I just didn't like him

"Big brother."

Uchiha Jin returned home after a day's work.

Uchiha Izumi, who had been picking on the fat cat in the courtyard, immediately trotted over to welcome him.

"Boss, you're finally here!"

The fat cat affectionately rubbed against his calf.

Ever since Uchiha Kazuna had threatened to snip his balls off unless he lost weight, the fat cat had slimmed down considerably in just a few weeks.

His size was just right now.

At least he was no longer as fat as a pig.

"Has anyone been bullying you at school?"

Having attended the Ninja Academy himself, Uchiha Jin knew there was genuinely something wrong with Konoha's feng shui.

Those little menaces didn't care who you were when they bullied you.

Geniuses got bullied for being too smart, and the weak got bullied for being too weak.

Children from ninja clans got bullied, and so did civilian children.

The entire Shinobi World was caught up in a bullying craze.

To put it another way, during the Fourth Shinobi World War, the ninja learned they could bully the legendary Madara Uchiha and joined the Allied Shinobi Forces on the battlefield without hesitation.

Unfortunately, they weren't strong enough, and Madara Uchiha turned the tables on them.

Back when he and Shisui were at school, weaker students often picked fights with them.

Even after they showed their strength and beat them off, more kept coming, one after another.

Eventually, Uchiha Jin got so fed up that he started fighting fire with fire.

He specifically took Shisui along to bully the students who bullied others.

"What? You were bullying people without inviting me? Then I'll really have to give you a good bullying."

The bullies had suffered for it.

During Uchiha Jin's two years at school, the Ninja Academy suddenly became a harmonious, friendly place.

Nobody dared bully others casually, afraid the evil Uchiha would catch them and bully them.

He wondered whether the school had returned to its old traditions after his early graduation.

"Nobody's bullied me."

Uchiha Izumi shook her head, then added something as though it had just occurred to her.

"But Uchiha Itachi often gets bullied by students from other classes throwing pebbles at him."

Honestly, he looked a little pitiful.

She didn't understand why their classmates bullied someone as outstanding as Itachi.

"As long as you haven't been bullied. As for Uchiha Itachi, that brat deserves every bit of it."

Uchiha Izumi: "???"

She blinked, looking blankly at her brother.

"Big brother, you seem to have a real problem with Itachi."

There were several years between them, so they shouldn't have had much to do with each other.

She didn't understand why her brother disliked Itachi.

Although he was usually quiet and didn't like talking, there was nothing wrong with him apart from that.

He came first in every test and assessment.

He was a genius too.

"I don't have a problem with him. I just don't like him."

Uchiha Jin rubbed the girl's head, only letting go after he'd turned her smooth, long hair into a tousled mess.

"Don't play with him anymore. That brat isn't right in the head."

Surely nobody could feel any fondness for someone who had personally slaughtered his entire clan.

No matter how much a certain red-eyed, white-haired man hated the Uchiha Clan, he could never have killed the elderly, the weak, women, and children.

That guy was nothing but a beast devoid of humanity.

Of course, Obito Uchiha was no good either.

He would rather the Uchiha Clan died when Konoha crushed their coup than have them inexplicably butchered by that weasel.

As expected of a genius who could think like a Hokage at seven.

He had planted himself firmly on the Hokage's side and even forgotten his own surname.

In some respects, he was even worse than Obito Uchiha!

After all, in Obito's eyes at the time, the Shinobi World was inferior to the world of Infinite Tsukuyomi.

Uchiha Itachi, on the other hand, had simply been thinking of the village.

He had chosen to sacrifice the Uchiha Clan to minimize the village's losses.

It really was a shame not to make him Hokage.

"Oh."

Uchiha Izumi nodded obediently.

Listening to her brother couldn't go wrong.

No wonder Uchiha Itachi got bullied by students from other classes.

So there was something wrong with his character. That explanation made sense.

"Time to eat."

Uchiha Kazuna called the siblings over to eat, and the fat cat darted onto the table.

At last, he could eat.

"Mom, could you give me some more cat food?"

The fat cat pitifully blinked his big, mascara-ad eyes, drooling as he stared at the half-bowl portion of cat food on his plate.

With the threat of losing his balls hanging over him, he didn't dare sneak food even when he wasn't full.

He was terrified of accidentally getting fat and being dragged off to have his balls snipped. Then he could only be sisters with the female cats.

"All right."

In the end, Uchiha Kazuna added a few dozen grams of cat food.

The fat cat: "..."

That little bit wouldn't even fill the gaps between my teeth.

Forget it. Something's better than nothing.

Once I've slimmed down, I can go meet female cats with the perfect figure.

Then, if we fancy each other, we can have a lovely hookup.

After fathering a litter of kittens, I'll have no regrets in my cat life.

"Eat more."

Uchiha Kazuna kept putting meat into the siblings' bowls, her children filling her heart and eyes.

"Jin, how has work been lately?"

At first, she had been very afraid that her son's heavy-handed approach to law enforcement would displease the clan and the village.

But over this period, she had been shocked to discover that not only had the clan leader not punished Jin, he had promoted him!

He had gone straight from squad captain to company captain, with four squad captains under his command.

The entire commercial district in the village's south was his responsibility!

Such treatment really was outrageous.

The clan leader was practically grooming him as a trusted confidant.

Of course, advancing too quickly could easily invite criticism, but fortunately, Uchiha Jin's strength more than made up for that.

Although some clan members felt he had been promoted too quickly, given his recent performance in law enforcement and his status as an eleven-year-old elite Jonin,

nobody dared openly object...

Especially with Uchiha Jin enjoying the Hawk Faction's support, his prestige within the clan was growing higher and higher.

It had even surpassed that of some veteran elite Jonin.

That was both good and bad.

Uchiha Kazuna was proud of her son's excellence, but she was also afraid people would kick him when he was down if he made a mistake.

"I think it's been all right. No problems."

Murders in the village were rare, after all.

The Uchiha Konoha Military Police Force spent the vast majority of its time patrolling and maintaining order in the village.

They also mediated all kinds of disputes between villagers along the way.

It truly was a secure government job, with easy work and good benefits.

Unlike ninja from other clans, who could only take missions if they wanted to earn money.

Honestly, although Second Hokage Tobirama Senju had been wary of the Uchiha Clan, he had also been one of the few people in the village who understood them.

The arrangements he devised would never give the Uchiha Clan much to find fault with.

It was an overt political maneuver with no answer, and his political skill was beyond reproach.

By comparison, Hiruzen Sarutobi's handling of the Uchiha Clan hadn't been nearly as good.

With Shimura Danzō constantly fanning the flames on top of that,

the conflict between the Uchiha Clan and the village leadership had only intensified.

It had finally erupted completely after the Nine-Tails' Rampage, driving the clan members toward extreme ideas...

They had tried to change the situation through rebellion and a coup.

Fortunately, Hiruzen Sarutobi was about to retire. Once Minato Namikaze became Hokage,

the Uchiha Clan's situation would improve.

Then the clan's Hawk Faction would be held in check by the Pro-Peace Faction, bringing a period of stability.

As for whether that stability could last,

that depended on whether Minato Namikaze died during the Nine-Tails' Rampage.

Or whether problems arose in his governance if he survived...