Beginnings [Samajima]

[Kazumi]

The sun loomed tentatively over the eastern horizon, eagerly awaiting the passing moments so that it can grade Wind Country with its majestic rays. Kneeling down on the ground which would one day be a bustling footpath for citizens was a familiar long blue haired girl, her hair pulled back by a purple cloth scrunchie. Next to her was a much younger boy, no older than three who did his best to assist his older sister in her new morning duties. Today that consisted of helping to tend to the budding shoots of trees which had been planted with the hopes of bringing a semblance of life to the barren surface.

The heat had yet to set in, and there was actually a slight chill that persisted in the air while the peeking sun worked to remove all traces of fair temperatures from the land. Meanwhile the pair worked in relative silence, the boy having more fun poking holes in the dirt than he was accomplishing actual work. Regardless, every minute or two the young woman would look over towards him as he called for her attention, and would offer an amused giggle before patting his head or giving him a wide appreciative smile.

Tsubaki, unlike her brother, was working as quickly as she could while maintaining the level of excellence that her family was known for. She checked each sprout, budding plant and tended to each of them in turn. Watering, spreading a white power over top of the soil and replanting seeds to replace ones that refused to grow in the desert climate. She knew there would be a large number of those. They were experimenting at the moment, after all. It would be difficult to tell which of these plants would be able to survive in the harsh environment, although they all had been bred to be able to withstand less forgiving circumstances.

Staring at a small sprout which should have been twice its height by now, the girl raised her brow and sighed. "Daisssuke" she muttered in a low raspy tone to get his attention. He suddenly dropped the handful of seeds he had been holding as if he was caught redhanded in some crime. This elicited another amused chuckle from her before she shook her head and gestured her hand infront of him to draw his attention. She began to make slow gestures with her hands as she moved her lips, hoping to help him learn the language that she was most comfortable with. "Go fetch Kyobai Extract for me. This one is struggling, but I think it can make it.

He stared at her for a few seconds, causing her to wonder if he understood what she gestured. Then, suddenly he nodded his head with emphatic eagerness and "I will go get it!" Before he stood up and began to scamper off down the path, back towards their house. Still smiling, Tsubaki contained a silent laugh as she turned and went back to her tending.

 

[Samejima]

Project Rebirth... It brought a sense of anticipation to Naoki, especially now that she's decided to actively look for things that could use some attention. The area didn't seem to be slowing down in its progression and this can really only be attributed to the hardworking shinobi and citizens who have decided to try and help in the rebuilding of Suna. And this day, the genin would be a part of that workforce no matter what anyone says! She was going to be a bit pushier today, because it's hard to just walk past people without- ooh there's someone. What's a kid doing here? She heard him say he was about to go fetch something, and her attention shifted to the girl who was still outside. What's she doing?

She trotted over, hoping to be of use to some degree. "Uhh excuse me!" Once she reached the girl, assuming she turned back or stood up to face her, Naoki would snap her fingers a few times, explaining "ah, I'm snapping them to navigate by the way" out of habit. Feels like I've met her before. Hmm... Seeing as it would have been awkward to ask if they had and that she likely wouldn't remember even after hearing a name, she forged ahead. "Would you like some extra hands here maybe?"

 

[Kazumi]

Tsubaki had already returned to tending of the fortunate sprouts which had survived their initial trial when the newcomer approached and spoke. Her head perked up and she looked back and up towards the girl who looked to be slightly younger than she... and quite familiar. Tsubaki set her spade onto the ground and stood up to greet the newcomer when she noticed that her eyes were covered by the iconic Hitai-ate that shinobi tended to wear. She was not accustomed to dealing with people who couldn't see, and a few moments of silent hesitation followed as she looked down towards the slightly shorter girl.

As she began to frantically try and think of a way to communicate with the girl that didn't involve speaking she noticed the face behind that blindfold. It was the girl from that nightmare last night. A sudden feeling of fond remembrance struck her as she recalled the first seed she had consumed in what felt like years, though in truth it had only been the better part of a week. It was a small one, and the fear that formed it was rather tame, but like a dehydrated woman being given a small sip of water, it was wonderful.

As he moment of recollection faded other thoughts came to her mind. Was the girl blind, or was she simply training? Shinobi were inhumanly talented after all, it was possible that she simply was training. After all, if she were blind then that nightmare wouldn't have had any visual component to it that she would have recognized. The last thing she ever wanted to do was to speak to the girl, even the mere thought was stomped out before it had time to coalesce. Another option was to simply remain silent, but she did not want her to think she was ignoring her. So, the final option presented itself as she attempted to perform a breech of personal space. Hesitating further, Tsubaki reached her right hand, which was less covered in dirt, up towards Naoki's forehead protector to attempt to lift it up away from Naoki's eyes.

 

[Samejima]

Expecting a verbal answer, Naoki had ceased the snapping for a bit, but after a few moments of silence despite the girl having stood up and seeming to acknowledge her, she snapped her fingers again and was surprised to find that a hand was reaching for her face! Reflexively she took several backsteps and stood so that her torso was twisted to the left and the hand on that side was at her knife's grip in a ready stance before remembering the hand reaching for her was likely from a non-hostile girl anyway. ...waitwait wha, just calm down geez-

Immediately her stance relaxed and tried to think of why that happened all of a sudden. I could just tell her it was a reflex, that part's fine right? It was a reflex after all... But why was she reaching for my face in the first place? Did she hear what I said? Why the face and not the hands? ...did she need my headband for something maybe? "Uhh... did you want this?" Naoki untied her headband and held it up by the plate. Her eyes were still closed, but she'd let go of the headband if the girl were to try and take it. Ahh maybe she thinks it's not real? I'm pretty tall though, it's not uncommon to see kids like me as a genin around here right? Hmm... maybe she's a newcomer!

Clearing her throat, Naoki stood up straight and puffed up her chest a little, since she hadn't gotten to do this intro in awhile. "My name is Samejima Naoki, genin of Sunagakure despite my looks, and I've been in this village for a few years now! Are you new here?"

 

[Kazumi]

Tsubaki also flinched backwards as Naoki assumed a defensive position, her hand retreating back to avoid being cut off by the shinobi. She looked startled, not sure what exactly to do when Naoki began to attempt to piece things together. How was she supposed to talk to this girl if she wouldn't open her eyes? For that matter, how did she know she was reaching for her with her eyes covered? Shinobi were a very curious bunch...

"I gooooot iiiiit!" called out a young boy from far behind Naoki. Tsubaki's younger brother scampered along the ground with a blue glass vial clasped in both hands as he hurried towards them. He gave Naoki a wide berth as he made his way to Tsubaki's side, and he received a wide smile in both thanks for his help and due to his opportune timing. She gestured for his attention before she began to make signs, somewhat quicker than he was able to understand in her haste. He paused, still holding the vial as he watched and tried to comprehend what she means. "Please tell her to open her eyes. I can't communicate with her with her eyes closed," she signed before nodding over towards Naoki.

He stared a few moments in puzzlement before nodding. Still clasping the vial he spun towards Naoki and spoke with childlike authority. "Onee-chan says to... open a thing?" Tsubaki furrowed her brow and nudged him on the shoulder to get his attention once more.

"Tell her to look at me. You know I can't speak to people," she gestured slowly and more emphatically before signaling for him to translate.

"Oh! Onee-chan says she wants you to look at her. She doesn't like talking to people, so she makes gestures and stuff." Silently the young woman let out a sigh annoyance, wishing her other brother was there to assist. Daisuke meant well, but he was young and still wasn't very good at serving as a translator.

 

[Samejima]

Naoki stood in silence as she heard the little one explain. Ohh, so they're siblings, okay... Gestures? She uses gestures to talk? It shouldn't take too much to focus here in any case, so she would be able to try... But it may take some time before she was able to regain her sight for a little while. Retying her headband, this time around her neck, she said, "Ah um, I actually can't see... But I can sorta... hear gestures? It's a bit hard to explain but as long as someone's making a sound close by I should be able to see what they're doing for the most part..." Hmm... How do I explain this right? Should I open my eyes for a bit maybe?

She proceeded to do just that, revealing the glassy yet still somehow vibrant eyes of a Hashigaki. She'd been practicing in that regard, and had gotten somewhat used to opening her eyes and not immediately seeing anything in the usual sense. Okay, so if I start focusing now... Since they were currently functionless but still alive, she had to blink a few times during the course of the focusing, which would take about a minute if she was lucky. In that time it would be possible to continue a conversation but not one that would require her to exert her problem solving capabilities. "I might take some time, but if I have to see to be able to help I should be able to do so... Just gimme about a minute, but yeah, are you guys new here? What're you doing?"

 

[Kazumi]

Both Tsubaki and her little brother seemed a little perplexed at what Naoki was attempting to explain, though Tsubaki seemed to be the one more affected by it. He was not old enough to have a great deal of decutive reasoning skills, but Tsubaki certainly was, and the notion of hearing her gestures was odd, to say the least. The girl looked down toward her brother, who was already looking back up towards her. Stashing away her confusion, Tsubaki put on her elder sister face and knelt down to take the bottle from him.

Sliding the bottle into a pocket on her hip, Tsubaki reached out and ruffled his hair slightly with a pleased smile. She then turned toward Naoki, gesturing slowly so they both could see. "Are you able to understand sign language?" Just as she finished speaking, her brother opened his mouth to translate when Tsubaki reached out and quickly put a hand on his shoulder, shaking her head for him to hold off for the moment.

If a few long moments would pass without any sign of understanding then her brother would eagerly chime in with, "Onee-chan wants to know if... umm..." He paused, looking momentarily lost in thought before she shook his head and grinned. "I do not think she does, onee-chan." He gave Tsubaki an exaggerated shake of her head, which was rewarded by another smile and an encouraging gesture to continue. "We are new!" He continued energetically, "it is too hot out here though... I do not like it."

 

[Samejima]

Thinking about it, the snapping would get rather annoying after a long period of time. But let's not think about these sorts of things.

If she talks with her gestures, I'll have to keep snapping my fingers to know what she's saying right? And so Naoki did, snapping once she lost 'sight' of the movements the girl made. And she did, crystal clear... But she had no idea what they meant. Uhh okay, so that first one's just pointing at me... and the next one is umm... pointing at the sky? Is there something up there? Ohh, is she asking whether or not I come from the surface? Wait, but we are on the surface. Hmm... maybe whether or not I thought another storm was brewing? What relation does that have with anything... That can't be right. And what's that last one? It just looks like she's spinning her fingers around each other for some reason... Oh! Is it a separate language? Do those gestures mean actual words?

Upon figuring out the gestures were actually another language and not the gestures she thought they were, those few moments passed and the little one chimed in. "Sorry, I don't think I do either... All I got from that was that you were asking whether or not I knew if a storm was coming or something," she said, scratching her head while it was tilted to her left. "Ah, and welcome to the village of Sunagakure! It is pretty hot I guess, but I've been in this country my whole life so I'm definitely used to it, hahah~ So... what exactly were you two up to out here?"

Man this place must be really hot compared to anywhere else. It seems like everyone that moves here just has a comment about the high temperatures... Is there some way we can make it cooler in the village itself later on maybe? As she pondered village coolification ideas, the wind blew somewhat harshly and she was reminded to pull the headband back up over her eyes. She'd forgotten what a pain it was to keep one's eyes open lest grains of sand get in there.

 

[Kazumi]

It was about this time that the feeling of missing her older brother grew a little stronger. She was practically talking through the limited mouth of a three year old, something that she knew would only damage her reputation before it even began. With a silent lamenting sigh she reached out and tapped Daisuke's shoulder again and began to give him slow signs once again. "Tell her that our family is here tending to the horticulture of Project Rebirth. Also, introduce us both, it would be rude to not do so. We want to make a good impression with the residents, remember? Also, she is a ninja, be respectful. She seems nice, but you have heard all of the stories." The signing took a good fifteen seconds, ones that likely were rather awkward for the blind shinobi girl as she was forced to simply stand and observe.

"Okay!" He replied, once again brimming with youthful energy. "We are here to help grow the plants up here. Make it prettier and things... oh! I am Koizumi Daisuke." He proceeded to give Naoki a hasty bow, before he paused for a few long seconds. With a nudge on his shoulder he looked startled again and then continued, "this is my onee-chan, Tsubaki! She is super cool, and she is going to be a ninja like you!"

The sudden forthright admission of her younger brother caused Tsubaki to literally softly facepalm herself as she realized that this might have been a mistake. It was true that she had managed to reluctantly get her parents permission to enter the academy here. That on its own was a miracle that even she could still not believe. Now if only she could keep Daisuke from somehow angering this girl which, Tsubaki worried, might somehow get her expelled from the academy before her first day.

 

[Samejima]

The genin stood still as the ambient sound relayed some very vague signs to her. She seems like she'd be good at handseals... If she was even studying to be one of the shinobi anyway, if she wasn't then it'd probably mean she writes a lot? Or like, origami! It's pretty cool how people can make shapes from plain old paper like that. Maybe I should learn the language, having faster fingers never hurt... Plus then I'd be able to understand people who don't talk, so it's like two birds with one stone! Being an area in development, it wasn't too surprising that there weren't many people about to help her hear things happening, but at least they were somewhat discernible at a normal level of focus as she stood up a bit straighter once the girl finished signing.

She bowed as the younger one introduced the elder one, and grinned enthusiastically, not having picked up on the facepalm. "Cool! I'm not in the Academy anymore, but if you want I could tell you some of the more well-equipped training rooms and the instructors you should be careful around, though I actually have no idea what the current situation is in there... Maybe I should try taking classes again..." I did pretty much drop out some time ago to just focus on training, but I still need to learn some of the more advanced techniques I bet. She shook her head out of her thoughts for now however, and continued, "It's nice to meet you two! I wanna try and help out up here, so if there's anything I can try or learn I'd really appreciate having something to do... Otherwise it's back to patrols down there, and it gets pretty, well..." She tilted her head both ways successively, trying to avoid saying the word 'boring'. "Uneventful, y'know?" She gave up on that venture, might as well put it as it is.

 

[Kazumi]

"Training rooms?" Tsubaki reflexively signed, towards Naoki before she realised that the girl couldn't see, much less understand her. Again she poked the little blabbermouth and began to make handsigns for him, "Ask she what she means by that. Actually, just tell her to tell me everything she knows... In a polite manner," she finished off rather quickly to make sure he saw before he spoke. Then, just as he was about to speak, she waved to get his attention once more. "Also, tell her that if she wants to assist, she can help out with the testing of roots and failed sprouts. I know how much you dislike doing it, and so perhaps she could pick up your slack." Tsubaki silently chuckled to herself as she gestured for him to begin.

"Umm..." he paused, hesitating as he tried to remember everything that he was supposed to relay to the shinobi. "Onee-chan says you talk alot and that you should do my work for me." The young child sounded rather blunt about his 'translation' of Tsubaki's words, likely only worsening how badly that sounded.

Her eyes widened a little and she began gesturing rather frantically, shaking her head and crossing her arms as she threw them apart. After a few moments of that, along with some confused looks from her brother she began frantically signing at him once again.

 

[Samejima]

Whaaaa... Naturally, Naoki was rather taken aback. Though she did know she tended to rattle on quite a bit, no one had actually said it to her face... Well, if she's saying it I guess I really do need to talk less... Man I didn't even know I was that bad! Gotta pick my words more carefully... She smiled awkwardly and bowed a little in apology. "Ah sorry... my aunt does say that I talk a lot, but I never really tried to work on keeping my sentences short hahah... I guess this is as good a time as any to start!"

Then of course Tsubaki would try and tell him he'd said something in a less than considerate way (or at least that's what Naoki believed Tsubaki was signing at present), since younger kids usually didn't have the tact most older ones do. Ahh she's trying to cover for her brother? She's a nice elder sister for sure, but it's not like I don't get how blunt the younger ones can be. She walked over to Daisuke and ruffled his hair a little. "You're doing pretty good there Daisuke~ How old are you anyway? And what kind of work do you have for me?"

 

[Kazumi]

And the seed pod was already carried away by the wind... Tsubaki stopped her signing and let out a soft audible sigh off resignation as she shook her head. She did not at all say that, and now this girl thought she was a jerk. She silently lamented her situation for a short while as Daisuke eagerly soaked up the attention, turning his confusion into an elated smile as the other girl gave him some attention. "I'm three!" He replied, holding three fingers up with a proud expression on his face.

Tsubaki signed audibly once more and turned to face them both more properly as she raised her hand to get his attention. She paused once she had it though, not entirely sure what she trusted him with translating at the time being. Part of her wanted to know if she had slept soundly the night before, but she quickly quashed that idea. She never revealed what she did, and she had no intention to now. She knew she was helping people, but not everyone was a clear headed as she was about such things.

"Just take her over to the roadside planter over there," she then gestured towards the long path of dirt which lined the footpath. "and show her how to check... actually, I am not sure she can help without being able to see..." She was a shinobi that wasn't able to see, as far as she could tell, and so she likely wouldn't be of much use.

"Onee-chan says you are not helpful cause you can't see." He replied, looking up to Naoki with a wide smile as he seemed to want more praise for his valiant efforts of translation. This child surely was a prodigy in his art.

Once again, Tsubaki's gave him a wide eyed stare and tossed her hands up as she turned away from the pair. It was obvious he was messing with her today, she knew Daisuke was much smarter than he let on at his age, and there was no way he was doing this on accident! He was becoming more and more like his brother with each passing day...

 

[Samejima]

"Oh, that means I'm exactly ten years older than you! My name's Samejima Naoki," Naoki nodded at the boy in greeting, and attempted to keep track of Tsubaki's next few signs at them both. The translation came, and she wasn't exactly surprised - much of things that had to do with plants were pretty sight-based as far as she'd heard, and she nodded as she remembered what she had been trying to do up until she learned she needed to cut her words a bit shorter. Luckily, she had been concentrating for awhile now!

Unluckily, the earlier statement had been rather shocking and she lost it. But it shouldn't be as hard to try it again! "Oh about that, I can sometimes see actually. Just that it's... easier not to a lot of the time. Puts strain on me when I try to use my eyes. Just let me watch you at work for a while then Daisuke, I think I should be able to figure it out somehow... And thanks for the job, I hope I'll be able to do something to help at least," she said, facing Tsubaki who was currently turned away as she gave a little nervous chuckle.

Naoki pulled the headband back down around her neck, and attempted to open the first gate juuuust a little. She gave herself time to focus, while watching for and following wherever Daisuke went or whether or not Tsubaki had something else to say.

 

[Kazumi]

At the mention of her being able to see 'sometimes', Tsubaki turned back around to look towards them both. Her head cocked slightly to one side as she watched Naoki lower her forehead protector to rest around her head. Could she only see when she wasn't covering her eyes? Well of course she couldn't see then... shinobi were weird. With another silent sigh, Tsubaki shook her head and tried to let the oddness roll past her.

Then as Naoki opened her eyes and attempted to look around, Tsubaki paused and seemed to notice them for the first time. She had not noticed them in that nightmare but.. there was something... enchanting about them. A serene beauty that tried to draw in her gaze and ensare it. "Onee-san!" Daisuke repeated for the second time as he tugged on her arm. Her gaze snapped away from Naoki, as she realised she probably looked like an idiot just then. "Come ooon," Tsubaki looked down towards him and then over to Naoki for a second before realising how she had zoned out for a few moments.

Shaking that feeling off, she gave them both an affirmative nod, but tuned back and began to give her young brother another communication. "You should go home and tell mom how things are going. Besides, no need for both of us to sweat now that I have some help, okay?"

Daisuke's expression soured a little, as he seemed ready to protest whatever it was she was saying, but then he eventually nodded and turned towards Naoki. He proceeded to give her a quick deep bobbing bow before he said, "I have to go check on mom and stuff. You be nice to onee-san!" His voice carried little authroity from both his size and demenour, but it seemed he meant it. Then without any further pleasantries he had already begun to scamper off down the rroad that he had arrived from a short while ago.

 

[Samejima]

Oh, going already? "Alright, bye! Careful on your way back!" Naoki waved as the little one left, and turned to Tsubaki. ...wait. What? How do I communicate with her? "Uh... So do I just watch what you're doing then?" she asked, eyes still not exactly functional at this point in time but blinking as she said it. Things were slowly becoming more defined, but at this point she was only seeing vague outlines of shapes and movement. Was the sun up yet? It might be easier to try and see when it was brighter of course, and somewhat harder to tell the difference between things when there was less contrast between whatever was being looked at.

What do I do here? Should I try to make conversation? Wait no but I should probably be staying quiet... Then again it's kinda unsettling when there's no talking... Feels weird. Maybe it's because I'm so used to being in the Grand Palais with its bustling areas all the time. I should spend more time on my own sometimes, actually get some reading done... But the training! And the patrols! I still have time before I have to start the first patrol of the day, and I have to do some training afterwards too mmhm. Ah, would she want me to show her around the Academy maybe? I could totally help with that, I think I need to look for one of my lunchboxes anyway. And it'd be a good time to revisit the instructors, maybe pester them a little about any techniques they'd developed. And so the internal monologue would continue as Naoki focused on not opening the gate too wide all of a sudden and having to start again.

 

[Kazumi]

The sun had created over the far horizon just scant half hour ago, and the desert air was already beginning to heat up. As Tsubaki watched her little brother go, she smiled, looking somewhat proud of him. As he rounded a corner she looked over towards the supposedly sighted Naoki and gestured for her to follow. The long ponytailed girl lead Naoki over towards the spot she had been working before. A long section of dirt that was to flank the walkway through town. In the future it would be a rather busy road, but for now they had not seen a single passerbyer since they had arrived this morning.

Tsubaki knelt down beside the dir, where some small sprouts of varying sizes had begun to spring out of the ground in evenly spaced intervals. However, some spots did not seem to be growing as well as the others, and some seemed to have not germinated at all. It was those that seemed to not have made as much progress as others that Tsubaki was tending too. If the sprout was small, she gave it a light pull, testing its roots without damaging the plant. If the spot was bare she leaned over and pressed her finger into the first, seemingly fishing around for the seed hiding inside.

After a few moments she pulled out a black see that had cracked open, revealing a small green tendtril that had attempted to leetch itself into the ground, but had apparently failed. Tsubaki took the seed in her hand and showed it to Naoki for the girl to inspect. Tsubaki then gestured towards the ground, and then to one that was over two inches tall and gave a dejected shake of her head before she pushed the seet out to Naoki for her to take.

 

[Samejima]

Naoki followed along, and knelt down as Tsubaki did. She thought it wise to just observe for now, and attempted to do so in as much detail as possible, snapping her fingers every now and then though her eyes were still open. They seemed to be almost lifeless at this point, but one thing they never were was empty, and Naoki watched on with high interest as the shapes slowly came into focus. There were now blobs of colors, and those blobs seemed to be moving with a sense of purpose, precision. The girl's pale skin was now visible to the genin, and as her brain tried to correlate what the two senses were feeding it, it seemed to hasten the process further. Tsubaki's fingers were now somewhat well-defined in Naoki's vision, as she held the seed out.

Still not seeing in much detail, Naoki snapped her fingers closer to both sides of the seed after taking it. "You... want me to plant this there? Or... Just..." she trailed off, looking up and trying to make eye contact. It was then that she noticed the resemblance to a certain figure she felt like she'd met before, realization seeming to dawn on her face as the desert air warmed. But where? She said they were new to the village after all, I couldn't have seen her before I lost my sight... And I can never focus enough on the gate when I'm out on a patrol. How else could I have seen...? She tilted her head, unsure about whether or not she should point this out.

 

[Kazumi]

Tsubaki gives Naoki a silent amused chuckle as she shakes her head. She points towards the spouting plant and gives Naoki a pleased nod. She then points towards the space where she had pulled the seed out, and then towards the seed in Naoki's hand before sliding her finger across her own throat. She gave a small dejected sign before she turned back towards the sprouts. She continued onwards and places her fingers delicately on the base of another green sprout before she softly pulls upwards on it. With little effort the sprout pops right out of the ground, its roots too small and weak to keep it rooted in the ground.

She shook her head with dejection once again before she turned and made the same thumb across throat gesture as before. She then proceeded to place the inch tall sprout in Naoki's hand along with the seed. She then proceeded to simply stare at Naoki for a few moments, tilting her head aside curiously as if wondering if she understood.

 

[Samejima]

Okay, so the finger across her throat means it's dead right? But how could she tell that the other one could be pulled out? What if I use too much force? Ended up pulling out one that was still alive, oh man. That'd be bad. Is there some way I can tell whether or not it was alive some other way...? She racked her brain, thinking of some technique, some idea that might possibly help her in this... But all she could really come up with was to try and find any differences between the one that was dead and the one that lived. She stared at the dead sprout in her hand, vision now focused and ready to use, and scooted a bit closer to the sprouting plant that received a nod from Tsubaki. Were there any visual differences?

Hmm... Aren't they supposed to have like, leaves that shrivel up when they die or something? It's a lot harder to tell with these small ones. Are there differences in color maybe? Uhh... A few tilts of the head inspecting the ground sprout yielded no results. Hmm... Maybe they feel different? She tried pinching the dead sprout first, to test how much force she could put into it. It seemed... somewhat mushy inside. Split pretty easily, and this gave Naoki a bit of a shock. These things are a lot more breakable than I thought! Tentatively, she reached out for the living sprout, and used as little force as she usually used to lift a page of a book to pinch it, only to find that it was noticeably more firm. Oh hey, there's a difference! She pinched the dead one again, with the same amount of force, and could tell that it felt different at the very least. Now to figure out how to keep that level of force constant as she worked on the area...

"Okay, I think I get it! How are we starting?" she asked, turning back towards Tsubaki now that she has an idea of how to tell without pulling too hard (hopefully).