Think With Your Head, Not With Your Hands

The mission had several mentions of toxicity and caution when handling the materials which they were asking shinobi to collect. After having started his herb garden, Dracoso had been testing some mixtures, but felt like he was stuck in terms of his medicine research. He had just finished his mission escorting Mr. Jamil of many self-set perspectives and noticed an odd request on the mission board. They were asking individuals to collect some red powder known as cinnabar and to use it to produce mercury. The sheet outlined the general location where it could be retrieved and detailed what precautions to take before gathering. Dracoso felt he was a bit of out his league and decided to do what he knew best. Learn.

It had been some time since he had last stopped off at the Grand Kirigakure Library and it felt like nostalgia was setting in as he stepped into the building. The assistant recognized him and was glad he had more specific details for what he was looking for. After a bit of a discussion, she pointed him towards a section on the sciences. He skimmed the titles and pulled down a few to begin his search. He found nothing in books such as 'The Wonderful Metals of the World' and 'How to Handle the Heat.' He scanned through the books and learned on how many individuals may work with forges and molding of solid materials, yet nothing pointed towards this process of handling cinnabar.

It took him several hours, by which time the sun had set, before he found mention of what he was looking for. Cinnabar was quite toxic, as the document outlined. Touching it directly, breathing in the dust or the fumes, whether in solid or processing form, could lead to long-term damage to the body. It slowly painted out a story of how many chemists had tried to test cinnabar and found that it could be used in different forms. From paints to clay additives, it created a very powerful red color that many found pleasing. The only issue was that it could kill people if kept in too heavy an amount. 

Sutsui enjoyed napping as Dracoso read through his books, she seemed quite wrapped up in her own thoughts. Dracoso considered that it may be better to not take her on this mission and conveyed the danger that came with it. She became awake enough to simply respond with an image of remaining in his pack or at a distance while he did what he did. He sighed, realizing that she wanted to remain nearby to protect him, he decided against arguing or convincing her otherwise. As he flipped through the pages, many of the references mentioned finding it in areas which were frequently much hotter than normal. Volcanos or hot springs were the main locations to find it and it generally came as a thickly layer dust or built up in crevices.

Many suggested using a gas mask or filter combined with gloves and other protective clothing. Dracoso thought back to his academy days and realized that his teacher might know a bit about where he might borrow just what he needed. The mission sheet also offered protective gear for the mission which could be loaned, but Dracoso wanted to see what resources he could come up with otherwise. He spent the next few hours researching the use of gas filter masks and protective gloves. It helped him to understand how to safely neutralize the material on the gloves before removing them and how to maximize the materials he converted.

As he searched through the pages, he realized that many of the mentions of processing the material made him think back to the furnace working books he had read recently. Many mentioned during iron dust into ingots and how to treat the holders so that the liquid would not remain. He searched the pages for how to handle dust into liquid, which led him to what appeared to be a spinning tube. The book outlined the idea of taking a hard metal exterior and putting an inner layer of brick to insulate it from the toxic and destructive materials. The tube was then to be heated while rings wrapped around it would turn the tube. Dracoso felt like his head was splitting as he read all the details and the cautions about protecting the face from any escaping gases and heat expulsions while handling the materials.

Hours later, Dracoso stepped out of the library, exhausted from all his learning. He had a plan which would take several steps, but he knew what he needed to be successful. First things first though. Dracoso headed home and got a good night's rest after passing out into the comfort of his bed. His mother woke him early and, after a good breakfast, he headed off into town to visit the shops.

Dracoso picked up a few materials to work with. He collected a sheet of basic steel and some thin brick clay along with a protectant that would shield the brick layer from liquids. He then picked up some metallic strips and a few more items before headed home. The family had a furnace out back which they used for heating blades before sharpening them. Dracoso began by heating the steel and slowly bent it, taking hours to make sure it was a smooth curve. Once bent, he carefully layered in the brick clay and left it to harden as he slowly worked the metal strips into rings and sealed them to one another. Once the clay had dried, he layered the protectant over it and then wrapped the rings around the metal tube, sealing it and allowing it to carefully slide over the rings as needed. He then attached a second tube of metal to the end which bent downwards to come out like a faucet to release the material. Finally, he bent the bottom and carefully fed a pipe into the bottom that he would funnel heat into to process the material within. He placed the tube on thick wood holders that tilted the large opening somewhat upwards for the material to be placed in.

Dracoso took a step back, covered in sweat, and looked over his work. It appeared as if he had made a large metal test tube that he could heat up and spin. He felt like he may have missed a step or two, but that this seemed to be accurate enough for his purposes. With a shrug, Dracoso tested heating the tube and tried pouring in some spare iron dust which the metal worker had provide as a gift. As Dracoso slowly turned the tube back and forth, letting the dust shift as the heat from the furnace was funneled inside. he felt the contents go from bouncing around to sloshing about to finally flowing within. 

He suddenly realized that he didn't have a holder for the metal to flow into. He ran into the nearby shed and quickly grabbed up a treated wood box sitting on a shelf before running back and tossing it under roughly where he thought the tube would pour out. He tossed on some old leather work gloves his father used when sharpening blades and lifted the tube slowly. The metal slid down the tube and through the final pipe and poured into the wooden box. The hissing from the metal as it sank into the wood box gave way to a soft cracking noise. Dracoso finished pouring just in time to see a crack run up the sides of the wooden box. He held his breath as liquid iron seeped out of the material, some dripping into the grass. 

A foul burnt scent spread out and quickly died down as the metal cooled. Dracoso stepped closer to peek at his 'creation.' The metal settled and took time to harden. After an hour, it sat hardened in the container and looked ready to be worked by a smith. Dracoso nodded to himself as he overturned the box, only to find the ingot had infused itself into the wood. He carefully separated the box from the iron with a chisel and carried this with him back to the metal worker. The worker nodded at how pure the metal itself was. "So, you mentioned that you took up the chemist mission and that you were building some contraption to work the... cinnamon bar you said?" the worker asked. "Cinnabar. I needed the 'contraption' in order to melt it into mercury. The only reason I understand how to do any of this is thanks to all the notes in the mission description and the library books," Dracoso explained.

The worker nodded and said, "well, if that stuff is toxic. You aren't going to just carry it through town like the iron, right? I mean, if it is meant to be a liquid, doesn't that mean you have to deliver it as a liquid too?" Dracoso thought about that and realized that he didn't really have a plan for how to deliver the material once it was processed. He figured he could get a flask, but after seeing it break through the wooden box, he wasn't sure leather would do much better. He couldn't make a mini brick clay bottle either. He needed a material which could carry the mercury in liquid form. Preferably in dust form as well.

"What do you usually keep your more dangerous liquids in?" he asked the metal worker. The man pointed a finger at what looked like large metal barrels nearby. "Those generally keep anything we need that is more dangerous that comes in large quantities. I know some craftsmen keep their goods in treated barrels as well which can resist degradation. From what you described; you may want to look into getting some kind of metal tube to carry your sin bars in," the man suggested. Dracoso sighed, giving up on explaining the name again, and thought back to how some medical texts mentioned carrying items in glass containers. he didn't know of anyone who might make glass tubes, but maybe he could see about trying to make a smaller metal barrel.

He borrowed some tongs and a hammer from the worker and set to work at the forge back at home. He heated the iron and slowly bent the metal until it was a flat disk. He was lucky he had learned so much about metal repair and shaping from a young age from his father, yet every step going forward would now be new territory. He tried to bend the metal, only to have it fold along any point he tried to make. The metal would cool rapidly as he worked it and would only get a few inches of work each time. If he went too quickly, it would bend over and fold at the wrong points. It took him hours of trial and error and by the time he stopped for a break, it was already pitch black out.

Dracoso decided to rest for the night. After a good dinner with the parents, where they berated him with questions about the pipe out back and the burning smell, he headed to bed. In the morning, his mother sat outside with the boarlings, watching his little workshop in the grass. He went to work without a word and slowly shaped the metal upwards, creating a hollow bottle shape with a rather wide mouth at the top. He figured it would make it easier to collect the material and pour it out once he had returned with it. The bottle was not smooth in any regard and looked closer to a box than a bottle, but he was able to round the top for the finish. 

He looked at his work and breathed out a sigh of relief. The tension in his body flowed out as he felt like he was one step closer to completion. "So how are you going to seal the top?" his mother asked from her seat. He had explained the mission and his plans to his parents the night before and they had both been against it at first. He explained how he had every step thought out and now a missing step was blatantly shown in the open mouth of the bottle. Dracoso thought about tying a lid over the top and using some string to keep it in place. He wasn't sure how safe it would be for the entire trip back. Many of the tubes he had read about in the medical books had something called a stopper or a cork cover to keep it sealed. He didn't own either of these. He sat in front of his work, pondering for an answer. 

His mother dropped what looked like a piece of waxed paper into his lap. He looked down at it confused before looking back up at her. "We use this to treat the walls and windows of the house in order to keep the rain out. We have a bit of adhesive as well in the shed from when we need to do repairs. just make sure to carefully remove it and replace it after each use," she advised before walking in. She had known he would hit this gap in his plan and was already two steps ahead. He realized that, through his upbringing, his father had always helped him when he needed to use his hands. His mother had helped when he needed to use his head. 

He headed into the shed and took out the adhesive and a small brush and filled the bottle partway with water. He applied the adhesive to the rim of the lid and then placed a piece of waxed paper over the mouth. It took him a few tries to get it right. He applied too much adhesive on one try and underestimated the size of the paper at first. After removing the adhesive from the bottle, and his hands a few times, he was able to carefully attach the paper and make a liquid proof seal. It was the best he could do for now, so he grabbed up the adhesive container along with the pouch and packed them away. His mother had made him a meal for the trip, another detail he had almost forgotten, and gave her a hug and a kiss. His father warned him not to talk to strangers, to which Dracoso reminded him that he was twenty and wasn't about to be kidnapped. 

Sutsui was tucked in the back of his shirt as always and it was getting towards the afternoon as he left. He knew he had to head for the hot springs which existed along the border of the island territory. He would also need to bring back a decent amount of the cinnabar dust for the mercury to form. He stopped by the academy and bumped into his teacher on his way to his office. The talked and caught up as they walked. By the time they reached the office. Dracoso had filled his old teacher in on his plans and the mission he was on.

"You want to borrow the mask and protective gloves we use for medical practice? I understand your mission, but those items are relatively valuable and tough to replace. We only have a few sets of them, and one is already indefinitely in use by the medical staff here," his teacher explained. Dracoso nodded and asked, "would it be too tough to just borrow them? I will make sure to clean them and return them as soon as I come back. It will just take... a few days," he hesitated with his last words. His teacher just shook his head softly and said, "go talk to the medical staff. Either way, they have final say in what happens to those things." He gave dismissive wave of his hand before giving one last warning, "make sure you don't kill yourself though. This mission sounds oddly detached from those who might take it. Go slow or you might not be going anywhere after." 

Dracoso gave a quick nod and slipped out of the office. He jogged to the medical office and entered quietly. The room was empty other than the regular staff member sitting at their desk. Dracoso realized that this was the same person who had helped him recover back when he was still in classes at the academy. He put on his best smile and walked up to the desk. "Long time no see! I was hoping to ask for a bit of help with a mission I am on-" Dracoso began. The staff member spoke up without looking up, "I can't leave my post here or use any jutsu in case an emergency comes up. If you need help, plenty of the other teachers will-" The man looked up and saw Dracoso. He paused with a small sigh before he continued, "-help you in case you need anything further. Knowing you though, there is more to the request. What are you looking for this time Dracoso?"

Dracoso felt a bit thrown off as he asked, "I don't think I have asked anything of you before. Did I do something?" The staff member held out a hand and started to count on his fingers, "first, when you were young you would pester me daily about 'how to put a person together.' It was admirable, right up to the point you started asking for the gorier details of surgery." Memories came back to Dracoso as he recognized the man from his younger days and how his eyes and hair had changed now. "Second, you gave your teacher no shortage of headaches and stress due to all the testing of jutsu and teaching you did with his other students that put them in more dangerous situations." Dracoso remembered a few times kids would practice things Dracoso had tried in front of them, only for them to need to rest in the medical office. Thoughts of his time back in the medical office made more sense now with the unspoken promises of a syringe to make sure he rested.

"Third, and finally, I heard of the lightning incident with the kids-" Dracoso gulped audibly, "-and how you healed them." The staff member finished and looked up at Dracoso. He peered at him for a moment, trying to see past him as if he was an illusion. "You seem so passionate to learn and apply it, but we have yet to see what the true purpose behind it all is. You can heal severe wounds and protect others from harm. What could you possibly be looking to do this time?" 

Dracoso felt a bit deflated as he thought back on everything and wondered where he was going with it all. He figured he would need to think on it a bit more when he got the time and decide that he needed to keep moving forward for now. "I am planning to learn a bit more about pharmaceuticals. I wanted to work with chemicals and different materials to learn how I might make potions or remedies for issues. In order to do that, I took a mission recently where I need to work with certain... poisonous materials. I already have the container for carrying the material and an apparatus set up at home to process it. I just need some protective gear to-" The staff member raised a hand to stop him.

"You want to borrow the gloves, smock, and mask in order to retrieve the material. From the sounds of what you are describing, it is the cinnabar mission is it not?" The man asked. Dracoso nodded softly, feeling a bit embarrassed by how direct the man was. The staff member looked out the window and asked, "why should I lend you the gear? If it breaks, I do not think you know the cost or the effort it would take to replace it. I bet you read about it in one of your books and figured you would know how to use it and bring it back without a scratch didn't you?" Dracoso stood speechless as he watched the man. The staff member shook his head and turned back to face him. "Well?" was all he asked.

Dracoso nodded and responded, "I read all that I could on it and planned to be careful with it. I haven't worked with dangerous materials before, so I wanted to go slow and just keep as much distance from it as possible while I worked with it. I wasn't really thinking it would be difficult to replace, but I need to learn about this. If I want to be successful with medicine and crafting medical elixirs to help people, I need to start somewhere." 

The man nodded slowly and chuckled. "You spent so much time learning jutsu and reading books, that you never even thought to ask someone who was already several steps ahead of you. I mean, when you were a kid, it seemed more like you were just trying to find answers to whatever came to mind. Nowadays, you are actually learning how to protect people. I think you are ready to take the next steps, you just need the right guide," he explained. He stood up and patted Dracoso on the shoulder. Dracoso looked back at him and asked, "You are going to teach me?" The man nodded and said, "besides, I am the one who makes those masks. I just tell the other teachers they are difficult to make because they keep letting the kids use them and they end up broken. It is a pain to make them, but not really difficult with my connections."

Dracoso chuckled and nodded as he sat down and discussed with the staff member what his plans were. They talked for a couple of hours as the man explained how to carefully handle materials and make sure to remove residue. He also explained caution when heating these materials and to always keep yourself away from any exit point that the materials go into or come out of. He showed Dracoso a few images detailing handling procedures and even described how it is important to take solvents and cleansers with him to scrub any toxic materials off. He gave Dracoso a set of medical gloves along with some thick safety gloves to go over them. He also provided Dracoso with a smock which covered his arms down to the gloves and a mask with a filter to protect him from the materials. 

After the lesson, the man chuckled and told Dracoso to come back when he wanted to discuss medical jutsu further. "I did hear about the lightning, and how you were able to reattach the child's arm. You are pushing yourself hard but getting good results. Make sure you come back in one piece too as well, alright?" Dracoso nodded and agreed to be careful.

He headed out as the sun was setting, his pack full of borrowed equipment, his iron bottle and sealing paper, and Sutsui who was still watching quietly. The trip out to the springs was relatively peaceful. He spent most of his time talking with Sutsui through sensations and discussing tactics for using their jutsu when in combat. The first night he spent at the town nearby was a quiet one and he received directions in the morning for the closest springs. He passed villagers on the road and heard stories of villages being attacked by bandits. Some were on their way to put up requests for missions while others were carrying trade goods to sell in Kirigakure. 

Dracoso was able to purchase some jerky off one of the traders and collected some fresh water from the rivers they passed. It took him the second day and some of the third morning before he arrived towards the border where several springs resided. He reserved a room at one of the inns nearby. They had rooms reserved for individuals looking to try out the springs or gather the cinnabar. Apparently, several other shinobi had appeared and attempted to work with the cinnabar, but most ended up either sick due to mishandling or had simply taken the raw material back in packages they took with them. Dracoso wondered if he had overprepared for this mission but thought better of it from the directions the staff member had given him. The innkeeper gave him guidance on what areas would be best for gathering and Dracoso headed towards the back end of the springs. As he arrived, he could hear men and women bathing behind bamboo dividers.

He quickly passed the bathing areas, slipped on his smock, both sets of gloves, and his mask. As he finished and started to move amongst the springs, he realized that he was already starting to heat up. His naturally cold body felt a bit of a sweat begin to break out after a few minutes of walking. He didn't have much time to work. At first, he wasn't sure which direction to go. He had read about how fissures would be a good place to look, but he could just as easily fall down into them. He reached out to Sutsui, only to realize that the smock blocked her ability to communicate with him. He took his mask off, feeling a wave of heat hit his face, as he tried to find his snake familiar. The rock nearby was a solid gray and his eyes couldn't seem to pick her up at first. A moment later, two small snakes slid into sight.

Dracoso looked closer and saw them waver for a moment before he realized that they were clones which Sutsui had summoned. As he looked closer, he saw that they were bubbling softly. He ran his hand over his face, feeling like an idiot when he remembered that he was surrounded by water. With a few hand seals, he summoned up a pair of clones and a water beast out of the springs nearby. He had them scout out and look for any red material nearby. The beast was the first to sound as it found a fissure about a hundred meters out from where they had started. Dracoso made his way over and threw his mask back on a short distance away. As he got close, he fell to his knees and saw the deep red of the cinnabar dust come clear into view. He pulled out the tongs and the paper and began to carefully scrape the dust out of the fissure and gather it onto the paper. Once he had stacked a fair amount, he pulled the iron bottle over, lifted the paper and gently guided it down into the mouth.

He repeated this for a good half an hour before he saw that the bottle was almost full. During this time, he resummoned his clones using the water in his flask and had them spray him down repeatedly, releasing steam and heat from his clothing. This helped to cool him down enough and allowed him to also clean off his gloves repeatedly to avoid too much build up. Once complete, he carefully applied the adhesive and a piece of wax seal, letting it settle for another 15 minutes as he carefully carried it back out of the springs. Once done, he had his clones spray him down one more time near the edge of the springs and he applied a bit of cleanser to reduce the impact of the materials.

He laid down in his room, drenched in sweat from being inside the mask and smock for so long. The innkeeper had been impressed by his preparations and the level of care he took to handle the material. As he was successful with very little incident, the innkeeper asked if he could leave instructions for some of the other visitors. It seemed that having so many people show up only to get sick was starting to take a toll on their reputation. Dracoso agreed and wrote down some of the most important precautions he had learned and then turned in for the night. Sutsui had rested up over the long trip and chose to stay up and keep watch. One of the other individuals staying at the inn attempted to steal their bottle of cinnabar. They ended up stuck to the hallway wall before the innkeeper found them and kicked them out.

Dracoso felt excited with the trip back and wanted to start processing as soon as he could. He kept an eye out for anyone traveling the same way as him, in case others thought it an easy opportunity to grab his work. Other than a few kids who asked about the mask on his bag, he was undisturbed along his trip home. He had scrubbed and recleaned the tongs before returning them, along with the hammer, to the metal worker. They were curious about the cinnabar, which they finally pronounced correctly, but decided to pass on seeing it. 

Upon returning home, he let his mother and father know to remain in the house, along with the boarlings, to avoid any kind of sickness or negative effects. They agreed before Dracoso headed out to the back yard with a grin on his face. He started by slowly pouring the materials into the container. He wanted to only put in a fraction of it to start and let it begin to melt before he added more. He knew that if he started with too much, the heat may spread the poisonous fumes out too much. He placed a small wooden bucket filled with ice where the iron bottle would go under the faucet mouth. He lit the furnace and fed heat into it while he slowly began to rotate the pipe using the metal strips. As it began to heat up, he focused on the feeling of the powder shifting. He felt it slowly become smoother with each motion until it felt like the material was sloshing around inside. He carefully poured more in, making sure to keep the faucet pipe carefully connected. 

He spent 10 minutes slowly adding the powder and heating the pipe, rotating and turning it as carefully as he could to avoid damage to the apparatus. It was straining on him physically and mentally as he kept at it. Once the bottle was empty, he carefully placed it down in the bucket and lowered the faucet. He felt the steam had already begun to solidify and, as he tipped it slightly, he felt as if it was flowing down into the bottle. He had put a funnel carefully over the top of the bottle to catch anything that might come down and stepped back to keep the fumes from gathering too heavily near him.

He tended to the heat for the next hour, trying to keep it at a decently even level as it slowly gathered the liquid metal into his bottle. After putting out the furnace, He immediately collapsed onto the ground and took his mask off. His body felt sore from head to toe and breathing only brought bits of pain. He chuckled as he coughed through each breath and laid limp in the grass. He was finally done. From reading, to building, to collecting, to cooking it. This mission had been a pain, but he was finally done. He laid there for a good half an hour before Sutsui slithered over to him. She gave him a couple of licks on the cheek before slipping into the smock and sending waves of impatient sensations. She had missed being close and was as tired of this mission as he was from doing it. 

He chuckled again and carefully slipped the smock off. The pipe had cooled, and the bottle was nearly full. He carefully disconnected the faucet from the bottle and pulled the funnel out before tapping the remaining liquid off. Once clear, he placed the adhesive and wax seal over the top of the bottle. He lifted it up, feeling the liquid moving within, and knew he would need to handle it carefully. He left his home and headed back to the mission center where he delivered the bottle. He was told that once they confirmed the contents, they would send his reward and the mission item if he had been successful. 

Dracoso nodded and headed back home to rest with his family. He spent the rest of the day talking on what he had learned. Most of it was outside of his parents' understanding, but they encouraged his hard work and effort. They also asked when he was planning to take down the apparatus to which he simply said when he was no longer useful. He ended up agreeing to move it off to one side to avoid being a hazard, once it was cleaned. The day slid into night and a knock on his window caught Dracoso's attention. A messenger bird with a note about a job well done arrived. It detailed that while the metal was not at its purest, it was an impressive batch compared to what they had seen so far. The messenger had a small tube strapped to its other leg which he figured was the agreed-on mercury. It outlined that the ryo was available for pick up from the mission center when he stopped by. Dracoso nodded, gave a quick treat to the bird, and it left to return to where it had come from.

Dracoso relaxed back into his bed, holding up the container of mercury and let it softly slide back and forth inside the container. He felt like it was just the first step towards his medical endeavors and couldn't wait to see what came next.

{Exit}

C-Rank Mission: Trust Me, I'm a Chemist

Rewards: 4000 Ryo + 20 AP + 1x Mercury

Total WC: 5654 (rounded to 5650)
Total given to familiar: Sutsui
Stats Gained: +56 (20 Vigor, 20 Chakra, 16 Speed)

Jutsu Claimed:
B Rank - Hakudatsu - 1750
C Rank - Temporary Paralysis - 1000
B Rank - Hiding with Camouflage - 1500 (adding final 1350 to the 150/1500 from the previous post: Some Lessons are Learned More than Once)
A Rank - Chakra Nullification - 2500

Approved