Inside the deserted Uchiha Clan compound, the only mansion with its lights still on held a single figure. Uchiha Sasuke packed his bag carefully, placing mission tools, Food Pills, and anything else he might need for tomorrow.
Tomorrow would be his first real mission. Not the pretend ones from the academy, but an actual assignment involving protecting a client. There could be fighting. There could be danger.
He wasn't nervous. Thanks to the diary, he knew exactly how strong Hatake Kakashi really was. Kakashi might look like he struggled against Kage Level opponents, but how many Kage Level shinobi existed in the entire ninja world? Below that tier, Kakashi sat at the very top.
With someone like that leading them, this "little mission" was as easy as breathing.
Sasuke glanced at his parents' memorial tablets in the room. His hands tightened into fists, and a single-tomoe Sharingan swirled to life in his eyes.
This was his other confidence.
Ever since learning from the diary that he had actually awakened the Sharingan back then, everything made sense. He had sealed away his memories of that night, refusing to face the trauma. Because his mind rejected the memory, his eyes never opened again.
Over the past few days, he forced himself to confront it. He dragged every buried image from that night back into the light. The emotional strain kept him from sleeping, but it worked. His one-tomoe Sharingan had awakened again.
Opening the Sharingan for the first time was difficult. Even inside the Uchiha Clan, not everyone awakened it. But a second awakening, once the eyes had opened before, was far easier.
After a few days of practice, he mastered the one-tomoe Sharingan, the so-called Insight Eye.
With it awakened, his strength jumped drastically. Not only had his Yin Release improved, but his physical ability and chakra were rising at an incredible pace. In just a few days, his chakra had grown from elite Genin level to Chunin level. With the one-tomoe Sharingan boosting his perception and reaction speed, his fighting strength soared.
He could already hold his own against an ordinary Chunin.
And this was only the beginning. He was entering the rapid growth phase of a ninja's life. Now he could match a standard Chunin, but in a few months, he'd be beating elite Chunin. No wonder he would reach near–Kage Level in only three years, strong enough to fight a Kage head-on.
Suddenly, Sasuke felt the diary updating. He quickly pulled it out and started reading.
In the Hatake Clan compound, Hatake Kakashi stood in a black training outfit, short sword in hand. Blade after blade slashed through the air, each strike forming a sharp arc of chakra. Over the past few days, he had slowly rediscovered the sensation of kenjutsu, bit by bit becoming more like the version of himself who resembled his father.
"Haah… haah… haah…"
Kakashi stopped. He was breathing heavily.
He lacked stamina.
He realized very clearly where his weakness was. His stamina reserves were far too low. He used to be an assassin-type ninja, finishing battles fast. If a fight dragged on, he died. In that kind of style, stamina wasn't the priority—chakra was. Normally his chakra ran out long before his stamina did.
But now, if he wanted to break into Kage Level, he had to walk the same path as his father, Hatake Sakumo. That path was built on nintaijutsu, a style that required enormous physical stamina.
And he had neglected his body for years.
Raising his stamina quickly wasn't realistic, and he knew it. He even considered asking his friend Guy for help. Guy was likely the number one taijutsu expert in Konoha. His mastery of taijutsu alone allowed him to stand at elite Jonin level, something incredibly rare.
After a moment, Kakashi sheathed his blade, hurried back into his home, and opened the diary.
The update was already there.
[The Land of Waves mission has begun. This is Kakashi's team's first real mission as ninjas. Who would've thought they'd immediately run into Zabuza Momochi, wielder of the Kubikiribocho, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.]
[I still remember how excited I was watching that part back then!]
[Zabuza achieved a Sage of Six Paths–level accomplishment. I've defeated the savior himself. Have any of you beaten a savior before?]
"Savior? Uzumaki Naruto?" Uchiha Itachi murmured inside the Akatsuki base.
He recognized the term. Kaede Kitahara had used it for Uzumaki Naruto before. Itachi didn't know how Naruto achieved it in the future, but he could tell Kitahara was teasing him.
He thought back to the video showing Naruto desperately trying to bring Sasuke home. His feelings toward Naruto warmed. With a friend like that, Sasuke's future had at least some hope.
Perhaps, Itachi thought, he could leave something in Naruto's hands… a countermeasure for the troublesome Uchiha Madara.
"Savior? Uzumaki Naruto?" Sasuke repeated under his breath.
It was hard for him to connect that word with the dead-last idiot in his class.
Even though he knew from the previous video that Naruto had a terrifying creature inside him—the Nine-Tails Demon Fox—it didn't impress him much. He had seen his future self casually suppressing the Nine-Tails' chakra. It didn't feel special.
He also refused to believe that someone like Naruto would surpass him. He had been top of his class for years. He had pride. And his dream—reviving the Uchiha Clan—felt like a grand ambition already. Meanwhile, that loudmouth idiot talked about becoming Hokage every other day.
And that guy would become the savior of the ninja world?
Did that make sense?
"Does Naruto really have that much potential?" Hatake Kakashi thought to himself, a little stunned.
So far, Naruto's chakra reserves were absurd, a hundred times Kakashi's own. But his talent as a ninja seemed… average. He couldn't even perform the Clone Technique at first. Maybe the Nine-Tails' chakra interfered, but still, he didn't look like someone who would save the world.
If anything, someone like his teacher fit that role. A real prodigy. A version of Kakashi who had never faced loss, one who reached Kage Level in his twenties and became Hokage at a young age.
Someone like that had the qualifications to become a savior.
But Uzumaki Naruto?
Kakashi just couldn't picture it.