Skyrimancy in Naruto (Si/Skyrim Game System) Chapter 3 – Ruckus
It was the afternoon of the first day, the day in which Askuna arrived in this wonderful world. The man had his set of adventures experienced already: he went to Onsen, walked through the city, and embarked on the road of self-discovery in the park.
Not to mention, Askuna has also eavesdropped on the negotiations between Omuga the foreman of the kunai-making warehouse and Bernon the representative of the mysterious Mr Shibukawa.
Then, after definitely not running away, like a coward, from a squirrel, he encountered Mr Owanagi, the worker at Omuga’s manufactory. Later, he went to get the job there, but he didn’t know about the wartime custom of mandatory id carrying, so he had to run to his house to retrieve it, or deal with the threat of law enforcement authorities being notified.
All in all, many questions could be asked, like is Askuna going to be your average background worker, or why has that squirrel attacked him?
Well, the answer to the former question will be in this chapter, while the latter query will be resolved now.
Surprisingly, there is no deeper scheme behind this, the squirrel just so happened to be on her merry way, when suddenly, a human appeared out of nowhere!
It triggered flight or fight response, and it was enough for the squirrel to be registered as an enemy in Askuna’s system. Now, the plan of the squirrel was to make a warning hiss and run away, but Askuna misinterpreted the signal! In the end, both ran away from each other….
Now, back to the chapter, in the jolly afternoon, our mc, the running Askuna entered the Warehouse’s proper, and heard a strong, but not too loud command ”Halt!”, coming from behind his back.
As any sane man, he stopped and turned back, looking at what appeared to be a security guard booth built inside the building, near the entrance. Seeing no reason not to, he gave a nod and approached, while responding - “Ohayo.”.
The woman inside corrected her glasses, and after confirming his looks, spoke to him in a slightly annoyed voice.
“Owner Omuga has told me to expect a new potential employee, well, he said that the uncertainty lies entirely on you delivering your id.” – she started speaking in a no-nonsense voice, then interrogated him with a standoffish voice, separating one sentence with two noticeable pauses– “Do. You. have it?”.
‘Wow, someone likes their theatrics, or has some insufferable ego, well… I can play that too.’ – mused Askuna, feeling a little mischievous. But then, he remembered, that he was also talking quite weirdly today, yet he had his reasons… but, does having certain circumstances really justify all of his behaviour?
‘Well, to be honest, she may also have some special reasons, for the way she talks, and I shouldn’t really judge her for it, nor play tricks on her. It was kind of nice, that many people today just ignored my weird quirks, as one could call them. Maybe I should just give – ‘– Askuna’s own musings and apparent interpretations of the world were cut off venomously by the woman.
“Well!? My patience wanes, young man!” – the lady repeated again, seeing him dumbly staring ahead for some seconds.
Askuna scowled a little and searched for an id in his pocket. It was there, surprisingly, not fallen by his tree climbing, a quarter of an hour prior. – “Hmm.” – he mused aloud while staring at the id, clearly looking at his photo, which was depicting him as a person bit younger than his actual visage. His stalling had definitely not a motive of spiting the old lady.
“Yes. I do.” – he replied and proceeded to extend his hand, slowly, to the woman, before she snatched it out of his palm, with a huff and threw a mumble about young disrespectful men.
Frankly, it could end up worse, for him that is, so he just shrugged. But then having abrupt self-reflection, he paused the world.
The reason for that was simple, he was confused by his behaviour.
‘Is it like that because I had a little thrill from jumping onto the tree? Or is it because I do not intend to stay here for long?’ – mused Askuna, before realizing – ‘Or do I think of myself as better than them, due to my awesome powers?’
He snorted or would have if the world weren’t paused.
‘Pfft, this is stupid, I should strive to be better. Though, now, I think I see why I am acting like that. The adherent to my heart issue lies deeper, as previously in the warehouse, I played a crock.’ – Askuna located a metaphorical tear in his heart, then continued with his deduction –‘ Well, such circumstances were ideal for some tomfoolery.’
‘However, it seems that playing a fool, in response to my lack of an id, may not have been the best idea, as when he called me an idiot, it awakened some subconscious disdain towards this place, which consistently attracted negative emotions and responses, only aggravating the effect.’ – Askuna smirked while shaking his head, upon his newfound epiphany.
‘Bullshit.’ – he called himself out because his reasoning was so sound, he almost convinced himself, that it was the case. The reason was far simpler than that! His exhaustion from the entire day was showing itself and made him a little grumpy.
He went to his options menu, turned on the music, and opened the book about the warring era, hoping to turn off his thinking for a moment and just recuperate.
Minutes turned to hours, and he finally went through all of it. The world outside didn’t move at all, for quite a while now. The book that he has just read was half propaganda, half some historical study of different clans of the warring era, as well as notable members those clans were known for. There was also included information about where are they nowadays, well, nowadays 30 years ago, and also why Konoha clans were better, Uchiha included.
Quite an interesting read, though he doesn’t remember half of those things, he mainly was just looking at clans he already knew, to refresh his knowledge. As well, as reading about some of the more interesting abilities they had, had awakened some of his giddiness on the prospect of actually living in this world.
Well, ready to face the previously mentioned world, he would have yawned if he could, so to liven up, he unpaused the world, and plastered a shit-eating grin on his face, while facing the lady.
Which seemed to be an illicit response as the woman scowled at him even more.
‘Well, can’t win them all.’ – shrugged Askuna and dropped his grin, looking sideways.
“Mrs Shimura? Is he there” – from behind the woman, the voice of the definitely not honcho, weird word, let’s just keep it simple and say the boss, came from a receiver, connected to a copper cable.
‘Wait, Shimura?’ – Askuna was taken aback a little, by the woman’s family name.
“Yes, though I must say he definitely lacks some manners.” – Mrs Shimura was contentiously shaking her head, yet again demonstrating her pettiness, by such kind of berating answer.
“Is that so, maybe we shouldn’t hire him after all?” – Askuna rolled his eyes, at the words of the boss, yet he has faked such transgressive mannerism by caressing his face in a grimace of exhaustion.
Funny side note, his exhaustion meter has advanced the level, yet it didn’t seem to show any outright influence on his mind. Same as hunger, though thinking about being thirsty, didn’t he drink too little this day, like just one small juice? - ‘Meh, I probably don’t need to drink anyway.’ – Askuna dismissed nonchalantly the possible worry.
She paused, and then looking coldly at Askuna, she answered grimly – “Let him stay, for now, we will see if he is worth anything.”
‘Whatever makes you sleep good at night lady.’ – Askuna mentally snorted, outwardly looking unimpressed, or bored.
“Listen brat.” – now a more serious voice from the node radio reverberated – “Mrs Shimura is keeping the whole company together; she manages who arrives and leaves, who got his breaks, and when, and who works where and how much, if you antagonize her, you will end up on the worst tasks, simple as that.” – then to top it off he asked – “Understood?”
The woman looked quite smug to be praised like that.
‘He’s got quite the charisma’ – observed Askuna, mentally adding up all the information he had on the mysterious Mr Omuga – ‘He didn’t back down when negotiating with Bernon,” – Askuna started listing what he knew about him -” additionally, Owanagi deeply respects his workplace, and now the boss has shown Mrs Shimura that he values her being here while keeping new blood in line with the already established norms…. Well played.” – Askuna could respect that.
But then Askuna had a certain thought – ‘But his office was quite strange, is he playing some kind of mastermind or something? Liking to sink his teeth in a person to know them inside-out or is it just an unintended side-effect of his megalomania…’
“We will have to beat out that daydreaming from you, kid.” – she shook her head in disapproval, then handed him the form, saying – “Sign this… if you want to work here, that is.”
‘She added the last part as if trying for me to reconsider’ – Askuna chuckled a little and stared at the paper.
“Sure,” – answered Askuna before mentally adding - ‘you Danzo’s, blatant, spy monitoring village’s weapon production, who probably doesn’t even know what he is doing behind closed doors, bi....’
Well, that is enough, he won’t end that line, no matter how cool it would sound. She may walk like a duck and quack like a duck, but that doesn’t mean she is a duck. And even if! He doesn’t care. - ‘Yup, let’s be a proper person and not flame others in my mind.’ - Askuna decided, in his own little mind, to be a better person.
Anyway… Askuna was ‘reading’ the form and froze, because of a quite morbid idea, that has entered his, totally rational, mind – ‘Or you know what he is doing… and now that cold stare of yours, is so much more...’
‘Deadly.’- Askuna finished his thought while narrowing his eyes at the woman.
Well, all in all, he decided to sign the document, not being able to read anything on it, anyway… NOT! Of course, he won’t sign something he didn’t understand, who is he, a moron?
‘Especially with the viper so close to me.’ – Askuna was still looking suspiciously at every slight movement of the woman.
So, he used his ability, mentally nudging ‘E’ on the prompt, which displayed itself above the form. The time has stopped, and the document has been displayed in a Skyrim window, which he began reading.
Well, there was some kind of NDA and other pesky little details, which will bite him in the ass later, but… actually, it would really bite him.
According to the contract, he wouldn’t be able to work for any weapon manufacturers for 3 months, as well as produce weapons and sell them on his own, for the same grace period.
It could prove to be quite a conundrum…
‘Wait… can’t I just look for a loan in some bank or something, and found my own forge, or alchemical lab?’ – Askuna found a possible solution, however, he wasn’t too sure as he thought about it further – “I would have to check which options are available to me, if there are any, it may be so that I’m not eligible, as being someone without any experience on the craft, or on the other hand, such sophisticated prospects as loans for start-ups aren’t a thing here, yet.”
He could potentially sign for his job here, and in the meantime look out for securing some funding for alchemical labs… selling weapons in covert channels may also be a viable option.
‘No way, that I’m showing my prowess, so the snake woman there can rattle it back to the village’s edge lord.’ – Askuna decided, to try the contract for now, and just get fired soon, if needed.
There was also a little detail at the end, that he could be fired or decided to leave without providing any reason, whatsoever, in the first two weeks, though the NDA would still hold. At least there would be no problems on the leaving front.
Well, now the hard part, he had to sign the form, yet he didn’t know how to write in Kanji, therefore he had to look at his id. While doing so.
Thankfully, the Viper has already put it down on the counter, so he just reached for it with his hand and after grabbing it, he moved it below the counter, where her eyes couldn’t follow it. Yet, it was in such a position that his eyes could see it, and noticing the needed prompt, he placed it in his inventory, while outwardly projecting as if he put it inside his pocket.
He took a pen and started doing one kanji stroke, then he opened his inventory to observe his name displayed on id in a 3d image, and then back to making strokes. He finished signing it and handed it back to the lady, who was silently observing him.
“Mm. Your writing is like a chicken’s scratch.” – she commented idly staring at it for some time, then she sighed, turned around her upper body, while still sitting and took one of the cans hanging on some wires, behind her. She took the lid off and spoke – “Anane, I’m sending you fresh blood, introduce him to rope binding.”
Then she turned to Askuna and showed him an opened door with a finger while commanding – “Go there, then down the corridor and turn left at the end. There, Ms Ayakashi and others will show you the ropes.” – After saying it, she lost interest in him, and went back to some ledgers, on her desk.
Askuna did as he was told and left what he has previously wrongly assumed to be a security booth, and in reality, was some kind of secretary/manager’s office.
The warehouse seemed to have the layout directed by hollow walls and machinery, creating, somehow isolated environments, each separated from the other. Though the constant rumble and irregular thumping were still reverberating through the entire place.
He went through the designated sections, noting that there was also a passage to the right at the end, not to mention the one he walked by before, in the middle. He arrived at a small room, opened from above, where 3 people, of which 2 women and one man were working at four workbenches pressed together.
The woman with green hair spotted him when he entered the workspace area.
“Ah! It is our 4th member! Everyone let’s introduce ourselves!” – said enthusiastically a woman with long green hair braided into two buns.
They all dropped their work and introduced themselves, Askuna did too. The green-haired woman was the previous mentioned Ayakashi Anane. The other two didn’t seem too important, at least to Askuna’s eyes.
After a short introduction and Askuna’s noncommitting or laconic answers, Ms Ayakashi took him to her workbench and spoke wholeheartedly - “You see, today you will not do anything but watch, we will soon end the ‘braiding’ as I like to call it, and I will show the next one of your future duties, as well as introduce you to the new room in the warehouse!” – she looked at Askuna for the confirmation, that he is listening.
Askuna nodded, and she pointed at the machine in front of her and explained – “You see, this is a handler on which you mount the kunai, then you have those rotators that… when are spinning they mount the rope on top of the kunai.” – then she pointed to another part – “Here, this is a handle, with which you do the spinning, but you need to guide it with your hand to mount properly”.
Then she explained the rest of the machinery to Askuna, who dumbly nodded trying to take it all in, then after some explanations, she spoke one last time
“Here. Look at this” – she pointed at the edge of the kunai and clarified – “the kunai is not sharpened yet, only blemishes are removed, but you feel it?” – she guided his palm to the edge - “ be careful when you are guiding the rope at the end or grabbing them as they can still hurt you, ” – then she looked at him with some real concern behind her eyes and with a warm smile teased – “ and we wouldn’t want that, would we?”
Second of silence.
‘Fuck it, maybe I’ll come back to the work there!’ – Askuna paused the world for a second to gather his bearings.
After some time spent calming down, he figuratively sighed and thought things through – ‘This is ridiculous, it shouldn’t be allowed.’ – He looked at the Ayakashi Anane again, now with some wariness glinting in his eyes he thought – ‘She is really dangerous, a true hidden boss of this place.’
Askuna unpaused the world and said good-naturedly, while faux-smiling – “No we wouldn’t, haha…ha.”
‘haha...ha? WTF, am I even saying.’ – Askuna was ashamed of his actions.
She pouted and commented on that – “Buh… there is no reason to laugh about it, there are plenty of injuries already, and I wouldn’t like it happening again due to carelessness!” – she was getting a bit agitated at the end.
Askuna nodded and said – “Right.” – now fully under control. But whose? It remained to be seen.
What followed was an hour-long observation of Anane’s work, with her chipping in some comments and giving him small tips and tricks, to try them by himself, under her guidance. Not that, he didn’t like it, but the guy in front of him was sending him knowing looks from time to time, as well as pity-worthy smiles and shakes of his head.
The other woman also caught on to that after a while, and almost burst out laughing, exchanging conspiratorial glances with her male co-worker.
Yet, after the hour of this holy hell, something unexpected happened. He received an announcement of a quest happening, called ‘Kunai crafting’. He paused the world and checked the quest journal.
Apparently, the quest read: “After receiving lessons on tying the rope around kunai from Ayakashi Anane, I wonder what next there is to it. Perhaps, I could learn to make kunai myself…?”
Then there were objectives written below:
<> - Search for more information about crafting Kunai.
…
‘Wow.’ – thought Askuna to himself, he honestly didn’t think that it was a thing there. His original plan was to find some forge and buy some leather straps and iron, then create as many daggers as he could, waiting for better perks to work with steel.
But it was a game changer, who knew what else he could technically learn in this world? And more importantly, what were the conditions to activate such a quest.
Theoretically, the quest journal is written in the first person, so it may be so, that it records the current events of the user, as well as generates some appropriate quests. Though, it makes him wonder, why no other quests were created previously? Probably, it has some finicky conditions to activate, or maybe it is not omniscient to the world.
Askuna mused to himself - ‘And it seems, that in the description, quest journal fabricates my depictions of matters, as I didn’t really have those particular thoughts when observing Ms Ayakane…’ – then he realized what he has mentally said, and corrected himself - ‘that is, ekhm, observing her working skills.’ – He nodded, not feeling too sure about touching this particular subject anymore.
‘Oh, come on, who can blame me?’ – he defended himself, but then realized the implications of his justification, and realized, yet again, that it is getting a tad bit out of his control.
‘Okay, disregarding the unimportant matters, the direction to move forward is clear, get more lessons. – he decided, but suddenly, he thought of something quite interesting – ‘Though I wonder, if reading books works?’
‘Well, if it works, it just works.’ – was the pun that Askuna ended his musing with, before unpausing his metaphorical ‘gameplay’.
‘Ahh. Right. All kunai are finished.’ – Askuna reminded himself of what was currently going on around him.
“Good, team, now, let’s move those boxes of kunai to Master Merunaki, where we will be polishing them.” – ever so cheerful team leader, took up her box and handed it to Askuna, requesting with a smile – “Carry it, please.’ – then she nodded with appreciation at him doing so, and walked to the other girl, helping in lifting her container.
The group, walked through the previous corridor, now going to one of the previous two right-turns he had seen previously. The men carried one bin each, while women took one by the handle and walked slightly behind them.
The walk wasn’t too long, the man named Tokami, led the way silently for what was 20 seconds of a slow gait. Finally, they arrived at what seemed to be a similar-sized room, but with several different tools.
“This is the final room for those kunai, where we apply final touches to them, like sharpening.” – Ms Ayakashi explained to Askuna, then added as if in an afterthought – “We sometimes oil them, if they are of special quality or made on commission, like fighting knives.”
Then a voice interrupted from the entrance, taking them all off guard.
“I’ll take it from there.” – came a brutish-looking man, commanding – “Girls, don’t forget to wear a cap on the head, and as I am here now, all of you can start working.” – he then directed his attention to Askuna – “You, young man, will get the basics from me.” - he turned to one of the shelves and stated -” Come.”
Someone, who Askuna has assumed to be Master Merunaki, took out a whetting stone and secured it tightly in some contraption. Then he took the kunai from a rack, and explained while performing the motions – “Now, we apply very little pressure and move it forward.” - he showed the movement – “Like that. Then while applying pressure, pull back.”
He continued his tutoring – “Then you rotate the kunai and do the same at the back of the blade, and it is important, at the same angle.” – he showed him how to do that, then said while performing the correct technique – “You repeat it along the blade, and on all of the 4 edges, at the end of the knife you need to apply little turning at the edge, with sliding, like so.”
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“35 times back and forth moves for one part of the blade, after each blade you replenish the water here, so it is helping you while sharpening, any questions?” – the man handed the kunai to Askuna.
Askuna said “No.” and positioned himself at the place the man stood previously.
“Good. Don’t worry about screwing it up, as it is a testing kunai, so just practice a motion for a bit, until I judge you are ready. Remember, the same angle, all the time, when you are done, I’ll show you polishing to make it even sharper, and how to treat the tip.” – he patted Askuna on the shoulder.
As told, he was practicing those motions for the next half an hour, and then he received an extra lesson on other ways and tricks he could do with the sharpening stone.
After he has heard the last words of wisdom, he suddenly received a completed mission announcement. It was called quite originally, ‘Whetting stone' and the description read: “I have learned how to progress my smithing skills. Master Merunaki taught me how to use a tool called a whetting stone, now I can improve my weapons on it.” – After reading it he checked the stone after unpausing.
And lo and behold, the prompt to use the stone appeared in Askuna’s vision. When he activated the new option, he automatically moved to the stone and started using it as previously taught, while the menu of the weapon upgrades appeared overlayed on his vision.
“Good, just like that.” – the master smith from the distance commented while glancing at his work.
Askuna didn’t have an option to upgrade the kunai he had in his hand, but probably he would have to have it in his inventory to unlock it, as his kitchen knife was present there. Though, it required an iron ingot to work…. Which seems a bit wasteful.
He wondered, if the kunai which he was working on while being in the menu, really got sharpened, so he exited the menu and compared.
And it seemed that the animation that he was doing was real, and he was making actual scratches when under it. Therefore, after surprising the man with his newfound talent, he used the automation to do the rest of the work, for which he was getting some suspicions from the man if he had done any similar work related to that beforehand. Yet, when confronted about those allegations, Askuna rejected them with a simple “No.” and shrugging.
All in all, after continuing their work for some time, suddenly, there was a small alarm ringing through the hangar. However, no panic ensued, as people started stretching and stopping their work.
Seeing him confused, the male co-worker Tokami informed him helpfully – “End of the shift. One long ring like now, indicates that the work is ending or starting, hearing three short ones indicates that you need to evacuate the building immediately.”
Tokami started tidying his workplace and prompted the Askuna to do the same. He continued talking – “The new shift starts at 8am, though you may come here as early as 5:30am, if you want to do some additional work or practice with forging kunai, likewise now, you have also a two-hour window to ask for the permission of any smith for watching their work, or for some tips.”
Then as if remembering one last bit, he added – “Oh, there are also two breaks a day, each half an hour long, and you could try to practice on your own in that time. Anyway, it was nice work today, see you Askuna!” – the man waved to him before saying his goodbyes to the others.
“See you, Tokami!” – answered Askuna back to the auburn-haired man, then similarly he bid the rest of the people here his farewells. He noted that the master Merunaki has already gone out of the room.
He approached the green-haired Ayakashi and used new words he has learned in Japanese to ask – “Excuse me, where is smithing practice?”
She smiled and explained to him directions, pointing with her finger out of the room – “Go down the corridor, which we came from, then take the other entrance at the middle, go through smelters and you should see a group of people forming there in around 10 minutes. Good luck.” - she patted him on his back and went to one of the shelves in the room.
For some reason she stayed there alone, so he shrugged and moved as directed.
Unbeknownst to him, some minutes after he has left the girl took a few kunai out of his completed basket and inspected them with a frown. Then put them back in their place and left the room.
Askuna in the meantime has found the indicated group, which had some of its members dirty from coal, while others looked just fine. They were talking to each other, when he approached them and introduced himself – “Hello, my name is Askuna, I’m a fresh blood here.”
They were a welcoming bunch, though mostly ignored him, talking about some mundane topics of their lives. Askuna begrudgingly listened to it, to expand his vocabulary, although he must say he was quite relieved when a bulky man appeared before them.
“Hidaka, are they bothering you?” – the man asked the only woman surrounded by the men, then turned attention to one of the grinning males – “Roku, why do you look so cocky, last time you couldn’t even lift the hammer when I was done with you.” – the man in question visibly deflated and answered
“Sorry, Master Shunichi.” – the man named Roku replied, at which Maser Shunichi grunted and moved his attention to the others.
Everyone else got set off by the one-on-one banter, and then, at last, he moved to Askuna and asked – “And what do you want here, boy?”
‘I hate looking so scrawny.’ – complained Askuna, then answered – “Learn smithing, Master Shunichi.”
The man grunted in reply. Askuna suspected, that the guy really liked doing so, though to be honest, it meshed pretty well with his outward appearance.
“Okay everyone, continue with your training, I will first see what a newbie has to offer and then instruct you.” – master smith declared to the crowd, which gained Askuna some jealous glances, but when Mr Shunichi noticed the negative mood brewing, he berated them with a huff – “Go, you lot!”
Seeing them comply, he turned to Askuna and stated – “Let me be honest with you lad, with how you look I doubt you’ll be able to live hammer any time soon, you would have to bulk up first.”
Askuna didn’t know how to answer, so he scratched his head looking uncertain.
The man judged him for a second, then took out a small hammer, and took him to one of the benches after taking some iron knot, he heated it in the forge and said – “The first thing you will be learning, are iron puzzles, it teaches you how to bend hot iron into the shape you want it to be.”
He took the tongs laying on the bench and explained while straightening the knot – “You grip the metal with this, and then use the small hammer to bend the scrap into one of the shapes on this board.”- he showed him a board on the wall with several drawings of how the metal band could be twisted to.
Askuna also noted that the forge and anvil showed him the normal Skyrim’s ‘use’ prompt. The man helped him grip the metal with tongues and hammer, then said – “Practice for yourself, and also look at what others are doing, so you’ll learn necessary techniques from them.” – then when leaving to another student, he added – “And eat more meat or fish.”
He examined the board with designs carefully and was surprised that when he came closer, the option to read it appeared. He selected it, and the enlarged version of it appeared in front of his vision, while a small notification in the corner was indicating that he has learned how to create knots.
He looked around and realized, that no one gave him any attention, whatsoever. It provided him with enough free space to feel relatively safe in activating the prompt ‘use’, on the forge.
Immediately, he started moving as if in an animation, striking the metal band as instructed before and reheating it after a while. Yet, in the same way as when sharpening the kunai, he could influence it slightly to work on the current thing before him, which was to form a knot.
His hands started to create a shape on the board, with mastery certainly unparalleled to what he believed he was capable of. In the meantime, he checked his menu and realized that the knots were under the miscellaneous category.
There were no kunai, nor any non-Skyrim items there. The Skyrim ones had regular requirements of iron, leather, or leather straps. But it seemed that he could shape the metal in an animation state to any of the knots, but not anything other.
By the way, the knots required iron scrap to make, which was rather surprising, and maybe a deciding factor why he couldn’t shape it into other items. He spent the next several minutes shaping it to the hardest bow with many twists and turns, then looked around the room.
Unsurprisingly, there were some papers and one other board in the room. When he approached the board, there were schematics of regular-looking kunai there, giddy he read it also, for which he received the standard kunai option under the iron category in smithing.
The requirements were a linen strap and one ingot of iron. But then he had a thought, why would he need it to level his blacksmithing skills? He already had a perfect thing for levelling. He went back to the iron ribbon which he shaped previously and took it into his inventory, it was classified as an iron knot 32 and he couldn’t recraft it with forging.
Then he took it out and used his animation to start converting it into something other but found himself unable to do more than reheating it. Though, he could take reign of his hands, so he started to dismantle the knot from the perfect shape he has created.
After twisting a small loop off, he felt as if he could change the iron in his hands into any knot he wanted, therefore he stopped ‘using’ the forge and took the metal into his inventory when he shielded it from view from the others.
Now, it was classified as a metal scrap back again, therefore he used forge again, noting that he can craft things with it into knots, thus he did so. Interestingly enough, when forging he could decide, whether to take out the metal scrap from his inventory to work on it during the animation phase, otherwise it looked quite strange, as he was only reheating the forge in an unending loop.
He repeated the process of crafting the knot ten times and received a level-up announcing the 16th level of skill. He decided to put it off for now, in case someone gets interested in his work and would notice his metal band appearing and disappearing continuously, therefore he created the hardest knot, and left it on the anvil.
He had spent twenty minutes there and decided to leave, as all of his objectives there have been completed. Next, he would have to secure more metal scraps to make the process of levelling faster, but it was a plan for later.
Five minutes after he has vacated the area, Master Shunichi realized that he was nowhere in the room and dejectedly shook his head being a tad disappointed at Askuna’s spirit, he decided to see if he at least tidied up after himself. While walking to Askuna’s previous station, he noticed an object laying on the anvil.
He picked up a bow, the perfectly created, hardest level knot, and his eyes were showing clear disbelief. It was one of the hardest puzzles, which creation of classified someone as a fully-fledged smith. According to his knowledge, it is impossible that any newbie would be capable of creating it, therefore in his mind Askuna had already such a high level of skill or someone was playing a prank on him.
Even more, this piece was even better than passable, it was flawless if he could say so. He shook his head and went back to instructing his students, seeing that he would not be able o solve the mystery today.
Back to Askuna. When he was leaving the building, he was stopped by the Viper, that is Mrs Shimura.
“Askuna, please come here for the moment.” – she invited him to her booth.
When he came closer, she handed him a paper explaining – “This here is a permit, that you are working for us, and as you know there are police hours between 20 to 6 am, “- she stated matter-of-factly, then added – “This paper, here, will give you one-day pass of a normal permit, that allows one to move outside up to 23pm, and from 5 am.”
“Thank you.” – Askuna answered and pocketed the paper, but Mrs Shimura didn’t end yet and followed up – “Tomorrow, if your credentials all check out in the Labour Office, and there will be no noticeable problems, then you will receive the permanent license.” – then she finished with saying – “You have worked today for 4 hours, which will be added to your pay at the end of the week. That is all.”
Askuna nodded and said – “Thank you, goodbye.” - then hastily turned and left the warehouse, outside witnessing that the sky was filled with numerous bright stars and one big shiny white full moon.
He smirked gazing mischievously at it, before having a one fitting final thought – ‘The day is finally ending, isn’t it, oh you moon rabbit princess?’.
Or it was not, as he had some time to burn yet. Why wouldn’t he go to some bar or something, his exhaustion debuff wasn’t really that dramatic, and he would need only several hours to restore it. Therefore, he started moving to the entertainment district.
Walking in the night, in a place with such a visible contrast between urbanism and naturalism, made up for a pretty weird experience. In one way, he felt truly alone, like in a forest, but then his stealth mode showed him being discovered every so often.
It wasn’t long before two people in green vests approached him. He wasn’t the only one coming back from the industrial area, but people certainly dispersed swiftly, each going their own way. Though that was not true, some groups of two or three people were also visible, here and there.
Where was he, ah those two gentlemen approached him, well not only him, as they recently moved from another person, but he expected what they were here for, so he retrieved the paper from his pocket and used his inventory to drop the id while pretending it had fallen out from his pockets.
If they have seen that it materialized before him and dropped on the ground, they didn’t comment. He scrambled to get it up and presented it to them when they were close. One of them spoke to him while grabbing for the items:
“Greetings civilian, I see you are prepared, good. Let me see.” – he looked at the paper, then after some consideration asked – “Hmm, temporary paper, just started a job?”
“Yes, kunai making.” – answered Askuna dutifully.
“I see, I see, well we are doing routine checking with the war situation going around, and all, you probably know.” – he started some small talk, then Askuna heard:
” Yes, and we are going soon near the warehouses, so for whom are you working?” – asked the second man.
‘Smooth man, really smooth’ – commented mentally Askuna on his, definitely not, soft interrogation.
“I see, my boss is Mr Omuga.” – Askuna politely provided the necessary information.
The second man activated his Sharingan and asked Askuna – “Wakateru Askuna, right?”
“Right.” – answered Askuna, feeling normal and thinking – ‘Did he try to use Genjutsu on me, or something?’
Guards communicated with each other through sign language, and then they turned to Askuna.
“Everything seems to be right. Good night to you Askuna-san.” - the first guard handed him back the items and Askuna nodded back answering – “Thank you, good night.”
Then he was left to go on his merry adventure, to the entertainment district. He wasn’t interrupted by any more guards, and for some reason, those who had seen him just nodded politely or ignored him.
‘Did I receive any tracker or something?’ – wondered Askuna to himself, clearly surprised at the turn of events.
He checked his menu and apparently, he was under some kind of signal, as under his status effects, he had an active effect called – ‘Notice veil’, which read: “Shrouds person in a veil that communicates a certain message for those in the known.” – its time limit was set to unknown.
‘Ominous.’ – thought Askuna to himself, he didn’t feel anything from the previous encounter. Maybe that time when the guard activated his Sharingan? He didn’t know.
Anyway, he was going to the entertainment district, which was full of debauchery of any kind.
Does Askuna want to visit some girls, gambling dens or drink until he can’t walk anymore?
No, it was against his morals to do such things. He didn’t believe himself to be a saint or a villain. He was under the impression, that the way you see the world and interpret experiences slowly shapes you to take some moral stances. That means, if he chooses debauchery now, it would have always remained in him, as a small shard shaping his whole being, who he calls himself.
‘Am I an idealistic idiot now?’ – questioned Askuna himself, then explained his reasons to the imaginary audience – ‘I am in the fictional world, free to do anything I want, but do I want to try the forbidden fruit?’
The answer was surprisingly a big resounding, no. Some would ask, why. Why wouldn’t he like it? Well, the answer is sure he would like it, and even if he didn’t like it, he would have grown to like it with time, and with enough exposure, it even could become a great part of his identity to pursue such pleasures.
However, he considered himself to be his own crafter, and he also wanted to have control over how he was creating himself. He didn’t want to become such a sort of person, though he didn’t think it was inherently bad that someone was like that, nor he thought lesser of them, but he wasn’t like that, and he thought that had a right to choose to not be like that.
He didn’t think of himself as unbreakable, or unmalleable. In fact, he pursued everything in his life, but to be fair, it doesn’t mean he wants to add everything into himself, for them to be the defining features of his life without any structure or thought. Therefore, he didn’t think it was that necessary for him to experience such nooks and crannies of life himself, to see potential results such actions could bring or be able to consider other viewpoints.
Sure, he may never be fully able to grasp, how it is to be in another person’s situation, but it doesn’t mean that he has to, nor does it mean that considering every personal situation would be beneficial to him. He wouldn’t have life if he tried to understand everyone and everything.
But it all didn’t really matter so much, because…
He came here for another reason entirely. Mainly, to train pickpocketing on some sleeping drunkard, to power level it to 100. Maybe get some sneaking experience along the way, as he has already levelled twice walking to that place while being barely shrouded in the moonlight.
Finally, Askuna arrived at the prominent gates and was illuminated by yellow lights from the side torches, which were signifying the entrance to the rowdier district of the village. Of course, they were wide open, as if inviting all souls inside. The day and night visage of the district was incomparable.
Askuna grinned and entered the unfamiliar waters, inwardly being anxious and outwardly projecting indifference, as if he were a habitue in his natural environment.
His new escapade was about to begin.
End of Chapter 3.
Omake, alternative story for chapter 3 – one possible disastrous future for Askuna.
In the forge after being doubted for being strong, by Smith Shunichi Askuna remained nonchalant and he answered using the word the man has just said in his sentence – " I'm a strong man."
At that response, the smith looked at Askuna half-dejectedly, half-disbelievingly, and then he turned around and walked to a chest. After rummaging through it, he took out an iron lump and put it on the anvil. Afterwards, he took out a sizeable hammer from the rack and swung it with a massive bang on the iron. Then he turned around and handed it to Askuna while staring him in the eyes.
He didn’t release the hammer but held it in his grip as a show of dominance, and then he said – “Swing it like that until you can’t.”
Askuna shrugged, took the hammer in his hand and started swinging blow after blow, at the iron. Loud bangs reverberated, one after another.
Even though he wasn’t using all his strength, each strike still seemed quite overbearing in its power. Moreover, thanks to his game-like physiology and rules, he wasn’t tiring, nor his stamina was being depleted.
He swung and swung, and no one was doing anything else, but stopping what they were doing and staring at him with wide eyes.
He swung what was probably the 100th time, and the iron was probably getting hot from just strikes alone when the man stopped him saying with a grave tone – “You are using Chakra.”
Askuna paused the world he realized that what he has done now was pretty stupid. There is showing of being capable and there is flexing.
‘But the deed has been already done, now how to deal with the consequences?’ – pondered Askuna by himself, searching for solutions. In the end, he has decided to play plausible deniability, that if he is doing it, he is doing it unconsciously.
He unpaused the world, seeing that everyone is waiting for his response, therefore he gave one – “Chakra, huh?” – he uttered, then shrugged saying – “I don’t know. I was always strong.”
The pin dropped and silence was broken by shimmers of the kind like: “What a cheat!”, “No way.”, “It is unfair”, “Have you seen that?”.
He had even seen Mr Owanagi, who he had met at the back of the building, who was now staring at him with his mouth open and face full of disbelief. There were also other faces of the boss, and a secretary coming to see what the commotion was about.
‘Okay Askuna, you could have overdone it…’ – Askuna thought as he looked at the complicated expression of Master Shunichi, who gave him the test in the first place.
‘Just a tiny, little bit.’ – Askuna sweat-dropped.
“No normal men, forgive me for pointing it out, but looking as lanky as you are capable to deliver so many hammer strikes of such a calibre and…and not even look winded!” – he then pointed at himself and said – “I would be full of sweat and pained after what you have just nonchalantly pulled off, and look at me, I’m full of muscles and doing the job for the last 25 years!”.
‘Damage control Askuna, damage control.’ – Askuna was on the verge of panic, but he forced himself to stay steady and say – “Sure.” – while shrugging.
Master Shunichi opened and closed his mouth several times, not knowing how to answer, then someone approached him from behind, saying – “What is happening there, Master Shuichi.”
Boss Omuga took the reins of the commotion.
Master Shuichi turned his head to the newly arrived foreman and spoke with a heavy expression – “The lad here is too strong to be normal, what led me to believe he is using chakra.” – he looked at Askuna and stated – “There is no sweat on his body after more than sixty swings with one hand, each several times heavier than what would you normally expect.”
Omuga processed the information and turned to Askuna and asked – “Can you show us again?”
Askuna took the hammer and swung it just like before, five times in quick succession.
“Incredible.” – Boss Omuga muttered, to which Maser Shuichi commented – “Right? The break between his swings also is quite low, which would render other people’s wrists unusable after a couple of swings.” – he shook his head, then as if in an afterthought, Master Smith added what was lingering at the back of everyone's mind– “Such things are in the realm of ninjas…”
Silence ensued, everyone now looking at Askuna warily, carefully considering the matter carefully, then some murmurs stared.
Boss Omuga silenced people with a hand and directed a question to Askuna – “What do you have to say for yourself?”
Keeping to the previously established image, Askuna shrugged and said – “I don’t know, I’m strong?”.
“Bullshit” – someone in the crowd said, followed by - “liar”, “cheater”- then some worse things came up – “traitor”, “spy”.
Seeing that the situation goes out of hand, Boss Omuga shouted – “Silence! Back to your work, err… training!”- then he gestured at the people while saying – “Askuna, Master Shuichi, Mrs Shimura to my office.” - then seeing Mr Owanagi in the background, he told him – “You too, Mr Owanagi.”
They walked off, with Askuna receiving a silent stare-down from the crowd, which was promptly dispersed by one of the Masters.
The walk was kind of eerie, as no one talked to each other until they relocated to the Omuga’s office.
When they entered, Omuga gestured for people to sit at the sofas, and he himself sat in an armchair.
Mr Omuga folded his hands and cupped his chin for a second and asked Askuna – “What do you want to accomplish here, Mr Askuna?”
“Learn smithing.” – Askuna answered without a beat, at which the warehouse manager nodded. Then he said to the people – “Let’s get the whole picture first.” – he directed his gaze at Mr Owanagi and said – “You came here in the afternoon with Mr Askuna, right?”- Mr Owanagi nodded confirming that he indeed done so.
Mr Omuga wanted the whole story, therefore he continued asking -” How did you meet him today? Do you know each other?”
Mr Owanagi blushed a little, whether being in the centre of the attention or an unfortunate first encounter with Askuna remained unknown, but he dutifully answered – “I was on my break in the backyard, when Askuna started running out of the bushes, half naked and covered in dirt…”
Everyone looked at Askuna incredulously, Mr. Omuga stopped him with a hand and asked what was on everyone’s mind – “Wait! Mr Askuna why were you…you know, doing that?”
‘Shit.’ – Askuna thought and paused the world. Logically, although it would seem far-fetched, telling them some tale about squirrel chasing him could potentially turn plausible, although slightly unbelievable. Though it would still not cover his motives for being almost bare in the park left unexplained.
Nevertheless, he didn’t have that luxury, as he didn’t know how squirrel, animal or anything like that is in Japanese, nor how to tell someone that he was being chased. Though he remembered the word for running in Japanese, so having that or just silence as an answer he preferred to say that.
Therefore, he unpaused the world and said – “I was running.”
He received bewildered looks from the staff, and some more silent staring followed, which honestly was kind of a pattern recently. He didn’t know if he should be proud of it or rather ashamed.
However, Mr Omuga didn’t eat his bullshit and dwelled on it – “Running? Half-naked? In the park? Through some bushes and backyards? Surely you jest, it is not normal, is it normal anyone?” – he looked at the rest of the people, who started shaking their heads and telling – “No.”, “Not in any way.”
Then he directed his attention to Askuna – “See!? It is not normal! You can’t be fucking doing shit like this! Are you mentally ill?” – but before Askuna had the chance to defend himself, Mr Omuga asked Mr Owanagi – “And did he explain himself back then? What followed?”
Mr Owanagi, cleared his throat and resumed his story – “No, he didn’t explain himself,, I believe he shrugged when I asked him?” – he started to realize how ridiculous It sounded and added – “Then went to the other bush and came a second later clothed.” – he paused for a second then continued his perspective of events:
“I believe he offered me something to eat. It was … Onigiri! I refused it and seeing how he was dirty I offered him to get cleaned at the outdoor tap, which he agreed to.” – he paused for a second, before continuing.
‘Okay, it does in fact sound supremely weird, but in my defence… I wonder if I run now, I can get away with this…’ – Askuna considered his options, but then a brilliant idea came upon his mind – ‘I’ll just play being dumb.’
His musings continued – ‘And to be seen as dumb I must… no that is disgusting, I can’t do that… but I have to…’ – Askuna started to struggle internally with taking the next action he thought necessary yet unappealing.
‘What an adversity.’ – he thought and almost shuddered at the disgust that would follow his next action.
When Mr Owanagi was ending his storytelling, Askuna took his index finger and stuffed it into his nose, seemingly searching for a bugger, ignoring all the conversation around.
‘Oh my god! I’m doing this!’ – he forced himself to look nonchalantly.
Mr Owanagi ended his retelling and realized that everyone was staring at Askuna with revulsion or disgust.
“Mr Askuna!”- Mrs Shimura shouted and Mr Owanagi made some distance between them, as he was sitting on the same sofa.
“Hm?” – asked Askuna casually, as if he has just started to focus on the conversion. He took out the bugger and flicked it off him.
Everyone was disgusted and started to re-evaluate him. – ‘Perfect.’ – considered Askuna.
Boss Oguma, weighed some pros and cons and spoke to Mrs Shimura – “Have you sent a missive to request Askuna’s information, already? As well as a paper to register him in the company?”
Ms Shimura awakened from her distaste and replied obediently – “I haven’t sent it with a delivery boy today, as offices were already closed, I planned to throw it in the post-box when returning, or directly at the office tomorrow morning with other papers.”
“Mm… there will be no need for that.” – he directed his attention to Askuna – “Mr Askuna we do not tolerate such weird behaviours here. Also, you have proved yourself to be irresponsible by forgetting your id and behaving in an inappropriate way on a number of occasions, creating mayhem and disruption in your wake. We are regretful, but we can’t employ you here any longer, nor there will be any record of us doing so. Please leave.”
Askuna replied – “Sure.” – and prepared to leave, but he was stopped by Master Shuichi asking about the other matter.
“What about him using chakra?” – asked the man.
“Right. That is the original problem, why we have gathered here.” – commented Oguma first, but before he could continue Mrs Shimura volunteered by stating.
“I will notify appropriate authorities about this matter.” - she directed her cold gaze at Askuna.
The world froze.
Quite literally, as Askuna paused it, staring at the Danzo’s Viper.
‘Shit.’ – thought Askuna when the doom was unavoidable.