Dear, Itachi-kun,

I think there's not much else to be found on the previous city, and there's something I'd like to do outside instead, so I probably won't be staying in the inn for the next couple of days!

I'll be careful, don't worry!

Signed, Mitsuki.

Itachi read the text on the little note that was handed over to him by a little sparrow which had been persistently pecking him as soon as it found him. Finally understanding why, Itachi sighed, slightly baffled, slightly relieved that Mitsuki seemed to be doing fine despite not telling him what was going on yet, at least based on her message alone. With a simple blow of his chakra filled breath, Itachi burned the letter to crisp, leaving no trace of the paper that Mitsuki had sent the message in. Seeing his action, the sparrow tilted her head, as if wondering about the reply.

"Uh.. Did she say she wanted a reply?" asked Itachi, unsure if the sparrow would be able to understand him. Thinking about how the sparrow pecked him, and reminded of one of their training session together, Itachi thought of a way to give a wordless reply to the girl. "Go and peck her head once after you land on her head, if you will. She will know that you've reached me," he continued, hoping that somehow the sparrow would understand his words just like his crows' would. He didn't want to give his chakra to the wild animal, even if to ensure controlled communication since it might risk leaving a detectable trace around the area. Thankfully, as if understanding him, the sparrow turned and flew back towards the forest after giving Itachi a small nod.

Within the last few hours that the bird needed to find Itachi previously, Mitsuki had been scouting the overall landscape around her roughly with her method which seemingly confuses the kunoichi who had decided to follow her.

"Erm.. Anego, are you done yet?" Kirika asked in worry, unsure of how else to address the lady in front of her who had yet to give her own name.

"Mmhmm, lend me your map. I'll mark the places we shall search in," she demanded. Without question as promised, Kirika handed Mitsuki her map of the area. Quickly, Mitsuki marked a few areas that she thought would be ideal for their search.

Mitsuki was glad that she had immersed herself in herbal and medicinal studies both after Itachi's collapse and during her visit in the Howling Wolf Village. With the help of her assembled knowledge, Mitsuki could compare the Dragonbloom to the plants that she had studied, memorized and encountered. Supported by her knowledge and wisdom about plant's habitat and characteristic, even if some of the plants that she studied had evolved quite a bit from its ancient form, Mitsuki could still get an inkling of where those plants might be growing in based on its characteristics.

Seeing Kirika stared at her in expectation as she marked up her maps, Mitsuki frowned as she recalled the information she got from the young kunoichi.

"Remind me, what makes this plant valuable again besides its rarity?" depending on Kirika's answer, Mitsuki would be willing to share with Kirika the theory behind her findings instead of keeping it a secret.

"Apparently, it has potent medicinal effect. Some said it's an effective painkiller as well as antidote of various poison."

Hearing Kirika's description, Mitsuki's eye lit up. Wondering why would she have never heard of such beneficial plant before, Mitsuki noted to take some of the seeds, or the plant itself to pass it to Kina next time.

"If it's that effective, why would it not be written in the herb encyclopaedia then?" Mitsuki asked with slight doubt in her voice.

"Ah.. Apparently it's so rare it's considered a legend even in the Land of Stones. Apparently, it only grows around here as well, so maybe it's not worth it to write down such elusive, unobtainable herb which existence is not easily confirmed?"

Indeed, what Kirika said made sense. Mitsuki had doubted the girl's sharpness before, yet somehow it seemed like she was unexpectedly quite sharp and knowledgeable in unexpected areas.

"Then, I pull back my words about not needing any rewards. If we find more than required for your mission, I'll be taking some."

"No problem! That will be fine with me!" said Kirika in satisfaction. After all, she didn't feel that it was right for her to be getting the lady's help her without her providing anything in return.

"OK, listen," said Mitsuki to Kirika in serious tone, "based on how the leaves of this herb is shaped, narrow with little surface area for the water inside to evaporate, it's likely to be growing in places with low moisture and high temperature. Considering our high altitude surveillance previously, it was likely that this plant grows on the drier, rocky mountain area on the north-west side of the cities cluster." Mitsuki pointed at a point in the map as she explained.

"Then, there's the color of the plant," Mitsuki continued. "Usually colors in the wildlife are either a result of camouflage effort, or a warning for other species not to get close to them and eat them."

"I.. I see.." said Kirika as she took mental note, wondering if it will be ok for her to write down the information later.

"And.. usually red on red colored plan are either product of Autumn, or naturally red in all seasons. Considering the habitat possibility due to its leaves, it is unlikely to be the first reason. So, considering that, for the second case, the red would be more vivid the more sunlight they got, soo.."

"Find places with less shade?"

"Correct," Mitsuki smiled for the first time during their discussion, surprising Kirika on how gentle her smile was despite her cold and sharp attitude in the beginning.

"I only got 4 days, so let's hurry," said Mitsuki as she started moving towards the marked area in Kirika's map.

Thankfully, the marked place was not too far away from the ladies' initial position. With Mitsuki's and Kirika's pace, it only took them few hours before they reached their next destination. Even so, by then, the sun had started to set.

Unsure of what her travel partner had in mind, Kirika dared herself to ask,

"What do we do? Do we camp here for the day?"

After all, it would be hard to do a detailed observation under the veil of the night.

Kirika's question was met with Mitsuki's silent pondering. Not sure if she had heard her question, Kirika almost dared herself to ask her once more when suddenly Mitsuki spoke up.

"I guess we can do just that. I'll try and scout around for a while first, you can go on with camping preparation," said Mitsuki quickly before dashing away towards a better observation point, leaving Kirika without any chance for her to answer.

As soon as she reached a vantage point, out of Kirika's sight, Mitsuki lowered herself to a crouch and sighed.

"Hrgh, it's so hard to keep a cold pretense.. Itachi-kun, how could you do it every time?" she muttered in exhaustion. Thinking about how Itachi usually was, and how would he be during his childhood, Mitsuki came into a chuckle as she found herself unable to imagine Itachi to be the carefree and sociable sort.

"Nah, knowing him, I bet he had been awkwardly distant even way before he became an outcast," thought Mitsuki with a complicated smile. Recalling what he had told her, Mitsuki noticed how little he mentioned about his time with others aside from a few vague notions. Considering that, and what he had needed to go through so early in his life, Mitsuki felt a sense of sympathy towards young Itachi. Mitsuki wondered how alone he must have felt, especially after losing his best friend, and so early in his life he had been forced to make such a hard decision on his own.

"No… It's probably that guy's, Danzo's, aim.. pressing Itachi-kun with time and urgency, he went as far as removing his only support…" thought Mitsuki with frustration as she pictured young Itachi, lost and in pain, without anyone else to support him. The image pained her, and she wished that she could be there for him, in that moment, so he wouldn't have to crumble so far. Thinking of how she'd like to see how Itachi was, prior of losing his hope and dreams, Mitsuki smiled bitterly. Not long after, Mitsuki had caught herself being distracted for far too long, and dragged her thoughts back into her present, shamefully aware of how much Itachi had been occupying her mind even more than before since that afternoon.

"Ugh, need to focus, else I'd never be able to find it in time," she thought to herself in embarrassment. Without any more delay, Mitsuki extended her perception, scouring the area for any possible danger as well as reconfirming the terrains around their resting place. Silently, Mitsuki had a silly thought of whether she could find Itachi somewhere near where they are with her perception, knowing well that he won't be in the area.

By the time Mitsuki went back down, Kirika had finished preparing the campfire.

"Oh, Anego, you're back!"

"Mmm, how secretive does your mission need to be? Depends on what you need, I'll go ahead and take some extra step to cover our presence," said Mitsuki briefly, as devoid from emotion as she could. Somehow, she felt like she started sounding just like Itachi. Resisting the urge to chuckle, Mitsuki thought to herself,

"Well, I guess I AM copying him now," she admitted.

Without pausing on her preparation, Kirika answered. "I think it should be fine. It's not as if a lot of people specifically come here for it. Most of the populace think of it as a myth anyway."

"Good. Then I believe we're good for the night," said Mitsuki as Kirika used a simple Katon to light up the campfire.

"Wait no," said Mitsuki as she realised something vital was missing, "what about the food!?"

Surprised of how the lady in front of her displayed her frustration without reserve for once, Kirika quickly answered,

"I.. I have Hyorogan (Chakra pill) with me, won't it be enough? I don't mind giving you more share!" said Kirika, half panicked, as she feared disappointing her benefactor.

"You shinobis! Seriously!?" Mitsuki thought in her mind, resisting the urge to blurt her complaints out loud and dissolving her cold and calm pretense in the process. Clutching her face in frustration, Mitsuki gave the kunoichi a brief response.

"I'll go and catch ourselves some dinner.. You wait here.." she said as she turned her back to enter the dark wilderness once more, confusing Kirika on how does she plan to hunt in such a dark night, alone.

It didn't take long for Mitsuki to procure enough small prey for both her and Kirika to share helped with the combination of her perception and her honed aim, despite it being a night of new moon. As she went ahead and brought her prey back, Mitsuki mind wandered back to her travel with Kirika, assessing her personality as she went. As she had previously said, the girl seemed to be especially talented in the field of traversal and scouting. She was quite an observant girl, despite her carelessness and extreme display of innocence sometimes. She seemed to be one who wear her emotion on her sleeve, and a massively sensitive one at that. Curious about how she had fared so far as shinobi, Mitsuki decided to question her the exact moment they reconvened, as unfair as it was for Kirika who could never ask her any question back due to their agreement.

And so, she did. As the small catches were grilling slowly in the campfire, Mitsuki threw her question one by one towards Kirika, starting from a simple one like "How old are you," to the complicated question of "Why had you decided to become a shinobi."

The girl was already a young adult by the age of 23, older than Itachi was. Judging from her skills though, she was nowhere as talented as the two shinobi Mitsuki had known for a while, even though she had to reconsider that she really needed to start thinking of the two cloaked shinobi as the anomaly instead.

"Why I become shinobi? Uh… that's a long story.." said Kirika, hesitating.

"We got all night," said Mitsuki briefly, insisting. Unable to refuse her benefactor's curiosity, Kirika decided to give her an answer, awkward as it was.

"My parents were shinobi.. and in actuality, my talent had manifested quite early in my childhood. However, it's only recently that I actually become a shinobi."

Hearing Kirika's answer, Mitsuki recalled the shared detail of Itachi's childhood and his time during the academy.

"Did you.. fail the academy continuously?"

"Of course not!" Kirika rebutted in embarrassment over Mitsuki's claim, wondering if she had been performing so horribly her benefactor had to ask her that.

"Then?"

"I.. I'm married, you see.." said Kirika in low voice, confusing Mitsuki as she had not yet able to form a connection between Kirika's answer and the reason why she had chosen such a dangerous profession. Deciding to let her answer in her own pace, Mitsuki kept her silence.

"Usually, my husband had been the one to support our family, but.. recently he had fallen ill.."

With her words, Mitsuki saw a blue spark of sadness within Kirika's warm, earth colored soul.

Unsure of what else she could say, Mitsuki went with a simple, "I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's fine!" said Kirika with an awkward chuckle, "But yeah.. since he can't work anymore, the responsibility to support our family fell to me. Besides, if possible, I'd like to be able to find a cure for him.."

"When you said family, you mean?"

"We have two young children in our care," said Kirika with a complicated expression.

Somewhere in her mind, Mitsuki took notes to ask Kirika regarding the bond of family when it allows her. However, noticing the difficulty of Kirika's situation, Mitsuki frowned in concern and decided to tackle the issue first.

"Is it OK for you to be leaving your children for long like this?" asked Mitsuki as she remembered how far their location was from the land of water where Kirika had hailed from.

"It's fine.. My mother in law is taking care of my husband and children in my place while I'm away. They were a family of farmers, so they had more leeway in comparison to my parents."

Hearing Kirika's response didn't alleviate Mitsuki's concern about her, remembering of the time when Itachi continuously questioned her about her decision to follow him, Mitsuki continued,

"Even so, why shinobi? It's a dangerous profession, and your children and husband will miss you and worry about you every time you are away. And judging from what you said so far, I don't think that you were keen on being one as well."

"After all, this is what I can do best.. If it's for the sake of my husband and children, I will do anything," said Kirika with a solemn glint in her eyes, before continuing.

"With shinobi's pay, at least money won't be a problem considering our simple lifelihood. Besides, I might come across something that might help with my husband's treatment."

Mitsuki felt a sense of camaraderie as she heard Kirika's answer. Resisting the urge to give her a hug as she would usually do in such situation, Mitsuki settled with giving her a concerned look. Even as she was curious about her husband's situation, there's no way for Mitsuki to find out more about his sickness without assessing him directly.

"Could this be why you chose to undertake this mission? Do you need the herb?" Mitsuki asked with a gentle, concerned tone.

"Nah, his sickness has nothing to do with pain or poison. It's purely the pay," said Kirika with a complicated smile. Of course, it will be easier for her if only the herb could do something about her husband's situation as well. Understanding the reason behind Kirika's smile, Mitsuki added.

"Say, if you can procure more herbs, would they pay you more?"

"I doubt it will be that simple, but I guess I can try to negotiate or find another buyer myself," Kirika responded briefly. Hearing her words, Mitsuki was worried that doing such will brought more attention and danger to her. However, she couldn't bring herself to say such things. After all, it was not even confirmed yet that they would be able to find the herb, and so, she could only wish for the best for the future of their search.

Author's note:

Love grows when apart? Hehe

Extra notes:

Anego : Big Sis, in respectful term, sometimes used in relationships with hierarchy. Sometimes translated as lady boss, especially in yakuza concept.