Manji raised his hand.
An invisible force instantly enveloped the entire room.
Hatake Sakumo's body stiffened abruptly. He tried to move, but found that his hands and feet completely refused to obey him.
The hilt of the blade slowly and autonomously moved close to his palm.
The tip of the blade slowly rose, aiming straight at his own chest.
Sakumo's eyes widened to the limit, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
He desperately tried to lower the blade, but his arms were fixed as firmly as if clamped in iron shackles.
The blade-tip inched closer and closer to his chest.
Just as the edge was about to pierce him, Sakumo used his last remaining ounce of strength to cry out.
"Wait! I have something to say!"
Hatake Sakumo shouted.
Manji's movement paused slightly.
He was not an inflexible man.
He possessed absolute power, and hearing a few more words wouldn't change anything.
So he spoke indifferently, "Speak."
Sakumo's tears burst forth instantly.
"I really don't want to die... I can't let go of Kakashi. He just learned to speak, and he clings to me every single day. If I die, what will happen to him?"
"Who will make him meals? Who will teach him to hold a kunai?"
"Those people in the village cursing me, pasting notes, spitting—I could endure all of that."
"But Kakashi is still young. He doesn't understand anything. If I die, everything he hears in the future will be 'your father is a coward,' 'your father abandoned his mission.'"
"What will he think of himself?"
"My biggest wish when I crossed over was to change the ending of the original work."
"I don't want Kakashi to lose his father at a tender age like in the original, becoming silent, paranoid, and valuing rules above everything else."