Uchiha Fugaku's face, usually steady and careworn, now held only a cold, resolute finality.
He looked at the former subordinates who had turned their blades on him.
He looked at the wife who had completely betrayed him, then turned to glance once more at his younger son—who would never understand his painstaking intentions—and the last shred of hesitation in his heart was cut away.
He had finally "figured it out."
It was his past indecision—his compromise with and indulgence of that "Absolute Justice"—that had let Uchiha Chizumi's extreme creed grow inside Konoha like a malignant tumor.
So much so that today, he, the clan head, was being forced to abdicate by his own people.
Under Chizumi's lead, the entire Uchiha clan was sprinting madly toward a cliff, in total opposition to Konoha's Will of Fire.
This wasn't reviving the clan. This was dragging all of Uchiha into an abyss of no return.
And all of it could have been avoided!
It happened to the Uchiha because of his string of weaknesses back then.
A scorching mix of regret and responsibility burned in his chest.
If only he'd been tougher. If only he'd decisively stopped Chizumi…
If only he'd strangled Absolute Justice in its cradle…
"Chizumi."
Fugaku's voice was low and hoarse, cutting through the clamor.
Ignoring the cold blades aimed at him, he locked his gaze on the source of all this.
"Since I sowed the cause and it bore this bitter fruit…"
He spoke slowly, chakra inside him surging like a waking behemoth. "Then I will, in my own way, atone for my mistakes—and force the Uchiha who've strayed…back onto the right path!"
The moment his words fell, the already-taut Police Force ninja moved.
"Uchiha Fugaku has chosen to resist the law with violence! He's even injured one of our comrades!"
A ninja with a two-tomoe Sharingan roared, his eyes burning with faith in Absolute Justice and fury at the former clan head.
"Everyone! In the name of the Police Force's Absolute Justice—take him down!"
Several elite shinobi exploded into motion at once, blades flashing cold as they rushed Fugaku from every direction.
Killing intent wrapped around Fugaku in an instant.
Yet facing the encirclement, Fugaku only narrowed his eyes.
Vmmm—!
A chill, hair-raising blend of ocular power and chakra blasted out of him like a tangible storm. The ground at his feet cracked inch by inch, rubble skittering back on an invisible shockwave.
Rumble—!!!
A moment later, a colossal skeletal arm of deep violet chakra burst from the earth in front of him.
The giant hand splayed its fingers and gave a casual sweep toward the onrushing ninja—nothing more than a flick!
"What?!"
"Not good!"
The lead officers' faces changed drastically.
They had no time to respond. A mountain-crushing wall of wind pressure slammed them head-on—
Like being caught in a sudden typhoon.
Their dash forward was arrested mid-stride. Their bodies staggered backward against their will, facial muscles rippling under the gale; even breathing hitched in their throats.
Cold sweat beaded instantly on their brows.
Terror replaced the focus in their Sharingan.
"W-what…is this power?!" a capable Uchiha chūnin managed, staring at the violet skeletal arm as it slowly retracted, disbelief written across his face.
Beside him, an Uchiha jōnin forced a name between his teeth: "Susanoo. One of the Sharingan's legendary supreme ocular techniques!"
This power was already beyond a normal shinobi's comprehension.
"This isn't a fight you lot can be part of, nya."
A lazy, oddly lilting voice broke the brief hush.
The ninja cat Jujirou sat by Uchiha Chizumi's feet.
Short and pudgy, it had been easy to overlook until now.
Jujirou licked a paw, eyed the massive violet arm, and drawled, "Nya—Uchiha Fugaku, Uchiha Itachi… father and son indeed. Maybe that little brat Itachi's extreme, obsessive streak was inherited straight from you, old man."
It cocked its head as if pondering. "By comparison, that kid Sasuke's a lot more normal. Maybe…he took after his mother? Tch. A tiny blessing in a cursed family, nya."
Snark delivered, Jujirou looked up at the unmoving figure beside it—Uchiha Chizumi, rock-solid—its tone turning respectful. "Chizumi-sama, shall we…"
Before it could finish, Chizumi's voice—frigid, stripped of all emotion—cut in first.
"Uchiha Fugaku has resisted the law with violence and used Mangekyō Sharingan genjutsu to inflict severe mental harm on officers. Additional charge."
His gaze pierced the thinning dust and fixed on Fugaku.
"The verdict of Absolute Justice for the criminal 'Uchiha Fugaku' is…"
A brief pause made the air congeal.
"—Death without mercy."
As the three icy words fell, Uchiha Chizumi moved.
He took a single step forward.
Boom!
A chakra even more violent and searing than Fugaku's erupted from him like a long-capped volcano.
A visible crimson energy coiled around him like flames, scorching the ground black and molten at his feet.
Rumble.
Rumble.
Two even thicker, more savage crimson skeletal arms tore up from beneath the earth and slammed down.
Then a massive crimson skull of chakra burst through the ground and rose, slow and inexorable.
Under stunned eyes, the two arms braced against the earth and heaved—
With tooth-grinding bone-on-bone friction and earth-shaking cracks—
A towering, upper-body crimson skeletal giant—like a lava demon clawing its way up from hell—loomed over the Uchiha compound.
Sinew-like tendons and muscle knit across the bones at speed.
In short order, a crimson ninja blade formed in Susanoo's hand.
Standing within the red Susanoo, Chizumi's eyes had at some point become the intricate, eerie pattern of the Mangekyō.
He looked down, ice-cold.
Like Fugaku, he had invoked the Mangekyō's pinnacle—Susanoo.
"Everyone, do as Jujirou said."
Chizumi's voice carried out through Susanoo, brooking no dissent. "Evacuate all civilians in the Uchiha compound to the shelters at once. Get the wounded to Konoha Hospital immediately. Request Tsunade-sama of the Sannin to treat the mental trauma caused by Sharingan genjutsu."
Witnessing Mangekyō against Mangekyō and feeling those two world-wrecking wells of ocular power, the remaining Police Force shinobi, unwilling as they were, understood perfectly: what came next was far beyond their reach.
And one of Absolute Justice's iron rules was—obey orders.
"Yes, Chizumi-sama!"
Without a second's delay, they answered as one and moved.
Some escorted Uchiha Mikoto and Uchiha Sasuke away.
Some carried unconscious comrades toward Konoha Hospital.
Most began efficiently organizing a civilian evacuation.
Fugaku watched coldly and did not try to stop them.
All his focus was fixed on the crimson skeletal giant ahead.
That familiar, heart-thudding red dragged up memories he least wanted to touch.
"Itachi…"
His voice trembled just a hair. Staring at Chizumi within the red Susanoo, he demanded, "He… died under this Susanoo of yours, didn't he? Didn't he, Chizumi?"
Chizumi's answer was icy. "He died clean. He got off easy."
Crack—
A small but clear snap rang out.
Fugaku had clenched his jaw so hard he chipped the tip off a canine.
Driven by a surge of emotion, the ground behind him collapsed again.
Another titanic violet skeletal arm punched up from the earth.
More violet chakra flooded out, bones, tendons, and muscle-like chakra tissue knitting at breakneck speed.
A violet Susanoo—upper body only, but matching the red in size—rose to its full height.
"Chizumi! I have to stop you! I'm doing this for the Uchiha! My conscience is clear! If stopping you costs me my life, I won't regret it. The moment I made my choice, I threw my life aside!"
Fugaku's voice boomed through the violet Susanoo—not the usual calm, but ragged with resolve.
The patterns in his Mangekyō spun wildly, vast ocular power pouring out like burning flame.
In the huge skeletal palms of his second-form violet Susanoo, deep ocular power and chakra surged and gathered.
A dark-violet naginata—ancient in shape, ferocious in presence—took solid form.
Ominous violet chakra flared along the blade, its edge glinting with a chilling light.
This was the blade unique to Fugaku's Susanoo.
The monstrous violet giant moved, joints creaking with tooth-aching friction.
Gripping the great naginata in both hands, it brought it down in a mountain-cleaving arc, wreathed in a power that seemed to tear all things, aiming to split the crimson Susanoo before it.
Air was driven aside along the blade's path, screaming like ghosts.
Facing the overwhelming strike, Chizumi's Susanoo reacted in an instant.
"Stubborn fool."
The voice from within the crimson Susanoo was glacial.
With lava seeming to flow over its surface, the red Susanoo didn't retreat an inch.
Its muscle-like chakra bulged, and with the same unstoppable posture it swung its crimson lava blade.
From low to high, it met the descending violet naginata head-on.
CLANG!!!
The two colossal weapons smashed together, an indescribable detonation bursting out.
A vast sphere of purple-and-red energy ballooned at the point of impact—
Then became a devastating ring-shaped shockwave that rolled outward like a tsunami in all directions.
Rumble—!
Closest to the blast, Fugaku's residence—its carefully built garden, walls, roof—was flattened as if crushed by an invisible giant hand.
Debris flew skyward like a squall; stout walls collapsed in layers like stacked blocks.
The aftershock of a single exchange had nearly razed the area.
Within his violet Susanoo's protection, Fugaku's face tightened.
Through Susanoo's feedback he clearly felt an irresistible, searing, raging force surging along the naginata into him.
Horrified, he realized his Susanoo was being overpowered in the clash against Chizumi's.
"How…is that possible?!"
The shock hit him like a hammer.
He watched as his giant violet forearms were forced backward, elbows bending under pressure. The finger bones gripping the naginata groaned with the strain.
The dark-violet blade itself shuddered violently, as if crying out in pain.
Worse, at the point where the two weapons locked, the edge of his naginata—condensed from the purest Yin-style ocular power—had begun to soften and melt.
"This is…Lava Release."
Fugaku breathed, realization dawning. "He's fused the power of the Lava Release bloodline limit directly into his Susanoo!"
A fusion of two different bloodline limits—unrecorded in Uchiha history.
Before Chizumi, no Uchiha had ever possessed the Sharingan and another bloodline limit at the same time.
Which meant—
At the same form, Chizumi's Susanoo, augmented with Lava Release, had a crushing advantage in destructive power.
"So that's it… Itachi opened Susanoo and still lost so cleanly—he must have been instantly crushed by this Lava-fused Susanoo too, huh?"
Fugaku's face darkened further.
…
At the same time.
Hokage Tower.
Drowned in grumbling from within his clan, Sarutobi Hiruzen hadn't returned to the Sarutobi compound that night, choosing instead to sleep in the office quarters.
But just as drowsiness began to take him—
Boom!!!
A thunderous boom rolled from afar, and the entire tower gave a subtle shiver.
Teacups rattled on the desk.
Tea sloshed over the rims.
"What's going on? An attack?!"
Hiruzen snapped awake.
Sleep vanished.
He snatched up his Hokage cloak, and in a blur was at the office's great window, clouded eyes suddenly sharp as he peered toward the sound.
His pupils shrank.
Over the Uchiha compound, two "giants" were clashing fiercely.
The size, the terrifying chakra waves, those unmistakable forms—
"Susanoo! Two of them! In the Uchiha compound!"
He locked onto the crimson one.
"That red one…that's Chizumi's Susanoo. No mistake—he used that same power when he killed Itachi."
Then who was the other? Whose was the dark-violet Susanoo?!
The thought had barely formed when a possibility he'd almost ignored split his mind like lightning.
The answer leapt out.
"Fugaku!!!"