Ukiyo stood at the peak of a tree, balancing on one foot with her hands together in front of her. She was standing taught with her right leg bent and right foot resting on her left inner thigh. She breathed in, then out. A breezed rolled over her with her breath, swaying the tree below her slightly. She retained balance with practically no effort, moving silently with the tree. The sun rose over the distant horizon, silhouetting trees before it. Ukiyo's skin grew goose bumps from the chill of the dawn, reaching out towards the sun as best it could. Her eyelids lowered as the star grew, slipping into a deep meditation.

The time is drawing near, Ukiyo. Yes, it is. You are beginning to grow ready? I believe so. Good, good. Once things have been set in motion, there will be no stopping them. Do you understand? I have for a while. Yet, your mind seems uneasy. What troubles you? I have met so many here, learned so much. I know it doesn't feel wrong, but somehow it doesn't seem right. I guess you could say my two nature's are conflicting. On the one hand, I wish to protect. On the other, I wish to preserve. So closely related yet complete and utter opposites, huh. It is a dilemma that you knew you would have to face. If your will is strong, it shall be all you need to guide you. And if it is not? Then clearly, you are not ready to make any decision at the moment. However we both know your will is firm. Do not confuse sympathy for apathy. In a way I empathize, though. When my parents left... I felt the same way than if I were to lose you. Yes, you are my family, but so were they. Who am I to say their families are worth any less than you? You have answered that yourself a dozen times before. Yes, but objectively? I can't help but feel sadness for what must be done, or rather what should be done. I feel like whenever I think about it to its logical conclusion, there is no other way. Yet now that we've come so close...it just seems strange. The world is changing constantly, how can we be sure it isn't changing for the better? That we aren't screwing up the world's natural progression ourselves? Progression? Transition, rather. You can call it whatever you want, Ukiyo. What you forget is that those words have little meaning. There are some solid truths, however, and I believe you know those quite well. Unfortunately, yes. But all humans' minds are flawed, no? How could they cause such devastation without flaw? Surely they couldn't knowingly do such things. And if they were to be ignorant, perhaps I am too then. If I am to assume they do all of this merely for themselves, without thinking about nature, then clearly they are incapable of thinking objectively. However that would mean I am too. Perhaps you are right. Our scope of knowledge is separate from yours, and if what you say is true, we are incapable of influencing you in a way that you can understand is "truthful". You must come to a decision on your own. I don't wish to see you die. I know this. Many of them don't seem to care about this fact, and even those I've spoken to seem to be ignorant as well. They still speak about nature as if it belongs to everyone. They slash and burn it, make homes out of corpses, yet they still stroll through and are at peace here. They know so little of the wreckage they bring, or rather don't care. I can't tell which, though. It's difficult...

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Ukiyo dropped down from the top of the tree to a lower branch, landing in a crouch as it bent below her and shook the tree. She placed her hand on the trunk and breathed deeply, closing her eyes as she did so. She felt the bark's course skin, ridges cascading over cracks and dust-dirt coating its surface. She opened her eyes and looked out among the branches around her; their leaves filling the air almost enough to block them but not quite. Sunlight filtered through the cracks and illuminated them, outlining a beautiful jigsaw pattern scattered among the foliage. Ukiyo smiled gently, mentally warn from the stress she had been carrying lately. It wasn't too long ago she was scraping by with her abilities as a Genin, being sent home in disgrace from the Chuunin exams and never quite catching up with Mitsuo. She felt as though she had grown strong since then, and at her current abilities didn't need worry about such things. She was finally growing into the woman she always wanted to be, however, at heart, she was sad. She had made somewhat of a home here, even if she didn't feel as strong of a connection to it as she did with her plants. It was something that cast doubt in her mind, though, something that she couldn't simply ignored. Ukiyo brushed her hand through her hair, rubbing her head. Ow... She wasn't conflicted, far from it. She knew what she needed to do and what she wanted to do, and last minute doubts weren't going to change that. It was simply a bother; something that would poke at her subconscious until she finally made her decision. I don't get it. If I know what I'm going to decide, why would my mind act like this? It knows those petty feelings aren't going to change anything... Nothing is decided. You think you know what you will pick, but until you honor that with action, it is as likely as your doubts. I don't believe that. I know myself, I know what I will do.

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Ukiyo dropped to the forest floor and began lazily strolling around, sweeping blades of grass with her foot and contemplating her new found guilt. She sighed heavily as the morning dew coated her toes, soaking the bottom of her pants as they clung to her legs. She wriggled her toes with grass in between, their silky stalks mushing together and wrapping around her skin. Why does grass grow so slowly? Well, you know a lot about it; think. I know they can efficiently die down to the roots and grow back up again with a good success rate. Does that mean most of their effort goes into their roots, assuring this ability while also not investing too much in leaves that they'll just lose anyway? For the most part, yes. They also require far less sunlight than most plants, so the leaves are much less important than the roots for that reason too. Roots... The thought resonated with Ukiyo. She had roots here. Even if there were few, and even if they were somewhat shallow, they were still there. Does this mean I concentrate on my leaves too much? I've planted roots here, in Konoha; am I supposed to sacrifice them for my leaves? What if I lose those too? Others would have roots they could fall back on, people or nourishment that would sustain them until they could regrow. But if I lose my light...what then? Would I die? ... We are your roots Ukiyo. Since you were a child you have been growing roots among us, and we have entangled ours with you as well. We will support you no matter what, Ukiyo. If you die, we will become your leaves. Your consciousness will live on in us, just as ours lives in you. Surely you have felt some form of this when we control your body; you feel a sense of being in every plant we grow, don't you? I honestly don't have any memories of what happens when you take over, other than those you create. I wouldn't be able to say... Ukiyo knelt down by a patch of grass near her tree. It was pretty dry relative to the rest of grass. She plucked a blade and held it up to her face, inspecting it tentatively. She then looked down to where she pulled it and delicately pulled the dirt apart. She opened it just enough to see into, not enough to disturb the roots however. She could see the grass's roots sprawled out beneath the dirt, reaching deep and then spreading, creating a web-like pattern when mixed with nearby roots. It seemed intertwined, a part of the collective of roots. Ukiyo sighed again. I wonder if I've become intertwined with the people here? Are my roots that deep? Spread out? I can't seem to tell. Is that because they aren't or because of my inability to understand humans though? Ukiyo sighed once more, dropping the grass. Roots can be regrown. If they aren't that deep, they don't take that long. Maybe not if you can control it, but maybe mine simply grow slower than others. Maybe I'll never reclaim what I have, even if it doesn't seem like much now.

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