Hey guys, Striker777 here with the next chapter off Naofumi of the Sharingan. Be sure to vote and comment, but for now, onto the story.

———

Naofumi felt refreshed when he opened his eyes once more, albeit a little hungry. He looked to his left to see Rifana cuddling close, holding onto his shirt like it was a lifeline. Naofumi smiled, which he would immediately deny if anyone asked, and rubbed her head.

Then he felt a shadow over him and looked up, seeing a pink bird from yesterday looking down at him.

"... The hell do you want?" he asked. The filolial nodded to a fire where Fitoria was cooking something in a bunch of pots. It smelled edible, and the filolials were going crazy over it. Naofumi sighed and sat up, shaking Rifana awake. "Hey, come on, get up. Breakfast is served."

Rifana opened her eyes to the unfamiliar surrounding, a brief moment of fear passing before she remembered the previous day. She looked up at her saviour, now with black hair and green eyes with a new uniform on, her actual saviour.

"Morning. Come on, breakfast is waiting." said Naofumi, taking her hand and helping her up, as well as walking alongside her as she had difficulty with walking after being chained for so long. He sat her down and handed her a bowl of soup, which she took gratefully and began to eat, smiling as she had the best food she had in a while. Naofumi smiled and grabbed his own bowl, seeing it full of what he assumed was fish and some vegetables native to the area. Having some of the soup, it wasn't the best he ever had, but it certainly wasn't the worst either. He would eat it all, but refuse seconds, simply sitting with Fitoria as Rifana was snuggled by filolials. He looked around at the ruins, of what was apparently the first civilisation defended by the original heroes.

"This is nice..." muttered Naofumi. "Maybe when all this wave business is over, I can simply relax between missions in the Leaf like this."
"You do realise that this is happening all over the world, right?" asked Fitoria. Naofumi looked at her in confusion and shock, before collecting himself.
"Why am I not surprised that the King would do this?" asked Naofumi. "I need to tell this to Ren and Itsuki."
"The sword and bow heroes, correct? Why not the spear?"
"Wouldn't believe me even if I had undeniable proof. He's wrapped around the bitch'e finger and the King would bastardise me if I spoke out." said Naofumi. "I need to let the other heroes know."
"At least you get along with the bow and sword heroes, but you need to try and get along with the spear as well." said Fitoria.

"Look, when the chips are down, I'll help him, but for now, he won't move an inch in terms of his opinion on me. Getting along with him, or trusting him at least, will take time. A lot of it." said Naofumi.
"Which is time we do not have." said Fitoria. "You need to find a way to get along with the spear hero soon, or I will have no choice but to kill all 4 heroes and have the kingdoms try again."

Naofumi stood there unfazed. "I'll try, but I can't promise that he'll listen."

"That's all I ask."

———

"This is your stop." said Fitoria, letting Rifana and Naofumi out of the carriage. Naofumi nodded in thanks, and he performed his transformation jutsu once more, turning himself into an older man with a farmer's outfit and Rifana into a human child. Naofumi was about to say goodbye when a thud behind him got him to turn around. His eyes widened at what was on the ground.

"I-is that..."
"A summoning scroll, yes. I trust you know how it works."
"I do." said Naofumi, cutting his thumb with his teeth and writing his signature on the next free space.

"Thank you." said Naofumi. "I will call on you if ever I need to."
"Very well, until you call on me, Master Naofumi." said Fitoria, smiling and running off with her birds. Naofumi smiled at the path she took off in, and turned to Rifana.

"Let's go. Raphtalia and Keel are waiting."
"Yes, Master."

Sighing, Naofumi put that conversation away for later and walked towards the gate.

———

After entering the inn that he'd been staying at, Naofumi entered his room and dropped the transformations. He and Rifana regained their regular appearance once more, before exiting and going down to the dining room to meet up with Raphtalia and Keel.

When they got down there, they were surprised to find two others at the table. Both had brown cloaks drawn over their back, but the way their weapons were poking out as they sat gave it away. Naofumi smiled and walked on over. "Hey."

Raphtalia and Keel were the first to react, since they were facing them, and rushed forward, enveloping Rifana in a hug and crying as their family was restored. Naofumi smiled and turned back to the other two. "It's been a while, Itsuki and Ren."
"Naofumi-sensei." greeted Itsuki. "We did it. We went through all the exercises and can now walk on water! We can simply stand there for 3 hours before our chakra runs out."
"Very good. Now then, we can move on to the next round. I'll be testing your affinities. Did you get them tested at the witch's shop?"
"I did." said Ren. "I got a high affinity for lightning."
"And I'm very well connected with wind and water."
"Okay then, Ren, I'll teach you a lightning jutsu to practice, and Itsuki, I'll teach you a wind jutsu." said Naofumi. "I'll split you up with a shadow clone and you can work on your jutsu." said Naofumi, using his jutsu and generating two shadow clones. They both lead the heroes outside where they would train. "Alrighty then, I think it's time that we get back to training, right guys?"

The nods of excitement made Naofumi laugh as he first lead them to the blacksmiths.

———

"Okay Ren, I'll be teaching you the jutsu, Lightning Style: Thunderbolt." said the Naofumi clone.
"Okay then. How do I do it?" asked the sword hero.
"You'll channel your chakra into your hands, and add the lightning element into the chakra as it moves through your pathway, and then out of your palms in strikes of lightning. You'll use these hand signs, and this will be the result." said the clone, beginning the hand signs of Tiger → Snake → Tiger → Bird → Tiger → Ram, and summoning the jutsu in his hands, letting small sparks of electricity fly out. "Yours will be more powerful when you use it in combat, but for now, let's try and make that." said the clone. Ren nodded, going through the hand signs and trying to summon the chakra. He couldn't do it, draining his supply before he could get any charka out of his palms.

"As to be expected. We never experimented with this type of chakra change with you or Itsuki, so it will take practice, but you will be able to do some good things once we get a feel of how you do stuff like this." said Naofumi's clone, holding out a drink of water to Ren, who gladly accepted it.
"Why is this so much harder than the other jutsu?" asked Ren.
"Well... that because the other jutsu I've taught you only require a change of chakra form, but this jutsu also requires a change of chakra nature, so it's significantly harder. You'll get there, just keep trying."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the yard, Itsuki was trying to figure out how to use the jutsu that Naofumi's clone was trying to teach him. "One more time Itsuki, let's go."
"Right!" said Itsuki, trying once more, gathering his remaining chakra, and going through the hand signs once more, Snake → Ram → Boar → Horse → Bird → Chakra Clap, and shouting, "Wind Style: Gale Palm!"

His hand was slightly surrounded by wind chakra, and he pushed his right hand outwards, creating a small gust of wind, not even enough to tip over an empty mug.

"Man..." said Itsuki. "This sucks."
"You're doing great. Once you learn this technique, you can use it to increase the velocity of your arrows and make them a lot more lethal." said the clone. Itsuki nodded, thinking about how strong his arrows would be. The clone smiled at him. "Rest up for a bit, then we'll try again. It's all about finding the right amount of chakra for what you need. And before you go, I'll give you a challenge to help you with the change in chakra nature I was talking about." the Naofumi clone said.

Itsuki nodded and sat down, looking down at his palm for a moment, and grasping it.

'I will become strong enough to help Naofumi-sensei, even if I have a whole kingdom against me I will never become like them! Naofumi is a valiant man and I will lay down my life for him.'

———

"You're back!" said Erhard as he looked at his customers, noticing another one had joined the bunch. "You did it too. And the lord?"
"Dead. Tried to summon a dinosaur creature and it stomped him, but I killed it."
"No way... you must have reached the level cap then. Any idea what class upgrade you'll get?"
"Class upgrades?"
"Yeah, once you reach the level cap, you go to the dragon hourglass to receive a class upgrade, which will let you go to higher levels as well as giving you a stat boost." said Erhard. "You can find the hourglass in the church, so you should also go there to get the timer till the next wave."
"Thanks. Also, I'm here to pick up the order." said Naofumi.
"Okay, then I have those 100 throwing knives and 300 throwing stars ready to go, as well as the forehead protectors you ordered." responded Erhard, reaching under his desk and pulling out the order. Naofumi picked up one of the kunai, examining it and nodding.
"The craftsmanship's amazing. Thanks so much." he said as he reached for his forehead protectors, placing them on his genin.
"Don't worry about it kid. I take it you'll need pouches?" said Erhard.
"I don't have the money. I'll carry them around for the moment." replied Naofumi.
"On the house kid." said Erhard, picking up 3 square pouches. Naofumi thanked him again, getting the pouches on the legs of the girls and placing the kunai and shuriken in there, with 20 shuriken and 10 kunai. He knew some would get lost in training, so he bought extra to make sure they had enough.

"Also, here, the blade." said Naofumi, grabbing his scroll and releasing the blade, giving it back to the blacksmith.
"Thanks kid, she'll be waiting for you when you have the money to buy her." said Erhard. Naofumi nodded in appreciation.
"Maybe after I get these guys some weapons. Any recommendations?" asked Naofumi.

"Let me see..." muttered Erhard, looking at the three. "The racoon girl over there has this aura about her that is begging her to pick up a sword, and the wolf would be best off with plated gloves or gauntlets, but the weasel? I think she may be best with a bow, or maybe a crossbow. And a knife in case of anything getting too close."
"I'll make the money and work to get them weapons." said Naofumi. "I need to pay a visit to grandma witch." He picked up the crate, placing it on the scroll and sealing it away, with all the kunai and shuriken with it.
"Have fun kid, don't get into too much trouble."
"No promises."

———

"You really are good at finding interesting abilities, Sir Shield Hero." said the witch.
"Don't I know it... wow. Lava style. I wonder how many ryo I'd have to bribe the Tsuchikage to give me a scroll on lava style. And then, how would I convince the Kazekage to give me one on magnet style? Wood style will be easy since I just have to bribe the Hokage with Ramen, but now I have a hard road ahead of me." muttered Naofumi, as Raphtalia, Keel and Rifana stood to the sides of him. "Now then, I think I need to take a trip to the hourglass. You three head back to the inn and train with Ren and Itsuki, my clones will help you go through basic chakra exercises. I'll be back soon, okay?"
"Okay master." said the three girl.
"... Really? I thought we moved past master." said Naofumi. "Whatever. Stay out of trouble, alright?"
"We will." responded Raphtalia, and she led the three of them back to the inn.

"They won't be happy to see you." said the witch. "Will they even allow you to see the hourglass? If they do, what will they do to keep you from using it again?"
"I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Right now, all I need to do is get to the hourglass and perform the class upgrade without anyone realising it. I'll do a genjutsu if I have to." said Naofumi. "I'll see you later, grandma witch."

"That boy... so disrespectful." muttered the witch as the shield hero walked out the door.

———

"Hello and we-" began the nun before she saw who was at the door.

Ironic, really, that a devil would knock on the door of a church.

"I hear that the dragon hourglass allows me to see when the next wave is approaching. I'd like to know if this is true." said the devil.
"It is." said the nun.
"May I please go and get this timer?"
"Certainly. Follow me."

Even if he was a devil, the queen would have her head if she turned away the shield hero for no reason. She led the man inside the church, showing him the dragon hourglass, and the devil stepped up to the platform. He touched the glass, and she watched as he stared at it for a moment as it glowed, but then everything was normal once more. He turned back to her, and made his way out of the room. She smirked at him, knowing that his reckoning would soon come.

She probably wouldn't be smirking if she knew that she just helped the devil of the shield become even stronger than he was before.

"Huh... I had to choose that one due to the shinobi shield... oh well, at least I have new stats." said Naofumi as he thought about his new stats, a plus 50 to his attack stat and 30 to all his defensive stats as well as an additional 20 movement. No increase to his chakra, mana or health though, which kinda sucked.

All in all, he was very satisfied.

Naofumi walked back down the street, most of the people giving him horrible looks of rage and anger. Naofumi didn't care. He had those looks thrown at him a million times before he came here by jealous little boys at the academy. He really couldn't care what they thought of him, he would be better off just ignoring them anyway, lest he wanted to stir up trouble in the city.

The timer was also a plus, with just under a month before the first wave in Melromarc will hit, and with Fitoria covering the rest of it until she could no longer do it alone, Naofumi decided he needed a steady source of income. He recently discovered that there was a need for medicine, so he planned on using his time out in the forest to search for medical herbs whilst training his 3 or 5 genin. He smiled at his plan, but he would need to also go into other businesses when medicine would eventually start to become less profitable than some of the other options available. Probable ore, so he could sell to Erhard or magical materials to grandma witch.

With a plan in mind, he made his way back to the inn after gathering two scroll, a quill and ink. He smiled to himself as he placed his items in the scroll and went back inside the inn to find his clones instructing the girls to keep the leafs on their heads and Keel having some trouble. Ren and Itsuki seemed to be taking a break, but by the small amounts of burned grass on the ground, it seemed like at least Ren was making progress. Naofumi went over to the other two heroes.

"How goes the training?" he asked.
"I-I just can't seem to get it right..." said Ren. "I pour all my chakra into it, and all I get are some tiny sparks that sometimes set the ground on fire."
"It can take weeks or years to learn a new jutsu, but you seem to be doing it really well. So you should be fine to start applying this to combat as well. But how about this. I'll issue a challenge."
"A challenge?"
"Yes. Master this technique before the next wave, and I'll teach you a new lightning jutsu that will knock your socks off." said Naofumi, performing some hand signs, Bird → Snake → Monkey → Ram, and generating a ball of lightning in front of him, launching it into the air and letting it disperse. "Lightning Style: Lightning Ball."
"Whoa..." said Ren.

"I can sort of do mine as well." said Itsuki. "I just need to get more power behind it to actually be effective in combat."
"Well done, keep practicing that jutsu and I'll teach you the water wall jutsu." said Naofumi. As he looked over to his other 3 genin, he saw Keel and Rifana lose their leafs as Raphtalia kept concentrating. Rifana was trying this for the first time, so Naofumi couldn't fault her, and Keel seemed to have trouble letting chakra pass through her body, only being able to do so when she accessed the first gate, so why she struggled could be understood as well. When they got back to the leaf, he'd have to get Guy to train her on how to safely open the other gates. Naofumi smiled at them and watched as Rifana and Keel put their leafs back on their heads and went back to the exercise.

The door opened and Belle walked out with some water. Naofumi called a break, and dispersed his clones as he and the others sat down for some water. Belle, Edward, Libby, Chloe and a boy he assumed was Harry also joined them as they drank their water.

"So then plan is to head off to a nearby village and start collecting herbs and materials whilst training for the next wave." said Naofumi. "I do need to make up some money to pay for all the upcoming expenses."
"Yeah." said Libby. "I heard from a friend of mine that ore is extremely valuable in Lute Village just North of here, and that they will pay a hefty sum if you can get some ore from their mine, but it's inhabited by monsters from the first wave."
"I can sell them and get a lot of money." said Naofumi. "I need to get that ore. If the girls get to the desired level soon, we can move out and get some."
"Yeah, but it could be dangerous. Easy to ambush in the caves." said Itsuki.
"Yes, but not so easy to fall back should an ambush fail, so we should be fine. After all, the kingdom has no way of knowing that Lute village is my next target." said Naofumi. "We'll need a way of travel however, only I can do ninja running. I'll have to think of a way to get to Lute with those three without ninja running."
"How about hiring filolials? Wait, no money... right..." said Belle, looking down in stupidity and sulking for a bit.

"THAT'S IT! FILOLIALS!"

"..."

"Huh?"

———

Naofumi bit his thumb, drawing blood and made the hand signs, Boar → Dog → Bird → Monkey → Ram, , before slamming his hand into the ground.

"Summoning Jutsu!" screamed Naofumi as a barrage of smoke appeared, and from it emerged a pair of filolials appeared in front of Naofumi. Ren and Itsuki looked in awe.
"Wow! You can summon these two at any time?" asked Itsuki.
"Amongst others." replied Naofumi. "Once we get back to my world, we'll see if we can't get you two a pair of summons."
"So cool!"

"Well then, we should be off." said Naofumi. He then noticed that a bunch of city guards were coming his way. "Shit. Everyone transform."

Ren and Itsuki ran through the hand signs and transformed into a pair of human children. The guards then noticed Naofumi and marched towards him.

"SHEILD DEVIL! COME BEFORE THE KING AT ONCE!"

———

Naofumi was almost thrown to the floor, again. He caught himself and looked up at the King and the other heroes. Ren and Itsuki were able to hide themselves and return before him.
"Wow... you people sure are hospitable, ain't ya?" mocked Naofumi
"SILENCE! We have reason to suspect you of being responsible for the death of a lord and releasing an ancient beast into a town of innocent people! What do you have to say for yourself?" yelled the king.
"Um... okay, first off, I haven't left the city, your guards can attest to that, and where are you even talking about?" asked Naofumi with fraud innocence.
"YOU KNOW!" screamed the king. "In the region of Rabier, a man was seen wielding powers from his hands, and had a boy wearing a headband just like you! IT WAS YOU! I KNOW IT WAS!"
"Wait... wearing a headband like me?" asked Naofumi, using a slight genjutsu to work the mind of the king slightly. "Are there any witnesses to this?"

"I-I was there." said a voice. Naofumi turned to see a young guard, possibly only in his late teens, looking at him.
"Alright then. Did you see the Hitai-ate?" asked Naofumi.
"The what?" responded the guard, not knowing what it was.
"The thing that I have on my forehead." deadpanned Naofumi, pointing to his leaf village headband.
"Oh, yes. I got a clear image of it in my mind." replied the guard.
"Alright then, and did you see the symbol on it at all?" asked Naofumi.
"Yes I did. It-" started the guard, but Naofumi stopped him.
"If I gave you a piece of paper and a quill, could you draw it?" asked Naofumi.
"Y-yes I could." responded the guard.
"Please, go ahead and draw."

The guard nodded, with a man pulling out paper and a quill with some ink, using it to draw four lines in a square like pattern with it standing on the corner.

"That's the sign of The Hidden Mist Village. Did the perp say anything else? Anything at all?" asked Naofumi, waiting for it what he wanted to come up.
"Well, he said something about being a member of some 'Seven Swordsman' thing... but I can't quite remember what." said the guard.

Bingo.

Naofumi, putting on his best performance, looked at the guard with eyes filled with fear. "W-was it by chance, the 'Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist'?"
"I think so." said the guard.
"And by any chance, did they conceal themselves in a mist?" asked Naofumi.
"Yes. Why?" asked the guard.

"Oh dear Kami help us all..."

"WHAT IS IT DEVIL?! SPEAK!" ordered the King.
"If what he says is true... than no army can possibly help you now." said Naofumi, pulling out a book and began flicking through the pages.
"What is that?" asked Motoyasu.
"My Bingo Book. It's a list of all the rogue ninja and ninja with bounties on their heads in my world. Now if I could just find the pag- THERE!" screamed Naofumi. "Here we are, take a look, abilities, weapons and rank."
Ren and Itsuki, following along with the plan, lead Motoyasu up to Naofumi and went through the seven pages. "No way... over 100 ninja before he even went to the academy? And this one... his lightning abilities seem incredible." muttered Ren. "And the other 5 are on similar levels. I especially don't like the sounds of that Kisame guy."

Itsuki relayed the info to the King, who looked down at Naofumi with fear. "Are you sure it is one of these 7?"
"No one has ever used the name of the Seven Ninja Swordsman without earning the title and lived for more than a day." said Naofumi. "They all die. No one would dare such a thing."
"Have the guards be warned, if a person matching any of the descriptions is seen, order an immediate retreat. Since the Devil of the Shield is a ninja as well, we can use him as a distraction whilst we come up with a plan to defeat them." said the King.
"I won't be actively hunting them, but if we do cross paths, I will take care of them, but only for my village." said Naofumi. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be. Unless you wish to throw me to the floor again."

The King was angry at him, but let him go, not wanting to stare at that devil's face any longer. Naofumi, however, was smirking like an actual devil all the way back to the inn.

"Next stop, Lute Village."

———

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