Half a month slipped by in a blink.
The water balloon in Makoto's hand had been replaced by a rubber ball. He'd officially entered the second stage of Rasengan training.
During that stretch, Yukinoshita Yukino's bid to join the Metropolitan Police Department's investigation team had gone nowhere. She didn't have the kind of pull Shinichi Kudo carried.
And while she'd insisted that Makoto could disguise himself, she had no way to prove she could actually find him.
It wasn't like she could walk up to random strangers on the street and start squeezing their faces.
The truth was, she absolutely could have tracked him down.
Yukino was a sensory-type ninja. Still rough around the edges, but if anyone nearby used a jutsu or circulated Chakra, she'd feel it. The problem was obvious: she couldn't tell Megure and the others any of that.
So they turned her away.
Undeterred, Yukino founded the Service Club at Shuchiin Academy.
Her application listed a single member, which technically didn't meet the minimum for an official club, but she'd pulled strings with their teacher Hiratsuka Shizuka to get it pushed through.
Once established, she didn't sit around in the clubroom waiting for recruits to wander in like she did in the original story. She went on the offensive, personally seeking out members.
Her targets: Ichinose Chizuru, Sawamura Eriri, and Hikigaya Hachiman.
All players who'd entered the Naruto world.
The one person she didn't approach was Akizuki Airi. There was no chance she'd agree, and every chance she'd run straight to Makoto with the information.
The Service Club's inaugural mission, as declared by its founder:
Find Makoto Nishikado. Bring him to justice.
For that, she needed the other players' strength.
"This is why I created the Service Club. As people who now possess superhuman abilities, we have a responsibility to restrain ourselves. We can't be like Makoto Nishikado, using that power to terrorize others."
Standing at the front of the clubroom, Yukino delivered her speech with absolute self-righteousness to the three recruits she'd gathered.
Hikigaya Hachiman, Sawamura Eriri, and Ichinose Chizuru exchanged uneasy glances.
A few seconds of silence. Eriri spoke first.
"You make a fair point. But I'm already in the Art Club, and I don't really want to join another one. Can I go?"
Chizuru jumped in right behind her. "I, um, I have work, so I should probably head out. Good luck, Yukinoshita."
The two of them rattled off excuses and bolted.
Yukino turned to Hachiman.
He blinked, face scrunched with discomfort. "Look... I'm just a regular student, not even Pureblood. I really don't want to make an enemy out of him."
Privately, he thought Yukino had lost her mind. She wanted to go after Makoto Nishikado? Did she genuinely believe the guy wouldn't kill her? Best to keep a safe distance from this kind of crazy.
...
Shortly after Chizuru left school, a black sedan glided to a stop beside her.
She opened the rear door without hesitation and climbed in, familiar as routine.
The car took its usual route to the Yukinoshita family's traditional estate.
Half an hour later, the rhythmic thudding began in the master bedroom, same as always.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Mrs. Yukinoshita had grown accustomed to it. On the surface, at least, she maintained perfect composure. What was going on behind those eyes was her own business.
Haruno and Mr. Yukinoshita, on the other hand, looked like they were passing kidney stones.
Over the past two weeks, they'd witnessed Makoto's training sessions more than once and had come to appreciate just how terrifying this boy was, a boy the same age as their youngest daughter.
Any thought of calling the police had been thoroughly abandoned.
But still.
Did he have to act like he owned the place?
Couldn't he at least wait until they weren't home?
Two hours passed. The noises hadn't stopped.
The patriarch cleared his throat, face burning. "He's... probably finished by now. Most likely just hitting the wall to save face at this point..."
God, please don't let them break our bed.
Mrs. Yukinoshita glanced sideways at her husband.
Not everyone is you, dear.
The patriarch felt his dignity as a man quietly crumble to dust.
Another thirty minutes before Makoto's "wall-knocking" finally ceased.
In the master bedroom, Makoto grabbed the ice-cold Monster from the nightstand and took a long swig. A lot of guys liked a cigarette afterward, but he didn't smoke. A bottle of gamer fuel did the trick just fine.
Pretty satisfying, honestly.
Glass bottle only, though. That part's non-negotiable.
Once Chizuru had recovered enough to move, he held out the bottle with one last mouthful sloshing at the bottom. "Want the rest?"
She mustered every remaining ounce of strength, reached out, and drained it.
At this point, she'd already shared everything else with him. A little backwash wasn't going to faze her.
Makoto handed over the 15,000 yen he'd already set on the desk. "Here. Three hours."
Since that first inflated payment, he'd dropped her rate back to normal. His reasoning, delivered with characteristic bluntness:
"Since you've already lost your V-card, you aren't worth that premium anymore."
When she'd first heard that, Chizuru had been furious. She'd sworn she'd never accept another booking from him.
Two days later, she was back.
She couldn't explain why, even to herself. Maybe because the feeling... wasn't something she hated.
"Mm." She took the bills quietly.
Right then, her phone chimed. A new rental request. She checked the screen.
Kinoshita Kazuya.
"Going to take it?" Makoto asked, amused, catching the name.
"Is... is that okay?" She looked at him, timid, almost asking permission.
With Makoto paying her the normal rate again, she needed more bookings to cover her grandmother's medical bills. But she was afraid he'd read something into it.
"Go for it. It's not like we're anything to each other." He smiled easily.
He knew Kazuya well enough. The guy would never actually make a move. That was the whole point of the original manga dragging on for five hundred plus chapters.
In the same amount of time, Goku went from fighting Raditz all the way to Buu.
Something about those words landed wrong. A sour ache bloomed in Chizuru's chest, sudden and unwelcome.
Then Makoto spoke again. "Oh, one more thing. Starting tomorrow, you don't need to come anymore."
Chizuru flinched. "Wh... why? Did I do something wrong?"
He stretched, arms over his head. "Nah. Just bored of it."
That was Makoto in a nutshell. This was a crossover world overflowing with women.
He wasn't about to get attached to one with a manipulative streak. Especially not one he had to pay for, even if technically it wasn't his own money.
"Hm? You're still here?"
He'd finished getting dressed and noticed Chizuru hadn't moved from the bed.
A beat of silence. Then she raised her head.
"What if..." Her voice trembled. "What if I don't want the money? Would that... be okay?"
Makoto: ???
______________________________
Every 50 Powerstones = 1 Bonus Chapter.