By now summer was well and truly underway, and the uncomfortable heat was a constant reminder that this country he had found himself in was called 'The Land of Fire' for good reason.

Axel—stuck working around a forge for at least several hours every week—was really regretting his career choice at the moment.

It had been a month now since he had gotten that first lesson with Pei, and during that time he had gone to him for any other questions he stumbled across while working. Of course, actually asking the questions proved to be a little tricky, given his still-limited vocabulary. He had to try, though, since the whole process of making a true katana or tanto or any other such blade was a bit more involved than for making a European longsword.

For one thing, he couldn't just purchase a bar of steel of a specific grade and hammer it into shape. There was this whole process of choosing bits of metal with the appropriate carbon content—though Pei didn't know that that was what he was technically doing—heating them, and hammering them down to weld the pieces together. Then hammering and folding the metal to remove even more impurities, hammering and folding, and only then would the metal be ready to be shaped into a weapon.

It was fascinating to watch a master at work, how he timed every action carefully based on color and sheen and sheer experience whereas Axel had been leaning on his knowledge of the metallurgy behind it all to reach similar—if a little more amateurish—results.

Still, he mused to himself, the raw materials left quite a bit to be desired.

Getting solid metal was expensive, and even then it was still basically a mishmash of steels with different carbon concentrations. Morimoto had helped with that tremendously, having made use of his connections to set up the store with a small stock before he went back to Chotto, but that would only go so far.

As such, Axel had been making use of a lot of recycled metal—mostly scavenged kunai and the like from the training fields. But that, too, wouldn't work forever.

Which was why he had begun looking into producing his own metal.

So he had purchased a bin of iron sand to experiment with.

And, as expected, there's a lot of crap mixed into iron sand. Sand is sand after all, and, though the magnetite itself has very few impurities, the overall mix contains all sorts of other minerals and undesirable stuff.

The current process to un-blend this mess of sediments involves using what amounts to large-scale gold panning techniques and flowing water to sift the heavier metal from the rest. Followed, naturally, by repeating the process a large number of times.

It was, to be frank, more effort than he was willing to deal with regularly. Especially since he had another system in mind.

He just needed to figure out where he could get a magnet.

For now, though, he was sketching out the rest of his temporary set-up. Two rollers, a conveyor belt to run over them, a funnel he could pour the iron sand through onto the track, and a pair of jars or something to catch the runoff—tests would show if he needed anything else. The system would work by having one of those rollers be magnetic, or have a magnet inside, so the non-magnetic stuff would fall off the track straight away while the iron would stick a little longer and fall off a little later.

Simple.

If he had a magnet. Or means to create an electromagnet.

Axel was capable of making a coil and an iron bar—that would be easy—the problem was getting an electric current; he had no clue how to go about getting batteries or whatever. The house has lights and appliances, but he hadn't actually seen any stores selling electrical components or the like.

Actually, he hadn't even seen any power outlets since the one he had spotted back in the clinic.

He peered around the kitchen where he had been planning out this project, got up and wandered into the other room, then to the front store. Indeed, none of the walls had any plugs at all. It was kind of impressive that he hadn't noticed until this point, after living here for almost half a year, but then again he used his solar charger for his laptop and didn't have anything else he'd need to plug in.

On the topic of the solar charger, he briefly wondered if he could use his laptop charging cord as the wire in an electromagnet. Possibly, but he wasn't keen on messing with the only way he had to keep his laptop powered. And it probably wouldn't work too well with where he actually wanted the magnet, anyway.

Back to his kitchen-table-turned-workspace, he crouched to the floor and considered the bin of iron sand resting on one of the chairs.

There was a character from the anime—his favorite character, actually, though the name escaped him at the moment—that could control sand. He wondered if there were any other ninja out there who could, and if maybe they had developed ninja-magic techniques to separate the iron sand.

Actually, he recalled Adri excitedly ranting to him about fighting with gold sand manipulation once. More distinctly, he remembered telling his sister that that seemed really useless; the gold would have to come from somewhere, and would probably be better spent... well, spent.

Just staring at the box and thinking about the possibility of physics-breaking ninja methods wasn't getting him anywhere though, so he decided to just build what he could and figure out the rest later.

=X=X=X=

It was later—by two weeks—and he still hadn't figured out a good solution for the electromagnet issue.

At this point, he was just hoping that ninja-magic might have the answer he needed. Unfortunately, Minato had been busy with missions for a while and therefore not available for questioning. Even Akaiko had been off somewhere. He didn't know any of the rest of his regular ninja customers well enough to ask them for help.

And that wasn't something he had originally planned on: having regular ninja customers. He didn't really want to involve himself with ninja matters, but at this point it didn't really matter. That's what he told himself, anyway. They were nice enough, and that was all that mattered in the long term.

Younger ninja stopped by fairly regularly as well—Gai, of course, Obito, Rin, and even Kakashi seemed to have decided his shop was the place to go for kunai—but he wasn't sure they would have any useful answers if he asked them.

Regardless, if ninja could spit fire and summon giant animals or even freakin' meteors (he was fairly sure that was a thing that happened in the show at one point), they should be able to run a small amount of electricity through a metal coil.

Right?

Who was he kidding, Axel had no idea about what ninja could or couldn't do. Still, he thought it safest to err on the side of assuming ninja could do whatever they wanted.

There was a familiar thud from overhead.

He glanced in the direction of the stairs, and soon enough a slightly ruffled looking Minato—still decked out in his mission gear—appeared from around the corner.

"Hey, Axel!" He gave him a cheery smile. "Long time no see!"

"Everything went well?"

Minato didn't answer, as he was immediately distracted by the pile of metal parts on the table. "What's all this stuff?" He picked up one of the sheets of paper, looking curiously at the diagram drawn on it of one of the rollers and a few calculations for the electromagnet. "A wheel?"

"Kind of, it's for a... moving thing." He should really check if he still had a German-Japanese dictionary downloaded to his laptop. And if so, maybe just spend a few days reading through it. "For getting iron from iron sand."

The ninja was about to say something, but a knock on glass in the other room interrupted him.

Axel leaned back in his chair to get a look at the front window, waving hello to the peeved student staring back at him. He was rewarded with an only somewhat grudging wave in return. "You just got back? Kakashi looks impatient."

"Oh, right." Minato hurried to the front door. "We still need to report to the Hokage. Just thought I'd stop by on the way."

"See you later?"

"Yeah!"

And with that, his friend and his student vanished to the rooftops. Or probably to the rooftops—he couldn't actually see their movement, but ninja seemed to love jumping from building to building.

By the time Minato returned several hours later, Axel had set the project aside and was instead just chilling at the register. Though the purple and blue flowers had long since wilted, for some reason Akaiko had taken it upon herself to keep him stocked with a variety of foliage ever since. The latest bundle from two weeks ago were still going strong, remarkably, and the small lavender and white flowers filled the warm summer air with a fresh fragrance.

He was checking the water level in the mixing bowl when—wonder of wonders—Minato actually came in through the front door.

Axel flicked the water off his finger, sitting up and smiling at his friend. "Welcome back."

"Good to be back," he replied. He had clearly changed his clothes and showered since his brief visit earlier, and generally looked more comfortable. "I don't mind travel, but I do start to miss my own bed on the longer missions."

Axel very pointedly did not think of his own apartment back in München.

"So," Minato continued, heading immediately for the kitchen table and the project still strewn across it, "How does this work?"

He turned the handle on the back roller, pulling the belt around on its loop. The conveyor part of the contraption was a little bit shorter than the table, in the hopes that it would be easier to pour the iron sand onto the belt and not make a huge mess in the process.

Axel took the two shallow metal trays stacked on his chair and set them on the floor underneath the other roller. "You turn that," he pointed to the handle Minato had already been messing with, "and the sand goes across. It falls off into this tray. Iron sticks longer, and falls later."

"Iron sticks to this?" Minato asked, touching the belt lightly. "It just feels like leather."

Which would be because it was leather, though he might need to change it out with rubber or something later depending on how much the sand stuck to the leather itself. Assuming he could even buy rubber at all. He didn't even know if plastic had been invented yet.

The technology in this world was all over the place, it was weird.

"Not yet," Axel said. "It will stick, but I need a—" Right, he didn't actually know what the word for 'magnet' was, but whatever, "—Elektromagnet."

"A what?"

He was trying to figure out how to explain his way around the word, when the door abruptly burst open.

Axel felt he should probably be more startled by this, but it happened virtually everyday by now. For example, Gai still tended to make regular—but somehow unpredictable—visits almost weekly. Although, interestingly enough, the person responsible this time was not an overexcited genin in green spandex.

There was a swirl of red hair framing an energetic smile. "Where is she?!"

Axel blinked. "What?" To himself, he wondered why the heck this woman looked so familiar. "Who?"

Beside him, Minato was suddenly remembering a very brief conversation from months before. He looked like he was either going to collapse into uncontrollable laughter or was hoping the ground would rise up and swallow him whole. Either way, answers wouldn't be coming from him.

She crossed her arms, stance wide and unshakable. "I wanna meet her!" she continued, either ignoring or not registering his growing confusion. Her smile turned mischievous as she turned to Minato. "Friends of yours are friends of mine. And she sounds cool, ya know?"

"Holy crap, Kushina," Minato breathed, voice quiet as if he thought he could sneak out a sentence or two without triggering any giggles. He was unsuccessful.

So it seemed his friend had some idea of what was going on here, while he remained in the dark. "What are you talking about?"

The woman—Kushina, he'd heard of her, she was Minato's girlfriend—seemed to deflate, just slightly. "What, seriously?" She sounded honestly disappointed. "I wanted to meet her..."

Voice still with an unsteady air that came from trying not to laugh, Minato stated, "Yeah, I think you'd really like..." he had to regroup, "...'her'."

Axel now knew for sure that something was afoot—that odd one-word emphasis and the glance his way were just too distinct to be anything but a sign of some kind of guilt. So he narrowed his eyes, suspicious, and Minato struggled to maintain his composure.

"Is there something you should tell me, Minato?" Axel asked.

The ninja just innocently looked to the side, though his poker-face was still cracking. Given the stealth aspect of this particular career, one might expect ninja to be masters at concealing their emotions. And most of the time, they are.

Just... not so much with friends.

Kushina smiled as if she had just stumbled on an unexpected ally. "Yeah, Minato," she chirped, putting one hand on the back of Axel's chair. "Who is this chick?"

And that seemed to be too much for poor Minato, as he immediately dissolved into laughter. "You really— But he's not..." He took a deep breath and held it—which was trickier than he'd care to admit—then exhaled slowly. "Alright. Kushina," he gestured to his fellow blond, "this is Axel."

Kushina blinked. Blinked again, and then flushed a bright red that could rival the color of her hair.

"Axel's a dude?!" she exclaimed, genuinely shocked.

And all at once, Axel realized what miscommunication had occurred. "You thought I wasn't?"

"I hadn't met you yet, ya know!" She crossed her arms. "Ya've got a weird name, it was anybody's guess."

He bristled a little at the name comment, but in this world he had no leg to stand on if he tried arguing. After all, most people here couldn't even say his name without tripping over the 'X's and 'L's at least a few times first.

So in the end he just sighed. "That's fair."

She brushed off her embarrassment with enviable ease, moving on as if the entire situation hadn't even happened. Leaning over the table to check out what they were up to, Kushina raised an eyebrow when she realized that she couldn't actually read most of what was written there. "So... What is this, Blondie?"

Axel chose not to remark on the nickname, and instead just gave her the same quick rundown that he'd told Minato; it was best to just roll with it when dealing with ninja.

Then, of course, he came to the same word he didn't know. He held up the coil of metal he had prepared, tracing its shape. "I need a... flow... of—" And another word he didn't know. "Elektrizität," he finished. "Small lightning?"

They both seemed to catch what he meant, though, so that was good.

Minato took the coil, nearly dropping the metal bar that it was wrapped around. Then, with one end in each hand, he closed his eyes.

There was almost a buzz in the air, a gathering of energy that had the hair on the back of Axel's neck standing on end. Blue light shimmered into existence, sparking around Minato's right hand with a distinctly electric crackle. Minato exhaled, and let the energy run through the coil to the other side.

"Heilige Scheiße," Axel breathed, eyes wide.

Well, he called it ninja-magic for a reason.

"Now what?" Minato asked, looking entirely too amused at his friend's reaction.

"Oh, uh..." Axel scrambled, dashing to the cabinets to grab a plate and scooping out some of the iron sand from the bin.

While he did that, Kushina regarded the electrified metal somewhat skeptically. "How is this supposed to help with the sticking?"

Axel grinned. "Just watch."

He held the plate of iron sand up to the newly made electromagnet. The magnetite in the sand immediately began shifting around, some of them light enough to make the jump up to the coil while the rest arranged themselves inline with the magnetic field.

Now it was the ninjas' turn to look shocked, even if one of them was still channeling electricity safely through his hands. Axel tilted the plate, and the pattern in the particles shifted accordingly.

Minato moved the coil left and right, up and down, watching the changes play out on the plate of sand with a delighted smile. "How...?"

Grabbing a bit of stray metal off the table, Kushina tossed it onto the side of the magnet and laughed when it stuck in place. "How does that even work?" she asked.

Both of them turned expectantly to Axel, and he knew he didn't have even half as many of the words he'd need to explain electromagnetism accurately.

He paused to consider what vocabulary he had that could help with this. "The lightning makes... waves, and the waves push or pull at the iron more. Doing this," he traced a spiral in the air, "makes the waves stack so is stronger."

Letting go of the chakra current, Minato set down the coil on the table. "So you can use that to make the iron stick longer, and not the rest. Right?"

Axel nodded.

"That's so cool!" Kushina burst out. "How'd you come up with that?"

Right. That.

"I... didn't?" He blinked. "I don't know?"

It was sort of true, since he didn't know the name of whoever first invented the electromagnet. He wondered how well they would take 'some electrical engineer from another dimension' as an answer.

One eyebrow raised in question, Minato pulled over one of the sheets of paper that was covered in equations and text he couldn't read. With a rather significant look between his friend and the assorted notes, he simply said, "Really, Axel?"

Axel shrugged and looked to the side, trying to keep his thoughts away from places he'd likely never see again. "I learned about it from somebody else."

When it looked like Kushina wanted to ask more, Minato quietly put a hand on her shoulder with a small shake of his head. For the briefest moment she looked up at him, slightly confused, and then she glanced back to Axel.

And she knew what she had almost missed.

That expression was one she should have recognized at once; one she had seen in her own reflection, years ago. And she still remembered the loss that put it there. Of course she did.

So Kushina nodded, understanding without him needing to say anything.

Then, naturally, Minato's next action was to clap his hands together to get everyone's attention and serve as a convenient distraction. "So. What's the next step, then?"

Axel was glad for the change in topic. "We need that in this wheel." He gestured to the front roller. "Don't know how to do that."

"Oh that's an easy one!" Kushina said brightly.

She grabbed one of the papers and flipped it over, then produced an inked brush from somewhere. A minute later, and an intricately jagged image had been drawn across the page. It look vaguely like the branching pattern lightning left behind in sand, or those videos he had seen before of electric discharge through glass, but bracketed in by characters and other designs whose purpose he couldn't even begin to guess.

With a tap to one end, the ink lit up with sparks of electricity.

Axel managed not to curse this time, but it was close.

"See? Just use a seal."

"Ah." He wondered if he would ever get used to the nonchalant use of ninja-magic. Probably not. "I, uhm, can't use seals."

"Right," she hummed, "you being a civilian and all."

"Yes," he agreed, maybe too quickly.

Minato chuckled. "I'm sure we can work something out." He sat down, pulling over his own piece of paper to try things out on. "With one and a half fuinjutsu masters, anything is possible!"

"Half?" Axel asked.

"Ya know it, man!" Kushina crowed proudly, claiming her own seat. "He's still got a long way to go before he catches up ta me, ya better believe it!"

Axel blinked, that last phrase setting off an alarm somewhere in his memories—but, after a moment trying to figure out why it struck such a chord, he just ignored it. The two ninja were already huddled together, trading ideas that he couldn't follow at all; words he didn't recognize and topics he had no experience in left him so far out of his depth that he decided to just head for the metaphorical shore.

He sighed, and glanced at the clock. "I... guess I'll make us something to eat."