Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

Oneiros · Dec 3, 2020

[X] MMKII

faflec · Dec 3, 2020

[X] A Conversation with Beings that Know Things

Shrooms said:
Equip everyone with explosives, macerators, storage seals with contents of their choice, banshee slayers

Have Akane complement her taijutsu by wearing a blinding daylight seal, demonstrate PMYF/shadow clone shenanigans and the pillar creation seal

Have Noburi equip Misterators, the darkness generating seal, and the banshee seal

Have Hazou use force walls, domes, the raiton seal, and rocket boots (to launch other things, not to jump with)

I have concerns on the bolded on the grounds that some of these things are Kagome's stuff (i.e., directional explosives) and showing them off implies that we'll be providing said things to Konoha. Which Kagome may not agree with.

Shrooms · Dec 3, 2020

faflec said:
[X] A Conversation with Beings that Know Things

I have concerns on the bolded on the grounds that some of these things are Kagome's stuff (i.e., directional explosives) and showing them off implies that we'll be providing said things to Konoha. Which Kagome may not agree with.

Only the rocket boots are his, right? I can take that out.

faflec · Dec 3, 2020

Shrooms said:
Only the rocket boots are his, right? I can take that out.

The first bolded bullet point I quoted had me thinking that we were going to show off using directional explosives on our CHAOSsuit. Am I wrong?

Shrooms · Dec 3, 2020

faflec said:
The first bolded bullet point I quoted had me thinking that we were going to show off using directional explosives on our CHAOSsuit. Am I wrong?

I didn't specify directional explosives, I just meant normal explosives. You can't wear everything yet heh (well, I suppose you could, but I don't think that would end well)
Then again, if it doesn't really add to the demonstration it could be taken out anyways

faflec · Dec 3, 2020

Shrooms said:
I didn't specify directional explosives, I just meant normal explosives. You can't wear everything yet heh (well, I suppose you could, but I don't think that would end well)
Then again, if it doesn't really add to the demonstration it could be taken out anyways

I will observe that inviting the Hokage to a demonstration showing off seals that can be put on clothing, and then putting [unspecified type of] explosives next to other stuff that can be put on a CHAOSsuit, may give off the impression that the explosives are meant to be directional.

Shrooms · Dec 3, 2020

faflec said:
I will observe that inviting the Hokage to a demonstration showing off seals that can be put on clothing, and then putting [unspecified type of] explosives next to other stuff that can be put on a CHAOSsuit, may give off the impression that the explosives are meant to be directional.

I can definitely see why it would come across that way, so I took it out

Emstar · Dec 3, 2020

Shrooms said:
Emphasize the point is to show off the suit, not win. Put on a show

I note that we already demo'd it to Jman, so including similar aspects to that demo would probably also come off pretty well.

Shrooms · Dec 3, 2020

MMKII said:
I note that we already demo'd it to Jman, so including similar aspects to that demo would probably also come off pretty well.

mind reminding me what those might be? It's been a long time since I read that chapter

Emstar · Dec 3, 2020

Shrooms said:
mind reminding me what those might be? It's been a long time since I read that chapter

See, the glories of IC knowledge mean that we can just have Hazou implement similar things without mentioning anything specifically!

(yay lazy effortplanning)

Taijutsu_ · Dec 3, 2020

Velorien said:
Lady Nara had been inexplicably thrilled to discover a new exhibition by Heta Ahō

Heta Ahou? Wow, that's an, uh, pretty unfortunate name there.

Lailoken · Dec 3, 2020

Velorien said:
"Lady Nara, why does anybody write love confessions?"

"I have often wondered," Lady Nara said. "It seems as if their primary role is to be implausibly misinterpreted, sent to the wrong person and unquestioningly taken at face value, inaccurately seen as evidence of adultery by associates of the receiving party, or otherwise used by hack authors to lay groundwork for extended drama of the kind that could be resolved with five minutes

-or to get the target murdered by pangolins...

Velorien said:
Actually, this was already canon a while ago. However, her attempts were so terrible that I in no way blame you for forgetting them.

On the other hand, she could just transcribe her nightmares.

RandomOTP · Dec 4, 2020

Velorien said:
Lady Nara was dressed conservatively, in a blue and white outfit that defiantly presented snowflakes to early autumn. It wasn't particularly fashionable, at least according to the KEI fashions Minori half-heartedly tried to instil in her, but that just made Yuri feel a little better about her all-purpose purples (a colour that both matched her eyes and could be mended with cheaper black thread without making the wear and tear obvious to a casual observer).

I know it's an odd thing to fixate on, but I wonder why Keiko dressed conservatively? Is it to help temper the Hag-rooted rumors? Is it because she's simply more comfortable like that? Perhaps it's a lasting remnant of her Mist roots?

Velorien said:
"Fan letters?" Lady Nara asked, incongruously as if the concept were alien to her. "I do not receive fan letters. I suppose there are those missives from the Nara Keiko Fan Club, but those are less purposeful acts of communication and more stray shards of the universe's ever-shifting insanity. Was what you sent me a fan letter?"

There's a poor Nara somewhere whose entire job is to sort through Kieko's letters for honest letters versus fan spam.

Velorien said:
Lady Nara shook her head. "I am far from an expert in poetry, in this country or any other, but insofar as Mist Academy detention involved analysis of self-indulgently florid prose, I assure you I have no difficulty handling synecdoche, anacoluthon, and even some amount of cruel and unusual zeugma."

Suddenly, Yuri had a much better idea of why Lady Nara spoke the way she did, though the idea that the devices the Mist Academy used for punishment were rhetorical, rather than mechanical and covered in spikes, contradicted everything she had learned about Mist as a student. Also, her crush had just intensified by twenty percent.

KEIKO: "Mist's culture is so blunt and forthright that our heroes are Zabuza and we're punished by being made to read poetry."
YURI: "A Literary-knowledgeable girlfriend?!"

Velorien said:
"The message was unambiguous," Lady Nara went on, "and, may I say, elegantly constructed. However, the intent behind it continues to elude me. Tachibana, why would you write me what I struggle to interpret as anything but a love confession?"

For a moment, Yuri didn't know what to say.

"Lady Nara, why does anybody write love confessions?"

"I have often wondered," Lady Nara said. "It seems as if their primary role is to be implausibly misinterpreted, sent to the wrong person and unquestioningly taken at face value, inaccurately seen as evidence of adultery by associates of the receiving party, or otherwise used by hack authors to lay groundwork for extended drama of the kind that could be resolved with five minutes of clear communication between the parties involved."

1) Poor Keiko.
2) I don't think Yuri realizes just how bad Keiko's imposter syndrome is.

Velorien said:
It was a test, Yuri was forced to conclude after a second's bewilderment. Lady Nara was highlighting Yuri's awkward indirectness by pretending to be obtuse until Yuri made her intentions clear. It was a little harsh, but on the other hand, wasn't Yuri the one wasting Lady Nara's time by inviting her and then dancing around the subject?

Yuri... Honey. That's not the case at all.

Velorien said:
"I am aware that in status, you are two steps down from the Hokage while I am one step up from nothing.["]

Velorien said:
Because you were supposed to be an enemy missing-nin wrapped in lies and ushered away from the hammer of judgement, but then you changed everything and I knew you really were someone who could awaken to the Will of Fire in the darkness. Because even the mortal avatar of unity had treated us as an afterthought, and then a stranger who didn't know us and owed us nothing decided she would be our Hashirama. Because you stand side by side with the village champion and the enchantress, and make me believe that a girl with an abacus and a notebook can be a hero too. And because while Minori and I were busy admiring Lady Nara the leader, you faced down every power in the village at once and told them they didn't get to choose who you loved, and in that moment you stopped being the KEI's and started being ours.

Oh you poor girl. I hope Kieko doesn't accidentally break your heart when she fails to live up to your expectations.

Also, in this context, who's the "village champion" and the "enchantress?" I'm assuming the latter is Mari, because duh, but does Hazou honestly have a reputation among the clanless as being the Leaf's champion? Maybe Hazou's perception of his own reputation (and therefore, our own perception of his reputation) is flawed, but I honestly thought he had a reputation for being "the innocent child with dreams of grandeur, who comes up with good or treasonous ideas depending on the weather."

Velorien said:
(This was factually incorrect, because a competent sealmaster could consecrate a vertical space to Death as easily as any other, but it was also true, which sometimes counted for more.)

I wonder how intimidating it must be for the Goketsu to have two prolific, genius sealmasters (granted, the heavy lifting regarding the skywalkers was done by Kagome) in their clan? Especially since Kagome is old enough (by sealmaster standards) that his age is a mark of success.

Velorien said:
Apparently, the until-recently-foreign girl's studies of the Fire Country had been primarily statistical rather than cultural, and while she'd spent time in the city, her focus had generally not been on her surroundings (whatever that meant).

"I alternated between subsuming the Nara library and keeping my little brother from wandering off and indulging in treasonous thoughts. I'm convinced that he only met Itachi because I was distracted by Tenzo's Treatise on Statistical Viability in Regards to Calculating Bloodline Genetics."

Velorien said:
"Yes! And in places like Tanzaku Gai, people can see two girls holding hands, and it might not even cross their mind to ask whether we're a threat to the village's survival or just close friends."

Not that she and Minori had dared. Not until Lady Nara made her stand.

Yuri, your hero worship is going to end up hurting you.

Velorien said:
Yuri inwardly winced. Not that she didn't appreciate Lady Nara's concern for the pitiful contents of her purse, but maybe she could have done with a little less forthrightness.

The first thing this girl needs to realize is that Kieko's not that socially aware. Far be it from me to cast stones on this subject, but Kieko wasn't thinking about the gap between her tax bracket and your own. She's just thrifty, as a result of once being a missing nin and having absolutely nothing.

Velorien said:
She still remembered the day the Hyūga came to her village. (Lady Nara did not need to know that she was first-generation; no one did.) Mister Kashiwagi had tried to make them take his daughter too, insisting she was smart, and strong, and her ninja powers would show themselves any day now. He'd gone too far, laid hands on one of the ninja. The man had broken him, casually, without a second thought. Mister Kashiwagi had still been clinging to life when Yuri's family moved away, but even if he survived, he'd never work the fields again.

This hurt.

Velorien said:
"Ninja are monsters," she hissed to the two terrified boys. "We are taught to hate, and to destroy what we hate. You will be kind to strangers, and you will be polite, because anyone could be a ninja—and the next monster won't show you mercy."

Yuri, you're only hurting yourself. Forging yourself into the monster they want you to be. Your hands were meant for poetry, not for this.

Velorien said:
"Did you kill them?"

Lady Nara's tone was neutral, but her gaze, focused, sharp like a blade, pinned Yuri in place. The café felt a little colder than when she'd gone out.

"Broken wrists and a warning," Yuri said hastily.

Catharsis. Don't take shit, and those idiots need a lesson in respect. Granted, depending on those wrists, they may have lost their livelihoods. They may even starve. And Keiko's not a a helpless maiden in need of defending. And Yuri... you seem all too aware of how civilians view ninja. Is that just social awareness or projection? How do you feel when you're out on missions? Knowing that your actions may cause a ripple effect, harming innocent civilians who happened to be born in the wrong country?

Velorien said:
Because it keeps my soul alive when I am murdering people because a piece of paper says they're evil. Because truth has to be diluted before we can stand it. Because poetry can immerse itself in darkness without being defiled, or reach through to a brighter world that none of us will see until we are reborn. Because when there is nothing left of me, this will remain.

Oh, Yuri. Your hands were meant to sculpt, to write, to carve passages and poems that would uplift hearts and minds. They weren't meant for this. Can we pay her a retainer? I know that there were some vague murmurings about setting the Goketsu Clan as a respected patron of the arts. We could start right here.

Velorien said:
"It is a pointless hypothetical, however," Lady Nara concluded. "I lack the gift. Though, that said, I would not be wholly averse to hearing more of your thoughts on the subject."

Yuri looked up at the sky, where the setting sun was drawing a line under an extraordinary day. If she stayed out any longer, Minori would have to cook, and that would not end well for anyone.

How much courage did Yuri have left?

"Perhaps," she said in the most casual voice she could manage, "on a second da—y spent together?"

"I will give the matter due consideration," Lady Nara told her. To her surprise, Yuri believed she would.

1) Keiko is hanging out with Yuri to see if there is some amount of romantic chemistry worth exploring. Or if Yuri is the type of person for whom Keiko's love could grow. Or if Yuri is someone who is sufficiently incompatable that whatever chemistry exists would not be worth pursuiting. Yuri assumes that this is a date. Which, I suppose might be true, if Yuri has a certain definition of date/

2) Yuri is awesome and we should totally comission work from her.

3) Yuri's hero worship will be the end of this. If they have more than a few dates, Hazou should explain CCnJ to Yuri.

Inferno Vulpix · Dec 4, 2020

RandomOTP said:
Also, in this context, who's the "village champion" and the "enchantress?" I'm assuming the latter is Mari, because duh, but does Hazou honestly have a reputation among the clanless as being the Leaf's champion? Maybe Hazou's perception of his own reputation (and therefore, our own perception of his reputation) is flawed, but I honestly thought he had a reputation for being "the innocent child with dreams of grandeur, who comes up with good or treasonous ideas depending on the weather."

Naruto and Ami, respectively, the other two coordinators of the KEI.

Velorien · Dec 4, 2020

RandomOTP said:
KEIKO: "Mist's culture is so blunt and forthright that our heroes are Zabuza and we're punished by being made to read poetry."

This is hilarious, but to clarify, Keiko's previously told Shikamaru that some or all of her Mist detentions involved copying out sections of My Vision, Yagura's Mein Kampf, and then answering questions on the content.

RandomOTP said:
I'm convinced that he only met Itachi because I was distracted by Tenzo's Treatise on Statistical Viability in Regards to Calculating Bloodline Genetics."

Actually, she was away for the Battle of the Heavens at the time.

RandomOTP said:
She's just thrifty, as a result of once being a missing nin and having absolutely nothing.

This was her being entirely literal. On her first visit to Leaf, she was a missing-nin having absolutely nothing, and thus prices were an immediate practical concern.

Rafin · Dec 4, 2020

Velorien said:
This is hilarious, but to clarify, Keiko's previously told Shikamaru that some or all of her Mist detentions involved copying out sections of My Vision, Yagura's Mein Kampf, and then answering questions on the content.

How long did Yagura actually reign? And I know that this is probably HDK, but I'm really curious how different pre-Yagura Mist was from Yagura Mist and which parts changed under him for better or worse.
As far as I understood Yagura went full iron fist "efficient" dictatorship (if you discount losses due to investment in controlling things that wouldn't have needed controlling and due to everyone's fear of taking responsibility or being caught for minor transgressions), but on the other hand Mist wasn't ever as liberal or free as Leaf and Leaf is still a military dictatorship with ultimately advisory councils.

faflec · Dec 4, 2020

Rafin said:
How long did Yagura actually reign?

Velorien said:
As any Academy student can tell you, Yagura's brilliance was recognised at the incredible age of 5, when every clan in Mist unanimously swore allegiance to him as the Mizukage. Over 10 years, he proceeded to transform Hidden Mist into a bastion of order and unity until his untimely death at the age of 15, defending Mist from an overwhelming enemy force with no regard for his own life.

RandomOTP · Dec 4, 2020

Inferno Vulpix said:
Naruto and Ami, respectively, the other two coordinators of the KEI.

Damn, should've known Naruto was viewed as the village champion. But Ami? An Enchantress? Damn, I forgot that Ami is practically her own PR team. Makes me wonder how much of Keiko's reputation is her doing.

[X] A Conversation with Beings that Know Things

Rafin · Dec 4, 2020

@faflec That's a mere 10 years. Which means every actual adult remembers a time before Yagura and everyone over 22 years old was actually a ninja under a different Mitsukage.

How old is Ami again?

Edit: Also lol at the fact that that quote you gave me was a response Velorien actually gave in answer to my own question from one and a half years ago.

Halberdier · Dec 4, 2020

RandomOTP said:
Yuri, you're only hurting yourself. Forging yourself into the monster they want you to be. Your hands were meant for poetry, not for this.

Can't say I super agree with this. While being the first to initiate violence isn't great, 1) she's a ninja. Her hands are at least partially meant for this, until we rewrite reality 2) creeps that won't leave people alone, especially those they view as vulnerable, who are being repeatedly aggressive, are a problem. Next couple teenage girls they approached probably wouldn't have been ninja. Rather these creeps get hurt than those hypothetical girls, 10/10. She let them live and attempted to correct their behaviour, I'm... Pretty okay with that, tbh. Don't love it, but an okay with it.

Rafin said:
@faflec That's a mere 10 years. Which means every actual adult remembers a time before Yagura and everyone over 22 years old was actually a ninja under a different Mitsukage.

How old is Ami again?

Edit: Also lol at the fact that that quote you gave me was a response Velorien actually gave in answer to my own question from one and a half years ago.

Under 22.

(I think 19? But I'm no faflec.)

I'd be super curious at an interlude about the early days of Yagura's reign/what really happened.

Rafin · Dec 4, 2020

Halberdier said:
the learn days of Yagura's reign/what really happened.

What do you mean by "learn days" and what really happened when and where?

Sentient Tree · Dec 4, 2020

Rafin said:
What do you mean by "learn days" and what really happened when and where?

Presumably early days.

I expect that Yagura beat the crap out of a ton of people, the clan heads and other S rankers decided they didn't want to die and accepted him as Mizukage, and then he started spitting out insane and horrible policies (like in cannon) before Ryugamine managed to get into his confidences as a key supporter and steered him away from bat**** crazy evil and more towards horrible but logical.

Edit:
I think this is likely because in Ryugamine's interlude I believe he said that Yagura's reign was originally intended to be much worse before he stepped in.

Emstar · Dec 4, 2020

Sentient Tree said:
I expect that Yagura beat the crap out of a ton of people, the clan heads and other S rankers decided they didn't want to die and accepted him as Mizukage, and then he started spitting out insane and horrible policies (like in cannon) before Ryugamine managed to get into his confidences as a key supporter and steered him away from bat**** crazy evil and more towards horrible but logical.

The Ryugamine interlude actually implies that Yagura (as a political entity) was created by Ryugamine and friends as a weapon + scapegoat for all of their Mist reformation nonsense, I think?

I imagine a lot of the ridiculous idealogy propaganda stuff was just literally propaganda meant to effectively brainwash people.

KaGoGoGadgetMe · Dec 4, 2020

Rafin said:
every actual adult remembers a time before Yagura

Not if the secret police did their jobs right they don't

RandomOTP · Dec 4, 2020

Halberdier said:
Can't say I super agree with this. While being the first to initiate violence isn't great, 1) she's a ninja. Her hands are at least partially meant for this, until we rewrite reality 2) creeps that won't leave people alone, especially those they view as vulnerable, who are being repeatedly aggressive, are a problem. Next couple teenage girls they approached probably wouldn't have been ninja. Rather these creeps get hurt than those hypothetical girls, 10/10. She let them live and attempted to correct their behaviour, I'm... Pretty okay with that, tbh. Don't love it, but an okay with it.

I meant more that her hands weren't "meant" for violence --in so far as anyone is "meant" for anything. I meant more that Yuri seems to struggle with the violence her career as a ninja demands of her, and that she seems to loathe the bloodstained killer she's been turned into. I read the "ninja are made to hate" part as less "scary ninja are scary, be respectful or else" and more "I hate my job and I hate the things I am made to do. It eats away at me on the inside and I'm choosing to dive back into this sludge and cloying violence because the way you are acting is morally abhorrent on every level."

Especially given how Yuri talks about what happened to that one civilian when the Hyuuga showed up to spirit her away to the Leaf. That recontextualizes the scene, placing Yuri in the role of the abuser. Sure, she broke their off hands, but she also forced their broken hands into their mouths, causing further damage. Did they deserve it? Yes. However, Yuri herself noted that they were likely laborers (and poorly skilled ones at that). Depending on the damage, she might have sentenced two people to death by starvation.

My whole point was that Yuri was embracing the monstrous role that she see believes ninja inherently occupy. She became the monster, and she'll feel sickened by it. Did they deserve it? I believe so. Will Yuri feel disgusted at herself for embracing the worst aspects of ninja-hood (power difference between civilians and ninja), even though it was for a "good" cause? I suspect so.

That's what I meant. Not that the two abusers didn't deserve it (because they did), but that Yuri did it and will be conflicted about it later on... Of course, I may be wrong in my interpretation of her character. She's only had so much screen time thus far.

Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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