"You little punk, badmouthing the Old Man behind his back."
"Believe it or not, I'll spin around right now and rat you out to him?"
Seeing Kakashi talk like that, Jiraiya couldn't resist teasing him.
"Hmm, if that's how Jiraiya's playing it, then I'll just have to find a chance to have a little chat with Lady Tsunade about this."
Kakashi pulled a book with a pale yellow cover from his pocket and waved it in front of Jiraiya.
"Page thirty-eight—who's that woman with the killer curves, the brash attitude, always bombing at the gambling tables but head over heels for the hero? Who could that possibly be alluding to?"
"It's such a tough riddle~"
Kakashi flipped through the Icha Icha Paradise in his hand, shooting a sidelong glance at the man beside him.
"You brat!"
Jiraiya was momentarily stunned when he spotted his own masterpiece in Kakashi's grip.
If Tsunade ever found out he'd modeled the heroine after her, she would absolutely—
She'd snatch every last cent of Jiraiya's royalties and feed them straight to the casinos!
"What was that I just said?"
"Oh no, oh no, I'm getting up there in years. What was I even doing at the Hatake place today? Am I starting to lose my memory?"
The towering man scratched his head, feigning confusion as he shuffled out the door.
Kakashi couldn't help but crack a smile at the sight.
Jiraiya really is terrified of Tsunade...
Three days flew by in the blink of an eye.
"Kakashi!"
"My dearest comrade who shared the fires of my youth—we shall stand shoulder to shoulder once more!"
[Might Guy's emotions fluctuated +1]
[Chakra +1%]
[Current Chakra: 350%]
At the entrance to Konohagakure, the boy's booming voice turned every head in the vicinity.
"Might Guy, sometimes it's better not to draw quite so much attention..."
Might Guy, who had just rolled in with the contingent bound for the Land of Frost front, zeroed in on Kakashi amid the crowd in an instant.
"If Kakashi asks it of me, then consider it done!"
"And the reason?"
"This is the unbreakable bond of blazing youth!"
The kid in the green jumpsuit flashed Kakashi a thumbs-up and his trademark dazzling grin.
"Well, sometimes that much passion can be a bit... overwhelming..."
Kakashi eyed Might Guy and broke into a cold sweat.
"He's got energy for days..."
Jiraiya, leading the formation at the front, glanced back at the two boys in the throng and stroked his chin.
"Lord Jiraiya, the 4,500-strong unit is fully assembled. The supply convoy left three days ago, so we need to push hard for the Land of Frost and link up with them ahead of schedule."
A man with the telltale Nara clan ponytail hurried to Jiraiya's side and reported.
"Very well."
"Troops—march out!"
At Jiraiya's command, the 4,500 ninja gathered at the village gates mobilized in perfect unison.
Ninja forces were worlds apart from conventional armies; their marching pace was something no regular troop could ever hope to rival.
In a mere ten minutes, thousands of shinobi had vanished from the main gates in swift, disciplined formation without breaking stride.
The once-bustling entrance to Konoha now stood eerily empty.
At the end of a quiet side street in the village, a lone figure materialized as if from thin air.
The black-haired girl gazed after the departing ninja columns, her heart a tangle of unspoken feelings.
Kakashi... come back in one piece.
Hikari sighed, turning to leave, when she caught sight of a black-haired boy around ten years old staring intently at her.
"What are you staring at?"
She shot him a frosty glare and started to walk away.
The crest on the boy's sleeve already told her everything she needed to know.
Uchiha.
The enemies of her past had long been dust, scattered by the winds of time, but even so, Hikari felt nothing for this clan.
The only reason she still carried the Uchiha name was because her parents had been Uchiha.
That was all.
"I... I just came to see Shisui-niisan off..."
Uchiha Itachi looked flustered in front of the woman his father called the great-great-great-grandmother of Uchiha's founding ancestress.
Hikari's existence over the past three years hadn't been kept secret from the Uchiha.
While the vast majority of the clan remained in the dark about who she truly was, as the son of Uchiha Fugaku and the younger clan brother of Uchiha Shisui, Itachi was among the select few privy to her identity.
"Annoying."
Hikari spared Uchiha Itachi a single glance before turning on her heel and striding away without a backward look.
But then... Uchiha Itachi grabbed the sleeve of her robe.
Hikari's eyes narrowed to slits.
If not for the trouble it would cause Kakashi, with the temperament she'd carried five hundred years ago, she would have already drawn steel and ended him.
"Uchiha elder, I believe we can have a conversation."
Uchiha Itachi regarded the youthful great-grandmother before him with deadly seriousness.
"About what?"
Hikari stared blankly at the kid, her voice laced with an icy chill that defied comprehension.
"It's about Kakashi-senpai."
"Kakashi-senpai persuaded the Hokage to launch this war. He's far too dangerous, and I believe..."
At just ten years old, Uchiha Itachi had already pieced together from his father, Uchiha Fugaku, and his clan brother, Uchiha Shisui, exactly who had sparked this conflict.
A massacre that could have been averted had ignited because of that Hatake senior's meddling.
And now, this perilous individual was the guardian of the Uchiha's most powerful weapon from five centuries past.
In Itachi's eyes, it was like handing the launch codes to the village's most volatile threat.
Kakashi Hatake was the most dangerous man in Konoha.
"What do you think?"
Before Itachi could finish, a hand flashed like lightning and clamped around his throat!
With crushing force, Itachi was slammed against the wall by that single grip!
The boy couldn't suppress a pained grunt under the impact!
The genius praised by Uchiha Shisui had no hope of resistance against Hikari in this moment!
Even accounting for the element of surprise in her outburst, that one strike laid bare the chasm between their strengths.
And remember—Hikari still bore the Five Elements Seal!
"Ka... Kakashi-senpai... he's..."
Even pinned, Itachi refused to yield and forced the words out through gritted teeth.
"Who do you think that man is fighting for?"
"He's heading to the front lines for this so-called Konoha—for people like you."
"You actually..."
A flicker of blood-red crept into her clear, dark eyes, and a murderous aura straight from the depths of hell erupted from the body of this girl who appeared no older than fifteen.
Itachi's face drained of color under the pressure, his Sharingan activating on instinct. His two-tomoe wheels spun frantically beneath the weight of Hikari's blood-soaked killing intent, a pressure forged on mountains of corpses and oceans of blood. Under that duress, the two tomoe actually fused and evolved into three!
"If not for his sake, you'd already be a corpse."
Hikari, who had just witnessed the boy's eyes advance from two tomoe to three, couldn't have cared less. Her only concern was ensuring this Uchiha brat never spoke ill of Kakashi again.
Besides, three tomoe? What if the kid awakened the Mangekyō? It wouldn't matter one bit.
————
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