Thinking about it that way, Uzumaki Naruto was the future savior of the ninja world. As for Uchiha Sasuke, he would later be able to shatter meteors with Chidori. His strength clearly surpassed Kage Level by a wide margin.
So that meant he really had taken in two utterly monstrous students.
But when Hatake Kakashi thought of his own teacher, Namikaze Minato, a wave of bitterness rose in his chest. A once-in-a-generation genius like that had still died on that night. And he himself had failed to properly watch over the orphan Minato left behind.
Who, in this life, have I ever truly lived up to?
He had fallen into such a sorry state, never becoming someone his father could be proud of. If his father were still alive, he would surely be disappointed.
He had failed to keep his promise to his closest friend. Worse still, he had personally killed Rin, who had once harbored feelings for him. Trash of trash.
And then there was Minato-sensei and Kushina-sama's only remaining child, whom he also failed to protect.
This life had been an utter failure.
"Raikiri… Chidori Current?" Uchiha Sasuke couldn't help but let his imagination run wild.
He didn't yet know what Raikiri looked like, but he had seen Chidori Current with his own eyes. In the previous video, he had paralyzed Uzumaki Naruto and the others in an instant.
That had to be one application of Chidori Current.
He still hadn't fully grasped the breadth of this jutsu, but from Kaede Kitahara's description alone, he could already see its vast potential.
Smashing meteors.
Was that cool enough?
That was cool beyond words.
The thought alone made Sasuke's blood heat up. No matter what, he had to find a way to learn this technique from Kakashi.
He had a feeling this would become his signature move in the future.
But then he saw Kaede Kitahara writing about how, after getting married, he lost all sense of taste and completely turned into a middle-aged uncle. Sasuke couldn't help muttering a few quiet complaints, his face flushing faintly.
He had never really thought about what his own marriage might look like in the future.
For his current self, it was far too distant.
Yet when he imagined that he might one day marry, that he might have a gentle wife, the heart he had frozen solid—existing only for revenge—unexpectedly wavered. Like an iceberg melting just a little.
For Uchiha Itachi, however, the information here was overwhelming.
He wasn't particularly interested in things like Raikiri. What truly mattered to him were the last two sentences Kaede Kitahara had written.
The first was that Naruto was gone, and the only one who could save the village was Sasuke.
What did that mean?
It meant that despite countless unknown twists and turns along the way, Sasuke had ultimately returned to the village. Not only that, he would step forward to protect it. A true, complete ending.
It meant the path Itachi had laid out was not wrong.
At the same time, he learned another piece of news: Uchiha Sasuke would marry in the future. Of course, that wasn't really news at this point. Kaede Kitahara had already mentioned someone named Uchiha Sarada before.
One look was enough to guess she was Sasuke's child. His own grandniece.
And it seemed Sasuke had a good relationship with Uzumaki Naruto. Even their next generation appeared to get along well.
Itachi had a strong intuition that Sasuke's eventual return to Konoha had a great deal to do with that boy named Uzumaki Naruto.
This was exactly the bond he had hoped Sasuke would form with the village.
A bond strong enough to truly let Sasuke integrate into it. A bond that would let him genuinely see the village as home.
[For Naruto and Sasuke, the Land of Waves mission is a crucial journey. It's also the battle where their bond truly takes shape.
To save Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke even awakened his first tomoe. And upon seeing Sasuke in such dire straits, Naruto triggered the Nine-Tails' first major rampage. Both of them turned on their cheats for the first time.
Just like every generation of Asura and Indra before them, they had to go through this cycle of love and conflict. Old tradition.
For this Land of Waves mission, it's best if I don't interfere at all. I shouldn't disrupt the formation of their bond. The future world will be relying on these two to save it. If they don't do it, what, am I supposed to?
What, am I supposed to pilot a Gundam and fight aliens? Does that sound reasonable?
Those aliens are each more ridiculous than the last. Can a disposable Chunin like me really handle that?
This is internal conflict within the Otsutsuki clan anyway. Why should a pureblood native of the ninja world like me get involved?
Still, something feels off. Why am I being told to secretly protect Naruto? Is it really just because I'm familiar with him? It feels like there's some kind of conspiracy here. Forget it—if it doesn't make sense, then it has to be Danzo's scheme.
But the biggest mystery of the Land of Waves arc is still this: was Haku male or female?
Come to think of it, he was such a gentle boy, yet he followed someone like Zabuza, that Demon, and became his tool. There are far too many tragedies like this in the ninja world. Kimimaro under Orochimaru, and all those subordinates of Orochimaru—same story.
Then again, when you think about it, it makes sense. Kids graduate from the ninja academy at just a few years old. The youngest are barely kindergarten age. The older ones are maybe fresh out of elementary school before they're sent out to kill people.
They barely have any education, but their killing skills are top-notch. No wonder they're so easily moved and end up giving their loyalty so completely.
The First Hokage founded Konoha so children wouldn't die on the battlefield, so they wouldn't be sent to war. But look at things now. Children from a few years old to their teens, their lives haven't even begun yet, and they're dying in droves on the battlefield.
What a shitshow of a ninja world.]
By the end of it, Kaede Kitahara had clearly snapped a little. After all, he himself had spent years living as this kind of disposable ninja. If it weren't for the diary system he'd recently gained as a cheat, causing his strength to surge…
Otherwise, even a simple C-rank or B-rank mission would have him treading carefully, writing his will in advance, always prepared for the possibility that he wouldn't come back from the next assignment.
That was the fate of a disposable Chunin in the ninja world.
"Bond? Me and that dead last?" Uchiha Sasuke stared at the diary entries, disbelief washing over him.
But when he thought about how that guy had chased after him later, how even after he became a missing-nin, Naruto had still been willing to pursue him and try to bring him back…
And judging by everything here, his future self really did return to the village. If that was the case, then it was impossible for there to be no bond at all.
Still, just as his three-years-later self had said, his greatest and most important bond was killing Uchiha Itachi. If he formed other bonds, they would only slow his path to revenge, make him hesitate and waver.
He was afraid his future self might forget about revenge altogether. Staying in the village sounded nice, but it was too comfortable. Too peaceful to fuel revenge.
That alone was something he could never accept.
If he defected, then three years later he would have the power to take revenge. But if he didn't defect, would he even make Chunin in three years?
Would he ever get a chance to hunt down Uchiha Itachi?
At the same time, Sasuke also learned when his future self reawakened the first tomoe of the Sharingan.
So it was during the Land of Waves mission after all.