Working the Fields

At six in the morning on the weekend, Sasuke met Naruto at the school gate. No one waited until noon to do farm work, right? If not for Naruto, Sasuke would have gotten up even earlier.

"Making a slight adjustment to his schedule" versus "braving ultraviolet rays and high temperatures"—anyone would know which to choose.

Naruto looked thoroughly unwilling, yet he had arrived at the school gate before Sasuke.

"Farm work is completely boring. Lord Naruto is only doing this because I feel sorry for you, got it?"

Sasuke, meanwhile, looked utterly unconcerned.

"I'm really not forcing you. It's a little troublesome, sure, but if I put out the job through the normal process, I wouldn't lack workers."

"Are you going back? Sorry for making you get up so early. Want me to make it up to you with breakfast?"

"Hmph, in your dreams. I already ate breakfast. I'm not leaving without getting paid!"

After trading a few barbs when they met, Sasuke found it boring. Before long, Naruto was the only one still making a fuss, while Sasuke occasionally gave him a perfunctory response.

Sasuke had never torn down the "No Entry" warning tape around the gate to the Uchiha Clan Grounds. At least it could stop some people who had the thought but not the nerve.

When Naruto had secretly followed Sasuke before, he had learned that Sasuke lived inside. He had looked in, but there had not been a single other person around. For some reason, it scared him, and he had never dared enter.

He tested the waters. "Sasuke... it says no entry here."

Sasuke glanced at him.

"I allow it."

Naruto: I thought Sasuke would at least explain a little...

Although the Uchiha Clan Grounds had the reputation of being like a great demon king in the village, they were far from Konoha's central districts. Naruto rarely came here, and there was nothing to play with.

The people here used to glare at him fiercely. They did not curse him like Villagers elsewhere, nor did more and more people gather around him. They merely stared coldly at him. He could not explain why, but it felt terrifying, so he stopped coming.

Now that he was here again, it was early in the morning, and the light was dim. Every building and facility was broken here and there, weeds sprouted from cracks in the stone, and although a river ran nearby, the place was still covered in dust, as if it had been abandoned for a long time.

Caw, caw, caw...

A crow let out a shrill cry. Then came a thud.

"Ah!"

Sasuke turned and saw Naruto sitting flat on his butt.

"Don't be such a coward. Keep up."

Caw!

Naruto hurried after him in a few steps, his voice lacking its usual carefree boldness.

"Sasuke, why don't the people here fix their houses when they're broken?"

"They're all dead."

Naruto swallowed.

"There aren't ghosts here, are there?"

"If you want to find those, go to the Land of Demons or the Land of Whirlpools..."

Sasuke's answer clearly did not comfort Naruto in the slightest. He had not denied it—in fact, he seemed to have indirectly acknowledged the existence of "ghosts." Naruto's face went a little paler.

Naruto grabbed the hem of Sasuke's shirt and followed close behind, step by step.

Sasuke sighed. He had not expected Naruto to be so timid. It felt like he was taking care of a child, and the guilt of employing a Child Laborer rose again.

"Do you live here alone?"

"Everyone knows what happened to my family, don't they? What are you trying to do by asking something you already know?"

Naruto scratched his head.

"Aren't you scared?"

Scared?

How could he not be scared? He was terrified. But when he got busy training, he was fine. Once he was exhausted enough, he would fall asleep the moment his head hit the pillow and have no time to be afraid. Even if he died in his sleep, he probably would not feel anything.

"What, do you want to try it?"

Naruto shook his head like a rattle drum.

After walking for a while, the two stopped before a house that looked much the same as the ones around it.

"My home."

Unlike others, Sasuke did not have the habit of saying "I'm home" when he arrived. Naturally, there would be no reply of "Welcome back," either.

Sasuke was a lot like him.

Sympathy was sympathy, but since there were no adults around, Naruto naturally would not pass up the chance to look around.

"Sasuke, your house is huge. Is that room on the third floor your bedroom?"

"Behave yourself. Don't rummage through everything!"

The sounds of doors closing and opening came constantly from all over the house. Sasuke was starting to regret letting Naruto inside. He should have made him wait at the entrance.

Rubber shoes, coarse work clothes, straw hats...

The old work clothes he found were too large even for himself. These sets had been bought new, in smaller sizes, but they still did not fit particularly well.

"They might be a little big. Tie the strings tighter..."

Naruto pointed at Sasuke and grinned foolishly.

"Sasuke, you look so lame in that outfit. You look like an old man who farms."

Sasuke tossed the gear at Naruto.

"You too. Put it on, now."

Sasuke first showed Naruto the area that needed work on the map, confirmed the size, and then took him to see the actual fields.

"Today, you need to finish these two mu. The pay is four hundred ryo per mu. If you can harvest more, I'll pay you at the same rate."

Staring at the yellow-green fields before him, which were far more extensive than his own assignment, Naruto cleverly thought of something.

"Sasuke, Sasuke, are you going to hire people to harvest the other fields later too?!"

Naruto's eyes lit up as if he had already stuffed the wages into his pocket.

Sasuke did not directly promise to let Naruto take on all of it.

"Finish today's work first. If you're too slow, I'll find someone else."

Hand Seals, Shadow Clone Jutsu > Sasuke x2

Then he formed Hand Seals again. Transformation Jutsu. A teenage Sasuke appeared ahead of time—long arms and long legs made farm work easier. If the body differed too much from the original, the technique could easily fail or last for a shorter time.

"Sasuke, you're so sneaky! You're actually using ninjutsu. That means I'll earn less money!"

Being young really did seem to mean having lower intelligence. Capitalist Sasuke was nearly saddened to tears by those words.

"It's not like I said you couldn't use it. I'm in a hurry. Is finding work really that hard? As long as you aren't picky, you won't be able to finish all the work I can offer."

Naruto looked as though he had been injected with chicken blood. "You said it!"

Three hours later

The sun had risen. Even in summer, it was not too hot early in the morning.

Naruto lay sprawled on the ground, as though his soul was about to float away.

Sasuke went up to the ridge between the fields to drink water. When he noticed Naruto had gone quiet, he came over to look.

Naruto was lying there like a corpse, muttering things such as, "Farm work is so boring," "I can't go on," "I want ramen," and "I saw Old Man Ichiraku."

"You didn't eat breakfast? You said you had earlier. You're hungry already?"

Noticing that a shadow had fallen over him, Naruto came to his senses a little.

"The milk wouldn't pour out, so I only had cup ramen... Is it time for lunch? You said meals were included. I want Ichiraku Ramen!"

As he spoke, Naruto began drooling.

"Meals are included, but I decide what we eat. If you want noodles that badly, I'll cook noodles for lunch. Drink some water first. I still have work to do."

There were far too many rations collected from the clan grounds to finish. The Uchiha reputation was poor, so Sasuke could not conveniently sell them, and they would not fetch a good price anyway. He could only eat through them himself.

Even the cheapest ordinary bowl of ramen at Ichiraku Ramen cost sixty ryo. It was not that Sasuke could not afford it, and he did want to try it, but there was too much food stored at home. If he ate out, he would spend money, and a good portion of the food at home might spoil. That would be far too wasteful.

He planned to sample Konoha's food once he had worked through most of the supplies.

In the field Naruto was responsible for, around seventy to eighty percent of one mu was done. The stalks had been cut unevenly, and the bundles were not very tight, but they were not eating the straw anyway, so it was not a big problem.

Sasuke gathered the rice from the field and piled it onto a worn mat.

Then he took out a scroll and sealed it away.

Ninjas had plenty of methods. They were still more convenient than Ordinary People.