Naruto's sudden act of determination made Kakashi smile under his mask.
He walked over and said casually,
"If you don't stop the bleeding soon, you might actually die."
Naruto froze in a mid-heroic pose. "W–Wait, die?! I don't wanna die!"
Kakashi sighed. He crouched to bandage Naruto's hand—
but as he lifted it, his eye widened slightly.
The wound was already closing.
So this is the Nine-Tails' chakra…
That healing ability really is monstrous.
As Kakashi wrapped the hand anyway, Naruto couldn't help but ask nervously,
"Am I really gonna die, Kakashi-sensei?"
Kakashi tied off the bandage and stood up. "You'll live. Try not to stab yourself next time."
He looked at the rest of the team.
"The road ahead's only going to get more dangerous. Sakura, Sasuke — do you still want to continue this mission, or turn back to Konoha?"
Sasuke's answer came almost instantly.
He glanced briefly at Arata, eyes sharp with pride. "Of course I'm continuing."
Sakura hesitated. The memory of those two assassins nearly killing her still made her heart race —
but when Sasuke spoke, she clenched her fists and nodded.
"Where Sasuke goes, I go too."
Naruto, now with his hand wrapped, grinned with renewed determination.
"Next time, I won't just stand there. I'll fight."
Kakashi nodded. "Good. Then we move forward."
As they resumed walking, Sasuke's gaze kept drifting to Arata.
The image of him tearing through two chūnin in an instant was burned into his mind.
Sasuke had performed well in his first real battle — better than Sakura, better than Naruto —
but compared to Arata, he felt utterly insignificant.
He doesn't even have a Sharingan, and yet his speed… it was unreal. Two chūnin — defeated in seconds.
We're the same age, but he's on a completely different level.
The thought made his stomach twist.
And then another image flashed across his mind — his brother's.
Uchiha Itachi.
If I can't even catch up to Arata… how can I ever defeat him?
That single thought ignited a fire deep in Sasuke's chest.
He clenched his fists, his eyes burning.
If I can surpass Arata, then one day I'll surpass him too.
To him, Arata's calm, overwhelming strength was no different from Itachi's —
a genius so gifted that the rest of the world could only watch his back fade into the distance.
He didn't know that Arata would have laughed at the comparison.
Arata didn't see himself as a genius — not yet.
He knew that without control, even power was useless.
His Chidori was proof of that: what looked like success had been, in his eyes, a failure.
He had the energy, but not yet the mastery.
Sakura, too, found herself watching Arata quietly.
Back at the Academy, she barely remembered him at all.
He'd been invisible — quiet, average, unremarkable.
But now… now he'd single-handedly saved her life and crushed two trained assassins.
How can someone hide this kind of power for so long?
What kind of self-control does that take?
She couldn't imagine it.
As they walked side by side, she finally asked softly,
"Arata… why don't I remember you from the Academy? I don't think we ever talked."
Arata didn't even look at her. His tone was calm.
"Maybe I was just too ordinary to notice."
Sakura frowned. "Ordinary? You? Don't joke. You're already as strong as Kakashi-sensei, aren't you?"
Arata smiled faintly, shaking his head.
"You don't really know Kakashi-sensei's strength. He may look laid-back, but he's the most powerful jōnin in Konoha right now."
He glanced toward the silver-haired man walking ahead of them.
"When he was our age, he'd already become a jōnin — and not just that, he was known across the entire ninja world. His teacher was none other than the Fourth Hokage himself."
That revelation hit them all like a thunderclap.
Even Sakura, who had heard rumors about Kakashi's past, stopped in her tracks.
She'd known he was strong — but the strongest jōnin in Konoha?
And the Fourth Hokage's student?
Sasuke's eyes widened slightly, processing what that meant.
Naruto, though, was the most shocked of all.
"Wait—WHAT?! Kakashi-sensei was the Fourth Hokage's student?!"
His hero. The man who saved Konoha from the Nine-Tails.
The Hokage he'd idolized since childhood.
It was almost too much for him to believe.
If Kakashi had trained under that man, then…
If he was taught by the Fourth… maybe I really can learn to be like him too.
Arata continued, his voice steady and factual.
"At twelve, Kakashi-sensei became a jōnin because of his achievements in the Third Great Ninja War.
He was known as the Copy Ninja of Konoha.
Even among other villages, his name alone could stop a fight."
"He graduated from the Academy at five," Arata added, "and became a chūnin at six."
The three young genin stared at Kakashi in stunned silence.
The lazy, half-asleep man who was always late…
was a living legend.
Even Tazuna's jaw dropped. He looked at Kakashi like he'd just won the lottery.
An elite jōnin protecting me for the price of a C-rank mission? I've hit the jackpot!
Kakashi sighed, scratching the back of his head.
"Alright, alright. Enough ancient history."
Arata smirked. "Just making conversation."
But it wasn't really conversation — it was guidance.
He knew Sasuke's obsession with strength.
He knew the darkness that obsession would one day lead to.
So his words weren't random. They were deliberate.
You don't need to chase forbidden power, Arata thought.
Stay with Kakashi. Learn from him. There's more strength in understanding than in hate.
Because Arata knew exactly where Sasuke's path would lead if left unchecked.
And he was determined to change it.
The Uchiha's curse wasn't in their blood —
it was in their hearts.
What Sasuke needed wasn't Orochimaru's cursed seal.
It was mastery — over his own Sharingan, over his emotions, over his purpose.
Control the eyes, control the heart, Arata thought.
That's how you surpass your limits — not through borrowed power.
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