Another World: Land of Spirits
For little Naruko who was basically ostracized, shunned and hated by everyone, she definitely had plenty of time.
She was taught how to read and write, which she learns quick, but pretends to 'learn like her peers'.
Then she spends her time roaming around the village because after a year, she was mostly left alone.
She sneaks around to watch how people do things.
Buying and selling, the price lists, what girls her age do and wear as nobody in the orphanage teaches her.
Then how ninja train.
By sneaking around the Academy and Training Grounds, she knew how everything works by merely looking. Then she refines them to her standards and making them hers by tweaking some things here and there for her comfort in usage.
Thus before she was six, she already knows how everything works.
How to create and use chakra, how to train, techniques...thus she bid her time in school.
She only bothered attending the first two years of the Academy...and only showed for Academic Subjects, never showing up for Shinobi Classes...because she already knows what to do, and takes care of herself just fine at her own pace.
That suited the biased Chuunin just fine.
For them its better that the Demon Child doesn't know how to defend itself for the time of reckoning.
How wrong they were.
When the more bold ones tried, they were nothing more than gory smears on the ground.
All it took, was a copied, overpowered and mastered Gatsuuga.
Years later...
Naruko, aged 12, caused one hell of a ruckus in her own way, when the Hokage checked all the graduating ninja classes...yet not one has her name in it.
'What the...there's no Uzumaki Naruko among these classes? That can't be right, I enrolled her myself!' Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen sputtered at his Chuunin Teachers who winced. 'What the hell is going on here?!'
'Er, the thing is, that one can't be a ninja...if she doesn't take shinobi classes.' a chuunin squeaked.
'She only ever showed up for Language, Math, History, Biology...that's pretty much it...she never even showed up for Kunoichi Classes!'
'She's only around for three years and when the shinobi years of the curriculum began, she never came sir.'
'Really? I didn't know.' said Iruka, the last teacher. 'I just started two years ago, how would I know she's even enrolled?'
The Hokage snapped his fingers and next thing poor Umino Iruka knew, his fellow teachers are knocked out by ANBU and hauled away. 'E-ehhhh?!'
'I'm sure you understand the situation, Umino-kun?' the Hokage asked Iruka in a business mode that made the Chuunin gulp. 'If they ever sabotaged her ability to defend herself just so the mentally-compromised citizens can take revenge on a poor child whom they made a scapegoat just for inheriting the Yondaime's will...heads will roll. Quite, literally.' he growled. 'Minato trusted her will and her power since she was an infant to imprison it to keep us all safe...and what did our people do? Dishonor his wishes so severely that she has no childhood I wouldn't be surprised if one day, she spits at this village when she gets fed up. I really wouldn't be surprised.' he sighed. 'There's only so much I can do for her...I may be leader but that doesn't mean I have control over free wills either.'
'I'm not getting any younger...but I have yet to find a successor who would be kind and humane to her. Nobody ever smiled at that child nor showed kindness to her. Tell me, what do you see in an isolated child?'
Later that day, even further chaos occurred when Naruko was nowhere to be found...and they can never find her for a couple more years.
The only thing that kept Jiraiya from being depressed, was a Prophecy from the Toad Sage, hinting she is still alive...just beyond anyone's reach for now.
xxx
In the meantime...
Sunagakure...
Sabaku no Gaara was hard at work, training, after getting home to the village after escorting their troublesome client around for half a year.
Training, because she teaches him Nen at night after teaching him 'the cheat code' called Kage Bunshin and its main use.
'This is rather incredible Naruko.' Gaara marveled with a maniacal grin as so many thoughts are running over his head now. 'But...why teach me?'
'I feel like...we're kindred spirits somehow, y'know?' said Naruko with a sad smile as Gaara narrowed his eyes at her statement. 'We're both kids nobody likes just for simply existing. Konoha loves to make my life hell. Everyone hates me. Parents would tell lies to their children that I'm a bad kid so I have no friends. In school, teachers sabotage me on purpose I was just lucky to find this Nen Scroll in the trash.' she said. 'The way Baki, Temari and Kankuro handles you...we got similar treatment. And I still don't know to this day why my life was like this, that I have a damn good reason to get stronger to get the hell away and not look back.' she scowled. 'One day, you might wanna get away too if you're fed up with it all, see? And once you're done mastering Nen, master taijutsu too. There will come a time if you run out of chakra and aura, all you'll have then are a few weapons, and taijutsu. Never teach this to anyone, K? Its just you and me here with Nen.'
He was able to forge his own Nen abilities and began thinking...
...Naruko mentioned they were kindred spirits...and they have similar treatments and she doesn't know why.
He knows that his team knows what she was. And Konoha's a rival village so they could care less, meaning, their rival village drastically weakened by Naruko leaving and she was their Jinchuuriki, something she was clueless about. But similar treatment made her like him because 'they were similar', and taught him a new power incase 'he's had enough' and skip out like she had.
If it was THAT easy.
She was not officially a ninja, having escaped while she was still a civilian. He on the other hand, is a ninja since he was six years old, being groomed as a weapon for his situation.
xxx
Naruko was far, faaaar away.
She's on a rare metal ship heading not for any country ninja had been to.
Faaaar beyond that, in fact!
The men told her(in her disguise as a very poor old man) that they rarely do business with ninjas since they're an ambiguous violent lot whose natures you can never tell. They'd rather do business with people they can at least, READ and know they're safe to be with. But there are some things only the ninja lands have that other countries want.
Upon traveling to a new land, a land where people are more into outwitting each other by being very skilled in politicking, bargaining and hunting...
Naruko figured she'll be free here and never worry about ninjas ever again.
Unknown to her, that suited the fox within her just fine. His host focused on surviving and living because others tried to make her life hell just for merely existing. She has no clue why but he knows full well its because she was his host.
Upon landing on an island...
'Well, here's where we get off gramps.' said the sailor. 'We're at the border islands.'
'Border...islands?'
'Yah.' said the Captain. 'Our world is just within a huge-ass lake everyone mistook for as the huge ocean. There are five 'worlds' within this huge lake and each world is surrounded by Border Islands in a circle, each with a Gatekeeper. The likes of us can sail because we got nothin' to lose, and merely sailing beyond the Border Islands alone is a risk, even if its on a good weather day. Strangely, nothin' happened so far and we're thankful that we can sleep a night away for a whole change. No doubt our luck will end soon but that's life. You win some, you lose some. Well, we'll pay the Gatekeeper we've known for years a Toll before we go to the next world where we'll pay a toll again just to get in.'
'...and what do they charge?'
'Loads of stuff we got from other worlds. They don't charge money. They got no use for it.'
'...'
'Well, the writing is different, wanna learn?'
'Before that, what's the world beyond the lake we are in?'
'The Gatekeepers said only those with incredible luck, strength and knowledge can survive that hellhole that humanity retreated to the lake for safety.' said the Captain. 'Its a world of monsters equipped with everything that can either kill you instantly, or prolong your agony before you die. They're hell born with fangs, legs, wings and fins unleashed.'
Upon arriving in a 'new world'...Naruko looked on in awe and marvel.
Upon learning the world's writing system, the rest was easy.
Upon bidding the ship farewell, Naruko happily explored her new world...that took her a year to do so, absorbing as much culture as she wanted...and earning money from monsters she was able to afford the services of a Spirit Blacksmith in Boyzby because 'The one in Kant was a jerk' who won't take her seriously. She acquired a weapon in the form of padded gloves as she was more into taijutsu anyway.
Upon Jyabil's guidance, along with Sight Training, she has trained herself and goes to visit for upgrades before traveling the world. She has learned about spirits and magic as well as Spirit Blacksmithing(unknown to the siblings, she watches) from him and his sister Sodina, as well as informing her of her...condition and all three worked together with her 'furry problem'. Kyuubi was very bitter and hateful of humans due to what he put up with ever since the ninja villages were founded when before, he was just minding his own damn business living normally with his fellow beasts!
So Jyabil worked a compromise to soothe his feelings.
'I can get you out of Naruko and build an altar so you can maintain a form that will not cause fear and inspire hatred, so that you may live a life of freedom once more.' he said. 'All I ask in return, is safeguarding the Primordial Flame of Light, and keep it away from evil as a Guardian Spirit. By becoming a Guardian, only a Spirit Blacksmith can call upon you. No ninjutsu can affect you ever again.'
'That's a good deal, as long as I'm not stuck in humans again and be hated simply for existing!'
'Uhm, you believe Jyabil just like that?' Naruko asked Kyuubi incredulously.
'Twerp, I can sense negative emotions.' Kyuubi snarked. 'An ability your bitchy ancestor and just-as-bitchy mother inherited and so did you.' he said with an armfold. 'But thankfully, this apple fell far from the tree...Jyabil is very honest with me and has no evil intentions towards me and my power. So I'm willing to cooperate as long as I won't be sealed in a human or anything again and I can finally be free.'
With that deal made, Jyabil left Boyzby with Kyuubi and didn't come back for half a year, merely sending letters to Sodina and Naruko every week just to tell him how he was.
And she also sought ways to use magic creatively instead of conventional uses that she has seen with the help of spirits when she got her gloves upgraded. Her weapons have the maximum power of spiritual imbuing from the Elemental of Light magic that Sodina possessed...and the Special Art: Touch of Light. A Light-Based power that enables her to purge Darkness with a touch. And its ability depends on how spiritually powerful she was, so Jyabil told her to 'train really hard' because her Special Art is very valuable.
And lots of spells that came with it too that she got confidence to travel to the next continent with no more worries.
From her own element, she got the Special Art: Raging Fists. It allows her to move in extreme speeds and rain a hundred punches enough to kill via torture barrage. After maximizing two elements in her gloves and finishing her training, she left Boyzby.
She settled in Mounthand, a moving gigantic train city to learn all about machinery and gadgets, a city infamous for having Gadget Masters within it, not even one outside it, using all her clones to steal books and journals to read before sneaking it back in, and dealing with the ancestor of all Mental Fatigue that came with it...and then went to Rockbit for its many gems to sell for a fortune before settling in Wano, a small country across Tokio Point.
She began making a living as Wano's Gadget Master, powering the machines she makes using jewel magic she learned from the dwarves to compensate for not having electrical lines, power generators and geothermal power plants that produce Steam for Energy as this 'world' is still studying Star Energy if in the ninja nations, their source of electric power was Chemical Energy, a specific formula that can generate electricity but evaporates during usage so it wasn't THAT much practical not to mention it smells worse than Paint Thinner and Rugby with a mix of Termite Poison. So she too, took to studying Star Energy as using Jewel Magic can really be downright exhausting and she's a bit iffy with making a Geothermal Plant and digging deep into the Earth...and potentially accidentally trigger a volcanic eruption.
NOPE.
By then, she was fourteen years old.
Fourteen years old and already...working.
That was after she paid for a plot of land, and a house to be built for her.
"This isn't so bad..." she mused as she created many things to make a living in Wano. If not making gadgets and recharging Jewel Cores for gadgets and machines, she joins girls in the occupations safely allowed for them and she was the 'odd one' who works with machines!
'You're one unusual girl...you work with machines?' an elder asked. 'Won't your hands be calloused or you gain muscles? That's tragic for a future bride.'
'Girls will still get callouses from housework and doing the laundry you know, I don't see the difference.' Naruko sweatdropped while using her forge to shape up metal. She was no Spirit Blacksmith like all Gadget Masters, but she became one after seeing how Jyabil works. But she focuses on tools and gadgets, and not weapons.
Not to mention as a ninja, she already HAS muscles! But not enough to ruin her figure though she does have rounded shoulders courtesy of shoulder muscles.
Considering she wears a sleeveless kimono shirt and a shortened, customized hakama to become shorts, she attracts boys due to seeing her figure. She also wears leggings and long gloves for protection other than goggles and a mask, as well as armor in the right places. She also wears a pair of boots as waraji sandals ain't practical either. She wears her long, thick hair in a very high ponytail which was braided and bound at the tip.
She was also by far, the best-looking girl in Wano as well as the most unique, having blonde hair and blue eyes.
Because she could USE a forge, people came to her for tool-fixing when she's supposed to be a Gadget Master, NOT a Blacksmith but she ended up becoming one! But without the spiritual aid of girls, she cannot fully utilize spirits...and due to this logic, boys have an excuse in coming to see her.
She tried out boys who would help her out. Boys with strong spiritual powers who could bring forth their elemental power in its purest like girls could.
Much to collective disbelief, it worked...because of how things usually work, she's now the gender-opposite of a traditional male smith. Her reputation even improved because she learned from Jyabil. A famous prodigious Spirit Blacksmith so respected. But unlike traditional blacksmiths, Naruko likes her fists more than swords even if she could make them with guidance from spirits, even upgrading her gloves into gauntlets.
Her gloves now have the elemental powers of Light, Wind, Water, Fire and Earth, and gained three more special arts.
So with months of working...Wano flourished. Before, it was a lifeless country but with spirits within, life boomed positively the government welcomed her even though she was an outsider. Most men and women in Wano have black or brown hair with asian features. She was different. Blonde, blue-eyed asian beauty but with 'more expressive' eyes.
But there's rules regarding her work as a Gadget Master that made it hard to work as one, that she moonlights more as a Blacksmith.
One: Her machines do not cause pollution.
Two: Her machines do not inspire laziness from too much convenience.
Wano disdains people who have gotten lazy and weak due to the advent of machinery.
She created Dolls only for 'the elderly who live alone, or those who are disabled'. They were literal sentient cyborgs with programmed personalities capable of housework, heavy duty and carrying their feeble owners. They were programmed to self-destruct far away from the city in designated locations if their owners passed away because its impossible to re-program them otherwise. They are inhabited by helpful spirits that give these dolls life and serve its purpose.
She also created medical tools to help out doctors and other various occupations...as well as exorcising unhappy spirits unhappy with their owners.
Samurai line up for armor and for their swords, lending her their powers to help things along.
And she's closed on Sundays, frequently found eating a lot of ramen in random restaurants at different times of day. Boys try to get her attention much to the chagrin of other girls who have eyes on them.
The problem was Naruko herself.
She was...very innocent in social affairs and genuinely thinks they're 'just being nice' and helpful with her work. 'But they are so weird unlike Jyabil.' she told the Bar Master when she came to have some Bar Food and Amazake. 'Nice, but weird around me but normal outside.'
'Naruko-san, have you not met boys your age before coming here?' the Bartender asked Naruko incredulously.
'Nope. I was too busy learning under Jyabil before I went to study in Mounthand. I only ever knew his sister who was my first friend in my life and she doesn't talk to boys much either.'
'Oh dear...you mean you don't know that boys are trying to court you?'
'Court me? What's that? Is that a new way of being nice?'
Awkward silence ensued.
It doesn't help that she was utterly innocent and clueless, and a child-like way of showing it.
Because due to isolation of hatred, she was very, very stunted.