Chapter 107: Exam Holiday
The next morning, Souta awoke from his sleep. He blinked, looking around the room for a moment before finally letting out a long yawn. Sunlight seeped in through the thin gaps of the curtains, gradually brightening his small apartment room.
Morning in Sunagakure was usually dry and warm. The desert winds often carried fine grains of sand that clung stubbornly to the glass windows. The air inside the room felt a little stuffy, though a faint breeze managed to slip in through the cracks of the wooden frame, bringing with it a thin breath of freshness—just enough to make Souta's body feel less heavy when rising from bed.
Warm steam drifted slowly from Souta's breath. He stretched his arms high, arching his back, joints cracking faintly—tiny pops that marked his body shedding the fatigue that had settled from a long night's sleep.
Today was Saturday, the sixth day of the graduation exam. In other words, a rest day for Souta. However, for students who had scored poorly on the fifth day—or yesterday—it was mandatory to attend and retake the test.
The thought made Souta smile faintly, recalling how some students' faces had turned gloomy and regretful the previous day when the exam results were announced.
He could easily imagine those same students this morning, rushing nervously to the Academy, faces tight with tension, hands trembling as they clutched the final scrolls of notes they had stayed up all night trying to memorize.
For Souta and the students who had achieved good results on the fifth day, however, today was a holiday. They were free to rest at home.
Relief wrapped around Souta's heart, for at the very least, he could breathe easily for a whole day before facing the final test. He knew not everyone had this privilege, and that knowledge left him feeling just a little luckier than most.
All he had to do was show up tomorrow—the seventh day—for the interview. The thought of that interview rose in his mind, making his chest beat a little faster.
He pictured the Academy instructors, perhaps even the Kazekage himself, seated across from him, their eyes sharp with judgment, questions ready on their tongues—questions that could very well decide his future as a ninja. Yet Souta calmed himself with the reminder that today was his one and only chance to rest as much as he could.
His gaze wandered across the room. After years of living in the world of Naruto—the ninja world—in Sunagakure, Souta had grown used to life here. His apartment had also changed a great deal. Once upon a time, the room had been bare, cold, and dry, furnished with nothing more than a makeshift bed and a thin cloth to cover himself.
Now, slowly but surely, it had become a comfortable private space. On the walls lingered faint scratches from papers he had once tacked up for practice. A thin carpet he had bought at the market lay on the floor, though its colors had already begun to fade under the constant assault of desert dust.
Ever since Souta had gotten a job as a cleaner at the Puppet Arts Theater, his financial situation had improved enough for him to buy things that made life more comfortable. His pay wasn't large, but it was steady, and it was enough.
He still vividly remembered how happy he had been the very first time he received a decent amount of payment. That feeling had been more than just joy—it had been proof, a validation, that he was truly becoming part of this world.
Take his bedroom, for instance. Now he had a wooden desk and a sturdy chair for studying, along with a bookshelf crafted from wood.
The desk surface was cluttered with ink-stained notebooks, scrolls unrolled here and there, and a few bamboo pens scattered carelessly. The bookshelf held a mix of study journals, novels, and several scrolls bearing puppet design sketches.
And perhaps the greatest luxury of all: Souta now owned a mattress made of foam!
It wasn't the highest quality mattress by any means, but it was more than enough. At the very least, he no longer had to sleep on a bed of sand with nothing but a thin cloth spread over it.
...
Chapter 108: Souta's Lifestyle Improvement
The bed felt entirely different—soft, yet holding a faint firmness, as though it supported his body just right. Even so, its comfort was far superior compared to sleeping on a blanket spread over the desert sand. Besides the bed, Souta now also had a pillow to rest his head on, as well as a bolster that added warmth and comfort.
Every time Souta buried his face into the pillow, the faint scent of cloth washed simply with market soap gave him a sense of calm, a small reassurance in an otherwise harsh desert world.
In addition to that, Souta had also successfully crafted Wooden Puppets, at least ten of them so far, made in varying sizes, with different shapes and functions.
The puppets now lined up neatly in the corner of the room. Some were shaped like small humans, others resembled animals, while a few looked like abstract statues whose meaning could only be guessed.
The wood Souta used was sometimes still rough, but each puppet displayed a noticeable growth in his craftsmanship. One puppet had faint red paint smeared across its face, another remained bare and plain, while others had complicated joints fitted with care.
Although Souta was not yet able to create Wooden Puppets that could move on their own, he had reached the point where he could control two puppets simultaneously with both hands!
His hand movements were becoming more agile, and the chakra threads extending from his fingers could connect with two puppets at once. For Souta, this was a huge milestone—simple though it might seem, it was at least one step closer to the world of puppet artistry unique to Sunagakure.
Beyond all that, Souta had also purchased several daily necessities for his apartment room.
Simple kitchen tools, a clay water container, and thick cloths to cover the windows from desert dust were now in place. These small things made his life far more comfortable—it no longer felt like mere survival.
It was known that Souta's apartment room had been provided by the government of Sunagakure Village, since Souta was an orphan. That was the reason the village granted him a place to live.
However, once Souta bought a new house, this apartment would be returned, or rather reclaimed, by the government of Sunagakure.
That thought sometimes brought him a sense of uncertainty, as though his current residence was only temporary. Yet for Souta, this small room was home—the place where he grew, learned, and began to carve his own path.
Souta had grown taller now, since the first time he had been transferred into the world of Naruto, the world of shinobi.
Moreover, Souta had managed to accumulate a decent amount of money. Apart from working as a cleaner at the Puppet Performance Theater Hall, Souta was now also a novelist.
A small mirror in the corner of the room reflected the figure of Souta, who had changed considerably: his shoulders were broader, his face appeared sharper and more defined, though he was still young.
Yes! Souta had now become a fairly well-known novelist, writing under the pen name Yūrei Sakka, which meant "ghost writer." The name carried a mysterious tone, sparking readers' curiosity about who the person behind these stories truly was.
Why had his novel become popular? That was because Souta had directly copied the story of Naruto—yes! Souta had truly taken Naruto's story, altering a few things here and there, yet most of it still felt very close to the original. The characters' names, their home villages, and several other details were changed, similar but never identical.
In his version, Souta chose to make Gaara the main character, though with some modifications. Unexpectedly, the story turned out to be popular, not only within Sunagakure Village, but throughout the entire Land of Wind.
Readers talked about the story at the marketplace, in teahouses, and even along the streets. Children often reenacted scenes from it, while adults discussed the hidden meanings behind each chapter.
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