When Arata reached Sasuke, the boy was lying motionless — his body pierced by shuriken and kunai, soaked in blood.
Arata winced.
"Tch… so damn prideful. He acts like he doesn't care, but he's the first to throw himself in harm's way."
He crouched beside him.
Arata knew exactly what had happened — Sasuke had taken the hit meant for Naruto.
If he hadn't… Naruto's rage, and the Nine-Tails' rampage, might never have happened.
That was their destiny — two souls bound by rivalry and understanding.
Even Arata's presence hadn't changed that.
He began removing the embedded weapons one by one, his hands steady despite the blood.
After cleaning and dressing the wounds, Sasuke was wrapped from neck to ankle in bandages — looking like a mummy.
"If you were awake right now," Arata said dryly, "you'd probably kill me for wrapping you up like this."
He shook his head and sighed.
"I'm not a medical-nin, okay? You're lucky I even remembered how to bandage people."
He lifted Sasuke onto his shoulder just as Kakashi appeared, lightning still faintly flickering around his hand.
Kakashi's visible eye softened at the sight of Sasuke.
"How is he?"
"Stable," Arata replied. "Lost a lot of blood, but he'll live."
Kakashi nodded, visibly relieved.
Then his gaze turned more serious.
"Zabuza mentioned that one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen — Kurotsuchi Raiya — went after you."
"What happened?"
Arata paused for a moment, then told him everything — the ambush, the explosion, the lightning-water fusion technique, and the aftermath.
By the time he finished, Kakashi was quiet. His single eye glinted faintly in the moonlight.
"So," Kakashi finally said, his tone calm but sincere, "you've already surpassed me."
Arata blinked.
"That's… a bit of an exaggeration, isn't it?"
Kakashi chuckled.
"Not at all. That technique you used — even I couldn't defend against it."
Arata looked away modestly.
He didn't know whether Kakashi was just being kind, but…
after defeating Raiya and suppressing the rampaging Naruto, part of him knew the truth.
He really had reached that level.
"Once we return to Konoha," Kakashi said, "you should let Toichi-sensei evaluate your progress. The man's probably worried sick by now."
Arata smiled faintly.
"That's fair. After all, he did trust me to tag along with a jōnin like you. Things could've gone a lot worse today."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
"You're giving me too much credit. Most of those techniques weren't mine."
He tilted his head, half-amused.
"In fact, half of what you use now — you invented yourself."
Arata gave a small shrug.
"I just… made a few adjustments."
"Adjustments?" Kakashi repeated, laughing softly.
"You took a standard B-rank Water Dragon and turned it into a golden, sentient beast hundreds of meters long. That's not an adjustment — that's rewriting the laws of ninjutsu."
Arata didn't argue.
Kakashi's voice softened with awe.
"That lightning-water fusion… it's beyond S-rank."
"You've already stepped into forbidden jutsu territory."
He wasn't wrong.
Everything Arata had learned, he'd instinctively refined — reshaping each technique in ways that defied its original structure.
But those modifications came with a cost.
The chakra needed was monstrous.
Even among the most gifted shinobi, only Arata could wield them.
His chakra wasn't normal — it was infused with natural energy, a pseudo-sage-like form.
Every technique he cast carried a faint consciousness, as if alive.
The Water Dragon Bullet he'd unleashed earlier wasn't just shaped like a dragon — it had a will of its own, moving as though it understood him.
It reminded Kakashi of the First Hokage's Wood Golem Technique — alive, aware, and unstoppable.
Only the user's unique chakra could bring that kind of jutsu to life.
Kakashi chuckled again.
"You realize, right? Most of your techniques would be considered forbidden if they were ever registered."
Arata nodded lightly.
"Probably. They'd burn through anyone else's chakra in seconds."
Kakashi's visible eye narrowed slightly.
"That chakra of yours… it's something else entirely. It feels close to sage chakra."
Arata didn't deny it.
"You're not wrong."
Kakashi had long since sensed the anomaly within him — though even he couldn't grasp the full scale.
Because in just over ten days…
Arata's chakra reserves had grown to nearly ten times Kakashi's.
Even without counting the Nine-Tails, his total chakra now exceeded Naruto's — by a massive margin.
By every measurable standard, Arata's chakra capacity was already Kage-class — the upper echelons of power.
The only limit left was his body.
He could feel it — his physical growth struggling to keep up with his energy.
That was why his chakra gains had slowed recently.
He knew it was inevitable.
The body had to adapt before the spirit could expand again.
Still, there was one path left to break through that limit.
"If I learned Sage Mode…" he thought, eyes narrowing slightly,
"my chakra could multiply tenfold again."
The thought tempted him — but only faintly.
For now, he was satisfied.
He didn't need more power yet.
Kakashi studied him for a moment, then smiled behind his mask.
"You're taking this remarkably well."
"Hm?"
"Most people would be shocked after growing this strong in barely two weeks."
Arata smirked.
"I already knew my situation. The only thing I wasn't sure about was how I'd perform against a real jōnin."
"Now I know."
Kakashi shook his head in disbelief.
"You think too much for your age."
Then his tone softened.
"But… that's not a bad thing. You remind me of someone."
He looked at Sasuke, still unconscious on Arata's shoulder.
"Uchiha Itachi was like that, too — wise beyond his years."
Arata followed his gaze and smiled wryly.
"When Sasuke wakes up and hears about all this, he'll never let me live it down."
Kakashi chuckled.
"He'll probably chase you for training every day."
"Let's just hope Sakura doesn't tell him first," Arata sighed.
"Though with how obsessed she is with him… that's probably wishful thinking."
They both laughed softly, their voices blending with the distant crash of waves —
a quiet, human moment after a storm of gods.
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