"Talking"

'Thinking'

Flashback - "Talking"/ 'Thinking'

Chapter 10:

At the same time that Naruto was talking with Tenten and the others in the Curry of Life Shop, Taya has arrived at the top of the Katabami Gold Mine, and has seen Raiga standing over the defeated forms of Lee and Neji. It looked like they have passed out, and from the looks of it, they are about to be killed.

Now, while Taya doesn't know the two kids, and doesn't really care if they live or die, Naruto sent her to deal with Raiga, and since she is already there, she might as well save those brats.

Taya walked toward Raiga, who noticed her before she was too close. He looked at her with narrowed eyes, and wondered who she is and why she was there.

"Who are you?" Raiga asked.

"My name is Taya," she introduced herself. "I'm here to take your head."

"Is that so," Raiga questioned and let lightning chakra flow through his blades. "Well then, let's see if you have the skill to take my head."

Raiga placed his blades in order to touch each other, and then sent electrical essence into the thunder clouds above him. "Lightning Fang!" He yelled his starting attack, and immediately, a bolt of lightning fell from the sky and went straight at Taya.

Taya drew her own sword, and swung it above her head, from right to left. "Lightning Dome!" She yelled, and created a dome of electricity around her, which was then struck by Raiga's attack, and completely absorbed, much to Raiga's shock.

Taya then lowered her sword, close her eyes, and started absorbing all the lightning from around her. Once she did that, she opened her eyes, which were now glowing yellow. Electricity was also surrounding her body, now that she has absorbed a large amount of pure lightning into herself.

"It will take a whole lot more than that to wound me," Taya said, while sending the lightning from her body, into her sword, while keeping it pointed at Raiga, "I don't even want to talk about defeating me. Thunder Beam!"

Taya fired electrical beam from her sword, right at Raiga, who barely managed to jump away from the very powerful attack.

He was glad that he dodged it, because when he looked at the destruction caused by the attack, he knew right away that he would have been obliterated if he was hit, and not even his blades would have saved him.

Taya didn't wait for Raiga to start with his next attack. She run at him at her fastest speed, and appeared in front of a shocked Raiga, in a single second, after which, she swung her sword at him, hoping to cut him right away and be done with him.

Raiga barely managed to block Taya's attack, with his own blades, which he crossed together, and caught Taya's sword in between his own. Right away, he channeled lightning chakra through his swords, and sent lightning charge to Taya's sword and then at her body, electrocuting her in the process.

Taya gritted her teeth at being caught by surprise, and payed it by being electrocuted. The good thing for her, is that because of her overwhelming mastery over lightning, she has a partial immunity to lightning, which allowed her to go through Raiga's attack, with barely any damage, and only a little pain.

Taya and Raiga backed away from each other, and stared for a few moments, before they charged their next attacks.

Raiga went and created a ball of lightning in between his swords, and launched it at Taya, who slashed her sword and sent an electrical slash at the lighting ball. The two attacks collided and negated each other.

After that, Raiga decided to send, not one, but many lightning balls at Taya, but she countered them all with her slashes.

"Lightning Dragon Tornado!" Raiga yelled his most powerful attack, after he got annoyed by Taya either countering or not being affected by his attack.

Lightning and Wind formed around Raiga, and shaped into a form of a swirling dragon head with red eyes.

Seeing Raiga's next attack, Taya sent quite a bit of her chakra into her blade, which was then surrounded by black lightning. She looked at the Lightning Dragon coming toward her, so she immediately dashed toward it, with her sword pointed backwards.

"Thunder Slash!" Taya shouted her own attack, and swung her sword, which hit Raiga's Lightning Dragon Tornado, and cut through it like hot knife thought butter. Since he was in the middle of his own attack, Raiga was also cut by Taya's attack, and severally wounded.

Blood flew from Raiga's chest, which had a very big cut across it. On top of that, the black lighting was now also surrounding Raiga, and was electrocuting him, causing him even more damage and pain, which was shown by his scream.

Taya was standing behind Raiga, without a scratch on her. She turned her head, and saw Raiga fall on the ground, his blades lying next to him.

XXX

"You never told us, why you want to take over the Katabami Gold Mine?" Sanshō questioned.

"Well, I have some plans for the future," Naruto said. "And to be able to accomplish those plans, I need money. Taking over some mines, seems like a good way to get a lot of money. It will certainly bring me more than bounty hunting and gambling."

"So, you don't plan to buy the Katabami Gold Mine," Sanshō questioned again. "You just plan to take over like Kurosuki Family did."

"From what Taya told me, there are no owners of the Katabami Gold Mine," Naruto said. "So I can't buy it from anyone, even if I wanted to. The government leaders which used to control the mine, are not actually its owners, and have no right to want money for it. On top of that, they were exploiting people while they had control over the mine, and run away with their tails between their legs when Raiga showed up. Because of that, I wouldn't have paid them even if they were the owners."

"And if you take over the mine, do you plan to run it like the government leaders, or like Raiga did?" Karashi asked.

"I don't have any intention to exploit people," Naruto said. "If someone works in the mine, they are paid for their work, and that's that. As for burying people alive… yeah, I don't find that shit amusing. If someone annoys me, I just kill them quickly."

Everyone in the room shivered when they heard Naruto's words. They knew, even though it sounds a bit unbelievable, that he is not joking.

Tenten finally decided to ask something which she wanted to ask Naruto ever since she saw him. "Who are you, exactly? What do you do for a living, and what are those plans of yours you mentioned earlier?"

Naruto looked at Tenten, and then at the others in the room. He saw that they all had curious looks on their faces, as they seem to want to know the answers to those questions as well.

"You can think of me as a Ronin," Naruto said. "I had ninja training, but I have never actually been one. You can also consider me a professional gambler. As for my plans… well, I want to build a country." Once he said that, four pair of eyes widened to epic proportions.

"W-What do you mean, 'build a country'," Tenten asked?

Naruto shrugged. "It's just as it sounds," he said. "I have no place to call home, so I want to build one. I have also been traveling around the EN, and have seen that there are a lot of people who live miserable lives for one reason or another, and I want to do something about that. I plan to build a country and offer all those who want to live happy and free lives, away from those who wish to oppress them in any way.

"Of course, building a country takes time, but most importantly, money, which is why I'm going around, trying to find a way to earn as much money as fast as possible."

After a minute of silence, where they all thought about what Naruto said, Sanshō said. "That seems like a noble goal, young man, and I hope that you are able to accomplish it one day."

"Thank you." Naruto said.

"But where do you plan to build a country," Tenten asked? "All the Nations have leaders, and I don't know of any nation without the leader, or even free land where you can build a country from nothing."

Naruto smirked. "There are many uninhabited Islands all over the sea, Tenten," Naruto said. "And most of them are not part of any other Nation, so they don't have leaders. I can easily find an Island which suits my needs, and build a country there."

"I see," Tenten said. "And do you plan to build a Hidden Village as well in that country?"

Naruto thought about if he should tell her or not. In the end, he decided not to tell her, as he knows that she will tell all of this to Konoha Leaders, and they might try to cause him trouble because he plans to build a Hidden Village, which could become a competition to the other Hidden Villages around the EN.

"As of right now… no," Naruto said. "Building a country is already big enough job. If I were to try and build a Hidden Village, I would have even more job, since I would have to find Shinobi and Ninja Clans to join the village, and that's a hassle and is not worth it.

"Besides, there are a lot of Nations who don't have Hidden Villages, so why should I bother to build one?"

Tenten nodded in understanding. She was, in a way, happy that there won't be another Hidden Village, as that would mean that her own village might lose potential clients, and in the future, that village, might end up as another enemy for Konoha. Then again, it might be a good idea to tell to the Elder Council when she returns to Konoha about all that she found out from Naruto and Taya, about Taya's power, as well as about Naruto's plans. If only she could find a way to find out how powerful Naruto is, but she can't just ask him, as he might get suspicions.

While Tenten was trying to find a way to gauge out Naruto's power, Taya walked through the entrance of the Curry of Life Shop. Lee and Neji were walking behind her, though at the safe distance, as they seem to be careful around her.

"Is the job done," Naruto asked, and Taya only nodded, but didn't say anything. She walked over to one of the chairs and set down. "Where is Raiga?"

Taya pointed to the scroll tied to her hip. Naruto nodded and didn't say or ask anything else.

Ranmaru though, he looked at the scroll, and knew that Raiga was dead. He started to cry as Raiga, even though he was not exactly a nice person, was his friend, and someone, without whom, Ranmaru wouldn't be alive at this point. It was Raiga who saved him, it was Raiga who took him with him, cared for him, and showed him the world. Without him, right now, he would be just bones in the small cottage in the Land of Water, where he used to live.

Sanshō tried to comfort Ranmaru, by hugging him and telling him everything will be ok, but it wasn't helping much. Tenten also tried to help, as she didn't want to see the kid cry for someone who, even though has helping him survive, clearly wasn't a nice person.

The others in the room were quiet, though all except Naruto were looking at Ranmaru and feeling sad for him.

Naruto… felt nothing.

After few minutes, Ranmaru managed to calm down and stopped crying. That's when Tenten asked him, what he plans to do now?

"I don't know," Ranmaru said. "I can't go anywhere by myself. Raiga was my hands and legs, without him, I'm useless."

"What do you want to do?" Surprisingly, it was Naruto who asked. Hearing the question, everyone looked at him, including Ranmaru.

"What do you mean?" Ranmaru asked.

Raiga might be dead," Naruto said. "But you are alive, even though you have health issues. So, is there something that you would want to do, or see? If it is, you should do everything you can to find a way to do it, regardless of your health problems.

"One thing you should learn and follow until the day you die, is that as long as you are alive… you shouldn't give up, and should do everything in your power to achieve your goals, regardless if they are good or bad.

"So, I ask you again. What is it you want to do with your life?"

Ranmaru went into deep thought after he heard Naruto's advice and question.

What is it he wanted? Well, the answer is simply. He doesn't know.

When he was living alone in that cottage, he didn't think he will live long enough to achieve anything. So there was no need to make some big plans for the future, or to have any dreams. After Raiga took him with him, he wanted to help Raiga accomplish his goals, no matter what they are, but he still didn't have anything he wanted to do, see or achieve for himself.

Now that Raiga is dead, he has a chance to think about what to do with his life, but it's not easy to come up with something, when your entire life, you didn't think you will have a chance to accomplish anything.

"I… I don't know," Ranmaru said after few minutes of thinking. "I never thought about wanting something in my life, as I never expected to have a chance to do anything."

"Well then, you should think about it," Naruto said. "Now you have a chance and time to think. In the meantime, you could stay here… that is, of course, if the old lady doesn't have a problem with that."

Naruto looked at Sanshō, waiting to hear her answer. Everyone else, did the same when they heard Naruto's suggestion.

Sanshō smiled. "Of course I don't have any problem with that," she said while looking at Ranmaru. "I will teach you how to make the Curry of Life, and you can stay here as long as you want, even forever if you wish to make a living out of making curry."

Ranmaru was moved to tears by Sanshō's generous offer, and has accepted it with a large smile on his face. The others in the room also has small smiles on their faces, as they were happy for the kid.

With Ranmaru's problem finally over, Sanshō decided to give everyone a portion of her Curry of Life, to celebrate and as a thank you, for saving the villagers and mine workers from Raiga and Kurosuki Family.

Neji and Tenten have declined, as politely as possible, the offer to eat any more of that curry, but their teammate, Lee, has decided that he will have their portions as well. It made the Hyūga and the weapons mistress of Konoha wonder, what kind of stomach Lee has?

Everyone was surprised when Naruto and Taya took their portions and ate them with no problem whatsoever. When Naruto asked for seconds, Tenten and Neji fell over anime style, while Lee shouted about Naruto's youth, and hugged him with one arm, while he was shoveling curry into his mouth with the other. Naruto wasn't bothered, surprisingly, and was also eating with one arm, while also having a small smirk on his face.