Bone and Blood (Naruto Quest)

"Ohhh, this is lovely," Tobiko Uebido gushes as she runs a bolt of the cloth you made over her hands. "Full of Yang chakra," she nods while handing the cloth back to you, "but why bring it to me? I didn't think you were aware of my specialty."

"Not exactly," you admit, "and thank you." You stow it back in the bag you brought it in, shuffling somewhat unsurely on your feet as Tobiko returns to a table stacked with papers behind her. The room you're meeting in is neither an office nor a laboratory, it's more like a converted conference room that's being used for storage.

"Of course, if there's anyone left in this village who can appreciate fine craftsmanship, it's me," the older jounin taps her cheek with a ring finger, "how do you think I stay so spry?"

You know she's the same age as Youme-sensei, but she looks like a teenager, barely older than you are. "Hn, I could guess…" you trail off, completely unsure of what to posit.

"Don't, it was rhetorical," her amber eyes rolling exaggeratedly. "Or I guess it wasn't, since there actually is an answer. Huh." She bites her tongue, "Anyway! Yin-Yang Style, which is, I suppose, a theoretical answer."

You've heard of Yin-Yang Style, most jounin have, and you're conceptually aware of the fact that you're naturally very inclined towards Yang Style. Yang Style governs physical energy, like enhancing one's strength and stamina, your kekkei genkai, or the Hiroge clan's hiden; while Yin Style governs things like genjutsu or infusing chakra into seals. Beyond that, you haven't heard or read much about the direct applications of Yin or especially Yang Style, more the byproducts of their usage, and you've certainly never heard of an actual usage of Yin-Yang Style.

"How that applies to," Tobiko gestures vaguely to her face and body, "all of this, I'll leave to your imagination. However! With just a little bit of creative sealwork for processing, I can solidify an illusion cast on the fabric into reality!" One hand raised to her chest, the older jounin beams, "Impressive, right?"

"Sure," you state flatly. It does sound impressive, but it also doesn't sound entirely practical, or if it is, very simple.

"Hmm, I should've asked after the redhead, he would've at least humored me," she deadpans back, clearly referring to Juura.

It's just a jab, but that means you have to jab back, "Does your former team not play along, Jounin Uebido?" You ask with a cocked head.

"I'm much too busy for a team," she replies, clearly totally unphased. You drop the attempts at verbal sparring after that, she's clearly more practiced than you are. "Enough of that though, I'll happily dye that for you, did you have any patterns or colors in mind?"

[] Share the Robe of the Fire Rat with Tobiko so she can dye it. There probably isn't too much she can derive from the dregs of your chakra left in it.

[] No, you'll just find a dye shop to take the job, even if it takes a lot longer.


"It's a clotting compound?" You ask Youme-sensei while you stretch an amaranth-colored compound between your thumb and forefinger.

"That's right, it creeps up from any wound and stops blood flow both ways, it takes a lot to kill directly, but its side effects can easily become fatal, what do you think?" Your former sensei responds, corking the vial.

You shrug, washing your hand off, though it can't infiltrate through your skin. "It's a good idea, but I think I need something more fast acting. Besides, any good med-nin would be able to pick up on this pretty quickly."

"Sharp as ever Tsubaki, though it does have its uses," she turns to a rack of scrolls behind her desk, though there's not much space in the small office behind her lab. "Here," she finally says after finding what she was looking for, handing you a small, pale green scroll bound with an off-white string. "This has plenty of information about synthesizing and concocting quick-acting and powerful poisons, you should be able to requisition the necessary base compounds on your way out, if you want to take a look now."

"Thank you, Youme-sensei," you accept the scroll with a nod, deftly untying the string and looking at the basic components of the recommended poisons. They're all rather rare and expensive, certainly only readily available here, in the Research Division Headquarters. "Sensei, I recently developed a new supplemental technique," you begin, producing a sample of the Robe of the Fire Rat from your sleeve, "It's rather sensitive, but I was wondering if you might know of a way to enhance it, or alternative uses."

You go onto explain how your new technique produces a durable, self-healing type of cloth, making sure to note that you're the only one that it would actually regenerate for. "I call it the Robe of the Fire Rat," you add at the end, making sure not to smile and seem too proud of yourself.

"Like the old fable, charming," your former sensei notes. "I have a few ideas, mainly on a different thread structure that would make it resistant to electricity as well as slightly more fire-retardant. Here," she gestures for you to give her the piece of cloth, and you do.

Youme-sensei traces a manicured nail along the pattern of the Robe, showing you how the horizontally tight and vertically packed threading, while physically tough, could be improved to have greater defenses against elemental techniques if there were more gaps and and different 'stitching' between the individual layers.

"So it creates insulation against Fire and Lightning while working like samurai armor does to dampen physical impacts?" You summarize Youme-sensei's explanation of her tweaks to the structure of the Robe of the Fire Rat.

Youme-sensei nods, "that's right Tsubaki, you really are more insightful than you get credit for."

That makes you blink, and you take a beat longer than you would've liked to respond, "I- thank you, Sensei."

"Of course. That reminds me, on your way out, ask after the refined formula for that numbing solution I gave you before, they should have plenty of samples for you to take."

You thank Youme-sensei again before leaving her to her work, while it's not messy, there are a lot of papers in her 'incoming' pile.


Pick 3 2 (Mission 2 has been locked by previous events):

[] A large trading caravan recently failed to arrive in Rivers' northernmost major city after helping negotiate an important deal between companies in Rivers and Amegakure. Several envoys from Storms were traveling with them, and there were several important missives. A team has to be deployed to find out what happened to them, and at least return with the receipts.

[] Smuggling has become an epidemic along the Land of Meadows' borders and inside of its territories occupied by Iwa and Konoha, but with Kusa's newfound resistance, the trade is now something Ame is looking to prop up. Several of Iwa's supply depots have been singled out for softening up to allow them to be infiltrated and stolen from. Covertness isn't necessary, but having plausible deniability for attacking Iwa assets in Meadows couldn't hurt.

[] Some monks based out of the northeastern Land of Wind have been stirring up agitation among the civilian populaces of the Land of Stone and the former Land of Birds. The center of this unrest is an old monastery across the border that was previously shuttered by the First Kazekage, but has seen sporadic activity since the end of the Second War. Perhaps it would be better for everyone involved if it were a ruin.

[X] A heavy assault team is being assembled to attack a fortified town in the Land of Fire near the intersection of the border between Fire, Storms, and Meadows. You were asked to be part of this mission by name, though you haven't yet been alerted to that fact. (Locked as Mission 2)

Voting closes at Feb 20, 2025 at 1:00 PM !

A/N: This took a while both for no particular reason to be honest I did lose a lot of motivation in general after September, because I had to rewrite the Tobiko part, and because I honestly don't like writing Youme. I think if I could go back and change one thing (besides update frequency and something I don't want to get into) about the quest would be not having her as a sensei option. How do you all feel about her?

A/N2: Apparently the Robe of the Fire Rat is a real thing. Not made from the actual pelts of giant, fireproof rats, but rich ancient and medieval people liked weaving asbestos into cloth when they could find it and showing it off as a party trick. I guess someone somewhere didn't know about the fibers coming out of the ground, so it got attributed to a mythical animal. It's also part of the reason salamanders were associated with fire, since the cloth was attributed to (mythical) salamanders in Persian folklore.