Rabbit Princess [Gaara] [2]

☾ Interlude: Kisshoten ☽

Kisshoten looked up when she heard the sound of approaching footsteps and turned to find her two brothers, Hagoromo and Hamura walking over to where she was standing. She smiled at them, and they returned it in favour as they came to a stop next to her. The three of them were siblings, closely knit together and always relying on each other. It was a bond seen from afar – they stood out with their playfulness, their features and their distinct style of clothing.

While her brothers were both handsome young men who resembled their mother greatly, Kisshoten seemed to be almost a carbon-copy of Kaguya – pale skin, soft features with long white and similarly clear eyes. Her eyebrows were short and round and her horns were short yet symmetrical. She was often regarded for her beauty, whispered to be prettier than her mother whenever she blushed.

"Mother looks up at the sky like that every day..." Hamura spoke up as the youngest of the three turned to look at their mother standing on the house's engawa, looking at the blue sky. He turned to look at his elder siblings, Hagoromo and Kisshoten. "I wonder what she's looking for?"

"She never tells us anything," Hagoromo admitted. "No one knows what's in her heart – perhaps she has feelings that even we, her own children, cannot fathom,"

"Kisshoten Nee-Chan," Hamura said as he turned to look at their sister. "Mother often summons you to her – has she never shared her feelings with you, either? Given that you are, too, a female..."

"Mother rarely speaks," Kisshoten replied, her pink lips falling into a frown. "Her summoning is silent and often... I find time to transcend... it is not very enjoyable,"

"Hey, Hagoromo, Kisshoten and Hamura!
Please come with me!"

At the sound of their names, the three Otsutsuki Siblings turned to find the familiar figure of a young woman rushing toward them, her long black hair swaying and her necklace swinging around her neck. Her large black eyes were filled with concern – Haori was rarely this worried.

"What's the matter, Haori?" Hagoromo inquired.

Haori told Hagoromo, Kisshoten and Hamura about the conflict that she had witnessed and three of them followed after the woman to go and resolve the feud.

Kaguya did not approve of Kisshoten's little adventures around the country with her brothers, always warning her against men who would want to steal her from her family but Kisshoten was always certain that she could rely on her brothers, and she could stand up for herself.

"If you use all the water at your place,
there won't be any water downstream for the rice paddies!"

"That's not my fault!"

Two men were tussling around with each other over water, with several other people standing in watch nearby. Hagoromo told Kisshoten and Hamura to stay back as he himself walked right up.

"Wait!" Hagoromo interjected, pulling the men apart. "What's going on?"

"I'll tell ya what's going on!" responded one of them, a large man as he pointed at the skinnier individual. "This guy is taking all the water!"

"My paddy's upstream, so I can't help it!" protested the second.

"But until now, wasn't there enough water for everyone?" Hamura asked.

"Well, all of a sudden, the flow of the river's gotten weak," replied the second man.

"Weak?" Kisshoten repeated as she looked toward the direction of where the stream originated from. "I wonder if something happened upstream?"