[July 6, sunny. I took a D-rank mission to find a kitty today. With the Sharingan helping me, it really was much easier.]
[July 7, overcast. A day of training.]
[July 8, sunny. Took a low-rank mission. Saving money, saving money, and more saving money?]
At home, Sasuke Uchiha sighed helplessly as he read the useless information in the Diary.
He had learned the writer's identity the day before yesterday. His name was Luo Mang, a complete nobody in their class, with no particular strengths and barely any presence. If Iruka hadn't announced the next day that someone had dropped out, probably no one except little Hinata would have noticed.
"Nothing useful at all. He has such a special ability and even awakened the Sharingan, yet he's still running around trying to make money."
Sasuke Uchiha propped his elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand. The other boy was saving money, so he must be pretty poor. As a fellow clansman, should Sasuke help him out?
Elsewhere, at the Hatake Compound.
Kakashi stared at the Diary with his usual dead-fish eyes, waiting for that evening's entry.
"I wonder if my guess was right?"
Kakashi had noticed a pattern. Under normal circumstances, the writer would only jot down the day's weather and what he had done, without mentioning anything else.
Unless he met someone famous, such as Sasuke Uchiha or Naruto Uzumaki. Then he might mention a few useful details in passing.
So Kakashi had put himself into the picture. Today, he had deliberately sought out an encounter so the writer would see him, hoping to find out whether he could draw out any useful information.
As he pondered this, the Diary began to glow.
[July 9, sunny again today. Still doing missions. I never expected to run into Konoha's Copy Ninja while picking up a mission. Same dead-fish eyes as always. I wonder if reading New Hot Paradise has fried his brain.]
"How rude!"
The corner of his mouth twitched beneath his mask as he grumbled through gritted teeth. If that boy really were his student, he would have to give him a spanking!
[But probably no one would expect a guy who looks kind of weak to hold his own against just about anyone. What really cemented his Copy Ninja nickname was Pain's invasion of Konoha. Although he died in the end, he really did manage to hold the enemy off.]
Kakashi Hatake: ???
"Pain's invasion? I died?"
For a moment, Kakashi froze at the news that he would die.
After a brief daze, he quickly took out a sheet of paper, ready to record and analyze the Diary's information. If he could piece together these scattered clues ahead of time and report them to the Hokage so they could take precautions, perhaps he wouldn't have to die?
The first thing he wrote on the paper was a name: Pain. He had never heard of a powerful figure called Pain in the Shinobi World. Perhaps the man would only become famous later. He would start there.
[Whoa, what the...]
Kakashi was speechless when he saw that. Write the intel! You're putting this stuff in your diary instead? What the what?
Of course, that wasn't Luo Mang's fault!
When he had written Pain's name just now, a prompt had suddenly appeared, telling him he could record scenes from his memories in the Diary!
Putting videos in a diary-wasn't that a little weird?
If he hadn't written "what the," he would have written "holy shit"!
"There isn't some catch to this, is there?"
Looking at the newly added feature, Luo Mang couldn't help feeling suspicious for a moment. But it remained only a suspicion. After all, he had been writing in the diary for so long without noticing anything unusual.
Whatever. A video could substitute for padding out the word count anyway, so he could take a break.
[Video.]
The three people secretly reading the Diary were puzzled by the new icon that appeared in it. They instinctively tapped it, and their consciousness seemed to be sucked inside.
[Video playing.
Bang!
A cloud of white smoke dissipated, and the Six Paths of Pain appeared directly in the center of Konoha through the Reverse Summoning Technique.
Six figures, six pairs of Rinnegan, all staring straight ahead. Their expressionless faces were frighteningly cold.]
Gulp.
Sasuke Uchiha swallowed. Why did opening the video make him feel as if he were actually there, standing beside them and facing these powerful enemies in person?
Those Rinnegan stared straight at him. His legs trembled involuntarily, and his mouth fell open in shock.
At last, he forced his question out of his throat.
"Just how powerful are these people?!"
The video continued.
[At a command from the Deva Path, all six instantly scattered.
The Animal Path formed hand seals and summoned several summoning beasts, which destroyed Konoha's houses on a massive scale. The Asura Path kept the other powerful fighters occupied according to their earlier plan.
The Naraka Path and the Human Path were responsible for gathering information.
The Human Path casually grabbed someone by the head and began searching through their memories. "No information about the Nine-Tails!" With that, the Human Path pulled out their soul.
A deathly stillness hung over Konoha, as though the end of the world had arrived.
Their leader, the Deva Path, walked down the street and spotted Iruka treating the wounded ahead. Without a trace of mercy, he asked coldly, "Where is the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki? Tell me or die!"
Iruka stubbornly refused to answer. The Deva Path mercilessly raised the Black Rod in his hand and thrust it at him!
Smack!
Kakashi arrived to save him, his mask already removed to reveal the Sharingan in his scarred eye.
After a few brief taunts, the fight began. The Deva Path struck first, aiming an upward kick at Kakashi's head. Kakashi easily bent down to dodge, leaped backward, and clapped his hands together. "Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
A sturdy wall suddenly rose, knocking the Deva Path off balance. As his footing slipped and he was about to fall, he drove his Black Rod into Kakashi's body.
Lightning instantly sprang up around Kakashi's hand, but in the next moment, white light flashed over the Deva Path's body.
Bang!
Kakashi was hurled away, ninjutsu and all!]
Watching through his consciousness, Kakashi felt his pupils contract. A fine sheen of sweat had already appeared on his forehead as an immense pressure settled over him.
"What kind of ability is that?!"
Both physical attacks and ninjutsu had been repelled. Even the person himself had been sent flying!
He had never heard of such an ability. The pressure instantly mounted, and even his dead-fish eyes widened. He had to figure out how to counter it. If these people really invaded the village, the losses would be devastating!
[On-screen.
Kakashi was already at a disadvantage when the Asura Path arrived, leaping down from a rock and kicking up clouds of white dust as he stared at Kakashi with keen interest!
"Hah!" The Asura Path charged straight in. Kakashi exchanged blows with him, using his Sharingan to search for an opening. He successfully found a blind spot and prepared to blow apart his opponent's head with Lightning Blade!
Whoosh! With a duck of his head, the Asura Path successfully avoided the fatal attack. Kakashi stared at the Deva Path ahead in disbelief.]
"Shared Vision!"
In the real world, Kakashi immediately recorded that theory on the paper as well. So far, he had written down Pain, six invaders, the strange ability to repel jutsu, and now Shared Vision!
[Then the Deva Path used Banshō Ten'in to pull Kakashi toward him, working with the Asura Path to kill him. In the end, it was only a shadow clone. The real Kakashi successfully joined up with Choji and his father, who had arrived to help.]
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