Some time after Temari and Karin made their appearance the male trio appeared as well. After talking things out they decided to act as if nothing happened. Of course Orochimari first thought of silencing them… permanently. Though that idea flew out the window after he remembered he is just a clone. Not to mention that souring his relationship with Tomoka, who has shown to be a force to be reckoned with, would be dumb. 

 

Due to being properly trained and competent ninjas their actions hid their true thoughts and emotions, perhaps a little too well some might say. Seeing the trio's seemingly normal behavior, something at the back of Tomoka’s mind began to tingle. She could smell the amusement she could get from a mile away. 

 

With a single thought she went through her memories, or rather, the memories of the phantoms in charge of surveillance all around the place. What she found almost made her burst into hysterical laughter. Fortunately for her she managed to put a phantom in control of her body before laughing madly inside her mindscape. 

 

What Tomoka had witnessed was the disgraceful performance of the male trio the night prior. From Orochi juggling using only his tongue to Gaara’s awful singing. Hell she even saw Kankuro taking off his pants and waving them in the air as if he were in a concert. Every time her laugh would subside a little a new set of ridiculous scenes played out making her laugh harder. Hell, if she were to laugh this hard with her actual body she would die from suffocation… could she die of suffocation? Questions for later. 

 

While Tomoka laughed like a maniac inside her own head, Nozomi and Hinata noticed something was up with her. After all, Tomoka removed the hand that had been groping their behinds, something she wouldn’t normally do unless something was up or a phantom took control. Out of curiosity the duo shared a moment where they communicated with their eyes. Shrugging as neither knew what was up they opted for asking the source instead through the phantoms assigned to them. 

 

A moment after the query they were pulled inside Tomoka’s mindscape to witness the girl cackling like a hyena while watching a seventy inch plasma screen tv. Once their eyes properly landed on the screen a snort escaped the duo as they tried and failed to contain the bubbling laughter. A moment later they joined Tomoka on the couch as they laughed at the comedy playing on tv. Meanwhile, in the real world the male trio were giving themselves pats on the shoulder for deceiving everyone present seeing as no one reacted to their presence. 

 

“So, what’s the plan for toda-... Temari?” Asked Kankuro while looking around. He had been so absorbed in acting like nothing happened that he hadn’t noticed his sister flirting with an unknown redhead. 

 

“Hmm? Oh, Kankuro, this is Karin, we met yesterday and well…” The more Temari spoke the redder her cheeks became as she began to realize what she had just shown to her brothers. 

 

“We drank, we kissed and now we are together.” Karin, unlike Temari, had little to no shame in announcing what had happened. This however earned her a small pinch at the waste from the now tomato red blond. Not that she minded, this little pain couldn’t compare to being bitten on a daily basis.

 

“Uh…” Kankuro very eloquently added as he processed what he had just heard. Once he did his face contorted a little as he became green with envy, almost literally. Looking around all he saw were couples of girls flirting with other girls. It looked like heaven and felt like hell. Not only because he was completely and utterly excluded but also because his own sister was part of it. 

 

Out of curiosity he gave the room another scan wondering if he could maybe find a partner for himself. When his eyes landed on Orochimaru the memory of waking up with the man’s tongue almost inside his own reappeared making him shiver. For a moment he could have sworn he heard the mad cackling of a trio of women though he dismissed it as just his imagination.

 

“Good for you.” Gaara who was currently still recovering from his years of sleep deprivation didn’t care all that much as his emotions hadn’t recuperated fully just yet. He was far more interested in all the different types of foods he could see. 

 

“To answer your original question, after we are done here we will continue with the tour.” Tomoka answered in a bland, almost bored tone. In reality the one to speak was the phantom controlling her body since the trio was still busy laughing to death in the mindscape. 

 

After breakfast was finally over everyone got back in their original clothing that had been transported to the hotsprings by automated servants. These automated servants consist of a variety of highly mobile bots of different shapes and sizes to account for a bunch of different tasks.

 

Using her womp Tomoka once again teleported everyone to their next destination. Svartálfaheim. In the north mythos this would be the home of the dark elves and/or the dwarfs depending on what mythos you were going with. Anyway, unlike the actual mythological Yggdrasil, Tomoka’s version was still subject to the laws of physics… mostly. That is why this floor is once again extra hot. Not as hot as the first one mind you. 

 

As they left the teleportation station the first thing to assault our group wasn’t the heat, or even the glowing orange of molten metal. Instead, it was the loud singing. Thousands of voices singing out loud with vigor as they worked. Their synchrony making it seem almost like a single giant was the one doing the act. Instead, it was hundreds upon hundreds of small stocky humanoids. 

 

“Brothers of the mine rejoice!”

“Swing, swing, swing with me!” 

 

Following the cadence of the song was the sound of loud banging of metal against metal or stone. Working like a well oiled machine the little men worked with passion unmatched. The sight they met was that of the men mining a gigantic hole in the middle of the kilometers wide and tall cave-looking room. 

 

“Raise your picks and raise your voice!”

“Sing, sing, sing with me!”

 

Not only that but around the hole on the ground large metal refineries worked relentlessly to smelt and purify the ore into rivers of molten metal. These revers would flow onto awaiting molds. Some would become large ingots in the tons of weight. Others would instead become parts for one machine or another.

 

“Down and down into the deep!”

“Who knows what we’ll find beneath!” 

 

The little men weren’t working with their hands and bodies alone either as monstrous machinery would aid them in their quest. Behemoths of steel and oil breaking the tough stone or pounding metal into shape. 

 

“Diamonds, rubies, gold and more!”

“Hidden in the mountain store!”

 

Funnily enough, those behemoths of metal were the brethren of the little men as well since they two were made of metal. That’s right, most of the residents of Svartálfaheim were made of the very same metal they relentlessly mined and worked. A symphony of metal that brought a smile to Tomoka’s face. 

 

“Welcome to Svartálfaheim, home to the D4RF5 or how most residents call them the dwarves. This place is our manufacturing hub. Most things are made here by these guys.” Tomoka said with flourish as everyone’s eyes were busy looking around at the hive of activity below. Not only were the dwarves working with metal but other materials as well. 

 

“Born underground, suckled from a teat of stone!” 

“Raised in the dark, the safety of our mountain home!”

 

Concrete was made as well shaped into different structures that were later teleported where they were needed. Plastics were made as well or recycled from those that had been discarded. Hell, there were paper factories as well as textiles. When Tomoka said this was the manufacturing hub she wasn’t joking around. 

 

“Skin made of iron, steel in our bones!”

“To dig and dig makes us free!”

“Come on brothers sing with me!”

 

To make matters worse, in the far off distance sparks would light up the figure of gigantic humanoid figures that could compete with Kurama’s height! That however wasn’t the end of things as the group could also spot even more helicarries being made accompanied by even bigger ships amongst a bunch of smaller ones. 

 

“I am a dwarf and i’m digging a hole” 

“Diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole”

 

“What the dwarves are busy mining is actually material Ygg brings here using her roots. She can bring large boulders and such but she has a harder time breaking things into smaller pieces so that is why the dwarves are needed.” In reality most if not all of the dwarves' work could be done by Ygg’s true body. However, doing so is rather inefficient energy wise for her. Not to mention she is still a growing gal, she needs all the energy she can get.

 

“I am a dwarf and i’m digging a hole” 

“Diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole”

 

“Okay, but why are they singing?” Hinata finally asked a question that had been on her mind and everyone else’s for that matter. Not to mention that she wondered why the hell it was so catchy! It almost made her want to join them in their work while singing along! Was this some kind of sound based genjutsu? 

 

“The sunlight will not reach this low!”

“Deep deep in the mine!”

 

“Oh, that… Well when I program AIs I leave a lot of free room for self evolution which includes self expression. These guys just evolved into this path.” She didn't want to tell them that she was the one to teach them the song from her memories. That damned song lived in her brain rent free and would play itself against her will every other week in her mind for hours on end. 

 

“Never seen the blue moon glow!”

“dwarves won't fly so high!” 

 

“I see, will you tell us what those giant things in the distance are?” Asked Nozomi as she eyed the giant humanoid metallic constructs in the distance. Ever since she saw them she felt attracted to them. It kind of reminded her of her susanoo which unfortunately she had no need to use so far. 

 

“Fill a glass and down some mead!” 

“Stuff your bellies at the feast!” 

  

“Those were supposed to be a surprise but whatever, they are…” As Tomoka explained what those giants were, others listened with a variety of expressions. Hinata and Nozomi became more and more excited the more Tomoka spoke. Orochi looked invested in the explanation. Gaara looked mostly uninterested despite his true feelings of both awe and fear. Temari was being consoled by Karin who had reacted similarly to her fear when she saw them. Naruko and Satsuki looked both impressed and terrified. Finally Kankuro needed a change of pants… not literally thankfully. 

 

“Stumble home and fall asleep!”

“Dreaming in our mountain keep!” 

 

“Is everyone down there a robot?” Once Tomoka finished her explanation Naruko asked a question of her own as she looked at the activity below. They hadn’t moved from the teleportation station’s balcony. Since there wasn’t much to actually show in this level from up close. 

 

“Born underground, grown inside a rocky womb!”

“The earth is our cradle; the mountain shall become our tomb!” 

 

“Most are, there are a few people down there working as well. Believe it or not some people find working with metal or mining stone relaxing. There is this guy from Kumo that lives down there as he loves metalworking and mining.” Tomoka couldn’t help but shrug at the memory of the guy. He looked like a real life version of an anime dwarf. Short, stocky, muscular and with a magnificent beard. 

 

“Face us on the battlefield: you will meet your doom!” 

“We don’t fear what lies beneath!”

“We can never dig too deep!” 

 

“As a matter of fact, I blame him for how the dwarves turned out.” Of course she wouldn’t tell them that she had programmed them with a predisposition for this very type of personality. Nor that it was her controlling a phantom that introduced the guy to the dwarves.

 

“Well, do any of you feel like doing some work down there? Or should we continue to the next place?” No one felt like joining the merry little men down there so they moved on to the next level or realm of Yggdrasil.  

 

“Welcome to Muspelheim.” Once more the group found themselves looking out the balcony of a teleportation station. Instead of the open spaces they had encountered so far they found what looked like a building with many stores and many floors. Every so often they could see a hole in the floor that worked as decoration to break the almost monotonous sight of the many stores. 

 

“This place is mostly used for entertainment and shopping for luxury goods.” Tomoka hadn’t yet explained how this place's economy worked but it didn’t matter at the moment, she would do so later anyway. Instead she was rather excited to get everyone to her favorite room from this place.

 

“With that being said, follow me, there is one place I want to show you all.” With that said Tomoka began guiding the group to a shop somewhat far away from the teleportation station. As they reach it everyone reads the sign at the top of the rather massive shop. 

 

“Akomot’s Augmented reality.” Nozomi read out loud before giggling a little. She still remembered well when she hadn’t realized such an obvious form of deceit from her girlfriend. 

 

“Yup yup, I booked the big room for the entire day. Let's have fun!”