As an experienced reader, Kakashi immediately flipped to the end of Gyūbi's Nights after finishing that section.
Then he saw the final line:
[Special Thanks: Granny Chiyo of Sunagakure]
Kakashi instantly relaxed.
He'd thought whoever wrote that story seemed to have some kind of blood feud with his father.
Turns out they genuinely did.
In that case, never mind.
The main reason Kakashi was able to accept it so quickly was that Zabuza had only recently come looking for him because of another book.
At the time, Kakashi had wondered how he could possibly have missed such a famous masterpiece. Something about that had clearly been suspicious.
And sure enough, it had only recently begun circulating in Kirigakure and hadn't yet spread throughout the shinobi world.
Naturally, Kakashi hadn't had a chance to read it.
Apparently, Gyūbi's Nights was another book that had started spreading from Kirigakure.
Granny Chiyo had come here for a vacation and somehow found the time to provide inspiration for a bootleg dirty novel on the side.
Kakashi had no intention of holding her responsible.
For one thing, Chiyo had already voluntarily let go of her hatred.
For another, not long ago she had willingly risked her own reputation for the sake of the shinobi world by cooperating with them in an elaborate act to fool Uchiha Madara.
After all that, what was wrong with letting her slander the White Fang a little?
And thinking back to Kisame secretly giving Itachi this book, Kakashi could more or less guess the intention.
Kisame probably wanted to warn Itachi that Kakashi, as the White Fang's son and inheritor of the One Thousand Years of Death, might possess the same sinister tendencies as the fictional Sakumo in the novel.
Kakashi, however, wasn't worried.
As long as he remained alive, these rumors could be disproved.
Being alive was what mattered.
Once you were dead, people could throw whatever dirt they wanted on your name, and there was no way to argue back.
But Kakashi?
Faced with rumors like these, all he needed to do was continue publicly reading large quantities of adult literature.
Eventually, the accusations would collapse on their own.
With that thought, Kakashi selected another questionable novel, tucked it into his clothes, and left the tent to see how Itachi was doing.
When he reached the shoreline, he found Itachi standing alone while Naruto and Konohamaru were splashing around wildly in the sea.
"You already finished talking?"
Kakashi walked over.
"…I'd already heard plenty about him beforehand, but Naruto's stubbornness really does exceed expectations."
Itachi nodded.
"So, did you find a way?"
Kakashi asked immediately.
"Possibly. But I need a little assistance first."
Itachi pointed toward his eyes.
"Ah."
Kakashi suddenly remembered.
Itachi no longer had Tsukuyomi.
Even if he wanted to give Naruto the same full-course treatment he had once given Sasuke, he no longer had the technique to do it.
That was a serious problem.
They needed to solve it quickly.
"Kakashi-sensei?"
Naruto suddenly ran over while Kakashi was thinking.
"Uh, can you go out for us? Could you buy something for me and Konohamaru?"
He picked up his frog wallet from the ground and poured out a pile of loose change.
"What?"
Kakashi looked up.
"You two aren't allowed to leave?"
"Yeah. That shark lady said she's worried us Konoha people will corrupt Kirigakure's social atmosphere."
Naruto scratched his cheek.
"So apparently only one 'suspicious' Konoha person is allowed into town at a time, and they have to be monitored."
"…"
What did he mean, only one suspicious Konoha person could leave at a time?
What kind of rule was that?
Kakashi distinctly remembered Sakura, Ino, and Tenten heading into the resort district together earlier.
…
Wait.
So those three simply didn't count?
Which meant Naruto had just been stopped from leaving because Kakashi had already gone out and used up Konoha's daily suspicious-person quota?
"What about Neji?"
Kakashi glanced toward Neji, who was sitting cross-legged some distance away without moving.
Since Neji had his back turned, Kakashi couldn't tell whether he was meditating, resting, or watching Shira and Guy train in the distance.
"He's banned from going out too."
Naruto answered.
"And after he found out why he was banned, he just sat down over there and got all depressed."
"…"
As one of the central participants in the whole Neji calls Ao 'Dad,' Ao confesses to Kakashi incident, Kakashi naturally had no idea why Neji himself had somehow ended up classified as suspicious.
He could only assume Naruto and Konohamaru had somehow ruined Neji's reputation too.
"Fine."
Kakashi covered his face helplessly.
"What do you want? I need to go out anyway, so I'll bring it back."
Conveniently, Itachi needed support, and Kakashi was planning to head toward the Flying Raijin transportation point to bring a few more people over.
"Popsicles!"
Konohamaru immediately thrust his hand into the air.
"Buy us some popsicles!"
"Popsicles?"
Kakashi nodded.
"Fair enough. The sea breeze is pretty warm today. Something cold would be nice.
"What flavors?"
"Strawberry for me!"
"I want—"
"Kakashi!"
Might Guy suddenly appeared out of nowhere, charging over with enormous enthusiasm.
"I WANT BILIAN!"
"Huh?"
Kakashi stared at him.
What the hell was bilian?
He'd heard the phrase "have some shame," where bilian meant face, but never an actual food called that.
"Guy-sensei, you idiot!"
Konohamaru groaned.
"It's not Bilian, it's Xuelian!"
Then he turned toward Kakashi and explained.
"Kakashi-sensei, Xuelian is basically a little round block of sweet frozen water."
"Xuelian? Bilian? Sprite?"
Guy rubbed his chin.
His strange sensitivity toward names had been triggered again.
"Does xue and bi somehow mean the same thing?"
"Guy, stop saying things that sound so suspicious!"
Kakashi immediately snapped at him.
"Konoha's reputation is already terrible enough!"
Guy froze.
Suspicious?
What part of that had been suspicious?
And yet—
Somehow, it really did sound suspicious.
Off to the side, Kirigakure observer Hoshigaki Nanami silently added another note to her little notebook.
Might Guy was officially placed on the restricted-movement list of suspicious shinobi.
Kakashi's own suspicion rating was also raised by one level.
"Anyway, Kakashi, besides that Bi—"
Guy caught himself.
"Xuelian. I want these ones too."
"Kakashi-sensei! Me too, me too!"
Naruto finally managed to squeeze into the conversation and listed several flavors of his own.
How did he know what was available?
Naturally, Sakura, Ino, and Tenten had told him all about the delicious things they had eaten while freely shopping around town.
Eventually, even Granny Chiyo—who had grown bored of vacationing and wandered over to see what everyone was doing—joined the crowd and shouted an order for popsicles at Kakashi.
Kakashi stared at them.
"…Is anyone here actually over ten years old?"
Konohamaru was understandable.
Naruto, fine.
But what were Guy and Granny Chiyo doing, scrambling for snacks like little kids?
"Kakashi!"
Guy suddenly grabbed him with an intensely serious expression, exactly like Kakashi had reprimanded him moments earlier.
"Anything involving children under ten is obviously illegal!"
He gripped Kakashi firmly by both shoulders.
"You absolutely cannot let all those books you read corrupt your judgment and lead you down a criminal path!"
"?"
Kakashi stared at him blankly.
What the hell was Guy talking about?