Midori jumped and barely stifled a yelp as Kino struck his palm with his fist, her eyes wide for just a moment, and his exclamation startled her just as much, if not more. He was a very passionately energetic boy, which made the small girl nervous. The other kids were like that too sometimes: very rambunctious and difficult to interact with. Mostly he seemed sort of nice, but that had her worrying that, maybe, she had read him wrong earlier.<br/><br/>“It’s a big word… hard to say.” Midori nodded when he said he could never remember the word.<br/><br/><em>”A shop? What kind?”</em><br/><br/>“Umm… mostly they sell goods that Father brings from other villages, so lots of different things. Father and I were in Sunagakure last, so there were lots of spices and some pottery, some books, but also before that we were at a village that specialized in tea, so Father traded some fancy calligraphy scrolls for the tea, and we brought some of that too. It is lots of different things that we—“ she paused a moment, trailing off before correcting herself, “It is lots of different things that Father gets. I do not go with him any more. Uncle Kanetaro also has other traders he gets goods from, I think, because there is more in the shop than what we— than what Father brings. Uncle Kanetaro is good at knowing how to get the thing that someone is looking for, even if sometimes it takes a while to get it. He sells to other shops too, I think, when they are looking for something, or helps them to get what they need, anyway. Father calls it ‘being a good Middle-man?’”<br/><br/>But his attention returned to the kitten in the tree, and Midori found herself worrying for it more. But they seemed to have an okay plan to go about it, and she’d reluctantly handed Sunako over to the boy, watching him hold the small kitten awkwardly.<br/><br/>“Her name is Sunako… um… she likes to be held close to your chest, and not so much out like you have her.” Still, though, the kitten seemed to mostly want to get back to her.<br/><br/>He went over how to get on his shoulders, and she nodded a little, a bit worried that they might fall. But if she could climb a tree, she could climb a person, right? Maybe? “Uhmm… okay. Let me know if you think you might fall? That way I can get down and maybe we both won’t end up on the ground…” With that, he crouched down like he said he would, and told her to hurry. Carefully, Midori climbed onto his back holding onto his shoulders and wrapping her legs around his middle so he could stand up without having to support her. Once he stood, she planned to hoist herself up to sit on his shoulders, then grab the low branch and pull herself up that way. The last thing she wanted was to have to stand on his shoulders: that seemed like that would hurt a lot…