New Year in the Naruto World (Part 2)

After leaving the house, Rei kept glancing sideways at Ye Wuji—more specifically, at the money in his pocket. Ye Wuji had been keeping an eye on her too. The moment he saw her gaze, he hurriedly covered his pocket.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rei asked angrily, watching his reaction.

"It doesn't mean anything. I just had an itch here, so I scratched it a few times." As he spoke, Ye Wuji scratched his thigh a few times over the pocket.

"Hmph!" Rei snorted and turned to leave.

Ye Wuji and Yuta exchanged a glance, then followed behind Rei as they headed for the street.

When the three of them left the residential area and reached the street, they saw that both sides were festooned with decorations. The shops were covered in all kinds of ornaments, and even some of the trees had red lanterns and colorful ribbons hanging from them. The whole street had a festive air. Seeing the scene lifted everyone's spirits, and their earlier unhappiness had all but vanished.

Rei skipped merrily ahead, looking delighted. As she went, she kept calling for Ye Wuji and Yuta to hurry up.

Yuta ran ahead to catch up. Ye Wuji looked at the festive scene and felt something he couldn't quite put into words. This was his first New Year in the Naruto World. And back in his previous life, he had rarely felt the joy of the New Year. Only when he was very young had he been a little excited about it, but as he grew older, even that faint feeling had slowly faded. For an orphan, New Year was the loneliest time of all.

"Ye, hurry up!" Rei called from up ahead, telling him to catch up. Her voice interrupted his thoughts. He looked at Rei, who was waving at him. She had several skewers of what looked like candied fruit in one hand, and was waving to him with the other.

Ye Wuji immediately understood what was going on. She wanted him to pay. He shook his head, trying to fling away those inexplicable thoughts. Lately, it had become harder and harder to remember things from his previous life. It seemed he was gradually being assimilated into the Naruto World.

But maybe it's better to forget those things. I'm truly living here now. I should think of my previous life as a dream. With that thought, Ye Wuji slowly walked toward Rei. As he went, he looked around. Once he relaxed, everything felt different. New Year had never meant much to him before, but that was because he'd spent it at the orphanage. Sometimes he would sneak out to see how other families celebrated, but even then, he'd never seen a celebration this grand. And with the advance of technology, New Year had increasingly become a mere symbol, without much of a festive spirit.

Everyone here wore a smile, and they kept giving things to children for free.

Ye Wuji slowly joined Rei and Yuta. Yuta didn't say anything, but Rei was getting impatient. "You're so slow. Here, this is for you." She shoved a skewer of candied fruit into Ye Wuji's hand, then told the man selling them, "He'll pay you. Yuta, let's go look over there."

Rei took Yuta to a shop selling accessories on the other side of the street. "Here's the money, sir." Ye Wuji paid the candied-fruit seller.

"How come you're the one handling the money, kid? You're quite the little man. You'll be a real big shot someday. Since you're such a good kid, I won't charge you today. Here, try this one. It's our special treat." The seller gave Ye Wuji his money back, then handed him a huge skewer of candied fruit.

"Thank you, sir." Ye Wuji took the money and the candied fruit.

"What a polite kid. Go catch up with them. Those are your big brother and big sister, right? It's crowded today, so be careful not to get lost. Of course, if you do get lost, it's no big deal. You're so clever, you'll find your way home. But if you disappear, your brother and sister won't have anyone to pay for them anymore, will they? Hahaha!" The candied-fruit seller joked with Ye Wuji, patted his head, and walked off.

"You're right, sir. Well, goodbye!" Ye Wuji waved to the seller, then headed toward Rei and the others.

In the time it took him to do that, Rei and Yuta had already visited several shops. When Ye Wuji reached them, Rei was putting down a brooch she'd been holding.

Then Rei noticed that Ye Wuji had a skewer of candied fruit in each hand. She immediately objected. "Ye, you actually used the shared money to buy something just for yourself? And you even bought such an expensive skewer!" She pointed at the huge special one. "I didn't even want to spend money on it, and you went and bought it! No way. You have to let me hold onto the money, or I'll tell Mom you spent it without permission." Rei smiled as though she'd caught Ye Wuji red-handed.

"The seller gave it to me." As he spoke, Ye Wuji deliberately took a bite of the special skewer and chewed slowly, wearing an expression of utter bliss.

"What? That can't be true! I tried to bargain with him, and he wouldn't budge. Don't try to fool me. Give me the money to hold onto, and I won't expose you. Otherwise, I'll tell Mom you lied, Ye." Rei didn't believe him at all.

"Not only did he give me this skewer," Ye Wuji said, lifting it up, "he didn't charge us for the one you ate earlier, either. I saved us quite a bit of money."

When Rei heard that, she cried, "This is so infuriating!" Then she turned and headed for another shop. Yuta naturally followed her. Ye Wuji shrugged and slowly went after them.

The people nearby had seen what happened too. Quite a few young women watched Ye Wuji's shrug and murmured, "What a cute kid. I want to hug him."

Someone else said, "That gesture was just too cute. I'm going to teach my child to do that. I love it."

Ye Wuji hurried a few steps ahead when he heard them. What was wrong with those people? He was genuinely afraid they'd surround him. That would be a real problem.

When he saw Rei enter another shop, Ye Wuji didn't even notice what it sold. He quickly finished the candied fruit in his hands. He had to admit, candied fruit in this world tasted much better than the kind he'd eaten before.

After finishing it, Ye Wuji tossed the rubbish into a nearby bin and was about to rejoin Rei and Yuta when he looked up and noticed something hanging outside another shop nearby. His interest was piqued at once. As he walked toward it, he thought, I never expected there'd be knockoffs in the Naruto World too.

He saw three models, each about half a meter tall, hanging outside the shop. They were Gamabunta, Jiraiya's toad; Katsuyu, Tsunade's slug; and Manda, Orochimaru's snake.

Ye Wuji knew the Second Shinobi World War had ended, so the story of the Sannin fighting Hanzo, the Salamander, must have spread throughout the Shinobi World. Still, he hadn't expected people in the Naruto World to cash in on celebrity merchandise too. Standing outside the shop and looking at the three summoned creatures, Ye Wuji wondered to himself, I wonder if the Naruto World has any publicity rights. If it does, Jiraiya and Tsunade would probably be the first to track down whoever dared to do this. Though they probably wouldn't beat him up—they'd just discuss how to split the profits. As for Orochimaru, he'd probably have Manda eat the guy.

"What are you looking at, kid?" Ye Wuji's behavior must have caught someone's attention. A man who looked like a complete scammer called out to him from inside the shop.

"I'm looking at these." Ye Wuji pointed at the three models hanging outside the shop.

"You like these too, kid? They're brand-new. Come on in and take a look. I'm sure you'll find something you like." As he spoke, the man beckoned Ye Wuji inside.

Ye Wuji was a little interested, so he entered the shop. Once inside, he found himself in a world of animals. It was a toy store, with all sorts of dogs, bears, cats, birds, snakes, and other creatures. There were even some strange animals, in sizes ranging from human-sized down to ones no bigger than a finger. They had just about everything. The most eye-catching items were the Sannin's summoned creatures, nearly human-sized, displayed on shelves near the entrance.

There was only the owner and three customers in the shop. The three customers looked like a family: a man, a woman, and a boy about Ye Wuji's age. The boy was choosing a toy for himself.

"Hey, kid, you've got a good eye. These are the summoned creatures of Konoha's Sannin, who brought the war to an end. What do you think? Take a look. They're made with the latest technology and the finest materials." Seeing that Ye Wuji was looking at the three large summoned creatures, the shopkeeper introduced them to him. "And that's not all. They're stuffed with the best padding, so they're soft, warm, and breathable. You can even cuddle up with one when you sleep."

The moment Ye Wuji heard that, he couldn't help but laugh to himself. The first part was fine, but cuddling up with one to sleep? That might be all right for other people, but Manda was out of the question for him. Seeing it reminded Ye Wuji of Orochimaru, and thinking of Orochimaru made him remember the way Orochimaru was always coming out of a snake's mouth. That alone would have been fine—after all, Jiraiya also traveled in and out of a toad's stomach—but why did he have to bring along all that fluid? It was kind of disgusting, like snake saliva.

And Katsuyu was even worse. At first glance, she seemed fine, but whenever Ye Wuji thought about her splitting into countless copies, he got goosebumps.

As for Gamabunta, he was the only one of the Sannin's summons that Ye Wuji actually liked. But who would cuddle up with a toad to sleep? Bear-shaped toys were the ones people usually cuddled with. They had fur, after all, and were comfortable to hug.

Perhaps because the shopkeeper saw that Ye Wuji had no intention of buying one, he stopped talking. Just then, the family seemed to have chosen a toy, so the shopkeeper went to help them.

Ye Wuji made a round of the shop. Apart from the Sannin's summoned creatures, he didn't see any other familiar summons. Everything else was an ordinary animal. There wasn't even the Third Hokage's monkey, and the Tailed Beasts were even less likely to be there. The Tailed Beasts were secrets kept by the hidden villages of the Five Great Nations, so ordinary people knew even less about them. Maybe once the Fourth Shinobi World War ended, Tailed Beast models would be put up for sale too. With a mischievous thought, Ye Wuji wondered if he'd still be alive then—and, if so, whether he'd be the one selling the Tailed Beast models.

When Ye Wuji returned to the entrance, he finally noticed a glass cabinet nearby. It held animal-themed decorations and everyday items: toothbrushes with bird-shaped handles, dog-shaped piggy banks, and wallets in all sorts of shapes.

That was right—wallets! Ye Wuji had only just remembered that he could buy one. Seeing all those different designs reminded him that Naruto's wallet was shaped like a toad. It seemed he'd used a toad wallet even before learning the Summoning Technique from Jiraiya. Later, Naruto summoned toads too. He really did have a connection with toads.

So what shape should he get? Ye Wuji looked around and found wallets shaped like the three summoned creatures. Looking at the three, he thought the Manda-shaped wallet was the best-looking, followed by Katsuyu, with Gamabunta last. Of course, that was just his opinion.

He ruled out the Manda-shaped wallet first. It wasn't that he disliked it; it was just that if he ran into Orochimaru while carrying it, he'd be in trouble. And if Manda saw it, that would be the end of him. During the Sannin's battle, Gamabunta had said he would turn Manda's skin into a wallet, which had infuriated Manda. Of course, the wallet wasn't really made from Manda's skin, but it was shaped like him.

After ruling out Manda, Ye Wuji stared at the Katsuyu-shaped and Gamabunta-shaped wallets, unable to decide which one to buy. He had another, half-hidden idea too: if he carried these two wallets, he could use them to win over Jiraiya and Tsunade. Maybe, if he showed them how much he liked those summons, he could sign a contract with one of them.

Ye Wuji hadn't considered what the Sannin might think if he showed up carrying wallets shaped like their summons—but not Manda. What would Orochimaru make of that? Unfortunately, Ye Wuji wouldn't find out, because he had other things on his mind. Besides, he still had a little hope, even though he knew the chances were slim. The people who signed contracts with the Toad Clan and the slug clan had always come from the same lineages.

Even so, Ye Wuji still wanted to try. But when it came time to pay, his thoughts were interrupted. "What? Four hundred ryō each? Are you sure? That's so expensive!" Ye Wuji shouted when he heard the shopkeeper's price.

"Kid, these are brand-new. They've only just come out, so of course they cost a little more. Why not pick something else?" The shopkeeper looked at the two wallets in Ye Wuji's hands.

At four hundred ryō apiece, the two would cost eight hundred. Ye Wuji had enough money on him, but only five hundred of it was his to spend. The other thousand wasn't supposed to be touched. It wouldn't really matter if he did spend it, but Ye Wuji had long made a habit of keeping money carefully sorted. He couldn't afford even the slightest discrepancy. In his previous life, plenty of friends had argued and fallen out over the smallest sums of money. Maybe people who broke off friendships over something like that hadn't been true friends, but it was still better to avoid trouble if he could.

Ye Wuji had plenty of his own money too, all of it given to him by Minato. He hadn't spent a single ryō of it; it was all still at home. But he hadn't brought any with him, because he hadn't thought he would buy anything. He hadn't expected to run into a situation like this.

After thinking it over for a long time, Ye Wuji chose Gamabunta. Minato's summon was also from the Toad Clan, so this would bring him a little closer to them. Don't call Ye Wuji too calculating. After all, in the Naruto World, there weren't many chances to get a powerful summon.

After paying, Ye Wuji moved the money he'd been carrying into his new wallet. That made things much more convenient. Paper money was fine, but carrying coins without a wallet was really inconvenient.

Only after he'd finished all that did Ye Wuji remember that he was supposed to meet up with Rei and Yuta.