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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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The Goketsu tutoring program is going to need a ninjutsu instructor. Noburi is not only best qualified, but he can demonstrate his skills on a daily basis while at the same time both training his chakra capacity for shadow clone and allowing his students to train far harder than anyone else's. Inside three months nobody is going to be even thinking about Hinata's trash talk as they scramble to get their heirs placed with him.
 
Sentient Tree said:
Keiko would win that, hands down.
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For our speach against her, we should actually make a speach about why she is awesome, and is a scary ninja.

One: she deserves some public praise in front of the world.

Two: any negative taunt powerful enough to work may have long term consequences that we are not willing to risk, but she will double think complements and think we are up to something.
 
MMKII said:
    • Carry Kotsuzui to the judges. Carefully
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We really shouldn't be anywhere close to that guy after the match is called; I get the intent but us being ninjas people would suspect foul play more readily than us trying to help our opponent. It's also a bad idea to move him without a medic giving the go ahead, I imagine. And lastly, Hazou ended the chapter being pretty angry at the guy so he might not even want to do this.

Here'd be my version of your plan, cannibalize as needed:


  • Wrapping Up
    • Raise fist high in the air, let out an earsplitting triumphant roar at the crowd.
    • Engage in any politicking Jiraiya wants to do.
    • Thank the audience.
  • Show thanks to the team
    • Get all that blood and dirt off you first.
    • Jiraiya
      • We appreciate the tips, sir. What now?
      • Our opponent was pretty tough, how does Jiraiya judge his strength relative to the other candidates?
      • Discuss whether placing explosions/traps before the match started like Kots did with his clones would be considered cheating if we do it?
        • If yes due to blatant favoritism for the other examinees, maybe Jiraiya can use this to rub our win in privately to the other Kages and get this banned?
    • Keiko
      • Thanks for the help.
      • Check whether she wants to talk about our upcoming match.
        • If yes, ask what she thinks about the fact that our match could end very quickly (her getting out of melee range with Hazou, or Hazou being able to keep her in melee range and not letting her get off any casts) without us being able to show off much).
          • If she shares our concerns, ask her whether she wants to do something about it like an exhibition match, add some rule constraints that would make the fight more challenging/last longer etc?
          • If she doesn't want to do anything special, tell her that we think she has a good chance of winning the tournament (even more than us) but we will fight seriously because she deserves our respect.
        • Unrelated: What are we going to do for our speech? He would rather not trash talk her even for show so maybe something Uplift-y?
    • Noburi
      • Distract him with a convincing "Hey look over there!" before trapping him in a bear hug.
      • We appreciate the hard work done on the crowd, oh smoothest of smooth operators.
      • If he still feels down: Remind him that none of us had the luxury of specializing for 1vs1 while on the run and that we decided to do the smart thing and spread our strengths and weaknesses, so him losing here is not a reflection of his lack of worth. His other skills like being a medic, having a silver tongue or being an awesome support all have saved our lives before and likely will in the future, yet they are not being tested in the tournament.
        • Don't downplay his feelings however; yes, it sucks to lose and we would be upset as well if we lost, but the tournament is merely a stepping stone for our ambitions.
      • Carefully probe into whether he wants to meet his sisters/family. He mentioned them earlier and Hazou (and possibly Keiko; ask her beforehand) would be willing to accompany him if/when he decides to meet them as his support for once. We probably won't be back in Mist for a long time after the tournament so this might be one of the few chances he has to reconnect with his family like Hazou did with his mom.
 
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MMKII said:
Pls implement

[] Protoplan: Bridging Details


  • Wrapping up
    • Raise fist high in the air, let out an earsplitting triumphant roar at the crowd.
    • Carry Kotsuzui to the judges. Carefully
    • Engage in any politicking Jiraiya wants to do.
    • Thank the audience.
  • Show thanks to the team later.
    • Get all that blood and dirt off you first.
    • Jiraiya: Give the largest thumbs up
      • We appreciate the tips sir.What now?
    • Keiko: (Jokingly) Practice your Rock-Paper-Scissors for our match.
      • Thanks for the help preparing though Keiko.
    • Noburi: Distract him with a convincing "Hey look over there!" before trapping him in a bear hug.
      • We appreciate the hard work done on the crowd, oh smoothest of smooth operators.
      • Thanks for the help, dude.
      • Can you help fix this ringing in my ear?
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I think it would be nice to actually ask Keiko whether she wants to do an exhibition/decide beforehand who wins.
 
It's @Tua's suggestions but cut significantly for word count.

[X] Action Plan: The Calm Before

Word count: 299
  • Wrapping Up:
    • Raise fist high in the air.
    • Follow Jiraiya's lead in politicking.
    • Thank the audience.
  • Thank the team:
    • GET THIS SHIT OFF FIRST.
    • Jiraiya:
      • We appreciate the tips, sir. What now?
      • What does Jiraiya think of Kotsuzui's strength relative to other candidates?
      • Would us trapping the arena beforehand be considered cheating?
        • If YES, maybe Jiraiya could get this banned by rubbing our win in to the other Kages?
    • Keiko:
      • Thanks for the help.
      • Ask if she wants to talk about our match. If yes...
        • Ask if she wants to do an exhibition match (ala Sand Genin) to show off our tournament-restricted skills.
        • Tell her that we think she has a good chance of winning the tournament (even more than us) but we will fight seriously because she deserves our respect
        • Unrelated: What about our speech? We'd rather not trash-talk her even for show...so maybe something Uplift-y?
    • Noburi:
      • Give him a massive bear hug.
      • We appreciate the hard work done on the crowd.
      • If he still feels down:
        • None of us had the luxury of specializing for 1v1 while on the run, so we decided to be smart and spread our strengths and weaknesses.
        • Him losing here is not a reflection of his lack of worth.
        • His other skills (medic-nin, diplomacy...) have saved our lives and will continue to do so, even if they aren't being tested in this tournament.
        • Don't downplay his feelings; yes, it sucks to lose and we would be upset if we lost, but the tournament is just another step towards our ambitions.
      • Carefully ask if he wants to meet his family. He mentioned them earlier and Hazou (possibly Keiko too?) would be willing to accompany him to meet them as his support, should he decide to.
  • Misc:
    • Watch the other matches.
    • Replenish seals.
 
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@faflec

Can we slice a decent chunk of the "Comfort Noburi" bits in exchange for "give massive hug" ? We can be slightly more tactful than verbalising all of this at him.

E: Also do we want to do any preparations for our match with Keiko? Methinks we should start munchkinning now...
 
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MMKII said:
@faflec

Can we slice a decent chunk of the "Comfort Noburi" bits in exchange for "give massive hug" ? We can be slightly more tactful than verbalising all of this at him.

E: Also do we want to do any preparations for our match with Keiko? Methinks we should start munchkinning now...
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Is this good for the hug?
faflec said:
It's @Tua's suggestions but cut significantly for word count.

[X] Action Plan: The Calm Before

Word count: 299
  • Wrapping Up:
    • Raise fist high in the air.
    • Follow Jiraiya's lead in politicking.
    • Thank the audience.
  • Thank the team:
    • GET THIS SHIT OFF FIRST.
    • Jiraiya:
      • We appreciate the tips, sir. What now?
      • What does Jiraiya think of Kotsuzui's strength relative to other candidates?
      • Would us trapping the arena beforehand be considered cheating?
        • If YES, maybe Jiraiya could get this banned by rubbing our win in to the other Kages?
    • Keiko:
      • Thanks for the help.
      • Ask if she wants to talk about our match. If yes...
        • Ask if she wants to do an exhibition match (ala Sand Genin) to show off our tournament-restricted skills.
        • Tell her that we think she has a good chance of winning the tournament (even more than us) but we will fight seriously because she deserves our respect
        • Unrelated: What about our speech? We'd rather not trash-talk her even for show...so maybe something Uplift-y?
    • Noburi:
      • Give him a massive bear hug.
      • We appreciate the hard work done on the crowd.
      • If he still feels down:
        • None of us had the luxury of specializing for 1v1 while on the run, so we decided to be smart and spread our strengths and weaknesses.
        • Him losing here is not a reflection of his lack of worth.
        • His other skills (medic-nin, diplomacy...) have saved our lives and will continue to do so, even if they aren't being tested in this tournament.
        • Don't downplay his feelings; yes, it sucks to lose and we would be upset if we lost, but the tournament is just another step towards our ambitions.
      • Carefully ask if he wants to meet his family. He mentioned them earlier and Hazou (possibly Keiko too?) would be willing to accompany him to meet them as his support, should he decide to.
  • Misc:
    • Watch the other matches.
    • Replenish seals.
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MMKII said:
Yes.

I suppose it just bothers me that we feel the need to spell everything out like this. Do we need to go down the laundry list of "Why Noburi doesn't suck" in its entirety? This is a bit tactless.
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I mean...Hazou isn't the best without lists. But if more people voice criticism of that section I'd be happy to remove or abbreviate it further.
 
[X] Action Plan: Wrapping Up/Setting Up

Word count: 297
  1. Watch the remaining match.
    • Wash up first.
    • Thank Noburi & Keiko for helping.
    • Cheer Chouji alongside Ino & Shikamaru, if Keiko & Noburi want to.
  2. Talk to following individually and privately
    • Jiraiya:
      • We appreciate the tips, sir.
      • Would us trapping the arena beforehand be considered cheating?
        • If YES, maybe Jiraiya could get this banned by rubbing our win in to the other Kages?
      • What does he know about Keiko's sister Ami? Hazou would like to try to repair their relationship, but isn't sure where to start.
      • On that note, does he have any objections to Hazou being friendly with Hinata? She at least doesn't seem like she has a vendetta against us.
        • If no objection, send a discreet message to Hinata, asking for a meeting at her convenience.
        • Hazou wants to stay on friendly terms with Hinata & see if this could alleviate the antagonistic relationship between our clans.
      • Can you string seals along ninja wire? Puncture it somewhere away from the ink & run the wire through?
    • Keiko:
      • Ask if she wants to talk about our upcoming match. If yes...
        • Gently suggest an exhibition match (ala Sand Genin) to show off our tournament-restricted skills.
        • Tell her we think she has the best chance at winning the tournament, but we will fight seriously because she deserves our respect.
        • Unrelated: What about our speech? Trash talk is out..so maybe something Uplift-y?
    • Noburi:
      • We appreciate the hard work done on the crowd.
      • If he still feels down:
        • Give him a massive bear hug.
        • Jokingly: Maybe he wants to tell us about his S-Rank mission?
        • Afterwards, hand him a post-interaction survey.
      • Carefully ask if he wants to meet his family. He mentioned them earlier & Hazou (possibly Keiko too?) would be willing to accompany him to meet them as his support.
  3. Misc.
    • Make more explosives.
 
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faflec said:
I mean...Hazou isn't the best without lists. But if more people voice criticism of that section I'd be happy to remove or abbreviate it further.
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I'm obviously biased but I think it should stay to direct his dialogue path. Leaving it to Hazou means leaving it to QMs so there is no guarantee they will cover the talking points I want Hazou to mention.
 
Roomba said:
Okay, let's try this.

[X] Action Plan: Wrapping Up/Setting Up

1. Stay for the rest of the matches
  1. Stay and watch the remaining match.
    • Take a few minutes to wash up first.
    • Thank Noburi and Keiko for their help.
    • Go cheer for Chouji alongside Ino and Shikamaru, if Keiko and Noburi want to.
    • After the match, find Hinata and ask her out to lunch. (Placeholder, see discussion below.)
  2. Talk to the team
    • Jiraiya:
      • We appreciate the tips, sir. What now?
      • What does Jiraiya think of Kotsuzui's strength relative to other candidates?
      • Would us trapping the arena beforehand be considered cheating?
        • If YES, maybe Jiraiya could get this banned by rubbing our win in to the other Kages?
      • Incidentally, what does he know about Keiko's sister Ami? Hazou would like to try to repair their relationship, but knows nothing about Ami herself.
    • Keiko:
      • Ask if she wants to talk about our upcoming match. If yes...
        • Ask if she wants to do an exhibition match (like the Sand Genin) to show off our tournament-restricted skills.
        • Tell her that we think she has a good chance of winning the tournament (even more than us) but we will fight seriously because she deserves our respect
        • Unrelated: What about our speech? We'd rather not trash-talk her even for show...so maybe something Uplift-y?
    • Noburi:
      • We appreciate the hard work done on the crowd.
      • If he still feels down:
        • Give him a massive bear hug.
        • Jokingly: Maybe he wants to tell us about his S-Rank mission?
        • Afterwards, hand him a post-interaction survey.
      • Carefully ask if he wants to meet his family. He mentioned them earlier and Hazou (possibly Keiko too?) would be willing to accompany him to meet them as his support, should he decide to.
I'm not entirely sure how to approach the Hinata conversation. I'd like to try figuring out where she stands on Hiashi's supposed vendetta and what drives her, and that requires a 1 on 1 conversation in a private setting. I think it'd be to Hazou's advantage if it were an OPSEC-secure location, as he tends to succeed by being direct, and talking about Hiashi forcing us to turn missing-nin again is not information I'd like to leak. On the other hand, I don't want the interaction to be overly adversarial or tense, and securing the location will probably make it so.

It'd be pretty funny to go with the fiction of Hazou asking her out on a date, though I'm not sure if she'd agree. A related question would be, how to approach her. Doing so in public has certain implications, and I haven't worked through all of them to figure out whether they'd make her more likely to agree or less. Thoughts on that?
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You should stipulate all these conversations happen alone if you're going to ask J about Ami.

Perhaps some minor wordcount/format edits and other details I'd like in there. Otherwise you have my sword.

[] Action Plan: Wrapping Up/Setting Up
 
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Roomba said:
I'm not entirely sure how to approach the Hinata conversation. I'd like to try figuring out where she stands on Hiashi's supposed vendetta and what drives her, and that requires a 1 on 1 conversation in a private setting. I think it'd be to Hazou's advantage if it were an OPSEC-secure location, as he tends to succeed by being direct, and talking about Hiashi forcing us to turn missing-nin again is not information I'd like to leak. On the other hand, I don't want the interaction to be overly adversarial or tense, and securing the location will probably make it so.

It'd be pretty funny to go with the fiction of Hazou asking her out on a date, though I'm not sure if she'd agree. A related question would be, how to approach her. Doing so in public has certain implications, and I haven't worked through all of them to figure out whether they'd make her more likely to agree or less. Thoughts on that?
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If we're going to do anything with Hinata, I'm pretty sure we have to run it through Jiraiya first. Clan head, Hokage, Hiashi hates us...yeah.

Personally, I'd rather save the Hinata interaction until we're in Leaf since blah blah blah Mist is blah blah blah, but if we must do it here and now I would suggest it being done under the guise of "hey we won our r1 matches, let's go celebrate" or something.
 
By the way

eaglejarl said:
Kotsuzui had been mauled by the twin explosions. His shirt was mostly torn off, his pants were shredded, bruises and abrasions were everywhere, and bits of sand and gravel were embedded in the skin of his back and legs. He was staggering to his feet only with difficulty when Hazō hit him.

The punch came from everything Hazō was. The power of the Pantokrator's Hammer, the gift from his sister's allies, lifted him to his feet. Memories of Noburi's encouragement and support chambered the punch. A decade of his mother's taijutsu instruction and two years of Mari-sensei's set his foot in precisely the right place for maximum power. His hopes and dreams for the future, his determination to win so Jiraiya would keep the hat and keep authorizing uplift missions, the desperate desire to become the person that others would follow in making the world better, the love he felt for his new family, the need to make them proud...it all combined to drive his fist around in a massive haymaker, the angle set just right so that it was the rounded curve of the pangolin-gauntlet claws, not the sharp tips, that impacted Kotsuzui's ear and sent him to the ground like a dropped brick, popping all his clones.

Hazō stood over his fallen foe, chest heaving and ears still ringing from the explosions. He was physically exhausted and battered, low on chakra, covered head-to-toe in blood and sand and grit. More important than all of that, the one final thing he was:

Victorious.
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eaglejarl said:
Round 6, fight!

Hazō goes first again. He is utterly and completely DONE with this crap. He really should give Kotsuzui a chance to tap out, but he's not taking any chances. Let's see if he can get Roki:

Hazō, roll to get Roki: (Deceit + Deceit Aspect Bonus): 27 - 6 = 21 -1 FP to reroll!
Hazō, roll to get Roki: (Deceit + Deceit Aspect Bonus): 27 + 6 = 33
Kotsuzui, Deceit: ?


Hazō gets Roki. Kotsuzui has the fragile Aspect "Tricked!" and Hazō has a tag.

Hazō:
- Supplemental: Pantokrator's Hammer, Effect:3 (22 CP, 21 remaining)
- Standard: Taijutsu: 40 + 0 (dice) + 10 (2x tags from Pantokrator's Hammer) + 5 (invoke 'Rolodex of Doom') + 5 (invoke 'Lists and Plans') + 5 (invoke '(Formerly) Marked for Death') + 5 (invoke 'Pangolin Gauntlets') + 5 (tag Kotsuzui's 'Battered' Consequence) + 5 (tag Kotsuzui's 'Ow, My Everything' Consequence) + 5 (tag Kotsuzui's 'Tricked!' Aspect that was created by Roki) - 3 (Hazō's Mild Consequence): 83
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Going to be hard to deny that one, Auntie Ren. I'm sure it was all thanks to the Pangolins and Jiraiya's seals this time.
 
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eaglejarl said:
Ah. Yes. That. That thing that I very definitely read and did not carelessly skip over.


A close relative of mine lost 17 pounds over the course of (approximately) late November to mid December 2018, all due to a touch of yersinia-induced constant diarrhea. Red blood cell count also tanked and blood pressure dropped. It's no joke.
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Funnily enough, you can also die of eating coconuts this way. They contain a laxative, and more than four in one day is enough that it's killed people who didn't get medical attention.
 
MMKII said:
You should stipulate all these conversations happen alone if you're going to ask J about Ami.
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Yeah, it was obvious to me that they would, but I didn't explicitly stipulate it. Will fix. A large part of the reason I separated watching the matches from talking to the team is that the latter includes some sensitive stuff. I'd rather not discuss our match with Keiko in hearing range of random people, for example, Ami stuff aside.

Let me know what brevity edits and whatnot you'd like to make, I always struggle with those.

faflec said:
If we're going to do anything with Hinata, I'm pretty sure we have to run it through Jiraiya first. Clan head, Hokage, Hiashi hates us...yeah.

Personally, I'd rather save the Hinata interaction until we're in Leaf since blah blah blah Mist is blah blah blah, but if we must do it here and now I would suggest it being done under the guise of "hey we won our r1 matches, let's go celebrate" or something.
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I don't think we need to run it through Jiraiya, that's a bit too paranoid. We've interacted with her plenty during the Exam, including some very explicit conversations about high-level Leaf politics, and nothing bad happened. In fact, I'm pretty sure a large part of the reason clan heirs end up in teams together, is to let them play at low-stakes politics without making too much of a mess. I doubt Hiashi tells Hinata a lot more of his long-term plans than Jiraiya tells Hazou.

We could ask Jiraiya's opinion I guess, but I always feel like we're abusing the QMs a bit by running things by him, and I'd like Hazou to become more independent in any case.
 
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Roomba said:
I don't think we need to run it through Jiraiya, that's a bit too paranoid. We've interacted with her plenty during the Exam, including some very explicit conversations about high-level Leaf politics, and nothing bad happened. In fact, I'm pretty sure a large part of the reason clan heirs end up in teams together, is to let them play at low-stakes politics without making too much of a mess. I doubt Hiashi tells Hinata a lot more of his long-term plans than Jiraiya tells Hazou.

We could ask Jiraiya's opinion I guess, but I always feel like we're abusing the QMs a bit by running things by him, and I'd like Hazou to become more independent of him in any case.
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I'm OK with just asking Jiraiya's opinion, but would point out that we've had QM override our plan due to needing supervision from Jiraiya or Mari (the Sasuke dinner).

Side note: Do you think the "R1 celebration with everyone" works?
 
If we wanted to be cute about how we approach Hinata we could send her flowers with the connotations of secrets and meetings in the Leaf flower language. Hazo is aware of it existing after that practical joke that got played on him with the apology bouquet. She's competent enough to find us if she wants to take up our invitation to talk, and leaving her to pick the time and place will help her feel less like it's a trap.

Or we could just ask to speak privately and go wherever she wants to go, but doing it the sneaky way is more fun.

As for Keiko and a prefight speech, what about something like:

"Coming back to Mist has made me reflective lately on everything that's happened, and how far we've come. Not just geographically, but how much we've grown. When we left we were terrified new genin, barely able to keep ourselves alive and expecting each day to be our last.

"But we came together. At first we just kept one another alive, but over time we built a bond and did something more important. We kept one another going.

"Keiko, more times than I can count you have saved my life, been there for me every time I needed help, and always given me your wise advice. You are brilliant, cunning, deadly, and you give absolutely all of yourself to the people you love. You are a stronger and better person than you know, and worth so much more as that person than as a tool for others to use. It has been my privilege to grow up alongside you during the darkest days of our lives, and I am and will eternally be proud to call you my sister. Before the gathered peoples of the Elemental Nations, thank you for all of it."

It can probably be improved, but what do you guys think of the sentiment?
 
Perhaps we can bond with that Sand Genin who also has no qualms with getting Extra Crispy to win the match.
 
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