Flames of the Heart – 04

"What do you know? This is a nice place," Naruto said, standing butt naked on top of a frozen cliff side as a small flame floated nearby.

The ice had managed to suppress his passive thermal radiation somewhat, allowing him to touch thing he wouldn't able to before.

For the first time, Naruto felt somewhat normal aside from being indecent and unfazed by the cold climate.

"I've changed my mind! I hate this place!" the floating ball of fire sneered.

Unlike Naruto, its body had decreased in size because of the cold climate and icy surrounding.

The freezing atmosphere continued to decrease the temperature of its body, forcing it to condense to a more manageable size.

"Already? We have only been here for like ten minutes," Naruto told the wisp, quirking his eyebrow a little.

The wisp was floating as close to Naruto as possible, leeching off as much from the source to keep its form intact or it would die.

"It was a lot more fun when I thought about it," Kurama said, leaving a trail of embers behind in his orbit around the blond.

The descending embers quickly dissipated in the air long before it could touch the ground.

"Well, let's go see what this place has to offer. But first thing first, I need a set of clothes. I can't walk around here like this or I will get arrested!" Naruto said, looking around and checked for anything that was out of place in the frozen wood.

If there was a road here, it must have been covered by snow.

A cabin stood out nearby as the blond walked slowly toward it, leaving a deep foot print.

That isn't possible considering his body weight.

"Wandering Oaken's Trading Post," Naruto read the bill board out loud.

"…and Sauna?"

He added as his eyes noticed a small wooden board connected to the right and bottom of a bigger one.

"Yoo-Ho… did you just wander around outside without any clothes on?" a very broad shoulder man called out.

He was possibly standing behind a counter as he noticed Naruto, who was completely naked.

The store owner had a strange expression while eyeing the boy.

"If I say yes, would you believe me?" Naruto answered with a sceptical question since he didn't need a reply to that.

"Why do only the crazies shop here?" the owner muttered to himself, but Naruto decided to ignore that.

"I actually got robbed and need a new set of cloth," Naruto lied.

No one really believed the clothes he wore get incinerated by his power. It happened all the time.

"That will be in our winter department," Oaken said, indicating one side of the wall with only a wooden chair and a pair of snowshoes.

The owner had a smile on causing Naruto to sweat dropped.

Naruto wondered if there was something right with this person.

'Who's the crazy one now?' Kurama thought, floating around nearby but the owner didn't seem to pay any attention to the wisp.

"It's a supply and demand problem," the owner said after noticing the blond's face.

Oaken still had his greeting smile on while tapping his fingers together.

"Isn't it winter here? There should be a lot of demands, and that's more like zero supply," Naruto joked, pointing at the wall as the owner nodded in agreement causing him to sweat a bit more.

"Is this guy alright?" Kurama whispered into Naruto ears, but boy just shrugged.

The flames incarnated felt that the sauna's heat level was dropping steadily through his ability and decided to offer heating it up through his ability in exchange for a used set of cloth after seeing that he had no money on him.

"Yah, quite a lot of people heading through here to North Mountain today," Oaken said, giving Naruto a used set of cloth.

The blond was shocked how big Oaken was and realized the owner was sitting down behind the counter instead of standing upright.

"The North Mountain? Maybe it's a good place to check out. How many people went by?"

Naruto asked while dressing himself in slight ragged peasant clothes.

Naruto could feel his temperature rising slowly but steadily even if he was trying his best to suppress them.

He would need to go back outside soon and allowed the cold air to cool him off or his new set of cloth will be destroyed.

"Yah, two, one girl, one boy went this way yesterday. Four now, including you and your little floating flame pet," Oaken said nonchalantly.

Kurama smirked as he was acknowledged for the first time since entering this shop.

"That was a lot?" Naruto deadpanned. He was not expecting an answer for that.

"Yah, most days I don't have any customers at all, so two a day is fairly good. I'm not complaining,"

Oaken replied causing the blond to face palmed as he exited the store.