War Never Ended

"Teacher, teacher, I did it! I did it! Look!"

The girls' cheers were lively and melodious, like a string of tinkling silver bells.

"It's here, it's here, let me see..."

Katsuki put down the documents in her hand, stepped on tiny flashes of lightning to move outside, stood under the eaves, and saw Kuyue skipping and jumping in the rain.

Centered on the Kuyue, within a radius of about one meter, all the raindrops that fell froze quietly when they were about ten centimeters above the little girl's head, turning into tiny ice crystals the size of rice grains, which fell onto her hair and shoulders.

"Hmph!"

A surprised hum escaped her nose. Katsuki looked at Kuyue, blinked, and a feeling of joy welled up within her.

This little apprentice certainly didn't disappoint him!

"Kuyue, come here."

He beckoned the little girl to his side, and seeing her soaked clothes, he swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

"Go change your clothes first! Change into dry clothes, be careful not to catch a cold."

Ninjas can get sick too. Chakra is just a form of energy that can strengthen the body, but it cannot make one immune to all diseases. Katsuki is only good at treating battle wounds; ordinary patients are not in his area of expertise.

Kuyue obediently responded. The wet clothes were indeed uncomfortable to wear. She had been so focused on honing her Ninjutsu that she hadn't noticed it before, but now she clearly felt the discomfort. She rushed into her room as fast as she could and slammed the door shut.

Katsuki was left standing under the eaves, touching her nose.

He turned his gaze to the place where Kuyue had trained before, where a pile of pale white ice shards had accumulated on the ground and were slowly melting.

He accomplished it in less than a week, and the result was even better than he had expected.

"Teacher."

Kuyue moved swiftly, changed into dry clothes, and appeared beside Katsuki, her back ramrod straight, looking up at him with her dark eyes.

"Well done."

Katsuki immediately began by praising his disciple; he was never stingy with his compliments when it came to his disciple's progress.

"The teacher teaches well."

Kuyue chuckled.

"I only talked the talk; you figured everything out on your own." Katsuki shook her head and said, "Enough with the nonsense. Now tell me how to proceed. Being able to freeze falling raindrops shows you've mastered Ice Release, but..."

"But what?"

Katsuki glanced at her clever female disciple and said, "No matter how well you perform in your daily training, it's useless if you can't perform on the battlefield. Many geniuses can't even perform at their average level after going to the battlefield, and end up getting their heads chopped off for credit. So what you need next is real combat experience."

"Real combat?"

Kuyue repeated it.

"That's right, it's all about real combat. True masters are forged in the crucible of battle. You can't create a master by studying behind closed doors your whole life." Katsuki gave an affirmative answer. "I won't go into the details of this with you. Although you're young, you should understand this well. Your two older sisters went through the same process."

"I understand, teacher." Kuyue nodded, then asked, "But where do I go for real combat? The Rain Ninja has already been defeated. Should I go and hunt down those who escaped? Or those Stone Ninja spies?"

As he spoke, he seemed quite eager to try it out.

The old Rain Ninja were not completely wiped out. Many Rain Ninja chose to flee Amegakure when they saw the situation was not good, but they were unwilling to leave their Land of Rain. Therefore, they wandered around this land like lost souls and opposed Yahiko's Rain Ninja Amegakure ninja. They have caused a lot of trouble during this period.

"No."

Katsuki shook her head, her expression serious.

"You're about to face a real battlefield; there's no time for you to practice anymore."

"... What happened?"

Kuyue's eyes widened. She rarely saw her teacher with such a serious face. She was always smiling and easy to talk to, and she had almost never seen her teacher get angry.

"War! Those fools from the Land of Water have declared war on us!"

I can't Katsuki said calmly.

"The Land of Water?"

Kuyue's mouth could fit a duck egg if it were opened wide.

"Have the Mist Ninja gone mad? Instead of recuperating, they're starting a war? Don't they think they suffered enough casualties last time? Didn't you almost wipe out the Mist Ninja's high-ranking officials last time, teacher?"

"Who knows what's wrong with the Mist Ninja?" Katsuki shrugged, secretly thinking that this matter was most likely related to Zetsu and Madara.

Just as Kuyue said, he had crippled the high-level combat power of the Mist Ninja last time, with so many experts, including the Third Mizukage, falling. If Shitsukura his mind, he would never have messed with Konoha at this time.

No matter how big the trouble in the Land of Rain gets, it won't affect the Mist Ninja.

"We can't control the madness of the Mist Ninja, but the village has already sent people to deal with it. Kuyue, guess who it is?" Katsuki asked.

"If we're talking about dealing with the Mist Ninja... it wouldn't be the eldest sister, would it?"

"That's right. Clan Chief Hatsuzuki is the commander of the ninja army. The Minazuki, Yuki, Kaguya, Hyuga Clan, Uchiha Clan Senju Clans have all made their moves this time, forming a ninja army that is even more imposing than ours. Originally, they planned to bring them over to replace us in guarding the Land of Rain, but the Mist Ninja jumped out. Helpless, they simply changed direction and went to the eastern coast to fight the Mist Ninja."

Katsuki shrugged.

Unfortunately, if it weren't for the restless Mist Ninja, they should have already completed the handover and set off back to Konoha.

"But teacher, am I supposed to go to the eastern coast to fight?"

Kuyue asked cautiously, as if she were afraid of being sent to fight on the eastern coast.

"Hey, what are you worried about? Didn't I already say that we can't control what happens when the Mist Ninja goes crazy?" Katsuki reached out and ruffled the little girl's hair.

"I'm not afraid of the Mist Ninjas, but I'm afraid my older sister will beat me up to relieve her boredom when she has no alcohol to drink..." Kuyue muttered to herself, then widened her eyes and looked at Katsuki, "Then where should I go for practice, teacher?"

"The Land of Grass"

The sudden interjection revealed the answer.

"Yo, Kuyue, you can't get in again! That's impressive."

Nawaki strode over.

"Nawaki, instead of directing your people to pack their belongings, how am I supposed to teach my disciples when you come here to observe?"

"Forget it, Kuyue is exceptionally talented. She'll be outstanding even without you as her teacher." Nawaki flipped his hand and took out a folded document from his sleeve. "A secret message from the front lines. The Stone Ninja have already taken action, and their attack route is heading towards the Land of Grass."

"Stone Ninja?"

Kuyue cried out in surprise.

"How did this get involved with Stone Ninja again?" (To be continued)