When Yoruha left Naruto's seal space, he naturally had no idea what Kurama said afterward.
His consciousness returned to his body, and only then did he withdraw his hand.
The Tailed Beast Cloak around Naruto's body faded away.
Naruto, however, had already fallen unconscious.
On his abdomen, the original sealing formula had completely changed—replaced by a black-and-gold Eight Trigrams Seal.
A moment ago, when Yoruha's chakra had been drained dry, his face had gone completely pale.
Now, his complexion had already returned to normal.
Other shinobi needed at least a full day to recover chakra—sleep, rest, and stuffing themselves with food.
Yoruha, at most, needed ten minutes.
And he didn't even need food to replenish himself.
He drew natural energy directly from the outside world. Part of that energy converted into his own chakra; the rest nourished his body and repaired any injuries.
There was a reason Kurama thought Yoruha resembled Hashirama Senju.
Yoruha himself had no idea. Other than that one strike from Kurama earlier, he'd never truly been injured.
His body's regeneration was already terrifying—almost on par with Hashirama's.
Hashirama still had to burn his own chakra to heal.
Yoruha, by contrast, simply absorbed natural energy and let it repair him.
Theoretically, as long as Yoruha wasn't killed outright, no matter how badly he was injured, he would recover quickly.
Of course, it wasn't completely broken—if the damage was too severe, healing would still take time.
Even so, the Yoruha who'd just had his chakra wrung out and his face drained of color now looked perfectly fine again, with chakra overflowing inside him.
After settling Naruto down, Yoruha walked out to the balcony and stretched lazily.
In the distance, several hundred meters away from the house, he could see Kakashi and the others standing watch.
Yoruha raised a hand and waved with a smile.
"Kakashi-sensei, it's all good now. You can come back."
Under the moonlight, Kakashi and the others looked up at the boy on the balcony. Kakashi finally let out the breath he'd been holding.
"I knew nothing would happen to him. As expected of my disciple."
Sakura and Sasuke, who had just started to feel relieved, instantly had their expressions sour.
Sasuke remembered all too clearly the days when he and his brother fought for their father's acknowledgment—
all for a sentence like that.
Hearing it from Kakashi now, even though he no longer held any real resentment toward Yoruha, he still felt incredibly uncomfortable.
Sakura, on the other hand, blurted it out immediately.
"Hey, hey, Kakashi-sensei! We're your students too, you know. Your attention is always on Yoruha."
"At least pretend to care about us sometimes."
She was jealous.
It wasn't that she had any problem with Yoruha—in fact, after being saved by him multiple times, Yoruha's place in her heart was already on par with Sasuke's.
But kids hearing their teacher praise another student over and over?
Jealousy was inevitable.
Kakashi scratched his head awkwardly.
"Hahaha, Sakura, don't say that. I pay plenty of attention to you too."
Sakura turned away with a hmph.
"Your eye is glued to Yoruha all day long. How do you 'pay attention' to us?"
Kakashi felt a bit helpless.
The truth was, Yoruha did hold a special place in his heart.
After all, Yoruha was the one he'd pulled away from Kimon Ton'yi's hand, and he'd long since taken Yoruha as his personal disciple.
Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were also important to him, but they were more closely tied to the mission the Third Hokage had given him.
Before he'd met the three of them, Kakashi hadn't even considered leading a genin squad.
Even after taking them on, he had initially only seen himself as a squad captain and the three of them as subordinates.
Fresh out of ANBU, Kakashi still cared quite a bit about hierarchy and rank.
There was nothing strange about treating his genin like subordinates at first—
that was how most jonin-led squads operated.
Only after they passed the Bell Test did he truly accept them as his students.
Even then, though, it was still different from how he saw Yoruha.
And over this period of time, he had to admit—
it was just easier to be around Yoruha.
Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura each had wildly different personalities, and interacting with all three at once was…
not exactly relaxing.
There had already been several times where, if not for Yoruha stepping in to smooth things over, Kakashi would've had no idea how to handle certain situations.
He probably would've been forced to rely on "teacher authority," and that would've just made everything worse.
Now, hearing Sakura's complaint, Kakashi realized he really had been focusing on Yoruha too much.
At this point, Yoruha no longer needed that kind of attention.
Or rather—he no longer needed Kakashi watching over him to prevent accidents.
Beyond teaching Yoruha about people, the world, and the way of the shinobi, Kakashi didn't have much else left to offer him.
Thinking back on it now, the whole thing felt like a dream.
"Just a little over a month… and that kid's already grown this much. He really is like the Fourth—no need for a teacher to worry at all."
Jiraiya had once told Kakashi stories about Minato Namikaze.
Back when Jiraiya had taken Minato as a student, he'd practically raised him "free-range."
If Minato hadn't been so talented and hardworking, he probably would've ended up mediocre like his two teammates.
Kakashi sighed inwardly.
"Jiraiya-sama could teach the Fourth the techniques of Mount Myōboku, and all kinds of powerful jutsu. When it comes to Yoruha, other than Chidori, I don't have much worth teaching him…"
"He doesn't even like my summon beasts. This is… a bit of a problem."
"Looks like I'll have to start seriously gathering information on the Three Great Sacred Lands. With Yoruha's current strength, only the summon beasts from those places would still be useful to him."
If Sakura and Sasuke knew what he was thinking right now, they'd probably want to die on the spot.
Sakura had just complained that Kakashi was biased, and here he was—
already planning how to get Yoruha a contract with the Three Great Sacred Lands.
If Yoruha looked even a little bit like Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke would probably wonder if the two were secretly father and son.
And even then, most father–son relationships weren't this good.
Regardless, Kakashi had already made up his mind.
He would dig up whatever information he could about the three holy summoning realms, and when Yoruha's next birthday came, he'd use it as a gift.
Of course, this wasn't just because Yoruha was the disciple he'd personally acknowledged.
It was also because Yoruha was strong enough—
and posed no threat to Konoha.
In Kakashi's view, Yoruha would definitely grow into a hero like Minato one day.
Not by sealing the Nine-Tails and dying like the Fourth—
But by standing as one of Konoha's protectors, its supporting pillar.
From the moment they met, Kakashi had placed very high expectations on Yoruha.
All of that flashed through his mind in an instant.
Watching Yoruha waving from the distant balcony, Kakashi smiled beneath his mask.
"Come on. Let's go see how Yoruha handled things."
With that, he vanished from sight, not giving Sakura and Sasuke's exasperated looks a second thought.
He genuinely was in a hurry to see how well Yoruha had repaired Naruto's seal.
Sakura stared at the spot where he'd just been and let out a helpless sigh.
"Honestly… Kakashi-sensei only ever pays attention to Yoruha. We're his students, and Yoruha's not even in our squad."
Sasuke didn't say anything, but he was also annoyed by Kakashi's behavior.
That said, it was just annoyance.
As for Yoruha—Sasuke actually liked him quite a bit.
After all, over the years, Yoruha was the only one who had patiently talked to him about things he'd never heard before.
Still, no matter how much he liked Yoruha—
He was still a teenage boy.
And teenage boys don't like being overshadowed.
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