Honmoto Tōichi stayed silent for a long time before finally asking, his voice trembling,
"Everything you just said… is it true?"
Kakashi answered calmly,
"Do I have any reason to lie to you?"
Honmoto Tōichi slowly shook his head.
"It's just… too shocking. Hard to believe."
"For Arata to already have the strength to kill an elite jōnin… that means he could probably beat me easily now too."
He let out a long breath.
"That does put my heart at ease. If he's that strong, and he's with you on missions outside the village, I don't have much left to worry about."
Even so, a flicker of sadness passed through his eyes.
He was Arata's first teacher…
Yet Arata's terrifying growth had almost nothing to do with him.
Kakashi could read his thoughts at a glance. He patted Tōichi's shoulder and said quietly,
"You were the first one who hid his strength and protected him from the village. That alone makes you the person who's treated him the best."
"He's mentioned you many times this past month. I know you're very important to him."
This time, Kakashi wasn't embellishing anything.
It was the simple truth.
Even though Honmoto Tōichi hadn't taught him many jutsu, and they hadn't spent much time together, in Arata's heart, Tōichi was still his most important teacher.
If Tōichi hadn't shielded him at the beginning…
If he hadn't agreed to let Kakashi take Arata as a disciple…
Arata's path would have been completely different.
Tōichi sighed and nodded slowly.
"It's his personality that makes me worry. He's a good kid… too good. The kind of kid you can't help but care about."
"Even if I didn't teach him much, he'll always be the disciple I'm most proud of."
Kakashi understood exactly how he felt—
because he felt the same way.
Meanwhile…
Arata, Sakura, and Naruto followed Sasuke deeper and deeper into the Uchiha compound.
The deeper they went, the quieter it became.
After the Nine-Tails' attack, the Uchiha had been pushed out to the very edge of the village.
Now, long after the clan's destruction, the district felt less like a neighborhood…
And more like a graveyard.
The sky had already darkened.
Only the occasional chirping of insects broke the silence.
Dim street lamps cast long shadows across the empty avenue, lighting homes that were beautiful on the outside—
But dead within.
This was Naruto and Sakura's first time here.
The oppressive stillness made both of them uneasy.
Naruto subconsciously shuffled closer to Arata, practically sticking to him, as if afraid a ghost might appear from around the corner.
Sakura was scared too, but she refused to show it in front of Sasuke.
She walked stiffly at his side, pretending nothing was wrong.
Sasuke looked completely calm.
He was used to it.
Arata, though it was his first time here, wasn't frightened.
His brows were furrowed for a different reason.
He couldn't believe Sasuke had lived alone in this place for five years.
A seven-year-old boy walking through this ghost of a district, day after day…
Just imagining it made Arata feel suffocated.
Neither he, Naruto, nor Sakura lived anywhere near this gloomy.
But Sasuke had endured it.
For five long years.
After a while, Arata finally broke the silence.
"Why do you still live here?"
He didn't believe the Third Hokage would deliberately leave Sasuke in such a place.
If something happened out here, support would take longer to arrive.
With Uchiha Itachi still at large, Arata doubted the Third would casually risk Sasuke's safety like this.
Sasuke glanced around the empty street and answered, tone calm but distant,
"Living here… makes me feel like they're still around."
Arata's expression softened.
He immediately understood who "they" were.
For a moment, he didn't know what to say.
This was the kind of pain he could understand intellectually—
but never truly experience.
Sakura looked at Sasuke, her heart twisting.
For the first time, she could really feel the weight he carried.
Naruto, usually the loudest one in any room, was suddenly quiet.
He understood as well.
Their pain was different—
Sasuke had once had everything and lost it all in a single night.
Naruto had never had it to begin with.
But pain… was still pain.
No one spoke again as they continued along the deserted Uchiha avenue, their footsteps echoing softly on empty stone.
Eventually, they arrived at Sasuke's home.
A large, elegant mansion—far grander than anything the others lived in.
But inside, it was cold and hollow, like a shell that had long since lost its heart.
Just living here alone took a kind of strength the others couldn't imagine.
They gathered in the living room.
It was the first time Sasuke had ever invited classmates over.
If this had been in the past, his mother would've come out with tea and snacks, smiling at them from the doorway.
Now, there was only Sasuke.
The silence pressed down on all of them, heavy and awkward, until Arata finally spoke.
"Sasuke, did your clan leave behind any training methods for the Sharingan?"
Sasuke shook his head.
"…No."
Arata's thoughts immediately went to one person.
Most likely stolen by that old vulture Danzō.
Out loud, he said,
"I've heard Kakashi-sensei talk about the Sharingan before. A bit, at least."
Sasuke's gaze snapped to him, eyes suddenly filled with expectation.
Arata took a moment to organize his thoughts, then said,
"To awaken the Sharingan, you need a strong emotional trigger."
"When you first awakened yours… you were going through something extreme, weren't you?"
Sasuke fell silent.
In his mind, that night replayed itself again—
The cold moonlight.
The blood.
His brother's back.
He clenched his fists until his knuckles whitened, jaw tightening as his breathing slowly grew uneven.
Sakura and Naruto both leaned forward, nervous.
"Sasuke… are you okay?" Sakura asked softly.
Arata didn't interrupt.
He simply watched.
He knew exactly what Sasuke was remembering.
"It seems your Sharingan didn't awaken easily," Arata said quietly. "The stronger the emotion, the stronger the reaction."
"Intense hatred, deep love, overwhelming jealousy… any extreme emotion can trigger the Sharingan."
Sasuke slowly lifted his head.
He had heard something similar before.
When he was very young, Itachi had told him about the Sharingan.
He hadn't understood much back then.
But there was one thing he remembered clearly—
one thing he had never told anyone.
"…Itachi's Sharingan," Sasuke said slowly, "it didn't look like mine. It… wasn't made of tomoe. The pattern was different. More complicated."
Arata's eyes brightened.
"Oh? Then maybe… above the three-tomoe Sharingan, there's another form."
Of course he already knew about the Mangekyō Sharingan.
But Sasuke didn't.
So he couldn't just say Mangekyō outright.
He needed Sasuke to reach toward that conclusion himself—
And now, little by little…
Sasuke was finally starting to connect the dots.
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