Uchiha Yuan's Little Essay

Inside the Hokage office, Hiruzen Sarutobi sat at his desk, his gaze drifting across the documents spread before him.

He flipped through old official files, pausing occasionally to re-examine the investigation records regarding Uchiha Yuan.

Every member of the Uchiha Clan had their own file; as the leader of Konoha, Hiruzen naturally knew the detailed information of every family.

Even for a minor, unremarkable character like Uchiha Yuan, the Anbu would conduct periodic surveillance and report back.

"Wait a moment, Kakashi..."

Hiruzen suddenly looked up, interrupting Kakashi, who was preparing to take his leave to go find Jiraiya.

Kakashi felt slightly surprised, stopping in his tracks and turning back to look at the Hokage: "Is there something, Lord Hokage?"

Hiruzen looked at Kakashi, his tone slightly heavy: "I was reviewing the materials on Uchiha Yuan and discovered he was in the same class as you. Do you have any impression of him?"

"None at all... I only remember that his grades seemed even worse than Obito's."

He paused, as if suddenly remembering something: "Wait, although his grades were poor, his theoretical scores seemed quite good."

Hiruzen nodded, his gaze deep. After a moment of silence, he picked up a scroll containing assignments from the Ninja Academy and carefully looked through it.

It had to be said, Uchiha Yuan's penmanship was quite beautiful; he seemed to have some accomplishment in calligraphy.

He was like a student who was never noticed—obscure, yet possessing his own unique skill.

Hiruzen flipped through a dossier.

Suddenly, he stopped his movements, a flash of surprise and curiosity crossing his eyes.

Hiruzen sat quietly at his desk and gently pulled a scroll from the pile of materials.

He stared at the elegant text on the scroll and spoke slowly, his tone carrying a faint trace of regret and confusion: "This is an essay Uchiha Yuan wrote when he was young..."

Kakashi stood quietly before the Hokage; his impression of Uchiha Yuan was truly limited, with almost no specific memories to speak of.

Hiruzen cleared his throat and began to read in a low, solemn voice: "I have a dream..."

For an instant, Kakashi felt his heart tremble slightly, vaguely sensing discomfort in his left eye—the Sharingan.

He subconsciously raised a hand to touch his forehead, frowning slightly, a sliver of doubt rising in his heart.

"A dream... a wish..."

Hiruzen nodded slightly, his gaze remaining on the scroll as he continued to read: "The ideal of building a peaceful world is to use true love to influence the people of the world."

The moment this sentence was finished, the Sharingan in Kakashi's left eye throbbed with an inexplicable, sharp pain.

He subconsciously closed his eyes and pressed his hand against the area around his left eye, trying to alleviate this sudden onset of discomfort.

"Kakashi, what is wrong?"

Hiruzen noticed his abnormality and immediately stopped reading, his tone filled with a hint of concern.

"It's nothing..." Kakashi said in a low voice, trying to hide his loss of composure.

He could not understand why this Sharingan he had inherited from Obito would produce such a violent reaction at a time like this.

Perhaps I have been slacking off lately... causing the Sharingan to consume more chakra.

Hiruzen glanced at him, paused for a moment, and then slowly continued reading: "Love can change everything, embrace everything... even though I am a narrow-minded Uchiha, I still hope the world attains true peace."

This time, the sharp pain in Kakashi's left eye grew even more intense, as if some power was pulling at the ocular jutsu within his Sharingan, creating a subtle resonance.

Hiruzen paused slightly, looking at Kakashi's somewhat pale complexion, and asked in a low voice: "Are you sure you are alright? Is there something wrong with your Sharingan?"

Kakashi endured the discomfort in his eye and managed to force a smile: "Perhaps... Obito's wish was also to become Hokage... hearing these words might have touched upon some memories of the past."

Hiruzen nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over the scroll with a hint of nostalgia as he continued to read: "In fact, every classmate in the class hopes to become Hokage and change this world, including the most outstanding one, Kakashi, or the clumsiest one, Obito."

Mentioning the clumsiest one, Obito...

Kakashi let out a dry, wry laugh...

Reading this, Hiruzen revealed a rare smile and looked up at Kakashi: "Kakashi, was your wish back then also to become Hokage?"

Kakashi nodded subconsciously and responded in a low voice: "Yes..."

However, as soon as the words left his lips, the process of the sharp pain in his eye subsiding gave way to a different kind of discomfort, leaving him feeling exceptionally exhausted.

He took a deep breath, struggling to calm the turmoil within his heart.

Hiruzen continued to read: "Therefore, I sincerely hope that I can become an excellent ninja, and perhaps even become Hokage, to revitalize Konoha and the Uchiha."

Inside the room, the air became unusually heavy.

Kakashi kept his eyes tightly shut, cold sweat seeping slightly from his forehead.

The Sharingan seemed to be responding to every word and every sentence of Uchiha Yuan's; vaguely, deep within the ocular power, a will that had never been perceived before was beginning to awaken.

After reading the final paragraph of the essay, Hiruzen quietly set the scroll down.

"Did he... truly desire peace?"

Hiruzen was silent for a moment: "These words might have been the ideals in his heart, but the facts prove that Uchiha Yuan did not walk the righteous path."

Slowly standing up, Hiruzen walked to the window, his gaze passing through the massive office glass to stare at the silhouette of Konoha in the distance.

The lights flickered, carrying a sense of unreal peace and tranquility.

He sighed softly, his tone permeated with deep self-reproach and reflection: "Uchiha Yuan... within the Uchiha Clan, there were many children like him, or Shisui, who harbored ideals from the start, yet we consistently overlooked them."

"Perhaps, we were wrong from the very beginning..."

What was the point of saying these things now?

The Uchiha Clan had already been wiped out; what meaning was there in sighing and reminiscing in front of me?

Standing in the room, Kakashi felt an inexplicable sense of irritation and fatigue for reasons he couldn't fathom.

Struggling to suppress his inner impatience, he finally couldn't help but interrupt the Hokage's lament: "Lord Hokage, I fear now is not the time for such memories and reflections, is it?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi froze, immediately realizing his emotions had slipped, and nodded with a light sigh: "You are right..."

Seeing this, Kakashi took a deep breath, quickly adjusted his mood, and said in a gentle tone: "Then, I shall depart immediately to find Lord Jiraiya. Please rest assured."

Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded, watching as Kakashi took his leave.

The moment he stepped out of Konoha, Kakashi couldn't help but turn back to gaze at the village behind him.

A thousand emotions surged in his heart, as if some strange feeling were brewing within.

The Third Hokage's words, heard now, sounded somewhat grating and hypocritical to Kakashi's ears.

This strange emotion seemed to be influencing him...

Slowly, he reached up and lifted the forehead protector covering his left eye, revealing the Sharingan that carried Obito's legacy.

The instant the fabric moved away, a miraculous change occurred...

That Sharingan, which had previously been unable to close on its own, eerily and slowly shut its eyelid, as if it had regained the control of an ordinary person.

Kakashi was startled, and he immediately felt the continuous drain of chakra within his body come to a sudden halt, no longer being frantically consumed by the Sharingan.

In disbelief, he lightly touched his left eye with his hand and muttered to himself: "The left eye can actually close on its own?"

Kakashi's blue reserves would finally not be exhausted so easily.