Takigakure (Part 1)

Ye Wuji sat in the carriage, watching the reflections of the trees along the roadside. This was already the second day. Yesterday, the middle-aged man named Ken had buried those who had fallen by the road, then brought the three survivors onto the carriage and continued moving forward.

After some introductions, Ye Wuji learned that the White-Clad Samurai was named Ukyo, the girl was named Rei, and the girl's mother—who was also Ukyo's chess partner—was named Kei. The driver outside was Ken, Mouri Ken. As for the surviving woman and boy, they were siblings; the sister was named Tomomi and the brother was Yuta. They had no relatives in the caravan that was attacked; it had been a group of merchants who had joined forces, and the siblings had joined temporarily, thinking there was safety in numbers. They never expected things to turn out this way.

The siblings were also orphans whose parents had perished in the crossfire of war, which was why they had left their hometown, intending to find a place to stay until the war subsided before returning. They hadn't expected to run into such a disaster.

Regarding the samurai family before him, even the driver was a formidable warrior, but Ye Wuji didn't know much more. They hadn't volunteered any information, and in truth, even if they had, Ye Wuji wouldn't have known them. Aside from Mifune, Ye Wuji didn't know a single samurai from the Naruto World; his knowledge was entirely focused on the ninja side of things.

However, Ye Wuji really wanted to learn something from this samurai named Ukyo, especially that secret technique—Swallow Reversal. If he could learn it, that would be even better. So, Ye Wuji decided to follow them for the time being. Going to the Land of Fire now wouldn't serve much purpose anyway. Without sufficient strength, Ye Wuji wouldn't proactively head to Konoha. If he were captured by Orochimaru to be used in some Cursed Seal experiment, wouldn't that be the end of him? The success rate of that Cursed Seal wasn't high—it should be extremely low. Orochimaru had used so many people for experiments, yet fewer than ten had survived. Ye Wuji didn't believe he had the ability to withstand the erosion of the Cursed Seal.

Since he had made up his mind to follow this samurai family, he noted that the boy named Yuta was indeed ten years old, six years older than Ye Wuji. After experiencing such a tragedy, he seemed to have matured a bit, no longer the child who would just cling to his sister and cry.

Three days later, after passing through a town, Ukyo and Ken originally intended to drop the three of them off there, as that wasn't their destination and they had their own matters to attend to. Just as they were about to part ways, the boy named Yuta was the first to kneel and beg Ukyo to take him as a disciple.

When Ukyo asked him why he wanted to apprentice under him, Yuta looked up and said, "To protect my sister so she won't be bullied again, and so that there won't be any more orphans like us in this world." As Yuta said this, his face was filled with resolve, and his gaze was unwavering.

Ye Wuji felt a pang of emotion from the side. If only he could have had such a clear goal in his previous life like the orphans of this world. At this moment, Ye Wuji was reminded of Naruto Uzumaki. Only in this world could one realize how precious Naruto's personality truly was. Since arriving in this world, Ye Wuji sometimes thought about how he had been alienated in his past life because of his hair color, but it was precisely because he was pushed away that he had distanced himself from others. If he had a personality like Naruto's, would things have been different? It certainly would have been different.

The orphans of this world seemed to dream of a world without war, a world of peace. The orphans of his past life didn't seem to have any ideals; they just lived day by day.

In this Naruto World, he had seen Nagato, Yahiko, Konan, and now Yuta, as well as those he hadn't met. Even Kabuto, the instigator of the Fourth Shinobi World War, actually held the deepest desire in his heart to be with his friends from the orphanage.

In his past life, he had wallowed in self-pity because of his white hair, but in the Naruto World, he didn't know how many people were worse off than him. Not even counting the Naruto World, there were plenty of people in his past life who had it worse than him. People were truly strange; they only reflected on themselves once they saw someone worse off than they were.

Just for the sake of Naruto's character, he had to make sure Naruto lived a better life. And for Naruto to live a better life, he had to be with his parents. It seemed that no matter what, he had to save the Fourth Hokage and Kushina. Even if it meant trading his own life, Ye Wuji thought secretly, looking at Yuta's resolute face. This world needed more people like Naruto.

Hearing Yuta's answer, Ukyo was silent for a moment, then said, "I will be staying in one place for two years. I'll give you two years to prove yourself. We'll discuss this again in two years." After Ukyo finished speaking, he returned to the carriage.

Yuta looked at his sister with a confused expression; after all, he was still young and couldn't grasp the meaning behind Ukyo's words. But his sister understood immediately and quickly said, "Thank you, thank you." Then, with a smile, she took Yuta onto the carriage.

Ye Wuji stood to the side, not knowing what to say or do. At that moment, the girl named Rei came down, patted Ye Wuji on the head, and said, "What are you still standing there for? Get on the carriage, we're leaving."

What was the meaning of this? Ye Wuji was a bit bewildered. Even with the mind of an adult, he couldn't make sense of it.

"Alright, Rei, don't tease Ye," Rei's mother said to her. Then, turning to Ye Wuji, she added, "Ye, you're so young. It wouldn't be right to just leave you here. Come with us. If nothing else, you won't have to worry about food or clothes. We can talk about your future when you're a bit older."

Only then did Ye Wuji understand that they thought he was too young. After all, how much could a six-year-old child do? It was very difficult to survive on one's own. Although they knew Ye Wuji had practiced some chakra, they didn't pay it much mind. Orphans in wartime often had such experiences; most of them had heard about cultivation from corpses or other people, but they rarely achieved anything of note.

"So beautiful, so magnificent." A week later, Ye Wuji stood on a hillside, looking at the scene before him, sighing with emotion.

"What does a little brat know about beauty?" Rei tapped Ye Wuji on the head, then took a few deep breaths, saying with intoxication, "It's so beautiful."

"Why can you say it, but I can't?" Ye Wuji asked, feeling speechless.

"Hahahaha!" The others all laughed happily.

"Don't you know that I'm the one who makes the rules?" Rei tapped Ye Wuji's head again.

The others didn't pay any mind to their bickering. After eating, Yuta happily went to train, holding a wooden sword and swinging it incessantly.

Ye Wuji just glanced at him, then turned his head to continue looking at the scenery. After a few days of getting along, Ye Wuji had given up on samurai training. Samurai training started with the sword, prioritizing the way of the blade above all else. Although a samurai's power also came from chakra, while he hadn't fully grasped how samurai worked, they didn't seem to cultivate chakra at this stage, focusing instead on the body and swordsmanship. This reminded Ye Wuji of Zoro from One Piece, who was also a master swordsman and used the Three-Sword Style, but was forced into a passive defense if he had no weapon in hand.

Moreover, Ye Wuji was pressed for time; he simply didn't have the luxury to pursue the path of the samurai. It seemed he would have to stick to the path of the ninja.

As for the scenery before him, there were at least dozens of large and small waterfalls cascading down, set against the lush green of the forest. Ye Wuji really didn't know how to describe it.

This place was truly a world of waterfalls. Wherever he looked, he saw a waterfall appearing before him. Especially the largest one in the distance; standing here, Ye Wuji couldn't see the source at all, only the water pouring down. Looking toward the top, a mist of water obscured the origin of the falls.

"This is our destination," Rei said to Ye Wuji.

"What place is this?" Ye Wuji looked at everything before him, still finding it hard to believe. There didn't seem to be such a unique place in Naruto. If it really existed, he wouldn't have been unaware of it.

"This is the Land of Waterfalls. My father was invited here to attend the inauguration ceremony of the new Daimyo. And it seems the Daimyo's son wants to learn swordsmanship from my father," Rei said with a smile.

"Is that so?" Ye Wuji nodded, but in his heart, he was wondering what the Land of Waterfalls was. Looking at this place, it wasn't just some random spot, yet Naruto hadn't mentioned it. It was truly strange. After failing to recall anything, Ye Wuji stopped thinking about it. Since there were such powerful samurai, other situations were normal; after all, Naruto focused primarily on Konoha. In such a vast world, it was normal that not everything was covered.

As for the Naruto World, Ye Wuji had mainly watched the anime, only occasionally reading the manga. His knowledge of the manga's details came from the Naruto forums.

His understanding of Black Zetsu and Kaguya Otsutsuki also came from those forums, but he didn't know the specifics. Ye Wuji didn't like reading manga; he wasn't used to the layout. If he had known he would transmigrate, he should have finished reading the manga. As for the anime, because of the long intervals between episodes, he only remembered the main plot points.

"Let's go," Ukyo said, seeing that everyone had rested.

Sitting in the carriage, they headed toward the largest waterfall. Through the experience of riding in the carriage these past few days, Ye Wuji finally understood why ninjas in Naruto didn't use carriages or horses. The roads were simply terrible. Perhaps the roads in towns were decent, but the wilderness paths were not suitable for long-distance travel by horse, and the terrain was bizarre and difficult to traverse. For ordinary people, horses and carriages were fine, but for ninjas, that would be a waste of time, and ninjas had a very strong sense of time, especially during missions.

If the carriage moved slowly, it wasn't too bumpy, but once it sped up, it was impossible. Sometimes Ye Wuji wondered, with so many Earth Style ninjas, why didn't they just use them to build roads? Although it would waste manpower and chakra, and might be considered overkill, once the roads were built, wouldn't it be very convenient?

Of course, in reality, the carriage's speed wasn't slow; the horses here were much sturdier than those on Earth. But compared to a ninja, it was clear—a ninja's speed was much faster.

It wasn't until Ye Wuji saw a massive bear appear by the road that he realized the roads here were frequently damaged. Although the damage wasn't major, you couldn't just call an Earth Style ninja to fix the road every time. The bear he encountered actually knew Earth Style—perhaps the bear itself didn't understand it, but it had destroyed nearly ten meters of the road in an instant. Of course, in the end, that bear ended up in the stomachs of the people in the carriage. The damaged road was just roughly leveled out.

The main problem was that this world was too vast, or perhaps the population was too sparse—far fewer people than on Earth. On Earth, it was rare to see large forests, and large animals could only be seen in zoos or deep in primitive forests.

In the Naruto World, this was common. Forests were everywhere, large and small. As for wild beasts, there was no need to mention them—wolves, tigers, wild boars, even canines were everywhere. Aside from the areas between towns where things were more densely populated and the roads were better, once you moved away from the crowds, it was the domain of wild beasts. No matter how well you built a road, it couldn't withstand the destruction of beasts, and you couldn't keep people stationed there to protect it.

Of course, wild beasts were one thing, but summonable beasts were harder to deal with. So-called summonable beasts were animals that possessed chakra. These were a ninja's favorite, as that was where their summons came from. These beasts varied in strength; the weak ones were fine, as anyone could handle them, but powerful ones were a headache. Those beasts were at least at the Jonin level, and perhaps even Kage level.

It wasn't just the nine Tailed Beasts that ruled here. Among the nine, some were powerful, but some were weak. A weak Tailed Beast might not even be able to beat a strong wild summonable beast. The Tailed Beast's greatest trait was immortality; you could only seal them. Even if you painstakingly killed a Tailed Beast, it would eventually regenerate after some time. That was the difference between Tailed Beasts and wild summonable beasts.

The bad thing about wild summonable beasts was that you never knew when one would appear. Even if you cleared all the summonable beasts from a forest, a regular animal might suddenly transform into one.

These were the reasons why roads in the Naruto World were hard to maintain. At this point, Ye Wuji also understood why countries valued the reputation of their ninja villages. Just as in the story, the stronger your ninja village, the more commissions you received, and the more money you earned. For a country, if its ninjas weren't strong, they would get fewer commissions, earn less money, and find it harder to develop.

Over the past few days in the carriage, Ye Wuji had seen other caravans, most of which hired ninjas for protection. Others used samurai, or a mix of both.

From his observations, Ye Wuji also understood why Naruto and his team had so many D-rank missions—because there was a need, and where there was a need, there was a market.

Most merchant groups hired ninjas for protection because the road wasn't safe. Although there were paths to follow, you never knew when a beast might appear. If there was no one to protect them, they might be able to handle ordinary beasts, but in the Naruto World, due to the presence of chakra, those beasts were stronger and faster. Unless they were trained, ordinary people simply couldn't cope.

This explains why the major nations all have ninja academies to train large numbers of low-level ninja. Beyond the few who manage to advance to high-level status, the sheer volume of low-level tasks requires a massive workforce of low-level ninja. As for why they are ninja rather than samurai, the difference between the two is clear: samurai have their own code of conduct, while ninja simply complete their missions and rarely interfere in the private affairs of their employers.

In the Naruto World, being a ninja is more like a profession, much like elite professionals on Earth who never worry about finding work. Ninja are the same; they can serve as bodyguards, assassins, construction workers, or even cooks, and they complete these jobs faster and better than anyone else. Of course, this profession also carries a high mortality rate.

Not everyone understands the nature of ninja. Although this is a world of ninja, information travels too slowly, and many people have likely only heard the term without knowing what they actually do.

When he first joined these people, Ye Wuji tried to hide his practice of chakra. Later, however, he saw that Ukyo's entire family practiced chakra and discussed ninja affairs, yet their reactions were indifferent, showing no hostility. This made Ye Wuji feel a bit embarrassed for assuming that ninja and samurai were inherently opposed.

As the carriage moved forward, they encountered more and more people. It was then that he discovered the Land of Waterfalls was quite interesting; basically, every waterfall had a town beside it. Every town they passed also had a river flowing from the waterfall, acting like a moat, and the environment looked quite pleasant.

"This country is truly interesting," Ye Wuji remarked while looking out the carriage window.

"Indeed, this country is quite nice. It has been peaceful for a long time, and even when there is war outside, this place is rarely affected," Lady Kei, Rei's mother, replied to Ye Wuji.

"However, because there are many mountains here and the roads can be dangerous, it would otherwise be a perfect place for those fleeing war to settle. Ye, once you are here, you won't have to worry about the wars outside."

"Why wouldn't there be war here?" asked Tomomi, Yuta's sister.

"It's simple. You have seen the environment here. Aside from the waterfalls, there are only mountains and nothing else. The geographical location is remote, and there are no special local products. Although it borders four major nations, one of them is the Land of Iron—the permanently neutral nation—so the major powers have no interest in this place, which is why there is no war. Life here can be a bit hard, but fortunately, the aquatic resources are quite abundant. Even if life is difficult, survival is not a problem," Lady Kei explained.

"Mother forgot one point: this country also has a ninja village. Although it isn't large, its strength is quite formidable. It's not that no one has ever had designs on this place, but the cost always outweighed the gains, so they eventually gave up. Over time, no one bothered with it anymore," Rei added with a smile.

"The Land of Waterfalls... so this is Takigakure," Ye Wuji interjected. As he said this, he thought to himself, Takigakure... I feel like I've heard of it, but why can't I recall it?

Ye Wuji thought for a long time but couldn't remember. However, since he had an impression of it, yet it wasn't a deep one, it must be a minor nation. Its strength should be quite weak. There are many weak nations in Naruto, but just like small countries on Earth, even if they are weak, they have their reasons for existing. Once someone tries to target these nations, the major powers become displeased; in this regard, the two worlds are quite similar.

Three more days passed. The carriage had just passed a small village and hadn't gone far. Since they were currently in a valley, Ye Wuji couldn't see the largest waterfall and couldn't determine how much further they had to go.

As Ye Wuji was lost in these thoughts, the carriage suddenly stopped, and he heard someone outside say respectfully, "Is that Lord Ukyo?"

Hearing the voice outside, Lady Kei smiled at Ukyo and said, "It seems someone couldn't wait any longer and sent people to pick you up. Look at you, wasting so much time on the road."

"That guy is still so impatient. I told him I was almost there, yet he still sent people," Ukyo said as he lifted the front curtain of the carriage. At this moment, Ye Wuji saw the appearance of the people outside.

There were six people standing there. The person in the center stood at the front, wearing formal silk robes, looking like an official. Behind him followed a man dressed as a samurai, and at the very back were four ninja in ninja attire. Upon seeing the ninja, Ye Wuji immediately looked at their foreheads, intending to see what the forehead protectors of this ninja village looked like.

After all, most people wear their forehead protectors on their heads; it is only in very rare cases that they don't. It seemed Temari wore hers tied around her neck, and Hinata appeared to do the same, though Ye Wuji couldn't quite remember clearly.

Upon seeing the forehead protector, he saw a symbol like an arrowhead, but only the rear part of the arrow remained; the front part was missing. This symbol felt so familiar; it felt as if he had seen it before.

"Ah, I remember now! Isn't this the ninja village from that movie? I remember it being called the Waterfall Ninja, so why is it called Takigakure?" Ye Wuji finally recalled what kind of ninja village this was.