Terumi i spent five days recovering from her shoulder injury.
On the evening of the sixth day, she appeared punctually at the abandoned training ground in the north of the village.
Kitahara Kaede was standing by a training post. Hearing footsteps, he turned around, his gaze landing on her left shoulder.
"All better?"
Terumi i raised her arm, rotating it a few tis.
"Pretty much."
"Then tell exactly what happened that day, from start to finish. Don't leave a single detail out."
Terumi i stood still and recounted the events of that day word for word, without a single pause. Her mory of the details was remarkably clear.
Once she finished, Kitahara Kaede spoke. "Your biggest problem that day wasn't that you lost to Lightning Style."
Terumi i frowned.
"It was that you took it for granted that the opponent wouldn't close the distance."
Kitahara Kaede walked to the center of the training ground.
"Your Boil Release covers a wide area, and your Lava Style blocks the path; that combination is excellent for mid-to-long range. But you focused all your attention on the coverage area and didn't consider that the opponent could simply tear a hole through your defense and charge right in front of you."
Terumi i opened her mouth to argue, but as she recalled the situation, she realized he was right. The speed with which the masked man had sliced through her Lava Style blockade had completely exceeded her predictions.
Kitahara Kaede continued.
"The defining characteristic of a Lightning Style user is..."
As he spoke, he raised his hand to trace the arc of a sudden dash.
"If you only think about how to spread your technique to cover the area, by the ti you react to them bursting in front of you, it'll always be too late."
Terumi i nodded, staring intently at the direction he was gesturing.
Kitahara Kaede continued to break down the fight. He explained every point in ticulous detail, pausing occasionally to ask if she understood.
At first, Terumi i followed closely, her mind perfectly in sync with his rhythm.
When he reached the third key point, Kitahara Kaede demonstrated a side-stepping footwork technique to deflect force. The air narrowly brushed past his cheek.
Terumi i's gaze lingered on his profile for a mont longer than necessary.
When he spoke, his brow would dip slightly. When he reached a critical point, his pace slowed just a beat, as if confirming whether she was keeping up.
It suddenly occurred to her that he was the one who had taught her Water Style. Her taijutsu was largely thanks to him. Even the logic behind using her Bloodline Limits had been organized with his help.
Battlefield judgnt, psychological anticipation... and now, he was teaching her how to deal with Lightning Style.
As Terumi i stared at his profile, her fingers relaxed without her noticing.
"...So, when the opponent makes a move like that, what is the first thing you need to do?"
Kitahara Kaede's voice pulled her back.
Terumi i blinked. "Huh?"
Kitahara Kaede stopped and tilted his head to look at her. Noticing her vacant stare and the fact that she wasn't even looking at him, he asked, "Are you actually paying attention?"
The tips of Terumi i's ears flushed instantly. She quickly averted her gaze, her voice flat.
"I'm listening. Keep going."
Kitahara Kaede watched her for two seconds.
"Then repeat what I just said."
Terumi i managed two sentences before getting stuck on the third. Everything after that was a complete blur in her mind.
Kitahara Kaede let out a soft chuckle.
Terumi i glared at him. After a second, feeling guilty, she simply turned her head away, pretending to look at sothing in the corner of the training ground.
"...Just say it again," she mumbled.
Kitahara Kaede didn't press further and restarted from where he had left off.
This ti, Terumi i stared intently at his hands, forcing herself not to look at his face. She followed every word, interrupting to ask whenever she didn't understand, then listening intently to the answer.
Only after Kitahara Kaede had finished all the key points did she breathe a sigh of relief. She reviewed the content in her mind, matching it against every move the masked man had made that day. Many things she hadn't understood at the ti now clicked into place.
Terumi i clenched her fist. Next ti she encountered that person, she would not lose so pathetically.
***
Over the next few weeks, Kitahara Kaede centered all their training around a "hypothetical Lightning Style enemy."
How to read the opponent's movents.
How to use Water Style to alter the terrain beneath their feet.
How to use acidic mist to choke the opponent's breathing and blind their vision before they could dash in.
Every session left Terumi i drained of chakra, lying on the ground gasping for air. However, her progress was so rapid it even surprised Kitahara Kaede.
By the third week, she was able to execute counter-asures before he could get close. While she still couldn't completely block him, she was no longer helpless.
After one session ended, Terumi i sat on the ground, exhausted. She handed him a water bottle and complained casually, "Just how much more stuff are you hiding?"
Kitahara Kaede took the bottle but didn't drink; he set it back down beside her.
"Enough to keep you learning for a long ti."
Terumi i was montarily speechless, but then she smiled.
"That's for the best."
She looked down to tighten the cap, her voice dropping slightly. "As long as I can keep moving forward with you."
Kitahara Kaede glanced at her but didn't respond.
***
As ti passed, the Hidden Mist Village appeared to have restored order on the surface, but the decrees from the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, grew increasingly cold.
Initially, it was just stricter accountability for missions. Then, it beca mandatory audits for those who failed their missions. Eventually, anyone who "burdened their team" was punished upon returning to the village, with the severity of the punishnt decided by the ANBU.
The new regulations posted at the Mission Office beca more frequent, the papers layering over the old notices. Ninjas stopped calling each other by na, communicating instead through identification numbers and codenas.
The people walking the streets all wore the sa expression: heads down, avoiding eye contact, walking fast.
Kitahara Kaede stepped out of the Mission Office, his gaze sweeping over the hurried ninjas. His expression remained unchanged, but he confird one thing in his mind.
Yagura was no longer the original Yagura.
The Bloody Mist policy was being pushed to an extre by an invisible hand. He knew whose hand it was, but he couldn't move yet.
***
During an A-rank reconnaissance mission, Kitahara Kaede was paired with Ao.
The two crouched in the brush on the periter, waiting for their target to appear. After nearly two hours of waiting, Ao suddenly spoke.
"Don't you think the Mizukage's recent orders are strange?"
Kitahara Kaede looked at him. Ao's gaze remained fixed on the distant outpost, his words sounding like a monologue.
"Lord Yagura's recent orders don't have a single wasted word. What to do, how to do it, when to finish—everything is tid and scripted to the second."
"It's as if soone else is writing them for him, and he's just reading them aloud."
Kitahara Kaede did not respond. He knew exactly why.
Ao didn't press the issue. The two remained silent, continuing to monitor the outpost ahead.
***
Rumors of a Bloodline Limit purge began to spread in the shadows.
So said the ANBU were auditing the files of every ninja registered with a bloodline limit. Others said a family in the eastern district of the Land of Water who possessed Ice Release vanished overnight, their ho scrubbed clean.
Terumi i's files on Lava Style and Boil Release had also been accessed. Soone had attempted to place her on a "Risk Observation List," but Genji had eventually suppressed it.
***
The training between the two also evolved.
In the past, it had been one-sided guidance from Kitahara Kaede, but now Terumi i could force him to respond seriously.
During one sparring session, Terumi i used Boil Release to seal his retreat and Lava Style to cut off his path forward, following up imdiately with a close-quarters taijutsu assault.
Forced into a corner, Kitahara Kaede had no choice but to use the Substitution technique to escape.
Terumi i didn't let it go to her head. She wiped the sweat from her face, her breathing still uneven.
"If you had been a half-second slower just now, you would have lost."
Kitahara Kaede rotated his wrist.
"So, you're finally qualified for the more dangerous assignnts."
Terumi i looked at him, her gaze darkening for a brief mont.
...
Under a crooked tree by the riverbank, a stray cat had given birth to a litter of kittens.
Four tiny kittens huddled together in a nest among the tree roots. Their fur hadn't fully grown in yet, and they stumbled clumsily as they chased and played with one another.
Terumi i crouched beside them, watching in silence for a long ti.
One orange kitten stepped on another's tail and received a swift swat in return. It tumbled over, rolled, and then scrambled back up, wobbling forward again.
A small smile tugged at the corner of Terumi i's lips.
After a while, she spoke, her voice barely a whisper.
"These little things live such carefree lives. No missions, no need to kill their own littermates."
Kitahara Kaede placed so dry kibble in front of the mother cat and crouched down beside her.
"Then work hard to make sure that, in the future, the people of the village won't have to, either."
Terumi i turned to look at him.
This ti, she didn't smile.
"Mm."
It was a response filled with absolute sincerity.
...
Over the next two years.
The fear within the Hidden Mist Village completely eclipsed the mist itself.
Those possessing Kekkei Genkai were publicly listed as targets for purging.
Nightly sweeps by the ANBU beca the norm.
Within mission squads, mbers encouraged to report on one another; those who inford on their comrades were exempt from the next round of screenings.
Trust in the village had died a complete death.
Terumi i was no longer the girl who simply wanted to grow stronger just to survive.
She began to proactively establish contact with those aligned with Genji.
Her relationship with Midori shifted from that of mission partners to one of regular reporting.
Kitahara Kaede did not stop her, nor did he interfere.
It was ti for her to step into the spotlight.
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