Right in two

Chapter 1: The lone miner

(If i were to pick a theme song for this it would be right in two by Tool)

"Did you hear? Two grunts from our unit were executed by General Budo yesterday." A patrolling guard said to his colleague.

"No shit! What for? Cowardice?... Defection?"

"Uniform violations… I shit you not." Then they both laughed.

"The dress code is our foundation of discipline and honour. It serves them right." The two passing guards walked by on the catwalk overlooking one of the many mine shafts that lead deep into the rocks that contained rich minerals. A figure could be seen in the cover of the dark and dirty mine shaft holding in a snort of disgust. He stepped out of the darkness revealing himself to be a tall young man of 16 years of age who measured at 5'10 in height. The figure wore a dark-grey hooded trench coat that went down to his knees and hid most of his body. He also wore durable, black combat trousers and dark-brown boots that had seen better days and were covered in dust and dirt. His face was obscured by red tinted goggles with a black frame and a faded/tattered burnt orange scarf covering the lower part of his face. In his hands was a handheld pneumatic mining drill that was connected to a power supply resting on his back while the drill itself looked like a bulky rifle, but with the handle on the top and the trigger at the back of the drill located underneath the large cable connecting to it.

'Honour?' he thought, 'there is no such thing.' He thought bitterly.

If anyone had thought of or mentioned anything about the world's definition of nobility and honour in today's world, then chances are that they will not live for very long. Times change and so do the people. Unfortunately, they evolved into the worst kind of people that humanity can achieve by itself. Namely how humanity has fallen to its lowest by this one man…Prime Minister Honest. This man was by far the most hated man in the entire region or the world for that matter. It is surprising on how a once prosperous empire had fallen due to this one man's lies, deception, backstabbing and schemes all for a position of power and the complete manipulation of an unsuspecting and naive child emperor who ascended the throne just so he can live a selfish, happy and carefree life for himself.

The unsuspecting emperor Makoto, who to be quite frank, was not fit for the throne as he was too trusting, which led him to be blinded by this man's lies and was horribly incapable of making his own decisions. His morality was wrapped around Honest's finger like a lost child so he couldn't discern what was right and wrong. His word of law was severely deluded and his position, while he was unaware of it, was more like that of a figurehead, which led the prime minister, the ambassadors, the military, the police force and even the aristocrats to do whatever they want.

After the previous prime minister's death and the ascension of Emperor Makoto, the whole empire plunged into a whirlpool of darkness and problems that kept going deeper and deeper, such as a deep economic recession and political corruption. Furthermore, public order was deteriorating rapidly; poverty was rampant in many places; slavery had become a widely popular practice for the nobles, but was also brutal for the slave workers to the point where many died from it; crime rates had risen to catastrophic levels and the people were living in fear. Even the neighbouring countries were not safe from the growing threat of the Empire. Examples included the tribes, nomadic clans and the communities and regional vassal states that initiated uprisings towards the Empire, but inevitably they were brutally put down. They were not spared from death or torture as only the men were mostly tortured and killed savagely. The women were equally tortured as well, but mostly they were brutally raped until they broke, or both the men, women and children were sold into slavery.

The hooded man in question himself is a slave who works in the biggest, dangerous and harshest mines in all of the Empire. His home was located in the far west beyond the ocean. How did he get here you ask? Well the empire isn't the only place that is evil. If you go over their right now and ask anyone in the fire country which place is the best ninja village, then they would say Konohagakure hands down. However, anyone else outside of Hi no Kuni would object to that strongly, but no hidden village is perfect as they would claim it to be.

Three years ago, it all happened on that one fateful night where it was the day for the annual graduation exams. The exams itself was the gateway for future ninja hopefuls to pass through to begin their careers as loyal Konoha ninjas. Everybody present in the exams was ecstatic and full of pride, including the parents of said children, mostly the clans and the civilians. All were happy, but one boy…Naruto Uzumaki. Unfortunately, for the third time he had failed his exam again. This time was his last chance to reach his dream to be the Hokage and earn the respect from every villager that scorned him, But what he didn't know was that the requirement for the use of a regular bunshin was just a small trickle of chakra (by his standards) that the justu was ranked E, the lowest of the class of jutsu for a reason. Even though the Bunshin was practically useless out in the field, it was labelled as a requirement. That particular jutsu had been the bane of his existence, barring his way all because his reserves were abnormally high for a simple academy student and nobody had bothered to remedy it, because they simply didn't care about him or they forgot.

After sitting on a swing feeling utterly depressed that he had failed, his academy instructor came by to cheer him up and notified him that there was a secret exam that he could partake to pass as a ninja. While the whole thing was suspicious itself, Naruto took it anyway. The task was to sneak into the Hokage's office undetected and *Ahem!*… obtain the forbidden scroll from the office which was a cinch for Naruto due to his pranking sprees throughout the village, which earned him more ire and hate from the civilians instead of respect and acknowledgement. Naruto could easily sneak through any part of the village like the T&I building, Anbu headquarters, and even the Hyuuga clan's compound, undetected. So sneaking through the Hokage building would have been a breeze for him. It was too bad nobody appreciated his stealth skills or took any notice in him.

After nabbing the forbidden scroll and knocking the Hokage unconscious or into a possible coma from the huge amount of blood loss with Naruto's very own newly formed secret kinjutsu…the Oiroke no Jutsu. It was super effective even more so when he used it against Iruka-sensei. After all that, Naruto arrived at the designated area where he was supposed to meet his instructor. However, he found out that he was two hours early... either that or Mizuki was really late. So deciding not to waste any time in sitting around, Naruto delved inside the scroll for a quick gander through it to learn a couple of jutsu. And lo and behold, the curse of the clone jutsu had still plagued him at this current time, or did it? It turns out that this was a more advanced B-A class clone jutsu. This may have been the answer to all of his problems, and what was even better was that there was also info explaining the uses of shadow clones.

Apparently, they could transfer what they learn to the original, but not physical memory. However, the downside to it was that they were quite fragile. Naruto hummed at this information, but also grew interested by another piece of information that could help him buff up the power of the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. It says in the scroll that the jutsu itself could in fact be buffed by transfusing them with some of the user's blood, like a few drops of it. This only works if the user has also learned the blood clone jutsu which was an S class forbidden technique and was also conveniently right next to the shadow clone variant. Naruto, ignoring he forbidden part about the jutsu, instantly dived into the scroll and trained furiously in order to learn and master both of the jutsu quickly. Every normal shinobi would've given up at this point as it would've taken them years to do it, especially the S class jutsu. However, Naruto wasn't normal; he was the opposite of normal. He had learnt both of the jutsu at an abnormally fast rate and mastered them both just before the time limit expired.

The shadow clone jutsu was by far the easiest to learn, but the blood clone jutsu was to be used with both blood and chakra which made it exceptionally difficult to learn and master. The aim was to cut open a small wound anywhere on his body and to manipulate that blood into a form similar to his own body. The training itself was painful, but Naruto could live through the pain as he had suffered far worse during his childhood. Although, both his stamina and endurance to pain were not the only things keeping him going. His Uzumaki genes, along with a certain Bijuu sealed in his body were in fact assisting him with the brief 2 hour training learning session immensely.

After nearly two hours of storming through the jutsu, he had learnt and mastered them in just under a two hour window. Naruto grinned in triumph over his success. Now he would definitely pass, so now all he had to do was wait for Mizuki. After a short wait of two minutes, he heard movements in the treeline. Thinking it was Mizuki he decided to investigate, but what Naruto didn't know was that there were strings being pulled from behind the scenes by certain people in the council. Namely two of the three elders and a large majority of the civilian council had gotten word that Naruto failed. The council smirked victoriously as they successfully sabotaged most of his graduation exam, but before they could plot a sinister attack that would've no doubt be foiled yet again, they made an agreement with an envoy from this… empire across the ocean. The envoy had wished to gather orphans, but due to the Hokage, he couldn't gather orphans under the watchful eyes of the leader of the hidden village. So what he did next was to get in contact with the civilian council and the two elders and made them an offer they couldn't refuse. Since they could not gather orphans, so why not choose any person that would not be missed, like prisoners for example, and the answer they provided was the village's demon brat. The envoy accepted their proposition and didn't question as to why they immediately recommended this particular boy.

So what happened next was Naruto being swarmed by chunins, some jonins and a few Anbu under the council's payroll. Naruto panicked as he recognized their hostility and before he could get into a fighting stance and defend himself, an ox mask Anbu had appeared behind him and slammed a cloth over his face laced with ninja grade chloroform that could knock a person out in seconds. Before Naruto fell limp he heard them talking. "Hey! We could've had a quick beating session with the demon here." Said a chunin. "Don't bother, the sooner we get rid of him the better." an Anbu replied back to him. "Besides from what we have heard about this empire, It's the best place for demons like him to be in." a random jonin smirked to himself before Naruto fell into unconsciousness.

A few days later he awoke by the motions of a rocking room and the sound of water crashing into the side of a ship. He then woke up to find himself locked up in a cell and chained to the wall. He remembered what had happened moments before and was outraged by the betrayal. He thrashed and shouted out in fury as he smashed his shackles and chains on the wall. The action only called the guards in and they brought out their batons and started beating him across his body and face to get him to shut up, but Naruto defied them by simply glaring at them back which only caused them to put more effort into their torture. After ten minutes of brutal and constant beatings, Naruto laid on the wall limply as blood splattered across the walls and was trailing down his body as bruises formed in a lot of places that darkened his skin black, blue and purple.

At that moment, the envoy decided to step in to inform Naruto of his fate, He was to be sold into slavery for any buyers that were interested in exotic types. Naruto's heart sank in despair, his dreams were slashed apart by the selfishness and prejudice hostilities that the council had for him and sold him to an empire located thousands of miles away across the ocean west of hi no kuni and the elemental nations. What hope that was left for Naruto was to assure himself that his jiji would save him, but that hope was crushed when he was informed that he was knocked out for five days and they would reach one of the port towns of the Empire shortly and not once were they intercepted by Konoha-nin along the way.

This made Naruto realize that he had been abandoned by his own village. He wasn't an authorized shinobi as he had failed it previously so that would still make him a civilian and he was more or less hated by a vast majority of the village, including a majority of the shinobi forces. The Hokage, his jiji, had failed in protecting him time and time again as he could not control his own shinobi forces that went behind his back just to harm the bijuu container out of petty revenge, spite, hatred, grief and fear. This was the final straw when he declared that he would not forgive them, not this time or ever. Now he was miles away from home and his chakra was suppressed due to a collar locked tight around his neck that had seals inscribed on them to negate his chakra provided by the council.

Over the past five years, he gained some understanding of the basic knowledge of what the Empire was after he had been tossed around from master to master. By far the worst of the lot was a family of aristocrats that secretly got their rocks off by torturing country bumpkins or, in his case, foreigners like himself. He was given to this girl named Aria who was perhaps a year younger than him. The girl appeared very pretty on the outside just from that smile of hers and the cute frilly white and blue dress she wore. However, during those five years, Naruto discovered that he could sense what was underneath her surface thanks to a certain fox (We'll get to that later.)

He knew that it was all a ruse. They introduced themselves as a kind and generous noble family and they gave him food and a nice warm bed to sleep in. That all immediately changed the following night when the guards stormed into his room and dragged him off to a shed located in the back. There he found a horrific sight of all of the victims that suffered from the deception of a seemingly kind and honest family. Aria by far disturbed him the most as he could not fathom how a sweet 12 year old child had the look of a sadistic psychopath and that cruel and twisted smile of hers was the most hideous smile he had ever seen on a girl.

They described these torture sessions as evening hobbies that they revelled in so much. They first used numerous torture devices to break his skin apart, then his muscles and then bones. Then they used hot iron to burn holes into his torso before Aria's mother injected him with a vile filled with a contagion known as Lubora disease. He didn't know what it was supposed to do to the victim, because his body was immune to most if not all known diseases, and the other tortures didn't break him as he just simply healed and taunted them over and over again. After a whole month of seemingly endless torture, they gave up and sold him to another buyer who had an interest in him.

This person was the reason why he was working in the mines in deplorable conditions. In addition to being really dusty, the mines were also cold, unstable in various places and the guards were brutal to any slackers. The person who bought him was the head chief/ governess of the mine. She stood at 5'10 and her body structure and muscles were exceptionally toned, taut and well-conditioned, not in the sense that they were overly done, but in a very good way, especially if this person was an aristocrat… military training maybe? She had swept back platinum blond hair with double bangs that reached her left and right eyebrows that complemented her amber coloured eyes. She often wore a respirator when she travelled down the mine for inspection and a leather coat that contained a large set of DDs inside and skin tight leather pants with black combat boots and black finger-less gloves. On her side fastened to a holster was her signature weapon, or as it was famously known throughout this land, a teigu. Her weapon consisted of a grey metallic whip with thorns covering the majority of it. Some say that each teigu grants a special ability to the user.

Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by an unfortunate soul screaming in blood-curdling agony from somewhere down the tunnel above the catwalk located at the primary lift as he heard the infamous sound of her whip lashing against some poor bastard's exposed back. Apparently the whip has the ability to intensify pain by multiplying the damage being received from the victim by X2, X4 or up to X10. Most couldn't handle the X2 pain intensity and some rarely reach the third intensity. Only Naruto exceeded the expectations of withstanding the thorn covered whip "Belmont" up to the 8th intensifier and now coming up to the 9th. It didn't take long for the screams to die out as the whip claimed her latest victim.

"Ara? Another one died again… *Sigh!* How disappointing, they're so weak!" she groaned in frustration.

"Mam, what shall we do with the body?" one guard asked.

"Dump him into one of the pits along with the rest." She flippantly answered as she was disappointed by this man's weakness and dying too soon to satisfy her. The guards lifted the body up and walked straight over to a hole that was right next to Naruto and then dumped the body into the hole as it plunged into the deep dark abyss, crashing against the walls and then a loud squelching thud was heard. This type of thing was normal around the mines, if any miners were to die through an accident or killed from disciplinary punishment from the guards, they would pick a hole that was disused or disbanded and dump all of the bodies in that hole like a massive unmarked burial grave. If the smell got too bad then they will either burn them or bury them under rubble after they blast it with dynamite.

Naruto knew that person as well, he warned him that he could not keep on bailing him out those other times, because he was weak and exhausted from the continuous labour. So he slacked off most of the time and unfortunately for him, he was caught doing it by her no less. No matter how hard this line of work was, her iron clad rules stated that there was no slacking allowed on the job or you will be disciplined… harshly and brutally. Since he first started in the mines, he did cause some trouble for the guards, which in return got him a severe beating, but that was nothing compared to the beatings he usually received by Konoha's angry drunken mobs that never held back, but neither did they.

"Ohayo Naru-kun~!" sang a muffled, yet sweet and lovely sounding voice that noticeably brightened up after the same person, who brutally killed a mining slave from her deadly whip. Naruto looked up upon the catwalk above him and saw the governess of the mine.

"Ohayo to you too Karasu-chan" Naruto replied back kindly with nod and a friendly wave back with no sense of hesitance or fear. The particular friendly action disgruntled the nearby miners. It was well known in the mines that Naruto was Karasu's favorite slave or toy in her words. Lady Karasu was a grade A+, bordering S class, sadist and masochist just behind the number one sadist and imperial general Esdeath. Despite the fact that Esdeath loved torturing the weak like pathetic bugs under her boot, Karasu was the opposite. Karasu loved torturing victims that can endure through even the worst amounts of pain, because her victims pain is like an aphrodisiac to her that is intoxicating no matter how much she does it to other victims. If the victims who are weak willed die or pass out too quickly from the pain, because their hearts and minds can't take it, she becomes incredibly frustrated and starts to take it out on even more victims until she is satisfied, which unfortunately meant everyone in the mine. Most of the slaves were very weak due to the living conditions of the mine and a large majority of the miners were cowards. Noticing that she could inadvertently slaughter the whole population of miners due to her sexual sadistic tension withdrawal, Naruto willingly sacrificed himself for the miner's sake so they wouldn't face her sadistic wrath… at least not as much.

The torture sessions he had with her would be something like love at first sight for Karasu. No matter how hard she struck him or how much power she put into her whips, Naruto always stood his ground defying her and he always held back his shouts and screams of pain whenever she turns the pain intensity up. Despite the fact that he could heal his wounds, that special ability in fact excited her more and made her more eager to experiment. This all happened when he was fourteen and she was 17-18 mind you, now she is 20. She tried all manner of torture on him, but Naruto had quickly gotten used to the pain and shrugged it off. The tenacity and endurance only added more to the reasons why Karasu was beginning to fall for him, but she couldn't release him as Naruto was one of the best miners in the mine, and he was a slave according to general Budo, her supreme commander who was the likeliest person to be against it.

Karasu's military rank is lieutenant colonel so with her position she could make his life easier in the mines. Naruto was no fool as he had been forced to wake up to reality, knew that she harboured feelings for him… odd feelings, but nonetheless they were true honest feelings of love in its own twisted way. He knew that it would really piss off the miners. They would probably accuse him of blatant favouritism, but sometimes Naruto would have to accept opportunities presented by the devil from time to time. He was no saint, nor was he truly evil as he grew up in a village of killers so he was no stranger to evil. He started off when he was fourteen with just a plain cotton t shirt and ragged brown trousers and if you were lucky you could get yourself shoes that had seen better days. The only equipment he had was a duffel bag with a leather shoulder strap, a steel pick axe, a sledgehammer, and an oil lantern with torches provided.

As the years went by, her affection for Naruto grew, as did the amount of gifts she brought him. She had been really generous only to him as she provided him with the appropriate mining equipment and even the latest tech for mining. He even got permission to mine his own personal tunnel that no one was allowed in. He had been given the clothing and accessories such as the goggles and the gloves he was wearing now, as well as the mining drill he held in his hands. If Naruto had to be honest with himself, he felt touched at receiving such great gifts… Well, just a little, as he realized that if he accepted them, then it would make him a really selfish man in the eyes of the many miners. He had no choice anyway, they did not know her like he did and she may very well just kill him for rejecting her as he refused to test that because he reckoned that she might just do that if he did as he knew that there was more to that whip then just mere pain.

"So how's your day been?~" she said in her melodic tone through her respirator and she leaned over the railing, resting her arms and voluptuous chest on the railing.

"Not too bad actually, I found another large patch of rare orichalcum ore and rich iron ore in my hole recently. I was just heading my way over to the exchange point."

Karasu eye smiled in joy "An excellent job as always Naru-kun." Before she could say anything else a resentful miner chose this unfortunate time to barge into Naruto rudely while making it seem like an accident, but the intent was clear to him as he could see it in his eyes. Unfortunately for him, he was unaware of how deep he was in the shitter. The next thing he knew was *BANG!* and his blood and bits of his brain splattered over the floor as he crashed down on the floor in a lifeless heap.

'Baka…did he not realise that she was clearly watching above us on the catwalk or has the overwork in these mines made him delirious?' Naruto angrily thought about the man.

"Anyone who dares to touch or hurt my Naru-kun shall die by my hands. Only I get to do that." Karasu stated coldly to which the nearby miners shivered at the tone in fear and the guards flinched from their spots as they had done a few brutal beatings on Naruto as they could feel her deathly killing intent and were feeling a bit disturbed by the feeling. Naruto looked back up from the dead body lying by his feet, and looked back at Karasu. She was brutal as always when it comes to him. He was treading on thin ice enough as it is with his relationship with Karasu and the slaves. Nobody trusted him after what he did, despite what he was doing for them.

"Clean up!" she shouted for the nearby guards to drag the body away and for them to dump him into the pit. Then she looked back down and looked apologetic. "I'm so sorry you had to see that, it is very dangerous in these mines and it sort of has me on edge."

"Dangerous?" he wondered what this was all about. The mine was always a danger hazard. 'She must mean something else.' He thought.

"Oh yes! If I were you I wouldn't trust anyone, especially down here. Rumours say that those Revolutionary Army scum fucks have infiltrated my mine. MY MINE!" she said tensely as she clenched her fist on the railing, causing it to dent, bend and groan before calming down. "But it's best not to talk here. If anything I shall find you and we can have dinner tonight." She said happily with a joyous eye smile and Naruto could swear that he could see love hearts hovering above her head.

'Interesting… it seems that things are getting more heated out there, but I'd rather not get involved. Not until I get stronger myself, and get rid of this seal.' He scowled at the thought of that cursed seal that locked up his chakra for years and he still could not find a way to get rid of it. Sure he may have enhanced strength from the chakra which was what benefited him down in the mines, but it would be suicidal if he were to escape on his own without any sort of plan or anything to defend himself with. Deciding to think on it later he decided to accept the invitation, because he could certainly use more information to learn more about these revolutionaries.

"Sure why not. Just have to deliver my load of minerals and even some gems to the exchange point and then I have to do my next shift down on floor thirteen. So, shall I see you at nine tonight?" he nodded to her, accepting her invitation. Karasu clapped her hands together in excitement.

"Oh that would do just fine! I trust that you won't be long and neither shall I. Meet me at my quarters tonight, the guards shall let you in." she said excitedly before turning on her heel and skipped down the catwalk while humming a happy tune to herself behind the respirator which made it sound more disturbing to nearby miners.

Naruto shook his head at her antics. She's a sweet woman once you get to know the non-lethal aspects about her. Deciding not to waste any more time, he walked over the trail of blood from the previous slave that was now being dragged towards the pit. A few minutes later he reached the exchange point located on the ground floor in the main entrance hall. This was where the miners can drop off their loads of rich minerals, ores or gems that they have discovered in the mines. In exchange, they could use a form of currency which is like credits on pieces of paper that they could use to either buy food, equipment, apparels or accessories. This method was actually an idea of Naruto's that he suggested that they could use to motivate the miners instead of beating them to work. If they were not getting anything out of it then they would be unmotivated to actually work instead of giving a sort of reward to make them feel like they accomplished something. Needless to say it has worked, but occasionally it did bring in some problems such as theft, brawls over their money, killing for their money, or dumping the responsibility on someone else to do the work for them and then claim credit for it. Naruto sighed at their actions over this. There was no sense of unity between the miners as they were mostly acting out of desperation.

Once he arrived at the stall for the exchange point he was greeted by the Inspector. This man's job was to inspect with great detail on the value, quantity and quality of the items found in the mines. There were also bonuses if they managed to find items in the mines like ancient relics or artifacts of any sort. So far Naruto had managed to discover several items most of which included treasure chests and ancient relics that raised many questions and piqued many researchers interests as one of them was cursed and killed all of the miners and guards that were nearby before Naruto snapped the head off a voodoo doll and broke the curse completely. Each and every item found in the mines can make a person exceptionally rich, but it could also make them a target. Many have tried in desperate attempts to rob him of his hard earned money. Most of them were weak miners that were either too lazy to work or were incapable and would often lead them to receive severe punishments from the guards which could lead to their deaths.

To everyone in the mine, the credit system was their lifeline, If they ran out of credits in the mine they will die unless they retrieve a fresh batch of ore from the mines. If their tools break and they have no credits or spares, then they will die unless someone is willing to help them. Not to mention that there were also plenty of hazardous places within the mines. The supports were sometimes loose and could cause a tunnel to cave in if something were to accidentally knock into them and bring the whole ceiling down on their heads. Therefore TNT was used with extreme caution and careful supervision as plenty of inexperienced miners have died due to igniting the gunpowder supply by either dropping a torch onto it or an unstable lantern ignited the black powder. There were also highly flammable and explosive gases down in the mines that leaked through the cracks in the wall. Not to mention that there were sometimes danger beasts burrowed deep inside the tunnel networks that the miners could risk disturbing. If they were to disturb these danger beasts then the guards or the governess will have to be called in to clear out the caverns or simply blast and block off the mine shafts that prevent the beasts or the miners any entry or exit out of the mines.

After waiting in line for the queue to dwindle down and to hear the man call out his name or for the next person to come to the counter to drop off their delivery of ore, gems or any miscellaneous items found in the mines. He approached the counter and placed his duffel bag on top of it and opened it up to reveal the contents of the bag. The inspector widened his eyes at the amount of rich ores that were in there as well as the variety of other things. The mines were famous for their richness, as well as the variety of the many ores and gems that resided in them.

"Well, it seems you've had another successful run in the mines yet again Uzumaki. Now let's see here… yep you have plenty of iron ore which you are lucky to get as they are in high demand, as well as Orichalcum ore, some copper ore, and... what's this? Gold, diamond and silver ore… you've broken yet another record Uzumaki. Your luck simply baffles me."

He smiled as he pulled away his loupe away from his eye (In case if you were wondering what a loupe is, it is that tool used by gemologists to inspect certain gems like a mini scope or magnifying glass) and took out wads of paper credits from underneath the counter and slammed it on top of it. The total stacked up to 450,000 worth of credits (I'm not brilliant at math, I have looked the worth of gems up and it is quite complicated as there are many things to consider about the worth of a gem) onto the counter and Naruto accepted it and flicked through each paper and nodded in satisfaction. He thanked the inspector and pocketed all of the credits into his interior coat pocket and he left the area feeling the many glares and grudges from several miners. At times he could hear them whispering in the shadows of the mines. They whispered words like "Traitor", "You're not one of us", "The devil's plaything" "Empire's favourite". All of that bullshit made him snort. Why does he still try to help them, when all they do is blame him for their suffering? They love to hold grudges and they know how to wear it proudly like a crown. If anyone were to have the privilege to hold grudges against others it would no doubt be the slaves. It was only a matter of time before they lash out against their masters.

'But what would they do to me?' Naruto thought.

Now that he thought of what Karusu mentioned, there were some disturbances in the mines. Guards were disappearing in the tunnels and all of a sudden the miners looked more determined about something. As soon as he thought about what could be the reason, he soon turned the corner and found the mess hall for all the slaves. It was there where he found his answer. Using his enhanced senses that he had been born with, he learned that the miners had their own leader… Kaname Shinsui. This man was the same age as Naruto and he arrived about a month ago. Naruto did not know much about him, but he knew something about him rubbed him the wrong way. He was eerily similar to his past self that he used to act like. This guy came in the mine with a great shining toothy smile like nothing ever bothered him. The guy never gave up, he encouraged others, helped others and even defended others. All of this, he did openly in front of others, while Naruto helped from the shadows yet nobody knew, nor would they believe him if he told them. So he gave up trying to convince them and let them be. The man had light reddish hair that was spiky on the front, but his hair was tied up in a ponytail that trailed down to his lower neck. He had the standard uniform that freshman miners start out with, but only wore with a brown withered leather coat and brown finger-less gloves along with the uniform.

Kaname was conversing with several miners; only this conversation sounded more like a strategy plan. They were planning to do something rash and Naruto thought it was best not to get involved. So he went on his way to work. That fool was too headstrong and would always charge into the thick of things. He knew he was a strong, close range fighter, but Naruto saw what these guards were packing. He had never seen these kinds of weapons back in the elemental nations, they were called guns. While they did look bulky and impractical for a ninja, he couldn't help but admit that it had potential to become a very powerful weapon that could rival most shinobi skills and weapons. He heard that the Empire did use guns in its armies, but they were rather limited in some areas as some generals preferred the traditional use of melee combat as they think that using guns are for the weak. Why though? Why not capitalise on this weapon in favour of the melee weapons? With enough guns you could simply siege a city in half the time it would usually take, and most battle formations would prove useless if they can't reach the soldiers firing at them behind defensive emplacements.

The only way to counter guns is to be faster than the user who is firing at them. Naruto has seen the power of a gun first-hand and the speed and power of it intrigued him. Only problem was that the user may not be an accurate or fast shooter and some of the guns lacked something that would help the user's aim with the weapon and some of the weapons looked a bit too bulky and impractical. Mostly the soldiers or guards would simply point at the target and spray them with full auto/semi auto gunfire and hope they would hit their target. Knowing the slaves, they would rush at their targets in desperate suicidal attempts to breach through their defences. Naruto thought nothing of it for now and decided to go back to work.

Naruto reached the main lift and once he was inside the cage-like lift he pressed the twelfth floor button and went down into the deepest depths of the mine. He was on his own on the lift and two minutes later he reached the twelfth floor. This floor was officially the deepest area of the mine known to everyone as the gas catacombs. This place was known to leak out explosive methane gas coming from the abundance of bituminous coal that was very common down here. Only the daring would come down as one wrong move would spell their deaths. Also it was essential that they own their own gas mask once they come down here. Once Naruto saw the sign he reached up to his face and pulled away his face scarf and pulled up his respirator hidden underneath the scarf and attached it to his face and secured it in place so it wouldn't be loose. He attached his oxygen supply to his mask as he brought a spare oxygen tank once he was at the surface with a tank resting on his back right next to the power supply for his drill.

He walked through the maze like tunnels of the 12th floor. Along the way he would catch the occasional glare of working miners, and a couple of miners passed out due to oxygen failure from their masks and died or they simply didn't keep an eye on their supply. It wasn't until he walked 57 steps into the mine that he felt a vibration of what seemed like a bomb blast. His eyes widened as he dived straight to the floor and covered his head. A few seconds later a raging inferno of highly combustible gas was racing through the tunnels and incinerated everything in its path. The fire flew over Naruto's body as he managed to find a well dug in trench that covered him enough from the fiery blast to pass by. After a few brief seconds the fire passed on as the area's methane gas had burnt up in the blast.

"There goes another one" Naruto mumbled to himself as he mentioned the amateur miners who were not too careful with what they were doing on the twelfth floor. Luckily the apparels he had on protected him from the heat as they were highly heat resistant and very durable. Unfortunately, he couldn't say the same for the other miners. He saw that there was a young lad who was screaming in pain as his mask was melted into his face. Noticing the man's agony Naruto attempted to move in to help the poor lad, but his friends already moved to help him and cut him off. Their glares told him that he was not welcome despite the thought of wanting to help. Naruto, catching the message, decided that he overstayed his welcome and moved on before he could get into trouble with the miners or the guards that were already on their way so he moved quickly to avoid their thrashing.

He walked further into the tunnels of the twelfth floor and soon reached a lone elevator with a sign in red saying "Level thirteen: Keep out!" this elevator that led straight down to the unofficial deepest pit of the entire mine was Naruto's private mining spot. Originally the miners who used to work in floor thirteen were all massacred after they dug too deep and discovered a nest of danger beasts that looked like beefed up giant moles with sharp teeth and malicious claws. It was left alone until Karasu personally slaughtered the danger beasts and gave the whole floor to Naruto as a special gift.

Since he had the thirteenth floor to himself, he set up a secondary home in the guard's quarters that was previously stationed down there. He had everything he needed down there, such as a living room, a bedroom, a kitchen, a storage unit and a work shop. The best thing was that no one was allowed down there, not even the guards. Karasu trusted him enough not to cause trouble as she does occasionally come down to the thirteenth floor herself to have secret visits.

Naruto took out his special key and inserted it into the keyhole in a panel on the left side of the lift and opened the panel to reveal a red button that Naruto soon pressed. The lift opened up to reveal an elevator that was more like a cage that can fit only four people. Naruto stepped inside before locking the panel so no one could use it and pressed the button for down on the inside elevator panel. The lift took ten minutes to go all the way down and the only company he had was a flickering light inside the elevator that made the ride more eerie than comforting. This was no trip to a fun place. It felt more like descending into the pits of hell as the screeches of the elevator echoed into the abyss. At last he reached the thirteenth floor and he opened the elevator gate to let himself off.

Straight to his left was the guards quarters and he headed inside. Once he entered, he flicked on the lights and the whole room lit up with an industrial grade white light. He took off his boots to go straight to the kitchen and cooked himself a nice meal before heading back into the mines. He opened up his bag and picked out a package of what was, and still is his favourite food… Ramen. Naruto sighed in content and opened up the delicious package and poured it's contents into a boiling pot with water already poured in. Twenty five minutes later his meal was ready and he got a bowl out of one of the cupboards and placed it on a metal table and he sat down to eat his hot meal.

"Itadakimasu" he mumbled out before he pulled down his respirator to eat in silence and by himself with the white light being his only company. Sometimes he used moments like this to reflect back on his life, wondering if his jiji was okay. Sure he was still a bit resentful of him, but it wasn't entirely his fault as he could not trust his own shinobi forces to do their jobs and to know better. Then he thought back to the Ichirakus as they were the only civilians, except for a blacksmith and his adopted, formerly orphaned daughter that allowed him in his shop along with another orphan from the same orphanage. He still missed their ramen, as it was the best ramen he would ever taste and would never get close enough to taste their flavour with his own cooking. Then there was the only non-corrupted and fair academy instructor Iruka. Sure he was hard on him most of the time, but he meant well. Then there was that strange guy with the most extreme fuzzy brows he had ever seen since he had known Rock Lee, and he was dressed in a full body green jumpsuit with orange striped legwarmers. He was as cool as he was weird. He did help him with his taijutsu and physical conditioning as he was the best guy for the job in that department. By far he was the friendliest jonin he had ever met. Next there was the tokubetsu jonin, Anko Mitarashi. At first she sacred him, but once he got to know her she was generally a cool person to hang out with as they were both very similar in personalities and life. Not to mention that there were three Anbu that had always looked out for him when he was a child. Cat always remained close by, Dog was reassigned elsewhere, possibly left the Anbu, and Weasel… He went quiet after the Uchiha massacre and hadn't heard from him since. And Mikoto… still hadn't woken up yet.

After finishing a satisfactory meal of ramen he gave out a satisfied sigh and cleaned up after himself. "Well… time to go to work". He reattached his respirator to the lower part of his face and placed the goggles on and turned on his flashlight that was attached to his coat where his right pectoral muscle was and headed out of the quarters and into the mines. After several minutes of walking he reached the end of the tunnel he was currently working on as he spotted that this area was rich with a variety of minerals and on occasion, gems were also available down here. He looked at the walls to inspect a good spot to start drilling. He found a spot after rubbing dust off the walls surface and found a shiny surface that looked promising. Nodding to himself, he started up his drill and began to chip away at the resource that would supply his income, as well as the Empire's. But before that he plugged in some earphones that Karasu recommended he try. She gave him a portable music player device that stored thousands of music/songs on it.

They never had anything of the sort back in the elemental nations, 'were we really that far behind in terms of technology?' he thought to himself. After plugging in his headphones that would block out any sound from the outside so it wouldn't interfere with the song playing. After selecting a random song that oddly enough fitted the atmosphere of his job, he set out to work.

(Rammstein: Sonne the music video)

His job was especially hard as no one would willingly work with him. This caused him problems in the past, hence he would be called many things, but the one name that wasn't an insult to him was "The Lone Miner" and it suited him just fine. The work was very difficult to do by himself, but he always pulled through with his enhanced strength, godlike stamina and willpower made of steel. The drill pounded away at the walls of the mine as dust flew everywhere and steam venting out of the drill. Naruto felt the power of the recoil in his arms as they were tensing up to control the drill and keep it on its mark. Just as the song was about to end, the drill punched through the wall and pieces of the wall crumbled as if it were hollow. Naruto turned off the drill and his music as he stared into the hole and began to inspect it. He pulled out a powerful flashlight out of one of his many pockets and shone it through the hole. He found that the hollow wall actually led to a room. Naruto being the curious person that he was, decided that he should head back and fetch a sledgehammer, but changed his mind as he was no weakling. All it needed was a good strong kick.

*Boom!*The whole wall collapsed as Naruto's augmented kick easily overpowered the hollow wall. Luckily the chakra nullifying seal did nothing to his strength so he was fine with the physical labour. He brought his black metallic flashlight out again and shone it into the now open and dusty room. Naruto noticed that this room looked incredibly ancient, like a thousand years old or such. Ancient texts littered the wall, but were mostly faded so he could not read most of them. However, it was the centre of the room that caught his interest. In the centre of the room stood a chest high pedestal that housed an old wooden box. Naruto approached the pedestal and carefully picked up the box to see if it would trigger any traps. After shifting the box and then lifting it up slightly, it didn't trigger anything so far.

'Did the traps wither away due to old age? Or were they so confident that it would never be found?' Naruto shrugged to himself and decided to open the box. What was inside was something that looked practically brand new, but the thing looked far older and had an aura of power shrouding it. What was inside was an amulet. In the centre of it was a pitch black sphere that looked as if he were staring into the darkest depths of abyssal darkness and surrounding the sphere were three metallic silver fins facing downwards and with the silver chain attached to the top of the amulet. Naruto thought that this looked very cool, but somewhere deep down; he felt a mysterious aura shrouding it, like it was calling for him. Naruto shook his head and decided to keep quiet about it for now and went back to work as this discovery was going to set him back a bit and he didn't want to be late for tonight.

Deciding to keep his load of ores at a reasonable level so he wouldn't waste any more time in the mines, he set off for the exchange point to drop off his delivery and then afterwards head off to get changed and cleaned up. On the way he sensed that something was odd. The miners were very hushed up about something and once he turned the corner and he spotted Kaname and a group of miners that were his followers and they were acting very suspicious. He spotted the body of an unconscious guard and he was without the keys on his belt as they were in Kaname's hand. Kaname was smirking and grinning victoriously at the act that he did. Naruto looked at the key that he had and noticed what keys they were. They were the keys that led to the main areas on the ground floor like the armoury, barracks, dungeon cells, but most importantly the key to the main elevator that leads up to the ground floor entrance and outside of the mine.

They were planning a breakout, a very badly planned one that was going to be a massacre if he caused a mass riot in the mines. As Naruto was observing them, two miners approached him from behind and were about to grab him only for Naruto to grab their hands and twist them and kick their legs to knock them to the ground and pin them both to the ground with their arms behind their backs. Unfortunately, this alerted the other miners and they quickly surrounded them. The miners looked very eager to attack him and just as Naruto was about to get into a stance, Kaname suddenly rushed in between them.

"Matte! Matte! Calm down everyone."

"But Kaname he's with them, I'm sure of it." said a random miner who hated Naruto's guts.

"But he can help us get out, right?" Kaname turned to Naruto with a smile.

Naruto frowned behind his hood, goggles and respirator. 'Damn him' he thought. He must be one of the revolutionary spies Karasu was on about. He was instigating a rebellion in these mines and he forced him to act or he would not be going anywhere.

"I practically know these mines like the back of my hand, even the surface for that matter." Naruto stated.

"Yeah because that she demon always allows you to the surface so you can fuck her in a nice clean bedroom while we are stuck down here in these cursed mines." A miner snarled.

Naruto said nothing, he wouldn't deny the facts that Karasu was evil, but she was very kind to her precious person, namely himself. Unfortunately, the unintended selfishness had caused such a massive rift to open up between him and the miners, that he was treated with hostility. Kaname gave a look to his fellow miner and commanded him to shut up and smiled at the bit of information as he knew he was honest about it. "Really?... That's awesome! With your help then we can tear down this mine for good and obtain our freedom!" he said loudly and in obnoxious happiness that irked Naruto a bit.

"Are you serious?" Naruto stared at him in disbelief. 'He cannot seriously be this stupid?' he thought as he was certain that his planning was going to get him killed.

"Nani?" he blinked.

"Don't play around! These are people's lives we're talking about here that you are planning to sacrifice so you and many others can get of this fucking place! Do you even have a solid plan!?"

"Plan?... All we need is the trust in each other to pull through this and fight our way out or die trying." He said with conviction.

"That's utter bullshit Kaname! Every fight needs a plan, and every plan has steps in obtaining it."

Kaname snorted "Whatever man, I believe in my friends more than you will ever do with me." he openly sneered at Naruto.

Naruto gritted his teeth in rage. He was going to get himself and many others killed. He may have inspired others to fight back, but for what!? Many miners may not survive the breakout, and if they did? What are the chances of them being hunted down and caught again? Would it really be worth it?

So Kaname and the group took Naruto with them as a guide of sorts. They proceeded through the long labyrinths of tunnels in the mines to avoid the patrolling guards. They then found themselves in a large clearing where they decided to stop and rest for a bit. Naruto himself was literally being kept on a short leash as he was kept under watch by these two miners that were beefed up with muscles and held very strong resentment for Naruto. Naruto said nothing and kept quiet, he was watching them conversing with each other. They looked as if they had no worries at all and acted like nothing bad was going to happen.

'What are these idiots doing? They should be keeping an eye out for Karasu's guards or worse…' Naruto discreetly took out his wristwatch and saw the time and his eyes widened in alarm behind his goggles. 'Shit! It's well past the time I agreed to meet up with Karasu. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Now she's going to be looking for me with her own Special Forces unit that she's in charge of! I have to warn them…!'

"Kanam-!" just as he was about to shout out Kaname's name he was smacked on the back of his head by the two men watching him and ordered him to shut up, but in the cover of the shadows the lieutenant's eyes of Karasu's elite special forces widened and gave out the order for the spec ops unit and they immediately made their move and engaged them. They opened fire with their own assault rifles and SMGs that slaughtered the miners. Blood splattered everywhere as bullets punched their way through their unprotected skin and apparels. Naruto hid behind the two burly men that hit him earlier and used their bodies as cover. He tried to peek over their bodies only for a bullet to hit the body and have blood splashed on his face. Not once did he fight back, he could have but he could sense her coming his way.

After less than two minutes of the nonstop, one sided killing spree of helpless and outmatched rebel miners, over thirty miners were left dead. The Spec ops unit left the cover of the shadows and were revealed to be wearing pitch black jumpsuits with black flak jackets and elbow, knee and shin pads along with black face masks and black goggles. In their hands, were lighter versions of the weapons that the guards were holding. They rounded up the survivors which happened to be only three and one of them was Naruto and the others was some random miner he had never seen before and the other that was glaring bloody daggers at him as if he suspected that they were here for Naruto. Naruto and the others were ordered to lay on the ground next to each other with his hands behind his head. Naruto took a quick glance around and noticed that in the room of corpses, Kaname wasn't with them. He somehow slipped away when the battle began and that made Naruto even more furious with him as he just proved his point.

"You fucking traitor you lead them to us!" the third man was spitting curses at him in a fit of fury and before he could break out of the elite soldier's grip he was put down with a single brutal headshot. Naruto just laid on the ground unmoving and feeling indifferent about everything. He felt tired about this, sick of it even. Why does he even bother with this? Why does he always try and gain their trust when all he gets is put down and treated as if he was the villain? Before anything could get worse, Karasu arrived on the scene to bare witness to the aftermath of the slaughter and she didn't look pleased at all. She groaned in the palm of her hands and clicked her tongue in annoyance and approached the one in charge of the whole assault. "I distinctly remember saying stop the slaves. Yes? Not shoot the slaves. I'm very particular with my words. Stop. Shoot. STOP! SHOOT! Do those words sound…the same?" She said in an ice cold tone as she pressed her fingers together as she spoke to a very nervous commander who was visibly sweating.

"But it got out of control…." He tried to reason with her.

"I'm sorry I didn't hear you. What did you say?" She placed a strong gripping hand on his shoulders as she went closer to his face.

"It got out of control." his voice croaked loudly as her aura was spiking and she was oozing her KI out.

"It got out of control…" she nodded but her tone was laced with increasing anger. "I hate it when things get out of control." She said before pulling out a small knife out of a sheath attached to her wrist and pulled the officer down to the floor effortlessly. As he was slammed to the ground and Karasu began to straddle him, she then proceeded to stab him repeatedly in the face and his neck.

"You had one fucking job and you couldn't fucking do that!" She grunted out with each stab. As she finished she exhaled out in frustration and she spotted something that she wasn't pleased with. "And you've gotten your blood on my favourite shoes! I was saving that for my date with Naru-kun tonight." She gritted her teeth, but as soon as she mentioned his name she spotted him in the corner of her eye and sighed in relief that he was unharmed.

"Ohhh! At least there is a silver lining. You didn't completely fuck it up" she said in relief towards the now dead commander. Karasu approached Naruto and helped him up onto his feet and brushed the dust off his shoulders. "I recognize those goggles and that scarf anywhere." She said humourlessly as she hugged Naruto closely to her chest. "I am so sorry that you had to go through all of that. Truth is I was very worried about you after you didn't turn up and I heard about reports that some of these slaves were not present at their posts."

Naruto awkwardly hugged back as many of the soldiers were watching them "I'm fine Karu-chan. I was just dragged along with them as I bumped into them by mistake as they realized that they could use me." Naruto comforted Karasu as he rubbed her back gently.

Karasu clenched her fists tightly in seething anger "Those bastards dare use you as a tool for their own gain… Unforgivable! I will round them up tear out every skin, muscle and bone from their bodies while I keep them alive and refuse them a quick death." She growled.

"Karu-chan I'm fine. They didn't hurt me that much…"

"Nani!" she screamed with a mix of shock and anger. She then proceeded to fuss about the bruise on the back of his head. She demanded to know who was responsible and Naruto pointed to the two burly men that were already dead. Karasu grabbed a nearby soldier's assault rifle that was fully loaded and discharged the whole magazine of every round into their bodies and reloaded several times as they exploded in blood and gore. After the rifle was partially melted and she demanded for another magazine from the other soldiers, they told her they were out of ammo. She then threw the rifle at them and hit one of them on the skull. She breathed in through her nose deeply through the respirator and was making heavy breathing noises in order to calm down. "I'm fine… just need that to …*twitch!* calm down!" she tried in vain to calm down.

"Errr… about that date?" Naruto voiced out and instantly Karasu calmed down and jumped up in Naruto's face. "Oooh! I almost forgot about that! Well let's not waste any more time!" she said enthusiastically before dragging Naruto up to her personal quarters. Just before she could, she saw the only survivor besides Naruto. "Who is that?"

"Not sure. I've never seen him before"

"Oh… well he can come join us. Oh and you have to put this on" she said before pulling out a rough sack the size of a human head.

"Errr… why?" Naruto questioned her request.

"It's a surprise~" she sang out

"Why does it smell of bloo- ?"

"It's fine~!" she sang before slamming the bag around his head and wrapped a thin piece of orange rope around his neck and tied it into a neat bowtie almost choking Naruto as he and the other stranger were dragged off to Karasu's private personal quarters in the central watchtower.

As Naruto was pushed around and the only thing he could see were shadowy apparitions through the bag. He was shoved into a comfortable seat and pushed towards the table. "Okay is everything set? Do we have everything? Good... Oh it's perfect Naruto you are so going to love thi- … well go on take the bloody bag off his head!" she shouted to the guards who proceeded to untie the knotted rope and removed the bag off of his head as Naruto squinted as the light assaulted his eyes allowing him to adjust to his surroundings.

"Again, I am so sorry for what happened to you earlier. So to make it up to you, I prepared this." She presented a whole table filled with food. A feast of all the delicious savoury food he could ever wish for, even ramen was on the table, which he inwardly thanked the gods for as it looked even more delicious then his home made variant and looked just as tasty as Ichirakus. Naruto reached over to grab the ramen and dove straight into it and immediately he moaned in delight. Karasu smiled joyously at the display of his foodgasm. "I'm glad you like it. I made that dish myself" she said only to have Naruto cough in surprise.

She was really trying to wriggle her way into his heart and this attempt had made him rather vulnerable. Karasu giggled at the face he was making. "Well I suppose introductions are in order. You already know who I am Lieutenant colonel Karasu and I am the governess of this mining town of mount Khan in the north eastern region of the Empire. On your left is the captain of the guards Nicolas." She points to a man in his late thirties who nodded towards Naruto. His face was mostly blank, but he gave Naruto a cold eye of scrutiny. He was wearing his captain's winter coat that consisted of a dark grey military coat with a white fur trimmed collar. His features were a military buzz cut and scars were littered across his head and face which was covered with five o'clock shadow and dark brown eyes. "And on to your right… who is this?" she narrowed her eyes at this man who was mostly silent and had a blank look on his face. But then he gave the fakest smile he had ever seen that displayed barely any emotion.

"My name is Kei Ma'am" he said almost as if he was trying to be not deterred by the aura, but it wasn't working so much as his brow was moist with sweat.

Naruto had never seen him before, but he was getting a bad vibe from him. Karasu ignored him for the time being and decided to talk about something else. "Now, Naruto-Kun. I suppose you would be wondering why we were after those people?"

Naruto vaguely shook his head "Only that I know that there is a major conflict between the Empire and these revolutionaries. What has happened to make them revolt?"

"To tell you the truth, its politicians and a major power grab. Bleh! Disgusting things they are. Nothing but fat, greedy and selfish people and always pointing their fingers for us soldiers of where to go fight."

"Careful Karasu…" Captain Nicolas warned her, but she waved the warning off.

"Yes I know, they can't do much to me anyway. I have more power than them at the moment and I hold one of the things that is lining their pockets in my hands. If they decided to cross me then I could always take it away from them." her eyes gleamed.

"They could always send someone to take you out." Nicolas countered

"Who?" She asked curiously.

"General Esdeath for one."

"Heh! She snorted humourlessly. "She and I go way back during our time in the military academy. She doesn't care about the opinions of those who she considers far weaker than her. She only listens to the prime minister and the emperor who in turn is being controlled by Prime Minister Honest, which is a shame because he is also a very weak willed boy who is in possession of one of the strongest teigus."

"Wouldn't that teigu that Honest has technically make him the strongest?"

"Who? Honest? Don't make me laugh! It's true he could technically defeat Esdeath with that particular teigu, but come on Esdeath would annihilate him before he gets the chance to, even without her teigu." She scoffed.

Naruto was getting more curious about these teigus and decided to ask. "What are these teigus?" he asked her.

Karasu raised a questioning brow. "You never took an interest in the Empire's common knowledge since you arrived here Naru-kun, what brought this on?"

"Just curiosity, I know a vague amount about these weapons, but I don't know how to identify one."

"Well, I'll tell you. Teigus were in fact created many years ago by the Empire's first emperor. The first was a very proud man and very fond of his empire, but he knew he couldn't rule it forever as he would eventually kick the bucket soon enough. He feared that as soon as he was gone, that his empire would soon fall by either one of his incompetent descendants or anyone that dared to usurp the throne. So he ordered for the best minds in the Empire to gather certain materials from the most renowned danger beasts and resources that were incredibly rare to find or acquire. As soon as they were gathered, they were to construct numerous weapons. 48 of them to be exact. Unfortunately, half of them were lost due to a civil war five centuries ago, several of them were destroyed. Even some of the Teigus are in the hands of the revolutionary army, but we hold the most dangerous ones. Teigus can look like anything, they could be sentient biological creatures or even people, normal looking melee weapons or guns or even equipment like armour. There are even some cases that teigus can look like simple jewellery. If you obtain one of these items and if it accepts you as its wielder then you could potentially hold a tremendous power as every teigu holds a special ability or several like my whip teigu Belmont" Karasu explained to Naruto and she patted her beloved whip.

Naruto's eyes widened at this possibility 'could it be…?' he thought about the amulet he found earlier that was now hidden underneath his scarf.

"What kind of power do they have?" the pale brown haired man asked all of a sudden. *Thwak!* His response was a rifle butt to the head courtesy of a guard standing by his chair who hit him due to Karasu giving out a nod to the guard that mentally translated to "Hit him".

"I never said you could speak. I don't even know who you are and apparently you're not registered here. I'm not like most ignorant nobles to ignore simple slaves, as some of them may have something to hide." She said dangerously to this Kei who remained quiet but gave a cold silent stare as he was inwardly wincing at the swelling bruise on the back of his head.

Naruto didn't really need to know about the capabilities of a teigu as he had heard some of the stories through rumours. All he needed to know was how to identify one so he could confirm his suspicions of the amulet, but for this stranger to suddenly ask that question with no fear has certainly raised his suspicions. This man did not look like he was from around here and his accent, despite his monotonous tone of voice, was still recognizable. For some reason Naruto's breathing hitched as he was coming towards a revelation of a probability he did not want to face ever again.

Karasu noticed this and frowned, this stranger was making him uncomfortable. "Naru-kun? Is something the matter?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nothing" he murmured.

"I don't think it is nothing Naru-kun. You feel threatened by this man for some reason." she explained his discomfort and she felt rather protective when he was agitated.

Naruto flinched as she saw right through him.

"No… I believe it's where he came from and who sent him is what made you so afraid." She said as she stood up and walked calmly around the table until she was behind Kei who was sweating nervously but only a slight drop was visible as he could feel the torrent of rising killing intent.

"And I can take a guess as to who. They. Might. be…" she said slowly, but dangerously as she unsheathed a small knife from her sleeve and with lightning like reflexes plunged it into his back right into the bone of his shoulder. The young man screamed in agony as she twisted the blade in his shoulder and pressed him hard down on the table, scattering many dishes apart from the impact. Karasu reached into a hidden inside pocket and took out a recognizable headband and a blank Anbu face mask.

"Konoha!" she growled.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock and his heart was hammering inside his chest. 'No! No! No! What the fuck are they doing here!?'

"You bloody shinobi ruin everything, like the dinner that I have worked so hard to prepare for my Naru-kun. You're no better than the Revolutionary Army that likewise ruin everyone's day. Didn't you know that it is rude to write messages at the dinner table?" She said indicating a rolled up scroll still held tightly in his hand.

"Now let's see what you've wrote down." She said as she tried to get the scroll off of a very stubborn shinobi spy. "Let. Go. Of. The. Scroll!" she said as she hit his hand after each word was said. The spy finally released the scroll and Karasu picked the scroll up and read the message that was written out to relay it onto someone else via whatever means that shinobi use, an animal perhaps?

"Now let's see here? I'm with Naruto Uzumaki… hmm? Strange it was written over three characters that says Dem- and then was scribbled out. Well whatever that means it doesn't matter, but this one will make you laugh." She read the scroll out loud for everyone to hear. She turned the mini messaging scroll around to display what it had said, and surprisingly it was something you would not expect from a trained shinobi or an Anbu of Konoha, especially if they came from Root.

"Help!" she snorted out clearly amused. "What kind of shinobi are you to write for help? That's not how you do it, you cry for help. So come on, Up you go. You are going to cry for help. If you are going to do something, you've got to do it right." She said while lifting the spy up with the knife still stabbed into his back and dragged him over to the balcony that lead outside to a breath-taking view of the mountains. "Now, here we go. Cry for help." She indicated him to do so as she held out her hand.

The spy remained silent. The poor lad that looked about nearly Naruto's age ora few years older looked as if he was going to break any second now from the pressure. Did the shinobi standards really drop that low since he was gone? Surely the Sandaime or whoever was the new Hokage was serious on selecting him for this mission?

The spy remained silent, but only served to aggravate Karasu as she wriggled the knife around in his wound roughly "Cry for help!" she insisted of him.

"H-help…" he whimpered out.

"No no no that's pathetic. Come on you can do better than that. Cry for help!"

"Help!" he said out louder.

"Say it like you mean it, like your life is in danger!"

"HELP!"

"Help! For your dying friend!" she screamed at him

"HEEELLP!" "HEEELLP!" they both yelled out simultaneously before Karasu shut him up by placing her index finger on his lips, as the shouts echoed across the mountain.

"Shh, shh, shh. Now we listen… nothing. I'm afraid Konoha and your friends aren't coming for you. You were nothing but a throwaway tool for their schemes." Said indifferently to him as it had left a shell shocked root-nin standing silently over the balcony. The shinobi… or if you could call him that was now staring out into the mountains crying tears of despair at the thought that he was abandoned by his own village. He had chosen the wrong job or his superiors chose the wrong man for the job.

'Danzo-Sama… why?' he thought about the head of Root. He didn't respond to anything, even as he was being dragged away by the guards. "Take him and find out what he knows." Karasu pointed to him before removing the knife from his back. Once she removed the knife the man winced in pain as he tried to clutch his wound. The guards then rounded on him and slammed a fist into his abdomen and dragged him along by his shoulders as he was forced down onto the floor.

"Oh how terrific isn't it. Your old home comes to visit and already makes a mess out of things. Now, please, stay here. Enjoy the ramen. Don't move. I'll be right back." As she pointed out the door and left the room in a mild hurry along with Nicolas. Outside he could briefly hear her say. "Double... No. Triple the guards. We are on lockdown. We've got rats to flush out."

And now Naruto was left on his own with his thoughts that were plaguing his mind. 'Konoha…Here?' was his primary thought. Could he really go back? 'No... nothing has changed. It never will.' He scowled as he recalled that writing error he made where he scribbled out a syllable for demon. Of course nothing has changed about their views, "I wouldn't trust anyone." Were the words he remembered Karasu saying. Who can he trust? Karasu seems to be the only one who he can rely on, but she is persistent that way. But why was Konoha so adamant on retrieving him. What were their motives?

Kei, the Konoha spy, was not having a good day. He was once one of the legendary spies of the legendary sannin Jiraiya. Now he was no more but a disgraced spy who was said to have leaked valuable and vital information outside of Konoha on orders of the civilian council as he was on their contract and payroll. He along with a company of 125 Anbu Root that were sent to infiltrate the Empire, locate the demon brat and then extract him out and back to Konoha. After following many leads, he finally managed to track him down to this mine. He infiltrated the mine in order to get close to him, but he was unprepared for the brutality of the mines and the guards, so he had difficulty in approaching him.

Now the man was staring at the governess of the mine and she was smirking savagely like that snake whore in T&I when she is presented with a fresh batch of new victims to play with. The spy was bleeding from his face and his bare chest as he was repeatedly whipped. Kei had never felt so much pain in his career or his life during the Third Shinobi War.

"Now, are you going to talk?" she asked nicely of him.

"Fff-fuck…you." He wheezed out.

"Oh come now. We've got all day. Just spit the bloody name out." She insisted by pressing a finger onto an open wound that made him grit his teeth together in agony.

"I can't say his name." he said worried about what would happen to him if he revealed any information about his master and the council.

"Oh he/she can threaten all he/she wants as I will do much worse than what this guy is promising."

The spy gulped. "It's not that… I can't tell you anything about him as he placed a loyalty seal on my tongue here." He said while showing off his tongue to a disgusted Karasu. Now Kei all of a sudden had a brief confidence boost.

"Heh! With this on me, all your efforts in getting anything out of me will be useless as the seal will kill me before I spit out a name or anything about them." he said that unconvincingly as he hoped that it would deter them from asking more questions and stop him from spilling the beans and then killing him in the process as the seal activates.

"Gross… oh well, no matter there are other ways to gain access to information in that head of yours. Without you speaking it of course." She smiled cruelly. Now Kei didn't feel as confident as before. 'What is she talking about? Do they have something similar to the Yamanaka clan?' he hoped not as the people who hired him were so confident that they were safe with the seal that they did not take into account that there are other ways to access said information.

"Send him in!" she ordered the guards to the door to fetch in the man for the job. 10 seconds later a grey haired blind man with bandages wrapped around his eyes walked in with a guiding cane scratching along the floor and a stone cold stoic face. The man wore a blood stained hospital gown and his hands were wrapped in white bandages.

"Mr Townsend here just got out of surgery 2 weeks ago, as the requirements for the surgery to implant his teigu were the loss of his eyesight and then implant them in a specific area." The old man began to unravel the bandages and held both of his palms out in front of his face. Kei saw that there were two bulges in his palms moving about and then suddenly a slit in his palms opened and out popped an eye focusing on him (like the pale man from Pan's Labyrinth.).

"Wha-What is this?!" Kei stammered

"That dear spy is an artificial teigu. The eyes were preserved once it was scooped out of a mystical man turned mad. This man became corrupted by a demonic danger beast that possessed him. Once he was slain, his eyes were salvaged as they were reported that they could see through anything, like memories and your future actions. We call it the Devil's Eyes." She giggled at his facial expression of terror.

"Mr Townsend. Will you do the honours?" she motioned him to the fearful man who was shaking in his own chair. The blind man said nothing but held out his palm directly in front of the spy's fore head and Kei shuddered and then jolted as he felt a forceful entry into his mind like it was being violated. Then the blind man held out his second palm outwards and a window was being formed as his memories were being displayed through it.

"Open your mind!" he ordered to the spy in his harsh, gravelly voice

(Flashback: the mirror's POV)

The scene played the location in some sort of dark location where some powerful leaders were sitting around a dark and shady room where only the light would shine upon these influential leaders. The memories displayed the Konoha council chambers a few years back. Kei was hiding in the shadows behind the civilian council as he was recently hired by them. As the council was waiting for their leader, the doors to the chambers were blasted through by two Anbu's that skidded on the floor with a few wooden splinters tearing through their skin and cloaks. The two Anbu agents were thrown into the council chambers by a very furious Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage.

"On whose authority was it did they think they had the right to order my Anbu agents around?!" he roared.

The shinobi council and the clan heads shuddered at the tone of his voice. They have not seen him act like this since the Third Shinobi War and the Kyuubi attack. The Kami no shinobi was enraged by someone who apparently wronged him. The civilian and the elders, excluding Danzo who was raising a curious eyebrow were shaking in their seats.

"What is this about Hiruzen?" Danzo asked of him only to get a cold look in return. "That's Hokage- Sama to you Danzo!" he said almost like he was suspecting him of something which Danzo found was quite odd, he hadn't done anything as of recent to raise suspicion like this.

"As to answer your question. Somebody or some people from this very room had the gall to order some of MY shinobi to commit a very unforgivable act." Hiruzen explained seethingly as he had a feeling of who this or these people were.

"What happened Hokage-sama?" Hiashi asked genuinely curious on why the Hokage was in such a furious state.

The Hokage gritted his teeth "Two days ago an envoy from this Empire to the far west across the ocean came here seeking a trade deal. I thought it would be a simple resource trade that we could benefit from, but what they didn't tell me was what they wanted in return… They wanted slaves."

Tsume got up from her seat and slammed her hands down on the desk in front of her cracking it "Are you fucking kidding me! Please tell me you rejected their sick proposal." She objected to it in disgust.

"If I learnt of their proposal earlier then I would've outright refused them and sent them out of Fire Country quicker than the Yellow Flash, but unfortunately some people had learnt of this proposal and jumped immediately at the opportunity." The Hokage and the shinobi council/clan heads had a strong feeling of who it was and eyes were glaring at the civilian and the elder council who were visibly sweating in their seats.

"These people have offered Naruto Uzumaki to be sold off as a slave for profit, and now this empire has made off with him and only him." The Hokage gritted his teeth and the shinobi council froze in shock, as well as Danzo who noticeably had clutched onto his cane really hard that cracks were staring to form. He was even more furious when Hiruzen was looking his way as if he was accusing him. "Don't you look at me like I am to blame for this! You know that I wanted the boy to be trained as he is our jinchuriki, I had no knowledge of this!" he objected to his accusing glare and it had lessened.

"While you have done some very questionable stunts in the past, I actually believe you this time. Yes, I know you always wanted Naruto to be your good little puppet Danzo, but there is no point in selling him off to another country where you won't be getting anything out of the benefits. However…" he looked over to the other two elder councillors and the civilian council and they were visibly fidgeting and sweating nervously at his cold, harsh gaze as the 'kami no shinobi's' aura was shrouding the whole room. The ki washed over every single one, until one person in charge of the civilian taxes caved in and confessed.

"W-w-we sold him." He blurted out due to his own fear getting the better of him. The elders and the other councillors froze in their seats and snapped their heads in shock towards him. Their glares were telling him to shut up right now before he got them all killed, but Hiruzen and the other shinobi had clearly heard him.

"Care to explain councillor Musabo." He called out to the fat pig of a council man

"T-there were two envoys of the Empire had come to us just after the first one had left your office. The second one made a deal with us…"

"Who is us?" he questioned him and the fat man tried not to say but his eyes were pointing everywhere even at the councillors, but Hiruzen could see that his eyes were pointing out possible suspects.

"Nevermind… what did he propose to you?"

"He said that we can benefit from a greater trade deal that would benefit Konoha as a whole if we were to give up an orphan or somebody that wouldn't be missed."

"And you chose Naruto to be sold as a slave?"

"Y-yes, after all that demon has nobody and no one will miss the likes of him..." he smiled reassuringly "... that it was all for the best."

Hiruzens eyes were shadowed and for a brief moment later "Anbu… arrest this man."

"N-nani! Why? On what charges!?"

"We do not condone slavery Musabo! What you, as well as anyone else that was involved have done is unforgivable. You have sold out someone I consider to be very precious to me and you are wrong to think that he won't be missed. Naruto has several people that are precious to him and he is to them. No Musabo, what you and anyone else that was involved have done was make us look like we support slavery and that we would sell out our own people all for the sake of profit!" he shouted at him while slamming his fist down on the desk in front of him.

"You will be taken to T&I where Ibiki and Anko will get any information out of you on who else was involved and likewise they will be sent there too."

"And what of Naruto-kun Hokage-Sama! We can't just abandon him!" Tsume stood up and voiced out her concerns for the pup.

"I know Tsume, but I don't know where he is. He could already be crossing the ocean by now and we would never catch up by then. So I will have Jiraiya send out his spies into this Empire and find out where Naruto is being taken to."

And then the memory blurred as it began to change and form out a new scene from a memory.

"Hmm! It seems as if half of their council are in support of Naru-kun and the other half is against him. Something about a Jinchuriki?… Whatever that is about? And the civilians clearly hate him for some reason. Why though? What did he do wrong?" Karasu wondered on the mystery behind Naruto.

The next scenery changed into him being thrown into a wall and smashing straight through it. He landed roughly onto the ground with many bricks laying on top of him and next to him. As he tried to get himself up he was grabbed right by his neck by one furious toad sage.

"You bastard! Do you realize what you have done!?" Jiraiya roared into his face. "You just sold valuable information written down by my own trusted and best spy that would've led us right to Naruto. Why!?"

"T-that demon must never come back to…Konoha…Why won't you understand!? He is a danger to us all!" Kei tried to argue back.

"That demon as you so put it is my godson. You had no right to prevent me from saving him. Now tell me who you sold the information to." he tried to threaten but a smoke bomb was thrown into the room and blanketed the whole room in smoke. While Jiraya was occupied by the sudden development, he was snatched out of the Sannin's hands by Root Anbu.

Then the memory changed again.

"See this is why shinobi cannot be trusted, Especially weak minded individuals like this one. Always backstabbing one another all for some petty revenge."

Then the scene changed again to reveal him standing in front of the commander and chief of Root. "Your mission is to locate and capture Naruto Uzumaki. By our information he should be still located inside of that mine."

"How should I approach him?"

"Do whatever you wish, befriend him, knock him out or incapacitate him, just don't kill him." Danzo stated and Kei was gritting his teeth together to prevent himself from outright objecting for this demon to return to Konoha, but Danzo would make him into a weapon and he would never bother him or the people of Konoha again… it didn't seem so bad, right?

And then the scene changed again to see him standing in front of the revolutionary spies and the leader of the spies, Kaname.

"Remember, The plan for attack starts at midnight." Kaname informed Kei

"Just remember our deal. You bring us Naruto Uzumaki and we will help you gain your freedom."

"Sure thing! And err… What about you guys?"

"We have our men stationed around the mine and we have this place surrounded and inside the mines and every important structure."

"Kei explained every part of the plan to Kaname and he in return explained their parts of the plan in case things didn't go their way. "Remember Kei, if this does not go to plan then consider Naruto dead. I'm sure the miners will be glad to finish him off." Kaname smirked to himself.

"We won't, and if you do go against our deal then will consider you and the rest of this mine to be wiped out" he threatened.

"That's if you don't go against us first."

And then the memories stopped their by a furious Karasu.

(Cut back to the present)

Karasu flipped table over in a fit of rage "Those cowards dare to threaten my Naruto-kun! Nicolas! Get every guard and my forces to prepare for battle! This is WAR!"

"And what about Naruto, Karasu?"

"Ah! Naruto!" she froze in the spot as she remembered that she had left him alone and that he could be in danger as the miners were going to be a threat to him. she quickly ran out of the interrogation room and back to the dining room. As soon as she arrived back at the dining room, she found the room to be empty and all of the ramen and a majority of the food and drink were gone. She only found a note by the side of the table where Naruto had been sitting at earlier.

It read "Thank you for the food Karasu. Unfortunately, I have a late night/early morning shift to attend to and I cannot wait much longer so I had to leave. Sorry about leaving so soon, but I really appreciate meal you had prepared for me and I hope we can do something like this soon. – Naruto X"

While Karasu would've blushed like a giddy schoolgirl, her stomach dropped in fear as Naruto had headed back into the mines where it was soon going to be a warzone.

"Naruto!" she ran straight for the armoury to get herself prepared to head into the mines, but she was already too late.

(Elevator to floor 13)

Naruto was already kitted up and his gas mask was already fitted on and was already on the elevator heading back down to floor 13. He felt much better after having a nice warm and delicious ramen down him as well as other important nutritious meals that were already prepared for him.

He had to leave as he needed time to himself to think about what was happening. Konoha was back on his mind yet again as apparently they have sent someone to capture him. He suspected that this wasn't a rescue mission set up by Hiruzen. If it was then he would've sent someone more trustworthy like the Anbu Cat or Dog and few others like some of the jonin.

However, what was really on his mind was the amulet hidden underneath his scarf. He was getting these strong vibes coming off of it. He was certain that this was a teigu, but he had no idea how powerful it was. It had to be if it was buried under tonnes of mountainous rock.

*Screech! Clang!*

Suddenly, the elevator screeched to a halt and Naruto was left stranded in a dirty narrow elevator shaft with a little light that was flickering on and off and the groaning cable that was clanging about and groaning under the strain.

"The fuck?" he frowned as he looked up as the elevator suddenly stopped. He pressed the down button on the panel only to get no response. He then pressed the emergency button only to get no response from that either. "Great, powers out" he sighed in frustration. He was about to curse until he could hear faint echoes far above him at the elevator door back on the twelfth floor. he couldn't figure out what they were saying but he could figure out their intent. "That's no search and rescue party." And he was right.

*Boom!* the winching system for the elevator was blown up by organised explosives of TNT and it destroyed the system in one blow. The elevator had nothing holding it steady as it was now sent hurtling down into the abyss, increasing speed at every second.

Naruto was sent to the floor as he held on and braced himself for the inevitable impact that was soon to come.

*BANG!*

The elevator slammed onto to the bottom floor of floor 13. The elevator crumpled up under the strain of the forceful impact. There was worse to come however as bits of scrap metal, the steel cable and parts of the elevator shaft had caved in and started to bury the elevator with Naruto still inside.

Naruto was left inside of the elevator battered, bruised, bleeding, and unconscious. He was trapped under tonnes of rock and scrap metal of the elevator. He was unaware that the miners had started their revolt with aid from the Revolutionary Army and he was blissfully unaware that there was a warzone happening just right above him.

Just as he was drifting in and out of unconsciousness, he was also unaware that the amulets sphere like gem was glowing with increasing power and that he was being brought into the depths of his mind where a certain fox was anticipating his visit.

"Naruto…"

(End of chapter 1)