The more Namikaze Minato watched Hatake Kakashi's battle against Momochi Zabuza, the more convinced he became that something was fundamentally wrong with Kakashi's future fighting style.
An opponent of that level should never have pushed either him or the White Fang of Konoha to such an extent.
And Kakashi's chakra reserves were alarmingly low.
Using only a few large-scale ninjutsu had already left him visibly exhausted.
That made no sense.
Minato knew Kakashi's talent and natural chakra capacity better than most. While he could not compare to the monstrous vitality of the Uzumaki Clan, his reserves still far exceeded those of ordinary shinobi. Compared to Minato himself at the same age, Kakashi was not lacking in the slightest.
Under normal circumstances, his chakra should have been more than enough.
And yet, against Zabuza, he had nearly run dry.
How could things have developed into this?
The answer soon became obvious.
"The Sharingan consumes too much chakra," Minato muttered softly.
He quickly arrived at his own conclusion.
"It's different from Kaede Kitahara's case. His Sharingan seems to have awakened naturally, meaning he can control it freely. But Kakashi's eye probably cannot be deactivated. Even when it isn't actively being used, it continuously drains chakra."
Minato understood immediately.
At least half of Kakashi's chakra reserves were being consumed simply maintaining the Sharingan.
And that was without even entering full combat.
As an outsider to the Uchiha Clan, forcing himself to wield the Sharingan had clearly become a burden far greater than its benefits.
Under normal circumstances, the Uchiha Clan would never have allowed one of their eyes to remain outside the clan. The Uchiha, like every bloodline clan, were extremely sensitive about the leakage of their kekkei genkai.
If such a thing happened normally, it would trigger relentless pursuit across the entire ninja world.
The fact that Kakashi still possessed the eye at all meant there had to be hidden circumstances behind it.
Still, Minato could not understand Kakashi's future choices.
"The Sharingan gave him titles like Copy Ninja Kakashi… Konoha's Number One Technician… the man who copied a thousand jutsu…" Minato frowned. "But those are ultimately just empty reputations. How could Kakashi fail to see that?"
To Minato, bloodline limits were never absolute.
True geniuses did not rely entirely on inherited power.
Even without a kekkei genkai, someone with overwhelming talent could still surpass ninety-nine percent of those born with one.
And yet Kakashi had reshaped his entire combat style around a single borrowed eye.
With Minato's vision and experience, he could easily tell what had happened.
Kakashi had developed Chidori specifically to complement the Sharingan's enhanced perception and dynamic vision. His entire fighting style had gradually evolved into something closer to an assassin's approach. Combined with the thousand copied ninjutsu stored within the Sharingan, he became adaptable to nearly any opponent or battlefield situation.
At first glance, it seemed impressive.
But in Minato's eyes, Kakashi had already taken the wrong path.
It reminded him of the Hyuga Clan.
Because of the Byakugan, they developed Gentle Fist.
Gentle Fist possessed an incredibly high lower limit. At the Genin and Chunin stages, Hyuga clan members were among the strongest in their class. Even at the Jonin level, the style remained highly effective against most human opponents.
But that was also its limitation.
It was too balanced.
Too ordinary.
Compared to the Uchiha Clan, the Hyuga Clan consistently produced elite Jonin generation after generation, yet they almost never produced true monsters who stood at the absolute peak of the ninja world.
And future Kakashi had fallen into that same trap.
He had become extremely versatile.
But he had failed to cross the boundary into true Kage Level supremacy.
For ordinary ninja, the priority was naturally to patch weaknesses and strengthen fundamentals.
But for those seeking to step into the Kage Level realm, things were different.
At that level, no one could truly cover every weakness.
What mattered was possessing one overwhelming strength.
A single edge sharp enough to pierce the heavens.
Hatake Sakumo's swordsmanship.
Minato's Flying Thunder God.
Those were examples of true specialization elevated to the extreme.
Even the young Kaede Kitahara clearly understood this principle. His mastery of Flying Thunder God was already astonishing. Though still inferior to Minato himself, Kaede had already gained the ability to survive in front of Kage Level opponents.
Combined with the seamless coordination of his other techniques during battle, he had already formed a complete combat system uniquely his own.
That alone allowed him to stand shoulder to shoulder with Kage Level fighters.
And yet Kakashi, nearly thirty years old in the future, still had not realized the core issue.
In some ways, he understood things even less clearly than Kaede Kitahara.
But suddenly, Minato froze.
He realized something.
No one had taught him.
Hatake Sakumo had died too early.
And according to Minato's estimates, his own death was only a few years away as well.
At that point, Kakashi would only be around the same age as Kaede and Naruto were now.
Still young.
Still incomplete.
Without guidance, and trapped in darkness and self-doubt after losing both Obito and Rin, it was only natural that Kakashi eventually drifted onto the wrong path.
Thinking this far, Minato could not help but sigh.
The future truly was a tangled mess.
Kakashi's failure to fully step into the Kage realm was connected, in part, to Minato's own early death.
Of course, Kakashi himself also bore responsibility.
Watching the battle against Zabuza, Minato had frowned repeatedly. Kakashi's taijutsu was decent by ordinary Jonin standards, but only decent.
Barely above average.
For a ninjutsu specialist, perhaps that was acceptable.
But with Kakashi's talent, "acceptable" was nowhere near enough.
Especially when he had inherited the Hatake Clan's swordsmanship, only to abandon it and end up like this.
No matter how Minato looked at it, something felt wrong.
After criticizing Kakashi's future growth for a while, Minato continued reading the diary.
"Naruto becomes the savior of the future?"
His gaze paused on that line.
Kaede Kitahara's diary mentioned that Naruto would one day become a savior. Something related to Asura as well.
Minato did not yet understand what that meant, but he carefully remembered another detail Kaede had written before.
Naruto never learned the Uzumaki Clan's sealing techniques.
Minato understood why immediately.
The Uzumaki Clan had already fallen.
Very few people remained who truly mastered those complex sealing arts.
Aside from Konoha's specialized sealing teams, only he, Kushina, and Jiraiya still possessed meaningful knowledge of them.
As he continued reading, he also discovered information about Shimura Danzo.
In the future, Danzo would briefly become the Sixth Hokage candidate after Tsunade. However, before officially taking office, he would be intercepted and killed by Uchiha Sasuke.
Because of that, he was never formally recognized, leading Kaede Kitahara to mockingly refer to him as the "Fifth-and-a-Half Hokage."
Then Minato reached another section.
The leader of the Akatsuki.
The moment he saw Pain erase Konoha with a single attack, Minato's expression changed completely.
For the first time in his life, he realized there existed individuals with power so monstrous that they surpassed normal understanding entirely.
Destroying Konoha in one strike.
Not even the Nine-Tails had achieved something on that scale.
Minato immediately recorded everything carefully into his notebook.
Especially the timeline.
Using the diary's contents, along with information obtained from Kaede and Naruto, he slowly pieced events together.
Around Konoha Year 63 or 64, Orochimaru would launch the Konoha Crush during the Chunin Exams alongside Sunagakure. The Third Hokage would fall in battle.
Afterward, Tsunade would become the Fifth Hokage.
Roughly three years later, the Akatsuki would invade the village, resulting in Konoha's complete destruction.
Naruto himself clearly had not yet experienced that event, otherwise he would have mentioned it earlier.
From Sasuke's later interception of Danzo, Minato could infer even more details.
Something must have happened to Tsunade afterward. Either death or severe incapacitation.
That was likely why a temporary Sixth Hokage had been selected.
But Danzo died before fully assuming office.
Which explained the ridiculous "Fifth-and-a-Half Hokage" title.
After that, the Sixth Hokage position became unclear.
Still, based on Konoha's future circumstances, Kakashi was the most likely candidate.
And after Kakashi…
Naruto would eventually become the Seventh Hokage in his thirties.
Especially after witnessing the IF Route where future Naruto returned through time to save him and Kushina, Minato could not suppress the smile forming on his face.
It seemed Naruto's future turned out remarkably well.
He had fulfilled his dream.
And perhaps… become an even greater Hokage than Minato himself.
At the same time, Naruto's displayed power shocked him deeply.
"So this is what Kaede meant by Super Kage Level…"
Minato finally understood.
The so-called Super Kage Level truly existed beyond ordinary Kage Level fighters.
As a Kage Level shinobi himself, Minato knew better than anyone that he could not directly overpower the complete Nine-Tails.
And yet Naruto had suppressed it effortlessly.
The difference was overwhelming.
For the first time in his life, Namikaze Minato began doubting himself slightly.
Until now, he had always believed that among Kage Level shinobi, he stood among the strongest.
But the appearance of beings beyond that realm completely overturned his understanding.
Against opponents of that level, his tactics, intelligence, and Flying Thunder God all suddenly felt insufficient.
Take the Akatsuki leader, for example.
A single Shinra Tensei had flattened Konoha.
Against power on that scale, conventional battle methods became meaningless.
Even if such monsters possessed weaknesses, they were weaknesses ordinary people could never exploit.
After all, Minato himself had weaknesses too.
His physical durability was lacking.
His genjutsu ability was average.
If someone truly wanted to nitpick, flaws existed everywhere.
But could ordinary people ever seize those flaws against him?
Impossible.
And now, facing enemies beyond even himself, Minato felt something unfamiliar for the very first time.
Pressure.
And doubt.
Because the future crises awaiting Konoha…
The Nine-Tails Incident.
The Akatsuki invasion.
Those were disasters that demanded power far beyond what he currently possessed.