The desert…
It was a place you either really loved or just straight up hated with every fiber of your being. There wasn't really an in-between when it came to this place, and for Naruto he was of the opinion of the latter.
It had been several days since he had left Konoha for greener pastures, which made him chuckle to think about since he left an actual green area since there was forests and trees there and here he was in the fucking desert. Within his first day after leaving his former prison, he found his way by pure luck towards a small town. It was the kind of place that was there so that merchants and travelers had a place to eat and sleep for the night. Luckily it had a place that sold clothes, and since he took the money that was in his home, which while it was quite a bit it was nowhere near the full amount that was located within two separate banks, he had the funds to purchase some new clothes that were his size. It wasn't much, but he bought darker clothes along with a cloak to cover his head. And while it helped to blend in so as to not be noticed as he traveled towards his destination, right now it was only making the already unbearable heat even more so since dark colors attract heat.
He had a map so he knew he was going in the right direction to where he wanted to go, as well as had plenty of provisions such as water that he purchased and threw into his Inventory to store for later. He could have gone around this desert, but the quickest way to any set destination is a straight line and unfortunately that meant passing through it other than going around.
It had been a full day and a half, and he was hating every moment of this. But eventually he saw what at a distance seemed to be a small town, but the closer he got he saw that it was in fact a large village surrounded by a massive wall. He checked his map and could see that he had made his way to Suna of all places. It was hard to tell he was coming towards this place since he had no landmarks to see while traveling. But now that he found himself in a shinobi village of all places, with it being one of the major five, this presented a good opportunity to acquire more proper gear before he set out further along his journey.
The guards at the gate let him through since he was a kid. What could a kid really do? If only they knew just who they let in…
But once inside, Naruto asked for directions to a few places to gather the things he would need. The first place he went to was a shinobi attire store. There he got his measurements done and custom ordered proper clothes that he would use. He got himself some clothes that he used to wear back when he was Sung Jinwoo, when he went to fight the ants at Jeju Islands. It was comfortable as well as functional along with a hood which helped to hide his face when he needed to do so.
Once he put in his order and paid for it, he was told it would take a few days to make his clothes. He then went to a store that specializes in selling raw material for whatever you might need to build. In this case what Naruto needed was Chakra metal, and a lot of it since he was planning to make something with it. While the metal was expensive given the rarity of it, he was more than capable of paying for it, although it did drain him of most of his money that he had on hand. Then he went to get more provisions to replenish what he had lost while walking here, and then once he had all of that done he went to the first restaurant he had ever gone to. Sure there was the ramen stand, but that wasn't a restaurant like this one was. No one here threatened him, sold him garbage that was barely edible in any way, or beat him within an inch of his life before throwing him out. He ordered what looked good on the menu and ate it with gusto with a Kami given smile on his face.
Once he was done eating and he paid the bill, he then began to walk around since now that he had nothing left on his list of things to gather, he didn't really know exactly what to do. He was new here so he had no idea what to do in this village. But as he walked about aimlessly, he did notice that a lot of people were giving space to a random young boy of all things. It was strange to see this, but it took Naruto a few seconds only to figure out why this was the case. The people of his own village had gone out of their way to do the same, with the only ones to approach him being the various people who wanted to hurt him. He saw the young red headed boy with eyes that showed he had not slept in so long. It was strange seeing this from a third party perspective. So with nothing else to do, Naruto decided to follow the boy discreetly so as to strike up a conversation. It isn't everyday that you meet someone who shares your burden, even more so when that burden includes a massive demon being sealed inside you.
So for the next hour or two, Naruto followed this young boy, and he saw the kid go through a lot of what he did with the isolation, yet no one was trying to attack him in any way. It actually seemed like the people were afraid of the kid for some reason, which was the complete opposite of Naruto's childhood as a Jinchurriki. Man, if only the people of Konoha had feared him like this… it would have made his life so much easier. True he would be alone and live in essentially isolation, but given either it would have been that or the horrific life he was forced to actually live he would have taken the loneliness anyday.
The boy had finally made his way to a playground on the edge of the village near the massive wall that protected this place. There were kids and their parents there, but the second he showed up the parents all took their kids and left the area. Seeing as he was alone, it seemed like the perfect time to talk with him in Naruto's mind.
"Hello there," said Naruto in a friendly manner as he walked towards the red haired child. But he wasn't able to say anything else since the kid, without even looking at him, launched a tendril of sand at him. Naruto held up his hand and used wind magic to stop the sand short of reaching him in a manner that it dispersed away from him like a barrier was there in front of him. This actually caught the boy's attention since now he actually looked at him, and boy the anger in his eyes said a lot on the matter.
"You will not kill me," was all the kid said before he launched even more sand towards Naruto. Naruto raised an eyebrow since that statement came straight out of left field since he had not come here to kill anyone. But now was not the time to think about it, now was the time to protect himself from harm. The boy did see that his first attack had failed to produce a corpse so he sent even more tendrils of sand at Naruto. Naruto could only sigh at this since it was kind of stupid in his mind, since all he did was expand the wind he was using so as to protect a wider area from the sand.
"If launching sand at me didn't work the first time," said Naruto in a voice that basically said 'hey stupid' with its tone, "why would you possibly think that throwing more would do any better?"
The boy did not respond with words, but he did growl as he lifted his hands above his head. Naruto felt the ground beneath him tremble and knew he had to move. So using the wind he was using to block the now dispersed sand that was sent his way before, he launched forward faster than the boy could react to and punched him square in the face with enough force to not only knock him out cold, but launched him back quite a bit as he landed on his back.
"Oh crap," said Naruto to himself as he saw what he had done fully. He had been going on instinct and had not meant to really hit the guy that hard. "Please tell me I didn't just kill him."
Naruto ran over to the young boy's side to ensure that he was okay. He had no intention to kill the guy, just get him to stop trying to kill him. Naruto kneeled down to see if the boy was still breathing, which thankfully he was. But before Naruto could do anything else to help the boy, he felt a sudden influx of power surge out of the kid, knocking him back a bit. Naruto saw as the sand in the immediate area began to swirl around the young boy, taking the form of some sort of what he was guessing was a raccoon of some sort, yet only half of one since it covered only half his body. And it was off putting since it wasn't exactly one side fully covered, but bits and pieces of it that equaled half of it. Naruto didn't know if he had some sort of OCD or the like but this weirded him out a bit.
"Of course," said Naruto to himself with a sigh as he took in all that had just happened, "he was possessed just like me. Why didn't I see this coming?"
Naruto saw the boy/monster hybrid look at him with eyes that only showed insane amounts of rage. It then threw out its hands toward him and blasted a literal wave of sand at him this time.
"Again with the fucking sand!" shouted Naruto, who at this point was sick of the sand. Apparently walking through a literal desert of the stuff wasn't enough for him to suffer through, now he had some sort of sand demon possessed boy throwing more of it at him. He knew he needed to dodge the sandy tidal wave coming at him and thankfully he had the means to. He ran towards the merry-go-round that was about a few yards away from him and kicked the bottom upwards so that it was uprooted from its part that made it spin in place. He then held it with both hands and felt as the sand hit it full blast with enough strength to force him to skid back several yards himself, yet other than that he was unharmed. Thankfully his training had given him enough strength to hold on.
The second he no longer felt the sand being sent his way, he placed his hands flat onto the metal surface of his makeshift shield. Once firmly in place he used the magical electricity he was capable of using to keep them firmly in place before blasting a massive burst of wind behind him, thus sending the large metallic disk towards his opponent with him on it. As he expected, the boy with the demonic power he currently possessed used some means to deflect the projectile by launching it upwards somehow, which was what Naruto was hoping for. The boy didn't know he was now above him since he was scanning everywhere but upwards. As soon as he was at a proper angle, Naruto kicked off the destroyed Merry go round and launched himself at his opponent full speed that was enhanced by a blast of wind.
Naruto's plan was to grab the boy by the head and shock him enough to knock him out, but what happened was not something he expected in the slightest. Apparently whatever seals or chakra technique that kept the demon sealed within the boy was no match for Naruto's magical power since instead of grabbing the boy's head, he literally ripped the head of the very demon the boy was possessed by and ripped it out. The demon screamed in pain since its head had literally been ripped from its host, but Naruto was only shocked for a split second before he continued on with his initial plan to force his opponent into submission through makeshift electro therapy. So with a full charge of lighting magic, Naruto held the demon's head down and pulsed it into said demon's head. The demon screeched to the point that it popped Naruto's eardrums from being right next to it, but it mattered little since this pain paled in comparison to the numerous tortures he had faced in the past.
Naruto didn't let up until the creature now longer screeched, and remained silent. It took less than a minute, but in the end the demon was for lack of a better terminology, brain dead. Naruto began to breathe heavily since the amount of energy he had to use to defeat this thing drained him. It only went to show that even though he had been training for so long he still had a long way to go before he could regain his full strength like he had in his past life.
Since the demon was defeated and the immediate threat stopped, Naruto did look back to see how the boy was doing. He was surprised to see the boy slowly walking towards him like some sort of zombie with his hand outstretched towards him. He never fully made it though since he fell face first onto the ground with his arm still outstretched in his general direction. Naruto saw as the head of the demon shifted into sand, and said stream of sand flowed back towards the boy he had ripped it from. Naruto braced himself for more of a fight, but nothing else happened.
Naruto knew that if he stayed here, that would lead to a lot of problems if the events he had to go through were proof enough, so he hastily left the immediate area and headed towards an inn that he had been planning to stay at this entire time while here. Once he was in his room after paying for it, he pulled out a glass bottle from his Inventory that was filled with a red liquid and grabbed the cork keeping it sealed inside the glass container before chugging said liquid down. He felt as his eardrums healed themselves back to their pristine condition and then sighed in happiness.
During his training deep within the Forest of Death, he had had an epiphany of sorts. In his past life he had used the system to buy his health and mana potions, but there was that one moment that he used it to craft an elixir to cure his mother of the comatose state she had been stuck in for years. While it seemed like the system had been responsible, it did occur to him that he was able to still use the Inventory even when the system was no longer a thing when he had fully accepted Ashborne's power as his own and became the new Shadow Monarch. This had made him wonder if he actually had the ability to brew potions on his own. So he had searched for the proper ingredients, and low and behold he had been able to make them. This had been a massive boon to his full recovery from the scrawny weakling he had been months ago to the more muscular boy he was now. So many times he broke a hand or a leg while pushing his body far beyond its limits and so he would then chug a health potion and he was good to go after a few minutes.
As Naruto rested in his room for the night, the boy whom he had beaten father arrived with more than a dozen of his most elite shinobi. The man had felt when his son unleashed the demon inside him and had quickly gotten the proper people to counter the threat, but to his surprise what he found was his son knocked out on the ground. This shocked him since the demon always took control whenever his son rested in any manner, so why it wasn't right now was nothing short of a mystery. So the boy's father had his men take his son to the hospital to be examined fully.
Over the next several hours, the man would get reports that only stumped him the more he heard. Apparently something, or more possibly someone, had managed to stop the demon from taking control of its vessel when he fell asleep. He had no idea as to how this was and he ordered his men to look deeper into this, but all they could find out about it was that the demon was for all purposes brain dead and as such was unable to take control anymore. The father was honestly pleased by this bit of news since it meant his son would no longer be able to go on a sudden rampage due to the demon's insanity. But he wanted his men to continue to look into this since he wanted to be perfectly sure that his son was stable in the end.
For several days Naruto remained within the village to rest up as well as wait for his clothes to be made before he continued to trek through the desert towards his main destination. And the day he finally packed up to leave, the boy was discharged from the hospital as well. During his semi-comatose state, the memories of his fight with the strange boy at the playground kept going through his mind. It was because of that stranger that he was now able to actually sleep, and dear Kami did he need it since insomnia had begun to set in and it was affecting his mind in a very negative way. What he wanted most of all was to find the boy and thank him for this gift, and it was by pure chance that he saw Naruto walking through the wall that protected Suna as he headed out.
The boy saw this and then began to chase after him. The guards had tried to stop him since he was still the son of their leader, but the boy used his sand to sink them up to their chests so they could not hinder him. The boy did eventually meet up with Naruto, who was a very fast walker. He got Naruto's attention by calling out to him.
"Huh?" said Naruto in confusion since he didn't know he was being followed by someone like this. "Oh… it's you. So how are you doing?"
"Very well," said the boy with his arms crossed, "I wanted to meet you in person so as to thank you and I am lucky that I saw you as you were leaving."
"Why would you thank me? I knocked you out, and last time I checked people didn't thank others for that."
"I am not sure on how you did what you did, or even what it was that you did but whatever it was you did it quieted the voice in my head that kept me awake."
"Ah…" said Naruto in understanding since now the pieces were coming together in his mind. "Well I am glad that I was able to help."
"You don't seem to understand the depths of my thanks," said the boy, "the thing that whispered to me was driving me crazy. It told me to kill everyone and everything around me and without sleep I was slowly starting to listen to it. No one would be friends with me because of this. My own brother and sister avoided me because I was turning into a monster. You saved me much more than you know."
"Well what can I say," said Naruto with a smile since he was genuinely happy that he was able to help someone who suffered in a way that was similar to him in the past. He held out his hand towards the boy to shake. "What are friends for…?" He left that last bit open so the boy could say his own name.
"Friends huh?" asked the boy with a smile of his own as he grabbed ahold of Naruto's hand and shook it. "I would like that very much. My name is Gaara. Can I have the name of my first friend?"
"Me?" said Naruto with a goofy grin, "I am Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze. Well while it was nice to meet you formerly Gaara, I have somewhere I need to go. But if I ever find myself in Suna again, I'll make sure to drop by and say hi."
Naruto then began to walk away from the village once more as he had been in the first place before Gaara stopped him. As he did, Gaara stood there and watched his only friend walk away and wondered just when their paths would cross once more. But there was one thing that was negging him as he stood there. The names 'Uzumaki' as well as 'Namikaze'... He could have sworn he had heard those family names before, but for the life of him he couldn't remember where he had. So he turned back towards the village to go and ask his father…
It would be years before the both of these Jinchuuriki would cross paths once more, but even though time would pass by, the friendship they formed in that one meeting would last a lifetime…
(Weeks later - Iron Country)
A lone man, tall but a bit overweight, stood at the edge of the field he had just finished tilling. It was getting to the point of time in the season when farmers would plant seeds into the soil so he had loosened the ground so as to do so. He leaned on his hoe and took a swig from his canteen to cool down. He swallowed the last of the water that was inside it, and he knew he would need more so he decided to take a break from farming and go to get more from his house. So he planted his tool into the ground so he knew where to walk back to and began to walk towards his house.
He whistled a tune to himself as he walked, and as he did he remembered the simpler times when his family was still there for him. The memories made him a bit sad inside, but he shoved that sadness down as he got closer to his home. That didn't really work since the memories of his family started to become more real in his mind to the point that he saw his wife and son running around the place as they did what they usually did. But those were just hallucinations of the past, and they weren't really there anymore.
He walked past a separate building that was in the backyard of his house, a forge he used to work in for years until he hung up his hammer for good. But as he walked past it, he could still hear the panging of metal as he remembered vividly how he used to forge blades in the past. But he was no longer a blacksmith, he was a farmer now…
He walked around his house to get to the front door and saw a young man in black clothes sitting on his porch, and that surprised him a bit since he didn't really ever get visitors here. It was actually nice since he didn't really like to deal with people in general. He did see that the boy was drawing something on a scroll, but what it was he did not know.
"Hello there young man," said the farmer as he got closer towards his porch, "can I help you? Are you lost?"
"No, I'm not lost," said the boy as he rolled up the scroll, "but you can still help me though."
"And how can I do that?" asked the farmer with a raised eyebrow. The kid's response put him a bit on edge.
"You are Muramasa Sengo?" asked the boy, "or do I have the wrong house?"
"Indeed I am," said the now named Muramasa, "but that still doesn't explain how I can help you."
"I have heard from many that you are one of the best blacksmiths around," said the kid simply, "and so I sought you out to forge me a weapon."
"Ha!" Laughed Muramasa since he actually found that statement funny, "if you know about me already then you would also know about my 'cursed' blades."
"The same so-called 'cursed' blades that are said to curse the wielder to a horrific death in battle? I have heard about that and to be perfectly honest that type of death would be perfect for me."
"Well I am sorry kid," said Muramasa in a more serious tone of voice, "but I am no longer a blacksmith. I am a farmer now."
"I call bullshit."
That random response caught Muramasa completely off guard since that was the last thing he expected the kid to say to him.
"I saw how you reacted as you walked by your forge, and just from a third party observation I can tell that you still yearn to forge weapons as you did in your past."
"You think you know so much about me don't you brat?" asked Muramasa in a bit of an angry tone.
"I know what I saw," said the kid with a smirk, "and I know what I hear. And from what I heard from various sources you are a man who always settles his debts no matter the cost."
"Indeed I do," said Muramasa, who was now confused again. He thought hard about who he owed a debt to and as far as he knew he never owed a kid a favor or any sort of debt. So why would this brat bring it up now? "But what does that have to do with anything?"
"Simply because I think we can help one another here," said the kid with a grin, one that Muramasa had only ever seen once in his entire life. The memory of a teenage red haired girl came to his mind, but for what reason he had no idea. "You get to break whatever oath you made to never forge again and I get a weapon you promised my family years ago."
"Your family?" Asked Muramasa, who was now even more confused. But that confusion only turned to straight up shock when the kid pulled out a metallic token that he used his fingers to flip towards him. Muramasa caught it and looked at it briefly. He recognized it immediately. In all of his life, he had only ever made the one token as a means to remember a promise he made to a young woman years ago.
"I see that you recognize your handiwork?"
"For the love of Kami," said Muramasa with a genuine laugh, "I should have known you were related to Kushina of all people from your smirk. It is so similar that it is a bit disturbing to see."
"You knew my mother?" asked the kid.
"I knew her a bit, but not enough to tell others about her. All I can say is that she is one hell of a kunoichi, and she saved my life years ago. But after that day, I never saw her again and I wondered why. To think that she would send her son to claim the promise I made…"
"My mother didn't send me," said the boy with a shake of his head.
"Elaborate," said Muramasa as he looked at the boy with an analytical gaze of sorts. This had become a puzzle of sorts and he needed the gaps filled to understand it fully.
"She has been dead for the past 8 years," said Naruto sadly since it was still a tender subject to mention to just about anyone. He never got to know her and it was an emotional scar that he was not sure how long it would take to overcome.
"Oh…" said Muramasa in a concerned tone of voice. He knew that he needed to tread carefully so as to not make this depressing moment even worse for the kid. "But… 8 years? How old are you?"
"I'm 8." Said Naruto simply.
"So what you are saying…"
"Is that my mother died the day I was born," said Naruto who wanted to get past this subject. "So I never got the chance to know her in any sort of manner."
"Sorry for your loss." Said Muramasa, "but if I might ask, who is your father?"
"Minato Namikaze."
"Min… Mina… Minato Namikaze?" Stuttered Muramasa in shock since he was not expecting that. Most people had heard of how the man had won the Third Shinobi war, so to see the flesh and blood son of a man with such a reputation was not what he was expecting to see. Last time he had heard, the man had died protecting his home village and so he didn't even know the man had a wife and child. But then that just brought up another question that he wanted answered.
"Why would the son of the Fourth Hokage be all the way out here in Iron Country of all places? This country is not the most hospitable to shinobi of any kind."
"I am here seeking a weapon to defend me from whatever the world could throw at me," said Naruto seriously, "and given the crap I have had to deal with it only made me more prepared for it than any other eight year old should be."
"There is a story there," said Muramasa with a raised eyebrow since he was genuinely curious as to what said story was. "Care to elaborate?"
"Jinchuuriki."
That one word caused Muramasa's eyes to open wide in disbelief. While it was hard enough to comprehend that the son of such an infamous shinobi was standing here in front of him, to hear that said child was also a Jinchuuriki of all things was only added to the shock of it all. He had personally heard such horrific tales of what happens to the various vessels in their villages. The hatred, the torture, and the truly pure inhumane things they did to them. If even a miniscule fraction of the things he heard turned out to be a reality, he couldn't hold it against the kid to flee his home like he clearly had.
"Well that explains… well pretty much everything when you think about it really." Said Muramasa as he stroked his chin in thought.
"And the kicker to the whole situation?" Stated Naruto with a chuckle, "was that the higher ups straight up lied to my face about who my parents were so it was only by pure chance that I learned the truth and left after I saw just how far they went to try and control me like they did."
"So the rumors that I had heard about how people treated Jinchuuriki?"
"I am not sure what rumors you might have heard, but I can assure you that I went through nothing short of pure hell every single day while people laughed at my misery. My pain as well as my screams were a sick twisted game for them since they would see just who could make me scream the loudest. There was no future in that place other than to live as a literal stress doll so I left to find a better life elsewhere."
"And that led you all the way here of all places?"
"Well you are one of if not the best blacksmith around as I had read my mother wrote in her journal."
"She actually wrote that?" asked Muramasa who was beaming with pride as he heard that. It was always nice to hear a compliment from time to time.
"Indeed she did," said Naruto, who was 100% lying right now. Other than being called an infamous blacksmith with apparent curses to his works, there was no mention of the man other than the token being a promise of getting a weapon forged by the man later in life that his mother had never been able to cash in. But he knew that he needed to butter this man up a bit by stroking his ego to get him to break whatever oath he made so as to not forge weapons anymore. "So will you prove my mother's words as true and fulfill your promise?"
"Well…" said Muramasa as he looked at his left hand in deep thought. This had been his dominant hand he used when he forged so it was like the memories of the past work he did lived on in his one appendage. "I can't really go back on my own word now can I? So I'll forge you your weapon kid. But what type of weapon is it that you want?"
Naruto smirked as he tossed Muramasa the scroll he had been doodling in when he had appeared at his front porch. He opened it up to see what the kid had been drawing and had to admit the kid knew how to draw fairly detailed art. If being a shinobi didn't pan out for him, then with this much talent he could make a living as an artist somewhere.
What Muramasa was looking at was the design to the set of daggers he wanted forged. The memory of all the sets he used in his past life came to him, and while initially the strongest set known as Kamish's Wrath came to mind, but to be honest he didn't like the design. While living as a hunter it made sense to use them since their magical abilities helped immensely. But in a world like this one where there were no magical weapons, or at the least none like he had used in the past, they weren't really practical since their design was not really concealable or stealthy like he was.
No… the blades he wanted forged was none other than a non-magical replica of his set of Demon King's Daggers…
It fit the situation well enough in his mind. All his life he had been called a demon due to the Biju sealed within him, who itself was the strongest of them all which made it akin to a king of sorts. Since Naruto had absorbed the beast when he had unleashed his sealed power, this seemed like the perfect set to use given his absorbed power.
"This is a rather unique design," said Muramasa as he looked at the drawing.
"Can you make it though?" asked Naruto with genuine curiosity.
"With enough time I can make anything," said Muramasa, "but the issue is that I lack the proper metals to forge these weapons for you."
"I had a feeling that would be the case," said Naruto with a chuckle. He then summoned the numerous ingots of Chakra metal that he had bought back in Suna. Muramasa would have asked where the hell he had pulled the metal out from, but given shinobi were able to store various things in scrolls and the like this was not all that surprising.
"Seems like you came prepared," said Muramasa with a smirk, "well it is a good thing that you did or otherwise this would take longer. But if I am going to break my oath to fulfill my obligation, then I am going to need you to tend to my fields while I work."
"So essentially I have become free labor?" asked Naruto with a raised eyebrow.
"Well if that is how you want to see it…"
"Well I have no problems with that. It's not like I have anywhere set in mind as to where I am going after this so I have nothing but time."
"Well then this will work out fine. You are more than welcome to stay here in one of the spare rooms I have until I finish my work… Well sweet Kami. All this time we have talked and never once have I asked for your name. Where are my manners?"
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki," said Naruto as he stood up. Muramasa was opening the door for him to enter so he would walk inside as he was invited to do.
"Well it is nice to meet you, Naruto. If you are anything like your mother was that day I met her, you have such a bright future ahead of you."
"What exactly happened that day that you met my mother?" asked Naruto. The old blacksmith had mentioned that event a few times and he was genuinely curious as to what had happened given it led to said man giving his mother a token to cash in for a personally made weapon.
"Well let me brew some tea and I'll tell you…"
(1 week later)
For the past week, both Naruto and Muramasa had been happily doing their own work, with Naruto tending the fields for the older man while Muramasa spent his entire day forging the weapon that Naruto wanted him to make. The design that Naruto had given him was fairly detailed so he wanted to get it perfect since it was his way to do so as a blacksmith. But as they were doing their own things, in the distance a certain someone was approaching the house…
And this certain someone was nothing but trouble…
But let us go back, many years ago, to explain why this person was trouble…
Muramasa had a son… or rather he hasa son, but he is one the elderly blacksmith has all but forsaken for what he had done in the past. While the elderly man had questioned his life to understand where he went wrong in raising his son, it only became clear that his son was evil from the get go and while he had tried to help it was all for naught.
Years ago, when his son, who was named Hikoshiro, was born, Muramasa had been overjoyed to have a son to teach the family trade to like his father had done for him. He was there every day of the boy's life to love and hold him along with his wife. He saw the spark in his son's eyes as he showed him what it was that he did, and he knew his son would be a great blacksmith like he was.
Oh how time changed that…
In the past, Muramasa had his forge as well as his home in the main village of Iron Country. He was well respected there given the quality of his blades made him well known to all who came to get one forged by him. Even with the supposed curse that went along with them, people still wanted him to forge blades for them. But as his son grew up, he began to explore the village as a whole instead of hanging around the house and watching his dad. This is where the problems began.
Even within Iron Village, there were those who came from money who were not only arrogant, but were utter assholes to everyone because they had money and they saw everyone else as inferior. There was one man in particular who hated Muramasa entirely for stupid reasons. The man was no warrior in any sense of the word yet he wanted a blade forged by him. Muramasa forged blades only for warriors since his blades were meant to be used for defense, not to be some decoration piece in some rich bastard's home or to be carried only for show like this rich prick wanted. He tried every nasty trick in the book he could to try and get Muramasa to cave in and make him the blade he wanted, but it didn't work since he was too well liked by too many people so he couldn't go that route. So he went another way…
He used his son to bully Hikoshiro, and over time his son dwindled down Hikoshiro's mentality to the point he started to believe that money was everything. This caused problems between him and his father given that now Hikoshiro didn't want to be a blacksmith like his father since he wanted to get rich so as to be as he claimed 'somebody'. This pissed off Muramasa immensely as he wanted to know why his son had become like this. So using the connections he had, as well as plenty of favors he was owed, he not only found out it was that rich asshole that corrupted his son into this form of thinking, he also used said connections to destroy the man's family business as well as family itself. The rich prick was left without a single thing to his name as his wife took everything when she left him for his brother. He later died trying to rob someone out of desperation since he was stabbed by his attempted victim. Muramasa then moved his family to the farmhouse outside of the main village to get his son away from any future source of corruption.
But even though the source of the corruption that plagued his son's mind was gone, the corruption was still there. Far too deep to get it out…
It was years later, when Hikoshiro was 15 years old that he did something that caused his own father to disown him…
The Fire Daimyo had come to Iron Country for whatever reason, which Muramasa was not privy to since he was not a higher up he was just a blacksmith. The man had a thing for fancy swords like so many rich people before him and he visited Muramasa so as to ask for the man to make one for him. Muramasa had refused like he did with every other rich asshole who only wanted one made as a decoration, and told the man this. The Fire Daimyo was pissed that Muramasa wouldn't forge him a blade, but then he saw one that was hung above the door that led to the forge. He asked to buy that one since it was such a beautiful blade, and since it was already made Muramasa didn't have to forge him one.
Muramasa grew angry that this man had even asked to buy his family heirloom. That blade was one that the first of his family to become a blacksmith, which then became the family trade, had made. Thousands upon thousands of failures to finally complete the only blade he ever perfected, and it had been the final blade he had made since he died soon after its completion. His son had stated that it was now a family heirloom and made sure that those who came after kept it sharpened as well as properly took care of it for generations. Seven hundred years that blade had been in the family with the head of the family taking perfect care of it. It was to this day as pristine as the moment it was first forged.
The Fire Daimyo offered such a large price for the blade, which Hikoshiro overheard as it was offered and came up with a plan to get rich quick. But by this point Muramasa had enough of the Fire Daimyo and demanded he leave. The man growled in anger as he did, but knew he would get that blade one way or another.
Several days after that altercation, Muramasa was greeted by the corpse of a man when he entered his forge. The reason behind this was that there was a simple seal on the blade that activated a well hidden spike trap if you were to grab it. No one knew it was there other than his family since it was so well hidden, and so by this point Muramasa knew he needed to stash his family's heirloom away so as to not get it stolen.
About half a year later, Hikoshiro had found just where his father had stashed the blade. He had been told to work in the fields as a farmer so as to eliminate the whole money means you are better than everyone else mentality, but that was not really working and his lust for money had not diminished since he was younger. So what he did was sneak into his parent's room late at night when his father was still working on a blade for someone and his mother was bathing. He opened up the safe that he had spied on his father to know the combination to and took the blade out. From there he went to his room and packed some supplies and clothes. He knew his father would know he was the one to steal the family heirloom so he knew he would have to leave when he did this.
So after his parents went to bed, he picked up his stuff and began to leave. At least his parent's should have been asleep, but his father was just getting back after finishing the blade he was forging. He saw his son with all his stuff packed up and immediately knew what was happening, which angered him since if his son was old enough to believe he was ready for the world, he could have at least been man enough to tell his parents to their faces. But while this was the case Muramasa was going to let his son go out and do his own thing, but before he could at least tell his son that he wished him good luck in any of his future endeavors, that was the moment that he noticed the blade his son was trying to hide. Swords were not really something that one can conceal in any sort of knapsack or bag, and even with it being wrapped Muramasa was well aware of what a wrapped sword looks like. This made him question where he got it since Muramasa never made him one, and there was only one sword in the house other than the one he had just ma…
His eyes opened in shock before they slitted in rage. He demanded that Hikoshiro give him the blade now, but he refused, saying that the blade was his birthright. Muramasa rushed forward, and after a bit of a struggle which showed that even older he was stronger than his son, he took the blade back from him. Hikoshiro grew enraged that his means to a lot of money was just taken from him and so in his rage he charged forward to try and get it back. Muramasa was able to dodge since it was obvious what his son was doing and so he could do so. So the issue here wasn't his son…
The issue here was that was the exact moment his wife, Hikoshiro's mother, came out of their bedroom. Hikoshiro couldn't stop in time to not slam right into his own mother. The impact sent her backwards and to make matters worse she fell backwards towards the stairs leading downstairs. Both Muramasa and his son could only stare in horror as she fell down the stairs, halfway down they heard a sickening crack that was the moment her neck snapped. Her body hit the bottom of the stairs in a sickening thud, and Muramasa cried out for her in fear and sadness as he descended the stairs. He grabbed ahold of her body and began to shake it while the tears wouldn't stop flowing from his eyes. He kept telling her to wake up, but she was already gone.
Hikoshiro had been in shock about his mother's death, but then he saw the family heirloom next to him since his father had dropped it in his mad rush to get to her. So he picked it up and began to run downstairs and past his father. Muramasa was not able to stop him, his grief was too great. But as Hikoshiro opened the front door to leave he did look up with a look that was a mix of pure rage with the tears to show it was rooted in sadness.
"You disrespectful brat!" shouted Muramasa through gritted teeth, "you killed your own mother for money, and you can't even say one fucking word in return! Have you any sense of shame!"
Hikoshiro had literally stopped as he heard those words, tears rolling down his own cheeks. This was not how he wanted things to go. He just wanted the heirloom to sell it, not kill his mother like he had.
"You want our heirloom so much brat!? Fine! Take it and sell the damned thing! I hope you are happy with yourself since now you not only have no mother, but you have no father either! Do you hear me, you piece of shit! I HAVE NO SON!"
Hikoshiro then ran out the door into the night, and he would not return for years to come…
But as he left and eventually sold the blade to the Fire Daimyo for a lot of money, Muramasa fell into a slump. He refused to make another blade and spent his days drinking in sadness. He buried his wife and then buried himself in alcohol. Day after day he was like this, and then one day he got so drunk that he began to walk out of Iron Country in the wrong direction instead of towards his home. There he was attacked by bandits who wanted his money, but he had none on him since he drank it all away. So then they were just going to kill him, but it was at this moment that a young red haired teen came out of nowhere and managed to kill off the bandits. This was Muramasa's encounter with the kunoichi Kushina Uzumaki.
The woman had gone out of her way to see Muramasa to his home and made sure he got there in one piece. She would have left at that, but in his depressed state of mind he began to cry and spilled the beans on why he was so sad. Kushina had stayed and listened to his tale, all the while understanding his pain. She had lost everything in the 2nd Shinobi war given her entire clan was killed, with her being the last one alive that she knew of. So she told the man to live on, to find something to keep him moving forward so as to push through the grief bit by bit until he no longer felt it. The man had taken her words to heart and had then offered to make her a weapon.
Kushina was on a time schedule so she couldn't stay long enough to collect said forged weapon, so Muramasa made a token and gave it to her with the promise to make her a weapon in the future once she had the time and returned. She thanked him for it and then left. Unfortunately she never was able to return due to multiple events that happened outside of her control as well as getting married and becoming pregnant. Then she died so she could no longer claim her weapon.
But while Murmasa found a new means to relive his grief in the form of farming after swearing off blacksmithing, Hikoshiro was becoming a name known in the underworld. He took the money he had gotten from selling his family's heirloom and used it to start up a criminal enterprise that dealt with many things. Drugs, prostitution, extortion… You name it he did it. He even partnered up with someone like him by the name of Gato, another crime boss who terrorized the people wherever he went. But doing that was a mistake in the long run since Gato was older and wiser when it came to running a criminal enterprise. So Gato stole everything from Hikoshiro, leaving him with nothing but a few of his most loyal men who did not turn on him after losing everything.
So here Hikoshiro was with his men…
Back where he swore never to return to after what happened all those years ago…
Hikoshiro needed money so as to restart his criminal enterprise once more and to get revenge against Gato, and he knew an easy source of money. Many rich people wanted a blade made by his old man, so his plan was to force Muramasa to forge a blade, take it and then sell it to the highest bidder. And with his men in tow, he would make his former father forge a blade whether he wanted to or not.
So let me paint for you the picture of the situation at hand…
Inside the house, you have Muramasa, who was happily making himself some coffee since he was happy that he had not only finished the work he was commissioned to make, with the weapons he had finished forging being wrapped up for Naruto to open when he came back inside, but his love of blacksmithing was coming back to him. Maybe this was a sign to not give up on the family trade and to once more begin forging blades for other warriors. While he was happy doing his thing inside the house, Naruto was outside, jacket off, brandishing a scythe of all things as he cut the wheat that was ready for harvest. It was a bit taxing for him given the fields were enormous and yet he relished in the work since it was an excellent form of training in a way. But while it was a great source of training for one's body, it was still a workout that made him thirsty so he had a water jug to quench it whenever he needed to. But the issue now was it was nearly empty and he was just now chugging the last of it. So once he finished it off, he began his hike back towards Muramasa's place.
Muramasa had just finished his own drink and washed his mug before putting it back when out of the blue he heard a voice from behind him.
"Hey old man," said the voice that caused him to mentally jump, though he didn't show it physically. At first he thought it was Naruto, but the voice sounded older, deeper… So that begged the question as to who the hell was behind him. He turned around, and within seconds of seeing who it was his rage grew to heights he had long thought he was no longer capable of getting to. For before him stood none other than his disowned former son Hikoshiro.
"You…" seethed Muramasa, since in his anger he wasn't capable of saying proper sentences right now.
"Well isn't this such a touching reunion?" said Hikoshiro with a chuckle.
"Get out." Muramasa said, finally able to say what he wanted fully. It was taking all his willpower to not just strangle the young man with his bare hands.
"Well that isn't any way to treat your son now is it?" asked Hikoshiro with a fake smile, all the while knowing his own father would not just sporadically change his opinion of him. He had been the cause of his mother's death, and not even time healed those wounds.
"I have no son, so get out."
"Not before you do something for me first pops." said Hikoshiro with a grin. He then snapped his fingers and from both sides of Muramasa a man grabbed hold of him and forced him to his knees. While the man was strong in his own way, he himself wasn't that great of a fighter. Plus given his older age and the fact these minions his son had brought to his house had about half a foot on him and you can understand why he was so easily subdued. Plus in his rage of seeing the one person he never wanted to see again, he was blind to the men who snuck up to him from the side since he was suffering from tunnel vision.
"Haven't you taken enough from me?" seethed Muramasa as he struggled to break free, "what more could you want?!"
"You see," started Hikoshiro as he pulled a chair over and sat in front of his old man, "I am here to get you to forge a blade for me so that I might sell it. Given your lack of forging nowadays even with your reputation it will sell for a lot of money since it will be a rare item. Plain and simple… You give me what I want and I'll be out of your hair. Win win situation."
"No." said Murmasa as he glared at Hikoshiro with all the hatred he held for the bastard son he had sired years ago.
"I'm sorry?" said Hikoshiro in mock hurt as he heard the refusal to give in to his demands, "Did I hear you say 'no'?" Hikoshiro then kicked Muramasa hard across the face, making the man spit blood out the side. "Did you think I was giving you a choice in the matter? This isn't a negotiation, you will forge me a blade or else this will become painful for you old man."
"Rot in hell," said Muramasa angrily as he collected it in his mouth and then spat his blood right onto Hikoshiro's face. The feat was actually quite impressive given the distance, but even though that was the case Hikoshiro was pissed. For several minutes he continued to demand a weapon to be forged for him, and yet his father would continue to say no and thus he inflicted pain on him, making sure to not damage the man's hands since he would need those to do what he wanted.
Finally someone noticed the wrapped daggers that were on the table. And as the minion who saw them did, he let Hikoshiro know about it.
"Yo boss," said the minion as he held up the daggers while they were still wrapped up. You could see the hilts of them, but not the design itself. "Look at these."
"Well well well," said Hikoshiro in a mocking tone of voice. "Isn't this a surprise? I thought you gave up forging weapons, old man. But look at you going back on your own morals, and you had the gall to lecture me on morality!" That last sentence made Hikoshiro pissed off and he punched his father right in the face causing his nose to bleed from it.
"Yo old man!" said a voice from outside the room that had entered the house, "did you finish up with my ord… whoa…" It was at that point that Naruto had come into the doorway that led towards the kitchen, and there he saw about a dozen men standing there with Muramasa of all people on the ground looking fairly beat up. "Is this a bad time? Cause I could come back later."
"Oh yeah," said Muramasa sarcastically since he couldn't help himself really. How do you walk into a situation like this and not see just how bad it was just on the face value alone? It was not that hard to tell what was going on. "We are just having a party. These men were just playing a round of 'Punch the old man in the face!'"
"You don't have to be sarcastic old man," said Naruto with a chuckle since his response was a bit humorous, "I'm not an idiot and can tell what is happening."
"Fucking youngsters and their not understanding…"
"Oh I understand plenty," said Naruto with a shrug, "like for all I know this is just some hardcore BDSM session that you paid for and I just came back at a bad time. I don't know what you do in your spare time."
That response caused Hikoshiro, who this entire time was wondering who the hell this kid was, why he was here in the first place, and just what to do with him right now, to just stare at him open mouthed just like his minions since that was not a response they would expect from a child of all people. Muramasa, though, was laughing hard to the point of tears since it was genuinely funny to him.
"But all kidding aside… wait a second," said Naruto as he saw the minion holding the wrapped weapons in his hand. He recognized the handles given they were weapons he had used a lot in his past life. It was hard to forget given he was the one who drew the designs and had Muramasa forge them. "Are those my daggers?"
"Not anymore brat," said Hikoshiro with a smirk, "they now belong to me. Now leave before I decide to get violent, and trust me when I say you don't want me to get violent."
"So a man who is willing to hurt a child so as to steal what he wants…" said Naruto to himself, "well that just makes this far easier in my mind."
"Make what easier, brat?" asked Hikoshiro in a condescending sort of tone. In his mind this kid couldn't do a damned thing to either him or his men and would only get hurt if he in fact tried to do anything.
"Killing you." said Naruto plainly. There wasn't a hint of any sort of emotion in his voice. A certain Uchiha as well as a certain power-mad crippled man back in Konoha would have actually been fairly impressed by his lack of emotion that conveyed just how serious his statement was. Yet though he was one hundred percent serious as to his intentions, Hikoshiro as well as his men all laughed so hard after hearing this.
"You know what kid," said Hikoshiro as he wiped away a tear from laughing so hard, "just for providing my men and I with a good laugh I am going to give you this one chance to leave without getting the shit kicked out of you. Take it or leave it."
"I'm not leaving without my daggers," said Naruto as seriously and emotionlessly as he had been before. "That is not up for discussion."
"Oh these daggers?" asked the minion holding them in a mocking tone that made the other men chuckle. The minion was fairly large with the muscle mass to go with it. So what could a child of all things do to this this walking mass of muscle? "Well if you are so determined to get them back, then by all means try and take them from me."
"Oh goody," said Naruto with a sickly sweet smirk on his face. Muramasa actually felt a chill go down his spine as he saw Naruto make that face since he had only ever seen it once in the boy's mother as she single handedly killed a large bandit group. This did not bode well for the men in this room if history was going to repeat itself. "A volunteer…"
"Wait… what?" asked the minion in confusion since that had not been something he expected to hear from the kid. "A vol…"
The minion couldn't finish his short statement since he was cut short. What cut him short you might ask?
Naruto had rushed forward, faster than anyone had expected him to do it, and full on slammed his fist into the man's gut. The power behind it caused the man to cough out blood as he felt as though his body was bleeding internally. The shock of the situation caused the others to freeze since this was not something they had seen coming.
"Rule numero uno in the art of the shinobi: never underestimate your opponent, no matter how small or weak they might be."
As the man had been hit with a gut punch, he had dropped the daggers he had in his hand, and in one fluid motion that seemed akin to some deadly sort of dance, Naruto whipped out one of the daggers and sliced the man's throat in a split second while catching the other while it was still wrapped with the other hand. He didn't need to practice using these blades in any way. He had already mastered them in his past life. Now all he needed to do was use them.
Hikoshiro and his men were too stunned to do anything as the man whose throat was slit fell over dead with his blood flowing out of his neck. Naruto took this time to pull out the other dagger in the set and even tossed it in his hand a bit to get the fell for it. Finally their brains began to process the situation fully and did something.
"Kill that fucking brat!" shouted Hikoshiro in anger about losing one of his only loyal men. As it was he couldn't afford to lose anyone since he needed those whose loyalty was secured if he ever was going to get revenge against Gato. Naruto had simply continued to smirk as the men rushed forward to do as ordered. Now if this had been a group of shinobi, trained ones to be exact, then his odds of winning would have been far lower. But given the fact that the men rushing him were simply run of the mill thugs, albeit strong and big in height, with no real strategy on how to kill him other than to rush forward. This played right into Naruto's hands…
Naruto met their advance and threw one of his daggers into the leg of the one in front, causing him to fall forward where Naruto stabbed him through the bottom of his jaw into his brain. He quickly removed the blade and dodged the baton that the next one used as he swung it at him, all while pulling the dagger out of the first dead guy's leg. Naruto waited for the idiot to swing again before he stabbed the man in the arm, causing the minion to drop the baton since his tendons had been punctured, but Naruto then proceeded to rip the blade out in a fashion that removed the hand entirely to the very bone. Given the angle of the cut, the bone was sharp, which Naruto then kicked hard enough so that the man's sharpened bone stub stabbed him in the neck.
The others saw this and paused for a second given this kid had not only killed two of their own, but had done so in a fairly graphic way that made them nearly hurl the lunch they had earlier that day.
"What a bunch of pussies," said Naruto with a chuckle, as he looked the men in the eyes. Their faces went white as they saw his eyes glow blue in a manner they had never seen before and within those eyes they saw nothing more than death. "You have the gall to try and kill a child, and yet you can't stomach a few dead bodies? Pathetic…"
Naruto then chuckled as he kneeled down a bit so as to get a running start for his next attack. The daggers he had made for him were made from Chakra metal, which while he was not using chakra given his abilities were now magical in nature, it still was able to enhance the blades themselves if he were to infuse them. And this is exactly what he was doing right now. He was infusing his new daggers with electricity that caused them to glow from heating up, and the second they heated up to a bright yellow color he rushed forward with enough speed as well as force to splinter not only the ground under his starting position but the wall behind him as well. The men didn't have enough time to react to his attack since he sliced through all of their necks instantly, not only decapitating them but cauterizing their wounds so there was no blood gushing out of their wounds like the first three.
Hikoshiro full on pissed himself in fear as not only were all his men dead at the hands of this brat, but he had thrown one of the daggers at the end towards him in a fashion that he felt it as it went whizzing by without actually hitting him. The second it left Naruto's hand, it cooled off instantly since he was no longer holding it to keep up the temperature. Hikoshiro froze in place as he saw Naruto simply stand there, his arm out still after throwing the dagger at him, his gaze still meeting his own with the murderous look he had in the begining still there. It took a few seconds, but Hikoshiro pulled out a flintlock pistol he had hidden on him, but Naruto could see just how afraid the man was given his shaking hand holding the gun.
"Stttt… stay back!" stuttered Hikoshiro in pure fear. "I'll shoot!"
"Oh no," said Naruto sarcastically with a chuckle, "a gun. Better make your one and only shot count."
Naruto then took a sudden step forward, this action causing Hikoshiro to freak out and pull the trigger of his weapon. The problem was that his aim was shit in his current state so his shot was way off. Well to be honest even if he had aimed true, the bullet wouldn't have really done anything to Naruto given his abilities.
"Now there is only one," said Naruto as he held up other hand towards Hikoshiro. Hikoshiro felt as if his throat was grabbed by some sort of force that his brain could not comprehend as to what was doing this. He clawed at his throat, but to no avail. This was Naruto's Ruler's Authority, and the only way to break free from it was to be either stronger than Naruto was, which Hikoshiro was nowhere near that, or Naruto himself stopped choking him.
"You bastard!" Coughed out Hikoshiro, who was trying so hard to break free from whatever was constricting his throat.
"Poor choice of words there," said Naruto in an emotionless tone, "it is not a bright idea to insult the person who is literally choking the life out of you like you are. Case in point." Naruto then began to squeeze his hand into a fist, and as he did Hikoshiro felt the grip on his neck get tighter.
"Fa.. Dad… Help m… me… please…" Gargled out Hikoshiro since he was trying his hardest to just breathe and even then he was barely able to do that. His response, while it didn't make Naruto lessen his grip in any manner, it did cause him to raise an eyebrow since this was a bit of a large chunk of info to be just thrown out like that.
"This guys is you son?" asked Naruto to Muramasa, who by this point was back on his own two feet, and even now he was still glaring at his former son. Hikoshiro looked at his old man with pleading eyes, eyes begging him to call off Naruto and spare his life from death. But all he saw looking back at him was eyes filled with hatred. Hatred for the past things he had done. Hatred for the waste of a human being he had become.
"I have no son," said Muramasa as he walked out of the kitchen, fully knowing what was going to happen. Even if he had disowned his only child for his past actions, even after doing as he did and trying to make him forge a weapon for him via threat, Hikoshiro was still his blood and he couldn't stand to see his death with his own two eyes. He knew that the son he loved and raised was long since dead, but he couldn't see this… imposter, die.
It was only as he saw his father walk out of the room to leave him to his fate, only then did Hikoshiro shed a tear of regret. He knew he deserved what was going to happen. This was karma for the lives he had ruined with his illegal enterprises, his killing of his own mother, and foremost… shaming his family beyond any form of redemption.
"Dad… please… forgiv…" He didn't get to say anymore since Naruto then fully clenched his fist, breaking the neck of Hikoshiro and silencing his voice forever. As he finally let go of Hikoshiro, his body fell to the floor with a loud thud. Naruto then placed his newly forged weapons into his Inventory and went to find the old man. He found him outside, sitting on a chair on the front porch, looking off into the distance. Naruto took a seat close, but not next to the man.
"So…" said Naruto simply after a tense minute of silence, "is there something you wish to talk about?"
Muramasa simply grunted in response.
"Oh come on now," said Naruto seriously, "let us help each other here. You have a troubled past, and I have one as well. We can comfort one another by talking it out given we are basically the same in this situation."
Muramasa looked at Naruto for a long moment, wondering if he should actually speak about his past, but in the end he finally said, "Fine."
And there the 2 of them spent talking about their pasts, and by the end of the day, with the sun finally fully setting, they felt better finally getting so much off their chests…
(2 weeks later - hill overlooking the Fire Country Capital City)
Naruto stood on a hill looking down at the city below. So many things were going through his mind right now, with one of them being caution since he was back in Fire Country of all places. But he had a very good reason as to why he was here, and he still chuckled about what happened when he told Muramasa this.
"Where will you go now?" He had asked weeks ago.
"I plan to go and settle down for a few years so as to gather my strength," said Naruto as he was about to walk away from the old blacksmith's home.
"But you seem fairly strong as you are."
"True," said Naruto with a chuckle, "but given it is me versus the world itself I will need more if I am to survive in it."
"Well there is no need for theatrics boy," said Muramasa with a chuckle as well since while he heard that phrase used before, no one really had to face the world.
"I am being serious old man," said Naruto, "since all 5 villages will want be for some reason. Iwa will want me dead for my relation to my father alone. Kumo will want me to be a stud to rape and make more of my own clan for them to train and use as soldiers while I get no say in their lives. Kiri will want to kill me given their hatred of bloodlines in the Civil War they are going through, Suna is an ally to Konoha, who will do all in their power to make me submit. My life was nothing short of hell already before Ileft, yet they will make their past actions seem tame by comparison if they ever caught me again. So it is truly me against the world right now, and while I have the means to acquire the strength needed to survive, all I need now is time.
"Well I wish you luck in your future endevors then," said Muramasa with a smile on his face.
"Thanks old man," said Naruto with a smirk on his own, "I'm certain you will hear about me in the future, with some things being sooner than you think."
"Should I even bother asking what you mean by that?" asked Muramasa with a raised eyebrow.
"Nothing much," said Naruto with a shrug, "there are just two well known people I need to see before I settle down. Don't worry about it, you'll hear about it I'm sure."
"I'm a bit concerned by that."
"Still… Don't worry about it," said Naruto as he then set off with a wave of his hand…
And like he had told Murmasa, here he was to meet one of those two he mentioned. Now while you might assume he was here to meet some sort of friend or ally mentioned in either of his parent's journals he read through in the six months he locked himself away from the world, but no that was not the reason why he was here now. The person he was here to see was no friend…
He was the farthest thing one could be from it…
But Naruto had an appointment to keep, and being late would be seen as rude…
And one doesn't keep the Fire Daimyo himself waiting