A Burning Leaf (Naruto FtD Short-form Quest)
- Thread starter RandomOTP
- Start date
Character Creation Results
- Location
- Pacific standard
Dear Mom,
I write you today from the front lines, in poor spirits. Today, as I do every day, I woke mourning the fact that our families two beautiful techniques, Blade of the Ancestral Fury and Grasp of the Fire Lord cannot be used in unison. My heart weeps.
Can you do anything to assuage this pain? Perhaps... concentrating all of the power in my left hand so it turns into a flaming wazikashi of doom? It could be like, our version of the chidori! Maybe instead of birds it'd be you humming!!! What song though? Maybe star of the morning? Maybe a foreign classic like the lovers of the red valley ...
Translators note: Ryokos letter rambles on for several pages on what sound the hypothetical jutsu may make.
Love you mom, see you soon!
(From beyond the grave? OoOoO)
Dear Ryoko,
If I could create 'Flaming Wazikashi of Doom no Jutsu', you would already have it dear.
I'll see what I can do.
I write you today from the front lines, in poor spirits. Today, as I do every day, I woke mourning the fact that our families two beautiful techniques, Blade of the Ancestral Fury and Grasp of the Fire Lord cannot be used in unison. My heart weeps.
Can you do anything to assuage this pain? Perhaps... concentrating all of the power in my left hand so it turns into a flaming wazikashi of doom? It could be like, our version of the chidori! Maybe instead of birds it'd be you humming!!! What song though? Maybe star of the morning? Maybe a foreign classic like the lovers of the red valley ...
Translators note: Ryokos letter rambles on for several pages on what sound the hypothetical jutsu may make.
Love you mom, see you soon!
(From beyond the grave? OoOoO)
Dear Ryoko,
If I could create 'Flaming Wazikashi of Doom no Jutsu', you would already have it dear.
I'll see what I can do.
Last edited:
Chapter One: Marching Orders Received
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Chapter One:
Marching Orders Received.
Spring's oppressive heat pressed down on Ryoko as she limped towards the hamlet of Niri, the humidity clogging the air. Her ankle throbbed in complaint, and for every breath she took, it felt like Ryoko only got half the air that her body needed.
Mercifully, the shade of Leaf's dense forest canopy stretched overhead, shielding Ryoko from the brunt of the sun's harsh gaze.
Small blessings, that. Still, she'd take them where she could. After an unseasonably harsh winter that lingered for far too long, it felt like the world had suddenly remembered what Spring was, and hurried to make up for lost time.
Ryoko approached the hamlet's telltale granite walls –even here, days away from Leaf, the Goketsu Clan had left their mark –with a nervous energy. Most of her weapons were sealed away –two strapped against her forearms, and hidden by the long sleeves of her shirt, others in the bandolier over her chest –and that made Ryoko feel… vulnerable.
She forced her limp into a regal march, and allowed her hand to drift to her sword's handle, drawing comfort from her father's old sword. It had long-since become a familiar weight at her side, and having it in-hand eased the energy she felt bubbling underneath her calm facade.
Niri's civilian gate guards parted at the sight of Ryoko's headband, tied around her arm, and she continued through the gate without slowing down, heading straight for the inn.
Niri had been built on one of the many roads leading to Leaf, and made most of their ryo through Leaf ninja who were returning home after a mission. By Leaf standards, their inn was a small building, possessing only the bare necessities to call itself an inn, but for a hamlet the size of Niri, it was a major luxury –doubly so for tired eyes of a ninja who had spent days completing their mission, and still had days to travel back to Leaf.
"Room for the night, ma'am," the innkeeper asked as bowed low, his long, white beard brushing the spotless wooden floor.
"A room, a bath, and however much food the rest will cover," Ryoko stiffly handed over a fistfull of ryo, posture perfect, throbbing ankle be damned. Stupid porcubears and their stupid quills. She still needed to clean the blood out of her axe's grooves.
The innkeeper smiled warmly, eyes crinkling. "Yes ma'am, I'll send grandsons on it, right away. With the heat being what it is, I can't imagine Fire's forests beat back the spring all too much."
Fire's forests beat back… A passphrase, given to Lord Jiraiya's operatives. Third-ordered variation, too.
But, maybe it was nothing? Ryoko hadn't been tagged to do a mission by the late Hokage's network in years. Probably just an innocent turn of phrase by an unknowing civilian. Besides, it's not like the Sannin had kept to his side of their bargain, right?
A memory flashed in front of Ryoko's eyes.
Scrolls of cheap parchment littered the small room, overlapping with nonsensical graphs and complex equations. An ever-distant, ever-frantic figure at a desk, utterly consumed by their work, unresponsive to Ryoko's prompting. A tall, white-haired man gently reaching down to pick her up from a pool of blood. An empty house and a bloodstained carpet that she can never find the time to replace. An unopened letter with feminine handwriting.
"It does the job well enough. The rest is up to us." Duty to the dead compelled her to reply. "Well, that, and the bath I'm paying for."
The innkeeper sighed at Ryoko's answer, shoulders sagging in relief. With one hand placed firmly on the counter, and a deliberate slowness, the old man presented Ryoko with a sealed letter. A subtle fuuinjutsu script bordered the edges of the thick paper, disguised as artistic calligraphy.
"A nice gentleman caller left this for you," the innkeeper lied easily, his voice carefully pitched to carry the tone of an amused elder, dragged into playing messenger for two distant lovers. "Your room is on the second floor, third room to the right."
Ryoko sighed in not-entirely faked resignation, and took the letter. It would take the innkeeper a while to arrange the bath, anyway.
She walked to her room, and locked the door.
The room itself was small, containing little more than a mattress, a desk, and a chair. Still, it was a corner room with two windows for easy egress and a thick door that, while not enough to stop an intruder, would splinter loudly enough to wake even the heaviest sleeper.
The letter banished whatever goodwill the door might have earned, though.
Ryoko slung her pack into a corner, took off her bandoliers, her hand-sewn belt whose pockets contained darts, kunai, and senbon, stripped off the daggers at her thighs, and removed the fallback knife from the small of her back. She kept the sword strapped, though, and her leather forearm-bracers that held her main seals.
Sitting down, she pricked her thumb and allowed a drop of blood to fall onto the letter's sealing script. It glowed a ponderous blue, before vanishing. Good. If the old man –or one of his grandkids, maybe –had gotten any ideas, it would have exploded like a sealing tag, and vaporized the contents.
Special Jonin Ryoko,
If you're reading this, then you've completed your mission, and are heading back to Leaf. A matter has come up that requires your immediate attention: three of Leaf's major farming hamlets have gone silent.
We had thought that this last winter, harsh as it was, kept their messengers from traveling on the road, but they are now several weeks late.
After last year's famine, we cannot afford another one. Not with Leaf as weakened as it is, and not with the security of AMITY in question. Your orders are to investigate this silence, and if they're facing trouble, put a stop to it by any means necessary.
With luck, they're just suffering a chakra beast problem, or the heat hasn't thawed their roads yet.
Our manpower is spread thin. You do not have the right to refuse this mission, but will be compensated accordingly. The location of the hamlets are included in the map provided.
Sincerely,
Uzumaki Naruto
Eighth Hokage of Leaf
P.S. Sorry for the mandated mission. As an apology, I've assigned Sugiyama and Shin to you for it.
If you're reading this, then you've completed your mission, and are heading back to Leaf. A matter has come up that requires your immediate attention: three of Leaf's major farming hamlets have gone silent.
We had thought that this last winter, harsh as it was, kept their messengers from traveling on the road, but they are now several weeks late.
After last year's famine, we cannot afford another one. Not with Leaf as weakened as it is, and not with the security of AMITY in question. Your orders are to investigate this silence, and if they're facing trouble, put a stop to it by any means necessary.
With luck, they're just suffering a chakra beast problem, or the heat hasn't thawed their roads yet.
Our manpower is spread thin. You do not have the right to refuse this mission, but will be compensated accordingly. The location of the hamlets are included in the map provided.
Sincerely,
Uzumaki Naruto
Eighth Hokage of Leaf
P.S. Sorry for the mandated mission. As an apology, I've assigned Sugiyama and Shin to you for it.
Ryoko reread the letter four more times, committing each word to memory, before moving to do the same thing with the map.
All the while, Ryoko felt a sinking feeling in her gut.
Why didn't this feel like it was going to be as easy as breaking ice on a frozen road, or killing a couple of chakra beasts?
I've updated the Information Page with Ryoko's character sheet and I've updated the Informational google doc to contain the relevant stunts
Voting will be open for ~12 hours.
Where does Ryoko meet her teammates?
[] First Hamlet that went silent
[] Second Hamlet that went silent
[] Third Hamlet that went silent
Last edited:
- Location
- France
[X] Third Hamlet that went silent
- Location
- Pacific standard
Reasoning: if there's a monster or chakra effect we want as fresh information as possible. If we find no proof of a monster and just environmental effects, then we'll want to head to the first hamlet to investigate.
[X] Third Hamlet that went silent
[X] Third Hamlet that went silent
- Location
- Pacific standard
Okay, so the Gōketsu clan has their reach all the way out here. Ryoko has history with... Kakashi, and the sannin right? Interesting.
She's high enough in the anbu network to have "ryoko only" seals. That's notable.
She's high enough in the anbu network to have "ryoko only" seals. That's notable.
I think the tall man white white hair is supposed to be Jiraiya, maybe?
[x] Second Hamlet that went silent
Iris-Iven-Ibis
Interested-Idiot-Immortal
- Location
- You know
[X] Third Hamlet that went silent
My current theory Is that it EM Nuke
My current theory Is that it EM Nuke
voting for the third hamlet, because depending on what's causing this, the latest incident would have the freshest evidence. i suppose it also has the greatest risk of us running into the source, but that's just more fun, right?
[X] Third Hamlet that went silent
nice first chapter. i like the descriptions
this line in particular is probably my favorite, but there's enough flavor and perspective throughout to make for a very smooth read
obviously the pressing mystery is why villages are dropping like phone lines but there's already some background curiosities
why was she in the pool of blood — sealing stuff? i wanna know the who, what and why of the letter
feels like this might tie into the flashback. j-man did some sketchy stuff with her blood?
thanks for the chpater, looking forward to the next update
[X] Third Hamlet that went silent
nice first chapter. i like the descriptions
this line in particular is probably my favorite, but there's enough flavor and perspective throughout to make for a very smooth read
obviously the pressing mystery is why villages are dropping like phone lines but there's already some background curiosities
why was she in the pool of blood — sealing stuff? i wanna know the who, what and why of the letter
feels like this might tie into the flashback. j-man did some sketchy stuff with her blood?
thanks for the chpater, looking forward to the next update
- Location
- Liverpool
[X] First Hamlet that went silent
Nobody's voted for it, and it deserves love too.
Nobody's voted for it, and it deserves love too.
Meetup Vote
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Spring is oppressively hot? Where I live it ranges from chilly to nice. Is this normal for Fire Country?
Woot! Team Uplift, making a difference!
Huh. Why does she wear it around her arm? Interesting... Gives me all kinds of images about how one time it slipped over her eyes during a fight. This shall be my headcanon until proven otherwise!
Are these regular roads or NOBURI roads?
:>
I love the image.
Ooh, is she a friend of Yuno's?
Aww! Even from beyond the grave, he's still pulling strings.
Huh. What was their bargain, I wonder?
Okay, I *need* to know the details of this. Hopefully it comes out eventually.
Heh. As I understand it, a "gentleman caller" was a man who showed up at a young lady's door for a date. A boyfriend or lover, in other words. I'm glad to see that Ryoko has a life outside her job.
Uh oh. That can't be good.
Woot! MfD, represent!
People who read this without reading that will be so confused.
Hey, I know those names! Welcome, folks.
Where do we meet them?
Rats, I missed it. Well, I would have voted third anyway.
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Hm... yes and no. Fire Country has some pretty large coastal boarders, which would contribute to the high humidity during springtime (I lived in the Carolinas for a bit, and let me tell you, calling it "muggy" would be an understatement).
This, combined with Fire Country's natural geothermal activity (a high amount of natural hot springs, incredibly fertile landscape which is oft found in areas with volcanic activity, and it boarders the country named Hot Springs), means that it would get likely get pretty warm, pretty quickly. Doubly so if Fire Country is located on --or near --the equator, which I believe it would have to be, given the sheer fecundity of its landscape.
However, normally there is a larger transitionary period, wherein it would be cool and chilly in the morning/evening, and then hot during peak daylight hours. Unfortunately, some chakra shenanigans that happened offscreen mean that this period of time was overtaken by an unusually long and harsh winter, and when it ended, the planet found itself in mid-Spring.
Regular dirt roads/paths that are maintained by a mixture of civilian traffic and ninja chakra beast clearing missions.
For the purposes of this fic, these roads were initially created during one of Hashirama's early projects to make Leaf a desirous place for civilian merchants to settle in by signaling "Leaf has built infrastructure to aid civilian travel and trade, which indicates a certain level of care for civilian welfare, in addition to a long-term perspective that is promising for long-term survival."
Ryoko knows that roads were often a target of opportunity during Leaf's latest war with Rock. She remembers seeing a near-constant mission posting for Earth Ninjutsu users to do glorified road repair. Since the war's conclusion, the late Seventh Hokage, Sarutobi Asuma, and the current reigning Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, have been quick to fix the roads that Leaf relies on for crops. The genin, Ryoko muses to herself, are at least getting practice with chakra molding.
As an aside, Ryoko, in her experience as a special jonin of Leaf, suspects that the Tower is in greater disarray than it presents to the wider Leaf. Normally, a major farming hamlet going silent would at least warrant a check-in, bad winter or no. For three to have gone silent, without investigation? It's... disquieting, and Ryoko is resolved to fix whatever's causing it.
Last edited: