After the video ended, Kakashi Hatake sank into deep thought.
The paper in his hand was already covered in dense writing, every line jotted down as he watched. A poor pen was still better than a good memory. For a ninja, details that seemed trivial at first glance could become the difference between life and death later.
Adults could look the same for years, but children changed fast.
Judging from Sasuke's appearance in the video, the incident could not have happened very long from now. At most, it was less than a year away. In other words, that meant he would soon be facing Uchiha Itachi head-on.
Just thinking about it gave Kakashi a headache.
The gap in ocular power between himself and Itachi was obvious. Even with the Sharingan open, he had still been dragged into Tsukuyomi in an instant and tortured for three full days. No… perhaps it had felt even longer than that.
What a nuisance.
In the past, other people had to watch out for his Sharingan. Now it was his turn to watch out for someone else's. In the end, he could only admit one thing—he simply did not have enough experience fighting against true Sharingan masters.
Or rather, he had never truly done it at all.
From the information Kakashi could access, even among the old Uchiha clan, his application of the Sharingan could already be considered first-rate. But Itachi Uchiha was an anomaly among anomalies.
After all, that was the man who had slaughtered an entire clan by himself.
Was the Mangekyo Sharingan really that monstrous?
Was it truly that much stronger than an ordinary Sharingan?
Once he made up his mind, Kakashi immediately went to search the archives for information related to the Mangekyo Sharingan. With his authority, there were many secrets he still could not touch—but there were also plenty he could. He simply had never felt the need to look before.
After all, there were almost no Sharingan left in the world. Searching for information had once felt pointless.
Now it no longer did.
What bothered him even more, though, was Itachi's strange attitude.
He had clearly had multiple chances to kill him in that video. Yet each time, he had let the opportunity pass. In particular, near the end, he had even stopped Kisame from killing him and chosen to withdraw instead.
What exactly did that mean?
The more Kakashi thought about it, the more it seemed to confirm a suspicion he did not want to voice out loud.
Itachi Uchiha had shown him mercy.
Worse still, it almost felt as if Itachi had intentionally passed on information.
Kakashi stared at those lines for a long moment, then drew two bold horizontal marks beneath them. Even he felt that idea was audacious to the point of absurdity.
Would an S-rank rogue ninja who had exterminated his own clan really pass information to Konoha's ninjas?
It sounded impossible.
And yet he could not shake the feeling.
At the same time, the video had confirmed another, even grimmer conclusion.
From that brief exchange alone, Itachi's combat power was obviously far above Kakashi's own. Kakashi was already an elite jonin acknowledged throughout the village, yet Itachi had handled him with ease. That meant Itachi had most likely already stepped fully into the Kage tier.
Then there was Kisame Hoshigaki.
On the surface, Kisame seemed to obey Itachi without resistance. But if he were merely an ordinary elite jonin, Itachi would never have confidently let him handle both Asuma and Kurenai at once while also dragging Kakashi away.
No matter how one looked at it, Asuma and Kurenai were both elite jonin.
That meant Kisame was very likely not merely elite jonin level.
He was most likely Kage-level as well.
Once Kakashi reached that point in his analysis, the most terrifying possibility finally surfaced in full.
Of the Akatsuki members currently known—Orochimaru, Uchiha Itachi, and Kisame Hoshigaki—all three were very likely Kage-tier monsters.
If that was true, then the true horror of Akatsuki was far greater than anyone could have imagined.
Did that mean the organization's minimum standard was not elite jonin… but Kage-level across the board?
Even Kakashi drew in a cold breath at that thought.
If that speculation was true, then it was not just dangerous. It was catastrophic.
A lineup like that would be enough to suppress any shinobi village in the world as it stood now.
Perhaps only Konoha in its most glorious age—excluding the era of the First Hokage himself—could have matched such a force.
Back then, Konoha had possessed a frightening concentration of high-end power. The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, stood at the center. Beside him were figures like his father, Sakumo Hatake, the White Fang of Konoha; his teacher, Minato Namikaze, the Yellow Flash; and a whole string of other Kage-level monsters.
In those days, Konoha had been so strong that it could still prevail even while fighting on multiple fronts at once.
The current Konoha was nowhere near that powerful.
It was precisely because the village had weakened that Orochimaru dared to openly prepare something like the Konoha Crush.
And the truly terrifying thing was this—if every member of Akatsuki was at least Kage-level, then what kind of person could possibly lead them?
For so many monsters to obey one leader, that leader could not be an ordinary person.
At that moment, Kakashi vaguely felt that he was finally beginning to touch the deeper truth of this world.
And with that realization, the last trace of doubt he had held toward Kitahara Kaede's diary vanished completely.
Neither of the incidents shown in those two videos had happened yet. And still, both of them fit terrifyingly well with his own understanding of himself and the world around him.
That was enough.
It also meant there were practical things he needed to learn immediately.
If eye contact was the medium for Sharingan genjutsu, then perhaps Guy's method really was worth studying. If he could not look at the opponent's eyes, then maybe he could judge their intent from their feet. Or perhaps from the movement of the shoulders.
However clumsy it sounded, surviving mattered more than pride.
After reaching that point, Kakashi held the sheet of paper over the lamp and burned it to ashes.
Nothing written there could be allowed to leak.
Not even a single line.
***
Meanwhile, in the Uchiha compound, Sasuke Uchiha stared at the diary for a long time before finally lowering it, only after confirming that no new entry would appear.
This diary, which had dropped into his hands out of nowhere today, had shown him more in one night than he had learned in years.
For example, once he graduated from the Ninja Academy—which now seemed to be happening very soon—his jōnin team leader would be Hatake Kakashi, Konoha's famed copy ninja.
For example, Itachi Uchiha would soon return to Konoha.
That second fact alone was enough to set his blood boiling.
If it had been the Sasuke of yesterday, he would have thrown himself at any chance to kill Itachi, no matter the cost. He would have charged forward without hesitation, even if it meant dying on the spot.
But now…
Now his urge to act rashly had weakened, not because his hatred had diminished, but because he had finally seen with his own eyes just how terrifying Itachi really was.
He was not afraid of death.
If dying would allow him to kill Itachi, then he would die without a second thought.
But the problem was obvious: with his current strength, he was nowhere close.
Kakashi Hatake was already far beyond him in every sense, and even Kakashi had been overwhelmed by Itachi in an instant. If Sasuke himself stood in front of that monster, Itachi probably would not even need to use Tsukuyomi to crush him.
Throwing his life away like that would accomplish nothing.
He had to find a way to actually kill Itachi.
And that was precisely where the most dangerous thought of all began to take root.
If simply training under Kakashi Hatake would never bring him to that level… then should he consider going to Orochimaru?
The thought was dark, poisonous, and repulsive.
Sasuke knew perfectly well that Orochimaru had sinister intentions. That snake-like man had no reason to offer power without wanting something even more valuable in return. There was no such thing as free power in this world.
And yet…
Kakashi was capable.
Kakashi was willing.
Kakashi had no ill intentions toward him at all.
But Kakashi also did not possess the power to defeat Itachi.
That was the cruel truth Sasuke could not escape.
So where did the real difference lie?
Was it the Mangekyo Sharingan?
Was that truly the dividing line between ordinary strength and the monstrous power Itachi possessed?
Did he really need eyes like those if he wanted even the slightest hope of killing him?
Sasuke was not completely ignorant.
He knew there was a price tied to those eyes.
Not every detail, perhaps, but enough to understand that the power of the Mangekyo Sharingan did not come cheaply.
And then, like a blade sliding slowly into his chest, an old rumor surfaced in his mind.
To obtain those eyes… was it really necessary to kill your closest friend?
The moment that thought appeared, Sasuke's fingers tightened around the diary.
His breathing slowed.
His expression darkened.
Because for the first time, revenge was no longer just rage and hatred in his mind.
It had begun to turn into calculation.
And once revenge reached that point, it became far more dangerous.