In Konoha's infirmary, Max was sleeping comfortably in one the rooms. He now had a big cast in his right arm, meaning that he had already gotten treated by the medical staff.
Raido was guarding him outside his room since Max had asked for some privacy some time ago. Raido didn't complained about it since he could see that Max wasn't going to try to escape or anything while he was there.
'Konoha, huh? Such a big village. Having so much activity around me will be a pain for some time.'
Max had started to think of how his life is going to be in the village already. Even if there were a lot of things that stranded out for him when he got here, he could feel that staying won't be that bad.
"Also, there are some many strong people here. Maybe I'll use two or three of them as goals to reach when I begin my training.'
He felt a fire growing on him and unconsciously reached to grab his sword. The moment that he touched the sword he remembers to he had to do something first, before thinking of training.
'I need to make new weapons for myself. Now that I got used to the first phase of mastery of the book, I need better weapons to fully show it.
I hope that the hokage isn't cheap and don't even know were I could get the materials for them.'
Max sighed as he looked at the status of his sword. He had already gotten rid of the katana since it broke, and the sword was on its way to do the same.
As Max was contemplating about his weapons, he heard new movement making its way towards his room.
It didn't take long for him to see the old man that he had just met in the office.
"I heard that you'll only need a couple of days of rest to recover. Great experts we have in the village, right?"
"It was very strange, you guys use chakra in such a weird way. Even though I could get the advantages of those 'jutsus', I think that I prefer the basics over them." Max replayed to the Hokage.
The Hokage only smirked when he heard Max said that. He remembered that Kakashi told him that he got tricked with a simple substitution, so he knew that Max was just trying to downplay his lost.
Max could read what the Hokage was thinking but he decided to ignore it. Max knew that he didn't know the extent of the jutsu practiced in the village, but at the same time he felt that he could do much more following his way.
"So, what do you think? This village is amazing, right?" The Hokage gloated a little when he said that. Showing off the village was one of the things that he felt proud of.
"A little overwhelming but amazing no the less. Still miss the quiet though, I hope that you guys have sectors like that in here." Max said.
"Too many if you ask me." The Hokage said as he remembered some of the hidden zones of the village. "So, have you decided?"
"More or less. Still need to get some answers before completely committing. My life stile could be a little demanding." Max said as he looked straight in the eye at the Hokage. "I know that you are curious, so just ask. Telling you about it won't affect the answer of me staying or not."
"Usually people are very stubborn with their secrets. Having too many people knowing them could be even dangerous." The Hokage said as he looked at Max.
"That guy? Maybe. But I don't think that what I am is that curious of a thing. You guys have things like the Sharingan and such. That is something that could amaze anyone." Max said as he remembered the eyes of Sasuke and Kakashi.
"Not that common as you think. Only Sasuke and Kakashi can use eyes like that, so we have only them for now." The Hokage said as he remembered something that pained him.
'For now?' Max thought of what he had heard.
"Anyway, let's get to the point." The Hokage took out a pipe from his robes and lit it. As he exhaled smoke, he looked at Max. "Samurai tend to stay in the Land of Iron since they decided to not mind the conflict of ninjas. They are also very strict in their ways, so you been one of them and living outside is impossible.
I also know the one leading the samurai at the moment. He's not someone that would ignore a branch of them living in the outside.
What I'm saying is that I know that you are not a Samurai. Kakashi told me about the spar that you guys had, which is one of the reasons that I believe that you are not one of them."
"Like I said, I'm just a crafter. I really need to get to know the samurai you guys talk so much about. Raido had the same notion as he asked me lot of things about them." Max said as he took a moment to complain about Raido.
Outside the room, Raido almost stumbled as he heard Max complaining.
"Don't mind him. Most of the ninja in our world don't get to meet a samurai, and even some of them don't even know of their existence." The Hokage said with a quick laugh. "Kakashi also reported to me some information about your life in the Land of Waves. Such a reclusive family is hard to see in such a small village.
Even thought most of the villagers knew about you, the life of Rex is another thing. The other villagers left him alone mostly because he worked as the village's blacksmith after moving there. Such professional is hard to dismissed when they ask for a place to stay."
"I heard that crafters tend to stay in a village of their own. Takumi village I believe it was." Max said as he remembered something he had heard a long time ago.
"They were the pioneers of the ninja tools of war. The potential of the crafters was something out of this world. Sadly, their potential got drown by the demand which prompted other villages to continue developing weapons on their own. If they had time and resources, no one could fathom at what highs could they bring the weapons that they make." The hokage said as he remembered the status of Takumi village at the moment. "I'm surprised that you know something like that. Why didn't you moved to Takumi village instead?"
"My circumstances don't allow me to participate in other people craft stations. From what I read, the blades that I make only goes as far as the mastery I get on them." Max said as he took the sword by his side and showed it to the Hokage. "Weapons like this can only be used for so long. I need to replace them as their get damage easily with use."
The Hokage took the sword out of Max hand with his approval. As the Hokage examined the sword he could only sigh and shook his head.
The sword had already some cracks on the base of it, the Hokage could imagine that with a couple of crashes with something hard would do the trick and break it.
"Still, I can see that you are only in the beginnings of mastery on your profession. Couldn't you make stronger weapons as your mastery increases?" The Hokage asked.
Max heard this and sigh. "This is something that I only found out just hours ago, which could complicate things." Max said and looked at the sword in the hand of the Hokage. "At least for you guys.
Try to channel chakra to the sword. Have in mind that its on its last leg, so only a little of it."
The Hokage frowned but still attempt it.
A couple of seconds passed after the Hokage closed his eyes to feel the transmission of his chakra to the sword. As the seconds passed, the face of the Hokage changed. After he had a full frown, chakra could be seen entering the sword.
Max expected this and nodded. "Like you see, there is a certain level of control that one needs to have before attempting to use one of my weapons. The level of control that the medical staff have here should be the start at least."
The Hokage could only frown at the thought of it. Not anyone could be a medical ninja. It takes a lot of training and talent to become one, so just imagining they having to train as medics and practicing using weapons like this gave the Hokage a headache.
For ninja, chakra was the main source for their survival. If he had to choose, he would have the medical ninja in his group conserve chakra before using a weapon like this.
"I know what you are thinking old man. It's crazy to have every ninja have such mastery. This is something that even this Devil had problems with. Thankfully my profession gives me an edge when channeling chakra to the blades.
I can only wait until my chakra control reaches such heights to start contemplating attaching more properties to my blades." Max said as he nodded and contemplated.
The Hokage on the other hand stood still on place as he processed what he heard. "Your profession?"
Max's mind came back when he heard the Hokage speak. "Of course, only the person that makes the blade can fully master it. Only someone that knows centimeter by centimeter of the blade can find ways to bypass some of the problems of the channeling of chakra.
When I saw how easily you got your chakra to pass to the sword, I was really impressed. Nothing short for the leader of such fine village."
The Hokage finally got a glimpse of the abilities of Max, but he also got a glimpse of how far they need to reach to equip every ninja with this level of weapon.
"Then, you wont mind sharing the method of creating weapons like this, right? Also, we would need to see your training method and techniques that you can do." The Hokage spoke about the real reason that he was there for.
Every village have their own jutsus and secrets, so it was hard for them to get their hands-on new ones. Since they have never seen techniques like the ones that Max uses, the Hokage knew that getting them would be in their interest.
'It's best for me to get them and share them to the elders, then for something to happen to Max. At best, he gets killed and robbed. At worst, someone like Orochimaru finds him.' The Hokage thought.
Max on the other hand sighed. He knew that something like that could happen when he was making his way towards the village. The way of the ninjas was very different to his way.
"You see that bag on the table? Inside there are two books. One is them is about the weaponry and crafting, the other one is about techniques and meditation."
"Huh?" The Hokage was taken back of how casual Max was been, but still proceeded to do as he said.
"Don't make that face. If you knew what truly happened to my 'family', you would do the same or even worst to those books in my place." Max said as he saw the books that the Hokage was taking out. "You can take them with you if you want. The words in those books are practically scared in my mind. I only have those books with me since I wanted to do something with them when I finally find Rex."
The Hokage felt some hate in the words that Max had spoken. He wasn't a stranger to the hate that people could have towards one another, but it wasn't his place to comment on it.
'At least that hate isn't something big, compared to the one that some of the villagers have towards Naruto. And the one Sasuke has towards-huh?' The Hokage thought and got interrupted in his mind.
The Hokage took one of the books and showed it to Max.
"'The Way of the Bladesmith' is the book that has the techniques and meditations skills that I practice. I know that 'Bladesmith' don't sound as something that could describe my profession as I tend to fight more than crafting, that is way I don't call myself that when people ask." Max said as he was a little embarrassed with that name.
"Not that. 'The Way of the Blacksmith'? Is that what is written in this book's cover?" The Hokage asked as he looked at the cover but couldn't relate those words to what was written in the cover.
"What is written?" Max said as he got confused. After a couple of second of thinking he finally said. "I know that the common language here is Japanese, but haven't you guys heard of English before?"