Rise of Artifice Rewrite
Prologue
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Magic: the gathering in any way shape or form.
AN: Hello everybody, yes as you can see I have rewritten RoA and I am much happier with this first chapter/Prologue than I was with the original. This one ties up a lot of questions that could have been asked for the original that I just decided to gloss over instead of answering as well as sets up the plot line better. I will be updating my stories more often so no more months without a peep out of me 'YAY', I will be posting at least one or two chapters every Wednesday/Thursday.
So read, enjoy, and review!
Heat poured into the large workshop as the main forge roared viciously, the intense flames caused the reinforced metal walls of the forge to glow bright red. A small blond boy around the age of 10 smiled brightly as two hulking creatures made of metal fed the flames, and a lone lithe metal figure stood at the immense forges center methodically hammering away at an anvil shaped workstation.
Looking down, the boy gazed over the sketches and drawings that had come to him in dreams of the past few weeks. The dream had always been the same, he was rotating around a single ring made of a pure undiluted gold metal sitting on a stone forge, that was capable of bringing immense power to the wearer. His first attempt of making the ring had failed spectacularly, it wasn't until after his fifth attempt that he realized what was wrong.
In each dream he had carelessly disregarded the bright shining light that was held in the center of the ring, a light that gave the ring its immense power, the light of a star. it had taken him a week to design a forge that would hold the heat and power a star could put out and another week to get it constructed. The forge would bare the flames until they would reach the peek of their intended temperature, then his chakra and the strange energy he discovered by accident would act as a catalyst to recreate a star for the ring to capture and hold.
The child was truly grateful to accidentally stumble upon the odd energy that he had yet to name, it acted very different from chakra and was twice as volatile. When the boy had set out to unlock his chakra he had also felt a separate energy within himself, where chakra acted like a thick viscous liquid this other energy acted like air or fire and unlike chakra which could only be felt in living thing the strange energy could be felt in absolutely everything around him.
A tapping on his shoulder brought the boy out of his musing as a Metalworker tried to grab his attention.
"Is it time?" The large metal construct nodded and motioned for the blond to follow him down to the production floor. He followed the Metalworker up to a chamber that sat parallel to the forge, the chamber itself was large enough to fit the blonde and maybe a few others of his size. It may of seemed small to people that didn't know its purpose but for what the blond needed it was perfect.
Sitting at the center he took a meditative position and took a deep breath as he heard the two Metalworkers work to seal the chamber so it wouldn't bleed off any energy to anywhere but the forge. Closing his eyes the boy mentally reached inside himself and grasped his chakra firmly before setting off to find his energy. unlike where he housed his chakra which felt like a stream, the other energy felt like a large bubble with two tubes leading out of it, one to let the energy out and the other to let more in.
As the Naruto grabbed the energy, the inside of the chamber around him became a hurricane of blue and silver. The Metalworkers moved over to the tubes that connected the chamber and the forge and twisted the valve open causing the energy to go the only place it could, into the forge. The complex shook as the fire and the energy concoction meet causing an explosion, the Metalworkers held the walls to keep from being knocked prone before grabbing the valves to the tubes and closed them. Rushing to the chamber the Metalworkers opened the structure to let out the boy, Naruto stared at the small star he had created inside the forge in awe as he approached with his arms outstretched as he chanted the words that had haunted his dreams.
"Distant star, sun of worlds I bind thee. Power immense, power unending I control thee. Essence so pure, essence so true I made thee. Distant sun to this world I bring, with essence so pure and power unending. I bind you Sol Ring." As he spoke and approached the open forge, the miniature sun shrank and condensed until it was one tenth of the size of the gold ring that had floated up and slid over it until the tiny sun sat in the center of the ring. Naruto gazed upon his creation with wide eyes as he cradled it in his hand, as though a single breeze would reduce it to dust.
"We've done it!" The boy finally cheered and held the small artifact above his head for the two Metalworkers and the Assembly-Worker, that had been hammering the golden ring inside forge, to see. The aforementioned metal constructs clapped loudly at their creator's happiness.
"With this we can expand the complex, and make more of you guys to lighten the load." Naruto babbled happily before swaying back and forth causing the Metalworkers to burst into action to keep him from falling.
"Hehehe, It's alright guys that just took a little more out of me than we'd predicted…" Naruto trailed off as he slowly started to lose consciousness, "t-take me to Tsunade-baachan, f-fast."
One of the Metalworkers brought the boy into his arms as his skin slowly paled, the Sol Ring still clutched in his hand like a lifeline.
/\/\/\/\/\
Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Minato sat in the hokage's office, both Jiraiya and Minato looked solemn while Tsunade looked somewhere between angry and downright furious.
"Are you sure about this Minato?" Jiraiya asked as his blond student finished the last paper of a small stack.
"Yes sensei, while I don't really want for Naruto be pushed to the side, his sister holds that damnable beast and will need the protection an heirship will provide. Add to that the prophecy, and my decision becomes much more correct." Minato stated, while trying to think of how he was going to explain this to his wife.
"But I also said not to read too far into the prophecy, it may not even come to pass within this century," Jiraiya roared, "also you're basing this on the fact that Naruto hasn't found his niche when it comes to the ninja arts yet while Kasumi is showing proficiency in Ninjutsu because of her large chakra reserves."
Looking over at Tsunade, the blond Hokage almost recoiled at the apocalyptic look on the female sannin's face.
"Is there you would like to say Tsunade?"
"Yes I-." The woman was interrupted as an ANBU with gravity defying silver hair franticly burst into the room.
"Hokage-sama, a large metal monstrosity is marching this way with Naruto in its arms." The blond medic was out of her seat and out the window as soon as the words 'metal monstrosity' passed the man's lips, Minato and Jiraiya following right behind her.
\/\/\/\/\/
The Metalworker looked wildly around Konoha's village center not caring about the citizens running away in abject terror from it. Its 'eyes' finally came to a rest on the blonde medic rushing towards it. Kneeling down so Tsunade could check on the his young blond charge, it absentmindedly brushed away the older male blonde with the spinning ball of blue energy in his hand.
'What did master call it, catra? Hmm, figure it out later.' The Metalworker mused before focusing on the problem at hand.
"Minato, knock it off and get over here your son needs you." Tsunade barked out at the hokage.
"B-but the creature?!" He stuttered as he and Jiraiya watched the metal construct warily.
"It's one of Naruto's creations, now get your ass over here your son is losing chakra at an accelerated rate and I'm going to need you to get him to the hospital. Jiraiya, the Metalworker, and I will be right behind you." Minato nodded and Hirashined away with Naruto in his arms.
"Now what the hell was he working on this time?" Tsunade asked the Metalworker causing it to make various hand gestures as the group of three rushed to the hospital.
"Lots of energy, miniature sun, immense power? The hell kind of thing did he see in his dreams this time?" Tsunade questioned only to get a shrug in response from the metal creature.
"You can understand that thing?" Jiraiya asked shocked as he looked back and forth between it and Tsunade.
"Somewhat, you know when Naruto goes missing for weeks at a time and shows up sporadically?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"He's built a complex of sorts somewhere near Konoha, where he, two of these things," she pointed at the Metalworker, "and another thing work on things he sees in his dreams."
"... That's not vague at all."
"I promised I wouldn't tell anyone where it is or what he's working on as long as he checks in with me to make sure he's okay."
"So in other words, something has gone wrong."
"Very."
/\/\/\/\/\
Naruto felt groggy and sore as he slowly regained consciousness, the white ceiling and smell of antiseptic gave away his location. His two Metalworkers stood as sentries next to the door, as they noticed him wake the one on the left of the door knocked on it. After a few minutes Tsunade entered the room followed by his father and Jiraiya, Minato looked like he wanted to cry with Jiraiya not far behind him.
"Hey Tsunade-baachan, sorry for not waiting for you to get there but I was really excited to get started so… sorry." Naruto said while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly only to look around franticly trying to find the Sol Ring only to notice in Tsunade's hand.
"What the hell is it." Tsunade asked as she handed it to him.
"It's a Sol Ring, it'll let me use the that energy I found even easier." Naruto said.
"Naruto, I didn't ask what it did, I asked what is it?"
"... Isn't that the same thing?" at seeing her glare he quickly continued, "it's a miniature sun bound to the center of the purest golden ring on the planet."
"M-miniature sun?!" Jiraiya exclaimed.
"Yeah, and it was a pain and a half just to get it to form."
"Well I hope it was worth it." Tsunade said gravely.
"What are you on about now baachan?" Naruto asked, his ever present smile gaining a hint of confusion in its look. Not being able to tell the boy, the blond medic handed him the chart under her arm. Her hands were shaking as he took the chart and she awaited his reaction. Minato on the other hand had turned away so as not to see his son's expression.
As the boy read the report his expression changed from confusion, to wide-eyed horror, then back to confusion, and finally settled on deep thought.
"You alright there kid?" Jiraiya asked, the white haired sannin felt slightly worried on the inside as he saw that expression. It damn near matched the one his pale ex-teammate used to have when he found something new to research.
"Baachan, yo-you double checked this right?" Naruto asked, his eyes moving from the chart to the woman's face.
"Yes, I even went as far as to triple check it." She replied.
"Hmm, well this is interesting, his eyes scanned the papers again before sighing, "so your saying…"
"I'm saying that your chakra coils have burnt out to the point that they can't produce anymore chakra." Naruto stared numbly at the blond woman, his eyes seemed to gaze through her rather than at her.
"Naruto, a-are you okay?" She asked softly, moments pass before the boy moves to hold his right hand in front of his chest, palm upward. His face is set with deep concentration as the silver energy from the chamber started to seep from his skin and coalesced much like a second skin.
"I-I'm not sure, I feel like I've lost a part of me and I want- no need to feel sad but at the same time, I can still use this strange new energy and just knowing that is making me feel… okay, I guess?" The small blonds reply didn't ease any of the adults guilty consciences.
"Well if you're sure then we should get you cleaned up and dressed for you and your sister's birthday-" Minato's voice drifted off as Naruto's eyes shot to his.
"Birthday? But it's only September 21st?" The boy exclaimed.
"Uh, you've been asleep for two and half weeks buddy, gave us a right scare you did." Jiraiya said chuckling trying to lighten mood but didn't do much.
\/\/\/\/\/
Naruto sat at the back of the crowd that currently inhabited his family's living room, from one corner of the room to the other people laughed and played. The adults traded stories and jokes while the children ran around and played.
"Not enjoying the crowd?" An even monotonous voice asked from behind the boy, turning around Naruto took in the appearance of the oldest Uchiha heir.
"I've… I haven't had the best day, so I don't really feel like being around people." Itachi nodded as he took a seat next to the boy on the back porch.
"So those metal creatures-"
"There called Metalworkers, I built both of them from scratch after their design came to me in a dream."
"... Sounds like a very weird dream." Itachi stated as he watched the two Metalworkers slowly prune one of the larger trees in the backyard.
"Tell me about it, I unlock my chakra, find out I can use this weird energy and the next thing I know I'm having dreams about metal constructs that have some connections said energy… sometimes I just feel like i'm fates'-" Naruto was cut off as his father stood and grabbed everyone's attention.
"Hello everyone, thank you for coming to my children's birthday tonight. Now before we cut cake and hand out presents I have an announcement to make," Minato took deep breath as he ushered Naruto and Kasumi over to him before putting his hands on their shoulders, "Now as a few of you know, Naruto here was in an accident that has left him without the ability to make chakra."
At this admission almost everyone's head swiveled to look at the boy like he was on display at a zoo. Kushina stared at him for a moment before looking to Tsunade, then Jiraiya, and finally settling on her husband.
"But he is able to use a different kind of energy, the two creatures in the garden are products of this energy apparently," the adult blond gestured to the Metalworkers still working on the tree, "however because of this, a decision I made awhile back has become justified. Naruto due to certain circumstances and your inability to channel chakra I'm removing you from being heir to the Namikaze-Uzumaki name and that responsibility shall fall to your sister. Now-"
Naruto had stopped listening as the the world around him had gone numb like it had earlier when he had been told he couldn't use chakra any more. 'I-I got to get back to the forge.' he thought to himself as he wrenched his shoulder from his father grasp and he ran to the back porch.
Choji's father, Choza, went to grab the boy only for a Metalworker to move between him and Naruto as he disappeared down the street towards the forge.
/\/\/\/\/\
"How, how could they do this, especially today?" Naruto cried as he clutched his knees to his chest, he sat curled up in a corner of the bedroom he had made in the complex for the night he needed to pull all-nighters. He could hear the Assembly-Worker scratch at the door that he had sealed from the inside.
As Naruto cried he didn't notice that the silver energy he had been fascinated with for so long had started pouring from his body and slowly started to change color until it was a mix of black, blue, and silver. Feeling the energy level of the room suddenly spike, Naruto looked up and was in awe of the energy only to become confused as he felt something in his chest catch.
"Oh shit." was the only thing he was able to get out as the feeling in his chest clicked and ignited, with an audible click both he and the energy disappeared just as the door to the room was knocked off its hinges by a worried Tsunade followed by his mother, Jiraiya, and his father bring up the rear.
"No!" Tsunade and Kushina yelled as Naruto disappeared right before their eyes.
So ladies and gentlemen, what'cha think, Good, bad, mediocre? As you probably noticed (if you read the original) I cut a certain sister, and the sister I kept didn't get much screen time (don't worry her character development comes later). Yes I still have ideas for certain characters but this time they will be more fleshed out, also I'm not entirely sure if (or when) he'll visit mirrodin but only the future will tell.
Wings of Disturbia out.