Kakashi Came Chasing After Them—Is Your Head Full of Water?

Land of Earth, border negotiation zone.

Yellow sand filled the sky. The wind carried coarse grit that struck their faces with a faint sting.

Kakashi stood before the checkpoint with three Leaf Village Anbu, as motionless as statues.

More than half a month had passed since the Night of the Nine-Tails.

During those past two weeks, he had traveled day and night, barely closing his eyes.

The Sharingan that had belonged to Obito was bloodshot, and beneath his mask, his face was pale as paper.

When he received this mission, his mind had gone completely blank.

Minato-sensei wasn't dead? And he had even defected with the Uchiha Clan?!

It was more absurd than the sky falling.

"Captain Kakashi, will they come?"

One of the Anbu beside him gripped his ninja blade uneasily.

Facing the man who was about to arrive—and perhaps the entire ninja world's foremost clan—the few of them were simply nowhere near enough.

"They'll come."

Kakashi took a deep breath and suppressed the irritation in his heart.

"Sensei... he would never abandon the village."

Just then.

The sandstorm ahead suddenly froze for an instant.

Three figures slowly emerged from the endless yellow sands as though they were taking a leisurely stroll.

At the front was a young Uchiha man in a black trench coat.

His hands were tucked into his pockets, his posture casual, and his black eyes as cold as ice.

Uchiha Yoru.

Behind him, that familiar flash of gold instantly shattered every last one of Kakashi's mental defenses.

"Minato-sensei!"

Kakashi abruptly stepped forward. His voice trembled so badly that he even forgot to use his Anbu codename.

He stared fixedly at Minato Namikaze.

He was neither missing an arm nor a leg, and his complexion was even rosier than when he had been in Leaf Village.

Kushina, holding his hand beside him, watched Kakashi's group with wary eyes.

He really wasn't dead.

Kakashi's eyes reddened at once.

The wild joy of recovering what he had lost nearly made him rush forward and embrace his teacher.

But Minato was no longer wearing that white Hokage robe embroidered with "Fourth Hokage."

Instead, he wore a plain gray outer garment without any insignia.

"Kakashi, it's been a long time."

Minato stopped and looked at his haggard disciple, his gaze complicated.

"Sensei, why are you doing this?!"

Kakashi could no longer hold himself back. He tore off his mask, revealing his exhausted face.

"The village has just suffered a catastrophe. There are injured people and ruins everywhere!"

"The civilians have been displaced, and they're all waiting for you to return and take charge!"

There was deep pleading in Kakashi's voice, along with a trace of bewildered reproach.

"How could you abandon them, abandon Leaf Village, and come to a place like this?!"

Hearing that.

Yoru could not help letting out a snort of laughter.

His laughter echoed through the empty negotiation zone, especially piercing.

"What are you laughing at?!"

Kakashi whipped around. His Sharingan locked onto Yoru as rage surged within him.

If this Uchiha bastard had not bewitched his teacher, how could things have ended up like this?!

"I'm laughing because you're a hopeless idiot."

Yoru slowly walked in front of Minato and looked down at Kakashi.

"Civilians displaced? That's because that old monkey Hiruzen Sarutobi is incompetent!"

Yoru retorted coldly.

"When the Nine-Tails went berserk, where was your beloved Third Hokage?"

"He was hiding beneath the Hokage Building like a turtle, watching Minato fight the Nine-Tails for his life!"

Kakashi's pupils contracted as he instinctively tried to refute him.

"The Third Hokage had his reasons! He had to protect—"

"Protect his pathetic political power?"

Yoru cut him off without mercy, his tone full of mockery.

"If Minato died, who would benefit the most? Wouldn't it be that old monkey who wanted to play both saint and whore?"

"Shut up!"

Kakashi roared and drew the short blade from his back.

"The Third Hokage did it for the greater good! The Will of Fire tells us that the village is like leaves. Wherever the leaves dance—"

"Stop! Put away that disgusting cult recruitment spiel!"

Yoru looked as though he had heard the greatest joke in the world, his face full of disgust.

"The Will of Fire?"

"Back then, when your father, Hatake Sakumo, gave up a mission to save his comrades and the whole village pointed fingers at him and cursed him, where was the Will of Fire?"

Yoru's gaze instantly turned razor-sharp, like two blades stabbing straight into Kakashi's heart.

"When your father was driven by rumors into committing seppuku at home, where was Hiruzen Sarutobi? Why didn't he come out to preserve the greater good then?"

Boom—!

The words "White Fang."

Were like a bolt of thunder exploding in Kakashi's mind.

His entire body shook violently. Veins bulged on the back of the hand gripping his blade, and he bit his lips until they bled.

This was the deepest scar in his heart, the one he had never dared touch.

Yet Yoru had ripped it open so brutally.

"No... it wasn't like that..."

Kakashi clutched his head in agony, his voice trembling beyond recognition.

"It was for the rules... for Leaf Village..."

"The rules? The rules mean making heroes bleed and weep?!"

Yoru pressed forward step by step, giving him no chance to catch his breath.

"How do you think your father died? Do you really think civilians' spit could drown a Kage-level powerhouse?"

Yoru extended a finger and jabbed it hard into Kakashi's chest.

"The higher-ups allowed those rumors to spread! Hiruzen Sarutobi tacitly approved Danzō's suppression!"

"Because your father's prestige was too great—great enough to threaten that old monkey's rule!"

"So they killed with a borrowed knife, forcing a hero who had made tremendous contributions to Leaf Village to his death!"

Every word pierced the heart.

Every sentence drew blood.

Kakashi was struck as though by lightning. His legs gave out, and with a thud, he fell to his knees in the sand.

The borrowed Sharingan spun madly, filled with terror and confusion.

"No... this isn't real..."

He desperately shook his head, trying to fling those rebellious words from his mind.

But those details he had deliberately forgotten.

Those indifferent looks the villagers had given him back then.

Those casual words from the higher-ups: "It was his own choice."

Like venomous snakes, they savagely gnawed at the faith he had always taken pride in.

Minato watched his disciple's unbearable pain, and a trace of pity flashed through his eyes as he tried to step forward.

But Yoru stopped him with one hand.

"Don't be soft-hearted, Minato."

Yoru coldly looked at Kakashi, who lay on the ground like a heap of mud.

"For a broken tool that has been brainwashed this badly, if you don't smash his bones completely, he'll never stand again for the rest of his life."

Yoru crouched down, grabbed Kakashi by the collar, and forcibly lifted him up.

He stared straight into that Sharingan.

"Kakashi, your Sharingan was borrowed. Was your brain borrowed too?"

Yoru's voice was cold enough to freeze, each word deliberate.

"Today, I'll let you see exactly what kind of filthy garbage dump the Leaf Village you've devoted yourself to really is!"