Three months had passed since that "Great Cleanup."
The sky over Konoha was as blue as a freshly washed, spotless bolt of silk.
In the courtyard of the Uchiha Residence, the tomato vine Shinichi had cursed countless times,
perhaps sensing the spring breeze of world peace, had miraculously produced a few small, unripe tomatoes.
Shinichi lay beneath the veranda, a stalk of foxtail grass between his lips, idly counting the clouds drifting overhead with his trademark dead-fish eyes.
One looked like Tonton.
Two looked like Tonton.
The third... still looked like Tonton.
He felt his imagination had probably been bundled up and scrapped along with that wretched system.
"Shinichi."
Tsunade's voice came from inside, carrying an unusual calm.
"What?"
He answered lazily, without even the slightest desire to roll over,
"Is lunch ready yet? I feel like I could swallow a whole cow. Braised."
"Come here."
"No."
Shinichi was adamant,
"I'm currently performing a sacred ritual-exchanging energy with Mother Earth, otherwise known as 'sun-drying into a salted fish.'
Any interruption of this ritual is a desecration of the laws of nature."
Footsteps sounded.
They lacked her usual whirlwind momentum, the kind that threatened to tear the roof off.
Those footsteps were light and steady, coming one after another until they stopped beside him.
Shinichi still didn't open his eyes. Acting on muscle memory alone, he reached out to squeeze that familiar calf and cop a feel.
But a warm hand caught his in midair.
"Behave."
Tsunade's voice was gentle, so gentle it made him a little uneasy.
At last, reluctantly, he opened one eye.
Tsunade was crouching before him in casual clothes, her long golden hair like flowing honey in the sunlight.
She wasn't angry, nor was she smiling.
She simply watched him quietly, her lovely brown eyes filled with