Chapter 33: What! Yoruha Did It?
Although Kakashi still wanted to talk with Yoruha a while longer, he thought of how Yoruha needed rest right now, so he said, "Get some proper rest first. Once you've recovered, then you can resume training."
Yoruha nodded.
Kakashi said nothing more and vanished from the room.
Only after he could no longer sense Kakashi's Chakra did Yoruha let out a breath of relief.
Looking at his own hands, Yoruha frowned. "What exactly is going on?"
"Even with that level of precise control, it still went out of control. The Chakra inside me really is a little strange."
After a while, Yoruha slowly gathered Chakra into his hands.
Very quickly, the Chakra solidified in his palms.
Unlike the blue from before, Yoruha's Chakra was actually golden now.
That discovery made him even more astonished.
"My Chakra really is different from everyone else's. Could this be the Senjutsu Chakra Kakashi mentioned?"
"But Senjutsu Chakra seems like it should also be blue."
"And this heavy feeling... it seems much stronger than ordinary Chakra."
Yoruha was starting to feel unfamiliar with the Chakra inside his own body.
"And my Chakra control should already be very good. So why did I Rampage last night?"
Yoruha simply couldn't figure it out.
"This system of mine is way too mechanical. I can't even ask it anything. Looks like I'll have to figure it out myself."
...
After leaving Yoruha's house, Kakashi went to find Kihon Toichi.
When Kihon Toichi heard that last night's disturbance had been caused by Yoruha, he was stunned.
"Yoruha really did it?"
Kihon Toichi found it hard to believe. He knew Yoruha was exceptionally talented, but even he himself couldn't create something on the scale of what happened last night.
No matter how strong Yoruha was, there was no way he should currently be capable of causing destruction comparable to a Tailed Beast Ball explosion.
But Kakashi nodded, confirming it.
Kihon Toichi couldn't calm himself. "What exactly is going on with Yoruha?"
This truly went beyond anything Kihon Toichi could have imagined. He had assumed the commotion last night had been triggered by Naruto Rampage.
Although the Third Hokage had said that Anbu had been conducting a ninjutsu experiment last night, the Jonin of Konohagakure basically all knew the general outline of what had happened.
It was just that almost all of them believed Kurama had Rampage.
The Third Hokage had sealed the information only to protect Naruto.
After all, jinchūriki were already hated by the villagers to begin with.
If the villagers learned that last night's disturbance had been caused by Naruto Rampage, then they might very well do something harmful to Naruto.
Every jinchūriki had suffered this kind of treatment.
For example, Killer B had even been targeted for assassination by people from his own village.
Compared to Killer B, Naruto's treatment was already much, much better.
After all, no one threw eggs at Naruto, and no one tried to assassinate him.
At most, they just distanced themselves from him.
One had to remember that during Nine-Tails' Attack, many villagers had lost loved ones to Kurama.
And Naruto was Kurama's jinchūriki. In a sense, Naruto was Kurama—meaning their enemy.
Even under those circumstances, Naruto still wasn't short on friends. Shikamaru, Choji, Shino, and Kiba were still the kind of troublemaking friends who would skip class with him.
Even Teuchi and Ayame from Ichiraku Ramen bore Naruto no real hostility.
It could be said that compared to Killer B, Naruto was treated almost no differently from an ordinary person.
But if the villagers found out Naruto had Rampage, then no matter how much the Third Hokage favored him, the villagers probably wouldn't be able to tolerate Naruto anymore.
Who would willingly stay close to a bomb that might go off at any moment?
They would probably all demand that the Third Hokage lock Naruto up.
At that point, even telling the villagers that Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's son wouldn't help.
Minato had only served as Hokage for a few years, and his standing among the villagers wasn't all that high. Even if he was the hero who saved the village—
A hero was still a hero, yes, but if his son was a terrifying weapon that could Rampage at any time and slaughter countless people if it happened, then no one would be willing to gamble their life on that.
So the Jonin of Konohagakure had all felt that the Third Hokage had deliberately suppressed the truth.
To keep the villagers from finding out and panicking.
Who could have guessed that the one who caused such a massive disturbance yesterday was his own student?
For a moment, Kihon Toichi's mind couldn't process it.
At the same time, he panicked.
"Who else knows this?"
What Kihon Toichi feared most was other people finding out about Yoruha.
If that happened, the way Yoruha would be treated absolutely wouldn't be much better than Naruto.
Kakashi hesitated for a moment, then said, "Only the Third Hokage and I know about this."
Kihon Toichi lifted his head and glared at Kakashi. "You told the Third Hokage?"
Kihon Toichi was furious.
If the Third Hokage knew, then Kihon Toichi knew very well what kind of fate awaited Yoruha.
He had almost lashed out at Kakashi on the spot.
Kakashi quickly explained, "Don't worry. The Third Hokage didn't take him away, and he thinks highly of him too. You don't need to be this tense."
But Kihon Toichi was not so easily persuaded. "You know perfectly well how unreliable the Third Hokage's promises are."
Kihon Toichi was Anbu; he had seen far too much of Konohagakure's darkness.
Kakashi said helplessly, "In a situation like last night's, do you really think continuing to hide it would have been good or bad for Yoruha?"
"If I hadn't said anything at the time, then once the Third Hokage found out on his own, Yoruha probably would've had to live under Anbu surveillance for the rest of his life."
"Right now, the only option is to help Yoruha gain control over that power inside him as soon as possible, so he has the strength to protect himself."
"We need the Third Hokage to see his value."
"Only then can he live under the sun."
Kakashi's emotions were a little stirred as well.
Normally he was very calm, but whenever it involved Yoruha, his emotions fluctuated sharply.
Kihon Toichi fell silent.
He knew Kakashi was right.
If the Third Hokage truly investigated, it would be easy for Yoruha to be exposed.
And then Yoruha would be seen as a threat to Konohagakure.
Even if he wasn't locked away, he would likely be monitored by Anbu forever.
And the slightest unusual move from Yoruha would bring Anbu down on him.
After a long while, Kihon Toichi raised his head and asked, "What kind of power is inside Yoruha exactly? How could it be that terrifying?"
He had seen last night's aftermath with his own eyes.
That horrifying power was already comparable to the might of the Tailed Beast Ball Kurama had unleashed during Nine-Tails' Attack.
Fortunately, it had happened in the back mountains. If it had been in Konohagakure, the village's main residential district would probably have been leveled to the ground.
That wasn't an exaggeration at all.
At the center of the explosion Yoruha caused was a crater hundreds of meters deep.
The affected area extended for several kilometers.
Within several kilometers around the crater, countless trees, flowers, grass, soil, and rock had all been blasted to ash.
Only a Tailed Beast Ball could produce that kind of terrifying force.
And that was exactly why, when the explosion happened last night, many Jonin thought Kurama had Rampage and that the blast had been caused by a Tailed Beast Ball.