The One-Strip Family

A beautiful six-tailed white fox was printed on the back of the white scroll. It looked somewhat like Bai Xiaoqi.

On the front, there was only one name: Shimura Xian Yu.

The moment he opened the white scroll and saw his name, a flood of information surged into his mind.

That familiar sensation of knowledge being poured into him...

This was the technique for summoning the Qingqiu Foxes.

Xian Yu bit his finger, formed the Hand Seals according to the information in his mind, and pressed his hand to the ground.

As black runes swirled, he sensed thirty-eight potential targets he could summon. However, with his current chakra, he could summon only one. He tried to connect with the one that had the strongest presence and summoned it, consuming one-tenth of his chakra.

"Poof." When the smoke cleared, a squirrel-sized Three-Tailed Fox appeared in the middle of the summoning array.

It seemed the system's summons didn't conflict with the Summoning Scroll. As soon as the scroll appeared, his name was already written on it.

But there seemed to be a difference. He had absolute control over Bai Xiaoqi; he felt like he could kill her with just a thought. But he had no such control over the little Three-Tailed Fox before him. It was just like how shinobi in the Shinobi World normally summoned ninja beasts.

Besides, summoning Bai Xiaoqi didn't cost any chakra, while summoning this Three-Tailed Fox had consumed one-tenth of his chakra. He also had a feeling that if he forcibly summoned a second one, it would drain all his chakra.

"Huh? San Niang, so you're here! No wonder I couldn't find you anywhere." The Three-Tailed Fox had bright, lively eyes and looked like a curious little kid. It glanced at Xian Yu, ignored him completely, and pounced on Bai Xiaoqi. The two little foxes rolled around on the ground, looking utterly ridiculous.

Wait! San Niang? Bai Sanlang? Bai Sanniang?

"Mm-hmm? San Niang? I was wondering why you had such a strange name, Bai Sanlang. Well, well, San Niang. Bai Sanniang." Xian Yu narrowed his eyes, suddenly understanding a lot of things.

Bai Xiaoqi froze on the spot. She'd been so excited to see her sister that she'd forgotten all about that.

"You can stay quiet all you want. Tonight, you're coming to serve your master, Bai Sanniang... Heh-heh, you really fooled me." Xian Yu glared fiercely at Bai Xiaoqi and said something that horrified her.

Bai Xiaoqi trembled slightly, as though she were struggling with herself. She glanced tenderly at her sixth younger sister, Xiao Liu, then gradually calmed down and turned to Xian Yu. "Master, you can do whatever you want to me... Just please don't touch Xiao Liu. She's still young and hasn't even taken human form yet. Otherwise, I'd rather die."

Xian Yu nearly cried from anger. What the hell? What do you take me for, Shimura Xian Yu...? You've been lying to me all this time. What's wrong with scaring you a little? Besides, she hasn't even taken human form. How would I touch her...? What is going on in your heads?

He rolled his eyes and said helplessly, "All right, all right. I was just teasing you. I'm only a little annoyed that you lied to me for so long. Don't go talking about dying every other minute."

"San Niang, who's this brat? Why are you calling him Master? Oh, wait. Is he the one who summoned me?" Xiao Liu seemed a little spacey, with the mind of a child.

Bai Xiaoqi's expression changed at once when she heard that. Perhaps her first impression of Xian Yu had been too strong; she was quite afraid of him. She hurriedly scolded Xiao Liu, "Xiao Liu, don't say that! We were able to be reborn because of him. From now on, call him Master too, and make sure you listen to him!"

Reborn? Had they been reborn too? Xian Yu made a mental note of it but didn't ask anything.

Xiao Liu was most afraid of making San Niang angry, so she quickly said, "I'm sorry, Master... Please don't bully my sister, okay?"

The little Three-Tailed Fox, Xiao Liu, really was adorable. Her mind did seem to belong to a child, and Xian Yu found himself rather fond of her. He stroked her little head and said, "Good girl, Xiao Liu. Master won't bully your sister. Hmm. Xiao Qi and Xiao Liu, and Xiao Qi's Xiao Liu's older sister... I'm getting confused, and those names are a mouthful. Does Xiao Liu have a name?"

The brownish-red Three-Tailed Fox, Xiao Liu, had stopped fooling around after San Niang scolded her. She usually listened to San Niang the most and was closest to her. Now she looked at Xian Yu pitifully and said, "Master, Xiao Liu died before she could take human form, and her tails even regressed to just three. I don't have a name. We only get names once we take human form."

So they'd all died once and been reborn... Xian Yu felt a pang of sadness. He felt as if they shared the same fate. They had all come from another world.

Xian Yu stroked the little fox's head and said gently, "Then how about Lin Xi?"

"Yay! Yay! I have a name! I have a name! My name is Lin Xi!"

He sent Bai Xiaoqi and Lin Xi back to the Summoning Space so they could continue their reunion as sisters. Xian Yu fell silent. Things were getting stranger and stranger. This Treasure Chest System...

sigh, whatever. This wasn't something he needed to think about right now.

He should get ready for the beta test of Ninja Legend instead. What a mess. It had taken up another half a day.

The Eternal Spirit Blade had now been replenished with vitality, and Xian Yu could vaguely sense that something about it had changed.

Xian Yu went to the lobby on the first floor of Xingxin Internet Cafe. It was already noon. The research department interns had delivered the computers to the cafe that morning. There were a hundred machines in the first batch, all installed and set up on the round tables.

"Beep, beep, beep." Xian Yu dialed Jiraiya at 115.

"Moshi moshi, Jiraiya speaking."

"Jiraiya, bring Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Might Duy to Xingxin Internet Cafe. The game's ready for beta testing."

"We're on our way!" Jiraiya had been curious about the game Xian Yu mentioned for ages. Hearing that it was finally ready, he sounded excited.

The four little troublemakers arrived soon after.

"Yeah, just turn it on like this."

Xian Yu took them into a private room. There was a long table with six monitors lined up on it, perfect for sitting together and gaming.

They followed his example and turned on the computers. Xian Yu moved the mouse and clicked the dragon-emblem icon on the desktop, and the others clicked on the game called Ninja Legend.

After they each created an account using their Fruit Machine numbers...

"Hey, this one's perfect for me!" When it came time to pick a character, Might Duy took one look at the first class and chose it: the taijutsu male ninja, clad in green samurai armor and wielding a Ninja Blade. It was a pure taijutsu class.

Xian Yu smiled knowingly and chose the summoning medic male ninja without even looking at the class description. In his previous life, he'd been a master of the Daoist arts, with flashy footwork.

Orochimaru carefully read through all three class descriptions, then silently chose the ninjutsu female ninja.

"Mystical Palm Technique? It's medical ninjutsu?" Tsunade took to it at a glance too, excitedly choosing the summoning medic female ninja.

Jiraiya secretly glanced at Tsunade, then clicked on the summoning medic male ninja as if he were sneaking around.

Next came the part where they chose their IDs.

Xian Yu had already decided on his. He typed in the ID: Salted Fish.

Orochimaru thought it over, then entered: Little Snake.

Tsunade agonized over it for ages, then turned to look at the others. Seeing Xian Yu and Orochimaru's IDs, she assumed they all had to follow the same pattern, which only made her more troubled.

A Tsunade? Ugh! That sounded awful. A Little Hand? Suddenly, her eyes lit up as she glanced at the First Hokage Necklace around her neck.

She entered: A Necklace.

Xian Yu happened to see it and almost burst out laughing... Miss, were you making up phrases for a school assignment?

As soon as Jiraiya saw that Tsunade had settled on a name, he quickly typed in: A Lotus, then immediately hit confirm and entered the game.

Seeing that the others had all chosen names like that, Might Duy didn't give it much thought and typed in the ID: A Green Sausage.

Xian Yu noticed that Might Duy was the only one who hadn't picked a name yet, so he'd been watching him the whole time. The result nearly made his eyes pop out of his head... What kind of poisonous ID was that?