Kuchiki Byakuya? A name they had never heard before.
"What brings you here, sir?" Kakashi dared not lower his guard in the slightest. The pressure the man exerted was overwhelming.
He even had a gut feeling that, if they fought, he might not last three moves! No, perhaps not even one!
Kuchiki Byakuya's gaze slowly swept over the battle-ready Kakashi and passed over the tense Sakura.
It lingered on Naruto's curious yet wary face, then finally settled on Sasuke, whose expression was cold, though a storm raged beneath his eyes.
"I was passing through when I sensed two rather 'unusual' presences."
Kuchiki Byakuya's voice was calm and even, as though he were stating some trivial matter that had nothing to do with him.
"Within one slumbers an ancient and immense flame of life, yet, like a divine treasure veiled in dust, its brilliance remains hidden, its path ahead uncertain."
Having said that, he looked at Naruto Uzumaki, his eyes filled with regret.
"The other bears a power corroded by hatred. He walks on thin ice. One wrong step, and he will be doomed beyond redemption."
He was speaking of Sasuke Uchiha.
Everyone was shocked by those words!
Naruto froze. "An ancient flame of life? Its brilliance hidden beneath dust?"
Does he mean the Nine-Tails? Can this guy sense him?
Sasuke's pupil contracted sharply. The dark purple light in his left eye nearly shone uncontrollably through the bandages.
A power corroded by hatred... one wrong step, and I'll be doomed beyond redemption... he really knows! He saw through it!
Only that demon Uchiha Ryūha knew this secret!
An even greater storm surged through Kakashi's heart. The man had exposed Naruto's and Sasuke's greatest secrets with a single statement.
Who on earth is he?! What does he want?!
"Who... exactly are you?"