New Year in the Naruto World (Part One)

Once everything had been tidied up, Ye Wuji still didn't dispel his clones. As long as they existed, they would keep consuming their own chakra, and once it ran out, they would disappear on their own. So Ye Wuji left one clone behind to keep watch in case anything else happened, while the other followed behind him as he returned to Takigakure, in case anyone was tailing him. After all, apart from throwing a few shuriken, the two clones hadn't wasted any of his life force chakra.

Ye Wuji had originally thought he might have to fight Shennong hand-to-hand, and that his identity might be exposed. He had gone over all these possibilities in his mind, along with a few others, but in the end, none of them had come to pass.

The main thing was that Ye Wuji hadn't gotten any chance to show off his eloquence. He hadn't been able to let Shennong know why he was going to die. Ye Wuji knew that some villains liked to reveal everything just before victory, only to have the protagonist turn the tables on them. But honestly, after killing someone who had no idea why he was dying, you couldn't help feeling a little frustrated, could you?

Ye Wuji now found himself in precisely that frustrating situation. He had wanted Shennong to understand why he was killing him—that it was for justice, to put a stop to his evil deeds. He had wanted to list all the bad things Shennong had done and enjoy the look of shock on his face. But he hadn't gotten the chance.

On the way back to Takigakure, Ye Wuji had to suppress that frustration several times. It made him realize why, near the end of a battle, both heroes and villains always gave a speech. The hero wanted the villain to die knowing why, while the villain wanted to savor the thrill of it. Even if the hero might turn the tables, the villain would usually get to say something first. He knew from personal experience that it was hard to put that frustration into words.

Even knowing the consequences, Ye Wuji was still frustrated. Others probably felt the same way. Fortunately, he soon remembered what he had gained.

Even without those two scrolls, learning the location of Angkor Fortress had made it worth it. Ye Wuji had already put the scrolls away; now wasn't the time to read them. The matter was more or less settled, and all that remained was to work hard at improving his strength.

When Ye Wuji got home, only Aunt Kei and Big Sister Tomomi were there. He tried to sneak back to his room, but Aunt Kei spotted him. With no other choice, he listened as she scolded him nonstop, nodding and agreeing the whole time.

After being lectured for more than half an hour, Ye Wuji finally returned to his room. He put away the things he had gotten from Shennong, then thought again about attacking him that day. It had gone much more smoothly than he had expected. But that was only because this was the real Naruto World, not the animated version. Not everyone was as hard to kill as Orochimaru.

Still, taking down Shennong had given Ye Wuji a little more confidence. At least, his planning had been pretty good. That was what he thought.

Things should be peaceful for a while now. No matter what happened outside, it shouldn't affect me anymore. It's time to settle down and improve my strength, Ye Wuji thought.

Ye Wuji also felt a little regretful. He had finally come to the Naruto World, and at just the right time, yet he couldn't go see the battle between the Sannin and Hanzo, the demigod. It was the battle that had truly made the Sannin famous. But to stay alive, he had stayed far away from the battlefield. When that battle ended, so would the Second Shinobi World War.

The Third Shinobi World War should be next. From what he knew, the Third Shinobi World War began just a few years after the Second Shinobi World War ended. It was Minato's breakout war; his achievements during the Third Shinobi World War were what gradually earned him the position of Fourth Hokage. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio, the Inuzuka Clan, Kakashi, and others from Konoha had also made a name for themselves during the war. Meanwhile, the once-glorious Sannin gradually left Konoha's stage. Tsunade developed a fear of blood after losing her loved ones, Jiraiya began wandering the world because of the Toad Sage's prophecy, and Orochimaru slowly began researching forbidden jutsu.

"Judging by my age, I should be around Kakashi and Guy's generation. I might be a little older than Kakashi, but probably only by two or three years. So if I want to join Konoha at this stage, I'll need to be pretty strong." Ye Wuji lay on his bed, slowly thinking it over.

"But with my current strength, it'll probably be hard to meet those standards. But without that strength, going to Konoha sounds dangerous. It seems like there are enemies everywhere. The Five Great Nations are always attacking Konoha. The other four countries haven't all attacked at once, but they keep launching attacks individually, which is dangerous enough. Who knows what dangerous people the other four countries have? Sasori should still be in Sunagakure at this time, and Deidara might be in Iwagakure. Kisame is in Kirigakure, and the Eight-Tails' Jinchuriki in the Land of Lightning seems to be ready for battle. The Fourth Raikage is on the battlefield, too."

"Good grief!" Ye Wuji sat bolt upright as the thought struck him. "Now that I think about it, Kirigakure has the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, and aside from Sasori, I don't know who else Sunagakure has. Iwagakure and Kumogakure must have some formidable people, too. I might not run into them, but if I do, my life won't be safe. I've been so focused on the powerful people in Konoha that I forgot about the powerful people in the other great nations. Konoha will definitely be fine, but that doesn't mean I will. If I get killed, who's going to care that I came from another world?"

"Since it's so dangerous, it looks like being a medical ninja is the safest choice. I'll have to keep studying Shennong's medical techniques. And to keep myself safe, I need to get stronger, too. I also need to study genjutsu so I can deal with the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan."

"Ah, there's so much to do! I'm no genius. Dealing with the B-rank bosses is the protagonists' job, like Naruto and the others, but I can't afford to be too weak either." The more Ye Wuji thought about it, the more frustrated he became. In the end, he simply stopped thinking about it. He would improve his strength little by little; things would work themselves out in the end. Besides, his arrival in the Naruto World had been an accident. He hadn't come here to save the world. He didn't want to be turned into a White Zetsu by the Eye of the Moon Plan. That would be disgusting. More importantly, he hadn't found a wife yet.

Once Ye Wuji had put all those thoughts aside, he began training his chakra. That evening, when Ukyo returned with Rei and Yuta, Ukyo didn't say anything in particular, but Rei gave Ye Wuji a few knocks on the head to punish him for not coming out that morning.

After dinner, Ukyo told Ye Wuji that Shennong had left some things in the room where he had been staying, and asked him to go get them so he could continue studying medical techniques. There was nothing else to report.

Ye Wuji nodded to show he understood.

Half a month passed like that. Today was the last day of the year. The Naruto World also had twelve months in a year, and New Year's Eve fell on the final day. Tomorrow would be a new year, and Ye Wuji would turn seven. He hadn't gone out during this time, so he didn't know what the atmosphere was like outside. But he had seen that the area around his home had been decorated for the past few days, and that was enough to tell him people here took the New Year seriously.

By now, Ye Wuji had figured out how to spend his time. Every morning, he studied Medical Ninjutsu, which helped train fine chakra control. His chakra control was already excellent, and he thought he was probably better at it than Sakura. Over the past few days, he had also read through the books Yahiko had given him and added chakra control strings to his Medical Ninjutsu training.

Every afternoon, he practiced Taijutsu and worked on his accuracy with weapons. He had no materials on genjutsu and didn't know how to train in it. In the evenings, he trained his chakra and practiced Hand Seals. He wasn't concerning himself with things like Minato's simplified hand seals or Yahiko's affairs for now; he could look into them later. As for the scrolls he had gotten from Shennong, he really wanted to see what was inside. They were probably forbidden medical techniques or something along those lines. But Ye Wuji knew nothing about Sealing Jutsu. Minato, Nagato, and the others had taught him a few things, but none of them had covered sealing techniques. The things Konan had given him included some simple explanations of formulas, but he had no idea what they meant. He would have to study them later.

Although it was New Year's Eve, the date here was completely different from the one Ye Wuji had been used to. He didn't have anyone familiar here, either. He respected Ukyo's family more than he felt close to them. After all, without Ukyo taking him in, Ye Wuji had no idea what would have become of him. He might have died at the hands of that Iwagakure rogue ninja back then.

So when Ye Wuji prepared to stick to his usual schedule and continue training, Rei interrupted him. Yuta followed behind her, wearing a long face. Perhaps the unspoken hostility between Yuta and Ye Wuji had disappeared after Ye Wuji switched to practicing medicine. Ye Wuji and Yuta still didn't have much to say to each other, but they could manage a few words now. Before, they usually didn't say a thing when they met.

"Is there something you need, Rei? I still have to train," Ye Wuji said to her after smiling at Yuta.

"Train? Do you even know what day it is? Can't you see that Yuta and I came over? Dad gave us the day off. Come shopping with me. It's New Year's Eve! Dad said we need to balance work and rest. You're always training, and we have to train too. We finally get a chance to take a break, and you don't want to spend it with your big sister Rei?" Rei said, clenching her fist.

"Of course I do! I'd be thrilled to spend time with you, Big Sister Rei." Ye Wuji glanced nervously at Rei's fist. Usually, he hadn't paid much attention to how strong she was, since she often knocked him on the head. But a few days ago, he had no idea what had made her angry, and she had smashed a boulder in the courtyard with one punch. That wasn't all: after the boulder broke apart, ice had formed over the fragments.

It had startled Ye Wuji badly. He had thought Rei possessed a Kekkei Genkai, and one like Haku's, an ice-based one at that. After punching the boulder, Rei had fainted, and something that looked like ice had wrapped around her hand. Before Ye Wuji could take a closer look at what it was,

Aunt Kei appeared. Seeing Rei's condition, she looked shocked. Then Aunt Kei formed a few Hand Seals, and a triangle appeared in the air. Ye Wuji didn't know whether it had been formed from chakra, but it immediately enclosed Rei. The thing on her hand slowly changed back into the bracelet she often wore.

From that, Ye Wuji concluded that the bracelet had caused the stone to freeze, rather than Rei having some special ability of her own. But he had no idea what the thing was, and didn't feel comfortable asking. He guessed it might be a new ninja tool made by Takumi Village. Only Takumi Village might be able to make something so strange. But then he thought it couldn't be. Even if Takumi Village could make it, other countries would surely use it too if it could really be made. Besides, it looked powerful. If that punch hit someone, it would either smash them to pieces or freeze them solid.

After that, Rei didn't show any further changes, and Ukyo and his wife didn't do anything either. Ye Wuji could only keep the matter to himself and stop investigating it.

Still, after that, Ye Wuji became afraid of Rei's fist. If he accidentally got hit like that, it would be a pretty pathetic way to die. Fortunately, they trained in different places, so aside from mealtimes, he rarely saw her. He stopped being afraid of her after a while. Rei seemed to have learned something from the incident, too, and rarely used her fist anymore.

But seeing Rei now, Ye Wuji felt that if he refused, she might hit him. He didn't think she would actually hurt him, but he still felt uneasy. Besides, he wanted to see how people celebrated New Year in the Naruto World, so he agreed.