"Are you all right? How badly are you hurt?"
"Not badly. Just some superficial wounds."
Uchiha Itachi shook his head, his gaze sweeping over the wounded Konoha ninja sitting or lying around the camp.
Were... these the only ones left...?
A trace of gloom flickered in Uchiha Itachi's eyes, but he still asked the question that concerned him most.
"Captain Kakashi... is there any news?"
Yamato fell silent for a moment, then slowly shook his head.
"No. He might have..."
Yamato did not finish.
Kakashi Hatake might already be dead.
That was the answer everyone understood but left unspoken.
With the Fourth Mizukage, Karatachi Yagura, taking action himself, the Copy Ninja's chances of surviving were infinitely close to zero.
Uchiha Itachi tightened his grip on the Anbu mask in his hand, his knuckles paling slightly.
"Senior Tenzo."
"Yes?"
"What do you think Captain Kakashi was thinking about... at the end?"
Yamato sighed.
"I don't know either..."
While the two were discussing Kakashi Hatake,
the other Konoha ninja nearby were also discussing the renowned "Copy Ninja."
Though saying so was a little unfair to the previous commander of the eastern defense line,
Kakashi Hatake was indeed the most famous and strongest name on the "list of the fallen" in this Kirigakure invasion.
"So Kakashi of the Sharingan died too..."
"What a shame..."
"The White Fang's son ultimately gave his life for the village too..."
"It's all the Third Hokage's fault!"
A wounded Konoha soldier spoke in a low voice.
"If they'd let Lord Minamoto come to the Eastern Front from the start, things would definitely be different now!"
At those words,
the other ninja nearby said nothing, but their eyes revealed the same thought.
The Third Hokage was incompetent, senile, and decrepit!
*The Light of Konoha was in his prime, at