Author's Notes:

Wrapping up the prep groundwork before we get into serious storytelling. Buckle up faithful readers…

Chapter 9: A Good Day for Foxes

~I I I~

By the time Naruto graduated from the civilian academy, he had given up on earning respect from the average civilian. All they saw was the "demon brat" and he had little patience for that.

It obviously didn't help matters that the twins would transform into female fox kits and ride around either wrapped around his neck or snuggled up in the front of his jacket. By this point, he was fast enough to avoid bullies and thugs. It was a simple matter to avoid injury from civilians and most shinobi up to low Chunin so there was little real threat - most serious shinobi had far more important things to concern themselves with besides an unwanted orphan and his pet fox.

He couldn't fight them, the shinobi… yet… and he didn't want to risk injury to the Twins or revealing his Kitsune secret. So, he chose discretion knowing that one day soon he wouldn't have to do either anymore.

Also, he had plenty of money to provide for the three of them. Interest earned from the twenty-five million Ryu settlement compounded nicely – Neko found time to have a heart-to-heart conversation with the bank people and they seemed more than willing to let him get to his money these days. What he wouldn't give to see his village tormentors choke on their own spit if they knew he was wealthy.

No, what Naruto needed was closure. He needed to know those that hurt him on his sixth birthday had been properly dealt with and the vixen twins offered him a way to get just that.

The list of his tormentor's names was a poorly kept secret. EVERYONE knew exactly who they were because they never expected anything ill to happen to them. It was no secret that the council took up donations and paid their fines; their crimes cost them nothing, not even jail time. They were courted openly while merchants offered gifts of wine, women, and song. The whole village flaunted it in his face and took joy in the demon brat's suffering.

The "Heroes of Konoha," Hunters of the Demon they were called, and one of them was drinking and having a grand old time in the red-light district on one very rainy summer night. Apparently, it was a pattern of behavior he followed in his new celebrity status.

~I I I~

A tall man with black hair and dark eyes nodded to a sultry redhead with enticing curves wrapped snugly in equally-red silk that revealed almost half of her generous bosom. The gorgeous emerald-eyed creature stepped out from their hiding place in the alley across the street from the bar and sauntered seductively into the establishment. A few minutes later, the dark man stepped back into the alley and vanished from sight.

An hour later the drunken hero staggered out of the bar leaning heavily on the curvaceous crimson woman under his arm, his eyes lidded heavily with lust as he ogled her deep cleavage. He completely missed her shudder of disgust assuming it to be the cold rain and so he pressed her closer to his own body flush with the warmth of alcohol.

He never noticed how hollow her laughter was nor that he now laughed alone drunk off more than booze.

Into the dark cavern across the street they strolled without a care in the world. Several moments later, that same couple staggered out the far end of the alley and back into the dim streetlight there, the woman hungrily running her hands up and down the chest of the drunken male as she feverishly kissed his neck. The ANBU above, which had begun to ratchet up their prepared responses when they lost sight of him in the dark shadows of the alley, relaxed and settled in for the show.

With the curves on this one, it promised to be a very entertaining night. At least one of the SPECOPS duo was planning to ply her services once she'd washed the stink off from the drunken "hero."

Before long, however, the male angrily pushed her away and shouted in her face. He was angered at her request for Ryu. Didn't she know him? He was a hero! How dare she try to take away his hard-earned money.

She only laughed bitterly at that comment and asked what the going rate for murdering children was these days.

He drunkenly swung his arm but she ducked nimbly and ran away, her biting laugh taunting him and turning his face a bright red to match her hair.

She laughed again and tauntingly swayed her hips back the way she came turning left at the alley entrance before flirting her way off into the night. The drunken hero fought with his robes briefly before staggering off down the street in the opposite direction. By the time the ANBU reached the far end of the alley, he had vanished.

Panic set in almost immediately this time.

When no trace of him was found, they searched for the prostitute with no success. It was as if she'd been swallowed up by the night's rainstorm.

Returning to the alley, palms glowing with a faint light, the two-person squad eventually found his bloodied body resting between a couple of crates, curled into a fetal position with his hands clasped firmly between his legs. He was bleeding from the crotch but still alive and going into shock.

Leaping away wrapped in his Kitsune camouflage, Naruto chuckled bitterly. Tatsua's lessons in field dressing his kills had been very helpful. The bastard would survive but never be able to sire offspring, fitting punishment for a man willing to kill a defenseless child.

Much to T&I's disappointment, the victim could provide little useful information. He couldn't even see what happened in the cave-like darkness. His mind was blurry with alcohol before he had been pushed down in the dark alley, intoxicated to the point that he was almost clinically numbed to the sharp pain followed by a steady burning sensation between his legs - the only memories in his addled mind. The mind walkers found nothing useful to identify his attacker, not even a gloating voice to identify them.

The investigation stopped cold fairly early despite the Council's outrage.

T&I could not find the red-headed prostitute they pulled from Watanabe-san's memories and no other images were usable due to the heavy darkness in the secluded alley. Whoever did this was efficient and silent. His brain showed minute traces of residual chakra indicating genjutsu use but the only image was darkness, an inky blackness with no sound. He had been relieved of his money, so it was deemed "robbery with intent to maim or cause serious bodily injury."

Some T&I investigators joked often and liked to call it "robbery by angry hooker." Even heroes couldn't get away with being total jerks. In the end, the case was never solved.

Later that night after reuniting at Naruto's apartment, Tatsua joined him in the shower as they cleansed the taint of blood and the hero's scent of perversion from their bodies. For the briefest of moments, she could sympathize with his pain and chose not to torment him as they stood huddled together under the running water. For long moments, they simply held each other until the water ran cold and washed the boy's innocence down the drain with the last drops of pervert's blood. At the same time, his clothes were burned in the apartment complex incinerator by use of a very powerful Katon jutsu courtesy of Tamami. They would later use the "hero's" money from the robbery to celebrate at Ichiraku's and the ramen stand would become the Kitsune favorite from then on.

One down and four more to go.

As an aside, Tatsua would increase the intensity of his taijutsu and kenjutsu training after that first kill since the rest of the list included shinobi targets. They would be considerably harder to deal with.

Coincidently, it was his increased time in late-night training sessions that would lead him to Higurashi-san and Konoha Metals, Incorporated.

Afternoons during summer and school semesters belonged to Tamami and, through her patience and care, Naruto's chakra control grew exponentially. He'd mastered the three basic chakra control exercises of leaf floating, tree climbing, and water walking and she'd moved him to more advanced versions including the use of his Kitsune appendages. Tatsua had once entered the living room agape jawed to see one of his tails slapped flat along the ceiling while he dusted the light fixture. The basic exercises all gave way to interesting and more advanced combinations.

Early mornings and late evenings (long past the time training fanatics in green spandex packed it in) belonged to Tatsua and she took full advantage of it.

Free time prior to class was devoted strictly to physical development. Running, push-ups, sit-ups, handstand push-ups, pull-ups, tail ups (pull-ups with a single tail), and (once chakra control was back in play) hanging upside down from tree limbs using chakra to do similar exercises. Whenever possible, Tatsua strapped heavy objects to his body or had him carry large rocks she had him dig up from the earth or pry up from river beds. Aside from slowly churning away the layers of baby fat, it did wonders for his near Kage-level stamina and reserves and served to further reinforce his chakra control exercises with Tamami.

Tatsua wanted him to be unstoppable. So, she pushed with that goal in mind. As he got stronger, she upped the level of resistance and pushed him until he reached fatigue and failure. More often than not, she carried the boy home under Kitsune illusions, bathed him, and laid him to bed without Naruto stirring. It's a good thing they were using already heavily damaged or isolated training areas with low user traffic.

His taijutsu training continued in the evening, often with various handicaps like blindfolds or earplugs. By limiting one or more of his primary senses, Tatsua wanted to hone his remaining ones. It was while wearing a mask (to cover his nose) and earplugs that Naruto spotted a shiny reflection in the setting sunlight leading him to a half-buried kunai. There were a half-dozen such weapons scattered about, more kunai (some broken or chipped), shuriken, senbon and a partially-rusted tanto. Naruto pocketed what he could and quietly promised to bring a bag to collect more the next time they were there.

Over the first few weeks of summer break, Naruto's collection grew to five dozen shuriken of various sorts, three fuma shuriken, thirty kunai (most unusable), sixty senbon, three tanto, and one wakizashi with a corroded handle made of wood. It was as he was sorting out the keepers of the bunch and wondering what to do with the rest that he received a visitor at his door.

Tamami and Tatsua did an impromptu game of "rock-paper-kunai," their new favorite decision-maker, with which Tatsua smirked before changing into a kit bound for Naruto's neck (her favorite perch in this form). Tama-chan headed for the bedroom, fading from view and brushing her palm across his cheek as she passed by. Naruto shook his head for a second to clear the haze (and the resulting blush) then answered the door, a very startled Neko lowering a set of knuckles already poised to knock again.

Even though her body stood at its normal state of rigid attention, her eyes narrowed visibly behind the mask once she saw the glittering eyes of the fox curled around Naruto's neck. Naruto figured it would be best to head off an argument over the fox and spoke first.

"Greetings Neko-nee-chan. Haven't seen you in a while."

He moved aside and opened the door for his guest. "Happy to be back from your patrol?"

"Hai, Naruto-Kun."

'She is wary of foxes?' He seemed confused by this.

'Almost all of Konoha is wary of foxes, and most hate them unfairly.'

Naruto did smile a bit at Tatsua's whispers in his mind. The new transference seal inscribed right behind his left ear worked like a charm and allowed them to communicate silently just by pulsing a little chakra through the tenketsu near the base of his skull.

"Please rest a moment." Naruto dashed off to prepare some tea. Once his guest was comfortably situated, with a surprised nod for his hospitality, Naruto quickly went about his responsibilities as a good host.

Yugao, as she was known without the mask, settled into a chair at the table and raised an eyebrow behind her ANBU mask at the assorted collection of garbage shinobi weapons. Well, a couple weren't too bad off if you cleaned them up and sharpened out the nicks and surface rust, but by and large, they were utter garbage. Most looked like he dug them up from the ground. Good thing they were buying new gear today.

Tamami chimed in from the bedroom. 'If she, as an ally to the old one, reacts this strongly, how will normal villagers fare?' Naruto considered that for a minute before turning to face Neko only to notice her eyes flitting from the fox around his neck to the cups in his hands.

"So, what can I do for you today nee-chan?"

She took the cup and traded him a few sheets of paper with the academy seal at the top. She used his distracted focus as an opportunity to quietly sniff the tea before setting the cup down. She didn't know that his Kitsune eyes took in her entire reaction.

Then he sighed internally. 'She doesn't trust us.' It was hard to accept after everything they had been through. He decided to keep things light.

"We need to find your supplies for your first year at the academy. Also, we'll need to finish your paperwork."

Neko glanced at the fox again, its head now nestled under the boy's chin but its eyes never leaving her mask.

"Those papers have your schedule for the next year and what basic supplies we need to get you."

"Certainly. We can go after you're rested and finished your tea." Neko nodded slightly at the boy's hospitality and manners. He seemed to have… grown… in the past year or so. This brought a smile to her face, one that he couldn't see behind her mask and didn't linger.

"Naruto. I have to ask…" She inclined her head to the fox on his shoulders, her tail wrapped protectively around his neck. Naruto understood the implied question.

"You're curious about Sua-chan?"

Neko blinked.

"The fox around my neck?"

Neko remembered that he couldn't see her facial expressions and nodded.

"Her name is Tatsua. You could say we found each other. She keeps me company and I take care of her." The boy absently stroked the fox's head just behind her left ear. The fox didn't exactly purr but made a pleasant chittering sound, one of the legs on the other side of his neck kicking ever so slightly.

While the sight warmed her heart, Neko wasn't sure how the fox cub would be received, and full-grown foxes were rarely seen in Konoha for a reason.

"Are you prepared to deal with the consequences?"

Naruto's eyes hardened but he nodded once.

"Yup, it's my cross to bear but I'm not abandoning her. She accepted me, and I've done the same for her. That's all there is to it." His words pricked the ANBU's heart with a tinge of guilt.

Neko set her cup down and rose from her chair heading for the door. Their adventure (for the day) was about to begin. Naruto frowned at the untouched tea and wondered once again if winning the respect of others was worth the uphill struggle.

'She was there for us, Kit. She deserves the benefit of the doubt.' Naruto gave the equivalent of a mental nod.

~I I I~

Reactions from the villagers varied, however, most were as he expected. Naruto was used to the hateful glares and muttered curses, though there were fewer with a full-fledged ANBU walking beside him. The outright looks of horror from people once they recognized the fox were definitely new. Some even ran away screaming.

Small children and teenage girls, however, were creatures all their own. Squeals of "Kawaaaaaiiii!" often precluded small mobs of young women reaching for anything soft to stroke or cuddle. Foxtails were obviously a big hit and the twins had fur like silk. It also made moving along the street a bit challenging.

After a few moments, Neko would invariably disperse the crowd but Naruto found a few kit-stalkers following at a safe distance and more than a few of the new admirers glancing from the fox to his leaner face. Some even blushed. It was puzzling, to say the least.

People never blushed at him before.

Their first stop was for shinobi apparel and, unfortunately, the shop that served him upon his release from the hospital had been forced out of business, the now-empty storefront vacant with the "For Sale" sign still in the front window. It appeared that they were back to square one.

Several shops outright refused to serve the young man, much to Neko's (and Tatsua's) growing frustration but, eventually, Uhara's Fabrics was more than welcoming (Uhara had come from Grass country to set up shop so he was blissfully ignorant of the boy's history). Before long there were enough new clothes gathered for two weeks' worth of normal use and five sets of sturdy shinobi trousers and shorts with light vests, mesh shirts, thigh holsters, open-fingered gloves with reinforced plates and all the required trimmings. Even better was the noticeable lack of orange in his ninja attire excepting the odd dark orange tee-shirt.

Uhara would keep his business from then on.

Neko considered that a victory and, as Naruto was trying to figure out how they were going to get it all back to his apartment, she solved the next issue by removing a scroll and rolling it open on the counter, an odd design laying in the center of it. Once the clerk neatly folded his purchases and stacked them on the symbol, Neko placed both palms on the surface and funneled a small amount of chakra into the scroll. Everything vanished with a slight sucking sound of air.

Naruto's eyes grew rather large as she rolled up the scroll and handed it back to the boy, who promptly stuck it in his backpack.

Tatsua sent a pulse message to both Naruto and Tamami. 'We need to work on Taichou's seals, nee-chan. They can be very useful.'

"We have two more stops for supplies, Naruto." Neko hoisted two more scrolls. With a friendly wave to the clerk, the two left and headed to Higurashi's armory, Konoha Metals, Inc.

Higurashi, while a long-time resident of Konoha, didn't object to the child. In fact, he had the opposite response in that he visibly started and muttered underneath his breath, "Minato." He didn't know that Naruto, under a Kitsune illusion, could hear him easily, and Neko didn't know that his Kitsune eyes could see her entire body twitch for just a moment since she could read lips. Higurashi caught the very minute shake of Neko's head and shook his mind free.

Naruto filed that away for later digestion and walked in with his mouth wide open and eyes wandering from shelf to shelf to wall to wall.

His budget allowed for some discretionary spending as, from what Neko understood, the envelope she carried was supposed to be used to outfit him for class. So, once everything necessary had been purchased (three high-quality sets of shuriken and two sets of kunai), Naruto asked about training weights, something that caught the ANBU veteran by surprise. She had expected the boy to ask for a sword or something crazy like a naginata.

When the traditional bulky suits of pouched wrist and ankle wraps didn't strike his fancy, Naruto asked about weights using seals. Old man Higurashi studied the boy for about twenty seconds before reaching underneath his case cabinet and pulling out a smaller box with four shiny sheets of metal bound by reinforced leather straps, each strap with four rows of heavy hasps allowing adjustment as the trainee grew and developed. On the surface of each flat section of rectangular metal, in a shade or two darker than slate, sat a crimson seal with three dragon heads curving around the edges in a counter-clockwise direction.

"Are you sure? You could buy a decent sword for the price of these weights." Naruto shook his head and happily closed the lid on the box.

"I'll get more benefit out of these before I'm ready to use a blade." Both Higurashi and Neko nodded once in agreement. The boy had a surprisingly mature mind to make that decision unprompted. Yugao, being an acknowledged swordmaster, knew most students didn't get a sword until their growing slowed unless their families were extremely wealthy. Good blades were not cheap to come by.

He would be an interesting one to watch at the academy.

"Eventually, when I save up enough, I may come back for that sword." Naruto conveniently left out the fact that he could buy out the storefront many times over if he wanted to.

"Oi, one question Higurashi-san." Naruto didn't want to mess up his new relationship with the armorer by being rude.

"Do you take in old weapons and metal at all?" Naruto held up one of the chipped Kunai he'd found in the training areas.

Neko raised an eyebrow beneath her mask remembering the mess on his kitchen table.

Higurashi took it briefly and glanced over it.

"Yes, I do, from time to time, when I need new stock and can melt down discarded items for usable ore. If it's salvageable, I can clean it up when I get the chance, or my daughter can help. Usually, I take bigger payloads than single items, but we can work something out."

Naruto nodded. "I have about one hundred kilos of broken and discarded stuff I'd like to barter with." The armorer's eyes lifted upwards and he chewed his lip while considering something.

"How would you like to earn some extra coin towards that sword?"

"I'm listening." Unsure if this was the right thing to do, Higurashi plowed on.

"With my daughter working here and trying to keep up with her studies, I'm a bit short-handed. If you work here part-time, helping to keep the forges stocked and minor repair work, plus helping me with things like sorting and processing these scrap pieces I mentioned, you can pocket some extra money towards that sword and maybe I can get caught up."

Tatsua trilled happily, her head perking up and her ears pivoting forward in the kit-like face of surprise. She would need to sweeten the pot for Tamami to agree to the new schedule, but this was a chance too good to pass up.

Naruto pretended to consider the offer for a few seconds before holding out his hand to the grizzled craftsman. Inside he was happier than he'd been in years and, if he was very lucky, might actually pick up a decent trade if this ninja-Taichou thing didn't work out. Once the man's paw of a hand enveloped his smaller one, the deal was sealed.

He would start this weekend with full days on Saturdays (the shop was closed on Sunday except for emergency out fittings supporting active missions) and an hour starting at four in the morning plus evenings after classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Paying for the purchases, Neko sealed them up and tossed the scroll to the boy. The last stop was books, supplies and possibly a meal before they went their separate ways.

Once his purchases were all wrapped up (Neko had to get involved when the bookseller tried to sell Naruto altered texts with incorrect information), Naruto found himself strolling back through the streets on his way home… via Ichiraku's. He felt he was due a small celebration especially since Neko's emergency summons to Hokage Tower cut their lunch date short.

The prospective academy student chuckled at the thought of having a lunch date with a woman three times his age.

Tatsua nudged his cheek and glanced to the other side of the street.

It took a second to spot where the disguised Kitsune was looking but, once he did, it was impossible to miss the dark-haired girl about his age trying to look inconspicuous at the nearest storefront. It might have looked more believable if the fully coiffured bluenette was not looking at a men's toupees and fake beards vendor. Naruto chuckled and kept walking, a memory from the park during his fifth-year flitting about in his mind.

"I will explain who she is later."

Tatsua nuzzled his right cheek and laid her head back down, her eyes going back to hawking the street for threatening villagers as some had grown bolder without Neko along. Before long, the two found themselves seated at their favorite ramen stand.

More aware of the fox's ears, Naruto placed Tatsua in his lap and hailed the younger hostess. "Oi, Ayame-nee-chan!" The girl's face lit up when she saw their favorite returning customer just before she saw the kit and squealed like some of the girls still trailing behind him. As she was cooking, she didn't pet the fox but did come back with pieces of grilled beef for Tatsua to nibble on. Tatsua laid the cute on extra thick and rose up on her hind legs hold the food with her front paws.

The "cute" hit ridiculous levels and much squealing could be heard from around the corner of the stand.

"Haven't seen you in a while, Naruto-kun. Why are you hiding from me?" Ayame teased.

Naruto looked sheepish and apologized stating he'd been busy trying to make it into the ninja academy, something he'd finally achieved. That statement brought about a round of cheers from Ayame and Teuchi, who was working the grill behind the counter.

"Now that you're going to be a big shinobi, you should visit us more often so that we know you're okay."

Naruto nodded in agreement and heartily dug into his first bowl for the night. There was history with him and the Ichiraku family and he wanted to keep that bond if nothing else in this village. These people were family.

Ayame kissed his forehead and went back behind the counter to which Tatsua warbled at his mushrooming blush.

"Shush you!" Naruto whispered before he tucked back into his ramen.

Five bowls later, Naruto was safely back across town and in his apartment building, a good day safely behind him and looking forward to the rest of summer break. It lasted all of three minutes until Tamami heard of the new deal with the weapon's proprietor.

First, her eyebrows knitted together, the corners of her lips lowering in a thin-lined scowl. Was that a flash of amber light in her eyes? By the time her arms crossed in front of her bust, a view he was quickly becoming a fan of, she was the model image of female displeasure. Was she… growling now?

"Now how am I supposed to keep up your training if I have to lose my time slot to the forge?"

"Simple nee-chan," both of them turned to Tatsua, "I surrender my time on the days he is not at the forge and you get the whole day. The forge is physical conditioning at its finest, so I take the odd days and you get the even."

The effect on Tamami was immediate and her posture relaxed back into her squealing cuddle bunny…er, Kitsune mode. Naruto endured the face smothering with aplomb and silently signaled his thanks to Tatsua behind the taller Kitsune's back.

~I I I~

The blond found several ways, when not training with the Twins, to pass the summer days idly by. As he often did during the cycle of the moon just as the sun began to set, he found himself heading back to a familiar pool. Most of the time he'd just go to watch her, hiding in the brush as she looked about for her golden Tenko. Only when the moon was full, would he show himself, often using his Kitsune genjutsu to appear in a shimmering mist as the golden two-tailed fox. He saved those days for the really hard times when his belief in his fellow Konohans was at its lowest.

He learned as much as he could about her during their one-sided conversations, rarely assuming his Hanyou form because the urge to kiss or be kissed by the pretty Miko was often too strong a temptation. As it was, she lavished plenty of chaste kisses upon his furry brow. For several visits, she had tried to give him a name, most of which he objected to with a cute display of lowering his muzzle to the ground and placing one paw over it. Their way of communicating became a game in and of itself.

She settled on "Taiyo" because of the color of his fur and her cheerful voice calling for her "Taiyo-kun" kept a lively hop in his four-legged strut. He liked having someone (other than the Twins) happy to see him even if only once every odd number of weeks.

Many times, he visited the shrine while cloaked in camouflage and kept an eye on the girl, often curious as to her duties and what served to pass her time. In indirect ways, he helped her without being a nuisance, such as helping that arrogant boy from a rich merchant clan to find "…another hobby with which to pass his time."

Naruto had not appreciated the boy's cavalier description to his toadies when asked about his interest in the "lovely little peasant girl." He supposed unexplainable daytime nightmares (helped by a little genjutsu) anytime the creep's mind started to wander to the cute Miko during the temple's religious services would help with that problem so Naruto, being the helpful seishin that he was, was very happy to keep the handsy pest away.

He even considered that one jutsu involving a twenty-foot glowing and golden Tenko breathing fire and chasing the boy endlessly through the streets an inspired revelation, if he did say so himself.

Most of the time, he just watched from a distance and, when he felt brave enough, visited her on the full moon to enjoy her company. At other times, he dove into his work at the forge to occupy his mind. By the time academy classes started in September, Naruto was solid mass of muscle, thick and heavily corded. Looking at his daily routine, it made perfect sense even if his rate of growth seemed a bit unnatural.

Days started at four sharp, with a fresh mask covering his lower face to keep the dust out of his lungs. He was responsible for maintaining the two smaller forges and filling the water vats for cooling and tempering. He spent his entire hour stocking the cooling vats, coal hoppers, charcoal and coke bins (used when higher temperatures were used for special projects), scrap ore caskets, and cleaning the slurry from the forges. Once the material stock was replenished, he began hauling water up from the larger underground vats. Once all of the trenches and reserve tuns were filled, he'd grab the scrapers and begin chipping up slag so that he could brush the forge's bowl out along with any clinkers (hard, brittle pieces broken free from tempering) leftover from the previous day's work.

Once the forges were cleaned out, he'd grab one of two shovels, the first to fill the forge with either powdery coke (if there was a special project that needed a better forging base) or charcoal, and the second shovel was used to layer on coal. With that finished, Naruto lowered the hood and checked with Higurashi-san before heading off to the training grounds with his arms feeling as if they were dragging the dirt at his feet.

Reinforcement training was a great surprise, but he had to promise not to use it in his first year of Academy unless it would either save his life or Tatsua gave him permission (she didn't want him killing another student).

Naruto was sure he'd be dead at this point if not for his enhanced Kitsune physiology and Kyuubi's healing.

The afternoon was no less grueling. Part of his job included picking through the scrap piles and finding pieces that could be melted down into usable ingots, which he would spend the second half of the day after class doing. If the piece was too small to bother with the smelting test, he'd run it against the grinding wheel; if the sparks were brilliant and sparkled more off the wheel, it was high-carbon metal.

For those scrap pieces that looked questionable or shattered once he took an iron-shod hammer to them, he'd chuck them into the purification pile, which sat next to a large cauldron (those he would melt in a large group skimming off the slag that formed) used to liquify the compound until the metal glowed a bright yellowish-white in the smelting pot, indicating that the iron content had dropped below one-and-a-half percent and making the resultant mixture less likely to crack or break under stress. This he would later pour into molds to make more raw stock ingots for Higurashi-san to work with. It was more science than art at his skill level and, should a piece shatter in crafting, he'd spend more time at the smelting pot re-mixing the steel content, something he did often at first.

Once a month Tenten would take him to the outskirts of Konoha to their tanning shed. The first time she took him, he could smell the chemicals from over a mile away when a good gust of wind shifted, and the funk hit him nose-on. It was the smell of blood, fur, and (strangely enough) salt. Lots and lots of salt.

Tenten laughed at his overly sensitive sense of smell while Naruto firmly set his mask against his face followed by a flash suppression jutsu, which impressed her. While rolling up their sleeves, she walked him through the process and a brief history. Naruto learned more than just how to make harnesses, bracers, and bandoliers that summer as his crafting knowledge took a considerable turn for the better.

While the heavily perfumed smells of the vegetable tannin and other alkalis used in the Higurashi tanning process weren't horrible - just overwhelming to a Kitsune, the ancient way of tanning leather used to be considered so horrible smelling that most tanneries were booted out of whatever town they cropped up next to. When Tenten explained why, Naruto had to clamp down on his gag reflex to keep from retching with his arms up to the elbows in the tanning vats filled with hides – Tenten didn't tell him they used vegetable compounds until he'd been at it an hour already.

Apparently curing leather for armor and such used to be done with animal feces, some ancient cities using children as "dung gatherers." Even worse, they used an alkaline lime mixture made from urine collected in something called "piss pots" by washerwomen to remove the fur from cured leathers. Naruto was much happier to hear that the leathers used by the Higurashi family were cured with salt before being soaked in one of two curing mixtures of either a chestnut extract or seeds from the Caesalpinia Spinosa tree, a much harder to obtain and more expensive concoction.

It was also considerably less smelly than smushing poop.

Tenten showed him how properly soak the hides in vats of warm water before removing them to use flat sticks for beating out as much salt and residual gore as possible. They were then soaked in a lime mixture for half an hour before they laid them over a workhorse and began scraping off any residual fur, a process she called "scudding." The furs would get soaked again in a neutralizing solution before being moved to a tanning bath. There they kneaded the furs with their hands, and sometimes their feet, for two to three hours before stretching the skins in hanging racks. Once the leather reached the desired texture, the skins were laid out and trimmed to the desired shape. Naruto was very impressed with Tenten's speed as well as her ability to produce very little waste.

He was also glad that this was only a once per month event.

Straight from there, Tatsua ran him around Konoha for five laps, since he was warmed up, and every time he dropped 15 seconds or more from his time she added another lap. What followed for the next two hours was an additional hour of conditioning complete with weights, currently at twenty-five kilos apiece, followed by an hour of sustained reinforcement plus speed drills.

Reinforcement drills consisted of either him beefing up his body while she pummeled him with whatever was handy or her piling heavy rocks on his back while he tromped around the clearing. It was brutal and produced non-stop anime tears for the young orphan who, at this point, just wanted a bath, a good meal, and a soak in his tiny onsen.

Most days it was a quick bite after class and it then off to the shop. He'd fully taken over keeping the forges stocked from Tenten, Higurashi-san's daughter, and spent the vast majority of the time either in the back or making deliveries (under henge).

He was learning a considerable amount in the forge with the basics. No actual crafting work fell his way, but he was placed in charge of restocking nabe-gane (re-melted pig-iron) and hocho-tetsu (low-carbon steel) ingots from damaged and broken pieces. Very few high-carbon pieces were available from broken stock, but it was easy enough to melt down metal chunks and skim impurities with a metal skimmer. He was also charged with general repairs for customer-provided inventory – basically, grinding, polishing or general weapon upkeep and maintenance. With his growing familiarity in leatherwork, he began to pick up repairs to leather-reinforced clothing and weapon sheaths for knives and small blades.

The education was a huge benefit in keeping up his own gear and weapons plus Higurashi let him use the workshop when things were slow. When things were really slow, the old man began teaching him new things, like how to turn a broken sword into a tanto blade. There were risks, as the broken tip never had the integrity of a fully forged blade depending on how it broke in the first place, but the cheaper cost stalled the need for buying an expensive blade and beat leaving a swordsman undefended while searching for a replacement.

Naruto also found the blade better suited to his shorter height. He even found that he favored the Shobu-style blade over the distinct angle between the cutting edge and the pointed section of the Shinogi Zukuri. When the time came for him to make a blade, he had a good idea of what his first one would be.

His going to the varied training grounds continued to yield usable items which, in turn, yielded him his own supply of usable ingots for his own projects in addition to extra coin from the stocks he traded to Higurashi for either store credit or hard cash. The cash he made from his labor went directly into the fund used to buy things for his apartment and taking care of his vixen nee-chans.

Life was good.

Then the first day of class at the ninja academy started.

~I I I~

A/N: Behind the Scenes: Tradeskills and Other Nerd-ery

I admit am a nerd that likes the technical skills needed to make an independent and fully functional shinobi, or, in this case, Kitsune. The Twins are responsible for rounding out his skills and they've brought to the table the skills they've had to pick up in order to survive. For Tatsua, picking up an apprenticeship from a master is the proverbial icing on the cake especially since he doesn't have anyone willing to share with him in the village.

It also provides an opportunity to show Naruto's growth over time instead of instantly making him a mega-powered juggernaut prior to ever leaving the academy. Character depth, and a plausible way to acquire those skills, is important to me as a writer.

Ja Ne!

~Siva'a