Power Stone Goals from now on: I always post a minimum of 5 chapters. Henceforth the following are the goals:
Every 150 powerstones, I upload an extra chapter.
If we hit top 30 in the 30-90 days power stone rankings, thats 1 more chapter
If we hit top 10 in the 30-90 days power stone rankings, thats 1 more chapter
If we are top 5...well lets get to that first. Happy readings!
Chapter 89: SSS ranked weapon
"Is this the material you were mentioning?" I asked, tossing over the metal that Apolo had specifically collected for me. Just in case, I also included the piece I had taken near the portal.
The old man caught them both, but his reaction was telling. He held the one from Apolo in his right hand for barely a second before swatting the other out of the air without even glancing at it. It clattered to the floor behind him.
"That one," he said, lifting the ore from Apolo's collection with an appraising eye, "makes up the core of most of what you see around you." He gestured vaguely at the rows of weapons.
"But this… this one is different."
"You could tell just by touch?" I asked.
"When you've done this as long as I have," he replied, still staring at the ore like it was a relic, "an instant is more than enough to know the difference between great material and the best."
He set it gently on the anvil, pausing for a long moment as if deciding something. Then he said, without looking at me, "You're still missing two things. A person capable of mastering weapon style. And someone who fights for a cause greater than themselves."
He glanced up and down at me, frowning. "You're neither."
Internally, I couldn't help but laugh.
Don't get me wrong. I love this world. Technically, it's no longer a game—not really. But everything about the Naruto universe... the characters, the power systems, the landscapes, the lore—it had been etched into my soul since childhood.
And yet, I would trade it all in a heartbeat to save my parents and brother. To save humanity. As fractured and war-torn as it might be, it was still mine. We were on the verge of global war, not to mention the external threats Apollo hinted at. I might have entered this world to make money, to provide for my family, but now I was fighting for something more.
To lead humanity to a better future.
If that didn't count as a cause greater than myself, I didn't know what did.
The old man stared into my eyes for a long moment. Perhaps he saw something genuine, because his next words came slowly.
"Maybe you are fighting for something bigger. But you still haven't mastered weapon style. I can tell. Your palms are smooth—too clean. Those are the hands of an elemental shinobi. Your knuckles, though—worn. You've trained in taijutsu. A lot. More than most. You had a good teacher, clearly."
He let out a low breath.
No weapon imprint, no habitual grip marks, and no residual chakra alignment from a blade—there's simply no sign of familiarity.
"You're right," I said honestly. "I haven't even decided what weapon I want to use yet. But I can tell you this: if you make me a weapon, I'll dedicate myself to it fully. If that's one of your requirements, I'll fulfill it."
He was quiet for a long while. Then he turned back toward the anvil, glancing at the ore again. He sighed, deeply. The sound rattled in his chest. Then, slowly, he grabbed the ore and tossed it back toward me.
The chains on his body clanked harshly with the motion.
"I appreciate the offer," he said, "but I'm going to have to pass. Not for this one."
I caught the ore, surprised.
He clearly wanted to help.
"Why?" I asked.
He didn't respond.
Instead, he moved to a bucket near the forge, pulling out another standard ore, seemingly preparing to repeat the forging process.
"Does the Shogun have something over you?" I questioned.
No answer.
But my Mind's Eye picked up on something—a flicker in his chakra.
"Is it family?" I asked.
This time, there was a visible reaction.
He froze.
"So it is family", I said, though still the old man gave no visible reaction.
"How about we speak in hypotheticals," I continued, stepping back toward the rows of weapons, choosing to admire their craftsmanship as I spoke. "Hypothetically, if the Shogun had your family under control, what would happen if the Shogun no longer existed?"
The old man didn't look up. He simply tossed a piece of ore into the smelter, where it began to soften and melt, heat wrapping around it like an invisible firestorm.
"In this hypothetical scenario of yours," he said, his tone even, "if the Land of Iron's heads had control over my family, and you hypothetically killed all of them—or took control by some other means—I would follow your command."
He paused, letting the statement settle.
"However," he added, eyes narrowing slightly, "the second I leave this room, the entirety of my bloodline will be wiped from this planet."
The weight of his words dropped like an anvil. It wasn't that he didn't want to help me. It was that helping me came with too high a cost.
And yet, I couldn't leave him here.
According to the AI governing this world, I needed him. Not a substitute. Him.
But there might be a way.
I thought for a moment, then asked, "Are you ever moved from this location?"
The old man glanced sideways at me, clearly understanding where I was going.
"Yes," he said. "Once every six months, I'm sent to a new facility. I'm never sent back to a location I've already been to. All I know is that it's always somewhere within the Land of Iron. I'm never told exactly where."
That lined up perfectly.
Now I understood why he was here—underneath the Shogun's palace.
To confirm it, I asked, "Have you ever been relocated ahead of schedule?"
"Yes," he said. "About a month ago. I was due to move in four months, but they transferred me three months early to this location."
That confirmed everything.
The Land of Iron's leadership must have realized that during the Shadow Kage Summit, they couldn't spare the elite shinobi required to guard him at his usual location. So they moved him to the most secure place they could: the heavily fortified Shogun's palace.
Not to protect him, but to protect their leverage.
I then took out the tools I typically used to inscribe seals onto people and objects and asked the old man, "If I were to inscribe something onto you, would anyone know?"
He responded almost immediately, "I already have thousands of seals etched into me. I don't even know what half of them do."
I stepped forward and infused a bit of chakra into my finger, tapping him lightly on the shoulder. It felt a bit awkward, considering I was still in the body of a 14-year-old while he towered above me like a mountain, but in this world, no one really differentiated between children and adults; people were forced to grow up far too early.
Still, I focused as Jiraiya had taught me, spreading my chakra to activate the sealing network beneath his skin.
One by one, the seals lit up and surfaced. They were a tangle of rudimentary arrays, overlapping and intertwined to form composite effects: silencing seals to prevent him from speaking about certain topics, tracking seals, self-destruction triggers, paralysis triggers, alert wards—layer upon layer of crude but functional sealing work.
And yet, despite their number, they were simplistic in nature. These weren't Uzumaki-class seals, not on the level of Konoha's golden age. These weren't the fine-tuned mastery I'd seen from Tsunade or Jiraiya.
Given enough time, I was confident I could rewrite or overwrite them.
More importantly, I could add new ones.
I looked up at the old man. "Are you willing to take a gamble?"
He raised a brow. "And what exactly would this gamble entail?"
"I promise to locate and rescue your entire family. In return, you make me the best weapon you've ever forged."
There was no hesitation.
"Sure, I'm okay with that."
The second he said it, a system alert triggered.
[Quest Initiated
Rank: S
Title: "An Oath of Fire and Steel"
Client: ???
Objective: The old blacksmith has agreed to assist Player Mathew in forging the greatest weapon he is capable of—if Mathew can locate and safely rescue his entire family.
Reward: SSS-Ranked Weapon (Personalized)
Failure Penalty: Permanent loss of credibility with the blacksmith. No chance to obtain any SSS-Ranked weapon in the future.]
"Alright then, I'm just going to edit your seals a bit," I said as I began writing my own array of formations over the old man's skin.
He didn't react much—just watched me quietly as I worked. I had expected at least some visible unease, considering he was gambling his entire life on this, but instead, he simply observed me with unwavering focus.
That alone said enough.
Earlier, he had mentioned he didn't know what half the seals on his body did, but I was beginning to suspect otherwise. That comment could easily be interpreted another way. He likely knew the basics of fuinjutsu—enough to judge whether what I was doing would violate whatever agreement he had with the Land of Iron. If I overstepped or tried anything suspicious, he'd probably kill me on the spot.
Of course, to him I was just a Jonin.
But I had my own escape methods.
Not that he needed to know that.
It didn't take long to implement what I had planned. I created a relay system in his body—an internal node linked to a theoretical network of chakra antennas I would build later. As long as I established those antennas around the Land of Iron, I could continuously ping his location and retrieve it at will.
Building the antennas would take time.
But this link? That was the easy part.
"How long do you think all of this will take?" the old man asked.
"Hard to say," I admitted honestly.
He nodded, then glanced toward the ore and asked, "That's alright. I can wait. I've waited fifty long years. Now, onto your side of the deal—any specific weapon in mind?"
I shook my head. "Not really. I was going to leave it up to the smith."
He eyed me thoughtfully for a second, then suddenly grabbed my arm and extended it outward, measuring the width of my frame with a trained eye.
After a moment, he gave a nod. "I know what to make you."
"Are you going to tell me?" I asked.
"A spear," he replied flatly.
He turned and grabbed the ore he had smelted earlier, placing it back on the anvil as he began to hammer.
"A spear?" I echoed, stepping back slightly as the sharp clang of metal filled the air again.
"Yes," he said between strikes. "You're most naturally talented with a spear. You're also quite proficient with a katana, but let me be honest—two things. One, katana styles are overrated. Two, there are too many of them and even more counters. Choose one, and you're basically handing your enemies a guide on how to beat you."
I understood the logic. Though, the truth was, I wasn't learning weapon styles to fight just the Land of Iron. I intended to fight everyone and everything.
But he knew best.
"There are over a hundred reasons," he muttered. "I just can't be bothered to explain them all."
It felt like he had warmed up to me a bit. Maybe because we were now tethered together by circumstance—or by the gamble he had taken.
"How long will it take for you to finish making the spear?"
"However long it takes for you to do your thing," he said simply.
He didn't mention his family directly. Probably smart—triggering the seals might alert his captors.
"Any clues you can give me?" I asked.
"You saw my seals. You know better than anyone," he replied.
I did. I had seen the intricate web that forbade him from even hinting at where they might be. This was going to be difficult.
Before leaving, I turned back and asked, "Do you know any specific location where I can learn spear styles? After all, I'm actually not a shinobi from the Land of Iron."
He paused, considering the question.
"There is a man," he said finally, "a member of a criminal organization known as Akatsuki. Find him. He would do anything for a good fight. Beat him, and I'm sure he'll teach you everything you want to know."
I jumped up to the ceiling, my feet sticking to the surface as I prepared to exit.
"Well, I guess I'll see you next time, old man."
He didn't respond. Just continued hammering as if I hadn't said a word.
And with that, I made my way out.
It was time to clean up the mess I had made upstairs.
…
Authors note:
You can read some chapters ahead if you want to on my p#treon.com/Fat_Cultivator