Chapter 9
Two months of boredom was the only thing Naruto could attribute to his Genin career.
D rank after D rank mission had worn him down to the point that he didn't even complain anymore.
'That's probably the point' he figured.
He had however met some very interesting characters during this time.
A couple of weeks after team Yamato's formation, two people had made themselves known to him. One had introduced himself as Jiraiya, who had claimed that he was a student of the Third. Sure enough, the Hokage had confirmed this.
The white maned old leach met with him on his day off, Sunday, to help tutor him in his unique brand of ninjutsu.
He had teased about teaching him more complex techniques in the future, but the blonde just couldn't get him to spill.
The other, was a woman called Tsunade, who as he learned quickly would unlike Jiraiya, not take any jests about her age, even if they were technically true.
She had stated that she would be instructing him in the finer arts of a shinobi, as well as a couple of essential extras, such as how to eat without spraying ramen broth over his friends, much to his embarrassment.
To do this however, she had staked a claim in HIS house, along with her apprentice, Shizune, who had a much cooler temperament.
The pig Tonton that they brought with them however, Naruto had no idea how to react when it was first introduced, but he secretly always wanted a pet. A pig certainly wasn't what he had in mind, but it would do.
All of this got Naruto thinking about himself and his relationship with the two women, 'does that make Tsunade my…guardian?'.
He considered all of the goings on with a smile on his whiskered face, he was rapidly gaining friends as of late, it felt nice.
Shikamaru sat cross-legged before a shogi board, opposite him, sat his father Shikaku.
"I am glad to see you are doing well Shika" Shikaku smirked.
His son simply grunted in response.
Shikaku frowned.
As a clan, the Nara where often classed as lazy, but grunting was an Uchiha response, back when they were commonplace at least.
"You been making progress with your team then?" he enquired.
His son nodded, making his next move on the board before he spoke, "We are going out again tonight, it's troublesome, but it's kind of fun. Even though he can't talk, Naruto is always so damn active, I'm not scared to admit it, but he is slowly rubbing off on me…who knows, I might even start wearing orange like he used to".
Shikaku laughed, "Oh, so that's the reason you actually asked me for training, rather than me asking you, I thought that was strange".
Shikamaru nodded and made another move before standing, making his way to the door "I win".
Shikaku assessed the board quickly and gave a curt nod, "Well done, have a nice night" he called out the still open door "But if you think I'll let you ware orange, your wrong!".
Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke had all met up at Ichiraku's as usual, the trio's idea of going out together often with rotating buyers from the academy, was still very much a thing.
Since joining team Yamato, Shikamaru and sometimes even Yamato himself would be regulars to what was essentially a noodle-binge.
Today was just such a day.
Shikamaru had never seen Yamato off duty before these gatherings, and it helped break the ice between them, even though Yamato was about as informal as you could get at the best of times.
The lack of a forehead protector on Yamato allowed his clearly unruly brown hair to splay out in all directions, 'kind of like Naruto's' thought the Nara.
He sat beside Shikamaru on the row of stool-chairs that were lined up facing against the bar, and tapped a rhythmic beat into the woodwork with his chopsticks in anticipation.
"S-Sensei, you are supposed to wait until the food gets here before separating them…" muttered Hinata.
He simply shrugged and tapped her forehead with one of them, "Old habits die hard I guess, when you stop for breaks on long missions, and you don't get long to cram something in before you have to move on again".
Hinata nodded, "I-I guess I can understand that".
Naruto finished writing something out and tapped on the wood calling for attention, and handing the paper to Shikamaru with a grin.
The Nara immediately sighed, "Troublesome, how dome I am your own personal narrator now?".
Naruto just stuck his tongue out.
Many times in that last month, Naruto would just hand a card over to him, expecting him to read it aloud.
Of course, he would read it, not wanting to hurt his mute team mate, but he couldn't help but feel slightly overworked.
Yamato spoke up, "I told you Shikamaru, you have a good voice, you shouldn't flaunt your gifts, you should share it with us all!" he wafted his hand with exaggeration.
The Nara glared at his team leader, "Troublesome, stow it sensei"
Yamato just laughed.
Shikamaru cleared his throat, and began to read Naruto's story.
Flashback start
Naruto had just finished his training for the day with team Yamato, when the Hokage approached him with a smile.
"Ah my boy, I was hoping to catch you here".
The boy raised a quizzical eyebrow and presented his reply, 'Oh, okay. What did you need old man?'.
The third gestured for Naruto to follow him, and they made idle chatter as he lead the blonde to the destination.
They stopped outside a shop labelled Kuro Meitō (Black Famed Blade), which was chiselled into a stone slab, which had been riveted beside the door.
"Here we are" announced the Hokage, as a girl with her hair in buns came out of the door.
"Oh!" she started "L-Lord Hokage, what can I do for you".
The Third smiled warmly, "Ah, Tenten. I have an appointment with your father, he is around isn't he?"
Tenten nodded, "Of course, he is just by the forge in back. Head on in and I'll send him around".
The Hokage bowed his head, "Thank you my girl".
Tenten lead the two through the door to the smithy shop, and fetched her father for the fire shadow.
The interior was very simplistic, yet cosy. Naruto noted that there was certainly an excess of candles dotted about the shop.
That wasn't what was most interesting to the boy however, there where racks upon racks of swords. Katana, wakizashi, tanto all lined up in order of size.
As Naruto daydreamed about becoming a master samurai, the Hokage approached the counter, a large, burly looking man with close cropped white hair and a blacksmiths apron came through the beaded doorway from the back, a toothy grin standing out on his stubbleless face.
"Hiruzen!" the blacksmith yelled, "It's great to see you again, you here about your latest and strangest order?"
The Hokage nodded, adorning a smile of his own.
"Indeed, Jodan. I hope you are prepared, nothing normal seems good enough for Naruto boy".
The two laughed in unison, and Naruto turned at the sound of his own name. 'Hm?'.
"Well, you see" answered the Third, "Considering how well you did in both your academy exams" he smirked "The practical ones at least, I thought I might treat you to something, and given how you where drooling over those weapons over there, I'd wager I made a good judgement".
The boy paused and slowly, like a clockwork soldier, a manic grin stretched across his face as he began to vibrate hyperactively.
'You mean I get to...pick?'
The Hokage rolled his eyes, and began to tap out his pipe that had been lit since they rounded the corner to the shop.
Don't get ahead of yourself now my boy, my friend here will be giving you a rundown of each of the weapons, which you can then try out at the back of the shop. Remember, you get one weapon, make sure that it is the right one for you".
Naruto lost none of the glint in his eye, as the burly blacksmith gave him an introduction to the weapons of a ninja.
Three hours and numerous weapons later, they where no closer to identifying Narutos 'spirit weapon'.
The Hokage had stood to the side to discuss some of the more, exotic choices, while Naruto thought long and hard.
'I don't understand, how can I not be suitable for ALL of these...'.
He tapped his chin for a moment, then all of a sudden, an idea came to him that, at the time seemed entirely plausible.
He stood stock still and concentrated. He reached out, passing through his mind all the details of the weapons he had handled.
Harder, firmer, he gripped something tightly with his mind.
Suddenly a girl yelled out, and a crash sounded from the back room, and Naruto jumped a mile and quickly ran to the source.
"Tenten!" called Jodan"Are you alright girl?!".
He burst into the back after Naruto, and clothes-lined himself on a sword that was sticking out of the door.
"W-What the?" said the confused father, less concerned with the nasty bang he sustained to his own head.
Finding the rest of the room empty, he looked towards his daughter on the floor.
"Um" she shrugged "Well, I was moving towards the door when that huge hunk of new metal from the stone just...took shape and flew into the door!".
They all heard a rustling and all turned to see a very sheepish Naruto, who held up a small note simply saying 'Whoops...'.
The Hokage sighed, "Of course, you tried moving the swords with your bloodline didn't you. Did you forget they were all affixed to the wall?"
Hiruzen let out a sigh, "I swear, do you every pay attention to your surroundings, honestly..." he was smiling as he said it, but Naruto got the message, 'bloodline bad, brain good', or as best Narutos brain could work during the embarrassment.
The professor's mind immediately started to whizz, "Just how much of that metal do you have?"
Jodan thought intently, "Too much, at least four times the amount the boy almost skewered my girl with".
Naruto's head dropped.
"Hmm" the Hokage laced his hands behind his back "I'll take the lot, how much do you need for it?".
"Hah!" laughed Jodan"I can't even smith the stuff anyway, it shifts too much, almost like trying to hold water on your finger".
He scratched his head, "I'll tell you what, I'll give you the lot for free, and when I get another shipment in, I'll send for you boy. See if we can't work out the secrets of forging the stuff together eh', what do you say?" he held his hand out, which Naruto took in his own, giving a thumbs up with the other.
"I look forward to working with you Naruto Uzumaki" and the blacksmith let out a belly shaking laugh.
Flashback start
Shikamaru lowered the parchment and raised an eyebrow.
"So where is the metal...weapon...thing, I assume that's what you want to show us?".
Naruto swirled around, and pointed with his thumb to his back.
Held in place with a brown leather strap, was a large metal sheet that was around two inches thick and a foot wide and a metre long. It was impossibly dark for, what could be assumed was a slab of processed obsidian coloured metal.
"Well then" cut in Sasuke, let's see what you can do with it then".
Naruto Uzumaki, had never been more ready.
He took a deep breath, and splayed his arms out, the metal trickled off the strap, almost as if it was water.
This brought a few 'wows' from the 'audience'.
"It's so...pretty" whispered Hinata who, upon realising that she had spoken it aloud went beet red and tried to hide in her coat.
Naruto continued regardless, although he was looking a bit more maroon than usual.
He scrunched his hand together, and condensed the metal into a ball, moving his hands together slowly and with a bit of straining, he spaced his fingers apart and moved his hands together. As they touched the metal changed, squashing with only the slightest of noises into a glistening metallic disk.
Naruto took a second to catch his breath, beads of sweat rolled off his forehead.
He took everyone by surprise when he lunged forward with his hand outstretched, and the metal gravitated to his hand and took the shape of a poor quality tanto.
Sasuke grinned, "Impressive, but do you think you could make an 'actual' weapon?"
Naruto frowned, and the metal lost hits form, floating above him.
Slowly, the metal split off into a string of smaller pieces and took the form of kanji, 'Let's see you do this pretty boy!'.
The constructs where wobbly and they only remained in that form as long as it took to read them, before they all merged together again and clanked to the ground, waiting for Naruto to pick it up again.
Immediately he staggered forwards, managing to catch himself before he fell, holding his knees and hunched over, he took deep sucks of air.
Yamato frowned, "We all realise how 'cool' your new trick is Naruto. Don't strain yourself" he spoke worriedly.
Naruto nodded in agreement and made his way back to the bar, where he ordered several more bowls of his favourite meal.