Hiring a Blacksmith [I/O]

Zaibatsu had bought a custom set of armor for himself from the R and D department of the village’s armory, and so he was feeling really good about himself right now. He had spent quite a bit of money for materials to reinforce the armor, but he could not for the life of him figure out how he was supposed to do it himself. So, he simply chose to bite the bullet and simply hire one of the blacksmiths of the village. He assumed that it would cost him the better part of his savings, but he did not mind in the least, as this armor was a good preliminary armor that would protect him against chakra-based attacks that his opponents would throw at him. He liked the look of it a lot, although it was a bit strange seeing his hulking form wearing it around, and his horns had to jut through the armor for the helmet to fit snug enough to protect him from outside effects. Other than that, the armor looked great, and he only needed someone to increase the durability of it with the materials he had on hand.

He was walking through the commercial district of the village where all of the blacksmiths seemed to congregate, unless they had a shop of their own somewhere else, but Zaibatsu had no clue about those personal shops, and only wanted to try his luck asking around. As he was walking with his armor set in a crate under one of his arms, he got quite the few stares directed towards him. The apartment where he lived had a lot of people that would stare at him as well, but because of his frequent movement around that area for his day-to-day tasks, people got used to him fairly quickly. Zaibatsu was not by any means a gentle giant, he loved fighting and killing, but he was nice to those that showed him respect, and he simply did not have it in him to be unkind to the normal members of the Mist Village, simply because they were like small defenseless animals to him. It made no difference whether he was nice or mean to them, but it rubbed him the wrong way to oppress the weak while fearing the strong, and so he was actually an outgoing and boisterous person most of the time.

Here, however, very few people recognized the giant because he had just finished polishing his weaponry skills, and so he had never actually come to this part of the village before, or at least not to do anything other than some sort of business, like a mission. He was still unfamiliar with the area, and the people around him gave him a wide berth, so he simply walked over to one of the blacksmith shops, which made the owner and his apprentices reel back in shock a bit, wondering if the large and intimidating looking man was going to cause some sort of trouble. They noticed he had the headband of the village tied around his waist, so that gave them a bit of comfort, but the man was shirtless and had what was essentially a barbarian loincloth or kilt on, so it was still strange. Zaibatsu simply started speaking to the man, asking him questions. “Yo, old man. Would you or anyone around here be able to reinforce this armor with these materials?” Zaibatsu said, placing the crate down with a large thud next to them and opening it, revealing the armor and the chunks of meteoric iron inside. The blacksmith looked for a moment, shocked at the meteoric iron mostly, as he had seen the special armor suits before, but had never been able to practice his craft on one before.

Since Zaibatsu was intimidating and he lacked the necessary skill to mess with the armor anyways, the middle-aged blacksmith calmly spoke to Zaibatsu about his issues. “My apologies, but I won’t have the necessary expertise for this armor or these high-end materials, and I think only blacksmiths that are also shinobi have what it takes to do so. I can’t be of help.” The middle-aged blacksmith seemed to be acting extra courteous, and the apprentices that usually saw their hardened old man blacksmith gave him some slack, as Zaibatsu really was huge. They honestly thought that Zaibatsu could simply twist and bend any of the weapons that they made into pretzels with his bare hands, and they were right. “Tsk” Zaibatsu would let out a slight grunt of frustration before closing the lid on the crate. “Oh well, let’s see if I can find someone by tonight.” Zaibatsu picked it up under one arm before heading off to see if he could find a blacksmith shinobi. There were a couple sighs of relief when the people thought he was out of earshot.
WC: 811

Weapons were the pinnacle of combat for Ban. She had specialized in many different forms of swordsmanship with a katana, an odachi, a maul, and recently sai. Her strength made blunt weapons her preferred option, though, due to the heavy blows she could use them for. The Hozuki's weapon and fighting style also worked with immense strength mixed with their hydrofication techniques. 

But there was another side to weapons besides combat, which was art. There was an art to crafting weapons as it took a lot of work and creativity. Mastering blacksmithing and war meant knowing how to be one with your weapons. This is why Ban took her time to also work on her blacksmithing skills.

Every week or so, Ban would take time out of her training and missions to work on some blacksmithing with an acquaintance of hers who was a blacksmith. She would use his shop for about 2 hours in the day for whatever she needed to get done. The Hozuki is typically just refined and polished; however, today might go a little different with a fellow Kiri shinobi.

Ban was in the studio next to the one Zaibatsu visited and asked about getting work done with meteoric iron. The Hozuki knew how to deal with the special iron with her lessons in black smithing. She planned to get something like that someday for her weapons. 


"Hey, you." Ban popped her head out of the studio's worn curtain, where she could hear the entire conversation. Her low voice showed some excitement when talking to the stranger. "I can deal with the meteoric iron for you. I even got the furnace up and running already." Ban would invite the fellow shinobi into the studio if he agreed to take her up on the offer. "Here's the deal. I can do this for ya for 2k ryo, which is pretty good here. What do you say?" She offered her hand out to see if he would take the deal.

WC: 332

Zaibatsu was pleasantly surprised when suddenly another head popped out from his peripheral vision to say that she could handle the armor that he had. This was the blacksmithing area of the village, and this person was using one of the normal blacksmithing shops, but he did not think that was a problem. He knew about weapons and armor, but did not really know how to craft them or augment them himself, so he was willing to believe this person. Zaibatsu was also fairly simple. If the person did anything that was going to destroy or damage his armor, he would just beat them up and grab enough money to replace all of the material and armor, so it did not matter to him. He had a wide grin as he walked over to the blacksmith store right next to him. “Oh? Great!” Zaibatsu would say, as he walked over and handed the armor and the chunks of meteoric iron over to the woman.

The woman then said that it would cost him two thousand ryo, and Zaibatsu was fine with that price, but still wanted to know if there were any other fees. He at least needed to know if it was two thousand total, or if she wanted two thousand ryo per meteoric iron added to the armor. He was fine with either, so he simply nodded. “Sure. Will that be two thousand ryo per meteoric iron? Or two thousand total?” Zaibatsu was already prepared to pay her, so he did not really mind and did not stop handing over the armor and the meteoric iron chunks. After handing over the armor and the chunks, Zaibatsu quickly walked over to a wooden bench that was off to the side of the road and sat down. He was extremely large, so he took up most of the bench by himself, and of course grabbed some stares from the people around him. He would simply patiently wait for his armor to be completed, even if it took several hours.
WC: 339

The genin accepted Ban's offer and waddled over to her studio next door with an armful of armor and iron. She didn't realize the man had two pieces of special iron for his armor. "You've got quite the inventory. Most of the time people only have one piece of meteoric iron. Yeah, that'll be 2k ryo for each iron piece. It'll make your armor a helluva lot more durable but it'll take longer to melt and form." The Hozuki knew that she wouldn't be able to finish in two hours when it would take half that time to just smelt the metals. She would just have to apologize and hope that the blacksmith would understand the special assignment.

Assuming Ban got her total of 4k, 2k for each iron chunk, the amateur blacksmith would place the metal in a large pot, making a loud clank as the metals clashed. Then she would lower them into the flaming furnace. The heat of the furnace was already pretty high due to her prelighting process. However, if she wanted to waste less time, she would need to make it even hotter. Loading it with more coal and wood for fuel and restricting heat escaping within the insulated area caused the heat to dramatically rise. Pumping air into the furnace with a loud device that sucked the air out of the environment and into the furnace. It was one of the many things that could cause someone to go deaf with long exposure.

Ban joined the genin outside for some fresh air as the metal would slowly start to smelt together. She took in the salty air with a relaxing inhaling. She faced the shinobi, "My name is Ban Hozuki, by the way. I'm a chunin of Kirigakure." Ban sat next to the genin if he showed no hostility. She leaned back into the bench looking up into the sky, stretching on the backside for support and her arms behind her head. "What about you? I can tell you're a shinobi of some kind. You fight for Kirigakure?"

WC: 344
TWC: 678

Zaibatsu handed over the metal as the woman commented about how he managed to get two pieces of the meteoric iron, and Zaibatsu nodded. “Well, I only really spend ryo on food. This did cost me most of my savings though, haha.” Zaibatsu would say in a fairly cheery voice. He really did not care about the amount of ryo he spent, as long as it got him closer to getting stronger. Zaibatsu nodded after paying the woman the money that he owed her, and she told him that the armor would be a lot more durable, but the forging process would take a lot longer. He knew that this was going to happen, so he was of course prepared to simply sit there on the bench for a while. If it got really boring, Zaibatsu did not mind simply starting some pushups or body weight exercises, as these would still do something for him because he was so large. As he was sitting nearby watching the flames of the furnace flicker around and the sparks showing about from the melting of the metal, there was an odd calm.

The loud noise did not bother Zaibatsu as the metal was heating and melting, but he did like looking at the flames dancing in the furnace and the bright light that came out of it. Zaibatsu was definitely interested in becoming a blacksmith and learning those skills, but there was always something hindering him. He felt like he did not have the time to learn something like that currently, as he still needed to be able to get stronger. He was rapidly becoming stronger and taking time out of his schedule to go and learn blacksmithing just was not something that he was considering at the moment. After a little while, the woman introduced herself as Ban Hozuki, a chuunin of the village. She then walked over and sat down on the bench, asking him if he fought for the mist village as well. Zaibatsu was a pretty boisterous individual, so he did like talking with people, especially those who enjoyed a good drink.

“Good to meet you! The name's Zaibatsu Ajin.” Zaibatsu always started off strong in his introductions, immediately offering his hand to the woman to shake if she wanted it. Regardless of the handshake, Zaibatsu would continue with his introduction. “And yeah, I’m also a Kirigakure shinobi.” he would say, pointing towards his waist where his headband was worn as a belt at the moment. “I wasn’t born here though. I used to be in a wandering mercenary band. Decided to join Kiri when they disbanded, thought I’d be able to get a lot stronger this way, hehe.” Zaibatsu would give a hearty chuckle at that while looking at his own huge bicep, reflecting on his time in the village. He had gotten quite a bit stronger, even learning the most powerful fighting style he had ever seen while he was in the village. He was just waiting for an opportunity to pay his village back for the power he had gained there.
WC: 515

The client's name was Zaibatsu Ajin. He introduced himself proudly and confidently, presenting his open hand to Ban. She grinned with interest took the young man's hand in a firm handshake. Ban was correct in assuming that he was a shinobi. He explained further that he wasn't born in this village, rather an outsider joining after previously being a mercenary to a now-disbanded group. Mercenaries were a mixed bunch to Ban. Sometimes the mercenaries were relatable and just wanted to get stronger, like Zaibatsu. Other mercenaries have more insidious intentions. Those are the ones Ban couldn't trust, thus tainting the idea of mercenaries as something to be cautious of. 

Ban glanced at Zaibatsu, gathering her thoughts together meticulously. "You know, why don't you and I test this armor out once I form it and get it to cool down?" Ban motioned with her thumb over to her maul leaning against the studio wall along with her own armor. The shinobi seemed to be pretty strong based on appearance alone, but Ban always enjoyed getting a little deeper into knowing someone's true strength. Plus it was an excuse to get some training in after wasting most of the day doing metalwork. If he agreed, She would have someone to spar with. 

After the hour wait, Ban got up and started getting the mold ready which was formed with the proportions of the armor given to her. She then would take the metal bucket of liquid metal over with her insulated rod. The metal poured out smoothly into the mold's openings. Flame fanned out of them as the oxygen got quickly vacuumed out of the mold, making the metal slide into place.

After another moment of waiting for the metal to solidify, Ban would break open the mold and take out the metal cast, still too hot to touch. It took about another hour of polishing, forming and cooling for the armor to be completed. 

Ban approached Zabitatsu with a cloth-covered armor, she didn't want to ruin her polishing work. Once the cloth was opened by her client, he would notice the dark, slick, and chromatic coloring to his original armor design. "So, what do you think?" Ban was quite happy with her work.

WC: 372
TWC: 1050

After receiving her compensation and the comfort of the customer, Ban would continue to work throughout the day.

EXIT
TWC: 1068
10 stats towards stat reclaim
200 WC towards Feint 500/500 continued from this
800 WC towards Hydrification Mastery *2 (800/2500)