Qiushui, What Are You Doing?

Yuhi Kurenai shook her head, her waist-length black hair swaying gently with the motion. "You could say it's a mission, but it's in the village." Seeing the confusion in Qiushui's eyes, she continued, "The daughter of the Kurama Clan's leader hasn't been well. She left the Ninja Academy at the start of the year and returned home to recuperate. So the clan leader went to Lord Hokage and asked for a teacher to tutor her. The Kurama Clan has always excelled at genjutsu, and I happen to be fairly skilled in that area, so Lord Hokage assigned the mission to me."

Qiushui nodded at that, the name Kurama Clan giving him something to think about.

Although the only official members of Team 8 led by Yuhi Kurenai in the original story were Hyuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Inuzuka Kiba, she had another student too: Kurama Yakumo, who appeared in the anime.

According to the anime, the Kurama Clan was a powerful ninja clan on par with the Uchiha Clan. But because no one had awakened the clan's purest bloodline for a long time, it had gradually fallen into decline.

Kurama Yakumo had awakened the Kurama Clan's special genjutsu Kekkei Genkai. By drawing, she could make the scenes in her pictures become real. But this Kekkei Genkai was so powerful that it often caused problems with her health.

Although Kurama Yakumo's parents were delighted that their daughter had awakened the Kekkei Genkai, they watched her grow weaker by the day. Concerned for her safety, they had her leave school and return home, then spent a great deal of money hiring Yuhi Kurenai, a Jonin, as her private tutor.

But Kurama Yakumo was far too fixated on becoming a ninja.

After her family and her teacher, Yuhi Kurenai, rejected her again and again, she suffered a mental breakdown. A monster named Ido emerged inside her, and in a fit of madness, it killed her parents.

The Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi sensed how dangerous the monster inside Kurama Yakumo was and ordered Yuhi Kurenai to kill it. But Yuhi Kurenai had her own ideas. She opposed treating someone as a problem to be disposed of with a simple act of violence. She believed in the power of communication, companionship, and affection to soothe the wounds in Kurama Yakumo's heart. She wanted Yakumo to understand that she was loved and needed simply for being who she was. That way, the monster born from negative emotions would lose the ground it needed to grow, and Yakumo could eventually reconcile with it or tame it through her own strength.

The idea was beautiful, but reality was another matter.

No matter what Yuhi Kurenai tried, Kurama Yakumo's problems remained unresolved. In the end, it took Naruto and the others to help her fully recover.

The two walked out the gate side by side. Yuhi Kurenai turned to Qiushui and asked, "Qiushui, what are you up so early for?"

Qiushui smiled. "One of my students is doing poorly, so I thought I'd use the day off to help him catch up."

A flicker of surprise crossed Yuhi Kurenai's eyes before giving way to admiration. "You really are such a dedicated teacher."

She remembered her own teachers at the Ninja Academy. It wasn't that they were irresponsible, but most of them believed that a teacher could only show students the way in, and the rest was up to them.

If students didn't ask, the teachers didn't say much. As for giving up their free time to tutor someone one-on-one, that had never happened.

Qiushui paused and turned to look at her. "Getting praised by a beautiful woman like you first thing in the morning has already made my day."

Yuhi Kurenai blinked, then laughed and turned her head away, her ears growing slightly warm. "Since when did you learn to say things like that to make people happy?"

Qiushui replied earnestly, "I'm not trying to make you happy. I'm just telling the truth."

Yuhi Kurenai's smile grew even brighter. She waved a hand and said, "I should get going. See you later."

Qiushui ran a quality check on her as she walked away.

[Name: Yuhi Kurenai]

[Chakra: 8700]

[Quality: A]

After looking at the results, Qiushui found that they were about what he'd expected from the original story. He then turned and headed for the school. He wasn't going to class; he was going to meet up with Naruto.

He didn't dare let Naruto go to the place on his own. With his sense of direction, he'd most likely get lost.

Naruto Uzumaki had been waiting outside the school for quite a while. He kept looking from side to side, and the moment he spotted Qiushui approaching, he hurried over and said excitedly, "Teacher Qiushui, where are we training today? What powerful jutsu are you going to teach me?"

Qiushui liked people who were punctual. He smiled and patted Naruto on the shoulder. "Come with me."

Full of excitement, Naruto followed Qiushui down several streets until they reached a forest.

Qiushui first scanned the area, but didn't see Uchiha Sasuke. He felt a little puzzled.

Had Sasuke not gotten up yet?

Or was this not the only place he trained, and had he gone somewhere else today?

But they were already here, and this was indeed a place to train, so Qiushui didn't plan on changing locations. He could just make a note of the other places Uchiha Sasuke often trained next time.

Qiushui took a table, a chair, and seven prepared exam papers out of his storage scroll.

Naruto had a bad feeling. "Teacher Qiushui, what are you doing?"

Qiushui pointed at the chair. "Do these papers. I want to see how you do in theory."

Naruto was dumbfounded.

He hadn't expected to run into a test after leaving school. The setup was complete, too. If not for the fact that they were out in the wilderness, it would have been no different from a classroom.

But Teacher Qiushui had already prepared everything, and Naruto didn't dare complain. He could only sit down obediently and pick up his pen.

Naruto looked at the first question.

Which of the following is a basic method for dispelling genjutsu? ()

A. Bite your finger

B. Shout loudly

C. Disrupt the flow of chakra in your body (for example, have a teammate inject chakra or cause yourself intense pain)

D. Spin around three times

Naruto clenched the pen between his teeth and scratched his head, looking utterly miserable.

While Naruto worked on the test, Qiushui spotted Uchiha Sasuke running along a path by the river.

"So he was doing cardio," Qiushui thought, immediately understanding when he saw how out of breath Sasuke was.

Sasuke also noticed Qiushui and Naruto nearby. He wondered why the two of them were together, but had no intention of going over to greet them. After resting until his breathing steadied, he took three kunai from the ninja tool pouch at his waist and practiced on the several targets in front of him.

"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—"

The kunai whistled through the air, striking the centers of all three targets almost simultaneously.

Drawn by the sound, Naruto looked up and glanced over, puzzled.

"Why is Sasuke here?"