"Simulated battle?"
Kushina stirred the broth in the pot with a ladle, preparing dinner while chatting with Katsuki.
"Eh! Your teacher sounds pretty interesting. A simulated battle sounds fun."
"It seems alright, but we'll have to see how it goes." Katsuki was peeling potatoes. Helping prepare dinner also gave him a chance to practice his knife skills. The eight-centimeter peeling knife, snow-white and gleaming, danced like a white butterfly in his hand, effortlessly stripping away the potato skins to reveal the tender flesh beneath.
In the training ground behind the house, shadow clones were practicing ninjutsu.
Two bouquets of pansies stood in a ceramic vase on the table, their brilliant scarlet petals especially eye-catching.
"Why did you decide to buy flowers today?" Kushina turned and spotted the pansies on the dining table.
"They looked nice on the way back, so I bought them."
Such casual, aimless chatter was the plainest sort of everyday scene.
"Sis, are you going on a mission tomorrow?"
"Yeah. Captain Ninomiya said we were gathering tomorrow, but he didn't tell us what the mission is. Still, it probably won't be anything difficult." Kushina pouted. She knew perfectly well that, because she was a Jinchuriki, she would not be allowed near any challenging missions for the time being.
According to what that hedgehog-haired guy had said, those were orders from above, and there was nothing he could do about it.
For a lively, energetic girl who longed for an extraordinary life, such a thing was undoubtedly a tremendous sorrow.
After dinner, the siblings began their own training, each occupying half of the training ground without interfering with the other.
Training Ground No. 68.
It was far from home, one of Konoha's more remote training grounds, close to the village's outer edge. Not only were there few people,