"Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique."
The moment those words fell, everyone froze in place.
Kakashi found himself standing in his own yard at home.
Hatake Sakumo stood with his back to him.
Kakashi called out softly, "Dad."
Sakumo turned around, wearing that same smile that looked like he didn't care about anything at all.
"Kakashi, did your father do something wrong?"
Kakashi wanted to shake his head, wanted to shout it out, but his body wouldn't move.
Sakumo lowered his head and looked at his own hands. "Was saving my comrades a mistake? The mission failed, and now everyone blames me."
Then he lifted his head and looked at Kakashi. "Kakashi, do you think your father was wrong too?"
Kakashi felt like something was choking his throat shut.
He wanted to say no. Wanted to say Dad hadn't done anything wrong. Wanted to say those other people didn't matter.
But Sakumo had already turned around and started walking away, step by step.
"Dad." The word stuck in Kakashi's throat. He couldn't force it out.
Uchiha Toru was standing in a long hallway.
Doors lined both sides, one after another, stretching so far he couldn't see the end.
He walked forward and pushed one open. Empty. Then another. Empty again.
He started running, shoving one door after another, and every single room was empty.
Footsteps sounded behind him. He turned around.
His mother was standing there, her voice cold and distant. "Toru, do you know what someone from the Uchiha clan is supposed to do?"
Uchiha Toru opened his mouth. "Mom—"
"You didn't do it well enough." Her voice never changed. "You failed to protect the Uchiha name. You failed to show others how strong the Uchiha are. You failed at everything."
Then she turned and walked deeper into the hallway.
Uchiha Toru reached out, trying to grab her, but his hand passed straight through her sleeve. He caught nothing at all.
The hallway emptied out, leaving only him.
Shin-chan was standing in a vegetable field.
Everywhere he looked, there were bright green leaves. Sunlight spilled over them, dazzling his eyes.
He looked down at his feet.
Green peppers.
Rows and rows of them, lined up neatly, stretching endlessly into the distance.
Shin-chan's face went pale. "You've got to be kidding me—"
He took a step back.
"Shin-chan."
He whipped around.
A giant green pepper was standing behind him, bright green and grinning at him with a huge mouth.
"Come eat your green peppers, Shin-chan."
Shin-chan's face changed immediately. "No way."
He spun around and ran.
The green pepper charged after him, its two legs pounding against the ground with heavy thuds. "Don't run. Green peppers are good for you."
"No!" Shin-chan ran even faster, his little legs working frantically. "I hate green peppers more than anything."
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The pepper kept gaining, every step making the ground shake.
"Why won't you eat green peppers?"
"Because they taste awful!" Shin-chan yelled, his little legs barely keeping up.
"How do you know they taste awful if you don't eat them?"
"I have eaten them!" Shin-chan shouted back. "They're horrible!"
The pepper got closer and closer. Its huge mouth loomed right behind him, breathing out the smell of green peppers.
"If you won't eat green peppers, then I'll eat you."
The pepper wrapped around his waist and lifted him off the ground.
Shin-chan was held up right in front of its face.
The pepper opened its mouth. Inside was nothing but green juice.
"Nooooooooo!!!"
Shin-chan was stuffed into the pepper's mouth.
Green liquid poured into his nose, his mouth, his eyes.
It smelled awful. It tasted awful. It was terrifying.
And then the chakra inside Shin-chan exploded.
The giant pepper vanished. The vegetable field vanished. The classroom came back.
Moonlight streamed in through the windows, shining across his face.
Shin-chan gasped for breath, his legs still trembling. "Green peppers really are the enemy of my life."
The instant Shin-chan shattered the illusion, Kakashi's fingers twitched.
He heard that voice, like it was echoing from somewhere far away.
Right. It was Shin-chan's voice.
Suddenly, Kakashi remembered that day at home, when Shin-chan had looked up and talked to his father.
After that night, the light had returned to his father's eyes.
Kakashi lifted his head and looked at the "father" standing before him, then let out a quiet laugh.
"You're not Dad. Dad's already okay."
The illusion shattered like a mirror breaking apart.
Uchiha Toru was still standing in the hallway.
His mother was gone. The hallway was empty. He was alone.
Then a voice echoed from the far end.
"So Uchiha Toru really is nothing special."
Uchiha Toru froze and looked up.
Shin-chan was standing at the far end of the corridor, arms crossed, wearing an expression Toru had never once seen on his face before.
"You can't even protect the Uchiha name. What good are you?"
"Your mother doesn't want you anymore. The clan doesn't care about you either. All alone in here, you're nothing."
Uchiha Toru looked at him and said nothing.
"Even civilians are stronger than you." Shin-chan stepped forward, his voice sharper now. "They don't need the Uchiha name. They don't need the Sharingan. But you? Once you're stripped of the Uchiha, what do you even have left?"
Uchiha Toru still said nothing.
Shin-chan took another step forward, tilting his head at him, mockery in his eyes. "Why aren't you saying anything? Because I'm right? You really are nothing."
For one brief moment, the hallway went silent.
Then Uchiha Toru looked at the Shin-chan in front of him and suddenly smiled.
"What are you laughing at?" Shin-chan frowned.
Uchiha Toru shook his head. "You're not Shin-chan."
Shin-chan's expression stiffened.
"Shin-chan would never say things like that," Uchiha Toru said. "He doesn't even really understand what 'civilian' means, let alone 'Sharingan.'"
Then he looked up, straight into that false Shin-chan's eyes.
"And Shin-chan would never look at me like that. He'd never say anything like that either."
The fake Shin-chan's face twisted, warping like a reflection in disturbed water.
The hallway began to shake. Doors toppled one after another. The ceiling cracked open, and light poured in through the fractures.
The classroom returned.
Two people were standing at the front of the room.
One was Teacher Ibuki.
The other was the masked leader from before, except now he wasn't masked anymore.
"What is this?" Uchiha Toru's voice was still a little hoarse.
Yuuhi Shinku looked at them. "This was a test."
"As I thought." Kakashi leaned against a desk and let out a soft sigh.
Yuuhi Shinku glanced at him. "When did you figure it out?"
"The overnight stay was weird from the start," Kakashi said. "With the Chunin Exams going on and all those foreign ninja in the village, it didn't make sense for the school to have students stay overnight."
Yuuhi Shinku said nothing.
Kakashi continued, "There was no reaction at all from the outside security, the Anbu, or the patrol units. If people could just walk in like that, it was obviously fake."
Yuuhi Shinku looked at him in silence for a moment, then nodded. "Anything else?"
"That killing intent was controlled too perfectly. It was just enough to pin us down, but not enough to really hurt anyone."
Yuuhi Shinku nodded again. "Not bad."
Teacher Ibuki, standing at the side, finally spoke too. "This was a test. Anyone who managed to break out of the illusion passed."