The scene shifted. Tsukuyomi finally ended, and Kakashi snapped back from that endless hell to the real world. The moment he returned, his breath collapsed into ragged gasps. His whole body shook as if he had just crawled out of three days of torture before collapsing onto the surface of the water.
"What's wrong, Kakashi? You still can't open your eyes?"
Kurenai heard the splash and rushed to ask.
Kakashi could barely speak. "No. Not yet."
Asuma immediately sensed something was off. "What happened? You just finished talking, and suddenly you were down."
Kakashi forced himself onto one knee. Three days in there… but only an instant passed out here?
Then why didn't he finish me? If he wanted to, it wouldn't have been difficult at all.
A dozen questions swarmed through his mind.
"Oh? You're still sane after taking that technique. But, Itachi-san, overusing those eyes of yours isn't without risk, is it?"
Hoshigaki Kisame's tone was almost casual.
Itachi's face twitched slightly, confirming Kisame's words more clearly than any explanation.
Outside the footage, Kakashi had somehow already pulled out pen and paper, beginning to take notes at once.
Tsukuyomi.
Was it Itachi's personal Mangekyo Sharingan technique, or something all Mangekyo users possessed?
Inside that space, he had reconstructed time, space, mass, pain—everything. Even Kakashi, someone who excelled at both genjutsu and breaking genjutsu, couldn't resist it. And considering the Sharingan's natural resistance to illusions, that meant this technique could overwhelm its target even if they were stronger than elite jonin, possibly even Kage-level shinobi.
It outclassed every genjutsu Kakashi had ever known. He didn't know if Tsukuyomi itself was simply that high-tier, or if the Mangekyo Sharingan's amplification was the main factor.
Or both.
Kakashi wrote down every suspicion. For a shinobi, information meant survival.
There was no such thing as an invincible jutsu, only invincible users. With this intel, he would never be foolish enough to look Itachi in the eye again.
Three days and nights of torture… even if his mind didn't break, the damage would be severe. And wounds like this weren't something basic medical ninjutsu could fix.
At the same time, he found himself coming to the same question his future self would have asked. Judging from Tsukuyomi's overwhelming strength, Itachi should have been capable of killing him easily. But he didn't.
Was it because of their old camaraderie, the lingering respect between a former superior and his subordinate?
Or was Itachi already at his limit? Kisame said most people hit by this technique suffered total mental collapse. And even if Tsukuyomi was "just" genjutsu, genjutsu still had limits. If the target possessed immense mental endurance, they could potentially survive without shattering.
Kakashi quickly scribbled down a new hypothesis.
Tsukuyomi inflicted seventy-two hours of torture on its target, but the strain on the user couldn't be light either. The slight twitch in Itachi's expression after releasing the technique said plenty, no matter how calm he tried to appear.
So the scope of Tsukuyomi was likely small—possibly only one victim at a time, or at most a very small number.
And if it required this much power to use, then the cost must be enormous. Overusing the Sharingan was clearly a danger.
Nobody understood that better than Kakashi. He overstressed the Sharingan constantly. As someone not of the Uchiha clan, even keeping the eye active for a bit too long drained him to the edge of collapse, leaving his whole body exhausted for days.
But Itachi was an Uchiha. He even had the Mangekyo Sharingan. Was he really hitting overcapacity after using Tsukuyomi once?
With power like that, it didn't seem likely. Maybe Itachi's body had a hidden condition. Something that couldn't support the cost.
Or maybe the Mangekyo Sharingan itself placed a heavy burden on the user.
And from the beginning, both Itachi and Kisame had been casually leaking sensitive information. Their purpose for coming to the Hidden Leaf, intel about the Mangekyo Sharingan, the risks of overuse—any shinobi should have kept these facts under tight lock and key.
Yet they mentioned them as if none of it mattered.
There was no way they didn't know. Both had once been top-tier shinobi of their respective villages. If even they didn't understand operational secrecy, then nobody would.
Kakashi filled his notes with question marks, crossing things out, rewriting, theorizing… but no answer emerged. He put his pencil down and kept watching.
"You're looking for Sasuke?" Kakashi asked in the footage.
Itachi steadied his breathing, then answered, "No. We're looking for the Fourth Hokage's legacy."
Asuma and Kurenai both stiffened in shock.
As elite jonin and leaders of jonin squads, they knew exactly what the Fourth Hokage's "legacy" was. Uzumaki Naruto.
More specifically, the Nine-Tails sealed inside him.
"It's Naruto, isn't it?" Kakashi asked.
Outside the footage, Sasuke froze, confusion spreading across his face.
He wasn't like Kakashi. Kakashi had always known who Naruto really was, known that he was the child of his own teacher and his teacher's wife, known that the Nine-Tails was sealed inside him.
But Sasuke knew none of it. He hadn't joined Team 7 yet. He and Naruto had no bond. As far as he was concerned, Naruto was just that annoying brat who caused trouble every day and refused to take school seriously.
And worse, that idiot kept provoking him for no reason, like he couldn't stand the sight of him.
He had seen plenty of loud, hotheaded idiots before. Naruto didn't seem special in the slightest.
If anything, the only unusual thing about him was that this loudmouthed knucklehead had somehow been placed in the same elite class as him.
The Fourth's legacy?
What in the world could that possibly be?