Chapter 185: It means I didn't kill enough!
Inside the Military Police Force headquarters.
Uchiha Fugaku, who was blocking Uchiha Ikeizumi and loudly questioning him with a dark expression, successfully drew the attention of the dejected Hyūga Main House shinobi.
"Doing what? Obviously, arresting criminals and evildoers."
Uchiha Ikeizumi met Fugaku's gaze calmly. He said indifferently, "Thirty-four members of the Hyūga Main House. The maximum sentence is twenty years imprisonment; the minimum is several months."
"Oh, right."
Ikeizumi paused, and under Fugaku's stunned stare, he added coldly, "There are two corpses at the Hyūga compound. If you have time, you can send someone to clean up the remains."
At that, Jirō Tachibana, trailing Ikeizumi, chimed in, "Meow, one person is enough. Because those two corpses are only two heads left, meow."
Uchiha Fugaku: "..."
What in the world is going on?
Fugaku was completely bewildered.
Hyūga Mei, the Elder, who was leaning on his cane with a sullen expression, saw the scene and a flicker of calculation crossed his face. He could clearly tell that Uchiha Fugaku, the Uchiha Clan Head, seemed to be at odds with Uchiha Ikeizumi.
That makes sense.
It was rumored that Uchiha Itachi, who was meant to destroy the entire Uchiha Clan, had been killed by Uchiha Ikeizumi.
In that situation.
How could Uchiha Fugaku give the killer of his son a polite look? The only reason he hadn't fully turned on him was probably because Itachi was in the wrong; after all, wiping out a clan challenges the moral baseline too severely.
Mei suddenly tapped his cane lightly, drawing Fugaku's attention.
Normally, the Hyūga Clan should avoid contact with the Uchiha leadership to prevent suspicion.
But at a time like this, he couldn't afford to care. He didn't want to spend twenty years in Konoha Prison. He was already close to eighty; could he even live that long? Would he die in the Konoha Prison?
As the former Clan Head and current Elder of the Hyūga Main House.
If he died in Konoha Prison...
His lifetime of honor would be ruined!
Realizing he couldn't stay silent, Hyūga Mei cleared his throat and addressed Fugaku: "Ahem! Clan Head Fugaku..."
"This is the judgment of Absolute Justice, and it's also the Third Hokage's will, meow." Jirō's cat eyes shot a contemptuous glance at Mei, immediately cutting him off, then turned to Fugaku without ceremony: "Uchiha Fugaku, are you going to oppose Lord Ikeizumi's Absolute Justice and, at the same time, oppose the Will of Fire of Konoha?"
The faces of both Hyūga Mei and Uchiha Fugaku froze simultaneously.
Damn that cat!
Hyūga Mei was so furious he wanted to curse out loud. His sinister gaze swept over Jirō. But the cat, emboldened by its association with Ikeizumi, simply glared back at him, showing no respect for his rank.
"...The Third Hokage's will." Uchiha Fugaku suddenly felt like he was in an impossible situation.
He had rushed here aggressively to block Ikeizumi precisely to prevent the Third Hokage from misunderstanding the Uchiha Clan.
But who would have thought?
The one targeting the Hyūga Main House wasn't just Uchiha Ikeizumi.
The Hokage wanted to suppress the Main House as well, and this time, he was using Ikeizumi's ruthless methods to do it!
Fugaku instantly froze in an awkward position.
He was caught between a rock and a hard place.
"Captain Fugaku, please step aside." A cool voice reached Fugaku's ears. A Military Police Force shinobi walked up and said to Fugaku, "We need to cooperate with Lord Ikeizumi to record these guilty Hyūga Main House members."
"If Captain Fugaku genuinely has nothing else to do, you can go through some of the old, shelved case files and see if you can solve any cold cases. For those old cases, Uchiha Justice may be late, but we can't ignore them just because they're late."
The speaker was an MPF Special Jōnin. When he turned to Uchiha Ikeizumi, his attitude completely shifted.
"Lord Ikeizumi, please rest assured. We will accurately record everything and won't mistake any villain's sentence!"
His face held a look of admiration.
The abundance of the word 'Justice' coming from his mouth clearly indicated that he was already one of the MPF shinobi who championed Absolute Justice.
Such people were becoming more common in the Uchiha Clan, especially after Ikeizumi displayed the Uchiha's legendary Susano'o and forcefully killed Uchiha Itachi.
Hyūga Mei: "..."
Seeing this, Hyūga Mei realized that Uchiha Fugaku's authority within the Uchiha Clan might be even less than Uchiha Ikeizumi's.
He looked at Hyūga Hiashi, who was perpetually silent and had retreated to the absolute limit.
Then he looked at Uchiha Fugaku, who remained speechless despite being severely undercut by his own subordinate.
He completely gave up hope.
Night fell.
Hundreds of members of the Hyūga Branch Family gathered in the hall. Even children as young as three or four were present.
Whether it was a malicious joke by the Branch Family or a faint gesture of respect, the few remaining, untouched Main House members were also invited.
These included Hiashi's two young daughters, mostly vulnerable women and children.
Seven-year-old Hyūga Hinata's small face was clouded with worry, her eyes still showing traces of tears. She kept her head bowed nervously, hugging her younger sister, Hanabi, and dared not look at any of the Branch Family members.
She had learned the predicament of the Hyūga Main House from another member and knew her father had been taken away by the Military Police Force.
This left Hinata utterly confused, unable to understand why the Hyūga Clan had changed so drastically in just one afternoon.
"Lady Hinata, no matter what they say to you later, do not engage them, and do not speak up on your own."
A Main House shinobi sighed, his face tired. He whispered to Hinata, "If anyone speaks ill of your father, do not argue with them. Times have changed. Your father won't be able to protect you for the next ten years. I alone cannot stand against so many Branch Family members."
This Main House shinobi was the only 'surviving' Special Jōnin of the Main House.
He never thought he, a small, virtually invisible figure in the Main House with low presence and few personal connections, who had never used the Caged Bird Seal on the Branch Family, would become the Main House's sole pillar.
Before leaving, Clan Head Hiashi had specifically instructed him to protect Lady Hinata and Lady Hanabi.
This placed enormous pressure on him.
"O-okay..." Hinata nodded softly, then asked with a hint of confusion, "Will Hanabi and I still be Main House members later?"
"I don't know," the Main House Special Jōnin replied with a complicated shake of his head.
Just then.
A figure of short stature walked over and sat down silently beside Hinata. When the Special Jōnin saw the person, his expression subtly shifted, and he spoke the person's name.
"Hyūga Neji..."
Everyone in the Hyūga Clan knew that it was Hyūga Neji who had dragged Uchiha Ikeizumi into this affair. To the Main House shinobi, Neji was naturally the 'main culprit.'
Neji's expression was quite complex. He spoke: "I didn't realize that some members of the Hyūga Branch Family are no different from certain members of the Main House. I discovered today that what they care about is not the equality between the Main and Branch Families. What they care about is who has the right to be the Hyūga Main House."
"Some people in the Branch Family are not actually resentful of their enslaved destiny, nor do they hate the cage that imprisoned them."
"They hate that they are not Main House members, that they don't have the right to enslave others, or the right to put others in a cage."
Neji slowly let out a breath. At his young age, this was the deepest level of understanding he could reach.
Otherwise, he wouldn't know how to explain what he was witnessing.
"Hyūga Neji, this is the result you chose," the Main House Special Jōnin said stiffly. "You should indeed feel regret."
"I have no regrets."
Neji shook his head.
He turned to look at the stunned Main House shinobi and said, "This simply shows that the latent evil within the Hyūga Clan has not been completely purged. Within the Hyūga Clan, not only did the Main House harbor wickedness, but a segment of the Branch Family also shows a tendency to fall into the abyss of evil."
Neji was trying his best to view the Hyūga Clan from Uchiha Ikeizumi's perspective.
To judge the clan by the extreme standards of Absolute Justice.
Finally, he spoke a few words.
"It means I didn't kill enough!"
As this sentence left his mouth, the confusion in Neji's eyes had largely dissipated.
Without needing to ask anyone else, Neji found his answer—his position should not be on the side of the Hyūga Branch Family.
Because by standing with the Branch Family, he would inevitably lean his entire perspective toward them. In doing so, the scale of correct judgment would tilt.
That would no longer be Absolute Justice.
......................
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