Kakashi Hatake found Kitahara Kaede's twisted sense of humor deeply irritating.
Most of all, he hated the man's habit of giving people absurd nicknames.
If someone called him "Hatake Fifty-Fifty," he could vaguely guess it was referring to him, but that only made it worse. He had no idea why that was supposed to be his title, and the more he thought about it, the more ridiculous it sounded.
And then there was that other phrase.
One against seven.
Who exactly was this person who could take on seven opponents at once?
Kakashi repeated the words silently in his head, turning them over again and again. One against seven. One against seven. One against seven...
Then the answer struck him.
Itachi.
Uchiha Itachi.
Kakashi's gaze sharpened instantly.
He had never truly fought a Sharingan wielder from the Uchiha clan in the past, so if such a clash appeared in the diary, it had to be referring to some point in the future. There were far too few people left in the world who possessed the Sharingan.
And once he followed that logic through, the name emerged almost naturally.
Uchiha Itachi.
Would he fight Itachi again in the future?
Or was that what Kitahara Kaede meant by a "brief Sharingan clash"?
The moment he reached that conclusion, Kakashi's expression turned grave.
He knew better than most just how terrifying Itachi Uchiha was.
If they were only comparing raw talent as shinobi, then yes - Kakashi had always stood at the very top. He had been called a genius from the moment he entered the academy. Itachi, too, belonged in that same realm.
Both of them were monsters among prodigies.
But talent was only part of the equation.
The true difference between them lay in bloodline.
Even without activating the Sharingan, Itachi Uchiha, as a member of the Uchiha clan, possessed innate gifts that made him anything but ordinary. And once those eyes opened, his strength could only become more frightening.
That man had slaughtered his own clan in a single night.
A ruthless existence like that... Kakashi could hardly imagine how far he had advanced by now.
If he ever encountered Itachi while on a mission, Konoha's rules would leave him with no room to avoid the confrontation. Itachi was an S-rank missing-nin, one of the most dangerous criminals alive.
There were only a handful of people in the entire Hidden Leaf capable of capturing an S-rank fugitive.
Kakashi was one of them.
At least, that was what the village expected of him.
But another phrase from the diary still lingered in his mind.
What was that so-called "sea-release battle"?
A naval battle?
The Land of Water? The Hidden Mist?
Those were the only possibilities Kakashi could come up with.
***
At the same time, in the deserted territory of the Uchiha clan, a lone mansion stood under the night sky with its lights still burning.
Inside, Uchiha Sasuke sat with the diary in his hands, his dark eyes fixed on the contents with unusual intensity.
"Orochimaru..."
He had already seen the first video.
The confrontation between Kakashi Hatake and Orochimaru had left a far deeper impression on him than he wanted to admit.
The aura coming from Kakashi alone had been enough to make it hard for him to breathe. That kind of pressure - the killing intent of a Jonin forged through countless life-and-death battles - was not something a mere Genin like him could withstand.
And yet Kakashi's presence had been nothing compared to Orochimaru's.
The moment Orochimaru appeared on-screen, it had felt as though ice water had been poured straight into Sasuke's bones. His body had nearly frozen. His thoughts had nearly stopped. It was a pressure so monstrous it felt inhuman.
In the footage, he had seen himself unconscious.
He had seen the curse mark on his body.
He had seen Kakashi Hatake step forward to protect him and confront Orochimaru head-on.
And through Orochimaru's words, he had also understood one thing very clearly.
That monster was certain he would go to him.
Certain that he would choose power.
Certain that for the sake of revenge, he would cross over to the enemy's side without hesitation.
Was it because he was an Avenger?
Sasuke lowered his gaze.
Yes.
That was exactly what he was.
An avenger.
If it meant killing Itachi, then he would even make a deal with the devil.
He still didn't know what Orochimaru wanted from him, but that didn't matter much. As long as the man could offer him the power to take revenge, then whatever ulterior motive lay behind that offer could wait. If Sasuke still had value to Orochimaru, then he could exploit that value in turn.
To his own surprise, the temptation was real.
Because he knew better than anyone how weak he still was.
At the same age, he was nowhere near Itachi's level.
That man had massacred the entire Uchiha clan in one night, and he had not even been much older than Sasuke was now.
So what was the point of continuing to waste time in the Ninja Academy like this?
Would his future teacher really be Kakashi Hatake?
From the scenes in the diary, Sasuke could already tell that he would soon graduate. And once he did, the Jonin assigned to guide him would apparently be Kakashi.
That alone should have meant something.
Kakashi Hatake was famous even to students like him.
Konoha's number one technician.
A genius. A Jonin. A powerful shinobi whose name had spread far beyond the village.
And yet even that same Kakashi had been unable to force a mutual kill against Orochimaru.
That was the terrifying part.
Because it meant an even more powerful existence had now entered Sasuke's field of view.
Orochimaru.
A monster so overwhelming that even Konoha's famed elite could not drag him down together with him.
Of course, Sasuke understood that Orochimaru had to be harboring some other scheme regarding him. There was no way a creature like that would take interest in someone for a simple or benevolent reason.
Whatever he wanted, it certainly wasn't anything good.
But as Sasuke read on, another detail in the diary suddenly made his heartbeat quicken.
Awakening the Sharingan.
His fingers trembled around the notebook.
He stared at those words, hardly able to believe what he was seeing.
Only members of the Uchiha clan could awaken the Sharingan.
Then that meant...
There was still another clansman outside the clan?
Even if that person carried the surname Kitahara, such a thing was not impossible. The Uchiha clan had existed for over a thousand years. Over that span of time, it was completely normal for diluted bloodlines to spread outside the main family and live under other names.
Cases like that had happened before.
Rare, but not unheard of.
The only problem was that the odds of those thin bloodlines actually awakening the Sharingan were incredibly small. Most lived and died as ordinary people. The few who did awaken it were usually brought back into the clan.
And why wouldn't they return?
Who could refuse the pride and honor of being acknowledged by the Uchiha?
Sasuke's breathing quickened.
In the past, a matter like this might have been little more than an interesting story - something old clan members would mention casually over tea.
But now it was different.
Now it was of the utmost importance.
Because the Uchiha clan was gone.
Gone except for him.
At least, that was what he had believed.
For Sasuke, who carried the desperate wish to restore his clan, the existence of even one more Uchiha was enough to shake his heart.
One more clansman meant one more ember that had not gone out.
It meant the Uchiha name had not been completely extinguished.
In that instant, Sasuke had already begun thinking ahead.
How could he get Kitahara Kaede to acknowledge his lineage?
How could he get him to return to the clan?
How could he persuade him to abandon the name Kitahara and become Uchiha Kaede instead?
To be honest, Sasuke himself still had not awakened the Sharingan.
At the moment, if the diary was to be believed, the only living person in the village who had naturally awakened it was Kitahara Kaede.
As for Itachi...
That traitor no longer deserved to be counted among the clan.
Sasuke had never once imagined a situation like this.
Under normal circumstances, anyone capable of awakening the Sharingan must possess Uchiha blood, no matter how diluted it had become over the generations. In the past, the clan would never have needed to go out of its way to court such a person.
But the past was gone.
Now, Sasuke needed that person.
He needed him for the future of the Uchiha clan.
Who exactly was Kitahara Kaede?
Unlike Kakashi Hatake, Sasuke did not have access to intelligence networks, mission records, or Anbu channels. He had no easy way to investigate someone like Kaede.
If he wanted answers, he would have to find them slowly, piece by piece.
Still, one other line from the diary kept echoing in his mind.
One against seven.
Compared to Kakashi, Sasuke reached the answer much faster.
Because there was one name he repeated to himself every single day. One name he engraved into his soul with hatred. One name that rose in his mind before anything else.
Itachi.
It had to be Itachi.
As for "Hatake Fifty-Fifty," Sasuke could roughly guess that it referred to Hatake Kakashi. But why would the clash between Kakashi and Itachi be called a brief Sharingan battle?
Or...
Was it connected to himself instead?
If he really became Kakashi's subordinate in the future, then it was entirely possible that Team Kakashi would one day encounter Itachi.
And if that happened...
Sasuke's pulse quickened.
He might meet Itachi again.
That thought alone set his blood boiling.
He wanted it.
He wanted it more than anything.
He wanted to stand in front of Itachi, look him in the eye, and kill him with his own hands.
As for whether he was strong enough, whether he might lose, whether he was rushing toward death - none of that had room to exist in his mind right now.
Hatred had already seized control.
Reason could not suppress it.
But just then, before he could sink any deeper into those thoughts, the diary changed again.
Another video had updated.
The title slowly appeared before his eyes.
Morning Mist, Homecoming!