Disclaimer: Just to note, I do not own Naruto and this fanfiction is made only as a hobby of mine.
To be honest, I have been working on this idea for a few years and surprised that no-one wrote something similar. At least from all the stories I have read, this idea was not used. The inspiration came from the anime or manga "Fairy Tails", and having seen some of that manga I wanted to borrow some of its element and use it in Naruto. However, no magic will be involved it is still a Naruto universe.
Anyway I like putting ideas and plots together in ways that I enjoy that I neglect to include lines of the conversation. It is different to all the fanfics so I am not sure if it is still accepted.
As English isn't my strong point, and in fact it is now my 3rd language on top of my job. Thus, for those who enjoy the story please refrain from asking me to write it up properly. If anyone is interested please feel free to use the idea, only condition is to make it a great story.
The Lone Uzumaki
Thanks to the Civilian council, they have succeeded in failing the only promising ninja-to-be student Uzumaki Naruto.
Due to their prejudice of the demon Kyubi, the boy that can outrun ninjas Chunun, Jonin and Anbu on regular bases.
The same blond that can prank the Byakugan users without being caught.
Or to fool the elite and expert Inuzuka/Aburame trackers from finding him.
In his last and desperate attempt, he tried and successfully stolen the sealing scroll upon orders of his superior.
He also learnt one of the forbidden techniques Shadow Clone Jutsu witin the span of a few hours.
However, unknown to everyone he also gained the knowledge of Uzumaki clan techniques within the same scroll.
Lost in time, the forbidden scroll was not exactly what it supposed to be.
It was first created by the wife of the first Hokage - Mito Uzumaki to hold her clan techniques.
Then her husband also added his own secret jutsus for their descendent.
After his death the reason of its creation was lost because no one labelled it.
Since only the Shodai Hokage's strongest jutsu was in it his brother thought of the idea to add his own forbidden jutsus.
Unknow to the two Hokages, the scroll also contain Uzmaki Clan techniques but only react to clan members.
Hence, until today no one knew the extra contents that was also hidden within the classified scroll.
The Shodai Hokage's brother called it the Forbidden Scroll because of all the high level techniques written down.
He thought it would have been a good idea and too wrote his own forbidden arts like the "Impure World Resurrection".
While Uzumaki techniques were sealed they were never discovered unless you are a direct Uzumaki descendent.
The trick was cleverly hidden within the lines that were thought to be patterns on the scroll.
Besides it was purposely put on the outer part of the scroll to prevent thievery.
If stolen the thief would thought it was a trick or security measure because they only see a blank scroll.
Unfortunately, since it is labelled as Forbidden scroll no one considered another purpose to it.
Not only does the scroll contains all the Uzumaki arts, it also holds a small piece of the Sealer's soul.
It was a secret of the Uzumaki for passing clan knowledge from one member to another.
As leader of the clan, her soul will be the judge and teacher of their art if they are worthy.
Hence, when Naruto unsealed the scroll he was surprised to see his ancestor.
Of course the Uzumaki matriarch was not pleased at how her clansmen was treated and forgotten.
Thanks to the seals, Mito Uzumaki was able to see the future heir's life.
It was designed this way so the summoner can be judged immediately without having to ask a 1000 questions.
Its the same reason the Konoha elders failed to get any Uzumaki techniques nor they were ever stolen by another village.
The Uzumakis do keep their knowledge and seals very close to themselves hence why they were dangerous.
Everyone just assumed that it was passed down from teacher to student by word of mouth or via apprenticeship.
Otherwise little was known of the secret and mystery but dead clan.
Unfortunately or fortunately depending on who's view it is.
Iruka was not able to pass the blonde due to rules set by the civilians.
They first demand to have him executed for his actions, but since evidence had shown Mizuki working for Orochimaru.
Which was a greater threat that they can not be ignored thus the real culprit was prosecuted.
The Hokage was also too overwhelmed by the politics to overrule the verdict.
While Naruto was able to both aid and capture the traitor without being a ninja.
His crimes and inabilities presented by the council painted him a bad candidate for a protector or team as a ninja.
With the increase of the civilian council, they somehow managed to get to voice and vote how the village should run.
Not able to become a ninja, Naruto did not have other resources to support himself.
Obviously, most if not all Konoha civilians were and still are against him.
There isn't any other work for the young self-supporting orphan boy.
Even for others whom are not against him, the prejudice they would receive in assoication would be devastating.
As for the Uzumaki knowledge, like his ancestors he kept them secret and not even a word to his sensei.
After-all, they were clan knowledge and as Mito had explained to him a secret to follow to the grave.
Besides, no-one would know he received the knowledge the time of their interaction were less then a second.
The mind within seals are like dreams, it may have felt like a day to a year but in reality it has only been a few hours.
With the secret of the clan knowledge Naruto will have to find his own way just like how his clan were in the beginning.
To further apply to the academy is out of the question, it was already his third attempt to pass.
The village would not put up with people wasting their time and money so that was his very last chance hence his desperation.
However, unknown to the village and council they would not know the consequences for kicking out the last Uzumaki.
Unfortunately, they would not see the effect until much later.
A New Profession?
Since he can no longer be a ninja, he is by law not restricted to the Hokage's control nor protection.
While the civilians can not do anything directly, they can still try and crush him indirectly within the laws of the village.
To the civilian council, the demon Jinchuriki is a dark spot and filth that require cleansing from their great Homes.
As it stands they believe the boy will eventually starve and die in the alley or leave their peaceful village.
It was how they have planned it since he was in the orphanage.
Perhaps now it was back to square one, but a small victory as they have stopped it from gaining anymore power by becoming a ninja.
Who knows what it would do with it when it does.
Having it failing the third and final time, they felt everything is back on track and all they have to do is wait.
Too bad they don't know him and the Uzumakis very well, with both his father and mother's genes he is never one to give up without doing anything.
As our blonde hero leaves the academy, he knew he no longer receive his funds as he is no longer a student.
He will have to make a living by some other means.
Considering his options, the only possible profession he could think of would be with the Ramen chef Ichirakus.
However, he knows the consequences if he is to work there because of his popularity business would not be thriving very well.
Unfortunately, that was possibly the only place that would treat him fairly.
Thanks to his will of never to give up, he look around in hope to find somewhere else he could be.
In his short tour around the village, he immediately knew how small his options are.
Only a short glance in the eyes of the owners, depending on the glares he got the answers before he can ask.
Sadly after spending half a day looking he end up in front of a weapon shop.
Still reminiscing in the ninja ways, he thought he could at least take a break and look around.
Maybe he can get an idea what he could do afterwards or perhaps becoming a mercenary or go into hunting.
In both professions he will need weapons, it is no harm to check out what is available.
Besides there are no laws against civilians carrying around a weapon.
While looking around he came across some sealing tags and were quite fascinated by it.
It triggered somehow some form of recognition as if he had previously studied them in the past.
He was woke-up from his thoughts when the owner came over and offer his assistance.
Surprised at the friendly greeting, Naruto was happy someone could be indifference to him.
It was due to that the two got into some heated discussion on sealings.
The owner may not be a seal maker but he at least have some knowledge of his own trade.
After-all you don't want to supply your ninja customers with fake tools or seals.
It wouldn't do well for his business if the quality is not trust worthy.
Hence, with the standard seals he knows the fundamental basics to what makes a seal genuine.
Normally, sealing consists of fixed stokes with brush and ink similar to hand seals.
Therefore it is important to know the correct proportions for each and every individual seal and what it does.
Every stoke of brush and ink would be like ninja hand seals where chakra would flow to make the jutsu effective.
Naruto wondered if sealing could replace or replicate hand seals and voiced it.
Of course, this question baffled the owner and wondered why no one ever thought of it.
It seems theoretically possible and workable but he couldn't really give a satisfying answer.
He can only assume that it may be impractical because you don't need seals to do what a ninja can already do.
Then Naruto had suggested different scenarios like handicap ninjas may use them.
Or the ninjas can fire multiple jutsus at the same time.
As each new idea mentioned, the owner too was interested what the kid would come up next.
He had seen and heard of the boy before him, he was after all quite infamous in the village.
As an ex-ninja himself he felt the boy was unjustly treated and believed Konoha had just lost a high potential ninja.
While he can't change the boy's future, it doesn't mean he can't help him.
Besides, he kinda liked the boy as he is.
The kid may not be a ninja, but he seems to know what he is talking about.
It was also the reason he want to give the boy a chance.
His grandfather, in his younger days had numbers encounter with the Uzumakis.
Hence in many of his stories he often talked about them and how amazing they were.
Dustin Higarashi, Ten-Ten's father had only met one Uzumaki before the one in front of him believed the boy can do great things.
After taken time talking to the boy, it amazes even more on the ideas of new seals and why nobody came up with them.
Theoretically, it seems plausible and would have been a great idea but why was it not created in the first place.
As it was one of the less known technique in the ninja world, thus Hiarashi was both quite interested and impressed.
Hence, he offered the boy the opportunity for making seals that is providing he can prove they do indeed work along with its quality.
As for Naruto, when he first took notice of sealing tags he remembered some of the conversation he had with Mito.
The advantage of Uzumaki Clan Soul Seal is you can transfer mass of information and techniques within a short span of time.
In a sense, Mito had pass on all the Uzumaki knowledge within a few minutes or hours depending on how quick the mind can assimilate information.
The technique works similar to receiving a dream where a person's sub-conscious may experience many hours even days but in reality only a few minutes passed.
Under normal circumstances, the human brain should not be able to assimilate this much information.
However, the trick is to imprint the knowledge into the sub-conscious so that it later be recalled.
This way, the knowledge or event could be stored like an archive and the receiver only remembers the knowledge only by trigger of event or something similar that links to the information.
In Naruto's case, when he sees the sealing tags it triggered the hidden memory of what he learned on sealing from Mito.
Though the young Uzumaki may not remember everything, but slowly the knowledge will surface eventually.
It is also part of the Uzumaki clan secret and why most of them are very good in seals.
Besides the practice also encourage hard work, because only the ones actively seek knowledge in order for them to gain them.
So when Naruto thought to practice seal making as living he was surprise Dustin immediately supported him and offered his deal.
In the end, Naruto took some sealing tools and supplies for him to work on for free.
Not waiting to be questioned, Dustin just let the boy know that it was part of his investment on him because he really do believe in him.
He also mentioned his grandfather telling him stories of Uzumakis and how great they used to be.
Before Naruto leaves the shop, Dustin offered to tell him about those Uzumaki stories next time when they are together.
Unknown to Dustin Higarashi, he not only given the blond incense to believe again but also a friend that can count on.
To Naruto, it is something never ever given to him in his entire life.
Such small offer of kindness is like a life debt that needed to be paid back as he vowed to himself he will not left the man down.
The two had worked out a deal together where the shop will provide all the material as long as he supplies the tags.
With the last words to the blonde to impress him the boy left to start his first sealing business.
The owner may not know what he had done, but Naruto vowed to blow him away.
Seeing the boy leave he hope the boy wouldn't mean it literary as he did say he will be making explosive tags.
Dustin had heard how the last Uzumaki were kicked out of the ninja program and knew which party are responsible.
Since the shop is mainly for ninjas, thus the civilian council has no hold on him.
Though on occasions he does sell to normal civilians but it does not mean they have a say in what he could sell.
Hence, Naruto is lucky to find his shop and him that is not fully controlled by neither ninja nor civilian.
Thanking the old man, Naruto began his own legacy and started off with simple and yet common seals - explosive tags.
It only took a few days to create and make, his first tags had not only impressed the owner but will also caught the eyes of many ninja customers.
The specialties of his tags are you can change the blast radius and much more robust.
Compared to the common tags, Naruto's are more durable as you can increase the blast range by adding more chakra thus making they more powerful.
While the explosive tags are impressive, Dustin was more interested in the label the boy added to all tags he made.
From what the boy had explained, he didn't want the public to know who the creator is thus all his designs were marked with UZU as trademark.
What is more intriguing is that it glows when you apply chakra on it, it is said to be a way to distinguishing its authenticity.
Just from moment onwards, Dustin knew how special the boy is he was never ever been so sure in his life.
In fact, he would bet his own life on it.
He don't know when, but in the near future the boy will shake the world.
New Branch of Seals
With his explosive tags business going well and steady he don't have to worry too much on living expenses.
However, after talking to Dustin he was encouraged to continue to make new tags and increase his revenue.
Like all ninjas you never know what happens tomorrow and while his explosive tags were a great seller but it will eventually slow down because not every ninjas uses them.
Thus he added new agenda to his to do tasks and work on other tags and also create new ones.
So far he had improvised all Dustin's tags, he had added many functions to the standard issued tags and made them even more versatile.
This again shaken the ninja world as all ninjas from genin to anbu come checking out his new tags and what they can do.
While not all ninjas uses or buy any of the tags but since they are in ninja shops you never know who would use them on you.
Besides, these new tags are interesting too as every ninja wanted to try them out anyway.
It's like fireworks, you just want to light it up to see what it really do.
Aside from the standard ninja tags, Naruto one day brought up a new business proposition and took it to Dustin.
He came up with the idea during one of his think-up-a-new-tag sessions.
Thanks to his pranking nature, and along with children playing ninja he created a new variation of explosive tags.
It was all part of his discovery when he was experimenting with normal paper instead of actual sealing paper.
Using his clones he was able to test new ideas in safety and still experiencing its effects.
As a result, he had discovered most were quite useless for Ninjas but instead it gave him other ideas.
Thus, the shop start selling harmless paint tags.
They were only made of normal paper therefore cheap to make and produce.
Usually no one really bother making such useless tags but thanks to his clones he can mass produce them.
With a minor modification of the original explosive seals, he was able to convert chakra into harmless colors he wants.
So aside from ninjas, he now has new customers in village children.
Thanks to the cheap materials he uses and efficiency in making them even young civilian children can afford them.
In fact, the cheap tags are also popular for ninjas as they use them for training in place of real explosive tags without the risk of death.
To the surprise of Dustin, the Hokage also came along with Iruka because they were thinking of inducting them to the academy.
Happy that Naruto's design gave him more business Dustin will have to tell him to make new batch for the academy.
He knew the boy will make new upgrades soon, its a good business tactic for clients to ask for more as you bring out newer and better products later.
True enough, three months later Naruto gave him some premium versions that actually simulates the explosion but without the risk of injury.
By combining wind and sound seals, he was able to create an equivalent effect of a fully charged explosive tag.
Again it did an astonishing job to impress both Dustin and the Hokage, and a must have for advance trainings for both Anbu and Jonins which the village happily paid for.
Before he made those seals, Naruto was not idle with the children stuff.
With Konoha being a ninja village, Naruto knew what exactly kids want and with his paint tags selling like hot cakes he is also making money from the civilians.
Since they are just harmless tags, even children are able to get their hands on them.
Though the kids normally uses them for pranks and ninja games that they often participates in.
With their rise in popularity Naruto had made a seal stamp for mass production purpose.
For the more complex and new discoveries, he start hiding the sealing by covering the original with either paints and other markings.
Thanks to his Uzumaki heritage, every seal that he makes are more potent than any seal master simply because he added chakra as he draws them.
It makes the seals they make stronger and more versatile, hence when Naruto paint or draw something over them the seal will still function.
With this to his advantage, even Jiraiya could not duplicate his creation.
That's how he made the premium training tags, hiding both his Uzumaki secrets as well as his own creations just as Mito wanted him to do.
Using different conversion and arrangement seals he made new tags such as Shock and Earth Spear Tags.
What is even more amazing, they were new trap tags that can be used for both offensive and defensive purposes.
Thanks to new feature he added, the tag has a delay execution timer or a more unique feature sensor trigger.
By adding small chakra as power source, the seal will react upon detection of another approaching chakra signal.
As Naruto continues to learn and study his sealing heritage, every now and then new and different variation of tags continues to surface in Konoha.
Due to that, the shop that sells these tags had became a hot spot for ninjas of all ages and ranks.
Most were checking out new tags either for their own use or be wary of its existence.
For an active field ninja, you never know when your enemy would use one on you.
To ninjas that knew something about sealing, they were quite fascinated how and who could have come up with such ingenious ideas.
The seals itself made their original like ancient relic in comparison.
Thanks to its popularity, ninjas had often talked about who the maker was, and which nation UZU belonging to.
To this day, Konoha still not known whose supplying them these new tags.
Some speculates that it belongs to some retired ninja, while some thought it was a rich and genius noble that started the idea.
People often associate popularity to nobility hence the mindset of noble clans such as Uchiha and Hyuga are all strong and great.
Add to the fact of the strange logo UZU on every tag gave everyone the impression that it belonging to some big company.
Like all other marketing goods, Konoha didn't suspect the mystery of UZU otherwise they would have known only Konoha seems to have these tags.
It is like fish, no-one would care or investigate where they come from as long as the shop tell you otherwise.
Just like the seal tags, Dustin tells everyone that he got them as latest shipment and no-one is suspicious.
Even when the Hokage asks, Dustin only says he got them from one of the merchants and will continue to bring more when supplies became available.
The Hokage would just nodded and be on his way, it is not the leader's job to question every product as long as it is not a danger to the village.
Besides the tags had only made the village and his ninjas more durable thus he has no complains.
With Naruto's branch seals and his insistence, the weapon shop now has a children's section.
When the blond came in one day and ask Dustin to expand his shop to include a section for kids, Dustin thought he was joking.
However, since Naruto would pool his expenses for this extension the owner knew he is serious.
Hence, now the shop is double the size it used to be and a complete section for the kids.
Just when Dustin thought he knew enough about the boy, the kid just seems to surprise him more.
Aside from seals, Naruto made number sets of ninja kits designed for the young ones.
The old man doesn't know what the boy is cooking up, but since everything he makes sells he would not be surprised it something that would bring another storm.
He will just have to wait and see.
True enough, not long since the new stuff went out someone was brought to the Anbu headquarters.
It wasn't later they found out it was some kid that brought a full ninja gear from Higurashi's shop.
The child was nabbed because he dressed suspiciously and sneaking around the village like an enemy ninja.
What caught Ibiki's eyes was the suit and the matching equipment, even to the trained eye it is very well made and something that would have been for real ninjas.
Only differences between the real thing and that were the materials used.
Trying not to scare the kid more than they have already done so, he reprimanded his subordinate and get him to escort the kid out.
Though he had to applaud the maker because even he could easily made the same mistake if he wasn't careful.
Now he know another of Higurashi's new toys, it has been one of the main topics among the Anbus as they too find many uses in the new UZU seals.
Since the premium tags were released the Hokage had incorporated large of these tags and used them to upgrade the Anbu training.
Ibiki couldn't fault the Hokage for spending large amount of village coffer on these seals, even he himself was quite amazed and his ninjas were better equipped against explosive tags.
As for the children in the village, since mistaken capture of civilian child the kid had became a hero among his peers.
In fact it was one of the biggest topics shared not only among children but also civilians and ninjas.
If a normal civilian is brought in to an Anbu headquarter for any reason, they did have nightmare for the rest of their life.
However, the boy seem to have an opposite effect to the experience as he returned all giddy and hyperactive.
While it is scary at first, but after realizing the fact that he was the only kid ever been in the Anbu Headquarters.
True enough he was like a hero to all the other kids as he talk about his experience and how he ended up there.
On the other hand, children were normally not taken seriously or is consider a joke because they "PLAY" ninja.
This time however one of them was mistaken for real, it got them all hyped up.
Now even more children running around with Higurashi's ninja kits that cause ninjas even more headaches.
To the horrors of the Anbus, Naruto had introduced new camouflage sets among others.
Of course the incident too had been brought up a few times within the council discussion.
Some had suggested to ban the import and stop Higurashi from selling anymore UZU products.
Since the appearance of this mystery UZU stuff, the other ninja shops are losing customer because only Higurashi supplies them.
So some of the other civilian owned market complained to the council in hope to get rid or at least get the contracts for themselves.
Unfortunately, their plan failed and they had only themselves to blame.
Apparently, the civilian shops had made bad impressions to the UZU representative so only Higurashi was able to get the contract.
When they tried to get more information, Higurashi only mention they were here the day after the genin graduation.
Every civilian remembered that day, it was the same day the demon child was looking for jobs and some of them openly kicked boy out only to showered by praises themselves.
They remember smirking themselves as the whole market glared at the demon child and wishing they were the ones to put him in place.
Higurashi can only laugh internally at their frustration as they continued to blame the boy for their misfortunes.
They would not dare to voice it, or even mention it in the meeting.
The civilian council may have won the round regarding the Jinchuriki, but it left forever a nasty scar in the council room.
Whenever anything to do with the boy was brought up, the village leader would explode in anger or frustration.
Neither was good for the health of the civilians as the last fool was taken to Ibuki.
He was charged with constantly bring up irrelevant cases and disrupting the meeting.
So whenever the discussion gears towards the boy, the civilians would cautiously steer it away.
Hence, when it seems that the Hokage about to find out how Naruto was treated that day, they expertly steer away and on to to the next topic.
Since they can not get the contract or to share the wealth they will try to stop it from making more business.
True that the UZU products were amazing and dangerous, they also leaves a mess in the village.
Taken evidence from accidents with UZU explosive tags that blew up the entire training ground to kids pranking the village.
The civilians council pointed out how dangerous and bad influence these products were becoming since its release.
Unfortunately for them and for the sake of argument.
The Hokage had point out that they can not punish the maker or distributor for what the user do.
It shut them all up when he also mentioned that some of their children were also responsible for the state the village is in.
Besides if the ban is applied, the village will know it is them who is responsible because they are the ones that supported the verdict.
He also added that he don't want his grandson to hate him for taken away his and his friend's games and neither should the rest of the councils.
This statement seem to have quite an impact as civilian side quickly quieten down.
While the civilian side was not happy, the ninja council were quite the opposite.
In fact they were quite fond of the UZU products, especially for clans and ninja parents.
They recognized the practical aspects of the so-called toys as they are like the real deal only with normal and common material.
The other advantage is that it encourages more children to become ninjas and join the academy.
Therefore most clan children had been in fact encouraged to have or buy a set of them.
When the stuff first appeared, the adults had thought nothing of them because they are for kids.
However, when the incident about some kid was brought to Anbu headquarters they began to see why.
Having brought a set from Higurashi's store and compare it against the standard ninja full equipment issue they were amazed.
Not only were they professionally made and captured every detail, they were even more practical then the real thing.
The children may think the extra pockets are cool, especially mean more equipment but professional ninjas they see many other uses.
Especially when the design was built for the given the profession that was meant for gave them all the answer they already knew.
Some other completed gears were so fancy that some believed the maker made it as a joke.
However, the Nara had thought otherwise and Higurashi confirmed it.
Ninja camouflage without ninjutsu, whoever thought of them.
Apparently, some guys from UZU company had came up with it.
To this day, they still think that UZU is a massive company with many geniuses employees.
In the end, the council did not issue any punishment and agreed the victims can hire genins to clean up the mess.
Again, this result in more D rank missions thus making the Hokage quite pleased at the outcome.
Clans had no issues as the blame would land on their own security and it helps to know who is not doing their job seriously.
Besides, as a clan they have enough funds for lowly D rank missions or their security guard can clean their own mess.
They can not ban it because if their own children heard they were responsible it's likely they will hate them.
Strangely, the civilian council got the feeling that the whole issue was staged against them.
Since the start of the meeting, the topic regarding UZU had put them against themselves and their own children.
Never had they sat in the council meeting feeling out of control and powerless.
Still, they didn't thought too deep into it and chalk it up as coincidence.
As a result no action were taken and UZU products continues to sell and dominate the Konoha market.
Unknown to them it was part of Naruto plan, as he had already anticipated the possible problem with the council and brought it up with Dustin.
He knew if he want to expand in his business while in the village, he will eventually clash with them.
While Dustin said the civilian council has no hold on what and who he do business with, Naruto knew the council better than he does.
In his own way he made sure his first benefactor and business partner would stand on his own while he continues to cash in from Konoha.
The best method to get the enemy do what you want is to get them to participate.
It is not like he is targeting their children specifically, but if the whole village children is involved then it doesn't matter.
End result is just as Higurashi-san had seen in the council meeting which is a huge success and the council can no longer bother him.
Too bad the civilians can not see it because their children's pranks is only just the beginning.
Not that Naruto were controlling them, they were involved simply as cover and protection for other children.
This way, Naruto is able to continue to sell his UZU goods without them all over his case.
Since talking to Dustin the owner of the weapon shop, he knew and had to prepare for this day.
Dustin may have told him in the past that the council may not have any control to how he run his shop, so he can relax not to worry for him.
However, Naruto had seen the greed in the civilians especially the ones on the council.
He wouldn't be surprised if they will find some way or another just to get their own wallet to grow fatter, it's just a matter of time and opportunity.
The ninja part may not be so bad but the fat civilians and merchants they are simply corrupt.
Ever since leaving the ninja force, Naruto had disappeared from the village as no one had heard anything from him and Naruto aims to keep it that way as long as he can. It saves him the trouble of facing the council and answering question he didn't want to give away.