Buying Ninjutsu

"Yui, Nai Hyuga really did leave the village on a mission."

"She might not be back for a few months."

"Huh?"

Yui was a little puzzled. What kind of mission took months to complete?

Still, she could hardly ask any more questions now.

"Is that so?"

"Then I'll take my leave."

Now that she had her answer, Yui didn't want to linger.

She turned and walked out of the office.

Watching the little girl leave, Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed.

"A Shadow Clone..."

He had noticed the moment Yui Hyuga walked in that she was only a Shadow Clone.

Using a Shadow Clone to meet the Hokage?

Hiruzen Sarutobi was a little speechless. Were all children these days like this? She was just like his three students.

"Phew." Once she was out on Konoha's streets, Yui finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Now that she knew Nai Hyuga was safe, she needed to find a way to get her original body out.

Then she could deal with the Caged Bird Seal.

For now, her only way out seemed to lie with that little white mouse.

"Haah."

Yui sighed. The little white mouse was still asleep, so she could only look for another solution first.

Back in the laboratory, Yui took the little white mouse out of her pocket.

"When are you going to wake up?"

Three days later.

The Hyuga Branch Family compound.

Her Shadow Clone hadn't come looking for her again over the past few days, which indirectly suggested that nothing had happened to Nai Hyuga.

During that time, she had been studying chakra nature transformation and trying to develop Space-Time Ninjutsu.

She was so anxious that she kept scratching her head in frustration. She now knew that Space-Time Ninjutsu could get her out.

But she simply wasn't making any progress.

Her research into chakra nature transformation, however, had yielded some results.

Opening her palm, she stared blankly at the blue-white ball of light resting in it.

"Water Release..."

She had compressed a large amount of water-nature chakra into a small blue-white sphere. It no longer had water's gentle fluidity and instead looked more like a little ball of ice.

But Yui knew it wasn't an ice ball. The two were in different states.

If she unleashed this water sphere, it would probably instantly release an explosive torrent hundreds of times its size.

Just one had drained all the chakra in her body.

Yui dispelled the ninjutsu in her hand and began to ponder.

"What should I call this move?"

Elsewhere.

Yui's Shadow Clone stood inside a ninjutsu shop, feeling troubled.

"You really don't have any Summoning Technique scrolls for sale?" Yui asked the owner.

The owner was a burly man dressed in dark green.

He, too, was a little speechless. Of all the ninjutsu she could ask for, why did it have to be that one?

"No, little girl," the owner said helplessly.

"You probably only became a ninja recently, right? Shops don't sell the Summoning Technique."

"It's not that we won't sell it. We simply can't."

"The Summoning Technique can only be taught by a ninja instructor. Then you have to arrange a contract yourself."

"There's no other way."

"We have other ninjutsu, just not the Summoning Technique."

Yui was a little disappointed. She had already searched every place in Konoha that sold ninjutsu.

But nobody would tell her anything.

All she wanted was the hand seals for the Summoning Technique.

In that case, she could only look for another way.

Her idea was to learn the Summoning Technique, then summon her original body out of the room.

Oh, forget it. Since I'm already here, I might as well see if there's any ninjutsu that suits me!

"All right, then."

With that, Yui walked over to where the shop displayed its ninjutsu.

"Do you have any ninjutsu that would suit me?" Yui asked the owner behind her. "My chakra natures are water, lightning, and wind."

Hearing that Yui wanted to buy ninjutsu, the owner immediately beamed.

He hadn't made a sale in almost a month. Today, he was going to make a tidy profit.

"Of course, of course."

"Follow me..."

Yui followed him deeper into the shop.

"We have plenty of ninjutsu ranked B and below here," the owner said after a moment's thought. "As for anything above B-rank, no ninjutsu shop in Konoha sells those."

"And even if we had them, we wouldn't be allowed to sell them."

"Most ninjutsu above B-rank are either passed down within clans or developed by individual ninja."

"If you want anything above B-rank, we don't have it."

Yui nodded. Of course she understood that.

"I don't need anything ranked that high."

She hadn't expected a ninjutsu shop to sell high-ranking techniques anyway.

As they talked, the two of them reached a wall.

The owner pressed a concealed button.

Suddenly, the entire wall rotated, exposing its other side.

Countless ninjutsu scrolls hung on the reverse side, covering practically all five elemental releases.

"Little girl, these are all the ninjutsu our shop has to offer."

"Take your pick."

Yui nodded, then turned her attention to the ninjutsu on the wall.

"Water Release: Water Formation Wall. B-rank ninjutsu."

"Wind Release: Gale Palm. C-rank ninjutsu."

In the end, Yui chose those two from among all the techniques.

Water Formation Wall and Gale Palm.

One for defense, one for offense.

"I'll take these two. How much are they altogether?" Once Yui had made her choice, she handed the two ninjutsu scrolls to the owner standing beside her.

"Certainly..."

The owner took the two scrolls, then packed them together inside another scroll.

Yui watched what he was doing, lost in thought.

"Little girl, that'll be a hundred thousand altogether..." the owner said with a smile. "We don't offer credit!"

"All right..."

Coming back to her senses, Yui answered casually, but once his words sank in, she regretted it a little.

"A... a hundred thousand ryo?" Yui could hardly believe it. These two things cost more than her house?

"Are you sure I heard that right?" Yui asked again.

The owner nodded.

"Of course. Water Formation Wall is seventy thousand ryo, and Gale Palm is thirty thousand."

"Ahem..." Yui gave a few fake coughs.

Could I still back out?

In the end, though, she paid.

"You really are a wealthy little girl."

Seeing Yui pay without hesitation, the owner couldn't help marveling a little.

But Yui wasn't nearly as calm inside as she looked.

My money! That was everything I had!

Still, this had shown her the business potential of selling ninjutsu. Just two low-level techniques cost this much.

What about higher-ranking ones?

Taking the scroll from the owner, Yui voiced the question on her mind.

"By the way, how do I get the scrolls out of this?"

The owner patiently explained.

"This is a storage scroll. Just feed chakra into it, and it'll open."

Yui nodded.

She hadn't expected the Naruto world to have something like this. Storing things would be much more convenient from now on.

"Thank you. I'll be going, then."

With that, Yui turned and headed for the door.

"Take care, little girl! Come back anytime!"

Outside, a figure on the street silently watched Yui walk away.

"Yui?"

"How did she get out?"

"No, wait."