Inside the Police Force headquarters.
Blocking Uchiha Keizumi's path and barking questions with a dark, set face, Uchiha Fugaku successfully drew the attention of the dejected Hyūga Main House shinobi.
"What do you think we're doing? Obviously, arresting criminals."
Keizumi met Fugaku's eyes calmly and said, indifferent, "Thirty-four members of the Hyūga Main House. The heaviest sentence will be imprisonment for twenty years; the lightest, several months."
"Oh—right."
Keizumi paused. Under Fugaku's stunned gaze, he added coolly, "There are also two corpses from the Hyūga clan. If you have time, arrange for someone to pick them up."
At that moment, Tachibana Jirō, who had followed right behind Keizumi, chimed in to help: "Meow—just send one person. Those two bodies are down to just two heads, meow."
Uchiha Fugaku: "…"
What in the world was going on?
Fugaku was dazed.
Leaning on his cane with a thunderous face, the Main House elder Hyūga Naru took in the scene, a flicker of thought crossing his expression. He could clearly see that Uchiha Fugaku, head of the Uchiha clan, did not get along with Uchiha Keizumi.
Understandable.
The Uchiha Itachi who, by rumor, would one day wipe out the entire Uchiha clan—had been killed by Uchiha Keizumi.
In such circumstances—
How could Fugaku possibly show a pleasant face to the killer of his son? The only reason he hadn't flipped the table already was likely because Itachi had been in the wrong; after all, clan-slaughter pushes past any moral bottom line.
Hyūga Naru lightly tapped his cane, drawing Fugaku's attention.
By rights, to avoid suspicion, the Hyūga should have kept their distance from the Uchiha leadership.
But at a time like this, that couldn't be helped. He had no intention of spending twenty years in Konoha Prison. He was already well into his seventies—would he even live that long? Would he end up dying in Konoha Prison?
As the former head of the Hyūga Main House, now a retired elder—
If he died in Konoha Prison… a lifetime of honor would be ruined!
Realizing he couldn't stay silent, Hyūga Naru coughed once and began, "Ahem—Clan Head Fugaku—"
"This is a judgment under [Absolute Justice], and it's also the Third Hokage's will, meow." Tachibana Jirō shot Hyūga Naru a contemptuous look with his feline eyes, cutting him off. Then, without the least courtesy, he addressed Uchiha Fugaku: "Uchiha Fugaku, are you declaring yourself an enemy of Keizumi-sama's [Absolute Justice]—and of Konoha's Will of Fire, meow?"
Hyūga Naru and Uchiha Fugaku both froze at once.
Damn it!
That ninja cat again!
Hyūga Naru was so angry he felt like cursing in the street. His baleful gaze swept over Tachibana Jirō—only for the ninja cat, brazen under his master's wing, to glare right back without the slightest sense of rank.
"…The Third's will." Uchiha Fugaku suddenly felt he had no graceful way to step down.
He had charged over to block Keizumi precisely to keep the Third Hokage from misunderstanding the Uchiha clan.
But who could have expected it—
The move against the Hyūga Main House wasn't Keizumi alone.
The Hokage also wanted to put pressure on the Hyūga Main House—this time even leveraging Keizumi's iron-blooded methods to do it.
Uchiha Fugaku froze where he stood, awkward and stranded.
No way forward, no way back.
"Chief Fugaku, please step aside." A voice, neither cold nor warm, reached his ears as a Police Force shinobi walked up and said, "We still need to assist Keizumi-sama in recording this group of offenders from the Hyūga Main House."
"If Chief Fugaku truly has nothing pressing to do, you might leaf through the backlog of old files and see whether we can crack a few cold cases. Even if Uchiha justice arrives late in those long-ago matters, lateness is no excuse to ignore them."
The speaker was a special jōnin of the Police Force. When he turned to address Uchiha Keizumi, however, his tone was entirely different.
"Keizumi-sama, rest assured—we'll keep thorough records and won't get a single villain's sentence wrong!"
A flicker of adoration crossed his face.
And from the way "justice" kept spilling from his mouth, it was clear he was already one of those Police Force shinobi who revered [Absolute Justice].
Their number within the Uchiha was growing—especially after Uchiha Keizumi had unveiled the clan's legendary Susanoo and slain Uchiha Itachi with overwhelming force.
Hyūga Naru: "…"
Watching this, Hyūga Naru understood that Clan Head Uchiha Fugaku's sway within the Uchiha might already be weaker than Uchiha Keizumi's.
He glanced at Hyūga Hiashi—usually silent, now driven back until he had nowhere left to retreat.
Then he looked at Uchiha Fugaku, who had just been addressed so bluntly by a subordinate and yet said nothing.
He gave up hope completely.
…
Night fell.
The Hyūga Branch House gathered by the hundreds under one roof; even children only three or four years old were present.
Whether it was the Branch's mean-spirited taste or a token mercy toward the Main House, the few Main House members who hadn't been taken away were also invited.
Among them were Hyūga Hiashi's two young daughters—mostly frail women and children.
Seven-year-old Hyūga Hinata wore worry across her face; faint tear tracks still marked the corners of her eyes. Uneasy, she kept her head down, cradling her little sister Hyūga Hanabi and didn't dare look up at any of the Branch.
She had already learned from a Main House clansman what dire straits the Main House was in—and that her father had been taken by the Police Force.
Hinata was bewildered, unable to understand how, in just one afternoon, the Hyūga clan had turned into this.
"Hinata-sama, whatever they say to you in a moment, do not answer them. Don't speak first, either."
A Main House shinobi sighed, weary-faced, and murmured to her, "If anyone slanders your father, don't argue back. Times have changed. For the next ten years, your father won't be able to protect you. And I, alone, cannot stand against so many in the Branch."
That Main House shinobi counted as the only "surviving" special jōnin of the Hyūga Main House.
He had never expected this. He had always been a near-invisible nobody in the Main House—little presence, few connections, and certainly no authority to invoke the Caged Bird curse mark against the Branch.
In the end, someone like him had inexplicably become the Hyūga Main House's pillar.
Before Clan Head Hiashi left, he had even instructed him to protect Hinata and Hanabi.
The burden weighed heavily on him.
"Mm…" Hinata gave a small nod, then asked in confusion, "From now on, will Hanabi and I still be members of the Main House?"
"I don't know either." The Main House special jōnin shook his head, his expression complicated.
Just then—
A small figure walked over and sat beside Hinata without a word. When the special jōnin saw who it was, his face shifted slightly, and he spoke the newcomer's name.
"Hyūga Neji…"
Everyone in the Hyūga clan knew it was Hyūga Neji who had drawn Uchiha Keizumi into this matter. To the Main House shinobi, Neji was naturally the "prime culprit."
Neji's face was complicated. He said, "I didn't realize it before, but some in the Branch are no different from some in the Main House. Today I finally saw that what they care about isn't equality between Main and Branch; what they care about is who gets to be the Hyūga's Main House."
"Some people in the Branch don't hate the fate that enslaves them, nor the cage that imprisons them."
"What they hate is not being part of the Main House—having no right to enslave others, no right to lock others in a cage."
Neji let out a long, heavy breath. He was young; this was as far as his thoughts reached.
Otherwise, he had no way to explain why things were like this.
"Hyūga Neji, this is the outcome of your choice," the Main House special jōnin said, his tone distant. "You truly ought to feel remorse."
"I feel no remorse."
Neji shook his head. He turned and held the astonished Main House shinobi's gaze. "It simply shows the evil lurking in the Hyūga has not been purged. In the Hyūga clan, not only does the Main House carry evil; part of the Branch shows a faint tendency to fall into the abyss of evil as well."
Neji forced himself to look at his clan through Uchiha Keizumi's eyes—judging it by the extreme standard of [Absolute Justice].
At last, he spat out a few words: "It means not enough have been killed."
As he said it, much of the bewilderment in Neji's eyes dissipated.
He needed no one else's answer. He had found his own—his stance should not be on the Branch's side.
Because if he stood with the Branch, his thinking would inevitably tilt toward the Branch, and the true scales would tip.
That would no longer be [Absolute Justice].
…
Konoha Prison.
Hyūga Hiashi had never imagined he would one day don a prison uniform. He rubbed at the harsh, coarse cloth on his body, then let his gaze sweep the dim, damp cell before him.
The faint mold at his nose made him sigh deeply.
In truth—
A place like this could never truly hold him.
Hyūga Hiashi had at least ten ways to walk out of Konoha Prison.
The problem was that he could not shoulder the consequences of breaking out.
Hyūga Hiashi's mind still echoed with the words many Main House clansmen had flung at him before they were led away, no longer able to hold back their emotions.
"Hiashi, you're the Main House clan head—why do you keep looking like you've got something to say but won't say it? Your concessions didn't buy that Uchiha brat's forgiveness; they only emboldened him to escalate and sweep up the entire Main House in one net!"
"Clan Head Hiashi, our Main House could have used the lives of Branch shinobi as leverage to force Uchiha Keizumi to stop targeting us. Why didn't you give that order?"
"Hiashi-sama, I'm going to be imprisoned by those Uchiha madmen for nineteen whole years! Nineteen years… by then I'll probably be in my fifties…"
"Hyūga Hiashi—being clan head of the Main House, do you have no sense of shielding your own at all? How blind were we to choose you as clan head in the first place?"
"Hehe. After today, your two daughters probably won't need either one to be branded with the Caged Bird curse mark. Don't tell me that's what you were angling for?"
"Haa…"
A look of deep remorse crossed Hiashi's face. He truly had not fulfilled the duties of a clan head.
He had truly let down the entire Main House.
Every sentence those Main House clansmen—frayed and broken in spirit—had hurled at him left Hiashi unable to argue back. He knew he had no standing to refute them; all he could do was bear it in silence.
Hyūga Hiashi sat cross-legged on the cold floor.
He fell into profound silence.
…
"Hiruzen!"
Working late into the night on official business, Sarutobi Hiruzen looked up to see Koharu storm straight into his office, brimming with anger.
She pushed the door open and demanded, "How could you indulge Uchiha Keizumi to this extent? Even if you mean to pressure the Hyūga Main House, this can't be the way—at the very least you shouldn't be leaning on his [Absolute Justice]."
Koharu drew a long breath and spoke earnestly. "Once you become overly reliant on that boy's [Absolute Justice], you'll be dragged into his black-and-white extremism."
"Have you forgotten how much pain his extreme justice has already inflicted on Konoha? I don't understand why you and Homura are doing this."
Having gotten that out, the puffed-up, aggressive set of her shoulders finally eased a little.
Hiruzen tapped a fingertip against the desk.
With a trace of weary resignation, he said, "In Konoha right now—other than Keizumi, who else is there to use?"
"Besides…"
"Even if this old man doesn't double down on a mistake—if this old man sends people to stop him, will they be able to stop him? We stop him today, and what about tomorrow? The day after? And the day after that? Sooner or later this old man won't make it in time. If that's the case, we may as well let Keizumi have his way this once."
Koharu knit her brows. "Hiruzen, I only hope you can tell the difference between making use of someone and depending on them."
"Don't forget…"
Koharu cautioned, "Uchiha Keizumi has never been the least bit polite to you. For all you know, in his eyes you're no different from Danzō—or from Uchiha Itachi. The only thing staying his hand is that you always keep a squad of ANBU at your side."
Sarutobi Hiruzen fell silent; he didn't argue.
He, too, suspected Keizumi had set his sights on him long ago.
Even so—
As Hokage, how could this old man possibly be mired in sin?
"You're overthinking it," Hiruzen said.
…
Elsewhere, the Hyūga clan council convened.
Just as Neji had guessed, in barely half a day the Branch House had already split into several factions. Some were led by venerable Branch elders; others by formidable Branch jōnin.
They began quarreling openly on the council floor.
Kneeling on a cushion, Hyūga Neji watched as many in the Branch bared rather ugly faces. The look felt familiar—much like that of certain overbearing Main House shinobi.
Staring at the farce before him, Neji felt deeply disappointed.
He rose without a word. With everyone else still kneeling, the motion stood out, drawing the Branch members' attention.
A Branch elder who had just been arguing himself red-faced forced a thin smile. "Neji, you're the great hero of today's Main House, you—"
Before he could finish, Neji cut him off, his young face cold.
"What you want isn't justice."
"What you want is the Main House's power."
His youthful voice rang clear in the council chamber.
"Justice will be watching you.
"Conduct yourselves accordingly."
He left his seat without hesitation, his disappointment plain, utterly unconcerned with the stunned looks on the Branch shinobi's faces.
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