'Okay, so if I left Suna about a half hour ago, and walked two miles,' Roku traced his pencil along a pad of paper held in his left hand, 'then I should be at the first cactus with eight branches.' He looked around for the plant in question. It was nowhere in sight. He must have been walking southeast rather than directly south.'Ah no sweat, what's another half hour walk to where I'm supposed to be. Or would it only be a fifteen minute walk.' Roku sketches a dot on another sheet, to stand for the village, one dot to stand for where he was and another to stand for where he should be. He was an absolute failure when it came to math beyond simple arithmetic but it looked like the walk to where he should be wasn't too far. He was glad his career depended on hard work rather than his skills in math.

The walk to where he should have been was uneventful, the only thing on Roku's mind was if he was going in the right direction the whole time. He should really buy a well-made compass if the village wouldn't lend him one for missions like this. 'Just add it to the shopping list, right below a cheap puppet.' He could hear the sound of coyotes off in the distant yipping and howling but Roku wasn't too worried as he could lay down an Earth Flow River and beat it.

Finally, he caught sight of the eight-branches cactus, poking out over a dune with a long and thin red ribbon tied around its top flowing in the wind. That was the marker for where he was to start outlining a map of about a mile stretch of land beyond. Roku wasn't sure why he needed to chart so close to the village, only a good hike away from its stony walls, but that became apparent as soon as he reached the dune and stood by the cactus.

A massive sandstorm had obviously just sweeper through the area and almost nothing looked like the map Rokumaru was given for reference. Where tall dunes once stood now were flat or craters, what cactuses were sketched were now barely poking out from beneath the sand. The books on Kaze no Kuni's climate often spoke of how treacherous and unpredictable the desert was which granted Suna most of its protection, but now he was seeing the evidence of it all himself. Seeing all that sand burying the landscape brought a warmth to his own sandy heart.

Getting to the task at hand Roku pulled out his pencil and pad of paper again to start sketching what he saw out. Drawing a perspective on the dune he stood on with the eight-limbed cactus in the foreground, he made sure to accurately draw the height of the new dunes and worked great detail into the cacti that poked out to serve as markers. His handwriting was rather terrible but Rokumaru could draw about as well as anyone his age. He knew Fuuinjutsu wasn't likely in his future arsenal but that didn't bother him much.

His pencils broke a few times, which slowed him down as he had to sharpen it by hand with the kunai he carried in his baggy cargo pocket above his right knee. Feeling like he had gotten the most important bits down he walked across the landscape further south to get closer details on the things he saw. Suna relied on having up-to-date maps of they desert around them so he absolutely could not skimp on his work. Finally, satisfied with his drawing, he noted the landmark at the top of the page-the eight limbed cactus- and walked back to the village to turn it in.


WC: 646/600
Mission Complete~