The Uchiha at Night

Ninja Academy.

School was out, and the students left in groups, laughing and chatting about amusing things that had happened between classes.

Uchiha Itachi was an exception. He walked alone through Konoha's streets, watching the crowds, looking somewhat lonely.

He had already studied some of the academy's material within his clan.

Just days earlier, he had even followed his father onto the battlefield and killed an enemy ninja with his own hands.

His father had sent him to the Ninja Academy to build connections, and he, too, wanted to use the opportunity to make more friends.

But his mind was so far ahead of his peers that he could not fit in.

While his classmates were still discussing how to mold chakra, he had already killed an enemy on the battlefield.

Still, the new teacher from the Hyuga Clan he had met today was quite interesting.

The man was a chunin, yet he had looked at Itachi, a mere student, with a complicated expression.

He had even handed Itachi a note at the end, saying it contained some thoughts on the Uchiha. Although both Shisui and Oto spoke highly of this ninja, could a chunin's advice really help the Uchiha?

Uchiha Itachi did not know. He simply returned home as usual.

That evening, several jonin from the clan visited his father. Uchiha Itachi leaned over the table and looked toward the living room.

His father, Fugaku, was the head of the Uchiha Clan. Having taken on that responsibility, he had to fulfill his duties as clan head.

Clan jonin regularly came to their home, complaining about the unfair treatment the Uchiha received in the village.

To Uchiha Itachi, those complaints sounded more like venting. Much of the discrimination his clansmen faced was something they had brought upon themselves.

That view might have been offensive, but it was apt.

Both the way his clansmen enforced the law and their everyday conduct were far too arrogant, with little regard for others.

Yawning repeatedly as he leaned over the table, Uchiha Itachi swallowed a three-colored dango in one bite, the corners of his mouth curling upward.

Today's visit lasted much longer than usual. After a livid Fugaku reprimanded the jonin, he called a clan meeting.

"Father, what happened? Why are you calling another clan meeting?"

Once the jonin had left, Uchiha Itachi walked up to Fugaku and raised his head to ask.

"It's a very troublesome matter..."

Fugaku stroked Itachi's head. Not wanting his foul mood to affect his son, he slowly said:

"They want me to run for Fourth Hokage..."

"Why refuse? Isn't that a good thing?" Uchiha Itachi looked puzzled.

In the end, Uchiha Fugaku sighed and said nothing more.

He wanted to preserve some dignity in front of his son, at least while he still could.

Night deepened.

The Uchiha held their clan meeting at the Naka Shrine. This time, all ninja were allowed to attend.

At the meeting, Uchiha Fugaku made it clear that he would not run for Hokage.

Some of the clan's radicals grumbled about his decision, but more of the clansmen tacitly accepted it.

In theory, every jonin in Konoha could run for Hokage, but they needed a nomination from the village leadership.

The captain of the Military Police Force barely qualified as a senior official, but he could not nominate himself.

Besides, anyone with eyes could see that the village's most renowned jonin was the Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze.

They could only abandon the idea amid sighs and return to their respective homes.

Among the crowd, Uchiha Itachi spotted Oto Uchiha and walked toward her.

Oto Uchiha had also attended the clan meeting. After hearing her clansmen's declarations, she sighed helplessly.

In her view, some of her clansmen still clung to unrealistic fantasies. As things stood, there was no way an Uchiha could become Hokage.

"Oto, why are you sighing?" Uchiha Itachi approached her.

He had heard rumors about Oto Uchiha. She had once been one of the clan's more outstanding young kunoichi, but after suffering an attack...

She had lost her mettle, become a Hyuga's follower, and remained a genin for years.

Most importantly, she had remained a genin for years during wartime, which was no easy feat.

Oto Uchiha glanced at Itachi and turned away. She did not want to deal with some brat from the clan.

Even if he was the clan head's son, and supposedly a rare genius who had mastered the Great Fireball Technique and Uchiha Throwing at a tender age.

To her, though, it was just like that story from her academy days: all too believable.

Back then, in a class on the Will of Fire, Asuma Sarutobi's essay had received full marks.

The essay was titled "My Hokage Father."

"Is it because of Father running for Hokage?" Uchiha Itachi asked again.

Oto Uchiha nodded lightly. "I don't think the clan head is qualified to run for Hokage."

"Is it because he hasn't earned the recognition of our comrades in the village? Or simply because we're Uchiha?"

Uchiha Itachi looked anxiously at Oto Uchiha, hoping to find a different answer here.

"Neither. It's because we aren't strong enough. The Yellow Flash proved his strength through his achievements in battle, while Clan Head Fugaku has no outstanding achievements to speak of..."

After a pause, Oto Uchiha said quietly, "Of course, strength doesn't just mean individual strength. We Uchiha have offended almost every clan in the village. Political influence is another kind of strength."

"I understand." Uchiha Itachi only half understood, but he asked another question. "Oto, if you know so much, why don't you tell Father directly?"

"I don't know any of this myself. Someone else told me."

"Who was it?" Uchiha Itachi's eyes lit up.

Oto Uchiha gave Itachi a wary glance. Zou Hyuga seemed particularly averse to having his words spread around.

"I don't know either." With those words, Oto Uchiha disappeared from the Naka Shrine.

Uchiha Itachi fell silent. He had once believed that his wise father could solve any problem.

But now, that did not seem to be the case.

At the very least, his father had not given him a concrete reason for refusing to run for Hokage.

The towering image of his father in his heart began to crack.

Although his father was the head of a clan, he was still only an ordinary man.

Oto Uchiha took an unconventional route, her head lowered as she followed a white line on the ground.

She had not spoken at all during the clan meeting. Perhaps revealing her Three-Tomoe Sharingan would have earned her a voice.

But merely having a voice would accomplish nothing. She could only watch everything unfold with a cold eye.

Zou Hyuga had once told her that the Hokage Faction was Konoha's strongest force, the Uchiha the second strongest, and the other clans ranked behind them.

But the Hokage Faction would ally with most of the neutral forces outside the Uchiha to keep the Uchiha in check.

In other words, the Uchiha would be fighting the entire village. They had no chance of success.

To change the current situation, they would have to abandon their superior attitude and surrender some of the Military Police Force's authority.

Doing that would be no less difficult than launching an outright rebellion and seizing the Hokage position.

After understanding how difficult it would be, she had secretly written to Clan Head Fugaku several times.

But there had still been no improvement. Over time, she had given up and settled into her role as a genin.

No matter how dissatisfied the Konoha High Command was with the Uchiha, it still needed the power of the Sharingan.

Would the Konoha High Command really move against the Uchiha? If it did, the other ninja clans would certainly not stand idly by.

Konoha was, at its core, an alliance founded jointly by the major ninja clans.