Qianyu found Kakashi in his room.
The boy was clutching his left eye—the one with the Sharingan. His knuckles were white. "Sensei… you're back."
Kakashi tried to stand, but Qianyu pushed him back into his chair with a firm hand. He studied the boy. No, the news about Rin hadn't reached him yet. If it had, Kakashi wouldn't just be sitting here; he'd be a complete wreck. Qianyu knew him too well.
He took the seat opposite. "Lord Orochimaru said your condition was off. What happened?"
Kakashi shook his head slowly. "It's nothing serious. A few days ago, my Sharingan… it suddenly hurt. Stung like hell. Then… blood tears. I passed out. Before that, I saw…" He paused, his brow furrowing deeply. "I saw some… bad fragments. Flashes."
Qianyu was silent. He reached for the water pitcher, poured a cup, and took a slow sip. He understood now.
The sudden pain, the blood tears, the fainting—it was because Obito Uchiha had awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan. Kakashi's eye, the one that was Obito's gift, had synced up. Awakened too. But Kakashi's chakra reserves were too low, too pitiful to handle the sudden drain of that evolution. His body shut down.
And those 'bad fragments'? Likely the last moments of Rin's life.
Qianyu set the cup down on the table with a quiet click. "Kakashi. There's something you need to know. It's about your teammate… Rin Nohara."
Kakashi's entire body jerked. He stared at Qianyu, eyes wide with a dawning, horrified understanding. His expression said it all—he'd already guessed. Feared it.
"Kakashi. Rin is dead."
The color drained from Kakashi's face. He swayed in his seat, his hands gripping the edge of the table until his fingertips turned white. His lips trembled. His breathing hitched, turning sharp and ragged.
A long, heavy silence filled the room. When Kakashi finally spoke, his voice was a raw scrape of sound. "Sensei… how?"
Qianyu's answer was clinical, brutal. "Mist ninja captured her. Sealed the Three-Tails, Isobu, inside her. They were controlling her, using her as a weapon to unleash the tailed beast on Konoha. In the end… her own teammates killed her."
Kakashi's right eye—his real eye—bloomed with red veins. His hands clenched into fists so tight the leather of his gloves creaked. "What about Minato Namikaze?! He's the Yellow Flash! How could he let them take her?!"
"He was on another mission. Not at the scene."
The fight left Kakashi all at once. He slumped back against the chair, defeated, empty. "Sensei… I'm so tired. Everyone… everyone close to me dies. Why? What… what went wrong?"
Qianyu leaned forward, his gaze pinning Kakashi in place. "Enough. We're leaving."
Kakashi looked at him, bewildered. "Leaving? Where?"
"Instead of letting you wallow here and question everything, I'm taking you to Kirigakure. To get revenge. To vent. The Mist killed your comrade? Then you kill ten. Kill a hundred of theirs. Let's go. Now."
He didn't wait for an answer. He hauled Kakashi up and went straight to Orochimaru. He laid it out plainly: a retaliatory strike on the Hidden Mist.
Orochimaru's golden eyes flicked over the despondent Kakashi. He didn't refuse. "Fifteen days."
Fifteen days. Six days of hard travel to reach the Land of Water, another six for the return journey. That left only three days—three days for Qianyu to take Kakashi to Kirigakure and spill as much blood as they could.
"More than enough."
They set off immediately.
Six days later.
They stood on the soil of the Land of Water. Five kilometers ahead, shrouded in the perpetual mist, lay the Village Hidden in the Mist.
The moment they'd crossed the border, Kakashi's listlessness had vanished. It was replaced by something colder, sharper—a deep, simmering hatred.
Qianyu laid down the rules. "I know you're angry. This trip is for revenge. For release. But I will not watch you lose your head and throw your life away here. I lead this fight. The moment you're in over your head, or the situation turns untenable, we pull out. Immediately."
He fixed Kakashi with a hard look. "Turn that anger into fuel. Use it to get stronger. Don't make it the reason you die stupidly and disappoint me."
Kakashi met his gaze, his single visible eye clear and focused. "I am angry, Sensei. But I'm also clear-headed. I know my limits. I won't lose control. And I won't disappoint you."
A faint, approving smirk touched Qianyu's lips. "I never doubted it. After all, when I have a kid one day, you'll be their teacher."
With a thought, he summoned a high-quality ninjato from the exchange shop and tossed it to Kakashi. "You haven't had a proper blade since White Fang's short sword broke. This one's yours."
Kakashi caught it, hefted its weight, and secured it at his hip. "Thank you."
"Good. Let's begin."
They moved.
Any Mist patrol they encountered died before they could raise an alarm. A blur of motion, a flash of steel, silenced gasps. They left a trail of bodies in their wake, advancing swiftly, undetected, until they were just outside Kirigakure's main gate.
The guards at the entrance spotted them. Did a double-take at the Konoha headbands. Shouted a warning.
Too late.
Qianyu was already in the air, hands flashing through seals.
"Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
He drew in nearly all his chakra, concentrated it in his throat, and exhaled. Not a stream of fire, but a massive, meteor-like fireball that plummeted from the sky.
BOOM.
The impact shook the ground. The fireball cratered the earth, then erupted outward—a tidal wave of flame devouring the gate, the guard posts, the nearby structures. The sheer scale of it, fueled by Qianyu's monstrous reserves, instantly carved a scar of devastation into the village's edge.
Screams. Alarms. Figures poured from the village, a tide of shinobi solidifying into a defensive line opposite them.
Then, recognition.
"It's the Blood-Eyed Asura!"
A ripple went through the Mist ranks. Excitement. Bloodlust. The one who killed him would have their name known across the entire shinobi world. And he only had one kid with him? Even the Blood-Eyed Asura couldn't fight an entire village. They'd wear him down. Grind him into nothing. It had worked before—Iwagakure's endless waves had taken down the Third Raikage. Sure, Qianyu had wounded the Raikage, but only wounded. Word was the Raikage had nearly beaten him to death.
He was on their doorstep now. However strong he was, they could drown him in numbers.
The Mist ninja readied themselves, weapons gleaming in the firelight, eager for the slaughter.
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