[In the image, a silver-haired ninja appears with only his right eye visible. His lower face is covered by a mask, and his forehead protector is deliberately pulled down to hide his left eye. Even though the Leaf Village symbol on the headband has been replaced with the character "ninja," who wouldn't recognize the man known for copying thousands of jutsu—the Copy Ninja, Sharingan Kakashi?]
["Third Division Captain of the Allied Shinobi Forces, from Konohagakure—Kakashi Hatake!"]
Sasuke: "Kakashi?!"
Naruto: "Kakashi-sensei!"
A belated Sakura: "Kakashi-sensei? The captain of the Third Division in the Fourth Great Ninja War?! That Kakashi-sensei?!"
Naruto bounced back from Shikamaru's side. "Huh?! Then what about us?! What happened to me, Sakura, and Sasuke?! Don't tell me I already became Hokage, dattebayo?!"
Seeing the hopeful look in Naruto's eyes, Sasuke calmly gave the same answer Gaara had earlier.
"Impossible."
Just three words—short and decisive—were enough to make Naruto want to argue, but Sakura's raised fist scared him into backing down.
"But still, but still!" Naruto stared wide-eyed at the image of their teacher. "Kakashi-sensei really is amazing, dattebayo!"
"Yeah."
"You're right."
[The fourth person to appear in the image was the old man they had seen before—the one who didn't really look like a ninja.]
At that moment, Temari felt her heart skip.
Then the fifth person wouldn't be—
She sneaked a glance at her terrifying younger brother and instinctively rejected the thought.
["Fifth Division Captain, Supreme General of the Land of Iron—Mifune!"]
[Immediately after that came the reality Temari could no longer escape…]
[A pair of tightly wrapped calves appeared in the image. Judging from the curve of the ground, he seemed to be standing right at the center.]
[Shikamaru's voice sounded again, explaining, "And the captain of our Fourth Division, supreme commander of all combat units, and overall commander of the Allied Shinobi Forces—Kazekage Gaara!"]
[Before the words even finished, the face of eighteen-year-old Gaara appeared on screen. A handsome male ninja, calm and composed, with no fear of war in his expression, and none of that twisted bloodlust—he had escaped the hell of loneliness.]
This is…
Gaara?!
Everyone's gaze snapped toward the bloodthirsty, unstable boy standing in front of the ninja academy. His madness wasn't physical—it was in his craving for blood, in his longing for slaughter.
The ninja world was cruel, but Konoha had always been guided well by its Hokage. They didn't love killing, and one of the core principles of a true ninja—never abandoning one's comrades—stood in direct opposition to senseless slaughter.
But everyone also knew that other villages weren't like that.
The Village Hidden in the Mist, for example.
___
So what kind of experience could turn a twelve-year-old child into this?
And what could allow him, just three years later, to grow into a calm, rational, powerful leader?
More than that, this leader was the one who formed the Allied Shinobi Forces to oppose the masked man who dared to singlehandedly ignite the Fourth Great Ninja War.
That was someone who could command the entire ninja world…
Was it really the same twelve-year-old child standing before them?
What were the adults of that era even doing?!
Leaving something like this to a child—there had to be limits to how ridiculous this was!
Across the world, the ninjas watching the broadcast all questioned the authenticity of the image, again and again.
…
In Konoha, the boy named Gaara was standing right there.
In an instant, everyone gathered turned their eyes toward the red-haired boy from Sand village.
"Well, looks like we were all wrong, Dad," Shikamaru said lazily, hands in his pockets. "What a pain… especially that Naruto guy."
Nara Shikaku: "Oh?"
He had already exchanged known information and some conclusions with his son beforehand.
Based on Shikamaru's analysis during the exam, if that so-called horror Quiz was treated as a game, then the mastermind behind it wasn't completely withholding hints.
First, by clearly laying out the rules, the risk of blind trial and error was greatly reduced.
Second, before revealing the correct answer, the system provided information about the reward items.
Just like Shikamaru had guessed, that was also part of the hint—at the very least, it narrowed the range from countless possibilities.
The answer had to be related to the Chakra Blade, Konoha, Sakumo Hatake, and Kakashi Hatake.
And finally, the question itself already gave the clearest hint of all—
[Question: During the Fourth Great Ninja War, the overall commander of the Allied Shinobi Forces once said, "After the war ends, you can come and take my head," in order to protect which 'person'?]
The wording was "which," not "who."
They looked similar, but the former clearly told them this was a fill-in-the-blank question.
Answer: ( ) person.
———