Tsunade, Third Hokage, What You Did Was Wrong

Tsunade grew a little irritated when she heard this...

"What exactly did Uchiha Yuan say during his time at the Ninja Academy?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi let out a bitter sigh. After unsealing the scroll, he revealed these short essays.

Neatly arranged essays appeared before Tsunade.

"See for yourself..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's tone was low and helpless.

Tsunade swept her gaze downward gravely. The very first essay that entered her sight made her expression turn subtle.

Its title was: The Uchiha, Too, Have Great Love.

"What a strange title structure..."

She read it carefully, word by word, sentence by sentence. The further she read, the more complicated her expression became.

Though this Ninja Academy assignment was written in an immature style, its lines revealed mature thoughtfulness and broad-mindedness far beyond its author's age.

In an exceedingly gentle tone, Uchiha Yuan laid out in detail the misunderstandings and rifts between the Uchiha Clan and the village.

He proposed that if Konoha's higher-ups could guide the Uchiha with a more open attitude and more effective communication, the conflict between the two sides was not irreconcilable. On the contrary, they could coexist peacefully, even harmoniously.

After finishing the first essay, Tsunade let out a deep sigh. "These ideas aren't extreme at all. They could even be called completely correct."

"How could you fail to take such profound and wise advice seriously when it came from such a young child?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi closed his eyes slightly, his expression heavy and helpless. "At the time, Uchiha Yuan was merely an inconspicuous ordinary child within the Uchiha Clan. He had not even awakened the most basic Sharingan."

"To be honest, I truly didn't pay much attention to his words at the time... I even deliberately ignored them."

At this point, Hiruzen Sarutobi hesitated before continuing, "So later, as he wrote more and more essays, I had Shisui investigate him..."

Tsunade frowned. "Why send Uchiha Shisui to investigate him? Did a child's words really warrant such an intense reaction?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed and slowly said, "Perhaps you don't understand. Back then, the relationship between the Uchiha Clan and the village had already become extremely tense."

"The Uchiha were already passionate and sensitive by nature. Yuan's remarks might have appeared rational and mild, but in my view, they could instead have been misunderstood or exploited by clan members with unstable emotions, further intensifying internal conflict."

"If we had allowed him to continue, unrest might have erupted within the Uchiha Clan ahead of time."

Was it really that serious?

I think it was arrogance. You thought a child had no right to point fingers between the Uchiha Clan and Konoha's higher-ups, didn't you?

Even after hearing this, Tsunade still could not fully accept how they had handled it.

She understood that this measure had, in effect, completely strangled an opportunity that might have improved the relationship between Konoha and the Uchiha Clan.

"What happened in the end?"

"Shisui and Yuan had a fierce argument. In the end, Shisui warned him that his actions had violated the village's rules."

"You threatened and warned a child with no ability to resist?"

Tsunade's tone carried undisguised regret and reproach.

"Did you ever consider what that would mean to that child?"

"And why did Uchiha Shisui react so strongly?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's face grew even more guilty and bitter, and an indescribable heaviness seeped into his voice.

"Shisui... believed that someone was using him... that there was something wrong with his way of thinking... After all, who would believe that a child could write something like this?"

Then what about Uchiha Itachi?

Why did you trust him so much...

Wasn't it because you thought he was a genius, and the eldest son of the Uchiha Clan head...

Tsunade did not say it aloud, but her eyes made her meaning perfectly clear.

"At the time, I did overlook that point... I merely instinctively wanted to stabilize the situation. I never seriously considered how much harm this would cause that child..."

Tsunade gently shook her head and let out a long sigh. "Old man, perhaps you truly were thinking of the village's stability at the time. But for Uchiha Yuan, this method was undoubtedly a fatal wound..."

As she said this, her heart grew even heavier.

A young man who had once been full of passion and goodwill had actually been driven to such an extreme by the indifference and threats of the higher-ups.

She could not help but feel deep regret and helplessness at such an outcome.

After a moment of silence, Hiruzen Sarutobi said softly, "I know that Uchiha Yuan's ideas back then might truly have changed the relationship between the Uchiha and the village..."

"Sadly, we never gave him that chance."

Tsunade lowered her gaze to the scroll once more and read through those essays word by word. The sincerity and urgency flowing from the immature writing sent an indescribable stab of pain through her heart.

Every essay was filled with genuine concern for the village's future, as well as profound insight into the fate of the Uchiha Clan.

Sadly, neither that pure-hearted sincerity nor that anxiety had ever truly been taken seriously by the village's higher-ups.

As she turned the pages, she saw Uchiha Yuan offering counsel again and again, followed by his frustration and anxiety each time it came to nothing.

That anxiety became increasingly obvious with the passage of time, even faintly revealing despair and helplessness.

Tsunade's brows furrowed tightly, and the emotions in her heart became ever more complicated and difficult to describe.

"This child's ideas and concerns were not nonsense at all. His maturity and insight had long surpassed those of his peers... How did Shisui evaluate him at the time?"

Hiruzen sighed softly, his expression mixed with helplessness and bitterness. "Shisui once told me that Uchiha Yuan's way of thinking was completely different from that of ordinary people..."

"He even feared that Uchiha Yuan's ideas might cause deeper confusion and misunderstanding among the Uchiha. He therefore suggested that the Anbu arrest and interrogate him further, to prevent him from doing anything even more outrageous."

"Arrest and interrogate him?"

Shock filled Tsunade's voice, impossible to conceal...

"Every sentence in these essays was born of passionate concern for the village. There wasn't the slightest hint of extremism or danger. If anything, he was more worried and anxious than anyone else. Why would Shisui make such an assessment?"

Hiruzen fell silent for a moment, his gaze deep and complicated. "I don't know exactly what happened between Shisui and Uchiha Yuan either. Perhaps Shisui had his own judgment and considerations..."

Shisui had already seemed to dislike Uchiha Yuan at the time...

"I did not agree to his request to arrest and interrogate him."

Tsunade relaxed slightly, but soon afterward, she heard Hiruzen continue. "However, I made another decision at the time... I gave him a failing evaluation, causing him to fail graduation that year and preventing him from becoming a ninja, and then..."

And then you never let him attend school again...

Uchiha Yuan never applied on his own initiative either... He must have been utterly disheartened...

Tsunade froze, overwhelmed by a powerful sense of desolation and helplessness.

"Old man, what difference was there between doing that... and directly arresting and interrogating him?"

Tsunade's voice was low. "For a child filled with enthusiasm and wanting to contribute to the village, such treatment was probably even crueler than an arrest..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi offered no defense. His expression merely darkened.

If only I had known... I should have treated Uchiha Yuan properly back then...