In the village, life dwells where it may. The trees are in pots and the humans in concrete dwellings. There are laws and rules, a community of just one species, a hive of sorts. They move, eat and sleep to the ticking clock. But here in the rainforest the days flow seamlessly into one another, life and death, light and dark, new and decay. The food web is a living breathing beast; all of these plants and animals are connected by its silky thread. The leaves here are so thick, fleshy and large. With no winter to limit them they can become quite monstrous compared to deciduous woodland..


Attuned with the elements, one could draw closer to God if that is what they wanted. Like God, this forest seemed to have no beginning, nor end. Only infinity; infinite perfection. Honnari would describe the canopy of leaves above him as a breathing cathedral, letting in shafts of soft spring light like a thousand stained glass windows. It was the place he felt closest to God, there immersed in nature, not in the stuffy pews of the brick and mortar village buildings. For it swathed the forest in beauty and grace; leaves clothed the naked trees, it was truly the most beautiful fabric, unrivalled by anything man can produce.


Honnari perambulated throughout the dense forest, a smile barely trilling his face, and a thin voice that laughed as the cicadas sung their loud symphonies. He was en route to a Cananga tree that he knew grew at the heart of the forest. Near a stream at it's heart, the tree adorned itself in bright, star-shaped flowers known as Ylang Ylang. He wanted to make an essential oil out of it's pedals. The imaginary aroma was already in his head.  The trees coat the hill thicker than a winter blanket. In the never ending summer this forest has no season to stand still, to lose leaves and become dishevelled under the glower of the winter sun. Here every day is sultry, the air is laden with moisture. Every available niche is crammed with flora and fauna. In here are herbs and plants that can cure, also those that can kill with indecent efficiency. In this place one can forget the colour of the sky, once under the canopy there is only green. Sometimes, Honnari can stand still and hear only a small stream making its way down the mountain in a series of mini-waterfalls.


He can even taste the perfume of blooms in the air, perhaps dissolved into the water droplets. The Leaves are gaily waving, dancing, entrancing, lulling him into daydreams sublime. The crowded clamor of village life and busy throngs of streets all but vanished when he came here. Far beyond help should something arise, but also past the point of caring. With any luck, he'd be nearing the stream and it's many deltas. All one had to do was follow the water. A tropic loving tree like the Canaga wouldn't have survived this long had there not been a large body of water somewhere constant.

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Ylang-ylang. Yeah, she'd heard of it. It was some kind of perfume flower or something. The client, who had called himself Reo, had given her a couple of pages from his personal notebook, detailing and illustrating the plant. He had also insinuated that if Kaida wanted to catch a good man, she should collect a few extra flowers for herself. Hmph. As if she had time to think about that kind of thing. Or the desire...

She made a face, mentally chastising herself for letting her mind wander. She was on a job. A cheap one, but if it paid, it was a job worth giving an earnest effort on. Kaida needed every Ryo she could get her grubby little mitts on. Seriously, she'd fight a bitch and leave her in the gutters for just a hundred.

The errand was in the Dense Forest surrounding Konohagakure. Somewhere out there was a "Cananga" tree, on which ylang-ylang grew. Or at least, according to the pages she'd been issued. Normally, she'd be searching the forest for days to find this single tree that her client wanted, but Cananga was a tropical plant. It needed a constant supply of water if it was going to be out here. That narrowed down the avenues she should search for the tree.

However, this particular forest was known for being the home of a few nasty creatures, and Reo wasn't particularly keen on finding any of them. Thus, he put out an ad. He hadn't been expecting a real ninja, even a genin, to come answering the ad, and was very pleased with his penny-pinching success. Even D-rank missions paid better than he did. He had offered to pay her by a commission, a certain amount of Ryo for every flower she could bring him. At first, it seemed like a fair exchange, but when he revealed the size of the commission, it didn't take Kaida but a second to figure out that to make real money on this one, she'd have to pick every flower on the tree.

Reo didn't seem to care, as long as he got his hands on the precious flowers, but botany had been one of Mother's hobbies. If Kaida took that many flowers, that combined with the tree's delicate situation (being well outside its preferred environ) she might well put the whole thing in shock, and it could refuse to flower again for... actually, she didn't know how long. To her, there was an ethical conundrum here. A little one. How much should she take?

The forest air was as thick and heavy as the flora itself, laden with moisture and pollen and scents both familiar and not. Kaida sprayed herself down with a heady insect repellant and made her way toward one of the forest's many streams.

* * *

She had been searching for hours, up and down streams and smaller waterways. It occurred to her she could have brought a map, but she was still a ninja. If she needed to find her way, it was as simple as climbing the nearest tall tree and scouting out the way for herself. Four such tall trees later, and she finally spotted the Cananga's bright yellow blooms. And someone else.

A tiny, frail thing of a man or woman, as pale as the twilight and dressed in white and gold. Was Reo in some kind of competition with another perfumer? Had she been denied some critical information about this job? She certainly hoped not, but if she had, her employer would have hell to pay when she got back.

Kaida walked down the side of the tree, chakra streaming from her feet, defying gravity's rightful pull. She took a moment to assess the situation and determined she should be alright. The other person was just standing there, after all. There hadn't been any indication of hostility. Letting out a sigh, she approached them: stranger and tree. "Heyyy," she called out, announcing herself in advance.

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Helm catching a ray of sunshine, it bounced off into her direction as he acknowledged her presence. It wasn't too out of the ordinary finding someone whom made their way out of the village gates, to the green labyrinth outside.  Mostly at his lonesome, Honnari would let his face fall into neutral, let his mouth lie in a thin morbid line and his cheeks rest. But when he had company, he always made an effort to smile. Perhaps 'smile' wasn't the right word for it -- the top row of teeth was showing, and there was a faint curve to the lips, but there was no crease below where his eyes would be, no movement of the cheeks. On anyone else, it would be a grimace, at best. On his face, however, it was a sign of bliss.


"Another wandering, lost soul--I see." His thin voice laughed. Here and there, he'd lift his gown to negotiate taproots along the the path. "Did you get turned around?--"


A woman stepped from the shadows, a woman too thin and plump to be a regular denizen. A shinobi? How she'd evaded his senses earlier, he wasn't quite sure. Her eyes were the same jet-brown as his father's but her skin was more brown, more deeply accented too.  She's tall, north of five foot, 3 inches, Honnari would guess. And she must play some kind of sport or have a manual job. Shapely frame further formalized by her tight fitting dress and britches. What caught him off guard was the horn that sat just off-sides her crown. She looked to him, how he imagined a demon since childhood. It made him slightly tense. As his picked one of the yellow buds off a branch, he thought it peculiar of her to be here. No one else but him, so he thought, seemed to know of these hidden gems in the Dense Forest. 



And that thought made his slightly nervous, if he was honest.

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"Well, more or less," Kaida answered in near monotone, her voice betraying little about her thoughts. But hey, she'd found the right tree after all. That was really the biggest relief. Its flowers were like yellow stars out of a child's coloring book. She didn't know such things could exist in nature, too. The aroma around the tree, if there was such a thing, was squashed by the other smells of the forest. To know the smell for herself, she walked up to the tree and plucked a flower off a branch. She brought it up to her face and inhaled closely. The scent was sweet like fruit but pungent at the same time. For something that had to be collected into oil, she'd expected something more subtle, itself. She was wrong. Practically choking on the smell, she immediately jerked the offending flower away from her face. "Yeah, shame!" she exclaimed, her face expressing a little disgust and anything else but concern for the plant. She squinted and wiggled her nose, trying to get the smell out.

Eventually, her eyes found their way over to him directly, and then all the world stopped. Her hands dropped the flower and she lost touch with the world for just half a moment. He looked like a ghost of the forest. Kaida squeaked. Loudly. A memory was caught in her eyes. Half a moment passed, and then she blinked, caught her balance, and smiled at him with the most professional expression she could manage. Her eyes refocused, and she visibly relaxed. He was not a ghost. With effort, she managed to catch a semblance of her cool. She took a moment to recognize him.

What was that thing on his head for? Why was he dressed like that? Was he a religious leader? Had she just walked up to some kind of church official and treat them like anyone else? This was exactly what her comportment tutors were for, and for the first time in her life, suddenly those lessons had vanished. To this person, whoever he was, she must have looked like a crazy person. His most recent words echoed in her head. "--such a shame it would be, should anything happen to it, yes?" Her mouth opened slightly, and she paused, clearly trying to come up with something.

Ugh. Why was she suddenly so flustered? In her head, her mother scolded her, commanding her to say something, anything at all. "Am I interrupting something? I can go quickly if I am."

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He was upright and rigid like a sergeant major. His backbone seemed to have all the willpower of a lightning rod, he was ramrod straight, astute, unmoved. He was as erect as a statue. His basket, the small wicker he brought with him, was  not even half full. 


As she moved closer, her dark bangs looked like the head of some geisha from an era long forgotten. His words hung true when she began to pull the stars off of the tree. Here by commission or admission, it wasn't for him to ponder. For now at least, she didn't seem like she was here to do him harm. As Honnari focused on his own devices; gown striding across the sealed ground beneath him, there was a suggestion of movement it's lacy fabric, inside the  clean white robes. It was formless and indistinct, like a piece of shadow shifting. A hazy mind, or timid person, might mistake him for a spirit.


"Interrupting?" He laughed midly, "Of course not. Who would I be to tell you, that you cannot partake? I do not own this tree." Through his helm streaming on his lashes, the sun-rays still shine. The cool updrafts lap around his torso and send a chill up his legs. It is curious, he supposed, to be baked from above and chilled from below simultaneously. His ears pick up every sound and there is no detectable song from an engine or indeed anything manmade. The songs of the birds are as good as any ticking clock, marking out the time into neat little portions. With each one, a little more tension leaves his limbs. There is apart of his brain that thinks if it only tries hard enough it can will all this to be a dream. In this fantasy the breeze becomes a nonchalant gust from his bedroom window, fresh and welcome. 


"What do you plan on doing with yours?" Honnari asked, not taking his eyes off his task. What was only green a week before has become a garland of the most vibrant blooms. They are colours to weave dreams from, as soft and fine as any silk. How they come from earth, sunshine and rain feels akin to magic, even though the science is well known. The older Honnari becomes, the more he sees the miracle they are, better than any picture or movie could be. Their sweet, almost sickly, smell of flowers cut through the soft scent of the morning's dewy grass. 




Honnari held the flower in his fingertips so that it did not touch his lacy palms. How was it that in all this chaos this delicate bloom should survive? It's stem was the hue of spring grass and it's brilliant yellow petals so thin that even the air, made dim by the plumes of debris and smoke from the village near, could shine through them; bestowing an unearthly glow. The smile that had played at the corners of his rosy lips faded. This flower, while reaching for the sun was a living corpse, it was alive and dead. He had plicked it, and without it's roots, it's vibrancy would fade sooner than the daylight. 

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Kaida knew words like ethereal and unearthly, but they certainly didn't enter into her daily speech or thoughts. She used a more grounded outlook on life, with words like food and rent, where she could come and go from her little home in Konohagakure without having to worry much about the world at large. These would be the halcyon days, and she knew it. As long as that sword stayed on her back, her life was in danger. Yet, she could not either part with it. Her family would find her eventually, and she had no way of knowing if it would be tomorrow or years from now. Though she was present in the moment and doing her best to enjoy it, every day, thoughts of the sword and her family still tickled at the back of her mind.

Thus, for her, it was unusual being in this man's presence now. His presence set a certain mood that felt somehow serene. Life seemed to happen more slowly here. After what felt like endless hours of scouring the dense and dangerous forest, Kaida found peace here. Was it that she felt safe in his presence? No, she didn't feel safe. At ease but alert. Physically, it was like a small mountain had gotten up from her chest and she could breathe for the very first time. Of course, it could have been the scent of the tree, too. Blinking, she looked around quickly, double-checking her surroundings and checking for signs of genjutsu. Finding none, she shook her head and picked up the ylang-ylang flower from the ground.

"What do you plan on doing with yours?" he asked, keeping his eyes on the flowers. The Sun's rays shone off his strange headdress, striking an image not unlike a morning star, himself. Rather than answer immediately, she watched him for a moment, head tilted. He held the flower in his fingertips as if to examine it for its beauty. For Kaida, he was surreal to observe.

"They're for a client," she answered dreamily. "Are you the kami of the morning sun?" She had asked the question plainly, as if it only made sense to her that he might be. Of course, it was as soon as she had asked the question that she realized that if he weren't, she had just asked a perfectly normal human a perfectly strange question. She blushed immediately, going stock-straight and almost as red as her horn, but didn't back down. She stood by her query without wavering. Having asked the question after all, she still wanted to know.

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