Morning.
Kurama Rei, while adjusting Yakumo's clothes, spoke gently, "Yakumo, you may be Tsunade-sama's disciple now, but you mustn't throw your weight around in the medical team!"
"I know, Mom!"
Yakumo smiled.
Seeing Yakumo's cheerful grin, Kurama Rei let out a soft sigh. "You have such a beautiful smile!"
Before that surgery, as a mother, she could count on one hand the number of times she'd seen Yakumo smile. Even now, thinking back on those days was unbearable.
Yakumo didn't quite grasp her mother's sigh, but her happiness today was genuine.
Because just last night, she'd finally mastered the dojutsu hidden within Koryugan, called "Koryu"—and it was a rare space-time ninjutsu at that.
At that moment, Yakumo's father, Kurama Murayun, stepped in and said to Kurama Rei, "Alright, let's not delay. We need to head out too!"
Seeing her father fully armed, Yakumo asked, "Are you going on a mission today?"
"Mm!"
Kurama Rei nodded lightly.
Kurama Murayun explained, "Because of your surgery, the village exempted our Kurama clan from last month's mission quota. Now that your condition has stabilized, your mother and I can go on missions with peace of mind."
As a shinobi clan, taking on village missions was a matter of course, and the Kurama clan was no exception.
However, the Kurama clan had declined so severely that, aside from the clan head, Kurama Murayun, there wasn't a single other jonin in the clan. So whenever a mission was slightly challenging, the clan leader himself had to step up.
Noticing the worry on Yakumo's face, Kurama Rei patted her head. "Don't worry. The village assigned your father a simple B-rank mission that even a chunin could handle. There won't be any problems."
Kurama Murayun chuckled, "We're not at the point where you need to worry about us yet!"
Yakumo said, "I wish you a smooth mission!"
After leaving the Kurama clan grounds, Kurama Murayun and Kurama Rei teamed up with two accompanying shinobi and quickly departed the village.
Their mission was to dismantle a black market within the Land of Fire.
These black markets, with their tendrils spread across the shinobi world, were no less adept at gathering intelligence than the five great shinobi villages' own systems. To prevent the Akatsuki from using them to collect intel on jinchuriki, the five villages had begun cracking down hard on the black markets they'd previously turned a blind eye to.
Since black markets often served as mere trading hubs, they typically held no core secrets or valuable items, meaning their defenses were limited.
Larger black markets might hire rogue jonin as guards, but for a small one, having a chunin-level guard was already impressive.
Kurama Murayun's target this time was one such small black market.
According to village intelligence, the guard there was a Mist Village renegade shinobi, roughly at chunin level. Kurama Murayun's team, led by him as a jonin, included three chunin—more than enough to handle any unexpected situations under normal circumstances.
The reason the village sent Kurama Murayun was that reports indicated an Akatsuki member had once visited this black market. The village hoped he could use genjutsu to interrogate the market's overseer and gather intel on the Akatsuki.
Hidden Leaf Village.
"Yawn…"
In the classroom, Uchiha Shinji let out a yawn.
Haku turned back and asked, "Shinji-kun, didn't sleep well last night?"
"Mm!"
Uchiha Shinji nodded.
He truly hadn't rested well. The fully damaged Mangekyo Sharingan in Karin's eye sockets was recovering faster than he'd anticipated, forcing him to stay up late working on the fusion and suppression formula.
Karin said, "Shinji, don't push yourself too hard with training. Rest is important too."
Haku nodded in agreement. "Yeah!"
Uchiha Shinji clarified, "Hey, don't get the wrong idea. I wasn't training last night—I just stayed up late reading."
"I heard from Sakura that Sasuke trained all night yesterday," Karin paused, then added with some concern, "Shinji, I know you're competing with Yakumo, but take care of yourself! Haku and I won't hold you back."
"I'm fine!"
Uchiha Shinji smiled, feeling the genuine concern from his teammates, Karin and Haku.
After morning classes ended, Uchiha Shinji skipped the afternoon session again and headed to Hidden Leaf Hospital.
Just as he stepped through the hospital gates, someone hurriedly brushed past him, rushing inside in a panic.
"From the Kurama clan? Looking for Yakumo?"
Uchiha Shinji recognized the person's identity from their attire but couldn't tell why they were in such a hurry.
Since no Kurama clan members were hospitalized as far as he knew, it was likely they were seeking Yakumo.
Inside the medical team's practice room.
Yakumo was studying basic dissection with Shizune.
Using a scalpel to slice open a fish's belly, cutting along the muscle grain to reveal the internal organs, Shizune asked Yakumo, "Did you see that clearly?"
"Mm, I saw it clearly!"
Yakumo mimicked her, quickly dissecting a fish of her own.
Shizune remarked with a sigh, "Very good! When Tsunade-sama taught me dissection, it took me a full two days to reach your level."
"It's all thanks to Koryugan's help."
Yakumo didn't let it go to her head.
With Koryugan's x-ray-like vision, dissection was as easy as cheating for her.
Bang!
Suddenly, the practice room door burst open. The Kurama clansman Uchiha Shinji had seen at the entrance gasped out, "Yakumo, bad news—the clan head, he…"
Yakumo rushed over. "What's wrong with my father?"
The clansman caught his breath and said, "The clan head was attacked by a mysterious shinobi during his mission and sent back a distress signal!"
"What!?"
Yakumo's heart raced in panic.
Shizune, far calmer, frowned and asked, "What exactly happened? Explain slowly!"
The clansman hurriedly said, "I don't know the details. The village's mission hall notified the clan, saying they received an urgent distress signal from the clan head!"
Yakumo exclaimed, "Father and Mother went on just a B-rank mission. Father's a jonin, and he had several chunin with him—how could something go wrong? No, I have to save them!"
Shizune quickly stopped her. "Yakumo, don't panic. Let's discuss this with Tsunade-sama first. Something about this feels off to me!"