A guiding Wind

As he walked through Qarth, the sun slowly starting its descent, his thoughts were on the events of the day. Naruto wasn't sure what to make of Quaithe.

She hadn't lied at least, not really, though the kind of word play she had used was sort of a lie too. In a weird way it was also more honest than just saying something that was false and claiming that it was true. Hiding your identity and name, he could sort of understand at least.

The illusion was more interesting anyway, well made and well applied as it was. He wasn't sure how much it changed, detecting illusions was always easier than seeing through them. The eyes most likely, maybe more underneath the mask, but he had not pried. Kakashi had been pretty particular about not showing his face and that had been at least half a joke, even if it had only infuriated him as a kid.

There was barely any chakra in it too. He had never taken a transformation to such extremes, so he wasn't sure if it was easy or not. He had never really used it non-stop for more than a few hours, but it didn't seem like Quaithe ever reapplied it. For all he knew it was there while she slept too. That must have taken a ton of training.

He had let her ask her questions and mostly answered them. The drink, the doors, and rooms and then the Undying with the beating heart floating above them. He had left out the visions or dreams or whatever they had been. Maybe he would have shared the first two, he wasn't really sure what they had been supposed to be anyway, but not the third.

Retelling that was just too much. Even thinking about it wasn't something he liked to do, mostly pushing it away whenever anything brought it to the forefront of his mind.

No, Naruto had let her ask her questions and then answered them. She hadn't seemed all that satisfied in the end, but she had left it at that, even if he could tell she wanted to know more.

When the time for his own questions had come, he had hesitated and then stayed silent. What did information matter to him? He had no home, no friends, no goals. Nothing. Not anymore. So he had left, telling her he needed a few hours, but that he would be back.

Against Pain he had been about to unleash the Kyuubi because he couldn't handle it. He hadn't known how to go on, what to do, how to deal with it. His father had saved him that time. Telling him how proud he was, of the decision he had made the day Naruto had been born, and that he couldn't give him the answers to his questions. Naruto had to find those for himself.

This time there was a no bubbling rage, no seal to be broken, no chakra-remnant left in his mind to talk him away from the metaphorical edge he had been standing on.

This time, he really was alone.

What did you do when there was nothing left except for memories? He had grown strong so that he could protect the people precious to him and now none of them were left.

He knew nothing but fighting, with kunai and chakra and fists. Had never even envisioned doing something else in his life. He'd go on missions and fight and then maybe one day he'd become Hokage, and he'd hand out missions and if something important happened, he'd fight too.

But there were no missions here. There was no Konoha, no Hokage, no Shinobi. Just a foreign world he didn't know.

For a few minutes he focused on nothing but walking. Putting one foot in front of the other. This day was as hot as all the other days he had experienced in Qarth, but with the sun sinking, it was no worse than a hot summer day in Konoha.

There were men and women walking beside him, children flitting between legs, and sometimes guards in their scaled armour coming through on camels. All of them just went about the rest of their day, some returning home, others buying a last few things.

They were just ordinary people, living their lives. Except for the Ichiraku's he had never really connected with civilians, his focus had always been on other Shinobi. Guards and sellswords were a little like Shinobi, they just couldn't use chakra. Quaithe was like that in a way too. She could definitely use chakra, but she didn't strike him as a fighter exactly, even if she did hide a dagger under her robes.

They were similar but not the same, and somehow that made all the difference.

But should it?

There had been Shinobi who didn't really fight, like that girl Shiho that had helped with decrypting Jiraiya's last message, and people like Guy and Lee that didn't or couldn't use chakra respectively.

"Arrg!" Naruto ran his hands through his dirty hair in frustration. This just wasn't working. He had never been the type to sit down and think things through like this. His best ideas came to him in the moment, when he stumbled on some spark of inspiration.

As far as he knew there were no training grounds in Qarth but he could really use some physical activity right about now. Maybe, that would help him.

Course of action clear, Naruto oriented himself. He had been aimlessly walking through the city and he didn't know Qarth all that well, mostly just the surroundings of the harbour. So, find the harbour and go from there.

He couldn't see anything he recognised and not everyone in the city spoke Yitish. The scraps of the local language he had picked up wouldn't really help him here.

Picking out one of the taller buildings in the vicinity, he got close and ducked into an alley close by. Then he started climbing, bounding up windowsills or cracks in the stone walls. The air at the top was clear and a slow wind blew, ruffling his clothes.

There was the harbour and there the outer wall and the surroundings lands. He decided on the north-east, in the direction of the Bone Mountains, where the ground was more hilly and uneven. It would be easier to find a secluded spot there, so that no one stumbled upon him and got hurt.

He jumped from roof to roof, clearing the city in scarce few minutes and he relished the familiar feeling. Maybe Qarth didn't look the same as Konoha but jumping over rooftops and seeing the people walking below still felt the same.

The day had grown darker, and no one accosted him on his way over the wall and into the desert. He had only a bit of water with him, but he didn't intend on completely exhausting himself anyway.

About half a mile from the city there was a spot that suited his needs, a small low valley hidden from view until you stood on top of the surrounding rocks.

There was no training dummy and the only vegetation that grew among the rock and sand were dry gnarly shrubs and little stunted trees but even without something to hit beside the ground he could practice.

For now, he moved through his taijutsu stances while battling imaginary opponents. Flowing from kicks into punches, palm strikes and hammer blows as the scenario in his head demanded. He skipped and jumped and ducked around the counter blows that would have come his way.

Without his shadow clones he had to minimize his time in the air. While you were falling you were exposed and normally without a means to move out of the way of anything. But jumps and spins still had their uses, so neglecting them was not a good idea.

Again and again, he went through his form. Haymakers, spinning kicks, knife-hand strikes, leg sweeps. The only thing he didn't practice were grapples and throws, those depended too much on having a weight resisting you and limbs to grab or bind, to really translate into this kind of training.

Almost two hours passed before he was satisfied. His brow was matted with sweat, and he could feel his heart beating like a hammer in his chest. Even if he could still keep going, the physical activity had served to clear his head a bit.

Now he could move onto other training. He had wasted away for a week, not doing much of anything, except for playing with the wind in a way he hadn't in the past.

He knew no Wind Style techniques, but he had mastered the elemental transformation for the Rasenshuriken just as he had learned shape transformation while getting a hang of the Rasengan. He'd have to rely on his own ideas and make up his own new techniques if he wanted to use that knowledge properly.

Naruto sat down cross-legged on a patch of slightly elevated stone and controlled his breathing. He focused on his chakra, how it flowed about his body, how it reacted to his breathing and how much of it he had access to. His mind had been on other things after the betrayal by the warlocks and his subsequent escape but now he was in a better state to realise what had changed.

Kurama was asleep again and he had had no success in waking the fox yet, but his chakra had strengthened, if only slightly. Shadow Clones were still beyond him, as was a Rasengan, but he could be a bit more liberal with reinforcing his body now. If he worked on his control, he could probably even walk on water for minutes at a time without completely squeezing himself dry.

But it also seemed like not a lot would change about that. He was still unsure why his chakra was acting this way, but that and the fact that Kurama was weakened in this world had to be connected. He had no idea how to go about finding out what exactly was causing it but there was no use in crying over it. That wouldn't stop him.

Even if he did know wind style techniques, he wasn't even sure if he was strong enough to use them. Wait. He did know one technique. Well, two really, but using Rasenshuriken was as far beyond him as using Sage Mode for now.

Palming a kunai, he held the weapon out in front of him. The blade was ordinary and not the special steel Asuna's blades had been made of, but this should still work.

He carefully grasped his chakra, about half of what he had access to, and imagined the energy forming two blades that rubbed against each other. Thinner and thinner he pushed them, until the razor edge that remained between them was sharp enough to cut through anything.

The kunai resisted the chakra more than he remembered from Asuna's blades but that was to be expected. He had used too much chakra, that much was obvious, but result was still the same. Extending about a foot from the point of the kunai was a pale blue blade of wind chakra.

If he found the sweet spot the blade would be invisible to the naked eye, cutting only with the force of the wind he had created, but that would take quite a bit of practice.

He remembered the feeling of the blade Asuna had generated that first time compared to his own first attempt at one. His current version was miles better than his own first try but there was still room for improvement.

Still, this was good. He knew very well how powerful concealing the exact length and width of your attack was, his Sage Mode allowed him to do the same thing for his hand-to-hand combat after all, and even if he just threw the weapon, a little bit of wind chakra would help in every way: range, speed, cutting power. He could empower shuriken in the same way, which may even be more useful.

Kunai were heavier and normally did more damage than the smaller throwing stars but they were also taking up more space and flew only on a straight path. A shuriken curved through the air, which could catch an opponent unaware if they weren't familiar with the little weapons, but they were actually more useful as a tool in combat, by denying space or forcing movements, than as a weapon meant to kill or significantly injure, against an armoured foe especially, even thrown with a shinobi's strength.

Coating a smaller edge in wind would also expend less chakra, allowing him to do it more often with his current capacity. In that regard arrows would be even better and those far out-ranged kunai and shuriken both.

The range of a bow would also bridge one of the few gaps in his current combat arsenal. Wind techniques generally favoured shorter ranges, out to about sixty feet at most, on account of the fact that you expended less chakra to move air over shorter distances, and he had always been the same way. Still, the advantage of fighting at range was apparent. Throwing his Rasenshuriken was one of the biggest advantages of his Sage Mode, even disregarding that it allowed him to avoid crippling his arm for days at a time.

But he had no ability with one, and neither teacher nor bow besides.

Naruto released the chakra blade with a small grin and put the kunai away, happy with his progress, nonetheless.

Now there was just one last thing to try.

He focused chakra in his hand and slowly moved it in a circle, the chain clinking softly. He wasn't looking for cutting winds right now, just movement in the air. There not even a breeze blowing in the valley at the moment but maybe that was good. If he could do it without there being any wind already there, it would be even easier if there was.

Grasping the air was no use, it would just scatter before you could get a good grip. You had to guide it along the path you wanted, funnel it towards your target. At least that had worked for him, when he had played with the wind while sitting on the dock.

The wind wanted to move and would do so at the slightest nudge, but it would not be controlled.

He felt the slight breeze he was generating, the wind following the movement of his hand. His chakra was a gentle touch in the air, so little that it was invisible. Small tendrils reaching out to guide the movement of the wind.

After a few minutes of generating a breeze, he felt his exhaustion more clearly. He had spent most of his chakra by now, only a trickle answering his call anymore, so he stopped, lowering his hand to his lap, and breathed out contently.

Maybe this situation was still shit. Maybe he still had no idea what he would do, but he'd go on. Naruto Uzumaki didn't give up. People had called him a knucklehead for years, with equal parts derision and affection. He didn't quit, ever.

He was sweaty and dirty and exhausted. His clothes were still ripped up and getting a bit small besides, he was hungry and thirsty by now, and he really needed to shave and get the chains off his wrists, but he had never felt better since getting to this world. He knew what questions he wanted to ask now.

Naruto stood and started walking towards the city, taking the slow way. If the gates were closed, he would have to climb the walls but that wasn't so difficult.

He still had the money for protecting the caravan on its way to Qarth. The amount he had was more than enough to buy undamaged clothes and a bed for the night. After he had cleaned up. A dip in the harbour would be enough for tonight.

There was a lot to do tomorrow. Getting his chain shirt patched, buying those clothes, getting a full meal. Afterwards he'd see Quaithe.

The blacksmith didn't understand his words but showing him the hole the arrow had left in the chain shirt made that unnecessary. The gruff young man easily accepted the silver piece Naruto handed him and went to work, a satisfied look on his face.

A silver coin was more than the repair was worth but if it got him his equipment back more quickly, he was happy to overpay.

He had slept for longer than usual and his first real attempt at shaving had taken far longer than necessary. Jiraiya had explained to him how to do it once, after Naruto had watched him do it, but doing turned out to be harder than knowing.

The small nicks the blade had made had already healed by now, but the sun was already high in the sky by the time he had finished, eaten something, and found his way back to the smithy. He had been here just before going to sleep yesterday, to snap the heavy steel shackles. He was strong enough to do it without tools but since he couldn't get both hands on one shackle getting the necessary grip on the steel was difficult.

The young man started his work and Naruto left. Walking around without the light armour felt weird after spending years wearing it but he could deal with that for a day.

The markets close to the harbour were his next stop, where stalls and shops held almost everything he could think to buy, even if his main interest were new clothes. His pants weren't in as bad shape as the jacket, but they were still ripped and in need of replacing. The sea spray that he had been exposed to while sitting on the docks had bleached some of the colour from the bottom and had made the material stiff and uncomfortable.

Naruto had never spent a lot of thought on clothing before, though even he knew that green spandex was a bit much, so the assortment of different colours, cuts, and materials was a bit overwhelming.

Without any real idea what he was doing, he went for something simple. Light, airy clothing in a light orange, almost yellow colour. The parts covering his upper arms and thighs were wider than those covering the lower limbs and the belt was a bit unfamiliar in its design, but he eventually got used to it.

Finding a replacement for his sandals wasn't as easy. Most footwear he could find were either leather boots or smaller slippers and the rest was something so close to either of the two that it didn't really matter.

When looking for an hour didn't turn up anything like his sandals, he settled for a pair of knee-high boots. He just hoped they would survive a few kicks before being damaged too badly.

His purchases handled, Naruto left the market in the direction of the harbour proper and Quaithe's home. Shopping wasn't exactly one of his favourite pastimes. The news shared in markets and between merchants and sailors held far more interest to him. What information he could gain by listening was limited, however. Not only did they have to be speaking Yitish for him to understand them, but he wasn't exactly well informed when it came to the current circumstances in this world. Who was notable, who was in power, how secure were alliances and positions? What positions even existed? He just didn't know, which made remembering the few tidbits he picked up difficult. Without context those tidbits were just facts, or more likely rumours and stories.

He supposed that was another thing Quaithe could be useful for.

The harbour of Qarth was vast and more than a hundred ships docked and set sail every day. Watching it all was quite interesting, just as it had been in Asabhad. Deckhands deftly tied the ships down with coils of rope as they pulled into the dock while dockworkers where usually already prepared and waiting to start the brisk process of unloading and then loading the ships again. The crews only left the deck for a few hours at most, sometimes not even that, before they set sail again to sell and buy different goods in ports all over the world.

On the outer edge of the harbour business was not so harshly regimented. The ships that docked there were usually manned or even owned by foreigners, who could not always rely on established trade deals or merchants already waiting to buy the expected goods and had to go out and find profitable deals themselves.

Konoha had no port itself but even he knew that most cities did have at least a river for barges close by. If you weren't a shinobi, travelling by ship was a lot faster over longer distances and definitely less exhausting. The trip to the Land of Lightning and his training with B had been done by ship even though they had all been shinobi and that distance was not as great as some of trade routes he had seen on maps here.

The people at the outer edge were as different from each other as they were from the people of Qarth. Some had skin as dark as ebony while others were heavy-set and thick in both chest and limbs with a heavy ridged brow. The clothes mirrored the people in their differences, some wearing long-flowing skirts in the style of Qarth while others wore only thin vests and pants of linen to cover their bodies.

Naruto turned away from his observation as he got close to Quaithe's house, already trying to word his questions in his head. He wasn't convinced that he could completely trust Quaithe but he didn't think her the type to betray him as the warlocks had done either.

He knocked on the heavy wooden door but there was no answer. More knocking did not summon Quaithe and neither did yelling. He couldn't hear anything through the door either, which probably meant she wasn't home at the moment. He stepped back from the door; his eyes raised to the second floor. There were windows there, but just jumping inside would be kind of rude, and he could always come back later, or even tomorrow.

It was unlikely that she had simply left the city even if the possibility was there. It had been obvious that she had wanted to know more from him and if she left, she couldn't find those things out.

When five more minutes of waiting did not reveal a lacquered mask, Naruto decided to leave. There was no point in standing around and waiting. It wasn't like he was under great time pressure.

He started walking, simply picking one of the directions he hadn't come from at random, and looked around, hoping that something would attract his attention. The streets were full of people at this hour and there were still hours left until it would sink below the horizon.

Once more Naruto wondered what he could do to pass the time besides training.

He had no great need for gold at the moment, his pay would still last him many days, and even if he did train there was only so much time he could spend on that with his current chakra supply. He had no friends to seek out or teammates and teachers to talk about new ideas for training to.

"Hey, kid!" The shout came from behind him. He stopped and turned, curious. He knew that voice and had understood the words for once, but no name came to mind.

Through the crowd of people came Yon, one of the guards that had come with him to Qarth, empty hand waving through the air. The other was thrown over the shoulder of his companion, one of the injured guards they had brought back to the city, the one with the dislocated shoulder.

That arm was still in a sling and the man looked happy enough though Naruto could not quite recall his name. Lin? Bon? He wasn't sure. Both of them were carrying wine skins and had obviously been enjoying themselves for some time already, judging by their slightly unbalanced steps.

Naruto felt slightly bad that he had not spared any of them a thought since getting to Qarth, not even those that had died against the Dothraki, but he had been thinking of more important things then.

"I see you have used your gold as well," Yon said, nodding towards Naruto's new garb with a grin on his slightly flushed face. Despite that, his speech was clear and showed no sign of intoxication. "Well, no matter. Come, drink with us," he beckoned, holding out his own supply of wine.

"Why not," Naruto accepted after a moment of thought. He could see no harm in a bit of drinking, and it would certainly help kill some time. He took a small swig and handed the skin back. The wine was too sweet for his taste, like many drinks in Qarth, but he could see the appeal, nonetheless.

Yon slung his other arm over Naruto's shoulders and steered all three of them through the streets with clear familiarity and minutes later he had his own wineskin in hand and was taking the occasional sip as they wound their way through the city to one of Yon's favourite drinking spots.

Once they reached the much-praised establishment, it was only a small out of the way bar. All the patrons inside carried weapons, both plain to see and hidden, and had the look of sellswords and guards, but the atmosphere was inviting enough. Not everyone spoke Yitish but a considerable few did and Yon, like others, could speak both it and the local tongue so he could translate if necessary.

Some people played at dice, a few coins exchanging hands now and then and curses being uttered with no real heat, while others told tall tales about this or that fight and that important escort.

After five wins in a row no one wanted to play Naruto anymore, so he left the betting and games to others with a slightly fatter purse and amused himself by listening to some of the stories being told. Most were proud tales of winning a fight against an opponent that would grow larger and stronger and quicker with each retelling, but after people had had more wine than was advisable, there were sadder tales too.

Of this or that lost comrade or friend and how they had been before dying, how much they had always boasted or japed or goaded before and after a fight, and now they couldn't anymore.

Naruto mostly listened, and like everyone else ignored a scant few tears when they came and went during a particularly sad tale.

Hours had passed and the sun had almost completely disappeared by the time Naruto told a story of his own. Maybe it was the mood or maybe the wine or something else, but he told it nonetheless. He didn't speak about Kakashi or Sakura or Granny Tsunade or even Sasuke. Doing that felt like a step too far, and they weren't dead, not really. He just couldn't see them ever again.

Instead, he spoke about the Third Hokage and eventually Jiraiya. He glossed over everything about chakra since it wouldn't make a lot of sense to any one there anyway but by the end his mouth was as dry as his second wineskin. He didn't really feel drunk, not in the way Jiraiya or Tsunade or Kakashi had ever described it anyway, but even he could tell that his reactions and senses were slightly dulled by the alcohol.

Naruto felt a little better afterwards, even if he had kind of lost track of time and completely forgotten about going to Quaithe today, and he left the little hovel with a subdued but happy smile.

Chapter 8 got finished pretty quickly again. Next chapter will be the end of Qarth for now.

I don't have a lot to say about this one. It serves mainly to illustrate how Naruto responds to the events of the last chapter and then how he adapts to his situation. It has always bothered me that the extent of Naruto using wind chakra has been his Rasengan, especially after seeing Danzo use Wind Style pretty effectively against Sasuke. If Danzo hadn't been made into such a caricature I think there would have been potential in having him teach Naruto, as a jaded mirror for loyalty to Konoha and doing what you believe is right. Unfortunately that never happened.

Because of that Naruto is pretty much on his own in figuring this out in this story.

As always, thanks for reading and reviewing. Until next time.