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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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I have to say, I'm very ready for Naruto to actually appear "on screen" so that the thread can actually get a fair assessment of his personality, outlook, desires, and goals. It's been a hell of a tease to have him simply "recovering" these past few updates.

I haven't really been participating in the thread or discussion- been pulling back for various reasons. But I'm still keeping my eye on updates, and so much future decision making hinges on our evaluation of Naruto. I see a *lot* of assumptions about who he is and how he's feeling and what he wants. Certainly Jiraiya seems to think he's a cool dude. But still.

All future paths revolve around what we think of Naruto. Where his head is now, what he's thinking, what he thinks of us. A meeting with him ought to be an A1 double-priority. The thread simply can't make plans without a chance to get a read on him. Period.
 
Evenstar said:
If Jaraiya's sealing notes include seal blanks we did not previously have, they are an instant massive power boost for us. @QMs: Are any such blanks included?
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They're not really an instant power boost. We'd need to spend months researching them if its even possible for us or Kagome to at all.
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
To everyone going on about how scary we are :
Remember when Hyuga was willing to get into a fight to the death against Jiraya to get the hat?
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In fairness, that was when Jiraiya was making the unilateral decision that he was taking the Hat so he could search for Naruto, rather than wait for the council to elect someone who may or may not be him.

If the clan council convenes and Hiashi loses the vote, I expect he'd accept the result, however grudgingly: the vote for Hokage is the Proper Leaf Way of doing things, just like he purports.
 
Inferno Vulpix said:
We're a scary threat down the road, is the thing.

We've got three bloodlines but only one chuunin from each.

We've got two summoners but both of them are fairly new to the trade and chuunin apart from it.

We've got two good sealmasters, which is a solid strength-right-now, but Jiraiya's notes only make our future sealing prowess stronger.

The marriage to the Nara and possible Naruto support are some of the strongest things we've got going for us now. We're scary in the sense that if you leave us unattended we have the potential to become very very powerful. If you were a clan like the Hyuuga, or a Hyuuga-aligned clan, wouldn't you find it optimal to nip the Goketsu in the bud before all of those investments mature?
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This suggests to me that we have the option to back up and let Hiashi have the hat, while saying all this. We lose gracefully, we suggest that other countries are weakening while we are growing, giving Hiashi an incentive to stave off war, and we buy time to digest Jiraiya's seals, learn summoning, adopt strong clanless, and integrate Naruto into the team. If we emphasize our growth potential as the future of Leaf, Hiashi can't do much against us supposing he gives a damn about Leaf over just the success of his clan.
 
Shadowwarp said:
Huh, guess Noburi gets the scroll. Oh wait, that means snake scroll goes to Hazo if we actually find it, nice!

So who is ready for a wedding? Does Hazo give away Keiko as the clan head, or Kagome as the oldest male, or is that not a thing here?
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... I realize that both our Jounin are not exactly mentally stable, but it's worth asking the dumb question: Might one of them be better with the Toad scroll than Noburi?
 
Evenstar said:
If Jaraiya's sealing notes include seal blanks we did not previously have, they are an instant massive power boost for us. @QMs: Are any such blanks included?
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Jiraiya's sealing notes are an investment that starts maturing fast because we can have Hazou or Kagome learn some of the most useful seals within our skill range right away. It'll still take weeks to research them though, so we're not getting anything instantly.

The rest of it matures over a long, long time because we'll need a ton of XP invested in Sealing to research Jiraiya's better seals.
 
Evenstar said:
Okay, I guess I'm confused about how the Iron Nerve functions here? Don't we get instant seal blank templates for reproduction purposes?
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We do, but no one can actually infuse them now that J is dead. You can't infuse another sealmaster's seals, its pretty much an auto-failthulhu

They'd be useful for research purposes so we can create our own versions down the line, and thats about it.
 
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Evenstar said:
Okay, I guess I'm confused about how the Iron Nerve functions here? Don't we get instant seal blank templates for reproduction purposes?
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We could indeed reproduce all of those seals perfectly... but only Jiraiya can infuse them, and he's dead.

We can use the seals and notes to gain research bonuses in replicating them, which would create our own version of the seal that we can infuse, but even with research notes that sort of thing takes time on the order of weeks.
 
Inferno Vulpix said:
We could indeed reproduce all of those seals perfectly... but only Jiraiya can infuse them, and he's dead.

We can use the seals and notes to gain research bonuses in replicating them, which would create our own version of the seal that we can infuse, but even with research notes that sort of thing takes time on the order of weeks.
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... yeah, that's consistent, I remember us having to shove stacks of seals at a very tired Jaraiya before. Okay.

So then the relevant question is "What is there in the sealing notes that's within our current skill level?"

- and the relevant question before that is "How thick is this bundle of sealing notes?"

faflec said:
>Jonin
>Mentally stable
Pick one.
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Yeah, that's why I'm asking.
 
Word count: 350

[x] Action plan: forming the party
  • Discuss the following with the clan
    • We still need Noburi's report but Akane and Tenten are shoe-ins.
      • Check with the rest of the clan that this is fine. If so, make offers:
    • Akane's family:
      • All of Team Uplift that's available should go.
      • You're family already, so the offer's always open.
    • Tenten:
      • Keiko should go alone.
      • We trust her judgement,
  • Other potential adoptees
    • Lee
      • Hazō will strongly push for this
      • We need to do right be Gai's memory
  • Kagome
    • Give him Jiraiya's seal note
    • Is he willing to teach sealling?
  • Noburi
    • We want him to take the toad scroll
      • Have Kabuto check to make sure he is able to summon with Wakahisa chakra system
  • Spy Network
    • Review Jiraiya's notes on his spy network
    • Identify contacts that we can secure immediately
    • Schedule a meeting with Black and White
  • Snake scroll
    • Have Kei send a message to the snakes
      • We wish to pay our respects to their summoner who went with our father to their deaths on Nagani island
    • Schedule a meeting with Tsunade
      • Ask what happened to snake scroll
      • If Orochimaru left any notes or anything about his organizations
  • Find out the full story of the Battle of the Gods.
    • Is there an official record of events in the Tower?
    • Reach out to someone who was there, like Chouza.
      • This must be really hard on Chouza, to lose teammates so close to him.
    • Ask if he'd like to work with us creating a memorial for the battle.
  • Naruto:
    • Jiraiya's message to Naruto probably gives him the basics on the Goketsu and his position in relation to it
    • We promised Jiraiya we'd support him.
      • Introduce ourselves and offer condolences.
    • Give him Jiraiya's will so he can see what Jiraiya left him.
      • If he's willing and doesn't already know it, give a quick rundown of Team Uplift's story, how we became the Goketsu, and what we stand for
    • It might actually be best for him not to be adopted by Gōketsu
      • If he stays as Uzumaki clan head we gain an additional council seat
        • Which will always be useful
      • We can share resources indefinitely
 
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That was a good update.

So, things to do...
We still need to talk to Naruto.
We still need to adopt the people needing adopting. (Akane, Tenten, anyone else we want to bring in)
Get Noburi signed up as the Toad Summoner.
M04R POLITICS!
 
Enjou said:
That was a good update.

So, things to do...
We still need to talk to Naruto.
We still need to adopt the people needing adopting. (Akane, Tenten, anyone else we want to bring in)
Get Noburi signed up as the Toad Summoner.
M04R POLITICS!
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Talk to Chouza about the memorial.

Talk to Ino about her dad fuckin' dying.
 
Evenstar said:
... I realize that both our Jounin are not exactly mentally stable, but it's worth asking the dumb question: Might one of them be better with the Toad scroll than Noburi?
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Situation 1, Mari:
Wants to hide from the world, summons a large Toad and asks it to swallow her whole out of embarrassment.

Situation 2, Kagome:
Spooks himself by summoning a Toad and blows it up. This repeats a few times until Gamabunta gets angry enough to cancel the contract.

Situation 3, Noburi:
Large chakra reserves, good diplomacy to form new sub-contracts with Toads. Might even grow out of his mind set that he still has something has to prove considering the trust we put in him. Will also feel indebted enough to let our various OPSEC breaches in the future slide. This, in combination with Keiko's gratitude for reconnecting her with Ami, will give us carte blanche to just say whatever we want, whenever we want.

More serious reply:

Mari is retired and not a proper combat spec to boot, so I worry about her being made to go on the frontlines because now she has a contract so there is more incentive for the new Hokage to order her to do missions.

Kagome is bad at socials and you actually need some to not get screwed over during the negotations with the summons (assuming contracting Toads works similarly to Pangolins).

Noburi has the chakra and the socials to pull it off. He is also not a melee spec so he can deal damage while on top of his summons.
 
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