Battle and Parting

Looking at the black wolf in front of him, Ye Wuji felt a little scared. He hadn't known what Minato's gift would be, but it turned out to be a chance to gain some real combat experience, something he sorely lacked. Ye Wuji had worried that Minato might find a ninja to fight him, but he hadn't expected him to bring a wolf from the forest.

At first, Ye Wuji had thought Minato only wanted him to get a taste of blood. It was just a wolf. He could hide and throw kunai at it a few times, and that should do the trick.

In his hand was a specialty of this world: a kunai. This was the one Minato often used. It was black all over and seemed to be made of high-quality steel. Its handle was completely covered in spiral grooves, making it easier to grip. Near the grooves were tiny holes that seemed to absorb sweat, allowing a ninja to fight for long periods.

Given Minato's status, this kunai might be a chakra weapon, one that could be infused with chakra to increase its killing power. Judging by the gleam along its edge, it had probably killed plenty of people. It wasn't until he'd spent some time here that Ye Wuji learned that most of the world's good weapons were in the hands of ninjas. Ordinary people and bandits usually had iron weapons, or steel ones at best. After getting this weapon, Ye Wuji had tested it and confirmed that it could indeed be infused with chakra.

Most of the weapons used by ninjas were made from a kind of black steel. Compared with ordinary steel, it was harder, more elastic, sharper, and more malleable. Better than black steel weapons were chakra weapons, and better than those were special weapons, custom-made for their owners. Examples included the Thunder God Sword and the Mizukage's seven swords, which were better at channeling chakra. Above those were the legendary treasures, such as the Kusanagi Sword and the Yasakani Jewel. Ye Wuji didn't know much about these things. If they were the legendary treasures of China back on Earth, he could name a few, but he knew nothing about the ones here. This world looked a lot like Japan, yet seemed different in many ways. His knowledge from his previous life was practically useless.

For instance, Ye Wuji had asked Minato whether this world had professions like onmyoji. Minato seemed never to have heard of them. It wasn't that onmyoji had fallen out of favor; the term simply didn't exist here. Minato was the future Fourth Hokage and held a fairly high position in Konoha, even at this point in time. His teacher was one of the future Sannin, and he was the Third Hokage's grandstudent. By extension, he was also a junior of the current Second Hokage—though Ye Wuji couldn't work out the exact family tree. Minato should have seen Konoha's records, and surely the existence of onmyoji wouldn't be classified information.

That question had almost made Minato suspicious of Ye Wuji. Minato had asked where he'd read about it, so Ye Wuji could only claim he'd seen it in a book and that whoever wrote it might have been making things up. That was enough to put Minato's suspicions to rest.

After that, whenever Ye Wuji wanted to ask something, he had to be very careful, afraid of saying the wrong thing. There were so many strange things about this Naruto World that he couldn't make sense of them all.

For example, Minato knew a great deal about the First Shinobi World War and the founding of the Five Great Nations, but he knew little about what had happened before the war. He only knew it as the Age of Warring States, and couldn't explain what the fighting had been about. No traces of the people from that era had been left behind, which was strange. Even in times of chaos, there ought to have been famous people. The First Hokage and Madara, for example, were known to many of their descendants. To avoid making Minato suspicious, Ye Wuji stopped asking about it.

Despite all his doubts, Ye Wuji had confirmed one thing: it seemed that the people of this world had appeared out of nowhere, without any origins. Back on Earth, there were many theories about the origins of humanity, but at least there were theories. In this world, there was nothing. It was as if everything had been divided at some point, cutting off everything that came before. No one here seemed to have noticed, either. That was another reason Ye Wuji didn't dare investigate further. He was too weak now. Perhaps if he became stronger, he'd be qualified to look into it—though he might never be qualified, even by the time he died.

Ye Wuji shook his head, trying to dispel those strange thoughts. The most important thing now was to survive in this world. He could worry about everything else later.

Right now, he had to kill the wolf in front of him. Minato was surely watching from nearby, and Ye Wuji probably wasn't in any danger of dying. But this was his first performance in front of Minato. He couldn't let it end with Minato having to save him—that would be too embarrassing.

At first, Ye Wuji had remembered the saying that a wolf had a copper head, iron bones, and a soft belly, so he'd aimed for its waist. Besides the kunai in his hand, he'd brought more than ten wooden kunai he'd made during training with Minato over the past few days. Just a moment ago, he'd thrown three of them at the wolf's waist, but the wolf had swatted them all away with its tail. Ye Wuji had been so startled that he'd almost thought he'd run into a monster—or, in the ninja world's terms, a summoning beast. He'd hurriedly changed hiding places. His combat instincts were gradually developing. Ninja battles here were a lot like sniping: fire a shot, then change positions, or risk getting into serious trouble.

Fortunately, after observing the wolf, Ye Wuji realized that its movement had probably been instinctive. He hadn't been very careful, after all, and wolves had excellent eyesight and hearing—certainly better than ordinary people's. Back in his previous life, a person armed with a dagger who tried to take on a wolf alone would almost certainly lose.

People in this world were much stronger than people on Earth, but it seemed that even the wolves were much stronger. At the very least, their hearing and eyesight were better.

After several more attempts, Ye Wuji had only two wooden kunai left, and he'd managed to inflict only a minor wound on the wolf. He'd even nearly been bitten once.

By the end of the fight, Ye Wuji realized that killing the wolf without getting hurt was probably impossible. Since Minato was watching nearby, he took the black steel kunai and went in to fight the wolf head-on. It really was a custom-made weapon: it was extremely sharp, far sharper than the wooden kunai. With it, he quickly inflicted numerous wounds on the wolf, but the wolf also scratched him in several places. Luckily, it never managed to bite him.

In the end, Ye Wuji used the Clone Technique to distract the wolf, then drove the kunai into its eye and killed it. Even so, the wolf's final counterattack nearly crippled his right arm.

When Ye Wuji finally managed to kill the wolf after a great deal of effort, Minato, standing atop a nearby tree, nodded in satisfaction before leaping down.

"Big Brother Minato," Ye Wuji called, gritting his teeth against the pain when Minato came over.

"Not bad. Sit down and rest. I'll treat your wounds." As he spoke, Minato began healing him, especially his right arm. The wolf's final counterattack had nearly torn it apart.

After Minato finished treating him, Ye Wuji felt much less pain. His right hand had also been bandaged. He went over to the wolf's body, pulled the kunai from its eye, and prepared to return it to Minato.

When he handed it over, Minato took the kunai and then put it in the tool pouch on Ye Wuji's body, apparently intending to give it to him.

Touched by Minato's gesture, Ye Wuji responded like a child, smiling and saying, "Thank you, Big Brother Minato."

"Big Brother Minato, are you going back?" Ye Wuji and Minato had already left the wooden cabin where they'd spent more than half a month. They were now heading toward town.

It had been less than two days since Ye Wuji was injured fighting the wolf, and he was almost completely healed. He hadn't even been left with a scar. Chakra really was a miraculous tool for healing.

"Yeah. I've already stayed here longer than my teacher expected, so I should go back. The war should be nearing its final stage now."

"Oh." Ye Wuji now knew that the Second Shinobi World War was underway. He seemed to remember that the Sannin had fought Hanzo during the war, bringing it to an end. But the Sannin hadn't won; it had supposedly ended in a draw.

"Will we see each other again?" Ye Wuji asked.

"Of course. Once you've grown up, you can come to Konoha and find me. How does that sound?" Minato patted Ye Wuji on the head and said.

"Hmph." Ye Wuji pushed Minato's hand away. What annoyed him most was that Minato seemed to love patting his head. Ye Wuji had protested many times, but it never worked, so whenever Minato did it, he could only push his hand away and glare at him to show his disapproval.

"Hahaha." Unfortunately, it always ended with Minato laughing.

As for going to Konoha, Ye Wuji would definitely go there eventually. The twelve strongest people in Konoha were there, and more importantly, its environment was excellent—perfectly suited for living. No wonder so many countries had set their sights on Konoha in every war.

Of the Five Great Nations in the Naruto World, Ye Wuji thought that Konoha in the Land of Fire was the best. Back in his previous life, it would have been a scenic tourist destination.

The Land of Wind was too dry, and it seemed to be plagued by sandstorms all year round. You could tell from the name Sand Ninja. It also seemed to suffer from water shortages. Although a shortage of water wasn't much of a problem in the Naruto World—you could just find a few Water Release ninjas—it still didn't appeal to Ye Wuji.

The Land of Water seemed to be on some kind of island, though Ye Wuji hadn't paid much attention. It seemed too damp there, with heavy fog all year round. Luckily, this was a world where people trained, so few suffered from arthritis. Otherwise, they'd surely all get it.

Most of the Land of Earth was barren, with sheer rock walls, and there were many rocky mountains. It seemed you had to climb a mountain just to leave home. That sounded exhausting.

The Land of Lightning seemed much like the Land of Earth, with mountains covering much of the country. But unlike the people of the Land of Earth, who lived at the foot of the mountains, the people there seemed to live on them. It also seemed to thunder all year round. That would be so noisy, and getting struck by lightning would be awful. Still, hadn't any ninjas in the Naruto World ever been killed by lightning?

All these conditions made it clear that Konoha had a great natural advantage. It had four distinct seasons, and even aside from that, the forest surrounding Konoha—supposedly created by the First Hokage—was a wonderful place to relax. Back on Earth, other than the primeval forests, there were hardly any large forests left.

But Ye Wuji didn't want to go to Konoha right now. He seemed to remember that several countries had fought Konoha during the Third Shinobi World War. He didn't know the details, but it was clearly dangerous. The Second Hokage seemed to be in charge of Konoha now, and he sounded like a hardliner. Someone like Ye Wuji, who knew a few ninjutsu techniques, might be sent out as cannon fodder at any moment.

They reached a fork in the road. This was where Ye Wuji and Minato would part ways. "All right, we'll split up here. Remember to come visit me in Konoha after the war ends!" Minato said with a smile, patting Ye Wuji's head.

"Mm, I will. You be careful, too."

"Don't worry. You're the one who needs to be careful. Come to think of it, are you sure you don't want me to make arrangements for you?"

"Big Brother Minato, I'm already a ninja, more or less. Don't worry. I'll find somewhere to stay in one of the nearby towns. You should hurry back."

"Then I'll wait for you to come to Konoha someday!" With that, Minato turned and left. Watching him leap away, Ye Wuji sighed and thought, I'm on my own now. I can start putting some of my plans into motion.