Kakashi had long devised his own methods for teaching the two of them.
However, Jiraiya's sudden appearance, and Sasuke's growing thirst for power, both went far beyond his expectations.
When Kakashi and Yoruha arrived at the place where Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were training, it was already dark.
Even so, they could still see the two boys standing atop the trees, panting heavily.
Sakura stood at the base of the trees, watching them closely.
As soon as Yoruha and Kakashi appeared, Sakura walked over—her gaze immediately sweeping up and down Yoruha.
She tilted her head curiously.
"Yoruha, did you really train? I can't tell at all."
"Oh? And how can you tell whether I trained or not?"
Sakura circled him once, then said, "Your clothes aren't even wrinkled. How could you have trained like that? Don't tell me you and Kakashi-sensei were slacking off all afternoon?"
"That won't do, you know! Even if you're strong, if you stop training, you'll stay in the same place. Before long, Sasuke or even Naruto will surpass you!"
Yoruha only smiled and said nothing.
Kakashi interrupted before Sakura could continue.
"How are they doing?" he asked, referring to Sasuke and Naruto.
Sakura replied with a smile, "They've both got the hang of it! Even Naruto's been working really hard today."
As she spoke, she looked deliberately at Yoruha—clearly saying it for his benefit.
She didn't mean him any harm; she was simply worried he'd grow complacent and fall behind.
Yoruha understood her little thought but said nothing. There was no need to.
Kakashi looked up at Sasuke and Naruto, both standing on the treetops, breathing hard as they stared each other down.
The two were clearly competing.
"They're fast," Kakashi said softly. "Sasuke, sure, but Naruto's already caught up this much…"
Sakura blinked at him.
"Kakashi-sensei, you two weren't just slacking off and taking a nap somewhere, were you?"
She might have suspected Yoruha, but she wasn't sure enough to say it outright.
Kakashi replied calmly, "Do you really think he'd let me rest? Even if I wanted to, he wouldn't have allowed it."
Sakura looked back at Yoruha, confused.
"But… why does it look like he didn't train at all?"
Kakashi glanced at Yoruha too—he had only just noticed.
Even his own clothes were torn in several places.
With a wry expression, he muttered, "You're right… not a single trace of training."
Then he smiled faintly. "That's the difference in level."
He murmured a few words that Sakura couldn't understand.
She just stared blankly at Kakashi and Yoruha, bewildered.
"To control chakra to such an exact degree… it's even finer than mine," Kakashi said, looking at Yoruha with a proud smile.
Yoruha only returned a light smile, saying nothing.
Sakura leaned in closer to whisper, "What's Kakashi-sensei talking about?"
Yoruha replied calmly, "Just one of his usual cryptic comments. Don't mind it."
Sakura looked between them suspiciously. She couldn't shake the feeling that they were hiding something from her.
When neither offered an explanation, she decided to drop it and changed the subject.
"Yoruha, where did you two go to train anyway? There were several earthquakes earlier—I almost thought that guy Zabuza had come back to attack us! The ground shook so much I really thought it was him."
Yoruha paused, blinking. "Earthquakes?"
Sakura nodded. "Yeah! The tremors were pretty strong."
The truth was, the training site he and Kakashi used was quite far from here, with a whole forest between.
She had no idea that those "earthquakes" were caused by Yoruha's training.
Yoruha glanced at Kakashi, then said casually, "Maybe this area's on a fault line. Earthquakes are common in the Land of Waves."
Sakura accepted the explanation easily, not thinking further.
In reality, those tremors were from Yoruha's Chidori bursts and several Earth Release techniques he'd unleashed.
Earth Release jutsu were defensive in nature, but when activated, they made the ground rumble violently—and they consumed massive amounts of chakra.
That was why Kakashi's chakra had been so drained earlier.
The two boys atop the trees, Sasuke and Naruto, noticed Kakashi and Yoruha's arrival and began to climb down.
But they'd both forgotten how exhausted they were—their chakra reserves were already empty.
So when they started down, they barely made a few steps before their chakra failed.
"Sasuke! Naruto!"
Sakura's scream rang out below as she watched them lose their footing and fall.
Kakashi exchanged a quick look with Yoruha.
Yoruha nodded.
Just as the two boys' minds went blank and they nearly blacked out, Kakashi and Yoruha vanished from sight.
An instant later, Yoruha appeared beside Naruto, and Kakashi appeared beside Sasuke.
Each grabbed one of the falling boys by the waist.
In the next blink, Kakashi became a flash of blue lightning, landing smoothly on the ground.
Yoruha followed as a streak of golden lightning, touching down beside him.
After setting Sasuke and Naruto down safely, Kakashi chuckled.
"Your speed's faster than mine now."
Naruto and Sasuke, now standing on the ground, finally realized what had just happened.
Both looked at each other, faces red with embarrassment.
They'd wanted to show off their afternoon's hard work—but instead, they'd had to be rescued.
Naruto stared at Yoruha, recalling how in the blink of an eye, he'd been snatched out of the air.
It was his first time truly feeling Yoruha's power firsthand.
Even Sasuke's eyes were wide with disbelief.
The golden flash that marked Yoruha's movement was faster than anything he'd ever seen from him before.
He had already known he wasn't Yoruha's match—but now, the gap between them felt like an unbridgeable canyon.
It was overwhelming.
Sakura was just as stunned.
She could understand Kakashi moving that fast—he was a renowned elite jōnin, after all.
But Yoruha? In that instant, he had become a golden bolt of lightning, even faster than Kakashi.
So fast that she only saw the afterimage left behind by the light.
Sakura murmured to herself,
"Was that the jutsu he just learned from Kakashi-sensei?"
"That was Lightning Release, right? I've never seen him use anything like that before…"
Then her face fell as she realized her earlier words.
"I actually said he hadn't been training… How stupid can I be? Someone like him would never slack off. No wonder he's so much stronger than us."
Embarrassment flooded her as she remembered Yoruha's quiet smile from earlier.
She felt like a fool—a clown under the spotlight.
The three of them—Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura—fell silent.
Yoruha and Kakashi, unaware of their thoughts, stood side by side.
Kakashi finally spoke,
"You two used up too much chakra just now. That move was way too dangerous."
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