"Understood. We'll be ready to support at any time," Kaede Kitahara said.
To be honest, this mission had started to feel a bit boring for them. The Demon Brothers they ran into earlier could not even beat Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, let alone Hatake Kakashi. Now, finally, it felt like they might actually get involved.
"Wait. There are two more people," Hyuga Keiko said, frowning.
"Two?" Kaede Kitahara's brows knit together. "Why are there two?"
Normally, having one more would make sense. That should be Haku. But where did this extra one come from?
Was there a third person who had not shown up yet?
Kaede Kitahara frowned slightly, but their pace did not slow at all. They hurried forward. This time, they could not afford to lag too far behind.
While they were still closing in, Momochi Zabuza had already grown impatient and revealed himself in front of Team Kakashi.
By now, he had figured out why the Demon Brothers he sent out had failed.
They had run straight into this man.
With Hatake Kakashi's strength, dealing with two ordinary Chunin was effortless.
"So it's you. Copy Ninja Hatake Kakashi."
Zabuza made a flashy entrance, the Kubikiribocho sweeping over their heads as he leapt down.
"He's here!"
Uchiha Sasuke pulled out a shuriken from his ninja pouch, spinning it between his fingers, a hint of excitement flashing in his eyes.
"As expected," Kakashi thought calmly.
He stepped forward.
"Well, if it isn't Momochi Zabuza, the missing-nin from Kirigakure. What a coincidence, running into you here."
"I'm honored too," Zabuza said, grinning. "Didn't expect to meet a famous ninja like you here. It's been a long time since I fought a strong opponent. I'm actually getting excited."
"Against someone like you, I can only go all out," Kakashi replied.
As he spoke, Kakashi lifted his forehead protector, revealing his friend's gift beneath it.
"Oh. So this is the legendary Sharingan," Zabuza said with a crooked smile. "I'll take care of Hatake Kakashi. You deal with the rest. Kill them."
"What?"
Kakashi had not expected Zabuza to say that.
Uchiha Sasuke was also stunned. This was not how things were recorded in the diary.
Something had gone off script.
"Yes, sir!"
On a distant tree branch, a masked figure appeared.
It was Haku.
"Don't talk to me like you're giving orders."
From behind another tree, a second figure stepped out.
Rokusho Aoi.
"It's you," Kakashi said coldly, staring at the green-haired man. "The village just issued a bounty on you. I didn't expect you to show up in front of me so boldly."
"Don't look at me like you're above it all, Hatake Kakashi," Aoi snapped, fury burning in his eyes. "I'm no longer a Konoha Chunin. I'm a Rain Village Jonin now, standing on equal footing with you."
Aoi was furious.
Zabuza had looked down on him earlier. Now Kakashi was doing the same.
Why did he defect from Konoha and go to the Rain Village in the first place?
Wasn't it because becoming a Jonin in Konoha was nearly impossible?
Now he believed his combat strength was fully Jonin-level, all thanks to the Sword of the Thunder God left behind by the Second Hokage.
Only now did Kakashi realize how bad the situation was.
Zabuza alone already required his full attention.
Add in Haku, who was at least Tokubetsu Jonin level, and then this Konoha traitor Rokusho Aoi who had somehow teamed up with Zabuza.
The situation had turned unfavorable in an instant.
Uchiha Sasuke quietly opened his single-tomoe Sharingan, locking his gaze on the three enemies.
"Oh? A Sharingan?"
Zabuza chuckled.
"So besides Hatake Kakashi, there's another pair of Sharingan here. That means you must be the last Uchiha."
He naturally remembered the Uchiha Clan's annihilation. He also knew a single survivor remained.
He just did not expect to meet him here.
Sasuke said nothing.
But he remembered something Kaede Kitahara had written in the diary.
Back then, just facing Zabuza's killing intent had made him want to give up and die.
How humiliating.
Today, he would wash that shame away.
"I'll take care of that Uchiha brat," Rokusho Aoi said.
He hated people born into prestigious clans more than anything.
Why should someone be handed resources and achievements he could never attain in his entire life, just because of their bloodline?
"In that case, I won't hold back either," Kakashi said. "Kaede Kitahara, are you still planning to hide?"
Since they had brought backup, he had no choice but to do the same.
He had wanted to train Sasuke and Naruto a bit more, but that plan was clearly off the table now.
"Kakashi-senpai."
Kaede Kitahara arrived at the battlefield and stepped forward when he heard his name.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
Kakashi-senpai?
Why was he not being called Hatake 50/50 anymore?
Thinking about how Kaede Kitahara called him that in the diary made Kakashi want to punch him.
"Konoha reinforcements?"
Zabuza frowned deeply. The intelligence he received did not include any Konoha backup.
"More or less," Kaede Kitahara said, hands on his hips, sounding helpless. "I didn't really want to interfere, but you guys stopped following the script."
If anyone could see into his heart, they would know he was panicking.
This was completely outside his expectations.
Others might not know, but he did.
In the original story, this battle was supposed to involve only Zabuza.
Now there were two extra people.
Haku was fine.
But what was Rokusho Aoi doing here?
Kaede Kitahara clearly remembered that Rokusho Aoi was not part of the original manga timeline. He was an anime-original character created to pad runtime.
A missing-nin who stole the Second Hokage's personal sword and defected from Konoha.
And somehow became a Rain Village Jonin.
Just thinking about it made him want to laugh.
The Rain Village really was small. Any random nobody could become a Jonin there.
This guy could not even beat Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke.
And that was supposed to be Jonin level?
If it were only Haku, Kaede Kitahara would not have reacted this strongly.
But the moment Rokusho Aoi appeared, everything went sideways.
The butterfly effect was way too obvious.
Was this even reasonable?
No. Not at all.
But this was clearly not the time to investigate why the butterfly effect had happened.
They needed to deal with the enemies in front of them first.
Out of everyone present, only Kakashi and Sasuke seemed to understand Kaede Kitahara's subtext.
Following the original script meant things were not supposed to be like this.
"Brother Feng, you're nearby too? What a coincidence!"
Naruto's eyes lit up when he saw Kaede Kitahara.
"You idiot, can't you tell he didn't just happen to be nearby?"
Sasuke sighed.
Kaede Kitahara had made it obvious enough, and Kakashi's expression said he had known all along.
This was clearly no coincidence.
"Huh? Really?" Naruto blinked, still not quite getting it.
"Kakashi-senpai, you should be able to handle that Demon, Momochi Zabuza, right?" Kaede Kitahara asked.
"No problem. I've got him," Kakashi replied.
He had already planned to deal with Zabuza. It was just the sudden appearance of Haku and Rokusho Aoi that disrupted his arrangements.
"Next is Rokusho Aoi. Keiko, Ryuji, he's yours. Try to capture him alive. The bounty will be higher."
Kaede Kitahara smoothly took over command.
"You damn brat, what do you mean by that?" Aoi roared.
Kaede Kitahara ignored his rage completely.
"Sasuke and Naruto, you handle the remaining one. Good luck. I'm counting on you. Sakura, protect Mr. Tazuna."
He finished assigning roles in rapid succession.
"And what about you?" Amakusa Ryuji asked.
"I'll back you up, of course," Kaede Kitahara said righteously.
That was the truth.
None of these matchups were truly safe.
Kakashi did not have absolute certainty against Zabuza.
Sasuke and Naruto fighting Haku was also extremely dangerous.
In the original story, without Naruto suddenly tapping into the Nine-Tails' power, they had no real chance at all.
The gap in strength was simply too large.
As for Rokusho Aoi, he was a Rain Village Jonin. Even though he had only been an elite Chunin before defecting, the Sword of the Thunder God boosted his combat power tremendously.
In the original version, even Sasuke and Naruto together could not beat him. His eventual defeat had a strong sense of plot armor.
After all, it was supposedly the Second Hokage's personal sword. It sounded like an incredible treasure, yet it cracked under a Rasengan and collapsed entirely.
That was absurd.
The only explanation was Naruto's overwhelming protagonist halo.
As for why Kaede Kitahara assigned Aoi to Hyuga Keiko and Amakusa Ryuji, he had his own calculations.
Konoha had issued a bounty on Aoi.
That meant money.
And Kaede Kitahara was painfully short on funds.
Especially when it came to crafting special kunai for the Flying Thunder God.
Each one was expensive enough to make his heart ache. As a Chunin, he simply could not afford that kind of spending.
He already had his eyes on that big villain Gato, planning to cash in hard.
Being a disposable Chunin was suffering.