But right now, he didn't even have a single close friend, and even if he did, he would never walk down that twisted path.
He absolutely refused to become like that man.
There was one good thing, though. He'd found another person with Uchiha blood. Even if that person didn't carry the Uchiha name, his blood was real. Which meant that even if Sasuke died someday, and even if Itachi died too, the Uchiha clan still wouldn't vanish from the shinobi world.
That had been one of his greatest fears.
For the first time, he'd also seen what the strongest shinobi at the top of the world were truly like.
It made him realize just how much time he was wasting at the academy.
No matter how many years he spent there, he would never reach Kage-level. That thought only made him more eager for life after graduation.
If Itachi could do it, then so could he.
Kaede Kitahara had no idea his diary had left Kakashi and Sasuke awake all night, analyzing every scrap of information packed inside.
He slept like a baby, woke at sunrise, and handed in the mission report he'd stayed up writing.
No new assignments came afterward.
It wasn't a wartime era, so missions weren't endless. There weren't tasks every day, especially not for Kaede Kitahara's squad, which looked like a perfectly ordinary, perfectly expendable group in the eyes of the higher-ups.
Kaede Kitahara didn't mind. The downtime was perfect for sharpening his skills.
Especially when it came to learning how to use the Sharingan, a completely new field for him.
What puzzled him, though, was how often he'd been running into Sasuke lately. Sometimes two or three times a day. Konoha might technically be a "village," but its actual size was that of a small town, one that would eventually urbanize into a full city.
Running into the same person so often was suspicious. And as someone who'd been a shinobi long enough, his basic instincts hadn't dulled.
It wasn't just Sasuke. Kakashi, someone he normally only bumped into once or twice a year, had also appeared in his path several times.
Kaede Kitahara couldn't figure out why.
But both of them were undeniably main characters in the story, especially Sasuke, who drew attention naturally. Not just narratively, but from Konoha's leadership.
Even if Sasuke didn't attract as much attention as Naruto, the host of the Nine-Tails, he was still the last surviving Uchiha besides Itachi. The entire village kept tabs on him.
More than once, Kaede Kitahara sensed the presence of someone watching Sasuke from beyond the edges of his vision.
Based on his guess, it was either Anbu or Root.
Until he had enough power to flip the table, Kaede Kitahara didn't want attention from anyone. So he became even more withdrawn.
Even when he noticed Sasuke giving him strangely friendly looks occasionally, he couldn't understand why. It made no sense at this stage. Sasuke's heart should have been filled to the brim with hatred.
A few days later, Kaede Kitahara finally received another mission. Just simple cat-catching and dog-chasing tasks, but he didn't mind at all.
Because it was almost time for his second lottery draw.
His first draw had given him genuine Uchiha blood, which had massively boosted his strength.
That night, after the mission and a casual dinner with his team, he returned home, cleaned up, sat down at his desk, and opened his diary.
[I've been running into Sunny Sasuke a bit too often lately. Better keep my distance. At the moment, Sunny Sasuke is one of the top people Konoha's higher-ups are watching. As the last remnant of the Uchiha, his presence draws attention wherever he goes, second only to Naruto.]
At the same time, Sasuke and Kakashi both sensed the diary updating.
Sunny Sasuke?
A vein popped on Sasuke's forehead. He now truly understood Kakashi's suffering when Kaede Kitahara had dubbed him "Hatake 50/50."
He didn't know what "Sunny Sasuke" actually meant, but judging from Kaede Kitahara's tone, it definitely wasn't a compliment.
Still, Sasuke wasn't surprised that the higher-ups watched him closely. After all, he was the last Uchiha.
In his mind, the Uchiha clan had been the strongest. As for the Senju clan, who once forced the Uchiha to bow their heads, he had never even heard of them.
He'd been born after the Senju had already faded away, and before he was old enough to learn anything, his entire clan had been wiped out. Even if the Uchiha had education about their greatest historical rivals, there had been no time to pass any of it on.
Kakashi read the update and automatically began jotting down notes again.
Caution. Kaede Kitahara had a deeply rooted mistrust of the Konoha leadership. It wasn't obvious day to day, but it came through clearly whenever sensitive topics came up.
Whenever there was even a chance that something might expose his mysterious origins, he chose not to reveal anything in front of the higher-ups.
Every shinobi had secrets. Even Kakashi had many he'd never reported. But Kaede Kitahara's vigilance wasn't the same. His secrets were heavier, harder to reveal.
And far more dangerous.
Was it because of the diary?
Or because he carried Uchiha blood?
Kakashi had seen plenty of the village's dark side. He had served in the Anbu, and even spent time in Root, the darkness behind the darkness.
[It's almost time for the next batch of academy graduates. The legendary Konoha 12 will all be finishing their exams soon. Of course, there'll also be a big crowd of cannon-fodder rookies like me graduating alongside them. No one knows how many will survive long enough to see the Fourth Great Ninja War.
But when you're caught between gods fighting, giant mechs flying across the battlefield, and the world ending every ten minutes, you really can't tell if surviving that far counts as lucky or unlucky…]