In the illusion, Hatake Sakumo knelt on both knees, his expression unusually grave, as if he were confessing to something.
Then the voices of the villagers of Konoha began to ring out.
What good was kneeling here to confess? It was because Hatake Sakumo had made the wrong choice during a mission that this top-secret mission, one that had surpassed S-rank, had ended in failure. Our Konoha had suffered immeasurable losses, too.
Exactly. Konoha's White Fang? A warrior at the level of a Super Kage? He was nothing but a useless failure who couldn't even complete a mission.
You sinner who failed to uphold the Will of Fire! You should take your own life to atone!
Seeing the villagers, who had been so incomprehensible to him at the time, endlessly taunting and berating his father, Kakashi's gaze instantly dimmed.
He remembered that back then, his father, Hatake Sakumo, had paid no attention at all to their criticism.
His father had always held to one belief, and had taught it to him from a young age: comrades who stood by you day in and day out were far more important than cold, unfeeling missions.
But on the day of the incident, when even the comrades he had risked his life to save during that mission began blaming and berating him for its failure, Sakumo's once unshakable resolve finally crumbled.
Kakashi watched as Hatake Sakumo, kneeling in the illusion, slowly drew the chakra short sword that had long made him famous.
Father, don't!
Kakashi shouted in the illusion, tears filling his eyes.
But the short sword known as the White Fang still swiftly slashed open Sakumo's abdomen. In an instant, blood sprayed across the ground.
At that moment, the illusion surrounding Kakashi turned pitch-black.
A pair of enormous Three-Tomoe Sharingan suddenly appeared before him, staring straight at him.
Kakashi, what do you feel after seeing your father die with your own eyes again?
Kakashi quickly wiped away the tears at the corners of his eyes and replied resolutely, "My father's suicide was the inevitable result of his failure to complete the top-secret mission the village had assigned him.
"Although I'm heartbroken, perhaps it was the best choice he could make at the time."
Hatake Sakumo's death had a profound effect on Kakashi, who had been young at the time.
Especially after he was steeped in Hiruzen Sarutobi's Will of Fire for years, he firmly held to the principle that Konoha's interests always came before everything else.
So when he became a ninja and faced a difficult choice, he always put the mission first.
"Heh heh. Kakashi, you really are a cold-hearted person. What do you make of the next scene?"
The images within the illusion immediately shifted at high speed.
The Battle of Kannabi Bridge.
Kakashi and Obito charged straight into the Rock ninja's hideout and rescued Rin, who had been captured.
The despicable Rock ninja immediately used Earth Style to try to collapse the cave.
As the three made their way out, Kakashi was struck by falling rocks. Obito turned back to save him, only to be pinned beneath a massive boulder.
The boulder crushed the entire right side of his body.
Kakashi's pupils abruptly contracted when he saw this.
In an instant, a searing pain surged through the right side of his body, nearly making him faint.
It was as if Kakashi could feel, within the illusion, the pain Obito had experienced when the boulder crushed the right side of his body.
"Kakashi, I think people who break the rules of the ninja are trash. But people who don't know how to value their comrades are even worse than trash!"
Obito said firmly, weak though he was in the illusion.
"Obito, I..."
Kakashi immediately choked up. He didn't know what to say.
Obito continued, his voice indifferent. "Then why didn't you listen to me and rescue Rin first?
"If you hadn't argued with me so stubbornly about completing the mission, we might have rescued Rin already. Then I wouldn't have been trapped beneath this boulder.
"This is all your fault. Your selfishness killed me."
"You killed me."
"You killed me."
Obito's resentful voice continued echoing in Kakashi's mind.
"Ah!"
Overwhelmed by guilt and regret toward Obito, Kakashi let out a painful cry in the real world.
Thud.
Then he fell to his knees, and the intense, lifelike pain in the right side of his body left him drenched in sweat.
Meanwhile, Lin Fan hadn't been idle. He immediately freed Naruto and Sasuke.
"What happened to Kakashi-sensei? What just happened?"
Seeing Kakashi kneeling with a look of remorse, Naruto asked in confusion.
"He must have been caught in a genjutsu. And Lin Fan, what's going on with your eyes?
"Why are you two the ones who have the kekkei genkai passed down through the Uchiha Clan?"
Sasuke looked at Lin Fan's now scarlet eyes, a thick murderous intent already rising within him.
"I think I must have Uchiha blood. But right now, isn't it more important to take the bells from Kakashi-sensei's waist?"
Lin Fan casually brushed him off.
Sasuke felt that Lin Fan's explanation made sense.
After all, when he was little, he had heard his father, Fugaku, mention that he had an aunt who had died a heroic death protecting Konoha during the Nine-Tails Rebellion.
He had also seen a photograph of his aunt, and she did look a lot like Lin Fan.
Then Lin Fan stopped paying attention to Sasuke and Naruto and went straight toward Kakashi, ready to take the bells from his waist.
But the moment his fingertip touched a bell, a large hand clamped tightly around his wrist.
"Heh heh... not bad, kid. Your genjutsu is really impressive. You kept me in there for quite a while."
After managing to finish speaking, Kakashi opened his scarlet eyes once more.
Then he began panting heavily.
The steps for dispelling this Memory Illusion were quite complicated.
It had taken a great deal of chakra for him to break free.
Now he had less than a tenth of his original chakra left.
If he'd known Lin Fan would be this troublesome, he wouldn't have stayed up last night reading My Neighbor's Aunt.
So Kakashi immediately decided to use what little chakra he had left to finish Lin Fan off quickly.
Unexpectedly, Lin Fan just smiled. "Kakashi-sensei, didn't you just teach us that a ninja shouldn't leave his back exposed to the enemy and give them an opening?"
Kakashi saw a puff of white smoke drift past him.
Lin Fan vanished in an instant.
"What's this?"
"Clone Technique!"
Just as Kakashi was reeling in shock, he heard a sound behind him, near his feet. An arm suddenly burst out of the earth.
Earth Style: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique!
After emerging from underground, Lin Fan reached to grab Kakashi by the ankle, intending to drag him below the surface.
At this crucial moment, Kakashi didn't care that he had little chakra left.
Instinctively, he brought his hands together and began rapidly forming Hand Seals.
"Dragon, Snake, Ram..."
Earth Style: Earth Wall!
Kakashi slapped the ground. A wall of earth adorned with four dog heads shot up from the spot where Lin Fan had emerged.
Boom.
Lin Fan, thrust up from underground by the earthen wall, vanished once again in a puff of white smoke.
"Another clone?"
Kakashi, already drained to the point of exhaustion, was instantly stunned.
Even with his Sharingan, he could barely distinguish Lin Fan's clones by their precision.