Konoha

"By all rights, having inherited your clan's legacy, you shouldn't be this weak." Neji deliberately put on a puzzled expression. "Have you not learned the Uchiha Clan's Secret Technique yet?"

Neji asked that on purpose. He really did want to know whether Sasuke Uchiha had truly inherited the Uchiha Clan's legacy.

A frustrated look crossed Sasuke Uchiha's face. "I haven't mastered some of the clan's more advanced Fire Release techniques yet. Otherwise..."

"Now that's strange." Neji looked puzzled as he continued, "Then why is your chakra control so crude when you've inherited your clan's legacy? Honestly, your control over chakra is terrible. That's also one of the reasons your hand seals are so slow."

"My chakra control is crude?" Sasuke Uchiha frowned. He thought it was fine.

"Don't believe me?" Neji pointed at a large tree ahead, then walked straight up its trunk until he was four stories high. Looking down at Sasuke, he said, "Try walking up here yourself. Pay attention to the chakra beneath your feet."

"What's so hard about that?" With a cold expression, Sasuke Uchiha walked straight to the tree, lifted his foot, and stepped onto its trunk.

But Sasuke Uchiha didn't walk up as easily as if he were on level ground, the way he had expected to after watching Neji. He fell after just two steps.

Standing beneath the tree, Sasuke Uchiha looked at his feet, then at Neji above him. He was deeply irritated. He couldn't accept this.

Neji sprang down from the tree, landed in front of Sasuke Uchiha, and patted his shoulder. "I suggest you go back and take a good look through your books on chakra training."

Sasuke Uchiha's expression darkened. "There's no need. Nothing I collected from the clan contains any records of that kind of training. Otherwise, do you think I wouldn't have practiced it?"

He wasn't an idiot. It had been one thing when nobody mentioned it, but now that someone had pointed it out, Sasuke Uchiha immediately sensed that something was wrong.

"Nothing?!" Neji looked astonished. "That's impossible. The Uchiha Clan used to be an even larger shinobi clan than the Hyuga Clan. They must have had material on this. Something this basic would definitely be needed to train genin. Unless your clan passed it down by word of mouth?"

Sasuke Uchiha shook his head. "I don't know what happened, but I can tell you this: after that incident, I searched the entire clan compound. All I found were a few Fire Release Scrolls and a Summoning contract with the Ninja Cat Clan, who had worked with our clan for years. Apart from those, there were only a few Scrolls recording hidden weapon techniques."

Hearing that, Neji felt his suspicions had been confirmed. Konoha really had plundered a slaughtered clan's estate. This was the Uchiha Clan, a powerful shinobi clan with a thousand-year history in the shinobi world. Who knew how many ninjutsu they had collected? Yet Konoha had left behind only a few lousy Fire Release ninjutsu and a Summoning Scroll for the Ninja Cat Clan.

The Uchiha Clan Massacre had happened suddenly. The Uchiha Clan must have left a vast number of ninjutsu in the village. Now all of them had vanished, and there was no need to say whose hands they had ended up in.

Tsk, tsk. That's Konoha for you. They really know how to deal with their own. Neji felt nothing but contempt.

"Did that bastard do it? Was he afraid I'd grow strong enough to take revenge on him?" After letting his thoughts run wild for a while, Sasuke Uchiha began muttering to himself.

Hearing that, Neji was speechless. "Do you think he had time to search for things like that after doing what he did that night?"

Sasuke Uchiha wasn't surprised that Neji knew whom he meant. After all, Neji came from the Hyuga Clan, Konoha's other great clan.

"Then what happened? Now that you mention it, it suddenly struck me. Looking at how things should normally be, it's as if someone emptied out the entire Uchiha Clan compound. Did someone sneak in and steal everything while I was in the hospital? But that's impossible. Lord Hokage's Anbu were there at the time..." As Sasuke spoke, something seemed to occur to him, but he didn't dare be certain.

Sasuke Uchiha fell silent. He didn't want to believe the thought that had formed in his mind.

"Do you think something like that could happen?" Sasuke Uchiha lowered his head slightly, his eyes hidden in shadow.

Sasuke Uchiha didn't spell it out, but Neji understood what he meant.

Neji said calmly, "Let me tell you about something first. Then you can judge whether that sort of thing could happen."

Sasuke Uchiha looked curious. "What is it?"

Neji said, "In year 54 of Konoha's calendar, Konoha and Kumogakure ceased hostilities. Kumogakure sent a delegation to Konoha to discuss the ceasefire. But their real objective wasn't to negotiate a ceasefire and sign a peace treaty. What they really wanted was the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan."

"The Byakugan?! This is Konoha. How could they dare?" Sasuke frowned. Kumogakure was far too arrogant.

"Of course they dared. Kumogakure had long since seen through the Third Hokage, the man called the Shinobi Hero. In their eyes, the 'shinobi' in his title stood for enduring humiliation, not being a ninja." Neji laughed contemptuously.

Sasuke Uchiha fell silent. Before today, he had actually held a fairly favorable opinion of the Third Hokage. After all, the old man had visited him several times after the massacre.

Neji continued, "The Kumogakure delegation sneaked straight into the Hyuga Clan compound and abducted the Main Family's young lady. But trying to steal someone away under the Byakugan's watch was nothing short of a fantasy. The kidnapper from Kumogakure was then killed with a single palm strike by the Hyuga Clan's current clan head."

"You'd never guess what happened next." Neji looked at Sasuke. "You might think the Third Hokage would fly into a rage after hearing the news, confront Kumogakure, and demand a satisfactory explanation for Konoha."

Sasuke Uchiha gave him a puzzled look. "Wouldn't he? They caught the culprit. Kumogakure had no room to deny it, right? All the leadership had to do was make an issue of it, and Kumogakure would have to answer for it."

Hearing that, Neji gave a strange smile. "There's nothing wrong with a normal person thinking that way, but that isn't how things unfolded."

"Did something else happen?" Sasuke Uchiha felt that, with things having gone that far, Kumogakure would surely have to pay a price.

"Heh. Konoha..." Neji laughed scornfully. "After their plan was exposed, Kumogakure didn't back down. Instead, they threatened Konoha with war and demanded that Konoha hand over the person who had killed their kidnapper. Otherwise, Kumogakure would launch a war!"

Sasuke Uchiha fell silent for a moment. Thinking of the worst possible outcome, he asked in disbelief, "Don't tell me the leadership agreed to Kumogakure's demand?!"

"Of course they agreed," Neji said mockingly. "If sacrificing one person could bring the war to an end, how could they ask for anything better?"

Sasuke Uchiha stared blankly. Back then, he had been only three years old, spending every day chasing after his older brother. He had been too young to understand anything.