The dog led Kaina to a lonely, distant shrine. Kaina walked through the entrance of the spiritual grounds with the dog on her side. Their last step was up the rocky slope.
A dozen gaps ran along it. Down the rocks behind them, their view was obscured by the forest. The trees and terrain are sparsely covered with underbrush and dense undergrowth while the sky in the background was a brilliant crimson. She wasn't quite sure what to think of that.
"This is why I didn't see sunsets often. It reminds me of Gai-sensei's Genjutsu."
Suddenly, she has a feeling that she is being watched. It make her feel uneasy. Something is lurking in the forest creeping across the border, stalking the air. Probably the man-eating monster of legends. It has been there before, and it will be there again.
It was the most vicious beast ever seen in Hi no Kuni, an enormous canine who marked its own body with the blood of its victim. Kaina doubted such things existed, but then she remembered the demon wolf she met on the Dark Realm and she stopped pursuing that line of thought.
She rang the bell in front of the shrine, its sound resounded through the area. A silhouette suddenly appeared in front of Kaina. It had fair skin, blonde hair, and a human face with golden-yellow coloured eyes. It looked extremely mysterious and peculiar.
Once the flames of the stone lantern lit themselves, the existence of the silhouette slowly became clearer. It was a woman wearing a shrine kimono. There is a light in her eyes that seems to illuminate a beauty within her. She walked forward and stopped in front of her.
"Greetings, visitor. What is the purpose of your visit?"
"To return this puppy to its owner, is it yours?"
"Yes." The woman said with a disappointed sigh, as if expecting for a different answer.
"I'll be going home then. See you later, Yamanaka-san."
Before Kaina can leave, the woman grabbed her right hand, and she seemed to fall backwards a little. Kaina grasped the sleeve of the woman, waving her forward.
"Please don't go just yet. This little one has been useful to me. As thanks, we will grant you one wish as a sign of gratitude."
"I wish you good luck. Can I go home now? I have another exam tomorrow."
Fluffy-chan doesn't like this place. Or rather, the golden glowing aura thing that surrounded it, marking it as a territory of the divine. It's a shrine, after all.
"You should stay for a little bit. I don't know when we'll be able to see each other again." Said the woman in a fidgety sort of way.
"Uh, no. Thanks, I guess."
The Yamanaka woman, Uka, if Kaina remembered correctly from their first meeting just stared at her. She didn't do anything. She just stood there, looking at her. Unmoving. Her expression was like she didn't know what to do with herself.
"Yamanaka-san, may I ask if there's a problem?"
"Hm? Ah, no, it's nothing."
Maybe she is lonely? When Kaina first met the woman after the summoning incident, she was playing some kind of a game Kaina doesn't understand. All by herself. Now that she has nothing to do and no one to talk to, what's going to happen?
"Mistress, there's a letter for you."
Scratch that, those one-tailed foxes can probably hold a better conversation than their nine-tailed cousin. Or as the Aburame said, you can't have a rational conversation with an irrational person.
The shrine caretaker sneezed. She must be feeling a bit under the weather just right now.
Kaina took her leave after telling the shrine caretaker that she will be visiting again under a different circumstances. The woman nodded in response, but she still looked disappointed.
"Well, that certainly ended well," The fox commented. "After all that, I wonder what happened next."
"I can't answer that. We'll talk later, Shishi. Where is Mimi, Nana, Gogo, and Roro?"
"Gone fishing, mistress. They said they will be back when they feels like it."
There are eight million gods and demons in the Elemental Nations, and more than half of them have a contract of service with the Uzumaki Clan. Someone have to tell the current heiress how to use the little black book. The question is, who? Not Kurama, obviously.