Chapter 36 – Small Tea Ceremony

Raito woke up to Naruto’s loud ranting. Quickly after waking up, Raito kicked Naruto and ran outside.

“Raito!” Naruto shouted chasing Raito.

In the wild chase, Raito grabbed Naruto and disappeared into a dungeon. Throwing him down, Raito went for a straight kick. “That’s for disturbing my sleep.”

“Crazy!” Naruto shouted jumping and dodging the kick then as he landed, Naruto had already made a couple of hand seals. “Shadow Clone Jutsu”

With the cloud of excess chakra, the hall was filled with Naruto clones.

“You’ll pay, Raito.”

“Yeah!”

“I am gonna beat you down.”

The clones charged forward towards Raito, some took out shurikens and some took out kunai from their hip pouch.

With a quick chain of hand seals, Raito’s hands turned into rocks then he jumped towards Naruto and clawed at the clones just to scare them.

“Tch.” The clones stopped then looking warily at Raito specifically his hands then signaling everyone with small nods, the clones in front of Raito positioned kunai in front of them.

With ‘Fast Thinking’ activated Raito met blow with blow, guarding the kunai with his rock hands. “Heh”

Suddenly the clone who was about to hit Naruto was suddenly grabbed at hands. Raito smiled at the clones and with a twist, he went under the clone’s belly lifting and throwing him off.

“Taijutsu – human throw.” Raito shouted after attacking which made clones and Naruto look at him, ignoring that the throw had made few of the clones disappear.

Raito stood still waiting and staring in front of the space, waiting for a notification to pop out but to his disappointment it didn’t.

“Prepare yourself, Raito!” Naruto quickly warned Raito because he was going to use shuriken and kunai now.

As Raito turned around, he saw a large number of shuriken and kunai being thrown towards him. In an instant he crouched down, several hand seals in between then, at last, both palms slamming to the floor.

Just as the shuriken was about to hit him, the ground erupted and a solid earth wall erupted in front, protecting him. Then there were sounds of kunai and shuriken striking the earth wall and disappearing.

Taking his kunai out from the pouch Naruto waited for Raito to come out and so did his clones.

“Naruto~” Just as Raito raised his head, he was attacked with another wave of kunai.

“Hard mode it is then.” Raito sounded menacing as he placed his hand on the earth wall.

“Naruto be careful or it’s gonna hurt…bad.” With a half rat hand seal, Raito pushed the wall with another hand.

The earth wall soon had cracks, ready to crumble. Naruto who saw this was ready to counter-attack, dividing the clones into small groups, like what he had learned from Kakashi.

“Rock Bullet”

Of course the power was toned down but even so, the rock bullet nearly destroyed Naruto’s army of clones. The small shower of rocks was aimed at real Naruto.

“Ow, ow.” The clones had disappeared and Naruto was flat on the ground, still getting hit from the rocks. “Ow, ow.”

Raito raised his eyebrows as he looked at Naruto lying down. His lips raising, Raito lightly kicked at the lying Naruto.

“Oi, stand up.” Then ‘PUFF’ Naruto who was lying down turned into smoke.

“Haah!” The real Naruto who was hiding above jumped down tackling Raito.

Raito who was on the ground-mounted by Naruto let out a mysterious smile and Naruto who was ready to punch felt uneasy.

An idea struck his mind as he punched Raito, which disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

His mouth hung open, Naruto looked at the spot where Raito disappeared in disbelief.

Raito appeared from thin air and pushed Naruto to the ground. “Hehe, I wanted to show you this for a long time now.”

“Y-you…” Naruto pointed at Raito in disbelief.

Then jumping with a big smile on his face, Naruto hugged Raito.

“So how many can you make?” Naruto asked jumping.

The question clearly made Raito sad. Turning his head, he said with a depressing tone, “One…just one.”

“One?” Naruto looked at Raito in a strange way.

Crunching his eyebrows, he waved his hands in annoyance, “But my shadow clone is much more durable.”

“Like quantity vs quality?” Naruto asked.

“Cough.” Raito coughed lightly, “Yeah… something like that.”

His mood ruined Raito grabbed Naruto’s shoulder and returned to the real world.

[Shadow Clone (Active) Lvl 36]

Naruto and Raito appeared in the room where they previously were. Instead of finding Hinata they found Kakashi looking at them.

Raito hurriedly pulled back his hand and waited for Kakashi to talk.

Kakashi sighed, shaking his head he said, “We are on a mission, behave. Today is the last day and Junichi is going to visit the local hall. Prepare yourselves.

Naruto and Raito nodded all the time Kakashi was speaking and when he finally left, they released a large breath.

“Stingy Kakashi. Bleh!” Naruto stuck out his tongue.

Raito rubbed his messy hair and walked to the window. He could hear faint sounds of peoples talking. Upon looking down he saw a small mass of people standing in front of the house.

The small mass was also divided into two. One group was with the tall, thin man and their group had small smiles hanging on their face, talking to each other with good spirits. And the other small group was made up of youths, who had frown on their face, their face covered with displeasure.

“We should have moved to the capital. This small village is going to be doomed.”

“If only they understood.”

The small group of youths quickly quieted down as Junichi walked out. The tall, thin man greeted Junichi and left the house.

“You two go after them.” Kakashi’s voice brought Naruto and Raito back. Looking at the side they saw Kakashi with Hinata.

“Let’s go.” Naruto quickly jumped out of the window and not waiting for Raito, chased after Junichi and the gang.

Looking at the fading shadow of Naruto, he looked at Kakashi with some pitiable face then asked, “Can I not go… please?”

Kakashi stared for a while Hinata giggled. Taking a deep breath, he replied in a direct way, “No.”

Without waiting for a breath to pass Raito quickly asked, “Then how about a jutsu for compensation?”

Hinata who was giggling just a moment ago, slightly gaped. But it didn’t last long as Kakashi grabbed her shoulder and disappeared in the wind.

Looking at the place Kakashi and Hinata disappeared, Raito smiled lightly then jumped out of the window following Naruto’s trail.

Kakashi looked back and sighed deeply, “Finally.”

“Um… Kakashi-sensei, what happened?” Hinata asked innocently with a slight tilt of her head.

Shaking his head, he answered, “Nothing”

Then reaching to his pouch, he took out a pair of black gloves, “Then let’s start.”

“Mm.” Hinata nodded and jumped back immediately going into a defending stance.

On Raito’s side, he clicked his tongue. “Body Flicker”

Then turning into a shadow, Raito’s shadow disappeared.

The surrounding turned into a blurry. The perfect differentiation of color turned into a blur and become a mishmash of color. The sound faded and wind hit Raito’s face, the resistance making him feel pressured. But soon a patch of yellow appeared in front of Raito’s half closed eyes.

[Uzumaki Naruto]

“Stop!” Raito cried inside but at the end, he struck Naruto. The inertia and the force made Naruto jump but with Raito’s fast thinking, he grasped Naruto and used ‘Chakra Adhesion’ in his foot and hands.

Naruto who was flunked then jerked back made Naruto angry.

“Raito-” “Mmph.” Naruto who was about to shout, his mouth was quickly covered by Raito.

With another hand, Raito brought out a ramen cup and shook it in front of Naruto. Ramen as a hypnotic agent, controlling Naruto was easy. Raito let out a breath of relief then looked at the scene in front of him.

“Earth Clone”

Ram. Snake. Ram. As chakra passed to the earth below, two earth clone formed fully resembling Raito.

“Go.” Raito commanded to his earth clones then looked at Naruto who was holding his ramen cup.

“Hey, Raito can I get hot water?” Naruto asked with joy.

The corners of Raito’s mouth twitch as he listened to the question. He stiffly accessed his inventory then gave Naruto the kettle. Naruto cooked his ramen and finished it quickly then looking at Raito who was looking at Junichi and the gang of villagers, Naruto spoke up, “They are just talking about changing this place and whatnot.”

“We just have to make sure nothing happens to Junichi-san right?” Raito questioned.

“Yeah but…” Naruto wanted to ask more but Raito quickly waved at him and pointed at Junichi.

The tall, thin man sat on a cushion wearing traditional clothes. On a small platform, capable of holding no more than ten people, on the other side sat Junichi, wearing his everyday clothes and a robe on top.

Water was poured into chawan and chasan was soaked. After soaking a few times the water in chawan was taken out and it was cleaned with a cloth. With chashaku, two scoops of matcha powder were placed in chawan. Preheated water about one scoop was poured into chawan then with chasan it was whisked vigorously until there were fine foams were formed.

Naruto watched for a full five or ten minutes before facing Raito. “That’s so boring.”

But Raito watched the full scene. The tall man way of holding the scoop, the way of giving, rotating slightly few times then Junichi holding the chawan and the way of returning again rotating slightly few times.

Raito looked at the scene, seemingly giving the scene full attention but his hand was constantly moving, playing with the small stone bead.

“What’s so interesting about drinking tea?” Naruto snorted then went away. Raito took a glance but returned to look at the scene.

The scene was peaceful and almost mesmerizing.

“Junichi-san… thank you for the things that you have done for the village. Not only you used the money for making homes and schools, you also helped us develop the tea fields, not only that you even helped us sell them. I cannot help but thank you from the bottom of my heart.” As the tall, thin man bowed others joined. The men and women who were sitting bowed and the one who was standing also bowed.

[Junichi (Karma +1)]

“Please, please stop. I am just a merchant trying my best.” Junichi shifted forward reaching the thin man and held his arms, forcing him to stand up.

“It is not only for you all but it is also for me. When I grow old and have nowhere to go, my weakened body and tired soul will return to this place to live the rest of my life peacefully here. But I also hope that not only I could live in peace but the people with me and all others could live in peace.”

Raito felt odd hearing Junichi talking but endured till the end listening everything. A weird smile appeared after listening to Junichi as he looked at the notification in front of him.

[Lie detected - Junichi]

“It’s still not finished?” Naruto brought with him a few apples and gave Raito some.

Taking out a small container containing water, Raito washed the apples then cut it with a knife in half. Focusing his chakra in hand, Raito locked onto the seeds of the apple then extracted them.

[Skill ‘Chakra Control’ leveled up by 1]

‘Finally.’ Eyes shining Raito quickly checked out the skill tab and found that the chakra requirement had dropped again by 0.5%.

“Yugao-nee and others definitely know what is best for us.” Raito spoke aloud his thoughts.

“Yeah. Raito, you are really good with chakra control.” Naruto said as he took a bite to the apple.

“You just aren’t practicing enough.”

“But it’s really, really difficult.” Raito pouted then took out a small black book from his hip pouch and started flipping it.

“Have you completed it?” Raito asked as Naruto stopped in the middle of the book. A month ago Naruto was clearly in first few pages but it seemed to have progressed now.

“What complete!? This book is so big… no this book has so many things, no this book-”

“Ok stop, stop.” Raito tried peeking at the book but only felt disappointment.

“I have been at the fourth level for so long.” Naruto continued flipping the book.

“I have been learning Fuinjutsu for two years and you who have been learning for a few months… Argh!” Raito pinched Naruto’s nose in anger.

“Ow, Ow.” Naruto cried in his nasal voice then pointed at the place behind Raito.

Looking behind Raito saw Junichi walking with the group towards home. So he left Naruto’s nose and followed Junichi.