Kaede Kitahara appeared directly inside his room.
Unlike when he left, when most of his chakra had been drained, the return trip felt effortless. Even though he had used long-distance Flying Thunder God repeatedly, his own chakra had barely been touched.
All the consumption ca from the Dragon Vein.
And that amount was negligible.
For a chakra source comparable in scale to the Nine-Tails, this was less than a drop in the ocean.
"Son, you've got a friend here to see you."
His mother, Fangko Kitahara, called up from downstairs.
Kaede frowned slightly and headed down.
To his surprise, it was Hatake Kakashi.
That was rare.
Since the Land of Waves mission, they could technically be called friends. But their daily interactions were limited. There was, after all, an age gap.
Kaede was fifteen, still very much a teenager.
Kakashi was approaching middle age.
"Kakashi-senpai, what an honor. Please, have a seat."
Kaede led him into the sitting room and began preparing tea. Part of him, admittedly, wanted to see if Kakashi would remove his mask to drink.
What did Hatake Kakashi actually look like beneath that mask?
It was one of Konoha's great mysteries.
Kakashi studied Kaede for a mont.
He was startled.
This was not the Kaede Kitahara he rembered.
The one he had known always seed tightly wound, like a drawn bowstring ready to snap into battle at any second. It was obvious.
A lack of security.
Even after reaching elite Jonin Level strength, that tension had never faded.
Perhaps the old Kakashi would not have understood.
But now he did.
After reading the diary entries, after seeing ntions of Kage Level, Super Kage Level, alien beings, and more horrors stacked one after another, Kakashi's own psychological profile of Kaede had beco clear.
Extre insecurity.
He had never seen Kaede relaxed. It was always training, training, training.
Yet today, Kaede looked completely at ease.
No tension in his posture.
No urgency in his expression.
He was not even rushing to ask why Kakashi had co. He was calmly making tea.
Kakashi was curious.
But he did not ask.
If it mattered, it would show up in the diary eventually.
At the sa ti, Kaede was observing Kakashi just as carefully.
The contrast was just as shocking.
Normally, Kakashi carried a lazy air about him. A faint sense that whether he lived or died did not matter much. Slouched. Listless. No youthful vitality at all.
But now?
He sat upright like a spear planted firmly in the ground.
His entire being felt like a blade on the verge of leaving its sheath. Subtle, restrained sharpness radiated from him, pricking at Kaede's senses.
What the hell is going on with him? Kaede wondered.
This was nothing like the Kakashi he knew.
Had he been possessed?
Just as Kaede finished brewing the tea and handed it over, Kakashi spoke.
"I'll pass on the tea."
He had clearly sensed the malicious curiosity behind the gesture.
"I ca today because I need to ask you for a favor."
Kaede looked slightly disappointed, but recovered quickly.
"What kind of favor?"
"I'm going into seclusion for about a month to seek a breakthrough. During that ti, I won't be able to lead my team properly. I'd like you to temporarily take over Team 7 for . There's also a mission I'd like to transfer to you."
"You're about to break through?"
Kaede blinked.
He did not rember anything like this in the original tiline.
In his mory, Kakashi's strength had remained relatively stable for years, accumulating experience rather than undergoing dramatic leaps. It was only after awakening Kamui that he truly gained the power to stand in the Fourth Great Ninja War.
And after that war, once Obito's story concluded, Kakashi stepped away from being the Copy Ninja. By then, he had copied enough techniques for a lifeti.
Eventually, he rose naturally to Kage Level and beca Hokage. People joked he was the weakest Hokage, but honestly, could he really be weaker than the Eighth Hokage, Nara Shikamaru?
At least he shook off the "weakest Hokage" label in ti.
But now, Kakashi was talking about a breakthrough.
This did not sound like experinting with Kamui.
It sounded more like… rediscovering the path of Hatake Kenjutsu.
If that were true, would a second White Fang of Konoha appear?
That would be absurd.
Then Kaede rembered Uzumaki nma from the parallel world.
He had long suspected this tiline was not the exact original one.
If it was a parallel tiline, then a Kakashi who walked fully in Hatake Sakumo's footsteps was entirely plausible.
After all, there existed a completely dark version of Naruto in another world.
Once Kaede accepted that possibility, he found himself able to accept almost anything.
If Kakashi truly broke through to Kage Level and completed his Hatake Kenjutsu training, it would be invaluable to Konoha during these unstable tis.
For a major village, the number of Jonin was not the core issue.
How many Kage Level fighters you possessed was.
"Yes," Kakashi said calmly. "My recent training has yielded so results."
He owed that in part to the diary.
Reading it had reignited his sense of crisis.
He realized he had strayed from his true path.
The road worth walking was his father's.
Hatake Sakumo's path.
A short blade cutting through a chaotic world.
With the manual his father left behind, Kakashi felt he had reached a bottleneck.
It was ti.
Once he broke through, even if Orochimaru launched his invasion months later, he would not hesitate.
He would not stand there like the version described in the diary, threatening mutual destruction with Raikiri while Orochimaru ignored him entirely.
That humiliation still stung.
"Congratulations, Kakashi-senpai."
Kaede clasped his hands in respect.
"As compensation for taking over for a month, here's one million ryo."
Kakashi placed a banknote on the table.
For an ordinary Chunin, that would be a staggering sum.
But Kaede was no ordinary Chunin.
He gently pushed it back.
With Gato's steady financial stream, one million ryo ant little to him.
"You're too generous. I'll take care of the team."
"And the mission?"
"I recently accepted a protection assignnt," Kakashi said. "The client is Asama Sandayu, manager of the famous actress Fujikaze Yukie. Our task is to escort her safely to the Land of Snow for filming and ensure her safety throughout."
"Mission rank: B."
"Fujikaze Yukie…"
Kaede's mind clicked.
This was the plot of Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow.
Publicly, Fujikaze Yukie was a celebrated actress.
In truth, she was Kazahana Koyuki, daughter of the forr daimyo of the Land of Snow.
After Kazahana Sosetsu was overthrown by his brother Kazahana Doto, Kakashi had spirited her out during the chaos.
Later, with Team 7's protection, she would return, overthrow her uncle's rule, and reclaim the throne.
The story itself was simple.
It only seed grand because it involved a daimyo.
The Land of Snow lay far north, sparsely populated and remote.
Its internal conflict barely matched the scale of a minor village skirmish back in Kaede's previous life.
The daimyo's forces numbered only in the hundreds at most. The rebel citizens perhaps dozens.
Even Yukigakure was small.
Its strongest ninja still evaluated Kakashi based on his abilities from ten years prior, believing he would lose.
Ten years ago and now were not the sa.
The result was predictable.
A serious Kakashi ended it in one strike.
For Kaede, this mission held little difficulty.
The only thing that intrigued him was the Rainbow Ice Wall.
That place looked extraordinary.
"As far as I know, Fujikaze Yukie, or rather Kazahana Koyuki, is the forr daimyo's daughter. Returning to the Land of Snow now… is that safe?"
He glanced at Kakashi.
The Land of Snow's current regi was actively hunting her. Going back sounded suicidal.
"You already know?"
Kakashi blinked.
Internally, he congratulated himself.
His acting must have been convincing.
In his mind, Kaede probably knew about those events already.
At this point, Kakashi felt there were very few secrets in the world that Kaede Kitahara did not know.
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