[Futago Yua]

Yua didn’t really know how to react. The confirmation that jinchuuriki were real was in turn a confirmation that bijuu were real, and while she’d been flirting with the idea since the events of that night it was still a bit of a shock. She could easily dismiss the idea again, think of Mitsumi as a young student who had no idea what she was going on about, but the other girl was probably older than her and with everything she was going through it would be weird for her to come out and lie like that.

Without even realising she was doing it Yua leant against the wall, no longer really trying to comfort Mitsumi as she thought about what it all meant. The strange voice her cousin had spoken with, the gunk he’d been covered with, with that context behind it all she sort of understood what she’d experienced a little better. "Oh spirits, I think I pissed it off.” Yua rubbed her temples at the thought, maybe she could turn that situation around with a bit of work but if they were as dangerous as the stories made them out to be maybe avoiding her poor cousin for a little bit would be safer.

Yua took in a deep breath to settle herself before she started stressing too much and stood back up, attention returning to the young woman she was talking to. The Futago woman wasn’t entirely sure she was picking up on all the messaging that Mitsumi was trying to awkwardly sneak into what she was saying but she’d never been too good at the whole doublespeak thing. "I think I get what you mean.” She said slowly, "And if that’s what happened them I’m really sorry I couldn’t do more.”

How was she supposed to do more in a situation like that anyway? If it weren’t for Matoi firing the flair the situation likely would have gone south a lot faster and it was already an impressive failure. "Look I uh, know this might not be the easiest thin’ to talk about everythin’ that happened, but what can you tell me about them? Jinchuuriki and bijuu. They weren’t really a thing where I grew up so all I’ve ever really seen were storybooks. I guess the higher ups don’t like to leave notes on dangerous creatures layin’ around for genin to read.”

[Itagaki Mitsumi]

Mitsumi didn't know if she had 'pissed off' the being within her, despite the fury that had possessed her. It wasn't irritation, it had been desperation. An all-consuming fear that she knew too well.

How much she did really know about the creature sealed within her? A thought she soon quashed. Mitsumi couldn't afford to second-guess herself.

She was quiet for a time, brow furrowed as she considered how to answer it. She wasn't talking about herself, not directly, so... this should be fine. Right?
"I... d-didn't grow up with it either," Mitsumi said slowly. Maybe things were different for people who had a clan. "They, the, um, Bijū... th-they're not like people, or a-animals. M-more like..." Mitsumi's gaze shifted to the middle distance. "A force o-of nature." That was the best way she could put it. "Th-they still have... a will. P-personality, but..." Maybe a more experienced Jinchūriki could explain it better.

Mitsumi shook her head. She didn't know how else to put it. "Jinchūriki are, well... p-people with one of those f-forces inside o-of them. L-like... a living scroll. B-but... I-I think the l-line gets... blurry. Sometimes the Bijū's p-power overflows into them. O-or their emotions, or mind, or..." Even now, there was that buzzing at the back of her head, the sensation or delusion that someone else was looking through her eyes as well. "They are dangerous. B-but... they aren't just... mindless destroyers. I-I... don't know wh-what stories Y-you heard, but... they're pr-probably based o-on the truth."

[Futago Yua]

The more she heard about the bijuu the less certain Yua felt about the night. Things could have gone a whole lot worse if such creatures were at risk. Sure the group had beat back the cultists, but the cultists knew and somehow tracked them all down in the first place. If who contained them had somehow been leaked to such people it meant her cousin and possibly Mitsumi were still in danger. Granted, if the capabilities of the cultists from that night was anything to go by maybe they’d be safe? The entire situation just fed into Yua’s uncertainty and agitation. This sort of information would probably have been somewhat helpful to know before leaving Kusagakure.

"That sounds hard… on both of them.” Yua finally spoke up after a period of silence. She’d fallen off the ‘support Mitsumi’ mindset accidentally and only now thought of how such information could impact someone that maybe, possibly, was also struggling with the presence of such a creature within them. "Sometimes my own thoughts and emotions can overwhelm me, I can’t image what it’d be like to have another set. Not to mention being forced to live vicariously through someone else’s eyes, without some sort of common ground to work from it sounds like no one would be able to get along.”

Not even Yua was sure who she was talking to by saying that. Mitsumi? Saito? The creatures on the inside? She was trying to understand an entirely alien concept that went against her own understanding of the world, and even with Mitsumi’s nervous explanation it was hard. "Large creatures, larger than the village walls, capable of taking down entire armies with their raw chakra capacity. I’m going to go out on a limb though and guess the ‘snatching unruly children who don’t do as they’re told’ part is just the standard nonsense?”

Yua gave a forced laugh. She did want to help, to reach out to Mitsumi and provide support in any way she could. But this wasn’t her village, there was only so much she could offer and only so much time before she’d return home. Maybe the best she could do would be to change the topic.