Kunai and Shuriken

"Mira, open the door!" Chiba knocked and called out from outside.

Hurried footsteps came from inside the house, and then Mira opened the door and stepped out. She looked at the boy before her and said with a smile, "You're back?"

"Yeah!" Chiba stepped aside, revealing Hodrian behind him.

He said, "This old man... well... he's my master for now... He'll be staying here for a while. What do you think, Mira?"

Mira looked at Hodrian suspiciously, then smiled. "No problem. Since he's your master, he can stay as long as he wants."

A smug look appeared on the old man's face. He seemed quite pleased that Chiba had willingly acknowledged him as his master.

"Young lady, here's 100,000 J to make up for the trouble I'll cause while I'm here. Take it!" He pulled a stack of bills from his clothes and handed it to Mira.

Chiba glared. Damn it, couldn't you have just paid me after you ate my food? Why did you have to put me through all that crap?

But a troubled look appeared on Mira's pretty face, and she looked at Chiba.

"Take it. Consider it payment for his stay. This old man isn't short of money," Chiba said, shooting the old man a fierce glare.

"Then... all right..."

After Mira accepted the money, Chiba stepped aside, revealing several bruised and battered behemoths behind him.

At the sight of the enormous beasts behind Chiba, Mira stared blankly for a moment, then said, "Did you... catch all of these?"

Chiba put his hands on his hips and looked at the bruised beasts. He nodded. "Yep."

Mira leaped up, threw her arms around his neck, and said with a smile, "Wow! We can trade all these beasts for a lot of money in the village. You're amazing, Chiba! Now I can buy more tasty food to build you all up."

Chiba blushed and glanced at the old man beside them. He leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Show a little restraint. There's someone else here."

Mira's pretty face immediately turned red. She stuck out her pink tongue, then released him and put her hands behind her back, standing prettily before Chiba like the girl next door.

The old man merely glanced at them and said, "It's fine. It's not like I've never had a romance myself. Just pretend I'm not here."

His teasing, delivered in such a righteous tone, made Mira's cheeks turn even redder. She stammered, "I... I didn't..."

"Didn't what?" Chiba asked suspiciously.

Mira raised her eyes and shot him a look, then actually went back into the house, looking a little upset.

Chiba: "???"

The old man sighed. "Blockhead."

"..."

"Old man, if you've got nothing to do, find something to keep yourself busy. I'm going out for a bit," Chiba said.

The old man sprang up onto a branch of the large tree in front of the door and lay down. "Go on, then."

Chiba nodded, then walked into the house.

The old man: "???"

Didn't you say you were going out? So you were messing with me?

Of course, Chiba wasn't messing with him. He had three things to draw.

Drawings of a Ninja Blade, a Kunai, and a Shuriken.

They were all essential weapons for a ninja.

Strictly speaking, Mira's home wasn't in the village but on its outskirts. Chiba wasn't planning to make frequent trips to the village after this one, so he decided to sell the beasts and find a blacksmith's shop to make a few dozen Kunai and Shuriken.

Chiba spent quite a while drawing and marked the dimensions according to the Ninjutsu scroll. Then he took the drawings and led the beasts toward the village.

Along the way, many villagers cast surprised looks at the boy leading several enormous beasts with one hand. Chiba asked a few villagers where he could sell the beasts.

A friendly man then told him there was a shop in the village that specialized in buying beasts.

"All of these... are for sale?" the clerk asked, staring in shock at the five or six beasts behind Chiba.

He had seen people hunt wild boars before, but they brought in at most one or two at a time to sell, or, if they were lucky, a bear.

But what was going on with these three wild boars and three bears?

How had he dragged them here?

"Yeah, give me money for all of them." Chiba glanced at the beasts, making them tremble all over.

It was easy to imagine how brutally Chiba had beaten them.

"As for the bears... some have been hunted in the village before. These three all look like adults, so 100,000 J each. For the wild boars... we go by weight, 100 J per kilogram..." the clerk said.

"Are they worth that much?" Chiba muttered. He'd only gone on one hunting trip, and now he wouldn't have to worry about food or drink for the next year?

The clerk called out a group of people from the shop, and they weighed the pigs under Chiba's watch. The smile on the clerk's face grew wider as he said, "Sir, that comes to 479,000 J. We'll round it up to 480,000 J."

With that, the clerk pulled a thick wad of bills from his clothes, all in denominations of 10,000 J.

Chiba took the money and said, "Do you know where the blacksmith's shop is in the village?"

The clerk paused, then said, "The blacksmith's shop is next to the church. The tallest building over there is the church."

He pointed toward a tall building near the mountain.

Chiba nodded. "Thanks."

Then he headed toward the church.

"Anyone here?" Chiba called out from the entrance to the blacksmith's shop.

"Coming! Coming!" An aged voice came from inside. Then, after a series of hurried footsteps, a man over fifty came out.

The old man wore simple coarse clothes and looked full of energy. He smiled and said, "Young man, do you need something forged?"

Chiba nodded, then handed the drawings to the old man. "How many of these can you make?"

The old man took the drawings, surprise appearing on his aged face. He seemed never to have seen things shaped like these before.

"I reckon I can make eighty to a hundred of the little ones, and about a hundred of the windmill-shaped ones. As for the blade, young man, will one be enough?" the old man said.

Chiba murmured and considered it for a moment. Then he said, "In that case... make a hundred of the little ones, fifty of the windmill-shaped ones, and one blade will be enough. About how long will it take?"

The old man thought for a long time, then said, "About a month, using the best iron."

"A month..." Chiba wondered if that was a little long, but that was as fast as the man could work. If he pressed him, the quality might suffer.

So he nodded. "All right, a month it is."

Then he pulled 100,000 J from his clothes and said, "Sir, here's a deposit of 100,000 J. Come to my house and let me know when they're ready. I live in the house on the outskirts of the village."

The old man accepted the money.

But just as Chiba was about to leave, a discordant voice rang out.