Of course, giving up his old fighting style meant giving up most of his tactical variety too. Kakashi had once copied thousands of jutsu. Having that many tools made him overwhelming. He could adapt to almost any battlefield and put together a plan on the spot. That flexibility was why people called him the technician of Konoha.
But if he stuck to the Hatake blade style alone, that adaptability would drop fast.
In the end, Hatake kenjutsu came down to two ideas: unmatched speed and unstoppable power.
If he was fast enough… if each strike carried enough force… then nothing could stand in his way.
It wouldn't help much against people who could summon giant mechs or Tailed Beasts, but against human-sized opponents, it was terrifyingly effective. As long as the enemy wasn't operating at some super Kage Level, the Hatake blade style was a serious threat.
Suddenly, Kakashi felt the diary update. He immediately set the blade aside and reached into his pouch. It used to hold Make-Out Paradise. Now, it held Kaede Kitahara's diary.
A sign he really had turned over a new leaf.
[It worked, it worked. Three tomoe is crazy useful. I snagged a few more jutsu for free. Really, free power-ups are the best. No wonder Gojo Fifty-Fifty loves copying his opponents' moves. I mean, who doesn't? Ninja stuff doesn't count as stealing, right?]
The single entry sent shockwaves through the three people who held diary copies.
All three of them had ties to the Sharingan.
"Three tomoe already?" Even Uchiha Itachi froze. He was considered one of the greatest prodigies in Uchiha history. How long had it taken him to reach three tomoe after awakening the Sharingan?
He couldn't remember the exact number, but it was absolutely longer than this.
Kaede Kitahara hadn't even had his Sharingan for a month, had he?
This was cheating. It had to be.
Even Itachi couldn't wrap his head around that kind of progress.
"A month? Three tomoe?" Hatake Kakashi stared blankly. Everything in Kaede's diary felt more shocking by the day.
He wasn't from the Uchiha Clan, but he did have a Sharingan, and he was one of the rare outsiders capable of evolving it to three tomoe on his own. He knew exactly how difficult each step of evolution was.
But Kaede's progress didn't look difficult at all.
It looked like eating breakfast. You said you wanted to awaken it, then it awakened. You gave it a little push, then it jumped to two tomoe. A few more days and now it was three?
And what was with the bragging about free jutsu? And that bit about liking to copy opponents' techniques?
Wasn't that exactly what the Sharingan was for?
Well… he had to admit, the Sharingan really was convenient.
"Three tomoe already?" Uchiha Sasuke felt his heartbeat spike. He was still stuck at one tomoe, and Kaede was already at three?
He had only awakened his eye recently, but growing up in the Uchiha Clan meant you picked up all sorts of knowledge just by being around it.
He knew awakening the Sharingan was difficult.
And evolving it from one to three tomoe was even harder.
Most Uchiha spent nearly ten years evolving it after awakening. Doing it within ten years was considered talented.
One month?
How was that even possible?
There had never been anyone like this in Uchiha history.
It had to be a cheat.
[Now that I'm at three tomoe, my eye power has jumped a ton. I wonder how it compares to Sasuke's three years from now.
People like to joke that Sasuke is the worst Indra incarnation ever. His entire clan gets wiped out and all he manages is a single tomoe, then he has a trauma response, forgets he even awakened it, and spends years not realizing.
But honestly, he awakened it at age seven. Isn't that the earliest in Uchiha history?
The previous Indra, Uchiha Madara, didn't awaken his Sharingan until fifteen, and he still became the Ninja World Asura, shook the world for decades, and rewrote history.]
Three years from now…
Did that mean he was supposed to have three tomoe in three years?
But he only had one tomoe now.
Sasuke's mind spun with questions, until he reached the part where Kaede teased him. He didn't know what an Indra was, but seeing someone joke about his clan's massacre made anger claw its way up his throat.
He awakened it back then?
Why didn't he know?
Sasuke dug deep into his memories, forcing himself to recall that night. His stomach twisted. No matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find any moment where he remembered awakening the Sharingan.
Was he too shocked?
Too traumatized?
He tried channeling chakra into his eyes, but nothing happened. No change at all.
Maybe Kaede got it wrong…?
But Sasuke shook that thought away almost immediately. Kaede had no reason to lie. He didn't even know others had his diary. And if he could predict the future, then knowing certain things about the past wasn't far-fetched.
Which meant Sasuke probably had awakened it that night, and the trauma had forced him to bury the memory.
He didn't dare think about what happened that night. He'd pushed it out of his mind. Or maybe sealed it away without realizing.
But if he had truly awakened his Sharingan back then… then he had a path to reclaim that one tomoe.
His mood lifted. The teasing didn't sting as much now.
"My Sharingan… my own Sharingan," Sasuke whispered.
There was no official rule in the clan saying earlier awakening meant higher talent, but the belief definitely existed. A quiet, unspoken tradition.
So did this mean he'd broken the clan record?
It sure looked like it.
Did that mean his talent surpassed even that man's?
"Three years from now, Sasuke has three tomoe too?" Kakashi frowned. Based on what he knew about the Uchiha Clan, having three tomoe at that age absolutely qualified as elite.
His friend, Uchiha Obito, had barely awakened his eye at that age. And Sasuke had awakened his even earlier.
That meant his potential was enormous.
But if he reached three tomoe in three years… then when would he awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan?