When Kakashi entered the room, he saw Naruto lying unconscious on the bed.
Yoruha, who had been a ghost-pale not long ago, now looked completely normal again—no trace of that sickly whiteness remained.
"…How is it? Are you okay?"
Kakashi couldn't help it—he still worried more about Yoruha's condition than anything else.
Yoruha glanced at Naruto, then smiled.
"I'm fine. It was a complete success."
"Oh, and just repairing the Fourth Hokage's seal didn't feel like enough, so I added another Eight Trigrams Seal on top of it. From now on, unless Naruto actively asks for it, the Nine-Tails won't get the chance to force him into a rampage."
Kakashi froze.
"So you looked that bad earlier because of the sealing technique?"
Yoruha shook his head.
"No. That was because the Nine-Tails attacked me inside Naruto's seal space. Fortunately, it was still willing to talk, so it didn't follow up afterward."
Kakashi was stunned.
"You… talked to the Nine-Tails?"
In his mind, the Nine-Tails was a natural disaster—a monster, a calamity.
The idea of talking to it like a person was unthinkable.
But that was because he didn't really understand tailed beasts. To him, they were weapons—nothing more.
Yoruha nodded.
"Yeah. The Nine-Tails is a tailed beast. Tailed beasts are intelligent—some of them are smarter than humans. Of course it can talk."
"I originally wanted to convince it to acknowledge Naruto, and maybe even help him grow in the future. But it refused."
He sounded genuinely regretful.
Kakashi, meanwhile, could only stare at him, the corner of his mouth twitching.
In all his years of life, this was the first time he'd seen anyone try to negotiate with a tailed beast about "helping its jinchūriki grow."
Kakashi had no idea someone like Killer Bee existed, nor did he understand what a "perfect jinchūriki" really was.
Naturally, everything Yoruha said sounded like pure legend.
Of course, he didn't doubt Yoruha's words.
He just couldn't imagine how Yoruha had the guts to hold a conversation with the Nine-Tails.
And to ask it to help Naruto?
That wasn't just daring—that was insane.
Frankly, the fact the fox hadn't killed him on the spot was proof enough it was still capable of conversation.
"You're too reckless," Kakashi muttered at last. "That's the Nine-Tails we're talking about. Just sealing it was already difficult enough, and you still dared to make demands of it. You're only alive because your luck is ridiculous."
Yoruha chuckled.
"No need to be that nervous, Kakashi-sensei. It's only hard to talk to at the beginning. Once the conversation gets going, it's not that bad."
"In truth, the reason it resents humans so much—the reason it acts so vicious—is because it's been sealed in jinchūriki for so long that hatred just… built up."
"If you actually talk to it properly, there are some things it's willing to compromise on."
"Sure, it refused to actively help Naruto. But it did agree not to keep tempting him to use its chakra anymore."
"At the very least, that lowers the chances of Naruto going berserk in the future."
"Even though the seal I added can completely suppress the Nine-Tails, if Naruto himself goes to it for power, the seal can't stop that."
"You know what he's like. In a tough fight, if he's losing, he's absolutely going to reach out to the Nine-Tails."
"Until he fully masters that power, though, relying heavily on the Nine-Tails' chakra will do serious damage to his body."
"Just because he always recovers afterward thanks to his Uzumaki bloodline and the fox's power doesn't mean it's harmless. It shortens his lifespan."
"So my suggestion is this: until Naruto completely masters the Nine-Tails' chakra, he should avoid using it unless he has no other choice."
Listening to all this, Kakashi was completely dazed.
He'd never even imagined someone could discuss things like this with the Nine-Tails.
And the terrifying part was…
The Nine-Tails had actually agreed.
He looked at Yoruha, for once at a total loss for words.
Should he be happy that his disciple was so capable?
Or worried that his disciple was this fearless?
He vividly remembered how pale Yoruha had been moments ago… and the blood he'd coughed up.
It was the first time Kakashi had ever seen him in such a bad state.
Even when practicing Chidori and running his chakra dry, Yoruha had only fainted.
But just now?
He'd almost died.
Kakashi fell silent for a long time before finally saying,
"Don't do something that dangerous again. Your own safety is the most important thing."
Yoruha saw how serious he was and understood exactly what Kakashi was worried about.
He didn't argue. He just nodded quietly.
After speaking with him, Kakashi moved over to Naruto's side.
The sealing pattern on Naruto's stomach had already changed completely.
Even without being a sealing specialist, Kakashi could feel the overwhelming chakra radiating from it.
"It's definitely different from the Fourth's sealing formula. If it's the same Eight Trigrams Seal, how can it look so different?"
He turned to Yoruha with a puzzled expression.
Yoruha explained patiently,
"Because my chakra isn't like normal chakra. That caused the formula to take on a different form from the Fourth's."
"But I strengthened the sealing function. The original Eight Trigrams Seal that the Fourth used actually left a pretty large gap."
"I understand what he wanted. The purpose of that gap was to slowly convert a portion of the Nine-Tails' chakra into Naruto's own chakra over time."
"That's why Naruto's chakra is so huge."
If Minato hadn't deliberately built that mechanism into the seal, Naruto's chakra wouldn't be anywhere near what it was now.
He might not even have had as much chakra as Kakashi—at least not at this age.
With the Nine-Tails' chakra being partially converted and added on, though, Naruto currently had more than twice Kakashi's total chakra.
In a few years, it would be four times as much.
Of course, Kakashi's chakra was originally enormous as well.
If not for that Sharingan he couldn't switch off constantly draining him, he'd be a true chakra monster.
Kakashi nodded slowly.
He'd noticed something was off about Naruto's chakra for a while now.
It was obvious that the Nine-Tails' portion made up the majority of what was in Naruto's body.
If Naruto relied solely on his own chakra, he never would've been able to summon Gamabunta during the Chunin Exams.
In the end, he'd needed the Nine-Tails' chakra to force the summoning to succeed.
Summoning was technically just a C-rank jutsu—but the stronger and larger the summon, the more chakra it demanded.
Sakura and Tsunade together had only managed to summon a single tenth of Katsuyu's body, and that already showed how absurd the requirements were for the top-tier summons.
Back then, during the Chunin Exams, Naruto couldn't have summoned Gamabunta at all without borrowing the fox's chakra.
That alone proved his personal chakra reserves weren't as monstrous as they seemed.
Above average for his age, sure.
But nowhere near an elite jonin like Kakashi.
Only when you added in the portion of Nine-Tails chakra that had been converted into his own over the years did Naruto's chakra reach about twice Kakashi's current total.
Kakashi had always wondered why a kid that young had so much chakra.
Even with the Uzumaki bloodline, it was too much.
And Naruto only had half of that bloodline.
Now that Yoruha had explained it—
He finally understood.
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