Chapter 43: The Rising of Makoto Heffner
Part 6: Forest of Death is a great dating spot
"This is nice."
Right now, Konami and I are going on a date into the Forest of Death. Contrary to its name, the forest is actually some of the least dangerous survival training ground. It's why it's commonly used to train Genin Squads as well being used as the stage of Phase 2 of Chuunin Exam.
Still, what is up with this planet and the huge ass trees? The trees here goes up to 500 meters on average with branches so wide you can build a small house on it.
"Come one Hotaru! Hurry up!"
"Well aren't you an excited fox?"
"Oh shut up. I had been cooped up in your trashy village for months and its time I stretch my leg. Now hurry! I just caught a smell!"
( '-')……………. ( 'w')
She wore a red combat pants with combat boots. She wear an unzipped combat hoodie with combat white shirt underneath. Adidas brand. I cry when I dig up money to buy out clothes for Konami. Not only does she refuse to wear 2nd hand clothes, she also adamantly refuse to wear cheap offbrand clothes. So my poor ass had to pay the big bugs buying out big branded clothes for her.
And then she had the gall to force me to buy it for myself too! Just because I am sorta getting richer now doesn't mean my street rat economic mindset had gone away just like that. Even if I now have 50k ryo in my bank from selling hentai, it doesn't mean I can get used to paying a grand for a pair of new boots on the spot.
(((((((((( A few days ago(((((((((((
After my confrontation with Nara GPT, I had sorta expected ANBU swatting my crib but nothing in particular happens afterwards.
So, I went to the Nara Compund just to make things clear.
"Howdy."
"MAKOTO HOTARU?!!"
"Yo, is Shikamaru in?"
"Err…"
"Aight coming through."
I walk past the Nara guards into the compound. I went to the fanciest house in there and announce my arrival.
"Yo, Shikamaru! You in there?"
Yoshino peeked out the front door before closing it back. After awhile, Shikamaru came out.
"What do you want, Makoto?"
"I want a heads up if you're going to attack me or something."
Shikamaru rubbed his face as he groans, muttering mendousei mendousei naa. Like actually saying mendousei. In case y'all didn't catch it, we're actually speaking in English but with the japanese voice actors voices.
Just for your ease of imagination, try find "Kumagawa Medaka Box Scene" on YouTube. My voice is pretty much like that character especially when I go into my stupid and insane tangents, but most of the time I am a rather deadpan person.
"First of all, no one smart will announce they're going to attack someone. Only you will be brazen enough to be that direct and get away with it. Then again, you are descended from Lightning. The people there tends to be straightforward."
"Okay fine. Also, Saber is better than Tohsaka Rin. She's so overrated."
"What?!! Makoto, you and your trash opinions! How dare you say that! Everyone knows that Rin is superior!"
We then spent 10 minutes debating who has the superior waifu and then Yoshino screams and kicked Shikamaru out. Well, it's good to finally have someone to talk about anime with.
"By the way, Sena is way better than Rukia."
( '-' )
"What?!! Sena isn't even canon! She's from a Bleach Movie!"
( *A* )
Jokes on you, Memories of Nobody is canon now.
)))))))Now))))))))
"Here here."
Konami gestured me to come over as we are perched on a branch, overlooking the ground below.
"Do you see what's down there?"
"It's an Adamant Rhino."
"I want it's heart."
I just stare deadpan to this little shit.
Catching my unamused feelings, Konami decided she could be cute for once and drooped down her ears. She pawed her hands to her chest and professionally water her eyes.
"Please~~"
Holy shit, she is dangerous. This amount of hnngggg is bad for my heart.
I took out my rifle and aim.
I activate my still unnamed Doujutsu and 2 tomoe swirls within my iris.
Second Tomoe: Critical Flaw
In a world where bullshit OP bastards is everywhere roaming across this continent, I took my chance to get my much needed cheat codes and asked Artemis to add Critical Flaw into my Doujutsu kit.
It is no Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, since Artemis said that would be too broken for me, so she gives me a nerfed variant of it.
Critical Flaw allow me to observe, highlight and intensify the weakest points on anything. While I can't trace the lines with a knife and they just drop dead like Shiki, the Second Tomoe power did supplement my sniping ability. With perfect trajectory and critical shot as well as infusing my bullets with Lightning chakra,
I can shoot through anything.
I squeeze the trigger and a bullet pierce through the rhino skull as if its just jello. The Adamant Rhino, an animal which drop dead just like that.
"This Doujutsu of yours is really convenient for hunting"
I just nodded. We dropped down the branch and approach the rhino. The rhino is really dead, and so we start butchering the animal.
Critical Flaw really aid in skinning the damn thing.
"Should we grab the meat?", I asked her as I rolled the rhino hide to be sold at the tanner later.
"No, the meat is too stringy and tough. Let the animals here have it. I just want it's heart and liver.", she replied as she cut open the abdomen and retrieve the organs.
"Alright, let's head up."
Konami wrapped the organs with tinfoil sheet and put it into my bag. Then, we ran up the tree. While I can't do the stick-on-trees ninja trick anymore, I can run up the tree just fine by just running really fast. My buddy Naruto had made this new boots that can draw out spikes that can help me grip vertically. I can draw it in and out through electromagnetism.
There are some more tricks I have up my sleeve. The Chuunin Exam arc is going to be wild.
"Isn't a fire hazard to make fire on a tree branch?"
Making camp on top of a tree branch in the Forest of Death sure sounds like s nice barbecue spot.
"It's a living branch. It's too wet to catch on fire. Here."
Konami feed me a piece of raw liver she'd been cutting.
"How is it?", she asked.
"Like a raw liver. Irony and disgusting."
"Hmph, human tongue. You can't appreciate the taste of a fresh raw meat."
"Well sue me for liking my food cooked."
We idly chat as I help out dicing herbs, onions, stuff like that, but after that I let her doing the cooking. To fill in my time, I draw her as she did so. I show it to her and she just go,
Oh, it's pretty good.
That's it.
Man, it's weird that I am married, even now. Konami and I doesn't act like lovestruck lovers at all. If anything, I felt like we're more like housemates really. Konami is nice to me sometimes but she sure as hell never gush over me. And if she starts get a bit too uppity, I put her down by pinning and biting her. Not kinky biting mind you. Actual bite at her nape as I pin her down from behind. Kitsune version of period apparently is a bit more violent than human.
Or was it she's in heat? I'm not sure. It's not I keep track of her toilet trash. Come to think about it I never seen her buy tampons.
Eh, whatever.
"Taste it.", she hold over a spoonful of stew to me.
"Hmm, a bit bland."
She then add a bit more salt into the stew. She made some roasted heart and a liver stew. Honestly I prefer meat but I eat anything she made really. Beats the plain rice and salted fish I usually have.
The food is finally ready. As it turns out, she only brought a plate a bowl and a set of cutlery.
"Huh, guess we'll just share."
I shrugged. Since it's just inconvenient to exchange Cutleries over and over, she just feed me the stew with the spoon while I feed her the heart with the fork.
The Forest of Death is filled with the roar of might beasts, and death plagues the ground of the forest. Hell, I think I heard Kiba ripping out a giant spider or something. They just let him loose here to steam off here periodically now. Oh yea I forgot, I call him Jacob now. Remember Hotaru. Inuzuka Jacob.
Still, none of that matter. It's just nice to have someone made you food.
.
.
.
(((Kojima Konami)))
Konami return home with her husband after a whole day of hunting in the Forest of Death. They brought back some wild chickens. This should feed them for a few days.
Guess they'll have wild chicken curry tomorrow.
She bathed and dressed, leaving Hotaru to bath by himself while she go out and stop over Uchiha Mikoto's house.
"Oh hey there, Konami!"
Naruto was at the dining table, working out some Uzumaki technological nonsense on his IdeaPad.
"Where's Mikoto? I want to ask her for some vegetables."
"Oh she's gone with Sasuke to order some custom equipment. We'll be going to Snow country in two weeks. Just grab the veges, I'll tell her later."
"No.", Konami vehemently decline. "It's impolite to take someone's belongings without them present even if there's a third party around to told them later."
"okay.", Naruto nodded. "How's Hotaru anyway?"
"The same as usual. What else."
"Hah, if only you seen him even a year ago."
Konami frowned. Makoto Hotaru's depression isn't news to her. When she first met him, she isn't fooled by his stupid antics in the slightest. He's like a ghost that's not really there, looking as if he will fade away like thin smoke.
what annoy her the most is that Hotaru's soul is a dark pit of emptiness. He may feel fun or joy sometimes when he does his activities but he is never happy. He act like he care about his life but he will risk death with zero hesitation just to achieve his goals. It is what made every enemy that faced Hotaru to be unnerved by him.
Makoto Hotaru has no self-preservation instinct at all. That's his greatest strength against all odds.
Makoto Hotaru wants to die. He just need an excuse for it. Of course, he is for some reason too prideful to make it easy. Deliberately dying would make it suicide. The only thing that is stronger that Makoto Hotaru's desire to die is his sheer spite toward the world. He refuse to give his enemies an easy win.
Naruto continues.
"Back then, we have to keep annoying and harassing him just to get him to react. Otherwise he will just keep playing up his imagination and ignore the world. The only reason he came to school was only because he is bound to law to do so. Then he got transferred to Class A, so he had a bit more lax rule for attendance."
Figuring that she may as well wait here. She made some tea.
"I thought you said its impolite to take someone's belonging without their presence.", Naruto mentioned.
"Mikoto had made blanket permission for me to make beverage anytime. She didn't tell me I can harvest her crops as well."
Naruto shrugged.
"Anyway, where was I? Ah. Back then, sometimes Hotaru will just… crash out. He would lay in bed for days, just staring to the wall if not sleeping it off. And it's not like him going into the imagination land either. He would just… stare into nothingness. As if he's a corpse."
Konami sighed she pour a cup of tea for her and Naruto.
"Hotaru is depressed. Big deal. I have known this from the start. His thought process is a chaotic mess that's constantly make everything a joke to distract himself from the dread of his own existence. He may learned how to hide his mental thoughts now but I can still feel his soul."
"Then, you know that his soul is most bright when he's around you."
"I regret teaching you the Soul Reading technique."
Konami had been teaching Naruto over how to harness the power of his youkai heritage. He is still far away from manifesting his Youkai Mask, but he is a natural Empath. He's already capable to connect with other's feelings on his own, but now he is gradually able to sharpen his natural Empathy. At some point, as long as it is something with a soul, he can sense their feelings and intent from far away. Being the grandson of Lord Kurama, his empathy range will be vast.
"I just want my buddy to be happy.", Naruto sipped the cooling tea.
"Tough luck on that. You have a better chance getting a goose to lay golden egg than getting him actually feeling happiness."
"I know. It's bizarre that someone like him is able to make stories of love and bliss."
Naruto had befriended Hotaru for two years now. He had read plenty of Hotaru's manga. A lot of it are children stories, but some of it were stories made for more mature audience. It is bizarre that someone who is antisocial and callously cruel at times like Hotaru can write a story that is emotional and heartfelt. Stories where bonds between people can make miracles.
He's like a chef that knows how to cook delicious foods despite not having a sense of taste. Hotaru has always been good at reading and understanding people. Perhaps too good at it, which was why he keeps ignoring everyone and dismissive to most people he is forced to interact. Unlike Naruto who sees the best in people and genuinely connect with them, for Hotaru, being able to understand others is just a toolkit.
Cognitive Empathy, Konami had explained to him. Unlike Naruto that can feel what others feel as if the feelings are his own, Hotaru's empathy is strictly clinical and cold, not affecting him at all. He can look at a grieving mother mourning her dying child and completely understand her feelings.
He's just unaffected by it at all.
"Still, Konami, ever since you came here Hotaru doesn't shut down as often now. He talks more, and moves around more. And finally he plays music that is so much happier now. Whatever you did is working."
Konami scoffed as she sips her own tea.
"Please, I didn't anything out of the goodness of my heart. A shut-in walking corpse would make a dull husband to be around with, so I just distract him with ridiculous demands. He is much more fun to be around with when he is stressed. That's all."
"Would it kill you to just say you love him?"
"Love?", Konami laughed. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm a youkai, Naruto. Every time we love a mortal, they're bound to suffer."
"Is that so?", Naruto grinned. "Somehow, I think things will worked out differently with Hotaru. Afterall, he clearly adores you."
Besides, he didn't hear her denying it.
))))))))))))
Konami return home as she procured the vegetables from Mikoto.
As she enters, she smell blood.
She put down the basket of vegetables beside the shoe rack and follow the smell of blood. It came from the master bedroom. The door was left ajar.
As she came into view, she is greeted with the sight of Hotaru cleaning up the floor from blood splatter. He's in a bathrobe, red as it drenched in blood. At the middle of the room, there's a corpse lying face down.
"Who's the stiff?", Konami asked.
"Oh this? Just some noname rogue ninja from outside the village. Apparently my doujins are finally break mainstream and are selling like hotcakes now. Fuma securities must be sucked as apparently I get doxxed."
"Docks?"
"Doxx. Never mind. It means my identity and address got leaked. Now the AV and prostitution industry Yakuzas want my head on a silver platter. This bozo just jumped me right when I get out of the shower and gloat over… whatever, I missed most of the details."
Konami crossed her arms.
"So what are you going to do now?"
"Me? I'm going to take a shower again. And then I'm going to rally the Fuma to massacre some yakuza. Better make an example now before the idiots get ahead of themselves."
"Sounds like it'll be a fun night."
"What? You're going to?"
"I just want to see some new sights. Observing a gang war will be some entertainment at least. Just let your clones clean up the mess. Go take your shower. I'll seal up the body."
"okay.", Hotaru stood up and created several clones, powered with just barely enough chakra to perform the menial task of cleaning a crime scene. He then enter the bathroom and shower.
Konami sighed as she picked a sealing scroll and store away the body.
Things would have been easier if he is just a regular boring human.
Had Hotaru being a regular human, she would have just killed him and go back to Zabuza. But instead, Hotaru is inhumanely cold-blooded, even for a ninja. While he wouldn't seek violence on his own, Hotaru is capable to perform bloodshed that can make even some youkai cringe in terror.
Konami was incapable to leave him as for the better or the worse, Hotaru is her ideal mate. His cold ruthlessness and talent for murder made her heart swoons sometimes. And whenever she try to test his dominance, the lazy bastard will turn the table on her each time.
Urghh… I hate that I imagine him to be a great father for my kids one day. Just us teaching the kids how to hunt some huge prey when they grow big enough.
Annoyed, she popped one of the clones with a swipe of claws to his face. She got mildly electrocuted in return, but it doesn't harm her.
"Why did you popped one of us?"
Konami scoffed.
"You have a funny face."