New Year in the Naruto World (Part 2)

The three of them walked toward the gate. Just as they were about to leave, a voice called out to them.

"Where are you three going?" They turned around and saw Aunt Kei watching them from nearby.

"Mom, I wanted to take them out to have some fun. They've been here for so long, but neither of them has ever gone out. Dad gave us the day off, too, so I'm not sneaking out. If you don't believe me, ask Yuta. Dad gave us the day off for the New Year, didn't he?" When Rei saw that it was her mother, her face fell.

"I know your dad gave you the day off, but he didn't say you could go wandering around wherever you like," Aunt Kei said sternly.

"But they've never been out before. All they ever do is train. Yuta is one thing, but even Ye does the same. Doesn't he ever get bored? Mom, it's just for today. We'll be back soon, and it won't interfere with anything," Rei said ingratiatingly.

"You little rascal. Do you think I called you over to stop you from going? Let me ask you this: are you taking any money with you? You're not planning to just take them out for a look around and then come straight back, are you? Come here. I'll give you some money. If you see something you like, buy it." As Aunt Kei spoke, she took some money from her pocket.

"Mom, why did I get the least?" After Aunt Kei had divided up the money, Rei looked at the paltry amount in her hand. Compared with the money Yuta and Ye Wuji had, it was far too little.

Aunt Kei had given Ye Wuji the most, five hundred ryo, and Yuta the second-most, three hundred ryo. As for Rei, she had only gotten one hundred ryo. This left her feeling very unfairly treated.

"Stop complaining. What do you even need to buy? Whenever I give you money, you waste it on anything you see. Then you bring it home and never even use it. Besides, you already have plenty of toys. This money is for Ye to buy toys and things like that. As for Yuta, you can decide for yourself. Buy whatever you like. And remember, their money is for them to spend. Don't let me find out you used it. Otherwise, you'll be in trouble. Ye, Yuta, remember: buy things you like, and don't let your big sister Rei spend your money." Aunt Kei gave the two boys her instructions.

Rei looked at the money in her hand, then at the money Ye Wuji and Yuta were holding. Her eyes suddenly shifted as she spoke up. "Mom, the money you gave them is for them to buy things they like, but we can't go out without getting something to eat, right? If we buy other things, we might not have enough money."

Aunt Kei shook her head with a smile. "I knew you'd come up with some clever scheme. Don't worry, I've prepared some money for that, too. But I can't let you hold it. Here, Ye, take these one thousand ryo. Remember, this money is only for the three of you to buy food together. No matter what your big sister Rei wants to do, she can't use it. Understand?"

"Mm, I understand, Aunt Kei. It's shared money, so it can't be used for personal things." Ye Wuji took the one thousand ryo and nodded.

"Ye is such a good boy." Aunt Kei praised him, then smiled at Rei.

Seeing this, Rei was furious. She swept her hand through the air and declared, "Let's go!"

"Haha, you've really put Ye in a bind. Rei's definitely going to make his life difficult," Ukyo said as he came over from the side.

"Don't blame me. If I'd put the money in Rei's hands, they probably wouldn't get to eat anything. She'd spend it all. And it wouldn't work to give it to Yuta, either. He can't stand up to Rei, and with her the way she is, he'd probably end up coming back to apologize to me for failing to keep hold of the money. But Ye is different. He's always getting bullied by Rei, but that's because he doesn't care about such things. When it comes to matters of principle, though, Ye never backs down. Even if he gives Rei his own five hundred ryo this time, he'll still use that one thousand to buy plenty of food for the three of them," Ukyo said.

"Exactly. With Ye's personality, he probably won't spend a single coin of his own five hundred ryo. That'll just mean Rei gets a bargain. But that boy is far too goal-oriented. That's really not a good thing."

"You've noticed it, too. Ye may be young, but he's very clever and understands a lot. When he realized I had no intention of teaching him, he immediately switched to practicing other things. He's far too eager to gain strength. It's a good thing Mr. Shennong came this time and gave him something else to focus on. Even so, he hasn't given up training to become stronger. You can tell from the way he's arranged his priorities: strength comes before medical skills." Ukyo paused, then continued, "I'd planned to wait until he was a little older before teaching him. He was so young back then. I thought I'd take him with us when we left, once everything here was settled, and teach him then. But I never expected him to be so fixated on gaining strength. From the way he trains, he's following the path of a ninja." Ukyo sighed.

"It must be because of the war. The first time we met him, he was already unusual. If we hadn't run into him that time, he might have died. Even in those circumstances, although he was frightened, he didn't cry at all. He even warned Uncle Ken. Just look at Yuta. He was four years older, but he cried in the same situation. And when you rescued Ye and wanted to take him with us, his first reaction wasn't happiness, but wariness. Only afterward did he agree to come with us. I'd already sensed some chakra in him by then," Aunt Kei added.

"During the first few days, he didn't show much of a reaction to it. But later, he started training his chakra again. Maybe he thinks ordinary people can't sense it, and since you're a samurai, you'd be even less likely to notice."

"Exactly. If you hadn't told me, I'd never have guessed that a child so young could be like this. Especially since he wasn't one of those people the great nations had singled out for special training. He'd only learned from someone for a little while. But that's also why we didn't interfere. We let him do whatever he wanted and pretended not to know. I thought he'd gradually change in a peaceful environment, but lately, he hasn't changed at all. If anything, he's been working even harder." Ukyo gazed outside.

"The war can only be to blame. Ye has a lot weighing on his mind, and it's made him desperately want strength so he can do something about it. A child so young shouldn't have thoughts like that. I'm afraid that if he ever goes down the wrong path, he could have a huge impact on the world," Kei said.

"I feel the same way. That's why I didn't teach him alongside Yuta in the beginning. Given how things are, he won't leave with us when we go. What should we do then? Should we let him stay here, or take him away by force?" Ukyo asked Kei.

"We'll let him decide for himself when the time comes. He has something he wants to do, and forcing him to leave with us could have the opposite effect. But there's no need to worry too much. From the way he treats Rei, he's still mostly a sunny, good-hearted boy. And even after seeing Rei's terrifying strength, he didn't react badly. Isn't that a good thing? If Yuta saw Rei's strength, I doubt he'd be able to treat her normally. It's good for Rei, too. If we weren't worried that her power would affect her life, we wouldn't have come here, would we?" Kei said. "All in all, having Ye around is good for Rei. To keep playing with him, she'll definitely work hard to control her own strength."

"That makes Ye even more frightening. If I suddenly saw a girl Rei's age with that much strength, and she kept hitting me on the head, I'd be scared, too. But Ye doesn't seem bothered by it at all. When you think about it, what do you suppose he'll be like when he grows up?

"He's also far too self-disciplined. Look at Rei and Yuta. Even I would get sick of training all the time, and I had a teacher watching over me. I'd want to take a break. But look at Ye. No one's asking him to do this. He could play all day, and we wouldn't say a word, yet he trains day after day and never gives up. But when you look in his eyes, they don't seem like the eyes of someone consumed by a desire for revenge. If revenge isn't driving him, then what could make a child persevere like that?"

"I don't know, either. But I can't sense any evil in Ye. He acts mature for his age, but sometimes he gets into all sorts of scrapes and acts just like a child. I can only think that what he's been through made him this way." The two of them spent half the day talking about Ye Wuji. If Ye Wuji had been there, he would have realized they weren't ignoring him; they were actually paying a lot of attention to him. That was why he sometimes found it strange that no one seemed to bother with him. In reality, Ye Wuji was the strange one, and the others didn't know how to approach him.

As for Ukyo and Kei's questions, Ye Wuji could have answered them easily if he'd heard them. He didn't have any other motive; he just wanted to stay alive. As for why he was so self-disciplined, that was even simpler: without discipline, he could easily die. Add a little bit of interest in training, and that was why he had persevered. That was an advantage of being reincarnated. Even children the same age who worked just as hard couldn't compare, because their ways of thinking were different.

Ukyo and Kei discussed it for a long time without reaching a conclusion. In the end, they decided to let Ye Wuji follow his own instincts. Besides, they had their own matters to attend to.

"All right, enough about Ye. We'll know more when he's older. We should be worrying about Rei instead. I never expected her Ice Spirit to awaken at this time. Could something have happened?" Aunt Kei said, looking concerned.

"It should be fine. After Rei's Ice Spirit awakened, I contacted them, and nothing unusual had happened. Besides, the seal there isn't likely to break easily. Senju Hashirama and Uzumaki Chi helped strengthen it, along with your clan. There's no way it could just fail out of the blue." Ukyo shook his head, rejecting Aunt Kei's suggestion.

"But if someone deliberately damaged it, wouldn't that be possible?" Aunt Kei asked, still a little worried.

"That's impossible. With all of us guarding it, the Five Great Nations would have to launch a full-scale attack to have any chance of disturbing the seal. But the leaders of the Five Great Nations all know about this, so no one would go near those seals. And no one outside the Five Great Nations has the strength to do it. Even if they gathered all Nine Tailed Beasts, they still couldn't. The Tailed Beasts won't go to that place, and even if they did, they would never break the seal there. If anyone tried, they'd have to face the attacks of all Nine Tailed Beasts first." Ukyo sounded very sure of himself.

"Then what's going on with Rei? Why would her Ice Spirit suddenly awaken?" Kei asked, still concerned.

"I don't know, either. No one's ever seen a naturally born summoning beast like this, especially one of this type. And since the Ice Spirit used to lose control so often, you had someone seal it. Why don't we ask the person who performed the seal? Maybe they'll know something," Ukyo suggested.

"All right. I'll send Miroku a message and ask if she knows what happened," Kei agreed.

"But it's a good thing it awakened now. It can't stay sealed forever. We're away from home, so if Rei can learn to control the Ice Spirit before we return, it'll be better for everyone. Those people won't have to worry about suddenly getting beaten up by Rei." As he spoke, Ukyo seemed to remember something and started laughing.

"What's so funny? Don't you know that kids Rei's age hardly ever play with her because of the Ice Spirit? Otherwise, why would such a sweet girl keep bullying Ye? It's because that thing has left her with no friends." Kei angrily pinched Ukyo.

"Ow! Don't do that. I was thinking of how our teacher got hit by Rei back then, and his beard froze solid and shattered. He had to wear a mask whenever he went out for quite a while after that. It was kind of funny," Ukyo said, dodging her.

"I don't care. Since Ye can make my daughter happy, even if you won't teach him your skills, give him what you've learned over the years. It's ninja knowledge, after all. You don't have any use for it. Or are you planning to switch sides and join the ninjas?" Kei said, continuing to pinch him.

"I understand. But Ye is still young. Let's wait a while before we talk about it. And there aren't many people left who stick to pure samurai traditions anyway. Haven't many schools already switched over to the ninja way? My school might join the ninja ranks after a few generations, too, so I should at least leave something behind. These days, only the people in the Land of Iron still stick to the pure samurai tradition." Ukyo sounded a little wistful.

"What does that have to do with us? You're not some old-fashioned fool who insists on preserving tradition. Keep at it if you can, and worry about it when you can't. But don't change the subject." Kei kept chasing Ukyo.

"Hey, what kind of priestess are you? Why are you always pinching me? You should learn from your older sister Miroku. She's a proper priestess," Ukyo said as he dodged her. But that only made Kei angrier, and she pinched him even harder.

"Then how did you dare marry me?" As Ukyo ran farther away, Kei chased after him.