Custom Kunai

A Genin who did not buy ordinary ninja tools but came to her family's shop definitely had special needs.

But praise was praise. As a ninja tool expert from a ninja family, Tenten's expression grew more serious when Chakra-Conductive Metal came up.

"There is metal that can conduct Chakra."

Tenten lightly tapped the glass counter in front of her with her fingers, producing two crisp sounds.

"But Konoha does not have much of this metal in stock. Usually, only Jōnin and ANBU members come to place orders for it, specifically to forge personal ninja tools."

"Because its output is extremely low, it has to be refined repeatedly before it gains weapon-grade conductive properties. Normally, no one would use this material to make kunai."

"Can you afford it right now?"

Naruto quickly did the math in his head.

Tenten was right. Chakra-Conductive Metal was not something a Genin could afford. The reward he had saved from the Land of Waves mission, plus the money he had earned from D-Rank Missions over the past few days, was nowhere near enough to buy the finished weapons displayed in Tenten's family's glass cases.

But he did not need finished weapons. He only needed the most basic kunai form, and he did not need many of them for now.

"I do not have much money, but I do not need to buy anything big or in large quantities."

Naruto drew his gaze back from the locked glass cases and spoke frankly. "Just a few kunai will do."

"A few... kunai?"

Tenten froze for a moment, then shook her head with a laugh. "I just told you that this metal is precious enough to be sold by the gram, and now you are telling me that you want to use it to forge kunai?"

"Kunai are consumables. Throwing dozens of them in a single battle is perfectly normal."

"Using Chakra-Conductive Metal to make consumables? Do you think this is ordinary iron ore?"

At that point, Tenten could not help looking at Naruto with an expression caught between laughter and tears. Did he not know how expensive this metal was, or was he simply overestimating himself in some ways?

Naruto did not smile. He asked seriously, "Then how much would it cost to forge just five kunai out of Chakra-Conductive Metal?"

Seeing Naruto's serious expression, Tenten realized that he was genuinely asking, not joking around.

She lowered her arms from the counter, picked up the inventory ledger on it, and flipped to the last few pages. They were densely filled with purchase prices and processing fees for various rare materials.

She ran her finger down the entries line by line, silently calculating for a while before raising her head.

"For five kunai, if we only count the metal itself and the forging process, without any additional custom design fees, it would be about the reward for two B-Rank Missions."

She turned the figures in the ledger toward Naruto for him to see. "But I need to remind you, that is only the material cost and the basic forging fee."

"If you want a special shape or dedicated Chakra conductivity testing, that will cost extra."

Two B-Rank Missions.

Naruto subtracted the amount from his savings in his head, then pulled a frog wallet from his ninja tool pouch and counted all the bills and coins inside.

He took out every last bit of money from the wallet and placed it on the counter.

"Tenten, I want to order two."

"This is the deposit."

Naruto pressed the bills onto the counter and pushed them over. "I will make up the rest after I complete my next mission."

Tenten looked at the money on the counter, then at Naruto, and nodded decisively.

"Fine, but I need to make this clear in advance. Hardly anyone uses Chakra-Conductive Metal to forge ordinary kunai, so the shop does not have a ready-made mold. My dad will need to make a new one by hand."

"He has been busy lately. There have been quite a few more ninja tool orders in the village around the Chunin Ninja Exams, so I do not know when he will have the time to do it."

"So you will need to wait for a while. I cannot guarantee exactly when it will be finished."

Naruto nodded to show that he understood.

Waiting was not a problem. What mattered was getting his hands on the items.

After thinking for a moment, Naruto added, "As for the design, I want the special kunai used by the Fourth Hokage."

As he spoke, he raised a hand and gestured through the air. The kunai's handle was longer than standard, its blade was wider, it could double as a short sword, and its handle made it easier to form hand seals with both hands.

Tenten had been recording the order details in the ledger. When she heard the words "the Fourth Hokage's special kunai," the tip of her pen left a small ink dot on the paper.

She looked up at Naruto, surprise flashing undisguisedly in her eyes.

"The Fourth Hokage's special kunai?"

"You really do have a good eye. Very few people order that style now. The handle is longer than a standard kunai, and its weight distribution differs from conventional models too. Not everyone can use it comfortably."

"But since you specifically want that design, I will write it down."

After recording the exact specifications, Tenten took out an ordinary kunai for reference and had Naruto compare the precise handle length and blade proportions.

Once they had confirmed every detail, Tenten counted the deposit and put it into a safe beneath the counter engraved with a Sealing Formula. Then she tore off a small slip of paper and wrote down the order number and amount in duplicate, giving one copy to Naruto.

"Your timing is actually pretty good."

As Tenten tore off the slip and handed it over, she casually added, "My dad happened to have something to do today, so he asked me to watch the shop."

"Normally, he and my mom take turns running the place. I only come help out occasionally when I do not have missions or training."

"If you had not run into me today, forget custom orders. You might have had to visit two more shops just to rent ordinary ninja tools from the counter."

Naruto folded the order slip in half and tucked it into his ninja tool pouch.

"Then thank you, Tenten."

"Once your dad finishes them, just let me know anytime. Send me a message or have a teammate pass it along, either works. I will come pick them up."

"You are taking the Chunin Ninja Exams too, right?"

Tenten nodded and set her pen beside the ledger.

"Then I will see you at the Chunin Ninja Exams. Good luck."

Naruto nodded to Tenten, then pushed open the wooden door and walked outside.

The bell above the door rang crisply again.

Naruto walked back along the streets of the Ninja District, his steps noticeably lighter than when he had arrived.

The matter of the Flying Thunder God Kunai was more or less settled. Although he did not know exactly when he would receive them, at least he had found a way to get them.

After seeing Naruto off, Tenten closed the open inventory ledger on the counter, picked up her pen, and wrote a small note on the stack of slips beside it to remind her dad about the Chakra-Conductive Metal order details. Then she neatly arranged the scattered documents on the counter.