Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. However, the OCs do belong to me.

"The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good."

New International Version, Gen. 1. 12

I swallowed my spit – it tasted like a horrid bile of acid. I squared my shoulders and hardened my eyes. I held my head high and took a calming deep breath, ignoring the churning in my stomach. I clenched my fists and brought them to my sides, my tremor barely visible. I then averted my eyes to Sasuke's still-frozen form.

"Brother–"

"Stop right there!" Sasuke snapped. "I know that look," he continued warily. "Forget whatever you're thinking of doing because you're not doing it." He grabbed me by my shoulder. "We're going home."

"You haven't even looked at it," I rebutted.

Sasuke tightened his grip, his lips pursed together. "What is it now?"

"A dead person," I stated bluntly. "And before you say it, I am not lying," I added when Sasuke was about to open his mouth and response.

Sasuke pressed his lips together as he scrutinized me for any sign of deceit. When he did not find any, his expression rapidly contorted into something in between bewilderment, disbelief and terror. The boy quickly schooled his expression when he met my concerned gaze.

"Okay. Let's just–let's just ignore it. Just close your eyes and I will hold your hand. You don't have to be afraid, we'll be home soon."

I stared blankly at the taller boy. We both knew that that last bit was not supposed to comfort me. Rather, it was the boy's attempt to comfort himself.

"I'm not," I assured him. "That's why I want to see it better." I needed to determine the cause of death and whether I had any hand in it.

Sasuke's dark orbs narrowed. "You mean you actually want to go there and take a look at the corpse?"

"Yeah."

Now the boy looked positively livid. "Are you crazy?! No, forget that–you are crazy!"

"Yes, yes, you've made your point clear. Look, I'm not forcing you to stay. Just go home if you want to, but don't turn around," I instructed as I ducked under the boy's arm and ran to the direction of the tree.

"Brat! Come back here you r–"

I heard Sasuke falter in his steps before he heaved his stomach content into the undergrowth. I glanced back, feeling my headache building. "You're okay there?"

Sasuke wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt and glared at his brother's dispassionate expression. He inwardly wondered how the boy saw the world. Did he understand right from wrong? Did he understand sadness and happiness? Did he understand fear? Did he understand the concept of life and death? Did he understand the social norm, that some things were simply unacceptable and should not be done?

Then again, it had only been a little more than six months since his first birthday. He might have grasped language at an abnormally fast rate – granted, his pronunciations sounded weird, as if influenced by weird accent; and more often than not, he would mix his sentences with foreign words which were not exactly baby babble or mispronounced words of the common tongue – but that did not mean that he actually understood what those words meant, just like how he did not understand the gravity of the sight and situation before him.

There was a bloody and mauled human being hanging on that tree! Not only that, the corpse also still looked fresh, which meant his murderer could still be lurking around, which meant they could be his or her next target. They needed to escape ASAP instead of dilly-dallying like a fool.

"I'm fine," Sasuke growled. His ninja training quickly overrode his shock and disgust. His hand slid into his kunai pouch, his eyes were trained into his surroundings for any sign of threat. "We have to go. This place is unsafe. The killer could still be here," he warned.

Sasuke averted his eyes to his baby brother again. He cursed under his breath when he saw the boy standing only a few feet away from the tree. "Where do you think you're going?! You can contaminate the crime scene!"

The boy waved him off.

Sasuke gaped, honestly surprised by his baby brother's audacity. He inwardly wondered if the boy was the result of karma from all of those times when he bothered their oldest brother whenever the preteen was about to go on his mission.

I ignored the fuming boy. Instead, I warily observed the sight before me, my eyes embedding the grotesque images forever into my brain.

My lips curled into a grim line. I, for the life of me, still could not make some sense of the sight before me. It should have been impossible. However, for some reason, what I was seeing now just felt… right. Like a piece of puzzle, it simply clicked.

Previously I had thought that the man was murdered by the same vigilante that had healed me (the sounds that I heard and the wounds in my palm would be left unexplained, but it was the most logical conclusion that I could reach). However, now I was not sure if said vigilante even existed.

I saw it all now. I finally understood.

Everything that happened to the man was because of the tree.

From afar, it appeared to be an ordinary tree, indistinguishable from the various species that dot the landscape. Outwardly, it looked just like any other ordinary trees. It took an observant eye to notice the slightly more fearsome features of its branches, or the piles of human bones buried in between its giant roots, almost wholly submerged into the shallow crater. Once one saw through the illusion, it looked absolutely demonic. The evergreen leaves were replaced with crimson ones, as if they were dipped in fresh bloods. Its trunk, used to be light brown now turned dark, so dark it was almost black. On it protruded the tips of ribs and skulls from humans it had consumed. Their faces appeared as knots in its bark – their expression horrified, their silent screams unheard.

I could just imagine it as it waited for unsuspecting humans to pass underneath its branches. When somebody got close enough, it would attack, snatching its prey up with its long, jagged, finger-like branches, and hoisting them, up into its bough. Those branches would pierce the skin of their victims, sucking out all the blood with tube-like twigs. After the body was drained of everything it could take, the rest would be consumed by birds, insects, and other animals, until only dry bones fell back to earth. By the time most people were close enough to notice the heaps of bleached bones at the base of the tree, it was already too late to escape.

The only reason why I was still alive was because it already caught someone else to be its prey. Somebody had lost his life to satisfy its hunger. A man whom I didn't even know, whose life was so easily discarded like it did not mean a thing, like he was nothing.

But still, unanswered questions continued to ring in my head. What had happened earlier? The sounds I heard and the sensations I felt were simply unnatural. They were too vivid, too real, as if I myself was the one that tortured and killed the man. Was the tree some sort of vengeful spirit? Punishing people who had done what it constituted as evil deeds, or perhaps randomly fulfilling wishes for vengeance. Because although I did wish for him to die in my anger, I did not actually mean it, nor did I want him to suffer from such torment.

Or did I?

Because as much as I thought the sight before me was despicable, I could not deny that I felt relieved by the man's death. I reasoned that it was because he could no longer hurt anyone again in his violent psychotic episode; and that he did not have to suffer from loss anymore, thus he could finally be at peace. However, more than anything, the way he died really piqued my curiosity.

What lured him into the forest, or rather, how it lured him? How did the tree digest the blood? Did it gain any nutrient or did it simply eat chakra? There were so many things that puzzled me and I wanted to understand. If I were given a choice to redo everything again, I did not think that I would warn the man or even try to prevent his death. I would let things happen the way they were. I would have watched even, just so that I could understand the mechanism. That way his life would have had some meaning, giving a contribution towards science instead of just another fodder who was waiting for his ticking number to reach its end.

In a way the man had already died the very moment he lost his family. It was all reflected on his eyes. Beneath all of his hatred and anger, laid a bottomless pit of anguish, grief, and loneliness. The tragedy that took his wife and son had thoroughly damaged him. He was alive, but he did not really live. He was like a mannequin, human on the outside, but soulless on the inside.

Even watching him now, I felt… nothing. I simply stared at him – or rather, the tree and him – with the same clinical detachment that I might have had when working on my experiments and research. My eyes picked the way its branches leeched the remaining blood from the man's wound, inwardly noting that it would be more efficient if the tree simply sucked the blood out of him until the man died from blood loss, instead of killing him and then drained him, because after death the blood would coagulate and pool at his lower legs and feet as well as lower arms and hands.

The position of the branches did suggest that it was draining the man's blood, which brought forth the question of why it killed him before it had even done consuming him. There was a ligature mark – which suggested death by hanging; which also suggested that I was not hallucinating, which was relieving to know since all symptoms for the past months had indicated that I was suffering from schizophrenia – but there was no rope present.

I wondered if I really was the one who had somehow ended the man's life by releasing the 'rope', or if I was having some sort of mental connection with the hematophagy plant for some reason.

Something was missing, a red thread that was supposed to connect all the clues and the pieces of puzzle that I had gathered. I refused to believe that this was some kind of magic or supernatural hullabaloo. Everything had an explanation, even in this strange world that pretty much ruined my definition of reality. I simply had not found it, yet.

I looked up when a hand touched my shoulder.

"We really need to go now," Sasuke said. His eyes darted left and right, anywhere but meeting mine.

"Yeah." I needed to do a little experiment first, though.

I lifted my bleeding hand and held it upward – like an offering – towards the nearest tree branch, showing the jagged skin of my right palm. A big red perpendicular mark ran from the flesh on top of my hamate bone into the middle of my forefinger.

"What are you doing?!" Sasuke fidgeted impatiently.

"Making a friend."

I ignored Sasuke's 'you're crazy' look and decided to focus on the task at hand of observing every twitch of movement the tree made. At first there was no reaction, but slowly and steadily, I saw the finger-like branch inched closer.

Come on, come here.

As if hearing my thought, one of its 'fingers' suddenly lengthened and moved in a wide arc towards me.

Sasuke jerked both of us backward in reflex. He dragged me to stand behind him, his posture defensive. "Stay back!"

The tree did not make any move except snapping a part of its lengthened branch and dropped it in front of Sasuke. The boy eyed it warily.

I tugged the boy's shirt. "I think it wants us to take it."

"Obviously," he mocked. "But what if it's poisonous, or causing rash, or worse – instant death?!"

"We won't know unless we take a look."

"How about you stop being stubborn, and we go home instead?" Sasuke hissed through gritted teeth.

"Why? Are you scared? It's just a twig, you know," I taunted.

If there was one thing that could make Sasuke do anything, it was his inferiority complex.

"You know what? Fine!" Sasuke lashed out. The boy kicked the branch in my direction. "Do whatever you want! I'm done with you! You can find your own way home – that is if the tree doesn't eat you first!"

"Be careful nii-san!" I bellowed with a big wave, prompting an infuriated shriek to escape the boy's throat. I couldn't suppress a laughter at the sight.

My expression sobered once the boy disappeared behind the tree lines, turning to its usual dull one again. I closed my eyes and waited until the boy was no longer within my sensing range before I turned to face the tree again. I could act more freely now that the boy was no longer here.

I squatted down and scrutinized the branch. It leaked deep crimson sap that looked alarmingly like human blood. Considering its diet, it would not be too far-fetched to presume it as one. But no, the substance didn't smell like blood – it had no smell, and it was too mucilaginous to be one – it looked more like red-currant jelly. I suspected it to have a similar property with kino – a natural gum with similar color that was produced by various plants and trees, particularly Eucalyptus, in reaction to mechanical damage – what with the way it crystallized around the branch's edges to seal its 'wound'. If it were indeed kino, then the sap should not be dangerous, since it was frequently used in traditional medicine. However, appearance could be deceiving. For all I know, the sap – and the branch – was just as toxic as that of a manchineel tree, and this was just one of the tree's ploys to eat me.

So why did it throw the branch? Was it some sort of friendly gesture to lure me? Was it, perhaps, trying to reverse psychology me? Because if it did, then the tree just opened up a whole new can of possibility of plants' consciousness.

I heaved a sigh and raked my fingers through my hair. I leaned my chin on my good fist and stared at the giant tree again, this time without my sharingan on.

"Just what are you?" I wondered out loud. "Are you a plant, honest to God, a plant with a plant's instinct and intelligence, or perhaps a plant with an advanced mind? Do you have a conscience? Can you self-reflect? Do you choose what you eat, or do you simply eat anyone that passed by?"

"I won't judge you for your diet, you know. I know that food often becomes scarce and that humans can be quite a pain – especially with all of those illegal logging – and I know you're angry, but you cannot just eat anyone. People eventually will notice the disappearances," My eyes flickered to the corpse hanging by the tree. "Well maybe not him. But if things continue like this, sooner or later somebody will notice the pattern, and when that happens, your safety will be compromised."

"These people are terrifying – definitely not the kind of people that you want to mess with. They can sprout fire from their mouths, they can move real fast, they can destroy landscape within seconds, heck they can even revive the deaths. They can kill you with a snap of their fingers, but just like me, you only want to live, don't you? I don't think you ever ask to be born as a vampire tree, just like I never ask to be born again – not here, at least."

If the tree agreed with me, it did not give any indication of it. But still, it felt quite nice to have a companion that I could share my thoughts with without keeping the baby façade up.

My eyes unwillingly strayed into the hanging man's unmoving body, showing neither disdain nor pity.

"You know, when you're dead, you see nothing, hear nothing. You smell nothing, taste nothing, and feel absolutely nothing. The life you've built for decades, all the hardship that you've gone through; all of your dreams, your visions; everything that makes you, you, are gone that very second your brain is dead. The next thing you know you are already six feet under, decomposing, and in your way on becoming the next plant nutrients, so I never understand how someone can take life like it means nothing."

I knew how hypocritical I had sounded, especially since I was the main suspect of the man's murder and I could not even show a shred of remorse towards what I had supposedly done.

"I don't take kindly to being assaulted, sir. I deserve to live just as much as you. Just because your life is miserable doesn't mean that you have the right to make others' too. Everyone suffers, one way or another. So if it turns out that I somehow have any hand in your demise, I apologize, but you should know that you brought it upon yourself."

I looked down into the ground and deeply bowed my head as a sign of condolence.

"Wherever you are right now, I sincerely hope that you're in a happy place, that you're reunited with your loved ones. Everything that has happened is now in the past, and I..." I felt the words died in my mouth.

"I…." I forgive you.

The mere thought of saying them out loud felt uncomfortable. It felt pretentious – fake. I never said something that I did not mean before, and I did not want to start now.

Releasing a breath, I simply clamped my mouth shut and finished my rant with a cross sign.

"I'm sorry. May you rest in peace."

I closed my eyes and inhaled the fresh air, now feeling much better – so much lighter – after my heart-to-heart with a tree and a corpse. If that was not a testament of how pathetic my social life was – and my growing insanity – I did not know what was.

Oh well, get on with the business.

I activated my sharingan and averted my eyes to the branch that the tree had given me. It was still in the same position, thus it was probably unable to move independently once separated from the rest of its 'body'. The chakra within the branch was not diminishing, it… grew in quantity actually – talking about greedy – as it drew energy from nature. Aside from that, my eyes did not pick up anything unusual. (Oh how I longed to be able to see on a cellular level like Sasuke's future eyes did, that way I wouldn't have to bring a microscope everywhere.)

I attentively touched the branch with my little finger, then moved to touch the sap, feeling encouraged when contact with the bark produced no harmful reaction whatsoever. As I suspected, the sap was similar to kino, but not quite. The crystallized sap was hard and durable – unlike kino, whose crystallization time could take hours and still produced a brittle sap, which could easily be rubbed into powder with fingers. So far was fine, the crystallized sap did me no harm. But what about the fresh liquid sap? Was it as safe as its solid counterpart?

I know I should not even be thinking about experimenting with a potentially dangerous chemical. However, the more I tried to convince myself that I was being reckless and compromising my own well-being, the more tempted I was to snap the damn branch and watched as the blood-red sap leaked into the ground.

Before I knew it, I already clamped the thin branch beneath my right armpit whilst my left hand tried to snap the surprisingly sturdy wood. It took more force than I expected, but it eventually worked. However, the crimson sap leaked faster than I expected. Some of it even dripped into the grazes in my palm. I felt alarmed at first, but it quickly turned into amazement as I watched the sap evaporate upon contact with the wounds, leaving an unblemished skin in its wake.

Good God...

I immediately peeled the Band-Aid from my knee, activated my sharingan, and attentively dripped the excess sap from my palm into the wound.

The result was immediate. I giddily watched with perfect clarity as new granular skin tissues generated at the edges of the wound and worked their way towards the center at an astounding rate until they had covered the entirety of the lesion before they differentiated into corneocytes and returned into a normal and healthy skin. It was amazing how all of that process happened in less than five seconds, leaving not even a single scar tissue. It was literally cell regeneration on steroids.

Once my knee was completely healed, I continued to do the same thing with my right hand. Like the others, the wounds in my hand healed completely, although there were faint red lines in few places that suffered from the worst damage, barely noticeable once I deactivated my sharingan. They should naturally disappear on their own.

I exhaled a breath and closed my eyes, feeling the familiar dull, aching sensation behind my eyes after prolonged use of sharingan – and what I meant by prolonged barely scratched fifteen minutes mark, nothing in comparison with my fellow sharingan user that could activate them for hours and still did not break any sweat, which if I ignored the age and chakra reserve factors was just plain pathetic.

I twirled the tree stem on my hand, watching as the sap crystallized at the fracture points. Technically I could plant this at home – because there was no way that Fugaku would let me out again once he saw how disastrous a simple trip to the park could be – its sap would be very useful for future use. Its appearance was fairly average, nothing in comparison with the beautiful plants that Mikoto kept in her garden, thus no one should really notice it. However, there were the matters of how to feed it and how to keep it hidden in plain sight. If I could see its real appearance, then so did half of the village, especially once it started to grow, and God forbid, eat random passerby.

I made up my mind not a second later by rising up to my feet and shoved the stem into my pocket. I inwardly shook my head at my own behavior, the things I do for science.

My eyes fell at the tree again, for some reason I could not suppress my smile. Never in a million years would I ever think that I would meet such a morbidly fascinating specimen. However, as much as I liked to stay here for a few more hours, I really needed to go home. The longer I stayed here, the further my distance from Sasuke would be, and with my awful navigation skill and limited sensing range, it would be in my best interest to follow Sasuke before the boy completely disappeared from my radar.

"So… I will return home now," I announced. I did not know why. "It's a... pleasure, to meet you. Thank you for the sap, I've healed well. I hope this," I gestured to my pocket, "can grow well too."

I fidgeted under the silence that greeted me. The sounds of birds' chirping in the background did not make it any less awkward. It was only now that I finally registered just how demented I must have looked.

"Anyway, once again…" I glanced upwards, towards the thick branches and the copious amount of lush leaves that decorated the tree – searching for something, anything, that could make me stay a bit longer.

I did not find any.

All right. "Thank you for everything. Good luck, and… goodbye."

I gave the tree a big wave and jogged into Sasuke's direction, following the blue ball of energy that I saw in my head. The thought of being lost and unable to eat spurred me to run even faster.

Halfway into my journey, just as I was getting closer into Sasuke, something unexpected happened.

The tree answered.

Just as I no longer cared about its consciousness, just as I pushed the thought about the blood-eating tree into the back of my mind, the goddamn tree finally answered.

"You're welcome, Meister," it said.

I could not help it,

I laughed.

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