After the First Shinobi War, the village was filled with orphans—both civilians and children from ninja clans.
Bringing an insect girl into the household didn't draw much attention. Explaining to neighbors that she was a relative's child was enough, and the clan would quietly cover for the rest.
Maki found one of her old robes and a fresh mask, dressing the insect girl without revealing her true identity. As long as she didn't show up in front of the Hyuga clan while their Byakugan was active, things would stay under wraps.
The only real issue was the extra mouth to feed—and an extremely hungry one at that.
The girl could eat as much as ten people's worth of food—Maki's share ten times over.
Though her mother, Yumei, never voiced a complaint, Maki could tell she was worried about money.
Running a small inn in Konoha wasn't exactly profitable. Most business came from traveling merchants hiring shinobi for tasks. With so much competition, everyone had to offer cheap prices and fake smiles.
In Maki's opinion, the inn was doomed to fail sooner or later—it had no real specialty. They couldn't exactly serve the Aburame Clan's Secret Grilled Worms to customers.
Business was only getting worse.
Most visitors preferred hot spring inns—those came with baths and pretty girls.
Supporting Maki alone wasn't a problem. But feeding a walking black hole? That was different.
After the insect girl, Kiko, cleaned out their entire food supply in a single night, Maki made a decision:
She was banned from eating at home.
During school hours, Maki sent Kiko into the Forbidden Forest to hunt her own meals.
This wasn't the time to be soft.
While keeping an eye on her, Maki discovered that Kiko had a particular weakness for honey.
She raided every beehive in the forest without hesitation.
With an exoskeleton so tough even bees couldn't sting her, there was no stopping her rampage.
Maki had to strictly forbid her from touching honeycombs anymore.
At the rate she was destroying them, the bees would go extinct. And then who'd pollinate the flowers? How would the forest survive?
Even during class, Maki couldn't focus on her experiments. She constantly worried about what trouble Kiko was getting into.
To her surprise, Kiko rarely hunted live animals.
But she would steal corpses.
From morning to afternoon, she ambushed a pack of unlucky ninken three separate times.
After the first scuffle, the dogs learned to avoid her—but Kiko could still sniff them out.
And once she found them, she would beat them up like it was nothing.
The dogs couldn't even bite through her armor-like shell.
If Maki hadn't stepped in, those poor pups wouldn't have gotten a single bite of their own kill.
So while she didn't lock Kiko up, Maki started issuing rules.
New bans, updated daily—depending on what chaos the girl caused.
Still, in Maki's eyes… she was kind of cute.
"Kawaii~" said the girl beside her.
They were in kunai-throwing class at the Ninja Academy. The speaker was Uchiha Naori, standing next to her.
"What kind of bug is that?" She asked, looking at Kiko.
"Moth," Maki replied softly. "You've got sharp eyes… just what I'd expect from an Uchiha."
Flicking her hair, she said calmly, "It's a type of bug I've never seen before. It's… unexpectedly cute."
"Wanna eat it?" Maki offered. The silk moth perched on her shoulder fluttered its wings.
"No, thank you!" Naori replied, face darkening.
"You're welcome," Maki said politely.
"Are you trying to piss me off on purpose?" Naori smiled through clenched teeth.
"Not at all. I mean well," Maki said with a light chuckle. "You'll never understand its beauty if you're too afraid to try."
"Really?" Naori raised an eyebrow.
"Wanna eat it?" Maki asked again.
"You're too cute—it'd be cruel to eat you," Naori teased. "But you're a lot kinder than I expected. I guess you really don't know someone until you give them a chance."
"People always judge by appearances," Maki said. "What did you imagine I was like?"
Naori thought for a moment, glanced briefly at her, then looked away and muttered, "Is that so…"
"Should I try imitating Tsunade?" Maki smirked, crossing her arms in the same confident pose.
"Hehe," Naori giggled behind her hand. "Tsunade's going to explode when she sees that."
This was just another day of living with Tsunade as a roommate.
"That's fine by me," Maki said with a shrug.
Crack.
Not far away, Tsunade clenched her teeth audibly, glaring.
"Oof. Scary," Naori said, though she didn't look the least bit afraid. Smiling at Maki, she added, "Can I have one of these bugs? I wanted a puppy, but taking care of one's too hard. A bug might be easier."
"You can have one, but you can't feed it," Maki warned.
"Huh? Why not?"
"It only lives for a single day."
"Oh…" Naori's face fell. "That's way too short."
"What's the point of a life like that?" she murmured sadly.
"Romantically speaking," Maki replied, "it came into the world to glimpse its beauty—just once."
Naori's eyes lit up.
"But biologically," Maki continued, "a moth is just a vessel. Its only purpose is to pass on its genes."
"…That's a new way of looking at things," Naori said thoughtfully.
As a bloodline-limit ninja, she wasn't unfamiliar with the idea of genetics. But she'd never heard it expressed like this before.
"It gets complicated if you really dive into it," Maki said. "Want to hear more?"
"No thanks," Naori waved her off. "That sounds boring. Don't you have anything normal girls talk about?"
"Sorry. I'm not an ordinary girl," Maki said, shaking her head. "I'm not interested in the stuff most girls like."
"Same here," Naori nodded. "Everyone talks about who's handsome, but I never have anything to add."
"Oh? Then who's the most handsome?" Maki asked, a bit intrigued. No girls ever talked to her about this stuff.
"Orochimaru-kun from the class next door," Naori answered, surprising Maki.
"Then who's the ugliest? Jiraiya?" Maki guessed.
"Nope. You," Naori said casually. "Jiraiya-kun has his own charm."
"…Figures," Maki muttered, partly amused, partly annoyed.
She could just take off her mask and prove them wrong—but if she did, she'd never hear the end of it from the boys.
"Are you mad?" Naori asked.
"No," Maki replied flatly.
"You're totally mad," Naori said, grinning. "You can't fool me."
"Shut up, idiot."
"Hehehe…" Naori laughed behind her hand.
Maki couldn't help chuckling too.
"You're really gentle, Maki-kun," Naori said warmly.
Maki paused, caught off-guard.
"Aburame Maki, your turn," called out Teacher Ogawa.
Saved.
Maki exhaled and stepped up. She picked up a kunai and threw it.
It missed entirely.
Not surprising—it was her first time throwing one.
"Zero points!"
Maki had actually been focused. She wasn't slacking off.
Under her mask, she frowned.
So close...
A bit frustrating.
"Hahahahaha!!"
When no one else in the class dared to laugh, Tsunade went all in.
Her laugh was loud, grating—like she'd been waiting for this moment.
"Serves you right!"
Maki walked back to the group without a word.
Teacher Ogawa opened his mouth to comment, hesitated, then just called the next student.
"Don't worry. Shuriken's easy—I'll teach you," Naori said, trying to cheer her up.
"No thanks," Maki growled. "I don't need shuriken skills."
To be fair, she really didn't.
They took up space. If she had to fight, her insect swarms were way more efficient.
Naori blinked, then smiled. "Kawaii~"
Under the mask, Maki rolled her eyes.
This girl definitely had a few screws loose.
__________
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