After a long silence, Kakashi finally said somberly, "There's no need to make Yeyu your goal. He's different from everyone else."
Sakura nodded. "Mm, I know. With strength that's beyond human, it'd be hard for me to make him my goal anyway."
Kakashi smiled bitterly. "Actually, his strength shocked me today, too. This is the first time I've known he was so powerful."
"He's never shown how strong he is."
"That's the same for me. I only learned his true strength today."
Sakura smiled. "No wonder he was promoted straight to Chunin as soon as he graduated, and even became the Hokage Assistant."
"I couldn't really understand it before, but now I do. Becoming a Chunin is only temporary for Yeyu. It won't be long before he's promoted to Jonin."
Kakashi looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "He'll probably be promoted to Jonin as soon as he returns from this mission. No one has ever become a Jonin after completing just one mission."
"Maybe Yeyu will be the first. He's always been so different."
"He's always doing things no one expects."
Sakura glanced at Sasuke, who lay beside her, still unconscious, and said worriedly, "Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke has made Yeyu his goal. Can he really catch up to him?"
Sasuke had passed out before Yeyu arrived.
He didn't know how strong Yeyu was.
He didn't know he was chasing a goal he could never reach. It was utterly hopeless.
Kakashi fell silent again.
He had thought Sasuke couldn't catch up to Yeyu, either, but as long as he worked hard enough—
With the Uchiha Clan's bloodline and his talent, Sasuke might still be able to get close to Yeyu.
Just as the Third Hokage had planned, Sasuke and Naruto could one day become Yeyu's right-hand men.
But now, it seemed Sasuke had little chance of catching up to Yeyu.
Even getting close to him would be difficult.
Yeyu was only twelve, yet he was already so strong—strong like a monster.
Kakashi couldn't imagine how terrifying Yeyu would be in his prime.
Twelve was definitely not the age at which a ninja was strongest.
A ninja's prime was between twenty and fifty.
Kakashi didn't say it aloud, but he thought, Even if Sasuke awakens those legendary eyes, he'll probably still have a hard time catching up to Yeyu.
Yeyu could send a Tailed Beast Bomb flying with nothing but his physical strength.
Even Susanoo would probably be smashed apart by his physical strength.
Kakashi had actually awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, but with his current strength, he still couldn't use it.
Still, Kakashi knew the Sharingan could be used to manifest Susanoo.
He had learned that when researching the First's records.
Judging by Yeyu's physical prowess just now, smashing Susanoo didn't seem like much of a problem.
Kakashi had never seen Susanoo, but his guess was probably close.
Tsunade could use Chakra Enhanced Strength to break the skeletal form of Susanoo.
Yeyu was far stronger than Tsunade, so breaking Susanoo's skeletal form would be no problem.
He just didn't know whether Yeyu's strength could break the complete Susanoo.
Yeyu hadn't had a chance to try.
After all, although Yeyu had inherited all of Akainu's power, his unique nature and the fact that he was in the Naruto world meant that his feats were several times more impressive than Akainu's original power.
Akainu's physical strength in the Pirate World wasn't as absurd as Yeyu's. One punch from Yeyu could cause destruction over several thousand meters.
Without using Devil Fruit abilities, Akainu could only destroy an area several dozen meters across with one punch. Using his Devil Fruit abilities was what let him reach several kilometers.
But Yeyu could destroy an area several kilometers across with just his fists and Armament Haki.
His power had increased by more than tenfold.
Maybe it was because the worlds were different, or because Yeyu's constitution was unusual, or maybe Akainu's power had mutated when it merged with his.
Yeyu really was several times stronger than Akainu.
Before inheriting Akainu's power, Yeyu had been untalented.
Even with a great deal of effort, he could only reach the level of an ordinary ninja.
But after gaining Akainu's power, he could somehow bring it out at a level far beyond Akainu himself.
Sakura looked at Sasuke and murmured, "I wonder if it's a good thing or a bad thing that Sasuke passed out and didn't see Yeyu and Naruto fight."
"It's not just Yeyu. Naruto also has such incredible power hidden inside him."
Although Yeyu had completely overpowered Naruto in their fight, Naruto's power was terrifying, too. Even Kakashi, a Jonin, couldn't withstand a single blow from him.
Could Sasuke really catch up to the power inside Naruto?
How would Sasuke take it, knowing that two boys his age were so much stronger than him?
Sakura grew increasingly worried. "Kakashi-sensei, can we keep Naruto's secret from Sasuke? I'm worried he won't be able to handle it."
Kakashi looked at Sakura and sighed. "You really do like Sasuke, don't you? You've thought that far ahead for his sake."
"But he'll find out sooner or later. When he does, he'll be even more devastated. He'll have worked so hard, only to suddenly learn that Naruto is so much stronger than him."
"He'll take it even worse."
Sakura fell silent.
"Kakashi-sensei, doesn't Sasuke have any power inside him that can compare to Yeyu and Naruto's?"
"He's from the Uchiha Clan. Doesn't he have an extraordinary bloodline, too?"
Sakura didn't like Sasuke just because she wanted him to be strong. She was worried that the huge gap between him and Naruto and Yeyu would make him lose heart.
She genuinely liked Sasuke.
She had liked him ever since the first time she saw him.
Unlike Ino, who only cared about Sasuke's looks,
Sakura liked Sasuke for who he was.
Kakashi glanced at Sasuke. He wasn't sure whether he should tell Sakura about Sasuke's abilities.
He raised his head, saw the eager look in Sakura's eyes, and sighed. "You're right. Sasuke is from the Uchiha Clan."
"The Uchiha Clan can awaken a Kekkei Genkai called the Sharingan."
Sakura already knew that.
"The highest level of an ordinary Sharingan is the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. The Sharingan in my eye is a Three-Tomoe Sharingan."
"It was given to me by a friend of mine from the Uchiha Clan."
"Above the Three-Tomoe Sharingan is another kind of eye, one spoken of in legend."
"It's called the Mangekyō Sharingan."
"It's a powerful pair of eyes that can even control a mighty beast like the Nine-Tails."
"But awakening these eyes is extremely difficult. Even among the Uchiha Clan, very few can do it."
"Besides, overusing these eyes carries the risk of blindness."
Kakashi knew that using the Mangekyō Sharingan too much caused one's vision to deteriorate, and could even lead to blindness.
He had learned that from when he later encountered Itachi Uchiha and heard how much his eyesight had declined.
Using the Mangekyō Sharingan's abilities also required an enormous amount of chakra.
If someone didn't have enough chakra and forced its use, it would drain their body's chakra excessively. In severe cases, it could even kill them.
Itachi Uchiha had too little chakra, and overused his Mangekyō Sharingan, continually draining his body. He had always had little chakra to begin with.
His chakra reserves were only about those of an ordinary Jonin. What made him powerful was his combat intelligence and the Sharingan's abilities, not his chakra reserves.
Frequent use of the Mangekyō Sharingan had constantly worn down his body, until both his eyes and his body could no longer hold out.
Only someone like Obito Uchiha, who had transplanted Hashirama Senju's cells and gained a vast supply of chakra, could keep the Mangekyō Sharingan from damaging his eyesight and avoid problems with his body.
Before you continue