The Wrought Iron Ninja

by KingK41TO

In one universe, the story of the tragic hero EMIYA began with his sense of self being reset in a great fire. The man he would've been ceased to exist, and in it's place rose a sword destined to be broken under the weight of his own ideals. In this universe, we follow the story of a boy who was prevented from ever developing a true sense of self. A boy who was born broken.

4. Chapter 4

The key to a developing personality, is memory. The events that a person experiences and the memories they acquire shapes how a person responds to the next event. For example, if a person wanders into a random house and experiences a negative response, such as shouting, aggression, physical confrontation, etc. then they will be less likely to enter the next house that they come across. The same premise applies for the opposite, a positive response will result in a person being more likely to perform a given action until they receive sufficient experience, both positive and negative, to actually understand the situation. Whereupon, the subject may then make an informed decision on whether to perform said action or not. Memory is the key to understanding, both for the world and oneself. However, it also creates problems if the subject is not exposed to differing responses, as without expansive data then the subject cannot create an understanding of their own. It is quite easy for someone to teach a child to associate a bad action with a positive response. This world does it quite frequently.

But, Dear Reader, there is one memory that is most important. A single memory that each subject will experience at some point in their juvenile stages. A Core Memory. The Original Bias. A single event so important to the individual that it single handedly changes the way the subject will think for the rest of their life. A single memory so intrinsically linked to who the subject is, that it influences their response to not only similar events, like normal memories do, but all events that the subject will experience going forward. It is not always the first memory that a person experiences that becomes a Core Memory, usually such influential events happen sometime between the ages of 4 and 10. Sometimes, and quite paradoxically, these Core Events don't get recorded to memory at all. They change a person intrinsically for the remainder of their life and yet, the subject may never remember it. Curious, no?

As time progressed, those first few weeks with two newborns turning into months with toddlers, into years with children, Minato and his wife Kushina realized their children were different. For little Yui, it was to be expected. With her housing the Kyuubi's Chakra, they were anticipating her having significantly more energy than even another Uzumaki, let alone an ordinary child. But, when it came to Naruto, that was where they were uneasy.

Little Naruto acted normal at first, crying and sleeping away his early years as expected of a newborn. But, as they grew older, and Yui started to develop the first embers of a personality, Naruto didn't. While Yui cried for her parents in the frightening night, Naruto slept soundly. When Yui asked for her mother to make her favorite food, Naruto simply ate whatever was available. When Minato and Kushina said they would start training them for the academy, Yui rejoiced and rendered the sun jealous of her bright smile. While Naruto simply accepted and returned to his books. It was like there was nothing there, that Naruto was simply a shell walking through the motions of growing and learning. Until one fateful day, when the young family went on a day trip to a weapons shop to acquire some practice weapons for the children's training.

It was a warm, spring day in Konoha. The populace was enamored with the unusual sight of their Hokage walking down the main street with his family. They had seen the family before, but only on special occasions were they all together in public. Usually Minato was at the tower performing his duties, Kushina was at home cleaning, or little Yui was spending the day under the care of a family friend. However, on this day Minato decided that with how well the kids' training had been going they should make it a special occasion, the kids were getting their first weapons today. The family made idle chatter with each other while walking, sometimes waving to those they knew as they passed by, until they made it to an unnamed weapons shop.

As the family entered, Kushina and Yui went off to the side to look at child sized practice weapons, where Yui asked if she could do her hair with the smooth Senbon Needles on display instead of the rough wooden hair pins she had in her long red hair. Kushina looked thrilled at the idea and decided to match her daughter. Minato walked to the counter to inform the worker to put all the family's purchases that day on his tab. During all of these events, a steady, rhythmic bang was resounding from a side door, just loud enough to be heard. A sound that Naruto decided to investigate.

Upon opening the door, the first thing one would notice was the wave of heat emanating from the room, the next was the increased volume of the bangs. Despite this, Naruto continued onward, and discovered a forge with a large hairy man pounding a hammer into a still red hot strip of iron. The man looked up, stared directly at the small boy who wandered into his domain, and spoke only once, "A Good Man, is as Steel: Hardy, Reliable, Sharp, and with a Will that is tempered through Persistence, in Fire and Oil. Are you a good man, child?" His words were accentuated with the sounds of his craft, and in the depths of Naruto's Soul, a memory of Steel and Fire was born.

It was then that little 7-year old Naruto finally obtained his first Core Memory, and the Kyuubi resting within his soul was briefly awakened by the heat of a forge, and the sound of steel pounding against steel. A sensation that it would become intimately familiar with soon enough.