White Zetsu asked strangely, "Aren't you an Uchiha too?"
"That's right," Naraku nodded as a matter of course, "So 'I' am also an idiot."
The already not-so-bright White Zetsu froze for a moment, but after Naraku smacked his head hard, his eyes immediately cleared, and he decisively ignored the parts he couldn't understand.
"What has Kakashi Hatake been doing lately?"
"Jin, are you very concerned about him?"
His words were full of schadenfreude, and Naraku glanced at White Zetsu with an expressionless face. The latter obediently swallowed his laughter.
Although White Zetsu couldn't feel pain, having his limbs slowly broken one by one and then roasted over a fire was quite uninteresting.
"That guy is always out of sorts; it looks like he's going to die from overwork. If you want to kill him, you'd better be quick."
"So he would also be sad over the death of an 'idiot'?" Naraku's eyes, hidden in the shadows, held a complex look, yet he let out a cold scoff, "How unexpected."
Alas, these are all debts.
He scratched his head helplessly in his mind, thinking he needed to find a chance to release "Naraku" soon... From the day he received the news of Naraku's death, Kakashi had completely broken free from control.
The clear-headed him immediately realized how ridiculous and full of holes those rumors about his father's "suicide" were, but he had been under the influence of genjutsu as soon as he returned to the village, believing them without thought.
The moment he secretly found the medical records at the Hospital and confirmed that his father's injuries were entirely from someone else, regret and despair tormented his heart day and night, almost turning him into a puppet.
Whenever he thought of the things he had said and done to Naraku after his father was harmed, Kakashi wished he could dig out his own heart and stab it to pieces with a Kunai.
But whenever he tried to do so, hatred would maintain his last shred of sanity, forbidding him to die so ignominiously, telling him that he must become stronger, forcing him to live, to live for Naraku, to live for his father.
Until the day he found the mastermind and avenged Naraku and his father.
Before that, he had no right to die.
Minato was worried about Kakashi and specifically came to talk to him, finding that the previous abnormalities seemed to have disappeared.
Kakashi would feel pain when he thought of Naraku, but he no longer avoided it, no longer deliberately distanced himself, tearfully admitting that Naraku was his best friend, and muttering through gritted teeth: One day, one day...!
Minato realized something was wrong and asked what had happened before, why Kakashi had been acting so strangely during that period, but from him, he learned a chilling truth.
Kakashi had been controlled by genjutsu.
Minato believed Kakashi would never lie, and precisely because of this, he felt confused and horrified.
Previously, Kushina had probed so many times, yet she couldn't detect any clues from Kakashi. Now, the genjutsu hadn't left any traces, showing how terrifying the caster was.
Who did it was unknown, and their motive remained elusive.
The sun was shining brightly outside, yet Minato felt a chill, as if something was lurking in Konoha, hidden in corners no one could see, radiating malice towards the world.
Temporarily suppressing these feelings, Minato looked at Kakashi's red eyes and finally understood what his teacher had once said.
[A person can lose opportunities again and again, but it cannot be a passing glance, nor can it be a missed chance.]
And Kakashi, under genjutsu, was destined to miss Naraku.
Since then, Kakashi became even more taciturn and solitary. Even Minato and Kushina couldn't open his heart again.
When asked how he was doing, his answer was always "I'm fine," accompanied by a tired but polite smile.
Just like Naraku used to be.
Minato saw that this situation couldn't continue. He also feared that the rumors about Uchiha Naraku's cause of death circulating among the higher-ups would reach Kakashi's ears, causing him to do something irreversible. After much thought, he finally came up with a plan.
He went to Jiraiya and asked his teacher to take Kakashi out of the village for a period of training.
Jiraiya thought for a moment and agreed. After all, he traveled all over the Land of Fire for material, and he had plenty of leisure time to look after his old friend's son.
Moreover, Uchiha Fugaku had made accusations multiple times at high-level meetings. Even though Jiraiya wasn't present, he had heard about it and was planning to go look for the whereabouts of "Shimura Rō" in the next few days to get to the bottom of the matter.
Since he, the Toad Sage, knew about this, the person who laid hands on a comrade shouldn't expect to gloss it over; there was no way!
However, regarding the matter of leaving the village to investigate the killer, the master and disciple discussed it and reached a consensus: they should temporarily keep it from Kakashi until Shimura Rō was found.
Otherwise, Kakashi might be blinded by the flames of hatred. If he acted irrationally and attracted the attention of certain people, no one would be able to save him then.
As one of the Sannin, Jiraiya, was taking him out of the village for training, and Kakashi, eager to grow stronger, naturally had no reason to refuse. He simply packed up and set off with him.
The old and the young, each with different thoughts, thus embarked on the same journey together.
During the journey, Kakashi was very easygoing in terms of personality: sensible, independent, and even often looked after the careless Jiraiya, as precocious as Minato;
But when it came to training, he was a bit too dedicated, no less so than the rumored Might Guy and his father. Jiraiya even worried that he might train himself to death.
Whenever he tried to persuade Kakashi not to push himself so hard, he would show a stubborn expression, but then, as if to escape, he would lower his head and repeatedly adjust his leg wraps.
Jiraiya knew that the child's heart was too bitter, and only through self-abusive training could he feel some relief.
Utterly helpless, he made a trip to Mount Myōboku and obtained some medicinal oil from the Toad Sage, telling Kakashi to apply it every night before bed.
Every night, when all was quiet, even after applying the medicinal oil, Kakashi would still feel a faint ache, making it difficult to sleep.
At these times, he would gaze at the moon in the sky or look at the stars, praying that Naraku would visit him in his dreams tonight, allowing him to feel a bit of lingering warmth from the extinguished bonfire... In a jungle somewhere in the northern Land of Fire.
Kakashi once again woke from a chaotic dream, sighing in disappointment.
He didn't dream of Naraku again.
-- When will you come to see me, Naraku?
-- Are you unwilling to forgive me?
... ps: Not finished yet, running out of time, sending it out first, will revise later
pss: Okay, it's revised