Chapter 84: Chapter 82: I live a weird life…

The day before the academy entrance ceremony, a now-changed Homura was walking back home after going to the hairdresser and buying a book from a local shop owner, who was a gentle old lady.

But before that, he spent hours waiting at one of the local hair salons he recently discovered.

It seems that he wasn't the only one trying to get a fresh look prior to entering the academy.

Even the cheapest hair salon he could find was packed with children seemingly also trying to get a haircut.

So he had to wait quite a while before he was able to get a turn.

But to Homura, it was worth the wait.

Prior to joining the academy, he never really cared too much about his appearance however he now had a change of heart.

So he decided to change his look so that he could appear cooler, or at the very least smarter if that failed.

As they often say, first experiences usually last forever.

If he were to show up in his usual lazy/casual style, he would probably be remembered as that for the rest of his time at the academy.

So changes to his usual attires and a fresh new look were needed.

And after looking at several different possible types of haircuts, that were deemed cool by what he thought were characters that girls like with C's help, he found several that fit the profile.

In fact, only one type of haircut usually came up to mind.

Short hair that falls flat on his head. Similar to characters like R*n Amaki from the shield hero franchise.

He couldn't believe that was what girls thought was cool according to C.

He believed people that looked like that were often bully victims, and anime characters usually needed to have spiky hairstyles to be cool.

He personally favored an overall style that was more wild looking like the one that sported Gr*mmjow Jaegerjaquez from the manga he knew about death gods. 

From the clothes, he wore to his demeanor everything screamed badass to Homura.

It was his vision of what a cool guy looked like, and what he aimed to be like in the future, but living under sister Kasumi's for so long he never could do anything like that.

Once he cut the sleeves of one of his shirts and turned them into ripped sleeves and paid dearly. 

He still had nightmares of that day, since it was the first time sister Kasumi really got angry at him.

... Her terrifying smile that day was something out of a horror movie.

So even if he was free from her grasp, the trauma still remained very vividly in Homura's mind.

And it's not like he could or wanted to copy the fiendish hollow. 

The cost alone for the hair gel would be more than Homura spend on his meager allowance.

His hair was nowhere as spiky as characters such as Naruto who didn't need hair gel to achieve such a gravity-defiant hairstyle...nor did he know where to buy hair gel; but he knew that it probably existed since the world he currently found himself in, was about had almost the same level of technology as the old world, in some areas it may even surpass it.

But for some strange reason, the transportation industry was the thing that was truly lacking. 

Homura could not understand why that was the case. 

But regardless of the sad state of the transportation industry, if C's data on popularity was right, then it was right.

There was no need to argue with a supercomputer.

It hadn't stirred him wrong, for the most part, up to this very day. 

And Homura was too vain and lazy to try to find ways to come up with his own ideas, especially not after receiving C as a gift, it was literally a heaven-sent gift for an individual like Homura whose default setting is not to think things through unless there's the threat of pain involved. 

So he bought a new set of clothes and went to the hairdresser almost immediately after that and got more or less the haircut he requested.

After that was over, he went to buy a book about how to sew clothes.

Since after spending so much he was not willing to spend any more on clothes for a whole year. 

And he had no doubt that he would need that since ever since he started his shinobi training, Sister Kasumi would patch his clothes for him.

And there was no way he could barge into the orphanage and ask her to do that for him.

He knew that since he left the orphanage, they would be no different from strangers effectively. 

He knew that there were probably places that could patch his clothes for him, but that would definitely cost money and it would be much cheaper.

And if he didn't know how to do it even after reading books about it, he could just ask granny Akane to teach him since she did the same for Takao's clothes; as the boy gets hurt a lot when training. 

It didn't take him too long or have to visit too many stores to finally find what he was looking for. 

- Ha! I can't believe they actually had books like that and it was for dirt cheap too. Maybe I could try to learn a bunch of different skills this way.- said Homura while holding a book that he had just bought.

The store Homura visited and found the book he was looking for was a small store held by a very old couple. 

It was rather small and weary and they didn't seem to have too many books available to them or that Homura could read very well if almost not at all.

But after explaining what he was looking for, he found what he was looking for.

A book with almost no words, but mostly drawings about how to knit.

It seemed that not that many people knew how to read within this world, so books or scrolls with explanations on how to do certain basic things were often quite common in this world.

There were even some about how to farm or other things, which were very beneficial for Homura who planned to buy those instruction books and scrolls as soon as he could get some money to spend on them.

Homura did not know that those books were cheap because he lived in Konohagakure village.

A village that was comparatively more technologically advanced than most villages or even cities that could be found within the entire continent.

Originally books like those were very useful to a lot of villagers.

But as technology advanced and more people achieved higher education in their respective fields, professional jobs in the service industry took precedence over regular manual labor; making books such as those practically useless.

Most bookshops don't even sell books like those anymore but are more in the line of novels, philosophy books, or scientific papers.

Thus, Homura finding what he was looking for on the third try was a very lucky outcome. 

Perhaps for some weird reason, Homura has a high amount of luck when the elderly are involved.

- (What to do next? I have all that I need. Training would be pointless at this point.)

As tomorrow would be the first day at the academy, Homura was quite worried about his standing.

He was accepted into the academy, but he felt that he did not technically complete the last part of the exam. At least in the normal sense.

Naruto was the last person standing, not that it was the goal of the exam. But at this point, he hardly remembered what it was about.

- (I could try to see if I could get good at knitting could translate as my first step at working with wires... perhaps)- Huh?! what is this?

As Homura was walking he saw a letter fly by.

But before he could think about it, his curiosity got the best of him and he caught it; ignoring that it might not belong to him, and started reading the name on the envelope but he had no idea what the name or most of the contents written on it meant. 

He almost opened it but remembered that he would probably understand none of the content written in it, and opening a letter that doesn't belong or isn't addressed to him was some sort of federal crime.

Not that he knew if that was truly the truth or how exactly federal crimes were different from regular crimes.

Or if they would even matter to a minor.

But this was the shinobi world, he could get genjutsu-ed just for seeing something he wasn't meant to see, or worse, the best course of action was either to just move on or find the recipient of the letter.

Thus Homura started to look around him until he found who the owner of the letter was but he couldn't really tell.

But while looking he saw a man wearing a strange dark green outfit, seemingly walking in a tired manner, and with a rather big satchel with letters sticking out to him.

Homura didn't know if he was the owner of the letter he caught, but better if it become his problem than his.

So a shameless Homura ran towards the man while calling out to him. 

- Hey! Wait up! You dropped this letter! 

- (Failure. I am such a huge failure, no wonder Ana-chan got engaged to the village's local butcher instead of a failure such as myself. I lost the most important letter I was tasked to deliver...it won't end up with me just getting fired.)(???)

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But before the man could go down the spiral abyss that any blue-collar worker who had messed up at their assigned task could delve into, he heard the voice of a child yelling about a letter.

- Eh? A letter?- Ah! - The man wearing strange clothes and a pair of goggles started panicking and checking out his satchel till he realized that some of the mail was sticking out of the bag in question.

  - *heavy breathing*... Your letter! Here! (Just take it already! I can't be caught with this cr*p! I don't know how to erase sent without having to drop it into a bucket of water or in the mud)- Said a tired and stressed-out Homura who was internally debating how to get rid of potential evidence.

He could forge a letter without really knowing what it meant if push comes to shove but he'd rather not have to do so, and if he was caught then he'd be in real trouble.

So this was his last chance.

Or worse, having to give it to a sucker who didn't know any better, that he could use and push all the blame to, like Naruto.

In fact, Naruto is the only person whom he knew that would definitely work on since to Homura he was quite gullible and dimwitted but above all else, he didn't know how to read either.

So it was quite a gamble. 

Even though a normal person would simply handle it to the post office, but that thought never occurred to Homura who valued his self-preservation above all else... At least when he is sound of mind.

-  That letter!- the man started to panic as he recognized the letter Homura was trying to hand over to him.

- ??? O-ok. (Wait?! So it really belongs to him? Jeeze I am lucky! And so is Naruto.)- Homura could not believe that the man seemed to recognize the seemingly worthless letter Homura was trying to desperately get rid of.

The man immediately put the letter back inside his bag so as to not lose it again.

- Thank you, young man. You have this courier ninja's eternal gratitude and debt.- said the man who then bowed slightly to Homura.

- W-what's a c-courier-! Wait you're a ninja?! (... he really doesn't look like one. more like a weird office blue-collar worker. But I guess there are all types of weirdos out there.)

- Not a normal ninja. A ninja courier.(???)

- I see... That makes sense. *Nod* *nod* (I still have no idea what he said.)- So said Homura as he nodded to affirm that he understood what had just been revealed to him. 

- Man, I can't believe I almost made such a mess. (Courier Ninja)

- Why is that? Is it that important?- said a slightly disinterested Homura.

There was no money inside, he checked, so it was worthless to him.

- If I had lost this letter our reputation would forever be tarnished.(Courier Ninja)

- Oh! So you are a fighter!- exclaimed Homura as he finally thought that he understood what the word courier meant.

- No, no, no. Us courier ninjas, are the ones that studied the ninja arts and chose to apply ourselves to risk our lives to deliver goods to our trusted customers.(Courier Ninja)

- So, you are a glorified mailman? (I guess if ninja cops are a thing...ninja mailmen aren't a stretch too far... are there ninja chefs too? Or ninja lawyers? How would that work?)

Homura didn't what the courier meant but he now thought it had something to do with mail.

- Courier ninjas are not mailmen! Courier ninjas are a part of our world history. Even before the warring ages. It is a noble and law-abiding profession.(Courier Ninja)

- Hm... (did normal mailmen, not exist back then? )

In Homura's mind, the warring state period was a blood bath. So normal mailmen probably would quit their jobs if they risked getting killed for passing on possible sensitive information.

- Us courier ninjas follow the path of a noble profession and are willing to risk our very own lives in the line of duty in order that we can help maintain order in our society...a-and I failed to make it in time- What a shame...Uuuuhh- The man crouched in the middle of the street just as a dark cloud was forming over his head due to a perceived past event that he recalled.

A panicked Homura didn't know what to do or react.

A grown man just crouched in front of him in a depressive mood, he thought about leaving due to how weird the entire situation, but he also felt bad since he was probably going to destroy the letter the man in front of him if he didn't find him in time.

- D-dude cheer up! I'm sure you can do something! That's right! Pigeons! I heard that mail is delivered by pigeons or birds, maybe you can find someone who owns a pigeon and deliver it for you.

-... It is not how it works... besides that would be a breach of protocol and trust.(Courier Ninja)

- Ok...(Well I tried.)

But as Homura was about to leave the courier ninja, got up and dusted his clothes. 

To the surprise of Homura, who was thinking of ways to leave.

- Well, I guess I should move on and face the music like any proud courier ninja.(Courier Ninja)

- (So serious, maybe I misjudged courier ninjas)... Are you feeling alright- said Homura with a worried look. 

- No. But is my duty to also pay for my shortcomings. It is quite unsightly of me to have worried and bothered my life savior's with my own inadequacies.(Courier Ninja)

- Savior is a bit much.(indeed...but I do like the sound of it...  )

- No, no, no. That much is true. The letter I had lost was quite important. In fact, to thank you for your help, you can go to Konoha's postal office and say that 695-06 has allowed you have your next mail order to delivered anywhere in the land of fire. (Courier Ninja)

- Free of charge?

- Of course.(Courier Ninja)

- Really? thanks! (I don't know anyone that lives outside Konoha. )

- No problem. But remember it is 695-06.(Courier Ninja)

- What is that? Some sort of code? Do I need to use it prior to getting my delivery?

- No, Nothing like that it is who I am.- said the man while striking a proud militaristic pose. His salute was so natural that he had to have rehearsed those movements many times until they felt like second nature.(Courier Ninja)

- I see. thank you. (...I am not going to dig any further... but regardless of that, it is simply bad business and a bad policy to have.)

Homura didn't want to dig any further than he needed. 

But something did strike Homura the wrong way.

Why was the man in front of him giving him so much for retrieving a letter?

Delivering mail anywhere in the land of fire was probably not cheap.

If Homura didn't want to ponder on these questions forever he'd need to get some answers. 

So as the courier ninja handed Homura his business card, containing his name (seemingly), he took the opportunity to ask the question he was itching to ask.

- The letter I found, was it for the Hokage?

- EH? I-I mean no it wasn't! *cough* *cough* It was just a regular letter! But a courier ninja never tells who his clients are! hahahahaha- The man tried to cover his obvious lie.

- (Wait I was right?! If it is an important letter, so... it can only be from the Daimyo's family or perhaps even from other villages) So the letter must be from the Daimy-!

- Oh! Look at the time, I have to go! Thank you for everything young man.(Courier Ninja)

The man pretend to check his non-existing watch and act flustered before he left running full speed. 

Leaving Homura alone in the middle of a not-so-busy street. 

-...He's gone. He's fast... definitely a ninja...(I was going to ask if it was a letter from that rich cat lady who might be the daimyo's wife or relative...but that may not have been the case? He ran even before I finished saying the word "daimyo".)

What had transpired felt almost like a dream, he could not believe that the man in front of him cried, and left running in the span of 2 minutes.

If it wasn't for the fact that he had the business card the courier ninja gave him, he'd have doubted that he had in his arm a letter meant for the Hokage from possibly the ruler of their land.

He couldn't believe the chain of events that led to that.

So Homura was stunned at how great or bad his luck was overall.

-...I live a pretty weird life...

 Chapter end.

 

Happy new years everyone. 

So double chapter

Next chapter Academy arc starts! 

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