Thanks to Blinded in a bolthole for Beta-ing this chapter.
Her eyes slowly opened as consciousness return to her. A place without Grimm? Yeah right, she was dreaming alright. She rose up comfortable into sitting position, on top of the bed. Maybe it was the cat part of her but she didn't like leaving such a comfortable bed just yet. Wait... comfortable bed? Slowly the memories of yesterday event return to her. Did she fell asleep on Mitsuki back?
Her ears twitch as she heard a sound. Her head snapped into the direction of the sound.
"Ah, you're awake?" The door opened revealing the snake ma... person from before.
She could not tell if this person was a he or a she. After a quick mental debate she decided to for the sake simplicity call them them a he. The man walked to her, holding a tray of foods in his hands.
"I actually did not expect you to decide to live here. Kukukuku," He put the tray on top of the drawer near the bed. "I hear interesting thing from Mitsuki. Like aura, Huntsman and Grimm. Can you tell me more about that?" He sat on the chair beside the bed.
She nodded. "My knowledge is quite limited. But I tell you what I know." It is common knowledge after all.
"Very well. But first you need to fill your stomach," He motioned at the food tray with one pale hand. "Mitsuki made that for you."
Just as he finished his sentenced her stomach grumble. eliciting another chuckle from the man. She moved to the edge of the bed and took the tray, putting it on her lap. The food on the tray was a simple chicken soup, rice and an apple. She started to eat the foods.
"My son is so passionate about taking care of you, Kukukuku." The man chuckled once more. This time however Blake could tell it was directed not at her but at the thought of his son.
She continued eating her breakfast in the comfortable silence that followed.
"Now that you finish your breakfast can you explain to me, in as much detail as you can, about the place you live, its culture, and technology?"
She nodded and started to explain everything she knew about remnant. The Four Kingdoms, the creatures of the Grimm, Dust and Huntsmen.
Orochimaru of the Sannin was the name of the man. He told her that during their talk. The man seemed pretty interested in the huntsman and their job. He asked many questions about them and in detail, asking questions that until then Blake herself hadn't thought of. She answered his questions to the best of her knowledge. He even asked if she had her aura unlocked -which she hadn't- and if she knew how to unlock it.
Answering Orochimaru took quite a while.
After she satisfied the snake man's curiosity they went to find Mitsuki. According to Orochimaru he was doing his daily workout before going to Konoha to do some mission.
She walked alongside Mitsuki's maybe-father as she observed that was to be her home for the next few years.
This place is a maze! was the first thing that came to her mind. And it really was. Almost every ten meter she walked the path branched out into different directions.
After walking for a good while they reach a door at the end of one of the seemingly endless corridors. Mitsuki's father opened the door, light shone through as it fully opened to reveal the outside world. She let out a sigh of relief when she didn't find another endless, half-lit corridor.
She took a step outside and was greeted by the beautiful scenery of the forest. She looked around, finding Mitsuki fighting against a group of... training dummy? The said training dummy were made of many parts of logs jointed together into the shape of a person with metal balls for fists. The dummy movement was pretty fluid, almost like a real person.
It certainly different than most of the Atlas robots she sometimes saw. They attacked Mitsuki with a very solid teamwork. Every time he dodges another one would attack from another direction, forcing him to redirect his movement. Mitsuki himself is no slouch either. He gets a few good on some of the dummies whenever he found an opening.
"I rather have him fight against real opponent if I can. But it can't be helped, the Mokujin would suffice for this kind of training," Orochimaru remarked.
Her ears perked at the mention of Mokujin. So that the name of the wooden thing? She observed Mitsuki once again. It seemed like every time he dodged it became easier and easier. Mitsuki once again hit one of the Mokujin, making it stumble and then fall over as if it were a puppet with its string cut. She looked closer at the fallen Mokujin, finding a small, almost unnoticeable button where Mitsuki striked is.
"I have finished Dad." Mitsuki walked toward them. Around him the Mokujins lying in misshapen piles of wooden limbs.
That was fast. She only looked away for a second there.
"Very good my son," The snake man smiled. "Now make sure both of you don't forget anything. I'm sure both of your friends are waiting."
Mitsuki nodded with a smile of his own. Whoever Mitsuki's other parent was, it seemed he'd inherited his smile from them. Orochimaru's smile while pleasant somewhat unnerved the young girl.
Once Mitsuki took a quick shower and Blake finished her morning clean up, the two went on the way to the village.
They of course took the fastest route. She could feel her lips flayed around because of the wind. It was amazing how the journey that had taken at least an hour last night could be finished in matter of minutes. Between rush of the winds and blurring landscape as Mitsuki jumped from tree branch to tree branch she didn't really notice when they arrived at the village's massive gates.
Village... She just couldn't understand why this place, this city was called a village. Sure, it had nothing on metropolises like the Four Kingdoms but Blake had been to villages before and she knew they were neither that big nor had such huge gates and walls.
Boruto and Sarade standing by the gate's guardhouse.
"You're late Mitsuki!" Boruto shouted just as they landed. "And you just missed Konohamaru-sensei."
"Yeah, you're ten minutes late, how unusual," Sarada remarked.
"I got carried away while doing workout this morning." He smiled sheepishly. He then lowered himself to let Blake walk.
"So, Blake's coming along with us too?" Sarada asked sounding little excited.
"Yeah, after doing our daily 'mission' I'm going to buy some daily necessities for her." Mitsuki explained. Huh daily necessities? "Of course I would need both of your help too."
"Umh,.. Boruto?" Blake's eyes twitch.
"Yes? Yes? Yes? Yes?" Boruto and his clones answered.
"Why are you pulling weeds?" She asked.
The team had decided to split their mission because it be faster they said.
"Well it's my share of mission. Sarada cleaning the sewer system and Mitsuki babysit some children," He explained. "Before you asked yes. This is what ninja of our rank mostly doing. Though sometimes we received a more dangerous mission like hunting escaped animal or something similar." He looked at her expression and then added. "The more dangerous mission like defeating bandit and wild beast are reserved for higher rank ninja."
She nodded. It made sense. This however didn't change how underwhelemed she was with having to watch the blond Ninja's battle against nefarious weeds. She was sure Huntsmen never did menial stuff like this.
"Hey, hey don't look so disappointed."
Eh? Did she really look disappointed?
"We're already done anyway." He jabbed his finger at the clones and the stack of weed beside them.
"Okay." She answered flatly. Boruto's shoulders slouched.
"Here," She took the dango from Boruto hand."It looks like we're a bit early." He sat beside her.
"Thanks." Boruto smiled brightly.
"So, how did live back in your homeland?" He tried to open a conversation.
"Well..." She leaned back at the bench, looking at the cloudy skies. "It was hard I guess? Discrimination against Faunus were pretty apparent there." Was it hard? She was always busy doing what she had to in order to survive back there. She didn't have time to think if her life was hard or not.
"I'm sure you will have to try really hard to find that sort of thing here," Boruto also leaned back. "We lived in a time of peace now, achieved by the effort of the entire Shinobi alliance, that we could sit here and enjoy sweets like this." He made a grasping motion at the sky.
"One day I'm going surpasses him." the light of determination shone in Boruto's eyes.
"It looked like they're done." Just as he finished his sentence Mitsuki and Sarada landed in front of them.
"Now onto for the last mission," Boruto said with a determined look on his face. Sarada and Mitsuki also wore similar expressions.
Blake couldn't help but feel the atmosphere was a little sour for some reason.