Leaving Takigakure

On the morning of the third day, Ye Wuji packed up all his things. The blacksmith shop had been sold, too. Mai had taken some of the money from the sale as a fee for running errands, which had really annoyed Ye Wuji. It wasn't that he begrudged her the money; it was that, as the Takikage's daughter, did Mai really need such a small amount?

After these two years, Ye Wuji had finally figured something out: the Ninja Pouch couldn't hold anything that didn't contain chakra. Scrolls like the ones he had acquired could be put inside, as could things like Shuriken. The reason Shuriken could be stored was that they were made from special metal, better than ordinary metal. Though they couldn't be enhanced by circulating chakra to make them sharper, the way some weapons could, they were still better than ordinary weapons: sturdier, sharper, and, most importantly, they had a much higher melting point. Some might think a high melting point wasn't much use, but it was very useful indeed. Even an ordinary ninja's Fire Release reached at least two hundred degrees, while special Fire Release techniques could reach several thousand degrees. Without a weapon with a higher melting point, it would be easy for the flames to melt it. Remember when Sasuke went to retrieve Zabuza's Kubikiribōchō in one episode? Someone shot at him with a dense barrage of crossbow bolts, and didn't Sasuke melt that whole rain of arrows with a single Fire Release technique? That wouldn't have happened if they'd been made of metal with a high melting point. Some ninja techniques required coordination with ninja tools. For example, the Uchiha Clan's Phoenix Sage Fire Technique usually had Shuriken mixed in with the flames to injure the enemy. If the Shuriken were poor quality and melted in the fire right away, how could they work together? That was what set ninja tools apart from ordinary weapons.

The Ninja Pouch could seal away space, allowing its wearer to carry more weapons, such as Kunai and Shuriken. After all, ninja mainly threw their weapons, and only a few used long swords. If you didn't bring enough weapons and ran out of Kunai, what would you do? Fight with your bare hands?

Over the past two years, Ye Wuji had also experimented with using the Ninja Pouch as a space ring or other spatial item, but it simply wouldn't work. Well, not exactly. You had to coat the surface of an object with chakra first, which was far too much trouble. Only someone with nothing better to do would bother.

The boomerang Ye Wuji had made was crafted from ordinary metal, so he couldn't put it in the pouch. He had tried coating it with chakra, but that didn't work either. He had to coat the entire weapon, but by the time he finished one side, the chakra on the other side had disappeared. It looked like he'd need some kind of sealing formula, like the people in the Naruto World who were always putting things into scrolls. Unfortunately, Ye Wuji didn't know the first thing about Sealing Jutsu yet.

During this time, Ye Wuji had finally learned how the Substitution Technique worked. Contrary to what he had thought, you couldn't use it whenever you wanted. You needed a substitute, of course—that much everyone knew—but the substitute couldn't just be any rock or piece of wood you picked up by the roadside. It had to be specially prepared.

The wood used for the Substitution Technique had the same properties as chakra test paper: it could absorb chakra. It had to come from a tree that grew by absorbing chakra. Once this wood absorbed the chakra possessed by a person and was prepared with a specific formula, it became a Substitution Log. The same went for animal substitutes. The animal had to contain chakra, and it was usually one you had raised yourself, because you had to bind it with the formula. You couldn't just pick up any animal and use it.

Mai had told Ye Wuji all this later. Otherwise, he really wouldn't have known. This also made the Ninja Pouch's purpose clear: besides weapons and scrolls, it was used to carry Substitution Logs. Because of the pouch's limited space, ninja generally carried only one. Of course, no one would stop you from bringing more, but a person's mental energy was limited, and you couldn't have as many Ninja Pouches as you wanted. For various other reasons, a ninja could generally use the Substitution Technique only once in a battle. If you filled your entire pouch with Substitution Logs, you could use it more times. The final option was to find a rare material for Substitution Logs, so that a single piece of wood could be used multiple times.

After hearing all this from Mai, Ye Wuji finally understood why some people used the Substitution Technique often, while others never used it at all.

Some ninja couldn't use the Substitution Technique because of their own limitations. It was a technique that required a ninja to link themselves to a Substitution Log with a formula, which demanded extremely stable chakra control and familiarity with basic ninja formulas. In fact, it was quite simple, and almost anyone with normal abilities could do it. There were exceptions, of course.

As for Substitution Logs, most ninja villages had them. If yours didn't, you could go looking in the forest. Although the trees were rare, you should be able to find one, since there were plenty of trees in the Naruto World that could absorb chakra. If that still didn't work, you could buy some basic Substitution Logs at a ninja shop. After buying them, you just had to use a formula to link yourself to them.

The Substitution Technique was included among the Three Basic Techniques because preparing to use it was a hassle, but once everything was ready, anyone with normal abilities could perform it. After learning it, even if you had no money, you could find your own wood and make one, couldn't you? Of course, there was a difference between high-grade and low-grade Substitution Logs: their delay effect.

That was why ninja at the Jonin level rarely used the Substitution Technique, though some still carried a log just in case. Kakashi was one example. Why didn't they use the technique? Because Jonin could substitute other techniques, without the hassle of preparing materials. For instance, an Earth Release user could use an earth substitute, a Water Release user could use a water substitute, and a Wood Release user could use a wood substitute. Fire and Lightning substitutes existed, too, but fire and lightning were extremely difficult to control. To use either of those substitutes, you needed at least Kage Level strength, and even then, you needed some luck to master them. People from Konoha had mastered a shadow substitute, which they performed using the Shadow Clone Technique.

From Mai, Ye Wuji learned that there was more to it than that. What were called the basic Three Techniques should really have been called the Four Techniques. That fourth one was basic Escape Technique: its power was measured by how far you could escape. It was the most fundamental ninja technique. Ye Wuji had never understood something while watching Naruto, but now it made sense. Back then, he had wondered why some ninja could leave a fight whenever they wanted, vanishing in a puff of smoke.

Only after learning about the basic Escape Technique did Ye Wuji realize that was what it was. The five chakra natures corresponded to five Escape Techniques. Earth Release and Wind Release were generally the most useful, followed by Water Release, then Fire Release, with Lightning Release last. That was because Escape Techniques depended on the terrain. You couldn't use Water Release in a place with no water. Kekkei Genkai were an exception. You could also use Wood Release, and given the environment of the Naruto World, Wood Release generally ranked behind Earth Release and Wind Release, except in a few rare environments.

Ye Wuji didn't know how these Escape Techniques worked, but they still depended on strength. For an ordinary person, escaping ten meters was already impressive. Even the most powerful Escape Technique couldn't take you more than a hundred meters. If the difference in strength was too great, it was basically useless.

But if your strength was about the same, it was easy to get away. The distance might be short, but you wouldn't know which direction the other person had gone. That wouldn't matter much on open ground, but in complicated terrain, they'd be hard to chase.

So now, besides scrolls and weapons, Ye Wuji's pouch held a Substitution Log. The log took up a ridiculous amount of space, which explained why ninja didn't carry more. His pouch could hold only one, and he couldn't fit anything else in it. There was still some space left, but Ye Wuji had filled it with the things he'd just packed.

Once Ye Wuji had packed everything, he made sure not to forget the most important item, the Hero Water, and then left Takigakure.

Standing beneath the largest waterfall, with its deafening roar in his ears, Ye Wuji had said goodbye to Uncle Ukyo's family three days ago. Today, he was setting off alone.

He glanced back at the great waterfall. "Come to think of it, Takigakure really is a nice place, with beautiful mountains and clear waters. It wouldn't be bad to live here forever if I got the chance." That was what Ye Wuji thought to himself.

No one came to see Ye Wuji off. Mai had planned to come, but when they parted yesterday, they had cleared things up. Since Mai would be leaving Takigakure too, they had agreed not to see each other off. Otherwise, Ye Wuji might have waited until after seeing Mai off before leaving.

"Ah!" Ye Wuji gave one last shout, then walked away without looking back. He didn't ride a horse, even though he could afford one.

By now, Ye Wuji knew that ninja didn't travel much slower on foot than on horseback. A horse needed tending on the road, and in the wilderness it could be attacked by wild animals. So unless they were traveling in a large group, most people preferred to walk. Even non-ninja rarely rode horses to travel. Besides, the roads in the wilderness were uneven, and horses couldn't run properly on them.

"You're just going to watch him leave?" The Takikage spoke to Mai from beside her on a tree near the waterfall.

"Yes. We agreed to it," Mai said with a smile.

"You were supposed to leave today, too. You put it off for him, and now you're not even going to see him. I really can't understand what you're thinking." The Takikage watched Ye Wuji's retreating figure.

"There's no rush. What difference does a day make? But now that we've parted, I don't know if we'll ever see each other again." Mai spoke softly.

"That guy said he'd make his name resound throughout the Shinobi World, didn't he? Wouldn't it be easy for you to find him then?" the Takikage said.

"Maybe. Let's go back." Mai watched until Ye Wuji disappeared from view, then left first. The Takikage vanished as well.