Yoruha gazed up at the moon and chuckled.
"And what if I can't learn it?"
Kakashi waved a hand dismissively.
"Then it doesn't matter. Sealing techniques are incredibly difficult anyway. Back then, I wasn't the only one the Fourth Hokage taught, but none of us managed to learn them."
"If you can't master it, it's nothing strange. But if you do, then Naruto's problem will be much easier to handle."
"If I had learned the Fourth Hokage's sealing techniques back then, I wouldn't have let him resort to such a dangerous one."
Yoruha turned to look at Kakashi but decided not to ask the question that came to mind.
Kakashi noticed and smiled.
"Why do you look like you want to ask something but won't? Just say it."
Yoruha glanced toward the room where Naruto lay unconscious.
"Kakashi-sensei, why did the Fourth Hokage seal the tailed beast inside Naruto?"
"And… Naruto's from the Uzumaki clan, right? There aren't many Uzumaki left in Konoha."
Kakashi didn't try to hide the truth. He spoke slowly.
"You've probably already guessed it."
Yoruha frowned.
"Don't tell me it's really what I'm thinking…"
Kakashi nodded.
"That's right — Naruto is the Fourth Hokage's son."
"It happened when the Fourth Hokage's wife gave birth to him. The Nine-Tails broke free from its seal at that exact time."
"I was sent to protect her… but I failed."
Yoruha was stunned — not because Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's son (he already knew that), but because Kakashi had actually told him such a thing.
That was a top-level Konoha secret. Only the upper echelons of the village and Kakashi himself knew the truth.
Kakashi must have trusted him deeply. Even Yoruha hadn't expected that.
Seeing Yoruha's shocked expression, Kakashi thought he was reacting to the revelation itself and said,
"It's not that surprising. Naruto inherited the Uzumaki bloodline, and the Fourth Hokage wanted him to one day harness the Nine-Tails' power."
Yoruha looked again at Naruto through the doorway.
"Didn't the Fourth Hokage realize what kind of life Naruto would face with the Nine-Tails sealed inside him?"
Kakashi sighed.
"There was no other choice. His wife was already extremely weak — after the Nine-Tails was extracted, she didn't have much time left. The Fourth Hokage also used the Reaper Death Seal… a technique that guarantees death upon use."
"Naruto was the only option. And since he had Uzumaki blood, he truly was the best possible vessel."
"Maybe the Fourth Hokage hoped Naruto could master the Nine-Tails' power and become the village's pillar of strength."
That was indeed Minato's intention.
You could tell just from the sealing technique he used — not the Four Symbols Seal, but the Eight Trigrams Seal.
The Four Symbols Seal simply locked the Nine-Tails away. The Eight Trigrams Seal, though built from two overlapping Four Symbols Seals, allowed part of the Nine-Tails' chakra to merge with Naruto's own.
It gave him an additional source of chakra — which meant that, beyond his own reserves, Naruto also carried chakra transformed from the Nine-Tails itself.
Otherwise, it would've been impossible for someone his age to possess more chakra than Kakashi.
Even full-blooded Uzumaki shinobi didn't have chakra reserves that massive — and Naruto only had half the clan's bloodline.
"The Fourth Hokage must have had great hopes for him," Yoruha said quietly.
Kakashi nodded.
"He wanted Naruto to someday control the Nine-Tails' power, just as he envisioned."
"After all, when his mother was the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, she never once lost control."
Yoruha smiled faintly.
"That's not surprising. She was a pure-blooded Uzumaki with incredible sealing ability — it's perfectly normal she never went berserk."
"If Naruto learned sealing arts himself, he could probably keep the Nine-Tails stable too."
Kakashi shook his head.
"I'm not that optimistic."
"Sealing arts don't just rely on bloodline — they require deep theoretical understanding and incredible discipline. The difficulty is extremely high."
"Naruto may have the bloodline, but… his brain isn't exactly built for that kind of study."
Yoruha fell silent for a moment, then muttered,
"Kakashi-sensei, how do you know if you've never tried?"
Kakashi didn't respond. But he knew well — sealing arts were no easy thing.
In fact, only a handful of shinobi across the world truly mastered them. That's why every great village had a specialized Sealing Corps — because there were too few experts, they had to be gathered to be effective.
Knowing a few techniques like the Evil Sealing Method didn't mean you understood sealing arts.
They might not seem as flashy as offensive ninjutsu, but the difficulty of mastering them was far higher.
Kakashi knew Naruto too well — and that was exactly why he didn't believe he could learn them. He had once planned to teach Naruto, but after testing his aptitude, he'd given up.
Naruto's talent for sealing was even lower than his own.
The problem was that sealing techniques required vast and complex theoretical knowledge — even Kakashi found them difficult. For Naruto, who often scored zero on written exams, it was practically impossible.
Kakashi changed the subject.
"Still, I have high hopes for you. I think you'll be able to master those sealing techniques."
"Once you do, I won't have to be so anxious every time I take Naruto out on a mission."
Yoruha twitched his lips.
"Kakashi-sensei, don't tell me you plan to bring me along on every mission outside the village?"
"I'm not even part of your team."
Occasional missions were fine — like a subsidized trip, even. But if Kakashi wanted him tagging along every time, that was another story.
Kakashi patted Yoruha's shoulder.
"You know, your squad wasn't even supposed to exist."
"It's only still active because of you."
"You should already realize that you and your teammates aren't the same. From the day your team passed the exam because of you, you were set apart."
"To the higher-ups, you're not an ordinary shinobi."
"The closer you stay to your teammates, the more danger you bring to them."
"Whether you grow stronger or someday — for whatever reason — defect from the village, they'll be implicated."
"That's why your teacher agreed to let me take over your training."
"If you don't keep your distance, your teammates will suffer because of you."
Yoruha fell silent.
He didn't fully agree — but thinking about the chaos he'd caused that day, he had to admit Kakashi was probably right.
If the Third Hokage had never learned about his existence, things might have been different. But now that he had, Yoruha couldn't go back to being "just another shinobi."
From the moment the Hokage took notice of him, everything changed.
If anything happened to Yoruha in the future, both Motonoya Toko and Yamada Jumoku would be dragged into it — maybe even die because of him.
Even in peacetime, shinobi conflicts were still soaked in blood.
And Kakashi wasn't wrong — in Yoruha's memory, only three teams were ever meant to pass that year's exam: Kakashi's, Kurenai's, and Asuma's.
That was what the Third Hokage had planned.
Yet somehow, Yoruha's team had passed as well. His existence had already changed the story.
From his perspective, both Jumoku and Toko's talents were average at best. If their teammate hadn't been him — and if not for his influence — they never would've passed.
Now, his presence tied them to danger.
Especially with a schemer like Danzō lurking in the shadows — if Danzō wanted to target Yoruha, he'd start with the people closest to him.
The closer Yoruha grew to them, the more likely they'd become victims.
And that was something Yoruha absolutely didn't want to see.