Bone and Blood (Naruto Quest)

It was a rare day that the dense, early autumn haze that hung like a pall over the isthmus between the pair of lakes that guarded Kirigakure's north flank broke and gave the small fishing and rice farming villages a glimpse of the sun. Without the fog, even the first day of Kannazuki was bitterly hot, all of the water in the air turning into humidity instead. The harsh, glaring sun set in a cloudless sky compounded the eerie stillness of a hot, muggy day without the cicada songs that could be heard throughout the Land of Water in the depths of summer.

So to the practiced ear of a jounin, the lapping of water against the piling of the veranda suddenly becoming audible was enough to snap his head in the direction of the source of the sound.

Looking like a thief caught in the act, the dark-haired, gray-eyed kunoichi froze on making eye contact with the older ninja. She was short and slight, dressed in a cream samue with sleeves longer than her arms and slate pants. Her hair, zigzag part visible over her black-backed Kirigakure forehead protector, was long pinned into a topknot, and her feet were bare.

"Oh c'mon bro!" She threw up her hands, "I didn't even make a sound, how did you notice me coming, Toku?"

"You didn't make a sound, but the foundation did," Tokusomaro Kaguya explained flatly. "I told you not to come back here, Kagome."

Kagome stuck out her tongue, "Someone has to check up on you three, besides, I'm stuck on 'bandit suppression' while my squad's down a genin."

The older Kaguya leaned back on his palms, looking into the empty sky. The whole house was too quiet, he had expected it, Suzuran had assured him it would be this way, but he was still uneasy. Another set of eyes weren't making him feel any better.

"—zone isn't even high-risk, and bandits aren't even a problem on the mainland, it's rebels. I can't believe that paper-pusher became Mizukage, I mean, the Tatsyumi are a third-rate clan, half of them are just useless lumps," the genin's lips curled into a sneer as she ranted.

The diatribe was enough to get Tokosomaru's attention back to her. She was short for her age, while her older sister was tall, both had heavily-lidded eyes, but while Suzuran's gave her the impression of being refined, Kagome's gave off the impression that she was always laughing at an inside joke only she knew. That the sides of her mouth were tilted upward into the beginning of a smile at rest didn't help.

"I'm not your brother," it wasn't harsh, the older Kaguya just wanted to state the fact. "And if the Tatsyumi are third-rate, then what are we? It's not normal for so many Kaguya to be part of the village's regular forces."

Being interrupted caused Kagome to stumble on her words, so she opted to lean against the light-colored siding of the lakeside home they stood on the deck of. "I know you're not my brother," she began quietly, "but you're married to my sister, and that's just as good as being my brother, that's how it works in normal clans."

"You shouldn't talk like that, you're putting too much attention on it," Tokusomaro's tone was measured as he stood, placing his hands on his hips and stretching his back.

Kagome shook her head, "it's not like that! Besides, nobody listens to me anyway, or else I'd already be a chunin."

"Even if people don't listen to you, they listen to what's being said. That's just a fact of life," the older shinobi made his way around the nearest corner, his young sister-in-law in tow.

The genin picked up her pace, getting ahead of Tokusomaro, "but nobody's going to deny it when Suzuran has the baby. And even if you don't want to live with the Clan, you're both strong, you can just live in the village."

"Maybe."

"Maybe? You're one of," the younger Kaguya paused counting to three on her fingers, "three or four people in the Clan with any foresight! You don't have a plan?"

"It's hard to plan for things like this, even when you have time," he placed his hand on her head, thumb tracing Kiri's symbol etched into her forehead protector absently. "But you trust me, right?"

Kagome nodded, eyes bright.

"Then go home," the jounin removed his hand. "You'll see Suzuran and I again, soon."

The genin's smile disappeared with a grumble, but she complied, "fine, but you'd better let me hold the baby!"

Tokusomaro smothered a chuckle as the younger ninja splashed away, across the lake.

The veranda's sliding door clicked shut as Tokusomaru slid it shut behind him, he almost ran into his host, who was pacing back and forth along the tatami of the back parlor.

"I heard another voice," the thin, graying man, shorter than the Kaguya jounin, complained as he wrung his hands. He was Tokusomaru's uncle, maternal of course, not being a member of the Kaguya Clan. Tokusomaru hadn't even met the man before six weeks ago, when he had agreed to take in the young jounin's family while they needed to be away from the Clan.

"Suzuran's sister, she's a genin, she won't tell the Clan where we are," the younger man assured his uncle.

The businessman, or whatever he was, Tokusomaru hadn't bothered to commit what he did to memory, crossed his arms and sat heavily at the small table next to the door that led to the house's central hallway. "She could tell the rest of her little ninja friends, and that would trickle right to the top. I didn't let you stay here just so the new Mizukage could seize all my assets," he angrily tapped a finger against the table.

Tokusomaru exhaled heavily, if he hadn't needed something from this man he might've even considered turning him over as a traitor, if just to shut him up. "She wouldn't betray us, you don't have anything to worry about," he stated blandly, willing himself to keep his tone even.

"I know how you shinobi work, first your barbarian father steals my older sister, then they start a civil war in the middle of a world war!" The older man scoffed, "you'll forgive me, nephew—" he spat the last word like poison, "for not trusting in the loyalty of ninja."

The jounin's response was cut off by the midwife rushing into the room, wiping her hands on a damp cloth she hung from the belt of her apron. She was an older special jounin, ostensibly a traveling healer in this part of the Land of Water, but recently reactivated in the Third Mizukage's suppression campaign against those still loyal to his defeated rivals. Fortunately, the small village Tokusomaru's uncle's estate was on the outskirts of was less than a day's travel from Kirigakure, even on foot.

The older woman leaned into the only non-shinobi in the home, and whispered something in his ear so low that even Tokusomaru's trained ears couldn't pick it up.

But he knew what it was immediately when he saw his uncle's expression shift.

"Well," the older man said, eyes narrowed in something approaching contentment, "I believe there's a very easy way you can pay back my hospitality now—"

Whether he was finished speaking or not didn't matter, as in a flash the jounin standing across from him threw the table aside and drew the wakizashi tucked into his obi. A flick of the jounin's wrist opened his uncle's throat, staining the tatami mats halfway across the room.

Before the midwife could fully turn to flee the room, Tokusomaru grabbed her by the hair and dragged her back into his blade. He caught the glow of a chakra scalpel around her hand from the corner of his eye, but he was too fast for her, driving his sword through her chest until the glow faded and she fell limp.

He rushed down the hallway, snapping his blade out in a quick chiburi that smattered the shoji walls red and sheathing before he entered the room that had been designated for the birth of his child.

"She told your uncle first, didn't she?" His wife, still beautiful despite the weariness of labor writ on her face, asked with a sharp presence of mind.

He nodded to answer the question, then asked one of his own, "is…?"

"She is," Suzuran propper herself up, holding out the bundle she had been cradling to her chest for her husband to take. "She opened her eyes while the midwife was washing her."

Tokusomaru let himself smile as he took his daughter, looking at her for the first time. He hadn't heard any crying, not from her or her mother, and it looked like the infant had gone back to sleep. The little girl was more pale than pink, but still had a healthy flush to her cheeks, and the dusting of hair on her head was more white than anything. Her father held out a finger, hoping she might wake up and take hold of it, and she did, slowly blinking her big, light green eyes. "A bearer then, how auspicious," the jounin said in a bitter tone. His brooding was cut off by laughter, accompanied by slight pressure around his finger. Looking back down at his daughter, his eyes widened when he saw he hadn't been as thorough in getting the blood off of his hands as he had been with his sword. There was a shock of red on her little hand, though that seemed to amuse her, briefly, before she nodded off again.

The jounin's smile returned as he pulled the girl closer to himself. "Tsubaki then," he said with finality.

"Yes. Our Tsubaki," his wife echoed, collapsing back into the pillow behind her. "We'll have to leave the Land of Water," she said quietly, allowing the strain of labor to finally catch up with her.

"You will," Tokusomaru agreed, forcing emotion from his voice. "She can't become a weapon for the Clan, or worse, against it."

"Us, we," Suzuran countered, before falling into sleep, brokering no argument.

Tokusomaru placed his daughter into the bassinet that had been prepared for her, before sitting in the lone chair that had been moved to the far corner of the room, hands clasped.

A/N: Sorry for the delay again, the chapter will be out soon, but it was giving me trouble since I decided to add some different downtime, so the next campaign will either start in the chapter after the next one, or the next one will be longer if I can't find a good stopping point. Originally this was going to be a different sidestory about how Taki entered the War, but I sort of stalled out on that one, and it was yet more Konoha content, so when I came up with this idea during a long drive I kind of fell in love with it and now here it is. There may be a part 2 to this one, but I'm not planning on it in the near future. I hope you enjoyed!

A/N1.5: The next sidestory will have more action, and will probably be out after the next chapter, just because most of the sidestories have been pretty slow, as have the last couple of chapters.

A/N2: I changed Tsubaki's father's name by a letter, everyone seems to use this version anyway if he's ever brought up, and it just sounds better. If you'd prefer the old version just let me know and I'll change it back.

Several days later, tucking your mission briefings into the sleeve of your kimono (not one of your Robes, as Tobiko is still busy dyeing them) as you leave the mission office, you hear someone calling your name.

"Hey, Tsubaki," it's Satou, clearly on her way from delivering some sort of report, she's even still in her flak jacket. It's not like your best friend to call out to you in public, but her mood at least seems better than the last time you saw her.

With a little wave, you greet her back. "Hi Satou," you look her up and down once again, confirming your initial assessment, "are you busy?"

She blinks at that, "No, I just got back from filing a mission report, I got back a little early actually, so I have some free time."

"I just got a mission, but I don't have to go until later," you tell her.

"Well, do you want to get something to eat? Ramen or something, I'll pay," your friend offers.

You shake your head but quickly realize that it looks like you're saying you don't want to go with her, so you stop. "Uh, sure," you salvage, "but I can pay, I really don't mind." You're sure that you make more on missions than Satou does, and it's odd for her not to go straight home after reporting in after a mission. So it would be the nice thing to do to treat her, you figure.


"You're still mad about last time?" Satou asks as your orders are placed in front of you, at the corner table of a small, glass-fronted ramen shop on one of Ame's busier streets.

"I'm not mad," you prod your appropriately bland-looking bowl of noodles and broth with your chopsticks, "you would know if I was mad," the bowl even smells like they didn't pepper it, like you asked.

Eyeing Satou's bowl, you watch as she picks up a bundle of steaming noodles and happily slurps them down, despite the presence of peppers piled up in the bowl. You have to suppress a shudder. "I guess that's true," she says after swallowing, "but you were pretty insistent on not going to the last place again, and it's one of my favorites."

"You have to like this one too," you jab your chopsticks in her direction, "you suggested it."

Satou shrugs, "I mean yeah, it's pretty good, but they don't have the same options."

You glance back at her bowl, then back at her, "you ordered crab."

"The shrimp isn't as good," the chunin taps her chopsticks against the rim of the bowl.

Typically, you'd roll your eyes, but something about the situation makes you smile, "that's fair, I guess." However, you instantly grimace when you take a sip of what's supposed to be a glass of iced white tea. It's bitter, overly sweet, and definitely has citrus in it. "This is black," you comment after choking it down, being sure not to put the glass back down too hard.

"You didn't ask if they even had white tea, you just ordered it."

"That's the same thing," you pick up your own noodles, content that they're cool enough to eat. You don't hear Satou's reply over the wheeze you force out as you swallow the mouthful.

"What's the problem now?" Satou asks, bemused.

Desperate for something to wash the taste out, you're forced to gulp down even more of the saccharine tea. "All I can taste is garlic!" You should've let Satou bring you to the other place, too much pepper is much better than too much garlic.


Somehow, when you and Satou are going your separate ways afterward, you feel like you've helped her with something. What that was exactly, you aren't really sure.

After turning around, you nearly run into someone else you hadn't expected to see on your way home from the mission office.

"Stop doing that," you say, almost on instinct, holding up your hands.

Juura, looking just as unrested as he did the last time you saw him, takes a step back. "Sorry Tsubaki, I thought you'd look where you were going," he looks over your head, where you're pretty sure Satou is still visible down the street, "are you distracted too?"

You shrug, he's right, you are usually more aware of your surroundings. "Not distracted," you state plainly, "just trying to work something out in my head, I guess."

"That was Satou, wasn't it? How was she?"

You glance back, but your other friend is gone, "fine, I guess. You can ask her yourself, if you want."

Juura turns his attention back to you, exhaling before responding, "I'd rather not, not right now at least, I'm ah- just getting back home."

That makes you pause for a second, for one, he doesn't live around here, and for two, he's changing the subject. Then again, if he's changing the subject with you it's probably not something you want to know about anyway. "You're going the wrong way then," you finally settle on. It's not really calling him out, but you don't like your teammate lying to you anyway.

"Oh," the taller boy pinches the bridge of his nose, clearly mentally kicking himself, "I moved to an apartment closer to the office. Also security concerns," he explains. "I guess I forgot to mention it the last time I saw you, I guess the circumstances made it skip my mind."

Now you feel like kind of a jerk for assuming he was lying to you right away, despite him acting kind of weird. "Wow, you moved out? But your family is so," you make some sort of vague, sculpting gesture with your hands, but that just makes him raise a red eyebrow, "you know what I mean. Close and stuff."

"Yeah," he laughs awkwardly, adjusting his collar, which makes his forehead protector flash under the streetlights, "that's part of why I did."

"Sorry," this feels like a good time to apologize.

Your former teammate shakes his head, "don't worry about it. I'd invite you to see it, but I just had Iori over before I had to run out for more paperwork, and now it's a mess." You wouldn't really mind, given that he has a good excuse, but you don't interrupt. "If you want to catch up, I guess I could fit tea in, I think Youme-sensei drilled brevity into both of us pretty well," the laugh he punctuates that statement with at least feels natural.

Your mouth sets in a line when he mentions tea though, "Just invite me over when you can," you let him down, "I don't think I can stomach any more restaurant tea today."

"Fair enough," Juura lets you go with a little wave that you return.

Now alone and back on your own way home, you think about Iori, who Juura mentioned, and that clanmate of his who had that… disagreement with you. You could go looking for him, but that would cut into what little downtime you have before your next mission. In the end, you put it out of mind for the moment. You used to be teammates, it's not like it's going to be hard to find him after this mission anyway.


A few days later around sunset, as you lean against a tree at a field camp several kilometers from the border with the Land of Meadows and observe an early cicada molt, the one of the commanders of the strike operation against Iwa's supply caches gets the attention of all of the shinobi at the camp.

There are only a few of you, three other jounin and a handful more special jounin, but the tall, boilersuited shinobi still saw fit to come and oversee your less structured deployment. While you're all gathered around, he points out the exact locations of the depots on the map before burning it in the little campfire at the center of the makeshift encampment, then asks to know how you'll be deploying.

[] Alone, you operate better that way and, survivors aside, it's probably the stealthiest way to go about something like this. Besides, it's been too long since you weren't part of a team.

[] With two of the special jounin, they could probably use somebody to watch their backs and they'd be more capable of taking down defenses while you softened up the defenders anyway, probably. It just seems like the best way to get a good fight.

[] With another jounin, that way you can probably divide the duties equally and you'll have the highest chance of success, though it might make one of the other attacks less effective.

Voting closes at Mar 24, 2025 at 10:15 PM!

A/N: In the interests of getting this done sooner rather than later (relatively), here's a quick operational vote for the upcoming mission.