Back then, one of the two great clans that dominated the world, the Uchiha Clan, possessed truly terrifying potential.
If that was the case, then just how powerful must the Senju Clan have been, the clan that once suppressed the Uchiha?
And the Mangekyo Sharingan abilities of the Uchiha were bizarre and varied. Among them was Uchiha Shisui's technique, a genjutsu said to be able to alter a person's will, hailed as the strongest illusion.
Clearly, something that could "alter a person's will" could not be ordinary genjutsu. Ordinary genjutsu could only deceive at most.
And deception could be detected and broken through one's own awareness.
There were also the possible Mangekyo abilities of Uchiha Madara, the details of Uchiha Sasuke's ocular powers, and the specifics of Uchiha Itachi's techniques. It was a massive convergence of information.
For a ninja, the importance of intelligence went without saying.
The more Hatake Kakashi read, the more he felt he was gaining immensely.
But when he reached the later entries, he was completely stunned.
What did it mean, a timeline outside the main timeline?
Even more terrifying was the idea that this entire world might be Kaede Kitahara's dream.
And that Kaede Kitahara's real body was hanging from the God Tree, dreaming?
A chill ran down Kakashi's spine. When he thought about it, this possibility didn't seem entirely impossible.
Because the diary system prevented him from confronting Kaede Kitahara directly and asking questions.
Could it be that Kaede Kitahara's true consciousness, within the dream, rejected anyone trying to inform him and wake him up? Some kind of self-protection mechanism?
If that were the case, then everything became horrifying.
And that would mean he himself was just a character within Kaede Kitahara's dream.
But he immediately threw that thought out of his head.
Impossible.
Kaede Kitahara himself had said it was only a "what if."
Everything Kakashi had experienced in his life, every sensation and memory, how could any of it be fake?
There was no way this was fake.
And there was no way he was just a figure in someone's dream. Asking him to believe that would be even more absurd than asking him to believe he was a character in a novel.
Too ridiculous.
Just as Hatake Kakashi was thinking this through, the diary suddenly updated again.
[I saw Hatake Kakashi today. He's already woken up from his coma. Looks like he's mostly recovered. In a few more days, I'll finally be free too.
Kakashi really is ridiculously low on chakra. He only went through a short fight and ended up completely drained, body and mind. His lack of chakra has basically become a running joke now, even turning into a unit of measurement.
One Kakashi equals the normal chakra reserves of an elite jonin.
By that logic, I'm sitting at around six Kakashis worth of chakra right now. Not bad, not bad. Ten Kakashis isn't too far off.
But here's the funny part. Even though he's so low on chakra, Kakashi still insists on carving dog heads with Earth Release. You say he's low on chakra, yet he's flashy as hell. You say he's not, yet one fight wipes him out completely.
Hahaha, Hatake 50/50 really is Schrödinger's chakra shortage. He can trade moves with anyone. From ordinary jonin all the way up to Kaguya Hime, he can still fight a bit.
You could almost say he stands shoulder to shoulder with the gods in a mortal body.
A truly magical ninja. Hatake 50/50!]
The moment Hatake Kakashi read the updated entry, black lines formed across his forehead.
What was this supposed to mean?
Calling him Kakashi-senpai to his face, then Hatake 50/50 behind his back?
That was way too scummy.
One face in front, another behind. Front side one set, back side another.
After venting internally, he kept reading, and the more he read, the more black lines appeared.
What did this mean? His chakra shortage had become common knowledge?
He didn't know exactly what "blue" meant, but judging from the context, it obviously referred to chakra.
He had no idea where Kaede Kitahara picked up that term, but at least it was easy enough to understand.
And now he himself had become a unit of measurement.
One Kakashi equaled the chakra reserves of an elite jonin.
He really wanted to complain.
Yes, he was low on chakra, but that was under the condition of constantly maintaining the Sharingan. Maintaining chakra at the level of an ordinary elite jonin under those circumstances was already dangerous.
But that didn't mean his chakra reserves were tiny, right?
Then he thought about Kaede Kitahara's jab about being so low on chakra yet still wasting it carving dog heads with Earth Release, and his old face immediately flushed.
He instantly knew which jutsu Kaede Kitahara was talking about.
Earth-Style Wall.
But what was wrong with carving a few dog heads?
As the saying went, strength was temporary, but looking cool was forever.
Just tell me, was it cool or not?
If it was cool, then that was enough.
But then his attention shifted to Kaede Kitahara's chakra reserves.
Six times his own?
Sure, it wasn't like Uzumaki Naruto, who started out with a hundred times Kakashi's chakra, but it was still shocking.
Elite jonin chakra reserves were far beyond those of ordinary chunin and genin. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to release such powerful jutsu.
Yet Kaede Kitahara now possessed six times the chakra of an elite jonin.
Was awakening Uchiha bloodline really enough to do that?
Hatake Kakashi almost wanted to cry.
Were bloodline clans really this unfairly powerful?
He had spent years painstakingly refining himself, only reaching his current chakra capacity at the peak of his physical condition.
Meanwhile, someone else just awakened a kekkei genkai and got there instantly.
How was he supposed to play this game?
This was downright rigged.
If there had been a table in front of him, Kakashi would have wanted to flip it.
How was this fair?
Another day of envying those with kekkei genkai.
Then he thought of Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke's chakra reserves had recently surged after reawakening his one-tomoe Sharingan. He was already comparable to many elite chunin.
Breaking through to tokubetsu jonin-level chakra reserves was only a matter of time.
"From ordinary jonin up to Kaguya Hime…" Uchiha Itachi analyzed the diary entry carefully. "If this describes a range of strength, then this Kaguya Hime must be extremely powerful. Far beyond ordinary jonin, possibly even beyond most Kage Level opponents.
Combined with what Kaede Kitahara mentioned earlier about an inexperienced Kaguya, it suggests that Kaguya Hime is very strong, but lacks sufficient combat experience. That's likely the correct interpretation."
Anything Kaede Kitahara mentioned repeatedly was something that required special attention.
"Standing shoulder to shoulder with the gods in a mortal body…" Uchiha Itachi frowned slightly. "That implies Kaguya Hime is a god, or at least a godlike existence. And that's why Kakashi, being able to fight her, earned such high praise from Kaede Kitahara?"
"So a three-tomoe Sharingan can boost chakra reserves by this much?"
Uchiha Sasuke stared at the diary in disbelief.
He had only awakened a one-tomoe Sharingan, and his own chakra reserves hadn't even reached the level of one Kakashi. At the very least, before awakening a second tomoe, it was impossible for him to reach that level.
Yet Kaede Kitahara, after awakening three tomoe, had six Kakashis worth of chakra, and wasn't far from ten.
Where exactly was the gap?
Sasuke naturally didn't know that Kaede Kitahara also possessed the Uzumaki Clan's early-stage Sage Body, already stepping beyond the realm of ordinary mortals. So he could only attribute the difference to the three-tomoe Sharingan.
That was the biggest gap between him and Kaede Kitahara.
Otherwise, was he supposed to believe that, as the son of the Uchiha Clan head, his bloodline purity was inferior to Kaede Kitahara's, an outsider?
[But once Kakashi can freely control Kamui, his body will undergo another explosive growth to adapt to the Mangekyo Sharingan. I remember that early on, Kakashi used one Great Waterfall Technique and completely ran out of chakra, and even told Sasuke he could only use Chidori a few times in a row.
Later on, he could hold a Raikiri and chat at the same time, showing no signs of chakra shortage at all. Toward the end, he could even use Kamui repeatedly without any visible fatigue.
That's probably his body undergoing a super-evolution to adapt to the sudden awakening of Kamui.
For someone without Uchiha blood, being able to reach that level makes Hatake Kakashi truly one of a kind, unmatched before or after. It's just a pity that once the later power-up was taken away, he faded back into the crowd.
In the end, this really is a world ruled by special eyes. Without a special bloodline, you're nothing.]
[A/N: Enjoying the story? You can read more chapters early and support me here:patreon.com/Aeroscissors]