Uchiha Mikoto finished cooking dinner at home, but instead of eating with Uchiha Sasuke, she used "taking out the trash" as an excuse and, almost without noticing, found herself standing before the Konoha Police Force headquarters.
She didn't know why she'd come—until she looked up at the building and snapped back to herself with a jolt of shame. Right. It was because she didn't want Sasuke hurt again by Fugaku's extreme need for control.
In her eyes, something about Fugaku's state of mind had become deeply wrong.
In Uchiha Fugaku's eyes, Itachi was both irreplaceable and also indispensable to the village. So he wanted to shape Sasuke into a second version of Itachi—someone who approached Itachi, but wasn't him.
A Sasuke like that would be the son Fugaku wanted most.
But would that still be Sasuke? That kind of molding would grind away Sasuke's own humanity and force someone else's onto him. In the end, Sasuke would just become a puppet.
Mikoto didn't know why, but a voice inside kept calling to her, urging her to stop her husband.
She drew a deep breath and walked into the Police Force building.
Even at night it was lively—lots of petty thieves had been hauled in. Ever since Fugaku stepped down, many Uchiha officers enforcing justice around the village had been unusually energetic.
They'd also become far less lenient.
Behaviors that used to get a blind eye were now drawing arrests without hesitation.
"Mikoto-sama?" a puzzled voice made her look over. It was Uchiha Izumi—the young Uchiha woman who followed Chizumi—coming over with a file in her arms. "What brings you here?"
Mikoto pressed her lips together, braced herself, and said, "I want the Police Force to put some limits on my husband's more extreme behavior. My son has already been harmed by it. Tonight, Fugaku almost strangled Sasuke."
Izumi: "!!!"
Uchiha Izumi never imagined that so soon after Senior Chizumi took the post of Police Captain, "Absolute Justice" would be squaring off against the previous Captain.
And the one filing the report was his wife. That alone said it all: this former clan head and former Captain hadn't just lost the clan's support; at home, he hadn't been a good father or husband either.
Realizing the stakes, Izumi's expression turned earnest. "In that case, let me take you straight to Captain Chizumi."
"...All right." Mikoto knew there was no going back once she'd come here.
Sorry, Fugaku. I'm doing this for Sasuke—for a family that's already starting to crack, she told herself.
Sasuke sat alone at the table, sulking, staring gloomily at the dinner that had long gone cold.
He couldn't understand why his father was so stubborn.
After spending days around "Absolute Justice" and gradually coming to understand what justice is, Sasuke's thinking had shifted—from "gain power from justice" to "work hard to improve myself so I can uphold justice, and stop letting myself be left in the dust."
Maybe—one day, even if he discovered that carrying out justice didn't make him stronger, he'd still throw himself into it without hesitation.
He couldn't help rubbing his neck, still a little shaken.
In that moment earlier, he honestly couldn't tell if his father really meant to kill him—or just wanted to teach him a lesson.
Maybe… just a lesson, right? He is his own son; surely he wouldn't harbor murderous intent toward him?
"Ahem—anyway…" Sasuke coughed twice and cleared his throat, still feeling off. He muttered, puzzled, "Didn't Mom say she was just going to take out the trash? It's been, what, half an hour already?"
Just as the thought flashed by, he heard familiar footsteps. He looked up instinctively and saw his father walking over with a cold face.
Fugaku glanced at the untouched food.
"You have three minutes," he said flatly. "Finish dinner, then get to the yard and train. I expect you to master water walking and tree climbing within half a month."
"If you can't, add five hours of training a day. Still can't? Add another five. Keep adding until you're at twenty-four hours with no rest."
"And another thing," Fugaku added after a steadying breath. "Do not say the words 'Absolute Justice' in front of me. I am no longer Clan Head, nor Police Captain."
"I don't carry the pressure I once did, which means I don't have to fear what I once feared. I'm the one with nothing to lose now; Chizumi's the one who has to watch his step."
Whether Sasuke understood or not, he didn't care. As he tightened his face and began to turn away, a sudden noise outside pricked his ears. His brows knit.
Many footsteps—closing in.
Someone had forced their way into his estate.
"Stay here. Don't come out," he told Sasuke, then stepped outside—only to freeze at the sight.
Fully armed Uchiha Police officers were pouring into his compound one after another. Some stood on the eaves, some in the treetops, some blocked the doors, and others hid in the shadows where the eye couldn't reach.
They had the entire estate surrounded, tight as a drum—couldn't even let a mosquito out.
Fugaku also noticed more than a few officers resting their hands on their hilts, postured to strike at any moment.
His stern face darkened.
His displeased gaze locked onto the Uchiha leading them.
Grinding down his anger, Fugaku addressed Uchiha Chizumi with a stony face:
"Chizumi—what's the meaning of this? I handed you the Captain's post, and you bring a crowd to surround my home in the dead of night. Do you see me as your only threat and intend to remove me?"
He could hardly keep himself from reading it as a conspiracy. He couldn't imagine what he'd done that warranted surrounding him with this many officers.
The only possibility was that Absolute Justice had finally bared its fangs to purge dissent within the Uchiha.
The radical faction led by Uchiha Setsuna had already been wiped out by Absolute Justice; now the last faction—the moderates led by him—would be next.
"Uchiha Fugaku, those with filthy hearts see filth everywhere."
The speaker wasn't Chizumi but a Police officer. He stepped forward, met Fugaku's eyes, and said expressionlessly, "Captain Chizumi is here to arrest you and take you into custody. This evening you committed intentional harm against a family dependent—in other words, attempted murder."
"You choked your own son until he almost stopped breathing. If your wife hadn't intervened, would you have let go? Can you swear on the Uchiha name that there wasn't the slightest murderous intent in you?"
The officer's interrogation sent a jolt through Fugaku.
How did outsiders know what happened inside his home?
What was going on?
"Chizumi—this is a family matter," Fugaku said after a deep breath, a shade calmer. "Sasuke wasn't harmed. He's fine. Neither charge—intentional harm or attempted murder—applies to me."
"At most, a father being overly harsh with his own son counts as domestic violence under Konoha law."
He grew more composed as he spoke, eventually citing an old statute the Uchiha had drafted.
"For minor domestic violence, a verbal warning should be primary. For severe cases, a fine plus a warning, and a fifteen-day detention with a suspended sentence. That's the maximum."
He swept his gaze around. "Judging by the posture you're taking, you're the ones violating Konoha's laws right now. Is it really justice to break the law in order to enforce justice?"
Chizumi answered without a flicker: "Weak laws inflict a second injury on victims and shield perpetrators. They smear justice with a stain that won't wash off."
"The moment I took this seat, I began revising the Police enforcement code—and reasonably amending some of Konoha's unreasonable statutes."
"For what you did, there will be no leniency. At minimum, you'll reflect for three years in Konoha Prison."
Fugaku: "!!!"
"Chizumi! You're abusing the authority of the Captain!"
He hadn't expected Chizumi to use the Police's power to amend Konoha law at the first opportunity.
He himself had never abused that authority in all his years as Captain.
Whenever a statute needed updating, he'd ask the Hokage's opinion and only amend it with the Hokage's nod.
But Chizumi had clearly made unilateral changes—without consulting anyone.
This was dictatorship, plain and simple.
"Chizumi—" Fugaku ground his teeth. "If I refuse to go with you, will you order your officers to make a move on me? Will you use force?"
"Yes," Chizumi said.
The bluntness threw him for a moment.
Just then he heard a faint sound behind him; his eyes drifted back.
Sasuke hadn't heeded his warning—he'd stepped out, half his body peeking around the doorframe to look outside.
A thought struck Fugaku. His voice went stiff. "What if Sasuke doesn't believe I harmed him? What if my wife testifies I didn't?"
"No need for that, Fugaku." The familiar voice made him seize up.
He watched his wife step out from behind Chizumi and stop in front of him.
A spark flashed in his mind.
"Mikoto… you filed the report?" he asked, each word falling with disbelief.
"I did," Mikoto said, her expression complicated. "I can't let you spiral deeper into obsession, and I won't let you turn Sasuke into a second Itachi. He shouldn't inherit Itachi's extremist ideas. I'm not here to listen to your excuses—you hurt Sasuke. I think you need some time alone to cool down."
"This is to protect Sasuke—and to protect our family. I'm sorry, Fugaku. If you hate me, then hate me. I'm doing this for Sasuke. Right now, I'm the only one in this family both willing and able to protect him."
Fugaku stood there, dumbfounded, feeling a naked betrayal—one from his own family, a blow worse than any other.
Hidden in his sleeves, his fists clenched hard. A feeling rose in him that the first half of his life had gone to the dogs.
He'd struggled so long for the clan and for his family.
For what?
For betrayal?
Itachi—at most—held different ideals. Even if they one day came to blows, it would only be because their paths and positions diverged.
But Mikoto—
She should have been on the same path, the same side.
How could she do this?
A faint crack sounded. A fissure split the ground at his feet—the telltale sign of chakra surging madly.
"Uchiha Fugaku, what are you trying to do?" A Police officer narrowed his eyes, drew the blade at his waist, and warned sharply, "Put away that killing intent. Are you going to resist arrest with violence?!"
"Resist… the law…"
A flicker of confusion crossed Fugaku's rigid face, but it vanished a heartbeat later, leaving him expressionless.
"In this, I'm standing for the last of the Uchiha tradition," he said slowly, enunciating each word. "As former Clan Head, I take pride in carrying out the clan's true mission."
"I will not allow only one voice in the Uchiha. I will be the single, second voice. I do not recognize the 'laws' of your Absolute Justice."
The instant he finished, his eyes flashed crimson. The officer who had questioned him went rigid, as if seeing something unspeakably horrific, and suddenly broke into a scream.
"AAAHHH!"
As that scream rang out, every Police officer's face changed.