Chapter 554: Watching the Engraved Tsukuyomi
"That's right! Exactly right! That's exactly how it happened!"
"No, no! That's completely wrong!"
After hearing Matsuri's final analysis, Chōjūrō anxiously tried to argue back. But even after racking his brain, he couldn't think of a single way to refute it.
And just like that, the story of Ao and Kakashi's love-hate relationship was officially accepted as fact.
"I've got it!"
Yukata suddenly raised her hand.
Chōjūrō weakly lifted his head to look at her.
'No... ladies... what have you figured out this time...?'
"There's another possibility. Since Kirigakure seems to have a thing for cute boys, maybe when Ao first met the young Kakashi, Kakashi's face mask made him mistake him for a tomboyish girl. From that moment on, Kakashi became Ao's unforgettable first love."
"…?"
"No, wait! A tomboy is a girl who looks like a boy, while a cute boy is a boy who looks like a girl. How can you use those together?"
"So in Ao-senpai's eyes... is Kakashi a boy or a girl?"
Chōjūrō couldn't hold it in anymore. He interrupted Yukata and loudly refuted her.
Uh...
Everyone present fell silent.
Chōjūrō had a point.
The problem was...
He had been acting shy and innocent this whole time.
So why did he know those definitions so clearly?
Good grief.
Another secretly perverted guy, just like Kakashi!
Everyone's gaze toward Chōjūrō gradually became filled with disdain.
"Why can't he be both? Isn't your Ninja Sword, that iron salted fish of yours, able to split into two pieces?"
"Maybe Ao swings both ways. Back then, Kakashi looked both like a tomboy and like a cute boy, hitting both of Ao's preferences at the same time."
Seeing her disciple left speechless by Chōjūrō, Pakura immediately became dissatisfied. As their senior, she finally launched her first gossip offensive.
Sorry, but the Hyūga Clan's Eight Trigrams Palm was far too weak.
The true secret technique was the Eight Trigrams Mouth.
"Hey, Uzumaki Naruto, Konohamaru, what do you two think? You're Konoha ninja. What do you think of Kakashi?"
After speaking, Pakura suddenly turned toward Naruto and Konohamaru, who had been eavesdropping from the outer edge the entire time.
"Huh? Us? Well... to be honest, we always thought Kakashi-sensei was kind of sarcastic and... a little weird."
"Kakashi-sensei really is the secretly perverted type, just like Ebisu-sensei!"
Naruto and Konohamaru each gave their own answer.
"See? Chōjūrō, learn from them. The Konoha side openly admits that one of their own ninja is a pervert, while you're still standing here making excuses. Can't you show a little responsibility and broad-mindedness?"
Pakura turned her disdainful gaze back toward Chōjūrō.
Being looked down upon like that by an older sister figure...
Chōjūrō felt like he was about to cry.
Finally, he steeled his resolve, gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and stomped his foot.
"That's right! Ao-senpai likes both tomboys and cute boys, and he even treated Kakashi as his unforgettable first love!"
"Now that he saw Kakashi being confessed to by Zabuza, and then Granny Chiyo came looking for him too, the sense of crisis became too much. He couldn't suppress his feelings any longer and had no choice but to confess as well!"
Not only did Chōjūrō admit everything about Ao...
He even expanded on the story.
Well, that settled it.
With testimony from a fellow Kirigakure ninja, Ao's "crime" was now backed by solid evidence.
After forcing himself to say all of that, Chōjūrō suddenly felt inexplicably refreshed.
His entire body felt lighter, and even his mood improved considerably.
"Oh, right. Konohamaru and I got bored earlier, so we borrowed this from Kakashi-sensei and watched it for a while. I think that man's name showed up in it."
Naruto suddenly remembered something. He ran back, picked something up off the ground, and brought it over.
It was the display screen Kakashi had been using to monitor Obito inside the Engraved Tsukuyomi.
Since Naruto and Konohamaru had nothing else to do, they had borrowed it from Kakashi and treated it like a short drama.
"What is this? A new movie?"
The others looked at the images on the screen and turned toward Naruto in confusion.
"It's not a movie. Kakashi-sensei said this is... this is..."
Naruto repeated "this is" for quite a while without finishing his sentence.
"This is something called the Engraved Tsukuyomi. It was recently developed in Amegakure."
"The person inside is real. He was thrown in there as a test subject for the Engraved Tsukuyomi. We don't really know the details."
"Kakashi-sensei is using this to monitor the person inside."
Konohamaru stepped in and finished the explanation.
The others looked at the two of them strangely.
Something felt off.
It almost seemed like Naruto and Konohamaru's ages had been swapped.
But that wasn't important right now.
"You're saying Ao's name appeared in there? Engraved Tsukuyomi... could it be something like the Limited Tsukuyomi? Hurry up and play it! Maybe we'll discover what really happened back then!"
Everyone crowded around Naruto as he placed the display screen in the center.
Then they all gathered around and began watching together.
After all...
If the Limited Tsukuyomi corresponded to real historical events and could be used to deduce all kinds of hidden information...
Then perhaps this Engraved Tsukuyomi could do the same.
It might even be more reliable.
After all, the people inside the Limited Tsukuyomi were a little too outrageous.
"Oh, right, everyone. The one named Obito in here is actually Kakashi-sensei. The one called Kakashi is actually Uchiha Obito, the guy who was thrown in for the experiment."
Konohamaru reminded everyone beforehand so they wouldn't get confused while watching.
"..."
It was a complete mess.
But everyone understood.
In short...
Just follow the faces.
The names had been swapped, but the appearances were still the same.
For example...
The one currently called Uchiha Obito, who was actually Kakashi, was fighting Kirigakure ninja.
Perhaps because history had changed drastically, Kakashi, using Uchiha Obito's identity, had been assigned under Uchiha Shisui and sent to Kirigakure as a member of the Uchiha Clan.
Meanwhile, the real Obito realized that the Third Hokage was deliberately separating the two of them because they no longer got along.
Even so...
He secretly followed them anyway.
Because one part of Obito's plan required an accomplice.
Whether that would be someone from Kirigakure...
Or Uchiha Madara, who might currently be somewhere near Kirigakure.
So Obito concealed himself in the shadows, following the main force.
And then he witnessed Kakashi confronting Ao.
"Huh? Why is Ao-senpai using the Nuibari?"
Chōjūrō cried out in surprise.
On the screen, Ao was holding a long, slender sword.
It was Nuibari...
One of the Seven Ninja Swords.
Has history really changed that drastically?
Or had Ao-senpai originally wielded Nuibari back then?
Since Chōjūrō had never experienced the Third Great Ninja War, he genuinely couldn't tell.
"Ao-senpai, the enemy is an Uchiha squad. What should we do?"
One of Ao's subordinates asked him in the recording.
(End of this chapter)