Hatake Harukaze

Uchiha Yuan entered Fifth Grade Class Nine. The moment he walked into the classroom, he sensed all eyes on him.

Among them, one gaze was particularly intense. Uchiha Yuan looked over and found its owner to be Uehara Isami, who had provoked him earlier.

Uehara Isami stared directly at Uchiha Yuan, his face filled with resentment. To his left and right, several other youths glared at him with equal anger.

At this moment, a young man walked up to Uchiha Yuan and said with a frown, "Uchiha Yuan, bullying your classmates with multiple clan members, your behavior is a disgrace to our great clan."

"So the so-called number one prestigious clan in Konoha, the Uchiha Clan, only knows how to gang up on others."

"As expected of the evil Uchiha, domineering and brutal."

"Isn't the Uchiha Clan always like this, looking down on others? Who in the school hasn't been bullied by them?"

"That's right. In my older brother's class, there's an Uchiha who is very vicious and has already injured several of his classmates."

"Hmph, I heard the Uchiha Police Force retreated the night the Demon Fox appeared and never showed up. If they had appeared, the casualties in the village would have been reduced, and perhaps the Fourth Hokage wouldn't have sacrificed his life."

"I heard that too. Damn it; the Uchiha Police Force made such a big mistake, and I don't understand why the village hasn't punished them."

"No wonder Father gets so angry whenever he mentions the Uchiha. Only three people were left from one of their squads on the night of the Demon Fox's rampage."

"..."

After the young man finished speaking, other students in the classroom began to speak one after another. They whispered amongst themselves, and their strange gazes all fell upon Uchiha Yuan.

Uchiha Yuan's expression was indifferent, but he couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

This was the predicament of the Uchiha Clan. Many people in the village were already dissatisfied with them, and now, with the spread of rumors, they were facing universal ostracism.

Despite their anger at the rumors, the Uchiha Clan, with their arrogance, would never offer any explanation to the villagers.

The young man who questioned Uchiha Yuan came from the Hyuga Clan. His pair of unusual white eyes were filled with contempt as they met Uchiha Yuan's gaze.

Within Konohagakure, after the decline of the Senju Clan, the only clan qualified to challenge the Uchiha as the number one prestigious clan was the Hyuga Clan.

And at some point, the voice claiming the Hyuga Clan to be the number one ocular power family suddenly emerged.

Naturally, the Uchiha Clan held an opposing view; the Sharingan was the strongest ocular power.

Therefore, the relationship between the Uchiha Clan and the Hyuga Clan was extremely delicate.

Uchiha Yuan believed that this was clearly the work of someone intentionally stirring up the conflict between these two great clans.

However, compared to other ninja clans in the village, the Uchiha regarded the Hyuga Clan with some respect, as the abilities of the Byakugan were indeed commendable.

And the Hyuga, as a ninja clan with a similarly long and rich heritage, did not yield to the Uchiha and had always wanted to replace the Uchiha Clan as Konoha's number one prestigious clan.

Consequently, at the Ninja Academy, students from the Hyuga Clan were constantly competing with students from the Uchiha Clan.

Looking at the Hyuga boy standing before him, Uchiha Yuan was completely bewildered, a look of confusion on his face.

What's going on? What did I do?

But he quickly reacted, turning his head to look at the fat Uehara Isami sitting in the back of the classroom.

Clearly, Uehara Isami had said something that caused these classmates to misunderstand him.

Uchiha Yuan scanned the room, his sharp gaze silencing the whispers around him.

He said to the Hyuga boy in front of him, "Hyuga Kagami, I don't know what you heard, but it's definitely not the truth."

"Accusing me of ganging up with my clan members to bully classmates, how ridiculous."

"Don't try to quibble, everyone saw it," a girl sitting by the window said.

Uchiha Yuan replied, "Sometimes, what you see and hear isn't necessarily the truth, and what you see isn't what you think it is."

Then, he pointed at Uehara Isami and sneered, "The Uchiha's reputation cannot be tarnished by despicable people; Uehara Isami, after school, you and I will have a match at the training grounds."

With that, he directly found a seat and sat down.

After hearing Uchiha Yuan's words, the students in the classroom quieted down, their gazes occasionally stealing glances at him.

At the front of the classroom, a boy with face paint turned around and said to Uehara Isami, "Uehara Isami, you're not messing with us, are you?"

Earlier, when Uehara Isami had run back to the classroom, someone had asked what happened. Being too proud to admit he had run away out of fear, he claimed Uchiha Yuan had gathered his clan members to bully him.

At this moment, Uehara Isami looked at Uchiha Yuan. Seeing the opponent shorter and thinner than himself, he revealed a malicious smile and said, "Hmph, if it's just him alone, I'll show him how I'll teach him a lesson. I'll let everyone know that the Uchiha are nothing special."

The Ninja Academy classrooms were tiered lecture halls shaped like fans, and Uchiha Yuan found a seat in the last row.

After sitting down, his gaze slowly swept across the classroom.

In the Ninja Academy, each class had about thirty students, and the further forward the class number, the more attention it received. Most students who couldn't meet the standards to become qualified genin after six years of study came from the classes with lower numbers.

Students entering the Ninja Academy were divided into those from ninja clans and those from commoner families. Children from commoner families needed to undergo a test when enrolling in the Ninja Academy to check for ninja aptitude.

Additionally, students from ninja clans would have their clan crests on their clothing.

In Uchiha Yuan's class, there were only seven students from ninja clans; the remaining 23 students were from commoner families. The Uehara Isami who had provoked him earlier was from a commoner ninja family. However, in Uchiha Yuan's perception, Uehara Isami's blood and qi were even stronger than those of other students from ninja clans.

After scanning the room, Uchiha Yuan turned his head to the side. Separated by a seat, a white-haired youth sat quietly.

Seeing this youth, Uchiha Yuan's gaze paused slightly on him.

'I didn't expect to be sitting next to him.'

The clan emblem on the youth's clothing indicated he was from the Hatake Clan.

When the Hatake Clan was mentioned, one inevitably thought of Konoha's White Fang, Hatake Sakumo; he had once been the most brilliant existence in the clan.

Even the Uchihas, who only had the Senju Clan in their eyes, couldn't help but respect Hatake Sakumo.

The Hatake Clan was originally a small clan. After the White Fang's death, apart from the occasional news of the genius of his son, Kakashi, the Hatake Clan's voice had almost disappeared from Konohagakure.

This youth's name was Hatake Harukaze. Perhaps sensing Uchiha Yuan's gaze, Hatake Harukaze turned his head. His gaze towards Uchiha Yuan held confusion, but more so, wariness and vigilance.

After the White Fang incident erupted, the entire Hatake Clan suffered both overt and covert suppression.

Kakashi, due to his reputation as a genius, had long been undertaking various missions outside the village, building considerable prestige. At the same time, he had the connection with Minato Namikaze, so no one dared to provoke him.

However, the other disciples of the Hatake Family were different. In recent years, because Konoha's White Fang had gone from hero to a sinner of the village, others in the village treated the Hatake Family with a distant attitude.

This also led to students from the Hatake Family in the Ninja Academy often becoming objects of bullying and mockery.

Hatake Harukaze had always been like an invisible person in the class, silent and isolated from everyone else.

Uchiha Yuan and he had been classmates for five years, but they had hardly ever spoken to each other.