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Title: Traveling
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A few days had passed since Shun began his journey to the land of lightning on foot. Of course he could teleport or even fly there but as he had told Ashura all those years ago, Walking is a Technique on its own.
On his journey there, he had passed through the land of swamps and had noticed a vile chakra in the atmosphere that should belong to Moryo from years ago.
This demon had found a crack that connected this planet to the demon realm of this universe and attempted to create a kingdom that will rule for a thousand years.
Thankfully, he was sealed but not after he had laid waste to the continent on a massive scale.
One would think that this world was a relatively small world focused only on chakra, ninjutsus and Shinobi shit but two cases has proved that there are other forces involved in the happenings of this world that were glossed over.
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On this very day, a village in the land of swamp welcomed a very seemingly ordinary young man with nothing but his unique white hair that made him stand out. His looks were subpar at best and his dressing was also strange.
After getting a few looks of interest, he was ignored the very next second.
This young man was Shun who had just stepped into a small village settlement
This land was a land of civilians, similar to the city of Rōran and their Daimyo was a lady unlike most lands, and despite that the people here didn't seem to mind it much. In fact, they respected her very much.
As it was getting late, Shun decided to experience a civilian normal life for once since several centuries.
"Excuse me miss, I just came to this village today and don't know where to find an inn, can you give me some direction?" He asked a young girl that was passing by at that moment.
The lady was somewhat young, looking to be in her early twenties. She gave Shun a good look before pointing to a direction and said. "Turn left after that building, you'd see an inn."
Without waiting for Shun to respond, she was already on her way. Shun scoffed at the blatant rudeness before moving to said direction. "What a rude lady. She won't get married with that attitude."
The lady seemingly hearing what Shun said turned and gave a sharp look at Shun who has already walked quite the distance. How he did that in that brief moment baffled her but didn't register as anything much and was quickly disregarded.
"Such a disappointing young man. Men at his age should be more manly. With that body, he wouldn't be able to protect his woman in this harsh world." She scoffed as she remembered the lanky and thin body of Shun from earlier.
Shaking her head, she proceeded on her way, not knowing she had just insulted the strongest being in this universe.
Shun had just reached the place be was directed to and found that it was actually a pub with all manner of men drinking their hearts away despite it being so early.
It was barely evening and people were already wasting themselves over here. One would wonder whether they have anyone waiting for them at home.
Not wanting to attract any attention, Shun walked towards a middle-aged man standing at what he assumed to be the counter and asked. "Do you perchance have any room to spare for the night?"
Shun spotted his more amicable smile as he asked that. He was actually wondering why everyone here seemed to be quite buffed up. Wasn't this supposed to be a civilian village with little to no conflicts with the outside?
The man at the counter have Shun a good look before shaking his head and pointing to the side of the pub. "I don't know what you did to end up this way kid, but there isn't any room to spare. You can crash at that spot when we close."
Shun looked at the spot that was given to him and then looked back at the man perplexed. His eye couldn't help but twitch at that moment.
Was he being taken to be a runaway kid or something?
"What the fuck is this? This young master graces you with his presence and all I've gotten is this deplorable treatment? Sigh.." Shun thought to himself and then nodded the very instant.
What? You want him to refuse? Please. Humility is a virtue that all men lack but acquire with age.
Taking a seat at the counter he asked. "So, what's the latest happenings around here? I'm actually new to the area."
The middle-aged man looked at Shun and asked. "You're new? From where? Don't tell me you ran away from home with that scrawny body of yours?"
Shun's smile faltered for a second before he assessed the situation and finally figured out what's going on. He was probably being taken to be a runaway noble kid. "Yup."
"Some lucky boy you are. With all the chaos going on outside, you still have the luxury to travel, I envy you, just don't get yourself killed." The man adviced.
"I'll remember your words." Shun nodded seriously. "So? Anything of interest happening in this village?"
Emptying some leftover sake from the jars, he rinsed them as he said. "Nah. Nothing interesting ever happens here. The place is peaceful, we show, we reap, we live, nothing else. The young men train to be selected to guard the Daimyo castle, the young ladies do their things whatever that is."
"Hmm, I see..." Shun then proceeded to ask the man about some historical stuffs about the place as time went by.
Soon, the place was emptied and Shun went to the corner allocated to him and lay down peacefully to rest.
"Maybe I should take this time to learn about medicine, it could come in handy." Shun thought as he shut down his consciousness.
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The very next day, Shun consulted the middle aged man about his business idea of starting up an hospital or clinic of sorts.
The man informed him that rarely anyone gets sick and for those who do, death is their only outcome. Several people had tried finding cures to whatever sickness it was but they only ended up contacting the same illness and dying soon after.
Currently, all sick people are isolated in a certain part of the village.
"It's decided, I'm going to open up a clinic." Shun slammed his hand on the counter as if to finalize his decision. "Bro, where can I get an abandoned building or something?"
"You also want to give it a try? I don't mean to dampen you morale but with that body of yours can you handle the pressure?" He asked, his tone sounding worried.
"Haha, don't worry boy, I'll have you know that I'm the strongest there is in all the worlds." Shun crossed his hand over his chest and said proudly.
"Sigh, yes, yes. Whatever you say lad. And don't call me boy, I have a name, Hisashi, don't forget it, and wait a couple minutes, I'll take you somewhere you can begin your clinic." The man said..
"Got it, also, the name's Shun." Shun said. "Hmm." The man nodded and went back to work.
Shun just sat there doing nothing, as this was relatively early, there was no one useless enough to come here drinking so it was very quiet.
As Shun was revelling in the peace and quiet, the sound of the door opening interrupted him. Turning around to have a good look at the culprit, he couldn't help but scowl a little at the sight of who came in.
"It's you, what are you doing here?" Shun asked annoyed. The person who just came in was the lady that had given him direction to this place the day before.
"What's that got to do with you?" The girl asked without even giving Shun a second look.
"Wha-?" Shun was lost for words. He didn't know what to say to that. Common sense wasn't always going to work in a place and time like this.
"Nothing, that what. Also, this is my father's." She said and walked into the counter and began cleaning the counter, that was already clean, mind you.
Shun didn't even know how to react. Most at times, living too long and not keeping in touch with the outside world could do that to you.
"Sigh. Why did you give me a wrong direction? This place isn't an inn, it's a pub. A pub." Shun asked. This question has been bugging him for quite sometime now, did he speak wrongly or something?
Inn. Pub. They were two distinctively different words with different meanings.
The girl stopped what she was doing and looked at him. "We rarely have visitors in this village so there's no inn in this village." She spoke and went back to wiping the wooden counter.
"Is that so? Still, you should have told me that yesterday." Shun siad quietly.
"I was in a hurry. Papa would have taken care of you. He's that soft." She said but Shun could feel some grievance from her.
'Was she angry her father is soft or something? No Shun, this isn't your problem,you already have a lot on your plate, this isn't your business.' Shun said to himself and decided to keep quiet.
"With that body of your, how did you manage to travel outside? I know for a fact that people who go outside rarely come back, those who come back aren't always the same, how are you able to do it?" She stopped what she was doing and asked Shun with a serious tone.
Shun didn't know where she was driving towards and decided to answer truthfully. "I'm just that strong."
They both locked eyes for a few seconds before she scoffed. "Keep your secrets then." and went back to her chore.
Shun smiled at this and said. "Every single one of us goes through life depending on and bound by our individual knowledge and awareness. And we call it reality. However, both knowledge and awareness are equivocal. One's reality might be another's illusion."
After saying that, he slumped on the counter and fell asleep. Whether the girl understood what he said was up to her. From his emotions senses, he could feel she was an adventurous type but reality had made that once sharp blade of hers blunt.
Perhaps what she's seen and heard did that to her but whether she wants to take a step into that life was up to her. Ones reality may be another's illusion after all.
There's always two sides of a coin, and life wasn't always peaches and roses.
That's the unfortunate part of this world. A pity someilike her had to born in this world in this where women are seen as just accessories to keep at home.
'Mh-hmm... What am I thinking, I don't know her story and don't want to know, better not get myself involved in something I can't finish.' Shun thought to himself as the girls seemed to be pondering on what Shun had just said.
Thankfully, before the silence could get any more uncomfortable, the back door opened and Hisashi came back to the pub.
"Oh. Tomoe, you're back." He asked in surprise at the sight of the girl.
"Mm." The girl, Tomoe nodded without looking at him.
"Sigh. Well, I'll be taking this friend here out for a minute, I'll be back before you know it. I made some food for you out back." Hisashi said with a sad expression.
"Hmm... Thank you." Tomoe nodded and said.
Shun actually felt some tender feelings blooming from her but was ruthlessly suppressed by a wave of grievances. 'Yup. Definitely a story."
"Alright then," turning to Shun, he said. "Let's get on the road friend, time waits for no man."
"Exactly as I thought Hisashi. I'll be seeing you around then, Tomoe-san." Shun greeted the young lady and proceeded to leave with the man.
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Slice of life coming up. Shun is on a journey to pick a new disciple to train to be the first Raikage. How many lives will he change for the better or worse during this short period of time.
Stay tuned to find out more.