happy new year. I own nothing.

CH 4

Timeskip seven years later.

The gates of the all to familiar compound I have come to know are standing behind us as we walk forward. As I look at the young man that I have helped raise I can't help but wonder where did the unruly young boy go. Oh I know where he went he turned into the fine young man that I see before me. Looking back at his training I can't help but say that I'm impressed. He is by far the strongest of the young men in the compound. Fire is what I know and fire is what I instilled. This boy is one of the greatest things I have ever made. He took to the clan style like a fish to water. It was incredible, to say the least. He learned the style and created his own in just a year. Neil trained the young boy in wind affinity along with Jacob since wind is not my style. Jacob and I decided to give him a weapon. Being one of the top smiths in the clan has its perks of course. He chose a sword which was what I had suspected. I immediately taught him his mothers style based on the scrolls I had received vial messenger hawk. It was all fun and games till the one incident happened. The children of the clan heads were born about a year after Naruto arrived. Everyone presented their gifts to the heads but mine was not.

Flashback

My lords, I have come to present my gifts to you and your children. My apprentice will step forward and present to the first child a finely carved horse toy that moves and gallops for her to ride. To the second child, I present to him this lovely blunted sword for when he starts training. To the third child, I present to her a pendant finely crafted and fitted with pictures of the father and mother. I step back as the women take the gifts. Alex takes the pendant and opens the flap. She smiles and steps back. Harley takes the sword and removes it from the sheath seeing that it is perfectly made and blunted she smiles and moves back. Jasmine takes the horse and moves back. Antonio steps up and looks at me. "These gifts you have given us are worthless to our children." the wives of said heads all look at him like he has grown a second head. "My child will not ride on a tainted horse such as you have seen fit to give her." Antonio then proceeds to stomp me into the ground. Naruto looks on in horror but Jacob grabs him and holds him back. "You worthless fire user this is the hierarchy understand us, the branch, family, the civilians, the dirt the worms then you. Understand this boy no one loves a tainted fire user such as yourself." he then removes his foot from me and I slide away. After that day many branch members scorned me for making them look bad. The only ones who stayed by me after that was Naruto and Jacob.

After that day I trained Naruto into the ground. He actually asked for it since he saw the way I was treated. About a week after that incident Jasmine Alex and Harley all came into my little smithy. "Hey, Curtis how have you been," Harley asks me. "Why are you here, "I say with a large amount of scorn. "We haven't seen you in a while so we thought we would come and talk," Alex says. "Uh huh. Come to walk on me is that it, "I say to them. "What do you mean by that. Why would we walk on you." Jasmine asks. "I don't know come to follow in your husband's footsteps maybe," I say. "Ohh that's what the hostility is about to look he was way out of line. He was reprimanded for it after the event. You have always been our trusted friend man. You brought all of us together for the best." Harley says to me. I look on with a stern yet emotionless face "do you guys need something or are you just here to be here." "we just want to talk to our friend," Alex says with some hurt. "Well, I wouldn't know since I have received nothing but scorn this past week thanks to your husband." I point at jasmine "all of this because when I was younger I couldn't control fire as well as I can now. He still blames me for the death of his sister when I was trining under her partner. He from then on made my life hell and I took it but no more. I will not blame the barrel for one bad apple. From this day forward he is not allowed to purchase his ninja gear from my shop. You are not allowed to purchase things for him either." I say with authority. Jasmine Alex and Harley look at me and nod. "You know Curtis I don't blame you for what you are doing. My husband needs too let go of that. Keffren will hear of this and you are within your right to do so. We will talk later this matter needs to be solved." and with that, they left my shop. But it didn't stop there when the head family found out that Antonio was band from my shop because of his actions they stripped me of my forge and shop. With nothing else too do we just trained and trained? Neil offered his help and trained naruto in wind manipulation and release. After about a year with no forge, some of the lower level smiths were starting to lose business due to their shoddy weapon quality. One day after training we were sitting down to enjoy our kill for the day. When a knock was heard at my door.

I opened my door and came face to face with the entire head family. "Yes how can I help you today my lords." each of them flinched since I usually refer to them as my friends. "Curtis we want to talk about your smithing skills." I raised my eyebrow which caused them to continue. "We want to give you back your shop. The other smiths quality is not up to par but yours is."I raise my hand then smile " how about you all shove off and learn how to do it yourself. Oh, wait you can't since no one can teach you but me. You see apparently my stuff is not worth your time, to begin with. So why should I return to a forge you deemed I do not need let alone teach you how to forge weapons." and with that, I close the door. Then I listen closely to what happens next. I heard "ANTONIO GRIMM this is all your fault. Because of you, we won't have good quality weapons to do our missions with. We have also lost a good friend in the process all because you couldn't let go of your pitiful grudge." I hear jasmine yell. "If he was a true friend then he would not have killed my sister with his pitiful excuse of an element." SLAP "If you honestly think that then you are not the man I married long ago. You need to let go of this he had very little control over his fire remember. None of us know how hard fire is too control. For all, we know it could be as easy to control as earth or as wild as the wind. We don't know do we." at this I smile. I then open the door " alright, i'll do it and just so you know fire is as wild as the wind and as easy to control as the earth. Try thinking about it this way the wind gets harder to control the more of it you gather right. Earth is as easy to make as it is too walk. It is easy for me to make tones of fire of fire easily but it becomes unruly the more of it I make making it harder to control. I made too much that day and I couldn't control it but I had to do it. I am truly sorry Antonio but know that she doesn't blame me. She told me this as her life slowly drained before my eyes." after that Antonio hugged me like a brother and things went on smoothly from then on.

Flashback over

As my thought drift back to today I can now see that Konoha is now in front of us and three figures are standing at the gate.

R&R