Yoruichi's eyes fluttered open as she felt the aches and sores all over her body from her incomplete Shunkō.
" I recommend you keep in laying down; that Jutsu of yours might give you a massive boost in speed and strength, but the recoil is nothing to scoff at."
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the source of the voice, Naruto, with his blonde hair still retaining the red highlights that he got from opening his Eight Inner Gates for some reason. He was still pondering the how and why of his new look but lacked any sort of equipment to get a closer look or analyze what happened. He had hypotheses but nothing concrete.
" So am I your prisoner?"
" Guest. As you can leave after you heal up."
The blonde corrected the dark-skinned Kuniochi, which did not remove any sense of wariness from her. Yoruichi tried to sit up but was stopped by the pain running through her body, making her wince. Naruto huffed in exasperation at her not listening to him, as she really shouldn't be moving around.
He assured her again.
" If I wanted to do anything to you, we wouldn't be talking like this, and I would've put a Chakra Suppression Seal on you."
The dark-skinned Kuniochi quickly checked her flow of Chakra, and while still low, she could still access it without issue. She looked at the blonde and asked as she laid back down.
" What do you want?"
" To train in peace."
Naruto answered bluntly without lying, then had a thoughtful expression before saying.
" Actually, there is one other thing I want."
" What?"
The dark-skinned Kuniochi asked with a guarded expression, and the answer she got surprised her.
" Your name, you already know mine, but I don't know yours yet. If you don't want to give it, that's fine, but do tell me how to refer to you."
Yoruichi was surprised at how... nonchalant Naruto was being as the last thing she remembered was fighting him as hard as she could. Her brow scrunched up as she asked in confusion.
" Aren't we enemies? I attacked you and your trespassing in the Land of Lightning."
The blonde snorted as he retorted.
" If we were enemies, you would be dead and buried, no if, an, or but about it. The only reason you are still breathing is because, despite torturing me for information, you never had any ill will or malice directed at me, let alone killing intent. Now, if you excuse me, I need to work on lunch."
Naruto got up to leave, but Yoruichi stopped him.
" Wait!"
" What? Got a request for lunch?"
The blonde asked cooly, and while the question threw the dark-skinned Kuniochi for a loop for a moment. She then told him.
" Yoruichi."
" Your name?"
Naruto asked for confirmation, and Yoruichi nodded in reply. He said.
" Well, Yoruichi, it's... interesting to meet you as I really can't say it's nice."
________________________________________
I left Yoruichi alone as I went to work on today's lunch, pizza. It has been a pain to try and recreate a flavor I barely remember after all these years, but I am determined if nothing else. The two biggest issues are dough and sauce, as they are difficult to recreate for different reasons.
With dough, I can't make an easy pizza dough with self-rising flour as it doesn't exist as far as I can tell despite going to multiple markets, so I need to figure it out from scratch. Pizza sauce is actually easier as the only issue is finding the right herbs to get the flavor I want; otherwise, it's just tomatoes, salt, pepper, olive oil, and garlic mixed together or even simmered. There is a good variety of herbs on the market in this world, but they're all in Japanese names, so I have to go by trial and error.
I drooled a little as I had a serious craving for my favorite food from my past life, but that aside, I entered my kitchen tent with a table and stone wood fire stove I made. I sliced my tomatoes before putting them in a large pitcher and turning them into sauce with a clever bit of Wind Nature Transformation to recreate the effects of a blender. I then added a bit of garlic, salt, and pepper before going to the hard part: herbs.
The herbs I have used before have been marked as with either Maybe or No, with the rest to be tested. I tried one herb at a time to get a taste of how it affects the tomato sauce, and the next one had a thick, herby smell to it, which made me hopeful that it might be one of the herbs I need. I added it to the tomato sauce and let it simmer over an open flame since outdoor stoves aren't a thing in this world, at least not yet.
I moved on to dough, and so far, Strong Flour or kyoryokuko (weird flour type name, but what can I do?) Is the closest to getting me pizza dough with texture; I just need to figure out what to mix with it aside from water. I went with a combination of olive oil, a touch of brown sugar, and, of course, water this time. Mixing it was easy with Chakra Control; I just used a spinning motion while holding the bowl, and now I just need to let it rise.
I have been enjoying trying various cheeses in this world so far, and getting money is easier than I thought. All I have to do is send out a Shadow Clone to gamble as while transformed as Tsunade, and I only need to cheat when someone tries to cheat me first, as I seem to be pretty lucky. It is ridiculously easy to cheat with Chakra, and as for Tsunade, finding out what I am doing with her face that is very unlikely, and I am confident in my ability to run away.
Part of me wishes I could see the look on her face when Tsunade is prevented from entering a gambling den out of fear of being cleared out. As I already cleaned out most of the gambling dens in the Land of Frost, I need to pick where to send my Shadow Clone; next, the Land of Hot Springs or Land of Woods seems like my best bet as I don't want to be anywhere in the Land of Rice Patties where Orochimaru has made a deal with the Daimyo there to fund his operations.
I went to try my sauce next and found its flavor... adequate but not quite what I was looking for. I labeled the herb with a maybe before taking the sauce off the flame and getting to work on kneading and spreading the dough. After putting it all together, I put the experimental pizza in the stone oven and waited. My body still ached from opening my Inner Gates, and this was delaying my training as I couldn't take any chances in this state.
I enjoyed the smell of burning wood and my experimental pizza; my thoughts turned to Yoruichi or, more specifically, her Jutsu. At first, I thought it was the Lightning Armor Chakra Mode that the Raikage uses because of how it clad her body with Lightning Nature Chakra, but it is undoubtedly different. Her Jutsu seemed more focused on speed and power while sacrificing defense and self-inflicting harm to push her strength.
From examining Yoruichi's injuries, I understood the basic principle of the Jutsu, and with my knowledge of Medical Ninjutsu, I figured out how to improve it. It would take precise, if not near perfect, Chakra Control to use safely as it ran Lightning Nature Chakra through the nerve system of the body to force the body to react more quickly to one's thoughts with a concentration on the arms, shoulders, and back to unleash controlled blasts of Lightning Nature Chakra.
However, I had a suspicion that this Jutsu wouldn't just work with Lightning Style but any element if you have a high enough affinity. Overall, I am thankful to Yoruichi for unintentionally giving me such a useful Jutsu to refine and improve, not that she needs to know. The pizza looked done, so I took it out of the stone oven and sliced it with Wind Style, then tried a piece.
While the crust had a decent flavor, the sauce was wrong again, as it had a slight floral taste to it; no thanks, I don't want flowers in my pizza. I marked the herb with a no but still ate the whole pizza as wasting food after experiencing hunger, if not starvation, just didn't sit with me. I then got started on making some rice porridge for Yoruichi to help her recover and grilled some beef skewers for some protein.
I went back to her tent and saw her stretching. I warned her out of mild concern.
" You should be resting; otherwise, you are going to harm yourself in a way that is not easy to heal from."
" Yeah, yeah, but answer me this. Why are you not treating me like a prisoner?"
" Would you prefer I did?"
I asked back as the reason for treating her as a guest and not a prisoner was simple. Even if she tried to torture me to get information, it wasn't out of malice or hatred, which meant more to me than I ever expected. I didn't have a logical reason for treating her as such because when I seriously considered just killing her or making her my prisoner, a part of me rejected this idea.
So, I am treating Yoruichi as my guest mostly because I want to understand why I felt this way. Yoruichi eyed me with suspicion, and I just casually laid her food down then told her.
" Eat up; you're in no shape for anything too strenuous."
She examined the rice porridge and skewers before giving me a long look, making me sigh as I told her.
" If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't bother with poison."
" There other things a male Shinobi can do to a Kuniochi."
I got what she was implying about, and while I won't deny the thought crossed my mind as she is a sexy dark-skinned beauty, I wasn't that desperate for action. I turned and left as I wasn't going to explain myself to her. It's on her if she wants to eat or not. I think I'll take a nap for now.
________________________________________
Saying Yoruichi was thrown off about her treatment after losing consciousness would be an understatement. She poked and prodded her food, trying to find anything suspicious, but her stomach protested as it growled as the food Naruto left to her did smell good. The dark-skinned Kuniochi frowned and muttered to herself.
" If he tries anything, he's in for a rude awakening."
She took a bite of the rice porridge and found there was some cheese, spring onions, and mushrooms in it, giving her a variety of textures to eat. Yoruichi quickly started to scarf down her food as she realized just how hungry she was. The dark-skinned finished off the rice porridge before moving on to the beef skewers; they were lightly seasoned with salt and pepper.
Yoruichi soon found herself feeling full and rubbing her stomach. She may be familiar with fine dining from her time in the Daimyo's court. Still, she honestly preferred simple food as trying to pick up the overly complex flavors the chefs of the Nobles and Daimyo was a pointless exercise as politics make things murky at the best of times. The dark-skinned Kuniochi got up and decided to look around and see if she really wasn't a prisoner.
Exiting her tent, Yoruichi saw the barrier around Naruto's camp being struck by lightning. Seeing the unexpected safe haven that is Naruto's camp compared it to the insulated cave she was stuck with for her training in the Lightning Rod Mountains. Her cave was dark, dank, and was still in the process of being cleaned as no one had been in it for decades. Naruto's camp, however had a barrier that stopped lightning, several tents that housed different facilities, and it was out in the open with no musty smell.
Yoruichi briefly considered residing in this encampment instead but put those thoughts on hold as she decided to investigate first. She wandered around and smelled something unpleasant, blood with the scent of something burning. The dark-skinned Kuniochi followed her nose to find the cauldron with boiling blood in it and was a bit alarmed.
" He's bathing in blood!?"
She realized and was concerned but then heard.
" Hey, you should be resting like the boss is."
Yoruichi turned to see Naruto and quickly figured out she was dealing with a Shadow Clone, considering the slight differences in the Clone, like a slightly wider mouth. She backed away slowly and asked while being on guard.
" Why are you? No, why is he bathing in blood?"
The Shadow Clone frowned at the question and was unsure whether to answer truthfully or not but decided that since she was a guest, it was better to avoid any misunderstandings.
" It's required for the Chakra Beast Blood Cauldron Body Tempering method. Using the blood of Chakra Beast with some special herbs, it becomes possible to strengthen the body."
" Wait, he's not only using my father's Clan body tempering manual but another as well!? Is he trying to kill himself!?"
The Shadow Clone kept quiet about actually using three different body tempering methods as he answered.
" While I don't know what you mean by your father's Clan body tempering manual but, yes he is using more than one to strengthen himself, but he is not suicidal, just desperate for strength and power."
Yoruichi was dumbfounded by what she heard and now more curious about who exactly is Naruto.