"This clan meeting didn't really have any secrets; even some clansmen who do not believe in Absolute Justice caught wind of a few rumors. The reason you know nothing about it, Clan Head Fugaku, is probably that no one came to notify you."
The truth was a sharp blade that left Uchiha Fugaku in silence.
He then heard the other continue: "We were discussing—what exactly is Uchiha Keizumi's Absolute Justice? How should the Uchiha clan perform the duty of justice to be deemed Absolute Justice? Everyone pooled their views, and we recorded the useful ones, preparing to put them into a booklet."
"According to the initial idea, this booklet will be an 'Absolute Justice Enforcement Manual' similar to the Police Force's enforcement code. Of course, before this manual is implemented, we need to have Uchiha Keizumi look it over, so that he knows what true Absolute Justice is."
At this moment, Uchiha Fugaku no longer knew what to say.
The subjective initiative of this group was a bit too strong.
If they would put their minds to the question of 'how to make the Uchiha clan, while maintaining peace with Konohagakure, become even more glorious and great,' how would the Uchiha have ended up like this?!
"Clan Head Fugaku, there is something… I don't know if I should tell you."
'You've already asked it—clearly, you want to tell me.'
Fugaku said in a low voice, "Speak."
"In fact, we invited your wife, Mikoto-sama, only she refused us—perhaps because her position is rather awkward. But the fact that Clan Head Fugaku knows nothing of this shows she did not tell you; perhaps Mikoto-sama has her own thoughts."
Fugaku was stunned for a moment.
What kind of logic was this? Had Absolute Justice's hoe once again dug at the corner of Uchiha Fugaku's own wall?!
First they pried away his younger son, Uchiha Sasuke.
Now they had set their sights on his wife, Uchiha Mikoto?
He was getting a little heated.
…
"The 'Absolute Justice Enforcement Manual'…" Uchiha Keizumi looked indifferently at the few drafts handed to him. After casually flipping through them twice, he looked again at the three Police Force jōnin before him.
"Who put this together?" With that brief question, he actually made the three Uchiha jōnin break out in a bit of a sweat.
One of them took a deep breath and answered, "It was compiled by all the Uchiha clansmen willing to follow you pooling their ideas, with many real cases referenced from when you enforced justice."
"Hoo… Rather than an enforcement manual, it might be better to say that the vast majority of its contents copy over your real experiences."
Uchiha Keizumi casually glanced through it twice; what the other said was indeed true.
If some phrasing in the drafts were swapped out, at a glance others might think it was Uchiha Keizumi's own law-enforcement diary!
Among it, the summaries of the concept of Absolute Justice were also fairly good.
These people truly had discussed it with care, and they had not added any overly personalized extreme notions to [Absolute Justice].
In other words…
No personal agenda added!
"If anything is off, we can correct it immediately!" one Police Force jōnin said.
"Not bad," Uchiha Keizumi said slowly. "Since you're compiling such a thing, that means you're already prepared to devote your lives to justice. In that case, the next time you hold a clan meeting, you can call me in."
"!!!"
Hiss! What did Uchiha Keizumi mean by those words? Was he about to prepare ideological training in Absolute Justice for those Uchiha shinobi willing to follow Absolute Justice?
Was he finally going to let [Absolute Justice] flourish?
One of them, both surprised and delighted, hurriedly asked, "Does this mean Absolute Justice has already accepted us into its fold?"
"Let's see if you pass the assessment." Uchiha Keizumi said. "Both Uchiha Izumi and Mitarashi Anko underwent Absolute Justice's rigorous assessments. Justice never tolerates slackers. Justice needs shinobi with sincere hearts."
At this, Uchiha Keizumi paused, his face expressionless: "Perfect timing — there is one trial very suitable for the three of you."
The three Police Force jōnin immediately became solemn.
They put on an attentive listening posture, and even suppressed that clan-exclusive air of looking down on everyone.
Anyone unaware might have thought Uchiha Keizumi was the Captain of the Police Force and the true head of the Uchiha clan.
"Big merchant Gato — you know him?" Uchiha Keizumi asked.
"Heard of him." One of them nodded. "He's the kind of guy who'll do anything for money; his reputation is terrible. But because he's good at making money, many in the ninja world cooperate with him, even people in Konohagakure. However…"
Most of those people have, to one degree or another, committed crimes — either you killed them, or you put them in the Konoha prison, — this thought flashed through the Police Force jōnin's mind.
But he did not say it aloud.
"I have the trail of one of Gato's confidants." Uchiha Keizumi said slowly. "You find him, use him to find Gato, and then cut off Gato's head. Complete the assessment I assign you, and Absolute Justice's recognition of you will be halfway achieved."
At the end he added, "If you think it's too difficult or too much trouble, you can go home."
"Hah… we three accept this assessment!" one Police Force jōnin said.
…
When Uchiha Fugaku returned home at noon, the first thing he did was find Uchiha Mikoto and ask her the question he most wanted to ask: "Why was the clan meeting kept from me?"
Uchiha Mikoto could hear the emotional fluctuation in her husband's tone.
Obviously, Uchiha Fugaku felt puzzled and angry at Mikoto's concealment.
But as husband and wife, Fugaku could only choke down his anger and coldly question her: "Last night you were invited by them to attend an Absolute Justice clan meeting, right? Yet you didn't tell me. Am I—Uchiha Fugaku, head of the Uchiha clan—the last to know about this in the entire clan?"
"Sasuke didn't know either, and I didn't tell him." Uchiha Mikoto sighed softly and said, "Since you know I was invited, you should also know I did not attend, right?"
"That's not the point. The point is you hid it from me." Uchiha Fugaku said in a low voice. "Remember, I am your husband, and I am the head of the Uchiha clan and the Captain of the Police Force. Whether I meet you in any of those three capacities, you should have informed me of this matter in advance."
Uchiha Mikoto said, "There is a reason."
"Speak!" Fugaku drew a deep breath; this time he was truly angry.
He was good at compromising, good at yielding, good at backing down.
That did not mean he had no anger.
Especially when it concerned his wife.
"Fugaku, haven't you noticed your state is really not right? When Itachi was alive, you were not like this."
Uchiha Mikoto sighed and said, "If I told you about this and you barged straight into the clan meeting, I can't guarantee that, with your emotions so unstable now, you wouldn't do something extreme and excessive. That is what I was worried about."
"Since that's the case, it was better not to inform you in advance. After it happened, you would naturally learn there was such a matter."
Uchiha Fugaku looked deeply at Mikoto.
"So, you suspect I would act irrationally?"
Uchiha Mikoto's brows knit lightly: "I truly mean well for you, Fugaku. With your insufficient resolve, you are very likely to do something extreme, making Absolute Justice unable to tolerate you any longer."
Absolute Justice…
Absolute Justice again!
It was like this with Sasuke; now it was also like this with Mikoto; and even more so with most of the clansmen. But have they ever considered that it is Keizumi's Absolute Justice that has made the village grow stranger and stranger?
It is also Keizumi's Absolute Justice that has, faintly, placed the Uchiha clan more and more on the opposite side of the village.
After all...
Absolute Justice will 100% come into conflict with the Hokage and the others; there are probably very few among Konoha's upper echelons who are clean. When justice grows strong, contradictions will inevitably evolve into an irreconcilable stage and will also drag down the entire Uchiha clan.
That is to say, the impact of Keizumi's Absolute Justice and Uchiha Setsuna's coup ideology on the Uchiha does not differ much in essence.
Uchiha Fugaku slowly closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, his gaze was already full of disappointment.
"I'm heading back to the Police Force. Don't bother making dinner for me tonight, nor breakfast tomorrow morning," Uchiha Fugaku said slowly.
He could feel that a rift in values had opened between husband and wife, one likely impossible to mend.
It made him unwilling to say anything more to Uchiha Mikoto.
"Fugaku…"
Before the visibly conflicted Mikoto could continue, Fugaku turned his back and directly cut her off.
"I know what you want to say. But I can tell you clearly, I don't believe in that Absolute Justice. My perspective is entirely different from the way you all see things."
"I stand from the position of clan head. What I see is the ever-deteriorating relationship between the Uchiha and Konoha's upper echelons. No matter what efforts I make, Keizumi will cancel them out."
"If you have the time to try persuading me here, you'd do better to visit the Konoha cemetery and see Itachi. Ever since his cenotaph was completed, you've never gone to see him, have you?"
"Because you are deeply disappointed in Itachi's actions and ideas, and instead you admire Sasuke's choice."
"Hah…"
Uchiha Fugaku's mood grew even heavier.
Because he realized that his wife's shift in mindset still could not be separated from Uchiha Keizumi.
"In the end, it's because you are simply not on my side. Your vision is far too much that of a woman's shortsightedness."
Fugaku's tone had turned rigid and cold.
Uchiha Mikoto's brows furrowed tighter and tighter. She felt that whether it was Uchiha Itachi's line of thought or Uchiha Fugaku's, as mother and wife she could no longer see through them.
This father and son…
Though their concepts differed somewhat, their personalities seemed cut from the same mold.
Both were stubborn.
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