Land of Fire. Hidden Leaf Village. Within the Hatake clan compound.
Hatake Kakashi stared at the diary on the table in front of him, deep in thought.
On the cover, in plain handwriting, were the words: Kaede Kitahara's Diary (Hatake Kakashi Copy).
The diary had literally fallen from the sky and landed right on his desk. That alone had put him on edge for quite a while. He'd checked every inch of it, inside and out, looking for traps or traces of a jutsu. Nothing.
And this was the Hatake clan compound. Even if he was the only true clansman left, there were still distant relatives with Hatake blood living nearby. There was no way an ordinary person could ss with anything under the nose of Konoha's Number One Technician.
After all, that title wasn't for show. He was one of the top-tier ninja beneath the Kage themselves.
Once he confird it wasn't poisoned, he opened the diary.
It really was just… a diary. But the contents were strange.
Year 63 of Konoha. May 1. Clear skies.
[Heading out to wipe out so bandits.]
May 2. Clear skies.
[What kind of ssed-up world is this? I've never killed anything—not even a chicken. Today I killed several bandits. Then again, they were absolute scum.]
May 3. Clear skies.
[Nothing unexpected on the way back.]
May 4. Cloudy.
[Finally made it back to the Leaf. I can finally unclench a little.]
May 5. Clear skies.
[Nothing today. Training at ho.]
May 6. Showers.
[Nothing today. Training at ho.]
May 7. Clear skies.
[Nothing today. Continuing training.]
May 8. Cloudy.
[Finished a C-rank mission today. Exhausted.]
Up until this point, it was just daily life—mundane chores, training, mission notes. Kakashi frowned. It looked like the diary of so Leaf shinobi nad Kaede Kitahara, casually jotting down the little things.
But daily journaling wasn't sothing shinobi did often, especially not every day. A diary could leak dangerous intel, and information was everything in their line of work.
Then he reached the next entry, and his expression tightened.
May 9. Clear skies.
[Passed by the Academy today. Saw the infamous Naruto Uzumaki. He's really completely ostracized. A fox demon? Please. The villagers are idiots. Pathetic.
Still, I didn't dare approach him. Who knows if an Anbu would drop out of nowhere and arrest . I'm just an ordinary chunin. If this were warti, I'd be cannon fodder.]
Kakashi suddenly sat up straight.
Of course he knew who Naruto Uzumaki was. His sensei's son. The child who carried the Nine-Tails sealed within him.
But how did this Kaede Kitahara know that?
Only a handful of the highest officials in Konoha knew Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's posthumous child. Kakashi himself knew because he had been the Fourth's student.
And even fewer people knew about the sealing of the Nine-Tails. Most villagers only believed Naruto was so sort of fox demon incarnate, assuming he was literally the giant Nine-Tails that destroyed the village twelve years ago.
Even most shinobi didn't know the truth.
But from the way Kaede Kitahara wrote… he clearly knew sothing.
Kaede Kitahara. Chunin.
Kakashi was sure he had no mory of any chunin by that na.
To be fair, there were countless Leaf shinobi. He didn't even recognize every jonin, much less the chunin.
Only those who'd made a na for themselves were widely known. Even among jonin, that was rare.
A cold suspicion crept into his heart. Was this Kaede Kitahara a spy from another village?
His first instinct was to go find the man imdiately. But the mont that thought surfaced, a crushing, invisible pressure slamd down on him.
Every instinct scread that if he took even one step toward that idea, he would die—instantly, and without leaving a corpse.
Kakashi forced the thought away and swallowed hard.
Soone was watching him. Or sothing.
He imdiately activated a sensory jutsu to scan the area.
He wasn't a dedicated sensor-type, but as Konoha's Number One Technician, he knew a few sensory techniques. They just weren't as precise or far-reaching as a true sensor's abilities.
But even with his limited range… he sensed no one.
No one at all.
Was there really soone out there who could hide like this?
Impossible. Even the Hokage couldn't do sothing this silent, this absolute—and certainly not read his thoughts.
No, he had to figure out who Kaede Kitahara really was.
Only one thing was clear: as long as he didn't think about confronting Kaede Kitahara directly, the pressure didn't return.
Which ant he could try indirect thods—like requesting Kaede Kitahara's personnel file. That seed safe enough.
But if such a terrifying being truly existed… what was their goal?
They clearly didn't plan to protect Kaede Kitahara's secrets. They'd even exposed this diary on purpose.
Why?
There were too many mysteries, and Kakashi didn't have answers.
He flipped to the final entry.
May 10. Clear skies.
[Picked up a mission and headed ho. Saw Hatake 50/50 from a distance. First ti seeing this legendary Leaf technician in person. Among everyone below Kage-level, he's one of the top fighters. Too bad that after Shippuden, power levels get ridiculous. This world is basically an eye-specialist fantasy. Without a Kekkei Genkai, you're nobody.]
Hatake 50/50?
?
Kakashi blinked. At first he wondered if there really was soone in the Hatake clan with that na. Sure, he was the only true clansman left, but there were distant relatives.
Then he read the rest. "Leaf technician." That was obviously referring to him.
But since when did he have the nickna Hatake 50/50?
And what was "Shippuden"? What did "eye-specialist fantasy" even an? Without bloodlines you're nothing?
He knew "bloodline" referred to Kekkei Genkai. But who said you were nothing without one?
His father had no Kekkei Genkai, yet carved his way into legend as the White Fang of Konoha. Kakashi himself had earned the title of Konoha's Number One Technician.
This world did have powerful Kekkei Genkai users, sure. They started with advantages, but they weren't unbeatable.
He'd never had a Kekkei Genkai, and he'd still been at the top of his class all his life. Among those he left behind were plenty of clan heirs—so from the strongest bloodline families.
The Uchiha. The Hyuga. And many others.
Most of them were no match for him.
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