Kakashi wanted to stay a bit longer, but after seeing how calm Arata was, he decided it was best to let him rest.
"Alright," he said softly. "Take it easy for now. When you've recovered your strength, then you can resume training."
Arata nodded quietly.
With that, Kakashi disappeared in a flicker of chakra, leaving the room in silence.
Only when Arata could no longer sense his chakra presence did he finally let out a slow breath.
He looked down at his hands, frowning.
"What exactly happened…?"
"I had perfect control, yet it still went out of control. This chakra inside me… it really is strange."
He slowly gathered chakra into his palms.
The familiar tingling warmth spread through his hands — but this time, what formed wasn't the usual blue glow.
It was golden.
Arata's eyes widened in surprise.
"Golden chakra…? My chakra really is different from everyone else's."
He turned his hands slowly, watching the radiant energy dance between his fingers.
"Could this be what Kakashi-sensei called Sage Chakra? But even Sage Chakra is supposed to be blue, isn't it?"
The energy felt heavy — alive — pulsing with a strength that ordinary chakra could never match.
"And yet… my control should've been perfect. So why did it go berserk?"
He sighed, rubbing his temple.
"This system of mine is so mechanical… it doesn't explain anything. Looks like I'll have to figure this out on my own."
Meanwhile, Kakashi had made his way to the training grounds to find Samei Mokuhon, Arata's former academy instructor.
When Samei heard what Kakashi told him, his eyes went wide with disbelief.
"You're saying last night's explosion… was Arata's doing?"
He looked completely stunned.
Kakashi simply nodded.
Samei's expression twisted in shock. "That can't be right! I know Arata's talented — more than most of his peers — but that kind of power? Even I couldn't cause that level of destruction!"
The silver-haired jonin's calm tone left no room for doubt.
"It was him."
Samei fell silent, his thoughts spinning.
The scale of what had happened the previous night was beyond comprehension.
He had seen the aftermath himself — the devastation, the crater, the mountain shaken to its roots.
For a moment, he'd assumed the obvious: that Naruto had lost control and gone berserk.
After all, that's what everyone in the village had thought.
The Hokage's official explanation — that it was an ANBU experimental test gone wrong — fooled only the civilians.
The jonin all knew better.
To them, the signs were unmistakable: that kind of chakra surge could only belong to the Nine-Tails.
Hiruzen's cover-up wasn't for lack of truth — it was for protection.
If the villagers discovered that Naruto, the child already ostracized as a monster, had actually lost control and caused such destruction, the consequences would be disastrous.
They already feared him. They hated the beast inside him.
Even now, years later, whispers still followed him through the streets:
"That boy is the Nine-Tails…"
"He's the reason my father died…"
Hiruzen had fought hard to give Naruto a chance at a normal life — a chance to be seen as a person, not a ticking bomb.
So he buried the truth.
Samei took a deep breath, trying to process what Kakashi had told him.
"The entire upper echelon thought it was the Nine-Tails…" he muttered. "And yet, it was my student who caused it."
His voice trembled slightly — a mix of disbelief and fear.
He looked up sharply. "Who else knows?"
Kakashi hesitated for a moment before answering. "Only the Hokage and I."
Samei's expression hardened instantly. "You told the Third Hokage?"
His tone rose, full of anger.
He knew better than anyone how "protective" the Hokage could be — and what that protection could cost.
"Do you realize what you've done? If Lord Third knows, Arata's future could be ruined!"
He clenched his fists, almost ready to strike in frustration.
Kakashi raised his hands calmly. "Listen to me. I didn't tell him to endanger Arata — I told him to protect him. And it worked. The Hokage isn't treating him like a threat. He trusts me to train him."
Samei gritted his teeth. "You trust the Hokage's promises that much?"
Kakashi's voice grew firm. "You and I both know what would've happened if I'd stayed silent. Once Lord Third discovered it himself, Arata would've been marked — monitored every second by ANBU. He'd never have freedom again."
He met Samei's gaze.
"This way, at least, he has a chance. The Hokage sees his value now. That's the only way Arata can live under the sun — not in the shadows."
Kakashi rarely raised his voice, but emotion had crept into his tone.
He genuinely cared about the boy — enough to argue for him, to defy his own nature as the calm, detached jonin.
Samei exhaled slowly, his anger cooling.
Kakashi was right.
If the Hokage's investigation had uncovered the truth, Arata would already be under surveillance.
To the village, someone capable of matching a Tailed Beast was a potential weapon — or a potential threat.
Silence hung between them for a long time before Samei finally asked, "What exactly is that power inside him?"
Kakashi looked away, his expression unreadable.
"I don't know. But whatever it is… it's terrifying."
Samei's mind replayed the image of the explosion.
The flash that split the sky, the thunder that made the very earth tremble —
it had been just like the night of the Nine-Tails' rampage.
"That… that level of destruction," Samei whispered. "It's impossible for a human to cause."
He wasn't exaggerating.
The center of the blast had become a crater hundreds of meters wide and dozens of meters deep.
Everything within several kilometers had been vaporized — trees, soil, even stone reduced to ash.
It was the kind of power only a Tailed Beast Bomb could produce.
And yet, it had come from a twelve-year-old boy.
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