Chapter 187 Animal Instinct (Subscription Request)
The atmosphere in the training ground slowly quieted down.
The old cat stood in front of Ryosuke in fear and uneasiness.
The surprises one after another brought him a kind of joy that he could not control himself.
Thinking about his complacency in the battle just now, he was a little scared.
And Ryosuke heard the uneasiness in his words, and was slightly stunned, temporarily withdrawing from thinking about the devil fruit ability.
At this time, he noticed the change in the old cat's expression, and after a little thought, he understood it in his heart.
Ryosuke could probably guess what the old cat was thinking, because this expression was very obvious.
As a cat, the old cat may have lived for a long time, but as a human who has just been "born", he is still relatively young.
"There are some things we need to clarify."
Ryosuke looked at him calmly, "To be honest, before this, maybe because you are smarter than ordinary cats, I am willing to let you live in our house, but in fact... I don't treat you as a family member, but just treat you as a pet cat that I can play with occasionally."
Although he is very good at telling people what to say,
When he deceives people, he can easily make people lose their way, and even help count money after being sold.
But at this moment, for such a "new" human, he did not intend to deceive, but said his inner thoughts very directly, "That fruit is indeed very precious to me and Hinata at present."
"But it's not that precious, because compared to the fruit itself, I value more how the ability contained in this fruit is produced, and how it makes an ordinary person have powerful abilities, so as long as you cooperate with me in the test, I won't do anything to you."
Faced with Ryosuke's confession, the panic on the old cat's face was restrained a little.
But with his hands behind his back, he was still a little nervous.
"Besides, doing something cruel to you will not do me any good, and I don't need to cause your hatred." Ryosuke continued, "This kind of fruit should not be the only one in this world."
"I believe I will find other fruits in the future, so you don't have to mind it, or worry or fear it."
The words were very straightforward, but the more straightforward, the more sincere, but relatively unpleasant.
The old cat did not interrupt or ask some questions.
On the contrary, as Ryosuke spoke, he became calmer and calmer.
After a long silence, he seemed to be thinking about something.
Inexplicably, the training ground fell into silence again.
The old cat did not speak, and Ryosuke was not anxious.
Time passed slowly, and the breeze rustled the leaves.
After a long time, the old cat with a cat's head and a human body raised its head, looked at him seriously, and asked an unexpected question, "So how can I become your family... or partner?" "Become... my family?" Ryosuke's eyes flashed with a strange color. He thought that the old cat would ask some details and even ask him to make an agreement, but he never expected that the old cat would focus on... family? "Maybe... can we sit down and talk first?" In a short period of quiet thinking, the old cat's eyes gradually returned to the calmness of the past, the calmness of being a cat. "Perhaps no matter the species, as long as they reach old age, they will always feel some sadness and loneliness. In fact, I wanted to talk to you about the past a long time ago, but I couldn't communicate because I didn't know human language."
"Recovering youth, extending life, and significantly improving strength, these things have brought me too much impact, so that I was a little... a little irrational before."
"But now that I have calmed down, it is much better, but compared to those things, are you willing to spend some time listening to me, an old cat, chattering about some extremely boring past?"
For some reason, there was a bit of pleading in his tone.
"Let's go, sit under the tree over there."
Ryosuke didn't refuse.
It can be seen that this matter seems to be very important to the old cat.
Coming under a big tree, he sat down against the tree,
The dense branches and leaves blocked the scorching sun near noon,
It was very cool under the shade of the tree, especially in this kind of relatively claustrophobic forest with few people coming and going.
"Although our ages are not much different in a sense, other old cats should have some cats and grandchildren when they reach my age."
After sitting down, feeling the tranquility in the dense forest, the old cat felt that he seemed to have temporarily forgotten his power and returned to the time when he was still a cat. "But unfortunately... my heart was not here when I was young, and I felt lonely when I was old, but it was too late to make up for it."
As if reminiscing, the old cat recounted the past.
"As long as I can remember, as a wild cat, I have been wandering outside, and I don't have a fixed residence."
"But fortunately, because I was a wild cat from the beginning, I had a bunch of brothers and sisters in the same situation around me wandering with me, so I was not lonely."
"At that time, we were in the wild, often fighting with wild beasts in the mountains and forests, and going out to find food."
"And when I got old, my brothers and sisters left one by one, either because of the pain left in the fight, or because of the end of their lives, and there were fewer and fewer cats who could accompany me."
"With my weak strength and declining physical function, I can only come to Konoha to live a miserable life."
After briefly skimming over his muddled first half of life, the old cat began to tell about his second half of life. "Hey, you may not believe it, but after coming to Konoha, I have become much fatter than when I was in the wild."
He laughed at himself, "Although I am occasionally injured by the provocation of some cats in the village, how can those domestic cats in the village compare to wild cats like me who have rich hunting experience."
"As long as I don't provoke those ninja cats, I can win most of the time."
"And through the food given, stolen, or robbed from humans, I get much more for each meal than we get in the wild, so sometimes I wonder, what was the purpose of our efforts to survive?"
In the first half of his life,
Based on the animality and predatory instinct of wild beasts, it survives in the dangerous wild with its brothers and sisters, fighting various wild beasts.
"The days of worrying about the next meal all the time have gradually faded away since I entered Konoha. After I became comfortable, I began to learn to think. Perhaps it was from then on that I had some wisdom that a cat should not have."
In the second half of his life, after losing his family, he came to Konoha.
In various dangerous situations, he learned to suppress the beast's nature and began to feel human nature and wisdom in the process of contact with humans.
"The more things you see, the more you know, the more you think, the more you consider and fantasize."
The old cat raised his palm, slowly clenched it, and felt the power surging from his body.
"The closer I get to death, the more I fear death, so I want to live."
"When you treated me in the courtyard that day, the chakra you injected into my body made me feel a little bit of vitality, so from then on, I often came to your house, I really want to continue living."
"Later I found that I couldn't control the existence of chakra at all. I couldn't break away from the life span of the cat clan like those ninja cats. This made me very sad, so that later I rarely spoke and rarely left this house to see other places."
It seemed like I was back to my old age, and all kinds of thoughts echoed in my mind again. The old cat's voice became a little low, "I'm almost dead, what's the point of doing those unnecessary things?"
"I want to give up, but I don't want to give up, but I have to give up..."
He told quietly, and Ryosuke listened quietly.
Time passed little by little,
Only the rustling sound of the wind blowing the leaves and Ryosuke accompanied and listened to the feelings and actions of this old cat who was about to die.
Compared with the first half of his life as a beast, the old cat's second half of his life was obviously much richer, with many more nagging experiences and feelings, and even ideas that popped up at the moment.
Until he took the fruit, the old cat announced his death in an extremely complicated tone, "The story of a cat ends here."
"No cat will remember, no one will remember, even until the moment of death, I didn't understand what I had experienced in my life, what I existed for, and I was confused and had almost no direction and goal."
His mood was extremely complicated, especially when he recalled everything in the past, he would always unconsciously have a repressed emotion.
"It's like depression." Ryosuke frowned, "But you don't have to be so pessimistic, you have been reborn, right? You still have a long life, and you can always find what you want to do."
In response to his comfort, the old cat quickly replied: "In fact, I have found a short-term goal."
"Become... my family?"
Ryosuke repeated the sentence that the old cat said just now.
"Yes, I want to be your family." The old cat nodded, "Strictly speaking, you gave me this life. Even if you want to take it back, I have no possibility of refusing regardless of my ability or reason."
"But I still want to try to live. I haven't lived enough. I still want to see more and more things. I want to find a goal that I can devote all my efforts to, just like your persistence in cultivation."
After following him for a long time, this old cat knew his main direction, and Ryosuke was not surprised.
What surprised him more was the old cat's words later.
"Maybe... I don't know if you have discovered it yourself."
The old cat raised his head and looked at him with a little fear in his eyes, "When you face most people, you actually communicate with others and look at others with a consciousness that is like looking down at the earth from the sky."
"Maybe as an animal, I am more sensitive in this regard, so I often feel the feeling of being out of tune with others from you."
"This feeling is not the aura of the eldest lady that keeps people away from thousands of miles, but the aura that can really isolate others..."
"Aura? Tell me in detail."
Ryosuke frowned. Is it the sequelae left by the awakening of the white eyes?
No, that's not right.
"I'm sorry, I can't describe it."
But the old cat shook his head, "I can only feel that feeling occasionally. I don't know what kind of emotion it is. I can just feel it, but I can't explain it."
What he said was a bit mysterious, but Ryosuke couldn't feel the aura that he said separated people.
Putting aside his doubts for the time being, Ryosuke asked again: "But what does this have to do with you wanting to be my family and partner?"
"Because I found that when you come into contact with your family and some friends, that feeling will quickly dissipate." The old cat explained, "As an animal, my instinct tells me that I can live longer if I become one of the few people who can make you lose that aura."
Is it so mysterious...
Ryosuke groped his chin in confusion.
Perhaps, a long time ago, he was indeed a relatively indifferent, even cold-blooded person, and he knew this himself.
But later, as he came into contact with his family, Ryosuke felt that he had gotten much better, and when he talked to many villagers, he no longer felt like he was living with a mask on.
But how come in the mouth of the old cat...he seems to have never changed?
"But this kind of thing can't be done just because you ask for it."
Suppressing his doubts temporarily, Ryosuke looked at the old cat opposite helplessly, "It's not enough to just say that I treat you as a family member or a partner. This kind of thing is too deliberate and doesn't seem sincere."
"But in short, I've remembered it. I'll try my best to accept you."
In any case, this kind of thing still needs time to get used to.
If it's really someone who can match his personality and ability, Ryosuke doesn't mind defining him as a partner... or even a family member.
"Your words are enough."
The old cat breathed a sigh of relief, and stood up impatiently, "I will try my best to cooperate with you next. Now... I need to go all out and launch an offensive against you, right?"
"Let's talk about it in the afternoon."
Taking his mind away from himself, Ryosuke also stood up.
It was noon before he knew it, and it was time to go back for lunch.
From his perception, he could also detect that Hinata and Hanabi on the other side of the training ground had also finished their training and walked towards this side.
While waiting, Ryosuke checked his body inside and out again, but still didn't feel the breath that the old cat said was isolating ordinary people.
This inevitably made him a little confused.
Could it be a high-level energy substance that is difficult to detect, just like natural energy?
There was no need for the old cat to make up such a thing to fool him, so Ryosuke felt that it was more likely that he couldn't detect the existence of this breath.
As for why the old cat could feel it, it might be because the person involved was confused and the bystander was clear, plus a little instinct brought by the wildness of the animal.
However, there is also a possibility that it is not that he didn't detect the breath that the old cat said, but that he had become accustomed to that feeling and easily ignored it, just like boiling a frog in warm water.