Sunlight filtered through the gaps between the leaves and fell across the water, making its surface glitter.
The sound of cicadas came from the distant forest, occasionally mixed with a few bird calls.
Tobirama held his fishing rod and felt a strange sense of peace.
It had been a long time since he had experienced anything like it.
It was different from the exhaustion after battle or the emptiness after finishing his work. It was a pure stillness without any purpose behind it.
"Uncle Tobirama, what are you smiling about?"
Tobirama froze. "I'm not smiling."
"The corner of your mouth rose by zero-point-five millimetres just now." Shin-chan stared at his face. "My powers of observation never lie."
"Zero-point-five millimetres does not count as a smile."
"In our era, any upward movement of the mouth greater than zero-point-five millimetres qualifies as a smile. That's science."
"The science of your era has problems."
Shin-chan was about to argue when his fishing rod suddenly moved.
He yanked it upward, and a palm-sized fish drew an arc through the air before landing on the grass and flopping around.
"The first one." Shin-chan held up the fish. "Look, Uncle Tobirama."
Tobirama looked at the fish, which was smaller than his palm, and suddenly felt the corner of his mouth rise a little more.
"It's too small."
"A small fish is still a fish." Shin-chan placed it inside the bucket beside them. "Small raindrops gather into great rivers, and small chocolate sticks gather into..."
"Chocolate sticks do not gather into anything."
"They gather into happiness." Shin-chan placed fresh bait on his hook. "Uncle Tobirama, your knowledge of proverbs isn't good enough. I'll teach you some new ones when we get back."
Tobirama did not answer. He merely turned his gaze back toward the water.
A thought suddenly occurred to him.
His elder brother, Senju Hashirama, had founded Konoha so children would no longer have to go to the battlefield.
Yet ironically, even after Konoha was founded, every ninja continued living according to a rhythm tied to war.
Training, missions, battles, sacrifices.
Generation after generation, no one had ever stopped to consider one question:
Once they no longer had to go to war, how were they supposed to live?
They taught ninja how to fight, but never taught them how to laugh like ordinary people.
And the child from the future sitting before him was filling in that missing lesson in an extraordinarily clumsy way.
Through chocolate sticks, ramen, fishing, and all the things Tobirama considered "useless."
But perhaps those useless things were exactly what Konoha truly lacked.
"Uncle Tobirama, your float moved."
Tobirama returned to his senses and pulled up his fishing rod.
A fish twice the size of Shin-chan's leaped from the water.
"That's huge." Shin-chan leaned closer. "It's at least two of my palms long."
Tobirama placed the fish in the bucket. The two fish began swimming in circles.
"Uncle Tobirama, how should we cook these fish when we get back?"
"However you want."
"We'll grill the big one and make soup with the small one." Shin-chan counted on his fingers. "We need sauce for the grilled fish and tofu for the soup. There's tofu in the kitchen, and as for the sauce..."
Tobirama listened to him ramble as he planned their dinner menu and suddenly felt that this wasn't so bad.
The thought left him silent for a while.
"Uncle Tobirama, your float moved again."
Tobirama pulled up his fishing rod.
The hook was empty.
"You got distracted." Shin-chan spoke in the tone of someone with years of experience. "If you get distracted while fishing, the fish will steal your bait when you aren't paying attention. It's the same principle as being ambushed by an enemy when you lose focus on the battlefield."
"Earlier, you said the trick to fishing was not thinking too much."
"That's right. Don't think too much, but don't think too little either." Shin-chan checked his bait. "You have to think just the right amount. I came up with that myself."
Tobirama cast his hook back into the water and suddenly felt that the words "don't think too much, but don't think too little" could apply anywhere.
To governing the village, dealing with the Uchiha, and even discussing his brother's endless ideals.
Perhaps he had always thought too much.
Maybe once in a while, he should think just the right amount.
The sun gradually moved westward. There were now four fish in the bucket—two large and two small.
Shin-chan suddenly stood up.
"Uncle Tobirama, let's have a competition."
"A competition in what?"
"Whoever catches the fifth fish first wins." Shin-chan placed new bait on his hook. "The loser has to grant the winner one request."
Tobirama raised an eyebrow. "Any request?"
"Of course, but it can't violate the ninja code." Shin-chan raised one finger. "For example, you can't make me steal Uncle First Hokage's spending money, eat the green peppers the kitchen auntie cooks, or wake up at six in the morning to train."
"What problem do you have with green peppers?"
"Green peppers are the most evil food in the world." Shin-chan looked completely serious.
Tobirama shook his head. "Begin."
In less than two minutes, Shin-chan caught the fifth fish.
It was smaller than all the others, barely the size of a thumb.
"That fish is too small."
"Shin-chan's Law: A fish is a fish. Size doesn't matter." Shin-chan placed the tiny fish in the bucket. "Look. It may be small, but it's swimming very hard."
Tobirama watched the thumb-sized fish cheerfully circling the bucket and suddenly felt that it bore a subtle resemblance to Shin-chan himself.
"You won. What is your request?"
"It's simple." Shin-chan sat back down on the tree root. "Uncle Tobirama, smile for me."
"That's your request?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Because I've been here for so long, but I've never seen you truly smile."
Tobirama tried pulling up the corners of his mouth.
"Too stiff," Shin-chan evaluated. "It looks like you're exercising your facial muscles."
Tobirama tried again.
"That one was better, but your eyes weren't smiling. A real smile has to include the eyes. If your eyes don't smile, it doesn't count."
"You have very high standards."
"That's because I'm a professional smile evaluator." Shin-chan patted his chest. "I've seen Kakashi smile, Obito smile, Rin smile, and Grandpa Third smile. I've seen every kind of smile."
Tobirama took a deep breath.
Being with Shin-chan always made him remember things from long ago.
Once, his brother had suddenly said, "Tobirama, you never smile."
At the time, Tobirama had answered, "What is there to smile about on a battlefield?"
His brother had said, "It's precisely because we're on a battlefield that we need to smile even more. Smiling is proof that we're still alive."
Tobirama had never learned that skill.
But now, sitting beside this small river, with fish swimming in the bucket and the child beside him chattering endlessly, he felt something inside him loosen slightly.
A genuine smile rose from the depths of his heart and appeared on his face.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves and fell upon his silver-white hair, giving it a soft glow.
Shin-chan secretly glanced at him and discovered that Uncle Tobirama was actually quite handsome when he wasn't frowning.
"Uncle Tobirama, why were you always frowning before?"
"Because there are always idiots saying strange things beside my ear."
"Who else besides me?"
"My elder brother."
Shin-chan suddenly understood. "Oh, so Uncle Hashirama is an idiot too. The idiot genes in your family are pretty strong."