Unexpected development
"Wakeup sleepy head." I shook Paku in an attempt to wake her up.
It has been a few days since our adventure at the Ollivanders. It was a worthwhile trip. I learned about a new, fascinating element, giving me some ideas for the future. But it also showcased the need for money, to be able to purchase the very expansive chakra metal.
'I can't expect my parents to sponsor my puppets, asking for wood for small carvings is already a stretch, and I will need huge quantities of wood, and want to secure some chakra metal for the further development.'
Later that day I realized that I needed to secure funding for my future projects. Since then I was working my brain on how to procure funds, with no luck.
'It is funny that puppet technique came to be specialisation within the Land of Wind, where sand can pour into joints of puppets and immobilise them, and the core material for them - wood - isn't present here on a large scale. We have some palm trees, but it's not fit for our needs.'
"*groan*, give me 5-, no, 10 more minutes." Paku spoke half asleep and flipped herself to the other side.
"You know, I need get you some sort of an alarm to wake-" I stopped mid sentence, getting a flash of realization. I stood up from Pakura in the bed and walked up to the table, she certainly didn't me laying off her case and giving her some longer nap time.
Meanwhile I started doing some sketches of an inner workings of a certain, well known device. As I continued with the sketches, I lost myself in my thoughts and time.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ Whoosh, POV change~~~
With a tap on my shoulder, I turned around and saw a frying heading straight for my forehead.
'You're probably wondering how I got in this situation. Let's go back a few minutes.'
*Few minutes earlier*
"Geez, what are those two doing there. I know that Paku-chan is a heavy sleeper, that's why I sent Teruya to wake her up for breakfast. The food will get cold soon." I heard my wife complain.
"He probably got hang up about puppets again." I said with a chuckle.
That attracted her attention on me. "It's because you keep telling him about your craft. If you didn't keep answering a lot of his questions he wouldn't be so absent minded, and he would have more friends!" She said while wildly gesturing with a frying pan in my direction.
'Why is it suddenly about me?' I thought as I felt a sweat drop forming.
My son is certainly an unusual kid. Every time I saw his eyes since his birth they always glinted with curiosity at everything around him. After noticing that we knew that our son will be special, and that belief got only cemented when he started talking at earlier age then his peers. After that he soon asked for some books, showing desire to learn the written language.
'Up to now, learning written language for him was his biggest difficulty, I still remember him complaining: "So many of those useless symbols."' I recalled fondly.
After learning how to read he behaved like a starved wolf, but instead of food he sought information, knowledge. He showed particular interest towards chakra, our world - it's history and how it works, fuinjutsu and puppet technique - with his biggest focus being placed on that last one.
When he learned that puppets are something that I work with, he begged me to let him see them, not stopping until I caved in. When he saw them, I could swear that his eyes started shining brighter than our lamps at home. When he tried touching them I quickly stepped in, not allowing him to even get close to them, so he doesn't endanger himself. Despite him trying everything, like: asking, begging, using puppy eyes, I did not give ground. At that he sulked and called me a meanie, followed up by saying that "mum is better".
'Getting to appease him took over a month.' I thought with a wince.
"Are you listening to me?" I heard a low voice, reminding me that my current situation wasn't the safest one to be in.
"Yes, honey." I quickly answered, at which she squinted her eyes.
"Go and grab the kids for breakfast." She relented her gaze and turned away towards the kitchen, at which I sighed with relief.
"Right away sweetheart." I said with a quickstep (that certainly wasn't me running away, that would be silly) heading towards Teruya's room.
When I entered into his room, I saw Paku-chan still in bed and my son scribbling something at the table. As I was approaching him, I said "Teru, let's go, the breakfast is-" and stopped mid sentence noticing all of the papers strewn around on the table - some squashed into a paper ball, while other looking like they were thrown away. When I got closer, I saw my son in deep concentration, scribbling something-,no drawing something with a passion.
Not wanting to disturb him I took one of the papers laying around - a failed drawing I assume - to check what's he doing. I did not know what to expect when I took a drawing into my hand, but what I saw certainly wasn't within any of my expectations. I saw some sort of contraption, that from reading the description scribbled next to it implied that this device was capable of counting time and sounding an alarm when the selected time period is reached.
But the purpose of the device wasn't what astounded me - though the fact that not even a 3 year old thought of such a thing like a device capable of counting and displaying time, and can sound alarm would be enough to give one a shock - no, what astounded me was how it works.
The device would be made of tightly connected and interlocked some sort of hoops with protrusions, when if one of the hoops turns, all others also turn. 'Such a finely tuned interconnected structure could be used for-' "Dad?" I broke out of my thoughts when I felt son tugging my sleeve.
"Teruya" I started "what are those?" And at my question he beamed with a smile.
"You see dad, I realized that there is nothing that can reliably count and display time, so I thought of a device that is capable of such a thing, which I named a clock. I'm also planning to make a variation of one, where it could wake people up, without the need for someone else." He said while pointing at Paku.
'Yes, it's great, but that's not I'm focusing on.' I pointed at the hoops with protrusions. "What are those?"
At my question she showed confusion, but he answered anyway. "Those are gears, they allow for a mechanism to work in full synchronization."
"Teruya" I started speaking with full seriousness. "do not show this invention to anyone."
With my focus placed on son I didn't notice door opening to the room.
"This will have a giant impact on puppet crafting techniques. First I will have to talk to the elder from Puppet Brigade, to discuss this." I said while looking into his eyes.
"Why?" He asked with a confusion written on his face, before it quickly changed into one of fear with a gaze directed behind me.
Not noticing his change and where he's looking I tried to answer him, before being interrupted by a tap on my shoulder from behind. When I turned around a frying pan was only centimeters away from hitting my forehead. *BONK* As it hit me, the world started to turn black.
Before I lost consciousness all I heard was my wife's furious voice "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GRAB KIDS FOR BREAKFAST BEFORE THE FOOD GET'S COLD, NOT TALK TO THEM ABOUT PUPPETS!!"
After that the world faded away.
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(AN: Okay, some explanation time. The time that MC is currently in is after 1st great shinobi war and before the 2nd one (It's around 18 years after the end of the 1st one). Here I'm talking creative liberties that a lot of things that were used were developed only using electricity and chakra.
One could say that before 1st shinobi war, the continent was technologically in times of samurai era - that of Japan, and 20 years isn't enough to fully reach technological level of Naruto canon time (it's after 3rd great shinobi war).
So I'm taking an interpretation that any kind of precise mechanical clocks were not a thing, just like gears used in any modern mechanisms. I do not deny that it was created by the canon time, but here MC got to it before it got 'originally' researched. The impact of this 'early' invention will be explained in the next chapter, so stay tuned folks~
PS: As it was mentioned in one of the chapters - technological level in Naruto is so all over the place.)