Chapter 2: Spell (Ch 2)

When I opened the door of my own shop, a familiar scent of wood mixed with the smell of tung oil hit me in the face.
Mo Ze hung up the “Closed” sign by the door and walked into the inner room with some snacks.
The interior of the shop was completely different from the common puppet shops in the Sand Village, which were filled with a solemn and murderous atmosphere.
There are no ferocious fighting puppets hanging here, but instead rows of shelves displaying various small and exquisite puppets.
There are wooden birds spreading their wings as if ready to fly, with their feathers carved with great detail; there are adorable wooden dogs with their tails slightly cocked, as if they are about to start shaking at the next moment; there are even puppets in the shape of aristocratic men and women dressed in gorgeous costumes, with vivid expressions and elegant postures.
Compared to those battle puppets that appear rough or even terrifying in pursuit of ultimate lethality, Moze and other little things are more like works of art and are extremely popular among the women and children of the Sand Village.
This is another important and even more stable source of income for him besides directly supplying raw materials to Scorpion.
After confirming that he did not have the talent to become a top-notch warrior, Moze decisively abandoned the mainstream pragmatism in the ninja world.
Instead of working hard in an area you are not good at, it is better to do something you really like and can make money.
Therefore, these things, which were called “figures” in his previous life, became one of his main businesses.
Seeing these little things I made by hand being loved by others brings me a great sense of satisfaction.
Although he had already prepared to leave, he still needed careful planning to avoid being treated as a traitor or a spy.
Moze placed the snacks on the small table and made himself a pot of hot tea.
The tea aroma is wafting and the dim sum is exquisite.
He leaned back in his chair, savoring the happiness brought by the dessert while reviewing the details of his escape in his mind.
How to convert funds, how to plan routes, which small neutral country has the best scenery, the most suitable prices, and the most beautiful women…
Just as he was immersed in his imagination of a leisurely life in the future, suddenly, he was hit by a strong feeling of dizziness.
The scene before my eyes began to distort and blur, and my consciousness seemed to be dragged into the abyss by an invisible hand, sinking rapidly.
In just a moment, everything around changed.
He found himself in an endless dark space. There was no concept of up, down, left, or right. There was only absolute silence and nothingness. There were only a few faint lights scattered in the distance, like unreachable stars.
The only thing that was clearly visible in this void was an unimaginably huge round stone table. The surface of the stone table was simple and plain, and was engraved with incomprehensible and complex patterns.
Above the table, there are twelve patterned areas suspended, two of which are emitting a soft but clear light.
Mo Ze looked carefully and saw two glowing patterns, one was a “rat” and the other was a “cow”.
“Rat…Ox?” Mo Ze frowned. These two patterns gave him an inexplicable sense of familiarity, as if he had seen them somewhere, but he couldn’t remember where.
“Where exactly is this place?” He became alert and was secretly on guard.
At this moment, a loud sound like thunder exploded in his ears without warning, making his eardrums buzz.
“Wow! Finally there’s a new person! I knew I wasn’t alone!”
Mo Ze’s heart skipped a beat and he looked in the direction of the sound.
In the darkness not far away, a figure accompanied by a sound quickly condensed from blurry light and shadow and became clear.
He stared at the gradually emerging figure vigilantly, ready to deal with any emergency at any time.
However, when he saw the visitor’s appearance clearly, all his vigilance and precautions were instantly overwhelmed by great surprise, and his eyes widened involuntarily.
“Fuck!”
Almost at the same time, the figure that had just solidified on the opposite side also uttered an exclamation with exactly the same content.
“Fuck!”
Mo Ze looked at the man in front of him and had an extremely absurd feeling, as if he was looking in a mirror.
The facial features are almost exactly the same as his!
The only difference was that the other person looked much more mature, like he was about twenty years old. He had lost his youthfulness and became more stable.
The two of them stared at each other, and the air seemed to freeze.
After a moment of dead silence, the more mature “Moze” spoke first, his voice trembling with disbelief: “Moze?”
Mo Ze subconsciously asked back: “You too?”
As soon as the words came out, the two fell silent again.
But this time, a thought clearly emerged in the minds of the two “Mozes” at the same time.
Crossing the stream at the same time?!
“I thought it was my own cheat that updated, but after all this time I’ve become someone else’s cheat?” The more mature Mo Ze rubbed his temples, his tone was slightly unhappy, but more of a kind of helplessness that was used to it, “Well, it looks like I got taken advantage of this time.”
He looked up and down at Hokage Moze and clicked his tongue twice: “Tsk, considering your age, you must have just been wearing it for a short time? You’re lucky to be able to take advantage of the senior as soon as you get here.”
The corner of Hokage Moze’s mouth twitched. He was just thinking about how to escape, but in the blink of an eye, he met another himself and became what the other party called a “freeloader”?
What is going on?
However, he quickly adjusted himself. After all, it was him, so what was there to be unacceptable? He spread his hands and said, “We are friends, there is no point in arguing about this. But you, why is your voice like thunder?”
“I’m used to it! Where I am, if I don’t speak loudly, no one can hear me!” The pirate Moze patted his chest, his voice still loud, “I’m in the world of One Piece. I communicate with a bunch of idiots on the sea every day. If I don’t speak loudly, I can’t hear you! How about you?”
“The world of One Piece…that’s really…not surprising at all.” Hokage Moze twitched the corner of his mouth and couldn’t help but complain.
As for the classic package, the Sea of ​​Death and Fire, the three designated destinations for time travelers, those who understand will understand.
“I’m from the Naruto world, and I opened a puppet shop in the Sand Village.” Hokage Moze rubbed his forehead, feeling that the loud voice just now made him a little buzzing. “I mainly make some exquisite things, you know, the kind that girls like more. But the village is about to fight the Third Ninja World War, and the situation is very tense. I’m just thinking about how to pack up my belongings and run away.”
“Oh? Sand Village? Puppet master?” Pirate Moze stroked his chin, his eyes brightened, “It’s quite technical. Unlike my place, where we just use fists, swords, and all kinds of weird fruit abilities every day.”
He paused, as if remembering something, and grinned: “But running away, I’m familiar with this. It’s not easy to find a quiet place on the sea. There are navy and pirates everywhere, as well as various monsters. Running away… shouldn’t be that exaggerated, right? Find a remote small country to hide in?”
“That’s the theory.” Hokage Moser sighed, “But the problem is the identity. I’m an outsider with no roots and suddenly disappeared during the war. It’s easy for me to be mistaken for a spy from another village or a traitor. Those who deal with intelligence and assassination have very sharp noses.”
“Let’s not talk about this for now.”
Hokage Moze’s eyes swept across the endless darkness, and finally landed on the disproportionately large round table and the only two tiny lights on the table: “You came here first, what’s going on here? This table, these glowing things…”
The pirate Moze scratched the back of his head, revealing a rare look of distress that didn’t quite match his slightly mature face. Even a little… silly?
“Oh, well… don’t ask me anything too complicated. My brain makes a clanging sound whenever I use it. Ever since I went there, I’ve been either swinging fists or drinking rum at parties every day. I’ve probably fed my brain to sharks. I can’t explain the principles or anything like that.”
He pointed at the light on the table, and his tone was quite affirmative. “But the key should be these glowing things – the talismans.”
He paused, then added, as if to emphasize, “Although I don’t understand why it appears here, it is definitely a good thing, there is no doubt about it!”
“Talisman?” Hokage Mo Ze was slightly startled. These two words were like a key that instantly opened a corner of his memory.
He looked at the two glowing patterns again – a sturdy bull head and a lively rat shape.
No wonder it looked familiar just now!
Aren’t these the twelve talismans from the cartoon… “The Adventures of Jackie Chan”? !
Pirate Moze saw that Hokage Moze had reacted, so he continued: “It seems that we each correspond to one. I came first, and it corresponds to the Bull Talisman.”
He pointed at the bull head pattern and said, “It was the only one that was lit before. Now the mouse pattern is also lit, so it must be yours.”
“Rat Charm…” Hokage Moze muttered to himself, his eyes fixed on the small rat-shaped pattern.
Rat, the magical power to turn stillness into movement!
Turn stillness into movement… Turn stillness into movement!
Hokage Moze’s breathing suddenly stagnated and his heart began to beat uncontrollably faster.
He subconsciously looked at his hands – those were the hands famous for making exquisite puppets.
The foundation of his livelihood in the Sand Village are those lifelike puppets.
His greatest hobby is to give life to dead things.
Although the ‘figures’ he made were more of works of art and lacked actual combat capabilities, what if… what if he could make them truly ‘move’?
Giving life and movement to inanimate objects… this is an ability tailor-made for him!
If he used this ability, wouldn’t his ‘collections’ become unexpected helpers? Wouldn’t it greatly increase his safety when he was on the run? Even…
In an instant, countless novel ideas about puppets flooded into his mind, making his heart, which had originally only been thinking about how to escape safely, become hot.
This is much more interesting than just running away!