Orion continued,
"Right now, Naruto has two Eight Trigrams Seals inside him. The Fourth Hokage's Eight Trigrams Seal has now mainly become responsible for converting a portion of the Nine-Tails' chakra into Naruto's own chakra."
"The seal itself isn't very stable. Even though I reinforced it, as long as Naruto continues using the Nine-Tails' chakra, it'll gradually loosen again."
"And if that happens, I'd need to constantly reinforce it over and over. That would be extremely troublesome."
"So I simply added another Eight Trigrams Seal."
"The Eight Trigrams Seal I added mainly functions to prevent the Nine-Tails from actively sending chakra to Naruto."
"And I didn't leave any openings in the seal."
"The sealing strength is also much higher. As long as Naruto doesn't actively undo the seal himself, the Nine-Tails won't be able to break through it on its own."
"At the same time, the Fourth Hokage's Eight Trigrams Seal will continue functioning, mainly focusing on converting the Nine-Tails' chakra."
"My Eight Trigrams Seal, meanwhile, is mainly responsible for suppressing the Nine-Tails and ensuring that, as long as Naruto doesn't intentionally release it, the Nine-Tails will remain stably sealed."
Kakashi nodded thoughtfully.
"If that's the case, then this is already an excellent outcome."
"I can clearly feel that the sealing technique you left behind is incredibly powerful."
Orion nodded.
"To apply this seal, all my chakra got drained dry. Of course it's powerful."
Kakashi stared at Orion and frowned.
"Your chakra was completely drained?"
"Why are you always pushing yourself this recklessly?"
Kakashi truly didn't want Orion constantly operating at his absolute limit.
For shinobi, exhausting all chakra could very easily become life-threatening.
Kakashi already understood that much.
Back during the battle against Pain in the future, Kakashi himself would die after excessively overusing Kamui to save Chōji.
Even though that event hadn't happened yet, Kakashi still understood the danger of complete chakra exhaustion.
At this moment, he was genuinely a little angry.
Orion was taking far too many risks.
Orion laughed awkwardly.
"My recovery ability is pretty good, though. Aren't I perfectly fine now?"
"Orion, I need to teach you something important about being a shinobi."
"In battle, you absolutely cannot use chakra without limits."
"A qualified shinobi must constantly keep track of their chakra reserves. Once your chakra drops too low, you need to start considering abandoning the mission."
Of course, Kakashi's philosophy clearly contradicted the official shinobi code.
The shinobi code emphasized prioritizing the mission above all else, even at the cost of one's life.
Naturally, Orion had learned those rules before as well.
However, he didn't argue with Kakashi.
He simply nodded.
"I understand, Kakashi-sensei."
Kakashi patted Orion's shoulder.
"You've already done more than enough for Naruto."
"But I don't want you getting into danger because of carelessness in the future."
"Neither I nor Kinoshita Dōichi would want that."
"You have to remember this: only a genius who survives long enough to grow is a true genius."
"A genius who dies young simply becomes another forgotten name."
Kakashi would never say words like this to ordinary shinobi.
Because these thoughts directly conflicted with the shinobi code.
But Kakashi truly didn't want Orion dying before reaching his full potential.
This kind of tragedy was far too common in the shinobi world.
There were countless geniuses, but many died before they ever truly matured.
Orion nodded silently.
Not long afterward, Sakura and Sasuke arrived as well.
Seeing Naruto unconscious on the bed, Sakura asked worriedly,
"Orion, Kakashi-sensei, how is Naruto?"
"He's fine. Earlier, too much of the Nine-Tails' chakra leaked out, so he fainted. He's alright now."
Orion explained calmly.
Sasuke looked toward Orion and frowned slightly.
"You succeeded?"
Orion nodded.
"Yeah. It's done."
"Looks like your sealing techniques are finally practical now. At the very least, if this idiot loses control again in the future, there won't be nobody capable of stopping him."
Sasuke said coldly, though that was simply his normal way of speaking.
Orion looked at Sasuke and smiled.
"I'd rather you focus on developing your Sharingan properly. That way, even if the Nine-Tails breaks free someday, you could still suppress it using your Sharingan."
Sasuke froze briefly.
Then he replied coldly,
"Who knows if it'll ever become that strong."
Even though his tone remained icy, his words lacked confidence.
Ever since Orion appeared beside him, Sasuke had continuously witnessed displays of overwhelming strength.
As a result, he had begun doubting himself.
They were the exact same age, yet Orion was already vastly stronger than him.
At times, Sasuke even wondered whether Orion might already surpass Itachi.
Of course, this was merely Sasuke's personal speculation.
If Orion himself were asked to challenge Itachi right now, he definitely wouldn't dare.
It wasn't because he feared Itachi's ninjutsu.
It was because he had absolutely no confidence against the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Orion clearly remembered that Itachi had defeated Kakashi instantly with Tsukuyomi.
Even Orochimaru had been completely powerless before him.
Despite his poor health, Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan abilities were simply too terrifying.
If Orion encountered Itachi now, his first thought definitely wouldn't be how to defeat him.
It would be how to escape alive.
It wasn't cowardice.
He simply understood how dangerous Itachi truly was and saw no reason to engage in meaningless combat.
In truth, with Orion's current strength, fighting Itachi wouldn't actually be excessively dangerous.
The only thing Itachi truly possessed that could seriously threaten Orion was genjutsu.
Only genjutsu.
And that was mainly because Orion still lacked experience dealing with illusion techniques.
During this period, Orion had learned countless ninjutsu, but only a handful of basic genjutsu.
To Orion, Itachi's most terrifying ability wasn't Susanoo.
Nor Amaterasu.
Nor the sealing powers hidden within his Mangekyō abilities.
As long as Orion lacked a reliable method to counter powerful genjutsu, running away would always be his first option against Itachi.
Orion noticed Sasuke's lack of confidence and smiled.
"What? You don't believe in yourself?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes at him.
"I'll surpass you someday."
"Then I'll wait for you to surpass me."
"But first, you'll need to push your Sharingan to its absolute limits."
"At the very least, you'll need to reach Kakashi-sensei's level."
Sasuke glanced toward Kakashi.
There was clear expectation in his eyes.
Kakashi immediately felt a headache coming on.
From now on, Sasuke would probably cling to him constantly.
After all, he was Sasuke's teacher, and he truly did possess some experience in developing the Sharingan.
If Sasuke came asking, Kakashi naturally had to teach him.
Otherwise, Sasuke would definitely start believing Kakashi favored Orion too much.
Still, perhaps this was actually a good thing.
Originally, Kakashi had planned to focus entirely on teaching Orion.
Who could've predicted that Orion would completely learn all of Kakashi's ninjutsu in less than two months?
Aside from Sharingan-related experience, Kakashi really had nothing left to teach him anymore.
Now, he could finally focus properly on Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura.
It was time for him to actually perform his duties as a team leader.
So Kakashi nodded and said,
"I'll teach you how to control your Sharingan properly."
"And your Sharingan should already have evolved to the two-tomoe stage, right?"
Sasuke nodded.
"One eye has two tomoe. The other still only has one."
"Not bad. Reaching that level at your age is already extremely impressive."
Kakashi recalled that Obito had awakened his two-tomoe Sharingan at age thirteen.
Of course, what Kakashi didn't know was that Obito had also awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan that same year.
Still, awakening the Sharingan earlier didn't necessarily mean greater talent.
After all, Madara Uchiha himself had only awakened a single-tomoe Sharingan at fifteen.
Sasuke awakening his Sharingan at age six was only because he experienced overwhelming trauma.
And due to his young age back then, even awakening a single tomoe had already pushed his body to its limits.
Now, Sasuke possessing one two-tomoe eye and one single-tomoe eye was also the result of witnessing Naruto collapse before him.
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