An Unfilial Disciple

"If you insist on putting it that way, I suppose." Naruto explained the cause of the matter to Kakashi. It was a surveillance mission, so it could indeed count as specifically coming to watch him.

"So you hid there for nearly half an hour, and I still failed to notice?" Kakashi felt that even if he was less vigilant in the village, he should not have failed to detect Naruto for so long. Naruto really had grown, hadn't he?

Naruto said regretfully, "Yeah, but it was a shame it all fell apart at the end. You were already out of stamina, so why did you insist on practicing that move?"

"Haha, sorry." Kakashi smiled apologetically for ruining Naruto's test. "I wanted to try breaking through my limits."

Naruto carried Kakashi slowly down the mountain, hitching him higher on his back. "That was way too reckless. Running out of Chakra can get you killed."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes and retorted, "You're the last person in all of Konoha qualified to say that. You train with hundreds of Shadow Clones every day."

Naruto refused to accept that. "Why am I not qualified? Maybe I'm reckless, but I've never actually run out of Chakra!"

"..." That hit hard. Although the kid had lost consciousness during training before, it had basically been from the overwhelming impact of massive amounts of training experience, memories, and fatigue from his clones.

No one had ever seen him collapse because he lacked Chakra. Then again, he was not exactly a normal ninja.

Seeing Kakashi fall silent, Naruto realized that what he had said might have been irritating, so he proactively helped Kakashi "come up with a solution."

"How about you take another C-rank mission someday? We can try to snatch Samehada. That thing can work like a power bank. You store some Chakra in it normally, then draw it out anytime during battle. It suits you perfectly."

"Stop making C-rank mission jokes. I can barely be bothered to complain anymore." Kakashi said helplessly, "Besides, our whole class consists of jonin. Taking C-rank missions would be against the rules."

...That did seem true. Special Jonin still received jonin treatment, and as long as the Naruto-Sasuke-Sakura trio accumulated enough experience, they could basically become full jonin.

An elite squad made up of four jonin would be wasted even on B-rank missions. No wonder they had mostly been doing A-rank missions over the past half year.

Naruto sighed in the same way the Third Hokage did whenever he mentioned Konohamaru. "Sigh, you really don't make people worry any less."

Kakashi seemed to have stolen Tenten's lines as he retorted weakly, "Hey, hey, I'm the teacher here, right? What's with you acting like you're worried about a junior?"

Naruto complained, "You still remember you're the teacher? Next time, you carry me home instead. Mountain paths are hard to walk on, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah~" Kakashi brushed him off. He was very good at brushing people off—Guy had trained him well.

Since it had been a long time since he and Kakashi had chatted and traded barbs alone, Naruto did not hurry along with the Flying Thunder God Technique. Instead, he carried Kakashi back step by step.

As they walked, Naruto suddenly felt that he did not need to use Flying Thunder God to travel whenever something came up, as though he were afraid of wasting even a second.

Just like this morning, it was nice to leave the house with Old Dad and slowly walk through Konoha's streets and alleys together.

Just like now, it was nice to head home with Kakashi and slowly walk along the mountain paths and forests near Konoha together.

When Jiraiya first forbade me from using Flying Thunder God to travel, was this part of what he had been thinking about?

My life shouldn't consist only of training and dates. There should also be all the people who care about me, and the people I care about.

I've been so busy lately that I seem to have neglected them.

The atmosphere at home this morning... Old Dad had actually been a little angry, hadn't he?

And yet he adjusted so quickly, and even tried to comfort me...

"Naruto..."

"Naruto?" Kakashi called out again and again.

"Huh? What is it, Teacher Kakashi?" Naruto finally heard Kakashi's voice and turned to look at him.

"It's not about what's wrong with me. What's wrong with you?" Kakashi said helplessly. "While you were spacing out and grinning like an idiot, my face got smacked by branches seven times."

"Oh, oh, sorry!" Naruto thought for a moment, then asked as if confirming it, "How many times did you say?"

"Seven." Kakashi had a bad feeling.

"Oh." Naruto spotted a branch at just the right height and walked toward it with a wicked grin.

Smack!

Kakashi was hit again and collapsed. "What are you trying to do now?"

"I figured since you keep eight dogs, maybe you like the number eight better." Naruto grinned at first, then asked with some disappointment, "Where did you buy that mask? The quality's so good. It didn't even get scratched after eight hits."

"..." Kakashi struggled to raise his head toward the Hokage Building. Teacher, your disciple is unfilial. I want to send your son a Kamui.

In the end, Kakashi could not bring himself to perish together with Naruto. Naruto had no idea he had missed out on a ticket into the Kamui Dimension.

At that moment, he stood at an intersection, faced with the question of whether to look left, right, or straight ahead. They respectively led to Kakashi's home, Naruto's home, and the hospital.

Ignoring Kakashi's wish to go home and lie down, Naruto decided to take him to the hospital. Kakashi was not an Uzumaki, so he probably could not just sleep it off.

Naruto casually advised, "Better safe than sorry. You're Konoha's pillar of support, its mighty beam holding up the sea. Nothing can happen to you."

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Why didn't you say that when you were messing with me just now?"

"Don't mind the details. At least I moved fast enough to catch you." Naruto did not see Kakashi's eye roll, and even if he had, he would not have cared. If he started worrying about eye rolls, life would become unbearable.

At the hospital entrance, Naruto first sensed Tsunade's location. She was probably near the Izakaya, apparently having gone back to drown her sorrows after being lectured.

So there was no need to worry about getting beaten for now. Naruto carried Kakashi straight to the director's office, where both Shizune and Sakura were present.

"Kakashi?"

"Naruto? Teacher Kakashi?"

"Puyo?"

Naruto approached them. "You're both here? Hurry and take a look at Teacher Kakashi. He overused his Chakra, so don't let it leave any lasting problems."

In fact, Shizune had already begun examining Kakashi without Naruto needing to say more.

The Green Light in her hand swept over Kakashi from head to toe. Only then did Shizune breathe a sigh of relief, but she immediately asked sternly, "Has your Sharingan suffered any decline in vision?"

"Yes, it's a side effect of that special ability." In truth, after Sakura examined Itachi during his last mission with him, Kakashi had already prepared himself mentally.

After using Kamui, he had specifically paid attention to such changes. The only solution he could think of was to avoid using Kamui unless necessary in the future.

Shizune nodded. Judging from Kakashi's condition, this was probably unavoidable and normal damage. "Come with me. I'll arrange a hospital room for you."

Kakashi said weakly, "Actually, I think resting at home would be enough. There's no need to go through all this trouble..."

"I'm the medical ninja here, so listen to me." Shizune was unexpectedly firm on this matter.

Kakashi looked toward Sakura as though asking for help.

Sakura stuck out her tongue. "I think Sister Shizune is right."

Naruto chimed in, "I think Sakura Bro is right."

Abandoned by everyone, Kakashi could only resign himself to his fate.

Fortunately, there were not many people in the hospital at the moment, Kakashi had enough clout, and Shizune had enough authority. They directly arranged a private room for him.

Watching Shizune carefully make the bed and bustle around, Naruto could not help feeling that she was being a little too enthusiastic. Something was going on between these two.

Well, he had nothing better to do. He would find a way to test it later.