Naruto awoke with a start. His head felt like it had been split down the middle as he tried to remember what had happened.
He had been stuck in this forest for a week. Ever since he woke up on the ground outside near a tunnel whose entrance had been sealed he been walking aimlessly, hoping to find some settlement or town, but he had no such luck. It his luck, it seemed, had been focused on letting him avoid the bandits that littered the area. Three times he had nearly run into groups of them. Each time he barely got away without them noticing.
"Uhh, so hungry" he hadn't eaten since he stole those rabbits from the bandits and that was three days ago. He looked around before spotting a bush of to the side covered in big red berries. He picked off as many as he could and stuffed most of them in his mouth and put the rest in his pockets. He nearly choked from trying to swallow so many at once, but it was worth it. He felt full almost immediately.
Revived by the full stomach Naruto began to make his way through the forest with a renewed vigor. After a few minutes his steps began to grow weaker. His vision blurred around the edges. His head was spinning and he collapsed to his knees. His vision went dark as his head collided with the ground
"That's right," Naruto said to himself as he though back to what happened "those berries must have been poison." He looked around the clean room he was in "But where am I now.
He jumped at the sound of heavy boots outside the door before it was thrown open. A massive man holding a tray of food opened the door. "Ah, you're awake" he said happily a large grin covering his tanned and solid features and light reflecting off his hairless skull. He was wearing a soot covered smock over simple tan clothing.
"Who are you" Naruto asked scared by the unknown person.
The large man paused for a second before rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment "Sorry, my names Kotai. I found you passed out in the woods. I brought you back here. You've been asleep for two days."
Naruto stared at him in shock "Two days! Wow, those must have been really bad berries." He thought for a second "Wait, where is here?"
"You're in Sho village. As for what country, you're in Mountain Country." Kotai said happily.
"Mountain Country? Where is that, is it anywhere near Konoha."
"Konoha, as in the hidden village Konoha? No, Mountain Country is west of Earth Country. I was coming back from a village where I was getting some supplies when I found you."
"Oh," Naruto thought back to his treatment in Konoha "I'm not sure if I want to go back anyway."
Kotai looked at him sadly 'This kid obviously had some trouble before' "What's your name kid?"
He looked up at him "Uzumaki Naruto and I'm going to be the Hokage!" He said it so defiantly and with such vigor that Kotai couldn't help, but believe him.
"Being a Kage means you have to be really strong right?"
"Yeah, so?"
"Well, honestly, you don't look that strong?"
Naruto glared at him in annoyance "Fine, then I'll be the strongest ninja ever?"
Kotai just nodded "Well, feel free to stay as long as you like, you can even help me with my work."
Naruto looked at him surprise "What do you do?"
He smiled back "I'm a blacksmith."
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Naruto stumbled through the house before arriving at the store that made up the front of the house. "Hey you're up" Naruto looked over to the grinning form of Kotai relaxing at the counter.
"Yeah," He looked around the small shop "isn't this kind of small for a store."
"Well, Sho isn't a very big town. Not many people even know we're here. The village is built under a huge overhang" he said.
Naruto didn't respond, but instead continued to look among the various bits of armor, weaponry, and other metalwork that covered the walls. It reminded him of the various tools he had seen ninja in his village using 'I wanna be a ninja. But I can't go back to Konoha nobody liked me there' he thought back to when he was kidnapped 'not to mention that guy that kidnapped me, he had been wearing a Konoha headband. So does that mean that other ninja had been planning that? Did jiji know about it?'
Kotai watched Naruto walk back and forth between the shelves and the things hanging on the wall 'I should try to cheer him up' "I hope you don't mind staying in a small village like ours but everybody around here is really nice, probably because the village is so small. Everybody knows each other. Even if it is kind of isolated."
Naruto stopped "Small village…nice…isolated…THAT'S IT!" Naruto yelled excitedly surprising Kotai with his sudden outburst. This was the first time he had seen any sort of joy from Naruto.
"What's it?" He asked in confusion.
"I can still be a ninja; I just have to start my own village!" Naruto said excitedly.
Kotai just stared "Start your own village?"
"Yeah, Mountain Country doesn't have a ninja village right?"
"No."
"And this place is well hidden right?"
"Yes."
"So why don't we start a hidden village here?"
Kotai continued to stare, but then shook his head rapidly "Naruto, you can't just start a village. It has to be approved by the daimyo. Not to mention it actually has to have ninja in it!"
Naruto continued regardless of the warnings "But aren't there ninjas that don't have a village?"
"Yes, but those ninjas are often criminals. That's why they leave their village."
"Yeah, but not all of them can be bad" Naruto continued on with his rant "I just have to find the good ones and then I can get approval from the daimyo, then we just need to get missions and-"
Kotai grabbed him by the shoulders roughly "NARUTO! Think about this for a second. You are untrained. If you went out there now and found a missing-nin I can pretty much guarantee that you would be killed. I'm not gonna let you run off and do something stupid."
Naruto calmed down, but got a hard look in his eye "Fine then I'll get stronger. Give me two years. If I'm stronger by then you'll let me do it. If not then I'll forget about being a shinobi completely and even become you're apprentice blacksmith."
Kotai stared right back at him "If you work at my shop and train as a blacksmith, then I'll agree."
Naruto nodded and the two of them shook hands. Now Naruto just had to figure out how to train without killing himself.
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Naruto stared at the figure across from him. It stared right back. He hadn't called the figure out of his body since the first day out in the forest. He called it Iron Man for obvious reasons. It looked like it was a man made out of metal. It appeared to be wearing a sleek and shiny suit of armor. The head was similar to a Crusader's helmet (not that Naruto knew what that was) and glowing blue eyes shined through the holes in the front.
It felt strange controlling a body that was not his own. Not to mention controlling one that was so much faster and stronger than his own. The only problem is that it could only go about 5 meters away from him. Naruto recognized the problem with that almost immediately.
If it could only move so far away from him then everybody he fought would just need to stay out of his range to fight. That is why he was wearing weights made by Kotai on each of his wrists and his ankles. If he wasn't fast or strong like Iron Man then it he could end up getting his ass kicked by somebody who could hit him from a distance.
He began the routine he been doing since he had started training on the mountain. He weaved through the spires of rock, feeling the strain on all his muscles as he leapt and pulled his way up. It hurt, but it was the only way he was going to get stronger.
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"OUUUCCCHHHH!" He burned himself on the forge again. It was hard enough trying to learn how to be a blacksmith, but it was even harder when his muscles were numb from all the training he did.
Kotai just smirked off to the side as he continued to hammer away, while behind Naruto Iron Man snickered quietly into his hand. Naruto looked at him angrily "What the hell are you snicker at, and why are you even out? Kotai is gonna see you!" he whispered.
Said blacksmith just looked at Naruto in confusion. "Naruto who are you whispering too?"
Naruto stared back in equal confusion "You can't see him?"
"See who?"
Naruto looked from Iron Man to Kotai several times before a somewhat evil grin covered his face "he he, nobody."
Thoroughly freaked out, Kotai moved towards the door out of the forge with a scared-but-trying-to-look-casual look on his face "Yes, well, I am just gonna" he threw the door open "go out to inspect the wears and stuff." He was gone in a blur and the door slammed shut again.
After he was gone, Naruto turned to IM with joy evident on his face "You're invisible! That's great!" he yelled happily. Unfortunately his hammer slipped from his hands and smashed him on the head.
"Ahh stupid hammer" Naruto rubbed the bump on his head. He glared at the hammer, focused all his attention it 'Stupid, crappy, rusty hammer keeps hurting me.' He keep staring at in anger before, suddenly, it twitched.
'Huh' the hammer laid there as though nothing had happened. Again Naruto focused his attention on it and again it twitched "What the hell?"
Naruto looked to Iron Man floating calmly beside him. Its attention was too focused on the hammer, but he seemed to be radiating with energy directed at the hammer.
He looked back to the prone form of the hammer and focused as hard he could. Slowly the hammer began to rise. Naruto barely held in his excitement as he made it move left and right. "HAHA" Naruto grabbed as much as he could carry and ran out the door. Kotai called after him, but he was too excited. He had a new ability to experiment with.
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It wasn't long before he realized that it was only metal he could manipulate. He had accidently smacked himself in the face after throwing the hammer up in the air and trying to control it by the handle. He still had two black eyes.
Other than that his training was going well. He was learning to control multiple objects while moving through the mountain. The problem was that he had trouble using them to attack. He had tried pelting using shuriken and kunai to attack, but they usually either got embedded in whatever they hit or didn't penetrate at all and went flying away, causing him to lose control of it.
He was heading back to the forge when he found Kotai working diligently on some type of tube "What are you working on?"
Kotai looked up from his work "Special order, it's a barrel for a musket."
"Well, what does it do?"
"It doesn't do anything except for spinning the bullet" Kotai said calmly continuing to work on the barrel.
"Bullet?" Naruto asked confusion evident on his face.
Kotai sighed before reaching behind him and grabbing a small metal orb "This is a bullet. It travels down the barrel which has grooves in it that makes it spin around. When it spins it makes the bullet more stable and accurate."
Naruto stared at the small projectile "Spins?" Naruto was thinking to himself before his face brightened up immensely "Can I borrow a couple of those bullets?"
Kotai looked at him in confusion, but nodded "Hey sure."
He grabbed a handful and tossed them to Naruto who ran out intent on practicing his new technique.
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*CRACK CRACK CRACK*
Three bullets found there mark and each slammed into the rock, leaving inch deep marks surrounded by a spider web of cracks. Naruto cheered in delight. At first it had been difficult aiming while spinning the bullets at the same time, but he had gotten the hang of it after a while.
The one problem with his new technique was the lack of power. He had to get the bullets spinning incredible fast and they were so light that he had to hit directly. If he only glanced his target the rotation usually sent the bullet flying.
But it was good enough. It had been almost two years since he had been taken in by Kotai. Now 9 years old Naruto was taller and stronger then he had ever been. The weights and work at the forge had done their job. Naruto was lean with solid muscle. A loose black long sleeve shirt and dark grey pants helped blend into the mountain terrain. A loose grey cloak covered most of his body and his brown leather belt that held the pouch that contained his bullets. His heavy boots helped him grip the rough ground.
The plans for the hidden village were going even better. Kotai was right when he said everybody knew each other, because it wasn't long before everybody was brought into the plan. A near unanimous support was received. Kabemaru, the local architect and carpenter had drawn up plans for what the larger village would look like. Ryoko was a merchant who offered to get supplies. Furui was the town's leader and had set up a correspondence with the Daimyo immediately. Even the Daimyo had agreed with the idea, especially considering that there were so few ninja villages west of Earth Country. He agreed to begin funding the village as soon as Naruto provided teachers for anyone who wanted to become a shinobi. The Daimyo was even going to begin issuing decrees asking for people who to be a shinobi (or just needed a place to live) and then direct them towards the village. As long as Kotai gave him the go ahead Naruto could set out and begin recruiting for his new hidden village.
"I hope I've gotten strong enough" Naruto said calmly.
"Yeah, you have" Kotai said equally calm as he made his way up to where Naruto was standing.
Naruto jumped at the sight of him "How long have you been there."
Kotai rubbed his head sheepishly "Sorry, I was watching you practice. And you have defiantly gotten strong."
Naruto smiled brightly "So you'll me go on my trip."
The blacksmith sighed "Yeah I guess so" Naruto cheered triumphantly "and to commemorate that I made you something." He reached into the leather satchel he had brought with him "You know how you said that the bullets had no weight to them" he pulled out three metal spheres each just barely fitting into Naruto's palm "I think these should help."
Naruto took them gently and let a slight smile cover his face and said slowly "Thank you." He placed them into the satchel at his waist "Well I guess I better go get ready to leave." Naruto ran back down the mountain leaving Kotai standing there.
He sighed "That kid is gonna be the death of me, I know it."
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"Have you got your map?"
"Yes."
"Have you got your food?"
"Yes."
"Have you got a change of clothes?"
"Yes" Naruto said annoyed. Everybody had gathered to see him off, but they kept asking him about whether or not he had his supplies, and where he was going first, and when he was coming back. It was getting kind of irritating, but at the same time it felt great. It was the first time he had been acknowledged in a good way.
Furui clamped a withered, but powerful hand on Naruto's hand "Make sure to come back in good health Naruto."
Naruto just smirked back "Don't worry about it old man, I'll come in good shape and with some powerful shinobi at my back."
Naruto walked down the beaten path that led out of the village listening to the good-byes and cheers that made their way to his ears. He smiled. It felt good to be important.
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Wow, that was quick. Reviews would be appreciated. Up next is a new chapter of Living Weapon.
-Bemmybean
