The Situation of the Uchiha

"Go, investigate every Uchiha clan member currently by Orochimaru's side!"

Danzo emerged from Orochimaru's base with a face as dark as iron.

He never expected that Orochimaru would actually refuse to give him face because of a mere Uchiha clansman!

He is courting death!

He cast a sinister, gloomy glance at the entrance of Orochimaru's base, a cold sneer curling the corners of his mouth.

The plan must be moved forward!

"Yes!"

A ninja clad in the gray uniform of the Anbu knelt on one knee, answering respectfully.

He then transformed into a puff of smoke and vanished.

A long while later.

Two figures emerged from the cave.

They were none other than the newly apprenticed students of Orochimaru, Uchiha Ao and Anko Mitarashi.

"Back in the academy, I never saw you display such talent!"

Anko said, her tone complex.

In the past, Ao was an arrogant guy; although his grades were always at the bottom of the class, he would constantly boast about surpassing Itachi Uchiha and becoming the number one genius of the Uchiha.

Despite his poor talent, he kept provoking other students, suffering quite a few beatings for it.

Yet, his personality never changed.

Ever since she graduated early, she hadn't seen any of her classmates from the ninja academy. After two years, seeing him again, she never expected Uchiha Ao to show such an unexpected side.

She had never seen Lord Orochimaru take someone so seriously.

"A genius ninja like you, of course, wouldn't see the efforts of ordinary people like us."

Ao shrugged and said.

His predecessor's talent was indeed poor, completely unable to keep up with the standard level of the Uchiha clan. Compared to his peers in the Uchiha, he could truly be called—trash.

Anko possessed extremely high talent in training; she graduated from the ninja academy at ten and was promoted to chunin by twelve.

While the rest of their ordinary classmates were still worrying about graduation, she had already participated in wars on the front lines.

Being chosen by Orochimaru among so many excellent graduates was proof enough of her brilliance.

She could be counted as one of the most outstanding students of their year.

The only ones who could be mentioned in the same breath were top-tier talents like Might Guy and Namiashi Raidō.

"I'll see you off here. Once you enter the village, those people under Danzo won't dare to lay a hand on you."

Anko stood at the village gate, bidding farewell to Uchiha Ao.

"Tomorrow at this same time, I'll be waiting for you here so we can go find Lord Orochimaru together!"

She instructed.

Compared to an average twelve-year-old, she already displayed great maturity.

It was just that her physical development clearly hadn't caught up; she was a head shorter than Uchiha Ao and still as flat as a board.

"That probably won't work. Tomorrow is the ninja academy's class assignment ceremony; I need to go to the school."

Uchiha Ao said. His predecessor had just graduated from the ninja academy with a very low score—a comprehensive rating of barely 61, just scraping by the passing line for graduation.

Had it been any lower, he wouldn't have been able to graduate.

This ceremony had been delayed for two months due to the Nine-Tails Incident.

Now that the Third Hokage had been confirmed to be back in power, it had been put back on the schedule.

"Anko, who is this?"

A beautiful girl waved from not far away.

Uchiha Ao noticed the girl's eyes were bright red—not the Sharingan, but natural red pupils.

This was a trait of the Yūhi clan.

Beside her followed a boy with a thick beard, looking slightly mature for his age.

"Ao? Why are you with Anko?"

Asuma looked at Uchiha Ao with suspicious eyes. This Uchiha clansman from the same year had even worse talent than Obito Uchiha. Back in the academy, just like Obito Uchiha, he was always bullied by other Uchiha clansmen.

At least Obito dared to fight back and wouldn't bully other students.

When this guy was bullied by his Uchiha peers, he didn't even dare to retaliate, only relying on the Uchiha name to oppress other commoner students.

"He is a new assistant taken in by the teacher. He will be training with the teacher from now on."

Anko said with a helpless expression.

She was close friends with Kurenai Yuhi, and the two had a good relationship. However, she understood at a glance that Kurenai had likely misunderstood something, as her gaze kept sweeping over Uchiha Ao.

She suspected that the two of them were hiding some unspeakable secret.

Rather than being mistaken for lovers, she would have preferred to clarify things from the very beginning.

Anko had no interest in someone with such poor talent as Uchiha Ao.

Uchiha Ao glanced at Asuma, having no time for pleasantries with him. He waved his hand at Anko and then headed in the direction of the Uchiha compound.

"What's he acting so arrogant for? Just a dead-last Uchiha clansman..."

Asuma muttered under his breath.

"If Orochimaru-nii-san took a liking to him, it's probably just because of his Uchiha bloodline."

"Anko, don't worry, he can't threaten your position."

He noticed the complex look in Anko's eyes as she watched Uchiha Ao and hurriedly tried to comfort her.

He assumed Anko was worried that Uchiha Ao would steal the attention their teacher gave her.

"You don't understand, Ao's talent is extremely high..."

Anko said with a bitter smile; there were some things she couldn't tell outsiders.

But deep down, she knew that when it came to research, she was nowhere near his level.

The only thing she could hold her head high about was her talent for cultivation.

But their teacher was never short of geniuses when it came to ninjutsu.

"What could possibly be outstanding about him? Otherwise, he wouldn't have dragged it out until he was twelve to barely graduate from the Academy."

Asuma said with disdain, filled with contempt for Uchiha Ao.

Because their class was in the final stages of the war, many students had graduated early to join the front lines.

Now, they had all become the backbone of the village, with most having reached the rank of chunin or even jonin.

Among them, Kakashi was the most outstanding; he had already become an elite captain in the Anbu, surpassing the vast majority and becoming the representative of their generation.

A student like Uchiha Ao, who had only just graduated, was completely unworthy of mention.

"Asuma, could it be that the Uchiha did it on purpose? They didn't want to help the village win the war, and most of the Uchiha students didn't choose to graduate early."

Kurenai Yuhi said from the side.

This was the prevailing theory in the village, casting doubt on the loyalty of the Uchiha clan.

Currently, the Uchiha clan was the primary suspect for the mastermind behind the Nine-Tails Incident.

Public opinion was extremely unfavorable toward the Uchiha.

Yet, they could not produce any evidence to prove their innocence.

"If that's not the case, then how did they manage to stay hidden during the Nine-Tails Incident, letting the entire village fall into such a major crisis?"

"You have to remember, they were the ones responsible for the security of Konoha!"

"A bunch of useless trash! Every single Uchiha clansman is nothing but a sack of wine and a bag of rice!"

Kurenai Yuhi said, her eyes turning red, filled with hatred.

Because of this turmoil, she had lost her beloved father.

She hated every single member of the Uchiha clan.

If it weren't for their incompetence, her father would not have died in this chaos.

Anko's lips moved, but she didn't say a word to defend the Uchiha.

The villagers were suffering now, and with so many civilians dead or injured, someone had to take the blame for this turmoil.

Clearly, the Uchiha had become the target for the villagers' venting.

The village had also tacitly accepted this narrative.

Although Anko knew that an ordinary Uchiha clansman like Uchiha Ao had absolutely no ability to stop the Nine-Tails rampage.

But the other villagers didn't think so; after all, why did he have to have the surname Uchiha?

They had, after all, always claimed to be the number one noble clan in the ninja world.