Chapter 56 - Hohozuki

"Hohozuki, this newly arrived one here is Minato, he lost his family to bandits and he stumbled upon our village. Can you guide him to the empty house and renovate it as he wants? I've got to return to the entrance" Requested Daisuke.

"Sure thing Daisuke-san, I've got nothing to do anyway" Seeing the insincere smile and the dead eyes of this guy made Minato feel uncomfortable. It's the face of someone that has lost everything. Only when the word bandit was mentioned did they regained some life. Ameyuki had the same eyes too, making Minato more sure of his earlier guess on them.

'No wonder this guy walks with a clone that shows his true face, he doesn't have any will to live anymore and surely hope to be recognized and killed'

And seeing the same look that he had one time with his heart not frozen anymore shook Minato a bit, more than he knew of.

"Aya, you're always helpful that I feel embarrassed to ask for your help again, but your ability is so useful. Thanks again, Hohozuki" Rubbing the back of his head with his hand, Daisuke 'praised' Hohozuki, but the hidden look of disgust when he looked at his hands caked with mud didn't escape Minato, nor Hozuki's retainer if the eyebrow twitching was an indication.

Daisuke then looked at Minato "Take care, Minato. I will come to see you in the evening when my guard shift is finished"

"I present myself again, I'm Hohozuki, no last name" Smiled Hohozuki

Tearing his eyes from Daisuke disappearing back, Minato politely replied "Minato. I'm an orphan too. Nice to meet you"

"Come with me" Saying so, Hohozuki led Minato outside from the commercial area where everyone in this village was in this hour of the day shopping or taking a coffee to the residential area, with Ameyuki following behind but not saying anything from the beginning to the end.

The majority of the buildings in this place were brown, constructed in earth from top to bottom, making Minato speculate their origin. 'Maybe this guy is a Doton user? So his job here is to create houses for newbies and shops for hopeful merchants with ninjutsu. It would explain his dirty hands'

Seeing the pondering look of Minato, Hohozuki explained "I'm a user of the Mud release, a combination of earth and water chakra...Ah, but I don't think you understand. In summary, I'm a shinobi and can manipulate the mud with an energy called chakra. My job here is to create buildings, and to do that I transform earth in mud and solidify said mud when I obtain the shape I wished"

'For a guy that has no will to live anymore, he sure is sėnsɨtɨvė. And what's up with only the clone being offended for that and not him...'

It was clear to Minato that Hohozuki was someone broken and wishing for death. Maybe his 'Hohozuki' persona was someone that was precious to him but that he killed like Kakashi chidori-ed Rin? So he let his true self, 'Ameyuki', do to the bidding of that persona as redemption to have some small peace of mind, which would explain why Ameyuki took offense of the nasty looks directed to Hohozuki. And recalling the sliver of hatred when Daisuke mentioned bandits before, they may have a cause into this as well.

'Nevermind that, I don't care. The only thing important to me is his blood. His ability is super useful! If I can control the earth around me and soften it, I could go anywhere I want, and even travel inside the ground. Not only that, it's a landscape changing ability, even more so than the Mokuton. After all, earth is omnipresent on the elemental nations. If pushed to the extreme, someone could destroy the continent with this bloodline limit!'

Walking through the residential area and arriving at the end of it near the mountain wall, they stopped before a small house that was round-shaped with an inversed cone as roof, like the houses in Kirikou's village, making Minato doubtful of the taste of Konoha's spies. He also remarked that the more they distanced themselves from the tree at the center, the less luminous it was. Said tree was decorated like a Christmas tree with multiple lightbulbs.

"This house was owned by someone that passed away some days ago, so it's not inhabited anymore. You can live here from now on, nobody needs it anyway. Do you want some changes to it?"

'I was right, the moment I heard the 'empty house', I was sure it was from the guy they killed the other day'

What was left unsaid was that if Minato didn't take this house, Hohozuki will be coaxed to construct another one. Even if people here don't resort to violence for fear of breaking the status quo and making this town a lawless one, they were still criminals with bounties and not afraid of bullying that did not go too far.

And with no will to live anymore, Hohoyuki will not defend himself if no physical harm or verbalized insults are directed to said persona. Of course, everyone was creeped out by his dead eyes, not daring to make him lose the last of his rationality. Internally dead people will do anything if coaxed a bit but will snap if you insult their sore spot.

"Can you make it more squarish, please?" 'Let's see his kekkei genkai'

With his Sharingan, Minato caught some traces of chakra on nearby lodgings 'Those houses were constructed not long ago, surely for the new arrivals, more precisely Suna spies.'

"Okay, finished" Clapping his hand with a fake satisfied smile, Hohozuki led Minato inside the newly renovated house.

The interior was pretty basic, with only the bȧrė minimum to live like a civilized person. Despite having been remodeled, it seems that the appliances for water and electricity of the house were not affected, clearly demonstrating the fine control of the user, making Minato almost want to battle this guy here and now, but he has to stick for his plan for the time being, his playtime will soon come.

"Thanks a lot, Hohozuki-san"

"Don't worry about that, if you need anything, come and find me"

'I need your blood, give it to me?'