Chapter 52: I Don't Want to Become a Missing-nin
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Yoruha looked at Kakashi, and for a moment, he didn't know what to say.
Although he felt Kakashi's idea was naive—how could Jiraiya possibly take him to learn Sage Mode?—he could tell that everything Kakashi had just said was sincere. He truly hoped Yoruha could master that power inside him, and he was genuinely worried for his safety.
At that moment, Kakashi truly was treating Yoruha like a direct disciple.
Yoruha fell silent.
Kakashi thought Yoruha hadn't understood, so he repeated himself.
Yoruha waved a hand. "Kakashi-sensei, I understand what you mean. I just think that Jiraiya-sama definitely won't be willing to take me to learn Sage Mode."
"Since even you say Sage Mode is an incredibly powerful force, and that very few people can master it, do you really think Jiraiya-sama would take me?"
"I'm not related to him in any way."
Seeing the disbelief on Yoruha's face, Kakashi smiled. "Jiraiya-sama is actually quite warmhearted. If he knows you have such great potential, he won't refuse for the sake of the village's future."
Yoruha turned to look at Kakashi and asked with a half-smile, "Then what if he thinks my power could threaten the village, and doesn't want me to master Sage Mode?"
"I think if the Third Hokage learned of my current strength, he probably wouldn't stay as calm as before."
Kakashi froze.
He had been so focused on the Chakra inside Yoruha that he had completely forgotten about the Third Hokage.
And based on what he knew of Jiraiya, it really was possible that Jiraiya would think just as Yoruha said.
He might see Yoruha's rapid growth in strength as a threat to the village.
Kakashi was silent for a long time. "But the Chunin Exams will be held before long. The Third Hokage will definitely learn about your situation."
Yoruha spread his hands and said indifferently, "Then I'll leave it to fate."
Yoruha couldn't think of any good solution either.
Konohagakure had too many ways to investigate the power inside Yoruha.
The Hyuga Clan, the Yamanaka Clan, sensory-type ninja, and so on—
all of them could detect the abnormality in Yoruha's Chakra.
There was no way to hide from that.
So Yoruha wasn't even thinking about hiding anymore.
He was actually taking it pretty calmly. As for defecting, unless he was truly driven into a dead end, he wouldn't do that.
After all, he didn't want to wander the ninja world as a fugitive.
Seeing Yoruha's unconcerned expression, Kakashi grew even more worried. "It seems we can't let the Third Hokage know you've mastered those few techniques just now."
"Although I trust the Third Hokage, I don't think he'd be able to feel completely at ease about you."
"Even though your Chakra reserves are huge, as long as the Third Hokage doesn't know you've mastered those massively destructive techniques from earlier, he probably won't do anything to you."
"Don't worry. In Konohagakure, you still have me and Toichi helping you. If the Third Hokage means to harm you, Toichi and I won't agree to it."
Hearing that, Yoruha merely smiled.
He knew Kakashi always placed the village first.
He didn't believe Kakashi would betray the village for his sake.
Still, Yoruha didn't mind. If he really couldn't stay in Konohagakure anymore, then even if he didn't want to become a missing-nin, he would have no choice.
He might not have any grand ambitions, but he also didn't want to die before even living half of this life.
The Kakashi who had just been making detailed plans for Yoruha's future had now completely lost that drive.
Now all he wanted was to figure out how to protect Yoruha.
He didn't want Yoruha to end up like Yamato.
Spending the rest of his life in Anbu.
Or else, like the Nine-Tails jinchūriki, being watched for the rest of his days.
Actually, if one had to say which Nine-Tails jinchūriki had it the worst, it wasn't Naruto.
It was his mother, Kushina.
As someone who had come from another village, Kushina had been under Anbu surveillance the entire time before marrying Minato.
In fact, most of the time, the place she lived was covered by a barrier, and she couldn't leave that zone whenever she wanted.
One could imagine how miserable that was.
Naruto, at the very least, was completely free in Konohagakure—so free, in fact, that he could even graffiti the Hokage Rock whenever he wanted.
If an ordinary person had done something like that, even if they weren't executed on the spot, they would already have been thrown in prison.
Only because of the Third Hokage's deliberate indulgence had Naruto been allowed to be so unrestrained.
As for loneliness—which jinchūriki wasn't lonely?
But as for being as free as Naruto, there were really very few.
The most outrageous part was that, during the Nine-Tails Attack, Kurama had killed the relatives of so many villagers.
Yet the people of Konohagakure had remained rational enough not to try to assassinate Naruto.
You had to know that Killer B was often targeted for assassination by people in his village, precisely because the previous Eight-Tails jinchūriki's Rampage had caused civilian deaths and injuries.
And yet the villagers of Konohagakure had merely rejected Naruto. For them to remain that rational was honestly hard to imagine.
And being watched by Anbu was no easy life.
Kakashi, who had spent a long time in Anbu himself, knew that very well, because back then it had been the Fourth Hokage who sent him to protect Kushina.
It was called protection, but there was also the purpose of surveillance.
Of course, Minato had naturally harbored no harmful intent toward Kushina. He had only been worried that her pregnancy might trigger a Rampage.
But no matter what, someone under Anbu surveillance would absolutely feel miserable.
Kakashi did not want Yoruha to live that kind of life in the future.
But Kakashi truly couldn't think of any way to help Yoruha.
The only thing he could do was conceal things from the Third Hokage and keep him from learning that Yoruha had already mastered three ninjutsu with S-rank power.
Yoruha, however, wasn't overly worried.
After all, no matter what, Yoruha was still a ninja of Konohagakure.
As long as he didn't show any intention of opposing Konohagakure, the Third Hokage wouldn't do anything to him.
If the village eliminated every genius that appeared, Konohagakure would have collapsed long ago.
Looking at Kakashi, Yoruha smiled. "There's no need to worry that much. I don't think the Third Hokage would do that."
Kakashi's expression was complicated. He didn't have as much confidence in the Third Hokage as Yoruha did.
He had been in Anbu too long; he knew the Third Hokage's other side very well.
Still, Yoruha wasn't wrong either. No matter what, Yoruha was still a ninja of Konohagakure.
Aside from the Uchiha Clan, the Third Hokage really had never been too extreme toward Konohagakure's other ninja.
At least, not as extreme as Danzo.
Though Danzo was only extreme toward the Uchiha Clan. As for everyone else in Konohagakure, as long as they didn't interfere with his becoming Hokage, he wouldn't bother with them.
He wouldn't even recruit someone into Root if they didn't fit his ideals, no matter how strong they were.
Take Guy, for example.
Guy had even begged Danzo to let him join Root, and Danzo still refused.
The Third Hokage and Danzo had dealt with the Uchiha Clan because they had inherited the Second Hokage's way of thinking.
They believed the Uchiha Clan were all extreme, all potential madmen.
Other than their treatment of the Uchiha Clan, those two really hadn't done anything especially extreme to the ninja of Konohagakure's other clans.
Even their targeting of the Uchiha Clan had still been because of the Nine-Tails Attack.
After all, when Kurama broke free that night, those huge eyes had clearly held a pair of Three Tomoe Sharingan. Even if the Third Hokage hadn't wanted to target the Uchiha Clan, he would have had no choice.
Because almost all the villagers had seen it that night.
It would have been impossible not to suspect the Uchiha Clan.
But Yoruha was different. He was born a civilian, with no clan power behind him interfering.
At most, in the future he would become someone like the Fourth Hokage.
That was also why Yoruha wasn't too worried.
The Third Hokage could be underhanded at times, but he wasn't insane. He wasn't the sort to kill anyone just because their talent was too high.