Fire Made Glass

Thunk

Closer to the target but still not a real hit.

Naruto grabbed another arrow, notched, drew, and loosed once more.

Thunk

The steel arrowhead impacted the butt a few inches to the left of the last one. A hit but a glancing one at best. At least he was getting better.

The motion was still foreign to him. Throwing kunai and shuriken was mostly an arm and wrist motion, especially if you didn't want to make it obvious that you were throwing, but a bow wasn't the same thing. Naruto could draw the heavy weight easily enough using just his arms, but he had already experienced the strain that produced after a day of practice.

Engaging his back muscles to support the draw limited that strain but was also something he wasn't as used to doing. He had learned to throw accurately while running, jumping, and fighting after hundreds of hours of practice. Now he had to force himself to stand still and remain in place. A well rooted stance made using his back easier and lessened the strain on his arms even further, and since he wasn't even hitting a lot like this trying to practice while in motion would probably end with him or someone else getting hit by a stray arrow sooner or later.

He loosed again and again, trying and mostly failing to get anywhere near the bullseye. He had only been practising for about a week now, but Naruto had naively hoped that getting good with a bow wouldn't take him very long. Some few arrows hit the centre, but when they did it was only good luck and not an indication of his ability.

The motion of using a bow was a welcome distraction despite his lack of skill. Most of his days started the same now. After grabbing something to eat he would oversee Quaithe in her practice and when she was too exhausted to continue, they would move on to his lessons in history and language or he would go out and train, either with his new bow or anything else.

After his own training in elemental transformation, it hadn't really set in just how long others would take to learn. Kakashi had said that it took most people years to master their affinity but with Shadow Clones, Naruto had done so in just a few days. Watching Quaithe make no real progress after two weeks of practice drove the point home. Leaf after leaf was left untouched and Naruto could tell that she was getting frustrated and distrusting of his ability as a teacher.

The second part was pretty understandable. Except for Konohamaru, he had never really successfully taught anything to anyone. It didn't help that he couldn't use fire in the way that he could wind. Jiraiya had used both fire and earth but had only ever taught him a very basic technique he could use to light a small fire with chakra. One jutsu using the element obviously wasn't comparable to mastering the elemental transformation itself, especially since Quaithe already had her own trick with fire.

Somehow, she could summon sparks from obsidian. He had never seen anyone do something like it. Shikamaru had told him about Asuma's use of his cigarettes for fire jutsu but that wasn't quite the same thing, or at least Naruto didn't think it was.

He hoped that it would mean faster training for her, for both of their sakes.

His last arrows buried in the target Naruto crossed the forty feet to the butt and started gathering them up again so that he could continue. Judging by the position of the sun he should head back after the next batch. If Quaithe felt up for it, she would have him oversee more training or they would move on to the next lessons.

His Westerosi was still horrible in her words, but it was at least coming along faster than his High Valyrian, though that was kind of his own fault. Motivating himself to learn the language when basically no one really spoke it any more was infinitely harder than doing so for the other topics he was studying under Quaithe. Naruto still tried to put in some effort, but he wouldn't be surprised if she stopped instructing him on it soon, unwilling to waste her time on a half-arsed attempt.

The history lessons had moved on to roughly the last hundred years, though their pace had slowed down considerably. There were multiple reasons for that. Quaithe had started exclusively instructing him in Westerosi or Valyrian, slowing him down since he had to carefully translate everything before he could even start deciphering the actual facts he was being presented. Then there was the fact that she had also started going into more detail, at least in part because the events were just more relevant to the present than most of the things that happened before but also because she was more familiar with the topics.

Sometimes it felt like she was telling him about things she had seen and interacted with and not something she had just read in a book or scroll somewhere.

That detail only added to his growing curiosity about her real identity. The illusion she used had been the first thing that had attracted his attention and the false name had only added to it, but the biggest push had come after the pirate attack on their voyage to Volantis. Naruto had been avoiding a precise inspection of her uncovered face in effort to allow her to preserve her privacy since she clearly didn't fully trust him.

Regardless of his intentions however he had gotten a glimpse beneath anyway. Forming a precise illusion like the one Quaithe used was difficult but not impossible. Taking care to allow for the eventual changes in the illusion was by far the harder part.

How did the illusion react to facial expressions, weather conditions, injuries, or a hundred other possibilities in thousands of possible combinations? Naruto wasn't even sure if crafting an illusion so elaborate that it could cover every possible situation was feasible. The one that Quaithe used was well-made and applied but the rain, lighting, the injury to her cheek and her frown at their slow progress had revealed a small glimpse of her real face. He hadn't been able to make out everything, the moment passed by too soon and he hadn't been expecting the change to happen, but some differences had been visible all the same.

The illusion obscured the shape of her real face slightly, changing the heart-shape to something more narrow, though that change was much more subtle than the difference in colouring. For a moment the brown in her hair had receded to reveal a silvery-blonde instead.

However even with that glimpse of her real appearance determining who she really was didn't become much easier. His gut was telling him that she was from Westeros from the way that she talked about the land's history but there were millions of people living there. Face-shape, hair colour and rough geographical origin weren't exactly a lot of clues.

All the other hints Naruto had weren't confirmed but that didn't discourage him. Jiraiya had been teaching him things about his own trade as a spy on their training trip and figuring out who people were was part of that. If Jiraiya had lived past Pain, Naruto may even have completely followed in his footsteps. Even he knew that the chance of him becoming Hokage in the immediate future was astronomically low.

The only thing making him hesitate in potentially starting a more direct investigation was that it seemed kind of rude towards Quaithe. While that was par for the course if you worked as a spy, you didn't usually do it towards people you genuinely considered your friends.

Man, something was definitely wrong with him. He was thinking way too much lately.

Naruto shook his head and took a deep breath, focusing on his arms and the bow. Two more arrows. For just a moment he stopped thinking about Quaithe and magic and history and this world. For a moment there was only the target.

The resistance of the bow and the feeling in his muscles as he drew were barely acknowledged. Naruto didn't think about his form as much, just doing what seemed best, and he didn't hold for more than a second. When you wanted to hit with a kunai or shuriken you didn't wait half a minute to aim, you just threw. He didn't know if that was right or not, if other people did the same thing while using a bow, but in that moment, he didn't care either.

The arrow flew, cutting through the air on its path to the target. The distance wasn't big, on account of his limited ability with the weapon, but in that moment, it wouldn't have mattered either way.

Thunk

This time the arrow buried into the target right where he wanted it, not even a finger's width between it and dead centre.

Abandoning the calm that had overcome him for the shot he couldn't stop a grin from spreading on his face. He could work with this. Taking the last arrow, he readied himself for the small experiment he had been thinking about back in Qarth. He hadn't done a lot of training with wind since Qarth, only practising his chakra blades a few times but this seemed as good an opportunity as any.

Channelling wind chakra through an arrow wasn't quite the same as doing so to a kunai or any other kind of knife. Excluding the steel head an arrow was wood, glue, and feathers. All in all, much more fragile than any blade. He would have to experiment with the process later but for this time Naruto simply channelled a small thin layer along the whole arrow, enveloping the projectile in an invisible film of chakra.

He drew on the string, bending the dragonbone until only the arrowhead stuck out in front. Even if the energy was invisible, he could feel the wind surrounding the arrow. Naruto noted the danger of cutting the arrow string should he stick with surrounding the whole arrow with wind chakra. It would only take a small misstep or moment of inattention for the weapon to become useless for a time.

This time there was no way he could avoid holding the bow at a full draw for a few seconds. Managing the amount of chakra and the sharpness of his wind quickly enough was currently beyond him, but he was confident that with a bit of practice he would be able to enhance an arrow as he was drawing back the string.

The idea of adding rotation to the wind jumped to the forefront of his mind but doing so now would only complicate something he wasn't all that good at yet. An arrow turned in flight normally but if he sped up the motion it could function like his Rasengan, drilling itself deeper into the target with the rotation.

Naruto tried to replicate the same state of mind from the last shot for this one, focusing on nothing but the target, but maintaining the wind chakra around the arrow demanded his constant attention even while he was still in physical contact with the projectile. Keeping a grip on the energy while the arrow was flying would be even more difficult.

He released the string. The difference was apparent immediately. The arrow was very clearly faster, and even though he lost his grasp on the wind chakra after the first few feet, the momentum still carried over, increasing the force of the impact.

Wood audibly splintered as the arrowhead buried into the straw halfway between centre and outer edge. Not a good hit, certainly much worse than his last one, but at least he had been on target.

Overall, he was very satisfied with today. He would need to experiment with using wind chakra on arrows at a later time but the potential of it was crystal clear.

Collecting his arrows, he started on the trip back, bouncing ideas around his head on how else he could employ his wind.

Quaithe relaxed her posture after her latest attempt, the concentrated frown leaving her unmasked face and the leaf in her hands smoking the tiniest bit. Naruto could see a small, blackened spot at one corner, where chakra had sparked for just one moment.

"Well done. What did you picture?" It was the first bit of real progress they had achieved but Naruto still remembered how the first step had been the hardest one for him. As soon as he had figured out what worked everything else had followed more quickly. Asuna's advice about how exactly to shape the wind had been invaluable for his progress.

"Dragons are fire made flesh, so much so that if you wound them, they bleed flame. I imagined the same thing. A drop of blood igniting into fire," Quaithe answered.

To Naruto that seemed like a weird approach, though he had no idea what other fire users imagined. He would have tried for the impact of steel on flint or embers quickening into flames with a breath, but in the end the only thing that mattered was that it had worked for her.

"Can you do it again?" He handed her another leaf, taking the one she had burned slightly in hand. He had been worried about this step taking months based on Kakashi's explanation during his own training but at the current pace he would have to come up with a good second step soon.

If only he wasn't so bad at doing that. Being asked to cut a waterfall had surprised him but in hindsight it made some amount of sense. Cutting something like a leaf was lot easier because you just had to overcome the resistance it presented once. With a waterfall new water was always moving and joining the process from above, so in addition to the chakra he expended to cut the water he had to use even more to push the "new" water up. Doing all of that took a lot of chakra being transformed into wind.

So, what was the equivalent to that for fire?

While he was occupied with his thoughts, Quaithe had taken the new leaf and enclosed it in her hands. From his position opposite her, he was close enough to feel the small surge of chakra announcing her attempt. The singular trail of smoke snaking its way from between her fingers made it apparent that she had been successful again.

The burned spot was no bigger than the last one, just one blackened outer edge, but it was more than enough to mark her progress.

Naruto nodded his head, satisfied.

"Now you just need to do it to the whole leaf."

Quaithe looked at him as if she thought he was an idiot, but she refrained from saying anything, only handing the leaf back to him. He didn't give her a new leaf for now. She had already been practising for an hour and doing much more than that would only mean completely exhausting her for the day.

After the last time both of them were wary of repeating a situation like that.

The leaves Quaithe had succeeded with were noticeably more dry than the others even if only a small part had actually burned. Naruto wondered whether the first step for elemental mastery was really equally difficult for every element. Leaves contained water, even if the exact amount wasn't always the same, but that definitely meant that burning them was harder than with a piece of paper, or even a dried leaf. Cutting them apart with wind on the other hand shouldn't really be much different for either one, or at least he couldn't think of any reason why it would be.

A dried leaf. Naruto felt like slapping his forehead. That would have made things a lot easier for Quaithe and doing the same with a non-dried one later would have been an excellent next step, increasing the difficulty slightly. He could still prepare a few for tomorrow, even if she had already gotten a hang of the exercise now.

"There is something I would like to try," Quaithe said, standing up. Naruto tracked her path to one of the chests containing her possessions and watched her rummage for a few moments before she produced what she had been looking for.

It was a black spire about the size of his hand, made to look like a candle, though it was very obviously not made of wax, its outline all sharp edges and lines. The material looked almost like glass and manufacturing the object must have been quite difficult. Naruto had never seen anything quite like it.

He leaned forward in interest, inspecting the candle more closely. It was weirdly shiny, almost like it was wet, but there was no moisture on it that he could see. He was also getting a weird feeling from it, not quite chakra or natural energy, but there was something there.

"What is it?" he asked, barely stopping himself from reaching out.

"A glass candle from Old Valyria." Tidbits from his lessons sprang to the forefront of his mind, underscoring the value of the object. Obsidian, not lit for over a hundred years, some kind of magical communication device of old that was impossible to make any more. Glass candles were apparently rare, expensive, and very sought-after. The question of how Quaithe had acquired one was just one of many he added to the mystery of her identity.

"I thought they don't work anymore," Naruto said, turning his eyes from the black candle. He supposed there was some value in keeping them as a piece of art or something but getting something so expensive if it didn't even work seemed kind of pointless.

"Normally they do not. Magic declined after the Doom, and without it the candles do not burn. Not without effort at least." She raised her hand above the top where in place of a wick the candle was simply twisted to a point, the sharp lines tapering inwards.

Before coming to this world, his only contact with obsidian had been academy lessons, he only half-remembered now. The Land of Fire had only very few active volcanos, and the material was so brittle that using it for weapons was pretty pointless, even if it had wickedly sharp edges. The Land of Earth had more of them but Naruto had never been there, so he was unsure whether or not they used obsidian to any degree.

Naruto wondered how exactly you worked obsidian. It looked kind of like glass and Quaithe said people sometimes called it dragon glass too but there must be some difference. Then again, he wasn't exactly caught up on the specifics of making glass either. The only part he really knew was that you used sand and then a lot of heat.

Quaithe had closed her eyes, concentration twisting her features, her hand still held above the candle. For a few minutes nothing happened, and her hand began to tremble slightly. Then, when Naruto was sure Quaithe was about to abandon the attempt at whatever she was trying to accomplish, something changed.

Slowly, so slowly that at first Naruto thought he was imagining it, a small light bloomed at the top. The light it bathed the room in was not natural and the effect made every hair on his neck stand on end. Shadows stretched and became blacker than night while the colours in the room became richer than they were just seconds ago. The pale green of the carpet seemed full of life and reminded him of the forests surroundings Konoha during summer, while the red lacquer of Quaithe's mask looked like a drop of blood in the snow next to the pale sandstone walls.

The same feeling that he had been getting from the candle had expanded outwards, enveloping the room and the both of them. Then it receded just as quickly and the flame burning above the candle flickered and guttered out as the room returned to normal.

"Interesting," Quaithe mused in the quiet that remained, lowering her hand from its position above the candle. Sweat was beading on her brow, but whether that was the result of the accumulated strain of the training beforehand or only the result of the lighting he could not tell.

"Did it work?" Naruto could not help the apprehension worming its way into his voice. Something about whatever had just happened disagreed with him and he wasn't even sure what that was.

"In some way, but it seems that the records underestimated just how difficult this was." She unconsciously worried her bottom lip between her teeth, which was a habit of hers Naruto thought much more fittingly ordinary than the appearance of her illusion. "Or I may have underestimated the ability of the ancient dragonlords significantly," she allowed eventually. Quaithe turned away and started making notes in one of her books.

Naruto wasn't entirely sure what she meant but then his education on the topic was not exactly comprehensive, covering broad trends instead of every little detail. He raised one hand closer to the tip of the candle on a vague suspicion, turning it so that first the palm faced the obsidian and then the back of his hand did.

It was noticeably warm but nowhere near what would be expected from an actual candle that had just burned. Despite that, the tip was deformed as if the obsidian had actually started to melt from the heat. There was no way any kind of glass should start deforming that quickly.

He narrowed his eyes. There was nothing else visibly abnormal about the candle but there had to be more to it than just forming obsidian correctly. Surely if that was the only problem there would be a ton of these all over the world. Naruto carefully ran one hand along the candle, hoping that touching it would somehow reveal its secrets but the only thing he gained was a very clear appreciation for just how sharp obsidian really was.

The candle flared, and the light in the room shifted to illuminate it strangely once more.

Reflex released the light grip he had on the candle and he instinctively stepped away. The candle continued to burn even without physical contact, a small line of blood left on one sharp edge along the body.

"What did you do?" Quaithe asked, her books and notes forgotten. She had obviously noticed that he wasn't currently close enough to light the candle.

"I cut myself." He held his hand out towards her, showing the lightly bleeding cut on the side of his index finger to her. She stepped close to the flame, intently inspecting the candle that burned without any prompting.

Seconds passed and the candle continued to burn.

Naruto felt his eyes being drawn to the flame itself, where he expected obsidian to once more start deforming. This time he could see no immediate change in the material. The longer he looked at the candle and the heart of the flame burning at its top the more a pressure started to develop in the back of his mind, as if something was trying to breach his skull, trying to invade his mind without his permission.

He did not like the feeling at all and yet averting his eyes took more effort than it should have.

Quaithe had raised her hand to the top and the flame seemingly winked out with only a thought, like all the air had been sucked away leaving nothing to fuel the burning. As soon the light changed back to normal the insistent sensation stopped and Naruto released a breath, he hadn't even realised he was holding. That had been far from pleasant.

"Very interesting."

Naruto decided he did not like the satisfied grin on her face, even if her focus was on the candle and not him.

More importantly the line of blood that he had left on the candle had disappeared, not even a drop left on the sharp obsidian edge that had cut his flesh. He had a lot of questions now.

"You know what just happened?" he asked, hoping for some kind of explanation. Blood being used for techniques he was familiar with; summoning, certain seals, even his own venture in producing a clone, but that was always with the intent of the user behind it. He definitely had not been trying to light the candle, he didn't even know how they worked in the first place.

"In truth the information I have on glass candles is sparse and rather vague. Most of it was lost with the Doom of Valyria and the rest is so scattered that searching for it is an exercise in futility. But this already tells me a lot. I will learn what I have to in time." Quaithe made another note in her book, recording whatever conclusion she had reached.

Naruto did not doubt her intelligence or dedication, but another idea was developing in his mind, one that made him grin for it's potential.

"Or we could find what you need in Valyria." He already knew how she would react even before she opened her mouth.

"That is insanity," Quaithe stated, plainly considering the exact level of his idiocy in her mind. Why was clear enough, the few things he knew about the current state of the empire's remains boiled down to: this place is dangerous, don't go there, and Quaithe no doubt knew exactly just how dangerous things could get there.

"Only if we do it unprepared." He had already decided, the only question was if he would do it alone.

Chapter 12 is finished and here I have number 10 for you. I hope you enjoyed.

There isn't much to say about this one. The first part is more of an update on what Naruto knows and can do/learns to do at the moment. (Disclaimer: While I'm not an archer, I have shot a bow years ago, and shot guns in the past. I am not claiming that what I am writing is the agreed upon wisdom in all circles when it comes to being accurate with any kind of ranged weapon.)

I think the idea of a trip to Valyria was kind of obvious but there is a lot of potential there. No, they will not find dragonbinder or any other dragonhorn. That would be lame. Quaithe's interest is decidedly academic, the making of valyrian steel and glass candles, the fire mages of the Freehold and their power, that sort of thing. Whether that is what they will find, only I know. Heh.

My version of the trip may bump into critique but the next chapter should clear up a lot of the thoughts I have on the actual dangers of the place. Whether you agree or disagree I will see then.

As per usual, thanks for reading, reviewing, and everything else. It helps me keep going at this pace. Until next time.