IdleMuse's Snippet

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The Village Hidden in the Leaves, Arata's Forge [A month after the Third Shinobi War ended]

–Arata Kato–

"Yes, just like that," he wiped the sweat off his eyebrows as he watched his son, his 10 year old son, who had begged for him to teach smithing, lift a Hammer two times his size and then strike it on the anvil.

Like he said before, his son, Akio was somewhat of an anomaly. Now, he said that with the highest amount of love he could muster for the little helion, who was not a hellion at all and was actually really sweet and perhaps the most low maintenance baby ever, based on what he had heard from his drinking buddies, obviously from the clanless side since the clans had an army of nannies to look after their precious clan children.

He never cried, unless he needed food or had to change, even when he was little, right up until. And then, as if the dam broke, spilling forth an unending wave of curiosity.

He still remembered the near heart attack he had when his 8 year old son, punched through hardened wood as if it was not even there. He had worked hard ever since to instill a sense of caution in his son. His wife, to this day, never speaks of that incident, as if it never happened. It seemed to disturb Akio as well because he never performed any feats of extraordinary strength in front of his wife again. It never stopped him from showing Akio, his father his super strength.

Despite being a literal dwarf for his age, his son was stronger than him, even when he was using chakra reinforcement, mediocre as it was in its application. It was a small miracle that his son was diagnosed with his disease very early in his life and his file was probably already stamped with the "not suitable to be shinobi" tag so he should be safe, for a while, atleast until his extraordinary abilities were revealed. 

He didn't know what he would do then, powerless as he was but his concern for his son had made him train his chakra once again, even though he knew that the chances of him becoming strong enough to matter to the higher ups of the village were negligible.

He just hoped for his son to lead a normal life, without the burden of being thrown in the meat grinder that was any Shinobi World War. Despite Konoha being seen as the morally superior of any Shinobi War, he knew that there could not just be light in Konoha.

Just as Sandaime-sama was the light of Konoha, there must be people who act as the darkness of Konoha and do despicable things, necessary for Konoha to win the war but despicable nonetheless.

He heard rumours but he knew better than to put stock into any one of them.

"Alright son, why don't you go take a breather?" He stopped Akio from speaking as he held a hand in his direction, "I know, I know you are not tired. I am tired of supervising you. Why don't you go, I don't know, do accounting homework or something?"

Akio pouted fiercely and he barely resisted the urge to give in but the upcoming meeting made him hold firm as he took the hammer, which felt heavy in his hand and then watched as Akio stomped up to his room.

Now, stomping in Akio's sense was very different from a regular 10 year old child. Akio stomped on the first step, and his foot simply went through the wooden step. His hand met his face, loudly as he made a shooing gesture at Akio, "Go, Just go. I'll take care of it,"

Akio had the decency to look sheepish before he ran upstairs to his room.

He exhaled loudly and then straightened up. He had an important meeting to attend to.

Chakra metal was not something that could be distributed or even gathered willy nilly. It was a regulated material in all of the Elemental nations and was an object of national importance in Konoha, especially during wartime, due to its ability to act as a force multiplier in weapons, especially in the hands of higher ranking Ninjas.

Sure, the Uzumaki and their art of imbuing any type of chakra attribute and even spells in various weapons were lost to the ravages of war, but even a regular chakra metal weapon, bonded to a shinobi, can be of monumental help in fights with opponents of equal caliber.

He knew for a fact that that White Fang, Sakumo Hatake once destroyed multiple S rank enemies in the Second Shinobi War with the help of his tanto, which was even named.

White Light Chakra Sabre.

A name that sent chills down their enemies' spines. It was unfortunate that Sakumo Hatke himself didn't have a spine because he killed himself.

It might sound derogatory but the timing of his suicide didn't do the village any favours. The village fell into the cesspit of war soon later on and they could have really done with a high S-class shinobi.

Now, he was not supposed to know any of this high class information. Nope, this information was reserved, even among active shinobi, to older Genin or Chunin and above. Fortunately, one of his friends that he made in his Genin Corps days, somehow overcame all odds and became a Jonin.

Not an S-class monster that some of the Jonins were but his friend managed to become a solid Jonin, with a B-class ranking in the Bingo Books of Iwa and Kumo. He managed to make a name for himself in the same war that he avoided by becoming a renowned blacksmith, with skill surpassing all the living blacksmiths in Konoha.

Sure, he had to spend a week in T&I, with the Yamanake going through every nook and cranny of his brain when it was revealed that he learned blacksmithy from a Refugee, who also probably died in custody but later on, once it was revealed that he was not a traitor but a highly skilled weaponsmith, he was given a small home/workshop, enough money to start his business, a fast tracked license, all as an apology from the village for being so invasive in their processes.

Now, he wouldn't say that he did not resent the village for the mind scan but it was war time and he could see that the situation was truly very odd. Also, Sandaime-sama didn't really have to give him anything. They could have just patted him on the back, told him that he was clear and been on their way.

But Sandaime-sama still held some good in his heart, despite slaughtering more people than most would see in their lifetimes. He supposed that was what made the Third Hokage the most dangerous person in Konoha.

He could smile at you like a grandfather and then turn around and slaughter an entire enemy Shinobi unit, without breaking a sweat, all in the same day.

"Alright, enough procrastinating," He shook his head and changed into one of his finer clothing. He was going into a government office, run by the Nara who were sharp enough to figure out what he ate a few days ago just by looking at him.

___xx__

Upstairs

–Akio Kato–

He watched, from the window of his room, as his father left, holding the vat in his hand like it was his most precious treasure.

And in a sense, it was. His father just didn't know that the treasure did not come from the pile of scrap that was given to them. No, it came from below Konoha.

Specifically, about 40 kilometres deep into the Earth. Yup, Konoha held a reserve of this Chakra metal very deep below, where no chakra enhanced drill, no Earth Jutsu would reach.

Thankfully, his powers could.

Also, it would seem that he had put his father in trouble, inadvertently but he was very curious about the odd metal he could sense in his range and then was very curious about what would happen should he try to make a knife out of it.

As it turned out, since he had no chakra, he could not test it but it was very special, if his father's reaction was anything to go by.

A/N - 

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I run weekly polls on P*treon to decide which snippet series will get updated (2-3 ch/wk) and ofcourse, I write what my muse brings me as well.

Do note that the 5 extra snippets will be in order of when they were written & uploaded, not necessarily 5 chapters of any given story.