Can Pokemon Into Naruto? 13 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Anthony Maxwell

Can Pokemon Into Naruto

Chapter 13

-VB-

“We can’t.”

I blinked and then stared at the chief in confusion. 

See, after doing so much work around here, I realized that the village might need some protection. Sure, ninjas were a thing but they existed for a reason; there were other dangers that existed out here, especially in a poorly defended village at the edge of Land of Fire’s interior and heartlands. 

Who knows if there were virgin-sacrificing cultists out here? Jashin was a thing, and his priest went around sacrificing everything and everyone. 

A wall, then, would be great. While it wouldn’t stop any high ranking or even middle ranking ninja or their equivalents across the world, a wall would stop the weak bandits and opportunistic low rank missing-nin from coming and savaging the villagers. 

So I wanted to build a wall.

Had this been an RTS, survival, or any other kind of game, then I would have done it. Why wouldn’t I? I would have been the highest authority.

But life wasn’t a game. This new position of mine wasn’t a game. 

It was very much real and that meant walking up to people and asking if they would be amenable to an idea that I had that they might not be amenable to. 

For example, a wall would limit the people’s mobility. The village was pretty wide open, see? It wasn’t built to be super efficient or beautiful but made in a haphazard way that spoke of its history. 

Hell, most of the villagers’ houses were barely better than mud huts. It helped that I have been cutting down trees recently that made for better building material than firewood. Or that I helped to standardize the lumber I put out so people could use them easily.

So our lives were getting better, and that meant that external enemies would be a threat right? We’ve already had ninjas visiting us, so what kept bandits from doing the same? It wasn’t as if the village was rich enough to regularly hire ninjas to do a survey of the land, exterminate bandits, and the like. 

We just got off of our feet. 

Most of the villagers had agreed with my sentiments and actually started to think a step ahead than “right here and now.” And they wanted a wall, too. 

But when I came up to the chief and asked…

“What do you mean ‘we can’t?’” I asked. “It’s our village, right?”

“It’s against the law.”

I opened my mouth, a finger raised, and ready to say something but then fizzled out. 

“... that’s a law?” I asked incredulously. 

He nodded gravely. “I remember when I was young. The Yotunta village over the hill tried to build a wall. The … the jito came here with his samurai and razed the village for defying the law of the land.”

I stared open-mouthed. 

“For putting up a wall?” I asked incredulously. 

“Yes,” he sighed. “They had all of the chiefs, the heirs, and any nobles of the area to come and see the ruins of the village for defying the will of the daimyo. Putting up a wall without permission, as the lord explained, is to declare independence. There have been cities in the past that have done exactly that, and only with explicit permission from the provincial lord, the shugo, could one put up walls.”

I had no idea what those titles were except daimyo. 

“And shugo and jito are…?”

“Ah. Jito are lesser lords, those who might call upon a thousand men. Shugo are the ones who rule large swathes of land. They say that shugos are imperial nobles directly underneath the daimyo.”

So something like a provincial governor and county lord. A duke and a count, if I had to put it into western terms? 

“Then if we want a wall, we’ll have to meet with the shugo…? Yes, shugo and receive permission?”

“No, no, no. You can’t just get permission! We’re not important enough,” Chief Xinujang shook his head, making his only lightly gray-speckled, shaggy hair shake from side to side. “Look, Karu-kun.” I had a brief impulse to want to correct him. It was “Karl,” not “Karu,” but it was brief and more of a reflex than desire; I was more than used to being Karu at this point. “You are doing a lot for the village, and we’re seeing more money than we’ve ever seen before. We’re thankful. But …” He shook his head. “We can’t afford to make the nobles angry, Karu-kun. Please. I know it’ll make your self-appointed job harder, but please.”

I didn’t have much to say after his heartfelt plea. 

If that was the extent that the local nobility really responded to a mere wall, then I would … not insist on it. 

It would make my job harder as the chief did just say but I would step back. 

“Okay,” I told him. 

But it would be a “yet.” 

“If we got no wall for Yonomoto by the Sea, then we are gonna see. We gotta put in the work, and make all them baddies bark. Yeah?”

The chief stared at me before letting out a sigh. 

“We’re going to need someone from the big city to fix that bad rhyming of yours. That’s going to be more expensive than a wall.”

“Oi, I’m trying!” 

“Well, ya suck! Actually, it’s worse! Some of the kids are starting to copy you!”

I straightened up at that. “There are aspiring artists in the village?” I grinned. 

He grimaced, realizing that he had only encouraged me more by saying I inspired someone. 

No, I don’t care that he said “copying.” That was close enough to inspiring, period.

“Arooo~! Soon Yonomoto gonna have some art in their motto!”

“Have mercy on the kamis, stop!” 

-VB-

With one avenue of creating a safe space for the village not yet available, I decided to look into other avenues.

Money. 

Life was always about money.

Why did I want money? 

Because there were things I needed for my “tinkering” that I couldn’t get around here. The kind of precision equipment that just couldn’t be made by a single man’s hand. 

The village was already starting to make some serious cash with lumber and charcoal, but now, I was going to do something that was going to make the big bucks. 

I looked at the small grove of oran berry trees. 

It was time to start making medicine.