Kakashi stood in the thick fog. The moment he heard that Naruto's identity as the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki had been exposed, he abandoned the mission entirely, murderous intent rising in his chest.
He pulled out a scroll and unfurled it. Dipping his thumb into his own blood, he streaked it across the sealing formula inside.
Ninja Art, Summoning Jutsu!
"Earth Release: Tracking Fang Technique!"
Because Zabuza had been stained with Kakashi's blood during their previous fight, the summoned hounds lying in wait beneath the ground—Pakkun's eight ninken—would never mistake that scent.
With furious barking, Zabuza and Haku were pinned down at their limbs, necks, and backs, either bitten or crushed under the ninken's claws.
Zabuza froze. He hadn't expected anyone to break through the Hidden Mist Technique using scent.
And now, the jutsu that Young Kakashi once demonstrated for Naruto and the others was unleashed again by Adult Kakashi—
"Ox–Rabbit–Monkey."
"Raikiri!!"
Blue arcs of lightning crackled across the ground. Through the dense fog, Kakashi charged straight toward Zabuza, locked in place by the ninken.
A wet, slicing sound.
Raikiri pierced through Zabuza's chest, splattering Kakashi with blood.
Crack…
Crack…
The sound of shattering ice.
Where Zabuza should have been, Haku now stood.
He had used Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals to swap their positions?!
"What?!"
Kakashi's expression froze, his hand embedded in Haku's chest hesitating for a moment. Even with Obito's Sharingan, he had still struck the wrong target.
"Ka… Kakashi…"
For an instant, Haku's face overlapped with the Rin in his memories.
But Haku didn't collapse. He gripped Kakashi's hand, urging Zabuza to escape.
"Yagura… didn't defeat the Fourth… Hokage…"
With his final breath, he forced the information out.
"Here… there's still Naruto… the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki… Now that they know this secret… Konoha won't let us go."
Blood spilled from his lips. His life was slipping away.
Yet he still managed to turn his head and smile at Zabuza.
"I'm sorry… I can't go back to… the Land of Water with you…"
Zabuza's eyes widened. Years ago, after his failed assassination of the Mizukage, he had told Haku the same words:
"Haku, it's a shame, but tonight we have to leave the Land of Water."
"But someday, I will return to this country."
To end the Fourth Mizukage's tyrannical rule.
And now, even at the end, that fool Haku still believed he would one day return and restore the Hidden Mist to its former strength.
Haku collapsed. Zabuza fell silent.
...
Meanwhile, the five people Minato Namikaze had ordered away from the battlefield could only watch as the Minato from another timeline—one who had yet to become the Fourth Hokage—faced off against Naruto, who was under the Nine-Tails' control.
Even the anger radiating from the Nine-Tails alone made the five youths tremble.
What was going on? Why was Naruto the Nine-Tails?!
...
Sasuke's heart was a storm of tangled emotions. He finally understood what Kakashi meant by that "special reason." So no matter how hard Naruto tried, the village would still never let go of its hatred for him? Was it because the Fourth Hokage realized Naruto was the vessel he'd used to seal the Nine-Tails, so he treated him differently? What kind of answer was that supposed to be?
The moment Sasuke thought about how Naruto, just like him, was an orphan—and even worse, the last survivor of a wiped-out clan—his anger exploded, refusing to calm for even a second.
"What kind of nonsense is this?!!!"
The fury swelling in his chest, threatening to tear him apart, burst out in a roar.
"Why did the Fourth Hokage choose Naruto to seal that demon fox?! Because his clan was exterminated and no one would care?!!"
A fierce surge of empathy dragged Naruto into Sasuke's sense of kinship, as if the Hokage, Konoha, the entire village, even the whole shinobi world had suddenly lined up against the two of them. This version of Sasuke—so enraged and unstable—felt unfamiliar and terrifying to Sakura.
Seeing Naruto suddenly gain enough power to fight the Fourth Hokage, his monstrous form made her tremble. Not only Sasuke, but Naruto too felt like he was slipping further and further away from her.
"Sasuke."
Rin grabbed his arm. "Minato-sensei wouldn't turn Naruto into a Jinchūriki because of something like that!"
She didn't know how to explain it, but Minato's family were the real victims. If another choice had existed, who would ever do this to their own child?
Sasuke didn't accept her words at all and shoved her aside. Rin staggered back two steps, but Obito caught her.
"What's your problem?!!" Obito snapped at his clanmate. "Even if that were true, it was because Minato-sensei did it to protect the village! To protect everyone living here! Can you stop and think for once? Whether the Uchiha were wiped out or the Uzumaki were wiped out—what does any of that have to do with Minato-sensei?!"
Sasuke: "Then why didn't he seal the Nine-Tails into himself and die with it?!"
"You—!" Obito couldn't reason with him at all.
Fed up, he threw a punch at Sasuke. Rin and Young Kakashi grabbed them both from behind, pulling the two apart.
"Now isn't the time to fall apart!" Young Kakashi said, holding them back. "Because he thought you died, Naruto's anger shattered the seal! If this keeps up, he'll be in danger too! Can't we at least wait until Minato-sensei finds a way to reseal the Nine-Tails inside Naruto?!"
Cornered like a beast, Sasuke grabbed Young Kakashi by the collar and snarled, "Then what are we supposed to do now?!"
Young Kakashi stayed unnervingly calm. "Trust Minato-sensei."
He added, "Don't forget—he's the Fourth Hokage you all look up to."
Rin resumed treating Sasuke's wounds, and Sakura hurried to help. Sasuke activated his Sharingan, tracking the silhouettes of Naruto and the Fourth Hokage through the mist.
The seal wasn't fully undone. Minato was mostly pushing him away from the other students while carving a sealing formula into the ground. Once the Nine-Tails-possessed Naruto stepped into it, the array would restrict his movement.
Minato never planned to forcibly seal the Nine-Tails back into Naruto. He wanted Naruto to overcome the fox's will himself.
"Naruto, don't let your will slip. You can defeat that fox. Believe in yourself."
A low growl rumbled from Naruto's throat—half human, half beast.
Minato didn't rush him. He kept speaking in a slow, steady voice, waiting for Naruto to claw his way back to consciousness.
"Remember your dream? You said you wanted to surpass me and become an even greater Hokage."
"....."
"We're the same. We both want to protect the village and the people who matter." Minato paused. "And someday, you'll do it better than I ever could."
In Naruto's muddled mind, Haku's words surfaced again.
"To protect the people who matter… I have to get stronger…"
Everyone watched as red chakra spilled from Naruto's beast-like eyes, sliding down like tears.
"But... I'm the one who killed him..."
Sasuke felt the stares of the other four and flushed with embarrassment.
"...That super-duper idiot!"
Minato suppressed a smile as he reassured Naruto, "Sasuke's fine. Haku avoided the vital spots. Just like with Zabuza before, he only put Sasuke into a feigned-death state."
"!!!"
Naruto's beast-like pupils began to shift back toward blue. He shook his head from side to side, searching for Sasuke Uchiha's figure like a ninneko that couldn't find its master.
Sasuke couldn't help feeling both pity and embarrassment. He turned his head away, raised his hand, signaling he was here and alive.
"That—super-duper idiot!"
Pfft—
Rin couldn't hold back her laughter. "Just like Kakashi and Obito's relationship!"
"Wh—!"
Young Kakashi and Obito both turned their heads aside at the same time and snapped in unison, "That guy and I? We're like oil and water! We can't stand each other!"
Amidst the Nine-Tails' curses, Naruto regained his senses and scrambled up from the ground.
Glancing at Sasuke and Sakura in the distance, he realized his identity as the Nine-Tails—hated by the entire village—had probably been exposed. Not only did he not dare to approach, but even when Sasuke and Sakura noticed him, he couldn't meet their eyes.
He was probably scared they'd look at him with that same disgust.
The thought made the three students of Minato's squad and the two members of Kakashi's team feel a bitter ache. Their throats and eyes stung with dryness.
The surrounding pillars of mist slowly dissipated.
Across the battlefield on Kakashi's side, they saw Haku standing before Zabuza, having taken Kakashi's Raikiri for him.
His final wish was to give Zabuza a chance to escape.
Young Kakashi asked, "Has our mission... failed?"
Obito was furious enough to punch him. "At a time like this, you're still thinking about some mission?!!"
That was exactly why they couldn't get along—fundamentally incompatible!!
With Haku dead, the mission to help him and Zabuza escape the Fourth Mizukage's pursuit had indeed failed.
Haku had hoped Zabuza would leave, knowing he was no match for the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.
But Zabuza seemed determined to challenge Kakashi. Though he called Haku a 'tool', his heart had grown desolate after Haku's death, stripped of all will to fight.
Even as he charged at Kakashi again and again, he was effortlessly defeated.
Minato looked at Zabuza with sorrow in his eyes.
Just then, Gatō arrived—
Leading a wave ninja squad of several hundred.
Already knowing Gatō had betrayed him, Zabuza resolved to kill him first.
Had Gatō not sold information to Yagura Karatachi, neither the brutal fight between Kakashi and Zabuza nor the clash involving Haku and the Nine-Tails Kid would ever have happened.
When Gatō insulted Haku's corpse, Naruto and Obito became even angrier than Zabuza.
"He died for you! He didn't even have dreams of his own! He fought desperately just to fulfill yours!!!" Naruto roared at Zabuza.
Obito added, "Exactly! He sacrificed himself to give you a chance to escape! He was your comrade, wasn't he?! And you're just going to let that scum insult him?!! Future Kakashi! You're his opponent, right? Say something!"
Kakashi, wounded across his body, gazed at Obito—the future version of himself who should have died more than ten years ago—with sorrow.
"Enough. Stop talking, Naruto, Obito."
Naruto snapped, "Why?!!"
"He already understood," Kakashi said. "His own feelings."
Zabuza turned his back to Naruto and Obito.
"What I need is Haku's power. Haku is just a tool to me. When a tool breaks, you replace it."
"I have no attachment..."
"A demon like me doesn't need something like that!"
"These are merely the fate of ninjas. Nothing worth... paying attention to."
Obito shouted, "What ninja fate?! Shinobi rules?! If fate and rules are supposed to be like this—"
Young Kakashi stared at him in shock.