Wuji and Mai (Part 2)

When Ye Wuji came outside, Rei and Yuta were waiting for him. He had been about to say something, but Rei handed him his wallet without giving him a chance to speak, then led the way as they continued shopping.

Ye Wuji soon forgot what had just happened. As far as he was concerned, it had only been an argument, and they might never see each other again anyway.

By then, Ye Wuji had truly experienced New Year in the Naruto World. It was much livelier than the last one he'd celebrated, and he'd gotten to try plenty of the local food. Unfortunately, he still hadn't tried the ramen he'd seen so often in the Naruto anime or the grilled meat. Rei and Yuta hadn't wanted any.

His favorite was a dish called tempura. It was a kind of grilled food, though the grilling here was worlds apart from the barbecue of his previous life. He especially liked the seafood tempura; as for the vegetable kind, he only tried it now and then.

The three of them didn't return until nearly noon. It turned out that New Year's dinner in the Naruto World was usually eaten at midday. In the evening, people went to watch all kinds of performances.

After a lavish New Year's meal, Aunt Kei invited Ye Wuji to join the evening banquet at the Daimyo Mansion. He declined, and Aunt Kei seemed to notice that he wasn't in the best of spirits, so she didn't insist that he go.

As evening approached, Ye Wuji was the only one left in the courtyard. Looking outside, he saw lights shining everywhere. He found a tree, climbed onto a branch, and gazed out at the crowds flowing through the streets. After watching for a while, he lay back on the branch and looked up at the stars.

A series of crackles rang out. The sky was now filled with fireworks. As Ye Wuji watched them, he wondered, I wonder what New Year's is like in Konoha. Is it even livelier than this?

"You certainly know how to enjoy yourself." A girl's voice sounded above him. Ye Wuji immediately sat up. Once he saw that it was the girl he'd met that day, Mai, he lay back down again.

Mai was dressed the same way she had been that afternoon, but now she was standing on a leaf at the very tip of the branch. Ye Wuji had gotten used to things like that by now. He still couldn't do it himself, but when he'd seen the fan on Mai's back earlier, he'd realized she was a ninja. What ordinary person would carry a fan that big?

"Hey, I'm talking to you. You're just a little kid, so why are you trying to act all deep?" Mai hopped onto a branch beside him.

"Fireworks look beautiful when you watch them lying down like this." Ye Wuji kept his eyes on the fireworks above.

"Do they?" Mai replied. Then she lay down on the branch too, setting her big fan aside. "You're right. Watching the fireworks through these leaves really does feel different."

After a while, Ye Wuji asked, "How did you find me?"

"I saw those two. They said you were at home and hadn't gone out. I didn't feel like staying there either, so I came to look for you."

"Who?"

"The two people you were with today."

Hearing Mai say this beside him, Ye Wuji sat up and glanced at her. "You ran away from the Daimyo Mansion?"

"Yeah. That banquet is so boring. I've been to it several times, and it's always so long." Mai sat up too.

"Oh." Hearing that, Ye Wuji thought, I didn't expect them to have a New Year's countdown here too. Looks like they won't be back until midnight. Good thing I didn't go. He felt relieved all over again that he'd stayed behind.

But this girl seems to have a lot of status. Ordinary people probably can't attend a banquet at the Daimyo Mansion. So why did she come looking for me? Ye Wuji wondered.

"Hey, kid, let's go out and have some fun!" Mai stood up from the branch and picked up her fan.

"Not interested. Go by yourself," Ye Wuji refused without a second thought.

"Fine, I'll go have fun by myself, then. You're no fun." Mai turned to leave, but just then, a figure appeared in front of them.

The newcomer wore standard Anbu attire. He didn't even glance at Ye Wuji, instead addressing Mai. "Lady Mai, the Daimyo is looking for you."

"This is so boring. I only came out for a little walk, and now I have to go back to that dull banquet. Hey, Ye, I'll come find you again sometime." Mai left with the Anbu.

"Honestly, I almost got swept up in the mood and forgot I still have a lot to do. Staying focused is what matters most." Ye Wuji watched the fireworks for a little longer, then went back to training.

Two years later, Ye Wuji stood beneath the biggest waterfall in Takigakure, watching the carriage gradually disappear into the distance. It carried Ukyo's family, along with Yuta and Tomomi. Today was the day they were leaving Takigakure. Over the past two years, ever since killing Shennong, Ye Wuji hadn't been in a real fight again. He'd devoted himself to studying Medical Ninjutsu and strengthening his basic training. As for ninjutsu, apart from the Three Basic Techniques, he'd only learned Water Clone Technique and Water Blade Technique. He'd never practiced Water Wave Technique.

He hadn't practiced any other ninjutsu, not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't have time. Now he could understand Orochimaru's thinking a little better. He wanted to master every technique, but a person's life was simply too short. No matter what kind of ninjutsu one practiced, it took time, didn't it? The Shinobi World had countless ninjutsu, not to mention secret techniques and the like. Learning them all was far too difficult.

"What are you looking at? They're already gone," Mai said from behind Ye Wuji. She'd changed a great deal over the past two years. The only thing that hadn't changed was the fan on her back.

Over the past two years, Mai had often come to visit Rei, and she and Ye Wuji had grown familiar with each other. At first, Mai and Rei had argued over that hair clip. But after they met again at a banquet in the Daimyo Mansion, the two girls had begun to get along. Initially, they'd seemed like fire and water, but somehow they'd ended up becoming good friends. Ye Wuji was left speechless. He really couldn't understand how women thought.

As for why they'd seemed like fire and water, Ye Wuji had learned what each of them was good at over those two years. Thanks to the Ice Spirit, Rei could now control it, so her attacks carried an icy quality. The Ice Spirit could also transform into a weapon.

As for Mai, at first Ye Wuji had assumed her abilities were similar to Temari's: using her fan to blow gusts of wind. But as it turned out, Mai used her fan to fan flames. Ye Wuji had examined it, and although he didn't understand much about it, he could tell that the fan was covered in all sorts of formulas. By using them, Mai could simply wave the fan to perform certain Fire Release techniques, skipping the Hand Seals. That made Ye Wuji think Temari's fan probably worked the same way. He'd never seen Temari use Hand Seals for ordinary Wind Release techniques; she only used them for large-scale Wind Release, and her fan saved her a lot of steps.

The fan alone showed how much a high-level ninja tool could affect someone's strength in the Naruto World. It wasn't just useful to jonin—even at Kage Level, ninja tools still mattered. Just look at the Gunbai Madara carried.

Another reason Ye Wuji hadn't had much time to practice ninjutsu was that he eventually felt uncomfortable eating and living at Ukyo's home without contributing. He wasn't actually part of Ukyo's family. Yuta and Tomomi were different: Yuta was Ukyo's apprentice, so it was only natural for him to rely on his master. And whether Tomomi was Yuta's older sister or was simply acting as their maid, there was nothing wrong with her staying there.

Of course, no one would have complained if Ye Wuji had shamelessly lived there without paying his way. But it still made him uncomfortable. In his previous life, after learning he was an orphan, Ye Wuji had often gone out with the other orphans to collect scrap for money or do other work. Those scenes on television where orphans were cared for until they turned eighteen and could support themselves before leaving the orphanage were pure fiction. Go and see if there's any orphanage like that. Maybe things are only that way on television. At every orphanage, once the children were old enough to understand, they had to do work. Better orphanages found them ordinary, easy jobs, while worse ones didn't care what they did and took on any kind of work, regardless of whether it harmed the children.

Around that time, Uncle Ken, thinking he might be staying there for a while, had opened a blacksmith's shop. He made and sold ordinary ironware and weapons, as well as farming tools, and also took on repairs. Uncle Ken had been a blacksmith by trade. Later, it seemed that one of Ukyo's elders had noticed his talent and taught him some ways to train. Ukyo came from a samurai family and had a blacksmith of his own, so Uncle Ken had opened the shop mostly to keep busy, not to make money. After all, the Daimyo Mansion covered all their expenses.

From then on, Ye Wuji went to help at the blacksmith's shop for three hours every day. They tried to talk him out of it, but he stubbornly kept going, so eventually they stopped trying to dissuade him. They did set one rule, though: he couldn't help for more than two hours a day, or they wouldn't let him come back.

Even so, Ye Wuji had learned to make a few things. Because of the materials available, he only made things for ordinary people. He hadn't once made weapons for ninjas, since he didn't have the right materials.

But that didn't matter to Ye Wuji. He wasn't seriously trying to learn blacksmithing. If he really wanted to learn to make ninja tools, he might as well go to the Land of Artisans. That country could make some special ninja tools. In fact, Ye Wuji had another reason for helping at the blacksmith's shop: he wanted to make something. The V-shaped weapon now strapped to his back was modeled on a flying weapon from his previous life—a boomerang.

He'd made it a year earlier, then spent a great deal of time practicing how to use it. Ye Wuji considered it one of the best weapons for attacking at range. It could also curve around and come back. In the Naruto World, weapons that could still strike after being dodged seemed rare.

In fact, if he could get special materials, like those used for chakra weapons, he could infuse it with chakra and make it even more effective.

The reason Ye Wuji had made one so early was to practice using it. If he made another one out of chakra-enhancing materials later, he wouldn't have to waste time learning how to use it.

When Mai saw that he could control its flight path with skill alone, without using chakra, she asked for one too. Over the past year, Mai had often practiced with Ye Wuji, so by now she was very familiar with the boomerang. Ye Wuji had also learned that Mai was the Takikage's daughter. He didn't know that her older sister was Fu, though; Mai had never told him.

On the way back, Mai asked, "What are you planning to do from now on? Why not join our village?"

"Mai," Ye Wuji said, not answering her question, "when you get back, find someone to take care of the blacksmith's shop Uncle Ken gave me. It's time for me to leave."

"What? Where are you going? If you were planning to leave, why didn't you go with them? Uncle Ukyo and the others invited you too. What are you trying to do?" Mai was taken aback by Ye Wuji's decision.

"I have something important to do. Don't worry. Maybe you'll hear my name someday. By then, I might have made a name for myself across the Shinobi World." Ye Wuji smiled at Mai.

"You? Make a name for yourself across the Shinobi World? Just be careful you don't get yourself killed first," Mai said with a laugh.

"Ah, I'm heartbroken. We've known each other for so long, and now that I'm leaving, you can't even offer me a little comfort. Aren't you going to miss me? If you said you would, maybe I'd stay." Ye Wuji joked.

"Haha, I'm not going to miss you. Besides, even if you didn't leave, you wouldn't see me anymore. I'm leaving too. I'm going to visit my older sister. Great, now neither of us has to see the other off."

"In that case, you'd better sell the blacksmith's shop for me first. I'm waiting on the money."

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it. See you around."

"See you around."