As the mysteries piled up, so did the doubts in Uchiha Sasuke's heart.
Bit by bit, Sasuke began to realize that this world was nothing like the one he had been taught about at the Ninja Academy. Everything he had learned there now felt overly simple, as if it had only been the thinnest outer shell of the truth.
"What you want is the Nine-Tails inside Naruto, isn't it?"
Hearing himself say those words in the video, Kakashi Hatake immediately recalled something Jiraiya—one of the Legendary Sannin—had once mentioned to him before.
The Akatsuki.
A terrifying criminal organization.
Its members included notorious rogue ninjas like Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki. Even Orochimaru, the same legendary Sannin from Konoha whose shadow still lingered over the village, had once been part of it.
And Orochimaru was someone Kakashi knew very well he could not defeat.
That alone said enough.
The organization had a total of nine members. Of the three who were already known, Orochimaru was someone Kakashi could not beat, while Itachi Uchiha was someone who could effortlessly drag him into a nightmare and break him apart without even making much noise.
That was the terrifying part about illusion-type shinobi.
They killed cleanly.
They killed quietly.
They killed before most people even realized what had happened.
As for Kisame Hoshigaki, based on what Kakashi had seen so far, he judged him to be at least elite jonin level.
At this stage, Kisame had not yet displayed the truly monstrous side of himself—the side that would earn him the reputation of a tailless tailed beast in human form. Because of that, Kakashi's assessment of him was still a little lower than it should have been.
Even so, elite jonin was already terrifying enough.
If an organization was full of people like that, then that organization was unimaginably dangerous.
Even in Konoha, gathering a number of elite jonin was not difficult. But gathering Kage-level experts? That was a completely different story.
Outside the Five Great Ninja Villages, producing even one Kage-level powerhouse was enough to prop up an entire country's military prestige.
Take the Rain Country's so-called demigod, for example.
The title he had once bestowed upon the Sannin sounded like an honor to outsiders. But for the three who had actually received it, it had been a mark of defeat, a reminder that someone had looked down on them and spared them.
If the remaining six Akatsuki members who had not yet shown themselves included two or three more people on that level, then the organization would already be terrifying beyond reason.
In terms of high-end combat power alone, it would be comparable to one of the Five Great Ninja Villages.
And for Konoha—a village already suffering from a shortage of talent—that would be a disaster.
"Naruto? Nine-Tails? What does that mean?"
Off-screen, Sasuke Uchiha was completely lost.
He had no idea there was a Nine-Tails sealed inside Naruto.
To be more precise, he barely knew anything about the Nine-Tailed Fox at all.
Because Konoha's higher-ups had deliberately suppressed the truth, ordinary people knew very little about what had happened during the Nine-Tails attack all those years ago. Even someone from the Uchiha clan, without systematic guidance from elders, only knew fragments—that more than ten years ago, a terrifying demon fox had appeared, and that the Fourth Hokage had died because of it.
That was all.
Sasuke had never once connected that legend to Naruto.
But then a thought struck him.
He had heard people call Naruto "Fox Brat" more than once. Children said it. Adults said it. The name followed Naruto around like a shadow.
Sasuke had never taken it seriously before. How could he? The idea that Naruto was the Nine-Tails had sounded absurd.
But now, according to Kakashi's own words, Naruto was not the Nine-Tails.
There was simply a Nine-Tails sealed inside him.
"I know it's not just the two of you. Your organization is called Akatsuki, isn't it?" Kakashi pressed.
The instant those words came out, everyone present was shaken.
Itachi and Kisame were shocked that Kakashi knew the name Akatsuki at all. Asuma and Kurenai, on the other hand, were stunned because they had never even heard of it before.
"Kisame, take Kakashi away. As for the others, erase them," Itachi said without hesitation.
Kisame moved at once.
But just as he was about to strike, a figure came crashing in and blasted him aside with sheer force.
The newcomer was none other than Konoha's Blue Beast—Might Guy.
And the moment Guy appeared, another line of commentary from Kitahara Kaede drifted across the top of the screen.
[Wuhu, the man who almost kicked the ending into existence has arrived!]
Neither Sasuke nor Kakashi understood what "the man who almost kicked the ending" was supposed to mean. They could only treat it as another one of Kitahara Kaede's bizarre jokes.
"Never look into his eyes," Asuma warned immediately.
"I already know," Guy replied at once. "To deal with Kakashi, I've studied how to counter the Sharingan for years. You can all open your eyes now."
Then, as if explaining a lesson he had refined countless times, Guy calmly revealed the method he had developed over the years.
"When fighting someone with the Sharingan, you don't have to look at their eyes. Just observe their feet and body movement. From that, you can still judge their intentions."
He was not speaking idly.
The reason he and Kakashi had always been able to fight each other to a draw—at least when neither of them was going all out—was precisely because Guy had trained himself specifically to counter the Sharingan.
Even though Kakashi's Sharingan and Itachi's Sharingan were obviously not on the same level, the basic principle still applied.
Faced with the sudden arrival of Konoha's blue beast, Itachi had no intention of lingering any longer.
Especially after hearing that ANBU had already been notified.
He stopped Kisame before the latter could continue pressing the fight.
Because this time, Itachi had not returned to Konoha for the Nine-Tails.
He had returned for appearances.
For positioning.
For a message.
The point of this trip was to make contact with Sasuke—if only indirectly—and at the same time send a warning to the upper echelons of Konoha.
I am still alive.
And as long as I am alive, you will not touch Uchiha Sasuke.
Of course, Kakashi and the others could not possibly understand that.
They were strong, certainly. They were elite members of the jonin corps. But in the hierarchy of the village, they still had not reached that layer of truth. They were executors, not the ones who stood at the center of hidden decisions.
In theory, the Jonin Council was the village's highest formal authority.
Even the Hokage was, on paper, elected by the jonin class.
But theory and reality had never truly been the same thing.
The First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, had founded the village. No one elected him—he was the obvious center around which everything formed.
The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, had naturally inherited the position from his elder brother. There had never been any meaningful question of choice.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had been personally appointed by Tobirama on the battlefield. The jonin had not been consulted then either.
It was only when the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, rose to power that the Jonin Council had formally exercised its function. On the surface, they had chosen Minato over Orochimaru.
But even that decision had ultimately aligned with the will of the Third Hokage.
So yes, on paper the jonin class held tremendous authority.
In reality, Konoha's true power still rested in the hands of the Hokage and his advisors.
Even someone like Nara Shikaku, the jonin commander, likely did not know the full truth about Itachi Uchiha being a spy.
If Shikaku did not know, then ordinary jonin members certainly would not.
That was the level of secrecy involved.
And that was why Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai could only watch everything from the outside, seeing fragments but never the whole picture.
After Itachi and Kisame withdrew, the group could not help but let out a long breath of relief.
Only once the danger had completely passed did they realize how much pressure had been hanging over them the whole time.
The video ended there.
But the weight it left behind did not fade so easily.
For Kakashi, it was the terrifying scale of Akatsuki.
For Sasuke, it was the growing realization that Naruto—annoying, loud, foolish Naruto—might be tied to secrets far greater than he had ever imagined.
And for both of them, one fact had become impossible to ignore.
The world ahead was far deeper, darker, and more dangerous than anything they had ever been taught.