Naruto's actions brought Kakashi a sense of relief.
Walking up beside him, Kakashi said, "If you don't stop the bleeding soon, you might actually die."
Naruto, who had been wearing a determined expression just moments ago, panicked the instant he heard the word "die."
"Ah! I don't want to die!"
Kakashi sighed and prepared to bandage the wound.
But when he lifted Naruto's hand, he was startled to see the injury had already begun to close.
His heart trembled.
"So this is the power of the Nine-Tails… his recovery really is remarkable."
As Kakashi tended to him, Naruto kept asking nervously,
"Kakashi-sensei, am I really going to die?"
Kakashi shook his head. "You'll be fine."
Once he finished dressing the wound, Kakashi turned to the group.
"The next part of this mission will be dangerous. Sakura, Sasuke — do you want to return to the village or continue?"
Sasuke glanced toward Yoruha, his tone competitive.
"Of course we'll continue the mission."
Sakura still felt uneasy. The earlier fight, where those two enemy ninja had nearly killed her, had terrified her.
But since Sasuke had already spoken, even though she was afraid, she straightened and said bravely,
"I'll do whatever Sasuke does."
Naruto, who had just walked up, also declared firmly,
"Next time, I won't be the same as before!"
Kakashi nodded. "Alright, then we'll continue the mission."
The group resumed their journey.
Along the way, Sasuke's gaze stayed fixed on Yoruha.
Yoruha's performance earlier had far outstripped his own.
Even though this was Sasuke's first real battle — and he had done better than the rest of Team 7 — the gap between him and Yoruha was simply too great.
"That guy doesn't even have a Sharingan, yet he's that fast. He took down two chunin in an instant. He's my age, and still, I'm nowhere near his level."
"At this rate, how can I ever hope to kill that man?"
Thinking of Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke's desire for strength burned even fiercer.
Yoruha had shaken him deeply.
"Maybe… if I can defeat Yoruha, I'll be able to defeat that man too."
In Sasuke's eyes, Yoruha possessed the same kind of talent his brother once had.
Back when Uchiha Itachi had massacred the clan, he'd only been thirteen years old — already powerful enough to annihilate the entire Uchiha clan.
At thirteen, Itachi had strength on par with a Kage.
If Yoruha knew Sasuke thought of him as having Itachi's level of talent, he definitely wouldn't agree.
He wasn't confident he could reach Kage-level within a year.
After all, by strict standards, he hadn't even mastered a single large-scale offensive jutsu yet.
His first attempt at Chidori had seemed successful — but to Yoruha, it had been a complete failure, since he hadn't truly controlled it.
Sakura, too, kept glancing at Yoruha, curiosity gleaming in her eyes.
At the ninja academy, she'd never realized Yoruha was so powerful — in fact, she hadn't even really noticed him back then.
Yoruha had barely had any presence at all during those days.
And now, seeing his strength, she realized he must have been concealing his abilities the entire time.
What kind of mindset does it take for someone that young to completely suppress the urge to show off their talent in front of their peers?
Sakura couldn't comprehend it.
Walking beside him, she asked curiously,
"Yoruha, how come I don't really remember you from the academy?"
Yoruha replied lightly as he walked,
"Maybe I was just too ordinary."
Sakura rolled her eyes.
"Ordinary? You? You're probably as strong as Kakashi-sensei now!"
To her, Yoruha's power seemed nearly on par with Kakashi's.
After all, she'd just watched him annihilate two chunin in seconds — something unbelievable for someone their age.
Yoruha waved a hand dismissively.
"You just don't understand Kakashi-sensei's true strength. He's actually the strongest jonin in the Hidden Leaf Village(Konoha) right now."
"Don't be fooled by how lazy he looks."
"In the ninja world, his name carries great weight. He became a jonin at our age and already had a string of legendary achievements."
"Back then, his teacher was none other than the Fourth Hokage."
Sakura, who had only wanted to learn more about Yoruha, was left completely stunned.
She'd heard some things about Kakashi through Ino — that he was strong — but even Ino hadn't said he was the strongest jonin in the Leaf.
Even Sasuke was surprised. He hadn't expected Kakashi to be that powerful.
Naruto, on the other hand, looked utterly disbelieving.
"No way! Kakashi-sensei might be a jonin, but there's no way he's that strong! And his teacher was the Fourth Hokage?!"
The Fourth Hokage was Naruto's greatest hero.
Though he didn't know the man was his father, he worshipped him — the hero who sealed the Nine-Tails and saved the village.
Because he'd grown up hearing those stories, Naruto had always dreamed of becoming Hokage one day — a hero like the Fourth, someone the entire village would acknowledge.
So when he learned that Kakashi had actually been the Fourth Hokage's student, he was completely dumbfounded.
Yoruha glanced at him.
"This isn't classified information."
"Kakashi-sensei became a jonin at just twelve years old — the same age as us — thanks to his war achievements."
"He's known throughout the ninja world as the 'Copy Ninja.'"
"His name alone commands great respect."
"And yes — the Fourth Hokage truly was his teacher."
"During the Third Great Ninja War, Kakashi-sensei was already a renowned figure on the battlefield."
"He graduated from the academy at five, became a chunin at six."
As Yoruha spoke, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura all turned to stare blankly at Kakashi.
The laid-back man in front of them — was really that strong?
They could hardly believe it.
But they all knew Yoruha wasn't the type to lie.
Even Tazuna, their client, looked thrilled.
To have such a powerful ninja as his escort, yet pay only a C-rank mission fee — it was an incredible deal.
And with Kakashi around, Tazuna felt certain that even the jonin hired by Kado wouldn't be able to harm him.
Kakashi, however, looked a little exasperated.
"Alright, that's enough about the past."
Yoruha chuckled.
"Just a bit of small talk."
In truth, he'd said all that mainly for Sasuke's sake.
Sasuke constantly pursued greater strength. For revenge, he would one day even join Orochimaru, risking his own body just to gain power.
Yoruha's words were meant to show him that following Kakashi could also make him strong.
In Yoruha's view, what Sasuke needed most wasn't a cursed seal — but a deeper understanding of his Sharingan.
If he couldn't fully master the Sharingan, no matter how powerful the cursed mark was, his upper limit would still only reach Kage-level at best.
And while "Kage-level" was already considered extraordinary for most shinobi —
for the kind of war that awaited in the future, even that wouldn't be enough.
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Currently at chapter 345 for advance chapters
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