Wuji and Mai (Part 2)

When Ye Wuji went outside, Ling and Yuta were waiting for him. Ye Wuji had intended to say something, but Ling handed him his wallet directly and, without giving him a chance to speak, took the lead to continue strolling through the streets.

Afterward, Ye Wuji forgot about the earlier incident. In his view, it was merely a petty dispute, and it was unlikely they would ever meet again.

By this time, Ye Wuji had thoroughly experienced the New Year in the Naruto World. It was truly much livelier than the last one he had witnessed, and he had eaten quite a few local delicacies. It was a pity he hadn't tasted the ramen or grilled meat he had always seen in the anime; the key was that Ling and Yuta didn't want to eat those things.

Among them, what Ye Wuji liked most was a food called "Fura." It was called Fura, but it was actually a type of barbecue. However, the barbecue here was worlds apart from the one in his previous life. Ye Wuji mostly favored the seafood-style Fura, while he only tasted the vegetable ones occasionally.

It wasn't until nearly noon that the three of them returned. As it turned out, the New Year's meal in the Naruto World was basically eaten at noon, while the evening was reserved for watching various performances.

After a sumptuous New Year's meal, Aunt Kei had originally invited Ye Wuji to attend the banquet at the Daimyo Mansion that evening, but Ye Wuji had declined. Aunt Kei seemed to notice that Ye Wuji was not in the best of moods, so she did not force him to go.

As evening approached, Ye Wuji was the only one left in the entire courtyard. Looking out from the yard, the world outside was brightly lit. Ye Wuji found a tree, stood on a branch, and looked out at the surging crowds. After watching for a while, he lay down on the branch and gazed at the stars in the sky.

"Crackle, pop." A series of sounds erupted as the sky was taken over by fireworks. Ye Wuji watched the fireworks while thinking to himself, I wonder what the New Year is like in Konoha. Is it even livelier than it is here?

"You certainly know how to enjoy yourself." A girl's voice sounded from above Ye Wuji. He sat up immediately, but upon seeing that the speaker was Mai, the girl he had met earlier that day, he lay back down.

Mai was still wearing the same outfit from the afternoon, but she was standing on the very edge of the leaves on the branch. Ye Wuji had become immune to this; although he couldn't do it himself yet, he had known she was a ninja the moment he saw the fan strapped to her back earlier that day. Would an ordinary person carry such a large fan?

"Hey, I'm talking to you. You're just a brat, why are you acting so deep?" Mai jumped onto a branch right next to Ye Wuji.

"Lying like this to watch the fireworks is very beautiful." Ye Wuji continued to watch the fireworks in the sky.

"Is that so?" Mai said. She then lay down on the branch as well, placing her large fan to the side. "It really is. I never thought that looking at the fireworks through these leaves would give such a different feeling."

"How did you find this place?" After a while, Ye Wuji asked.

"I saw those two guys. They said you were at home and hadn't come out. I didn't want to stay there either, so I came to find you."

"Who are you talking about?"

"The two people you were with today."

Hearing Mai say this, Ye Wuji sat up and looked at her. "You snuck out of the Daimyo Mansion?"

"Yeah, that banquet is boring. I've attended it so many times, and it lasts so long every time." Mai sat up as well.

Oh, Ye Wuji thought after hearing Mai's words, I didn't expect there to be a tradition of welcoming the New Year here too. It seems they won't be back until midnight. Good thing I didn't go. Thinking of this, he felt a bit fortunate that he hadn't gone.

However, this girl seems to have quite a high status. An ordinary person shouldn't be able to attend the banquet at the Daimyo Mansion. Why did she come looking for me? Ye Wuji wondered again.

"Hey, brat, let's go out and play." Mai stood up from the branch and picked up her fan.

"No interest. You go ahead." Ye Wuji refused without a second thought.

"Fine then, I'll go play by myself. Boring guy." As Mai said this, she prepared to leave, but a figure suddenly appeared before them.

It was a standard Anbu outfit. The Anbu who arrived didn't even glance at Ye Wuji, but said to Mai, "Lady Mai, the Lord is looking for you."

"How boring. I just came out for a stroll, and now I have to go back to that dull banquet. Hey, I'll find you to play later." With that, Mai left with the Anbu.

"Seriously, I got caught up in the atmosphere and almost forgot I have so much to do. Persistence is the most important thing." Ye Wuji looked at the fireworks in the sky once more before returning to his training.

Two years later, Ye Wuji stood under the largest waterfall in Takigakure, watching the carriage gradually pull away. It belonged to Ukyo's family, along with Yuta and Tomomi. Today was the day they were leaving Takigakure. In the two years since he had killed Shennong, Ye Wuji hadn't truly fought anyone. For these two years, he had focused on studying medical ninjutsu and strengthening his basic training. As for ninjutsu, aside from the Three Basic Techniques, he only knew the Water Clone Technique and the Water Blade. As for the Water Wave Technique, Ye Wuji had never practiced it.

He hadn't practiced other ninjutsu, not because he didn't want to, but because he lacked the time. By now, Ye Wuji had come to understand Orochimaru's mindset. To master all techniques, a person's life was simply too short. Every life-related technique required time to practice, and there were millions of ninjutsu in the ninja world, not to mention various secret techniques. It was simply too difficult to learn them all.

"What are you looking at? They're already gone." Mai said from behind Ye Wuji. Two years later, Mai had changed significantly, but the one thing that hadn't changed was the fan on her back.

Over these two years, because Mai often came to find Ling, she and Ye Wuji had become familiar with each other. Originally, Mai and Ling had argued over a hair clip, but after meeting again at the banquet in the Daimyo Mansion, they had run into each other again. At first, the two were like fire and water, but later, they inexplicably became good friends. Ye Wuji was dumbfounded by this; he truly couldn't understand the way women thought.

As for why they were like fire and water, it was because over these two years, Ye Wuji had learned what they excelled at. Ling, because of the Ice Spirit, could now control it, which meant her attacks carried an ice attribute, and the Ice Spirit could also manifest into weapons.

As for Mai, at first, Ye Wuji thought she had abilities similar to Temari, using a fan to blow wind. But to his surprise, Mai used the fan to fan flames. Ye Wuji had taken a look at the fan; although he didn't understand it fully, the fan contained various inscriptions. By using these inscriptions, Mai could perform certain Fire Release techniques just by fanning, skipping the hand-seal steps. From this, Ye Wuji deduced that Temari's fan must be the same; he had never seen Temari use hand seals for ordinary Wind Release, only for large-scale techniques, and the fan saved her many steps.

From this fan, one could see the impact of high-level ninja tools on one's strength. Never mind Jonin, even at the Kage level, ninja tools were useful—just look at the Uchiwa fan in Madara's hands.

There was another reason Ye Wuji didn't have extra time to practice ninjutsu: he felt he couldn't keep living off Ukyo's family for free, as he wasn't actually related to them. Yuta and Tomomi were fine; Yuta was Ukyo's apprentice, so eating his master's food was normal, and Tomomi, whether as Yuta's sister or in her role as a servant, was beyond reproach.

Of course, if Ye Wuji had been shameless enough to keep living there for free, no one would have said anything, but he felt very uncomfortable in his heart. In his previous life, after realizing he was an orphan, he would often go out with other orphans to pick up scraps for money or do other odd jobs. As for what was shown on TV—that orphans would be raised until they were eighteen and could stand on their own before leaving the orphanage—that was purely a joke. You could go and see which orphanage was actually like that; perhaps only on TV. No matter the orphanage, as soon as children were old enough to understand, they would be made to do things. Better orphanages would find children ordinary, light work, while worse ones wouldn't care at all and would take any job, regardless of whether it was harmful to the child.

At that time, Uncle Ken, perhaps seeing that he would be staying here for a while, opened a blacksmith shop to forge ordinary ironware or weapons to sell, as well as farm tools, and he also took on repairs. Uncle Ken was a blacksmith by trade, and it seemed that an elder of the Ukyo family had spotted his talent and taught him some cultivation methods. Ukyo, who came from a samurai family, also had his own dedicated blacksmiths. Uncle Ken opening this shop was purely out of boredom; he had no intention of making money, as all their expenses were covered by the Daimyo Mansion.

From then on, Ye Wuji would go to the blacksmith shop every day to help for three hours. Although they had all tried to persuade him otherwise, Ye Wuji remained stubborn, so they eventually stopped trying. However, they did set a rule: Ye Wuji couldn't help for more than two hours a day, or they wouldn't let him help at all.

Even so, Ye Wuji had learned to forge a few things. Due to the materials, he only forged items for ordinary people; he had never forged ninja weapons because of the material constraints.

But this didn't matter to Ye Wuji; he didn't really want to learn how to forge. Of course, if he truly wanted to learn how to forge ninja tools, he might as well go to the Land of Artisans, as that country could produce some special ninja tools. In fact, there was another reason Ye Wuji helped at the blacksmith shop: to forge a specific item. This item was the V-shaped weapon he now carried on his back, which he had created by referencing the "flying" weapon from his previous life—a boomerang.

A year ago, Ye Wuji had finished making it and had spent a great deal of time practicing the techniques for using it. In his view, this was the best weapon for long-range strikes, and it could return. It seemed that in the Naruto World, there were very few weapons that could return to attack after missing.

In fact, if he could obtain special materials, like those used for chakra weapons, he could infuse them with chakra, which would make the effect even better.

The reason Ye Wuji had made it now was to practice the techniques so that when he eventually made one with a chakra weapon, he wouldn't have to spend time practicing.

When Mai saw that this thing didn't require chakra control and could be controlled by technique alone, she asked for one too. Over the past year, Mai had often practiced with Ye Wuji, so she was very familiar with it now. Ye Wuji also learned that Mai was the daughter of the Takikage, though he didn't know that Fu was her sister; Mai had never mentioned it.

On the way back, Mai asked, "What are you planning to do next? Why don't you join our village?"

"Mai," Ye Wuji didn't answer her question, "when you go back, find someone to help me handle the blacksmith shop Uncle Ken gave me. It's time for me to go."

"What? Where are you going? Since you're leaving, why don't you go with them? Didn't Uncle Ukyo and the others invite you? What are you planning?" Mai was very surprised by Ye Wuji's decision.

"I have something very important to do. Don't worry, you might hear my name in the future. By then, I might already be famous throughout the ninja world." Ye Wuji said to Mai with a smile.

"You, famous throughout the ninja world? Be careful not to get yourself killed first." Mai said with a laugh.

"Ah, I'm so heartbroken. We've known each other for so long, and when you hear I'm leaving, you don't offer a shred of comfort. Aren't you even a little reluctant to see me go? If you said so, I might just stay." Ye Wuji joked.

"Haha, I'm not reluctant at all. Besides, even if you didn't leave, you wouldn't be able to see me later anyway. I'm leaving too; I'm going to see my sister. This is great, neither of us has to see the other off."

"I see. Then you have to help me sell the blacksmith shop first; I'm waiting for the money."

"Don't worry, I'll handle it for you. See you later."

"See you later."