"So... I'm curious, how did you end up in this forest, starving?" Osamu asked Kaguya.
The woman quickly swallowed down her latest bite of meat, and froze as she realized that he had been staring at her.
She had just embarrassed herself...
But the question he asked reminded her of her current situation, the hunger had temporarily distracted her from it, but now that she had eaten... She needed to hide.
If The Watcher found her now, she would be helpless, only able to put up a token resistance before being killed or sealed again.
So her mind started racing, trying to come up with an excuse for her predicament, she had never lied before, she was above such things.
But it should be easy, humans do it all the time.
"My village was destroyed by bandits." She began. "I fled into the woods and got lost."
Perfect, simple and not easily disprovable.
"That's a lie." Osamu immediately called out.
Impossible, how did he know?
This man must be formidable enough to see through lies without even trying.
"Wave doesn't have bandits, hasn't for years since the Order took over." He elaborated. "If you want to lie convincingly, I suggest being as vague as possible, and sticking to lies that only involve yourself, something that can't be easily disproven by simply talking to someone."
She scowled.
"Don't give me that look." Osamu told her. "I'm giving you free advice."
"Free advice on how to lie." She repeated in irritation.
He shrugged.
"Lying is morally wrong, but sometimes the consequences of the truth are too great, so it becomes necessary." Osamu said easily. "But you already knew that, or you wouldn't have tried it."
Kaguya felt frustration rise up again, and she shoved more meat into her mouth to keep herself from lashing out.
Osamu was silent for a few minutes, simply eating his meal, before he spoke again.
"I won't pry about your past, I don't mind if you stay here, as long as you follow the rules of the land." He finally said.
She eyed him wearily.
"Don't be a shithead." He summarized.
How crude.
"And what exactly is considered being a... that'?" She asked him.
"Well, don't hurt people, or steal stuff, give everyone a fair chance to explain themselves." He listed. "It's not very complicated."
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"And these are the laws of the land?" She questioned him.
"Something like that, the actual laws are written in very complicated language, but unless you plan on opening a business, you probably won't run into any of it." He admitted. "So don't worry about it."
She scowled at that, did he think she was incapable of understanding something as simple as written rules?
"Thi-" She began, but stopped when she remembered her situation.
"Fellow human, do you think that I could not understand such simple rules?" She said with barely contained annoyance.
He snorted.
"Alright then, let me grab the book for you." He stood up and walked over to his tent.
Kaguya continued eating, feeling confident that she would be able to navigate this society well enough to hide from The Watcher.
After a minute or two, Osamu returned with a... book?
Yes, it was certainly a book.
It was about 3 fingers thick, with dark green covers made of leather, on its front was an emblem, depicting three eyes, one in the center, and two where a human's eyes were located.
"This is 'The Codex of Laws: Edition 4', it includes every law enacted by our glorious leader, Lady Haruka." He explained. "Thankfully, two thirds of it are just rules on commerce and other complicated stuff that doesn't matter to common folk like us."
Kaguya eyed it wearily, there was still quite a lot of text there, but she had nothing better to do at the moment.
And besides, she would not let some filthy human believe her incapable of understanding a book.
So she put on a confident expression as he opened it up and flipped through it until he found the right page.
"Alright, Chapter C, Crimes, Category 1: Harmless Crimes..." Osamu began reading. "Definition: A Crime deemed Harmless is one that causes no material damage or injuries to another person, but can cause general disturbance among the populace or otherwise negatively affects society..."
***
2 HOURS LATER
"...this applies to all animals, as long as they possess the capability to feel pain." Osamu finished his reading.
Kaguya was already asleep on the floor, the stress from today catching up with her.
Her stubborness was funny, really funny, she just listened to me reading about laws for 2 hours because I implied she couldn't understand it.
I chuckled, closing the book and laying it on my lap, I got up and grabbed a blanket from inside my tent.
After making sure she was properly covered, I returned to my fire and watched the dancing flames, feeling optimistic about this future.
The pride was on full display, she hated every moment she was forced to spend here, and clearly looked down on me and humans in general.
But...
The fact that she tried to adapt was important, if she had just attacked me on sight, I would have washed my hands of this whole thing, but since she was willing to swallow her pride and disdain to survive... Well, maybe she could learn.
My eyes strayed over to the sleeping woman, and I sighed.
The next few months would be very interesting.
***
NEXT MORNING
I was training when Kaguya woke up, going through my daily workout routine.
She didn't greet me, or even look at me for that matter, simply standing up and walking towards a nearby stream to wash up.
A bit rude, but I guess I couldn't complain too much.
It had only been a single day, change is not instant after all, it would take time.
So I focused on my pushups.
About 2 hours later, Kaguya came back, she had cleaned herself and her clothes, fixing them up to the best of her ability.
And now she was staring at me blankly as I held a pose with my arms stretched out.
She had an amazing poker face, if I didn't know better, I would think she didn't care about what I was doing in the slightest.
"No good morning?" I asked cheekily.
"..." She continued staring at me for a few seconds longer. "Good morning."
Wow, she actually did it.
"Good morning, fellow human." I replied with a grin.
Her face twitched slightly, and she walked towards where she had been sitting last night.
"Bring me food." She demanded, not even looking at me.
My eyebrows raised up in amusement.
"You're going to have to be nicer than that if you want me to cook for you again." I told her. "Ask politely."
Her jaw clenched, but she nodded.
"Bring me food, please." She said through gritted teeth.
"Of course, fellow human." I replied easily.
Once again, a look of annoyance flashed over her face.
And then I disappeared in a burst of Chakra.
The first deer I found was instantly decapitated, I grabbed its corpse before it could hit the ground, and I blurred away back to camp.
It took less than 5 minutes to find some food, once I came back, I simply left the deer corpse fall on the gound, and turned to Kaguya.
"Come here." I called out, time to teach this woman how to be a proper forest hobo.
Kaguya did not like me ordering her around, so she just stayed put and glared at me.
"Do not order me around like some lower being, thief." She stated.
I stared at her for a moment.
"Ah, I get it, you are too squeamish to learn how to prepare meat." I nodded sagely. "No shame in that, some people just can't handle getting their hands dirty."
Her expression darkened.
"I'm no such coward." She hissed.
"You don't need to prove anything to me, if you're afraid of blood and flesh, some people just aren't meant to be outdoors." I assured her.
She stood up and stomped over.
"Silence, cretin." She demanded. "Now teach me how to do this."
"Certainly." I smiled. "First, we skin the deer..."
Man, she was easy to bait.
***
2 HOURS LATER
"Hey... Kaguya." I said after finishing my meal.
She looked at me blankly.
"What?" She asked bluntly.
"What's your deal? Why are you here in the woods, all alone?" I questioned.
She scowled slightly.
"I do not wish to answer." She replied coldly.
No lies, at least.
"Come on, I can take a good guess if you won't tell me." I offered.
"Do as you wish." She waved her hand dismissively.
I thought for a moment.
"First, you are not human." I began.
Her eyes widened slightly in shock, but she said nothing.
"And you clearly don't like humans much, you made that pretty obvious, so I'm guessing something bad happened between you and humans at some point, enough that you fled into the woods." I continued.
Kaguya narrowed her eyes at me.
I was only slightly cheating here, any Shinobi could have made the connection if they met her before she got used to living with humans.
"You have never been to Wave before, in fact, you have never heard of Wave before, so that means you have been isolated from society for quite some time, or are from a very long distance away, considering that Wave is currently one of the most prominent countries in the world right now." I went on.
She shifted uncomfortably.
"You also grew up doing little to no manual labor, judging by your lack of knowledge that any regular civilian would possess, but you are strong, stronger than most people in the world." I paused. "But you also lack the demeanor of someone trained to fight."
She was growing more and more tense with each sentence.
"Also, you have the Byakugan, and the Sharingan, as well as other unnatural features like your horns." I tapped my chin in thought. "Meaning... Actually I don't know what that means, but it is unusual."
She remained silent, but she looked like she was about ready to murder me.
"So... how did I do?" I asked her.
"Horribly." She spat out. "Everything you said was wrong."
I chuckled and leaned back.
"Don't be so tense, fellow human, remember what I said about the rules of Wave?" I reminded her. "It doesn't matter where you come from, or what you are, this land is for everyone, as long as you follow its laws."
Kaguya huffed in annoyance, but she did relax slightly.
"Now, my journey to become the strongest man alive awaits, so unless you have something else to say, I'll be going back to training."
I waited for a few seconds.
"Alright, guess not."
With that said, I began doing squats.
First, the last few hours of physical training, then, Chakra Control.
Perfect Sage Mode was within reach.