Catching a Ride

The Shimura residence, early morning.

"Master, where are we going?" Shinozaki Ayumi asked after finally finishing the flurry of preparations.

Xian Yu tucked the Eternal Spirit Blade, which he held in his hand, into the ninja tool pouch at his waist and grinned mischievously. "How about we run away together, just the two of us?"

Ayumi's cheeks flushed pink. "Master, stop teasing me. Where are we really going?"

"Hmm... We're going on a trip this time. First, we'll head to the capital. The caravan is leaving soon, so we should hurry and meet up with them." Xian Yu brushed a hand over the unremarkable Eternal Spirit Blade at his waist. A faint green shimmer flickered as his fingertips touched the blade.

Ever since he'd eaten ramen with Uzumaki Mito that day, the strongest person in Konoha often sent Tsunade to invite Xian Yu to visit the Senju Clan compound.

The buildings where the Shimura Clan lived stood right beside the Senju Clan's territory. The two families were close neighbors, so it was easy to visit each other.

By now, Xian Yu could enter and leave the Senju compound without even announcing himself. He'd long since become familiar with the Senju clansmen. When Uzumaki Mito was in a good mood, she would occasionally give him pointers on his ninjutsu training.

Recently, while training his chakra, Xian Yu had felt that it was just barely touching the lower limit of Chunin level.

He was overjoyed! He was about to break through!

But as the days passed, his excitement slowly cooled... His strength had stagnated!

Because he'd finally run out of Spirit Rice!

The only thing in the village now was a Bronze Treasure Chest he could see but couldn't get to, and he'd already taught himself all the theoretical knowledge he needed to learn at the Ninja Academy.

Although he was completely capable of applying for early graduation with his current strength, what would that accomplish? He'd become a Genin, then waste his time on D-rank and C-rank missions like catching cats and chasing dogs?

He knew his own circumstances best. Without Spirit Rice, if he trained at the usual pace with his talent, Hatake Sakumo and Jiraiya would probably be Jonin by the time he became a Chunin.

It was easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but hard to go the other way.

After experiencing the sensation of his strength soaring by leaps and bounds, having his training speed suddenly grind to a halt was an incredibly miserable feeling!

On top of that, once he became a registered ninja, he'd be subject to the village's rules. He'd have to file a request in advance whenever he left the village, and if he didn't return within a certain period, he'd be considered a missing-nin!

In the original story, Tsunade had been away from the village for years because she suffered from hemophobia. That was understandable, especially given her identity, strength, and status.

In the original story, Jiraiya had been away from the village for years to bring back his close friend Orochimaru. The Third Hokage had also assigned him to gather intelligence, and he'd stayed in contact with the village the whole time.

Back to the point.

There were treasure chests outside the village—or rather, all the treasure chests were outside the village! That meant that if Xian Yu wanted to grow stronger quickly, he had to get out there.

And so, this spur-of-the-moment trip came about.

A brutal battle had just ended, and few children in the Shinobi World had any desire to be hothouse flowers.

When Xian Yu said he wanted to leave the village for two months of travel, Danzo not only agreed but offered his support as well:

"You want to travel outside the village? You little brat, that's a good idea! Don't worry. I'll arrange a two-month leave from the Ninja Academy for you. There's a caravan staying in Konoha right now. They're heading to the capital of the Land of Fire next. Go talk to them yourself."

The largest Logistics Market by Konoha South Gate.

"Ninjas?" A fat merchant dressed in foreign clothes looked at the boy and girl in ninja attire before him, his expression surprised.

Shinozaki Ayumi was eleven years old, and 142 centimeters tall.

Xian Yu had just celebrated his birthday not long ago. He was six years old now and 137 centimeters tall. Having consumed Spirit Rice for a long time, which had helped his growth, he looked like a child of eight or nine.

"Uncle, we just want to catch a ride with you." Xian Yu smiled slightly, explaining why they'd come.

Generally speaking, when merchants transported goods over long distances, they hired ninjas for protection.

Of course, no caravan would hire children like Xian Yu and Ayumi, who were obviously underage. But if they were only hitching a ride, most merchants were happy to spend a little extra on food in exchange for some added security.

After all, anyone older than a six- or seven-year-old rookie who'd just entered the Ninja Academy would have at least a little combat ability.

"All right. One thousand ryo per person. Go find a spot on the last wagon."

Xian Yu's smile stiffened, but he didn't say anything. He promptly took the money pouch from his waist and pulled out two thousand-ryo bills.

It wasn't easy making money when you were traveling everywhere and risking your life. Besides, he wasn't short of money.

"Oh, right. I should tell you in advance: you two look like ninjas, so you should be able to protect yourselves, right? If anything goes wrong on the way, I won't be responsible!" The fat foreign merchant grinned as he took the bills. After walking a few steps, he suddenly turned around and added a warning.

"You..." Ayumi was so indignant that she was about to speak, but her young master stopped her.

"Okay, Uncle. We understand." Xian Yu furrowed his brow but answered anyway.

Actually, Ayumi and he were only looking for a ride because neither of them had ever left the village before and this was their first long trip. They didn't really care about the merchant's terms.

The caravan was fairly large, with a full seventeen wagons, but Hua Qi wasn't a major trading company.

All seventeen wagons were loaded with rice. Rice was the main food in this world, and since it was relatively peaceful at the moment, rice wasn't expensive.

At Konoha's current prices, one jin of rice was worth only three ryo.

From what Xian Yu could tell, each wagon carried roughly a thousand jin of rice.

The seventeen wagonloads of rice weren't worth half a wagonload of spices or medicinal herbs. Even at Konoha's retail price, the rice was worth only a little over fifty thousand ryo. If bought wholesale in a grain-producing region, it might have cost just over thirty thousand.

Hua Qi was a small trading company from the emerging great power, the Land of Rain.

With abundant rainfall, the Land of Rain produced plenty of grain, while its neighbor, the Land of Wind, suffered from drought year-round and faced food shortages.

Although the Land of Wind was short on daily necessities, its rich mineral resources in the desert meant it had formidable military and financial power. It was a little like the wealthy Arab oil barons of Xian Yu's previous life, the very definition of having more money than sense.

Just look at the ninjas of Sunagakure. Every one of them seemed to carry several puppets. Even the smallest puppets required a great deal of precious mineral materials.

Why did almost all the renowned puppet masters in the original story come from Sunagakure? The village's Puppet Technique tradition didn't seem all that impressive, did it?

It wasn't until he came to the real world that Xian Yu finally understood.

Because they had mines at home.

Was Magnet Release for fighting? No, no... You were out of date!

Magnet Release was for mining...

Back to the point. The Land of Wind had plenty of money but not enough food, so the caravan's final destination was the Land of Wind... Yeah, right.

Although grain merchants from the Land of Rain naturally chose the Land of Wind as their first target,

the Land of Wind was remote and desolate, and the journey was dangerous. The vast desert alone swallowed countless remains each year, not to mention the possibility of running into trouble along the way.

So unless they were powerful merchants, they couldn't make that kind of deal.

That left the Hua Qi Caravan with no choice but to settle for the next best thing: selling their grain in the populous Land of Fire. After selling some of it in Konoha, they would set off immediately for the next major city. Their final destination was the capital of the Land of Fire.

The profit wasn't high, but they could make up for it by selling in large quantities.

The caravan was already slowly on its way. Ayumi sat leaning against the wagon, while Xian Yu rested his head on her lap, pondering how to earn Killing Points...