The Genius Boy Uchiha Yi

"Yi, thank goodness you're awake!" Uchiha Yi slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a girl of about eight or nine. Pretty as a doll, she was watching him with worry written all over her face.

"It's you, Mikoto. Sorry I worried you. How long was I asleep?" Uchiha Yi sat up and shook his head, then gave Uchiha Mikoto an apologetic smile.

"How many times have I told you to call me big sister?" Uchiha Mikoto shot back on instinct, then asked anxiously, "Yi, are you really all right? Dad said you awakened your Sharingan because you got too worked up, and your body couldn't take it because you're so young.

"You were unconscious for about three hours. Lord Hokage and the Clan Leader have already gone home. They told you to rest here.

"Are you feeling any better now?"

"Yeah, much better." Uchiha Yi brushed a hand over his eyelids. His black eyes turned scarlet in an instant, a single black Tomoe spinning rapidly in each pupil. "Too bad it's only a One-Tomoe Sharingan, apparently."

Before crossing over, he had seen plenty of people mocking Sasuke Uchiha for awakening only a One-Tomoe Sharingan after his entire clan was sacrificed. Now Yi had lost his own father and awakened only a One-Tomoe Sharingan too. If the forum experts found out, wouldn't they tear him apart for being useless?

Still, awakening a One-Tomoe Sharingan at six made him one of the earliest "prodigies" to do so in the Uchiha Clan.

Uchiha Yi soon made peace with it. Awakening the Sharingan too early was not necessarily a good thing for the Uchiha Clan. Uchiha Itachi, for instance, seemed to develop a serious case of Bloodline Disease because he had awakened his too young.

Even Madara Uchiha had lost so many younger brothers by the age of twelve without awakening his Sharingan.

As someone who had crossed over, Yi was no stranger to the world of the Hokage. But finding himself in the body of Uchiha Yi, son of the Uchiha Clan's formidable Kagami Uchiha, left him with mixed feelings.

Kagami Uchiha had always worked to bring Konoha and the Uchiha Clan together. While Tobirama Senju was still alive, Kagami had made every effort to show the Second Hokage the Uchiha Clan's goodwill. At the same time, he had conveyed Tobirama Senju's intentions to the clan.

Without a doubt, Kagami Uchiha had been the bridge between the Uchiha Clan and the Hokage's faction.

With Tobirama Senju keeping the Uchiha Clan in check, Kagami Uchiha's work had been relatively easy. Tobirama Senju valued him, and the Uchiha Clan wanted peace. They also hoped Kagami Uchiha could contend for the position of the next Hokage. That period could fairly be called a honeymoon between the two sides.

But after Tobirama Senju died and Hiruzen Sarutobi became the Third Hokage, things changed.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was no Tobirama Senju. He lacked the strength to keep Konoha in check, and dissatisfaction with him ran deep within the Uchiha Clan.

The First Hokage and Second Hokage had both come from the Senju Clan. Surely the position of Third Hokage should have gone to someone from the Uchiha Clan.

The Sarutobi Clan had been no minor force during the Warring States era. They had ranked among the great clans. Even Madara Uchiha had been delighted when Hashirama Senju told him that the Sarutobi and Shimura clans were willing to join Konoha.

But in the Uchiha Clan's eyes, the Sarutobi Clan was in no position to compare with them.

What made Hiruzen Sarutobi fit to be the Third Hokage? If anyone deserved the position, it was Kagami Uchiha!

What the Uchiha Clan found hardest to accept was that Kagami Uchiha, the man they had pinned their hopes on, had been the first to support Hiruzen Sarutobi for Hokage.

The Uchiha Clan erupted. Even if Kagami Uchiha did not become Hokage, then their Clan Leader should have!

Why Hiruzen Sarutobi?

That was how a rift opened within the Uchiha Clan. One faction supported Kagami Uchiha and wanted him to remain the bridge that kept peace between the village and the clan. The other became the Hawk Faction and regarded Kagami Uchiha as a traitor to the Uchiha Clan.

The Uchiha Clan had to have a Hokage of its own. To that end, they were willing to fight the Hokage's faction, even stage a coup.

Gradually, these groups became the Uchiha Clan's Dove Faction and Hawk Faction.

Kagami Uchiha had spent years trying to preserve harmony between the two sides. He was constantly taking missions, volunteering to lead the way on the hardest assignments and carrying them out himself.

After Uchiha Yi was born, he rarely saw Kagami Uchiha, his father in name. He had been left in the care of Uchiha Mikoto's grandfather, the Second Elder of the Uchiha Clan.

That man was also the current leader of the Dove Faction within the Uchiha Clan.

Not long ago, Kagami Uchiha had died on a mission. Hiruzen Sarutobi had come to deliver the news in person, and Yi had awakened his Sharingan from the sheer "shock" of hearing it.

Of course, it was not because Yi had been especially close to Kagami Uchiha. He had been furious. Kagami Uchiha was the strongest member of the Uchiha Clan and the only one to have awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. Yi could just about accept his death.

But what about those Mangekyō Sharingan eyes? Were they really going to say nothing about them?

Hiruzen Sarutobi had not brought it up, and the Clan Leader had shown no sign of mentioning the pair of Mangekyō Sharingan eyes either.

Yi knew he had almost no chance of inheriting those eyes, and he had no way to protect them. Even so, they had all simply ignored him.

Yi was no fool. He had always believed Kagami Uchiha's efforts were futile. He could not understand Kagami's belief that Konoha was his home.

Nor could he understand the Clan Leader and his people.

He did not even know whose hands that pair of Mangekyō Sharingan eyes had ended up in. Hiruzen Sarutobi's? Shimura Danzō's? Or the Clan Leader's?

Any of them was a real possibility.

And whoever had them might become his enemy or rival.

For now, though, Yi did not need to dwell on that. He could not afford to. He needed strength, and he needed to grow stronger as quickly as possible under certain people's "protection."

Only when he was strong enough could he decide his own fate.

Fortunately, Yi was not entirely without an ace up his sleeve. For one thing, he had inherited Kagami Uchiha's exceptional bloodline. Barring any surprises, awakening a Three-Tomoe Sharingan someday should be no problem.

After all, Kagami Uchiha had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, and his future son, Shisui Uchiha, would awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan too.

There was no reason Uchiha Yi could not do the same, was there?