There was a sort of division within Jizouko's mind. One side she knew, or at least she thought she did; it was everything that she had ever thought she'd been: a kuniochi, friend, and orphan.
The other side was more difficult to categorize. It took up only a small corner of her mind, yet it occupied all of her thoughts recently. Vague, shadowy memories that would rise to the surface when she lease suspected it. Most of them were sounds, snippets of conversations she had once heard… possibly, it was so hard to tell. The few images that accompanied the sounds were mostly of landscape, tall, verdant trees and towering peaks; much like the mountains she was currently residing in.
"Ji-chan!" a woman's voice broke her from her thoughts.
Jizouko sighed as she stood up from the boulder she had been sitting on, popping a few of her joints along the way.
"Come on, it's not safe to be out this late," the woman said as she looked around apprehensively.
Instead of following the woman's request she ventured further into the forest in the hopes that the woman would give up and leave her alone. That was another thing that had been bothering Jizouko lately, the woman. It felt wrong to call her by her name, because by most people's counts Ureshi Tomoe was long dead. There had even been a funeral.
"Ji-chan!" the woman's voice faded the further she passed into the trees.
She was surprised that the woman was still trying to talk to her; most people would have given up after almost a month of one-sided conversations.
She didn't bother to look around at the ancient trees reaching up into the dusk sky; they all looked exactly the same to her. She had spent most of her time wandering around the mountain side searching for the answers that the note had promised, but so far she had no luck in that area. A soft creaking sound caused her to look around at her surroundings and she found herself in a large clearing. The clearing itself wasn't unusual, the mountain side was littered with them, but rather it was the old, charred structure residing in it that caught her attention. It seemed almost familiar, and as she drew closer to it the small corner of her mind stirred.
"Jizouko-chan?" she nearly jumped at the sound of Isamu's voice nearby. "What're you doing out here?"
She turned towards him and thought for a moment before she shrugged her shoulders, answering simply, "I don't know."
"It's not a good idea to be wandering out here alone," he said with a frown as he walked closer to her.
"But you do it all the time," she protested.
"That's because I know these hills and they know me," he explained as he placed a strong hand on her shoulder and began to steer her away from the burnt remains. "I've been here for a long time and I'll be here for even longer to come."
"Then you must know what this was," she mused as her eyes were drawn back to the crumbled, blackened walls.
"Yes," he nodded as he continued to walk away with Jizouko.
"Well?" she pressed as her gaze shifted to Isamu. "What was it?"
"It was a home," he said after a long pause.
"What happened to it? Who lived in it?"
"My brother and his family used to live there, but a storm came before it was finished and wiped them all out except for one."
"Your niece," Jizouko concluded. "What happened to her?"
"I don't know," Isamu shook his head, "I haven't seen her since then; she's probably dead…"
Her mouth opened into a small "o" shape at this.
"But enough about that," he decided to change the subject, "what about you? Why did you leave your village?"
"I don't know," she sighed as she hung her head, "I thought I would find answers, but all I've got is more questions!"
"Maybe I can help," he offered, "what questions do you have?"
Who were my real parents, why did they leave me, what's my real name, what's the deal with the Makaze… she trailed off in her mind.
"Where am I really from?" she decided on one that had always bugged her.
"Why would you ask that?" he asked as he thought about her question. "Haven't you always called Konoha your home?"
"Not always," she shook her head "no" as she focused on the mossy ground, "I was found just wandering around ten years ago and they took me in. It only started to feel like a home a few years ago."
"Hmm," Isamu hummed as he mulled over this information. "If I didn't know better I'd say you were from here," he said finally, "That would explain why you could get so far up the mountain…"
"What do you mean?" She hadn't gone that far, had she?
"Where I make my home is the farthest that most people can make it in the foothills, my brother's is much higher up," he explained when he noticed her confused expression. "A part from me the only other person who would be able to make it that far would be his daughter, but we've already established that you're not her."
I wouldn't be too sure about that, she thought dryly.
"Why is that?" she asked curiously.
"I'm not sure myself," he admitted, "supposedly there's a guardian spirit that doesn't really like people, but I've never seen him before…"
"Maybe I should ask him," she thought aloud, "he would definitely know if I'm from here or not."
"That would be a very long climb," Isamu cautioned, "he lives in the caves near the peak."
"Better than sitting around wondering all day," Jizouko countered as a plan began to form in her mind. If she was lucky the spirit would know the answer and she could move on with her life sooner.