Calling

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Deep, heavy breathing echoed through the pile of corpses.

The sky was cloudless, a pale red mist of blood shrouded everything, even the sun appeared tinged with crimson...

The red sun still shines brightly!

Kakashi rubbed his sore eyes, squeezed out a few drops of cat urine, and finally felt a little better.

"Kakashi, come and chop someone off! This guy's neck's so hard, Kunai stuck in it." Kuyue leaned against a large tree to rest.

"Take a break, take a break before you start again... Damn, real combat is so tiring." Kakashi didn't care about his aloof image anymore. He kicked aside the corpse at his feet, picked a relatively clean spot, and plopped down on it.

They ran around non-stop taking down four black markets. Although the intensity of the battles wasn't high, it was still quite a hardship for the two newbies.

The physical exertion of actual combat is far greater than that of regular training. Kakashi and Kuyue combined had only taken down fifteen people, and with the stamina they had expended traveling, they were now so exhausted they couldn't even straighten their backs.

"How was that? Feeling pretty good, huh? You two are still green! Back in my day, I could kill Rain Ninja three times in and out without even taking a breath. Look at you two now, you need to go back and train some more!"

Katsuki sat on a large tree branch, swinging her long legs, acting like a big shot and lecturing the two of them.

"Teacher, are you sure that's not due to a physical condition of the Uzumaki Clan?"

Kuyue asked softly.

"... That's about right, I can't even remember such trivial things anymore, haha!" Katsuki chuckled twice and immediately changed the subject, "You two were a bit nervous this time, otherwise you wouldn't be so exhausted. But many newcomers are like that, you'll get used to it after a few more missions."

"Lord Commander, do you think we could add them to our team?"

The cat-faced Anbu figure moved closer.

"What? They're already poaching people so early? They haven't even graduated from the Ninja Academy yet!" Katsuki glanced at her subordinates.

"Hey, Lord Commander, you don't know this?" The cat-masked Anbu slapped his thigh, getting excited. "Back then, the Genin were considered our Anbu's reserve force. At most, they would compete with us for people every now and then. But back then, we had our own training system, so strictly speaking, it wasn't a big problem."

"Are you suggesting that the situation has changed?" Katsuki asked curiously. He had only recently taken office as the chief of staff and was not yet familiar with many things.

"That's right!"

The cat-faced creature let out a long sigh.

"The recruitment of new ninjas is very tight now. Before, there was no decent competition, but now Root has started to seriously recruit from ordinary ninjas. Even the Police Force is advertising among the Genin every few days. Good candidates have become hot commodities. After all, nobody likes to have a bunch of good-for-nothings under their command."

As they spoke, the cat-faced Anbu kept staring longingly at Katsuki, making him feel uneasy.

"I get it, I get it! Isn't this just universities vying for top scorers in the college entrance exam? Now this is like the Anbu offering guaranteed admission... What the hell is this?!"

Katsuki patted her head, suppressing the wild ideas that were starting to spread.

"We'll talk about that later. My apprentice can be sent to the Anbu for training; I can make that decision. As for Kakashi... that depends on my teacher's opinion."

"Teacher, what you're saying makes me feel like I'm some kind of discounted item being sold off at a 20% off clearance sale in a store."

The little girl pouted and glared unhappily at Katsuki, who was riding on a tree branch and had no regard for her teacher's image.

"Haha... you little rascal, I was just saying, why are you arguing with me?" Katsuki rolled her eyes.

A few people were rambling on and on, while the other elite members of the Anbu were cleaning up the battlefield. This operation to wipe out the black market had zero casualties, and it felt as easy as a group spring outing. They even got to give the two mischievous kids a run for their money.

However, at that moment, a Chakra crossed the spatial distance in an unpredictable way and rushed towards Katsuki.

"Hmm? Nagato?"

Katsuki frowned. With the help of the Rinnegan's mysterious power, he would periodically make a long-distance call to Nagato and the others to chat about their recent situation and confirm that Madara Uchiha was not up to any tricks.

But there are still two weeks until our next contact!

Something's happened!

His mind raced, and he flipped over and jumped down from the tree branch. With a snap of his fingers, he created a square stone platform, just the right size for one person to sit on.

"Um, I need to take this call, don't bother me, okay?"

After saying this, Katsuki raised her hand and released a barrier. Then she sat cross-legged on the platform and began to respond to the Chakra that came from across the sky.

Consciousness was instantly pulled towards the sky, and in a moment, it entered a pitch-black place... It was really dark, with only its own body, constructed from Thought Wave, emitting a dim, eerie light.

"Nagato?"

He shouted, but his voice was off-key, becoming hoarse as if there was a bad signal.

"Katsuki-- "

The voice was weak and feeble; it wasn't Nagato's voice, but Yahiko's.

Following the sound, they finally found Yahiko, who was leaning against the stone wall, looking like he was on his deathbed, half-dead.

"Holy crap! Yahiko, are you about to die?"

"No! Can't you say something nice? How can you curse someone to death the moment you see them? Damn it!"

Katsuki's shout infuriated Yahiko, who went from being on the verge of death to being full of energy and cursing.

"It's alright, it's alright... I was just scared by how you looked. By the way, what happened? Why did you contact me all of a sudden?" Katsuki smiled awkwardly and quickly changed the subject.

"Something terrible has happened... Huff... We've been attacked! Not only Hanzō, but also others and some white monsters have attacked us..."

Yahiko's breathing was erratic; his earlier burst of energy seemed like a final burst of life before death. Although he sounded like he might die at any moment, he wouldn't die anytime soon.

"Those white monsters were incredibly powerful; some of them used Wood Release... Even Nagato's strength couldn't withstand those monsters... Nagato and I ran away..."

"We finally managed to dig out a cave and contact you... It's definitely Madara Uchiha! This attacker is definitely... cough cough, definitely Madara Uchiha! They're all after... after Nagato..."

Where are you now?

Katsuki cut straight to the point, asking the key questions.

"I can't say the exact location, I'm... whew, I'm completely overwhelmed. We fought our way from the Land of Rain, and now... if I'm not mistaken, we're in the Land of Grass... I don't even know the exact location... Their attacks are mainly focused on Nagato, otherwise I wouldn't have lasted this long..."

"We're in the southern part of the Land of Grass, I'm not entirely sure of the exact location, but I saw a large lake on the way here," Nagato, who had been silent until now, interjected, explaining, "I was just recovering my Chakra; fighting that wooden doll took a toll."