- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
It's after the war, taking place a week or two after Naruto was elected Hokage ^.^
A Burning Leaf (Naruto FtD Short-form Quest)
- Thread starter RandomOTP
- Start date
It's after the war, taking place a week or two after Naruto was elected Hokage ^.^
Don't listen to the haters, Shin. Research is based.
- Location
- Pacific standard
Mud hug -> mud hut
<3
<3
Chapter Five: The Blood We Spill (Part Two)
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Chapter Five
The Blood We Spill (Part Two)
Ryoko sighed.
"Well, come on, let's go check out the houses. Maybe we can find more clues there."
Ryoko led her team over to the ruined graveyard of what had once been the residential quarter of Santoshi.
The skeletal remains of wooden huts and stone-brick houses were ash and rubble, soot-stained with the tell-tale signs of fire ninjutsu and homefire hearths run amok.
Ryoko, Sugiyama, and Shin waded through the hip-deep ruins, turning over shattered wooden beams that creaked in protest like broken bones being set right.
Broken bodies lay scattered throughout the dilapidated houses. Some bodies bore only broken necks –spinal columns poking through their skin like a macabre mockery of pearl jewelry –while others were little more than crumbled mounds of broken meat, flattened by their homes falling around them, and a thousand hues of horror in between.
Ryoko took in the horror, and bottled it away with the ease of experience. There would be a time to think about this, but not right now. She was in the field, and her team needed her. The civilians –herchargesherprotecteesherresponsibilitiesherdutyhermandate –were dead and gone.
Blood-soaked rage blossomed in Ryoko's heart. This, too, she bottled and buried deep within her heart. She was no priest, she could do nothing for the dead. Ryoko was a weapon, blood-stained and battle-hardened. All she could do was avenge them…
Is this why Lord Eighth sent her, and not someone else?
"Ryoko," Sugiyama whispered, nodding towards Shin, who had fallen silent and stood stock-still, staring at the underbelly of a half-turned fragment of chimney.
Ryoko could see his hands shaking.
The two senior ninja, pushing aside debris, carefully waded through the rubble to their younger teammate. Caterpillarvoles scurried away as the harsh sunlight fell upon them, blood-stained from their opportunistic scavenging.
As they approached closer, Ryoko could see that Shin's face –an unnatural pale that had only recently tanned into something closer to merely "unhealthy" –had blanched back to its once-sickly pallor.
The reason was clear.
Underneath the fallen chimney, were a pair of mangled corpses. The larger one was recognizable as a woman only by the blood-ruined dress she wore. The smaller one held a straw-woven doll.
Mother and daughter? Older sister and younger? Aunt and niece?
Even Ryoko couldn't tell.
She shared a look with Sugiyama, pleading.
Ryoko was a fighter. A weapon. She could teach Shin a thousand different ways to swing a sword, a hundred different ways to throw a kunai, and more… She could show Shin how to use the battlefield to his advantage, dancing across the battlefield in such a way that would force his enemies to step around holes in the earth, duck under tree branches, step atop inconvenient stones…
Ryoko could drill Shin through combat, and turn him into a terror on the battlefield. But this? Ryoko didn't know how to help the kid through this.
Ryoko was a fighter. A weapon. Even in the academy, social graces and the finer nuances of interpersonal relationships were a mystery. Her friendship with Sugiyama was more because Sugiyama didn't care for the very social nuances that Ryoko lacked than for any real friendship-skill on her own part.
Ryoko was a fighter. A weapon. Her hands were bloodstained and her soul ruined. Her hands were only-ever suited for combat. For killing. Ryoko had tried her hands at painting, gardening, cooking, decorating, embroidery, flower-pressing, tea ceremonies, calligraphy, and countless other nonviolent hobbies.
None of them worked.
Ryoko was a fighter. A weapon. Destined only to succeed in the most violent of acts. It came naturally to her. Ryoko was good at it, and enjoyed it more than art, sex, or music. Combat made Ryoko feel alive in a way that little else could. She reveled in it.
But this?
Ryoko didn't know how to help.
Ryoko's panicked glance at Sugiyama worked. Sugiyama sighed, deep and resigned, before approaching Shin.
"Hey," they murmured softly, slowly and carefully grabbing the teenager's shoulders –carefully choreographing every move to be as visible as possible. "Come over here, let's talk."
"Sugiyama isn't a very happy person," Ryoko thought privately, catching the chimney before it could fall back onto the pair of corpses. "But they're a kind person."
Not that she'd ever voice the thought aloud, of course. Sugiyama would refuse to heal her next time out of principle if Ryoko ever let it be known that she could see through Sugiyama's act. She would continue to pretend not to know, and Sugiyama would pretend not to know that Ryoko was pretending.
Some delusions are a cruel thing to break.
Ryoko leaned the remnants of the chimney back against some fallen rubble, and caught a glimpse of… something.
Once, it might have been a perfect circle, drawn in blood. Now it was a smeared swipe of blood from where Ryoko's hand had caught the chimney.
"Now that's interesting…"
As Sugiyama walked Shin away from the ruins of Santoshi's residential district, whispering comfort and advice, Ryoko searched.
Through the wreckage, Ryoko found obvious signs of a determined pursuit. Bloody footprints that sunk deep into the ground –civilian footprints sunk deeper into the earth than a ninja's habitual quasi-waterwalk –handprints on ash-coated stones, frantic smearing and narrow pacing indicating panicked civilians as the victims.
At the end of each of these trails, an immense bloodstain that smeared in the direction of one of the many mounds of corpses.
These piles of corpses were unnatural, of course. Bodies dragged to specific locations, and then defaced until they were… little more than piles of bloody pulp, hardly even recognizable as human, and too mangled to decipher what sort of weapon or jutsu had done this.
The bodies, Ryoko thought, were dragged somewhat equidistant from each other, and in the shape of a perfect circle… Scavenger beasts and decomposers had already begun to eat away at the mounds, causing more than one of the mounds to shift, and crumble onto the ground.
Ryoko could spot chakra lizardants and firemites crawling across the bodies, further desecrating the bodies and destroying evidence. Her hand twitched to the seals strapped across her forearms.
As she searched, Ryoko could spot small piles of earth scattered about the farming town. The light, chalky-brown dirt stood in stark contrast against the dark, loamy earth that was native to Santoshi.
The remnants of earth jutsu? Earth Clones, maybe? Even an earth clone would be enough to kill a civilian… but that many piles would indicate high-levels of practice with the jutsu, or multiple castings –meaning less familiarity with the jutsu –but it would be a lot of chakra usage.
One person, or multiple? Either option didn't seem good.
Ryoko scowled, and her thoughts turned inward.
A ninja could kill a civilian as easily as breathing. A gennin wouldn't even need to reinforce themselves with chakra to kill a civilian laborer whose body had been tempered through years of hard work.
This level of violence, of thoroughness… A scorch squad doesn't usually target civilians, themselves. They target the underlying structures of a village: buildings, walls, fields. They make it impossible for the civilians to remain, to be a productive resource of that nation's hidden village.
Here, the enemy ninja obviously went out of their way to slaughter civilians, and to do so with blood-drunk cruelty.
Ryoko flexed her hand, willing away the desire to unseal her weapons or trail her fingers across her bandolier.
"Sugiyama, Shin!" Ryoko called. "Time to check the wall!"
Shin started with surprise, and Sugiyama's ever-present glower deepened. Too bad, they were still in the field. Ryoko ignored a prick of guilt. There would be time to make peace with this, later.
Ryoko stood next to a large fragment of Sanotshi's wall. It was a classic red of Goketsu Granite, and as thick as she was tall.
It would have been a strong wall, once. Overlapping scrapes and minor pitting spoke of many successful fights against chakra beasts. Once, the wall stood, tall and proud, as the stalwart defender of Santoshi.
Ryoko ran her hand over the surface of the granite, smearing ash and dust.
The wall didn't tell Ryoko anything new. Ash and dust indicated fire or lightning ninjutsu, but it could also have been explosive seals that had been altered for this purpose –the Goketsu Clan's infamous standard operating procedures had raised the chances of "seals" being the answer to any mystery by a notable amount.
Why would they waste the chakra or the seals to break down the wall, though? If they just wanted to kill the civilians, why go through the effort of breaking down the wall? Was it to force Leaf to rebuild the wall, if they wanted to resettle? Breaking the wall –especially into as many pieces as it had been –would be an immense time sink that would leave the enemy ninja low on resources, be it chakra or seals.
"Ma'am," Ryoko heard Shin call, his voice unsteady. "We've found something!"
Shin and Sugiyama had been dispatched to search the immediate area around Santoshi, but had been ordered to stay within eyesight of the wall –through Fire Country's thick underbrush, it was well within Substituting distance. Just to be safe, Ryoko had kept pace with them, circling the wall as they circled the area.
Ryoko Substituted over to them immediately.
Shin was standing at attention, eyes a thousand miles away, beside a chopped chunk of red meat. Sugiyama stood next to the young man, eyeing him with the wary look of a medic nin to a patient.
"We've found… bait, ma'am," Shin reported, leaning on well-ingrained formalities as a crutch. "We think they've been placed in rings around Santoshi, to lead chakra beasts to the town."
"It's human meat," Sugiyama tacked on, voice flat. "Probably sourced from Santoshi, given the amounts and state of decay."
"Probably to obscurate the evidence," Ryoko mused aloud. "If we had waited longer, the Mooselions would have been enough to trample over the town and destroy the evidence –let alone whatever else the bait might have attracted."
Ryoko led her team over to Santoshi's farming fields, and felt a resigned knot of horror in her stomach. She'd done scorch squad missions before, towards the end of the last war. She knew what to expect, but still… any evidence was good evidence.
Ryoko stood in the middle of the field, ruined crops trampled and ruined by enemy action and opportunistic chakra beasts. Right now, only one set of tracks led into Santoshi –those of the Mooselion Pride – but soon enough, these crops would begin to rot, and decomposer chakra beasts would come, drawing in predators and more dangerous chakra beasts, which would draw in even larger predators… And that's ignoring the bait that had been laid out around Santoshi.
Ryoko pushed the thought away. Those were problems for the future, notable only as an aside in her report.
"The fields," Ryoko mused, "were much more professionally done."
The fields were destroyed with a pragmatic efficiency that Ryoko could almost approve of. One crater in the center of each field –where the fire ninjutsu/explosion tag went off –and the fire allowed to spread to the rest of the field.
The few bodies Ryoko found had then been caught in the crater, itself, unable to flee an attack they couldn't see coming. Overlapping civilian footsteps led Ryoko back into the wild.
Here, the destruction had been precise, aimed at the fields and nothing else. A sharp contrast to the grotesque tableaux within Santoshi's walls.
Ryoko knelt, and picked up a handful of ash and dirt, allowing it to slip through her fingers. The sunlight glint off sharp particles within the dirt.
Ryoko couldn't tell what kind of dust had been mixed in with the dirt, only that it was metallic. Iron dust, perhaps? Sourced from a blacksmith's forge? Or maybe the residue of a ninjutsu? Or, as always, perhaps some new seal?
With quick efficiency, Ryoko took a sealing tag out of her bandolier, unsealed a sturdy wooden box containing empty glass vials, took samples of the metallic dust, and then sealed it all away.
Why would an enemy nation use metallic dust to drive away fertility spirits from the fields? Blood and salt were the standard tools for such a thing –expensive though they were to use in such large amounts.
"Ryoko," Sugiyama called, with a calm urgency in their voice. "Tracks!"
Ryoko sprinted over to them, and saw the tracks in the dirt, right at the roots of a tree. No doubt the foreigners had thought that these roots would've been enough to hold their weight and mask their presence.
Idiots.
They were faint –as was often the case with ninja footprints –but present. Two pairs of medium-sized footprints, heading east.
The party leapt up into the trees, spread out, and followed the dirt-footprints on the tree branches for a few minutes. The trail continued to head east of Santoshi, with perhaps a slight southern bent.
Ryoko reviewed her mental map of the area.
"Shin," Ryoko called. He knew more about this area of the map than she did. "
Imachi and Tunshigai were to the southeast and northeast of Santoshi, respectively, both following Tobiramra's Islet. The tracks were definitely headed east, perhaps somewhat southeast…
Ryoko needed to make a decision.
Do they encounter other chakra beasts: 1d10 = 2
Yes, yes they do
Chakra Beasts 1d100 = 3
Pests and fleas that flee before Ryoko. Still too early for other "big" ones to come by, I suppose.
Houses
Wall and outlying area
Farming Fields
Yes, yes they do
Chakra Beasts 1d100 = 3
Pests and fleas that flee before Ryoko. Still too early for other "big" ones to come by, I suppose.
Houses
- Ryoko: 44 (examination) + 6 (dice) + 5 (invoke "former Jiraiya Asset") = 55
- Shin: ?? (examination) + ?? (dice) = ??
- Sugiyama ?? (medknow) + ?? (dice) = ??
Wall and outlying area
- Ryoko: 44 (examination) - 6 (dice) = 38
- Shin: ?? + ?? (dice) + ?? (Invoke ???) = ??
- Sugiyama ?? (medknow) + ?? (dice) = ??
Farming Fields
- Ryoko: 44 (examination) - 6 (dice) = 38
- Shin: ?? + ?? (dice) + ?? (sugiyama) = ??
Shin notes that…
- The tracks are headed Eastward, maybe somewhat Southeastward
- Imachi (this first hamlet to fall silent) is southeast of Santoshi
- Tsunshigai (the second hamlet to fall silent) is northeast of Santoshi.
Shin also notes that… the party could find more information at the other hamlets, though the increased time since they've fallen silent (Santoshi was the last/most-recent one to fall silent) means that there will likely be increased chakra beast activity, and more false positives to sort through.
"Still," he notes with a wan smile, "More data is always useful."
Ryoko's recent months of quasi-mentorship with Shin means that she knows that although Shin is no coward when it comes to combat, just inexperienced and more than a little rusty. Shin, she knows, a cautious ninja both in the research lab, and out in the field.
Sugiyama, however, rebuts with the fact that the tracks are several days old already, that both Imachi and Tsunshigai are about a day and a half away, and that such a time investment may not be worth it.
Ryoko's long friendship with Sugiyama means that she knows that Sugiyama is eager to rip out the spines of the bastards who did this, and that such bloodlust is likely clouding their judgment.
Ultimately, Ryoko is the squad leader and their ranking superior. They've given their perspectives, as requested, but will follow whatever decision Ryoko gives.
Voting is open for ~24 hours.
[] (fate points): Don't/Do Spend FP
[] Travel to Imachi for more information (cautious approach) / (aggressive approach)
[] Travel to Tsunshigai for more information (cautious approach) / (aggressive approach)
[] Follow the tracks (Hurry, decreased chakra upon arrival, increases the risk of losing tracks/doubling back.)
[] Follow the tracks (standard pace, no change to the risk of losing tracks/doubling back.)
[] Follow the tracks (slow down and do it right the first time. Decreased risk of losing tracks/doubling back).
[] Write in
- Location
- Pacific standard
[X] Head to the center of the triangle formed by Santoshi, Tsunshigai, and Imachi to disrupt the Jashinist ritual taking place there
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- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Wow. That was viscerally disturbing -- well done, @RandomOTP
Bad news: they are likely much more common.
:/
[x] Follow the tracks (slow down and do it right the first time. Decreased risk of losing tracks/doubling back).
Jashin / Hidan, is that you?
I love that there is now a specific color called 'Gōketsu Granite'. It shows just how much of a difference the team has made.
Good news: scorch squads in this continuity are only intended to wipe out industrial production by destroying infrastructure, not the capacity to generate future ninja by destroying people.
Bad news: they are likely much more common.
:/
TIL. I am familiar with "obfuscate" and "obscure", but I've never run across "obscurate". Turns out, it's a word. Nice!
Huh. I'm wracking my brain for what this might be. Anyone have any thoughts?
[x] Follow the tracks (slow down and do it right the first time. Decreased risk of losing tracks/doubling back).
Trailing close quote.
ooh, this chapter was worth the wait. excellent, i enjoyed the glimpse into the complexities of sugiyama — "Some delusions are a cruel thing to break." is such a way to put it — and the meditations on ryoko's character continue to be cutting
this passage as a whole was kinda powerful. that double-edged fixation on combat isn't a rare thing among ninja, but it feels especially stark for her.
also can i just call out this bit of imagery, because holy heck. wildly vivid
just now eating breakfast and coffee, so i feel like some of the implications of what i read are slipping over my head. interesting the see the scorch squad theory shot down — but it seems like the reality is worse.
the ritual implications are pretty compelling though. don't think i can support following cautiously, stopping the bads feels urgent to gamble with some risk.
[X] Head to the center of the triangle formed by Santoshi, Tsunshigai, and Imachi to disrupt the Jashinist ritual taking place there
[X] Do Spend FP
[X] Follow the tracks (standard pace, no change to the risk of losing tracks/doubling back.)
this passage as a whole was kinda powerful. that double-edged fixation on combat isn't a rare thing among ninja, but it feels especially stark for her.
also can i just call out this bit of imagery, because holy heck. wildly vivid
just now eating breakfast and coffee, so i feel like some of the implications of what i read are slipping over my head. interesting the see the scorch squad theory shot down — but it seems like the reality is worse.
the ritual implications are pretty compelling though. don't think i can support following cautiously, stopping the bads feels urgent to gamble with some risk.
[X] Head to the center of the triangle formed by Santoshi, Tsunshigai, and Imachi to disrupt the Jashinist ritual taking place there
[X] Do Spend FP
[X] Follow the tracks (standard pace, no change to the risk of losing tracks/doubling back.)
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
This is a valid vote, but makes no statement about hurrying/standard speed/carefully.
I'm fine with it being a separate vote, just wanted to make y'all aware that it would be covered that way...
Unless you want to leave it to Ryoko-pilot? >:3
There could be sinister implications but my gut reaction was "ah, they use mica in their soil". It's a somewhat common practice for its physical properties wrt absorbing water and how it affects compaction etc. or because of nutrients from particular types of mica.
[X] We trust RandomOTP. They can write what they feel like.
[x] Follow the tracks (Hurry, decreased chakra upon arrival, increases the risk of losing tracks/doubling back.)
Time to show these Jashinist fucks who Jashin's real favorite is.
[X] (fate points): Do Spend FP
@RandomOTP how many FP do we have rn? Can we buy FP in this quest?
Time to show these Jashinist fucks who Jashin's real favorite is.
[X] (fate points): Do Spend FP
@RandomOTP how many FP do we have rn? Can we buy FP in this quest?
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- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Ryoko has 6 FP, Shin and Sugiyama have an ?? amount of FP.
You cannot buy FP in this quest.
Viscerally. Heh
Scorch Squads in BL
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Eeeh, yes and also no.
Why waste chakra, seals, and time killing civilians when you can make their home unhabitable, driving them out into the wilds where they're likely to die, anyway? Even if some of them manage to survive long enough to reach another civilian hamlet, enough of them will die by chakra beast that it accomplishes the same thing, just with less work.
Of course, a more dutiful ninja might personally kill civilians to make sure that their job is done, or a more sadistic ninja might take time to personally kill civilians simply because they can.
Further, Leaf is pretty unique in the amount of sensory/tracking Clans that live there (Aburame, Inuzuka, Hyuuga, etc), which raises the risk of being spotted by a large amount. And Fire Country's ecology varies from "friggin' dense forest" to "literally rainforest" depending on how close you are to the equator, so civilian hamlets are pretty well-hidden, even by ninja standards.
So a ninja who is trying to find a hamlet to scorch needs to locate a hamlet (or hope their maps of enemy territory are accurate), do their job, and get out as quickly/silently as possible... Sticking around to kill civilians when you could let chakra beasts do it for you might be a waste of valuable time.
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@RandomOTP we spotted tracks leaving the hamlet, did we spot which direction they came from?
If so, was it from the second hamlet to go silent?
If so, was it from the second hamlet to go silent?
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
The party didn't spot any incoming tracks, no. Just the exit tracks.
Edit: wait, the tracks were coming from the town of Santoshi, if that's what you mean? No entry tracks on how/where they approached, though.
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[X] Follow the tracks (Hurry, decreased chakra upon arrival, increases the risk of losing tracks/doubling back.) If we lose the trail, rather than doubling back, Head to the center of the triangle formed by Santoshi, Tsunshigai, and Imachi to disrupt the Jashinist ritual taking place there
- Location
- Pacific standard
I'm pretty sure Ryoko-I-Am-A-Weapon-Pilot will go faster than I could possibly convince her if that motivation is zapped into her brain, but good point lol. Editing to the following
Edit: actually im voting for both just in case people dont swap. muahaha.
[X] Head to the center of the triangle formed by Santoshi, Tsunshigai, and Imachi to disrupt the Jashinist ritual taking place there ASAP
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Iris-Iven-Ibis
Interested-Idiot-Immortal
- Location
- You know
[x] Follow the tracks (Hurry, decreased chakra upon arrival, increases the risk of losing tracks/doubling back.)
[X] (fate points): Do Spend FP
[X] (fate points): Do Spend FP
Iris-Iven-Ibis
Interested-Idiot-Immortal
- Location
- You know
[X] Head to the center of the triangle formed by Santoshi, Tsunshigai, and Imachi to disrupt the Jashinist ritual taking place there, BUT if we don't find anything there, pivot southwards and head to Imachi
[X] Head to the center of the triangle formed by Santoshi, Tsunshigai, and Imachi to disrupt the Jashinist ritual taking place there, BUT if we don't find anything there, pivot southwards and head to Imachi