After the video ended, Hatake Kakashi fell into deep thought. A sheet of paper in his hand was filled with notes he had written while watching. The faintest ink was better than the best memory.
An adult's appearance could remain largely unchanged for many years, but children were different. Judging from Second Pillar's situation in the video, this must have happened less than a year from now.
In other words, he would soon come face-to-face with Uchiha Itachi.
The gap in Dojutsu Power between himself and Uchiha Itachi was obvious. Even with his Sharingan activated, he had been instantly dragged into that Tsukuyomi Space and tortured for three whole days. No, perhaps it had been far more than three days.
What a headache!
In the past, others had needed to be wary of his Sharingan. Now, it was his turn to be wary of someone else's Sharingan. His experience was still far too limited.
Ultimately, after obtaining the Sharingan, he had never truly fought a powerful Sharingan user.
Or rather, according to the information he could find, his use of the Sharingan would have made him outstanding even within the Uchiha Clan. But Uchiha Itachi was an existence beyond all normal standards.
After all, he was someone who had slaughtered his entire clan by himself.
Was the Mangekyō Sharingan really that powerful?
Could it truly be so much stronger than an ordinary Sharingan?
Hatake Kakashi decided that he would find a way to look through the Archives for information on the Mangekyō Sharingan. With his authority, there were many things he could not access, but there were also many things he could. He simply had never thought to investigate them before.
After all, there were barely any Sharingan left in circulation. Looking into it would have been pointless.
Also, Uchiha Itachi's attitude was strange. He had had countless opportunities to kill him, yet let him go every time. Especially at the end, he had not allowed Kisame to kill him, instead having him take Kakashi away.
What did that mean?
On one hand, it further confirmed Kakashi's suspicion. Uchiha Itachi had shown him mercy and had seemingly passed along information.
He underlined the word "seemingly" twice, because even he felt that this idea was rather bold.
Would an S-rank Rogue Ninja who had killed his entire clan pass information to a Konoha Ninja?
That seemed somewhat impossible.
Yet he could not shake that feeling.
On the other hand, it also confirmed another of Hatake Kakashi's suspicions. From that brief glimpse, Uchiha Itachi's combat strength was clearly far beyond his own as an Elite Jonin. He had likely already firmly entered the Kage Level.
And his partner, Kisame Hoshigaki, who seemed to obey him in everything, was likely not merely an ordinary Elite Jonin either. Otherwise, Uchiha Itachi would not have had him take Kakashi away while dealing with both Asuma and Kurenai.
Even if those two were not as strong as Kakashi, they were unquestionably Elite Jonin.
That meant Kisame Hoshigaki was highly likely to possess Kage Level strength.
But if that was true, it would lead to the most terrifying possibility.
If the three currently known members of Akatsuki—Orochimaru, Uchiha Itachi, and Kisame Hoshigaki—were all Kage Level existences, then the organization's upper limit was far more terrifying than he had imagined.
It meant its baseline was not Elite Jonin, but perhaps every member was Kage Level?
At that thought, Hatake Kakashi sharply sucked in a breath. If that were true, then things were truly in serious trouble.
Such a lineup would be enough to suppress any ninja village in the current Shinobi World.
Perhaps only Konoha at its strongest, aside from the era of the First Hokage, could contend with it.
Back then, Konoha had a Kage Level group of higher-ups led by the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. It also had his father, the White Fang of Konoha, Hatake Sakumo; his teacher, the Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze; the Legendary Sannin; and a whole host of other Kage Level experts.
Konoha had been unbelievably powerful then. Even while dealing with multiple fronts at once, it could still emerge victorious.
The current Konoha was far weaker than it had been then. Even Orochimaru dared to openly prepare something like the Konoha Collapse Plan.
Even more terrifyingly, if the organization's members were all Kage Level at minimum, then who was their leader?
It was no ordinary person who could make so many Kage Level experts bow their heads in submission.
Hatake Kakashi vaguely felt that he had begun to touch upon the truth of this world.
At the same time, the last trace of doubt he had held toward Kitahara Kaede's Diary vanished without a trace.
The contents of those two videos had not happened yet, but they matched his understanding of himself very well.
It seemed it was time to learn from Might Guy how to judge an opponent's movements by observing only their feet. Or perhaps, without looking into their eyes, he could judge their actions through movements of their shoulders and the like.
After all, the Sharingan's Genjutsu had one defining trait: it needed the eyes as a medium.
With that thought, Hatake Kakashi immediately burned the sheet of paper to ashes with the lamp flame. None of what was recorded on it could be leaked outside. Not a single bit.
Meanwhile, Second Pillar stared fixedly at the Diary. Only after confirming there was no further content did he finally give up.
The Diary that had suddenly appeared today had given him a series of pieces of information that he could not possibly have known at this point.
For example, after he passed the Ninja Academy's assessment soon, his assigned Jonin instructor would be Hatake Kakashi, Konoha's Number One Technician.
For example, Uchiha Itachi would soon return to Konoha.
In the past, he would certainly have tried every possible means to kill Uchiha Itachi. But now, that desire had weakened considerably, because he had witnessed Uchiha Itachi's strength.
He was not afraid of death. If dying could kill Uchiha Itachi, he could die immediately.
But the gap between his strength and Uchiha Itachi's was far too great. Hatake Kakashi was already much stronger than him, yet he had still been instantly defeated by Uchiha Itachi in a single move. If it were Sasuke, Uchiha Itachi might be able to kill him easily without even using Tsukuyomi.
He would not rashly throw his life away. He had to find a method that could truly kill Uchiha Itachi.
Now, it seemed that merely training under Hatake Kakashi would not be enough. Should he consider seeking refuge with Orochimaru?
But that was a choice of last resort, because Orochimaru undoubtedly harbored ill intentions.
Yet Hatake Kakashi, who was capable, willing, and bore no ill will toward him, did not have the strength to defeat Uchiha Itachi.
Where exactly did the true gap lie?
Was it in those Mangekyō Sharingan?
Could he only defeat him by obtaining those eyes?
And he knew the price of obtaining those eyes. He was not completely ignorant of it.
Did he need to kill his closest friend?
Before you continue