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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Okay, now that we've come to a consensus, or at least aired our opinions, on the Hagoromo, I think telling Ami FOOM at all is probably a bad idea since we still don't know her motivations and I've seen some very pertinent points about treason.

Really, all we did is guess at them and she tacitly confirmed them - but why wouldn't she if she didn't want to share them? I don't think she's up there to the point where she can fake that amount of vulnerability to a relatively seasoned chunin, but that doesn't mean we've come close to unraveling her.

I feel that since we have so much on our plate, we see constantly spilling our secrets to be our way of checking things off the list - because then we don't have to keep track of them anymore.

We can be friends and trust Ami without FOOM - we didn't tell Ino, Shikamaru, or Haru about it even, and who knows who Ami might tell. That's amazing leverage for her since she can't use it anyway. (The only way rn it's a good idea is if it would tip her into defecting, and that seems rather suicidal and war-prone at the moment).

I'm almost tempted to do it just to watch it implode and have us not do anything like it again, but I'm sure that's what happened after each successive treason incident and we just keep going.

Worst case either it succeeds brilliantly and I'm wrong, or it fails and I get to say I told you so, but I'll be honest - I don't know what a brilliant success looks like. I doubt this makes Ami closer to us because it's just a secret she can't use, so I'm not sure why we're telling her.

If anything, we should take advantage of having Keiko there and finally hear what her 7P plan was way back when.
 
I think that there's more narrative weight to telling Ami about FOOM than just "it'll make Ami besties with Hazou." Keiko seemed to act like FOOM was a missing puzzle piece that solved a Big Problem. Furthermore, even if we don't know if Ami's fully devoted to Uplift, we know that Kieko is, and we also know that Ami's Ultimate Goals are in line with Uplift. Not to mention that Ami approves of Uplift in general --even if she thinks it's too idealistic. Furthermore, we've recently learned that the Nara and the Mori are part of a secret, international Cognitive-Clan-Illuminati who are sworn to keep the evil, existential Outer Threats locked away.

So I think that we can safely assume that giving Ami the secrets to FOOM is a good idea. Or at least an idea that should be given more consideration than the friendship points it may or may not earn.

As for whether or not they'll get caught by ANBU? Well. I mean. Ami and Hazou have gone on "dates" before. Multiple dates even. And a lot of their meetings could be construed as "dates" by a distant, outside observer. And this interpretation becomes even more reasonable when you realize that Hazou has a history of dating multiple girls at once (Ino and Akane mostly, but he also flirted with that one Sand girl during the exams, IIRC) and that Hazou also supported the Concubine Law! (*clutches pearls*)

Anyway, combine that knowledge with the fact that the Goketsu have wild rumors circulating about them hosting passionate orgies that they've worked hard to quell via Game Nights, sprinkle in the fact that the Goketsu Clan was founded by Jiraiya --a man that Hazou openly admires and unconsciously emulates at times (projecting authority into his voice during that one chapter) --and the fact that Jiraiya and Mari openly had extramarital affairs (a lack of monogamy was even one of the conditions for their marriage) and a... paperwork marriage (*le gasp*).

I think that any Anbu watching these two teenagers (one of which is a "philandering son of Jiraiya" and the other is "the obviously barbaric Mist Nin," who have also gone on dates together before) go into max-op sec will likely think that they're just making out. Especially since Hazou was trained by the Super Paranoid Kagome. Hazou might have to quell the rumors about him dating a foreign seductress afterwards, but I think it'll all be alright.
 
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MMKII said:
Ok here goes.

[x] Action Plan: Consider the Following Resonance Structure

Meet with Ami and Keiko. Max OPSEC ( let Ami drive on this facet of the meeting, stress that "Max OPSEC" is not to be taken hyperbolically).
  • Hagoromo stuff
    • We wanted to challenge them to a duel (their three clan members vs. OG Uplift, failing that, our pick of 3 non-Mari Gouketsu clan members) with some stakes (we win: any debt from us to them is null and void, and they owe us 2 mil ryo a month. they win: we owe them 4 mil total ryo a month).
      • We want to do the fight thing once our other plots are locked in and the results are inevitable, though.
    • "Dueling" is outlawed, but is there any nonsense in Leaf legalese that allows this in some form?
      • Surely there is some way to arrange this? Even if its informally treated as a "spar" or "competition" with corresponding stakes. Perhaps as a "bet" legally speaking?
  • Pick up somewhat from where you left off with Ami last time.
    • Clear with Keiko beforehand.
      • Generally let her chime in with any thoughts she may or may not have on any aspect of this, her input is clearly valuable and we treasure it.
    • Our terminal goals should be pretty clear: Uplift for all, better social equality for all, stop general crappy stuff from being a consistent theme in this world, figure out resurrection techniques, etc. With a side dish of protecting the family in the meantime.
      • Instrumental goals: become uber powerful sealmaster, maybe look into technique hacking, bio sealing, and mednin stuff. Look into lost sources of lore and/or epic power, such as: Whirlpool, sealing ritual arrays, source of Chakra, summoning scrolls,various mysteries obviously present in the world, the Seventh Path, etc.
      • Summoning scrolls: done-ish. We have some serious knowledge about Sealing stuff that we didn't have before. Out-stuff isn't too problematic, whatever.
    • Your goals are still somewhat obtuse besides "protect Keiko" (which we can get behind).
      • You've indicated that you find our goals acceptable. We find at least one of your goals to be something that we would support, and estimate that at least some of them are ones we'd like to actively work towards.
      • We would like to enter into a mutually beneficial relationship with the Ami.
      • If she accepts, offer hug.
    • If she accepts your offer, talk shop about Hazou's Master Plan after implementing additional (and hopefully extraneous, but you never know!) OPSEC measures.
      • Be roundabout, don't refer explicitly to shadow clone, just tell her something like "Definitive plan to vastly increase power of all involved. Keiko can confirm the existence and viability. Not trying to get killboxed again, so can tell you more as situation develops, if it does."
      • If she can get into Leaf, we'll cut her in if she wants, modulo some reasonable conditions we'll get into weeds on at that time.
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I'm 75% sure Ami will find out about FOOM for those hints, exactly like Keiko. If we want be conservative, the best thing to do is just cut the last part and see how she reacts to the rest of plan, otherwise, it's better to just tell her what we are talking about.
Let's not understimate a Mori intelligence again.
 
Adhoc vote count started by Velorien on Sep 30, 2020 at 7:26 AM, finished with 150 posts and 16 votes.
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Voting is closed.
 
Seeking clarification about the plan.

MMKII said:
OG Uplift
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What is this?
MMKII said:
We find at least one of your goals to be something that we would support
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Which goal? Protecting Keiko?
MMKII said:
We would like to enter into a mutually beneficial relationship with the Ami.
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Are you proposing to address her in the plural?
MMKII said:
Hazou's Master Plan
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Which master plan? Something beyond FOOM?
 
*Hazou walks into T&I, offers a familiar nod to the duty officer behind the desk, and calmly locks himself inside the first available killbox*

"What was that about?"​
​
"We'll find out soon. It happens every few weeks, so he's started just doing it preemptively to save everybody hassle. Better go wake the boss."​
 
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Lailoken said:
*Hazou walks into T&I, offers a familiar nod to the duty officer behind the desk, and calmly locks himself inside the first available killbox*

"What was that about?"​
​
"We'll find out soon. It happens every few weeks, so he's started just doing it preemptively to save everybody hassle. Better go wake the boss."​
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Genius, eventually they wont even check to see if its a Shadow Clone!
 
Velorien said:
Kurosawa Hazō: Medium-length black hair, blue eyes (agent 137 reports characteristic of Kurosawa Clan), medium height for a 13-year-old. Solid, muscular build with little excess fat. Constant analytical gaze, as if taking notes on surroundings. Habitual slight frown. Strange resemblance to category 44, especially in information processing.
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Did we ever learn what Cat 44 meant? Can we learn it (@eaglejarl, @Velorien, @OliWhail) since it's in Jiraiya's notes?
 
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