Spoiler:

Another errand to run, it seems. It appears the chuunin exams also fell in the same boat as harvesting time in Konoha. Well, it's like Kizmaru had anything to do for the time being. He could use this to expand his knowledge on Konoha customs, he assumed. So he took and began to walk towards the orchard that he was being directed too. It seems there was quite a few people here already. This didn't surprise however what did surprise him was the fact that people seemed to be confused when placing two of the same fruit together. This greatly puzzled Kizmaru so he went to a nearby native and asked him what was going on. After a brief explaination, Kizmaru learned that even though a lot of fruits look the same. It turns out they could be a different fruit with the same properties as something that didn't look like them at all. This now confused Kizmaru as he wasn't sure what he would even d in a situation like this. Well, Kizmaru thought he would figure this out as he went along.

For now, he'd pick up a nearby, unused basket and began picking some fruits that had fallen and placing them into the basket. Well, one thing was for sure, he could immediately tell which fruit was rotten and which fruit was okay. Kizmaru discarded the obvious rotten ones and continued on with his pickings. Soon, he have filled up the basket with said goodies, he pondered on gathering more.

W.C: 258

Well, it was time to get down to business, Kizmaru thought to himself. He figured it would be best to just collect more of these identical fruits before getting ready to sort them out. He wasn't sure how he was gonna go about sorting these fruit just yet so he decided to go the easier route and just gather more. He figured he could gather them and think about how to sort them as he went. This all felt like some kind of hoax and that they were all the same fruit in different stages of the ripening process. He wasn't sure what anybody would gain from doing this so he had to rule out that possibility, especially if he was getting paid for it. That wasn't his job right now at the moment, his job was to figure out how to sort these damned things. As he picked them up, he brainstormed more and more ideas as how to sort them out. His first idea, was taking a bite out of every one of them to see if they tasted different. He wasn't sure if he would get in trouble for sampling the very thing he was suppose to be harvesting but Kizmaru decided he wouldn't take any chances with being caught. When he thought nobody was paying attention to him, Kizmaru slipped behind one of the tree's with three of fruits of varying colors in hand. There was a yellow, crimson and a orange fruit. He then looked at the three of them and figured the order of which he took a bite from didn't matter. Kizmaru took a random one, which is the crimson one and bit into it.

He didn't taste anything out of the ordinary so he decided that he'd keep the taste in mind and hope for the best with the next one. He took the orange one and bit into, chewing slowly to see if he got a different flavor. After a few moments of chewing, Kizmaru deduced that this fruit tastes exactly like the last one he had bit into which irritated him a tad bit. He wasn't sure what he was gonna get from tasting this last, yellow one but what the heck? He's come this far, right? Placing the fruit near his mouth, Kizmaru took a final bite from this fruit and to his surprise this one tasted different. He was a bit happy that this taste tasting wasn't all for naught but at the same time, he didn't really feel like he made any progress as to how to differentiate the fruits without actually biting into them. After all, it was said that he had to figure this out without damaging the goods, which Kizmaru so carelessly did. Sighing, he decided it was back to the drawing board as he attempted to hide the pieces of half eaten fruit under some shrubbery. He came out from his little hiding spot and started to line up the remaining fruit he had gathered on a nearby stump,

He was still wondering how he'd get to the bottom of this. Even though the colors were different, some still yielded the same taste with different colors while others tasted slightly different while looking completely identical. Kizmaru wasn't sure how he would get to the bottom of this but he'd have to find another way that didn't involve eating them. He didn't want to get penalize for chowing down on fruit he didn't even have a particular taste for. If only he had a sensory jutsu for this kind of thing but alas, he did not. It felt like it would have been a waste of chakra in the first place. He was hoping that somebody else not native to these lands would figure it out and teach him how to do so cause he didn't really want to ask a native and be made fun of or laughed at.

W.C: 676

Total Word Count: 934

Topic Word Count: 1448

Kizmaru decided it would just be best to pick more of the fruit and continue on thinking about how he would differentiate the fruits. His only saving grave was that running around and picking up fruit in a basket was actually pretty relaxing from all the other various tasks he had to do. Thinking back, this wasn't too different from the foraging he had to do on his training trip to the dangerous volcano in Iwagakure. He didn't have to worry about fire or lava, burning him, his clothes or his belongings. Still, it was good time be able to pick things at his leisure. Still, he had to get back to the problem at hand eventually. That problem being, how to figure out how to tell apart the fruit from each other. A few minutes later, Kizmaru realized he had filled up his basket with all the fruits he could gather and the time for some sincere examination had begun. He took the fruits he had gathered and placed them all on a little picnic table that happened to be scattered about in the orchard people were harvesting in.

He laid them out on the table to examine them properly. At first, he just half-assed looking and touching them. He couldn't say he was very interested in sorting them and wondered why they didn't just have specialists just sort them. He figured this was either suppose to be some sort of "fun" event for natives of the Leaf village or just wanted some cheaper labor of passing tourists. Either way, this was a strange concept to him. He would much rather be sorting rocks and minerals instead. Yes, rocks. He figured they'd me much more useful and valuable than some fruits that couldn't tell which way was up or down at first glance. Despite this, this was also technically a job and he was getting paid for it regardless.

Either way, he had to finish it and solve the riddle before he would get paid. Sighing, he closely examined each of the fruits he had gathered. At first glance, he couldn't tell what made them so different other than their colors and their test. But he couldn't take a bit out of every one and then turn them in, they'd be considered no good. He decided to give the fruits another once over to see if he missed anything the first time he looked. It still looks exactly the same to him, just a bunch of random bright colors ranging between red through yellow on the scale of a rainbow. This time though, this time he noticed something different. When he looked at the fruits that he gathered, the spines on them were different. He wasn't sure if this mattered or not but he figured it was a start. Like the colors, there were three different types of spines.

It turns out the spines represent a different flavor even though two fruits had the exact same outside features. For instance, one of the fruit's spines were pointy and edible. Kizmaru took a bit out of it to taste it once more. It was sweet and so juicy, some of it had ran down his lips when taking a bite. Kizmaru could get behind this flavor but alas, this isn't what he was here for. He decide dhe'd fin it some other time and continue on with his theory. He took the next fruit next to it which had the exact same colors but the spins on this one were flat and somewhat round. Kizmaru took another bite of this fruit to taste it's contents. this one was somewhat sweet however, it was also tangy and a bit sour.  To his surprise, it wasn't that bad but it seems Kizmaru preferred the first fruit. Now for the last fruit that didn't have any spines on them. was singled out. With that, he had solved the riddle.

-Exit.-

W.C: 663

Total W.C: 1597
Topic W.C: 2677
EP Gained: 2500 Words = 1 bonus EP
Mission WC: 750
Exta WC: 800 = 200 Ryo