As the emerald castle soaked up the rays of the rising sun, a flood of mana poured into Xander, waking him in an instant.

"Better than coffee," he said as he sat up, green silk sheets sliding off him.

Anko stirred briefly, flung a senbon at Jiraiya and fell back asleep. Jiraiya caught the poisoned throwing needle with his left hand, not even looking up as he continued painting, and dropped it in a jar that already contained several dozen.

Xander slid out of bed, trying not to wake Anko, and circled around to the other side of the canvas. "Wow," he said as he saw what the Toad Sage had painted.

Jiraiya smirked at his response but kept silent as he finished up the oil painting of Xander and Anko curled up in bed together. As he rinsed off his brush, the water in the clay pot sloshed about and Jiraiya had to catch another three needles. "Any idea where she's getting the green crystal senbon from?" Jiraiya asked once they were safely in the hall.

Xander nodded. "The castle is pure magic, as the Lady of the castle it's adapting to serve her better. Over time the ability should grow to cover more but for now it's limited to clothing and small items."

"Handy," Jiraiya said with a bright smile. "We were thinking of using the castle as a diplomatic post if you didn't mind."

"Mind? It's your castle. I just made it to replace the building I destroyed," Xander replied, still a bit worried he'd have to pay for replacing the tower.

"There is more than enough room for us to use the castle for the same purpose and still leave the majority of it for your use," Jiraiya assured him. "Consider it a second home, it certainly beats staying at a hotel when you visit."

"It is nice," Xander admitted.

"Plus Anko loves the view," Jiraiya added. "I believe she spent more time out here than at her apartment."

"What are taxes like?" Xander asked, hoping they weren't too much, as he didn't exactly have a stable income at the moment, even if having a place he could rest at, in-between searching for home could come in handy.

"Diplomatic posts aren't taxed," Jiraiya said, shooting Xander a smirk.

Xander grinned.

"So what do you have planned for today, since it'll take a couple of days to finish collecting the data from the Moon Healing Escalation?" the Toad Sage asked.

"Since I'm thinking both of you need to adjust to recent physical changes, I figured a little training would be in order," Xander replied. "One of you could go over the basics with me, and when you get to the more advanced stuff, I could study anything you've got on seals while you worked out the kinks."

"That's a good idea," Jiraiya said cheerfully. "We'll have to grab Gai again, but he's in-between missions. How much do you know about seals?"

"They exist," Xander replied.

Jiraiya waited, but that was all Xander said. "Seriously?" he questioned.

"Everything I've done is pretty much instinctive," Xander replied. "I have zero real knowledge about the subject, but every seal I run across I have… an instinctive grasp of. I can tell what it is, modify it a bit, and magically recreate it, but I can't make completely different seals. I need the basics, otherwise I'm just tracing someone else's work, even if I do make the breasts bigger."

Jiraiya laughed.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Boulders exploded and trees shattered as the three nin fought, moving so fast that they looked like still images to Xander, only visible when they completed a move before vanishing in a blur a moment later.

Xander meanwhile was trying to draw a simple storage seal. So far he had managed one serviceable seal, twenty failures, and eighty-four explosions.

*BOOM*

…Make that eighty-five explosions.

Xander wiped soot off his face. "At least the knowledge part is easy."

Three hours later…

Jiraiya took in the sight of his naked pupil, covered in ink and soot, sitting in a concave depression in the ground two meters deep. "How did you manage this?!"

"I think I managed to seal a perfect sphere of … everything," Xander replied.

"How can you be so good at theory and suck so bad in practice?" Jiraiya asked, honestly confused.

"I know what to draw, my hands just won't co-operate," Xander complained.

"Calligraphy?" Anko suggested.

"While helpful, sealing uses a lot more symbols than that teaches. When sealing is described as more art than science, they are being literal," Jiraiya explained. "Take the symbol for the sun for instance, a simple circle. But, depending on what it's used for, the way it's drawn changes. If I use it in a light sensitive trigger, the sun symbol has to be drawn with a series of even numbered lines radiating from it first, while using it in a tag to generate light requires drawing the sun's aura first, and every seal master draws it differently."

"I basically need a shit ton of drawing practice," Xander summed up.

"And some art lessons," Jiraiya agreed.

"Never give up, it is the only way one can move forward!" Gai enthused, posing with an upraised fist.

"I also need some blue mana," Xander said thoughtfully, "and red… and black. I'd also appreciate a look at any artifacts you may have lying around… and I also need more tutoring in basic jutsu, hand to hand and probably a dozen other things."

"Artifacts?" Gai asked curiously.

"Legendary items, like… ancient weapons that seem almost magical or tools from the gods," Xander explained. "Making artifacts is one of my main talents, but I have to see a number of them first. Regular tools are serviceable, but the more powerful an item the better."

"Does having a story behind them help or would a handmade new item of master quality work?" Jiraiya asked curiously.

"I'm not sure," Xander admitted. "I guess the only way to find out is to find a legendary item and have a duplicate made and then see how my copies come out."

"Do they have to be in one piece?" Anko asked. "Kakashi still has white fang, but the idiot broke it."

"That's a good question," Xander admitted. "Bring me the pieces and we'll see."

"Anko, you go get Kakashi, I'll grab a well-used and new chakra blade to compare," Jiraiya said. "Gai… get him something to wear and work on his taijutsu."

Half an hour later…

Jiraiya returned to find Anko and Kakashi watching Gai train Xander in basic academy taijutsu.

"From the rumors, I expected more," Kakashi noted.

"He's a lover not a fighter," Anko replied with a smirk, her eyes running up and down Xander's green spandex clad body.

"Ready for a break?" Jiraiya called out.

"But we've not even warmed up properly," Gai said, actually managing a passable puppy-dog look.

Kakashi winced and looked away. "You can continue training while we do this."

"Excellent!" Gai said cheerfully, before jumping onto his hands and doing pushups. "We can continue with your training when you're ready."

"Sounds good," Xander agreed, wiping sweat off his face as he joined the three nin. "What did you bring me?"

Introductions were quickly made before they got down to business.

"Legendary weapons are hard to find and the few that the Leaf owned have been stolen by traitors," Jiraiya explained. "Now Kakashi has brought 'White Fang', a chakra blade of some renown. While I'm not sure if it meets your requirements, it was already at Named status and well on its way to Legendary before it was broken. In addition, I have two chakra blades with no mythos attached to them, one old and well used, the other brand new and unused."

"Let's start with the Fang," Xander suggested eagerly.

Kakashi unfurled a sealing scroll and activated it. The broken sword appeared in a burst of smoke.

Xander whistled. "That is an impressive blade, I don't even have to touch it to tell you that." He ran his fingers along the flat of the broken blade getting a feel for it. He took a deep breath and tapped into Magic Girl Tokyo, feeling the rush of colorless and white mana flowing through him.

Kakashi's eyes widened as the pieces of the blade melted together, but the shock he felt on seeing his father's legacy restored was nothing compared to seeing a matching blade appear in Xander's right hand a moment later.

"Two white mana to repair, three to copy and color doesn't matter," Xander explained. "And in case you were wondering, yes, it most definitely counts as a legendary weapon," Xander said as he handed over the second blade to Kakashi.

"You can just copy…" Kakashi's voice trailed off in wonder as he raised the copy of the Fang and fed it his chakra, bathing the group in its ivory light.

"Apparently," Xander agreed.

"Try these now," Jiraiya said, gesturing to the pair of chakra blades he'd procured for this experiment.

Xander placed a hand on each blade and concentrated for a moment. Lifting his hands, a chakra blade suddenly appeared in each one. "One mana apiece, nothing really special about them."

"What's special about the White Fang?" Jiraiya asked, eager to find out what Xander's abilities could tell him about a weapon he'd handled.

"It requires near perfect chakra control to activate," Xander replied, "but while active it's a lot sharper and tougher, the light of the blade weakens illusions and on top of that it's a bane to the undead."

"Bane?" Kakashi questioned.

"It means that while it's a dangerous weapon for everything, to anything undead it is extremely deadly. Any illusions cast by an undead source are instantly dispelled and even the slightest scratch on a revenant will fester and decay, refusing to heal," Xander explained.

"I don't often run into the undead," Kakashi noted cheerfully, entirely happy about that fact.

"Well, if you do, you can't ask for a better weapon than that to have by your side," Xander assured him.

"Is it a legendary weapon because of its history or its capabilities?" Jiraiya wondered out loud.

"Probably a combination," Xander replied. "A powerful weapon will eventually carve its own story into history and a weapon that is present and pivotal for a number of significant events gains power from general belief."

"Considering the number of one-of-a-kind blades created by accident due to insanely specific circumstances during forging that cannot be recreated, that play a significant role in events, I'm leaning towards events shaping their creation," Jiraiya said.

"Magic can play havoc with cause and effect," Xander agreed.

"We should hunt down some legendary weapons and make copies!" Anko said eagerly.

"That would be very profitable and allow Xander to pick up more and varied mana," Jiraiya agreed.

"Not just weapons," Xander reminded them. "Tools and even buildings can be classified as artifacts."

"Like the village," Kakashi agreed.

The hair on Xander's arms began to stand on end and the air felt heavy, as his senses itched as they tried to reach and understand something, but lacking the final piece to truly understand. "Pardon?" Xander asked.

"The First Hokage created the village in a single day," Kakashi explained.

Like a switch being flipped, Xander's senses stretched out as his connection to the land burned in his mind, as the final piece of the puzzle fell into place and he could see it all, how the city was created, why the Forest of Death was a giant wild growth seal. It all made sense now!

"Are you okay?" Anko asked, helping a suddenly woozy Xander to stand.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Xander said, taking a couple of deep breaths. "I just… realized, understood, memorized the village and yes, it counts as an artifact, a legendary land in fact."

"Seriously?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah," Xander agreed. "Your First Hokage had some divine help, because it costs a lot of mana to create and it is a wellspring of nature mana, creating more forests, year after year."

"So you could recreate it?" Jiraiya asked.

"Definitely," Xander agreed. "It's not even the most costly artifact I have on my list, though it does take up the number two spot."

"What's the most expensive?" Kakashi asked, not sure he wanted to know.

"A large white gem that eats chakra and alters time," Xander replied. "It also creates a city overnight, but that's the second stage use of it and it needs to build up to it."

"Alters time?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yeah, it can be used to affect time," Xander replied. "Not sure of the particulars at the moment, but the time thing really jumps out at me."

"How hard would it be to create?" Jiraiya asked.

"I'd need a couple more white mana, but that and a little quiet is all I'd need to create one," Xander explained. "It's just a huge load of white mana and a little will power, but considering the amount of mana, I think we need a way to hide it otherwise you could probably sense it half-way across the world."

"I've got that covered with seals," Jiraiya waved off. "A major demonstration to the Hokage, like creating that gem, should shake loose enough money for us to travel, collect a variety of mana, and get our hands on some artifacts, especially if we aren't keeping the originals."

"Sounds good to me," Xander said, the thought of expanding the color of mana he had to work with making him bounce up and down.

"I'll set up things with the Hokage for tomorrow, you two go and collect some white mana," Jiraiya ordered, before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

"When you said Planeswalkers grow powerful quickly, you weren't just popping smoke tags," Anko said. "You are getting to the myths and legends level in no time flat. I mean, you can make villages!"

"It's only been a couple of days," Xander said, "providing I avoid angering gods and other Planeswalkers for a couple of months, I'll be able to create worlds… theoretically."

"Can you make worlds based on books?" Kakashi asked intently, making Anko laugh.

"No idea," Xander replied. "I just know it's possible if I can gain enough power and knowledge."

"Let's go and grab some more land for you," Anko said with a smirk. "I'll bring my tent."

"Why… yes, that is a great idea," Xander agreed as he recalled how they'd helped him settle his additional mana just the other day.

Kakashi grinned behind his mask. Powerful or not, Xander was easier to read than the latest issue of Make-out Paradise. "I'll let you both get to that. If you need me for anything… well, I'll probably be hiding. Bye!" he said, vanishing in a swirl of dust.

Xander laughed. "I like him."

Typing By – Sitheus Maximus