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[— Manga Scene —]
Inside one of the hospital rooms, Hatake Kakashi stood facing the young man who had remained standing amid the chaos, while the bodies scattered around them revealed that the clash had ended only moments ago.
"Who are you really?"
Kakashi asked, staring at him.
Then he added after quickly examining him:
"You took down the ANBU men this easily…"
"I think you're the son of the head of the medical team in Konoha."
"Your name is Yakushi Kabuto… isn't it?"
Kabuto remained calm, then said:
"Next time, you'd better bring at least ten men with you."
Kakashi's voice grew a little sharper.
"I asked you, so answer."
"Shut up and answer my question."
Kabuto adjusted his glasses.
"And what if I answer?"
Kakashi didn't beat around the bush about what he wanted to know.
"Are you… connected to Orochimaru?"
A faint smile appeared on Kabuto's face.
"Even if you catch me here, you won't be able to prove any connection between me and Orochimaru."
"I'm accustomed to silence, no matter what kind of torture or illusions you use against me."
"Besides, I don't really like fighting."
"If you leave me alone, you'll know the truth in the end."
"So, could you let me go this time?"
Kakashi looked at him coldly.
"You're more spoiled than you should be…"
And in the next moment, he moved quickly and drew his weapon.
"Don't you dare dodge me…"
But Kabuto didn't lose his composure.
"You know the village's laws, don't you?"
"And you know what happens to spies."
"So don't talk as if you're the one in control here."
Then he said as he widened the distance between them:
"It seems you won't allow me to leave."
In a single moment, the calm of the confrontation shattered. And when Kakashi turned, he realized that the man who had been before him was nothing but a final trick.
"…!"
His gaze went immediately to the corpse that had been used for the disguise, then he said as he analyzed what had happened:
"Just as I expected…"
"This is the Dead Soul Technique."
"It allows him to temporarily control a corpse through the heart, and completely change its features."
"It also hides the body's smell, stops the sound of the heartbeat, and makes it look like a killed ANBU's corpse… in preparation for escape."
Then he fell silent for a moment before adding:
"Now I understand…"
"He's the adopted son of the head of the doctors in Konoha."
And his gaze remained fixed on the trace of the escape.
'If a man of this level is working for Orochimaru…'
'Then I can't ignore the matter.'
[— End Scene —]
In the Art Store in Konoha, Hatake Sakumo didn't need to reread the page more than once to catch what really mattered to him in it.
It wasn't that the future Kakashi faced Kabuto inside the hospital. Nor was it just that the man managed to escape in the end. Rather, the clearest part of the whole scene, in his view, was that the confrontation occurred in the first place between two men, each of whom knew he was facing an opponent who shouldn't be underestimated.
Sakumo lowered the volume a little, then looked at his son standing beside him.
Young Kakashi had fixed his eye on the last page, not on the corpse used in the deception, nor on the ANBU men scattered around the room, but on the sentence at which his future counterpart ended.
If a man of this level is working for Orochimaru…
"So he saw him as a danger from the first moment."
Young Kakashi finally said.
Sakumo turned to him.
"Yes."
He answered calmly.
"And this means the scene wasn't a late pursuit, but an interception between two people who know the value of the other party."
The little one remained silent for a short moment, then said:
"And Kabuto too didn't act like someone cornered."
Sakumo nodded once.
"That's the point."
He said.
"In the previous chapter, Orochimaru himself said that Kabuto understands him well. As for this chapter, it made clear to us the reason he said that."
His gaze returned to the volume.
Kabuto inside the page was too calm, and knew how to delay the answer, how to bargain, and how to turn the moment of his capture into a moment of counter-analysis of his opponent. He wasn't a tense subordinate escaping with whatever he could. He was a man trained enough to stand before Kakashi, then leave him behind with a fake corpse and a troubling conclusion.
"Does this mean…"
Young Kakashi paused for a moment, then continued in a direct manner suited to his age:
"That he's at my level too?"
Sakumo raised his eyes to him fully this time.
"It means that Orochimaru wasn't exaggerating when he relied on him."
He said.
"As for the matter of level, the chapter itself says enough. The future Kakashi didn't look at him as an ordinary subordinate. He treated him as a real opponent is treated."
The little one didn't answer immediately.
He was looking at his future image, at the steadfastness with which he faced the man, and at the result with which he came out of the room. It wasn't a scene of pure victory, but it wasn't a scene of helplessness either. It was something else: a scene of mutual recognition between two men that the confrontation between them would not be easy.
And that alone was enough to make the page heavier.
"So…"
Young Kakashi said in the end.
"He's not just an arm for Orochimaru."
"No."
Sakumo said.
"He's a precise tool, and an opponent who knows how to hide himself even while exposed. And this type is the most annoying."
Then he fell silent for a bit, before adding:
"And if Kabuto is at this level, then this means what the previous chapter revealed wasn't just a plan on paper. It was a plan backed by men capable of executing it."
Young Kakashi received the sentence in silence, but he didn't take his eyes off the page.
It was clear that what drew him this time wasn't Orochimaru's name alone, but the kind of men he gathers around himself.
…
In the same Art Store, the gazes of the Uchiha clan were no less sharp than those of the other clans, but they were certainly more personal.
Uchiha Hogaku sat among the attendees with the calm of a leader who knows he must control his features before the many eyes, while Uchiha Fugaku was beside him, and Uchiha Mikoto not far from them. Around them, the voices of the other families rose and fell with the turning of the pages, but the small space occupied by the Uchiha in the middle of the store seemed as if it had turned into a separate world with its own weight.
The previous chapter hadn't passed over them ordinarily, because Sasuke's name came out in it from Orochimaru's mouth with troubling clarity. As for this chapter, it made the matter heavier after it revealed the kind of men moving to execute his orders.
Hogaku remained silent for moments, his eyes on the page, before saying in a low voice that didn't prevent it from carrying his irritation:
"This is what I don't understand yet."
"If Orochimaru wants to kidnap Sasuke to isolate him from Naruto, then why does he push Kabuto in a direction that might end with his death?"
His question wasn't simple, because behind it was a deeper reading than mere direct danger. Kidnapping means the boy is still useful in Orochimaru's eyes. As for killing him, or risking his life, it means the man is prepared to break the tool itself if it no longer aligns with the image he wants.
"Because he doesn't want Sasuke as he is."
Fugaku said in a faint but tense voice.
"He wants to reshape him. And if that's impossible, he won't deal with him as a son of a great clan, but as a failed project."
Hogaku turned to him half a turn.
"And this is what bothers you?"
"Rather, this is what should bother everyone."
Fugaku answered.
"Sasuke, to us, is a boy of Uchiha blood. As for a man like Orochimaru, he's raw material that he wants to break, then recast as he pleases."
He didn't add more than that, but his irritation was apparent enough. His annoyance didn't stem from the external threat alone, but from the idea inherent in it: that a stranger looks at one of the clan's sons not as an individual with his family, name, and place, but as something moldable according to need.
As for Mikoto, she was looking at the page in a different way.
In the previous chapter, it wasn't Orochimaru alone that stuck in her mind, nor Kabuto, nor even the kidnapping itself. What really stayed with her was that short line that passed on Kabuto's tongue about Sasuke, and that he lives to take revenge on his older brother Itachi.
Itachi.
A name that hasn't yet appeared in the manga as it should, but it appeared enough to leave in the mother's heart an unmistakable bitterness.
"This is what pains me the most."
She finally said, her tone remaining low despite the clear heaviness in it, as if she didn't want this ache to reach the rest of those sitting in the store.
"That Sasuke has a brother we haven't seen yet, then we know about him the first thing we know in this way."
No one interrupted her.
Even the voices near the other clans seemed, in that moment, as if they had moved a little away from them.
"That this Itachi is present in Sasuke's heart to this extent…"
She continued after a moment.
"And that the hatred between them has reached a degree that makes the little one's life tied to killing him… then Orochimaru comes to exploit this very wound and push him in the direction he wants…"
Her voice lowered a little more.
"This makes me feel helpless."
Her words weren't long, but they were the heaviest thing said in that small circle of Uchiha in the middle of the store. Because she didn't speak of the danger as merely a political or clan affair, but of the price the boy himself pays within all of this entanglement. A brother who hasn't yet appeared, a hatred preceding the time of his appearance, and an enemy who picks up that hatred and invests in it without mercy.
Fugaku averted his gaze from the volume for a short moment.
It was clear that her words affected him more than he showed. As for Hogaku, he remained still, but the contraction of his eyes was enough to say that the matter was no longer, in his view, merely a heavy follow-up of manga pages read among the people. It had begun to approach the very seat of family honor, even though the eyes of the others around them weren't far off.
And the reactions of the rest of the clan members diverged after that according to their positions and ages, but they all remained within this shared space with the other clans, which made their tension more apparent. Some of the older men saw in the matter a direct insult to the clan, because Sasuke's name was no longer mentioned as merely a promising young heir, but as prey for a man like Orochimaru. And some of the young men were annoyed by the idea that Naruto himself had become an influential element in Sasuke's path, because that suggested to them that the boy's isolation was no longer as they had assumed before. As for the older women, they stopped at Mikoto's words more than others; at the idea of the absent brother who hasn't yet appeared, but who left his mark on his younger brother's heart before his own appearance.
And amid the Uchiha's whispers, and the gazes of the rest of the families that were catching the tension from their faces, one thing remained clear:
The clan no longer saw the matter as an affair distant from them.
It had entered its heart, even as it sat among everyone.
…
Minato sat following the page with his usual calm eyes, while Kushina leaned a little toward him, appearing to be immersed in the details more than usual. The problem for her wasn't just that Kakashi fought a dangerous man, but in the succession of the image across the two chapters: Orochimaru announces his desire for Sasuke, then Kabuto appears with this level of competence inside Konoha itself.
"It's really annoying."
Kushina said, knitting her brows.
"In the last chapter, everything seemed like an ill-intentioned plan. But now, it seems as if the plan has begun to walk on two feet."
Minato smiled a faint smile that held no relief.
"That's an accurate description."
He said.
"And more importantly, Kakashi didn't err in reading the man. He understood from the beginning that he's not just an ordinary subordinate."
Kushina looked at the last sentence of the scene.
"But this is the part I don't like."
She said.
"If Kabuto is this calm, then this means he's accustomed to such moments. And someone accustomed to infiltration and escape inside a village like Konoha is not a person easy to stop."
Minato nodded slowly.
"He's been a spy inside Konoha for a long time.."
He said.
"And that's why the real value in this chapter isn't that Kabuto escaped, but that Kakashi uncovered his type before he vanished."
Kushina turned to him.
"You mean that knowing the shape of the tool is no less important than catching it?"
"In such cases, yes."
Minato answered.
"Because whoever manages men like these doesn't rely on chance. And Orochimaru, after what the previous chapter revealed, doesn't seem like a man who scatters his men without a precise function."
He fell silent for a bit, then returned to the page.
"There's also another matter."
"What is it?"
Kushina asked him.
"That the thread connecting Sasuke and Naruto to Orochimaru is no longer theoretical."
He said calmly.
"Every chapter makes this thread clearer. Once through intention, and once through the men who execute it."
Kushina let out a light sigh.
"This means the boys have really become inside a whirlpool bigger than themselves."
Minato didn't deny that.
He merely looked at Kakashi's last image, as if the chapter hadn't presented him with just a single confrontation, but had also presented him with the shape of the entire coming stage: opponents who smile while cornered, subordinates who escape after leaving behind only half the truth, and plans that don't reveal their full intent until their pages pile up on top of each other.
…
And in Sunagakure, the chapter didn't pass over the Third Kazekage's table quietly either.
The Third Kazekage sat in his usual place, while Elder Chiyo was beside him, Ebizo near her, and Rasa sitting with his fiancée a short distance away, all of them having read the new chapter in light of the chapter that preceded it, not as an isolated incident inside a hospital in Konoha.
"Hmm."
The sound came out low from the Kazekage as he returned his eyes to the page.
"So the hand moving for Orochimaru inside Konoha is not an improvised hand."
Chiyo nodded slowly.
"That's what the manga says clearly."
She said.
"In the last chapter, we saw his goal. And in this chapter, we saw one of the men he relies on to approach that goal."
"Also, Orochimaru asked Kabuto not to be hasty and try to attack him… how astonishing."
Ebizo pointed with his finger to the point of analysis that Kakashi had arrived at.
"And the man isn't just a killer."
He said.
"He knows the hospital, knows the corpses, and knows how to mislead pursuers even after being exposed. This is the work of someone prepared for a long mission, not for a single mission."
As for Rasa, he had remained silent until that moment, then said:
"Orochimaru doesn't seem like someone testing a single entrance. He's opening more than one entrance at the same time."
The Third Kazekage raised his gaze toward him.
"And you see that the matter is bigger than just Sasuke?"
"Clearly."
Rasa answered.
"Sasuke is important, yes. But the man who threatens the Hokage, and moves a subordinate like this inside the hospital, doesn't build his move around a single boy only. There's a conspiracy wider than that."
A short silence prevailed after this sentence.
It wasn't a silence of objection, but the silence of men before whom the picture had begun to come together from more than one angle. Konoha hosts the exams. Orochimaru announces his desire for Sasuke. Kabuto moves on the inside. And the talk about the villages and military power didn't come in the previous chapter for nothing.
Chiyo said after a moment:
"Every time a new page appears, what's around Konoha becomes more suspicious."
"Rather, it has become closer to systematic preparation."
Ebizo added.
"And the terrifying thing about that is that some components of the plan exist inside the village itself."
The Third Kazekage remained silent for a moment, then said in a tone that Chiyo didn't misread this time:
"I smell the scent of a conspiracy growing around Konoha."
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Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
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Chapter 200: The Great Ninja Appears, Jiraiya! (End of Volume Ten)
Chapter 201: Echoes of Volume Ten and the Emotional Anime Episode!
Chapter 202: System Level 8!
Chapter 203: Volume 11 of the Naruto Manga Is Here!
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