Chapter 102: A Lucky Encounter

Although her stomach growled, she maintained her poise before him. The fact that she could pretend nothing had happened was admirable.

"I am Tanaka, and I am roasting snake meat." Tanaka replied with a friendly smile, "Are you hungry? Would you like to eat with me? But, I must warn you, I haven't removed all the snake's venom, so if you're not resistant to poison, it could be risky..."

Before he finished speaking, she was already in front of him: "I am immune to all kinds of poison."

Her few words said everything he needed to know.

Seeing the yellow spot turning almost green, he smiled slightly: "Okay, I'll cut a piece for you."

Gesturing with his hand, he created a stone chair similar to his own: "Please, sit and eat with me."

Even the way she frowned was beautiful, and it only took her two seconds to make a decision. She promptly sat down and took the iron skewer with a piece of the snake meat he offered.

Her eyes were the same pure, immaculate color, much like the eyes of the Hyuga Clan.

Many might disagree, but he found her eyes very beautiful.

However, not wanting to be rude or make her hostile, he didn't look at her for too long before he began eating as well.

"Not bad." She murmured after nibbling a piece.

Her simple actions had an immaculate air of delicacy and nobility.

The fact that someone as noble as her would accept eating with him surprised him, to say the least.

But, it's worth noting that she had not yet become the same Kaguya he saw in the anime.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he ate.

LUK: 202 (+12 +30%) ◄(+0)►

'Sometimes, I forget I have this attribute...'

If he thought about it a little, he'd realize that from the moment he had to choose where to go and exhaled until now, there was a touch of luck involved. How else would he explain his current situation, where he was peacefully eating skewered snake meat with Kaguya?

Typically, he only 'used' his 'LUK' when creating something new. Thanks to this, he almost always obtained something good and useful. However, in daily life, it's not like he found money or something precious. Maybe something had appeared, but he wasn't able to recognize the value of 'X' thing and ignored it?

Putting that aside for now, he said: "By the way, I still don't know your name."

She paused with the meat close to her mouth and replied in her controlled voice before resuming eating: "Kaguya."

"A good name." Tanaka smiled slightly, "As I mentioned earlier, my name is Tanaka Uzumaki. You can call me Tanaka."

She simply nodded.

"Listen, may I ask why you're in this forest alone?" he asked, trying to start a conversation.

She stared at him intently but then ignored him.

Laughing slightly, unconcerned about being ignored, he said: "You know, I'm looking for a tree."

When she heard this, Kaguya looked at him intently.

Seeing he had her attention, he continued: "This tree seems to be stealing this planet's pure energy, and I want to stop it from happening."

"Stopping it is impossible." She said coldly, with an ancient, noble accent, "You'd better give up."

"Impossible, huh." He laughed, "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But how will I know without trying? If you have a pessimistic thought when doing something, aren't you indirectly self-sabotaging? I like to think I'll succeed. If I don't, I can accept it, because I gave it my best."

"After all, why are you saying all this to me, a complete stranger, human?" she asked.

"Tanaka, my name is Tanaka." He answered her question, "I don't know, I just thought you were searching for the same thing as me."

"How foolish. There's no way you know what I seek," she said sharply.

"Maybe." He shrugged, "But, Kaguya. Deep down, you must already have an answer to that question, right?"

"Who are you?" she asked, this time looking at him more seriously. Depending on how he answered, it seemed she might turn hostile.

"Hehe, who knows, huh?" He smiled without giving a satisfying answer, making her huff.

"Thanks for the meal."

When he saw her stand to leave after finishing her food, Tanaka spoke, "Kaguya, do you have somewhere to go? Are you spending the night in this dark forest?"

"That's none of your concern," she replied without turning around, walking away.

"Yes, you're right," he said loudly, "But if you don't have anywhere to go, how about staying here with me? I'll show you something cool."

She continued walking through the bamboo grove, but suddenly stopped. An audible sigh echoed, and she turned back, standing a few meters away in silence.

Stifling a laugh, Tanaka stood up, knowing she was at least curious about what he meant by showing her something cool.

In the next instant, he formed hand seals, and soon, five shadow clones appeared.

When she saw this, Kaguya looked at him cautiously.

However, unlike what she expected, his clones moved away and then placed their palms on the ground while murmuring a few words.

In moments, leafless tree trunks began emerging from the soil, accompanied by iron sand taking on strange forms. 

Before she could understand what these structures were, everything was enclosed by wooden structures, which quickly transformed into a two-story mansion with wooden siding and iron and clay details, including the roof tiles.

'Humans on this planet shouldn't be able to do something like this. Just who is he?' she thought.

After the mansion was built, Tanaka's clones dispersed into a curtain of smoke.

Sighing with relief, Tanaka smiled and then said, "This will be my temporary residence; you're welcome to stay. It has several rooms, and I bet it's better than just sleeping in the middle of the forest."

She looked at him for a few seconds without replying.

After what felt like an eternity, she spoke in her beautiful, ethereal voice, "Thank you, I will accept your invitation."

He didn't know exactly what made her change her mind and accept, but deep down, Tanaka was very happy. Smiling, he said, "Come in, make yourself at home."

Moving ahead, he opened the door.

Even he wasn't sure what drove him to want to please her to this extent, even attempting to use Wood Style for the first time.

The fact that he had theorized about it beforehand was the "X" factor that kept him from making a fool of himself in front of her. But he had intended to switch to Stone Style if it failed, so the final result wouldn't have been too bad.

In his inventory, there were some beds he had stored before coming to this dungeon, knowing he might spend days here and might not find a place to sleep.

Kaguya, upon entering, created an energy sphere that lit up the entrance hall.

Her curious eyes fell on the fireplace in the distance; she seemed to understand its function as she created a small fireball and sent it toward the fireplace.

As the wood began to burn, the house's lighting improved.

Tanaka, who had also entered, placed a Soul Stone in the socket he had created, and soon the house had electricity.

The lamps he had made were working perfectly, illuminating the house, making Kaguya show an interesting expression.