Asahi and Konan had left the forest behind and trekked to find a new base to stay in so that they wouldn't be found by the shinobi who will investigate about the death of the five shinobi's who pillaged the village.
After two day's of travel, the food they had in the sack was finished. Asahi was sure that they were far away from Konan's village, and even of shinobi tracked them, Asahi was confident that they can survive that encounter with the help of Guardian Knight.
Not only that, he had been practicing the seismic sense non stop through out the two days. Because of his intense training, he can see upto half a kilometer in all directions now. 'I didn't get the chance to unlock the Haki, but that's to be expected. Different worlds different rules.'
Looking around, Asahi noted that they were deep inside a forest, and that there are lot of coverage to rest. The rain was still falling, but in never fell on Asahi and Konan because of barrier above them.
Pondering for few moments, Asahi told Konan "Let's rest here."
"Mhmm." Konan agreed with him, since the time she was saved by Asahi, she haven't said anything. Not a word about his method of killing those six shinobi, not the invisible barrier that stopped ninjutsu and rain from falling over them. She was observing him silently, as she felt that this Asahi and the one she saw in the streets of the village were entirely different.
Nodding at Konan, Asahi stomped the ground and the ground bulged upward, at the same time a dome appeared over it with one entrance. There were small holes on the sides in a way that the rain water won't enter the dome and to get enough space for air pass.
Looking at the elevated cave, Asahi told Konan "For now, rest here. I'll go hunt something so that we can have food for the coming days. But if you want to help, find some berries and herbs near here. Don't wander off to somewhere and don't go with anyone else. If you encounter any kind of danger, be that an animal or human, you have to scream at the top of your lungs. Got it?"
"Yes." Konan readily agreed with a smile, and thought with a bitter smile when he walked off to hunt an animal 'I thought he would see me as a burden and leave me at some point, but he didn't. Seems like mother was wrong about Asahi, well she was wrong about Rain Shinobi too.'
Asahi went out of the earthen hut, to hunt something that could quell their hunger in this rainy day. Looking up skyward, where the rain was falling on the invisible barrier, turning his head to the blue, knight like stand, Asahi ordered it in his mind 'Knight, watch over Konan.'
The only response he got from the Guardian Knight stand was it's inclination of it's head downward. Nodding to himself, he calculated the range of the stand in his mind 'The Barrier Stand is semi-automatic in nature and I have full control over it. So the range should be a hundred or two hundred meters. Alright, I should only hunt in that radius.'
He took the opposite direction that they came from and ran out into the forest. When he reached approximately one fifty meters away from his Stand, he got feedback from Knight, that he was nearing the maximum range. So he stopped abruptly and looked back to the way he came and thought to himself 'Knight have sentience? Wait, that does make sense in some convoluted way.'
His eyes went wide when realization struck him 'Knight was born due to my excess Yin Chakra and it combined with with the Barrier Fruit, and Yin Chakra is the experience, memories of a human being. So that means Knight have the experience, power and memories of my first life. Does that mean my stand is Monkey D King? Do I call him Knight or King from now on? Or should I just call it Knight King? Whatever, I can ask him after the hunt.'
Tapping his feet on the ground, Asahi sent a pulse of chakra to map out the area. Suddenly he got a feed back from his one o'clock direction "A deer hundred at thirty meters away. I really hope the range of stand is two hundred."
Applying chakra to his feet, so that there won't be any sound, Asahi started to move towards the deer. When he was ten meters away from the deer, he saw it and looking at it ge thought 'We can survive four more day on deer meet alone.'
Crouching down, he touched the ground and imagined an earthen spike puncturing the head of the deer swiftly. And just like that, an earthen spike shot straight at the head of the deer, which head it's head downward for grazing.
Seeing the deer going limp, Asahi smiled and muttered to himself as he moved towards the dead deer "Since my chakra control is so precise, I don't need any hand signs. I only figured that out in our travel. Now, I can just clap my hand and do whatever jutsu I need to perform, like Hashirama. But, I don't have his level of chakra, so I can't create those absurd gigantic jutsus."
He held his hand as if he is holding a knife and an earthen knife appeared in his hand, with one swing he separated the head of the deer from the body. When it's use was over, the knife disappeared back into thin air. 'Compressed earthen knife. Sharpest tool in the shed, I think only water will have similar result. Wind, Lighting Fire need a medium to compress.'
Hauling the carcass of the deer to their earthen hut, Asahi thought 'I think I have chakra capacity of a genin. I'm sure that it will increase as I age, but I'm sure that it won't reach Hashirama level, well no one can, but I would love to have Kage-level chakra reserve. If I need to reach Hashirama level, then I'll have to get my hand's on Senjutsu. The Toads of Mount Myōboku, the Snakes of Ryūchi Cave and the Slug of Shikkotsu Forest, these three have their Senjutsu, but since they are all allied with Konaha at the moment, it's not feasible. And I don't want to become any of those three Sage, I have to become some other sage.
From my memories, there are only these three and the Sage of Six Paths who can make someone a Sage. Who else are there, the Neko summoning doesn't have a Sage, same for the eagles, crows, salamander, chameleon..... Aghhh! I can't pint point.'
Before long, he reached their camp and the rain had stopped, but the sky was not clear. He saw Konan sitting inside the hut with a small campfire inside it, near her were some berries and herbs. Seeing those, he muttered under his breath "If Knight is King, then Knight can detoxify any poison. Good, from now on every thing we forage will be passed through the barrier, so that they become edible."
He stopped a meter away from the hut where a tree was present. Looking at Konan, he said "Konan, there's rope inside one of those sacks, bring it here."
A few moments later, Konan came out of the hut with a long rope and gave it to Asahi. Taking it, he tied one end to the hind legs of the deer and threw the other end over the branch of the tree. Pulling the loose end, he suspended the deer on the tree and tied the loose end of the rope to an anchor he created on the ground after tapping it with his feet.
Blood started to fall from the decapitated neck, and to increase the speed of blood drain, Asahi stabbed the deer in it's heart. Not to waste the blood,he created an earthen tub underneath it to collect the blood. Then he started to remove the entrails of the deer by cutting it's belly section vertically. After removing the entrails, he placed a thick branch horizontally, so that it's inner area can be dried too.
Taking the entrails, he moved fifty meters away from the hut hut and dumped it on the ground 'This will attract some wild animals. If I'm lucky, I can tame one with physical abuse and let it guard Konan.'
When he came back to the hut, Asahi told Konan "Let's wait inside. When the blood is fully drained, we can cook some deer meat."
Konan nodded in agreement, and both of them went inside the hut and sat before the campfire. To get more heat, Konan sat right next to him and looped her hand around his arm, while resting her head on his arm. A smile formed on her face, as she closed her eyes 'I feel safe around him.'
Looking at Konan who was clinging to him, he mused 'Must have been scared that I would ditch her here.'
Shaking his head, he looked at his stand and ordered 'Detoxify the herbs, berries, blood and the deer.'
An inclination of the head, and Knight started to detoxify the herbs. Seeing that, Asahi asked Knight 'Are you King now?'
Knight stopped what he was doing and shook his head. And for the first time, he spoke to Asahi 'I'm not King. But I have his Barrier Power, experience and memories. But I'm not King.'
'Understood. So should I keep calling you Knight or Knight King?' Asahi asked mentally.
'Knight should do.' Knight replied and went back to his work. Detoxification.
Asahi chuckled softly and thought 'I thought Knight will have the same personality of my first life. But looking at him now, he seems complete opposite to Monkey D King. Calm, composed and level headed. Heh... I see why Luffy and Garp are like that. I lived a life doing crazy shit left and right.'
After some time, Knight indicated that he had finished detoxifying and the deer has been drained completely. So, Asahi slowly woke up Konan, who had fell asleep as soon as her head rested on his shoulder "Konan, wake up. We have to cook the deer."
"Okay...." She mumbled out with a small yawn.
Going out, Asahi assigned Konan to gather some dry branches near them while he started to butcher the deer. Using the compressed earthen knife, he skillfully butchered the deer. After removing the skin, he started to cut meat into chops and stakes, to be roasted.
When he finished butchering, all that was left was bones with no meat sticking on it. Smiling at his work, Asahi gave two lean cuts to Konan and said "Tie some herbs in it using the ninja wire and roast it over the campfire."
"Umu." Konan nodded at him and taking the lean cuts, she tottered to the hut to roast the meat.
Looking at rest of the meat, Asahi said to himself "I should smoke these or turn them into jerky. Or I could do both."
Shrugging, he started to further cut the meat into one inch in thickness to convert them into jerky and cube shaped cuts for smoking them. Setting them aside in an earthen plate, he looked at the deer hide and thought 'If I can tan them, I could see it with her clothes and give it her. I'll look for something more menacing or larger.'
Tapping his feet on the ground, he created a rectangular stand that can be used for tanning process. He tied the hide in the four corners using ninja wire and left it there. Taking the meat, he went inside the hut and saw Konan diligently roasting venison over fire while drooling.
Chuckling to himself, he created an earthen smoker and tied the final ninja wire in a mesh pattern inside it and placed the cube meats in it. Opening the fuel compartment, he dumped some dry woods in it and lit it using the fire from the campfire.
Next, he formed a stand that had three horizontal rods, that can be used for drying the meat. After setting up all of that, he sat next to Konan and waited for the venison to be fully cooked 'Luckily we had some salt in the sack or we would have to eat it blandly. Wasn't there some berries she collected? I could make some sauce using the berries and the deer blood. Yep, let's do it.'
Right after Konan took the roasted meat, Asahi came back with a reddish black sauce without saying anything dipped his roasted meat in it and ate. 'It's good. Not as bad as I thought it would be.'
Konan also tried it and her eyes lit up in joy. After eating their fill, they talked for some time and when it started to get dark, the laid down on the ground to sleep.
While lying next to Asahi, Konan was thinking back to three days she's been following him 'Asahi knows so many things. I can't let him do everything by himself from now on. I have memorised every step of butchering, cutting the meat, if I train for a bit, I can do it too. But the one skill I should master is ninjutsu. I'm sure that he would train me if I asked him. Alright, tomorrow. I'll ask him tomorrow to train me to use ninjutsu like him.'
With that decision made, she started to sleep soundly. In the background, the cackling of the fire can best heard and the sound if drizzle outside.