The Blanks in History

"Ahhh!"

Selim's screams rang out across the empty ice field.

Covered in severe burns and suffering from the pain of a severed arm, even a tough man like Selim could not endure such successive agony.

Sashō glanced at Machi's corpse lying on the ground.

"Go find Ming and get treated first."

Sashō spoke to Selim, who would not die for the moment but had lost most of his combat ability.

The five of them were all survivors of the coup from many years ago.

They had endured years of suppression and persecution in Kumogakure, surviving through it all. Yet today, on this ice field, several of them had been cut down in succession by this white-haired brat from Konoha.

"If all five of us die here today, will anyone in Hidden Cloud Village remember the Gold Horn Unit in the future?"

He did not know why such thoughts had come to him at this moment, but Sashō's heart grew even heavier.

"Damn Konoha. Damn white hair."

Muttering to himself, he walked toward the pile of ice burying Kakashi.

"Even if I die, I'll send you off first."

Beneath the ice pile, Kakashi could not put his suffering into words.

His already injured back had taken another heavy blow when he crashed through the iceberg.

Enduring the pain, Kakashi guided the energy within his body toward his wounds. Unexpectedly, he received a pleasant surprise!

The Senjutsu energy within him flowed through the distorted and even damaged meridians in his back.

Deep-blue energy slowly seeped from his meridians, gradually enveloping the injured pathways. Like dead wood soaking in water, it burst into spring in an instant.

The pain immediately lessened noticeably, and the damaged meridians even began to heal. But the Senjutsu energy was also draining at an alarming speed. Seeing this, Kakashi stopped after only a little recovery. He could not afford the expenditure.

He sensed Sashō stop not far away, chakra circulating and gathering within his body.

Knowing Sashō would not risk approaching him again and would instead strike with ninjutsu, Kakashi knew he could not keep hiding. He immediately broke through the ice and fled the place where he had been buried.

Upon seeing Kakashi emerge, Sashō changed the direction of his attack and fired into the air.

"Lightning Release: Thunderclap Spear!"

Two lightning spears shot swiftly toward Kakashi in midair, but the alert Kakashi narrowly dodged them.

To buy himself some time to recover, Kakashi spoke.

"Why has Hidden Cloud Village become the Shimura Clan's lapdog?"

Sashō was somewhat surprised that Kakashi, who had remained silent until now, had suddenly spoken.

Perhaps because his emotions had shifted earlier, Sashō unexpectedly answered him.

"Nothing more than promises from an old era." Even Sashō himself was surprised by his words as he stared at Kakashi's white hair in the distance.

"An old era?" Kakashi had not understood at first, but then he suddenly noticed something. On the bare arms of the middle-aged Hidden Cloud Village ninja before him, a green shuriken was tattooed on his right arm, while the character for gold was tattooed on his left.

Kakashi had not paid much attention before, since many Hidden Cloud Village ninja were fond of tattoos. But combining those markings with Sashō's words, he understood at once.

"Though we're enemies, it's only because we stand on different sides."

As he spoke, Kakashi casually drove his short blade deep into the ice field to his right. Then he pulled a sealing scroll from behind his back, gestured toward it, and opened it. Inside was a recorder.

"Today, only one of us will walk out of this ice field alive. There are truths I want to know even if I die. And I happen to see that you, too, have glory from the past that no one knows about."

Sashō was surprised again. But Kakashi's next words gave him the patience to keep listening.

Click! The recorder started.

"During that ambush twenty years ago, how could the Gold Horn Unit kill the Second Raikage and still manage to keep Konoha's Second Hokage behind?"

Sashō's eyes widened. He had never expected this little brat before him to ask about the suspicious detail deliberately omitted from that long-buried event.

Seeing Sashō hesitate, Kakashi added fuel to the fire at just the right moment.

"The Nine-Tails is in Konoha now. I've come into contact with it, so I know. The Gold Horn Unit was very strong, and Kinkaku and Ginkaku were even underestimated. Later records say they ambushed and killed the Second Raikage, then besieged our Second Hokage. There are too many things that don't add up."

"No! That's not how it was! It was you Konoha ninja who killed Lord Raikage!"

"The so-called later records are nothing but lies made up by those lowly village usurpers to conceal their crimes!"

Those earth-shattering words shocked even Kakashi. It had actually been Konoha ninja who killed the Second Raikage!

"That whole affair was a conspiracy from the very beginning!" The memories stirred, and Sashō simply revealed the truth he had buried in his heart for years. These were dark secrets that even Kanai and the others did not know!

"The Second Raikage and Tobirama Senju followed the wishes of their predecessors and planned to join hands in forming an alliance. If the two strongest villages in the Shinobi World formed an alliance, no one could stand against them. So too many people did not want to see that happen!"

"Knowing this full well, the Second Raikage brought my unit, the village's elite, to the meeting place. But we were ambushed by you Konoha ninja! The Second Raikage was so powerful that he should have reacted in time, but he had been poisoned. Your Konoha ninja ambushed and killed him!"

"No matter the reason, the Second Raikage was killed by you Konoha ninja! The Gold Horn Unit would certainly fight to the death to avenge him! We were originally A's guard unit, so we ambushed Konoha's alliance delegation!"

Kakashi suddenly interrupted.

"Poisoned? Who poisoned him? As far as I know, Konoha did not have anyone capable of poisoning the Second Raikage at that time."

"I still haven't found out who did it, but I have my suspicions. Either the daimyō of the Land of Lightning, or the pro-war Yoruzuki Clan..."

Hearing Sashō expose his own village's shameful secrets, Kakashi fell silent.

"But the Second Hokage had space-time ninjutsu. How could you possibly hold him back?"

"Because... when we besieged Tobirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, who could have escaped... chose to kill himself to atone. After all, it was your Konoha ninja who killed A."

"That man... had white hair like yours and was as fast as a demon... The reason the five of us survived was only because we were as weak as ants back then..."

"The village usurpers you mentioned were the Yoruzuki Clan of Hidden Cloud Village, and the Sarutobi and Shimura Clans of Konoha?"

"Yes. Yoruzuki Shimo even took possession of the divine tools collected by Lord Kinkaku and Lord Ginkaku for himself!" Sashō spoke with hatred at first, then seemed to think of something and gave a contemptuous laugh.

"The Sarutobi and Shimura Clans of your ninja village gave us intelligence when we were pursuing the Konoha forces. They even provided a sealing barrier technique called the Four Red Yang Formation." As he spoke, Sashō lifted his shirt.

A Reverse Four Symbols Seal was clearly visible on his chest.

"Thanks to Shimura Danzō, this sealing technique was the reason I managed to survive until now."

"After Tobirama Senju died, Hidden Cloud Village declared us rogue ninja, and both sides drove us out! Hunted us down! Of the twenty-man unit that set out, only I remained in the end. I was captured and taken to Konoha, branded with this seal, and only then released. The condition was that someday in the future, I would do one thing for the Shimura Clan!"

"Knowing the false faces of those village usurpers, I couldn't just die in Konoha! So many juniors, and the families and descendants of my comrades, still needed my protection."

"Yoruzuki Shimo had only just taken power and did not dare anger Konoha, nor did he dare kill me outright. My existence was proof of their filthy deal! But once the balance between the two sides was broken, or either side decided it no longer feared the truth being exposed, that would be the day I died."

"So I consider myself a remnant of the old era. I should have died in that conspiracy twenty years ago, or in your Konoha death prison."

"Boy from Konoha. What you said—that it was only because we stood on different sides. I agree with it deeply, yet it is also deeply helpless. Knowing I was a blade in my enemy's hand, used to kill, yet having no choice but to fulfill my mission."

"Do you understand?!"

His voice was impassioned, his expression hateful and complicated.

"My father, Hatake Sakumo, the White Fang of the Leaf. His teacher was a member of the Senju Clan, the successor most valued by the Second Hokage. He died without explanation! All these years, my father died with confusion and suspicion, and he too was a blade in someone else's hand."

"Was it... Senju Ken? That imposing man?"

"So he was eliminated in the same way after all...?" Kakashi fell silent.

"Originally, I thought that ambush mission was certain death. Yet I never expected him to be killed by his own teammates. He died completely unguarded..."

"Thank you for telling me this. Come, old man of the old era. I'll give you a promise."

Kakashi slowly pulled out the short blade embedded at an angle in the ice. His aura gradually rose.

Curiosity appeared in Sashō's expression. He wanted to know what this brat before him was about to say.