Private full moon full life

[Ryuu Goro]

A routine night beneath moon's radiance and a calm gust that cause the ears atop his head to flutter. The loyal dog keeping watch at the gate with nary a soul to pass though. Goro leans against the wall and hunts for his pack of smokes, popping one out to fetch between his lips. He reaches into his vest for his lighter, juggling it between his fingertips before lighting up. A small ember in the penumbral shroud of night. Bored. Lacking in any kind of stimulation, but Goro understands the importance of standing watch for the monsters that lurk at night. So he waits there, alert, taking full advantage of his heightened senses as he exhales smoke. It appears for but a moment and is swallowed up in the night, transient as the fleeting embers that fall to the ground. It's just a bit easier to operate at night. Less heads turned with their apprehensive gazes, less children screaming, less whispering with every step taken. Goro was awarded a long leash for his service to Kumo, research and combat alike, and despite his best efforts it was hard to ignore the wolf in fancy clothing. So, it's just better this way. The last thing he wants is to make people feel afraid.

There's a presence. His ears twitch and then stand alert and his nose identifies the girl through the fog of smoke before the moon's light shines upon her figure. He flicks his cigarette to the ground and snuffs it out - it would be rather rude to sully the conversation with such a foul habit. Goro steps forward, arms held in a bowing stance as if to politely invite her in. "Good evening, miss. Would you be so kind as to explain your being here? A routine stop, nothing serious." He closes his eyes, and smiles to the best of his ability without showing his fangs. There's a soft tenor to his voice that he has tried very dutifully to master to avoid a stir of panic when people realize just what they are looking at. The girl looked around his age and rather affable. "Ah, I guess we should start with name, yes? I'm Goro." His tail peeks out from behind him with a little wag as he hunches over to make eye contact.

 

[Shinrya Sachiko]

There's a girl abound the horizon with quiet eyes and meaningful hands, ferrying a single bright apple tucked in a basket woven between her fingers. She follows the road as if warned of wolves, precocious in every step that lands precisely upon each cobbled stone and strays nary an inch into the danger of 'beyond.' She appears not cautious nor driven as she walks - specifically, walks - closer toward Kumogakure proper, but simply is: driven, that is, despite the lack of any hurry or fire. The air about her is difficult to pin - her very aura seeming to reshape itself on every thought, growing and shrinking and surging and dipping - but there stands prominent a sense that she would die for that apple. There stands prominent the sense that you would die for it, too.

This is Sachiko Shinrya. Her head is a galaxy filled of empty static, each space of mind properly allocated yet buzzing with white noises - and the louder ones, darkened, they're starships, and they're searching still. She steals glances towards her charge, the apple, then her destination, and back again - on routine, each passing minute. She remains at pace. Her shoulders are straight but not tensed. Her mouth is closed but not shut, optimal space left for breathing and aesthetic as though instructed teeth closed, lips parted. She is dutybound.

Then she is stopped, and her feet follow a second after the snap of her head and focus of her gaze. It also doesn't seem to think much of anything as it levels on - up - the visage to speak to her. She would correct herself to person, but that doesn't seem quite right. She pulls to a stop mere inches from walking into the man, like - and legitimized - she hadn't thought to acknowledge him unless he acknowledged her. She has to find the words. Slow, but not simple. Her head turns up, reedy eyes to search his idea of a face, and flicker between him and the top right of her view as if deep in thought. "I belong to Kumogakure no Sato."

Then: "I shouldn't give you my personal information," presumably told to her verbatim concerning strange men. She rapidfires her responses now that she's found them, unrelated. "You're not supposed to look like that."

That'll do.

 

[Ryuu Goro]

It didn't really hurt to be reminded that his body wasn't his own anymore. A twisted aberration inflicted upon him by the monsters that lurk outside the gate. Little red riding hood strolled through the gates to be greeted only by the big, bad wolf. Goro couldn't fault her for her reaction because he thinks he'd do the same in her shoes. Still, there was a little prick of a needle that stabbed into his heart, if only for a brief moment before he remembered himself. He raies his closed fist to his face to hide the fangs that would show from his smile, chuckling with softened eyes. "Ah, you're very right, miss~" Goro squats down, tail brushing away any leaves that lay motionless beneath him. "Do I resemble a proper guard dog now~?" A peculiar surge of playfulness to match the strange girl's atmosphere. He tilts his head, sniffing his nose to sleuth the contents of her basket. An apple? Is that really all? Goro forgets his dignity, remaining at heel, more interested in the who of it all as he stares up at the girl in bewilderment. His instincts were telling him that she was no threat and telling the truth.

There's a thought - a question that he wants to blurt out. Here, on this formerly routine and uneventful night. His ears flatten and the rumbly, growl he tries so desperately to suppress seeps through the cracks coloring his words in a woeful tint. "Are you afraid of me too?" His eyes flash, open and alert at the realization of the momentary crack in his armor. The calm tenor returns to his voice and he droops down to sit on his bottom like a person would. "Ah, sorry for the silly question, miss. I just needed to check to make sure you weren't up to no good~"

 

[Shinrya Sachiko]

Sachiko is free to be herself.

Sachiko draws her basket abruptly away from the strange dog at the first twitch of his nose. She holds it against her chest between two thin arms, flexed with immediate exertion as an iron grip. She stares him down - there is no anger nor confusion in her eyes, but an untouched calm. Curiosity, as if anyone else would dare him but she all but expected him to try. It was imperative he understood how unwelcome that action would be. She glanced down at the apple, at him, then up him, meeting his height only in his squat. She had never thought of herself as small before. A reedy green met playful red. She was smaller than Mother. Was this man bigger than Kitsune? Impossible. Was he therefore big at all? Inconclusive. He wasn't shaped right. "A guard dog would have a post. Do you belong here?"

It's a battle between her will and her way. She had been instructed on respect - Kumogakure no Sato lived and died by its government and the systems it had in place, and no one - not even Mother - was free to bend the rules to their whims. Procedure mattered. She had to listen and present herself accordingly to the guards at the gate, as much as she was working on proper etiquette, and that hadn't been a problem earlier in the day: but as the sun set against the horizon, she had to wonder how much time had passed. Where was the guard from before? He had barely glanced her way. That was preferable. Mm. Mmm. "Mmmm." The vibration of her voice in her mouth helped her think.

A question. Does this have to do with getting back home? She thumbed her basket. A riddle for the gates? Listen to Mother, Sachiko. Behave accordingly. "I'll answer your riddles." It was rude to keep her thoughts to herself.

"You're not scary." There was little infliction in her voice outside of the undercurrent of her thought, not emotionless so much as unphased. She was still navigating conversations - and this one, a particular peculiarity. "I'm not afraid. Fear is loss. You couldn't kill me. I still have things to do." That sounded right. "I'm a good person." She had to nod along with her words, watching him, as if checking off the aspects of herself that made her 'good'. "Are you? Do you obey Kumogakure no Sato? Do you respect the authority of Raikage Shinrya Kitsune?" Good could be binary, if your heart itself was.

 

[Ryuu Goro]

What a curious creature if he was allowed such a thought. Her demeanor and choice of words would arouse suspicion normally, but that's not the aura the girl was giving off. It was impossible to properly appraise the girl and her mystique, but if he could describe her it would be thus: She felt like a marionette freshly cut from her strings, having the approximate understanding of how things should be and well, not much else. Goro tilts his head for a careful examination before breaking into a hearty chuckle, not so much at her expense, but rather the new ember that seemed to glow in the formerly hushed dead of night. She was witty despite her deadpan stoicism. "It seems the script has been flipped now..." Goro sees no reason to rise, a little wag to play along with the game she didn't know she was playing. "I'm very glad I do not frighten you, mademoiselle and yes, I suppose for this night I do in fact belong here at this post. Now, for your riddles... let's see..." He pretends to think long and hard, tapping his chin with his pointed claw, until his eyes ignite in blazing maroon as if by some miracle he'd figured out the answer. "I wouldn't be a good guard dog if I didn't obey would I?" A rhetorical riddle. "And I have nothing but respect and admiration for our great Raikage. I would probably not be standing here, guarding this post if not for their good grace."

Goro stands and crosses his arms. He thinks a moment at what to do with this enigmatic girl. He'd feel irresponsible letting her wander off on her own. The idea of her being a threat had completely vanished from his brain, replaced only with the apparent danger she might be to herself if left unsupervised. "Miss... Ringo? If I may? My shift is almost over and I'd feel quite irresponsible sending you off into the night without an escort. Would you care to wait but a moment and head out together? You are free to go about your business if not. I imagine it would be safer with the two of us, no?"

 

[Shinrya Sachiko]

She stared at him. It had a boring quality, as if she could see to his truth with a pointed look both heavy and lingering enough. She didn't have the tools to hide her scrutiny - at the same time lacking malice or accusation, but assumption all the same. Mm. Mmm. It was rude to assume things about people. You just had to ask. "You're not very normal." That wasn't a question, Sachiko. "Where do you go once you stop belonging?" Better.

If he truly was on gate duty, did he therefore report to the village proper? Where did the chain end? If he is a citizen - or employed - by the state of Kumogakure, Sachiko would not question their governmental jurisdiction. Mother would never let a threat in. She had to tease her tongue against the inside of her teeth to draw their texture, using every divet and curve to round her thoughts. "You can be strange and just." She had come to her conclusion - her intense, empty gaze not leaving him. "Some people would think me strange, as well. That doesn't have to be bad. I know I'm good. Mother says so. If you belong here, then Mother thinks the same of you."

Then he continues, and her eyes slant in raw confusion. There's a sparkling quality to the depths of green, the imperceptible shift additionally displacing a lock of red from its otherwise manufactured position. She doesn't move to adjust it, not yet, the strand hanging over her untroubled face. "My name is not Ringo. It's Sachiko." Assumptions really were rude. Yet, she -- "Are you after my apple?" It didn't seem fair, but the way she thumbed her basket closer made her neck crane over it - like she'd bite, should he make a move. She probably wouldn't. Hair cascaded off her shoulders, shading her in red under the glint of moonlight. Her eyes found his, somehow defiant in their lack of expression, as if she knew to challenge him but not how to show it. They caught the light all the same, midnight ponds. "I acknowledge your position, but you can't have it. I won't let you sweet talk it away from me. I have a mission."

She couldn't blame him, but it was important to draw boundaries. Those teeth of his made him look very hungry.

 

[Ryuu Goro]

There wasn't particularly a problem with the question itself, or even any malice behind it, but it did pose an important question that Goro wasn't sure the girl had intended. She meant the here and now, at this guard post, but even he knew the reality of if he wasn't here, in this village, he would belong nowhere. He doesn't think this out of pity for himself, nor does he respond as such, because he's grateful for the second chance he's been granted. And so, he with a rise of his tenor, he nods and answers. "Hmm, I suppose I'd go home to the village, same as you."

He can only stare as she continues on, his appraisal of her seeming more and more accurate by every pause and short proclamation of facts. It was fascinating to watch and his tail did everything in its power to betray the truth of his motivations at this point. She was fun and he felt compelled to shadow the girl on her incredible quest to deliver that all-important apple. Something in his brain flipped at the duality of such a logical creature with an incomprehensible task. He would not pry and he would not ask. He simply wished to assist in whatever miniscule capacity he could. "I'm not sure strange is the word I would choose for you, my dear. Something like 'remarkable,' perhaps? It's no matter. I'm just glad you're more open to talking than most that encounter me."

His ears twitch upon hearing her name, he grins, ever so slightly, a flurry of whips from his tail that sweep away the still leave, into his eyebrows raising at the next riddle. No, it was almost like an interrogation of her own. He can't help but laugh a little bit, stretching his arms out to sternly wave them as if to say "No! No! Never!" His eyes widened to catch the moon's light inside of them as his jaw hangs open. "Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to give you that impression Sachiko. The nickname was a bit rude of me. I apologize!" Goro tries to recompose himself, tightening his tie as he clears his throat, a pinch of red in his cheeks if the girl was lucky enough to spot it underneath his fur. "Ahem! I vow to you that I, Ryuu Goro, under forfeiture of my very life, that I mean you, nor your apple any harm. I suppose that's why you've been glancing back and forth at me and your basket... I will rephrase my proposition with a pinch more honesty then. I would like to join on in your quest to deliver your apple. It seems being blunt and honest with you works more. I find you to be a fascinating and fun person, Miss Sachiko. And... you don't seem to be afraid of talking to me, Rather the opposite in fact."

He bows like a proper gentlemen and stretches out his hand for a handshake. Goro was unsure if she understood the significance of the gesture of what it signified, but would promptly answer should she posit a question. His eyes relax and his tail continues to flutter, swaying steadily behind him with an amusing thought persisting above all else.

Everyone understands what it means for a dog to lift its paw

 

[Shinrya Sachiko]

"Home," she repeated as he said it, not in an effort to antagonize him but to reaffirm - and to test the feeling of the word in her mouth. She knew it to be right, in her case. It was a definitive fact of her existence. Sachiko Shinrya's home was the Village Hidden in the Clouds. She never had to question this - never would - but as she watched him, observed him, she had the first ripple across her pond of thought. What was it like, she wondered, to not know that for certain? She physically couldn't imagine. There was no difference to her sense of belonging than there was to having hands or feet. She flexed those, here, to follow the thought to its natural conclusion. Twisted her fingers in the air and stared them down before returning reeds to him.

"Has your home always been Kumogakure no Sato?" It seemed a fair question, if that mattered. Justice held no candle to curiosity in such a deep, wondering gaze. "How does it become your home? How do you come to belong here?" There wasn't enough restraint to stall the questions as they formed. She practically had thought bubbles with question marks to trail every word. "Okay." Okay? 'I believe you' didn't seem appropriate. This was where he was supposed to be:

Okay.

"... I am fantastical." She couldn't hold a boast in her flat tone of speaking, but the sheer force of personality behind it was enough to threaten the universe to disagree. There was no proving her wrong. "Remarkable ... remarkable. Okay. I am remarkable. I am a remarkable, fantastical, and amazing creature." She nodded, tucking that strand of hair finally from her face. She was really racking up those titles. It left her with a distinctly unpuzzled expression. "I am Shinrya Sachiko, daughter of Raikage Shinrya Kitsune, and I am good. You are a citizen of Kumogakure no Sato, Inu-Goro, and this is your home. You must also be good." Her decree was recited in its entirety, as if to carve it with sharp edged words but she held only the hammer and no chisel. "Okay."

His response to her accusation brought lines to her face, scrunched eyebrows and a nose wiggled up, watching pensively like a cat cautioned of being pet before he collected himself. The hum returned behind her lips to consider his heartfelt reply. "You're not scary. You're just strange. Different. I don't know what you are. I don't know everything." The 'yet' was implied. "As a citizen and Shinobi of Kumogakure no Sato, you are a charge of mine. Mmm." Mmm. "And your willingness to die for me is respected and appreciated -" yes, nailed it!, "- but that probably isn't necessary tonight. Not now, at least. " She did look from him, his hand and the gravity he held it with, and back to the object of her true attentions - her apple - before reaching out a much smaller hand to lay on paw. The moon hit them from behind as they made their deal, beauty and the beast framed in silver.

"You can accompany me, Inu-Goro." The way she tried to smile didn't look right: as if she knew only one method of warmth and wasn't yet willing to share it with anyone else, so settled instead with style over substance. It didn't reach her eyes, and her posture didn't relax, but she was opened to him. In her own way. "Thank you for the honesty. I ... prefer it. Mmm. It's easier. I don't think I always understand other people very well. Not right now. You're easier, though.

-- and you don't want my apple. So you are not a threat, or your heart would be pierced by one thousand needles and die for the sin." Like ... like he crossed it in a promise? That must have been one metal children's book she trawled over in the public library. "Shall we go? I'm off to visit Mother. I'll tell her of you. You could ... tell me things to tell."

 

[Ryuu Goro]

Goro was an honest person. If he wasn't already wearing his heart on his sleeve, the tail wagging behind him would always betray his motives. He nods along, a gentle smile to soothe any lingering worries. "I was born in Kumo, yes. A farmer in what feels like a past life now. Back when I looked not too dissimilar to you. It'll always be my home." He let her carry on with her questions and thoughts. Radiance in monotone as she recounts her many wonderous qualities that accompanies the newly gifted "remarkable." She must have a good family. A passing thought that flashes before her revelation that she was the daughter of the Raikage herself. His eyes shoot open in abject surprise, fur shivering into a little bristle before he shakes it off. Goro replays the events of the night wondering if he had caused any harm or sleight to the princess of Kumogakure. His worries and doubts are quickly swept away in the tiny hand that delicately reaches out and converges to seal the contract.

He didn't have the heart to correct her about the addition of "Inu" to his name, the inclusion was surely a way for her to simply categorize the difference in his appearance from other people, but... It was adorable.. He was left utterly speechless, a flurry of wags from his tail. He drags himself from the trance he's left in, hiding his face with a nervous cough and clearing of his throat. Sachiko did not seem the type to flaunt her status or abuse it, given their previous interaction, so he would continue on as he was. "Apologies. I had no idea I was speaking with the daughter of the Raikage. I suppose that would make you akin to a princess from a fairy tale, no? The princess and the dog is surely the subject of one." He takes her hand and shakes, a quick bow with outstretched arm. "I am honored to be your escort. After you, Sachi-hime."

They walk together, side by side under the moon's dim light. The mild kiss of the wind on their skin and the chirping of crickets playing a symphony in the calm of night. It's almost a stereotype from storybooks, but Goro has always felt a little more comfortable in the moon's embrace than the illuminating spotlight of the sun. "Let's see... You have picked up that I'm a bit odd. I used to be a 'normal' person, as it were. I was born into the Ryuu clan and worked the fields outside the walls. No talent for the shinobi arts or anything of the sort, but it was a good enough life. I had my family..." A brief pause. He's rehearsed this part a million times and told it just as much. "Anyway. The farm I was living at was attacked by wolves carrying the virus that turned me into the beast you see now. The long and short of it is... It's kind of a miracle that I'm alive at all. Not to mention that I'm only even allowed to live here and serve the village because of your mother and Ryuu Rei. I'm afflicted with so many curses and misfortunes, but.. I feel blessed. Truly. This chance encounter that I never would have had if circumstances were different is proof of that." He jumps ahead, walking backwards with little tail swishes and flickering ears. "Sorry. I tend to ramble too much. I don't get a lot of people that are willing to listen to me. How about you? What things can you tell a curious dog? Let's see... Can you tell me why you're so determined to protect that apple?"

 

[Shinrya Sachiko]

He wasn't always this way - shaped the way he was, with fur and teeth and a tail in perpetual motion. A curious thought, that. She grasped the idea behind aging, and how small children began and how big they became (herself and mother are prime examples, and she wonders often if she could ever be that mighty) but she had no experience with transitory features. "Did you ... grow into it?" Her tone wavered from its usual course: a question, not the first and not the final, but the first to teach her something new. "What are you now?" He was no longer a farmer, but a Shinobi? He was no longer just a man, but a canine? The former wasn't out of the ordinary in the Lightning country, but the latter ... well, he'd get to that. She watched him. Her eyes beget a childlike curiosity, too dull for amazement but too precise to be bored. Her hand, skin on fur in varied size, briefly lingered, but she remembered to pull it back. What an interesting experience. Mother would hear of this.

"I am a princess." Another matter-of-fact statement to enlighten him, said in the way as if she was checking off her list. Personal memories were as important as memories shared. "Mother is a duchess. That makes me a princess, but I don't have any power of state behind the title. It's ceremonial. If mother were ever to...," and she stopped, because a facet of reality disagreed with her personal feelings. It immediately pulled at her heart, and she resolved instantly not to finish the thought. Nothing was ever going to happen to Kitsune. She would make sure of that, turning the apple over in its basket - an uncharacteristic nervous movement. "I didn't share my surname before ascertaining intention. You couldn't have known. You don't need to be sorry." An attempt to bridge the gap? She wasn't unused to people's responses to her heritage. It was simply a matter of her existence to her, but it meant a lot to the people around her. Mother meant a lot. That part felt good. "You've been polite and you've been honest. There will be no retribution."

She would listen to him speak, in both learned politeness and an interest to know more, but she did stall for a moment before they set off on their walk - a statue, coming to life in autonomous motion. He kept using canine terms to describe himself. A dog. She didn't quite feel offense on his behalf - the additional label for Inu-Goro made things easier for her to organize, as well - but a discomforting feeling all the same. As he spoke and she learned more about him, the idea behind it seemed almost ... what was this sense? Derogatory? She knew what an insult was, even if she wouldn't be able to parse it in the moment. She couldn't reach a conclusion on what that meant to her, but she was able to make a note that while this experience had been novel for her, he had been through it often. He already knew he wasn't normal. That must mean other people did, too. Mmm.

"I've only heard a little about the virus. I didn't know it could effect people like it has you." There was nothing to stop her from giving word to her thoughts. "Those in the bestiary I know to be related to it are mindless. You have one," and her look over seemed to be an effort to confirm this, "and you are employed by the state. That makes you different, twice. I also know of the Ryuu clan." She was flipping through filing in her head. "Ryuu Rei is the lady Sennin of Kumogakure no Sato's Main Branch, and head of Research and Development. She is both a very respected individual and close friend of Mother's. You are also accepted, twice." Her smile this time was in her eyes alone, but it still met his. Praise. "You handle your curse well, and the support you receive is notable. What are you doing with it, Ryuu Goro-inu?"

What do you want to be when you grow up? "I like talking like this. You are unique. I'm unique, too." Then he inquires after her apple, again, and her arms reflexively close around the basket. While she trusted his promise under threat of death - which is very important to people - manifesting trouble for the treasure kept her guarded. "Mmm." Could she tell him? It was almost like a voice in her head from a lesson passed - you should share things with people when they share things with you. That's called caring. "Okay. I'll care about you. The apple is for Mother. It took me twelve hours to find one without flaw. I don't want something to be wrong with it. She has no need for doctors."

 

[Ryuu Goro]

It was refreshing conversing with one so honest. Completely unfiltered in her thoughts and an innate need to have all cards revealed on the table. She wanted to understand everything that she did not know. She wanted everyone to understand her. Goro gave her the princess title in mere jest and even so, she made sure that it was a title that she possessed. "I'm very happy to hear that no punishment will befall me, princess. If I may be so bold? I rather enjoy speaking to you as friends, but I would be more than happy to refer to you as royalty if you desired. Do you have a preference?" Goro hopes he sufficiently conveyed his meaning. Even if she enjoyed being called a lofty title such as "princess," he'd still talk to her as he has. It was a light question to see how she felt about it.

It was fascinating - there's that word again. A very common thought as he observed and listened to the girl pour out her thoughts, uninhibited, piecing together the little pieces he'd given her like a jigsaw puzzle. And the look in her eye when she came to her conclusion. That little sparkle that you'd miss if you weren't looking for it. His face relaxes in perplexity? Serendipity? A surprising emotion, but his tail is honest. A curse indeed. Her follow up was a question been asked and asked himself countless times. He lets out a little chuckle. "I guess if I would give an answer... I'd say I'm simply making the most of pretty awful circumstances. I think- It's really easy to give up to despair in life. Let the monsters in the world win. Bad things happen so frequently in this world. I just want to keep pushing on if it gives even one person hope. But an even more honest answer for you is- I guess I'd like a second chance." To be relied upon by others, to be given purpose, duty - anything at all that can be grown from the tainted soil. Goro would be happy with anything. "You are indeed very unique. Delightfully so." He chuckles, holding a paw up to his chin.

The apple must be very important to Sachi. She pauses again, but to Goro's delight, she does decide to trust him, or rather care about him, as she put it. His tail wags involuntarily as he listens on, all too giddy at that little accomplishment. Her answer is startling to Goro. The purest innocence that he's probably ever witnessed from a human being. His heart seizes at the crushing weight of how adorable her response is. If it were anyone else, he'd probably chalk it up to a mere joke to conceal the truth, but for her? No, this was absolutely the reason. "The perfect apple, huh? So your mother will be able to ward off doctors?" Goro didn't have the heart to tell her that it was just a saying for staying in good health. It was too sweet a sentiment, to such a degree that his teeth hurt from eating too much candy. "I believe your mother will be very happy with your gift. She's very lucky to have such a protective and diligent daughter." He pauses, singling out a detail he glossed over at first. "Pardon me, but you said you were out there alone for 12 hours searching? Hmm. Next time you go on an adventure that long, I'd prefer if you brought me along. I can't very well let a sweet princess like you wander about in the dangerous woods alone. There are monsters out there, you know?" He laughs and ear wiggles. "Besides it'd be more fun with a friend."

 

[Shinrya Sachiko]

"Sachiko." She replied in step, but the solid punctuation added a weight to her next that stalled in her place. "... Sachiko-chan." She was speaking to herself as much as he, her voice barely louder than the mumble of the 'mmm' that so commonly passed her lips in thought. "You've asked my preference. What do you want to be called, Ryuu Goro-inu? Ryuu-inu-san? Goro Ryuu-inu? Goro-chin ... inu?" She wrinkled her nose, her eyes passing through the untangled weave of her hair to peek at him in deep curiosity. If there was one inclination betrayed by the shy (as in hard to catch, for she had nothing to be bashful of) sparkling in her eyes, it was that ever-burdened curiosity. She couldn't help herself, as much as she couldn't drop the 'canine' from his name. After all - everything had its place, and in its place everything needed to be organized. How else were people supposed to know he was a dog-man? She understood that words meant something. That's why she says:

"Do you have hope?" There was little formality to cut. Was he not attending her, as they made their way up a stone-strewn path? The gates were fading behind their shoulders. Onlookers didn't so much gawk as preen -- how strange, how unlikely. Kumogakure's young princess and the sanctioned wolfman that scared their young. Sachiko had no mind for them. It was only him her peculiar gaze fell upon; for the moment. Him, and the basket she held, swinging at her chest from looped fingers. Ah, now she noticed the onlookers. Were they looking, too? At this treasure she found? Surely, everyone must want it. She had worked so hard for something so precious for her Mother, after all. It had to be important. "They can't have it, either, Inu-Goro Ryuu-chin. You have a duty to protect and guide me. This extends to my apple." Her words were so, so solemn. Then she remembered herself - "You don't seem sad. ... I don't know. Mm. Mmm. Are you sad, Ryuu Goro-san-inu? ... It's supposed to be obvious."

She watched him, and her expression softened in the way anything could from stone. The transitive property of wistfulness. "I think I'm supposed to know if you're sad. I don't. I will, though, if you tell me. Then I could be hopeful for your happiness, like you hope for others. That's right, isn't it? I won't know otherwise. People can't hope for something they don't know."

"Mother is a brilliant doctor. Others would get in her way. I want to join the medical branch, too, and then Mother won't have worry about anyone else. I can look after everyone in Kumogakure, and her. This will keep her from worrying, and others from worrying for her. I can do that." She trawls her tongue inside her cheek, a childish display of thought she can't beat with presented maturity alone. "No, I don't think that's true. I'm the lucky one. Mother loves me and everyone in Kaminari no Kuni. That includes you, Gorinu-ryuchi." She offers a smile; and truly, an offer it is, for it's the gentle shade her face takes when she looks at her mother, and her eyes wander off in that thought. "You can come, next time."

"... Mmm. You'll have to get your own, though."