Fuzzy

[Infinites]

1198/800

It was an early morning and Yanagi had decided to go for a walk through the garden. He had the day off from his iijutsu training and while it was nice to have some peace and quiet he wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. When his parents left for their daily work at the great Naegi garden he decided to follow. They took it to mean he was finally giving up on his foolish thoughts of being a real shinobi, but in reality he merely liked the fresh air produced by the copious amounts of various crops growing in the massive underground farm. His parents had never said so directly that they believed he would never amount to more than a farmer, but they didn't need to. Within the clan every child was expected to eventually become a field tender just the same as every other generation of Naegi had done. The life of a shinobi was dangerous and he had an obligation to produce the crops that gave life to their great village.

He didn't believe that at all. Yanagi believed that everyone had their own purpose which they had to find on their own. He could never doubt the great things that his clan had done to bring life into their world; it just wasn't for him. He wanted to save the lives that could not be sustained on rice and wheat; to protect those that would otherwise perish without medical attention. To him it was not his obligation to create life but rather to save lives. At the very least he would ease some of the suffering of this world.

He pondered on these beliefs as he walked through the fields of crops. He had spent so much time here as a child that even though he had not come nearly as often during his academy years he still knew exactly where everything was. Above ground time was marching on, things were always happening. Down here nothing ever seemed to change. Of course the crops grew and shrank with the seasons and were harvested and replaced, but there were always crops and there was always his clan tending to them. It seemed to him that time had stopped in the garden and for the Naegi by extension; destined to live their lives the same as they had for generations before he was born.

"Aaagghhhh, why does such a beautiful place make me feel more depressed than relaxed.... It wasn't always like this, right?" As he said this Yanagi sat down among the various plants. He crossed his legs and his head to no plant in particular. "What do you guys think? Is this really all there is for us?" He sat in silence for a moment imagining what the plants might reply with had they spoken his language. "Of course you do, you just want me to take care of all you lazy plants. You guys were a lot nicer when I was a kid..." The crops stared at him in silence. They didn't seem to be in a particularly good mood today.

Yanagi laid back, resting his head on the ground. Turning his head to the side he watched the swaying of the crops. It was a sea of green in a land dominated by tan and brown. "I've never ever seen the sea... I wonder what it's like..." he thought aloud as he often did when his mind wandered. Through the waves of this sea of vegetation something caught his eye. It was small and silent, a cream colored tuft of hair amid the crops. It was so tiny that Yanagi wasn't even sure it was there at first, and so he stared for quite some time before he was positive he had seen it twitch slightly. He rolled over onto his stomach keeping his eyes locked on this furry intruder. Pests often found their way into the crops, at least that's what he had heard from his parents. In all his childhood years he had never seen one with his own eyes.

Slowly he crawled toward the creature, curiosity overpowering him more than anything. Bringing himself closer and closer he knew something was wrong. By this point he could tell that he had first noticed the small animal's bushy tail through the plants. Something else had caught his eye though. Dark and red, a gash ran across the back of this creature's leg. The animal was laying out flat, it's small chest slowly rising and falling with each breath. Hungry, tired and injured the little one had made it's way into the farm somehow in a search for food of any kind. Bringing himself up close to the animal it awoke terrified by the large human face hovering near it. Quickly gathering what little energy it had the small animal, which Yanagi could now tell was a baby fox, scurried backward a few inches and hissed at the boy. It's large ears were pinned backwards in fear. Remaining on his stomach Yanagi slowly reached into his satchel trying not to scare the fox any more than he already had. He pulled out the sandwich he had packed for his lunch and unwrapped it carefully. The fox watched curiously all the while.

Yanagi tore off a piece of bread from the sandwich and tossed it onto the ground in front of the fox. It stared at him for a moment before cautiously sniffing the offering. Determining that it was in fact food and not a trick the fox hurriedly took small bites before suddenly moving forward to eat the remainder in one quick motion. Yanagi continued to give small portions of his lunch the baby animal until he had eaten his entire sandwich, lulling it into a state of uneasy trust. "How can you be so tiny but eat so fast?" The fox's ears jolted forward as he spoke, suddenly surprised and curious all at the same time. "Of course I talk, I'm a person. You're the weird one here." It tilted it's head to the side as Yanagi spoke again, giving him a look that he swore meant it understood him. "Why don't we get you out of here little one? If my parents find you out here they won't be nice like me." As he said this he slowly brought his hand to brush against the fox's tail.

The fox turned and sniffed at his hand as Yanagi came near, but did not pull away. Yanagi smiled as he slowly rubbed his hand against the animal's side. It watched him with large innocent eyes as he carefully cupped it in both hands to raise it off the ground and into his arms. It nestled against his chest as Yanagi slowly walked out of the crops. "We'll have to do something about that leg of yours when we get home." He would have attempted to treat the animal then and there but the disinfectant would sting and he didn't want to anger the little creature. Yanagi looked up from the baby fox to turn his attention back to the plants. "This is what I'm suppose to do, don't you think?"