Monk-san

It had been a week, since Naruto had escaped the torturous life, provided by Konoha. In that week not much had changed, except now, he wore clothes that actually fit, and had plenty to eat, thanks to the jerked meat provided by the bear. Naruto had been aimlessly wandering through Fire, mostly along the main roads leading from one urban center to another. He worked odd jobs for a pittance just so he could purchase, certain essentials, mostly cleaning places that larger workers could not fit.

Naruto's metal sense was a Kami-sent miracle, as far as he was concerned, because metal seemed to be part of the chemical makeup of nearly every object in the world. Iron, copper, zinc, even the salt in one's sweat contained sodium, and sodium is a metal just like iron, titanium, gold, etc., which Naruto could sense, and most people unless they had no conscience, sweated a little, especially when they lied, or were being otherwise dishonest. He still relied as much on his ability to read people, but the metal sense added an extra level of assurance, in tense situations. Even water contained at least trace amounts of certain metals, even the condensation of rain had some metal in it.

His metalmancy, as Kyūbi, called his ability to control metal from a distance, was an excellent form of defense, though luckily, he has not had to use deadly force since that first night. Any confrontation that came his way, mostly by bullies, and bandits, sometimes even a pervert or two, he would use the metals in their bodies to cause them a sort of paralysis, basically becoming a sort of demonic puppeteer. The first two, he merely kept in stasis until he was out of the area, and lifted their money, and weapons, which at Naruto's range was about a 50-yard radius, before the effects wore off. The hentai, however, he left a more lasting result, he would force as much blood into their respective genitals as he could, until they lost consciousness, and then, he robbed them too.

Oh, the temptations Naruto resisted, to use his metalmancy to become a thief, most money is metal, and it would have been child's play, to steal the change out of some unsuspecting person's wallet. He resisted for two reasons; one: even in his most dire circumstances while in Konoha, he never even thought of resorting to thievery, and why, now that his fortunes were looking up, should he be reduced to it now. He would sooner go back to the Leaf, before he became a thief, and two, his foxy conscience would never allow it. It's container should have better use of his time than to become a common thief, the odd jobs Naruto took were more than enough to buy what he should need, and if he ran out of food, he could always go hunting. Kyūbi said, [taking money, and weapons from those who would harm us was different than being the instigator of it, it was done purely out of self-preservation.]

Naruto never stayed in one place for long, he did not want Konoha to find him, and drag him back to that place. It was not like he did not want to see his jiji, again, or the Ichiraku's, he did, they were one of the few people in the Village to care about him. Even most of the ANBU only looked out for him because it was their duty to do so, it was just a handful of them, who seemed to genuinely care about him, but he could, and should never rely on something like that. If the village did not respect the Hokage enough to honor his wishes, even while he was gone for the week, then the village was already doomed. It would never be a safe place for him.

It was exactly seven days after leaving Konoha, that he happened upon something that would change his life for the better, or at least give him stability. A temple monk was being menaced by a gang of three cutthroats, two guys and a girl, he was being held at knife-point. As Naruto watched, he admired the man's strength, he did not seem scared, and was just calmly and patiently standing there looking at these people, with compassion. The monk is a man of above-average height and messy black hair. He wore a simple dogi and hakama, under his Temple of Fire robes, he had a relatively small physique, a small and well-groomed mustache, and white, colorless eyes, he looked almost like those stuck-up Hyuga.

The three thugs holding him against his will, were a pretty diverse group of teenagers, they were martial artists, as evidenced by the conditions of their bodies. The leader seemed to take himself way too seriously, a fair-skinned boy, and tall, with a well-muscled build, and wore round, frameless glasses, and a white suit with a light yellow cravat, he had purple-hair, grown into a mass of strands. The second boy, doing his best to look cool and menacing by chewing bubble-gum, was a tall, muscular young man, fair-skinned, with dark-blonde, spiked-up hair, and blue eyes. He was wearing a white sleeveless shirt, blue jeans, white sneakers, and red jacket with its sleeves ripped off. The only female in the gang, also seemed to be the only one, carrying a weapon, it looked like a short staff, hm, wood, probably the only weapon I couldn't stop with my metalmancy, Naruto assumed. She was a fairly tall and rather attractive, dark-skinned woman, with dark-eyes, long, curly, black hair, with curvy eyebrows, and a thin scar, running across her left cheek. She is slender but noticeably curvaceous, athletic in frame with broad shoulders, and flared hips, a well-endowed chest, with a fairly muscled and well-toned build. She wore a form-fitting, light-blue, sleeveless blouse, dark blue spandex pants, with a pale, leather jacket, hiding the pieces of her staff in the jacket sleeves, and a golden-eyed pendant around her neck. They were all wearing black gloves on their hands, with golden-metal kanji characters on each hand, (Kami髪, Yami闇, Shinigami 死神,) respectively.

"I will tell you one more time, old man," the nominative leader threatened, his voice was even and confident, "give me your money, and we'll let you go, we're not a death squad, but we do administer punishment accordingly."

"Attachment to the material is a trap, young man," was all the monk said to him.

The one probably called Kami, in his group, grabbed the monk by the lapels of his yukata, "fine, I tried to do this nice and peacefully, but you've tempted the hand of God, and now you must pay. Soon, all the world will bow before God, even those insignificant ninja will fall before our might, the might of Mihashira (the Three Pillars)," the asshole reared back and let his fist fly! Well, he would have, if his fist had not just been stopped, by nothing. His hand had just stopped moving, however the force behind the punch kept going, before rebounding back through the arm of this so-called, Kami, and with nowhere else to go, it unleashed it's energy on the only solid matter it could find, the bones of its origin. Force that may have been used to kill the man, rebounded into the joints, dislocating the ball and socket joint of the shoulder, fracturing the radius and the ulna in the elbow, and broke the wrist.

The sudden stop, had been the equivalent of hitting a stone wall with full force, not a good idea unless you could use chakra to reinforce your arm. Kami howled in pain and held his now useless arm to his chest. Naruto had used the gold in his gloved fist, the iron of his blood, and the calcium in faux-Kami's bones to stop his fist, the damage had been exacerbated, because the arm had not been prepared for the sudden jolt that halted it.

"Ha-ha," came an unexpected voice, "you call yourself, God, and think a little force will help you against ninja," and the voice, as it turned out, was coming from a little boy, even the monk was wearing a surprised look on his face, before schooling his features into passivity. "Can you even use chakra," Naruto asked, "I was at the Academy for a single month, enough to help me unlock my chakra, then learn the basics of what to do with it? If I can do this much to you, with just a small expenditure, what do you think Jonin ninja, could do to you?" The little kid that continued to berate them walked out of the forest, and pointed his hand at the ground below them, and just like the first time he used his power, metal came shooting up out of the earth. Unlike that first instinctive use of his ability, after some practice with it over the week, he had more options than to kill with it, instead of impaling them from below, and since they were caught by surprise, he was able to wrap the metal 'tentacles,' around all three of them before they even knew what was happening.

Naruto reached the woman and stopped, "I beg your pardon, ma'am," he said ducking his head, then reached into her jacket, around her body and grabbed hold of her staff. He stepped back with a huge blush on his face, he was holding the staff she wielded, and he seemed, more embarrassed than she was, she just looked confused, "a thousand apologies for getting familiar with you without your permission, sister," he beseeched her, "but I was removing temptation from you. Believe it!" Naruto tossed the weapon away from them, and turned to the monk, smiling and asking, "you okay, Monk-san?"

"I am well, young one," the Monk answered, "my name is Kōetsuji Susumu, former disciple of the temple of Fire, Honō no Shinden in Kaen."

"Good to meet you, my name is Uzumaki Naruto, I used to live in Konoha," he began with a smile, before becoming quiet, and guarded, "but I left. So, now I'm a wanderer, looking for my place in the world."

"Someone so young, surely your parents are looking for you," Susumu inquired?

Naruto shook his head slowly, sadly, "never had parents, they were killed the day I was born," he informed the Monk, "been on my own for a couple of years. My… situation became untenable in the Leaf, so I decided to see what the weather was like out here," he said vaguely, looking guardedly at the three listening ears, next to them.

Susumu's face showed he understood, "well then, I am returning home from some business, maybe you would like to travel with me, to my home," he asked?

"Where are you heading, Monk-san, a new temple," Naruto asked?

Susumu fingered his chin, "…in a manner of speaking, yes, it could be called a temple."

Confused, Naruto asked, "what do you mean by that?"

The monk answered that question with another question, "tell me, Naruto," he began, "have you ever wanted to be a ninja," then turning to the three teenagers, and asked them the same, "have any of you?"

Naruto was surprised, none more so than at least two of the three teenagers wrapped in metal tentacles, that had just tried to rob this man. The one called Kami just scoffed, "my minions would never stoop so low, as to join the lowly ranks of a village, they decline…" the violette-haired lunatic's rant was cut off, as a tendril of metal, branched itself off from the main tentacle and forced itself over his mouth.

They all looked over at Naruto, who was looking at the teenager with a finger over his lips, and said, "Hush, I believe being mortals, gifted with free-will by the true Kami, gives them the right to choose for themselves! Now," he said, turning to the monk, Naruto indicated for Susumu to go on, "you were telling us about being ninja, and I have to say for myself, that I didn't leave Konoha, only to join another village, and become their enemy, you know. Is that what you're proposing, Monk-san," Naruto asked with suspicious eyes?

Susumu was shaking his head, "no, what I'm proposing is for you to join a school that'll allow you to be licensed as a ninja, with all the privileges, and rights of being a ninja, but you'll be a Ronin, owing allegiance to nobody unless you choose to do so, you can take missions as you see fit. In terms of a business, you'd be equivalent to an independent contractor, as opposed to just a nameless face your Kage can assign to a mission, because your skillset might happen to coincide with the mission, they need to fulfill. The drawback is, you may not have the resources that Satonin (Village Ninja) have to call upon, and you have to make your own reputation, because you won't be able to call upon the reputation of your village, to bring you missions or to deter crimes against you, from other ninja."

"How much would it be to join your school," the girl known as Shinigami asked, "money must come from somewhere, Villages are subsidized by an economy, which is augmented with ninja missions? Therefore, where does the money come from," she asked?

Susumu grinned broadly, "there is a tuition," and the faux-Shinigami, and Naruto wilted, "however, much of that will be worked off with chores, because in addition to ninja training, you will have to learn a trade – a skill, that can supplement your ninja work," pointing at Naruto, "your power over metal could lend itself to any number of trades, that are only obliquely related to shinobi work."

Naruto was listening carefully, and remembered what the monk said, "you said, 'much of the tuition will be worked off with chores, and learning a trade,'" Naruto reminded Susumu, "how much will be worked off that way, and what else will the students have to do to meet tuition requirements?"

Susumu was quiet as he looked at the others, "when you have completed your training, regardless of how much you owe, you will be required to apprentice for one-year out of the school, you will be required to take any missions the school assigns to you, that is the only obligation our school will ever impose upon you. After that year, whether the tuition is paid in full or not, you will be free and clear, you may leave with everything you have and not return unless you wish it," the monk finished.

Naruto was thinking over everything Susumu said to him, but before he gave his answer, he looked hard at the monk, "I was enrolled for a month in the ninja academy at Konoha, it was mostly talking about the legalities of ninja work, one of the Laws governing our trade, is that we are given immunity for the things we may be called to do, and that immunity comes from the Village or clan by way of the Daimyo, which is ratified by General Mifune, and the Imperial Court in Tetsu no Kuni. Only someone with that license, which has the Seal of a Daimyo, the General's Seal, and the Seal of the Emperor, may teach someone to be a ninja," Naruto qualified himself, and the Monk's grin grew big, "may I see your license, Monk-san?"

Susumu wordlessly summoned his qualifying credentials, and showed it to Naruto who perused it, looking for everything that is drilled into every member of the class of citizen, who are allowed to kill anybody, and not ever have to worry about, being arrested for it. Only their employers, those who hired them to perform the act of murder, would be held responsible if any legal actions were required. The ninja, could not even be subpoenaed to appear as a witness for the prosecutor, in the eyes of the law, ninja were considered to be weapons, who just happened to be a human-being, and one cannot hold the knife responsible, for the actions of the arm, that wielded it. They were even immune to the civil laws that covered such things as property damage, even if their actions, leveled a city. Ninja were the only citizens of the Empire of the Sun, who could legally wage war on each other, anybody else, even the Daimyos would be tried for insurrection and executed, it would be the only time a Kage could legally, overrule their Daimyo. When Naruto found three of the Seals he was looking for on Susumu's license, the only seal missing was the Seal for the Village or clan, he knew that the claims of Monk-san, were all true. In it's place was the Seal for the Minister of Commerce in Hi no Kuni, which was only needed when one started a commercial business.

Naruto looked at the other three people present, with wide eyes, "It's legitimate, the three seals I mentioned before, are there, the only difference between it, and the other examples drilled into me for the last month, is the absence of a local seal. Replaced by the business seal of Fire," Naruto stated in awe as he, went deep into his mind to speak to his tenant, to see if this was what he should do. What took hours of debate, and decision-making in his mind, only took thirty-seconds outside of it, but when he returned to the world, he had his answer, and just nodded to the monk. Naruto would become a Ronin Shinobi, and of the three thugs, only the faux-Shinigami opted to accept Susumu's offer. The boys refused, then were turned over to the nearest magistrate, and forgotten by the three, as they made their way to the Ryozanpaku Ronin Academy of Ninja Arts.


Elements of Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, a Japanese manga series were written, and illustrated, by Syun Matsuena.