Another month passed, and the year had reached February of Konoha 50. Most of winter had already gone by.
With spring, the bare branches began to bud. Before long, tender leaves would cover them all.
"Shisui, be good at home, okay?" Sora Uchiha ruffled Shisui's hair.
"I will." Shisui raised a fist, his gaze determined. "Big brother, I can now throw three shuriken and hit this spot."
"Is that so? Shisui's so clever." Sora Uchiha smiled, said goodbye, and left home.
Outside, he again sensed the faint, intermittent gaze. He sighed softly. He had no idea which genius had been watching him for half a year without doing anything, just keeping an eye on him.
With no opportunity to shake them, he headed to the waterfall behind the mountain.
Watching the silvery waterfall plunge down from on high, he felt a pang of nostalgia. It was here that he had killed the Sunagakure spy with Uchiha's Glory.
It felt like a lifetime ago. Before he knew it, half a year had passed since he took part in the Chunin Ninja Exams. As usual, the lousy system occasionally assigned simple tasks, mostly things like finding lost cats. The rewards were simple, too: Chakra. He could already be called a little "tailless" beast, given how much Chakra he had.
The last time he'd received a high-level reward like a summoning scroll was when he rescued Tsunade and obtained Summoning: Shukaku.
A few things had happened over the past few months, though none of them were particularly special.
First, there was Tsunade. Ever since he'd rescued her, the gambling addict would occasionally drop by to tease him, but most of the time she came to borrow money, spouting idiotic things like how she was sure to win this time.
Next was Konan. After