Uchiha Life

After saying goodbye to Shisui, Baiyu headed home alone.

He lived among the Uchiha, most of his neighbors being war orphans.

Because of the Nine-Tails rampage four years ago, the Uchiha Clan had fallen under suspicion from Konoha's upper ranks.

The hardliners led by Danzo had moved the Uchiha from the village's outskirts to its outer perimeter.

Baiyu had still been in school back then and clearly remembered that the trip to the Ninja Academy took half an hour.

The Uchiha Clan's work in the Konoha Military Police Force had also been deeply affected.

Baiyu had always been practicing the Draw-Sword Technique, so he didn't know much about it.

Still, every time he went into Konoha, he could feel wave after wave of hostility.

Baiyu wasn't naive enough to believe he could change the biased villagers with love.

Nobody liked being hated.

Baiyu was no different, so after becoming a ninja, he rarely went into the village unless he had a mission to report or hand over.

The Uchiha had set up a market of their own at the clan compound.

It wasn't large, but it had everything.

As soon as he got home, Baiyu took some money and headed to the market.

Living alone taught you how to take care of yourself, especially when you were poor.

Five years was enough to turn a couch-potato college student who couldn't lift a finger into a competent cook.

Baiyu had tested it himself.

Cooking delicious food had become one of his favorite things to do, besides practicing swordsmanship.

Training satisfied his body, while good food satisfied his heart.

Taijutsu and physical training required a great deal of meat.

Meat dishes were his specialty.

Baiyu usually cooked for himself, and he'd tried making every elaborate dish he could remember from his previous life.

Baiyu didn't know exactly how many people belonged to the Uchiha Clan, but he could get a rough idea from the market.

"Boss, two pounds of pork belly."

Baiyu stopped at a meat stall and called to the owner.

"Oh, Baiyu! You're back! Did your mission go well?"

The butcher was named Aizawa. He was a middle-aged man with no talent for being a ninja.

Of course, he was also an Uchiha.

Ordinary people like him made up nearly half of the Uchiha.

That was Baiyu's conclusion.

At the market, ordinary people and those with chakra seemed to be split about evenly.

Of course, that might have been because the clan's ninja were away on missions.

Quite a few of the older clan members had chakra.

"Uncle, my mission pay hasn't gone up as fast as your meat prices!"

Baiyu laughed. He was close with Uncle Aizawa and had been buying meat from him for over four years. The man was always praising him for making money, but Baiyu still hadn't gotten rich.

Uncle Aizawa's meat was among the freshest at the market.

"Congratulations! It's great that you became a ninja. I once wanted to become one too, but my father wouldn't let me. In the end, he taught me how to butcher pigs. Ah..."

Uncle Aizawa praised him, then changed the subject to his own unfulfilled dream.

Baiyu answered with a smile.

He only smiled around people he knew well.

A classic Uchiha: cold on the outside, warm on the inside.

The man chatted with him every time he bought meat, and Baiyu was used to it by now.

"Come on, Uncle. I haven't had lunch yet."

Baiyu urged him on. Once the man got started, he could talk forever.

"All right, all right. Here you go. That'll be fifty-three ryo!"

"Prices went up again?"

Baiyu grumbled, reluctantly pulling out a gray wallet patterned with sword designs.

In the Naruto World, ryo was the unit of currency. One ryo had roughly the same purchasing power as ten yen in his previous life.

The yen-to-yuan exchange rate was about fifteen to one.

By that calculation, pork here had risen to the equivalent of thirty-five yuan per pound.

How long had it been? The price had almost tripled!

It had been fifteen a few days ago, then twenty-five, and now it was equivalent to thirty-five yuan!

"Can't help it. They say the supplies from the daimyo's domain were intercepted by bandits."

Aizawa waved a hand. He got all his pork from the village.

"..."

Baiyu had nothing to say. That kind of excuse might fool ordinary people.

What bandits would dare cut off supplies to the most powerful military organization in the world?

They must have been tired of living.

If anyone had cut off the supply lines, it had to be another great ninja village.

Or... Konoha itself?

"How much does it cost per pound in the village?"

Baiyu asked curiously. If the Konoha High Command were trying to drive a wedge between the Uchiha and the village, this was exactly the sort of thing they might do.

"I don't know. You know some people in the village have it in for the Uchiha. I haven't been to the market in a long time. You can ask my little sister when she gets back."

Uncle Aizawa shrugged.

His little sister was named Hitomi. She was ten and attended the Ninja Academy.

Like Baiyu, she was a war orphan. The clan had taken her in, and the clan members had helped raise her.

Hitomi's talent was ordinary, and becoming a ninja would be a struggle for her.

It was worth noting that, in the eyes of the Uchiha, any ninja who couldn't graduate early was considered average.

When Hitomi's parents died in battle, she had only been a few months old. She had no memories of them, let alone any trauma that might have awakened her Sharingan.

Baiyu's talent wasn't much different. He'd managed to graduate from the Ninja Academy in three years only because his predecessor had awakened a pair of Sharingan before dying.

Otherwise, with the body of an eight-year-old and the academic ability of a dunce, it would have been nearly impossible for him to learn chakra, ninjutsu, and all the other things a ninja needed to know well enough to graduate in three years.

"Never mind, then."

Baiyu waved a hand.

They had once lived together in public housing provided by the clan. His predecessor had been close to her. The two of them had been all alone, and it was easy for people in that situation to grow dependent on each other.

After Baiyu transmigrated, he spent a long time with her. But after he became a ninja, they had little time together and rarely kept in touch. Their relationship gradually grew distant.

Since graduating from the Ninja Academy, he could count on one hand the number of times they'd met.

Even now, the girl who came to mind was still that little thing with a ponytail, stubbornly insisting he teach her how to awaken her Sharingan.

So annoying!!!

At the thought of her face, Baiyu suddenly lost the urge to keep wandering around.

"Who on earth would like little girls? Aren't older women better?"

Baiyu muttered under his breath.

"What was that?"

Uncle Aizawa asked, puzzled.

"Nothing. I'm heading home, Uncle."

Baiyu waved and turned to leave.

Watching Baiyu walk away, Aizawa lit a cigarette and smiled. "That kid's getting stronger and stronger!"

Baiyu had forgotten to change out of his Chunin vest. It was his first time wearing it on the Uchiha streets, and no one made any snide remarks.

Baiyu joked that Chunin were cannon fodder, but their actual standing was quite high.

Under ordinary circumstances, Chunin were considered the backbone of a village.

They could lead squads or teach at the Ninja Academy.

Those were all stable, salaried positions in the village.

Other situations were different. During an incident like the Nine-Tails invasion, they were cannon fodder.

Aizawa didn't point it out. Instead, he carried on chatting with Baiyu as usual.

He had started paying attention to Baiyu when he became known as a genius, and had watched him rise, fall, and now become a Chunin.

He had never seen Baiyu's mood change. He had always kept his composure and focused on training.

Over the years, selling pork, he had seen countless people. Some couldn't take a setback and became ordinary; others were driven by rumors within the clan to take reckless missions and die on the battlefield while still young.

The clan had gone from being the village's central and largest clan to one suspected by the village and surrounded by Anbu.

Too many people had lost their composure, and restlessness had spread through the whole clan.

The more things were like this, the more precious Baiyu's temperament became.

Aizawa looked around and sighed.

"The clan needs ninja. Now another two families have stopped selling pork. Tomorrow, we can set the price at thirty-five ryo a pound. Sigh, it's so hard to keep the kind of composure Baiyu has!"