Chapter 28: The Way of Life for a Marginalized Character

"Is it really okay to treat your own clansmen like that?"

Watching Uchiha Yashiro and Uchiha Tiehuo limp away while supporting each other, the spiritual form of Hatake Sakumo appeared beside Uchiha Feiyu and asked in confusion.

In the Naruto World, ninja clans are extremely tight-knit groups, and among them, Bloodline Families are the most united; while rogue ninjas who betray their village are common throughout the Ninja World, ninjas who betray their own clan are extremely rare, so it is no wonder that Hatake Sakumo felt Uchiha Feiyu's behavior was a bit excessive.

"It can't be helped. If it were any other ninja clan, I would have joined them, but for the Uchiha Clan, it is better to keep a little distance."

"As an Uchiha, are you really that wary of your own clan? You don't actually believe in the 'Evil Uchiha' theory that is so widespread in Konoha, do you!"

"Hmm!? Is the name of the 'Evil Uchiha' really that widespread?"

"Ordinary Chunin and Genin certainly haven't heard such things, but Jonin have indeed heard these rumors, though I don't think the Uchiha Clan is evil at all."

"I have also gone on missions with ninjas from the Uchiha Clan; at the very least, during the missions, these ninjas were just a bit arrogant in personality, but in reality, they were not hard to get along with."

Hearing Hatake Sakumo's words, Uchiha Feiyu shook his head:

"That is because you are Hatake Sakumo, which is why you feel the Uchiha are not hard to get along with."

"In reality, the Uchiha Clan certainly doesn't count as an evil clan, but because of the Sharingan, the more powerful this clan is, the more mentally unstable the ninjas in high positions tend to be!"

"And once they awaken the Mangekyo, they are basically all severely mentally ill!"

Most ninjas are potential mental patients themselves due to long-term hacking and being hacked, and the Uchiha Clan has reached the pinnacle in this regard; Feiyu recalled those Uchiha who had awakened the Mangekyo, and after searching around, he found that the most normal one was actually that Sasuke Uchiha!?

Although Sasuke Uchiha also possesses the arrogance and conceit unique to the Uchiha Clan, and even earned the nickname "Sunny Sasuke" because of it, at least most of his actions and thoughts are still within the scope of normal human understanding.

Compared to him, the thought processes of people like Madara Uchiha, Uchiha Obito, and Itachi Uchiha are definitely the kind that should be sent to Arkham for a lifetime of advanced study.

Staying with this bunch of lunatics, you never know when you might get stabbed in the back; compared to them, even the rigid and degenerate Konoha High Command is much safer than this bunch of Uchiha!

Admittedly, the Uchiha don't have that many lunatics yet, but those Uchiha who have awakened the Three-Tomoe are not good people either; to some extent, Konoha's ability to exterminate the Uchiha was entirely the result of comparing who was worse, and clearly, the Uchiha were the worse of the two.

Regarding Uchiha Feiyu's words, Hatake Sakumo, who had never seen a Mangekyo Sharingan, had no way to refute him, but in the end, he still gave Uchiha Feiyu a few words of advice:

"Even if you don't want to be too close to the Uchiha, you don't have to completely fall out with the Uchiha Clan! If such news spreads, it will not only be bad for your reputation, but will also make the Uchiha Clan view you as an enemy."

"Don't worry, if the Uchiha Clan views me as an enemy, then let them! They won't come over to hack me anyway, and even if they want to teach me a lesson, I can just admit defeat!"

"As for reputation or whatever, do I even have a good reputation in Konoha right now?"

"But you are currently neither leaning toward the Konoha High Command nor on good terms with your own clansmen; I'm afraid you will be ostracized."

"No, at most I won't be valued, but based on my strength alone, neither side will truly ostracize me openly—unlike you, I don't have any so-called bonds in Konoha, so I have always had the option of just running away!"

"As long as I have a way out, my strength is not considered weak, and I haven't shown myself to be a threat to Konoha, I will at most be marginalized, and they won't actually push me into a corner."

Hatake Sakumo was stunned for a moment, then sighed:

"You're right. A Jonin is already a very precious combat force; no one would push a Jonin to the point of defecting just because he is unlikable—especially when there is a real possibility that this Jonin might defect."

"Yeah, if you had acted a bit more unruly back then, I bet no one would have dared to gossip about you to your face!"

Hearing this, Hatake Sakumo's face darkened, and his whole body turned back into a small black Soul orb, merging into Uchiha Feiyu's body.

After driving away the two Uchiha, Uchiha Feiyu continued to live much the same life as before, exercising and training every day, while intermittently performing some missions.

Three months passed in a flash. On this day, when Hyuga Hizashi was leading the First Squad to receive missions, he suddenly said:

"With your current strength, C-Rank Missions no longer have any training value for you; next, we will be executing B-Rank Missions."

"That's great! I was already bored with these missions like driving away bandits or wild boars and black bears. Are we finally going to fight other ninjas?"

"Don't be careless, Asuma. B-Rank Missions are the stage where accidents are most likely to happen."

Although she said that, Kurenai's little face was flushed, showing a hint of excitement; clearly, she was also very much looking forward to executing higher-level missions.

B-Rank Missions are missions where it is very likely that you will encounter combat with ninjas, and they are also the level where the scope of the mission is hardest to define and accidents are most likely to occur.

Because it involves ninjas, even with Konoha's intelligence capabilities, it is very difficult to find out what level of strength the hostile ninjas interacting with the mission actually possess.

It is very possible that in the mission intelligence, the opponent is just an ordinary Genin, but in the blink of an eye, they display Jonin-level strength; it is also possible that you thought you were dealing with rogue ninjas from some small Ninja Village, only to find out later that the other party was actually a Jonin disguised as a scout sent by a Great Ninja Village.

There are simply too many B-Rank Missions, and it is impossible for Konoha to investigate the intelligence of these ninjas one by one; conversely, A-rank Tasks involve hostile Jonin, and at this point, Konoha will be extremely cautious in gathering intelligence.

As for S-Rank Missions, it goes without saying that there is no upper limit to the difficulty; if you are lucky, it might just be two or three Jonin gathered together, or you might encounter a famous elite Jonin; if you are unlucky, it is not impossible to run into the Shadow of a village wandering around with their Shadow Guard.

However, with the configuration of their First Squad, even with two people dragging them down, the chance of flipping over in a B-Rank Mission is about the same as winning the lottery.

(End of chapter)