Questions kept piling up in Kakashi Hatake's mind.What exactly did Kitahara Kaede mean by different eras? How could there be such a thing as one era being fundamentally different from another? The more he thought about it, the more tangled it all became, until even someone as calm as Kakashi found himself unable to make sense of it.
But more than anything else, what truly gnawed at him was the phrase Kitahara had written so casually into his diary.The Konoha Crush Plan.That single line was enough to make his nerves tighten. There was no mistaking the danger behind it. If Orochimaru really was involved, then this was no vague threat, no baseless speculation—it was the shadow of disaster approaching Konoha itself.
It had to be said that in the early days, Orochimaru had carried the pressure of a true final enemy.He had been overwhelming, almost monstrous, the kind of opponent whose mere presence could make an elite jonin feel powerless. Even Kakashi Hatake, known throughout Konoha as its greatest technician, had once stood before him and realized with chilling clarity that there were still monsters in this world he could not overcome.
And yet, somewhere in the back of Kakashi's mind, another thought surfaced.Was part of that terrifying impression simply because the world itself had not yet changed? Back then, they were still ninjas—men and women who fought with skill, tactics, chakra, and blood. But later...? The diary hinted at things stranger than that. Aliens. Legends built around eyes. Beings that barely sounded human anymore, much less like shinobi.
Still, none of that changed the fact that Orochimaru's aura in those earlier days had been suffocatingly real.To perish together with him? Me?Kakashi frowned as he considered the idea. In his own estimation, with the strength he possessed now, the title of Konoha's Number One Technician was not an empty one. If he truly went all out, then at the very least, he ought to be capable of dragging Orochimaru down with him.
But then another phrase from the diary resurfaced.Alien.What exactly was that supposed to mean?
***
At that very moment, something changed.A new image appeared across the surface of the diary.Kakashi's gaze sharpened instantly. It was not text this time, but a moving picture—a video. On its cover was a figure dressed in the uniform of the ANBU, face hidden behind a mask, silver hair unmistakable even beneath the dim light, a short sword strapped across his back.
Kakashi's eyes widened.That outfit was far too familiar. It was the uniform he himself had once worn while serving in the ANBU.Almost without thinking, he reached out and opened the video. In this strange world, movies and visual recordings existed, so the existence of moving images itself did not shock him. But the moment the scene began to play, the breath in his chest caught.
Another figure stepped into view.The instant Kakashi saw him, his pupils contracted.Orochimaru.
He had only fought Orochimaru once in the past, but once had been enough. That single encounter had taught him just how vast and merciless the ninja world truly was.Kakashi had become famous young. While most people his age had only just graduated from the Academy, he had already been promoted to jonin. He had always been praised as a genius. Yet in front of Orochimaru, that brilliance had meant almost nothing. He had been powerless. Fragile. A child standing before a real monster.
In the video, the younger Kakashi rushed forward, Lightning Blade blazing in his hand.But Orochimaru avoided it in an instant. Effortlessly. Casually. As though sidestepping death itself was nothing at all. His counter came just as easily, slicing straight through Kakashi's ANBU mask.Even injured, even far from his best condition, Orochimaru's mere killing intent smothered everything around him. Kakashi in the image froze under that pressure, unable to move, unable to react. Orochimaru simply brushed past him and continued on, as if he were ignoring an obstacle too insignificant to bother with.By the time Kakashi finally broke free of that suffocating terror, Orochimaru had already vanished.
Watching from outside the scene, Kakashi's expression turned grim.This had happened in the past. At the time, there should have been no one else present—only him and Orochimaru. So how had this scene been recorded? Who could possibly have seen it? Who could have preserved it?
The video had only just begun, and already it had dragged a buried memory back up from the darkest part of his mind.Before he could think any further, the scene shifted once more.
***
Now the image showed a dim, enclosed hall.Kakashi was standing over Sasuke Uchiha, one hand raised in a seal."Evil Sealing Method!"As Sasuke cried out, the violent chakra of the cursed seal on his neck was forced back and bound down. Kakashi let out a quiet breath and looked at the boy, who was panting heavily on the floor.
"If the cursed seal erupts again, this sealing formula should be able to suppress it," Kakashi said. "But Sasuke, this technique ultimately depends on your own willpower. If your heart wavers—if you lose faith in your own will—then the cursed seal will break loose again."
Sasuke collapsed to the ground, exhausted and trembling. Looking at him, Kakashi sighed."This really doesn't suit you," he said. "You look terrible."
Then a low, amused chuckle echoed through the hall.Someone stepped forward out of the darkness, dressed in the uniform of a jonin from another hidden village. The smile on his face was as cold and mocking as ever."You can even use sealing techniques now," Orochimaru said, his voice smooth with amusement. "You've grown quite a bit, Kakashi."
The Kakashi in the video instantly went on guard, every nerve in his body drawn tight."Long time no see, Kakashi," Orochimaru greeted him with a smile that looked almost warm—if one ignored the poison hidden underneath it.
Outside the video, Kakashi immediately noticed the forehead protector Orochimaru wore.It was from the Hidden Sound Village.At first glance, Otogakure was only a newly established minor hidden village, one of the many smaller forces scattered across the ninja continent beneath the dominance of the Five Great Nations. It had gained some measure of reputation, but not enough to be counted among the true great powers.Yet now that Kakashi saw this scene, the truth became obvious at once. Otogakure belonged to Orochimaru. There was simply no other explanation. A man like Orochimaru—one of the legendary Sannin—could never be serving under someone else in some insignificant little village.
The timeline fit as well.By the time Kakashi connected the details, the conclusion was almost painfully clear. Orochimaru had defected from Konoha, disappeared into the darkness, and established his own village in secret. A nest of snakes wearing the face of a hidden village.
In the image, Kakashi stepped in front of Sasuke and shouted, "Don't come any closer to Sasuke!"
His hand flared with chakra again. The Lightning Blade screamed to life, sharp and violent."Even if you're one of the legendary Sannin," Kakashi said coldly, "with my current strength, I can still take you down with me."
But Orochimaru only laughed.It was not loud. Not contemptuous in any obvious way. And that made it all the more unsettling."He has the heart to seek even the most evil kind of power," Orochimaru said. "Because he is a child consumed by vengeance."
Kakashi stared at him, unblinking."So you've noticed that much about Sasuke..." he said."He'll come looking for me one day," Orochimaru replied.Then he turned, already leaving, as if the matter were settled—as if Sasuke's future had already been decided. Over his shoulder, without so much as glancing back, he added, "You just said you'd kill me? Then try it. If you can."
The Kakashi in the video trembled.In that instant, something in him seemed to crack under the pressure of memory and instinct. He gasped for air, cold sweat pouring down his face as realization struck with brutal force.To die together with him... what foolishness.The words were not spoken aloud, but the meaning was written all over his face. Against someone like Orochimaru, that resolve, that threat, that determination to mutually destroy one another—it had all been little more than self-deception.
***
The video ended.Silence fell over the Hatake estate.Kakashi, sitting before the diary in the present, was also drenched in sweat. His breath came hard and uneven, as if he had just fought through that encounter himself rather than merely watched it from afar.
"What is this video...?" he muttered hoarsely. "How can it feel this real?"
It had not been ordinary footage. That much was certain.Through the image alone, he had felt Orochimaru's presence all over again—that terrifying pressure, that monstrous killing intent, the sensation of standing before something far beyond oneself. It was eerie to the point of being unnatural, as though the diary had not merely shown him the past, but forced him to relive it.
That was the true hierarchy of the ninja world.A stronger shinobi could crush those beneath him with presence alone. Kakashi himself could do that much to weaker ninja—freeze them where they stood, break their will before the fight even began. But what Orochimaru possessed was something on an entirely different level. It was a murderous aura tempered through endless killing, through battles and blood and surviving long enough to become a legend.No one cultivated that kind of presence in a greenhouse.
No matter how strong Kakashi was, there were limits to the rank of jonin.Orochimaru had already stepped beyond that. He stood at the level of a Kage—a monster whose name could be spoken in the same breath as the leaders of the great villages. One of the legendary Sannin, a title earned decades ago and feared throughout the entire ninja world.Even if Orochimaru himself regarded the name Sannin as a humiliation, a reminder of defeat, that changed nothing for everyone else. To ordinary shinobi, to most jonin, to almost anyone alive, the legendary Sannin were like martial myths made flesh.
Across the entire shinobi world, there were only a dozen or so experts of that level visible on the surface.And if Kitahara Kaede's diary was telling the truth, then the disaster now looming over Konoha involved exactly that kind of monster.Kakashi lowered his gaze to the diary on the table, the pages still open before him, and for the first time in a long while, an old, familiar tension coiled tightly in his chest.The storm was coming.And somehow, impossibly, an ordinary chunin named Kitahara Kaede already knew what shape it would take.