Chapter 3: The pill furnace

Disclaimer: I don't Naruto or any other references mentioned in this fanfic.

Chapter 3

Kenji stared blankly at the front of the room, his hand moving in random circles as he doodled on a piece of paper. The teacher was writing something down on the board while the rest of his classmates wrote it down. He let out a breath of disappointment at the monotone moment.

It had been 1 month since he was born, and he had progressed a lot in that time, his goal to live the cushy life of a civilian was still very much a go, but he did run into a few problems.

His original plan had been to publish his books and hopefully raise enough money to pay back his loan, but that had proved harder than he thought. With a few finished manuscripts he had gone to the biggest publishing company in Konoha, they owned the production rights of the Icha Icha novels. He hoped of striking a deal with them but what he got was disappointment. It wasn't that his novels were bad, in fact it was the opposite, the chief had absolutely loved them. She had only read the first half of his novel when she right out told him that his books would sell like hotcakes. No, the problem laid in the fact that he was a ten-year old child, and therefore considered a minor in the eyes of the law. Say what you will about the civilian council, but they took the safety of the non-shinobi populace very seriously.

What all this meant was that he couldn't sign a legally binding contract without the approval of a guardian, but he was an orphan, and academy student to be exact. He had waved off the position of a guardian once he had signed the contract to be let into the academy making adoption invalid, so in a sense he was screwed. The chief was nice enough to explain it to him, but there was nothing either one of them could do, the chief seemed to be the one most disappointed actually, as she had wanted to leave the stigma that her company had gotten from publishing one of the most perverted books in the entire Elemental Nations.

If he wanted to have money then he needed to publish his book, but to do that he needed to be considered an adult, but to do that he needed to become a ninja. Kenji hated the position he was in, but there was only one way to go, he needed to become a ninja as soon as possible, publish his books, somehow retire early, and then set up a shop to live the rest of his life in a hopefully danger free enviornment.

He had done some research and had found out that a ninja could retire early if they suffered grave wounds while out on a mission (like dismemberment), came down with a life-threatening illness (cancer), or served 5 years as a genin without promotion. If they became a chunin the amount required would be raised to 7 years, and becoming a jonin basically meant for life (15) or until you died which with the life expectancies of shinobi, it was far more likely to die on a mission than retire.

The only plus side to his situation was that he was in a reserve classroom.

What this meant was that although they didn't get the best or most resources they did receive some options. The major being that when they took the graduating test they could apply for a team or remain single, each had its own benefits. Being part of a team meant you could take harder missions, and a jonin team would be assigned to you, also a training ground would be reserved for you.

Being single meant that you would act as a substitute if another team had a vacancy, meaning they gained a lot more experience working with other people. They could also take D-rank missions alone and not have to split the profit with the rest of the team. Another benefit was that they could set their own work hours as long as they completed the set amount of missions needed each month. Kenji had decided that the second option was best suited for him.

The only problem was that the next graduation exam wasn't until a few months from now in late June and it was only the beginning of March. He had also needed to pay the 10,000 Ryo admission fee to take the test early.

He had studied the textbooks back to front dozens of times already and spent a majority of his time working on his fitness. Kenji didn't think he would break any school records, but he could at least pass with the bare minimum as he was right now, and he was also confident in his chakra control.

Riiiiiing*

The young boy was startled out of his daze when he heard the sound of the bell ring, meaning that the school was done for the day.

The sensei looked at the clock before turning to the class to address everyone, "It seems we've run out of time. Don't forget to study the material we discussed today. Also remember that there will be a test once you get back from your two-week break."

With that he dismissed the classroom and literally everyone headed for the exit, most rushing to the door, while others opted for the window.

Kenji didn't do either as instead he stayed in his seat until everyone was gone, it was a lot less troublesome to let them go first after all. "Two whole weeks huh, better use them wisely," he said as he walked toward his sensei that was already cleaning the chalk board.

Kenji had changed the way the he dressed now, he wore a green yukata with long sleeves, blue sandals, a yellow scarf, red bandana and a white silk haori jacket that reached the back of his knees. The baggy clothes helped obstruct his body and all the various pieces or armor he was hiding underneath, case in point was were the three layers of mesh armor he was wearing under his clothes. He had lost some weight form all the exercise he was doing but with all the added padding and armor he carried it looked like he had actually gained more.

"Ah, Sensei? Do you know if my application was accepted?" he asked the man.

"Oh, Kenji you're still here. For a moment I thought you had left with the others," he said sounding embarrassed for forgetting him, "and yes, I have your permission slip here,"

The man then reached into one of the drawers on his desk and took out a signed document before handing it to an excited Kenji, "Here you go. You can now train at training ground 5-A. You don't have to worry about sharing it since no one else has come to ask for permission, so you should have the entire thing to yourself for the duration of the break."

Looking over the rules and directions on the paper he looked up at the chunin, "Thanks Sensei!"

He nodded at the small boy, "It's fine, just make sure to train hard, you hear."

Kenji nodded as he walked out of the room with a giddy expression.

He made it back to his room in record time. The small pint-sized boy was going to use this break to really practice for the exam as well as start to build up his clientele for his future shop. He also wanted to experiment on a couple of ideas he had been having.

Kenji took out a large yellow backpack, that was not unlike that of a certain time-traveling priestess, from his closet and started packing a multitude of things he was planning to sell or use.

Yellow Peddlers Bag +13

Quality: Low Man

Defense: 21

+ 810

+ 70 Endurance

10 +: Weight is reduced to 1/3 of its normal amount.

12 +: Space inside is expanded to 5X its original amount.

Chakra Points Needed to Upgrade: 110

The bag was 3ft x 2ft x 3ft and could normal carry 18 cubic feet, but with the upgrade it could now carry 90 cubic feet with a third of the weight, plus the added endurance allowed would give him more stamina, making long trips easier.

With this he could pack more items and not have to worry about making more than one trip. After shoving his camping gear, food supplies, and other things he wanted to test, he set it aside to finish buying the things he needed.

Locking the door behind him he headed off to the Yamanaka's flower shop, to pick out some ingredients making sure to only go in once he was certain that neither Ino or her parents were attending the counter, less interactions with the main cast meant less butterfly effects. A few days ago he had finally cracked the method to making pills and elixirs like the ones in the wuxia novels that Kenji A used to write, and he was excited to see what other things he could make. He also needed to pick up the flyers that he had ordered to promote the temporary shop he would set up at the training ground.

"I guess I should finally test that new talisman I've been working on now that I've got the chance," Kenji said as he took out a small yellow talisman from the depths of his clothes and activated it.

Kaguya's Lucky Encounter Talisman

Quality: Ordinary

+ 200 % Increase to any lucky encounters you normally would have had for 3 hours.

Chakra Points Needed to Upgrade: 10

Picking out the herbs and plants was a simple thing as he had studied extensively on all of those plants with beneficial properties. He really hopped that he could sell something during the break because just this purchase had left him in the red for the month. He paid for them to deliver it to his apartment since he still had some other things to do.

It only took a moment to reach the printing shop and pick out his flyers.

Visit Kenji's Store of Marvels

Location: Training Ground 5-A

*Exotic weapons and tools for all, both civilian and shinobi. Mystical armor and equipment guaranteed.

*Reasonable prices on all purchases.

*Guaranteed diet pills that work in moments, watch the fat slide right off ;)

*Magic elixirs and pills for every occasion.

*Need luck? Have a crush that doesn't pay attention to you? Check out our talismans and lucky charms.

** Random gift given to customers that make a 10,000 Ryo purchase with this flyer.

The paper was purpose made colorful to attract the eye and there was a chibi drawing of him with his bandana in the corner giving a close eyed peace sign, as well as a map on the back giving direction to the training ground.

Feeling satisfied he left the place with 400 flyers intent on handing all of them that day.

Walking around the market area he handed out flyers to all of the casual shoppers, targeting mostly those that looked like they were shinobi or looked like they had money to spend. It might have been the talisman but the number of people that actually accepted them was a lot higher than he thought until he was left with only one.

Looking at the sole piece of paper he got an idea, "I should post this in a place that many people walk by. I think that the Hokage tower has a bulletin board at the entrance for advertisements."

Feeling lucky, he headed in that direction choosing to use the rooftops to make it there faster. Stepping inside of the imposing building he located the mission counter where shinobi could ask for missions, to the side was a large bulleting board the size of the wall and covered inch to inch with different flyers ranging to lost and found posters to simple jobs.

People that usually didn't have the money to pay for a mission would sometimes leave small task here and hope that someone would take them. The reward was much less than missions, and not everyone offered cash rewards, but at least anyone could take them, even other civilians.

The room was empty, so he walked towards the counter, having to stand on the tip of his toes just to be seen, "Hey can I borrow a stapler?" he asked the bored receptionist.

The man finally noticed him, having to lean over slightly to see Kenji, before he shrugged his shoulders and handed over a stapler, "Huh? Oh yeah, sure kid."

"Thanks!"

Taking the stapler, the small boy finally went back to the board to find the perfect place to hang it. It was just as he found the perfect spot that something attacked him.

Some type of fur covered ball had hit him in the side of the head and nocked him over, sending him tumbling on the floor.

"Tora-chan!" came the voice of a woman.

Kenji looked at the ceiling above with some amount of confusion, 'Tora-chan? But my name's Kenji.' It was then that he felt something squirm beneath him. Reaching under him he saw a fat orange brown striped cat trying to escape. Kenji must have somehow sat on him during their little tumble.

"Ah, Tora!" he said out loud as he picked up the feline by the paws, making sure not to be hit with those dangerous looking claws. Turning to the woman, he could see that she was slightly panting. On closer inspecting he could see that it was the Fire Daimyo's wife, Madam Shijimi.

Standing up he extended Tora to her, "Here you go mam, this your cat right?"

The plump woman cried in joy as she snatched the struggling cat into her bosom, "A Tora-chan, don't run away from mommy. Thank you, young man."

Kenji smiled at her, "It's fine." He turned back to pick up the stapler and flyer when she talked again.

"What is it that's in your hand …" she said trailing off.

"Ah, it's Kenji Yamamoto mam. This is a poster for a shop I'm opening," he said as he handed her the piece of paper for her to see.

She inspected it briefly before her eyes stopped at the mention of diet pills and she had to ask, "Do these diet pills actually work?"

"Huh, those? Yes they do, I can personally guarantee that you will get result within only minutes after eating one?" Kenji said as he puffed out his chest in complete confidence.

"Truly?" she said skeptically as she inspected his own plump form.

Kenji took the hint, taking a practice kunai from the depth of his clothes he showed it to her, "I'm training to be a shinobi you see, and this fat is needed for my techniques." That was a lie of course, Kenji had no techniques yet, but she didn't know that.

"Oh, of course. How rude of me, I didn't mean anything by it," she sounded slightly embarrassed at having assumed before she remember that she had yet to introduce herself. "A silly me, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Madam Shijimi."

"It's a pleasure to meet the Fire Daimyo's wife in person, we learn about you in my class," he said as he extended his hand to get the flyer back.

The fat woman nodded good naturedly and shook his hand, mistaking his intention, with a smile after putting the flyer inside her kimono. "It is good meeting you as well Yamamoto-kun. I will be sure to drop by tomorrow to see these pills myself."

With that she left the building with a struggling Tora. Kenji might have imagined it, but for a second he saw Tora glare at him and slice a paw against his throat in a menacing manner.

Once he was alone again he turned back to the bulletin board and gave a small whine, "My poster."

(Scene change)

The next day at the crack of dawn he was standing in the training ground inspecting his surroundings on last time. It was a rather large clearing with an open field surrounded by trees, and a medium sized lake on the side that was perfect for taking a dip. This training ground was located on just on the outskirts of the village limit but was still relatively close enough to the village walls that were only a fifteen-minute jog away.

The reason for getting a training ground outside of the village walls had to do with the fact that it didn't require a permit to sell his goods. Going to his backpack he opened the top and glanced all the way at the bottom 15ft below. Carefully he fell inside of his bag, making sure to leave the top of it open so as not to get trapped inside.

Taking out a flashlight from his pocket he searched until he found his tent. Looking at the entrance he pushed chakra into his legs to help propel him to the surface, which he just barely made. To an outsider's point of view it might have seemed ridiculous for someone his size to fit into a backpack that was barely 3 feet tall.

It only took a few moments for him to set up his tent. It was a medium sized purple canopy tent in the shape of a circus tent, a white flag with his picture on top. There was a red carpet that led inside of the tent and two bonfire lanterns outside of the flap that acted like the door.

Taking an regular kunai from his clothes he stabbed the side of the tent and watched as the kunai bounced off. He nodded in satisfaction.

Canopy Tent +10

Quality: Ordinary

Defense: 30

+ 300

10+: The inside of the tent is expanded to 4X it normal size.

Chakra Points Needed to Upgrade: 130

"It won't stop a sword or anything but it'll do for now," he said before applying some protective talismans to the outside.

Slowly he started to fill the much larger tent with all manner of items from his bag. He didn't have much money to spend on brand new items so most of the things he would be selling were gotten from dumpster diving in the major clans' trash and repairing some of their broken equipment.

Thankfully he had the foresight to make some aisles before coming there and stocked it full of items. Upgraded weapons and armor on one side of the tent and food supplies and useful items on the other. The very back had a section that was closed off from the customers, it had large wooden counter where he kept the more expensive items and money and behind that was a smaller room that lead into his inventory space. Jewelry and the like were also behind the counter but there was a catalog with pictures of them with a small description of what they did.

It was still early so he still had plenty of time to train for a bit. Walking to the lake outside, he placed one foot on the water's surface and channeled chakra under his foot. Placing his full weight on it, his foot refused to sink. He took another step onto the water and then another until he was right in the middle of the lake.

As it turned out, spending all his time upgrading items and meditating had given Kenji a great deal of chakra control. It also helped that he was still new to having chakra and therefore was hyperaware of it traveling through his body. The upgrade ability also came with one more benefit in that it was able to quantify the amount of chakra he had into numerical levels. Learning tree and water walking had been a breeze since all he had to do was check how much chakra he was using, and either lower or raise it.

Going through a couple of hand signs he used the clone jutsu to make three identical illusionary clones of himself.

Kenji inspected every single one of them to see if they had any obvious faults but couldn't find any. Satisfied with his work he mentally made them move using his connection with the chakra that was making up their bodies, it felt almost like mist. He made them do some basic motions like jumping and running on the surface of the water before going on to more difficult tasks like fighting each. Each kata they did flowed smoothly, the only problem was that they made no sound and caused no ripples on the water's surface.

Still, Kenji was pleased and called them over to his side. "Nice, I think I have this jutsu mastered already. Now, all I need to do is see if I can use it effectively."

He started with the first clone, sticking a hand all the way through its body. The small ninja in training had tested the jutsu a number of times already, and what he had found was that the clones acted exactly like holograms that could be mentally controlled by the user. Another neat thing he found was that they wouldn't disappear even after something came in contact with them and could even overlap the same space.

Concentrating on what he wanted to do, he made the clone walk into him and stand in the same position he was in, until it looked like they were one person. Now Kenji and his clone shared the same space, moving a hand in front of his eyes, he saw a second hand lag just seconds behind the first before merging back together. Frowning slightly, he waved his hand much slower to make sure he timed the movements of the clone with his own, once he was satisfied that they moved as one, he sped up the movement, before going throw the same katas he had made them do just moments ago.

"Okay, no let's try to mix things up a bit," he said as he threw a punch to the mid-section of an imaginary opponent while another fist from the same arm was aimed at their face. He launched a kick that was quickly followed by another one that was just inches apart. The point of this fight style was to confuse the enemy by making multiple clones launch their own attacks at the moment he did his, and while he knew he could never defeat a veteran shinobi, it would hopefully surprise them the first time and give him a chance to escape.

His goal was to use five overlapping clones with himself, but so far he could only handle three at once. Funny enough, the inspiration for this new fighting style was actually from those twins that Orochimaru had sent to retrieve Sasuke.

"I think that enough practice for right now," he said as he dismissed the clones and walked back to land.

Once his feet were firmly on the ground again, he went throw the hand signs for the transformation technique. His chakra was expelled from his body momentarily before it clung to his body like a layer of oil. In a puff of smoke, he had transformed into the Third Hokage. From the research he had done on the jutsu, it seemed that the more yang chakra that was added into the mixture, the more physical the transformation became. For example, if someone say pushed a large amount of chakra into it (or they held just the yang half of a tailed beast), then they could even physically transform themselves into object that were either larger or smaller than themselves.

Going through the hand seal again he added much more chakra, at least 4x as much as the previous amount. Once again, he disappeared in a puff of smoke, and as it dispersed what was left was a much skinnier and taller version of himself.

He touched his now flat stomach and sighed, " I don't get what people find so good about being thin, I'm actually rather happy with being round."

Dismissing the transformation, he headed back into his tent where he could whip off the sweat he had accumulated.

Once he was done, he waited behind the counter in preparation for his first customers.

So he waited.

And waited.

And waited.

It was already noon, and no one had come by yet, but Kenji still held on to hope. Glancing at the clock he decided it was time for a lunch break and took out his previously prepared snack. Today's new culinary experiment was a pack of pork sausages topped with mustard, ketchup, strawberry jam, and wasabi in between to waffles. The small academy student had begun to experiment with the different types of food he ate as a hobby, apparently something was wrong with his taste buds since anything he ate would taste delicious to him, even if others thought it was repulsive.

Finishing the last of his meal, he decided that if he was going to waste his time anyways, he might as well do it by creating more products. Searching in his pack, he took out something he liked to call a pill furnace and a bag of herbs. The furnace was half his size and looked like a metal lantern used to light incense but with a door to feed it the ingredient. The benefit of making pills, besides making a costly product out of a few simple plants, was that it helped him immensely with chakra control.

Getting another bag out, he took a pinch of dust from the inside and put it into the furnace. Going through another set of handseals he performed a basic fire starting jutsu taught to all academy students during their camping lessons. The dust was quick to catch on fire before it turned blue, the reason being the special dust he had used.

As it turns out, all of the initial dust he was left over after his many failed attempts at upgrading items did have some use. The dust was actually supercharged with chakra and could even feed certain jutsu like the one he had just cast, so that he didn't have to constantly maintain it. Of course, finding the right ratio without having it blow up in his face had proved to be a challenging and tiring process, since the slightest instability would make it go off like gunpowder.

Next came the plants. He took some pink flowers that had eight petals in the shape of lips, also called the Lady's Kiss, and a couple of orange small flowers that was commonly known as the Field Lily into the blazing fire. Closing the hatch of the furnace he waited patiently, paying careful focus on the color of the smoke rising from the top. Using his improved chakra control he created a dome over the top of the furnace to stop the smoke from escaping.

It took approximately five minutes before the black smoke began to turn white. Swiftly he opened the door and used his chakra on the ash pile that was left over, floating it outside without touching it. This process was actually a variation of the leaf floating exercise he had needed to develop just for that moment.

With one hand he molded the ash into a ball and added it to the smoke contained in his chakra dome. Steady he placed both hands on either side of the dome and created a chakra shell to contain it, then began to knead it like dough. He would constantly change the shape of the ash pile to look like certain objects or kanji and with every fold the smoke would get added back into the mixture until he had a floating ash ball.

Finally, the final process was to condense it. With that in mind he focused on the very center of the chakra shell and began to spin the contents around it like a whirlpool, all the while slowly shrinking the shell until the growing pressure began to compress it into a solid sphere. Once he was finished, he was left with a white marble sized pill with a smooth glass like surface.

Gently he collapsed the chakra shell still holding in the air and let it drop into his hand. As soon as he touched it he was bombarded with new information.

2 Pound Diet Pill

Quality: Low Human

+ Anyone who eats this pill will lose 2 pounds of unnecessary fat in the next five minutes. (Can only eat one every eight hours)

Chakra Points Needed to Upgrade: N/A

"Another one done," Kenji grinned as he placed the newly created pill into a special marked box. "Couldn't have done it without you," he spoke as he patted the furnace affectionately.

Pill furnace +14

Quality: Mid Human

Defense: 240

+ 788

10+: Can make mystical pills from a wide variety of herbs and other ingredients.

12+: Gathers the left-over nature chakra in plants to enhance the effects of the ingredients.

14+: Enhance the effects of pills made by 2x their original amount.

Chakra Points Needed to Upgrade: 230

Without this special made furnace all he would end up with would be a pretty dirt ball that did absolutely nothing. As things stand, the furnace was currently his highest quality item as well as his most costly investment. Just to get to this point he had needed to sacrifice another 15 furnaces and hundreds of dollars' worth of ingredients, and there were time where he wanted to give up, but the personality of Kenji A in him was determined to make this fantasy item at all costs. He hopped it would be worthy it because with the cost of the tools and ingredients he had used during the experimentation process, he had wasted the remains of his savings and had to live off the ration bars for the past couple of days.

All the failed attempt had at least showed him a little more about his upgrade abilities, mainly how many attack or defense points were needed for the item to raise in quality.

Quality Total Def/Atk

Poor 0-25

Ordinary 25-500

Low man 500-1,000

Mid man 1,000-1,500

There were also a bunch of little facts that determine the limits of how much it could be upgraded such as initial quality, material, personal attachment, etc. Another new discover he had made was that while he couldn't upgrade food or anything that could be consumed, he could see the effects of things like his handmade pills.

Chakra: Academy Student

Chakra Points: 347/420

Checking his chakra points he noticed that he had yet to recover from the earlier mornings training. Usually he would waste all of his chakra and take a 3-hour nap, the bare minimum needed to recover all of his lost chakra and go back to practicing his chakra control or upgrading items. He took notice that despite almost quadrupling his original points during the past month, he was still labeled as an academy student by the system. "I wonder how many points I need to reach genin level reserves? How long does it usually take people?"

Despite his musings, he heard the sound of bells chiming as the front curtain was moved aside. "Oh boy, my first customer," he said in an excited whisper as he looked to see the image of Madam Shijimi followed by a large man in ninja clothing wearing a white bandana with the kanji for fire tied to his waist.

A/N: Thank you for reading. Now some things to explain, mainly having to do with pills, elixirs, seals, and talismans.

Cultivation pills and the like are a familiar trope in many wuxia fantasy novels along with alchemy potions. The Naruto universe also has similar things what with chakra pills and the Akimichi's Three Coloured Pills. Also they used different elixirs throughout the series to boost their abilities like the Hero's water.

Now that we established that they use similar items, I will explain the differences of each one.

Pills are made by burning a variety of plants and animal parts inside of a specially made chakra furnace (very important) and capturing the left over nature chakra inside of the plants to give them special mystical properties. Anyone can make them as long as they have a pill furnace created by Kenji. The pills provide short term benefits that will usually only last a couple hours at the most.

Elixirs on the other hand are basically potions made by putting certain ingredients inside of a special upgraded cauldron and mixing it into a special made chakra enhancing water to give it certain properties (again nature chakra). The effects however are far more permanent, lasting months if not forever.

Now then then the difference between talismans and seals, because while they might seem to do the same thing, they are fundamentally different things.

Seals deal with a written system of symbol to manipulate the world using chakra and a formula similar to a mathematical equation. Seal makers basically change the laws of physics with every time they make a seal. That being said, anyone can learn fuinjutsu as long as they but in the time and understand what symbols change which laws of physics.

Talisman on the other hand are different in the way that they work similar to a prayer. While seals are can make concrete concepts real (example: heating water, sealing chakra, pocket dimensions in scrolls) they cannot work with abstract ideas like increasing luck, protecting against evil intent, or feelings. Talismans can make things like concepts, emotions, intentions and the like happen. Also, not everyone can make talismans, since while anyone can draw a talisman, the power behind is provided by a deity that has listened to the request to bless the talisman and charged it.

So again, seals are like physic formulas and talismans are like prayers.

Now that that is over with, I would just like to say that I have read some of the suggestions that you guys have written in the comments section and I will definitely try to add them into the story.

Some of them defiantly have some major potential, especial in this universe.

Also tell me what you think with my attempt to expand the Naruto universe a little, because I truly doubt that only 9 students get to graduate out of every year. Other wise there wouldn't be enough Ninja no matter how you think about it.

Also I would like to now what some of you would pay for a magical pill that was guaranteed to take away 2 pounds of fat in minutes.