Can Pokemon into Naruto? 21 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Anthony Maxwell

Can Pokemon into Naruto?

Chapter 21

-VB-

“We’re getting too rich too quickly.”

When Chief Xinujang said that at the post-skirmish meeting after the village-wide celebration, people’s mood went up instead of down.

“So then we can hire ninjas to protect ourselves!” someone pointed out. “It shouldn’t cost that much to hire kid ninjas, right?”

“Think, you idiot,” Xinujang snapped. “What happens if the ninjas see that we have Karu and his pets around? They’re going to report to their higher up ninjas and there will be ninjas all over the place not protecting us but trying to get Karu!” 

Karu wasn’t in the meeting because he claimed to have been too busy with a new project. Xinujang just hoped that it wasn’t anything weird like that … sacrilegious ritual Karu tried to pull off. 

That stopped whatever momentum there was among the villagers to try to hire ninjas. 

“And just for your information, hiring even kid ninjas are expensive. Our jito once hired a squad of them and it cost him 35,000 ryo just because of how far we were from their home village. And all they did was wipe out a bandit clan that didn’t even have a missing-nin!” 

Murmurs swept across the chief’s hut as the villagers discussed how expensive that was. A bandit clan without a missing-nin wasn’t as dangerous as one with a missing-nin, but such a clan was also far weaker than the dozen bandits with a trio of missing-nins that their village had to kill.

“Does that mean we are better off just depending on Karu?” one of the elders who hadn’t been there (because he was too weak and old) asked. 

“I think so,” Xinujang said. “The boy’s been honest with us, and has been helping us in many ways, has he not? He’s a full member of the village.”

Some of the people who still didn’t like Karu grumbled but didn’t object. 

Xinujang knew what he would do if they did. After all, even if they were born here, they have done less for the village and its people than Karu has done in the few months he’s been here.

Yes, it’s unfair to compare like that, but also no, because life was unfair and complaining never got them anything, now did it? 

Protesting to the jito never got them anywhere. Begging to the shugo only got them retaliation from their jito for losing him face. And the ninjas didn’t care if they didn’t have money to pay.

This was the first time that a bandit clan failed to attack their village. This was the first time that they managed to kill every single one of those sons of bitches! 

It felt good. 

Anyone complaining about this was going to get their shit kicked in from him. 

“How are the … beedrills?” one of the elders asked. She had been the most supportive among the elders of the weird monsters. Well, she was the one that the giant wasps loved the most among the elders, now. 

“A few got hurt,” Xinujang told her and the village. That got people rustling. “But Karu has helped heal the problem. The beedrills are out in force. Speaking of which, Karu has asked if anyone else wants to take care of new beedrill eggs.”

That got the village to calm down and get excited. “Eggs, already?” someone asked. 

“Yes. Something about facing danger head on led to some more frisky behaviors among the beedrills.”

“I’ll be glad to take care of them again,” the same elder from before said as she raised a hand, and Xinujang nodded to her. 

“Then I’ll go talk to Karu for that. I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear it.”

Then he turned to look at Ren.

“How has it been for you, Ren?” he asked the man who’d gotten burned in the fighting. 

“There are some stiff spots but … it’s good,” Ren, a forty-something year old villager, said from the side.

People murmured again. Those who had been out there knew what happened. Those who hadn’t didn’t quite believe.

To be set on fire but to have no burn scars to show for it? 

But then again, they also knew how potent Karu’s healing was. Even if he didn’t do anything mystical, his oran salves did wonders by themselves. 

‘But I know that he’s trying to do ninja stuff.’

Karu already fought like a samurai, shrouded in mystical energy and wielding a sword. What was some healing on top of that? 

The meeting continued on, and this time, it was about how the bandit loot was going to be distributed. 

-VB-

He walked across the village.

With the celebration and the meeting over, he needed to go and tell the young man about what the village was giving him. 

Specifically, the meeting came to an end after recognizing that the house and the area around it was now under Karu’s name, and if he wanted to, then he could get more land for himself by cultivating the rugged lands further away from the village that wasn’t used for anything else. 

That was the standard way of how a family gained more land, but also not taking care of that same land meant that a family could lose land if they failed to take care of it. 

It’s why most families in farming villages of the Land of Fire opted to have large families. There was only so much land that a single person could maintain before they collapsed from exhaustion, women more than men.

Then he paused just as he got within a cho of Karu’s house. 

Something was wrong. 

Eerie. 

Too calm.

Birds didn’t sing. 

No insect sounds.

Gulping, he continued to walk forward and -.

“Thump.”

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard that sound next to him.

He whirled around and saw …

Oh, it was those wooden bowl-teapot-thing that Karu had been making before the beedrills spotted bandits.

Wooden bowl-teapot-things that had eye holes and mouth holes. 

“Why is Karu so creepy at times?” Xinujang complained to himself. 

“Thump.”

This time… he froze. 

He slowly turned around. 

Oh… How hadn’t he noticed it? There were more of the wooden teapots. 

One of them had a smoldering ember in its eyehole. 

But where was the smoke? 

“Thump.”

More embers lit up.

“Thump. Thump.””Phan.””Phanthump.”

The wooden teapots were coming to life… and they moved with a ghostly body underneath the teapots.

…

“KARU!!!!” he shouted maybe a little hysterically. “WHAT DID YOU DO?!” 

-VB-

cho*: ~109 meters.