Exhaustion…?
Inu slipped a food pill under his mask, as Neko watched Helena from a distance, the foreigner was beating an ingot of steel into a long length of wire with naught but a pair of tongs and a hammer, a few days prior she had asked for a few bolts of Inu's preferred fabric alongside a few lengths of whatever leather is easy to source in the village.
Something that Inu had paid for out of his own funds, as he had allowed his curiosity to pull him along. Watching the woman work was a fascinating thing, that made the long hours pass by quickly. The Yamanaka that was helping Helena learn the language, and screening Helena had recently completed her mission, and according to the report Helena was not a threat to the Village as long as she remained unprovoked, when one looked past Helena's poorly known strength…
All they knew was that she held a Jounin level of chakra, and had the ability to protect herself from, and defeat a Lesser Root Anbu. A feat that would leave most newly promoted Chunin dead before they could put up any manageable defense. Helena lacked the experience, numerous jutsu, and specialized training that most Shinobi prided themselves upon, but that didn't mean she was any less of a threat.
Helena, seeming lost in her blacksmithing as she continuously beat the ingot into a thin length of metal, didn't seem to realize the dim golden light flooding through her Chakra Pathways, a show of Chakra Manipulation that left it visible to the naked eye as it washed through her body highlighting all the tenketsu and pathways in her body… Even the Hyuga that had been added to his squad had his eyes widen, as that Chakra saturated her body in a manner vaguely reminiscent of somebody detonating their Chakra, and for a brief moment Inu thought Helena was doing just that…
However, the Hyuga at his side tapped the metal of his Kunai, 'Detonation—False—Danger—None'
Inu eased, however the adrenaline had already flushed his system, leaving his body tense as the impacts of Helena's hammer grew louder, more weighty as they pounded the metal, that didn't seem to lose its heat…
Helena had already proven that she could heat metal with only the blows of her hammer, yet this was different as every blow of her hammer introduced a golden wisp of flame to the metal… A wisp that Helena seemed ignorant of as her hammer never faltered…
Everyone present was unaware of the changes those wisps brought to that metal until a later date…
Unaware, what Helena had created in her moment of intense focus…
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Helena worked with a pair of wire snips, and a pair of pliers next to her forge as she painstakingly began to link rings of metal, slowly filling out the shape of the chainmail she held in her mind, not far from the forge was a large table brought to the courtyard by the Anbu along a length of Ninja Wire, and the leather and bolts of fabric Inu had provided her with…
All the work she busied herself with kept the torrential storm of her mind occupied, unintentionally pulling her thoughts away from her children, and how far away she was from them…
Helena didn't know it, but she had been distancing herself from those feelings of loss… As if her intent to leave upon that fateful day had allowed her to better cope with the distance between her, and her children…
Yet, it wasn't enough to flush out the overflowing love she held within her frame, and without her children present to spoil and smother with love—
Helena caught upon the thoughts of her mind, and ruthlessly shattered them before they could fester any longer, her hands coming to a halt as she stared down at the quarter finished chainmail in her hands…
It was nearly at the point that she would need to begin forming the quilted gambeson that would hide the chainmail, but her now shattered thoughts had soured the project she held. Yet, Helena refused to leave it unfinished, as she had disrespected the art long enough…
Thus, she returned to her work…
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[8 Days Later]
Helena toiled away, inspecting her needlework as she twisted, folded, and turned the newly finished sleeve in her hand, momentarily fussing with the overhanging chainmail at the shoulder of the sleeve, she carefully scrutinized the inner arm of the sleeve her eyes washing over the exposed chainmail and the leather beneath, before Helena's gaze drifted towards the seem on the edges of the inner arm where the robust chainmail began to shrink slightly before disappearing under thick quilted fabric; dyed a solemn deep gray.
It was a simple sleeve, merely the first finished step, as her gaze fell upon the unquilted chainmail sleeve off to the side, and the unfinished sleeveless quilted—armored gambeson laid…
A sigh slipped her lips, as her gaze fell upon the material for the chausses, half cloak, and bow lay…
In truth, there was little she knew about Archery, and even less she knew about Bowery but there was little that could stop Helena from rising to the challenge…
Exhaustion has yet to touch upon her mind, and the days have had yet to bled together, thus Helena would continue to work until that familiar exhaustion found her mind.
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[2 Weeks Later]
Helena's whole focus was locked onto the deliberate movements of her fingers, the tilt and turn of the needle in her tucked within a gentle but sure grip, the product of a steady hand and focused mind slowly coming together, thread by thread, knot by knot… Leather, dense fabric, chainmail, and small overlapping plates of metal; each sewn into a flap of leather, came together to form pleated skirt meant to add further protection to her chausses without adding a significant amount of weight; in metal, or hindering her range of movement any further.
She didn't even notice the blond haired young man who had approached, nor did she even register his words, nor when he left soon after informing one of the surrounding ANBU to inform him when she finished…
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[5 Days Later]
Helena slowly ran her finger down a carved length of wood, her first attempt at Bowery and one that had progressed well enough so far…
A simple longbow of a design that was favored among the Northmen during tourneys, and while it would normally be made of Ironwood, the oak—like wood that seemed dominant in these lands was by no means as weighty as Ironwood, but it was far more resilient, in her opinion it may very well be better for a bow when considered as a whole…
With a long breath, Helena tied the ends of the bow high above the fire, intent on allowing the wood to dry before she went any further with that project, and turned her attention back towards the hunk of Steel that somebody had left on her work table…
For a long moment she stared at that large misshapen ingot, which looked as if it had been freshly pulled from the ground, with no need for refinement…
Helena frowned, intent on refining it down into a proper ingot, disbelieving that any Blacksmith that cared for the art that partook in would create such an ugly thing… Helena didn't hesitate, and began to load her forge with charcoal, not allowing the monstrosity to remain in her workstation any longer than it must.
Wholly unaware of what she was working with…
Not knowing that she had looked down upon the molten remains of Uzumaki heritage… A gift from a Hokage, to a Queen.
An armor that had been reduced to an ugly hunk of metal, but retains that which made it special…
Was to be remade… Into an Axe.
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(A/N: 12??)