Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

RandomOTP · Jul 2, 2020

MMKII said:
I really do like the cursed seal thing Kakashi does, since the concept of condensing this big fuckoff ritual circle of magic symbols into a small tattoo like that is a pretty cool thought, and it doesn't suffer from a lot of the obvious downsides of Kishimoto's usual Rule of Cool stuff (one could probably work something out to make it downright reasonable, even).

Maybe it's a specific thing you have to buy with XP, once you get your sealing high enough. I can't think of anything it'd do, specifically, other than allow for more complex fuuinjutsu to be put on smaller sealpaper. And the added room --before it's condensed --might mean that there's less stringent "grammar/esoteric" demands which would otherwise cause the seal to not work.

Velorien said:
"It's a trap," Kagome-sensei explained. "Put the free seal down on the ground where your enemy's going to be, move away, then prime the paired seal on the kunai and throw it into place. Boom! Instant Earth Dome. It's not perfect—it won't work if the seals are too close or too far apart, or if they're misaligned, but I reckon with practice, a throwing specialist like you should be able to do it. Also, Keiko, you're smart, so you can put down lots of traps at once and remember which kunai goes with which seal."

Kagome... you're scary sometimes.
(EDIT: Kagome has little to no free time and still managed to come up with this idea, and put together a stable, working prototype together in time of Keiko's birthday... Now I wonder if Hazou could suggest that they work on Project: Biggest Boom together?)

Though the reminder of inter-clan politics is refreshing. We have to keep in mind that while the Nara are a very, very close ally of ours, it's still a separate clan. Maybe, if we want to break down the inter-clan "rivalry," we could invite Nara sealmasters to coordinate with Kagome and Hazou to improve the design of the seal? Make it a joint-clan project to bring us closer and then declare the finished seal a clan secret for both clans?

Velorien said:
"Thank you, Yuno," Keiko said with a slow, chilling smile. "They say the best gift is the one you never knew you wanted."

...Careful Keiko, your Orochimaru is showing.

Velorien said:
"Pandā, I choose you."

*throws pokeball*

Velorien said:
then completely erase your presence,

Just a nice, casual reminder that Ami is a jonin and is a little scary.

Emstar · Jul 2, 2020

Velorien said:
You have received 3 + 1 = 4 XP.

No brevity XP because that's already been awarded, but on the other hand, you get the "happy author" +1 because of how much the manga let me indulge my dubious sense of humour.

What do we get for sending Hazou to hang out with Ami and learn how to do makeup and contort his hair into different hairstyles (Ami style training: apply barbed wire!)?

Good disguise kit practice is so hard to come by.

Kiba · Jul 2, 2020

[X] Action Plan: Continue the Timeskip

Continue the timeskip.

Mari:

Give Mari a budget for setting up and expanding the merchant "spy" network.
- Current objective: Find telescope merchants for adoption/move to Konoha.
- Reward money and finder fees for any useful info, more for priority info.

Glasswork:

Assign Goketsu glassworkers(or hire if we don't have any) to the telescope project.
- Goal: Replicate telescope.
- Bonus: Pay for any incidental innovations.
Setup partnership with Shino's clan for work on the telescope project?
- Incidentally commission a set of goggles for Goketsu ninja.
- But what if we can make goggles cheap enough so that every ninja has their own protective eyeswear?

Misc:

Skyslider idea:
- Idea: Smoke are moved by wind. Maybe we can see how the wind spirits move skysliders?
- Idea: Paper fan animate wind spirit to move.
- Combine: A room for seeing the flow of smoke generated by fans, allowing us to see how wind spirits push skysliders.

Emstar · Jul 2, 2020

Velorien said:
Keiko looked inside the box again.

"I accept the compromise," she said without hesitation. "Is it safe to pet it?"

@Inferno Vulpix YELP IF YOU ARE IN THERE

(What *does* the fox say? "Bark"? "Chitter"? "Purr"? )

Velorien · Jul 2, 2020

MMKII said:
What do we get for sending Hazou to hang out with Ami and learn how to do makeup and contort his hair into different hairstyles (Ami style training: apply barbed wire!)?

Good disguise kit practice is so hard to come by.

It's going to take a while before it's long enough to do anything really interesting with.

Wait, is that the purpose of these timeskips?

RandomOTP · Jul 2, 2020

RandomOTP said:
Maybe it's a specific thing you have to buy with XP, once you get your sealing high enough. I can't think of anything it'd do, specifically, other than allow for more complex fuuinjutsu to be put on smaller sealpaper. And the added room --before it's condensed --might mean that there's less stringent "grammar/esoteric" demands which would otherwise cause the seal to not work.

Random Conspiracy Theory: The "gods" of MfD are grammar nazis and sealing failures are their way of punishing sealmasters who use incorrect grammar and treat their magical literature poorly. (CCnJ: this is a joke... though the notion of "godly language" is pervasive throughout soft magic systems... maybe there's something there?)

Kiba said:
Bonus: Pay for any incidental innovations.

The notion of bifocal lenses should be pretty easy to bring up, since we know that corrective lenses exist, even if they're somewhat rare and expensive. That means that there's already some general knowledge out there about "farsighted" and "nearsighted."

Velorien said:
Wait, is that the purpose of these timeskips?

...Maybe.

Emstar · Jul 2, 2020

Velorien said:
Wait, is that the purpose of these timeskips?

Well—

MMKII said:
Clearly the hairstyle change is working its magic!

Our path to power shall assuredly follow FOOM, the Way of the One True Cut, and the Treason Dragons of yore. Exciting.

— it is perhaps one of many...

Cariyaga · Jul 2, 2020

Velorien said:
It's going to take a while before it's long enough to do anything really interesting with.

Wait, is that the purpose of these timeskips?

The real purpose of the time skips is for Hazou to be old enough to date Ami.

Dictator4Hire · Jul 2, 2020

Velorien said:
I feel confident that Ino would

Velorien said:
I believe Ino will back us, at least, and I trust you will do the same.

This...

This is good.

OliWhail · Jul 2, 2020

Velorien said:
what's the point of being Gōketsu if you're not going to unleash overkill at every opportunity?

New clan motto

ContextBot · Jul 2, 2020

Cariyaga said:
The real purpose of the time skips is for Hazou to be old enough to date Ami.

Before that....

Next month or so is Hazou's birthday.

That means he is fifteen and can sit on the clan council.

Time for more pissing of Asuma, if we want to get XP for entertainment.

Or better, let's not do that.

Inferno Vulpix · Jul 2, 2020

MMKII said:
@Inferno Vulpix YELP IF YOU ARE IN THERE

(What *does* the fox say? "Bark"? "Chitter"? "Purr"? )

I can neither confirm nor deny that Keiko's compromise present is an albino chakra fox

Cariyaga · Jul 2, 2020

Incidentally, this will also allow for a larger quantity of ninja -- supported by the system, contrary to Hazou's birth situation -- born in Leaf over the next [number of years].

Velorien · Jul 2, 2020

Cariyaga said:
The real purpose of the time skips is for Hazou to be old enough to date Ami.

As Keiko's happiness increases, the probability of murdering Hazō for dating her sister decreases. I feel like this quest is heading into dangerous territory.

Emstar · Jul 2, 2020

Velorien said:
I ran out of time/spoons to address Noburi's fate, so that shall be left to @eaglejarl in flashback.

[X] Action Plan: Noburi's Fate

Timeline: Eaglejarl's choice.

Have Noburi finish his summoning training and go meet with the Toads.
- Debrief afterwards.
- If successful, encourage Noburi to try to reach out to some of Jiraiya's old contracts. Perhaps they'd be the easiest to bond with over some sake and talking stories with the Old Man?
  - Specifically, Jiraiya summoned a bunch of smaller Toads during the Fifth event, you vaguely recall. Maybe give them a try?
- If somehow unsuccessful, comfort the guy. Maybe they can hotswap the scrolls and he can be the Dog summoner?
Do Summoning Training stuff. Don't slack off!
Try to bond with Haru a little more.
- He seems like he could use some including in the ingroup. Maybe you could do something he likes to do?
Interact with Shikamaru in a pleasant fashion.
- Perhaps he could use a de-stressing (not distressing!) game of Shogi or Go or Badduk?

ContextBot · Jul 2, 2020

MMKII said:
Try to bond with Haru a little more, he seems like he could use some including in the ingroup. Maybe you could do something he likes to do?

Sounds awkward, maybe just do a Goketsu boys night out? What's the worst that could happen?

Sentient Tree · Jul 2, 2020

Velorien said:
There was a cloud of smoke which smelled curiously of lavender, and when it cleared, a small wardrobe stood before the group. Mari pulled it open with a flourish.

AIEEEEEEEEEEEE

So, exactly what horrifying beast did Keiko end up with?

Tua · Jul 2, 2020

Great chapter, had everything that I didn't know I needed.

Betrayal, Hazou-level social blunders for once not caused by Hazou himself and Noburi showing everyone why he deserves to swagger around unironically.

Gotta say I got thrown off by "Shanshan" though. I was fully convinced that would turn out to mean TenTen in Chinese considering the plot/expy's of the manga but alas, Google Translate said it wasn't.

Emstar · Jul 2, 2020

ContextBot said:
Sounds awkward, maybe just do a Goketsu boys night out? What's the worst that can happen?

We wake up in a smoking-crater-hotel in Hotsprings a day and a half later with no memory of the events that transpired. Cue "A Night to Remember" mixed with "The Hangover."

Velorien · Jul 2, 2020

Tua said:
Gotta say I got thrown off by "Shanshan" though. I was fully convinced that would turn out to mean TenTen in Chinese considering the plot/expy's of the manga but alas, Google Translate said it wasn't.

Alas, my powers of Chinese are weak. It's an entirely different gratuitous reference.

MMKII said:
We wake up in a smoking-crater-hotel in Hotsprings a day and a half later with no memory of the events that transpired. Cue "A Night to Remember" mixed with "The Hangover."

I'm getting the strangest deja vu here...

Sentient Tree · Jul 2, 2020

RandomOTP said:
Though the reminder of inter-clan politics is refreshing. We have to keep in mind that while the Nara are a very, very close ally of ours, it's still a separate clan. Maybe, if we want to break down the inter-clan "rivalry," we could invite Nara sealmasters to coordinate with Kagome and Hazou to improve the design of the seal? Make it a joint-clan project to bring us closer and then declare the finished seal a clan secret for both clans?

I would be very interested in Hazō and Kagome cooperating on a project with the Nara.

[X] Action Plan: Continue the Timeskip

Cariyaga · Jul 2, 2020

OliWhail said:
New clan motto

By the way OliWhail, I hope you've been well! I'm sure things have been, uh, busy for one in your field lately, but don't forget to take care of yourself!

RandomOTP · Jul 2, 2020

Kiba said:
[X] Action Plan: Continue the Timeskip

MMKII said:
[X] Action Plan: Noburi's Fate

Since we're doing a timeskip, would either of you mind adding "have Kagome improve the kunai-seal prototype with Nara sealmasters as a joint project?" They're going to be working on their own iteration of it anyway, judging from Shikamaru's "carefully neutral" expression. At least this way, the Goketsu and Nara clans bond a little bit while we also get a completed version of the Kunai/Seal Project faster --and, perhaps, even better --than we otherwise would have. Besides, it'll go a long way to help reduce the schoolyard rivalries that a lot of the Leaf clans seem to have going on.

Emstar · Jul 2, 2020

RandomOTP said:
Since we're doing a timeskip, would either of you mind adding "have Kagome improve the kunai-seal prototype with Nara sealmasters as a joint project?"

I would, mostly because Kagome needs to be working on decoding stuff because Asuma is one bad interaction on a bad day away from soaking Hazō in barbecue sauce and tossing him into the forest of death.

Noumero · Jul 2, 2020

MMKII said:
I would, mostly because Kagome needs to be working on decoding stuff because Asuma is one bad interaction on a bad day away from soaking Hazō in barbecue sauce and tossing him into the forest of death.

That sounds like it'd give us Creative Training XP, I wouldn't mind.

Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

The Shining One

The Shining One

The Shining One

Handsome Gentleperson

Handsome Gentleperson

The Shining One

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The Shining One

Handsome Gentleperson

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