"Naruto, that man... he's like you!" While Hotaru wasn't paying attention, Uchiha Sasuke spoke quietly to Naruto.
Naruto clearly didn't catch his meaning at first and stared at Uchiha Sasuke in a daze.
"Like me? Could he be..." Although he hadn't understood at first, Naruto soon realized what Uchiha Sasuke meant.
"Sasuke, are you sure?" Yamato happened to overhear them and immediately asked with a solemn expression.
Uchiha Sasuke said calmly, "My Sharingan saw a chakra response similar to Naruto's. There's a very good chance he's a jinchūriki."
"Huh? The Sharingan can see things like that?" Naruto was puzzled. He had known Sasuke since childhood, but he had never heard of anything like this.
"A Three-Tomoe Sharingan or higher can pick up certain signs by examining the flow of chakra inside an enemy's body," Uchiha Sasuke explained briefly.
"This is bad! The Akatsuki must be after him, too. We have to warn him!" Naruto suddenly remembered the Akatsuki and looked regretfully in the direction the man had gone.
"Idiot, it's not that simple. He's long gone by now. There's no way we can catch up!" Sasuke snapped at Naruto.
"Ah! This is your fault, Sasuke. Why didn't you say something sooner?" Naruto was immediately frustrated.
As a jinchūriki himself, Naruto always felt a measure of sympathy for others who shared his plight. After all, the circumstances he had grown up in were already harsh enough.
"This isn't Sasuke's fault. Even if we'd told him back then, he might not have believed us. Besides... we'd only just met him. We don't even know what kind of person he is!" Hearing Naruto's complaints, Sakura spoke up in Sasuke's defense.
Sasuke offered no explanation. He simply turned and walked away. Although Naruto was still frustrated, he said nothing more.
Yamato, who had been