Chapter 170: Kakashi: There Are Still Living Members of the Uchiha Clan? (Patreon)

Clang!

The Cursed Tool short blade slipped from the executioner's hand and clattered to the ground.

He took in the tall, white-haired figure and the cursed energy rippling around him, then stumbled backward and landed hard on the ground.

Gojo Satoru.

That name had left an enormous psychological scar on the Jujutsu World.

"Gh…"

"Don't kill me!"

The executioner's teeth began to chatter. He scrambled to his feet, let out a strangled, warbling shriek, and bolted into the thick darkness behind him without once looking back.

Gakuganji Yoshinobu paid no mind to the fleeing executioner. His gaze stayed locked on the stranger in front of him.

After studying the man carefully, and weighing it against the lazy words he had just spoken, Gakuganji was certain: this was absolutely not Gojo Satoru.

But Gakuganji did not relax in the slightest.

At a juncture like this, the sudden appearance of yet another powerful, unregistered sorcerer was no good omen for Jujutsu Headquarters.

Could it be… one of the ancient sorcerers revived through incarnation?

"Who are you?"

Gakuganji lowered his voice and warned him in a measured tone:

"Jujutsu Headquarters is carrying out an execution."

"Whatever your purpose in coming here, please do not interfere with us."

"It would be better for everyone if you left now."

Hatake Kakashi: "…?"

Jujutsu Headquarters?

Jujutsu?

"Ah…"

Hatake Kakashi rubbed his chin and drawled:

"Never heard of that organization or that concept. Is it something like ANBU?"

"If it's an execution, then…"

He muttered to himself as he turned to face Yaga Masamichi and looked him up and down.

"So this guy here is the bad guy, huh?"

The moment he turned fully around, the streetlamp, flickering from its unstable voltage, suddenly flared a little brighter.

Orange light spilled down and lit the side of Hatake Kakashi's face that wasn't covered by his forehead protector.

In the dim, shifting light and shadow, Yaga Masamichi's gaze froze.

He saw it.

Hatake Kakashi's one exposed right eye was a pure crimson, the color of fresh blood.

Within that crimson was a pattern like a spinning pinwheel.

Those eyes… there was no mistaking them!

Yaga Masamichi: "…?"

What?

Uchiha Ayato?

The instant he saw that eye, Yaga Masamichi thought of Uchiha Ayato.

But he quickly noticed the differences between the two eyes.

The pattern in Uchiha Ayato's eyes was far more complex than the one this man possessed.

And in temperament, build, and age, the two were completely different people.

What was going on with this man? How could he resemble both Gojo Satoru and Uchiha Ayato?

?!

On the other side, hearing Kakashi's question, Gakuganji Yoshinobu took up the conversation.

"That's right."

The old man spoke with a grave face:

"The Higher-Ups have determined that Yaga Masamichi concealed dangerous techniques and incited Gojo Satoru and Suguru Geto to cause the Shibuya Incident, resulting in incalculable losses…"

"He is a sinner guilty of unforgivable crimes."

Hearing this, Hatake Kakashi couldn't help sighing.

"Ah… I understood none of that."

He looked up at the churning, storm-laden sky and said, somewhat helplessly:

"But judging from my past experience, the smell of that speech of yours is all too familiar, old man."

"The rotten, sour stink of someone deliberately framing others to get rid of dissidents."

"…Anyway, this isn't the Shinobi World anymore, is it?"

Hatake Kakashi wasn't expecting a definite answer. He simply went on, as if talking to himself:

"Actually, when I couldn't sense any Chakra from you earlier, I'd pretty much guessed."

"Honestly, I didn't even get the chance to say a proper goodbye to Obito before being dumped in a place like this…"

"Now we're in real trouble."

Kakashi gave a wry smile and turned back to Yaga Masamichi.

This time his lazy gaze sharpened a little, fixing straight on Yaga Masamichi's face:

"Mister."

"When you saw my eye just now, your reaction seemed a bit odd."

Kakashi pointed at his right eye:

"Have you seen eyes like this somewhere else?"

Yaga Masamichi: "…"

Yaga Masamichi hesitated.

He had no intention of giving up information about his student so easily. Exposing a student's details to a strong man of unknown origin was clearly a huge risk.

But in this deadlock, with enemies on every side, the man's evident concern about the "eyes" made Yaga think that following this thread might open a way out.

Even if the chance of breaking the stalemate was slim, he had to seize it.

So Yaga Masamichi nodded.

"You could say that."

"I've seen similar red eyes on a student named Uchiha Ayato."

Hatake Kakashi: "!!!"

Uchiha!?

Kakashi's body went rigid.

Apart from that rebellious brat Sasuke, there was actually another member of the Uchiha Clan still alive?

Countless thoughts exploded in Kakashi's mind.

Could it be an orphan who had escaped the night the clan was wiped out?

Or maybe, just as he himself had been swept here, some Uchiha had been brought to this world long ago and put down roots?

If there really was a living Uchiha here, this was no small matter!

Kakashi took a quick step forward, closing the distance to Yaga Masamichi, his voice carrying an uncharacteristic urgency:

"Are you sure that person's surname is Uchiha?"

"What do his eyes look like normally?"

"When they turn red, what appears in the pupils? Tomoe, or an intricate kaleidoscope pattern like mine?"

He paused, searching his mind for the traits common to the Uchiha:

"And… what does he look like?"

"Is he really good-looking, with a prickly personality?"

Yaga Masamichi was thrown by Kakashi's sudden agitation, but he answered one by one from memory:

"According to Satoru's report…"

"When Satoru first met Uchiha Ayato, the boy had two Tomoe in his eyes."

"Then, after a dinner that same night, it became Three-Tomoe. Probably a boost from Technique Disclosure."

"During the Sister School Exchange Event, his eyes transformed again, into a very complex pattern, and his overall strength made a leap forward."

Kakashi's breathing slowed and softened without his meaning to, his heart rate quickened, and his gaze changed completely.

Two Tomoe, Three-Tomoe, and then the Mangekyou.

It matched the standard path of the Uchiha Sharingan's awakening and evolution perfectly!

There was no doubt about it. This was genuine Uchiha blood!

"As for his usual appearance…"

Yaga Masamichi continued:

"As long as he isn't actively using his Cursed Technique, his eyes just look a deep black, not much different from a normal person's."

"As for his looks…"

At this point a look of conflicted exasperation crossed Yaga's stern face:

"If you're asking whether he's 'good-looking,' that fits perfectly."

"That brat really does have the kind of face that can easily wrap women around his finger."

"In fact, that's exactly what he's done."

"As far as I know, he's already built intimate relationships with several girls at once."

Hatake Kakashi: "…?"

At those words, Hatake Kakashi, who a moment ago had been fired up and ready to hunt for the last Uchiha, went blank.

Juggling multiple partners?

Seriously?

Weren't the Uchiha all a bunch of twisted, obsessively devoted romantics?

Itachi, who slaughtered his entire clan for his little brother. Obito, who would drag the whole world into the grave for Rin. Sasuke, whose head was full of nothing but revenge and Naruto…

However warped their way of thinking, once those guys fixed on someone, they were frighteningly single-minded.

But now the Uchiha Clan had produced a playboy?

Kakashi stood rooted to the spot, sinking into a long spell of self-doubt.

Is this the Infinite Tsukuyomi?

When did that happen?

On the other side, Gakuganji Yoshinobu had listened to the whole exchange, and his face had grown as dark as it could get.

Uchiha Ayato…

That was a subject no one dared touch!

This white-haired powerhouse who had suddenly appeared was somehow connected to Uchiha Ayato?

If that was true, the situation was completely beyond his control.

By then, Hatake Kakashi had finally come back to himself.

He turned to Gakuganji Yoshinobu with a fake smile and said in a friendly tone:

"Sorry about this, old man."

"I have something very important to ask this fellow in private. Could you give us a little room to talk?"

"Also, if he really is the unforgivable criminal you say he is…"

Kakashi's eyes went cold for an instant:

"I promise I'll carry out justice in your place."

Gakuganji Yoshinobu: "…"

Kakashi had expected the old man to cling to his position. Instead, Gakuganji let out a great sigh of relief.

Wonderful.

With those words, everything became easy.

Whatever happened afterward, at least for this moment, Yaga had survived.

And since the matter might involve Uchiha Ayato, he now had the perfect excuse to report back to the Higher-Ups.

"If you insist on getting involved…"

Gakuganji put away his electric Guitar with a show of reluctance and went along with it:

"Then I will report this to the Higher-Ups for them to reconsider."

With that, Gakuganji turned and headed down the other end of the road, his steps light, and soon vanished into the deep night.

*

Half an hour later.

"Hah."

Hatake Kakashi picked up the red-and-black plastic bowl and swallowed the last mouthful of miso soup.

The warm liquid, with its faint seaweed savor, slid down his throat and barely chased off some of the chill of arriving in a strange new world.

He set the empty bowl back on the greasy tabletop, then picked up Yaga Masamichi's smartphone from beside it with his right hand.

This was a twenty-four-hour Yoshinoya.

At this hour, a few workers just off the night shift were slumped over the far counter, sound asleep. Apart from the occasional clatter of dishes being washed in the kitchen, only their corner of the restaurant held anything that could be called "liveliness."

Over the past half hour, Yaga Masamichi had laid out the general situation and sequence of events of last night's Shibuya Incident, and had told Hatake Kakashi everything he knew about Uchiha Ayato's background.

He had also shown Kakashi a video that was spreading like wildfire online.

Hatake Kakashi's eyes were glued to the phone screen.

The footage shook badly, and the pixels blurred into a mosaic in the dark.

Even so, the bone-chilling pressure came through the screen all too clearly.

A colossal warrior god, blazing with brilliant golden light, tore through the night and stood upon the earth.

Facing it was a towering beast with nine tails, one Kakashi knew all too well.

The Tailed Beast's roar was shrill and piercing. Fire lit up the sky in the footage, and with each collision of Chakra against Chakra, destructive shockwaves rolled out across the city.

The progress bar ran to the end: the warrior god, gripping the fox by the throat, took off from where it stood, and the video ended.

Kakashi leaned back, his right eye staring straight at the ceiling.

"…It's like being caught in a Genjutsu."

Slowly he lowered his gaze to Yaga Masamichi beside him, his voice full of absurdity and awe:

"A lone Uchiha, left behind by the clan…"

"With no clan elders to teach or guide him, all by himself, in a world without even Chakra, he awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan…"

He paused, his throat suddenly dry again:

"And not only that, he's mastered the full-bodied Susanoo and subdued the Nine-Tails."

"What kind of road did he walk to get here?"

The formidable ocular power of the Mangekyou Sharingan.

A full-bodied Susanoo of unimaginable scale.

After the battle with the Nine-Tails, he had miraculously restored the ravaged battlefield to how it was. That suggested his Mangekyou ocular technique was most likely tied to time.

The Nine-Tails' whereabouts were unknown after the battle. Given the Uchiha's natural, near-countering advantage over Tailed Beasts, the fox had most likely been brought under control by the Sharingan's Genjutsu.

Putting all these elements together…

Hey, hey, isn't that setup a bit too overpowered?

Even on the battlefield of the Great Ninja War, this guy would have stolen the show.

Kakashi had good reason to suspect he could go toe-to-toe with Madara in his Impure World Reincarnation state.

Yaga Masamichi watched the constantly shifting expressions on Hatake Kakashi's face and chose not to interrupt.

As for the new terms spilling from Kakashi's mouth, like "Chakra" and "Susanoo," Yaga quietly committed them to memory, growing ever more convinced that Uchiha Ayato's bloodline was far from ordinary.

"Mister…"

Hatake Kakashi said earnestly:

"With power like that, that person must be able to do whatever he pleases in this world by now. No rules could possibly bind him, right?"

Yaga Masamichi was silent for a moment, then gave a fairly objective assessment:

"He has indeed reached the very top of this world."

Kakashi's gaze shifted, and he threw out the question that had been nagging him ever since he heard Yaga's account:

"You said earlier…"

"The boy named Uchiha Ayato is a student at your school, right?"

"If he's a student, then when Jujutsu Headquarters sent people to take your life tonight, why would someone with that kind of strength stand by and do nothing?"

"Don't tell me that guy turned rogue ninja too…"

He suddenly realized "rogue ninja" might not be the right phrase, cleared his throat twice, and corrected himself:

"Ahem… I mean, did he betray you for some kind of gain or ideal, using the Higher-Ups' hands to eliminate dissidents?"

Hearing this, Yaga Masamichi firmly shook his head.

"It doesn't amount to betrayal."

Yaga picked up his cup and took a sip of tea that had long since gone cold:

"If that were the case, he wouldn't have gone out of his way to visit Jujutsu High this morning to warn everyone to prepare for the crisis in advance."

"Nor is he the type to let himself be pushed around or to act as an executioner for the top brass."

"Since he hasn't meddled in this rotten business of the Jujutsu World…"

"I suspect he most likely reached some private deal or understanding with Satoru that nobody knows about."

"What people at their level see is different from what the rest of us see."

Hearing that explanation, Kakashi nodded thoughtfully.

Why did that sound a bit like Uchiha Itachi again?

Meanwhile, Yaga Masamichi looked at Kakashi's crimson right eye and finally couldn't hold back the question that had been circling in his mind:

"Since you have eyes similar to Ayato's and know his power so well…"

"Surely you're a relative of Ayato's by blood?"

"Your clan…"

"Is everyone born with this kind of continuously evolving Innate Technique? Does everyone grow up to wield power like Ayato's?"

One Uchiha Ayato was enough to turn the Jujutsu World upside down.

If monsters like him came as a group…

Kakashi was stunned for a moment, then shook his head with a wry smile:

"Mister, you're overthinking this."

"I'm not one of them. These eyes were a gift from a dear friend."

"And don't go mythologizing that clan too much."

"The heights Uchiha Ayato has reached would have been rare even when the Uchiha Clan was at its peak."

"What's more…"

He sighed:

"That clan is down to just him and one other troublemaker running around causing havoc."

The two fell silent.

After quite a while, Kakashi straightened up again and pushed Yaga Masamichi's phone back toward him.

He dropped all his laziness and nonchalance and spoke with a gravity he had never shown before:

"Mister, could I ask you a favor?"

"Please contact this boy, Uchiha Ayato, on my behalf. I want to meet him."

Faced with this request, Yaga Masamichi's expression turned grave:

"I can pass your wish along."

"But you should understand that child never plays by the rules."

"Whether he's willing to see you is entirely up to him. I can't make you any guarantees."

"Just passing the message along is enough."

Kakashi's right eye curved into a crescent, and he pressed his palms together:

"Thank you very much."

*

Meanwhile, at Grand Aya Estate.

Uchiha Ayato was still curled up at home, with no intention of moving.

Of course, that didn't mean he'd done nothing.

In front of Uchiha Ayato's field of vision were several lines of text that only he could see, explaining in detail the rules of the so-called "Road to Godhood."

Yes, for once in its existence, the System had actually explained a quest.

[One: Until the previous stage's enemy is defeated, no information about the next stage's enemy can be obtained.]

[Two: If the Host does not choose to kill an enemy after defeating them, that enemy will become an interactive resident unit. After all challenge quests are completed, resident units may be sent back to their original timelines.]

[Three: The challenge target's arrival location will be randomly assigned among ten arenas. The Host may lock the arrival arena. Currently available: Tokyo Arena One, Tokyo Arena Two…]

Tokyo Arena One?

Uchiha Ayato wore an amused smile.

Had this wretched System finally noticed that its judgment module was malfunctioning?

Receiving Uchiha Ayato's thought, the System promptly spat out a dense scroll of system logs.

According to the timestamps, the System had been running stably for eleven years.

[The System has undergone hundreds of self-checks, with zero errors.]

[The Host is too sensitive. Please focus on the current quest.]

Looking at those two lines, Uchiha Ayato curled his lip.

Stubborn to the bitter end.

Just then, the phone he had left on the coffee table buzzed.

Few people would message him at this hour.

Uchiha Ayato grabbed the phone. The screen lit up, showing the sender as "Yaga Masamichi."

He unlocked it and opened the message. It was short, but packed with information.

Yaga Masamichi gave a rough account of how he had met Kakashi, and added one last line at the end:

[Kakashi says he'd like to meet you. The decision is yours.]

Kakashi.

Uchiha Ayato looked at the name, his eyes still calm.

Whatever shock he was due, he had already gotten it half an hour ago.

A poor relative from the old hometown… no, not even a relative. Not someone he needed to pour all his attention into.

Of course, if the one who'd come were Uchiha Itachi, Uncle Ayato would have to change his tune.

"Hey, Ayato."

Kurama's voice rang out in his mind:

"It's rare to find someone from the Shinobi World you can actually talk to. You're not going to go see him?"

Uchiha Ayato picked up the white porcelain cup in front of him, took a gentle sip, and glanced around.

Uika was so sleepy she'd started nodding off like a chick pecking at rice, her head bobbing, the pillow in her arms about to slip away.

Sakiko was sitting upright, but every so often she raised a hand and lightly covered a yawn with the back of it.

"No."

Uchiha Ayato replied unhurriedly:

"Kurama, take a look at what time it is."

"If I changed my clothes and went out in the middle of the night, they'd probably lie awake worrying about this and that again, wouldn't they?"

"Compared to them, those old violent affairs of the Shinobi World really aren't that important."

"Anyway, those people aren't going anywhere. We'll deal with it tomorrow."

As he spoke, he sent off his reply.

Inside the sealed space, Kurama shook her head, sighing inwardly that this brat had really been corrupted by a life of tender comforts.

But…

A warm, peaceful life did feel pretty good.

In the end, she only folded her arms and gave a tsundere little huff:

"Hmph, you really are a fussbudget."

"Since you've decided, get some rest early and prepare for tomorrow."

"There might be another fight to pick tomorrow, after all."