"Are you sure you want to do this?" Shikamaru looked at his blonde friend.

A couple of months had passed since the two had stumbled upon the forgotten Tower, and they spent the time mostly in the library, learning about the new world that opened up to them. Or, rather, Shikamaru had spent it in the library. Naruto mostly trained in the dungeons.

And now they'd decided the time had come to begin exploring the new land. They stood in front of the pool at the far end of the throne room, Naruto decked out in armor with a heavy axe in hand, and Shikamaru dressed in what could pass for a robe. There wasn't a lot of choice in the Tower as it was.

"Sure." Naruto shrugged, his voice deepened by the helmet. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"Great." Shikamaru sighed, watching as Naruto, accompanied by Gnarl, disappeared into the pool. "Now you've gone and jinxed it, you blonde bastard."

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The land on the other side of the portal was lush, green, sunny and entirely unsuited to Gnarl's tastes. Which he had no problem expressing.

"Please do hurry up sire. All this life doesn't agree with me."

"I heard you the first five times you little troll."

"Why thank you for the compliment sire."

Naruto sighed and shook his head, looking around. The pool spat them out at a stone circle surrounded by a couple of pillars. It was on a small hill. To the left there was a river, and to the right what might have been a village, it was kind of difficult to tell.

"It's not so bad here." Naruto shrugged.

"Whatever you say sire. Now, call your minions." There were four holes next to the portal. Three were just letting out colored lights, but as he approached the fourth it opened up into some kind of mole hill. "Do you see the small number above?" There was a small black-colored '3' above the glowing smoke. "That denotes how many minions you have access to of that particular type. The only type we have at the moment are browns, sire. They're very tough, though extraordinarily dim-witted. Now, focus your will on the spawn-point." Naruto stared at it with a raised eyebrow, not entirely sure what he was supposed to do, but the little number lit up. "Now raise your hand upwards, like you would if you were trying to grasp something in mid-air." Naruto turned his head towards the minion master. "It's a little difficult to explain, but do try sire."

Naruto shrugged and focused his attention back on the spawn-point. He raised his hand up and, just a couple of seconds later, three brown minions jumped out of the hole and stood in front of him, clubs in their hands and grins on their faces.

"Excellent sire. Now, as I said, these are the browns. They just bash stuff. But they're also pretty good at pushing, pulling or carrying objects that you do not want to. Like that." He motioned to a fallen column that blocked a path onward. "However that particular object seems a little bit too heavy for just three of them. I'd say five would be enough."

Naruto looked back to the spawn-point. There was a '0' above it.

"Empty, I guess."

"Yes, sire. You need some more brown life force for more minions to spawn."

"And where am I supposed to get that?" Something touched his leg. A sheep had wandered over to him. Looking forward, Naruto could see many more in a nearby plain.

"Those will do, sire. Command your browns to attack. Just point in the general direction and they'll get to it. Eventually." Naruto stared at the sheep for a few moments before shrugging and pointing to it. The three browns jumped on its back and quickly clobbered it to death. As its corpse fell to the ground it let out a small blowing brown orb. One of the minions picked it up and brought it back to Naruto with a wide grin on its face.

"For da Masta!"

"Um… thanks?" As he touched the glowing orb it disappeared into his left gauntlet. The jewel on it glowed brown and a '1' appeared.

"There should be more of those somewhere nearby, sire. All they do is eat, procreate and wait around to die. If you want some more control of how your minions act you can 'sweep' them. Just focus on the group and command them to move. They will, of course, attack everything in their way, but you do get to choose what they come across." The three minions made short work of the livestock. "Now you have more minions at your disposal. The number of them you can command at one time depends on the Tower itself. For now, without the Heart and using just the residual magics of the Tower, the most you can command is five, and I'd advise not spawning more than that. The rest will be left to their own, destructive devices."

Naruto focused on the spawn-point and called up two more minions, quickly directing them to move the pillar.

"Shall we move on, sire?"

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On the other side of the cliffs there was a small pumpkin farm, with a house at the end and a scarecrow tied up in front of it.

Naruto couldn't shake the feeling of being watched.

"Uh, 'scuse me?"

There was a man tied up to the pole, dressed in overalls and a straw hat, standing in for a scarecrow.

"Are the scarecrows magic in this land?" Naruto asked Gnarl.

"Not that I know of, sire." The old minion scratched his chin. "I suppose anything is possible, but these peasants shouldn't be able to conjure the magic for that."

"Nah, I ain't no scarecrow. I'm a peasant. A pumpkin farmer, to be precise. Well, I was, until those things showed up. Say, how's about you help a feller out? They should all be in the house, can you kill them really quick? I'd be much obliged, I would." Naruto looked at the small house at the end of the farm and shrugged, commanding his minions to attack it.

Only for them to start bashing the pumpkins.

"I thought they'd attack the house."

"As I said, sire, 'anything in their way'. But look on the bright side, they should get some nice hats out of it."

"Hehe, yeah, that's it." The scarecrow started cackling. "Show them pumpkins what for. That'll teach them. They've been insulting me for days now."

"I think this one may have spent too much time in the sun lately, master."

"Oh? What was your first clue?"

"Always talkin'. Mocking me! Not so tough now, are ya?"

"The way he's yelling at the pumpkins, sire, why do you ask?"

"Never mind." The two watched the farmer stomp on the remains of one of the vegetables for a moment.

When the browns finally cleared the field of every last pumpkin they turned their attention to the house. As one of them approached it, a small, brown-haired figure stepped out, dressed in armor and holding a sword, with no shoes on its feet.

"And what is that supposed to be?"

"A halfling, sire. They're as mean as they are short." The minions surrounded the halfling and started bashing it, until a moment later another one popped out of the house. "You should bring the house down, master. So to speak. It would stop any more of them from coming."

"Fine." Naruto muttered, commanding two minions to get away from the corpse of one halfling and destroy the house. "This is getting to be a bit ridiculous."

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Alright, halfway there. Shouldn't be too long now.