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"Just because I said your clan is a nobody, you're already mad? Then hear this: before this village was created, I'm sure the First Hokage didn't even know your clan existed," Yuta said.
"What! Say that again, you liar!" The boys were getting angry hearing it come from Yuta's mouth.
"What? Who's lying?" Yuta looked at the Hyuga clan, boxed into a corner with nothing to say.
"Okay, let's end it with this one thing. I'll ask you something. We the Uchiha have Madara, the Senju have Hashirama who was the First Hokage. Now tell everyone here, who the hell did the Hyuga clan have during the Heian era?"
The Hyuga clan members present could only clench their teeth. They had never been insulted in that manner before.
Yuta was aware that he was making enemies of the Hyuga clan, but he had to let these arrogant bastards know that it was better to be hated by the village than to force yourself into a conversation about noble clan titles.
In the main series, this clan had disgusted him. A noble clan on paper that had fallen to become a low-tier clan. Their only real advantage was that they could see chakra flow. Everything else, they were nothing.
And to make it worse, they caged their Branch members to prevent them from growing stronger, purely so the Main family could always exploit them.
That was not a family. That was masters versus servants. That was slavery.
The boy grew angry. He knew he would lose standing in the clan if he did nothing, and he had seen the reactions from the seniors watching.
"I challenge you to a duel," he said. He was confident he could easily beat Yuta, and winning would earn him recognition within the clan.
"Why? Why should I duel you when you're a graduate and I haven't even started the academy yet?" Yuta replied.
He could not believe this boy felt no shame in challenging someone who could be his little brother, all for a recognition he thought he deserved.
"He's running away from a fight. I thought the Uchiha were always battle maniacs."
"Yes, he's a coward."
"He can't even back up his own words. What a disgrace."
The civilians around them all talked at once, hundreds of voices chattering like a mob.
Yuta now faced two problems. First, he did not want to draw Danzo's attention at this moment. At his current level, he could be killed easily and nothing would happen to Danzo since his family were Dove members and the case would be swept under the rug.
The second problem was that his uncle would skin him alive if the man ever saw him throw a match.
As night crept in, the crowd only grew larger. All the police officers under his uncle's command had arrived to collect Yuta's wounded friends, but they did not touch the Hyuga, following orders from their team captain.
Yuta's grandfather made his way through the crowd, supported on both sides by his two sons. He pushed through to the front, settling among the Uchiha officers.
"Mayeri, do you see what I was telling you? That boy is up to something," the grandfather said.
During the moment when Yuta was speaking about clan history, the grandfather had been quietly snickering, because Yuta had been mixing truth with lies and pinning all the accusations on the old man.
"I'm sorry, Father. I'll put an end to this," Mayeri said, moving to grab Yuta and drag him home. But his younger brother stepped in front of him, arm outstretched.
"What is the meaning of this, Hakeru?" Mayeri said. "You know the Uchiha cannot afford to go looking for trouble when we are in the middle of a war."
Hakeru looked at his older brother with the same emotionless face. "So you're saying those spoiled kids from a clan that isn't even Senju should be allowed to disrespect our clan, all in the name of harmony?"
Hakeru's Sharingan flashed on as his hand gripped his sword handle. "This is my territory, big brother, and I will not let their disrespect go unanswered."
The officers from both men swallowed hard. Not one of them dared to say a word, knowing these two might turn on whoever spoke first.
"Calm down, both of you," the grandfather said, stepping in before his sons did something foolish in a public place.
He was well used to the differences between them. One son had always chosen the peaceful path. The younger one was far more hawk than dove.
"We're sorry, Father," the two grown men said together, bowing their heads.
"You are both right, but you should also know there is a limit. There comes a point where you have no choice but to bite back."
"Can someone please tell me what started all of this?" the old man asked, turning to Rika with a gentle smile.
"I..." Rika was practically frozen in place. Watching the two men argue, feeling their aura and catching a glimpse of the Sharingan had shaken her so deeply she could barely pull herself together.
"It's alright, Rika. Calm down, I'll explain," Jun said, placing a hand on her shoulder when he saw how shaken she was.
Even he had only managed to hold himself together because he was also an Uchiha and was already used to seeing his father's Sharingan. But this moment had shown him just how powerful it could be on someone unprepared.
"Good evening, Grandfather. The Hyuga clan attacked us first," Jun said.
"Ah, you must be Jun. I was with your grandfather just this afternoon. Please, take your time and tell me what happened," Yuta's grandfather said.
Jun nodded and walked him through everything: why they had come to eat, Yuta's explanation of the village's history, the Uchiha's role as co-founders, and the moment the Hyuga clan took offense when Yuta claimed the First Hokage would have sacrificed the Hyuga clan to secure Madara's loyalty to the village.
Jun held nothing back. He talked freely and left out nothing.
When he reached that part, Yuta's father and uncle both turned and looked at the grandfather with strange expressions.
"What is wrong with you two? Why are you looking at me like that?" the old man asked.
"I can't believe you told a five-year-old boy something like that," Mayeri said.
"You don't even tell us, your own sons, half of what you apparently told Yuta. And please, Dad, tell me Yuta was just making it up," Hakeru said.
The old man could tell Yuta had made him the scapegoat. He had never told Yuta anything of the sort. The boy was only five and even he himself didn't know half of what Yuta had said out there.
"I know you two are upset, but believe me, I was not the one who..."
"What that boy said is true."
A woman's voice cut him off.
"Who is that?" They turned around and saw a young woman with red hair, flanked by three people in jonin vests, a teenage boy, and a young red-haired girl at her side.
At the sight of the red hair, Yuta's grandfather was ready to scold whoever had interrupted him mid-sentence, but something about that hair made him hesitate. He recognized it. And when he realized who was standing before him in a transformation jutsu, an Uzumaki, the only elder Uzumaki in the village, the wife of the First Hokage, he had no choice but to bow.