An Herbalists Saga {Kuro Hoshio}

[rokath]

Soon after his graduation from the academy Kuro remembered his fathers promise to teach him advanced poison making. Kuro confronted his father but to much disdain Kazuki had not told him that its not a trade that is text book/lecuture taught. "What do you mean I can't just use your herbs and recipes father?" Kuro inquired. Kazuki knew his son liked taking the easy route but also knew he'd work hard at something if he had to.

He explained that to have the best poisons he must make up his own way of making them and not be spoon fed. Once a medic encounters a poison, they get some experience with that poison. Since he had been in the business a while he had to keep reinventing his poisons to reach a higher level of efficiency. Kuro seemed to be understanding all of this but just to make sure his father would try another approach in his explanation.

"I was an herbalist back in the country of bears." Kazuki stated. "The herbs and technologies that I had available there are far different than those that are available here." He continued. With a sad look on his face Kuro asked, "So I won't be able to be as good as you are?" "No, no, no." Kazuki assured his son, that just because everything was different doesn't mean it was necessarily worse. Kazuki told him that actually he might be better off in this area because not many people know of the herbs around these parts.

Kazuki knew that this did the trick as he saw his sons face light up with delight. "Now since you want to be an herbalist like your mother and I, you need to work at it like we did." This statement brought a slightly puzzled look to Kuro's face. "What do you mean?" He asked his father. "Well if you want to go into poison making you'll need to find your own herbs, or purchase them with your own money. You're an adult now and need to start taking care of yourself, you are welcome to using some of my equipment but it is slightly out of date even back in the Country of Bears." He stated.

Kuro seemed slightly upset at this but he understood that his father had the bet intentions for him. "Well then, I best get going!" Kuro exclaimed. "To where?" his father asked now with a puzzled look on his face. "Well, to the library first to see if I can't get a heads up on where the best spot is for herbs, and then out to find them!" Kuro said as he was already half way out the door. Kazuki's face went from a puzzled look to half of a grinning face, closing his eyes slowly and chuckling to himself. "That boy is going to be something great." He said softly.

[rokath]

Kuro walked down the streets of the village with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and put them both on the back of his head to give his neck support as he tilted his head back to let some of the things that his father had just said sink in. "So I'm an adult now, huh?" Kuro said to himself. He walked around looking at different shops and stopping to talk to some of the other villagers, helping him get a better understanding of the village around him. He stopped in his tracks and gave a slight chuckle as he reached his destination.. The Library!

As he walked in, he noticed that only he and the extremely gorgeous librarian were in the building. "Well I guess there is no sense in being ridiculously quiet." He joked with her. "I'm Hoshio Kuro, son of Kazuki and Kazumi." He introduced himself, "I was wondering where I might find some basic reading on herbs of this region." He inquired. The librarian got up from her desk and began to walk to the upper floor and stopped after just a few steps into the row. "Ah here it is!" She proclaimed as she pulled a single book off of the shelf. With a smile on her face she handed the book over to Kuro and added, "I've read this one myself, this should help you out." Kuro perked up slightly, "Oh? So you're studying Herbs as well?" He asked. "Well not exactly." She replied, "I have a lot of time with this job so I read what seems interesting to me." She had notice Kuro started to slouch slightly, like he was sad. "Don't worry though, I can tutor you, not like my job is real demanding." After saying that she noticed he became estatic again.

They went down to a table and she began to summarize the book for Kuro. She explained to him most of the basics of the vegetation of the arctic region. They sat and talked for hours about the region, and the vegetation. Once she began to run out of things to talk about she started enquiring about Kuro and why he was so interested in Herbs, being a guy and all. "Well, both my parents were both herbalists, so I guess it just something I've always wanted to do." They broke off of their herbal conversation and started to talk about other things of the region. As they were conversing, Kuro noticed that the sun was starting to set, "Well I should get going, its starting to get dark." He said to her. As the got up from the table she handed him the book and told him to take that book home for now, and that he should come back in the morning and she'd have some more advanced reading for him.

He took the book from her hands and looked up, "Thanks, I'll be sure to go home and do some reading so you don't have to explain as many things again." She giggled softly after he had said it, which brought a smile to his face. Kuro shoved the book in has pack and started to head out, "Man if I didn't have to wear this cloth over my face she would have been able to see how red I was for most of that" He though to himself. "Well I better get back to the house for the night, study and get some rest, I have to go back there tomorrow and see her!" He began to get a little giddy-up in his step from just the thought of spending time with her.

Upon entering the house he was greeted by his father, "Well you were out for quite a bit." Kuro took off his cloak and pulled the book out of his pack and setting it on the table. "I was studying at the library." He said to his father. "I've gotta study hard tonight and get back to her in the morning." Kazumi's face light up and Kazuki slid his paper down, the both knew that Kuro wouldn't study very hard on his own unless it was something he was interested in, even then he wouldn't talk about his friends in such a way to them. "So does she have a name, or is it 'Her'?" Kazuki asked with a smirk on his face. "Kazuki!" Kazumi said while giving him a light puch. Just then it hit Kuro.. he never did get the Librarians name. "I never got her name!" He shouted, "What should I do?!" He started getting flustered. "Don't worry about it dear, just subtly ask her tomorrow, its not like she told you and you had forgot." Kazumi said to calm her son down. "You're right." Kuro said showing that he had started to calm down finally.

Dinner just finished cooking, Kazumi started to set the table and serve the meal. "You know, maybe we should get you a way to cover up your eye without covering up your entire face." Kazuki suggested. "What do you think Kuro?" Kazumi asked, "We never did get you a graduation present." She added. "And then 'Her' can see how good you look" Kazuki teased with a chuckle out of Kuro, but was shortly told off by Kazumi, "You don't have to tease him like that, you could just tell him that he's handsome." This got an even bigger chuckle out of Kuro. "Kuro doesn't mind a little teasing, it would make him uncomfortable with your style of flatery." He said. The light hearted silly conversation went on most of the dinner, as they had finished Kuro went to his room to study for the remainder of the evening. While Kazuki and Kazumi cleared off the table.

[rokath]

[OOC| Working on Herbalism Arctic Region (Snow Country) or trying to get up to it. Its C Ranked and I'm a D ranked ninja so it'd be 30 TP total.]
_{Herbal Understanding
Rank: "C"
Skill: ---
Effect: The knowledge of Herbalisim is somewhat of a hard task. This allows the user to be capable of knowledge towards certain types of Herbs within a region. By understanding they are capable of learning as to what type of Herb is within a certain region, what it looks like, as well as what sort of effects the Herb has.
Special: Depending on where you are it makes it easier or harder as to what you wish to find, and what you wish to learn.
Drawback: You only learn from a certain region. This means that you would have to learn this many different times for each Region. T
Description: There are three ways this can look about, either a teacher teaches you the way of Herbalism teaching by regions. Or a class. Books cost 2,000 Ryo within Region, 3,000 Ryo out of Region, 5,500 Ryo opposite Region.
Limit: Must dedicate themself to Herbalism, there are only a few ways one can go into this style of living, either by ANBU training, Medic training, or Shinobi Hunter Training.}

Kuro woke up earlier that morning than he usually had, but to no effect on his demeanor as his excitement was fueling his bodies needs. He arose from his bed, got dressed as usual and proceded to the main part of the house. When Kuro arrived there he soon figured out that nobody else woke up just yet. "How early is it?" He asked himself as he was glancing out of the window. "Huh, the sun is barely awake yet, oh well, no reason to wait around for everyone."

Kuro decided he'd go out looking for some herbs. On his way out Kuro grabbed his fathers special bag for herb collection. Kuro opened the door to see the streets deserted, everyone was still asleep or in their homes waking up. As he was glancing around the village, "Well there isn't going to be much in town, I'll have to look around the outskirts of the village.

Kuro proceeded to the west mountain, figuring that any vegetation there will soon flourish to get as much sunshine before the day would pass. He saw a few shrubs with berries on them, all the same species so he picked a few off of a single shrub and put them in a container inside his fathers bag. Kuro searched around a bit more not finding very much vegetation, "Man I wonder what's outside of the village, I wish this place wasn't so closed off." He kept on with his search however, finding few herbs and putting them each in seperate containers.

The time now was almost mid-morning, "Well I suppose I should go to the library and see if the librarian can assist me with some of these herbs." Kuro said softly as he started to head back into town. As he returned he had seen the people of the village had all came out of their homes and went on with their day. "Well it's nice to see some others around finally." He said to himself as he approached the library.

Kuro walked up to the door and proceeded to go in only to walk into the door and be pushed backwards losing his balance and falling down. "What the!?" Kuro exclaimed rubbing his face. He heard a familiar giggle come from behind him, "You have to wait for the librarian to enter first, silly!" She said with a smile on her face. She walked in between Kuro and the door to unlock the Library doors, "Maybe you'll have better luck this time." she joked as she had extended her hand to help Kuro up. "Thank you, uh.." Kuro said as he stumbled up remembering that he still didn't know her name. "Huh?" She replied with a somewhat dumbfounded look on her face. "Well, I never caught your name yesterday.~" Kuro said bashfully. "Oh you don't say, I guess I'm used to the regulars I get at the library that they all just know my name." She responded and added; "The name is Aimi, it was my mothers name as well." Kuro smiled at this and shook her hand that was still helping him up. "Pleasure to meet you Aimi, I spent the morning collecting some herbs for identification if you would help me out with that." Aimi agreed to help Kuro out since she already said that she'd help tutor him this morning.

Kuro stood at the door just inside the library while Aimi wandered in to turn on all the lights and get organized. "Hurry up and take a seat, you don't have to wait for me." Aimi shouted across the library. Kuro perked up and proceeded to a table to set his things down and wait for Aimi to finish up her duties. "Well lets take a look at the specimens that you gathered this morning." She said as she started to pull the containers out of the bag. "Hmm... Hmm, Mmhm.. so what are you looking to do with these herbs?" She inquired after looking at a few of the herbs. "Well I want to become a poison creator like my father." Kuro replied as Aimi finished looking at his samples. "Well I don't know anything about poisons, but I can however tell you that these are all from within the village and there is nothing in here along that nature." Aimi told Kuro as he pouted at this failure to collect anything useful. "It is a good thing too, because by the way it looks, you didn't handle these plants all too well and probably used your bare hands!" She exclaimed and as her statement sunk in Kuro looked at his bare hands which he had used.

"If you're going to be collecting any kind of vegetation you should use gloves. This is so that you don't poison the plant with your oils and render whatever uses it may have useless." Kuro could tell by Aimi's statement that she understood a lot more than he did. "I'm not sure what there is in the Snow Country as far as poisonous herbs goes, and I don't think there are any books within the library about them." Aimi said to Kuro as she could see that the topic was going to advance rather quickly within this boy. "Well who should I ask then?" Kuro asked intently. "I'd go to the Yukikage, he knows everyone within the village. But for now I can teach you a few things about herbalism." She responded to his question.

She sat back and began to think about which would be the best way to explain this to him. "I know!" She exclaimed as she came up with her game plan. "First you need to know all the parts of a plant and their specific purposes." Aimi insisted as she looked at Kuros eager look. "Well lets see, most plants have roots, a stem, seeds, fruit, leaves, and flowers." As she began her tutoring session.

"The roots hold the plant to the ground and absorb water from the soil. This isn't really relavent to poison making but I figured I'd just drop briefly on that aspect of the root." She explained to him. "However what might be useful to you is that the root stores the food for the plant, i.e. the poisons that you want to make. They also can propogate into a new plant as well. The roots may be one of the more desired parts of the plant for you, like I said I"m not too sure about poison making." She informed him.

"Next up is the Stem. There isn't a whole lot about the stem." She said as she continued her tutorial of plants. "There main function is to carry water and nutrients to the leaves." She said with a pause, "So if maybe the poison is considered a nutrient to the plant you could siphon out and somewhat 'farm' the plant."

Since they are so closely related within plant terms, Aimi decided to explain fruit and seeds at the same time. "The fruit contains a seed or many seeds depending on the plant. It surrounds the seed and is full of nutrients for that seed once it falls from the plant." Aimi was trying to make this tutoring lesson as short as possible so grouping together these parts seemed logical. "Also the possibility that the nutrients for that seed are poisons may help out." She quickly added.

"The leaves are next. How are you holding up here Kuro?" She asked. "I'm fine." He stated, "This is all very interesting." He added. "Well that's good, The leaves function is photosynthesis to the plant, but to us it's the main form of identification we have. So any new plant that is found should be documented on the types of leaves it has and overall appearance." She explained.

"The flower is the last part of the plant, it essentially is used to attract insects and such to help perpetuate the plants species." She said adding, "They are also my favorite thing, the smell and beauty of a flower, I wish I had more to put in my house." She commented. "Well that's it for what I know, like I said before, ask the Yukikage as to find out more information." Aimi said as she was getting up from the table to go back to her desk.

Kuro finished picking up his things and walked to Aimi's desk to return the book she had lent him the day before. "Thank you for the book and the tutoring session, I'll be sure to find a way to thank you." Kuro said as he set the book down on the desk. "However that'll have to be sometime later I need to eat and go see the Yukikage." "Okay then, Good luck on your journeys." Aimi added in to finish up the dialogue as Kuro was walking out of the library.
Reason for Editing: arctic region

[adero]

Which region. State so.

[rokath]

Kuro could hardly believe it! He was finally on his way to becoming an herbalist. He headed home to eat with his family before he went to see the Yukikage. Kuro was radiating with energy, as he got home he began to open the door and shouted inside, "Mom! Dad! I'm home." As he got in he noticed that nobody was home. "Huh, they must be at the store." He thought this was odd, because they always ate together.

As he walked into the kitchen he had noticed a picnic basket and a note on the table. He opened the basket and proceded to dig in while he parted his eyes attention toward the note, which read:

Dear Son,
Your father and I had to head out of town for a week. In the basket is your lunch and dinner for today. Also there is some extra Ryo in there incase you need anything.
We'll be back soon, keep up the good work with your studies!
Love,
Mother

Kuro finished reading the note and finished eating. It was weird that he was going to be alone for a week because he was so used to his regular schedule. He figured it would be best to keep to that schedule so that he could finish his research. Well maybe he'd take a day or two off for himself.

Kuro left the house and began to head toward the Yukikage's tower. Not knowing what was going to be asked of him once he got there, he began to play scenario's out in his head. He thought of many different things that might happen, some good, some that would crush his spirits. Never the less he kept on toward the tower.

Kuro finally came to his destination, the massive tower of the Yukikage! He stepped onto the bridge and began to feel a sense of authority in the air. As he proceeded across the bridge he started to feel a sense of relief. He came to the door and entered....

[OOC will fill in what happens as soon as I get back outside of the tower.]