The Butterfly Effect?

Sora Uchiha turned off the faucet, wiped his face with a towel, and brushed his hair back. Looking at his handsome face in the mirror, he patted his cheeks.

"Handsome Sora, you're even better-looking than yesterday."

After washing up and changing into a clean ninja uniform, he opened the French doors and quietly waited for the crow to arrive. The monkey had told him yesterday that there was a mission today.

Feeling the autumn breeze on his face and watching golden plane-tree leaves fall in the yard, he decided it was going to be another lovely day.

A month had passed since the Chunin training ended. For the first time, Sora Uchiha had enjoyed some peace and quiet.

His friends, who used to come by and play with him, were all on missions near the front lines. For some reason, there had been far fewer assignments from the Anbu, and he had only gone on two missions in the past month.

In short, this was the most leisurely stretch of time he could remember. He practiced his fundamentals every day, trained with Shisui, and visited Itachi's house to tease him when he had the time. Life was good.

And yet, he felt like something was missing. His days seemed aimless.

"System, got any missions for me?"

[Ding—]

[None.]

"Ugh, you're useless."

The system didn't respond. Sora Uchiha pursed his lips. Ever since he had completed that mission to join the Anbu, the damn system had gone quiet. It hadn't even given him another mission.

"System, how about making the next mission reward Sage Mode?" Sora Uchiha muttered to himself. He'd wanted to learn Sage Mode for ages—ideally the kind Mitsuki had in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, where his whole body glowed. It looked so cool.

The system stayed silent.

"If Sage Mode's out of the question, then you could at least get rid of the aftereffects of using Karasu Tengu." Sora Uchiha let his imagination run wild.

Unfortunately, the system still didn't answer.

He sat there taking it easy for quite a while, telling the system everything he wanted, until at last he heard a crow cawing in the distance.

Seeing the crow perched on the fence, Sora stood up and brushed off his clothes. He took the Sword Box from the wall beside him, then put on his fox mask.

"Let's go, bro Crow."

"Caw! Caw-caw!"

"Hm? You think I look even better today, too?"

The crow rolled its eyes, took off, and led the way.

Sora shrugged and followed. After stepping outside, he noticed several new faces at the usual breakfast shops nearby.

A farmer in a straw hat was having breakfast, a young man was reading a newspaper, and a bare-chested fellow was smoking. Each was going about his own business.

It all seemed normal.

At first, Sora thought so too. If it happened just once, it would be perfectly ordinary. People could go wherever they pleased. But what if it happened for two weeks straight?

He lowered his gaze and glanced over the group. For the past two weeks, a different batch of people had been "wandering" outside his house every day. Sometimes it was a middle-aged woman, sometimes a man, sometimes a child. The faces changed each time.

Once could be a coincidence, but when it kept happening for two weeks, it was another matter. He knew all too well how little foot traffic those rundown shops near his home usually got.

To put it simply, it was a miracle they were still in business.

So he suspected someone was keeping an eye on him. Once, he'd directly confronted one of them, only to be told he was crazy and making a fuss over nothing.

At first, it annoyed him. But when he realized they seemed to be doing nothing but watching him, he stopped caring and simply told the security team to keep a closer eye on things.

＃

After leaving the Uchiha Clan Compound, Sora followed the crow to a small gate beside Konoha's main entrance. An Anbu member wouldn't use the main gate, after all.

A little side gate like this was the proper way in and out.

Before long, the crow led Sora to the meeting point. When he arrived, his eyebrows rose: he spotted the tiger mask, which meant the captain, Shin'nosuke Sarutobi, was there too.

This mission must be serious if even the captain had come, he thought as he joined the others.

Shinnosuke gave a slight nod. "Good. Everyone's here."

Then he began explaining the mission. The Anbu—especially Shinnosuke's squad—always learned the details right before setting out. That was the best way to prevent information from leaking.

"Our mission is to rescue Jonin Tsunade."

"Cough, cough!"

Everyone looked without expression at the one who'd made the noise. Sora Uchiha patted his chest, stunned beneath his mask.

"Wait, Captain? Rescue Tsunade? We don't even know if any of us are as strong as she is!"

His mind was racing. The original story had never mentioned a mission to rescue Tsunade. Had Kishimoto simply left it out, or was this... the butterfly effect?

Shinnosuke glanced at Sora Uchiha and spoke calmly. "Anbu's duty is to carry out missions. Shich, this is your first time."

Sora Uchiha opened his mouth, then had nothing to say. "Understood."

Shinnosuke turned back to the others. "Jonin Tsunade was discovered by Iwagakure while carrying out a secret mission. A fierce battle broke out, and she fled. During her escape, she encountered shinobi from Ryuuchi Village. Given her strength, dealing with them wouldn't have been a problem, but she was badly injured fighting Iwagakure. It took a great deal of effort for her to get one of our people out."

Sora Uchiha nodded. He knew the captain was explaining things for his sake. Though he had plenty of questions, he didn't ask them.

Once was enough when it came to overstepping. Shinnosuke wasn't exactly known for being an easygoing man.

He fell in behind the others, brows furrowed.

Tsunade was badly injured? Besides her monstrous strength, she was best known for her healing abilities. Her Hundred Healings Technique was practically a cheat. The user had only two states: fighting at full strength, or completely drained of Chakra and too exhausted to move.

Well, there was a third possibility: getting shot in the head or stabbed through the heart and dying.

No, something occurred to him, and he began to see an answer.

Tsunade might not have learned the Hundred Healings Technique yet. That would explain how she could be so badly injured that she needed rescuing.

Of course, he didn't really care whether Tsunade was badly injured. What bothered him was why she'd been injured. If this had always been part of the story, that was fine. But if it had happened because of his butterfly effect, then he was in trouble. It would mean his little flapping wings had already changed the course of the Third Shinobi World War.

He shook his head. There was no point thinking about it now. He could ask Tsunade when they found her.

Looking up, he saw that everyone was ready.

"We need to find Jonin Tsunade before dark," Shinnosuke said gravely. With a wave of his hand, he shot off like a horse breaking free of its reins.

"Shich, this mission is dangerous. Be careful." Kazuki Utsuki patted Sora Uchiha on the shoulder, then followed after the others.

Sora Uchiha watched him go. Kazuki Utsuki was probably the person in the Anbu who cared most about him. Since Sora was still young, Kazuki always took special care of him.

A moment later, he followed.