Chapter 1-beginnings

Thanks to Obsidian for beta reading.

Enjoy

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Summary:

"We shinobi are simply tools… what I wanted was his blood, not him… I have no regrets'' That line stuck with Naruto for years, so much so that he decided that he didn't want to be a tool. No, he was going to become a master of himself.

However, he wasn't going to do it half-assed. He was going to prepare. For 3 years, he prepared to leave the village hidden in the leaves.

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Key:

"Blah blah blah" is talking.

'Blah blah blah' is thinking.

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A fifteen-year-old Naruto sat on a log illuminated by the brightly lit campfire in front of him. Snoozing on the ground beside the fire was the Toad Sage, Jiraiya. They had been on the training trip for 3 years, and they were planning to head back to Konoha in just a few months. That simply meant one thing to the Uzumaki, it was time to enact his plan before he entered the belly of the beast once again.

Said plan had been festering ever since he heard the words of Zabuza. "We shinobi are simply tools." It was constantly stuck in the back of his mind and it had never quite settled with him. Were human lives nothing but puppets to the villages?

Sure, they fronted that they cared with the memorials and all that, but years later they'd be forgotten. They'd be forgotten just like some broken tool. Human lives were worth more than that, they were the whole reason the villages even existed in the first place.

The teen took a deep breath as he realized his anger was growing and his hands were gripping the log a bit too much. Going back to the plan, he was going to become a missing-nin. It was ironic, he'd fought for Sasuke to stay but yet there he was, about to do the same thing. As he thought about it, he and Sasuke weren't that different in their reasons.

They didn't like being a tool and weren't going to be one any longer.

Taking the headband off his head, he looked at it with a sad smile. He may have forsaken the village but he would forever remember the people within it that cared for him. Iruka-sensei, Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, Tsunade, and the geezer that lay in front of him out cold.

Placing the headband in his pocket, the teen rubbed away some stray tears and looked at his sensei. The Uzumaki had made dinner that night and put something a little extra in Jiraiya's portion. The geezer wouldn't wake anytime soon and when he did, one hell of a stomach ache was in order. Naruto was going to get him back for leaving him in the village throughout his childhood, one way or another.

What kind of man disregarded his god-son who he knew was going to be hated by those around him? A sigh exited his mouth, it didn't matter. What's done was done, but he was going to make him regret his decision for the rest of his life.

Staring into the fire, he ran over his plan for the hundredth time. He would take all the supplies he needed, terminate his contract with the toads, change clothes and destroy his current ones since he didn't know if they could be tracked. He then would cover his tracks as he left, go change his appearance, and then go to a bounty hunting office, one location of which he had in mind.

The Bounty Hunters were Naruto's go-to for starting a new life. He'd researched their organization many times and found that he liked it. All of the problems that came with being a shinobi for a village seemed to be covered by the Bounty Hunter Association, almost like it was created by someone that hated the villages.

They even had a specific rule that stated that they would not accept anyone under the age of 16 as a Bounty Hunter. It was still a little low but in a world where people learned how to kill before learning how kids were made, it was high enough.

Shaking his head, Naruto went back to his planning and ran through his steps.

Step one was complete as he looked at the backpack sitting on the ground. Step two was the more difficult part, he respected the Toads, and what he was about to do bothered him greatly. In his mind, he told himself that it was all in goodwill as he opened the Toad contract scroll.

After many long nights, he discovered a way to terminate his contract without talking to a toad or breaking a rule. It was quite simple too, all he had to do was burst Kyuubi's chakra into the blood on the contract.

The corrosiveness of the chakra would burn away the blood which would make the contract null. The only problem Naruto had was getting the approval of the Kyuubi, whose chakra he needed.

Entering a meditative pose, he tried to enter his mind. Soon, he succeeded and found himself standing in ankle-high water.

On the other side of the bars was land, although poor looking, there was land. "What do you want?" The Kitsune questioned, sprawled out on the ground. "What's with the attitude?"

The fox laughed, "I'm enjoying my relaxation. What is it?" Naruto began to explain and once the fox heard "toad contract" and "terminate", his decision was made. "Yes, use however much you need."

Naruto was kicked out of his mind and found himself on the log. Even though the two of them were on friendlier terms, the Kyuubi was still an ass. They'd agreed to not use each other as tools and that is what led to their friendlier relationship.

Shaking his head once more, the jinchuuriki ran through the steps for the summoning jutsu. He needed proof that the contract had been nullified and a simple way to do that was to summon a toad then if they were taken back to Mount Myoboku it was successful.

A small orange toad was soon summoned onto the ground. "What'd you summon me for?" Gamatatsu questioned.

As Naruto put a glove on his right hand, he handed the toad a chocolate bar with his left. "I needed help ranking this chocolate bar." The toad was more than happy to help as he took the bar. Opening the wrapper, he looked up. "The smell is a 7/10. Is this dark chocolate?"

As the teen placed his gloved hand on the dried blood, he nodded to the toad. "Yes. It's my last gift to you, Tatsu." The toad didn't even notice the words that came after "yes" as Naruto's glove burned orange with bijuu chakra.

Sizzling was heard and with an interested gaze, he swiped the blood away and looked over to see Gamatatsu puff into smoke. It was a success. Throwing the chakra conductive glove into the fire, Naruto rolled up the giant scroll and set it down beside Jiraiya.

A small laugh exited as the man wrapped his arms around it like a pillow. The laugh stopped whenever Jiraiya started to say Tsunade's name and use groping actions on the scroll. "Once a pervert, always a pervert." He said with a little disgust.

Naruto took a glance around him before pulling a magazine from his backpack. It was a yaoi ero magazine that he'd managed to snag from a store a while back for that exact reason. Placing the magazine over the eyes of the pervert, he giggled a bit. Payback was a bitch.

Taking a step back, he admired his work before unzipping his clothes and throwing them into the fire, excluding his headband of course. Reaching into the backpack that was resting against the log, he pulled out a small scroll.

It was a storage scroll that Jiraiya had taught him to make, along with the many other things he forced him to learn. He never did find out why he needed to learn the proper way to catcall a lady of the night.

Passing it off as Jiraiya being Jiraiya, the teen opened up the seal to show a whole new outfit. It was a brown civilian outfit that was riddled with tears along with a straw hat to cover his blonde hair. With his bare booty cheeks illuminated by the fire, the Uzumaki chuckled.

He would look so dumb in it but what did that matter when he was trying to blend in? Throwing it all on, he tightened the strap of the hat and reached down to grab his bag. Some beggar wouldn't have a backpack so he needed to change how it looked.

With the work of another seal, the backpack took the appearance of a wooden basket. Placing it on his arm, he grabbed some mud from the ground to cover his whiskers. Staring into the fire, Naruto stood there for a while.

His eyes moved from the fire to the headband resting in his palm. 'Maybe I could still use it.' He thought to himself. A sigh exited his mouth and he threw the headband into the fire.

It was the end of that chapter of his life and any remnants of it would just be painful. Turning his back on his old life, he vanished with a breeze that followed the shunshin no jutsu. If one looked carefully, they'd see a single water droplet fall from where his face used to be.

*A few minutes later*

Naruto ran through the woods with his feet barely touching the limbs of the trees. The key to leaving no trace was a weightless step, one that Jiraiya would soon regret teaching him. The geezer would also regret teaching Naruto how to read a map and find landmarks as he pulled out the piece of paper.

Naruto remembered him saying they were in Hotspring country, so the Village Hidden in the Hot Water would be the closest to go for part five of the plan. They usually kept to themselves anyway so he wouldn't have much trouble. Another thing was that within the village was a store that sold hair dyes and contacts.

The best part was the village was a 30-minute run away. On the way, Naruto decided to rethink his following plans. Changing his appearance without the henge was optimal so the good old fashion ways were in order.

The store that sold hair dyes didn't exactly sell hair dyes. Instead, it was a contact shop that had newspapers taped to the wall outside. Using a key, one could find the needed ingredients for changing your hair color naturally.

The store was a place where the spies of Konoha could change their appearance and the people that ran the store didn't know so they never tried to remember people or what they bought.

His thoughts took a turn as he ran through the woods. What was he going to say to get into the village? The guards needed a name and business just like any other hidden village so he needed to come up with it.

An idea came to mind. Taking a page from Hinata's book, he could be a shy kid that stuttered. That got people really soft for smooth-talking. The rest of the small backstory formed as he ran to the village.

Soon, he saw the gates that marked the entrance of the village hidden in hot water. The teen cleared his thoughts as he started walking at a civilian pace to the village gate.

Whenever he got to said entrance, the guards took a look at him. "Hello, sir, may I ask your business in Yugakure?" Naruto started to get into character.

"M-M-My dad sent me to grab a gift for my sister's birthday." He avoided smiling as he saw the guards buy it. "Alright, enjoy your time here. Feel free to ask anyone for help if you need it." Naruto walked through the gate and ignored all the solicitors.

They didn't even ask his name. It was kind of disappointing that his character known as Emanuel would never see the light of day. Walking to the dye shop, he gave a small prayer to Emanuel. The imaginary boy could rest easy as Naruto arrived and started to decode the newspapers for a black hair dye.

The recipe required Butternut tree roots, specifically young ones. They needed to be ground into a paste and rubbed into the hair. Looking for a little longer, he found the locations of the Butternut trees. It just happened that one of the locations was the place he was heading for, the Bounty Hunter Station.

Nami no Kuni was that place, and he wanted to go there for a couple of reasons. One, he wanted to see how the town he saved was doing … two, Zabuza and Haku's graves were there which would allow him to pay respects to the fallen shinobi.

He wondered if Inari became a nice kid after their time together. Pushing away that thought for later, he turned to walk into the store. As he did so, a brightly lit sign above the door caught his eye. 'Makeup and contacts sold within.'

The teen smiled at the convienience, it meant that he no longer had to go to a makeup store as well. Even better it meant he wouldn't have to deal with the perfume that usually filled the makeup stores. He walked into the store and up to the counter, changing his face into shy little Emanuel once more and resummoning his soul.

"E-Excuse me, ma'am. I-I'm trying to get a birthday present for my sister, could you help?" The older lady nodded her head with a kind smile. "How old is your sister?" Naruto pretended to think for a second.

"S-She will be 15 in two days. My dad told me to find something called foundation because it could cover up her birthmark." The older lady guided Naruto down the counter to the foundation part. "What color is her skin and what type of birthmark?" Naruto rubbed away the mud on his face to show his whiskers.

"T-They look like this and she's the same color as me. We're twins." The lady nodded. "If you don't mind, I'd like to test a few on you to see if they work." Naruto returned the nod and jumped up on a chair. Grabbing a small container, the woman brushed the powder on his face.

A few shades of the foundation later, the two were standing at the register. Naruto's whiskers had been hidden as a show of how the foundation would work on his imaginary. "700 Ryo." Naruto suddenly remembered something.

"S-Sorry but could I get a pair of green contact lenses? M-My sister has two different colored eyes and she thinks it makes her look ugly." The woman went to grab some before heading back. "I put the instructions in the bag. It's still 700."

"T-T-Thank you." Naruto paid and left quickly with his things. Once he was outside, he shivered in cringe. He was NOT doing the stutter thing anymore, it made him feel cringy. Placing Emanuel to rest one more time, the boy walked to the last stop and pulled the necklace off his neck before heading in. He was at a jeweler and luckily, there were no people in the store beside the one worker behind the desk.

"Excuse me, do you buy jewelry?" The man looked up with a bored face and nodded. Naruto set down the necklace and the man perked up in interest. "Let me grab my boss." A few moments later, a bigger-boned man waltzed in and looked at the crystal with a monocle.

"How much do you want?" Naruto sharpened his gaze. "60." The jeweler sharpened his own. "45." Naruto shook his head. "50 or I go over to the shop across the street." The man outstretched his hand and shook with Naruto.

"50,000 Ryo, I'm going to take this into the back." The big man walked off leaving the worker to pay Naruto. With a good amount of cash, he headed to the exit. Once outside, he pulled out Gama-chan.

He might have parted with his Konoha shinobi life but Gama-chan was not going to be destroyed. The little toad meant too much to him. Said little toad wasn't exactly little anymore as 50,000 Ryo entered his tummy.

Taking a separate wallet from his pocket, he took the money from it and put it in there as well, making Gama-chan into an obese Toad. The second wallet was Jiraiya's, which he snagged earlier in the night. Naruto was disappointed in the geezer, he seemed loaded but the cash he carried was minimal, that was probably the reason he always stole from him.

He did find a coupon for ramen though, so that soon found its way into his pocket. Funnily enough, the wallet also found its way. Onto a carriage that was about to leave, that is. He knew Jiraiya had a tracking seal on that wallet, he wasn't that dumb.

Leaving the village wasn't that hard as a wave was given to the two guards. Now, he just had to go through the 4 hour run to Nami. As he walked, he wondered how Tsunade would react whenever she found out about what had happened. That brain food would keep him entertained for the entirety of the run.

*A little while later in Konoha*

Tsunade sat in her office enjoying a nice bottle of sake with the moonlight as her company whenever a toad jumped through the window. "What is your report?" The toad croaked and pointed outside the building. Tsunade looked and found Gamabunta standing there.

"How did I…" The Hokage sighed and headed to greet the chief. Once in front of him, she held a look of confusion. "Did Jiraiya do something stupid?" The toad shook his head and spat out some smoke.

"One of my boys went to ask him a question about a mission and found him out cold with a Yaoi magazine over his face." The woman burst into laughter. "Oh, Naruto's gotten better with his pranks. Did you get pictures?"

The toad chief kept a straight face. "That's the problem, Naruto was not there. My boy managed to get Jiraiya up but he was soon shitting his brains out in the woods. He investigated the area and found the remnants of Naruto's clothing within the fire."

Gamabunta nodded to the toad that croaked at Tsunade earlier and he handed the woman a burnt headband. "A very elaborate prank?" The woman guessed. "Just reverse summon him, he's given Jiraiya enough of a scare."

The giant toad saw Tsunade still thought this was a joke. "You misunderstand. We do not know where Naruto is and our contract has been nullified. His clothing has been burned and no traces remained."

The Senju looked the toad in the eyes. "Stop it with the prank already. He's already scared me enough." The toad kept eye contact as she realized he was being serious. "Get Jiraiya here now. I want your toads searching in a five mile radius, and I will be sending out an ANBU squad."

The toad shook his head and placed his hand in front of the Lady Hokage. "If Naruto has defected as we believe then the ANBU squad will do no good. You and I both know he was trained to escape S-rank shinobi like the Akatsuki, ANBU would be fodder to him."

Tsunade punched the Toad's hand with all her strength, causing a loud boom. "Naruto would never defect!" She screamed. The toad merely sighed. "He has every reason to." With that sentence, he puffed into a cloud of smoke, leaving Tsunade to fester her thoughts.

One thought that wasn't in her mind, but should've been, was how lucky they were that the people of Konoha weren't active much at that time. Their shouting match was outside, and loud, after all.

*Nami*

Naruto stood over the graves of Zabuza and Haku. His hair now a pitch-black color, his eyes an emerald green, and his whiskers covered up with foundation. He'd spent the past couple of minutes cleaning up the place, which was in dire need of it.

Roots and plants were growing over everything. The teen didn't even want to know how a sake bottle got there but he left it anyways. Thinking back, it was probably something Tazuna left.

The old man was one hell of a drunk back then. Naruto's little reminiscing session was cut short by the sound of someone walking behind him. "Who are you?" The little voice asked, causing Naruto to turn around.

He already knew who it was by the voice but seeing the boy was different from hearing his voice. A small smile came to his face as he saw Inari but quickly turned back to the graves. "An old friend of Haku's. I just came to see her grave, but I can leave if you'd like"

The Nami citizen shook his head. "No, who am I to kick you from the resting place of an old friend? Stay as long as you need." When Naruto heard Inari begin to walk back, he took the chance to talk with the kid a little bit.

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you up here?" Inari stopped and turned back around. "I check daily to make sure someone didn't steal the sword. Zabuza was considered one of the heroes of Nami, so his sword is valuable to us."

Naruto nodded. "I see. I thank you for doing such, but why don't you guys build something around these graves, or bring it somewhere else?" The Nami citizen shrugged. "Ask the mayor. We have been telling him that for years, but he just says to leave it." Naruto clicked his teeth, he was probably doing something shady.

"Well, thank you for telling me." The smaller child kept walking away as he put his hand over his shoulder. "No problem. You have a nice day, mister." The Uzumaki gave his goodbye and continued to stand over the graves.

As he stood there, he couldn't stop himself from thinking about taking the blade. If it was with him then it wouldn't have the chance of being stolen. The only problem was he couldn't use it, because who wouldn't notice a big-ass sword with a hole in it?

If he sealed it up then it would just sit unused, as it did at the moment. "Ah, fuck it." Ripping the giant blade from the ground, Naruto almost lost his balance. "How did he swing this thing like that? Even with my strength, it's heavy as hell."

Bringing it up to balance on his shoulder, he grabbed a scroll from his backpack turned basket. Rolling it out, he chucked the blade off his shoulder and placed it over the seal. With a little chakra, the rusted blade was sealed up.

The scroll was placed within his basket and off he went. He needed to find Zabuza's base. It was a free place to stay after all. To begin the search, he needed to find the field where he first met Haku. The kid loved Zabuza, there was no way she'd go too far from him in an injured state.

He bet on the girl's love for her surrogate father for his new rent-free home. If he was lucky, some supplies would still be there too and he could use them. Alas, he had to find the field first and fifteen minutes passed as he tried to find it.

The Uzumaki found it eventually, mostly because the trees he'd demolished still hadn't grown back. Remembering where Haku left, he followed the trail and hoped he was lucky.

Since his luck was equivalent to that of the devil's, he had found something a bit off a few minutes into the walk. The ground beside a really large tree was a little raised. Naruto could tell there was a hatch but the only reason it was like that was lack of maintenance.

The hatch opened with a little difficulty and a smell hit Naruto's nose. It was the smell of dried blood, the musk of a man, and a small whiff of perfume that immediately brought Naruto back to the bridge.

Zabuza and Haku appearing out of the mist was a scene that never left his mind. Clearing said mind, he entered the cellar-like structure. Beside the ladder, he found a paper tag and leaned closer to see the formula.

After looking at it carefully, he saw it was a switch seal so he pulsed his chakra through it. A few seconds passed before the place lit up and he started climbing down again. Once at the bottom of the ladder, Naruto recognized the shape of the place.

It was an old wine cellar with an arch roof and heavy-looking support beams. It was probably built under a house and the house got destroyed a few decades before. Looking around, the boy found two makeshift rooms separated by a heavy curtain.

They were pretty much identical bedrooms with a bed, dresser, and bedside table. The beds were raised from the ground by some metal and under them was a chest. Picking one of them, he pulled it out. If the masculine smell told him anything, it was Zabuza's.

The chest opened easy enough and Naruto knew the contents from a single glimpse. It was Zabuza's old uniform when he was a Kiri shinobi. "Damn, why does it smell so bad?"

It was true, the thing smelled like rotten fish, armpit, and dried blood. It was so bad that the chest was closed quickly and he waved the air away from his nose. "Ooh, god damn." Pulling out a small piece of cloth, he covered his nose.

The cloth stayed in place as he looted the rest of the Kiri shinobi's quarters, resulting in him getting some rations and a few pairs of oversized clothing items that belonged to Zabuza. He had half a mind to leave Haku's things alone, he didn't feel right going through a girl's things.

Adding in the fact she had been dead for years made it even creepier. The Uzumaki was about to leave the bunker when his curiosity got the better of him. If he could get a couple of senbon from the girl then it would be ideal. It wasn't like she needed them anyways.

Walking to the dresser, he began peeking into the drawers. The top drawer of the dresser was shirts, the second was… some feminine things, and the third drawer was what Naruto was looking for.

A couple of packs of senbon, a whetstone, and a spare mask. This was good, very good in fact. Although he was going to be a bounty hunter, which had access to pretty much everything, the mask of a Kiri ANBU would sure help in some missions.

Moving onto the chest below the bed, Naruto found some old toys and dolls. Quickly closing it, he placed a lock seal over it. The Uzumaki wasn't messing with the dolls of a dead girl any time soon. Walking to the bedside table, a few bandage rolls were visible on the top.

Within the drawer of the table was a candy bar. A very old candy bar at that. Naruto grabbed it to throw away before closing the drawer and walking back to the ladder. The boy climbed the ladder and turned off the lights as he climbed out.

Once outside, his number one priority was to hide the entrance better. It was quite easy by just moving some dirt around it and covering the imperfections with sticks or leaves. Number two was something much easier and didn't require him to walk any further, sleep.

Going back into the cellar, he laid on Zabuza's bed to get some shut-eye but not before taking out his contacts. The teen placed them on the bedside table and took a guess at the time. It was probably 11 so he'd probably wake up at around eight or so.

Yawning and shutting his eyes, the teen went to sleep.

*The next morning, 9:30*

Gorggily waking up in complete darkness, Naruto reached up onto the wall beside his bed to turn on the light. After finding it, some chakra was sent to it and light burned his eyes as they adjusted.

A few minutes later, he sat up and stretched some. The plan for the day was to go get registered as a Bounty Hunter but after standing up, he realized some other things needed to be done.

He needed to make sure he had everything he needed and he needed some food before going to the office. Reaching down to the basket, the teen dumped out the contents on the bed. There were nothing but scrolls upon scrolling.

With a checklist in his mind, he checked them off by reading their labels. "Bandages, rations, culinary knives, pans, silverware, armory, clothing, backup pouch, fun stuff." He quickly slid the 'fun stuff' scroll back into the basket before continuing. "and lighters." The last thing was quite needed considering the boy couldn't perform Katon jutsu.

Actually, he couldn't perform any elemental jutsu. The reason being he held no elemental affinity. It was why he could use the Rasengan so effectively, he had an affinity for non-elemental.

The teen still remembered how many times Jiraiya made him use chakra paper. He must've gone through 20 sheets that day, dubbing many of them defective. Whenever he finally figured out he just didn't have an affinity then he just started teaching the teen everything but elemental jutsu.

Naruto's favorite part was when Jiraiya taught him to use many different weapons effectively, hence the armory scroll. The armory scroll was all the weapons he learned to use in separate little seals that Jiraiya had to make because it was too hard for Naruto.

He still didn't understand how the old geezer could write seals so small. A sigh exited before placing all the scrolls but 'clothing' and 'armory' back in the basket which he reverted to a backpack. Opening the clothing scroll produced a very casual outfit.

Said outfit consisted of gray sweatpants, a t-shirt, and closed-toe sandals. After changing his clothes, he opened up the armory scroll and picked a weapon to use for Bounty Hunter registration.

One seal caught his eye, the naginata. He loved using that thing but it wasn't that convenient so he didn't use it often. Unsealing the weapon, it poofed into existence with a wrap around it and a strap to put on his back.

He put it on, put everything up, and headed out to the village. More specifically, he was heading to a resturant.

*A few minutes later, Tsunami sushi restaurant*

Naruto sat at the sushi bar with a very satisfied face. In front of him sat three maguro sushi, ginger slices, a dish of soy sauce, and a fresh pair of chopsticks. Breaking the chopsticks apart, he grabbed one of the sushi, dipped the fish side into the soy sauce, and ate the beautiful food.

A groan of excitement exited him. He never thought he'd enjoy Tsunami's food again. The food brought back memories that he wanted to forget, the two vile people that he called teammates and the sensei that never taught them jutsu to use in battle but damn, it was good enough to ignore the memories.

So good in fact that he ate them all in a few seconds. Not wanting to eat too much, he placed his chopsticks into the small disposal bag. A sigh escaped his lips and he looked up to the chef. "Gochisousama"

After complimenting the man, he took his bill to the cashier by the exit and paid. Once out, a quick stroll down to the bounty office was in order. He soon found the establishment and headed inside. Inside, the teen was met by an old man sketching a bounty poster.

"Take whatever you want here, I suggest the wall to your left, those are the closet ones." Naruto took that information for later and walked to the man. "I'd like to register as a Hunter." The man glanced up.

"Head into the back and take a seat. Someone will come to get you." Naruto walked back and sat down in a waiting room after placing his naginata against the wall. Sitting on a table in front of him was a paper labeled: "Becoming a registered hunter has perks"

Grabbing it, the Uzumaki read the list of perks. You are allowed access to any village without much hassle. You gain more money per bounty compared to a non-registered. You can enter the Land of Iron and train with the samurai if you wish.

The Land of Iron was the bounty hunter hotspot, but it didn't make sense to Naruto. If you wanted to make a headquarters for bounty hunters, why not in the middle of the continent? Like the village hidden in the rain, it would give a lot of profit to the small village and would be very convenient for all hunters.

As he was about to place the paper back, he saw a paragraph on the bottom. It stated that you could raise ranks within the Bounty Hunter Association the more bounties you complete and also, the back had the rules of the Association along with a short history. Flipping it over, the teen began reading.

'There are few rules within our association. Number one is to just use common sense. Two: the only bounties accepted are those of missing-nin to keep a good relationship with the hidden villages. Three: bounties must be recognizable whenever their bodies are turned in. Four: no interfering with another hunter's job unless requested or the situation calls for it. In the case of such a situation, the bounty will be split based on the contribution of each hunter.

Five: Any dispute between hunters shall be solved with the station leader serving as a judge. Six: You must be at least 16 to complete any bounties by yourself. If you're under this age then you must be accompanied by an adult.'

The rules ended and the short history started. 'Our Association was first founded by Hisato Daizu whenever he noticed how sloppy the bounty hunters within the elemental nations were. After gathering many bounty hunters in his group, he began to make deals with hidden villages and grew his influence.

Eventually, he grew the respect of the samurai within the Land of Iron who offered a piece of land to be the Association's Headquarters. Association leader Daizu accepted and with the help of the Samurai General Mifune, he forged an even better Association.

Today we have placed stations within almost every nation and have become the peace officers that take out the criminals in the elemental nations.' The Uzumaki set the paper back down and looked up to see a woman walking toward him.

The woman got up to him and handed him a clipboard with a pen resting on the top. "The first page is the information you need to know and agree to, read it all then fill it out. The second page is the information we need to register you. Whenever you get done, please head to that desk right over there."

The teen followed her finger and saw a small reception desk sitting in a corner. After he gave a nod, she headed to that desk. Looking down, he began to read over the waver. It was just the rules and perks again but the end was something Naruto didn't see on the other paper.

It was the ranking system of the Association so he started reading. 'Within the association, there were two main roles; Hunter and Officer. The jobs of the two are different; Hunters complete bounties while Officers enforce the rules and keep political stillness with their neighboring government.

Aside from their jobs, their ranking system is different as well. Hunter ranks are letter based while the Officer ranks are number based.

For Hunters, every rank is given by completing 100 bounties. Corresponding with each of the 100 bounties completed was the letter rank system similar to the one that shinobi used; starting at D and going to S.

The officers have it a bit differently. Their ranks go up if they prove themselves and a superior believed they deserve a promotion. The ranks themselves start at 7 and went to a 1 with the 7-6 officers controlling small city bounty stations, 5-4 large city stations, and 3-1 being part of the council of executives which will be explained at the end of this paper.'

Naruto moving onto the next section, titled "How to become an officer".

'To become an officer, you must complete 300 bounties and get the recommendation of an officer or pass the officer test. Many use the officer test as you only required 100 bounties to qualify for it. As such, it is a difficult test and tests your leading abilities along with your knowledge.'

The section ended with that paragraph and moved on to a new section titled "hierarchy".

'The hierarchy within the association is relatively simple. You can think of it as a stack of boxes with one box to the side. The top box is the Association Leader, and that one side box is a separate branch of hunters that only follow his orders known as the legion.

The Legion, as said before, is not under anyone but the Association leader himself and carries out the mission of keeping the association free of corruption and solving any other problems that arise.

Said legion is joinable by taking a trial hosted every year to replace the deceased. Back to the analogy, the box just below the Association Leader is the executive council, which handles most problems too small for the presence of the Association Leader.

Below them are the Officers and Hunters, which have an equivalent ranking system for the lower ranks. A rank 7 officer is equal to a C rank Hunter in influence. Moving up the list, 6 is equal to B, 5 to A, 4 to S, and any officer 3 or above are above all hunters.'

Naruto looked away from the paper and blinked a couple of times. It was quite a lot of reading. Going back, he saw that he'd read it all and went to sign. Moving the paper to the back of the stack, the teen started the registration.

'Are you a shinobi with prior training? If so, what was your rank? Yes, chunin. I did have that field promotion after all. Do I have a bounty? Not right now. Do you have any injuries? No. Do you have anything you won't do? No. Age? I'll go with 16. Name? Why is the name the last thing on the paper? Whatever, let's go with Masao Nari.'

Masao was the name he had created on his trip to Nami. Masao meant holy or righteous. The last name of Nari stood for virtue so in short, his name meant Holy Virtue. He thought it was ironic because he had been called a demon by the villagers, the exact opposite of holy.

Shaking his thoughts away, he made sure that the paper was filled out and noticed a small piece on the bottom with a chibi character beside it. 'Hello new hunter prospect, I'm here to explain the process of becoming a Hunter to you.

After you turn this paper in, you will receive a test of your chakra levels and a test for your close combat skills. This will not affect your rank as everyone starts as a D rank Hunter and moves up. It is just to figure out how difficult D-rank missions we can give you.

Do not fret, these D-rank missions aren't the chores that shinobi complete. Our D-rank missions are actual missions but their difficulty is small so we give them to you newer Hunters. Once you complete these two tests, a handler will be appointed to you and you will report to them after every bounty. Then you are free to do bounties! Have a great day!'

Beside the last part was the chibi character giving a kiss. 'The hell kind of idiot made this?' The male questioned himself before capping his pen. Somewhere north, a man sneezed papers off his desk.

Naruto grabbed his weapon from the wall and made his way to the desk where he handed over the clipboard. The woman took it with a smile and spoke, "Thank you, just give me a few minutes to put you in the system. In the meantime, please do head over to the room down that hall labeled 4."

Naruto nodded and off he went to room 4. Upon entering, the Uzumaki looked around. They had a chakra testing machine in one corner and a weapon rack in the other beside a small open space.

Figuring that the chakra tester was first, he sat down on the seat and released some of the seals on his chakra to equal it with a high chunin. Said seals sealed back his chakra level which made his chakra control better.

Or at least that was Jiraiya's training theory. If he had a hard time controlling all of his chakra, why not split it up and control it bit by bit? The teen couldn't lie, the old method of divide and conquer was still useful.

He still didn't like how the seals were placed though. Since they limited his chakra into six levels, each one corresponding to a letter rank, he needed six seals. Getting six seals etched into your skin to decrease the likelihood of it being wiped off was not fun.

It made Naruto wish he could've summoned the shinigami to place them like the seal that held Kyuubi but that would require his soul and that wasn't happening. He didn't plan on losing his soul anytime soon, especially for something like that.

Thinking about the seal brought up memories of his parents. The way he confirmed who his father still astounded him, it was the dumbest little thing. Throughout his childhood, he kind of guessed Minato Namikaze was his father considering they were pretty much clones but he never had solid evidence.

That solid evidence came in the form of how he threw his kunai. Most people kept a straight wrist whenever they threw kunai but he couldn't. Whenever he flung his arm, his wrist would fold.

One day while practicing, he just happened to be with Iruka-sensei who commented that he threw like the Fourth Hokage. That was the placement of the nail and the final strike was when he learned that the Fourth Hokage had a wrist defect where any force would make it fold and said defect was hereditary.

If that wasn't enough evidence then he didn't know what was. His mother was even easier to find out. All he had to do was look for an Uzumaki in the shinobi records, which wasn't exactly legal.

He eventually found Kushina and he knew from her facial structure it was his mother. A bitter smile appeared on his face until he realized a woman was standing in front of him. "Ah sorry, I was deep in thought."

The woman chuckled. "I could tell. Place your hands into the machine and please force out your chakra." He followed instructions and the woman stared at her computer screen.

"B rank chakra. I take it that's your weapon?" She questioned, pointing at the wrapped-up Naginata. Naruto pulled his hands out of the machine and unwrapped the blade. It was plain, very plain. There wasn't even paint on the grip, just a basic wood finish.

The woman walked over to the weapon wall and grabbed herself a naginata from the wall before walking into the open space. "You have 30 seconds to make me submit once I say go." The teen walked in front of her and gave a quick bow before the words "go" graced his ears.

Naruto appeared before the woman with a sweep at her legs. She responded with a jump and a kick toward his face only to be blocked by the weapon. The weapon become a temporary springboard as she jumped off it and landed in a crouch.

The boy didn't even move from the weight and thought to himself that she was quite light. "Is jutsu allowed?" A simple nod answered that question. Switching the naginata to his right hand, he brought the blade back and brought his left hand up to form hand signs while running at her.

'Ninpou: Doku Kiri' The green gas escaped his mouth and covered half of the space. It was a nice jutsu he'd learned from Shizune. The woman within the cloud held her breath and tried to jump out of it. She was stopped by a wall of steel wire that cut into her skin.

A downward strike of her naginata was supposed to deal with them if Naruto didn't move them causing her to lose balance and fall toward the ground. She managed to catch herself but it proved futile as Naruto's blade rested under her chin.

"A-rank naginatajutsu, impressive." She mentioned while the teen moved his weapon and helped the woman up. "I worked hard." He assured her while going to grab the wrap for his weapon.

Once it was wrapped up, he looked at the woman. "Go back to the waiting area, someone will come to get you for your ID picture." A nod and a thanks were given before he headed to the chair-filled area.

He didn't have to wait long before someone came to get him. It was a young man, one that he knew a bit too well. "Follow me so we can get your picture." Once they were going down the hall, Inari turned.

"Thanks for cleaning up the graves by the way. I've been meaning to do it but I was just too busy." Naruto just nodded. "It's no problem kid. Say, how old are you by the way?" Inari didn't answer until they entered a room.

"I'm 11. Step in front of that white curtain and look right at the red dot." There was a flash and the teen's picture was completed. "I'm only working right now because school is out and I'm trying to stay busy." The little boy said, reaching into a machine.

Pulling a small card from the machine, he handed it to Naruto. "That's your ID, show that whenever you enter a village or complete a bounty elsewhere. I'll see you around, Masao." Naruto shook the little boy's hand and out he went to the front.

On his way, he realized the cheeky brat never gave him his name. With a shake of his head, he grew an amused look as he entered the front area. Turning to his left, Naruto saw the old man drawing and cleared his throat.

"Pick one from the wall to your right for your test. You will be handled by Sadow." said the old man, not even looking up. Naruto looked around the room and found a man leaning against the wall beside the door.

The man pushed himself off the wall and nodded to the teen. Said man had brown hair, a square face, and blue eyes. "I'm Sadow, I'll be your handler." Naruto outreached his hand for a handshake. "Na…" He caught himself.

"Nari Masao, nice to meet you." The handshake finished and Sadow pointed to the wall. "Pick whatever you want." Naruto almost laughed. He couldn't pick whatever he wanted, it was a test to see if you'd get yourself killed.

Even among the D-rank posters, there were still some that would easily be lethal to a beginner. Looking over the posters, he saw they all included the same information. The posters all included a picture, the last known location, the price for non-registered and registered bounty hunters, how they were wanted ie dead or alive, along with the bounty's rank.

Just for the fuck of it, he picked one of the ones that would be lethal to a beginner. It was 50,000 Ryo for captured dead. Equal to Tsunade's necklace in price. "I'll go with this one." He plucked it from the wall and handed it to the old man.

The old man pulled out a small file from the desk beside him. "Here's all the info you need to know." Naruto grabbed it and walked as he pulled out the info. The bounty was Kai Moon, a retired special jonin of Sunagakure, wanted dead or alive, neither affecting the price.

He had been recently spotted on the eastern beach of Hi no Kuni, roughly 40 miles from Nami. The reason his bounty was so low was that he was disabled. He could no longer use the speed that he was once known for nor could he use his sword.

The moon blade, as he was called, was no more. A smile grew on Naruto's face, signaling a plan forming. If he managed to learn from the man then he would grow stronger. He could easily pay off the man's bounty with the money he got from Tsunade's necklace. "Alright, let's get going." He spoke to himself.

The Uzumaki set off and with his pace, he'd be there in 40 minutes. It would've been 40 minutes if he didn't stop by his bunker to grab his backpack that he forgot.

Soon enough, Naruto was in a small beach town. It was a spot many retired people went to live out their days. Before he went inside, Naruto hid his gear and placed his naginata back into the scroll.

Walking inside, Naruto went straight to a bar. Information was very easy to get from someone who was always around intoxicated people. When he got inside, the teen walked up to the bartender and sat down.

"I don't serve minors." The man said, glaring at the Namikaze. Naruto just smiled and put on his little act. "I'm here to find my father. I haven't seen him for 7 years and I heard he was around here. I was hoping you could help me."

The bartender looked into Naruto's eyes, he knew how to read people. "What will you do if you find your father?" Naruto took a deep breath and acted sad. "My mother passed away a few months back and she wanted us to give him her ashes. I'm just trying to find him and complete my mother's wish."

Naruto produced a small vial of ash from his backpack and showed it with two hands. The man grew a sad smile. "My condolences. What does your father look like?" Naruto cleared his throat and recited the description he'd gotten in the file.

"He has a goatee and a bald head. His beard is black and his eyes are the same color as mine." He said while blinking said eyes. The bartender rubbed his goatee and thought for a second.

"He's been in town for a few weeks. He lives in the lodge up the road. Normally, the innkeeper wouldn't give you a room number but just tell him that I sent you." Naruto jumped down from the chair and gave one of his old pure smiles.

"Thank you, mister. I'll make sure to pay you back for this." A quick bow and Naruto was running out the door. He slowed his pace once outside and slid the vial of 'ashes' back into his backpack.

In reality, it was just a vial of powder deodorant. He liked to smell good and he didn't like the bulky stick. Eventually, the teen found the lodge and walked to the front desk. Naruto gave the man a greeting nod and spoke. "Excuse me, I'm looking for my father and I was told by the bartender down the street that he lived here. Do you mind if I can get his room number?"

"What's the name?" Naruto strached his head in a sheepish manner. "Well, he's been trying to avoid me so I don't know what name he'd be using. He's bald and has a goatee though, if that helps."

The innkeeper nodded and looked into his system. "Room 302 under the name of Kenji. I saw him leave earlier and I haven't seen him come back yet. He's been fishing recently so you could probably find him at the dock."

"Thank you, sir." The Namikaze left and went to the dock. It wasn't very crowded for a public dock and he saw the sun gleaming off a shiny bald head. Seeing the target, he also took notice that the man was missing his left arm and was holding a fishing pole with his right.

That's was one hell of a disability but a true sword master would overcome it. That was his hope at least. If he got close to him and startled him, then he'd be able to see if he truly lost his capabilities.

Naruto went to walk up to him and whenever Kai swung the fishpole like he was going to slash Naruto but the teen was at least two feet away from the tip of it. To his surprise, an arc of energy came off the pole and flew towards him.

The shunshin saved his ass and he appeared behind the man. Before he could elbow backward, the tenketsu in his arm was hit and it went limp. The next motion was a donkey kick to the teen's testicles which were once again saved by a shunshin.

He appeared in front of Kai while one of the man's legs was still kicked back and kicked him in the chest. Naruto cringed as he heard the dock break under Kai's weight. "Just stay down, I don't want to hurt you."

The former Suna shinobi glared at him. "You're basically bringing me to my death. Do you know the punishment for desertion? It's death!" He shouted, a vein popping out on his forehead. Naruto deadpanned.

"I just walked up to you and you attacked me." Kai tried to jump up but Naruto's foot rested atop the man's testicles. "Stay where you are. Now, why did you attack me?" The man kept his glare. "I could feel your chakra levels the moment you stepped near me. I know you're a bounty hunter."

Naruto nodded. "That I am but I am not here to collect your bounty. I have a deal to propose to you." The man was suspicious but motioned for him to go on. "If I pay off your bounty, will you teach me the techniques that made you the Moon Blade?" Kai's eyes narrowed.

"How do I know you won't just turn me into Suna afterward? Hell, how do I know that a teenager such as yourself even has 50,000 Ryo?"

The Uzumaki pulled out his wallet and opened it to show the man. "As for your first question, have you ever heard of a pact?" Mr. Moon nodded and gave a question. "What type are you talking about?" Naruto moved his foot and reached to help the man up.

Once the man was up, Naruto looked him in the eyes. "Death." Kai's eyes widened and his mouth opened. A death pact was where two people formed a pact and if one broke that pact, they died. The only way to get out of the pact was for one of the people to die.

The thing was, the pact required two people to speak an incantation with their terms while they shook hands that were sliced open for the pact to form. The actual power of the pact came from the gods, meaning that it was nigh impossible to break from one.

"What would this pact entail, exactly?" The older man questioned, only for Naruto to ignore his question. Seeing the teen was looking behind him, he looked back as well and saw a crowd of people gathering.

Naruto gave a look to Kai that told him he'd handle it. "Sorry about the commotion! My dad just lost his balance and fell!" Kai was going to hit Naruto but stopped himself since the words of the teen dissipated the crowd.

Once they were gone, Kai looked Naruto in the eyes. "Why would you want to learn my techniques?" The teen just shrugged. "It would be a long-term investment. If I learned from you, I would become stronger and later on, be able to take on higher ranking bounties."

The former special jonin shook his head and sighed. "Listen kid, even if you did pay off my bounty, Suna shinobi would still be after my head." It was Naruto's turn to shake his head. "That's a simple fix, I can just change your appearance."

Kai held a skeptical gaze. "How do you plan to do that?" The teen sighed and made a deal with the older man. "How about we go to your hotel room to discuss this? Doing it in public isn't a good idea."

The man agreed and after grabbing his fishing gear, they headed out. Within a few minutes, they both stood in Kai's hotel room. Naruto took a seat on the single chair and waited for the man to sit on the bed. "Before we do this, we are going to make a pact as this is something I don't want to be spread around."

Kai looked at the teen. "How about we discuss our pact first?" Naruto agreed and they started listing terms. Eventually, they agreed and Naruto gave his 'name'. Slicing both of their palms they shook hands.

"I, Kai Moon, want to form a pact with Masao Nari under the supervision of the gods." Their hands shined brightly and a voice entered their heads. "I cannot form a contract with a fake name." The voice was a god.

Naruto sighed. "I, Naruto Uzumaki, want to form a pact with Kai Moon under the supervision of the gods." The god seemed to be appeased as he spoke once more. "What are the terms?" Kai nodded to the Uzumaki and spoke.

"Under the condition that Naruto Uzumaki pays off my bounty, I shall teach him all he requests to learn to the best of my capabilities. I shall not speak of this pact or anything that happens within this room for the rest of my life." It was then Naruto's turn. "I will not turn Kai Moon to the forces of Suna anytime before or after he teaches me. I will also never speak of this pact or anything that happens within this room for the rest of my life."

The god heard their terms and spoke once more. "Very well, I Ebisu, shall oversee this pact. You may now move your hands." Once his voice was gone and the hands were moved, the light was gone.

"Naruto Uzumaki, eh? I remember when you were still a genin." Naruto blushed a bit. "Hopefully it wasn't embarrassing." The Suna missing nin shook his head. "Not at all, I will forever remember watching you headbutt Lord Gaara."

The Uzumaki chuckled a bit, that was one of his best moments. Seeing that the man was opening up a bit, he had a question. "Why did you leave Suna?" The man shrugged. "Why did you leave Konoha?" He shot back.

Naruto had to say, he got him there. "I was tired of being a tool for my village that would soon be thrown away and forgotten." Kai looked shocked. "The hell happened to your generation? I left because they denied me disability pay..."

An awkward silence followed until Naruto brought his hand up. "This is what I mean by changing his appearance."

Concentrating his chakra into his hand, the man watched as it changed. The fingers lengthened and became distinctly feminine. Kai pulsed his chakra to break any genjutsu and watched how the hand stayed the same.

"By the gods, how did you do that?" Naruto reverted the hand back and dropped it. "My henge is solid. From my experiences, I believe that I can completely change your body structure and maybe get you another arm."

Kai shook his head. "I'll be fine without an arm. I have lived with it for years and the strain to recreate an arm would probably be high." Once again, the Uzumaki had to agree. "I was thinking of just cutting an arm off some other guy and putting it onto yours."

The former Suna shinobi just waved off the idea and stood. "I assume you need to be back at your Hunter Station soon?" Naruto glanced at the clock on the wall and nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. I'll be waiting downstairs for you."

Once Naruto was outside, he moved his left arm which had been resting on his left hip. Sitting there was a rip in his shirt and blood staining most of it. Reaching into his backpack, he grabbed a replacement and switched out before heading down.

'How did he hit me? I'm sure that I dodged.' The teen wondered.

*Roughly 10 minutes later*

As the two were running through the forest, Naruto began to speak. "Kai, you are going to a secret base of mine. Just use a henge until you get there. The easiest way to get there is to go left once we go over the bridge till you get to a shop called Nami's fishing gear then take a right at the alleyway.

If you walk in a straight line then you'll see a giant tree bigger than the others, beside it is a latch covered in leaves. Good luck."

Kai sighed, he probably wouldn't find the place and he'd end up waiting for the teenager to show him. "Since we have a good sized trip ahead of us, would you like to hear the things I'm teaching you?"

Naruto nodded along. "I probably should've asked that before we formed the pact." The teen said, a little regret in his voice. "Yeah, you should've but it'll be fine. Since in our pact, I said I'd teach you all you ask, I guess I should list the skills I know to see what you want to learn."

The man listed off so many things that Naruto either already knew or didn't want to learn until he listed one thing Naruto figured was that sword technique. Something he called Moon Breathing. "Teach me that Moon Breathing." The man nodded.

"That's probably the one that will take the most time. Before I even start talking about moon breathing, there's some other things you need to hear. Breathing styles are swordsmanship styles that makes use of an esoteric breathing technique known as Total Concentration Breathing so I have to teach you that first. Total Concentration Breathing is breathing in a certain pattern to bring in the most oxygen and bring your body to its limits."

Naruto understood most of it. "Could you perhaps explain to me the pattern on our way to Nami?" Kai nodded and started explaining.

The rest of their trip was full of explanation and Kai split off when they got to town. Naruto went into the bounty business to drop off the money. "Ah, it seems that you didn't have much trouble." The old man up front said, seeing Naruto had no scratches.

"Well, I kind of never fought him. He just handed me a bunch of money and told me to pay off the bounty." The teen said, producing a couple stacks of cash from his backpack. The old man stared.

"Uhm, that's one way to get your first bounty. Just head back and to the right, you'll see a room labeled Return Office. Sadow will be in there. Hand him the money and explain the situation." Naruto thanked the old man and back he went.

A few minutes later, Naruto walked back out with his money and new knowledge. Apparently, the price that was put on bounty posters included the fee that the Association kept of the bounty for upkeep so he had to pull out more cash that 50,000 but he only lost about 10,000 Ryo.

The teen zipped up his bag and threw it onto his shoulder before heading to his bunker. On the way, he found Kai sitting by a tree. "You couldn't find it, could you?" A shake of the bald head confirmed it and Naruto led him through the forest.

As they walked, Kai began to question Naruto. "So, how does this henge thing work?" The teen took a deep breath. "From my experience, my henge can mend together bones and skin, I can heal any injury that doesn't sever something. Along with bones and skin, I can fuse basically any other bodily part like blood vessels or tendons."

Kai lookeda little concerned. "Do you even have the medical knowledge for this?" Naruto felt a little insulted. "Lets just say that I've stolen so many notes of Tsunade's that I could be her apprentice."

Kai shook his head at the pride in Naruto's voice when he bragged about the stolen notes. "Kids these days." He mumbled before they entered the bunker. Whenever they did, Naruto led the man to Haku's bed and laid him down.

The teen crouched beside the man and spoke. "You can already guess what I'm gonna have to do, right?" Kai nodded, he was probably gonna go under. "Can I request that I get some hair back beforehand?"

Naruto nodded. "It shouldn't be a problem." He produced another small vial from his backpack, this one full of rocks and opened it. "Lay back and smell this." Kai followed the orders and he was out like a light once the scent hit his nose.

The Uzumai moved to the side of the bed and took the shirt off the man. "Hm, I have an idea." After placing his hands on Kai's chest and concentrating, Kai's appearance became younger and his body structure changed.

The teen could only imagine how painful it would be if the man was awake and spoke to himself "He'll be out for weeks." Moving his hands to Kai's head, he watched as its structure changed completely. He now had an oval face with spiky sea-green hair, slanted eyebrows, dark green eyes, and small lips.

Naruto went a step farther and took his facial hair. He looked like a nice shaven 20-year-old. The Uzumaki quickly pulled one of the towels from his scrolls and placed it under the man's neck where he saw fat seeping out of Kai's pores. He couldn't exactly make the matter he was taking out disappear after all.

After a few more minutes, Naruto stood and looked at his work. It was good and Kai looked normal. By normal, there was no abnormalities or swelling.

The teen felt a shake in his hand and yawned. It seemed he'd need some sleep so he went to Zabuza's bed and sat down. The Namikaze brought both his hand in front of him and they started shaking uncontrollably.

One of the side effects of using the henge was that he got severe shaking for a couple of days. It wasn't even a henge at that point so he decided to rename it. Naruto racked his brain for a while. 'Ooh, Body Reformation Technique. That sounds fancy.'

Content with his newly named technique, the teen laid down and sighed. He hated the shaking.