Konoha, Training Ground Three.
The setting sun stretched the shadows of the three wooden posts long.
A sharp whistling sound tore through the air.
A shuriken struck the center of the target, humming.
Sweat plastered Yūhi Kurenai's black hair to her face. She panted heavily, her crimson eyes brimming with excitement.
Illusion Technique: Mist Servant Technique!
Her figure split into three.
Each clone was almost tangible, carrying the exact same unyielding fighting spirit.
She was very satisfied with her current strength.
Ever since learning that Daimyo Manor had established the Genius Training Special Fund, Yūhi Kurenai had desperately wanted this opportunity.
She believed she could do it.
Konoha's future would surely become better.
That daimyo did not seem as cold-hearted as the rumors claimed.
"Kurenai."
A familiar voice called out to her.
The illusion dissipated. Yūhi Kurenai turned around in surprise. "Father!"
Yūhi Shinku stood beneath the shade of a tree, still wearing a standard vest stained with dust. He had clearly just returned from a mission.
The man's face was stern, but his eyes were gentle.
"You're back! Did the mission go well?"
The girl hurried over to her father with light steps. Beads of sweat hung from her upturned face, and her eyes curved into crescents.
"Mm."
Yūhi Shinku answered softly.
His gaze fell upon her fingers, their skin rubbed raw from the intense hand seals.
His eyes held a trace of pain.
"Still practicing?"
"Yes!"
Yūhi Kurenai lifted her chin proudly. "Father, my Mist Servant Technique can already create three solid forms! Give me a little more time, and I'll definitely master Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death!"
After saying that, she waited eagerly for her father's praise.
Just like when she was little.
But it never came.
Yūhi Shinku merely looked at her in silence.
There was no praise, nor any encouragement.
The complicated expression on his face made the girl feel uneasy.
"Kurenai."
He spoke again, his voice even deeper than before.
"Come with me."
The joy in Yūhi Kurenai's heart was doused.
She sensed that something was wrong with her father.
She nodded obediently, reined in her emotions, and followed him home.
The house was as tidy as ever.
But the atmosphere today lacked its usual warmth. It was stifling.
As usual, her father did not first wipe down his ninja tools after returning home.
Instead, he sat formally before the low table in the living room and personally poured her a cup of tea.
Steam rose from the scalding tea, blurring her father's face.
"Father?"
Yūhi Kurenai sat across from him, unease filling her heart.
Looking into his daughter's eyes, so full of hope for the future, Yūhi Shinku struggled immensely inside.
After a long while, he let out a heavy sigh.
He knew.
Every word he said next would be used by him, her father, to personally crush his daughter's dream.
But he had to do it.
"Kurenai, do you want... to live a different kind of life?"
"What do you mean, Father?"
"A life where you don't have to keep fighting and killing, where you don't have to walk along the edge of life and death every day."
Yūhi Shinku's voice was quiet.
Yet it made Yūhi Kurenai's heart clench sharply.
She vaguely guessed what this meant, and the color slowly drained from her face.
Yūhi Shinku took out a document from his robes.
Without saying a word, he slowly pushed it toward her.
It was not a mission scroll.
It bore no Hokage seal. Instead, it carried the imposing golden family crest of Daimyo Manor.
Yūhi Kurenai looked at it, and when her gaze landed on the words "consort selection" at the top of the document—
The color vanished from her face in an instant.
Her smile froze at the corners of her lips.
"Father... You... what does this mean?"
Her voice trembled with disbelief.
She did not even dare touch the document.
"The daimyo is selecting consorts." Yūhi Shinku's voice was frighteningly calm. "With your looks and talent, you will surely be chosen."
"I won't go!"
She let out a shriek.
Yūhi Kurenai sprang to her feet and shouted, "I want to be a ninja! I want to become an outstanding Jonin like you! I want to use my illusions to protect Konoha!"
"A ninja?"
A self-mocking smile appeared at the corner of Yūhi Shinku's mouth, his laugh full of exhaustion.
"Kurenai, what is so good about being a ninja?"
He held out his hand.
A palm covered in calluses and scars, with even one knuckle twisted out of shape.
He spread that hand before his daughter.
"Look."
"This is what comes of being a ninja all your life."
"I don't want you to live like this someday too."
His tone remained calm, yet it made Yūhi Kurenai's heart ache.
She knew her father meant well.
But she could not accept it!
"But I like being a ninja!"
Yūhi Kurenai's eyes turned red. Tears welled inside them, only to be stubbornly forced back.
"This is my dream! And as long as I get selected for the Genius Cultivation Plan, I can become stronger. I can bring true honor to our family!"
She had thought the words Genius Cultivation Plan were her final trump card.
It was personally recognized by the daimyo!
Yet her father merely shook his head. He stared at his innocent daughter, his eyes full of love and reluctance.
But his words were icy cold.
"Honor?"
"Do you think that so-called Genius Cultivation Plan is meant to train you?"
"No."
Yūhi Shinku shattered all her fantasies with a single sentence.
"Ninja are merely tools."
"The so-called Genius Cultivation Plan is only meant to forge sharper blades for the daimyo."
"And tools only have two endings."
"Either they die on the battlefield."
"Or they become dull and are casually discarded."
"Look up at Hokage Rock. Look at the Third Hokage's current situation, then look at the Fourth Hokage!"
His voice suddenly dropped, as though he had resigned himself to fate.
"Even the Hokage can only choose submission!"
"You're just a little girl who has only begun to show promise. What do you have to resist with?"
"I don't want you to become a tool!"
Every word pierced through all her pride, all her fantasies.
Along with that burning heart of a ninja, they were nailed to death.
At last, tears spilled from her eyes.
She choked back sobs and let out an unwilling whimper. "But that's not what I want! I don't want that kind of life!"
"It isn't up to you anymore."
Yūhi Shinku's tone turned hard.
He stood up and forcibly stuffed the application document into his daughter's cold hands.
The edges of the paper cut into her skin.
She looked at her father.
At the man who had cherished her in the palm of his hand since childhood.
She did not understand.
Why?
Why was he personally pushing her away?
Seeing the tears on his daughter's face, Yūhi Shinku's expression softened.
He raised a rough hand, wanting to stroke his daughter's head.
Halfway there, it stopped in midair.
In the end, that hand settled on her trembling shoulder.
His voice carried exhaustion and pleading.
"Kurenai."
"I... just don't want to see you get hurt again."
"I don't want to one day bring your cold corpse back from the battlefield."
"I only want you to live safely and peacefully."
"In that place," he paused, "you won't have to smell blood anymore, and you won't have to worry whether you'll still see the sun tomorrow."
"That is the life you should be living."
He withdrew his hand and turned toward the door.
Yūhi Kurenai suddenly noticed that her father's back was no longer straight.
A few strands of silver had appeared at his temples.
She suddenly understood.
This was not an order.
It was the only path to survival a father had chosen for his daughter.
That path had been paved by crushing her dream.
Making this decision—
Her father must have been in pain too.
The document in her hands seemed to weigh a thousand pounds.
Yūhi Kurenai slowly crouched down and buried her face in her knees.
Suppressed sobs drifted from the room.
Yūhi Shinku stood by the doorway for a long time.
Only after the crying gradually stopped did he finally turn and leave.
Before you continue