Awakening

Kakashi as bait?

Uchiha Kei furrowed his brow. It was indeed a good plan.

Kakashi was incredibly famous, and his strength was no joke. Using his chakra to create Shadow Clones and lure the enemy wouldn't be difficult.

So if he went to act as bait and drew the Iwa Ninja forces' attention, reinforcements would inevitably be sent.

That would give them a chance, with Hyuga Aya's help, to quickly choose a breakthrough point and reach Kannabi Bridge to complete the mission before Kakashi was captured or killed!

But the odds of dying were far too high. It was practically a suicide mission!

Uchiha Kei gave Kakashi a serious look. He suddenly realized that he really couldn't compare with him. Kakashi possessed a level of "caliber" that Uchiha Kei simply didn't have.

At first, Uchiha Kei hadn't understood what "caliber" meant in this world. It had been mentioned frequently in the early parts of Naruto, but hardly ever afterward. Now, though, he thought he was beginning to understand.

It was a kind of spirit, a sort of mettle.

The future Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, had sealed the Nine-Tails Fox inside his own son. With his intelligence, how could he not have foreseen what Naruto might face in the future?

Perhaps he'd simply had no other choice—both he and his wife, Kushina, were going to die, and Naruto, as a descendant of the Uzumaki Clan, might have been the most suitable vessel.

Of course, there was another possibility: perhaps it had all been part of a plan he'd laid in his final moments!

That way, he'd left Naruto not only the means to survive, but also a trial that would help him grow stronger in the future.

If that was the case, Uzumaki Naruto had been no more than a newborn when the Fourth Hokage had made such a calculated and ruthless choice. No wonder Jiraiya had said he was the most broad-minded of all the Hokage.

Of course, that was just a conspiracy theory. Since arriving in this world, Uchiha Kei had grown used to thinking that way. Besides, if anyone's "caliber" could be called terrifying, surely it was Uchiha Itachi's.

For Konoha, he could work with the ambitious Danzo and the Akatsuki, whose members might not even be human.

To preserve the last of his clan's bloodline—his younger brother—he could resolutely abandon the clan, which was doomed to lose in the coming coup.

He could even kill every member of his clan, including his own parents, then coldly and calmly bear all the blame.

To spur his younger brother to grow stronger, he could use the most brutal methods to torment, provoke, and hurt the person he loved most, personally turning him into someone consumed by hatred—and making him hate Itachi most of all. He even gave his brother the perfect reason to kill him and awaken the Mangekyo.

To help his younger brother grow quickly, he could watch as he went to Orochimaru, who wanted to take over his body, and raced against death.

He could imagine his younger brother's remorse and despair after learning the truth upon killing him. Yet, to give him strength, Itachi bore everything in silence and never said a word, even as he died.

To let his younger brother return to Konoha with honor, he had even prepared to make his own death his brother's glory, giving him a chance to return to the village.

And to ensure everything went according to plan, he could even hide Shisui's Mangekyo inside Uzumaki Naruto. If Sasuke gained Itachi's eyes and met Naruto's gaze, Kotoamatsukami would be triggered!

He knew that once his younger brother learned the truth, someone might manipulate and exploit him. To ensure his safety, Itachi had also hidden Amaterasu in his brother's eyes.

If not for a series of coincidences, and Uchiha Obito's interference, Itachi's plan would have been perfect.

Though Uchiha Kei was a Uchiha and hated Itachi—he even thought there was something wrong with his head—he couldn't help but admire how ruthless the man was. At least Uchiha Kei still considered himself human. Uchiha Itachi barely seemed human at all.

Uchiha Kei didn't need Itachi's kind of "caliber." He wasn't a lunatic.

And now, Kakashi was showing a frightening kind of "caliber" too. He was willing to face death without a flicker of emotion if it meant completing the mission.

Maybe it was for the village. Maybe it was an act of atonement. Whatever the reason, this kind of resolve, unlike anyone else's, truly shook Uchiha Kei.

Uchiha Kei fell silent, thinking through whether the plan could work. By then, Kakashi had already placed Namikaze Minato's Kunai in Uchiha Kei's hand.

"My teacher said to use this in the most desperate moment, because the front lines... So, I'm leaving Rin in your hands." Kakashi's voice was calm, almost detached. "Don't let Rin get hurt. I'm counting on you, Kei-kun."

"Kakashi! Don't!" Rin had recovered from the shock of Kakashi's proposal and cried out almost hysterically.

"I'm sorry, Rin. I have a mission I need to complete, too." Kakashi looked at Rin calmly. "I might not be able to protect you anymore, but you have to survive. That's my final wish."

"I understand, Kakashi." Uchiha Kei put away the Kunai and nodded. "I'll find a way to protect her. If it comes down to it, I'll have Minato Jonin take her away."

Perhaps reassured by Uchiha Kei's promise, Kakashi's eyes narrowed into crescents. Then he left the cave.

Hyuga Aya hadn't concealed anything during her earlier reconnaissance, so Kakashi knew which direction had the fewest guards. Even if he knew it was probably a trap, he still had to go!

Uchiha Kei watched Kakashi's retreating figure in silence. Then he looked down at the Kunai in his hand, his gaze growing distant.

If Kakashi went to his death and succeeded, that would naturally be a good outcome.

Uchiha Kei liked Kakashi as a character, but that didn't mean his fondness outweighed Kakashi's life. He would regret Kakashi's death, of course, but it was still better than dying himself, wasn't it?

Still, Uchiha Kei couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. If they could come up with this plan, surely the Iwa Ninja could, too.

Or perhaps the Iwa Ninja had deliberately set things up this way, with something even more terrifying waiting for them afterward?

At that thought, Uchiha Kei picked up the map and studied it.

He was grateful that, in his previous life, he'd been a humanities student. He'd studied that damn subject called geography, so he could make sense of the map. Before long, Uchiha Kei raised his head.

He had no clue at all. The map was still the same old mess—so crude that it didn't even clearly mark many of the smaller forks in the road.

At that, Uchiha Kei's expression darkened. He made a decision that chilled even him. "Everyone, get ready to move out. We're following Kakashi."

"Following Kakashi?" Hyuga Aya and Imai Kenta were both dumbfounded. "Are you crazy? He's going to act as bait. That's his choice. Are you planning to break through head-on?"

"Are you stupid, or am I?" Uchiha Kei sneered at Hyuga Aya. "If we could think of this plan, what about the Iwa Ninja? Don't assume their current strategy is stupid. They simply misjudged the Kumogakure's desire for revenge and Konoha's resolve to resist! They deliberately left this opening for us. They must have guessed something, so I have a plan."

"A plan? A plan to get us killed?"

"Do you want me to kill you right now? You have only two choices: obey, or go join your dead clanmates."