Secure 'Your' Light!

As one more week passed I spent two more nights invited by the Hyuga. Hiashi at first greeted me with a rather stiff but warm smile, possibly remembering how much he drank and what we talked about, but we had gotten on rather swimmingly from there. As I wasn't caught off-guard, I came bearing gifts this time around, especially for the princesses of the clan, noticing Hiashi's and their smiles widen with each interaction.

It was morning, the sun was shining bright and I was back in the Uchiha compound, spending some time through what was left of my papers which had substantially subsided to almost nothing but a couple of pages. It gave me more free time but with shadow clones, I had no trouble taking care of mountains of paperwork.

As I contemplated what to do next, I noticed someone approaching the compound. It was Sasuke who had just passed the gates, heading towards my office. Waiting patiently it wasn't long until I heard a knock on the door.

"Come in, Sasuke." – I said almost immediately.

As the door opened, Sasuke came in looking slightly surprised.

"How did you know it was me?"

"Eyes are not everything, there are many ways to see without using them… but it is bound to be not as effective most of the time, especially for dojutsu users like us." – I explained slowly, leaving a subtle hint that he probably wouldn't catch if he didn't know about the Mangekyou yet.

As his expression shifted, I immediately knew Kakashi must have spilled the beans… possibly in hope of finding the ability of my eyes through him. Nothing goes according to plans, though that doesn't mean it has to go badly. I was planning on having Orochimaru give him a more controlled explanation of the Mangekyou. Clearly, Sasuke knew what the fate of a normal Mangekyou would culminate to, explaining his worried expression.

"Kakashi told you? Of course, he did, he is the only one with another Mangekyou. Except for Itachi, for now, that is." – I said.

"He said using those eyes can affect your vision… so it's true. I hope it was only him because he wasn't an Uchiha… I really hoped so." – Sasuke said slowly, his head hanging low as he stood in front of the table.

I got up from the table, walked to him, and put my hand on his head as he looked up.

"Don't worry, as long as I can get you your brother's eyes, I can prevent you from going blind. I'm suspecting that is the reason he left you alive, to take your eyes… I'll make sure it won't happen." – I could see tears forming in his eyes as he lowered his head again.

"STOP… stop thinking about me… what about you, what about your eyes. You always took care of me, I don't want his eyes… you take them… please." – Sasuke spoke trembling lightly.

"It's not that simple Sasuke. You need a close relative to be able to overcome the blindness. Those eyes can't save mine, but they can give you power… and new light. That is why I promise you, I will not let your light fade… even if it costs me mine."

As I spoke I hugged Sasuke, and as he hugged me back sobbing silently… a smile appeared on my face. Things were heading in the right direction.

Letting him go, I put a small smile on my face and spoke again.

"So, what are you doing here? Was Kakashi's training that unbearable?"

"No, I already finished. It wasn't that hard, but he was unusually chatty about you."

"On that, I have no doubt. But Kakashi is just being a good shinobi. Don't mind him too much and continue training diligently."

"So… have you decided on Orochimaru's offer?" – I asked him in a lowered voice.

Sasuke turned to look at me with a conflicted expression.

"I want to become stronger… and I can't do that here. This village is too constricting, but won't it cause you problems? One of the last Uchiha leaving the village?"

I looked at him and smiled lightly.

"You worry too much. Who do you think I am? I can have those snakes in the council eating from my hand in two days at most. The majority will blame Orochimaru anyway, so I can make the winds blow in my favor. The last Uchiha of Konoha… it can get me much more support from the civilians…" – and destroy my reputation if played wrong.

Thankfully there was no one except the Hokage who could rival me in political power in this village… and by the time Sasuke was gone, I would have the full support of the civilians, my reputation, the Hyuga as well as all the clanless shinobi who would look up to the person who faced both the first and second Hokage head to head. The clans might produce more elite shinobi, but the bulk of the Konoha shinobi force was made out of clanless shinobi.

Konoha was much larger than depicted in the anime. Shinobi only counted in the thousands. Jonin rank chakra levels were in the hundreds in the village, but actual Jonin level combatants could be counted as around 100. I didn't know the exact number but I speculated that only the elite students or special classes were given Jonin teachers. I had seen many genins being led by chunin with field experience. The approximate number I came up with was around 200 Jonin, some 2-3 thousand chunin, and anywhere from 6-9 thousand genin. It wasn't surprising given the fact that most genin would remain genin for the rest of their lives. They have limited in ways the main cast wasn't. Poor heritage promised them low chakra reserves which in turn promised them limited growth. They were mostly okay with it as well or didn't have the fortitude to carry on training every day. It showed why the Rookie 9 was considered special. Anyway, being a shinobi paid, and sooner or later the others just accepted it.

(A/N: This is all speculation, it says shinobi allied forces numbered around 80'000, considering that most shinobi participated in the war, and I have to put adult or 16+ genin in that group as I can't imagine jonin being so many in number, especially with the anime showing so few. Anyway, as no official or even approximate numbers were ever revealed I'm going with the fact that only around 10-15k shinobi per major village, maybe 10k for samurai and the smaller villages contributing what they had to spare.)

From then on, one percent of the genin would go on to reach the chakra level of a borderline Jonin, only for one or two of that one percent to actually qualify as a jonin. It was a sad truth for the shinobi world. Bloodlines reigned supreme and the others gathered the scraps left behind them…

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(A/N: Made a typo above that I only noticed while editing, I originally wrote 'I can prevent you from going blond'. Had half a mind to just roll with it just to see the comments but it would've ruined it a little bit, It was still too good to pass up so I'm letting u guys know. Hope you enjoyed the chapter :)