That night, Kimoto Doichi suddenly opened his eyes and looked toward the balcony.
"Captain… it seems you already know about that kid."
As soon as he spoke, a figure appeared silently under the moonlight.
"You left Anbu to become an instructor… I didn't expect that," the man said calmly.
The moonlight revealed his face.
It was Kakashi Hatake.
Doichi leaned against the railing, gazing at the night sky.
"You came out too, didn't you? After staying in the darkness for so long… it's not bad to step into the light."
Kakashi looked at him.
"You seem quite satisfied with that boy."
Doichi smiled faintly. "I am. He's a very interesting kid."
Thinking of Orion's performance during the day, he rarely showed such approval.
But Kakashi's expression remained serious.
"You should know he might not be as simple as he appears."
Doichi glanced at him. "To me, he's just a kid who doesn't like attention. Nothing more."
"If he truly had ulterior motives, I wouldn't have been able to probe him so easily."
Kakashi paused.
That was true.
If Orion really had hidden intentions, someone like Doichi—who had worked in interrogation—wouldn't have seen through him so quickly.
"Even so… we should be cautious," Kakashi said.
Doichi chuckled. "Don't you trust my judgment? I used to work in interrogation."
"I could tell at a glance—he just doesn't like standing out."
"He's not like you. At his age, even you probably enjoyed praise."
Kakashi gave an awkward look.
Before Rin Nohara's death, he had been very different.
After a moment, Kakashi said quietly, "No matter what, I'll keep an eye on him. If anything happens, I'll intervene."
Normally, saying something like this—about another instructor's student—would be offensive.
But Doichi didn't mind.
"Do as you wish. If he ever becomes a threat to the village, I'll deal with him myself."
"But until then… he's my student. And I intend to make him strong enough to protect this village."
Doichi was strict—but Orion had impressed him enough to make him reconsider how seriously he would train this team.
After leaving, Kakashi headed straight to Orion's house.
For someone of his rank, investigating a genin's background was effortless.
Moments later, he appeared silently on Orion's balcony.
Inside, Orion was already asleep.
Even with his current chakra level, Orion couldn't detect Kakashi. Experience and skill still mattered far more than raw chakra.
Right now, Orion's true combat strength was only around chūnin level at best.
Kakashi stood on the balcony, watching him.
After a moment, he lifted his forehead protector—
Revealing the Sharingan.
The three tomoe spun slowly in his crimson eye.
In an instant, he saw Orion's chakra flow.
And then—
Kakashi froze.
"This… how is this possible?!"
He nearly lost his footing.
"The amount of chakra in his body… it's terrifying!"
The sheer volume of chakra shocked even him.
"Is this really something a twelve-year-old should have?"
Yes, Naruto Uzumaki had even more chakra—hundreds of times more.
But Naruto was a special case.
He possessed the bloodline of the Uzumaki Clan and was the jinchūriki of Kurama.
Even the small portion of chakra leaking from the Eight Trigrams Seal gave Naruto reserves far beyond normal shinobi.
But Orion?
He had no such background.
And yet—
Kakashi's expression darkened.
"His chakra is already about sixty percent of mine… and nearly twenty times that of Sasuke Uchiha."
Sasuke himself already had unusually high chakra reserves due to his Uchiha Clan lineage.
He could already perform the Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique—a jutsu that many genin couldn't even sustain.
Yet Orion surpassed him by an absurd margin.
At first, Kakashi thought Orion might simply be a quiet genius.
Now—
He realized that wasn't enough to describe him.
This was abnormal.
Something that defied logic.
Kakashi narrowed his eye and observed more closely.
Then his shock deepened.
"No… it's not just the amount…"
"The quality of his chakra… it's different."
It wasn't ordinary chakra.
There was something purer, denser—something unfamiliar.
What Kakashi didn't know was that Orion's chakra was infused with natural energy.
If Jiraiya were here, he would recognize it instantly—
Senjutsu chakra.
Unlike ordinary chakra, it was formed through natural energy itself.
Even more shocking—
Orion's body showed no signs of rejection.
Instead, it was being nourished.
His body was gradually evolving… closer and closer to a perfect Sage Body.
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