Hatake Harukaze

Uchiha Yuan arrived at Fifth Grade Class Nine. The moment he entered the classroom, he noticed that everyone's eyes had turned toward him.

One gaze in particular was especially intense. Uchiha Yuan looked over and found that its owner was Uehara Isami, who had provoked him earlier.

Uehara Isami glared fixedly at Uchiha Yuan, his face full of resentment. Several boys on either side of him were glaring angrily at Uchiha Yuan as well.

At that moment, a boy walked up to Uchiha Yuan, frowned, and said, "Uchiha Yuan, joining with several clansmen to bully your own classmate—your actions have utterly disgraced our great clans."

"So the so-called Uchiha Clan, Konoha's foremost Powerful Clan, only knows how to gang up on the weak."

"As expected of the evil Uchiha—they're domineering and brutal."

"Hasn't the Uchiha Clan always been like this? They look down on everyone else. Who in the academy hasn't been bullied by them?"

"That's right. There's an Uchiha in my older brother's class. He's vicious and has already injured several of his classmates."

"Hmph, I heard that the Uchiha Police Force backed down on the night the Demon Fox appeared and never showed up at all. If they had appeared, there would definitely have been fewer casualties in the village. The Fourth Hokage might not have died either."

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

"No wonder my father gets so angry whenever the Uchiha are mentioned. One of his squads was reduced to only three people on the night the Demon Fox ran rampant."

"..."

After the boy finished speaking, other students' voices rose one after another throughout the classroom. They whispered among themselves, all casting strange looks at Uchiha Yuan.

Uchiha Yuan remained expressionless, though he could not help sighing inwardly.

This was the Uchiha Clan's situation. Many people in the village had already been dissatisfied with the Uchiha Clan; now that the rumors had spread, they were being rejected by everyone.

Although the Uchiha Clan was furious in the face of these rumors, their pride made it impossible for them to offer the villagers any explanation.

The boy questioning Uchiha Yuan was from the Hyuga Clan. His unusual white eyes were filled with contempt as he met Uchiha Yuan's gaze.

Within Konoha, after the decline of the Senju Clan, the only clan qualified to challenge the Uchiha for the position of foremost Powerful Clan was the Hyuga Clan.

And at some point, claims that the Hyuga Clan was the foremost ocular jutsu clan had suddenly emerged.

Naturally, the Uchiha Clan opposed this; the Sharingan was the strongest ocular jutsu.

Thus, the relationship between the Uchiha Clan and the Hyuga Clan was exceedingly delicate.

Uchiha Yuan believed it was obvious that someone was deliberately inciting conflict between the Uchiha and Hyuga, these two great clans.

However, compared to the other ninja clans in the village, the Uchiha did regard the Hyuga Clan with some respect. After all, certain abilities of the Byakugan truly deserved praise.

As a ninja clan with an equally long history, however, the Hyuga Clan refused to accept the Uchiha's superiority and had always wanted to replace the Uchiha Clan as Konoha's foremost Powerful Clan.

Thus, at the Ninja Academy, students of the Hyuga Clan had always competed with students of the Uchiha Clan.

Looking at the Hyuga boy standing before him, Uchiha Yuan was utterly confused, his face showing doubt.

What's going on? What did I do?

However, he quickly realized what had happened and turned to look at the plump Uehara Isami seated at the back of the classroom.

Clearly, Uehara Isami had said something that caused the students in the classroom to misunderstand him.

Uchiha Yuan swept his gaze around the room, and the sharpness in his eyes brought the surrounding whispers to an abrupt halt.

He said to the Hyuga boy before him, "Hyuga Kagami, I don't know what you heard, but it is absolutely not the truth."

"Saying that I joined with my clansmen to bully a classmate is utterly laughable."

"Stop making excuses. Everyone saw it," a girl seated by the window said.

Uchiha Yuan said, "Sometimes, what you see and hear may not be the truth. What you saw may not be what you think it was."

Then he pointed at Uehara Isami and sneered. "The Uchiha's reputation will not be slandered by a despicable man. Uehara Isami, after school, the two of us will settle this at the Training Ground."

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

After hearing Uchiha Yuan's words, the students in the classroom all quieted down, occasionally sneaking glances at him.

At the front of the classroom, a boy with paint on his face turned around and said to Uehara Isami, "Uehara Isami, you aren't playing us, are you?"

Earlier, after Uehara Isami ran back to the classroom, someone had asked what happened. Concerned with saving face, he naturally could not admit that he had fled out of fear, so he claimed that Uchiha Yuan had gathered his clansmen to bully him.

At that moment, Uehara Isami looked toward Uchiha Yuan. Seeing that the other boy was shorter and thinner than himself, he revealed a malicious smile and said, "Hmph, if it's just him alone, watch how I teach him a lesson.

"I'll let everyone know that the Uchiha are nothing special."

The Ninja Academy classrooms were fan-shaped lecture halls with tiered seating, and Uchiha Yuan's seat was in the last row.

After sitting down, his eyes moved as he slowly surveyed the entire classroom.

At the Ninja Academy, each class had around thirty students, and the lower the class number, the more highly it was valued.

After six years of study at the Ninja Academy, most students who failed to meet the standards required to become qualified Genin came from the later-numbered classes.

Students entering the Ninja Academy were divided into those from ninja clans and those from civilian backgrounds. Children from civilian families had to undergo testing when enrolling to determine whether they possessed ninja aptitude.

Meanwhile, students from ninja clans wore clothing bearing their clan emblems.

Only seven students in Uchiha Yuan's class came from ninja clans; the other twenty-three came from civilian families.

Uehara Isami, who had provoked him earlier, came from a civilian ninja family.

However, in Uchiha Yuan's perception, the vitality and blood energy within Uehara Isami's body was considerably stronger even when compared to other classmates from ninja clans.

After sweeping his gaze around the room, Uchiha Yuan turned to the side. One seat away from him, a white-haired boy sat quietly.

At the sight of the boy, Uchiha Yuan's gaze paused slightly on him.

I didn't expect to end up sitting beside him.

The clan emblem on the boy's clothes showed that he came from the Hatake Clan.

Whenever the Hatake Clan was mentioned, one inevitably thought of Konoha's White Fang Hatake Sakumo; he had once been the clan's most illustrious figure.

Even the Uchiha, who only regarded the Senju Clan as worthy rivals, could not help but admire Hatake Sakumo.

The Hatake Clan had always been a small clan. After the White Fang's death, aside from the occasional reports of White Fang's son Kakashi's genius, the Hatake Clan had almost vanished from Konoha.

This boy was named Hatake Harukaze. Perhaps sensing Uchiha Yuan's gaze, Hatake Harukaze turned to look at him. His eyes held confusion, but even more wariness and vigilance.

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

Because Kakashi bore the name of a genius, he had long since been carrying out all manner of missions outside the village and had earned considerable renown. Moreover, he had ties to Minato Namikaze, so no one dared provoke him.

However, the other members of the Hatake Family were different. Over the years, as Konoha's White Fang had gone from hero to sinner of the village, everyone else in the village had kept their distance from the Hatake Family.

This also caused Hatake Family students at the Ninja Academy to often become targets of bullying and mockery.

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

Uchiha Yuan and he had been classmates for five years, yet they had almost never exchanged a word.