9 TSoL Chapter 9 - Useful acquaintances

Walking the streets of Konoha, Naruto looked out for the musical instrument shops he needed, and noticing one, he headed straight for it.

Going inside, he did not even have time to look around, as the seller appeared in front of him and said:

"Welcome to… wait a minute… Is that you, that bastard troublemaker? In my shop there is nothing for you, get out," the seller sharply waved his hand, expelling the yellow-haired boy.

Smiling bitterly, Naruto replied:

"Dismissing a client is not the best policy for a business. But so be it, I'll look for another place. I'm sorry to trouble you."

Saying that, Naruto turned around and left the store. The seller snorted irritably and said:

"Tsk, as if someone would trade with you, tfu," spitting, the man returned to his store.

Naruto just shook his head and with a sigh he continued looking elsewhere. After about ten minutes, he found another musical instrument shop called Lotus Strings.

Finding the name quite appealing, Naruto decided to try his luck and look inside. Entering the shop, Naruto was able to take a good look around before he noticed the old man, who was surprised to see him at first, but then smiled affably. It was a rather unusual reaction for Naruto, so he answered his smile with his own and walked over to ask:

"Hello Oji-san. I would like to start making music, but I'm not sure which musical instrument I should choose. Could you help me?"

The man smiled and replied:

"Of course, young man. You can find many different musical instruments in my shop. What type of instrument would you like for yourself?" the seller asked with interest.

Naruto thought about it and remembered that his father played a stringed instrument, so first, he decided to try something similar.

"I would like to see the string instruments first."

Smiling even brighter, as if he heard something good, the seller got up from behind the counter and said:

"Good choice, I think I have what you might like, young... um…" the old man looked inquiringly at the blond.

Naruto tilted his head to the side at first, but then quickly realized what he wanted from him:

"Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!" the blond said with a smile.

"Nice to meet you, Naruto-kun. My name is Haji Yamamoto," the old man smiled back.

"Nice to meet you too," Naruto was really happy that someone from the villagers did not feel any dislike or hatred towards him, and therefore, he smiled with all his thirty-two teeth, "so what instrument are we talking about?"

"Wait a second, I'll show you" the old man replied with a smile, and turning around, he went to the wall and took off a pretty good quality shamisen from it, "what do you think about this?" the old man handed the instrument into the hands of the surprised boy.

Looking at the Shamisen in his arms, Naruto was surprised that the old man had given it to him. With an odd look at the old man, he quickly received an explanation.

"At one time, I already saw the same young man who wanted to buy an instrument for himself, and it was the shamisen that he liked the most."

Hearing this, Naruto widened his eyes in understanding, and then looked again at the instrument in his hands, and taking it as he once saw from street musicians, tried to pull a few strings to extract a couple of notes.

~ Tom-mm... tum-mm... tom-mm... ~

The sound was quite unique, but not too bright. Naruto found it a little boring. He also drew attention to the size of this shamisen. It was small, but at the same time long and fragile. It was not very comfortable to hold it, so he immediately gave it back to the old man, and said:

"I don't think it suits me. Shamisen is a bit long for me, and it has a small body," he pointed to the deck," and he looks kind of frail.

Naruto explained with a slight frown, then added:

"And the sound was... how to put it better... Cloudy? Melancholy?" he listed, with a hand at his chin, "it sounds somehow sad, and boring. Is there something more sonorous and unusual?"

After listening to him, the old man was at first surprised that he didn't like the shamisen, but he did not attach too much importance to this, since each person has his own preferences. He just pondered for a while, until he remembered one rather unusual instrument for their country.

"Oh, I guess I have something interesting. This is a string instrument brought from another country. It is not too difficult to learn and has a very bright sound."

Seeing Naruto's eyes light up, he said:

"He's in my back room, I'll bring it right now."

With these words, the old man went into the back room, and after a few minutes, returned with a stringed instrument that Naruto had never seen before.

"Here, this instrument is called a guitar," Haji said as he passed the guitar to Naruto.

Taking the guitar in hand, Naruto immediately noticed that it had a larger body, and much more strings. Taking it with a similar grab, he, like the last time, tried to pull a few strings to listen to the sound.

~ Dzan-n-n... ~ the sound was quite sonorous and bright. It was completely different from what the Shamisen sounded like.

Naruto liked the sound, and holding it in his hands, the guitar did not give a feeling of fragility. Smiling, Naruto looked up at the old man Haji and said:

"I like it! The instrument itself is quite strong, and there are also a lot of strings, which means that you can extract many beautiful and bright sounds!"

Naruto was pleased with the instrument and wasted no time saying:

"I would like to buy it, for how much are you willing to sell this guitar?"

"Well, I have had this instrument for a long time, and no one wanted to buy it because of the unfamiliar look and possible learning difficulties, so I am ready to give it away for only 200 Ryo," the old man offered a price, causing surprise to the young blond.

"SO CHEAP?" Naruto was really surprised as he saw the price tags on other instruments, and the lowest was 450 Ryo, "Are you sure Haji-san?"

"Hehe, of course, don't worry," the old man just waved him off, and then asked, "you better tell me this, Naruto-kun, how do you look at me giving you guitar lessons? In the country where I got it, I managed to get some training to play it, so it will be extremely useful for you."

"That's right, I forgot! I need Guitar lessons, dattebayo!" Looking at the old man hopefully, Naruto said, "if it does not bother you, then I will be happy to visit you for training, and even ready to pay."

Haji glanced at Naruto, and only laughed, replied:

"Of course a kid, I suggested it myself. If you want, we can do the first lesson right now."

"Yes, thanks, Hadji-san!" Naruto was happy to receive the first lesson today. He hoped that when he got home, he could show his parents what he had learned so that he could show off a little.

The first three-hour lesson was a real revelation for both Naruto and Haji himself. Naruto remembered everything with such a speed that it seemed that he would learn to play the guitar by tomorrow, and this is exactly what struck the old man a lot.

On the other hand, Naruto was amazed not by this, but by how similar the music was to making seals. All notes, scales and sequences were extremely logical and structured, while they had many tonalities and harmonies, creating a whole bunch of all kinds of sounds.

Thanks to his memory, by the end of the lesson, Naruto had learned absolutely all the positions of the fingers on the frets for chords that Haji knew, and had already begun to learn how to play fingerpicking, and even learned two small melodies, and one simple song, from those that old man Haji remembered under guitar.

And what was Naruto's surprise when he found out that absolutely any song or melody can be played from absolutely any note, and apart from the tonality, almost nothing will change, with rare exceptions. The path of music opened up a whole new world for Naruto, so he continued to play the three tunes that Haji showed him.

For Naruto, these melodies with the song were pretty mundane and uninteresting, but at least they helped him develop muscle memory for his hands to rearrange his fingers on the frets of the fretboard without hesitation. Remembering the chords is one thing, but playing them is quite another.

The hardest thing for Naruto was to coordinate his left and right hands, since both melodies required different actions from the hands. It was only when he was able to play all three songs without obvious hesitation or mistakes that Naruto was satisfied.

"Finally, I did it, dattebayo! It was not easy, but after spending another hour, I was able to play these melodies without mistakes. Thank you, Haji-san!" the blond seemed to be glowing with joy, causing a smile on the old man's face.

"Oh, you shouldn't thank me, Naruto-kun. I was only in joy. These days, young people rarely pay attention to anything other than study and training. And besides, your talent in music just amazed me. Even your voice while singing was not so bad, and how quickly you corrected your mistakes, in general, amazed me. With this pace, you will be able to learn everything by the next lesson, and all that remains for you is personal practice to develop a skill.

"Hehe," Naruto scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, and replied, "It's just that your explanations were very simple and straightforward. I'm not sure I could have learned everything without you."

"Oh, it's been a long time, I have to go home, Hadji-san. I'll come to you tomorrow for another lesson," here, remembering something, Naruto asked, "by the way, Haji-chan, what is the best way to write songs?"

The old man was a little surprised, since the boy had just started to study the guitar, but seeing how quickly he was progressing, he answered.

"Well, that's a difficult question, Naruto-kun. Many people like to write music or songs about their emotional experiences, or about their surroundings. Someone writes about love, and someone just tries to convey their thoughts through songs. So, to put it simply, just write what's on your mind."

Hearing his words, Naruto nodded and replied:

"Yes, I think it makes sense, thanks. See you, Haji-san!" with these words, Naruto put the guitar in a case, and left in an unknown direction with a satisfied smile.

"You have a good son, Minato-kun," having said so, the old man returned behind the counter, waiting for rare customers.

* * * * * * * * * *

At the moment, Ino and Sakura were walking with frustrated faces as their next attempt to spend time with Sasuke had failed. They were silent for most of the way, and only after a while they began to occasionally blame each other who was more to blame for Sasuke's finding them and drove them out of his training place.

"It's all because of you, forehead. If you weren't so clumsy, you wouldn't have revealed us so stupidly." Ino was still trying to prove her point.

"Do not put the arrows on me, it's all the fault of your large hips, Ino-pig! If you hadn't been pushing, I wouldn't have fallen from the tree, and Sasuke wouldn't have realized that we're watching him." Sakura didn't intend to admit defeat, so she decided to add something else," and by the way, it was YOU, who followed me, not wanting to leave me and Sasuke-kun alone. If you went home, he wouldn't be angry with us at all!

"I'd rather kiss a toad than leave you alone, not on my watch, wall-forehead!"

The argument between the two friends continued until Sakura noticed a happy Naruto, with a strange case on his back, as if from some kind of musical instrument.

"Is that Naruto?" Sakura asked, pointing her finger at the blonde.

Moving her gaze in the direction Sakura indicated, Ino also noticed a joyful Naruto carrying a strange case.

"What is it? An Instrument?" Ino wondered when Naruto learned to play music, but her thoughts were interrupted by Sakura.

"Pfft, hardly. Look closely, have you ever seen a case like this? What kind of instrument is this? It's too big, and looks more like a bag" holding one hand on the belt, and pointing the other towards the pleased Naruto, she showed such a face as if she had understood everything for a long time.

"Well, I don't know, even if it's not an instrument, why does he need such a large case?" Ino tried to figure out what the catch was, and received an answer from her friend.

"Well, I don't know, but it is very possible that he carries some things for his pranks. I remember last time, he managed to mine the teacher's toilets with waterproof paint, and some students say that they activated when someone sat on the toilet," Sakura reasoned with her hand at her chin, "for this, you need a way to somehow unnoticeably carry a certain equipment."

"But, he seems to know the seals, why not use them?" Ino was still trying to somehow justify Naruto's actions.

"Because he lied about it, and he doesn't really know how to create them," Sakura said very confidently.

Listening to her friend, Ino realized that this might make sense. At that moment, Sakura sighed in annoyance and said:

"Okay, anyway, my house is this side, so see you tomorrow."

Saying that, Sakura turned towards her house, leaving Ino alone. The blonde still followed Naruto as he walked, and since she needed to go in the same direction, she followed him.

As she walked, she witnessed that many residents looked at him in a strange way, and a couple of shops that Naruto entered to buy groceries simply refused to provide him with services.

She found all this extremely strange and suspicious.

«Is it all because he pranked them too? Otherwise, I see no reason in such an unreasonable attitude towards him.»

After another couple of minutes, Naruto headed in a different direction that was not in the direction of Ino's house, so she decided to stop following him.

«I guess I'll let him go this time. It is now over 16 o'clock, and I already missed lunch, my mom will definitely scold me if I don't come back. Next time, I'll try to figure out what kind of prank he's going to do. And if the book that I gave is really somehow involved in this, then I will give him such a beating that he will forget his name!» young Yamanaka thought, menacingly clenching her fist.

With one last look at the boy, Ino headed toward the home.

During this time, Naruto walked towards trees and training grounds so as not to attract too much attention when he headed to his parents' house. Walking along the trees, Naruto suddenly heard an explosion behind the bushes, followed by coughing and swearing.

Deciding to check if everything was okay, Naruto quickly jumped in the direction of the noise and asked:

"Hey, what happened? Are you okay?"

"Khe-khe, yes... everything is fine. I just messed up with those damn seals again. Kha…"

In front of Naruto, under a tree, sat a girl about his age, with brown hair braided in two buns, and she was dressed in traditional Chinese style, in the form of a light pink waistcoat, and blue-green cargo pants.

In front of her were spread many scrolls, some of which were charred, and around them lay a lot of throwing and other weapons.

Looking closer at the scrolls, Naruto realized that the girl was working on the storage seals, so he smiled and asked:

"So you are working on storage seal scrolls?"

Moving away from her explosive failure, the girl finally looked at her guest, and saw a smiling blonde with blue eyes, carrying a case on his back from some strange instrument. Seeing nothing too suspicious, she replied:

"Yes, I have been fighting over these seals for the second month already, and I just can't get them to contain more than one large weapon. Shuriken or kunai - easily, but nothing larger," pointing to the charred scrolls, she continued, "every time I make either some mistake, or I will make a wrong formula, but for some reason the outcome is always the same - an explosion!" sighing heavily, and falling on her back, the girl finished telling.

Seeing her predicament, Naruto thought he could brag to his parents later, so he decided to offer her help and maybe try to make a new friend.

"Actually, I recently studied storage seals, so if you don't mind, I'm ready to help you."

Surprised, the girl sat down again and replied:

"Really? Didn't think that someone else at my age would start studying seals, how old are you?" then, remembering the missed stage, she added, "Oh right, my name is Tenten by the way, I'm 13 years old, nice to meet ya."

Tenten jumped off the grass and held out her hand to Naruto.

"Nice to meet you, Tenten, my name is Uzumaki Naruto, I am 12 years old, and I am at your service, dattebayo!" With a warm smile, Naruto answered her by shaking her hand.

Smiling at his strange verbal tic, Tenten sat down on the grass again and began to explain to Naruto where she was having difficulty:

"Here, look, in this place I can not find the correct formula in any way. I'm sure if I can complete it, then I can seal more than one sword, or Fuuma-Shuriken."

After reviewing her formula, Naruto quickly saw all her flaws and said:

"In fact, the problem is not in this formula, but in the foundation of the entire seal. You took the storage seal of one object as a basis, and with your formula you are trying to assign an additional function to it, which simply overloads the seal. For your purposes, you need to at least completely rewrite the base, and that is where you put the number of objects, and with your formula adjust the possible size and amount of chakra. Then…"

Naruto went on to explain all the subtleties, showing by example what and how should be drawn. Tenten sat in complete shock at how deeply Naruto understood the topic. She thought that he would at least be approximately at her level, but every detail he noticed was completely unnoticed by her before. Now that Naruto pointed out all the flaws in her seal and explained how best to fix them, she was sure her problem was a thing of the past.

Quickly grabbing a brush, under Naruto's clear guidance, the girl began to draw a new seal, and when she finished it, she immediately decided to test it by sealing a pair of large blades of an unusual shape.

Poof ~

Seeing that the explosion did not occur, and that the two objects disappeared, forming a new print on the print confirming this, Tenten was so overjoyed that she jumped on Naruto with an embrace.

"YES, IT WORKED, THANKS-THANKS-THANKS!" Tenten didn't even notice that by knocking Naruto onto his back, they were in a very juicy position.

Naruto, who suddenly found himself in her arms, was a little embarrassed, but was extremely glad that he was able to help, and apparently improve his relationship with a possible new friend.

"Okay, Tenten. I'm glad you're happy, but could you please let me go?"

Hearing his words, Tenten was finally able to understand what position they were in, so she quickly pulled away from the blonde, and sat on the ground with her knees bent, she laughed in embarrassment and answered.

"Sorry, I got carried away a little. I'm just really glad that I finally figured out this problem," then, again remembering his skills, she asked, "listen, could you... well, teach me about seals a little more? And in return, I will teach you how to use all kinds of throwing and not only weapons. What do you say?"

Hearing her question, Naruto's eyes lit up and he happily replied:

"Of course! I just have some difficulty with throwing kunai, so your help would be more welcome than ever, dattebayo!"

"Great, I still have a few ideas for future techniques, and without knowledge of storage seals, they would not have worked. We can even practice and spar together to test each other's skills!" Tenten was already making plans to study together with her new friend.

Before, she never really got along with other children, as she was always more focused on her dream, to become the strongest kunoichi, like her idol, Tsunade Senju. And now, when she met Naruto, who was ready not only to help her but also was interested in her specialty, she was really glad. Moreover, the boy seemed to her rather sweet and likable. An extremely strong contrast to her classmate Neji, who was the most popular in her class at the academy. For her taste, Naruto was a much nicer guy.

Naruto and Tenten continued to help each other with their stronger sides until they finished training, agreeing that from now on, they would start meeting at the same location every afternoon from now on.

When they parted ways, Naruto couldn't help but think that this girl was really interesting. Previously, he did not have the opportunity to communicate with girls for so long, let alone help and train together. Now, he wanted not only to show off his new guitar skills to his parents, but also to talk about his new acquaintance.

Thinking about all this, Naruto continued on his way home with a bright smile on his face.

* * * * * * * * * *

Author's note:

This time, I decided to try to use the correct presentation of direct speech, as is done in English literature. Tell me if something wrong. I hope everything turned out more or less correctly.

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