Even among Sharingan users, there were differences.
And honestly, Itachi really was absurdly handsome. Otherwise, how could a guy who had become the very model of a "filial son" still have so many admirers? As the saying went, beauty was justice. As long as the face held, the kingdom stood.
"Uchiha Itachi!"
Sasuke Uchiha stared at the subtitle appearing beneath the video, his arm trembling ever so slightly.
Then he tapped it.
The image unfolded at once.
The video opened in a haze of drifting mist. Footsteps sounded from somewhere beyond the fog, slow and measured, until two figures in black cloaks patterned with red clouds emerged and walked toward the entrance of Konoha.
"Th-that..."
The Chunin on guard had only just begun to speak when the shorter of the two men suddenly lifted his gaze.
A Sharingan spun open.
In the next instant, the Chunin's eyes lost focus. He slumped over and collapsed into sleep, caught in a genjutsu before he could even raise the alarm.
Amid the faint chime of bells, the two dark figures moved on and vanished into the depths of the village.
Sharingan.
Sasuke recognized it immediately.
Those eyes were too familiar. Too deeply etched into him.
And with that, the identity of the intruder became all but obvious.
Uchiha Itachi.
The wanted criminal who had slaughtered the Uchiha clan.
The scene shifted. Now the two men were standing in a tree somewhere inside Konoha, speaking in low voices.
The last voice to sound was Kisame's, plain and blunt.
"Have you found him?"
"Mm," Itachi answered calmly.
"That makes things easier," Kisame said.
"Let's go," Itachi replied.
***
Elsewhere, Kakashi Hatake was staring at the same image with narrowed eyes.
He recognized one of them at once.
Itachi Uchiha.
They had once served together in the Anbu. At the time, Itachi had even been under his command. There was no way Kakashi could mistake that face.
But the one standing beside him was another matter entirely.
Who was he?
Judging from the way the two carried themselves, this man was not some subordinate Itachi had casually taken in. He looked more like an equal - a partner, someone who stood on the same level.
That alone was enough to make Kakashi wary.
With Itachi's ability, now that he had grown to this point, he had to be at least an elite Jonin on Kakashi's level. If Kakashi allowed for the worst-case possibility, Itachi might even have already stepped into the realm of the Kage.
Anyone who could stand beside him as a teammate could not be a minor figure.
Before Kakashi could think any further, the image changed again.
Now he saw himself.
In the video, Kakashi Hatake stood outside a teahouse, a copy of Icha Icha Paradise in his hand. Not far away, Sarutobi Asuma and Yuhi Kurenai were striding toward him.
"You two seem awfully close," Kakashi said lightly as he shut the book.
Kurenai flushed at once, then snapped back, "What nonsense are you saying? I'm just buying dango for Anko."
"What are you doing here?" Asuma asked.
"Nothing much," Kakashi replied. He glanced toward the teahouse. "Just buying offerings. And waiting for someone."
"Waiting for someone?" Asuma echoed.
Inside the teahouse, two men in black cloaks with red clouds sat drinking hot tea.
At the mention of a single name, one of them twitched ever so slightly.
Sasuke.
That tiny movement did not escape Kurenai or Asuma either.
"You? Waiting for someone? That's new," Asuma said, though his gaze had already sharpened. He glanced into the teahouse as well. "And since when are offerings something you carry around like this?"
"Since today," Kakashi said mildly.
The air seemed to freeze for a moment.
Then a fourth person arrived and broke the tension.
It was Sasuke Uchiha.
In the footage, he was dressed more sharply than he was now, and his whole bearing felt more mature. He walked over and said, "Kakashi, you're early for once too?"
"It happens," Kakashi replied.
Almost instinctively, Sasuke turned to look into the teahouse, as though he had sensed something.
But by then, the two men who had been sitting inside - Itachi and Kisame - were already gone.
Watching this, both the real Sasuke and the real Kakashi understood one thing with certainty.
In the future, Sasuke really would become Kakashi's subordinate.
Though even then, there was still a difference between being a subordinate and being a true disciple.
A subordinate was only someone under your command.
A disciple was someone you intended to pass things on to.
But for ordinary civilian shinobi with no background and no backing, even a Chunin or Jonin squad leader could be the highest-level resource they would ever touch in their lives. To be taught even one or two ninjutsu by such a person was already a rare stroke of luck.
Many Chunin, even after reaching that rank, knew only three or five ninjutsu besides the basic Academy Three. That was already considered a decent amount.
As for someone like Kakashi Hatake - the man rumored to have copied a thousand techniques with the Sharingan - he was practically a fantasy to people like that.
"I don't eat natto. And I don't like sweets either."
In the video, Sasuke said it with obvious impatience.
"Is that so?" Kakashi said.
Then he shot a glance toward Asuma and Kurenai.
The two of them understood immediately. Without another word, they left their original positions and moved to intercept Itachi and Kisame.
"You aren't from this village, are you?" Asuma asked, blocking their way.
"What are you doing here?"
Faced with the question, Itachi finally spoke.
"It's been a long time, Asuma-san. Kurenai-san."
Asuma frowned. "You know us?"
Then, after a beat, he added, "So... you used to be Konoha shinobi?"
Itachi simply lifted a hand and removed the straw hat from his head.
His face was revealed.
And more striking than anything else was the Sharingan in his eye.
At that moment, Asuma and Kurenai both remembered.
The man before them was the one who had slaughtered his own clan.
"No mistake about it," Asuma said, cold sweat already soaking his back. "Uchiha Itachi."
He had never forgotten how dangerous Itachi was.
He did not know every detail of that bloody night, but he knew enough.
The Uchiha clan had not been weak. Far from it. They had possessed countless Jonin, along with a frightening number of elite experts who could stand shoulder to shoulder with Konoha's best. After the decline of the Senju, they had been one of the most powerful clans in the entire shinobi world.
And yet they had all been destroyed by the man standing in front of him.
"Since you all know Itachi, I may as well introduce myself too," the tall man beside him said. He pulled off his own straw hat, revealing a face like a shark and a headband slashed clean across the symbol.
"Hoshigaki Kisame."
The mark on the forehead protector was unmistakable.
A rogue ninja from Kirigakure, the Hidden Mist Village of the Land of Water.
Two rogue ninja from two different villages, now traveling together.
Even the off-screen Sasuke could understand what that meant. A slash across the headband was one of the first things taught in class. It marked a shinobi who had severed ties with his village.
And the fact that such people were standing together, side by side, only made the situation more dangerous.
Sasuke's fingers tightened around the diary.
His hatred surged like fire.
Itachi had really come back to Konoha.
Not in some distant rumor. Not in some imagined future. He had walked straight into the village with another monster at his side, as though the laws of the world meant nothing to him.
And what stung even more was the difference.
This was the same Sharingan.
The same bloodline.
Yet the gap between them felt absolute.
He had not even awakened his own eyes, while Itachi could put Chunin to sleep with a glance, move through Konoha as if it were his own backyard, and face elite Jonin without the slightest change in expression.
So this was what Kitahara Kaede meant.
Even among Sharingan, there were levels.
Some opened their eyes and became geniuses.
Others opened them and became monsters.
And Itachi... Itachi had long since gone beyond the word genius.
Off to the side, Kakashi's expression had also darkened.
This was no ordinary reunion.
If Itachi and Kisame had truly entered the village together, then whatever happened next would not be simple.
Two S-rank missing-nin moving in tandem was enough to shake the nerves of any major village.
And if their target really was Sasuke...
Then the future ahead was far more dangerous than either of them had first imagined.
Neither of them spoke.
But in different places, holding the same diary, both Kakashi Hatake and Uchiha Sasuke reached the same conclusion.
The battles to come would not be fought between ordinary ninja.
They would be fought between monsters.