Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto franchise, nor any of the other series I will be drawing inspiration from in this fanfiction. This is a work of fiction created purely for enjoyment, and no money shall be gained in its production.
Author Note: To those who haven't yet guessed, Anko is going to be an important part of this story, which is why she has been mentioned so much in recent chapters. I know that people want to read more about our main character, and the story will be steering back to focus more on him in the next chapter.
As to those asking about pairings in this story, I have this to say. I would like to have a pairing in this story, but I want to see how the relationships between the characters develop naturally over the course of the story instead of trying to force a pairing and risk it feeling unnatural.
BADGER
Chapter 10
If looks could kill, Hayate would have been a dead man.
Once the doctor removed the bandage wrapping Anko's arm the examined the angry red wounds, revealing that the wounds hadn't been properly cleaned out before being closed up. With that said, the doctor proceeded to remove all of the stitches so that they could get access to the infected tissue.
When Anko was released from the hospital her arm was aching not only from the medical Jutsu used to remove the infection from her arm, but also from how tight the new stitches were beneath the fresh bandages. She had been given a prescription for antibiotics as well as a package of replacement bandaging and a tube of medical paste to apply to the wound over the following week.
Needless to say, she blamed Hayate for the fresh pain in her arm, as Klaus was no longer around to be blamed.
Feeling the weight of her glare, the swordsman was desperate to turn in their mission so that he could escape his fellow Chuunin's presence. A sense of relief filled him when the Assignment Office came into view, the end of their days long journey nearly coming to an end. He barely held himself back from breaking into a sprint, but forced himself to keep it to a brisk walk in order to avoid making her even angrier.
As they neared the entrance to the building a sense of dread began to build within him once more as he heard the sound of a large number of people coming from within. When he finally reached out and opened the door they were greeted by a room filled with other Ninja already waiting in line to turn in their own missions. Jounin sensei were riding herd on their Gennin, while the numerous Chuunin stood around in small groups discussing their latest adventures.
It was at that moment that Hayate realized that they had returned to Konoha on a Monday, and it was currently the Ninja equivalent of rush hour in the Assignment Office.
Requests would come in from all over the village for minor D-Ranked missions over the weekend and the different Jounin would rush to complete their assignments so that they could receive their pay, and spend the rest of the day either lounging around or training their Gennin. Since the Assignment Office closed for an hour at lunch time, these teams ended up crowding the waiting room and holding everyone else back from turning in their own assignments.
Glancing over at the scowling face of Anko Mitarashi, Hayate spent a brief moment considering what would happen if he pointed out that they could have avoided this wait if they had turned in their mission first before heading to the hospital to have her arm looked at. Fortunately for him, his sense of self preservation kept his mouth shut.
Several eyes were drawn to the torn and bloody sleeve of Anko's trench coat, while a few others spent an inappropriate amount of time staring at the window of net-covered cleavage revealed by the open front of the coat. However, there was a small number of people that noticed the bone pendant hanging around her neck, giving her subtle nods of recognition.
Even now, just over five years after the Badger Boss had been summoned to defend their village against the relentless attack of the Kyuubi, badgers held a strong reputation as guardian animals for the people of Konoha. It was said that in a great time of need, the Badger Boss would return to defend them once more, laying low those who would seek to destroy the peace that they tried so hard to create.
Many people gave lip service to this idea, believing that with the death of the last Okamoto the Badgers would never be able to return. There was a small, but growing, number of people in the village that held true that even if the body of the Badger had been laid low, its spirit still remained, watching over them. They believed that carrying the image of the Badger with them granted luck, and as with the Kami of old they would give offerings to the Badger in thanks.
Anko had first become aware of the Badger during the Festival last fall, mere months after the betrayal of her old master, Orochimaru. During her darkest hour, wandering the alleyways and back streets of the village while everyone else celebrated the fall of the Kyuubi, she had overheard the voice of Jiraiya the Toad Sage telling storied about the Badger Boss, and speaking the name 'Hachimitsu'.
Ever since waking up with the curse seal on her neck she had suffered continuous nightmares whenever she slept, only to suffer the glares and harsh whispers of the villagers as she stumbled through the streets in an exhausted daze. When she returned that night having purchased a massive plush replica of Hachimitsu she enjoyed sleep without nightmares for the first time in months, the Badger appearing in her dreams to drive off the snakes that haunted her.
After that she slowly became aware of people in the village wearing pendants bearing the image of a badger, and wondered how she had never noticed them before. No two pendants were alike, each made of different materials, and crafted with varying levels of workmanship. Some carried the image of the local European Badger, but a small number were of the Honey Badger, fashioned in the image of Hachimitsu.
Learning that it had become the custom to make your own pendant as a sign of respect to the Spirit of the Badger, she began practicing on small pieces of wood taken from the forests outside Konoha, whittling the wood down to size with a Kunai, and using the tip of a Senbon to engrave the image on the flat surface. She kept the practice up, spending time during the long escort missions her team went on under her new Jounin sensei to hone her skill.
The bone pendant she now wore around her neck was her most recent creation, and the first one she had ever tried to make out of bone. She considered it a sign that she had finally passed the grueling Chuunin Exams immediately after making this pendant, thus proving to her that the Luck of the Badge was more than just some old wives' tale.
In her heart she knew it was that luck that had brought both of them back to Konoha after the mission that ended with the death of Klaus, and her acquiring her new awesome sword. It had to be a sign that she had run into the Nuke-nin the way she did, telling her that not only did she need to learn how to use a sword, but outright giving her a cool blade like that at the same time.
Hopefully she would earn enough for the bounty for the Nuke-nin to pay for the work that would need to be done on the sword to get it ready, because she wanted to start practicing with it as soon as possible.
"Looks like the bounty clerk is available," Hayate pointed out. "Go ahead and go over, I'll hold our place in line to turn in our mission."
"You better," Anko replied, pulling the mission scroll out of her equipment pouch and handing it to him with a parting scowl.
Much like a civilian bank, the Assignment Office had a line of clerks sitting behind a tall counter top, ledger books close at hand to double check the assignments being turned in for accuracy. Off to the side of the room one of the work stations sat alone, a sign painted with the words 'Bounty Officer' hanging above the old man that sat there. Unlike the other clerks who handled handing out assignments and giving pay for completed missions, this man only handled pay outs for bounties in the Bingo Book.
As Anko sauntered over to the counter she reached into her equipment pouch and pulled out a storage scroll, double-checking to make sure that it was the one that held the head of the Nuke-nin she had killed three days ago, and not the sword that Hayate had sealed into his own storage scroll for her. Reassured that she had the right scroll in hand, she stopped in front of the counter and waited for the old man to acknowledge her.
Better not to anger the man who was about to hand her several thousand Ryo.
"Name?" the old man asked, looking her in the eye over the rim of his glasses.
"Anko Mitarashi," she replied.
"I meant the name of the dead man you want to get paid for," the bounty officer said without humor.
"Oh, sorry," Anko apologized. "Sakura 'Klaus' Furusaki."
She resisted the urge to blush as the old man opened up a large ledger book, a much larger version of the Bingo Books that many ninja carried around that held much more detailed information on the people contained within. Gnarled hands flipped through the pages of this book with a disturbing level of agility, reminding Anko that this man had likely lived long enough to have seen all three Shinobi Wars.
Chances were he was the single most dangerous person in the entire building, which was why he was sitting alone in the corner with little more than a large book filled with the names of future dead men, and a cash box sitting next to him filled with more Ryo than many ninja would ever see during their own careers. Anyone who tried to steal from him would not have long to regret that decision, if they were lucky.
"Ah, here we are," the clerk stated, having found the right page. "Furusaki, Sakura. Alias, 'Klaus'. B-Ranked nuke-nin from Hidden Mist, bounty two hundred thousand ryo."
Anko's heart skipped a beat at hearing the amount, as her own bingo book listed a more modest eighty thousand ryo bounty. She might need to replace it with a new copy soon, if it was that out of date.
"What proof have you for the bounty?" he asked her.
"I have a storage scroll containing his head, sir," Anko replied in a slightly dazed voice, her hand moving on its own to hand the scroll over.
"It will just take a moment to verify the kill," the clerk told her, accepting the scroll.
Reaching down below his desk, the old man pulled out a metal tray with tall sidewalls to keep anything from spilling out, placing it on the surface of his desk on his right hand side next to the open ledger. With practiced ease he opened up the scroll and flipped it upside down so that the intricate storage seal was pointed down at the metal tray. Moments later he channeled a precise amount of chakra into the scroll to release the seal, the dull thump of the head hitting the metal surface of the tray drawing the attention of a trio of Gennin standing nearby waiting for their Jounin sensei to turn in their mission.
When the Chakra mist faded to reveal the burnt and bloody head left behind one of the Gennin let out a short scream, while the other two quickly turned to face the other direction, looking slightly ill. Several Jounin and Chuunin looked over to see what the commotion was about, only to roll their eyes when they saw what had caused such a reaction from the inexperienced Gennin.
Pulling out a pair of rubber gloves the old man began to inspect the dead man's head, fingers prying open the eyelids to reveal a pair of sightless eyes that he compared to the picture in the book. Next he pried open the mouth, checking the teeth against a set of detailed dental records drawn there, and noting the file marks from an inexpert attempt to sharpen the canines.
It was truly amazing the amount of detailed medical information that the rival Hidden Villages would share with each other to ensure that the right person had been killed.
During this inspection, a series of small Fuuinjutsu seals along the edge of the tray kept the stench of death from leaving its confines. This was more in respect for the other people working there that would have been stuck with the smell for the next several hours than any reluctance on the part of the elderly man himself.
When he was finished he stripped the rubber gloves off his hands, making sure not to get any of 'Klaus' on him as he did so, and dropped them into the tray on top of the head. Reaching out one of his gnarled fingertips he touched a small circle of seals on the outside of the tray and channeled another burst of Chakra, causing a small but intense fire to light the corner of the office as the combined Katon (Fire) and Fuuton (Wind) seals destroyed everything inside it.
"Everything checks out," the clerk said with a pleased tone. "On behalf of both Konoha and Mizu, we thank you for the service you have rendered in bringing this criminal to justice. This kill will be recorded in your permanent files, and the listed bounty of two hundred thousand ryo will be paid to you immediately."
While he rambled off this scripted speech, his deft hands lifted the lid of his cash box and proceeded to pull out several stacks of two hundred ryo notes bundled together with bank tape indicating the number of bills and value of each stack. One by one he dropped these onto the table in front of her until he reached the right amount, and then he spun his ledger around to face her.
"It is required that you place your thumbprint in the designated box at the bottom of the page," he told her, his calloused hand producing a small penknife from somewhere and placing it next to the open ledger. "In blood."
If she were to be perfectly honest, her hand shook as she cut the pad of her thumb and pressed it down next to the receipt for the money.
While she was signing, he had taken the now empty metal tray and placed it back out of sight beneath his desk, leaving her now empty storage scroll next to the large stack of money that now belonged to her. Sticking her thumb in her mouth to suck the blood off of it, she looked from the stack of ryo notes while the clerk cleaned and reused the penknife to cut his own thumb and place his print next to hers to document the bounty.
Ignoring the dried blood on the scroll from when she had rolled the head on to it, she made the quick decision to re-use the seal, and proceeded to pile the money on top of it.
She did not miss the intense awareness coming from the elderly clerk the moment she channeled her chakra, sealing the money inside the storage scroll so that she could carry it out with her. With a quick bow of thanks, she rolled the storage scroll back up and placed it safely in the equipment pouch hidden beneath her coat at her lower back.
Looking around the room she spotted Hayate, who had nearly reached the assignment counter by this point. There were a few grumbles as she wove through the crowd, but nobody complained when she rejoined her teammate's side. After all, they had just seen her turn in a substantial bounty for someone as young as she was, and it wasn't like she was cutting in line herself since Hayate had kept their place the entire time.
"If they gave you that much for the bounty, you must have been real lucky to survive with just a cut on your arm," Hayate muttered to her.
"I already told you, it was the Luck of the Badger," Anko replied with a smirk.
"You can't rely on luck all the time," Hayate cautioned. "We'll start your Kenjutsu lessons next week, once the doctor gives you a clean bill of health for your arm."
"Are you going to ask me to call you 'Gekko-sensei'?" Anko teased. "I wasn't aware you were into that kind of thing."
"Really, really not my type, Mitarashi," Hayate replied, turning back to face the back of the man standing before them in line. "All kidding aside, I am going to train you into the ground until I'm sure you won't be a danger to either of us before I let you anywhere near that sword again."
Anko responded with a simple nod, the memory of Klaus coming at her that night fresh in her mind once more after seeing his burnt head lying there in the metal tray. Remembering the three Gennin who had been close by when the head had been taken out, she looked over to the side of the room to see their Jounin sensei kneeling next to them talking to them in a low voice.
She forced herself to look away, hiding her moment of emotional weakness by glaring at the back of Hayate's head again, feeling a small moment of triumph as his shoulders instinctively hunched together.
"Next!"
Feet shuffled as the line inched forward, bringing them a few steps closer to the assignment counter as a rather pleased Chuunin walked away holding the pay for a solo D-Ranked mission. While those tended to only bring in around 5,000 Ryo each, there was something to be said for spending a few hours of your morning and walking away with the equivalent of a week's worth of rent on a decent apartment.
Not that she had much of a concept what rent should be on a decent apartment, due to the fact that her tainted reputation kept her from being accepted anywhere other than the over-priced dive she was currently living in. Okay, it wasn't too bad of an apartment, but she had seen the places other Chuunin lived in and knew she was getting ripped off.
"Next!"
Anko shifted her weight from one foot to the other, anxious to get out of the assignment office and away from the stares and whispered voices that surrounded her. Her equipment pouch felt unnaturally heavy at the base of her spine, even though all it held were the two storage scrolls containing her new sword and the money she received for her bounty.
It would be best for her to pay for the work on the sword before she had a chance to go out and party, otherwise she might wake up a week later having spent it all on sake and dango.
"When do you plan to get your new sword looked at?" Hayate asked her as they waited.
"Right after we get paid here," Anko told him. "I figure the sooner I hand it over, the sooner I get it back."
"That is true," Hayate agreed. "I will come with you so you know what training equipment you need to buy."
"Thanks," she nodded.
"Next!" shouted the clerk.
Hayate pulled their mission scroll out of his equipment pouch as he approached the clerk behind the counter, Anko following close behind as she realized that they had finally reached the front of the line. The clerk wordlessly accepted the tightly bound scroll from the swordsman, asking for both of their names as they checked the contents of the scroll against their ledger book.
"According to our records, your mission has been retroactively upgraded to a B-Rank mission due to new intel received after your assignment," the clerk told them, sparing them a glance before turning his eyes back to the papers. "I just need to get your increased pay approved by the Jounin on staff today. I will be back in a few moments."
Anko glanced over at Hayate with a raised eyebrow, receiving a shrug from the swordsman as the clerk rolled their mission scroll back up, taking it with him into the back office. Several Ninja in line behind them groaned at the delay, while a Gennin further back in the line asked their Jounin sensei if they would be done soon, as they needed to go to the bathroom.
After a few minutes the clerk returned, much to the relief of everyone in line, and sat back down in his chair behind the counter.
"Your extra pay has been approved," the clerk told them as he began to count out their money on the counter. "You will each receive a total of fifty thousand ryo, totaling a mission pay of one hundred thousand for your upgraded B-Rank mission."
"Thank you," Hayate nodded to the clerk, accepting his own stack of ryo notes.
"The more the merrier," Anko said with a grin, tucking the extra money into her equipment pouch with the two sealing scrolls. "Let's get out of here Gekko, we have to see a man about a sword."
"Why does it sound so dirty when you say it like that," Hayate grumbled as they cleared the way for the next person in the line.
"You just have a dirty mind," she said, smirking as he stumbled at hearing her response.
"Seriously not my type," he told her as they left the building.
Neither of them noticed the ANBU leaping across the rooftops heading for the Hokage Tower with their mission scroll on Sarutobi's order to report to him if the two Chuunin made it back to the village. It was for that reason the clerk had gone in to the back office, not because he needed authorization to increase their pay.
Anko had taken a moment to unseal her sword so she could hand Hayate's storage scroll back to him, and was now walking through the village with the spine of the blade resting on her left shoulder. Sunlight shone down on the village through narrow holes in the cloud cover, glinting off the curved saw blade edge, its intimidating appearance causing villagers to cross to the other side of the street to avoid them.
It might have also been the blood covering the right sleeve of her tan trench coat. After all, only a little bit of it on the upper arm was hers, the rest belonged to the two nuke-nin that she had killed with the sword.
At least I cleaned the sword off, Anko thought to herself with a wicked grin.
Since this was a Hidden Village, there were several weapon shops to choose from, the constant need for new tools allowing for healthy competition between the different shop owners. There was one particular shop that she was leading them towards though, not only because the owner of the shop was a talented weapon smith with a solid reputation for quality work, but also because he was one of the few shop keepers that did not treat her bad because of her shared past with Orochimaru.
Hayate's complaining had dulled to a low mumble by the time they reached the front entrance to Higurashi's shop, a simple sign of a hammer interposed on the outline of an anvil the only indication that it was anything other than a large home on the densely packed back street. Smoke was coming from the chimney indicating a fire inside, but it lacked the thick black hue that would have told him the owner was working the forge.
That was a good sign, as they would have been forced to wait until he was done working on his latest project before he could have seen them.
Upon opening the door she was greeted with the familiar sight of dark oak walls covered in a massive assortment of weapons. Display cases lined these walls, holding the more commonly requested weapons, while low pine boxes rested beneath them filled with an assortment of bulk necessities like kunai and shuriken.
Come to think of it, I will need to stock up on those before my next mission, Anko reminded herself.
A young girl of maybe five or six years of age looked up at them with expressive brown eyes, the broom held in her hands pausing as she saw the two of them enter the shop. Anko spent a moment to restrain herself from shouting out how cute the child was in her little pink qipao-style blouse, her dark brown hair pulled up in two buns on top of her head that reminded Anko of a little mouse.
Alerted by a small bell hung above the doorway that rang when they entered, the owner of the shop walked out of the back room from behind a curtain, cleaning weapons oil off his hands with a well used cloth rag.
Dan Higurashi was a large man, standing nearly seven feet tall with a solid frame covered with densely packed muscles. He had been forced to retire from the Konoha ninja forces with the rank of Jounin when he had suffered an injury to his lower back while fighting against a group of Iwa (Stone) nin. He was healthy enough even for the physical demands of running his own weapon's shop, but something had happened to his chakra network after the injury that made it so that he could not actively channel chakra anywhere below his waist.
It would have taken the skills of the legendary medic nin Tsunade to return this ability to him, but the woman had not been seen for years and Dan had moved on with his life at this point. After all, even though he could no longer fight, he prided himself with the knowledge that every weapon and tool that he sold in his shop helped defend Konoha just as surely as if he was the one wielding it.
Pausing for a moment as he spotted the unusual sword propped up against Anko's shoulder, Dan tossed the rag he was holding into a nearby bucket and walked behind the counter to greet them.
"What can I do to help you," Dan asked them.
"I'd like to have you inspect my new sword," Anko told him. "I managed to pick this up from a nuke-nin during my last mission, and decided it looked too nice to just leave it lying around."
"Do you know how to use it?" Dan asked her, motioning for her to hand it over.
"Not yet," Anko confessed, handing the saw blade sword over handle first, being careful not to let its teeth get close to her. "But my friend here plans on giving me lessons, and he's pretty damned good with a sword."
"Very good, then," Dan nodded, taking a moment to glance up at Hayate as he lay the sword down on the counter in front of him. "You any good with a sword?"
"They have me teach classes at the Academy when I can be spared from the mission logs," Hayate replied, sounding proud of himself. "I should be able to get this woman to learn at least the basics so that she doesn't end up lopping one of her own limbs off, since she seems to have her heart set on that ugly thing."
"Ugly, you call it?" Dan asked, quirking an eyebrow. "It might not be a traditional katana like you are used to, but I recognize good workmanship when I see it."
During this conversation the small girl had slowly crept towards the counter to get a better look at the sword, a look of keen interest on her face as the bright overhead lights gleamed off the serrated edges of the blade.
"So what made you decide to learn Kenjutsu," Dan asked Anko, his callused hands busy unraveling the ruined cording from the handle of the sword.
"I ended up running out of throwing weapons and was forced into close combat with only a kunai," Anko confessed. "Normally this wouldn't be an issue when only going against bandits and such, but then the guy who used to own this sword came popping up out of nowhere spouting crazy and doing his best to cut me in half."
In that moment, the little girl decided that when she became a ninja, she wouldn't do anything silly like run out of throwing weapons.
"I don't see how he planned on cutting anything in half with that thing," Hayate complained. "With all of those teeth on the blade it would get caught in the first thing you cut and get pulled right out of your hands. I saw it happen already when you got that other nuke-nin off my back."
"That's because she wasn't using it right," Dan interrupted, cutting of Hayate's tirade. "Come over here and take a closer look where the teeth are cut out of the blade. Do you see that sheen of brighter metal inside there?"
"Yeah, I see it," Hayate agreed, leaning forward for a closer look.
"That's Chakra metal," Dan told him. "High quality from the looks of it. There's an outer casing of high carbon steel, the same kind I'm sure your own katana is made from, folded around this inner core of Chakra metal."
"Why would they do that?" Anko asked.
"You see, one of the problems with Chakra metal is that it's a soft metal," Dan explained. "It has to be in order for it to allow a good flow of chakra through it without causing resistance. This means that you can sharpen it all you like, but it has a hard time holding a cutting edge on its own, unlike good steel. A good sword design will have a core of softer metal to give the sword flexibility so that it doesn't break when it hits something hard, like the blade of another swordsman. But you also want an edge of harder metal that you can keep sharp without grinding all the metal away, or else you won't be able to cut anything with it.
"When a proper katana is made a master smith will fold the metal of the blade several times, constantly placing it in a specially prepared bed of coals to get just the right amount of carbon to make the sword strong, but not brittle. They did the exact same thing here, but they started with Chakra metal and folded the high carbon steel around that.
"Normally this would have ruined the blade, because channeling Chakra through regular steel is extremely difficult, even if you did have a core of Chakra metal inside the sword to help you."
Silence filled the weapon shop for a few moments, before Anko snapped her fingers in understanding.
"So that's how Klaus was able to cut those bodies in half," she realized. "With those teeth cut out of the blade, that exposed the stuff inside, allowing him to use his Chakra to increase its cutting power."
"Exactly," Dan nodded. "And unlike a regular Chakra blade with a straight edge, this design would make the Chakra released to mimic the same serrated design. This sword isn't made to simply cut your enemies, it's made to saw them to pieces."
Anko stood for a few moments with a faraway look in her pupil-less tan eyes, a small grin ghosting across her face as she imagined cutting Orochimaru into little bloody pieces with her new sword. While she was in her little fantasy land, Dan finished unwrapping the handle, tossing the blood stained cloth cords to the side for the time being as an inner wrapping of sharkskin was revealed.
Hayate had wondered on the traditional katana grip of the sword during their walk back to Konoha, since it looked out of place when seen on the unusual sword. As he watched Dan remove the shark skin wrap from the handle to reveal what lay beneath it he finally understood why it had not been given a simpler grip.
Blades are usually classified under one of two simple classifications, regardless of the length of the weapon in question. There is half-tang, where the metal of the blade extends about half the length of the handle, and full-tang, where it extends nearly the entire length of the handle itself. Regardless of the length of the tang, the handle itself is typically made of two matched pieces of wood on either side and held in place with rivets driven through both sides to hold this sandwich of materials together.
Once the sharkskin wrap was removed they were able to see that the rivets holding the wood together were made from yet more chakra metal, and were set within thin Chakra metal plates on either side of the handle itself. Under the bright overhead lights of the shop they could see an intricate web of Fuuinjutsu seals engraved upon those metal plates, a dark burgundy substance rubbed within the tracings causing them to stand out in sharp contrast against the shiny metal.
"Well I'll be," Dan muttered, gently placing the sword on the counter before taking a step back. "I knew this sword was special, but this is something else."
"What do you mean?" Anko asked, snapping back to reality.
"It looks like someone went to the trouble of putting a 'nature conversion' seal on these plates, making it so that any Chakra sent through the handle and into the blade will change to Fuuton Chakra, no matter what your own Chakra nature is," Dan explained. "Very useful, but we will have to get it keyed to you after I'm done working on making a matching grip and sheath for it."
"Can't we just use the grip it already has?" Anko asked him.
"Not really, no," he shook his head. "You really want both the handle and the sheath made from the same block of wood, even if you are going to be covering it up with something else. I'll look around my stock to see if I have a suitable piece to work with, something that will match you. Will you still be wearing the same style of coat?"
"Oh this, yeah," Anko said, looking down at her attire. "Might need to get this one cleaned soon though, and take it somewhere to get the holes patched up."
"Good idea," Dan chuckled. "I'll send an invoice to you once I'm done getting it ready for you. You should probably pick up a Bokken before getting lessons from your friend here. Believe me, you don't want to be swinging this sword around anything you don't want cut apart."
"Good point," Hayate muttered, returning to the conversation. "Get yourself a suburito as well for strength training. The heavier training sword will help build up the muscles you will need in order to use a weapon like this correctly. It would be a shame for a work of art like this to be seen in inexpert hands, so expect a lot of sword practice in your future before I'll allow you to go anywhere with it."
"And here I thought you said it was an eyesore," Anko chided, nudging him with her elbow.
"It is an eyesore," Hayate countered, stepping away from her prodding elbow. "But it just so happens that it is a well made, extremely dangerous eyesore, and I would feel safer knowing that there was a better chance that it would be cutting someone apart that we don't particularly care for."
"I knew you cared!" Anko said, trying to loop an arm over his shoulder only for him to dodge out of the way.
"Still not my type, Mitarashi!"
"Right, right," Anko laughed. "How much do you think it will cost to get the work done?"
Looking back down at the sword, Dan thought of everything that needed to be done to get the sword battle ready. The width and serrations on the blade would require a larger block of wood for the sheath, and he would have to factor in the sawing effect the sword would have when drawn from the sheath.
Luckily, the serrations ended about three inches from the chisel tip of the blade, which would help it clear the neck of the sheath. It would still take time for him to come up with a proper design, since they did not have the original sheath for him to steal the design from.
Then there was the work to get her attuned to the nature conversion seals engraved in the plates on the handle. That would require calling in a favor from someone better trained in Fuuinjutsu than he was, and paying for their time as well.
"I would say one hundred and eighty thousand ryo for parts and labor," he told her honestly. "Maybe more for the work on getting the seals attuned to your chakra, depending on who I'm able to call up to help us with that."
Anko winced while Hayate started coughing, both of them shocked at the price tag.
Both of them had known that getting custom work of this level done would not be cheap, but that would take most of the money she had been paid earlier. Luckily, that would still leave her enough to pay for her living expenses, plus some extra for some high quality roasted peanuts.
"I also need to buy ten Kunai and twenty Shuriken to fill my equipment pouch," Anko said, pulling her storage scroll out. "How much extra would it be to buy those, and the training swords?"
"Kunai and Shuriken are made in bulk, the same as Bokken and Suburito," Dan replied. "All together that will come up to another fifteen thousand ryo."
Nodding, Anko rolled open her storage scroll on the counter top next to the bare blade of her now very expensive sword. Under the watchful gaze of the shop owner, she unsealed the contents of the scroll, a small puff of Chakra mist fading to reveal the neatly stacked ryo notes she had gotten less than an hour ago for her bounty.
Pulling a single bundle of five thousand ryo from the stack, she pushed the rest of the money onto the dark oak counter, looking visibly pained to let that much money go after holding on to it for such a brief moment of time. While Dan began counting the money that had just been dropped before him, Hayate walked over to where several barrels filled with wooden training weapons sat beneath a display on the far wall to pick out a good set of bokken for his new student.
Nobody paid any attention as little Tenten's eyes grew as she saw Anko unseal the money from the scroll, not knowing how this day would forever change the course of the little girls future career as a Ninja. With the knowledge that throwing weapons could keep your enemies at a distance, and you could store even that large of a stack of money in a scroll that still weighed no more than the paper that it was made from, she realized that there was no reason for her to ever run out of throwing weapons like this woman had.
"How long do you think it will take to get my sword ready?" Anko asked after Dan finished counting the money.
"I would ask that you give me two weeks," the smith replied. "I could get it done faster, but for quality work we both want me to take my time with it. It will also take some work to find someone local who can help get the seal work looked at for us."
"No hurry," Anko nodded. "It will take some time for the cuts on my arm to heal anyway, and I doubt that my new 'sensei' will let me start swinging my new masterpiece around any time soon."
"You've got that right," Hayate told her as he placed the two wooden swords on the counter, the thicker suburito thumping as it met the oak surface. "Now, if you don't mind, I have some unwanted memories to repress. If you need to find me over the next few days, I suggest you start your search at the bar."
"Are you still going on about-"
"Don't say that name," Hayate interrupted her, his glare intensified by the bags beneath his eyes.
"Okay then," Anko nodded.
After a tense moment, Hayate nodded back, and made his way towards the exit.
Picking up the two training swords and holding them beneath her good arm, Anko gave the shop owner a parting thanks, waving goodbye over her shoulder as she followed Hayate out of the shop and into the streets of Konoha. It was only a short walk from here to her home, and the sooner she got cleaned up the sooner she could get to the market to buy some fresh roasted peanuts for tomorrow.
After all, she still needed to give thanks to the spirit of the Badger for bringing her home. Better make it a good offering too, now that she knew how awesome her new sword was.