The more Uchiha Sasuke read, the more confused he became.
According to Kaede Kitahara, Hatake Kakashi himself did not even know that he possessed a Mangekyo Sharingan. That sounded ridiculous. How could someone awaken an eye and not realize it?
…Wait.
Sasuke froze.
Wasn't he exactly that kind of person?
When he was seven years old, he had witnessed his brother, Uchiha Itachi, massacre the Uchiha Clan. In that moment of rage, he awakened a single tomoe Sharingan. Then he immediately passed out.
He never even knew he had awakened it.
Years passed just like that.
Could Hatake Kakashi be the same?
"Fire Release can't kill people?" Sasuke hesitated.
He had never really thought about it before, but the moment he realized those words came from Kaede Kitahara, doubt crept in.
In Sasuke's mind, Kaede Kitahara had slowly started to overlap with the image of some kind of mystic. Things he said often sounded like jokes, yet somehow had a habit of turning out to be true. It was just that others could not understand them at the time.
Especially Amaterasu.
Sasuke knew that technique very well. It was the ocular power he awakened after gaining the Mangekyo Sharingan. It was clearly not an ordinary jutsu. It was almost certainly directly tied to the Mangekyo itself.
But he had not known until now that Uchiha Itachi also possessed Amaterasu.
Was it because they were brothers, so they awakened the same ocular technique?
The so-called strongest physical attack.
If that was the case, then what about his other unique ocular ability?
Could it also be Tsukuyomi?
Sasuke did not have much information to go on. They were brothers. They had awakened the same ocular technique. Following that logic, it was not unreasonable to assume that once he awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, his other ability might also be Tsukuyomi.
He had already seen the power of Tsukuyomi.
It could instantly defeat an elite Jonin like Hatake Kakashi. From Kisame's words, it was clear that Kakashi had only suffered severe mental trauma because of the Sharingan's amplification. An ordinary person struck by Tsukuyomi would have their mind collapse completely, dragging their body down with it.
However, using Tsukuyomi left Uchiha Itachi in terrible condition as well. Blood tears flowed immediately.
So Tsukuyomi was unquestionably powerful, but somehow it still felt… lacking.
For now, all of that was far too distant.
What Sasuke truly longed for was the Mangekyo Sharingan itself. That godlike power hidden within the blood of the Uchiha Clan.
At the same time, he utterly despised the method required to obtain it.
If there were even the slightest alternative, he would never choose that path.
Especially that dead last.
No matter how much he disliked him, it was not to the point where he had to kill him.
"Brothers…" Sasuke clenched his teeth, his voice trembling. "Then why did you do something like that? Just to prove how strong you are?"
"But no matter what, I won't walk the same road as you," Sasuke said, his voice low and resolute. "I'm not the same as you. I'll prove it to you. Even without taking your path, I can still become stronger than you."
Sasuke knew very well that Kage Level power was not exclusive to the Uchiha Clan. There were people without Kekkei Genkai who had still reached that realm.
That meant the Mangekyo Sharingan was not an absolute requirement.
He would walk a completely different path. One unlike Uchiha Itachi's, and unlike his own future self from the original timeline.
Then his eyes landed on Kaede Kitahara's words about Uchiha Itachi holding back against him.
Sasuke exploded with anger.
"How is that possible?" he snarled. "How could he have held back? He wanted me dead. There's no way he held back."
"Holding back…" Uchiha Itachi murmured softly.
"If that's true, then it only means his growth still wasn't enough," he continued calmly. "He should reach the point where, even if I go all out, I still can't defeat him. That would be acceptable."
In Uchiha Itachi's plan, if Sasuke still needed him to hold back during their final battle, then Sasuke's growth would be far too slow.
That kind of progress would disappoint him deeply.
From the diary footage showing Mangekyo Sharingan Sasuke, Itachi could see that Sasuke was tactically reckless, even overly arrogant at times. Yet later, he quickly adjusted his strategy and defeated the powerful Shimura Danzo through planning and execution.
Against a Sasuke like that, Itachi knew he would have to give everything he had.
There was no possibility of holding back in that fight.
The reason he designed that imagined final battle between brothers was to burn away his last remaining value.
He would use that battle to teach Sasuke what Kage Level combat truly looked like. What the intensity of a Kage Level battle truly was.
Then, naturally, he would die by Sasuke's hand and offer up his final pair of eyes, helping Sasuke achieve the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
If that happened, then even in death, he could rest in peace.
As for Kaede Kitahara's comment about Amaterasu not killing people, Itachi only smiled faintly.
What a joke.
How could Amaterasu not kill?
Ever since he awakened it, Amaterasu had helped him kill plenty of people.
This was reality, not an anime.
Uchiha Itachi's battles were far more numerous than what could ever be shown on screen. Amaterasu was terrifyingly powerful. It just happened to be ineffective against certain types of opponents.
If someone was fast enough, you simply could not hit them.
That was all.
He did not dwell on it. In Itachi's view, there was no such thing as an invincible jutsu. Only invincible people. Amaterasu having weaknesses was perfectly normal.
"Great Fire Annihilation…"
Uchiha Itachi recalled the technique. It was a B-rank Fire Release jutsu stored within the Uchiha Clan. Once unleashed, it covered the battlefield in flames, but it had one glaring flaw.
It consumed an enormous amount of chakra.
On a battlefield filled with enemies, its effect was obvious. Against an equally matched Kage Level opponent, however, such a technique was not only inefficient but also wasteful.
Still, he was curious.
What kind of scene had Uchiha Madara created with Great Fire Annihilation to earn such praise from Kaede Kitahara?
More importantly, Itachi disagreed with the claim that Fire Release could not kill people. In his eyes, Fire Release was often not used for direct kills at all. It was used to control the battlefield, to seal off an opponent's movement.
That was part of a complete tactical system.
Did Kaede Kitahara even understand that?
What truly baffled him, though, was Hatake Kakashi possessing a Mangekyo Sharingan.
How was that possible?
An outsider being able to use the Sharingan and earn the title of Copy Ninja was already extraordinary. It was rare enough to justify Kakashi's reputation as a once-in-a-generation genius.
But now he was being told that even three tomoe was not Kakashi's limit.
That he actually possessed a Mangekyo Sharingan.
How could that be?
An outsider awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan had never happened in the entire history of the Uchiha Clan. It was completely beyond his understanding.
If anyone else had told him this, he would have dismissed it outright.
But if that person was Kaede Kitahara…
He had no choice but to believe it.
At the same time, in a forest near the Land of Fire, Jiraiya sat comfortably by a campfire, reading the latest diary update.
With his strength, even camping in the wild posed no danger at all. Making him fail was basically impossible.
"Kakashi has a Mangekyo Sharingan too?" Jiraiya muttered, stunned.
"That eye came from that kid named Uchiha Obito, didn't it?" he continued. "Wasn't that brat dead last at the academy? And he had the talent to awaken the Mangekyo? Or is it because Kakashi's talent stacked on top of it? After all, he's the White Fang's son."
Jiraiya remembered seeing Namikaze Minato leading Team Minato back then.
Out of the four, only Hatake Kakashi remained now.
He had heard that in that battle, Kakashi lost his left eye, and that Uchiha Obito had given him his Sharingan on his deathbed.
When the Uchiha Clan learned of it, they caused an uproar.
That was a Sharingan. The precious Kekkei Genkai of their clan. How could it be given to an outsider?
Ninja clans survived in the ninja world by relying on bloodline limits or secret techniques. Leakage was absolutely unacceptable.
If such a thing happened, they would do everything in their power to kill the person who obtained it.
In the end, Konoha's upper echelon stepped in. To secure Kakashi's right to keep the Sharingan, they paid a heavy price. By then, Minato was already one of the Hokage candidates, no longer just a frontline enforcer.
Jiraiya himself had personally gone to negotiate with the Uchiha Clan.
Only those directly involved knew how much Konoha had paid during that negotiation.
What he never expected was that even though Team Minato had been reduced to a single survivor, there was still more to come.
Hatake Kakashi had somehow developed a Mangekyo Sharingan on his own?
No. According to Kaede Kitahara, Kakashi did not even realize it himself.
Could it have awakened accidentally, just like Uchiha Sasuke's single tomoe?
In the end, Kakashi was still the White Fang's son.
Thinking of Hatake Sakumo, even Jiraiya, now known as the Toad Sage, felt a surge of admiration.
These days, when people spoke of the Legendary Sannin, it was either with fear or reverence.
What they did not know was that during the era of the Sannin, there was only one man who truly shone brighter than all others.
The White Fang of Konoha, Hatake Sakumo.
He had nearly single-handedly led an army to crush Sunagakure, establishing an unrivaled legend.
Back then, even though Jiraiya already bore the title of one of the Sannin, he was really only around the level of an elite Jonin.
Not all that different from Hatake Kakashi today.