Chapter 57: I Actually Doubted Him?
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As for the two of them, Kakashi had actually long since had his own teaching methods in mind.
It was just that Jiraiya's appearance, and Sasuke's craving for power, had both gone beyond his expectations.
The two of them arrived at the place where Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were training.
Although it was already dark, they could still see that Sasuke and Naruto were standing atop the trees, panting heavily.
Sakura, meanwhile, was standing below the trees, watching them.
When Yoruha and Kakashi appeared, Sakura walked over.
She especially gave Yoruha a thorough once-over.
Curious, she asked, "Yoruha, did you really train? How come I can't tell at all?"
"Oh? And how can you tell I didn't train?"
Sakura circled around Yoruha once and said, "Your clothes aren't even wrinkled. How could that possibly count as training? You weren't slacking off with Kakashi-sensei all afternoon, were you?"
"That won't do. Even if you're strong, if you don't train hard, you'll just stay where you are. Then Sasuke, or even Naruto, might surpass you."
Yoruha smiled, but said nothing.
Kakashi cut Sakura off and asked, "How are they doing?"
He was asking about Sasuke and Naruto.
Sakura smiled. "They've both got it now. Even Naruto worked really hard at training."
As Sakura spoke, she kept glancing at Yoruha.
She was obviously saying it on purpose for him to hear.
She didn't really have any ill will toward Yoruha. On the contrary, she was worried that if he slacked off, his strength would fall behind.
Yoruha understood what she was thinking, but didn't say anything.
There was no need to.
Kakashi lifted his head and looked at Sasuke and Naruto, still panting as they stood on the treetops and stared at each other.
They were clearly competing.
"That was fast. Sasuke is one thing, but Naruto actually mastered it this quickly too."
Sakura looked at Kakashi curiously and asked, "Kakashi-sensei, you two didn't sneak off somewhere to rest, did you?"
Though Sakura felt Yoruha might slack off, she still wasn't certain enough to say so outright.
Kakashi said flatly, "Do you really think he would? Even if I wanted to rest, he wouldn't let me."
Sakura looked at Yoruha, puzzled. "But then why doesn't Yoruha look like he trained at all?"
Kakashi looked over at Yoruha too. He had only just noticed.
Even Kakashi's own clothes had several holes torn in them.
He said helplessly, "That's true. There really isn't a single trace of training on him."
"That's the gap."
Kakashi muttered things to himself that Sakura couldn't understand at all.
At that moment, she looked at Kakashi and Yoruha with a completely baffled expression.
"To control Chakra with such precision... he's already better at it than I am."
Kakashi looked at Yoruha and smiled.
Yoruha said nothing, only returned a faint smile.
Sakura walked over to Yoruha and asked in a low voice, "What exactly is Kakashi-sensei talking about?"
Yoruha replied, "Kakashi-sensei just says incomprehensible things all the time."
Sakura looked at Yoruha, then at Kakashi. She had the distinct feeling the two of them were hiding something from her.
Since neither of them would explain, Sakura decided not to dwell on it.
She moved closer to Yoruha and said, "Yoruha, where did you two go to train just now? There were suddenly several tremors earlier. I almost thought Zabuza had come attacking again."
"If the commotion hadn't been so huge, I might really have thought it was him."
Yoruha froze for a moment. "Tremors?"
Sakura nodded. "Yeah. They were pretty strong too."
Because the place where Yoruha and Kakashi had trained was quite far from where Sakura was.
And there was a forest in between blocking the view.
She had no idea those tremors had actually been caused by Yoruha.
Yoruha glanced at Kakashi, then said, "Maybe this place is on a fault line. Given the terrain of the Land of Waves, an earthquake isn't that unusual."
Sakura didn't dig any deeper. She believed Yoruha's explanation.
And the several tremors Sakura mentioned were actually caused by the Chidori Yoruha had used at the beginning, along with the few Earth Release techniques he had used afterward.
Though Earth Release was mainly defensive in nature, it really did create a lot of noise when activated.
And it consumed a great deal of Chakra.
That was also why Kakashi's Chakra had been drained so quickly.
Those few Earth Release techniques really consumed too much Chakra.
The Sasuke and Naruto standing on the trees noticed Kakashi and Yoruha had arrived, and both tried to come down.
But the two of them had both forgotten that their Chakra was already exhausted.
So just as they started trying to walk down the trees, after only a few steps, they no longer had enough Chakra left.
"Sasuke! Naruto~"
Seeing the two of them fall from the trees, Sakura cried out in fright.
Kakashi looked at Yoruha.
Yoruha nodded.
Just as Sasuke and Naruto felt their minds go completely blank, almost fainting on the spot—
Kakashi and Yoruha vanished from where they stood.
In the next instant, Yoruha appeared beside Naruto, while Kakashi appeared beside Sasuke.
Each grabbed one of them around the waist.
Instantly, Kakashi turned into a streak of blue lightning and landed on the ground, while Yoruha turned into a streak of golden lightning and landed on the ground.
After setting Sasuke and Naruto down, Kakashi smiled and said, "Your speed is already even faster than mine."
Only then did Naruto and Sasuke, now back on the ground, fully react.
Thinking of how they had just been saved by Kakashi and Yoruha, the two glanced at each other, both feeling terribly embarrassed.
Originally, they had wanted to show off the results of an entire afternoon of training in front of Kakashi and Yoruha.
Instead, they had made fools of themselves.
Naruto looked at Yoruha. Just now, he had only felt a blur before suddenly finding himself on the ground.
This was the first time Naruto had personally experienced Yoruha's strength.
Even Sasuke's gaze toward Yoruha was full of shock.
In that instant when Yoruha had appeared beside Naruto, that golden lightning had been far too fast. Sasuke had never seen Yoruha display anything like that before.
Sasuke had already known that he wasn't Yoruha's match right now.
But now it seemed that the gap between them was a chasm.
The difference was simply too great.
Sakura was dumbfounded too.
Kakashi, she could understand. He was an Elite Jonin to begin with.
But in that instant just now, Yoruha had actually turned into a streak of golden lightning, and he had even been a little faster than Kakashi.
So fast that all she could catch was the afterimage of that golden lightning.
Sakura muttered to herself, "Could that be the ninjutsu he learned from Kakashi-sensei just now?"
"That was a Lightning Release technique, right? He's never shown it before."
"I actually said he hadn't trained at all... how could he possibly be slacking off? Sakura, you're such an idiot. If he were really that kind of person, he wouldn't be so much stronger than us."
Sakura felt incredibly foolish for having doubted Yoruha just now.
Thinking of how he had only smiled in response, she felt like a complete clown, and now the memory made her burn with embarrassment.
For a moment, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura all fell silent.
Yoruha and Kakashi, however, didn't notice the three of their moods.
Kakashi looked at the two boys and said, "You've used up too much Chakra. What you just did was far too dangerous."