The rarest kind of flower

"Wow, there's really trees from that time still around? I would have thought they'd all be-... erm" Seresana paused for a moment when realizing how insensitive what she was about to say could sound and while she may have been wishing she'd managed to stop herself a little bit faster, she was still going to try and shift to a different topic now. "Did you bring a book or scroll?" Seresana suddenly asked as the thought struck her. "Something to write down their final stories and thoughts before the end, so their tales aren't lost and their stories able to be passed on," she then elaborated and expanded upon her errant thought.

Word Count: 113
Total: 4,880

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Word count: 376 | 4,278
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"There isn't a need for such thing's like that, though it is a bit insensitive that you ask for something created through the processing of chopped wood." she stated, though she didn't sound mad, matter of fact she may have had a small little smile on her face as she kept looking ahead. Although the smile was small, it was a simple one held with pure emotion, an ease with a tinge of sadness. "We've no need to write down it's stories for it's stories are already shared and embedded into all of the life. From the tree's that still stand from the beginning of time, to the youngest sapling's just starting on their life to being a great tree. They all know and they all will remember. It doesn't need to be written down for the stories they tell are tales you will never forget."

Taking a path that led further into the denser part of the woods. The trek would continue for a good ten minutes or so before Kisayuri would lead Seresana down a path that had seemed a bit out of place, hidden from sight really. The tree's all lined up on either side with their high branches arching over the leaves covered path till it led toward's a small opening.

This opening wasn't too big, but at the same time it wasn't too small. There wasn't anything all too special about it, though there was one thing noticeable about it and that was fairly large tree, in comparison's to the ground's around it, that were far smaller than it, it was looking less full of life. Many of it's leaves already fallen to the ground, branches partially broken and hanging off. There were a couple holes within the tree as well. There were even stab marks, as if there were ninja's had once used this tree as target practice. Clearly you can tell the tree has been around for a very long time. It was worn, withered, had cut's and wounds, heck there were still some throwing star's embedded into it and even those had rusted over by now, but the thing about this was the sense of pride that fill the area that might have been the most noticeable.

Seresana cringed at her oversight, and mumbled out a quick sorry for the notion, but otherwise followed along silently while listening to Kisayuri. She still felt that they should have brought some means as to write down the stories the trees might weave, but she also didn't really know how good a tree's memory was and so she just subjected herself to Kisayuri's reassurances.

When they arrived at the place, Seresana took a moment before really stepping into it, her wide and curious eyes looking about the foliage and flora. She looked at each tree that lined the way to the dying tree and then upon the center piece's dead branches and fallen leaves. She looked at the marks that scored the tree's hide and couldn't help remembering the time's she'd spent practicing archery. Seresana started to get a little upset as more realization set in, but she was able to steel herself when she recalled that her most common target for practice was an already long dead stump, one that had been cut down well before her time, and errant logs that'd been tied to ropes and swung to present a harder target. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that the old and rusty weapons should have been removed from the great tree.

"So this is one of the great trees that was around for when the first Hokage made the village hidden in the leaves," Seresana said a bit rhetorically as she strode carefully forward. When she was right under the ancient flora, she cast her gaze up to it's branches and wondered aloud. "How old is this tree? It's not insensitive of me to ask, is it Kisayuri?" Seresana asked while turning her head back to look at the addressed. Miku and Mina however seemed to once again be in high spirits, their little nap after the play session back at the training field seeming to ahve rejuvenated them. Miku's head swiveled back and forth, never settling on one spot for long and his fore-paws would occasionally lift to try and either swat or try to grip at something, but his attempts missed every time so far. Mina on the other hand climbed out of her pouch and subsequently down Seresana's leg until she was on the ground. There she began to wander about, and played by burying herself in the fallen leaves.

Word Count: 397
Total: 5,277

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Word count: 190 | 4,468
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Kisayuri stood there in silence as she watched Seresana, interested in what she was going to do. How she was going to react as to whether or not she would shed her feelings for the dying tree. Kisayuri, however, didn't see much of a reaction come from her. A momentary pause, but she didn't see much more then that before the question arrived.

Her brows lifted in a bit of confusion before she glanced toward's the tree as she too was awaiting for an answer. Her brows lowered as she adjusted her stance. as of yesterday, it reached it's 750th's turn of the sun. Her eyes looked to be locked upon the large tree. Her mouth hung open a bit before she nodded her head. "okay...okay.." she uttered as if she was responding to someone that was nagging her to say something. "This...tree is pleased to have visitors upon it's last day. Thanks is given to you and the young raccoons." she added, her eyes looking at the tree, it was almost as if she was staring at some invisible lips and translating what was being said.

Seresana continued standing under the tree and when her question was answered, she once more looked to the tree. Ever so gently and slowly, Seresana lifted a hand and placed it upon the old bark. With great care to not knock any of the old material loose, Seresana carefully and gently ran her outstretched hand along the tree's surface, a pleasant smile on her face. "Wow, I can't imagine all you must have seen over these many years. It's an honor to be in your presence," Seresana said seemingly towards the tree. She wasn't sure if the tree could understand her directly, but even if the tree didn't, she figured Kisayuri could convey her words. For a little while, Seresana kept her small and now slightly somber smile towards the tree while Mina continued playing about in the leaves and Miku finally found a low hanging enough branch that he was able to pull his small body up and started darting about the thicker branches.

"Kisayuri, do you ever get sad doing this sort of thing?" Seresana asked without looking towards her.

Word Count: 182
Total: 5,459

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Word count: 87 | 4,555
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Kisayuri looked at Seresana and noted the gentleness she had when she reached out touching the old tree. Kisayuri shifted a little in her standing position as she moved her hands behind herself and linked her fingers with each other and she kept watching. Looking towards the tree who understood Seresana's words and then back to Seresana who asked her a question. "No." she answered. "It is time for it to go, no reason for me to be sad. It's lived a long and fulfilling life.

Seresana looked back a little surprised by the bluntness of the words, but then that almost ever present and gentle smile came back. "Well not sad sad I guess, but maybe happy sad?" Seresana asked again, but even she found herself slightly confused by the question and so she elaborated on it some more. "I mean sure this isn't a sad sad event, for that it'd need to be one bad thing coupled with another where it's a tragedy. Like when someone... get's killed... they didn't get to live their life which is sad, and they're gone which is sad too. But then there's times like these where sure the tree is about to die, which is sad, but it got to live a rich full life full of experiences that have been passed on which is a happy thing, so it's happy sad," Seresana explained in full confusing detail.

"Actually, never mind Kisayuri. You're right, this doesn't really feel like all that sad, more... proud? Calming? Tranquil? Yeah, that's the word, tranquil," Seresana repeated as she took a deep breath with closed eyes. When she opened them again, and with that smile on her face, Seresana removed her hand from the old tree's surface. She then did a little skip of a hop back away from the tree to give Kisayuri some room to approach it herself, and giving the tree a short bow before looking towards Kisayuri. "So what do we do now?"

Word Count: 246
Total: 5,705

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Word count: 124 | 4,679
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Kisayuri arched a brow at what Seresana said and the only come back Kisayuri had was "You're a strange one..." she then looked toward's the tree and shook her head. "Nothing...it's gone already, while you were talking..." Kisayuri walked up to the tree and she placed a hand upon it. "It was happy though, it said something while you were talking..." Kisayuri's hand began to reach into the tree, though not through a hole or anything, rather it her hand combined with the trunk of the tree, almost as if it were jello. "It was pleased to be able to see a human and one of his kind standing side-by-side." From the look on Kisayuri's face it seemed like she was reaching for something.

Seresana very quickly went from a little grin aimed at Kisayuri and her strange comment to a look of shock and distraught directed towards the tree that she'd simply talked through it's death. Before she could comment though, the news of the tree's final words drew her back to a contemplative expression that gradually shifted back to a soft grin when she heard of the tree's pleasure at seeing the two of them together. It was around then that she finally looked back over towards Kisayuri only to see the girl reaching literally into the tree. The smile was quickly replaced by more wide eyed shock as she watched, her nearly open hanging mouth stumbled over the words for her question that barely got out. "What are you doing?"

Word Count: 130
Total: 5,835

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Word count: 181 | 4,860
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Kisayuri kept reaching until she made her mark. "There it is." she uttered to herself under her breath before she had responded back to Seresana. "Taking the last of it's essence." she stood there for a moment and as she did so, the second flower upon her head slowly bloomed, and inside of it was a very glossy golden orb about the size of a baseball. With Kisayuri's free hand she reached up and grabbed it. after taking it from the flower the flower closed up and Kisayuri pulled her hand from the tree and her hand reverted back to it's normal state. Kisayuri walked from the tree. "Watch your head." she uttered as her only warning as she kept walking the orb held in her hand. If Seresana didn't move she would have been met with many dried dead leaves and branches fallen as the tree had broken apart through rapid aging somehow. It fell in hard chunks, but over time it became dust in the wind. Kisayuri stood there a good distance away just watching the whole thing.

Seresana watched with wide and curious eyes as Kisayuri extracted the tree's essence, though she still had more than a few questions on what that either entitled or what exactly it was. The orb was captivating and Seresana easily found herself starring at it, enough so that when Kisayuri uttered her warning, Seresana's only reply was a confused "huh?", before the dying vegetation suddenly buried the little girl. After the initial buffet of foliage that thoroughly knocked Seresana on the ground and almost entirely buried her. Before the second wave could fall though, Seresana dove out of the brush pile and rolled to a stop a few feet away before standing up with a spinning flourish so she was quite suddenly standing near Kisayuri while facing the tree.

Seresana was quite for a few moments while the tree continued to seemingly rapidly age and die, and when it was finishing up she looked over to Kisayuri. "So what will you do with the tree's essence?"

Word Count: 166
Total: 6,001

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Word count: 247 | 5,107
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Kisayuri kept her gaze toward's where the tree once was. watching as the tree turned to dust and began to be carried by the wind. When Seresana managed to roll her way to Kisayuri's side, Kisayuri showed her what the orb was. "I'm going to plant it of course." within the orb one could see faintly flashing upon it's glossy surface various scenes, as if it were an old film reel of the very tree she was once staring at, well rather it looked like a smaller version of the tree. Maybe it was when the tree was younger perhaps, but multitude of images quickly shown on it's surface like a movie on fast foreword, various shinobi's popping up at the tree to train, sometimes there were couples snuggling under the tree and so on.

Once the dust blew away there was a whole empty spot where the tree once was. "the lives of us plants differ from you humans. Once your perish there is no second chances, but for us, we can come back as many times as we need to. So our lives doesn't simply end when our bodies fail. It is a new beginning, a chance to come back and start anew with the memories of old." Kisayuri walked toward's the empty spot with the orb still in her hand. She then knelt down into the empty patch of dirt and with one free hand she carefully began to dig a small hole.

"So the old tree will come back as a new one, but it'll still be the same tree so to speak?" Seresana reasoned to herself with the rhetorical statement. She thought on this for a moment and reasoned this out in her mind, and she found herself grinning by the end of it, at least slightly because she was able to reassure herself that she hadn't in fact just talked through the old tree's death. She walked forward quickly until she was next to Kisayuri and saw the plant girl digging a little hole and for possibly the first time since meeting her, Seresana didn't actually have to ask what Kisayuri was trying. Without a word, Seresana knelt down next to her, being extra careful to not accidentally touch Kisayuri, and proceeded to help her dig the small hole.

"Is this what you do everytime any plant in the area di... reaches it's body's end?" Seresana asked as she assisted with the planting of the new old tree.

Word Count: 169
Total: 6,170

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Word count: 231 | 5,338
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Kisayuri flinched a little when she saw Seresana's hand come and assist her, but Kisayuri didn't do anything a momentary shift of her gaze/glare in Seresana's direction before she looked back toward's the hole she was making and went back to making an appropriate sized hole for the orb she was to bury. "Only if they ask for it. Sometimes they don't want me to rush their development and want to just let their seeds carry them as they will. sometimes some like the spot that they are in and don't wish to move against their will. that's enough..." she stated once she got the hole deep enough. once Seresana got her hands out the way, Kisayuri would lower the glossy orb into the ground.

Once in the ground Kisayuri would look at the glossy orb a moment before looking to Seresana with a stoic stare before looking back to the orb. A tendril came out from under Kisayuri's large petals and went up to Kisayuri's hand and she pressed a finger against the large thorn, enough to penetrate her skin. once she did that she held her thumb over the orb and squeezed it allowed green fluid to drip down onto the orb, just a few drops, before Kisayuri would stick her thumb in her mouth and with her other hand began to cover the orb with the surrounding dirt.

Seresana nodded at the answer she got, and her pleased smile remained where it was as she continued helping dig the hole. It took a second for Seresana to realize that Kisayuri had stopped digging when she did, but as soon as Seresana noticed, she quickly stopped and removed her hands from the hole so that Kisayuri could plant the orb. With the orb in the hole, Seresana moved to start pushing dirt back over the orb, but paused midway through the action as she noticed the tendril snaking it's way down from one of the body flowers and over to her hand. She watched curiously as Kisayuri grew a thorn from the tendril and subsequently pierced her skin. The green blood was almost enough to get her to jump back, but Seresana managed to stop herself when she kept up the reminder that Kisayuri was in fact a plant and not a human. The physical appearance though seemed like it'd continue to blur that line between flora and fauna for Seresana for at least a little while longer.

She held off on her question for the moment as Kisayuri let the green blood drip onto the orb, but when Kisayuri started pushing the surrounding dirt back on top of the orb, Seresana went ahead and let it fly. "Why did you make yourself bleed onto the old tree's essence Kisayuri?" Seresana asked while helping push the surrounding dirt back over the orb.

Word Count: 243
Total: 6,413

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Word count: 186 | 5,524
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This was probably the defining line that proved that Kisayuri wasn't human, the fact that her blood was different. It was green and goopy. with her thumb in her mouth she was using her saliva as a means to quicken her healing of her thumb. Her tendril disappeared back under her large petal and she stood up after the dirt has covered the orb, and for the first time she touched Seresana willingly except, she grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and dragged her to pull her away from the planted spot.

To which the answer to Seresana's question would show, the ground began to rumble and and suddenly erupting from the ground rapidly growing tendril of wood sprouted up, not too big, not to small either, probably around head height to the girls. Branches growing out and leaves suddenly sprouting and filling the branches up till it was a partially grown tree.

Kisayuri did release Seresana once they were a good distance away as the tree was growing, though Kisayuri kept her thumb in her mouth as she sucked on the injured thumb.

"Duwah, he- hey! What are do-" Seresana started to protest the dragging bit, the rumbling and eruption of new tree was more than enough to cut off her words. He mouth just hung open as the new young old tree suddenly grew to a size that would have normally taken months if not over a year to reach. When the grip on her collar was released, Seresana crept back over to the tree and reached out to gently touch the leaves along one of it's many branches as it continued to grow. But before she made actual contact, Seresana retracted her hand back, not wanting to potentially interfere with the accelerated growth cycle of the tree. "So your blood makes plants grow extra fast..." Seresana stated to herself just make sure that her mind matched what she was actually saying.

With that bit self confirmed with the information that was right in front of her, Seresana pushed herself back to a standing position. She then took a couple steps back so she was next to Kisayuri again and resigned to just stand there for a moment watching the tree grow. "Thanks for showing me all this Kisa, it was pretty amazing."

Word Count: 202
Total: 6,615

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Word count: 150 | 5,674
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As Seresana was busy dealing with being amazed by the fast growing tree. Kisayuri walked toward's another tree by tree and she reached up to one of the lower branches that she could reach and she plucked a leaf from it and pulled her thumb from her mouth and wrapped the leaf around her thumb as a band-aid of sorts. When her blood smudged against the leaf, the leaf grew of sorts and melded with her thumb. and quickly enough changed and matched her skin tone.

After that Kisayuri walked back to the spot she was standing at before and looked toward's Seresana, Kisayuri put her hand behind her own back and linked her fingers together. "Don't shorten the name Mother gave me." she stated to Seresana as she looked toward's the tree. "Don't tell anyone about my blood." she looked at the tree as she spoke to Seresana.

"Aww, but Kisa's a nice nickname, and nicknames are something else friends do," Seresana started with a sort of defeated yet pleading look. But it disappeared soon enough only to be replaced by a more childish grin. "But if you really don't like it, I'll try to keep using your full name Kisayuri," Seresana reluctantly seemed to agree. "And sure, I won't tell anyone about your blood, I promise," Seresana swore with a much more serious expression that seemed quite out of place on the girl's face. The suddenness of the shift wasn't quite out of place, but for the sleeve expression wearing girl to be able to adopt an expression that was so plain, serious, and steadfast was a little alien on Seresana's face.

And then just as quickly as it'd been there, the expression was gone and the much more usual grin was in it's place as her mirthful eyes followed Kisayuri's back towards the tree. "So do you have more appointments, or is that all for today?" Seresana asked while still looking in the tree's direction, though her gaze was actually much lower. Seresana was looking at the raccoons that were still playing some in the fallen leaves. Miku had scrambled as fast as he could down the tree when Kisayuri had taken the essence and the tree started to turn into dust, just barely making it to the ground in time to be covered in the same leaves and branches that'd buried Seresana. But as the stuff had turned to dust, he'd began digging about the other fallen leaves looking for his sister who he found relatively quickly. Now the two were playing about the forest floor, scampering this way and that before Mina seemed to decide she'd had enough and wandered back over to Seresana. Taking the hint from Mina's pawing at her legs, Seresana scooped up the little raccoon and placed her back into her pouch to rest some more. Miku on the other hand still seemed to want to play, especially with the new growing tree, and he was quick to jump into and about it's growing branches.

Word Count: 356
Total: 6,971

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Word count: 147 | 5,821
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Kisayuri gave Seresana an expression that showed she wasn't amused by the nickname at all. She didn't comment about whether or not she'd accept being friends with the girl, but all she gave was a heavy sigh and shook her head. Placing her hands to her hips she'd look back down the archway, but the serious tone Seresana gave did pull her attention so Kisayuri looked back to her to see Seresana's serious look. There was barely a change in Kisayuri's stoic appearance, maybe an arched brow rose, but that was about it.

"good then." she stated before looking back down the archway and hearing her follow up question and Kisayuri shrugged. "Death doesn't happen on a schedule. So I can't say for sure." She began to walk back through the archway. "If something calls out for me, I'll head too it, for now, it's quiet."

"Ah, well that's good to hear," Seresana said a little thankful to know that more of the forest wasn't dying at this very second. Before she followed after Kisayuri, Seresana skipped over to where Miku was playing in the newly grown tree and with a few calls, the other raccoon soon returned to his usual perch atop her head. With Mina still in her pouch, Seresana then turned about and followed after Kisayuri, going at a jog to catch up and then simply walking to keep pace.

As they walked, Seresana kept quiet and contemplative for the moment as she considered everything she just witnessed and reviewed it through her mind. "Hey Kisayuri, sorry about all these questions, but what's it like to talk to nature? I mean there's a lot of trees around, are they all speaking at the same time or do they spend a very long time taking turns?" Seresana asked patiently as they walked.

Word Count: 159
Total: 7,130

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Word count: 97 | 5,918
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"It's really not any different from talking to your kind." she kept a calm walking pace a though wandering her mind, curious to how long Seresana plans to follow her. Kisayuri pondered about the opportunity as she walked, she could ask Seresana somethings about the humans. This one could be trusted to an extent, right? She does have animal approval so maybe... "What made you think tree's spoke in a different manner?" Kisayuri totally blew off her idea of asking about the human world and continued to keep up the same attitude she's been having so far.

"As compared to other plants or as to each other?" Seresana asked back initially, but then she turned it rhetorical by going ahead and answering both possible versions of the question. "Well, trees are usually so much bigger and live a bit longer than most plants, so I thought they'd maybe have a bit of a deeper voice or their voice might come from higher up than other plants that aren't as tall. As compared to each other though, well most trees don't look the same kinda like how most people don't look the same. If they don't look the same, I doubted they would sound or talk the same." Seresana elaborated as she walked along with Kisayuri.

"I know you might not care for hearing plants compared to humans," Seresana then started back up with a bit of strained and apologetic grin. "But that's just the easily convenient comparison. The same thing could be said even about Miku and Mina. Miku's a little bigger and the black fur around his eyes is thinner, plus he's got black fur on the tips of his ears and he likes to be up high. Mina though has a bit of a thicker mask and her ears are solid grey, plus she doesn't like to be far off the ground at all. They don't look quite the same even though they're both raccoon's, and even I can hear the slight difference in their squeaks and tell they sound different. So if so many other things sound and look different from each other, why wouldn't trees?" Seresana asked back with a smile but the curiosity lying just behind it was almost palpable. "At least, that would be what I assumed. Am I wrong?"

Word Count: 290
Total: 7,420

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Word count: 182 | 6,100
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Kisayuri didn't look back to Seresana and just listened to her. once she was finish Kisayuri would respond. "to put it into perspective, there are people that are much taller then you? the answer is obviously yes, i'm quite a bit taller then you, i'm certain there are a lot more taller then you as well. Do they speak any different to you? Do any tall person sound as if they take forever to speak? No not really. They may talk louder or squat down and speak softer, but that has nothing much to do with height difference." she paused a moment in her movements and looked up toward's a tree.

"Plants, trees, animals...is no different. Taller, shorter, they all have their own voices and speak as their own pace, some faster, some slower, some try to talk down to you and others talk up to you. Tree's, no plants in general can speak from any part of themselves, they don't per say have a mouth to speak from, so their voice just catches the breeze and goes where it's needed."

Seresana nodded in understanding to the explanation as it was given, eyes wide and darting back and forth between Kisayuri and the tree Kisayuri's eyes were on. She listened, contemplated, and weighed her prior thoughts against those of Kisayuri's confirmations, and she found herself not completely wrong, just partially. They could talk in different voices and some of them might sound a little different, but they all still spoke and in at least roughly the same manner. "And you're able to understand them because of what you are," Seresana stated plainly but with a bit of a grin on her face.

"Honestly, it's a lot to take in and I actually might be a little jealous. You must never get lonely with all those other voices talking to you," Seresana admitted as she reached up with her bandaged left arm to pet Miku. When she was done, she reached her other arm up and stretched for a moment until an audible pop resounded out from her spine. "So do you have any questions for me Kisayuri? I've been asking you several and you've answered all in kind, so it's only fair if I try to answer any you might have."

Word Count: 201
Total:7,621