:
—"Most of the Main House are going to be imprisoned for over ten years; they won't be getting out anytime soon. Then the positions the Main House leaves vacant—don't they need to be filled? We have to have a bloodline to carry on our Hyūga clan's pure Byakugan, don't we?"
Neji couldn't help pausing, wrong-footed.
Then he heard another voice:
—"And the clan head's seat is empty now too. Who should we choose as the new clan head? Why not pick my father? He's respected and virtuous, and he's a Branch elder besides—he absolutely has the qualifications, doesn't he?"
The Branch elder standing before Neji smiled kindly and said, "Neji-kun, in the end the Hyūga must choose a bloodline that can shoulder the burden and take the Main House's place."
"In that case, when the Main House comes out of Konoha Prison, they won't be qualified to be the Main House anymore. Neji-kun, you're Hizashi's son, and you're the one who brought Uchiha Keizumi into this—you have a say."
"When the clan assembly opens tonight, remember to choose this old man, Neji."
This… One Main House had fallen, and now they wanted to raise up a new Main House?
This wasn't quite how he had imagined it at all.
Neji was at a loss.
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