Mirai, walk steadily!
Steady—keep going!
At the Third Training Ground, Mirai felt the effect of the smoke bomb's patient guidance and smiled in relief.
For some reason, Konoha's notice seemed to be taking its time. It had been a full week since they graduated, yet no notification had come.
During the first three days of the week, Mirai received a great deal of help from Hatake Sakumo. At the very least, he was no longer a complete novice when it came to the battlefield. As for the following four days, it was not that Hatake Sakumo had nothing left to teach him, nor that he no longer wanted Mirai around. Hatake Sakumo was a jonin himself and had matters of his own to attend to. The Hatake clan could not keep him by Mirai's side all the time, either.
After Hatake Sakumo left, Mirai began practicing tree-walking on his own. Now eleven and nearly twelve, he already had a solid foundation in physical fitness and chakra reserves. Over the past year at the Ninja Academy, he had made tremendous progress—he could now easily walk on water, and his chakra control was quite good. With those two conditions, his talent and persistence in ninjutsu training were excellent, which was why he had mastered tree-walking within a few days.
With that settled, Mirai was quite pleased with his achievement. But after learning tree-walking, he was a little lost as to what he should do next.
"Screech—" Just as Mirai was starting to lose his sense of direction, a sharp screech came from the Ninja Academy. A long trail of smoke shot straight into the sky from below, followed by a violent explosion—this was a Konoha flare signal, one the graduates had agreed upon long ago.
"Finally!" The moment he saw the signal,