AN: So I'm currently writing chapter 32 nearing on its end and looking to see what I do in 33, but at the moment a large issue is more whether or not I want to actually go into Part 2/Shippuden, there are a few reasons I might do it but there isn't a lot for me to do so. Another thing though is that over the next few chapters there is a transition to even shorter chapters- which hopefully I can rectify and add more to, but because of they way I write I often leave myself feeling like I've found a place to end- none of them go below 2.5k words which isn't too bad I suppose but obviously its not good either and considering I've made it my mission to make most chapter at the least 4k.

Anyway on to the chapter, I can complain about my odd work ethic later, especially because that later might entail chapter 32 which is currently one of my favourite to write.

Chapter Title: Keeping the Blade Sharp
Arc 3 part 8

"Are you ready to head out then Kiddo?" Ume said standing ahead of me on the river bank that we had spent the last week or so hanging around.

Wordlessly I followed after her yawning from how tired I was feeling, there was something about waking up at the crack of dawn that made me feel tired even when I was wide awake like I was right now. We were headed home from what I could tell, but I wasn't sure how likely it would be that we'd get there today after I had asked her and she'd said it would take us about a day to get there probably longer because I was still injured.

Traveling was pretty slow and easy going as we walked along through the forest trudging through the brush, it was quite beautiful the scenery we past, there was a lot of open plains once we got a few hours in and all the mountains in the distance started to throw me off a fair bit seeing as they were snow topped and the land of fire didn't have any mountains with snow on them in it. Only Cloud and Iron did, so why the hell were they…

I decided to ignore this facit and just enjoy what I saw and think about how I was going to deal with this tournament that I was supposed to be thrown into and expected to live, I had a plan for the most part and no one other than my Aunt was aware of it because I thought it was too funny to not tell anyone about and that led to her giving me tips on how to employ it and do it at the right time. The best part was I was set to fight after the first match so I'd be able to do it early on and throw people off or confuse them for the most part. Just thinking about it made me snigger for a moment catching the ire of Ume who decided to ignore it.

We began heading away from the mountains keeping them as our backdrop, by the time the sun had begun to go down we stopped to eat leftovers and rest up for half an hour before we set off again traveling into the night, it was at that point that we began to pick up the pace and we ran through the night.

It was a pretty nice night, the moon was full and the stars were nice and visible.

I didn't go for walks at night, but traveling like this was making me want to, I was really enjoying it. The more I watched the stars the more my gaze drifted around and I began to take notice of the rest of the world around us, it was cut short though when my aunt stopped us short of another river that we came across, she stopped and began to set up a spot to sleep and so I followed suit and went straight to sleep feeling drained from all the moving around, the running hadn't helped any either.

Eventually I was woken up to the sound of Ume rustling around nearby while I rolled over and stood up, my back was sore from the uneven ground we'd slept on.

Ready to take off again we continued onward heading further, while we were traveling though, this time my aunt kicked up a conversation about my sword skills and how we could improve my speed and all that, most of what she was suggesting came down to either trying the training in armour or giving me heavier weights and clothing to wear and just force me to adapt to her speed. I was kind of leaning toward the idea more She talked about it and explained everything to me. It was just like talking with my uncle all over again when he and dad were constructing our routine that has since fallen apart due to Ume taking me like this off on our little fishing trip as she called it. I suppose I should probably be annoyed that all this happened, but I don't think I care about it seeing as I've gotten training out of it anyway so it's not like I lost out on much aside from jutsu training.

I was worried for my team though, I wasn't really sure how Sasuke was handling everything and Hinata was pretty closed off at times as well so it was hard to know if they were completely truthful with me about stuff, which sucks because I've been trying my best for so long to be open with them so that we as a team could deal with it all together and prevent shit from going sideways or anything similar happening. I suppose if anything I'm just trying to keep Sasuke from suicidal tasks like going and joining a missing nin because they offer you candy from their car with blacked out windows. Obviously with Hinata it's different and rather that I want her to gain confidence in herself so she's a little more outgoing.

Sensei said that I should probably focus on myself more seeing as there's a lot for me to focus on improving or just little things like that whole memory barrage thing that has literally put me in hospital several times, I understand those things are important or look like it to everyone else, but my circumstances are super weird and confusing as is so I mostly chalk that stuff up to my circumstances being so weird.

[Scene Break]

When my Aunt stated that we had arrived, we were still in a forest and as the midday sun rolled around we were walking along a dirt path at which point I noticed some smoke rising above the treeline, it wasn't what I would describe as bad smoke but rather the kind of smoke you'd see from a small cottages fireplace.

A smile rose across Ume's face as we continued on through the woods slowly approaching an opening in which there was a large stone and thatch cottage with a large extension made of wood, under this extension was a forge and a woman with an apron on beating away at metal she pulled from the forge, nearby was a man who was sitting on a stool reading a book and watching the woman smith the metal.

If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gaze's back The quote filled my mind as we got closer and the sounds of metal hitting metal, the sound of grunting and water squealing as the near molten hot steel touched it.

"Hey Mum! Dad!" My Aunt yelled as we got close enough to be seen and see them.

"Ume! How're you? And who's this?" the old man said standing and walking over to meet us.

When we got to one another he dragged me and my Aunt into a tight but careful embrace, as we stepped back after it he wore an enormous grin on his face, after a moment the woman came over as well doing the same. I could only assume they were fairly old and I don't mean because they were likely my grandparents, but because they still had a lot of colour in their hair and they didn't seem all that wrinkled, though my grandmother seemed to have somewhat bronzish copper like skin in terms of colour so I assume she still worked the forge every hour she got. They both had dark hair though my grandfather was more towards brown, when it came to their eyes it was amber for my grandmother and hazel for my grandfather.

We were pulled along and led inside the building to the front/first room of it that acted as a kitchen, living room and dining room. There was a door out of the room that I assumed went into the rest of the house, but I wasn't given a chance to ponder on it much as my grandmother started making tea and my grandfather dipped out of the building to quickly clean up whatever they'd been doing before we had arrived to make a mess of things.

What I did take from watching how Ume acted was that she seemingly hadn't had much interaction with her parents in a fair amount of time, I say this because listened to her have to explain that she had a daughter now and that I was my dads son, though I couldn't tell if it was just my parents and Ume not finding the time to visit or if it had to do with how out of the way the journey was to come here.

After about ten minutes everyone was settled and we were all sitting around a circular wooden table.

"Mum did you get my letter that I sent something like a year ago?" Ume asked, looking at the older woman who's face contorted for a moment trying to remember the contents. My grandmother had since been named Masumune Kyouto, though she had said it was fine for me to call her by name.

"Ah! Yes we did dear, but why didn't you explain who it was for or why the specifications of it were the way they were?" My grandfather who had now been named Koutetsu Kyouto, he had said similarly about my use of his name as it would be simpler.

"Right well I wanted it made for Takezou here because he's become my student and well… I kind of gave him my dojo's Nodachi that you made me for my sixteenth birthday, so I thought you could make him one for the Chunin Exams that the village is doing at the moment since he made it to the final, that and I wanted to get it back from him at some point so this seemed like a great opportunity." My aunt explained as I watched her do so I started thinking about it and thought that I had actually intended on giving it back soon anyway, so this worked out plus I didn't have to pay for a new sword.

I started to zone out of the conversation at this point while they caught up and my Aunt did her best at conversing like a normal person rather than starting a duel to convey thoughts, it wasn't really all that interesting though, mostly if I was brought up by extension of a question being asked I gave answers where I could and otherwise kept quiet as I got used the comfortable air around the house that we hadn't really had when we were at Ume's camping spot.

As I would tune in and out of what they were saying I slowly grew tired as all the energy I had been expanding finally started to catch up to me and I passed out in the chair I was in.

[Scene Break]

When I came to it was morning and the sun was rising, I was also really confused because the room I was in seemed to imply an old Japanese style mansion, but I know for a fact that I had fallen asleep in an old cobble cottage. Aside from my confusion my body was also really heavy feeling making it hard to move and even sit up at first, the futon I had seemingly been stuffed into was pretty thin so I assumed my body was just a hell of a lot more fatigued than I had initially thought I was.

It took me a while to get up only to realize I was only wearing my underwear and that left me even more confused as I looked around the room and saw a bundle of clothing sitting next to me, lifting it all to see what it was I found myself holding up a black Kimono with a golden chinese dragon around it as well as a velvet red Obi..

After a few minutes spent putting it one I finally opened the shoji which found me standing on the engawa veranda, looking around I saw a small garden encased by the house/veranda going out to either side and wrapping around it in a large square, the garden itself was large enough to have a tree in it with a small pond next to it.

I was somewhat amazed by it, not really expecting to see it, though I was brought from my thoughts by a voice.

"Imagination is a weapon, those who lack it, will be the first to die" Ume's bright voice said from my left where I hadn't noticed her leaning against the wall, though while I chalk my not seeing her up to not looking at her it also has to do with the fact that there is a bandage covering my left eye.

"Why is that the first words you decided to say to me after I woke up here? Also where the hell are we?" I asked watching her smile get brighter.

"This, this is my childhood home- and or your grandparents home and that room you just came out of was your fathers, actually that Kimono was your mothers though, don't know why it was here but it was in 'Yuki's room so I assume they stayed here for a short period of time before moving to Konoha." The raven haired and amber eyed woman explained yawning afterward. I noticed she was wearing a kimono as well, though hers was a muted lilac colour.

'I'll ignore the fact that I'm wearing a womans Kimono right now'

My stomach rumbled before growling something fierce as I could feel the emptiness of my gut get deeper the second, I was starved, I had no clue why though.

"Ugh… I guess I'm pretty hungry then..." y'know it was times like these where I saw my aunt laugh to herself that made it hard for me to see her as my aunt, when for the most part she was probably my closest friend.

"C'mon then." She said turning away and I followed after her.

We walked along the engawa to a door on the other side of the garden that opened up into a room where a hallway led to a room with a kitchen and bar top separating it from the rest of the room where in the middle a low to the ground square table was, the table had four pillows. It was quaint, that's for sure, nice though. It gave a real homely feel off, actually the more I looked at the kitchenette the more I wanted to do some cooking, which if anything concerned me a fair amount. Not that cooking is bad after all I spent so long doing it with mum and helping around with it or even this last week out in the forest, maybe I was just longing to do something that would be normal for once? Who knows.

I didn't need to do any cooking anyway as there was already food laid out for us, my grandparents were sitting on the left side of the table as we walked in as well. I was mostly quiet while we ate, choosing just to enjoy the food rather than get too distracted. It was when I finished though that I noticed a particular thing about Masamune, her skin was bronzed like she'd been in the sun for too long or stood next to an open flame for hours at a time, Koutetsu's skin was similarly bronzed but not nearly as severe. It was at this point I decided to ask them what they did.

"Well I'm a swordsmith, but I do general metal working if I need to." Masamune answered me easily with a bright smile.

"I've made a profession out of sharpening blades and helping them keep their edge." Koutetsu said with a yawn as he started collecting all the dishes and bringing them into the kitchen.

"Oh that's right you mentioned a blade for me yesterday right?" I had forgotten for a moment about that, Ume said she ordered one from them or something.

"Yup, it'll be similar to that sword my daughter gave you, but she asked for very specific dimensions that have become rather clear as to why." the older swordsmith said, it kind of had me intrigued as for what Ume had in mind for my own sword.

"Am I allowed to see it then?" I was eager to see it.

Before I knew it we were out the front door of the mansion and traveling down a dirt path that lead through a forest, we walked it for about twenty odd minutes before there was an opening that lead to the same thatch roofed cottage that we had first arrived at, what I noticed this time around was a large forge that had blades and weapons hanging on racks as well as tools around it.

There were a few blades that reminded me of Ume's Katana and the Nodachi that I should probably return when we get back home, what I mean to say is that the blades were an onyx or dark silvery colour, I couldn't tell if it was chakra conductive or if it was a metal I'd never seen. I also saw a Kusarigama that caught my attention, I had wanted to start learning how to use one a while ago but never really had a chance, as well as that I'd wanted to learn how to use a spear because I thought it would be pretty cool to use one seeing as it would throw people off if I pulled a spear out and pumped it with chakra and threw it. I mean, who wouldn't want to use one, though I suppose it would be like using a bow though wouldn't it? They were both cumbersome to use and would be hard to move around with normally, that's likely why no one uses them then.

Within minutes of our standing around and looking at all the swords Ume challenged me to a duel with two of the finished swords as the Miaodao wasn't completed just yet and we went at it until I ended up with a couple of slashes on me.

[Scene Break]

The next day I was with Koutetsu.

I gingerly touched at the bandages wrapped around my forehead that also covered my left eye leaving my field of view significantly lessened, it turned out that Ume hadn't actually slashed my eye itself but rather just above it still on the area of the socket, as well as that there was a single slash across my forehead though it was only maybe three inches across, the other injuries I had were minor and wouldn't scar. Though I suppose at this rate scars were seemingly all I was leaving with, the one on my forehead seemed to compliment the one running the length of my face, or so Ume said after doing up the bandages, she had also made a comment about how it always seemed to be the left side of my face.

"Tell me Takezou, what is strength and what does it mean to you?" Kouetsu asked bringing out the whetstone and other tools for sharpening the many blades around him.

"Strength huh? I- Strength is the power to overcome and is well… your physical ability." He gave me a raised brow.

"You don't sound too confident if your answer, let alone the fact that you don't seem to believe a lick of what you just said." He said back, taking out a blade to work on.

"I-" I cut myself off letting a heavy sigh out. "I'm sorry, I just can't think straight at the moment." I answered trying my best to deflect what he had said.

"Is that so?" He spoke slowly moving with the practiced movements of a master. "Your blade is exhausted… how many has it cut down and what has it been through?" he seemingly asked no one in particular. "Winning or losing battles… there's no profit for the world even if you find out who is stronger." He raised the blade that gave a familiar feeling off about it. "Or rather, you're probably a nuisance to the world." He continued slowly wiping the blade. "You great warriors waving these things around… Hehe… and I'm probably the same for sharpening this blade. No, I'm probably more of a bother."

I watched mesmerized as he continued "The number of souls taken by the blades I've sharpened… must be more than a hundred or two hundred." His eyes closed for a brief moment as though visualizing them all. "I'm probably a really bad guy for it." He said with a sad contempt letting the silence draw out before speaking again. "Takezou… what will you do after all this, will you continue to live a life without purpose or will you die regretting having never figured what it was you wanted from your life?"

It was in that moment my vision filled itself with thoughts of a future I had oft looked for but couldn't begin to see despite how much I searched, the conversation was one sided to a point but at the same time just answering him a little left me feeling like I was properly a part of it. Though I'd only known the man a few days with this conversation it felt like he knew me better than I did myself already.

"I- I don't think I'll die, or live." I said feeling as though despite it being how I felt that it wasn't my own answer but rather me relying on others to give me the answers I couldn't find for myself.

"Choosing a Katana as your world, your whole universe. That alone is not evil, beautiful things are like that." He said not to me any longer but to those who would hear him. "However… No matter how far you go, a Katana is just a Katana. A sharp tool solely for killing" he pressed his thumb into the flat of the blade with a cloth wiping away at the liquid falling from it. "Preserving the life you have given to the blade, this is a thing of beauty. If you forget that, things go downhill." He continued through the sharpening process talking and I listened to what he had to say without question, everything he said sounded so familiar.

After another hour or so of this I finally realized the sword he had was Ume's katana, the one she used to make herself a name with.

I continued to think about what he said, he and Ume had both offered me so much to think about, cracked blades and... well I'm not really sure how to put what Koutetsu said, it made sense but I couldn't explain why even if tried.

AN: Catch you a similar time next month with chapter 17 then.