Rokumaru looked down at his list once again as he wandered around the desert a few miles from Suna, trying to find any trace of the supplies he was sent out to find. He went down the list in order: fruits from a cactus, as all edible and nutritious; seeds from the Sage plant; pods of Mesquite and leaves of Agave; catch live reptiles and insects for meat. Rokumaru was extremely adamant that he had no real offensive techniques to take on any coyote or wolf packs, and no knowledge of medicinal herbs, so he was allowed to skip those items for the time being.

He was given a few small burlap sacks to place any fruits and plants he found, and two larger sacks for the reptiles and insects. Again, he didn't really have many jutsu to kill any large animals, but he could disorient them with a Air Stream or Earth Flow a river and snatch them up. Getting snakes in a bag with lizards and tarantulas with other bugs should do most of the killing for him.

Rokumaru first began with collecting plants as he went from Prickly Pear to Cholla cacti, using his kunai to slice the fruit from the base of the plant and carefully putting them into a sack solely for cactus fruit. He could see a few birds of various species watching him from the limbs, obviously not very happy this guy was taking a lot of the fruit they liked to snack on, but in the desert it was survival of the fittest. He collected a few pounds worth of the fruit and tied up the sack they were held in with a bit of thin rope, and tied the sack around his waist securely.

Next Roku went around collecting the herbs and plants that grew out of the ground. Things like the agave could be used in their entirety, from the leaves to the roots, so he dig those up completely. Other plants like the mesquite, bushmint and stinging nettle only had certain parts that were useful so a kunai went to work on separating his quarry from the plants. The stinging nettle gave him a bit of a rash on his hands the first few times he touched their leaves, wanting to give some form of retaliation to the teen scouring their useful bits. A few sacks were filled up by the various leaves, seeds and roots he had collected and were tied up along with the fruit around his waste. He would need his hands free for this next part.

While he was collecting the plants and fruit Rokumaru had seen all sorts of animals scurrying away from him, except for the snakes who he had to carefully go around, but he was too busy to go after them before. Now, however, they were his target. The more dangerous animals like the rattlesnakes and tarantulas would need to be collected last as he wasn't eager to have a few biting fangs at his hands every time he opened a bag.

The lizards were easy enough to run down and catch with his hands if he got to them before they reached their deep burrows pockmarking the sand and stone. Rokumaru felt rather guilty about this as he always admired the scaly creatures for their appearance and keeping the desert free of bugs, but he also knew how tasty the could be roasted with a few spices or made into soup. Into the sack they went.

The snakes were more tricky to catch; they could defend themselves from a grown adult and they knew it, daring the young Genin to come at them with their unblinking eyes. He came upon a group of them sunning themselves on a rock that poked out, and with a few hand seals he prepared a jutsu."Wind Release: Stream!" he yelled out as he released the air in his lungs in a huge burst at the creatures. They were light enough to be picked up by the technique and were launched a few feet away, disoriented as Rokumaru quickly grabbed each behind the head and tossed them in the sack with the now-terrified lizards. Before they could start a feeding frenzy in the bag Roku tied it up securely and hauled it over the the rock, struggling to lift it above his head before slamming it against the stone a few times to kill everything inside. Feeling all movement in the bag cease, he strapped it to his waist.

Rokumaru was going to hunt after spiders and other insects, but honestly he had enough supplies for one day. It certainly didn't held that there was a nearly foot-long tarantula sitting on that same rock who just watched Roku snatch up all those snakes, fangs bared in preparation to defend itself. Roku instead walked back to the village to turn in what he had collected.

WC: 825/600
Mission Complete~