A battle of the ages

"Hey Anno! When's the ramen ready? I'm staaarveiiing" Naruto whined from where he and the others were sitting.

Everyone was here today as it was a special occasion, even Hinata who usually has to go home for training in her family's taijutsu before the rest of us. The others aren't here all the time either, as they all have families and such, they also want to spend time with. most of the group are here two out of three times a week, with Hinata only being here for the early afternoon then having to return to her family compound, must be a close family. Then there was Naruto, Sasuke, and me who, as all of us had lost our families in one way or another ranging from Naruto's pretty standard parents who died to a gigantic demon fox, wow Konoha has weird standards, to Sasuke's less common but not unheard-of genocide, to my very weird way of losing them in dimensional-reincarnation-travel.

"Cooking is an art, Naruto, and you don't rush artists or greatness and I am clearly great, just be happy everyone could make it to celebrate the first half of the school year ending" I annoyedly call back from the kitchen where I was making ramen.

Now while I wasn't anywhere close to Teuchi's level of cooking I had gotten pretty great over the time I've been studying the art of ramen as shown by my cooking skill.

[congratulations! Through hard work and dedication, you leveled up your cooking skill to level 47!]

It was pretty neat, I have done some very rough calculations on Teuchis level compared to my own and I have to assume that he is at least level 100 in cooking. and while I don't know if there is a hard cap on skill levels, I don't think there is.

"So, he should rush you? Why? Because if he shouldn't rush art or greatness that creates a double negative, meaning he should rush you" Shino asked in a confused tone, well, confused to us who know him, to everyone else he must sound a bit like a raisin in terms of intonation and emotions in his voice.

"Exactly Shino! He should rush me because great artists only become better under pressure" I smiled at everyone as I came over with the steaming bowls of ramen I had made.

"By the way Hinata, how did you get your dad to let you come? I think this is the latest you've been out with us" Kiba asked curiously as he looked over at Hinata, everyone else doing the same.

"I, u-uh, h-he..." Hinata tried to stammer out a sentence, failing miserably with her stammering only getting worse with each failed attempt.

"Come on guys! You know the rule, Hinata is like a tea kettle, she'll only make a peep if you don't stare at her-"

"My father said he had an important meeting!" Hinata yelled angrily then turning away to pout quietly with a swiftly reddening face realizing she had just yelled at me in annoyance.

"-or get her annoyed enough, apparently" I smiled at her happily to make sure she knew it was a joke, have to make sure she doesn't become even more shy.

"By the way guys, I have come to a decision," I say as I stand up on the table, then I immediately get shoved down from the table by Sasuke, landing on my back.

"don't stand on the table were eating on you idiot," Sasuke said with an annoyed frown while the others laughed.

"Fine, fine, no need to be so mean about it" I grumble while getting up and instantly taking a dramatic pose "like I was just about to proclaim to you before I was rudely interrupted, I intend to challenge Teuchi the ramen master to a food war later today!" I say with a beaming smile, waiting for the shocked gasps and admiration to flood over me.

"a-are y-you sure y-you're ready f-for that? D-don't y-you want to p-practi-" Hinata tried to say until Kiba interrupted her.

"What Hinata is trying to say, but is way too nice to actually say is, there is no way you're going to win that, or even come close, or come close to coming close or com-"

"Yeah, what they said, except maybe somewhere between how they said it!" Naruto said with a happy smile like he was being nice and encouraging

Shino just nodded while Sasuke gave a grunt of agreement.

"Glad to have your unanimous and wholehearted support in this endeavor, but as anyone knows we need three culinary experts to judge our battle for kitchen supremacy. Currently, we have Naruto and Ayame, does anyone have any suggestions?" I voiced my question.

Every thought about it for around two seconds before we in unison answered the question

"Choji!" we all called out together, well, except Sasuke who had apparently decided that the very serious subject matter was too stupid to engage with.

It was a happy afternoon at the Akimichi household, the Nara's and Yamanaka's had agreed to come to a celebration dinner, both to celebrate the kids of the three clans having a vacation, and to have a more private celebration of the Rinne Festival, a mix of new years and Christmas from my old world, before the big public one all the clans participated in.

All this was seen as we ran towards the house after getting let in on account of all of us being children and most being clan heirs. As everyone but Naruto and I slowed down in order to "approach politely" we either got caught up in the excitement of the food battle ahead or simply decided to ignore social customs. As such when we reached the door I quickly knocked thrice before slamming it open.

"Choji, we need you to be a judge in a food war" I gave my call to arms as I saw a couple of the parents, most notably the clan heads and Shikamaru's mother sheathe a couple of kunai they were very close to throwing at me. Well, that's terrifying.

"But what about Shikamaru?" Choji asked confusedly yet still thinking about his best friend.

"He can come too and add up the scores or something, just come quick," I said hurriedly and tried to grab Choji and drag him with us, after failing at that I instead grabbed the half-awake Shikamaru and carried him off into the night, Choji quickly following his best friend.

After we had already been back for a while and were preparing for the duel, the others came through the door.

"...so do you now understand why we need your help with this glorious challenge?" I asked after explaining the situation to Shikamaru and Choji.

"What a pain, I think we'll pas-"

"you're right, this is important, thank you for choosing me for this great responsibility, I'm honored to help," Choji said with a serious look on his face a fire in his eyes I had never seen before.

Shikamaru took a quick glance at Choji and sighed "Fine, I guess I can add up the three votes" he grumbled, clearly taking it as an insult to his intelligence.

"Great! And now, I shall call forth the resident champion, TEUCHI!" I smiled and stood confidently, ready to take on the greatest challenge.

"Yes?" Teuchi said calmly as he came from his domain, the kitchen he ruled with a swift and sharp knife.

"It's time" I solemnly spoke, no trace of humor in my voice.

With a swift nod, he brought out any and all ingredients either of us could possibly want, from common things like eggs and mushrooms to more obscure things like bell peppers.

At last, we stood before each other, the master against the student, a battle of more than just ramen, but ideological strife. his core philosophy of ramen being the only food worth making clashing against my contemporary ideological belief of all food being equally worth making as long as a great chef was the creator.

"You have begun to stray from my teachings recently, student, believing yourself wiser than your master, how can you not see the superiority ramen holds over all other foods? Answer me why you stray from my path" Teuchi says with such kindness and sincerity, however, that only fills me with sadness that he cannot see the faults of his ideology.

"The only reason I stray from your path is that I have already seen where it goes, it goes to you and no further. Yet you are so blinded by age and your skill that you believe yourself to be right no matter what. I'm here to beat you, both to save myself from a path which only leads to a dead-end and to save you from yourself. And I will come back as many times as necessary for that to happen" I replied, desperate to save both of us from limiting ourselves by just pursuing one kind of food instead of reaching for the horizon and beyond for a new world of culinary excellence.

"There is only one way to find out who is right, is there not? Let the battle, BEGIN!" Teuchi calls out.

Thirty minutes later and we stand before the judges, waiting for their verdict, Choji first takes a deep breath over each bowl, then slowly eats some of each, tasting all possible ways the ingredients from the ramen can be combined in between the chopsticks giving us the opinion of a true Gurmant.

Naruto ate like he usually does. As fast as possible. Each time his arm traveled from the bowl to his mouth he heaved a clump of noodles with every pull, vegetables and other ingredients weaved in with the noodles. He was the incarnation of a customer who just needed a quick meal.

And last was Ayame, sitting there, looking like she thought the whole thing was stupid but fun, digging in like a normal person after a playful roll of her eyes. Each mouthful getting thoroughly chewed and judged on how good it was, but it was clear which she thought was better.

Unsurprisingly, Naruto finished first and after a moment of thought he reached his decision "the old man's ramen was better"

After him, Ayame finished her food and she too came to a decision "yeah, Naruto is right, dad's ramen is better, sorry Anno" she said with an apologetic smile

"the other two have it right, Anno, whether it is taste, smell, consistency or anything, really, his is superior," Choji solemnly told me.

"I see... eh, what did I really expect to happen? I mean, I've been learning for a year and a half, really, it's a surprise I even put up a challenge" I said with a jovial smile and a cheerful laugh.

"don't put yourself down like that kid! Yours was great, not my level, but great! I really liked what you did with the eggs, it was a creative way to bring some new taste to the dish" he said with a proud smile while patting me on the back.

"Wait, wait, wait, weren't you two just having an ideological battle or something? When the hell did you become buddies again?" Shikamaru loudly interrupts our feedback to each other, the perfect picture of confusion.

"yeah, it was, but what does that have to do with us being friends?" I ask, I mean, you can be friends even if you disagree on some things.

"But, isn't he forcing you to only cook ramen?" he asked squinting his eyes together to try to understand what was happening in front of him.

"while he's teaching me, yes, but I could just stop learning from him whenever I want and learn on my own instead" I calmly try to explain to Shikamaru.

"Then what was this battle about!" Shikamaru cries out in outraged confusion.

Teuchi and I slowly look at each other, shrugged our shoulders, turned to Shikamaru, and answered in unison "for fun"

The only thing Shikamaru did for a solid ten seconds, was stand there, eyebrow twitching, his brain slowly trying to comprehend the fact that he gave up half an hour of his life to watch two people cook with absolutely no stakes on the line. Then he grit his teeth, turned on his heel, and walked away, grumbling about idiots who were a complete pain and made him waste time he could be using to nap.

Choji followed after his childhood friend and just before he closed the door he called out to us "bye guys! It was really fun and the ramen was great! Can Shika and I come back some other time?"

"Sure! You two can join us whenever you want! Believe it!" Naruto happily called back.

"And you didn't want me to teach you about friendship, only a year and a half have gone by and I've gotten you seven friends! For only one free ramen bowl a week, really I should start making it more expensive" I say with a teasing smile.

"HEY! I would have gotten them on my own! Believe it!" Naruto said with an angry pout.

We continued like that for the rest of the evening, just having fun with our friends, even Sasuke warmed up from dry ice to regular ice after a while.

The next morning I woke up in my bed, feeling refreshed and happy. I couldn't wait for the festivities in two weeks, that, however, brought a new problem to mind. What was I, an orphan with nothing other than clearly having incredible potential to his name, going to give for gifts?

"well, I guess I'll get a job," I said to the empty room.

But where should I work? Hmm, something fun, that ideally, I could use at least a bit for my ninja career... what to do, wait, didn't Iruka once say something about seals? I think he called it fuinjutsu? Oh yeah, he had a whole lecture on it, how it was used to seal things like books in scrolls or something, that did seem pretty interesting, but not exactly incredible. He even did that demonstration where he made an explosive seal, which was kind of cool... wait, if fuinjutsu, literally the sealing arts, is all about sealing, how did a seal create an explosion? it's not like he set off an explosion and then sealed it, he just drew the characters and that was that. What if- what if fuinjutsu is just poorly named because that is all it's usually used for? Maybe it's more like enchanting and magic rituals than just seals! That would make it infinitely more interesting! Is that how those seven ninja swords of the mist were created? Could I create the greatest magic sword ever!

[quest created!]

[Quest: one blade to rule them all

Mixing the art of "seals" and the art of smithing, you think it is possible to create a magical sword

Requirements:

Create hilt: 0/1

Create pommel: 0/1

Create guard: 0/1

Create blade: 0/1

Assemble the pieces: 0/1

Rewards: unknown]

Wow... I can't see any of the rewards. The quest description doesn't even confirm whether or not it's possible. But I definitely need to try doing this, I mean, think about it, Anno, greatest forger of magic items in history, the artificer. oh, goosebumps, that's it, I'm becoming Anno the artificer no matter how hard it's going to be! Step one: learn to smith and ask Iruka about fuinjutsu. step two: not really sure, I don't really know anything about fuinjutsu or smithing yet. Step three: eternal glory.

I immediately walk out of the orphanage in search of a smith to apprentice under.

"no"

"no"

"not a chance"

"yes" "really?" "HA! No"

Ok, it's slightly harder to get a smith to hire you than I initially imagined, but no need to worry, I still have one more shot! Just, you know... in the really bad part of town. Nothing illegal, mind you, it is a ninja village, after all, just the poorer neighborhood where everyone is mean.

Walking up to my last shot at learning to smith in the near future, I see what looks like a completely rundown smithy, weeds growing everywhere, the outside of the house looking significantly worse than any other smithy I've been to today. But beggars can't be choosers. So I walk up to the door, which matches the aesthetic of the rest of the house, and knock. No one answers. but I can hear the sound of hammering from the inside of the house so I just open the door and go in. It's not really breaking and entering as I didn't break anything, so it's just entering.

And then, I see the smithy, unlike the rest of the house it is immaculate, the tools are well taken care of and the smithy sparkling clean, anvil spotless, each hammer, tong, and chisel immaculate. Suddenly, the smith I had barely even noticed till now stopped hammering and lowered the kunai he was working on into the oil to quench the steal. He then turned around and looked directly at me and asked in a surprisingly normal voice not at all befitting his status as a grumpy smith.

"what do you want"

"I want to learn smithing" I beamed at him with all the confidence I started this search with.

"no" and he turned around took a piece of iron and put it in the forge.

I'll show him, he won't be able to say no forever, and I prepared to do the noble thing... beg. So, I jumped over, hugged his foot with all my strength, and started begging.

"pleeease! I beg you! You're the last smith I can ask! If you say no I'll never learn to smith!" I wailed and begged.

"let go of me you brat!" he said in an extremely annoyed voice. Ok, so begging does not work, It just annoys him, next step, bartering.

"You don't even have to teach me! I'll just sit in the corner and watch, then you let me use the forge for an hour and that's it! I'll even clean up" I desperately yell while holding on to the leg he's shaking viciously to get me off.

After two hours of shaking, begging, bartering and cursing he finally agrees.

"Great!" I pant while immediately letting go "why not start today? I'll go find a chair and sit in the corner" I wheeze out and give him a gracious smile.

"no chair. That wasn't in the deal"

And so, I watch from the floor as he smiths, and I actually learn quite a bit, it will definitely still take a lot of experimentation to work it out alone but getting exact feedback from the system on when I'm going in the right direction in the form of skill levels will definitely help.

After hours of quiet observation, it is finally my turn to smith. He gets me a bucket full of scrap metal which is, as he so delicately puts it "useless for making anything sturdy but perfect for a brat to mess around with" and, I start. And the hammer sings... Which is not a good sign, as I learned, because that apparently meant I hit the metal very wrong and almost broke my wrist.

"don't swing like that! You'll ruin the metal even more! and your arm!" I hear a voice from the doorway and look over to see an annoyed smith.

"Did you really just mention useless scrap metal before me in your warning?" I ask incredulously.

"Limbs heal, metal, at least when you hit it like that, does not," he said gruffly, for the first time matching his status as a smith with his voice, although I think it's mostly due to embarrassment judging by the light blush.

I get a genius idea and smirk forms on my face "okay, so just to be sure I understand you correctly, metal becomes unusable when you hit it like this?" I say trying to sound as stupid as possible while beginning to hit the metal in exactly the same way.

"No! Don't do that! Just- urgh! Let me show you, quickly, this is not a lesson" he growls in annoyance while interrupting my swing.

Heh. He couldn't even last a day before he started teaching me.