"I don't care about any of that."
Faced with Hatake Kakashi's accusation, Momochi Zabuza only sneered.
"I fight for my ideals. And that will never change."
Those words finally ignited Kakashi's anger.
"Listen to me. Give it up. Your future holds only death."
As he spoke, he dragged Raikiri forward and stabbed fiercely toward Zabuza.
What no one expected was that, amid the spray of blood, the one who collapsed was not Momochi Zabuza.
It was Haku, who had appeared in front of him at some unknown moment.
At the final instant, he took Zabuza's place and died by Hatake Kakashi's hand.
"That's the boy who pretended to be Kirigakure Anbu."
Outside the scene, Hatake Kakashi recognized Haku. He had never known what Haku looked like, but the clothing matched the person from the earlier video, the one who had taken Zabuza away.
This perfectly confirmed his earlier guess. That Anbu from Kirigakure had always been someone who followed Zabuza.
To gather funds for revenge, Zabuza had chosen to associate with someone like Gato.
Kakashi had heard of Gato's reputation before. After all, there were not many people who could grow a business to that scale.
What followed made his brow knit tightly.
Even after a subordinate died for him, Momochi Zabuza showed no guilt whatsoever. He even treated it as a perfect opportunity to counterattack.
He had treated Haku completely as a tool.
Kakashi's expression remained cold, but inside, his fury had already reached its peak. To him, ninja who did not follow rules were trash. But ninja who did not cherish their comrades were worse than trash.
And Zabuza had violated both.
As a ninja of Kirigakure, he had betrayed his village and plotted to assassinate the Mizukage. At the same time, he treated the subordinates who followed him as disposable tools.
One could imagine the rage burning in Hatake Kakashi's heart.
The Kakashi within the video was just as furious. He directly crippled Momochi Zabuza's hands, leaving him unable to wield weapons.
But at the very end of the video, something happened that even Kakashi did not expect.
Just as Hatake Kakashi was about to kill Momochi Zabuza, the merchant who had been hiding in the shadows finally appeared.
Gato.
Faced with Gato's arrogance and his contemptuous insults toward ninja, even a Demon like Zabuza could not endure being treated as a tool.
At the final moment, he awakened as himself. With nothing but a single kunai, he slaughtered his way through the crowd and ultimately killed Gato.
In his last moments, Momochi Zabuza awakened not as a tool, but as a human, as a ninja with a heart.
The sight was a tremendous shock to Uchiha Sasuke.
Since childhood, his formal education had not been as extreme or brutal as Kirigakure's, but he had still been taught that missions came first, that everything could be sacrificed for them.
What happened between Zabuza and Haku left a deep impact on him.
There was no doubt that genuine emotion existed between the two. Yet within the ninja system, that bond had still been twisted.
So much so that if not for the moment before death, Zabuza would never have admitted that he cared about Haku.
"This is what being a ninja means," Uchiha Itachi sighed.
Compared to Sasuke, Itachi was the more perfect ninja. He could more easily accept the idea that ninja were tools, because he demanded the same of himself.
Even when the higher-ups ordered him to wipe out his entire clan, such an absurd command, he had accepted it.
[As expected, Asura's strongest skill really is Talk Release. He even managed to talk a Demon like Zabuza into tears. That's someone who would not even frown in the face of death. That's honestly a bit outrageous.
But Asura's Talk Release is only just beginning to show its edge.
If Asura's inherited skill is Talk Release, then Indra's inherited skill is without a doubt Pretend Release. When it came to acting aloof and mysterious, no one surpassed the Indras of every generation.]
Talk Release?
All three of them couldn't help the corners of their mouths twitching. They finally understood what the so-called Talk Release of Uzumaki Naruto actually meant.
So this was Talk Release. Persuading people with words?
But was that really an ability worth mentioning?
Comparing Uzumaki Naruto's persuasive talent to a ninjutsu, Kaede Kitahara was truly merciless.
Then they saw Pretend Release.
Indra, or rather, this generation's Indra was Uchiha Sasuke. His ability to act cool could also be classified as a release?
Once he understood it, Sasuke's face flushed red. Kaede Kitahara had really roasted him without restraint.
Why did this guy always like slandering him out of thin air?
Uchiha Itachi couldn't help laughing, though when he thought about it, it did make a lot of sense.
Sasuke had appeared in earlier videos, and it was obvious that he really did love acting cool.
Suddenly, another video appeared below. Itachi quickly opened it.
Based on his understanding of Kaede Kitahara's mischievous personality, if the earlier video showed Asura's Talk Release, then this one was probably going to show Indra's Pretend Release.
Watching his younger brother put on a show only to fall flat actually put him in a good mood. Kaede Kitahara had written about Sasuke's middle age, which meant his future life turned out well. That alone put Itachi at ease.
He even found himself able to savor this rare sense of family, even if he was the only one who knew it existed.
Ever since he wiped out his clan, he had never thought that a sinner like him would one day experience family warmth again.
This world was not treating him too badly.
As long as he could see Sasuke grow to a certain point, he could die without regrets. He could die by Sasuke's hand.
He was destined never to witness his brother's future. This diary filled in so many of his regrets.
The moment the scene opened, it revealed a massive arena. People of all kinds surrounded it. There were countless civilians, and even several ninja from another village.
"Sand Village?" Uchiha Sasuke looked at the symbols on their forehead protectors. He had learned about them in textbooks. One of the Five Great Nations, the Sand Village.
He had only ever seen them on the page. This was the first time he had seen them in reality.
And those people looked strange. Each of them carried something on their backs.
All around, voices shouted the name Uchiha.
"Uchiha? Are they calling me?" Sasuke frowned.
Then he noticed many people repeating the same thing.
The time was almost up.
And he still had not arrived.