A/N: After a reeeeally long wait, here it is! Wow, I never expected my story to be so popular in Brazil. 0.o Thank you all for your support and pushy-ness, otherwise writers block might have taken a bit longer to clear out.

Um, I have some artwork for this story to put up on my DeviantArt account, which you can get to from my authors page, but its not readye yet. Hehe. -sweatdrop-

Nahhh! Read now! I have to get to school! Enjoy! Byeee!

Chapter 17 – Blades Worthy of Masters

Never minding that it was broad daylight, the Nin emerged from the trees after running for days. There were no signs of life from the small cottage, though there were signs of recent use. The ground still had faint footprints, tracks that were no more than four days old. Those and the severely scarred and beaten log that stood upright at the edge of the smooth dirt clearing was clear evidence that someone had done some recent training.

She adjusted her glasses and ran a hand through her thick black hair, frustrated. The person she was looking for obviously wasn't here, but she figured she might as well check to see what direction he had gone. She made a quick check in the immediate area and then made a scan of the land for a mile in every direction.

She learned he had gone roughly north and then turned east along with another person, from the constant parallel of another chakra that was as many days old as his. Female, the Nin guessed from the way it had a softer feel to it.

"That bastard won't like it if I keep missing him like this. He's already angry that that bitch Tayuya and her freak show gang couldn't get him from Konoha and he doesn't want to wait a few more years to get his body."

She crouched down to rest her tired legs. "Fuck, if I don't get him soon I'm going to be the one that's getting experimented on instead of the one doing the experimenting. Shiiiit." She groaned as she stood up.

Resigning to her ever enduring task, she followed his path northward.

Izumi stepped out of the back of the house, slipped on her geta and then continued on to the training ground. The clacking of wood striking wood rung through the air, she had grown accustomed to it the past two and a half months. It was comforting. It reminded her of when she was younger. She had trained the same exact way as her grandson and his future wife were training now, albeit at a slower pace. She remembered helping to teach the younger students as a sempai when she was in her twenties and before she had given birth to Kushina.

No matter how much happiness the knowledge of having a grandson and being with him brought her, she couldn't get rid of the sadness that came to her. She looked at Naruto and saw her daughter, and sometimes when he worked hard she could see the same energy she had at the tender age of four. The only difference was that that energy was directed at coloring books instead of slicing someone to bits using an oversized knife.

She really wished she could see Kushina one more time, just once, to have a conversation with her, just a chance to hug her. It wouldn't be enough, but at the same time, it would.

As she rounded the corner of the Dojo she saw Naruto dueling intensely with her cousin, Meng. Both using wooden swords since Meng's Soul Blade would just reduce his to toothpicks with the pace and intensity they currently had.

Meng spun around and caught the boy in the side, effectively knocking him off his feet. While he was down, she stood over him and scolded him about not being able to block her attack.

Hinata was off on another side of the grounds with Uesugi staring at a large log that stood upright. Izumi shook her head. That knucklehead was teaching the girl the fine tunings of applying power in every stroke. Hinata would have to eventually slice the log in half using only the large, four foot wooden sword she held.

That would be quite a sight to see. Izumi mused.

"We're going out today into the deep forest."

Naruto looked up from his plate to his Sensei. "Why?"

"You'll see when we get there. Both of you go and get changed now. We can forgo the dishes today."

Naruto and Hinata both ran off to their rooms, exchanging wild-eyed looks. Something was going to happen.

Meng looked to Myuri with confusion all over her face. "Are you sure they're ready? Isn't a bit early?"

"We don't have much time before they have to leave. There is no better than now."

"I would have waited a bit longer, you know." she chastised him.

Myuri got up from the table. "They're ready. Trust me."

"What do you think the old man is going to do?" He looked at Hinata skeptically.

She tied her hair that reached just past her shoulders back into two pigtails. "It sounded like some sort of special training thing." She shrugged. "I could be wrong though."

They walked into the dining room and found it empty. They went into the kitchen saw Izumi washing dishes.

"Obaa-chan, where's Myuri?"

"He's waiting in the front."

"Thanks."

They went to the front room and Myuri was waiting there for them, just like Izumi said.

"Why are we going into the forest today, Myuri-sama?" Hinata put her hands on her hips.

"That's not important right now. What is important is that we leave as soon as possible to give you two as much time as possible."

Naruto was about to ask again what it was they were doing but decided not to because he would only get the same answer. Kyuubi had taught him that much.

They left the mansion, through the gate and under the Oni chakra cloak. They followed Myuri through the forest for the better part of two hours. When they stopped, it was in the middle of a dense forest, unremarkable at first glance except for how dark it was. As the teenagers looked around, they noticed that the trees were of all different species, even some that shouldn't be growing in this part of the world. There were even small groups of bamboo scattered through them.

The trees varied in size, some reaching a hundred or two feet into the air, others a few feet at most. Leaved trees, maples, oaks, ashes, birches elm; trees with needles, firs, hemlocks, pines, junipers; one that they had never seen before, all of them grew and nearly blocked out the sunlight completely.

Hinata stood close to Naruto. "Where are we? This place is kinda creepy."

"This is Amatsu Senzai, The Heavenly Garden. Now I've brought you two to here because you both need to choose a tree."

Hinata raised her eyebrows.

"Ummmm…?" Naruto gestured for him to continue.

"Search for the perfect tree. The one that is most like you." Seeing them both giving him odd looks. "You'll get what I mean when you experience it. Now, you know that you can feel each other's chakra, right?" Getting a nod he continued "Each living thing has chakra and thus its own chakra signature. Sit down and get into the meditating position."

Naruto and Hinata sat cross-legged on the forest floor, pressed their palms together and closed their eyes. They felt Myuri move behind them and they heard his low voice in their ears.

"Now reach out with your chakra. Aside from each other and me, what do you feel?"

"Nothing." Naruto murmured.

"There's something….. I can't tell what it is exactly." Hinata said.

"Relax boy. You're still tense, relax completely…yes, that's it. Feel anything now?"

"Yeah…It's really small though."

"Good! Now both of you just focus on that new entity, and let it grow and expand in your mind until it diverges into multiple beings. Relax. Relax and focus…" Myuri's voice seemingly melted into the forest.

Naruto put all of his attention on goading the small pinprick of light to grow. He found it wouldn't give up its secrets so easily. He prodded and poked it for all it was worth but it still wouldn't obey.

"Hina-chan." The words were a whisper and he kept his eyes closed.

"Hmm…?"

"Do you feel anything?"

"Yeah, I feel everything in the forest…"

"How'd you do that? All I feel is just this small little thing." Awe colored every part of his voice for her.

"Just relax everything. Don't let your frustration get to you." She laughed lightly. "Don't relax too much or you might fall asleep."

That small, joyous sound filled his dark mind with an image of her face but he shook it off and focused on the task at hand. Actually, her laugh was like a medicine; he found he was completely relaxed already, like that sound guaranteed that everything in the world was going to be alright.

He focused on that small bit of light again and it now spread and grew.

"Ahah…"

"Got it?"

"Yup…Thanks!"

It expanded more and more and began to split into multiple chakras, multiple dots of light. They were slow, barely conscious things that had maybe only a small jutsu's worth of chakra but they were there nonetheless.

Soon, he could differentiate between plants and insects and even then further between plant species if he concentrated enough. Some of these plants chakras resonated more than others and he was drawn to them. He inspected them and found that they were all the same species of plant.

"Myuri-sensei, are you still around?"

"Hai." The voice came from in front of him.

"Why are some of these…trees, why do I feel some of them more than others?"

"I feel it too sensei…" Hinata whispered.

"That's exactly what I was aiming for you two to figure out. Open your eyes and stand up."

Judging by the faint light, it was almost midday. "Now do you both remember the chakra signatures you felt that were most prominent?"

"Yes."

"Yeah."

"Feel those out again and find their sources. Call me when you're done."

Hinata activated her Byakugan. She looked around to all the trees, each of which she now saw had a small orb in the center. Naruto was going in a direction off to the left of her toward his own chakra.

The brightest of her distinct type of chakra was only about 50 feet away and she got to it quickly. "Climb up the tree, find a limb about as thick as your forearm and bring it back down." Myuri instructed a minute later.

"Don't I get an axe to chop it off?"

A corner of his mouth lifted into a knowing smile. "You're a strong girl, Hinata-san." was all he said before he walked away to assist Naruto.

Hinata chakra-walked up the side of the tree, looking for the size branch her sensei had specified. When she found one near the middle reaches of the tree, she stood on a nearby branch and tried to figure out how to break it off the trunk with her bare hands.

She tried punching it off, using Jyuuken to strike it off (Hinata found she was really out of practice with her original clan's techniques), side kicks, elbows, knees and nothing worked. She tried bending it; she got as much success as before, if not less.

She was going through her list of techniques she had learned when she realized she did have an axe, the chakra axe kick to be exact. Hinata pumped chakra into her right foot and sharpened it using her exceptional chakra control. Trusting in her hope that her leg wouldn't break with the force, she swung her leg down into the branch.

It came clean off, leaving a small stump about an inch high. Very much pleased with herself, Hinata grabbed the branch and jumped the long way to the ground.

Naruto was done already, though it looked more like he tore his off the trunk. Myuri was waiting next to him. His eyes shifted from Hinata's face to the end of her clean-cut branch and approval crossed his face. "We're going back now. Follow me."

They made it back by mid-afternoon. Myuri had them lay them outside next to the bathhouse and gave them the rest of the day off. Naruto and Hinata questioned the significance of the little excursion but didn't ask their teacher, wisely knowing they would get no answer in return.

The next day was an odd one too. Myuri brought them into a basement they never knew existed.

"When a man called Pain attacked us," he explained, "all the elders hid down here so the knowledge and secrets of the Kenbu-Do might survive for future generations to study. You yourselves are the prime and only example." The light he provided with a paper lantern was just bright enough for them to make out various tongs, hammers and other metalworking tools lining the walls.

"This also doubles as our forge down here where we create our soul blades, as our ancestors have done for centuries before us." He stood next to a huge stone rectangle with a smaller rectangle imprinted in the top that was about a foot deep and laid a hand on the edge. "I forged Bahamut down here and he has served me well throughout my long life. Izumi, Meng, Uesugi and every other Uzumaki, save for your mother Naruto," he spared the boy a nod, "has forged their own Soul Blade down here having no previous knowledge or practice in the smithy. Both of you will too, starting tomorrow. It's going to take you at least a full twenty-four full hours to forge your own Soul Blades."

Naruto swallowed. "Twenty-four hours…straight?"

Hinata, sensing his unease, stood closer and put a hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture. She still felt the small thrill every time she touched him. He relaxed slightly at the contact and smiled.

At the sight of this Myuri smiled inwardly and then continued to instruct them on the general process of how to forge, walking from place to place, and demonstrating the actions sans the hot steel they were to use. He described the ways to make many different styles of swords, to which he told them they could further alter to their own needs. He had them briefly look inside themselves to find the general shape of the blade and they were to think over it and refine it for the rest of the day.

"Make sure to wear protective clothing tomorrow and make sure it's not your uniforms because it's going to get hot and dirty down here." he called after them as they left. He watched them walk down the hallway, so close they almost touched. He saw the way Naruto looked at her; he smiled as he felt Izumi come up from behind to stand next to him, arms crossed.

"He's falling for her…Hard." she sighed as the younger pair disappeared around the corner.

"Yes, but what if he's too stupid to realize it?"

Later that day, Hinata found her sensei practicing the Kenbu-Do in slow motion on the training ground. He saw her approaching but he kept on practicing his kata.

"Myuri-sensei, ummm… would you take a look at this please?" The long black box Hinata had brought with her nearly a year ago she set in front of her teacher. He stopped and kneeled down in the dirt across from her, curiosity furrowing his brow. She undid the ties on the side and opened it.

Inside was a katana in its sheath almost five feet long resting on red velvet. The scabbard was painted black with the shapes of two dancing cranes surrounded by sakura flowers and reeds inlaid with silver. The red crowns of the birds stood out as the only color at all on it. The hand guard of the sword was rectangular with circles punched out at the corners and a row of smaller ones ran between the larger ones. The handle was a rich, dark brown wood that shimmered different hues in the sunlight and the crisscrossing black threads that formed diamonds across it for the grip were fraying from use.

Myuri picked it up out of its box and drew it halfway to inspect the blade's edge. "I didn't know the Hyuugas used swords."

Hinata looked at it with a sad reverence. "We don't. That was my mothers before she died and she was an orphan that had no clan. Her sensei was a sword user and he taught her everything."

Myuri sheathed it and inspected the handle next. "This blade was well made and used. Judging by the design it is well over forty years old. It was made for both battle purposes from the scratches on the blade and ceremonial from the dancing cranes on the scabbard." he informed her.

"Ano, sensei, I was wondering…could I use it?"

Myuri closed his eyes and scanned the blade from point to pommel, and stopped immediately at the middle of the handle. He drew his chakra back out immediately. What was that? he wondered. "Go get the branch you cut yesterday and lay it alongside."

Hinata did as she was told.

"Push your chakra into both and tell me which flows easier."

She took the sword in her left and the branch in her right and eased chakra out of her hands. Miraculously, the branch had very little resistance to her chakra but the wood handle of her mother's sword slipped along, undeterred at all.

"And?"

"It's… wow. There's nothing holding it back at all. It's like… an extension of my arm, because it flows so freely." She stared dumbfounded at the handle in her left hand.

"There is no further need of this then." Myuri tapped the branch in Hinata's other hand. "We can use it for firewood." He stood up and brushed the dirt from his pants. "When you construct your handle from your Soul Blade over the next few days, use your mother's handle instead of making one from this wood. Let's separate the handle from the blade right now so we do not have to worry about it later. Once you are completely done making your sword, we can make a similar handle to replace it and honor your mother, if you would like."

Hinata bowed her head and stood. "I'd like that very much."

Before the sun emerged from the horizon the next morning, an anvil was on both sides of the fire pit and stacks and stacks of steel and wood were piled in the corners of the forge, ready to go. Naruto and Hinata needed no instruction or reminders on how to do it for they remembered perfectly how to construct it, and how to build a fire in the pit. They continued to tend to it carefully, leveling out the bed of coals and evening out the color so it was same all the way through while all three of their teachers looked on, ready to assist if needed.

They pumped a pair of bellows, sucking fresh air into the fire so it burned hotter, brighter. Occasionally, one of them would add more wood to keep it going and even out he coals again. They repeated this process until the bed burned a bright yellow that was nearly white. Using gloves so they wouldn't burn their fingers, Naruto spread out eight flat steel plates that were roughly ten inches long, four inches wide and an eighth inch thick in the pit and Hinata put an enormous thirty two plates on. Everyone was surprised at her choice of blade since there was only one type that required over eighteen plates of steel.

Once all the plates for their swords turned a bright orange on top, they flipped all the plates in their group so they would be heated evenly. As soon as they reached a nice yellow that was as bright as the coals they rested on, Naruto took his pieces and stacked them. He took four and welded them together into one large brick on the anvil and did the same with the other four pieces with a sledgehammer. Hinata did the same but welded ten into a long brick and the rest into another. Because she had less strength than her partner and more to do, it took her longer to perform this first step.

He then took the brick and placed them back in the fire pit and returned to tending the fire to keep the heat up. Hinata finished her roughly shaped bricks and placed them in the fire a few minutes before Naruto's turned the correct color and he took them back out again. As they waited together, Naruto commented, "This is a hell of a lot harder than I though it'd be."

Hinata agreed with a nod of her head. Her throat was already too dry to use from the intense heat, ashes and smoke.

Naruto put his first brick on the anvil, put his palms together as if he was praying and channeled a very light flow of chakra into the steel before him. As he flattened out the brick into a single bar and split it, he sustained the flow of chakra. This was the hardest part, all three of his teachers had said. From this point onward, whenever the steel was at least an orange color and until the blade was complete, he had to keep up this slow flow of chakra. He welded the two bars back into one then split it again and welded a second time. He then returned it to the fire because it wasn't hot enough for another folding and repeated the entire process on the other brick.

Hinata took her smaller brick and did the same folding process as well, slowly pushing chakra into her own steel. Again, since hers was larger, she only managed to get one fold in. The other brick was a bright yellow by then and she could only split it and half weld it before it cooled.

Naruto folded the first brick twelve times and the second a total of ten times. He then split both down the middle and took the less folded steel and formed the edge of both about six inches down from the end into a shallow U shape. He then welded those two pieces together, U-shape side facing inwards to create a skinny hole a little less than a half inch wide and a foot long. Then he took the end closest to the hole and formed a very general shaped peak with it. He then took the other two bars out of the fire and welded them to either side of the larger piece and began to hammer them into another rough shape: a sword.

Meanwhile, Hinata had almost finished folding her bars, ten times for the smaller and nine for the larger. Next she split a piece of steel about four inches long off of the end of the smaller bar. She tossed that one back into the fire to keep hot for later use. She took the larger bar out of the fire and hammered it out into a sheet about six and a half feet long that narrowed at one end. She put that back in the fire and took the smaller bar out and hammered that one out into a bar five and a half feet long. Hinata welded the smaller to the side of the larger and then took the small piece she had cut before out. She cut about an inch off and welded that at and angle at the top of the point and took the last spare piece of steel and welded two inches to the other side of the blade so she had about an inch of it sticking it out.

Naruto had long since formed his blade and was finishing up making the edges thin so they could easily be ground to a sharp edge. Now he needed to let it cool before he ground them, so first he rested, had a brief meal and drink and was back in.

He wanted to help Hinata somehow, but he really couldn't, since blade-making was a one person job. So instead he tended the fire, bringing the heat back up since the lack of attention had brought it down.

Hinata did the same thing, sharpening her large edge, the shorter edge on the other side and the odd angled edge in the middle. She did the same that Naruto did, reviving her energy with some food and water, but she sat and rested, head against the wall for a few minutes instead of helping him.

Naruto's blade was done cooling first, so he took it to the grinding wheels in the corner and ground the edges so they were sharp enough to cut skin but not enough to cut other steel. He also smoothed out the surface, removing hammer marks and other impurities in the steel that might have showed up. Next he put it back in the fire and got it to its hottest, over 1550 degrees Fahrenheit. He continued to cultivate the fire and keep it up, and Naruto never let his flow of chakra to the blade falter.

Hinata used files in addition to the grinding wheels because she had a tight spot where those wheels couldn't get on her blade.

They took turns keeping the fire hot while they heated and then cooled their blades four times to relax the stresses that had built up in the steel from the folding and grinding. Once, in between shifts, Hinata fell asleep against the wall because she was so tired.

Finally, once all of that was done, they both covered their blades with a layer of clay, very thin on the cutting edges and much thicker on the spines. They heated their blades again and quenched them in a trough of brine water. They had to leap backwards to avoid the hot steam and spitting water as the hot metal quickly cooled. Hinata repeated this process one more time since her blade type required it.

As she did this, Naruto had already begun to polish and refine the edges of his blade with polishing stones, files and grinding wheels. Hinata joined him almost and hour later with hers and they polished them until the steel grew completely cold.

The blade slipped out of her hands and cut her palm. It clanged to the floor loudly and Hinata just then realized how completely exhausted she was.

"Hinata-chan, you alright?" The grinding of Naruto's file stopped and he looked her wildly, hoping nothing bad had happened to her.

"Yea everything is alright, nothing is wrong." she lied cheerfully. She winced as she tried to pick up her blade without him seeing her bloody palm.

He quickly put his project down and grabbed her hand. "You're bleeding. Badly." he accused.

Hinata was surprised by his sudden contact and jerked her hand away to hold it in her other. "Ano, I'll just go upstairs and bandage it." She swayed suddenly from fatigue but grabbed the edge of a nearby stool, which happened to be Naruto's.

"Hinata!?"

"Look, she's just tired and so are you, boy." Uesugi got up from his place where he leaned against the wall and walked over to them. He now had watch duty since all the other elders were upstairs. "Come on, go upstairs and get some sleep. It usually takes about a week or two to finish the blade after the initial forging anyways so there's no rush to finish it now."

Tsunade put down the paper she was reviewing. "Your mission success rate is low for action missions, but high for diplomatic ones." She studied the girl in front of her. Poor girl, she's been a workaholic since both Naruto and Sasuke left. I don't know if she's punishing herself or what for what she said to Naruto, but I would have punished her a bit if she didn't do it herself.

Sakura bowed, her long hair obscuring her face. "Hai Hokage-sama."

"And since you have achieved the rank of Chuunin, I am assigning you to a two year mission of being the new ambassador to Suna. Our current one is a stuck up bastard whom I thought could help repair our ties with them but he turned out to be a failure who desecrated our image over there. Thankfully his term is about to expire.

"You are to stay in Suna in the ambassador's headquarters for those two years with occasional visits back here when you like. You are to leave the day after tomorrow and arrive in Suna by this time next week. I will have someone guide you there."

Six days later after an uneventful trip, Sakura and her male guard arrived at the cliff-gates of The Village Hidden in the Sand. A small sandstorm had been whipped up just when they saw the tops of the cliffs on the horizon.

That swirling sand reminded Sakura of a faint memory of a red-haired boy with the ability to control sand. She realized that this place she was now going to live in for the next ten years was going to be home. Well, at least she knew one person in this village. Things wouldn't be so bad.

Another man met them at the base of the cliff. He had a cloth draped around his head and his Suna hitai-te held it in place. He wore the standard Suna Chuunin uniform.

"You are Haruno Sakura, if I am not mistaken." He said politely.

She nodded in return.

"Kazekage-sama has assigned me to lead you to your quarters and then present you to him." he looked at the guide from Konoha. "We have also prepared a room for you to stay in for the night but you have to leave in the morning."

The man bowed. "I understand."

It turned out that the Konoha Embassy office wasn't far from the Kazekage tower, just a block away. Sakura's room was two floors above the main office. The Suna guide led her there, where she dropped off her bags and followed him to the Kazekage's building.

"When you see Kazekage-sama, give him a deep bow then shake his hand, tell him it was an honor to meet him, say 'I have Konohagakure's and Sunagakure's best interests at heart and that I hope I can get the villages to cooperate better in the future.'" The guide instructed as the climbed the stairs. "It is of utmost importance that you don't mess up because that sets a precedent for future mistakes."

He knocked twice on a large door that proclaimed it to be the office if the Kazekage. "Kazekage-sama, I have brought the new ambassador. May we come in?"

"Yes, come in." a muted voice said from the other side.

The door opened and sakura saw a red mess of hair on top of a tall man dressed in black and maroon robes and a gray one-shoulder vest. He stood behind a large tan desk but faced outwards, towards the windows. He turned to face them and Sakura's breath hitched.

A single name escaped her lips.

"Gaara!?"

Naruto looked at his handiwork, clearly pleased. His Soul Blade was straight, like a Jian style sword and a total of four feet long, one for the handle and three for the blade. Six inches down from the tip, there was a skinny hole around half an inch wide and a foot long. He didn't know what had prompted him to put it there but now that he though about it, if he mastered his blade well enough, he could catch other weapons in it and then be able to wrench them away from their owners or use it against them. The pommel though, was the part he treasured the most. Two five-tailed Kitsune climbed the sides of it, wrought in an orange tinted gold. He stabbed a foe directly in front of him then twirled around and slashed an enemy on his side.

Hinata was nearby and sitting cross-legged in the dirt had her sword across her knees. Rather than admiring her crush flaunt and experiment with his sword, she admired her huge blade, the whole thing a grand total of six and a half feet long. It curved like a katana, but the tip was completely different. It had one edge and two prongs at the end. The spine of the blade near the shorter prong had a cutting edge on it and a third edge was a combination of the edges of the prongs coming together. "An impressive Tsuguri style sword." Uesugi had said when she was polishing the Blade. He had then laughed. "Little girl, are you sure you'll be able to hold it?" Hinata remembered that she had proceeded to tease him about having a girly sword since his was so skinny and light. She ran a finger down the middle of it, amazed that she had made something so huge and lethal looking. It would require two hands to wield nearly all the time unless she was throwing it or slashing right across a line of opponents, but she didn't dwell too munch on that fact.

"Enjoying yourselves?" Myuri appeared on Hinata's right, starling her.

"Damn this thing is cool. I can't believe I made it." Naruto stopped practicing to examine his word in awe.

"That 'thing' is your Soul Blade so you must call it as such. Speaking of which, you both still need to name your Soul Blades and etch them. Creating a scabbard is optional. Yours is the right size and shape for one Naruto but I'm not so sure about yours Hinata." He laughed lightly. "It's almost as big as mine."

Both students went back to their previous activities when Myuri's voice took a harder edge. "Alright, I know you are fascinated but we must do this before the day gets any older. Come down into the forge."

They followed him reluctantly to the basement.

"So, when you think of your name, what word other than your name pops into your head?" Myuri asked.

"Sun." blurted out Hinata.

"Fox." whispered Naruto.

"You will etch that word onto your Soul Blade in Kanji as well as a spiral and the Uzumaki name in Katakana." He picked up his blade from where it lay across the forge's fire pit and pointed to the spiral on his and the words written in the Old Language of Katakana, Hiranga and Kanji.

He ten instructed his students on how exactly to etch the names using chakra, a chisel and a hammer.

The heated the swords so the area they would etch turned a dark orange. Using the speed and strength they had obtained through training, each took a chisel and a hammer and gently carved a spiral into one side of the blade. The heated and etched, heated and etched until they had a fully formed spiral on either side of the blades. They used the same method to put he names on either side too, Uzumaki towards the handle and their word toward the point.

Lastly, they heated it one more time and using chakra, smoothed out the rough edges of the letters and spiral.

"Very nice." approved Myuri when he inspected their final work. He guided them upstairs to dinner. "Let's start the real training tomorrow. It's much more enjoyable when you use the real thing."

His tone had both students worried about the tortures to come. Steel was definitely much, much heavier than wood.

A/N: Was it worth the wait? I hope it was. =/ This was a bity of a technical chapter, so nothing reeeeally exciting. Anyways, things begin to pick up a bit more next chapter.

IBP

Next Chapter: Another year passes and it it time to go to Michinaga for Demon Training. Unfortunatly, things don't always go as planned.