Starting with the Uchiha clan, they began cultivating demonic arts.

Chapter 28 How Marginal People Live

"Is it really okay to treat your own people like this?"

Watching Uchiha Hachiro and Uchiha Tekka support each other and limp away, Uchiha Touyu's spiritual form, Hatake Sakumo's, appeared beside him and asked in confusion.

In the Naruto world, ninja clans are extremely united groups, especially bloodline clans. While it is common for rogue ninjas to betray their villages, it is extremely rare for ninjas to betray their own clans. This explains why Hatake Sakumo felt that Uchiha Tou's behavior was somewhat excessive.

"There's no other way. If it were another ninja clan, I would join them without hesitation, but it's best to keep a distance from the Uchiha clan."

"As an Uchiha, why are you so wary of your own clan? You haven't also fallen for the evil Uchiha theories circulating in Konoha, have you?!"

"Huh!? Is the Uchiha clan's reputation for evil really that widespread?"

"Ordinary Chunin and Genin certainly haven't heard of such things, but Jonin have indeed heard of these rumors. However, I don't think the Uchiha clan is anything evil."

"I have also been on missions with Uchiha clan ninjas. At least during the missions, these ninjas were just a bit arrogant, but actually not difficult to get along with."

After hearing Sakumo Hatake's words, Touma Uchiha shook his head:

"That's because you're Sakumo Hatake, that's why you think the Uchiha clan is easy to get along with."

"Actually, the Uchiha clan isn't exactly an evil clan, but because of the Sharingan, the more powerful the clan is, the more mentally unstable the ninjas at the higher levels tend to be!"

"And once the kaleidoscope has opened, they're basically all severely mentally ill!"

Most ninjas, due to their long-term experience of both killing and being killed, are inherently prone to mental illness. The Uchiha clan takes this to the extreme. Fei Yu thought back to the Uchiha who had awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, and after searching around, he discovered that the most normal one was actually Uchiha Sasuke!

Although Sasuke Uchiha also possesses the arrogance and conceit characteristic of the Uchiha clan, even earning him the nickname "Sunny Sasuke," at least most of his actions and thoughts remain within the realm of common understanding.

In comparison, the brain circuits of people like Madara Uchiha, Obito Uchiha, and Itachi Uchiha are definitely the kind of people who should be sent to Arkham for a lifetime of advanced training.

Being with these lunatics, you never know when you might get stabbed in the back. Compared to them, even the rigid and decadent Konoha high-ranking officials are much safer than these Uchiha!

Admittedly, there aren't that many lunatics in the Uchiha clan now, but those who have awakened the three tomoe are no good either. To some extent, Konoha's ability to exterminate the Uchiha clan was simply a result of a competition of who was worse. Clearly, the Uchiha were worse than Konoha.

Sakumo Hatake, who had never seen the Mangekyou Sharingan before, had no way to refute Uchiha Touyu's words, but in the end he still offered Uchiha Touyu a few words of advice:

"Even if you don't want to get too close to the Uchiha, you don't need to completely fall out with the Uchiha clan! If this kind of news gets out, it will not only damage your reputation, but it will also make the Uchiha clan see you as an enemy."

"Don't worry, so what if the Uchiha clan sees me as an enemy? They're not going to come and kill me anyway. Even if they want to teach me a lesson, I can just admit defeat!"

"As for reputation, what good reputation do I have left in Konoha?"

"But now that you're neither aligning yourself with the Konoha leadership nor have you fallen out with your own clan, you'll probably face some exclusion."

"No, at most I won't be valued, but based on my strength alone, neither side would openly ostracize me—unlike you, I don't have any so-called ties in Konoha, so I always have the option of escaping directly!"

"As long as I have a way out, my strength is not weak, and I have not shown any threat to Konoha, at most I will be marginalized, but I will not be completely pushed to the brink."

Sakumo Hatake paused for a moment, then sighed:

"You're right. Jonin are already very valuable combat power. No one would force a Jonin to defect just because he's not popular—especially if there's a real possibility that the Jonin might defect."

"Yeah, if you had acted a little more rebellious back then, probably no one would have dared to gossip about you to your face!"

Upon hearing this, Hatake Sakumo's face darkened, and he transformed back into a small black soul sphere, merging into Uchiha Tou's body.

After driving away the two Uchiha, Uchiha Hiu continued to live a life similar to before, training and practicing every day, while intermittently undertaking some missions.

Three months passed in the blink of an eye. On this day, when Hyuga Hizashi led the first squad to receive their mission, he suddenly spoke up:

"With your current strength, C-level missions are no longer of much training value for you. Next, we will carry out B-level missions."

"Great! I've been so bored with these missions involving chasing away thieves, wild boars, and black bears. Finally, I'm going to fight other ninjas!"

"Don't be careless, Asuma. Rank B missions are the stage where unexpected things are most likely to happen."

As she said this, her little face was flushed, revealing a hint of excitement. Clearly, she was also looking forward to carrying out a higher-level mission.

Rank B missions are those that are very likely to involve battles with ninjas. They are also the most difficult to define in terms of scope and the most prone to unexpected events.

Because it involves ninjas, even with the intelligence capabilities of Konoha Village, it is difficult to find out the level of strength of the enemy ninjas interacting with the mission.

It's very possible that in the mission intelligence, they were just ordinary genin opponents, but in the blink of an eye, they showed the strength of jonin. It's also possible that they thought they were dealing with rogue ninjas from a few small ninja villages, but then they found out that the opponent was actually a jonin sent by a major ninja village to gather intelligence on the mission in disguise.

There are simply too many B-rank missions for Konoha to investigate all the ninjas' information. On the contrary, when it comes to A-rank missions, which involve enemy Jonin, Konoha becomes extremely cautious in gathering information.

As for S-rank missions, needless to say, there is no limit to the difficulty of the missions. If you are lucky, you may only encounter two or three Jonin in a group, or you may encounter a famous elite Jonin. If you are unlucky, it is not impossible to encounter a village Kage and his Shadow Guard wandering around.

However, given the configuration of their first team, even with two people dragging them down, the chance of them failing in a B-level mission is about the same as winning the lottery.

(End of this chapter)