Naruto: I make my own way!

(Another Week of classes later. Saturday)

Another day, another dollar, time to see what's of little Sora.

Sora was happily enjoying his Saturday morning with his family until Makoto appeared and told him that the Hokage decided to reward Sora for the development of three new Ninjutsus. Sora asked about the limits of the reward and was told he could choose something equivalent to other similar rank jutsus or some monetary compensation.

When he asked about the monetary compensation Sora was told that he would be given 10,000 Ryo at most. Sora chose that option since the Ninja Academy has enough information for him to develop some jutsus that adapt to him better than the ones they teach.

(A/N: I use ChatGPT in most of my miscellaneous knowledge about the Naruto world. The maximum a D-Rank Ninjutsu would sell for, if it's a reward from the Hokage, would be approximately 4,000 Ryo and a E-Rank Ninjutsu would be 2,000 Ryo at most. Given the Third's "charitable" nature, I would think he would give the max amount of money possible, ergo 10,000)

Makoto said goodbye to the family and left to inform the Hokage. Liam ruffled his son's hair and laughed loudly while Alaina gently touched his face with her hands.

"So, are you planning to play with your friends today?" Liam asked a bit stiff.

"Not really. Minato has some training with his parents, Choza was dragged to help with the Crawfish business and took Shikaku, Inoichi and Shibi with him. I'm free for the day." Sora.

As any responsible son he tells his parents EVERYTHING in his life, which included the crawfish business, the jutsu ideas he has, EVERYTHING. He didn't live long enough to have that weird puberty privacy talk about how your body changes and stuff, he's a late bloomer.

"Well son, you know what this means." Liam spoke expecting the correct answer.

"Yes, yes I do." Sora sighed a little before going back to his cheerful tone.

"I'll buy some groceries on the way home, don't return too late for lunch or I'll get mad." Alaina said as Liam gave her some Ryo.

In case it wasn't obvious, Liam's taking Sora to the Smithy. As to the why he didn't do that before, Sora was kinda busy being a kid and Liam was laidback about that. He did give him some supplementary classes though.

Now, with no distractions he can finally pass onto him the skills he had developed his whole life.

(A/N: Liam and Alaina are both 28-Years-Old.)

After walking for some time, the father-son duo arrive at their destination, The Leaf's Weapon Forge. This is the place where every public smithy can work for a living.

Allow me to explain the infrastructure of how things work in here.

Konoha has various weapon and gear shops all around it, said shops have either their own blacksmiths or buy the weapons from someone in the forge. The forge works like an all you can eat buffet but with ores, you arrive, pick one ore from the pile to craft something and then sell said something to a weapons shop or merchant.

The product passes through a quality check so that you can put a fitting price for it. But things aren't as easy here as it may look. Even though this can be considered a public job, the reality is that every worker has to pay 1,000 Ryo per week to work there.

Also, the store owners keep 80% of the profit made from your products. Given that the simplest Shurikens and Kunais are only worth 20 to 50 Ryo, you can say that things here aren't stable.

But, if you make such a magnificent quality product, you can catch a store owner's eye and be contracted by them, no need to pay for anything, just forge the weapons, and you'll be able to retain 30% of your total earnings instead of the usual 20%.

This is the reason why the Smithy is the first building to be opened in the mornings and the last to be closed at the night. How much Liam makes per week you ask? 2,000 Ryo. Since one of those thousands goes to renew the workplace, they rely on that 1,000 and Alaina's job to get more money, which we'll talk about more in the future.

This is the reason as to why Sora sometimes goes to the forest for ingredients, that way they managed to save up enough money to live as "regularly" as everyone else.

Still, although the job is indeed hard, it can become one of the most reliable during war times. During war times, prices skyrocket due to the demand of gears for the whole Shinobi of the village, making a simple Kunai worth 100-150 Ryo instead of their usual 20-50.

Another thing is that the 1,000 rental applies to only 1 person per thousand, making the already tiring work even harder for the blacksmiths. However, since Sora is just here to watch and not to actually do any of the heavy lifting, he won't be counted, as long as he doesn't bother the rest of the smithers or helps his dad during the forging process.

"Alright Sora, you remember the basic lesson about smithy and the materials used, right?" Liam spoke as he changed into his forging clothes.

"Yes, 1. High-Quality Materials Matter: Blacksmiths use durable metals and unique ores found in the ninja world.

Chakra Metal: A rare material that can conduct chakra, allowing weapons to be enhanced with elemental chakra.

Adamantine (Kongō): Incredibly tough metal, used for powerful weapons, but has low chakra conductivity.

Meteorite Iron: An ore extracted from a meteorite that crashed, it's said that it gives a unique property to a weapon, like Nidaime-sama's Flying God Sword.

And finally, Standard Steel & Iron: Used for kunai, shuriken, and general tools." Sora.

"Good, wat about the forging procedures?" Liam.

"First: Material Selection. One has to choose the appropriate metal or alloy based on the desired properties of the final product.

Second: Heating. The metal is heated to a specific temperature to make it more malleable.

Common forging temperature ranges:

Hot Forging: Around 1,100–1,300°C

Warm Forging: Around 700–900°C

Third: Forging or Shaping. The heated metal is placed in an anvil and is shaped using one of the following methods:

Drop Forging: A hammer is dropped onto the metal to shape it.

Press Forging: A continuous pressure is applied using a press.

Roll Forging: The metal is passed through rollers to shape it.

Fourth: Trimming & Finishing. Excess material (flash) is trimmed off. The part may undergo further shaping, machining, or surface finishing.

Fifth: Heat Treatment, If Needed. The forged part may be heat-treated to enhance hardness, strength, or toughness.

Sixth: Inspection & Quality Control. The final part is inspected for defects, dimensions, and structural integrity." Sora listed again.

"Perfect. You know at least have the basic information right, but for this lesson I'll teach you something a bit more unique." Liam spoke as he took a simple steel ore and began to process it.

"Unique?" Sora was intrigued.

"As you know, I managed to learn how to use chakra right? But have you wondered why?" Liam.

"Eh? I thought you wanted to become a ninja but then decided a career change." Sora.

"Well, that's entirely wrong! You see, there's a special method of forging which is infusing your own chakra on the materials as you craft them." Liam explained as he hovered his hand over the melted metal and started to infuse his chakra.

"That's possible?! I didn't know that." Sora.

It was indeed true, since he only knew what his father told him and some small bits of high industrial forging, but his curiosity wasn't piqued so, he left that there.

"Yes, it is, but you see there's a catch. Chakra infused forging isn't a secret or anything, it's just that one must know how to properly infuse the chakra in the material or else the entire product will fail." Liam.

"Could you elaborate a little bit? I don't quite get it." Sora admitted, the whole forging was a complete unknown land for him.

"Well, think of this technique like this: The ore is like human being, it has its own weight, blood type, age and other uniqueness to it. Now, you're a doctor whose giving them a medicine to make them stronger, that's basically the chakra infusion, too much and the ore won't handle it, too little and it'll ruin the uniqueness. It's a rushed balance that must meet all of the ore's characteristics and requirements." Liam explained.

Sora entered into deep thought.

'I see. Chakra nurtures practically everything, this process makes sure to not only take out some of the impurities but also transform them into better components for the ore. Like changing cancerous cells into mother cells.'

'However, not every ore is the same just like there's not a single human being exactly identical to another, even if the DNA matches to perfection, their mentality might be different.' Sora.

"But wait, I'm guessing that this process makes better weapons than the normal process, right?" Sora.

"Yes." Liam.

"Then, why don't you do more of these chakra forged weapons and sell them?" Sora.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Liam let a heartly laugh out.

"It's not that I don't want to, but rather I can't." Before Sora could ask, Liam speaks again. "My chakra control is horrible, mediocre even, it takes me ten times the amount of effort and time it takes professionals to do it. So, to not waste my time I focus on making as many normal kunais and shurikens as I can to make ends meet." Liam confessed.

There wasn't anything to be ashamed of, to be honest, the chakra forging method had many conditions to reach perfection and the amount of chakra and chakra control Liam could attain is too minimal.

But he saw Sora in a different light, perhaps it was just him overestimating his son, but he felt that he could reach the pinnacle of chakra forging, or at least a level higher than himself given that Sora wants to be a Shinobi.

Still, he can tell that Sora has great chakra control, he can't feel chakra with a fancy technique or like Sensory Ninjas but years of working in different forges allowed him to develop a keen sense to know how good someone is with manipulating their own chakra.

"Look at this." Liam told Sora to look at the melted metal.

The metal, that was shining due to the intense heat, began to show a darkened color, almost as if got burnt.

"This is one of the consequences of doing this method wrongly, the components within the ore clash with each other and turns the whole ore obsolete. This ore is now barely good enough to make some nails or something like that." Liam spoke as he stopped the fire and poured the metal in a container.

'Just like medicine then, no, just like my procedure. If I hadn't received the sealings, my body could've been destroyed.' Sora.

"Now, I'll make one chakra infused weapon to show you the process." Liam said as he paid for another ore and delivered the useless one.

Yeah, all productions must be worth at least the minimum market price, screw up and you're paying for it.

"Are you sure? You said it'll take a lot of time, and mom will get angry." Sora.

"Don't worry, truth to be told she knew that we'll spend the whole day here forging, sorry if it's a bit boring." Liam.

"Not at all, I'm enjoying this so far." Sora smiled whole heartly.

Liam smiles at Sora's words.

"Well, I'm now going to start the process, since I'll need extreme focus, I won't be able to explain anything but fortunately, I have a friend here to help us out." Liam spoke while waving at someone.

Sora looked back and saw a dark-skinned muscular man a tad older than his father that walked towards them.

"Sora, this is my friend and also one of the best blacksmiths in the whole forge: Tokage Zaraki." Liam.

The man merely looked at Sora before yawning from boredom.

"Don't let his shabby appearance deceive you, once starts forging, he won't stop until he reaches the pinnacle of that product." Liam.

"If he's so famous, why isn't he working in one of those fancy stores?" Sora.

"Because I don't like being told what to do." Zaraki spoke as he grabbed Sora by the head.

Sora's first feeling wasn't fear or anything alike, he just felt the texture of the hand through his hair. Calluses from working with hammers, cuts from sharpening, burns from the fire, so many injuries in his hands but Sora didn't feel any sort of discomfort coming from the man.

"I guess your father was half-right, you do have an eye for detail." Zaraki commented as he leaned on a nearby table.

"Well, I'll start with the process, make sure you pay attention and ask Zaraki here for explanations, he may look stupid but he's quite knowledgeable." Liam.

"Screw off! This is supposed to be my day off so; you better make some fine-ass weapon, or I'll clobber you with an anvil." Zaraki complaint as he threw a hammer at Liam.

Liam doesn't move since he knows the hammer isn't going towards him and just pats Sora in the head as he looks for another ore.

Liam closed his eyes and stood in front of the various minerals that he was allowed to use. Sora stood besides Zaraki as his father remained unmoved for several seconds.

"Your father is trying to find the correct ore." Zaraki spoke suddenly.

Sora was surprised because he was planning to ask that, could it be that Zaraki can read minds?

"I can't read minds; your childish mind is simply too easy to predict." Zaraki spoke as he took a gourd from his back and drank from it.

"Could you be more specific?" Sora decided to ignore the comment and just went for his next question.

"Direct, I like it. You see, as blacksmiths, our job is to make the best weapons out of whatever material falls unto our hands, but just as there are no same ores, there's some which are better for crafting a specific thing than another." Zaraki drank from his gourd.

"I see." Sora looked at his father.

Liam picked another orb and remained unmoving but a few seconds later he left the ore there. The process was repeated several times until he finally found a nice ore, a hematite ore.

"Oh, he got a nice one." Zaraki commented.

Sora, however, couldn't find the difference.

Liam immediately came back with the ore and prepared his blast furnace. The furnace was filled with flames that began to melt the ore, Liam immediately focused his chakra as near to the flame as he could and let it reach the melting ore.

"As you can see, the process had already begun since your father picked up the ore, do you know how?" Zaraki suddenly asked a question to Sora.

"He used his chakra to feel the ore?" Sora.

"Correct, that way he can have a more detailed information about the whole ore's composition." Zaraki.

"How exactly? Is it a specific feeling? A sudden burst of power?" Sora.

"It doesn't work like that, we put our own individual markers on each component of the ore as we analyze it, we then see what that component does and memorize it to know what happens when it meets another similar component, it's like making up words for a new language or naming rock pets." Zaraki.

'Rock pets?' Sora thought of his own pet rock: Rocky Boulder-boa.

"What your father's doing is adding and subtracting those components and then mixing them up in different quantities so that the ore, now a metal, has the ideal properties for the forging part." Zaraki.

Sora channeled all his chakra into his senses in order to feel what his father was doing, unfortunately he's both too young and inexperienced to actually do something similar.

Amidst focusing and failing to feel the ore the same way his father did, Sora noticed something different about the forge itself, the whole place got relatively quieter than before when he first arrived.

"So, you've noticed it, eh?" Zaraki casually takes another sip of his gourd.

"Why's everyone so quiet? Or at least quieter than before?" Sora.

"It's common courtesy. We've spent over a year forging with our lives and the ones of our families on our backs for over a year, we kind of developed a keen sense to know when someone's doing something important, so we keep the volume down." Zaraki.

Sora couldn't help but to marvel as he saw everyone continue to work despite the reduced volume and even his father who was entirely focused on the melting process.

Sora kept analyzing his father's movements for an hour before the melting and mixing process was done. Liam took a mold and poured the melted metal into it. Sora noticed that from the moment he picked the ore up until now Liam hasn't stopped conducting his chakra.

It wasn't him pouring a large quantity, he did it in small deposits like drops of water when you barely close the hose. Liam took the metal after it cooled down and it revealed its new form, a rod.

After reheating the furnace, Liam brought the rod inside and let it reach the crimson red point of heat and then came the fun part, smashing it with a hammer.

*CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* 

The sound of steel being pounded resound throughout the whole forge as if it were an entrancing song. Liam rhythmically and consistently hit the rod of metal to give it the correct shape.

"Each strike has its power calculated to resound with the metal and the chakra your father's been pouring all this time, the rhythm is a way for us to know when and how to do the process correctly, it'll be learnt through experience." Zaraki spoke as his gourd ran empty of sake.

The next step was to fold the steel, in case you haven't realized it we're making a Katana, by the time the steel was fully tempered, it was already 6 in the afternoon. Sora's gaze never stopped looking at his father throughout the whole process.

Liam was starting to run low on chakra, no matter how little he was pouring into the katana, he didn't have the large reserves to continue forever. But Liam wasn't gonna make a half-assed product, he kept working through the exhaustion and started the final part before the assembling: The Tempering.

Using thick and thin clays, Liam needed to create the temper line so that the sword curves properly and becomes a katana. The problem is that during this process, the clay hasn't and couldn't be infused with chakra throughout the whole process, so Liam now has to merge the "uniqueness" of the clay into the already perfectly mixed blade to create the ideal temper line.

Liam decided to use the left of his chakra to make sure that the blade gets tempered correctly during the heating process. Liam felt his whole body sweat as the flames consumed the blade and his chakra was depleting.

The blade reached the right temperature, and Liam immediately took it out and put it on cool water. As the blade drastically cooled down, the clay broke off like dry skin and fell off the blade, Liam didn't stop his chakra flow, ensuring that the blade was tempered properly.

After some minutes, Liam took the blade out and prepared it for the sharpening part. His chakra wasn't necessary from this point onwards, so he finished it relatively quick compared to the other procedures.

It was a simple blue hilt with a yellow circular guard and Liam secured the blade properly. With a huge sigh of relief, he looked at his creation with satisfaction and looked at Sora.

His son was stunned at the whole process and didn't know what to say, but his body did.

"So… awesome…" Sora subconsciously spoke.

"Right?" Liam said as he held the katana shine in all its glory.

The whole smithy stopped what they were doing to appreciate the beautiful shine of the katana, a katana that would make itself famous in the ninja world in the somewhat far future.