Trel walked out of the house to see Naruto sitting on the bottom set of stairs busy waving his hands through the air. 'What is he doing?' Trel thought as he looked up into the sky to see the sun had just barely peaked over the mountains near Mother's Heart. 'It's time.' Trel thought as he picked up Naruto's bow.

"Naruto stop twiddling with that play thing of yours. We ascend to the valley now. Follow." Trel stated as he put the bow on Naruto's lap as he walked off the porch. Naruto scurried after the man, the moment he noticed his bow.

A couple minutes later they were walking on a path going North as they walked beside the Searcher's Course. "These are the wilds Naruto, there's a reason why I forbid you from running around here but for somereason some one doesn't seem to listen." Trel looked at Naruto who smiled sheepishly as he laughed nervously "I'm very active sorry."

Trel rolled his eyes at the answer as he continued "Anyway you'll need to stay close to me, machines roam these areas. Take this." Trel gave Naruto a medicine pouch, the blond chained the pouch to his pants. "See this plant." the man gestured at the small red tinted plant, that was sitting on it's lonesome on the bank of the river.

"Yeah? What about it?"

"This plant is called Salvebrush, it's used to heal injuries of any kind." Trel explained.

"Even blindness?" Naruto questioned.

"Eh...okay let me rephrase any injury that isn't a severed limb of that caliber. Anyway gather it's berries in to your pouch as so." Trel showed Naruto how to add the berries into the pouch as the blond did the same. "Good. Now eat the berries." Naruto threw a handful of them into his mouth and he nearly gagged at the sourness.

"Eugh!" Naruto slightly coughed. "They are very bitter but at least they'll save your life when you are in danger so keep that pouch of your's full."

Naruto nodded since he couldn't speak right now. "Now this plant here is called Wild Ember." Trel went on to explain all the various medicinal herbs to the blond as the two went around the banks as Naruto gathered berries and leaves. "Alright Naruto let's move, we still have a lot of things for you to learn."

The two began walking inland into the forests of the embrace, "Hmm, a machine is coming." Trel stated under his breath. "Naruto stay low and follow me into the tall grass." mirroring Trel's movements Naruto followed him into the nearby tall grass. Just then a small machines appeared as they followed after one another.

"Hey, those are those lizard thingies I run away from. For somereason they like throwing themselves at me." Naruto whispered. "Those 'lizard thingies' were trying to attack you Naruto, and they aren't thingies. These machines are called Watchers, they scout the lands for a larger herd of machines. Wait for this group to pass."

The two Watchers gazed at each other as they emitted an odd chirping sound.

"What are they saying to each other?" Naruto muttered in thought. "Now, Naruto follow me to that tall grass, and whatever you do. Keep low." Trel and Naruto went to the next patch as more machines passed. "Let's go." Trel stated as he walked out of the patch towards another one. "The slower you move, the quieter you'll be. Which makes it easy to do a surprise attack. Crouch walking is needed to pass by machines, it's way better than upright."

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind, Dad." Naruto told Trel as he followed them into another batch. "Okay the coast is clear, you can stop crouching " hearing that Naruto stopped crouching as Trel rubbed his knees. "Ugh...as much as I hate doing this...it's very effective." Trel stated "Are you alright, dad?"

"Yes, I'm fine but my knees...well they've had enough but enough about my knees you've done well, they did not see or hear you."

Continuing to walk on their path, it didn't take them long to cross a bridge made of wooden planks and woven straw. Crossing the river, Naruto noticed a group of machines. "Do you see those machines? They are called Striders."

"These machines are very dangerous Naruto but they can be outsmarted." Trel turned to Naruto, as he saw the blond already holding rocks. "I know, for some reason, these rocks seem to make them change their blue light into yellow light."

"That means they are in search of something that has caught their attention, whenever they are in search Naruto they will come and investigate the place that has caught their attention. Now walk into that tall grass over there and on my signal I want you to throw a rock away from me." Naruto nodded as Trel patted the blond head. Crouching Naruto silently went into the tall grass.

Moving the grass out of his sight of view, the blond watched as the Striders continued their daily consummation of biomass, it was really surprising for the blond that the Striders and Watchers looked nothing alike. The Watchers were skinny and frail and they didn't have a lot of sturdy metal around them as protection, whereas the Striders their sturdy-looking metal covered the entirety of the machine's head, joints, and metal legs. Don't even start with their feet, the Striders had hooved feet that showed they could run at a very fast pace, whereas the Watchers had flimsy metal ones. 'Life is unfair.' Naruto thought feeling a little pity for the Watchers as they were the scrawniest of the bunch. Right now he could see several Watchers to the edge of the herd, they walked around the group of Striders as if they were patrolling the perimeter, making quick stops to occasionally scan their surroundings, by releasing a sort of blue light from those unnaturally blue eyes of theirs.

When a whistle rang across the riverbed, Naruto watched as the nearest Watcher have its eyes turned from a shade of unnatural blue to a yellow color. The Watcher began to approach the cluster of tall grass where the noise had come from. In the blazing red of the grass, Naruto from his vantage point he could see Trel, the man pointing at the Watcher.

'That's the signal.' Naruto thought, taking a rock and a small breather Naruto flung the rock as it landed five meters away from Trel. When the machine walked towards the disturbance, Trel just used the opportunity to roll out of the tall grass and out of the sight of the distracted Watcher.

"Good job, Naruto. Come let's go home, we've done enough for one day."

As Naruto and Trel returned back to their cabin, Trel had went to collect some wood as Naruto looked at the river as the sun's orange rays glistered, the day was already beginning to end as the moon was taking it's position in the sky. It was such a very peaceful walk...until Naruto's eyes landed on a certain redhead that was walking on the other side of the river. "Hey Aloy!" Naruto shouted as he caught the girl's attention. Naruto waved to the redhead with a bright smile as he noticed that the girl's expression changed from anger to happiness.

'Why was she angry?' Naruto thought as he watched Aloy wave back.

"Ahh!" Aloy shouted out as she received a rock to the face. "What the?!" was all Naruto could mutter in shock as just then his eyes looked up a hill to see, Bast and his friends.

"Stay away. No-Mother!" Bast shouted with a smug as just then a rock flew beside him, knocking the smug off his face. "Why don't you stop being a bully and take on someone your own size!" Naruto shouted from across the river as he caught Bast's attention. "You! What are you doing here! You're not welcomed here just like the No-Mother!" Bast shouted as with rage he went to throw another rock at Aloy's face, the redhead just caught the rock before it reached it destined target.

She watched as Bast went to pick up another rock and just with a nice throw, Aloy knocked the rock from his hands. Much to the blond boy's surprise. "Ahh!" Bast shouted in shock.

"Children, away from there! Back to picking berries!" Naruto could hear the voice of a Nora woman shouting out as Bast and his group just walked away. "Hey Aloy you alright?" Naruto asked with concern as the redhead looked at him with a smile. "I'm fine. Did you see that throw?"

"Yeah! Nice throw. Anyway, I need to go! Hope you get well soon, talk to you later."

With that Naruto ran out of Aloy's sight. "Bye!" the girl shouted at the top of her lungs. "Ahem." Aloy turned to see Rost. "Aloy, what did I say about tribal law?"

The girl smiled innocently as she changed the subject "You're bleeding, let me have a look." Rost kneeled to the girl's level as he began to clean the wound. "Why am I an outcast?" Aloy asked Rost.

Naruto was surprised when Aloy told him she was going to enter the Proving, the blond didn't understand why she would join but when she told him that way she could get answers about who her mother was the blond decided to just help the girl by helping her train.

At first they both would meet up when they weren't being taught by their guardians but them, busy exchanging skills ended up with them eventually having to race each other, have friendly spars and a couple hunting challenges. It was a pretty nice time when they spent time together and doing lot's of things. Many memories were being made by the two and one of the wonderful things they've done was re-lighting the flame of snowball fights, since humans had forgotten the wonderful fun activity and the two were the one's to re-discover it.

Sadly being a kid doesn't last forever and when Aloy asked Naruto why she had blood coming from special places the blond just looked traumatised when she stated it happened every month, at first he thought she was dying which is why h asked his dad why did Aloy bleed every month but she didn't die.

Trel just coughed very violently hearing this as he was honest with his son.

"Son, I really don't know why she bleeds in special places, you should ask Odd Grata." Trel told a thirteen-year-old Naruto who was currently going through his own phase of adolecense.

"Who's that?" Naruto asked as Trel explained that she was also an outcast, which Naruto was comfortable of since outcasts weren't as angry like others. When he and Aloy met up, she stated that she had a hard time moving so the blond just offered to give her a piggy back ride, which she accepted with grace. "So where are going?" Aloy asked as she and Naruto were walking on a dirt road. "Where going to see this lady called Odd Grata, dad said she could explain why you were bleeding." Naruto told the redhead who just sighed heavily in relief. "Well that's nice to hear, you know when I asked Rost why I was bleeding he had a hard time explaining. He went on and on about an egg in my system or something." Aloy replied as Naruto just chuckled.

Eventually they found Odd Grata and it was rather interesting on how she explained it.

"All Mother has started your time child." she began as Naruto and Aloy sat across her with the fire of her campsite blazing. "What do you mean that All Mother started my time?" Aloy asked. "She has blessed you with a blessing all young women hold dearest to them, to be allowed to have children." when Naruto heard this his jaw was agape.

"Wait so Aloy can have children now!" Naruto shouted out. "Why yes All Mother has allowed it, but by the way of the tribe she is still young to be a mother, as first, she has to go through her time as a woman first then find a mate but it would seem she already found one." Grata stated as the two were confused.

"I don't have a mate," Aloy replied as Grata chuckled. "Of course you do, All Mother has blessed you with this boy's attention." Aloy became red when she realized she was talking about Naruto, who was still confused by what she said. "Wait hold up, what's a mate?" Naruto asked as just then Grata seemed to sigh as she explained, and let's just say Grata is a rather open woman, as she told the two teens everything, and I mean EVERYTHING!

When the two heard that they would one day have to procreate, they thought it was nasty in the first place but Grata just chuckled and called the naive, as she told the two how her time with her mate was, which was very disturbing but at least she didn't go into detail, which was good since the two heard things they wished to forget. After their visit to Grata the two occasionally visited the woman but she would always speak in riddles than how it was the first time they spoke.

Over time, the years went and before Naruto knew it the Proving was literally two days away. The blond woke up to find Trel nowhere to be seen, he dressed in his outcast attire which he had to literally sew for himself with all the material needed, as he went to one of the storage containers, Naruto opened it and retrieved his Nora themed Carja Hunter Bow and Spear.

Getting all his weapons, he closed the container as we walked outside to have his eyes attacked by the rays of the rising sun, shielding his eyes with his hand, Naruto took a deep breath in as he received that nice air go through his lungs, exhaling the blond saw a small tint of mist escape his mouth. Looking around the front of the house Naruto went back and reminisced on all the training he had gone through over the years in this very yard. The machine training dummies were there just sitting on their lonesome as the sun's rays slowly crept onto their bodies.

'It sure is a good morning.' Naruto thought as just then his attention was caught when Trel walked into the yard. "Hey, dad. Where've you been?" Naruto asked the man who now had a couple grey strands of hair. "Naruto, my son. Sorry for leaving you like that but I needed some time to think...to think about how I've trained you son. I have realized that there was something even your father couldn't teach you." Trel began as he met up with Naruto. "Something you can't teach me? What is it, dad?" Naruto asked as the man sighed.

"It's something which will need you to use the skills of hunting and survival, Naruto. Something which you must do with Rost."

"Rost? You mean Aloy's guardian?" the man nodded at the blond's question. "The very same, you see Naruto only Rost can teach you this skill, and sadly I can't even if I wished to."

"Really?! Something even you can't teach me? What is it some cool attack like shooting three arrows at the same time?"

"No nothing like that, you see Naruto there has been some trouble recently and well it will need you to be prepared for it."

"Trouble? What kind of trouble?"

"Stop asking to many questions and listen up, you must ascend to the Embrace and gather the parts for fire arrows, you do remember them don't you?"

"Yeah I do remember them, but what do fire arrows have to do with the trouble?"

"Stop with the questions and listen Naruto, after you have gathered the parts I need you to meet up with Rost at the gate beyond Mother's Heart."

"The North Gate? Wait dad this trouble your talking about is it coming from outside the Embrace?"

"Yes it is, but right now Naruto I need you to be on your way." Trel literally shooed Naruto out of the yard "Oh come on dad I wanted to spend some time with you before the Proving." Naruto whinned but Trel didn't have it. "Just go already." the man replied as Naruto wined. "Well, I'm only doing this because I'm out of shards and I'll probably need them in Mother's Heart since I'll likely need to buy everything overpriced there," Naruto stated as he was now outside the gate.

"I'll meet you when you get back, Naruto, be safe now, and may All Mother protect you." Naruto nodded to the man as he now traveled up to the Embrace.

Naruto:

Current Quest: The Point Of The Spear

Level: 3

Skills:

Prowler: Hunter Reflexes
Brave: Concentration
Forager: Lure Call

Inventory:

Shards:0
Weapons:
Spear(Rarity: Uncommon): This weapon can remove armor plates and be used for heavy attacks that can knock down smaller enemies. Cannot be sold.
Carja Hunter Bow: This lightweight bow trades power for faster reload and firing time, it's good for short and medium-range combat. Fire arrows can ignite Blaze canisters and backpacks. Weapon can be modified and sold for 50 shards.

Outfit:

Outcast (Rarity: Common): An outcast's garb, crafted from the materials of the Embrace, stitched together by Naruto's very hands. It offers no extra protection but the fact it allows the blond to not walk around nude. It cannot be sold.

Modifications: None

Resources: None

Treasure Boxes: None

Special Items: Scrappers Lens: The lenses of a machine known as a Scrapper, the lenses are in perfect condition and have been cut out with great precision. Worth 30 shards.

Ammo: 20/20 Hunter Arrows

Capacity: 1/5