Ren passes beneath Konohagakure’s gates alone, the eastern checkpoint receipt secured with the folded Leaf-sealed message. Familiar rooftops and watchtowers receive him without ceremony.
At the command office, an elderly woman with a narrow face, silver hair, and a green flak jacket sits beneath maps of the border nations, prepared to record his account.
Ren gives his debrief: the marked supply road, Mara Vey’s warning, the masked challenger, the courier, and the three scouts destroyed at the rocky shelf.
the Leaf commander
Your account matches the checkpoint report. Submit the receipt as well. The road’s warning will be entered into the official record.
The commander compares the receipt’s ink and seal against the checkpoint ledger, then files it beside Ren’s report. With no immediate assignment remaining, she releases him from duty.
By late afternoon, Ren reaches a quiet Uchiha lodging courtyard shaded by tiled eaves and a leafless persimmon tree. No companion follows; the village sounds fade beyond the walls.
The folded message rests in his possession, its Leaf wax unbroken and its faint smoke scent still clinging to the paper. The courtyard offers silence and time to decide what comes next.
“I proceed to read the message and then I decide I want to learn a new jutsu, create one actually”
FAILURE (Fair Reasoning, rolled +0)
Ren breaks the Leaf wax and unfolds the paper. The message contains a brief field cipher: the smoke scent is intentional, and its pattern points to an unfinished chakra technique recorded in fragments.
Beneath the cipher, a warning states that the technique was abandoned because its shape collapses when physical energy outruns spiritual control. No author or destination is named.
Ren Uchiha
The ink is newer than the smoke mark.
Ren clears the courtyard and begins testing the fragment, feeding chakra through measured seals. A thin distortion forms around his hand, warping the persimmon’s bare branches.
The pattern buckles before becoming a jutsu. Chakra snaps back through the unfinished circulation, scattering ash from the message and leaving Ren’s fingers numb.
The failure reveals the missing principle: the technique needs an external visual anchor to hold its form. The message’s smoke pattern provides one precise sequence, offering a safer foundation than repeating the failed attempt unchanged.
Create a stable version of the unfinished chakra technique.
Identify the technique’s external visual anchor.
Quest Complete
Learn what the folded message contains.
Skill Upgrade: Tactics Mediocre→Fair