"Morning, Anego.."

"Morning, Kirika," Mitsuki replied in return without removing her sight from the map in front of her. The map was full of markings that Mitsuki and Kirika had scribbled on the previous search attempts.

Previous day's search turned out to be unsuccessful as well, and Mitsuki's time is slowly running out. At the very least, she wanted to help Kirika finish the search before her weekly meeting time.

"Sorry to trouble you like this, Anego.." said Kirika with heavy expression on her face. She and Mitsuki had been running around a lot the previous day to no avail. In addition, Kirika hadn't been of much help in terms of their defence and party's safety, as well as food procuring. The mission was hers, but she felt like she was the dead weight of the team.

"After all that effort.. it was for nothing.." she said in a dejected tone. Hearing it, Mitsuki let out a faint smile and replied calmly, as if unbothered by the turn of events.

"It's not for nothing, come here," she said towards Kirika, urging her to come closer. As soon as Kirika squatted beside her, Mitsuki pointed on several marking of the map that she had just crossed off.

"I know it seemed like we didn't cover much area required yesterday, but in the first place, it's not necessary for us to cover the entire area, look here."

Hearing Mitsuki's word, Kirika took a closer look towards the map. Among the marks, Mitsuki had added several more additional crosses even on the places that they hadn't covered the previous day. Wondering if it was a mistake, Kirika brought up her concern.

"How come these areas are marked? We haven't checked it yet, haven't we?"

Instead of directly responding, Mitsuki answered her with another question. "You see, have you given a thought on how floras and faunas are usually distributed across the land?" Confused, Kirika shook her head as a response, which prompted Mitsuki to continue.

"Climate, natural barrier, habitat type.. Considering those, we can roughly assume that interconnected area in close proximity, without many differences in their climate condition or elevation tend to have similar range of flora and fauna," Mitsuki explained briefly, before summarizing it for Kirika. "Therefore, we can cross such identical area out, leaving only a few areas left for us to check. Considering the distance and the width of each area, hopefully we can cover them all by today."

Mitsuki's word brought up hope within Kirika. After all, she had begun to feel that her mission was a hopeless one. She could have continued searching even after her benefactor left her, but she wasn't sure of how far she could go on her own, especially if their search that day had also proved to be unsuccessful.

"Really.. thank you for this, Anego.." said Kirika with seriousness in her tone as she started to tear up once more. Seeing her genuine display of gratitude, Mitsuki smiled playfully while giving Kirika an excuse of her own.

"Heh, I'll be taking my share as well anyway. Besides, I think there are a lot of things I'd like to ask you about today, married woman as you are. So, when you are ready, let's depart and we can chat on the way!"

Hearing Mitsuki's request, Kirika chuckled in both curiosity and confusion over what question would the lady had in her mind. With that in mind, Kirika gave Mitsuki her reply, "Sure, I'll be happy to answer! Anything to repay you for your help!"

During the few early hours of their continuous search, Mitsuki had been talking more and more to Kirika. Her reservation had been thrown out of the window, especially when she talked about this "friend" of hers.

"What is it like liking someone romantically?"

"How do you know your husband is the special one?"

"What is it about love and lust? Are they different or connected to each other? My friend say.."

"Er…" Kirika was overwhelmed by Mitsuki's sudden barrage of questions and the topic that she chose. It somehow felt odd for her that in some moment, the lady in front of her could seem very mature and dependable, yet in another she seemed like a pure-hearted young maiden with childlike curiosity. The jarring difference was so much, more so when compared to how she behaved during their first meeting. Hence, she had begun to wonder what had caused her to act so coldly in the beginning of their partnership.

Before Kirika put more thought into it, in the middle of sandy crater, Kirika saw a blot of bright red.

"!? Could it be?" she exclaimed immediately as she dashed quickly towards the field of red. As Mitsuki saw her destination, Mitsuki quickly commanded her vines to wrap around Kirika and stop her.

"!? Anego, why!?" Kirika was caught off-guard by Mitsuki's intervention, as she couldn't make sense of why she would interfere with her movement.

"Sssh.. Tone down your voice. Something is under the field," Mitsuki whispered.

Indeed, under the field of red, Mitsuki saw a massive soul with massive amount of chakra. It was nowhere near the Konoha Jinchuuriki that she saw, but it was more than most human that she had met.

"I wonder what is that… hmm…" she thought to herself with a frown, while scouring her brain for any possible information, before deciding her course of action.

"Ugh, I guess it can't be helped. Kirika, are you confident of your physical strength?" said Mitsuki as she pulled out the base of her vine that she had commanded to stop Kirika's movement and tied it around her waist.

"Uh.. decent, I think.. why?" said Kirika in confusion as Mitsuki loosened the vines that had wrapped itself around her.

"I'll go check it out. If anything happened to me, or you think I'm in danger of being disabled or captured by the enemy, pull me away using these vines," said Mitsuki briefly as she reinforced the extended vines by braiding it with a few other ones together with the one that she had already attached to herself. Hearing Mitsuki's proposal, being the one with lower combat proficiency, Kirika could only accept the change of plan and role begrudgingly.

"U.. understood.. please take care," she said with slight guilt and hesitation in her tone, knowing that she would be putting Mitsuki closer to the danger because of that.

"Pass me the picture of the herb again?" demanded Mitsuki, which Kirika then obeyed without question. Upon receiving the scroll containing the picture and the details of the herb which had been thrown towards her by the kunoichi, Mitsuki continued forward towards the red colored field.

"Then, I'll go ahead," said Mitsuki as she began her steady but quiet step towards their point of interest. Step by small step, eventually, she reached the field of red without any hitch or disturbance. Wondering why there was no reaction from what lied under the sand, Mitsuki continued to proceed with caution as she kneeled beside the field to examine the herb closer.

"It seems to be the correct one.. How curious.." thought Mitsuki, as she sent a ripple of her detailed perception towards the sand, just like when she used her energy to examine Itachi's body condition.

1 metre, 2 metre, 3… Mitsuki formed herself a mental image of what lied under the sand, and its connection to the Dragonbloom. After a quick analysis, based on her finding and the knowledge that she had assembled, Mitsuki could finally identify the source of the chakra and its identity. Meanwhile, Kirika nervously watched Mitsuki as she grasped one of the blooms, lightly smiling. She wanted to ask her about what was going on, but she was too afraid to raise her voice as Mitsuki had stopped her from doing so previously.

Curious, Mitsuki extended her hand towards the Dragonbloom that had seemed to be nearing the end of its reproductive cycle, its stalk decorated by tiny fruits, likely filled with the plant's seeds. Gently, Mitsuki picked off a few of the fruits into her own palm, followed by sending her energy towards one of them, forcing its accelerated growth. However, what sprouted from the picked up seed was not a red bloom, but a white one.. Seeing the anomaly, the discovery sent Mitsuki into a realization.

"I forgot that there's one more thing that affect a flower's color," she thought, as Mitsuki felt like laughing at herself for forgetting about what she had previously learned. "Well that complicates thing then.." she thought to herself, as the nature of their situation had become clearer. Besides, for a short while then, after extending her perception, she had been noticing that some presences were tailing her and Kirika. She couldn't be sure of the pursuer's true objective, whether they were after Kirika, or after her, considering she had contact with Akatsuki and the three genins whose corpse should have been found by then. Considering so, Mitsuki decided, that whatever decision she was going to take, she had to be extra careful about it as to not spell her doom.

"I guess, let's just wait and see," Mitsuki muttered as she extended her hand towards the patch of herbs carefully. Slowly, Mitsuki tried to uproot the herbs from their "soil" gently, with the help of her power to ease the process up.

Suddenly, Mitsuki noticed a slight disturbance in the wind, and so, she quickly pulled out her fan to deflect whatever was coming towards her then.

"Who?" Mitsuki asked calmly, as soon as she deflected the two incoming kunai in ease.

Unbothered, the perpetrator showed himself, and yelled. "We shall be taking those plants," said a male voice, who popped his head out of the crater's edge with confidence. Upon checking unto the source of the voice, Mitsuki and Kirika saw two men. One was clearly a shinobi while the other was one ordinary looking civilian in his mid-50s.

"AH! Anego, that merchant was one of the people I asked in town!" Kirika shouted towards Mitsuki as she identified the older man as someone whom she had come into contact before, prompting her benefactor to bring her finger closer to her lips once more, indicating that Kirika should tone her voice down, still.

"There are plenty of the blooms here, how about you let her take what she need and let me take another? There's even enough for us 4 to leave some of them be so they can regrow," said Mitsuki in bargain. "I've never intended to take all of them for ourselves anyway," Mitsuki remarked calmly, unmoving, as if not threatened by the shinobi's attack in the very least. Hearing Mitsuki's proposal, the shinobi scoffed and shouted in response.

"You fool, don't you know how much is the plant priced for? Ain't no way I'm sharing it or letting it lay around just like that!"

"You are the bigger fool. What if it doesn't grow back since we took all of them out? You'll let them extinct for your own fast gain?" Mitsuki remarked with a frown on her forehead.

"Doesn't matter. With the money I'd earn from these, I'll live comfortably until the end of my life and still have some left for my offspring!"

Hearing his reply, and peeking into his and the merchant's soul, Mitsuki put on a tired face and sighed deeply. "Greedy humans," she muttered. Mitsuki had always hated humans with personality like such, since the beginning of her time as Mitsuki, and even surprisingly during her time as Inaba herself. He had seen people with such soul hurting other people countless of times for their own gain, related and unrelated, even people who they said they loved, or loved them dearly. Those people were truly the manifestation of the worst nature of humanity that Oyamatsumi hated, and there were little to no salvation to their nature. Unsure of what action was best for her to do, Mitsuki asked Kirika for her opinion discreetly by turning her gaze towards her. As Kirika and Mitsuki's gazes met, the male shinobi quickly formed seals with his hand, ready to take the offensive.

"Kirika, disable his defense, I will handle the finishing blow," Mitsuki commanded.

"See if you can," said the male shinobi as he casted his jutsu, spitting some liquid looking thing from his mouth towards Mitsuki and Kirika at the same time

"Anego, careful!" Kirika shouted as she evaded some of the projectiles that were aimed at him. Mitsuki on the other hand, without moving from her position, touched the sand with her fan and sent some blob of sand towards the incoming projectiles, neutralizing its trajectory. However, upon contact, the liquid projectile splashed and spread around its point of contact, creating sizzles as it touched the sand.

"Acid, huh…" Mitsuki thought to herself, before complaining towards the aggressor. "Hey, you said the herb is very valuable, do you not mind damaging them?"

"That's why you should move away from there, woman," said the shinobi as he transitioned into a dash, directly rushing towards where Mitsuki was standing. Seeing his approach, Mitsuki sighed in disappointment as she stood up to finally take a stand. Then, lightly stomping unto the sand, Mitsuki sent a ripple of tremor towards the ground with her power to affect the land, and triggered a small earthquake, scaring both Kirika and the aggressors alike.

"Anego, what did you do!?" Kirika shouted in panic as the tremor continued relentlessly, not showing any sign of stopping just yet.

"Nothing much. I am just waking up the guardian," said Mitsuki calmly as the red field beside her had begun to rise up.

It was a gamble, Mitsuki thought to herself. She was not sure if her gift from Oyamatsumi would enable her to communicate with what was laid under the sand. If communication was not possible, then likely, by waking him up, Mitsuki and Kirika would eventually have to deal with the 'guardian' as well.

"What the!?" The male shinobi yelled in surprise as he saw a giant ball rose from within the sand and jumped up to the sky, while Mitsuki responded with a smile.

"If you'd be willing to harm the plants for the sake of monopolizing it, I'd be willing to wake him up to protect them," said Mitsuki with mischievous tone in her voice as she too, jumped away from the rising sand.

"! You crazy woman!" the shinobi yelled as he began to turn away, backing out from the crater's land.

"How rude, I feel that you are the crazier one, willing to let this rare plant go extinct for your greed," said Mitsuki non-chalantly while maintaining her distance from the giant that had revealed itself completely by then. With red fur, long snout, and red leather armoured back, the creature unfurled itself on the air, unravelling its ball like form.

"!? Is that.. a giant armadillo?" Kirika shouted in surprise as Mitsuki landed beside her.

"Hehe, surprised, aren't you? I was surprised too. Now it makes sense why it was so hard to get, it ended up being thought as a legend. It didn't seem particularly hard to pinpoint after all. End up, it is because its habitat is so special!" said Mitsuki excitedly. Indeed, she had even tested growing the seed independently from the place where it grew, but alas it didn't seem to carry the same property over when she did. It was very likely that its medicinal property, along with its bright red color was the product of its symbiosis with the host.

"This world is so fascinating indeed," Mitsuki grinned with excitement. Frankly, it was what she had expected to find during her journey with Itachi and Kisame when she decided to tag along with them. Even with her memory as Inaba, the creature still came to her as a surprise. After all, it was likely that the creature's special growth and existence was something special that was related to its development of chakra.

"Damn it, retreat! Go deal with it yourself, you crazy bitch!" said the male shinobi as he dragged away his merchant partner out of the crater as the armadillo roared.

"I.. I didn't know armadillo can roar!? Should we run, Anego!?" Kirika said in panic. Seeing her reaction, Mitsuki just smiled cryptically as she monitored the shinobi and the merchant's movement with her perception. As soon as she sensed them to be far enough, Mitsuki approached the cranky, wary giant armadillo that had prepared itself for an attack.

"I'm in high spirits today, you know. After all, my partner trusted me to be able to find a solution that he couldn't," Mitsuki remarked, out of context, as she calmly walked on while opening her fan. Wary of her approach, the armadillo spun to whip Mitsuki away from him with his long, red tail. Swiftly, Mitsuki jumped lightly to avoid the tail's attack, her reflexes training with Itachi paying off. During her jump, Mitsuki waved her fan as she spun, sending wind all across the crater, bringing the sand nearer to the edge of the crater flying up in a tornado like motion, before she landed softly in front of the armadillo who was then readying its claws for attack.

"Anego!? What's happening, are you ok?" Kirika shouted from near the edge of the crater, blinded by the sudden sandstorm. After making sure Kirika was unable to take action, and her vision obscured by the sandstorm, Mitsuki replied briefly as she let a bit of her divinity leak. "I'm fine, don't worry I'll deal with it just fine!" she said towards Kirika as she extended her hand towards the armadillo which had then stopped its attack attempt in the air.

The armadillo hesitated. Even if he didn't understand why, he felt like the person in front of him was not someone he should harm.

"Hmm.. seems like I can't communicate with it," Mitsuki thought, realising the limitation of her 'gift' from Oyamatsumi as she failed to convey her thoughts toward the armadillo. Nevertheless, the armadillo seemed to have stopped the attack all together, so it was still a favourable situation for her. In an attempt to show her sincerity and non-hostility, Mitsuki halted her arm during her reach, palms up, as if offering something. Curious, the armadillo lowered its snout to sniff Mitsuki's palm, which then gently touched the giant's snout, giving him a gentle pat, as if saying that she meant him no harm. With her other hand which was holding the fan, Mitsuki put back the fan in between her obi while digging in her seed pouch for some fruit seed there to grow and offer the armadillo, all the while maintaining the sandstorm.

"Good boy," muttered Mitsuki with a smile, "How long have you lived I wonder. Do you have family? Are you all alone too?" she added, as the armadillo accepted Mitsuki's offering of "hand-grown" fruit that she had placed on the ground.

"This won't hurt, just give me a minute, OK?" Mitsuki mumbled as she climbed the giant's claw, and headed towards its back, even realising that the armadillo couldn't possibly understood her words. She had somehow wished that she could convey her intention and calm to the Armadillo either way with her tone and Kotodama*. Upon reaching its back, Mitsuki gently continued her effort, with the help of her control, gently, Mitsuki uprooted a few of the Dragonblooms. She took some for her, some for Kirika, and also a few seeds for her to experiment on if she could somehow replicate its property even without the armadillo as a host.

"This should be enough.. I should leave the rest intact for preservation," thought Mitsuki to herself as she jumped downwards nearby the giant's head not too long after completing her goal. By then, the giant was still busy chomping on the vines, picking of the berries from its vines gently with effort, separating and eating the berries alone. Watching the armadillo, Mitsuki smiled as she grew the vines further, producing more of the fruit, before cutting the berries off the vines to make it easier for the armadillo to eat.

"What a picky eater," she chuckled as she pat the furry part of the armadillo's snout gently, her expression somehow reflecting guilt and sadness. "Sorry to make use of you and bothered your sleep. I hope no one will attempt to harm you after this.." Mitsuki whispered. Indeed, she was worried that the guy will come with reinforcement in order to pacify the beast once she left. "I know you don't understand my words, but.. I hope you'll leave this place and find another place to sleep.. OH!?"

Suddenly Mitsuki got herself an idea. With a wave of her hand, she stopped the sandstorm, freeing Kirika from it as she approached her.

"Kirika, here's your share, you should quickly take it to the port and depart," Mitsuki quickly told Kirika as she passed some of the Dragonbloom to her, confusing her on how easy it was for her benefactor to procure the herb. And with that, Mitsuki ran back towards the armadillo while brewing a sandstorm around her, hiding herself from the view later.

"Stay safe. I got something I'd like to do first. If I finish early, I'll catch up with you later!" Mitsuki shouted through the wind, her words reaching Kirika who then quickly bowed to state her gratitude towards Mitsuki.

Author's note:

Armadillos are cute, aren't they :3? burying themselves in the sand heheheh… I also want to do that sometime, especially when my social anxiety flares up~ (Unlike Mitsuki I'm such a reclusive introvert soooo)

Also sorry for the lack of art, I'm still having severe artblock so i decide not to post it after making a horrible one huhu :'), in place I'll add in the concept art for the armadillo and dragonbloom on tumblr this time!~

Extra note:

Kotodama: a bit hard to explain.. erm.. it's the concept that word in itself has power. Not simply that pen is sharper than sword, but it has like power to bless and curse, jinx etc, that's why you shouldn't use words carelessly. A more extreme representation of this recently is in jujutsu kaisen, that guy who's technique is based on his word. But in general.. wikipedia explanation is

"Kotodama or kototama (言霊, sometimes written as 言魂, lit.'word spirit/soul') refers to the Japanese belief that mystical powers dwell in words and names. English translations include "soul of language", "spirit of language", "power of language", "power word", "magic word", and "sacred sound". The notion of kotodama presupposes that sounds can magically affect objects, and that ritual word usages can influence the environment, body, mind, and soul. Some interpret the belief as the discovery of vibratory commands words have that can affect physiology and the mind.[citation needed]"

I think a more, relatable explanation is how we sometimes talk to our pet and they kinda understand us even tho they can't possibly know our languages. Its like emotion and meaning itself is conveyed within our word, despite people's/creature's lack of understanding.

I hope that's.. explanatory enough x'D