When Yoruha reached Sasuke's side and saw his body covered in blood, pierced by kunai and shuriken, the corner of his mouth twitched.
"So tsundere… he clearly cares so much, yet he always acts like he can't stand him."
Yoruha knew full well that Sasuke had ended up like this because he had taken the blow meant for Naruto.
Otherwise, Naruto wouldn't have lost control.
That was the fate connecting the two of them — and even with Yoruha's appearance, that bond hadn't changed.
He carefully pulled out the kunai and shuriken embedded in Sasuke's body, then bandaged him up thoroughly — until Sasuke looked like a mummy.
"Good thing you're unconscious right now. If you saw yourself wrapped up like this, you'd probably die from embarrassment."
The proud Sasuke would never want anyone to see him in such a ridiculous state. He might even be furious enough to kill Yoruha for it.
"I'm no medical-nin anyway. This'll have to do."
With that, Yoruha hoisted Sasuke onto his shoulder.
After Zabuza fled, Kakashi arrived beside Yoruha. Seeing Sasuke on his shoulder, wrapped head to toe like a mummy, he couldn't help but worry.
"How's Sasuke?"
"No life-threatening injuries — just heavy blood loss."
Kakashi nodded.
After confirming that, he looked back at Yoruha. "Zabuza said one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, Kurosuji Raiga, went to intercept you. What happened exactly?"
Yoruha thought for a moment and recounted what had taken place during the battle.
Kakashi was surprised, but not entirely shocked.
"Your strength now already surpasses mine," Kakashi said with a hint of awe.
Yoruha blinked. "That can't be right."
Kakashi shook his head. "I saw the jutsu you used earlier. Even I would have trouble defending against it."
Yoruha thought for a moment but said nothing.
He wasn't sure if Kakashi was exaggerating, but after killing Kurosuji Raiga and knocking out Naruto in his Two-Tails form, Yoruha was confident that his current power had definitely reached the jōnin level.
He just didn't feel particularly different.
Kakashi continued, "Once we're back in Konoha, you should let your teacher Tōichi evaluate your progress. He's probably been worried sick about you."
Yoruha smiled. "It's only natural for Teacher Tōichi to worry. After all, going on missions with someone like you, a top-class elite jōnin, means I'll inevitably run into situations like today."
"If I hadn't learned a few techniques from you these past days, I'd probably have died when I went to rescue Sakura."
"With your talent, it wouldn't have mattered who you learned from," Kakashi replied. "Besides, most of the jutsu you use now are ones you've developed or modified yourself."
"The technique you used earlier — it's already beyond the limits of the original. A combination of Lightning and Water Release, right? That kind of jutsu surpasses even S-rank. I definitely didn't teach you something like that."
Kakashi wasn't wrong. Yoruha had indeed learned many jutsu from him over the past few days — but he had modified almost every single one during the process.
Take the Water Dragon Bullet Technique for example: originally a B-rank ninjutsu, but after Yoruha's revisions, its power had far surpassed S-rank.
It wasn't about difficulty of learning — it was simply that the resulting strength and scale of the jutsu were on a completely different level, almost as if Yoruha had reinvented it from scratch.
Of course, only Yoruha himself could use these modified techniques.
Every one of them required enormous amounts of chakra — and even then, other ninja couldn't replicate the same effects.
That was because Yoruha's chakra was converted from natural energy — effectively Senjutsu chakra — which imbued his jutsu with a faint awareness.
For instance, the water dragon he summoned through the Water Dragon Bullet wasn't an ordinary construct, but a conscious dragon that could act on his command and persist without dissipating, similar to Hashirama Senju's wood constructs.
Just as Hashirama's Wood Release could only show its full potential in his hands, Yoruha's techniques also revealed their true power only when he used them himself.
Kakashi smiled. "All your jutsu are basically at forbidden-technique level now."
"They start out as normal techniques, but once you modify them, they become as powerful as kinjutsu. I'd say that's the influence of the Senjutsu chakra inside you."
Yoruha nodded. "I think so too."
He didn't deny it — Kakashi already understood the nature of his chakra well enough.
Of course, he only knew what kind of chakra Yoruha possessed, not how much.
In just over ten days, Yoruha's chakra reserves had become ten times greater than Kakashi's.
Even excluding the Nine-Tails' chakra, Yoruha's chakra capacity now far surpassed Naruto's at this stage.
Among Kage-level shinobi, his chakra amount already ranked near the very top.
However, Yoruha had noticed that his chakra growth had slowed significantly in recent days.
Just as he suspected — the earlier surge had nearly outpaced his body's ability to keep up. Until his physical endurance caught up again, his chakra wouldn't increase much further.
He had expected this, so it didn't bother him.
Of course, there was still one method that could rapidly expand his chakra reserves: learning Sage Mode.
If he mastered Sage Arts, his chakra could increase tenfold again.
But for now, Yoruha was satisfied with what he had — he didn't feel any urgent need to pursue it.
Seeing Yoruha's calm expression, Kakashi chuckled. "You don't look even the slightest bit surprised. Your power has grown this much in just over ten days — and you're not shocked at all?"
Yoruha looked at him and smiled. "Kakashi-sensei, I've long understood my own situation."
"My only concern before was my lack of real combat experience. I hadn't fought a true life-and-death battle against a jōnin before, so I didn't know how my strength would measure up."
"Now that I've confirmed it, there's nothing left to be surprised about."
Kakashi gave a wry smile and shook his head. "Your mindset doesn't match your age at all… but that's not necessarily a bad thing."
"When Itachi Uchiha was your age, he was just as mature."
At the mention of Itachi, Kakashi glanced at the unconscious Sasuke on Yoruha's shoulder.
"When this kid wakes up and learns how strong you really are, he's probably going to latch onto you relentlessly."
Yoruha gave a helpless smile. "Let's hope Sakura can keep her mouth shut. Though, I doubt I'll be that lucky."
Given how obsessed Sakura was with Sasuke, if he ever asked her about it, she'd never be able to hide the truth.
And Sakura had witnessed everything — how Yoruha killed Kurosuji Raiga, and how he singlehandedly subdued the rampaging Naruto with just one jutsu.
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