Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

Adept_Woodwright · Aug 20, 2018

[.X.] Armageddon Initiative

Am I doing this right?

faflec · Aug 20, 2018

Erolki said:
[X] Loose Ends

Seconding @faflec's suggestion that cooking stuff could be a great line of inquiry for Kagome's gift - it's something he's shown a fair bit of interest in, and the implication "we'd like to share food from our old homes with you" is a nice one.

something something prawns something something Kagome starts screaming and blowing shit up because they look like his imagining of lupchanzen and aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Erolki · Aug 20, 2018

faflec said:
something something prawns something something Kagome starts screaming and blowing shit up because they look like his imagining of lupchanzen and aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Weren't they some kind of plant thing? I think bugs are safe.

E: Maybe avoid calamari, though

.

Nachtigall · Aug 20, 2018

@Citrus, @faflec: You don't even want to commit to giving team Kurenai their own word halves back?
Also keep im mind that it's on a timer... any moment, a proctor could ask them to show off their word halves and fail their first event.

faflec · Aug 20, 2018

Nachtigall said:
@Citrus, @faflec: You don't even want to commit to giving team Kurenai their own word halves back?
Also keep im mind that it's on a timer... any moment, a proctor could ask them to show off their word halves and fail their first event.

I...I do want to giving them their word-halves back, I literally said it earlier. My earlier vote was a response to @Citrus' vote, which implied that Jiraiya's voice was only as important as Noburi's and that Keiko's was more important than either of theirs.

Emstar · Aug 20, 2018

Edits are in!!

What do we think?

MMKII said:
Hey all, tried my best with this as a decent rough draft. Ping for edits or steal + cannibalize as you wish.

I tried to frame the word half thing amicably.

I don't recall specifics of Kagome's birthday gift. Someone remind me so I can put that in?

~~I thought I'd try to shove the Akane thing in here as well but will remove if people desire.~~

LOL nevermind no way no how.

This covers two days:
1)I left open the possibility of familial interactions to Nobby and Keiko.
2) Two days is reasonable for tying up some loose ends I think

With all this done, I think we would be ready for training.

EDIT:

I will carefully edit the crimson stuff the night before the deadline. BBCode editing on this site sucks.

Word Count: 367
[X] Loose Ends

General:

Everything in crimson requires Jiraiya's approval in some form.

He can make suggestions and criticism of his own.

Try to get ASAP, use hand signal language if necessary

Spend ~2 days in Mist, then go back to Leaf.

Strict OPSEC is to be maintained.

Specific:

Go party with Jiraiya after the event.

Drink shots until theres no more liquor at the bar.

Invite Ami, Tenten and Hinata

Give Ami 4/3 of the word-halves we have

Make sure this is done amicably.

Intent: Ren is a memelord

Do not let Akatsuki know

faflec · Aug 20, 2018

MMKII said:
Edits are in!!

What do we think?

hahahahahahahahahahaha no.

Emstar · Aug 20, 2018

faflec said:
hahahahahahahahahahaha no.

Sorry, I'll include the 7th path stuff soon.

Adept_Woodwright · Aug 20, 2018

MMKII said:
Edits are in!!

What do we think?

Those "edits" took a serious turn.

Emstar · Aug 20, 2018

Adept_Woodwright said:
Those "edits" took a serious turn.

I said I'd be back in ~30. 30?

Beers.

I had to reboot my computer sorry. Incoming

Cariyaga · Aug 20, 2018

MMKII said:
Edits are in!!

What do we think?

I think you should put the original plan into a markov chain generator instead.

Noumero · Aug 20, 2018

[̅x̅]̅ ̅L̅o̅o̅s̅e̅ ̅E̅n̅d̅s̅

The overlines mean that I vote for it twice.

Citrus · Aug 20, 2018

faflec said:
[X] Do not give away any word-halves unless explicitly instructed by Noburi/Keiko and Jiraiya

Touche, poor ordering by me

[X] Do not give away any word-halves unless explicitly instructed by Noburi/Keiko and Jiraiya

Inferno Vulpix · Aug 20, 2018

MMKII said:
Edits are in!!

What do we think?

Speaking seriously, I still want to see us talk to Jiraiya about the reverse-summon scheme. There is no way we can't talk about this securely, and the sooner we do it the better.

eaglejarl · Aug 20, 2018

I've put together what I think is a valid set of scores for the 5th event. I want @OliWhail and/or @Velorien to look it over and then I'll post it here for player review to make sure I haven't missed anything.

Aside from that...

Paging Loremaster @faflec and also anyone else who wants to chip in:

I'm looking to have the following pieces of information supplied or confirmed.

There were exactly 300 contestants to start
Exactly
150 were eliminated after the escort mission
72 went into the 5th event
Scores in the Swamp were ...?
The only scores stated for the escort mission were Uplift (315) and ISC (299)
Scores in the House of Mystery (fourth event) were ...?
Word halves known to have been captured and by whom are...?
Any other score-relevant information that I haven't named here...?

I know that some of this is scattered through various QM documents but I'm tired and lazy and figure that I can outsource it in exchange for the aforementioned +3 XP.

QTesseract said:
If @eaglejarl @Velorien @OliWhail are interested, I would be willing to write a canon interlude in this.

Go for it.

Citrus · Aug 20, 2018

I doubt this would happen, but it would be cool if the reverse-summoning plan works at some level BUT can't be done with the scrolls (Pangolin, Toad) we already have for whatever reason. A strong incentive to go summoning-scroll hunting ourselves (or at least for a substantial number of Jiraiya's subordinates)

Briefvoice · Aug 20, 2018

[X] Do not give away any word-halves unless explicitly instructed by Noburi/Keiko and Jiraiya

Citrus · Aug 20, 2018

OliWhail said:
NUMBER OF NINJA REMAINING PER COUNTRY

Wolf, 2

Sky, 1

Mist, 12, including Team Downfall

Hot Spring, 3

Cloud, 10

Frost, 4

Leaf, 10, consisting of Gouketsu, Kurenai, Asuma, and one older Leaf contestant

River, 1

Sand, 8

Rock, 9

Grass, 2

Waterfall, 4

Rice, 1

Fang, 2

Claw, 3

@eaglejarl
I count exactly 72 ninja here post Event 4 going into Event 5.

eaglejarl said:
Three hundred candidates was fine during relatively open events such as we have had thus far, but from now on things will be more focused, and we need more manageable numbers.

eaglejarl said:
The bleachers were half-empty, filled with genin who a moment before had been near panic and were now slowly relaxing at having dodged the kunai.

Soft reference to 300 candidates to start out and half being eliminated after Event 3.

Vecht · Aug 20, 2018

MMKII said:
Also, I'm a bit skeptical that Hinata opened up the universe's input console with a ' ~ ' and proceeded to throw in cheats like no tomorrow a la "iseedeadpeople" and "leafittome 298" to get the scores used in Noumero's estimates. But, it could be possible that everyone on ISC + our Round 1 and Round 2 teams were just that damn bad.

ftfy

Adept_Woodwright · Aug 20, 2018

@eaglejarl @Velorien @OliWhail

Are there any questions requiring spoons that you would be comfortable offloading on us?

I enjoy putting together the kinds of models that have come up in this thread (engineering, statistical, descriptive, etc) and would be happy to do the same for other questions - and I imagine there are others here that feel the same.

Maybe putting together a mock-up of the Leaf Clan bloodlines? Obviously wouldn't be perfect (or we'd have too much OOC info), but could help as starting points.

Maybe a character generator that follows descriptive rules to match stats to a desired philosophy, age and talent.

Maybe a population model that fits a mortality rate to the observed ninja population, to better estimate what the age distribution looks like (and thus the likely distribution of low-high jonin and Kage level contenders)

If there's a project or set of things that could most make your lives easier, please let us know (in thread or PM, as needed)

faflec · Aug 20, 2018

Apologies. I went searching for a quote involving several ninja being late to the Fourth Event...only to realize that their word-halves wouldn't be taken because then they would be on time.

eaglejarl said:
There were exactly 300 contestants to start

eaglejarl said:
"That said, it is time to reduce the size of the field. Three hundred candidates was fine during relatively open events such as we have had thus far, but from now on things will be more focused, and we need more manageable numbers. Those of you with a running score low enough that you have no chance of making the cutoff for promotion will now be eliminated. Those of you who have violated an Exam rule will likewise be eliminated. Those of you who have been withdrawn by your Kage—for reasons that I must assume are purely political and have no reflection on you—will likewise be eliminated. Finally, those of you who have acted in ways that disgrace your village...." He paused, surveying the crowd with narrowed eyes. "You will most definitely be eliminated."

eaglejarl said:
Exactly

???

eaglejarl said:
150 were eliminated after the escort mission

eaglejarl said:
50 teams. 150 genin.

eaglejarl said:
72 went into the 5th event

OliWhail said:
NUMBER OF NINJA REMAINING PER COUNTRY

Wolf, 2

Sky, 1

Mist, 12, including Team Downfall

Hot Spring, 3

Cloud, 10

Frost, 4

Leaf, 10, consisting of Gouketsu, Kurenai, Asuma, and one older Leaf contestant

River, 1

Sand, 8

Rock, 9

Grass, 2

Waterfall, 4

Rice, 1

Fang, 2

Claw, 3

eaglejarl said:
"Well, well, well," the proctor said. "Looks like all you maggots made it...granted, three of you had to turn in your word halves to do it." He looked pointedly at a Lightning nin, a Sand nin, and the sole ninja from River who remained in the Exams. All three of them shuffled their feet and looked away.

eaglejarl said:
Scores in the Swamp were ...?

eaglejarl said:
Other questions still under discussion, but this was signed off:

There are 45 Leaf genin (15 teams) in the Exams. 4 of them (including you) were in the Doom Fortress and each of you brought in 49 or 50 seals. Other than that:

0 (Taken out by a team from Rock, escorted out of the Swamp and DQ'd)
0 (Taken out by a team from Lightning, knocked out, thrown out of Swamp and DQ'd)
5/5/6
11/11/12
14/15/14
21/22/21
27/27/27
33/33/34 (Hinata/Shino/Kiba)
49/49/49 (Ino/Shika/Cho)
49/49/49 (Neji/Tenten/Lee)
49/49/49 (Akane/Sakura/Haru)
49/49/50 (Team Uplift)
78/78/77
81/81/81
82/82/83

Note that these are the Leaf totals. You don't know how other nations' teams did.

NB: Team Kurenai's scores are inaccurate, as stated below.

eaglejarl said:
Apparently there was a typo in the post where we announced their scores. Several of them, in fact. We'll fix it but you can take it as given that Hinata et al are in fact safe.

eaglejarl said:
The only scores stated for the escort mission were Uplift (315) and ISC (299)

eaglejarl said:
"Having stated what not to do, I would like to hold up two examples of what you should do, so that those of you who are being eliminated may have something to learn from. Team Gōketsu from Leaf: congratulations, you have demonstrated skill and responsibility as bodyguards and escorts. You were smooth and effective at protecting your client, you communicated well with her, and your performance satisfied her so thoroughly that she gave you a fifteen point review. I also applaud your proactivity. We are still investigating how you convinced that merchant to give your client literally every ryō he possessed so that you could cash out on the second day of the event; once we finish the investigation I intend to see your actions incorporated into the Academy curriculum." The words rang with professionalism and courtesy, but Hazō imagined he could hear a gleam of teeth behind them, close enough to the surface to make him shudder.

"Regardless of how you did it, I must congratulate you on your victory. With three hundred and fifteen points, you are solidly in the lead for this event.

"As an example of a different kind of success, I would like to compliment Team Asuma of Leaf. They did not come in first in the event—first, after all, is a position that draws the attention of every eye. Neither did they come in second, a position that draws the attention of those wise enough to realize that the second runner must dodge far fewer kunai yet still has every chance of victory. No, they came in third, even going so far as to earn exactly two hundred and ninety-nine points so that they wouldn't seem so threatening as those who had scored above three hundred. Granted, when you have someone with the Nara shadow techniques for controlling an enemy's body, and someone with the Yamanaka techniques for mind control and information extraction...well, it's hardly surprising that you did so well as you did in an event that was fundamentally about information management. I salute your perspicacity and look forward to finding out how you managed to earn a perfect twenty points on your review.

eaglejarl said:
Scores in the House of Mystery (fourth event) were ...?

OliWhail said:
"We of course want to recognize those who actually pulled out performances that were something other than utterly contemptible and deserving of nothing so honorable as being turned into worm shit. For example," he began, grinning maniacally, "Aburame Shino and Hyuuga Hinata of Leaf, and Sakamoto Shiina of Waterfall, for garnering over two hundred points. And of course the equally impressive feat of the Gouketsu siblings, the final group of ninja to avoid being kicked out at this stage, and furthermore, the only ninja to move to the next round of the exams having scored less than negative two hundred this event. Congratulations. Your father must be so proud. Oh, and one final note. Yamamoto Haru, Haruno Sakura, and Ishihara Akane. Dismissed."

OliWhail said:
Each Team Uplift member ended up with a nice round -223 points on net.

eaglejarl said:
Word halves known to have been captured and by whom are...?

eaglejarl said:
"Um...right. So, here's my thinking: we need to figure out what, when, and where the next event is. We know we've got at least thirty-six hours—thirty-two, now. We know that we can get taken directly to the start of the event if we turn in one of those papers with half of a competitor's word on it. We captured three of those papers, so we could use them to get a jump on things. The one problem is that the word-halves might end up being worth points at the end, so giving them up might or might not be a good move."

eaglejarl said:
"One," Hazō said, gulping down some chicken and quickly grabbing for the pitcher of milk. The sauce on the chicken was apparently made out of lava. "Noburi, what did you do to the food?"

eaglejarl said:
"Still...only one, huh?" Hyūga said again, trying and failing to hide the smug. "We got three. Took out a team from Wind."

eaglejarl said:
"Well, well, well," the proctor said. "Looks like all you maggots made it...granted, three of you had to turn in your word halves to do it." He looked pointedly at a Lightning nin, a Sand nin, and the sole ninja from River who remained in the Exams. All three of them shuffled their feet and looked away.

OliWhail said:
Approximately two metric buttloads of word halves are currently residing in Pandaa's residence on the Seventh Path. Some of these were bought from conscious teammates with storage or explosive seals scribed by Hazou in the eight hours or so he spent sealsmithing during the day.

@faflec's note: The last one means we got 63 word-halves, given the fact that 3 others didn't have theirs anymore.

eaglejarl said:
Any other score-relevant information that I haven't named here...?

eaglejarl said:
"Red team scoring works as follows: You gain seventy-five points for returning the target documents to the proctor station here at the east gate before time runs out. You gain five points for each hour or part thereof remaining in the round when you turn in the documents; there are a maximum of twenty-two hours available for scoring purposes. You lose twenty-five points for each of your teammates who, at the end of the round, is unconscious or has taken a serious but not crippling injury. You lose thirty points for each of your teammates who is in a cell at the end of the round. Any red team member who is in a cell at the end of the round gains no positive points, but does gain the penalty points for the team members who are injured and/or in a cell, including himself.

"Blue Team scoring works as follows: You gain fifty points if the target documents are inside the facility, undamaged, and accessible when time runs out. You lose seventy-five points if the red team successfully turns in their documents before time runs out. You gain ten points for each red team prisoner. A prisoner must be in a cell, restrained, and able to talk. You lose twenty-five points for every blue team member who, at the end of the round, is unconscious or has taken a serious but not crippling injury.

Velorien said:
"No sir," Hazō said. "Noburi checked everyone over before we put them in the cells."

"'Everyone'?" the Raikage demanded, stepping forward.

"Yes sir," Hazō said, nodding. "We wanted to make sure they'd be safe from any chakra predators in the area, so we locked them in. We were fortunate enough to find and engage the other three red teams before they were able to exfiltrate. And, of course, the blue teams weren't going anywhere, so they were easy to find." He hesitated. "Um...the cells on the north- and southwestern bunkers were a bit...demolished...so people are packed kinda tight. Might not be a bad idea to have someone go check on them."

"Of course, removing them from the cells before the end of the round would represent unfair interference with the scoring," Jiraiya noted. "I'm sure that won't be an issue, though. If they need to be removed then I feel certain that points will be added or removed as though they had been there at the end of the round."

eaglejarl said:
The fifth event is over! You win! With the help of your Goo Bombs and pangolins, ISC beat everyone and dumped all the red teams in your cells.

Emstar · Aug 20, 2018

faflec said:
Suggestion: Go to the Summoning Realm.

And ISC too. They gave us their intel in that Event, and helped us in this Event as well.

We should be saying this to them both.

Done.

Should this also be in crimson? I know you say "Jiraiya helps us word everything correctly." which implies it, but just wanna be sure.

Everything you expect or think to be crimson WILL be in crimson, my friend.

Bbcode colors make edits finnicky.

I'm not sure what specifically it should be...but we should add "Consider getting him another present ala the Pangolin carving." to this. Again, not sure what we'd get specifically.

I said exactly this.

I'm going to ask that Hazou acts really sensitive about this. Keiko already has the Ami blowup hanging over her head; and based on discussion I don't think Noburi'd be too happy about meeting his family. That he betrayed by leaving Mist. And again by joining Leaf.

I wasn't sure what to put here. I said "Handle this sensitively" and "This is as sensitive Hazou is to people calling Jiraiya your father."

Suggestions to add: Mist cuisine + cookbooks, Mist-exclusive wood for carving. There's no reason why we can't have more stuff to consider.

Done.

We already agreed to get him a medic in Chapter 202.

*He* was unconscious for this.

Possibly crazy idea, but what if we give him some of our word-halves; if we're already doing this what's our ability to elevate him to tournament-level? Do we know his score?

We already did the math. He's more fucked than Kurenai by a mile.

Some paranoid part of me is screaming that this is going to backfire horribly. But I can't tell why. I am stating this for the record in the hopes that someone MadEyes this part.

...maybe make sure this is done in barracks or something?

I have added "Do in barracks or with friendlies on overwatch"

Noumero said:
Optionally: do it in the Summon Realm.

Are we not talking about the Naruto reverse-summon plan? Either in the Summon Realm (explain to Keiko in private, send her) or somewhere else private. It may be very time-sensitive, should be done ASAP.

Added.

Perhaps ask for Shikamaru's input? Generally speaking, in-universe characters probably have a better idea regarding distribution: how much Shikamaru thinks they're worth, how much points Team Kurenai needs to proceed, how many word-halves we actually have, etc. We have only some estimates, they have accurate or semi-accurate knowledge. Write about our intent: ensure that Team Kurenai makes it into the tournament, but neither us nor ISC are endangered if the word-halves cost a lot of points.

Edit: Maybe also add about trying to help Nakano, if IC estimates are sufficiently optimistic.

I thought Nakano was beyond fucked? He lost an extra hundred or so points that Kurenai didn't, and presumably he did not get perfect scores.

I don't think we could pull off "subtle" in a conversation with the Oyabun. It'll probably just look clumsy; reword.

Removed.

"Polite observation"

Also, I advice adding a standing order that we don't get separated. Mist is now full of chuunin-candidates who are pissed off at us and prowl the streets, not to mention pissed-off members of Mist clans. We should be careful.

Done.

MMKII said:
I will carefully edit the crimson stuff the night before the deadline. BBCode editing on this site sucks.

Word Count: 550
[X] Loose Ends

General:

Everything in crimson requires Jiraiya's approval in some form.

He can make suggestions and criticism of his own.

Talk in Summoning Realm only:ASAP

Tell Keiko with handsignals.

Spend ~2 days in Mist, then go back to Leaf.

Strict OPSEC is to be maintained.

Word Halves:

Suggest to Jiraiya that we redistribute word-halves equally among ISC and Team Kurenai.

Give ~1/4 of our stash to each, in case they have some of their own stashed away (also accounts for ISC having their own + some extra).

Ask for Shikamaru's input beforehand

Is the amount good enough?

Message: We stand for Greater Leaf Dominance, and will work towards village interests as we see them.

State:This is not charity. We pay our debts, and you saved us in Event 4.

Subtle Intent: Butter up Aburame and Inuzaka clans, ease any personal tension between Team Kurenai and us. Piss off Hiashi.

Do so privately with the 9 of us: Noburi acts as the diplomatic one.

Note: Team Kurenai may or may not get into the finals without these.

To Jiraiya: Makes us look good now, sets us up to decisively win later.

Naruto:

This is a long shot

Do you have a blood sample?

Can you sign a summon contract for him in absentia?

Have toads reverse summon him immediately after signing.

This might buy some time.

Hazou et all treat this portion with the highest level of paranoia and OPSEC.

Yakuza:

We should thank the Oyabun for his assistance so far.

Try to meet a lieutenant or leave a message for Oyabun failing that.

This is a relationship we want to continue.

Consider getting another present a la Pangolin carving.

Ask him politely to have his agents spread rumours of our flawless victory in Event 5 throughout bars and taverns in Water.

Intent: Pre-empt the nations rumour mil to our advantage. Build up our general fame and notoriety. Lay the foundation for further such manipulations.

Subtly underscore: It would be beneficial to both of us in this relationship if we were ninja of great repute.

Pay them with a portion of the (unused) explosives we received from Kagome.

Jiraiya helps us word everything correctly.

Families:

Suggest everyone spend some time with families if they wish to.

Don't press if they do not wish to.

Hazou treats this with the sensitivity it deserves.

They are as sensitive to this as he is to people calling Jiraiya his father.

Hazou spends time with Hana

Talks about and asks for advice on Akane thing

Ask her to give honest advice

Start to assemble Kagome's birthday gift

A book of all the things he's taught us.

Suggest to Jiraiya: Maybe turn some of the basement space into a fancy sealing lab too?

Bring back Mist cuisine (as much as we can) + cookbooks?

Misc:

Apologize to Nakano for the rough treatment

Will get him a medic in Leaf

Invite him to next board game night

Team Uplift has a short conversation with Team Downfall

Do in barracks or have friendlies on overwatch

Sorry, underestimate us at your own peril.

No hard feelings?

Try to part amicably.

Noburi keeps wisecracks to a minimum.

Emstar · Aug 20, 2018

Vecht said:
ftfy

Ah! Good taste is so hard to find!!

Noumero · Aug 20, 2018

MMKII said:
I thought Nakano was beyond fucked? He lost an extra hundred or so points that Kurenai didn't, and presumably he did not get perfect scores.

His chances aren't very good, but if we e. g. have 150 word-halves and we expect them to worth 20 points, we can save him too. It's unlikely, but not impossible.

Cariyaga · Aug 20, 2018

Adept_Woodwright said:
@eaglejarl @Velorien @OliWhail

Are there any questions requiring spoons that you would be comfortable offloading on us?

I enjoy putting together the kinds of models that have come up in this thread (engineering, statistical, descriptive, etc) and would be happy to do the same for other questions - and I imagine there are others here that feel the same.

Maybe putting together a mock-up of the Leaf Clan bloodlines? Obviously wouldn't be perfect (or we'd have too much OOC info), but could help as starting points.

Maybe a character generator that follows descriptive rules to match stats to a desired philosophy, age and talent.

Maybe a population model that fits a mortality rate to the observed ninja population, to better estimate what the age distribution looks like (and thus the likely distribution of low-high jonin and Kage level contenders)

If there's a project or set of things that could most make your lives easier, please let us know (in thread or PM, as needed)

I personally quite enjoy making techniques up.

...So it occurs to me that given we cut everyone's heels... all of the ninja are going to be slow back to their homes.

Shit. That's the ideal time for Akatsuki to attack if they wanted to.

Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

The Shining One

The Shining One

The Shining One

Handsome Gentleperson

Omit Needless Words

The Shining One

The Shining One

Omit Needless Words

Handsome Gentleperson