Sasuke

Shisui had been enjoying a few days of leisure recently, but he was soon disrupted by Fugaku, who insisted on having Sasuke take him as a mentor.

Due to the unclear situation, Fugaku had previously planned to send Sasuke out of the village, but Shisui had stopped him.

Shisui argued that it was even more dangerous for Sasuke to be outside alone with the ninja world entirely of ambitious figures unless a Sharingan user protected him.

Jokingly, Shisui thought, if Sasuke wasn't in Konoha, how would he form bonds with Naruto, grow from them, be challenged, and develop further?

However, this was just a casual thought from Shisui, as he wasn't particularly impressed with Sasuke.

Although Sasuke and Naruto were considered children of destiny, with Sasuke as Indra's reincarnation and Ashura's Naruto, Sasuke always seemed far behind Naruto. Importantly, it wasn't just Naruto's Nine-Tails advantage.

It was Sasuke's inferior temperament and talent. As the saying goes, comparing products can lead to discarding them, and comparing people can be disheartening.

A whole clan's demise triggered only a single tomoe in him; further developments and tragedies related to Naruto moved him to two and three tomoe. His family's death was less impactful than his bond with Naruto.

In Itachi's plan, Sasuke should have awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan early, ideally during a battle where they were evenly matched. Itachi's death by his hand would release Sasuke's hatred and lead to the eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.

Instead, during their battle, Sasuke only had the pitiful three tomoe.

Itachi drastically lowered his power due to illness, and Sasuke could only defeat him under those circumstances.

Sasuke's intelligence was also concerning; his whole family was annihilated, and his brother easily deceived him without suspicion.

If ignorance in childhood was understandable, by age 16, after Itachi's death, he still needed explanations to realise his foolishness.

His arrogance was immense. He flaunted power everywhere, and upon gaining the Mangekyo Sharingan, he considered himself invincible.

Always challenging bosses above his level, Sasuke took on Mangekyo challenges with just three tomoe, the Eight-Tails with his Mangekyo, and the Rinnegan with his eternal Mangekyo. He was far from pragmatic.

Itachi used his Mangekyo Sharingan for years, whereas Sasuke's eyes deteriorated within months of awakening his. This was due to his inflated ego.

Even when he sealed Kaguya with Naruto, Shisui felt it was merely plot armour laden with too many coincidences.

Shisui never relied on such unstable factors.

He preferred Itachi, who had strong learning capabilities, unmatched shuriken skills, and swift hand seals.

Itachi knew how to use an enemy's attacks to control the battle. After joining Anbu, he gained significantly more skill than the genius Kakashi and was already at Kage-level strength when he defected.

Itachi's genjutsu was the strongest, able to deflect the illusions of Konoha's genjutsu master, Kurenai, with just a look and incapacitate Kakashi with Tsukuyomi.

Even Orochimaru, one of the legendary Sannin, was immobilised by Itachi's illusion.

Itachi's calm demeanour allowed him to analyse enemies' weaknesses quickly and maintain the upper hand in battle, always holding a card to turn the tides.

Shisui saw no area where Sasuke outperformed Itachi, except that Itachi's health could have been better, prompting Shisui to send him to the Land of Rice Fields.

Shisui also had high hopes for Shisui, another young prodigy who activated his Mangekyo earlier and faster than Sasuke. He was swift, second only to those with space-time ninjutsu.

In another world, had he not died young, his potential achievements would have been boundless.

Thus, Shisui wasn't particularly interested in training Sasuke.

However, Fugaku had come to request this personally.

It was hard for Shisui to refuse any longer, mainly since Fugaku had always supported his decisions, helping everything run smoothly.

Reluctantly, Shisui decided to mentor Sasuke, if only to eradicate his penchant for arrogance.

To Shisui, improving Sasuke's combat skills was a minor concern; his main issue was simply finding Sasuke's attitude irksome.

When Sasuke was brought back to the village, he was just learning about the dramatic changes his family had undergone during his absence.

His revered brother Shisui had been a victim of eye theft.

A new deputy clan leader had emerged, his beloved brother Itachi had left the village with many Uchiha, and his home was now ruined, though his parents were safe.

Sasuke could hardly grasp the reasons behind these upheavals at five years old.

Wandering through the village feeling down yet maintaining a cool façade—after all, he was a Uchiha—villagers looked at him with sympathetic expressions.

To them, the Uchiha's calamity marked a noble family's decline.

Unaware of the implications behind their looks, Sasuke felt deeply annoyed.

He ran hard to his favourite spot in the woods, where he encountered a group of children taunting one another.

"Get lost, you demon fox! No one wants to play with you!"

"I'll be Hokage one day!"

"Ha, you become Hokage? That'll be the day!"

"It's because of you, demon fox, that my dad died!"

"Hit him!"

"Hit him!"

Sasuke emerged from the trees to see several children beating on Naruto Uzumaki, who, though tear-stained, was defiantly struggling.

"Hey! Who said you could bully him!"

"Who are you!?"

"What's it to you!?"

Sasuke, hands in his pockets, declared, "I am Uchiha Sasuke! Let him go, or you'll have me to deal with."

"Uchiha!? What's so great about Uchiha, ha ha!"

"Uchiha is nothing now!"

"Even your clan's young leader has defected; what right do you have to act tough?"

Furious, Sasuke charged forward and knocked down one of the boys, oppressing Naruto.

Together, they fought off the remaining children.

Sasuke's refined taijutsu took down two more while Naruto dealt with the others.

Eventually, the children, realising they were outmatched, fled, shouting, "A demon and a traitor's kin, just you wait…"

Left behind were only Sasuke and a dirt-smudged, tear-streaked Naruto.

Though Sasuke appeared unscathed, his expression was far from pleased.