Here's a thought: How about verbally blaming Roga for the explosion, having the missing nin retain their current target, and make it out like they're in his employ? Or mix and match those, as you wish. I think that blaming Roga for ruining the negotiations would be ideal.
Here's a thought: How about verbally blaming Roga for the explosion, having the missing nin retain their current target, and make it out like they're in his employ? Or mix and match those, as you wish. I think that blaming Roga for ruining the negotiations would be ideal.
Here's a thought: How about verbally blaming Roga for the explosion, having the missing nin retain their current target, and make it out like they're in his employ? Or mix and match those, as you wish. I think that blaming Roga for ruining the negotiations would be ideal.
Kakashi backed up slightly as the trap was set off. It would be better to give his allies ample space for this skirmish, and charge in with hand seals flying and fireballs blazing when appropriate. The next couple seconds could decide the course of the engagement. His muscles tensed.
Himura Isshin, the katana wielding jōnin, threw himself away from the hostages and rolled across the ground, knocking over the table Kakashi had placed his poisoned rolls on. The stocky man popped up from the maneuver like corn kernels jumping from campfire embers, his eyes darting up to meet Kakashi's gaze and his hand reaching down to his waist for his blade.
A blur crashed down onto him from above before he could unsheathe it. The missing-nin from the Snow Yakuza's hideout had started moving before Himura had crossed the tripwire. She lashed out with hands that were covered in her water-ninjutsu gauntlets. The aqueous lobster claws dug into the swordsman's back with pinpoint precision, almost as if she knew where he'd be. Kakashi made a note to ask about that later. Himura let out a pained grunt before he disappeared in a burst of smoke and was replaced with the side table. The enemy jōnin reappeared closer to him now, once again.
Rōga and Kimiko— that was her name apparently — turned and ran back through the door.
"Isshin, hold them off!" Rōga shouted. The swordsman nodded in response.
Kakashi adjusted his footing, readying himself to fight the burly man, when a flurry of blazing shuriken fell from the rafters and struck the guy. Himura saw them too late, and Substituted with a chair this time, even as a few of the flaming projectiles struck him in various places. Himura let out a bestial scream as blood spurted from a few sizzling wounds.
Nice job, Watari.
To the Glacier jōnin's credit, his injuries didn't slow him down for very long. Himura made four quick hand seals— Ram, Bird, and two he wasn't completely familiar with but looked like Hare and Dog — before moving his left hand to his sword.
"Wind Element: Silent Sickle."
Himura drew his sword in one smooth motion, a blur of what was definitely shaped wind chakra surrounding the blade. The swordsman brought the blade up into a guard stance before advancing to strike Kakashi with a textbook diagonal slash.
Wind-enhanced blade? Nope.
Kakashi dodged wide on a hunch, maneuvering himself to give the sword's path as wide a berth as possible. Asuma had a wind jutsu that he'd use to extend the cutting range of his trench knives. He leaped over a followup strike— this one a sweeping horizontal slash. Kakashi absentmindedly noticed that the strikes seem to extend a few meters, slicing clean through the tapestries on the eastern wall and digging into the stone beneath. Lobster Girl dove for cover, one swing barely missing her. Kakashi itched to uncover Obito's eye, but he had to conserve every bit of chakra he could spare for later.
"I shall not allow you to endanger the future of my home any longer," Himura said, while sending another barrage of wind chakra enhanced sword strikes out. "Stand aside, Leaf shinobi, or you shall be—"
The last two swings were wildly off target, Himura probably wasn't able to shrug off his injuries for long. Kakashi capitalized on this, ducking under the last swing and came up inside the man's guard. He landed a quick chakra enhanced blow to the side of the man's neck. Kakashi felt the jōnin's spine snap and some of his fleshy bits cave in from the blow.
Kakashi's eye darted to the door. The other two ninja had escaped outside already.
Himura's body slowly fell to the ground, like a tree chopped down by Minato-sensei's Rasengan. His lips were moving slightly, screaming out in silent anguish. The man's azure eyes darted up to meet Kakashi's single dark brown one for a long moment.
"You deserved better," Kakashi said, sparing another glance at the door. "At least you won't be going to Naraka alone. I'll be sending them with you shortly."
Watari somersaulted down from the rafters to land down in front of him.
"Do we pursue them?" Lobster Girl asked, dusting herself off.
"No, follow me," Kakashi answered. He bolted towards the eastern wall, running straight towards the tapestry that depicted the dragon and the Sage of the Six Paths. The beautiful artwork on it was undamaged, though the edges and corners of the large tapestry were shorn right off.
Kakashi dove right through the center without pausing. He broke through the wall on the other side without injury. Glory be to the kami of battlefield preparation.
Kakashi rocketed through a few more prepared exits, twisting and turning through the castle. His two companions were hot on his heels. Finally they came to a long corridor. It was a dead end, but only for the moment. He made some hand seals.
"Earth Element: Tunnel Excavation."
A two meter wide tunnel opened up in the floor in front of them. The trio dove into it.
"So, why aren't we pursuing them?" Lobster Girl asked again.
Surprisingly, Watari piped up to answer for him.
"No way i'ts not a trap, Ayeka," Watari said. "They left quick. Even left their man to soften us up too."
Huh. Ayeka. So that's her name? I must've spaced out when she introduced herself earlier. Oops.
"If they had any sense they'd have something sneaky prepared. Let them think we're sitting in here waiting them out for a little while. Of course, hanging out in buildings that are easily collapsed isn't the best tactical decision, so here we are," Kakashi said. He made more hand seals. "Earth Element: Tunnel Excavation."
The tunnel lengthened by another several dozen meters. They kept running.
Watari nodded.
"They probably have forces stationed at the perimeter as well, in case we try to do something exactly like this," Ayeka pointed out with a frown.
"Yup," Kakashi said. "We're about to come up on the eastern side of the castle walls, near the mountainside. Get ready to kill anyone you see. Earth Element: Tunnel Excavation."
The third and final tunnel was angled upwards, and Kakashi could see a cloudy sky above them as light flooded the earthen escape route. The trio flew upwards through the opening and onto the side of the snowy mountain.
o-o-o
Soon after they exited the tunnel they ran into the chuunin backup squad.
One of them had a bird of some sort perched on his shoulder that sounded the alarm. Ayeka went to engage that one immediately. The other two were a Koyasu and a Nadare, judging by the clan crests they were wearing on their uniforms.
Wow, amateurs. Didn't any of these guys give a damn about OPSEC?
Kakashi drove a haymaker into the Nadare girl's face. The kid must have had good reflexes and a fair amount of luck, because his hand was punching through a log on the follow through. The Nadare appeared a few dozen meters away, only to get hit in the shoulder with a few burning shuriken courtesy of Watari.
A fist hit his solar plexus. He felt an arctic chill bleed from the impact site into the rest of his flesh.
Wow, did someone actually land a solid hit on me? Kakashi thought. That isn't supposed to happen.
"You killed my father, you piece of shit!" the Koyasu girl shouted. "Fucking die!"
The girl laid into him with a flurry of icy blows.
She's suicidal, Kakashi thought. She's just trying to do as much damage to me as possible before someone lays her out.
Kakashi opened his borrowed eye for the first time that day. The world snapped back into focus, like fog being wiped away from a mirror. He saw exactly where he had to dodge to avoid the Koyasu girl's next strike, and exactly where had to strike to take her out in one go. He used one of Gai's favorites.
"Leaf Whirlwind." Kakashi said. He delivered a lightning fast high kick to her skull.
Thud
Kakashi turned his attention to the other two. Ayeka had just put the beastmaster—one of the last members of the Arai clan —down. He turned to help Watari with the Nadare, who he noticed had created two bear shaped snow golems. Kakashi needn't have bothered though, since the Nadare girl got her neck split open by a flaming shuriken almost as soon as he looked over.
Kakashi put a hand on his chest, wincing at the frostbite. He closed Obito's eye to save on chakra. Ayeka rushed over to him, and he felt a second hand on his chest, this time underneath his flak jacket. It was warm.
…
…
"Uhh…" Kakashi started lamely.
"Medical ninjutsu, stand still for another second," Ayeka replied. He felt the gentle warmth of medical chakra flow into his chest. "Good, done."
"Thanks, let's go," Kakashi said.
They started running towards the castle entrance, hugging the outer wall of the castle.
"Plan?" Watari asked.
"Same as before," Kakashi said. "You two distract them some, while I hit them all with a massive fuck-off fire jutsu."
"How?" Ayeka asked, frowning. "No flashy ranged options."
"Take this," Kakashi said, holding the Kazahana heirloom out for the girl to take. "Loudly wave it around in front of them, it should work."
"I'll be a sitting duck." Ayeka said, shaking her head.
"If anything bad happens I'll bail you out." Kakashi said.
Ayeka glanced at him for a split second.
"I have a thing about leaving comrades behind."
She reached out and took the jewel.
"Bear at the gate," Watari said, "Be quiet, wall walk."
o-o-o
Nadare Kimiko watched as two squads of genin went around the castle setting up explosives.
They were entrenched. She and little Kin had used the Snow Golem technique to create some Mammoth Golems to transport masses of snow inside the fortifications. Rōga had used the Telekin-ice-is skill to lift them over the walls and gently lower them down. He and Himura… the two had gotten to work preparing the fortifications around the castle grounds, as well as loosening up the snow on the mountain to set up the avalanche trap.
They had several snow golems out here, bear golems that Rōga had summoned that would be truly formidable as foes. Penguins to help them dodge. Rōga had merged with the one bear, and while he was in it he was all but indestructible. Rōga would then be able to use the mass of ice and snow to crush him like a handful of dewberries. They would blow the castle up, lure Hatake outside of the castle walls, and then they would bury him in a mountain worth of snow.
Kimiko was still afraid.
She was newly promoted. She had spent the last year or two working on her specializations. She could run, she could dodge, and she could Substitute with the best of them. Her combat skills were focused on attacking at range with thrown weapons. The clan jutsu she was best in were those that augmented her stealth and her ability to hurl deadly bits of frozen metal at the enemy, at the expense of their ability to counterattack.
Kimiko also knew all of the ones focused on mobility, since they heightened her ability to run away like a scaredy cat. Because that's what she was.
The genin backed up an appreciable distance. It was almost time.
She swallowed. She nervously played with a kunai in her holster. Three seconds later, the castle blew up with an earth shattering kaboom. Kimiko tensed, waiting for Hatake and his allies to spring out of the collapsing rubble. Nobody came. No, no this couldn't be good. Couldn't be—
There was a crunch on the snow near the castle walls behind them.
"Say, is this the heirloom you were looking for!?" a voice shouted across the clearing.
Every eye in the clearing turned to look. It was the shinobi with the water gauntlets. She was holding the key high above her head.
A flurry of blazing shuriken whirled through the clearing. She blinked.
"Fire Element: Fire Dragon Bullet!"
That's Hatake's voice, she thought. She prepared herself. She was supposed to Substitute with Rōga if he needed it, but —
What, she thought.
We're all going to die, she thought at the same time.
A second later and the entire world was on fire. She spotted one of the genin off to the side, out of the path of the jutsu.
Sorry about this.
She Substituted with him.
o-o-o
Kazahana castle was a pile of rubble.
Kakashi stared at the courtyard. They had a buttload of snow golems. A massive mammoth one, two bears,and two penguins. He saw Nadare Kimiko down there next to one of the bears, both her and the bear golem had one of the penguin ones dutifully zipping around them.
Kakashi didn't see Rōga, which meant that either he was actually in the courtyard somewhere (great) or he had vanished (not so great). Either way, they had to clear the courtyard of all of those snow golem constructs if they stood a chance at taking out the sister. Nadare Kimiko was good at Substitution, so a large area of effect fire jutsu sounded like the solution to that problem.
Luckily, he had one of those. Kakashi signaled to Ayeka to drop down.
'Hmmm, I've quite enjoyed this conversation that we've been having, strangely enough. You know the Fire Dragon Bullet, yes? Let's go outside, and I can show you a thing or two. Don't look so surprised, fire ninjutsu are my clan's specialty afterall…'
Kakashi was thanking his lucky stars (if he had any) that he had met up with Uchiha Fugaku before leaving Leaf.
'And just you wait, Kakashi! I'm going to be the strongest Uchiha that the village has ever seen! Me, Uchiha Obito!'
Fire Dragon Bullet had been a favorite of Obito's as well.
"Say, is this the heirloom you were looking for!?"
Kakashi started the hand seals. There were only seven of them. He created fire nature chakra and molded it accordingly, the hand seals and pulses from within his own internal chakra system structuring the form the effect would take. He kept Fugaku's advice in mind, and kept a light but firm leash on the energies being manipulated in the technique.
A flurry of firefly-esque lights flew over the Glacier forces. Watari was hard at work.
Kakashi finished the last hand seal.
"Fire Element: Fire Dragon Bullet!"
He inhaled quickly but deeply, and blew out a gargantuan dragon made of solid flames.
Kakashi kept blowing, inhaling air (and a decent amount of smoke) through his nose and into his lungs before expelling it out his mouth again to fuel the dragon-shaped blast of fire. He did it a third time.
The area below him turned to ash. All of the snow instantly melted. Nadare Kimiko was singed briefly but managed to Substitute with a genin in time. The genin died.
Disgusting.
The penguin golems melted into steam. One of the bear golems melted off, revealing Rōga, who immediately vanished in a puff of smoke to be replaced by another bear construct that was quickly dissolved in the veritable sea of flames.
So he's below us now.
The fire dragon smashed through the rubble that used to be the front of the castle, incinerating all of the Glacier genin searching through the rubble, and igniting a good deal of timber and all of the dried whale fat that had been smeared over the walls of the larger interior rooms.
The blast of flame roared through the debris, shattering any remnants of the original structure before exploding out the back and dispersing into a wave of heat and smoke.
Kakashi stared at the wave of destruction, somewhat shocked.
Wow.
He was too distracted to notice Rōga sprinting back into the courtyard, a bucket of massive icicles in hand. Too late, he saw the elite jōnin gesture, and every single icicle shot into the air at Ayeka. The girl managed to dodge the lion's share, but a few grazed her torso, and a large one speared her right in the thigh. She wobbled.
As the last icicle left the bucket, it disappeared in a puff of smoke to be replaced by Rōga's sister. The courtyard and a large portion of the terrain outside the castle disappeared in a cloud of ice and snowy wind as she cast that damned blizzard technique.
'If anything bad happens I'll bail you out.' He said that.
He said those words.
Kakashi's heart dropped into his stomach.
A fireball came lancing through the air from Watari's tower. It collided with the blizzard jutsu in mid-air, disrupting the wind (was there wind chakra present in some form?) and dissolving a lot of the snow. The cloud of wind and ice over that portion of the battlefield seemed to evaporate.
He could see Rōga now, next to the heavily wounded Ayeka.
She was wounded because she was being a distraction as a part of the plan that he made up. The obvious thing to do was to jump down and kill Rōga while he was focusing on her. Kakashi knew he didn't quite have enough chakra for a Chidori. He could use some of the chakra that his body kept in reserve for general keeping-itself-alive purposes, but that would be a problem.
'I have a thing about leaving comrades behind.'
He, Hatake Kakashi, had said those words.
And then suddenly it wasn't a choice anymore, not at all. His hands were already halfway done with the seals. The lightning natured chakra was formed and flickering through his coils. His feet were already hammering down the side of the wall at breakneck speed.
"Lightning Element: Chidori."
Time slowed to a crawl as the lightning flowed through him into his right arm. He channeled chakra to his legs to enhance his strength. Obito's eye calculated the trajectory. He stopped the chakra in his feet from adhering to the wall and burst from the wall with a mix of chakra repulsion and enhanced strength.
And in the blink of an eye, the lightning bolt that was Hatake Kakashi struck true, and his arm was buried up the elbow in the fleshy bits that used to be between Nadare Rōga's left pectoral and his shoulder.
Kakashi ripped his arm out instinctively.
Rōga staggered backwards for a second, shock plastered on his face, before turning and half-running half-flailing out of the castle's gates and back into the blizzard's cover.
Ayeka limp-ran past him back into the guard tower.
Kakashi swayed a bit. He was feeling light headed…
…
He shook his head to clear it and followed her up the wall.
Besides, he might still be able to do something to prevent the Nadare siblings from escaping.
o-o-o
Sadatake Watari was content to just let them get away, honestly.
Watari was playing a supporting role here. Hatake would do all the heavy lifting, and Watari would help him out with that as best as he could. He would even take out some of the smaller fish and take a few shots at the jōnin if he had the opportunity. It was working spectacularly so far, given that he hadn't gotten a scratch on him, but he was just about out of chakra now, so it was about time to call it quits.
The Glacier ninja looked to be on the retreat, as far as he could tell from the guard tower. They were running away under the cover of that large blizzard jutsu. Chances were they'd make it out. The older Nadare, Rōga, looked pretty fucked up from Hatake's attack. Watari hadn't gotten the best look at them, but from the amount of blood spraying into the air the wounds had to have been serious.
He saw something fly out of the cloud of ice and snow. It was heading right towards him. He drew upon the latent chakra keeping his body functioning, and Substituted with a spare suit of armor that some guard had left up here. An icy kunai speared right through the splint mail.
Huh. That could have been my skull.
Sadatake Watari was no longer content with letting them get away.
He brandished one of the kunai he had already drawn and prepared with explosives, activated the bomb, and hurled it where he would be if he was a slimy egotistical clan head fuck trying to run away to save his own skin.
o-o-o
Kakashi vaulted back up the wall and back through the window into the guard house . He was feeling it, his body aching all over. He didn't have chakra to spare, so he opted to keep the Sharingan active but forego any chakra enhanced strength. He noted Ayeka hiding in the corner of the room, but he ignored her for now.
Kakashi looked out the window, seeing nothing but a cloud of icy wind obscuring the terrain in front of him.
Until an explosive tag went off, clearing the view enough for him to see two figures running in the distance.
His mind went into overdrive. On the one hand, he could probably do nothing and there was still a good chance that Rōga would die from his wounds if he didn't get immediate medical attention. On the other hand, Kakashi imagined the future where he survived. Kakashi didn't much like the thought of an elite jōnin with a grudge and a small ninja village worth of resources coming after him. At best, the guy was a bad Icha Icha villain waiting to happen.
Hmmm. That really puts it into perspective.
Kakashi drew on as much of the chakra keeping his body alive as he dared, before making the hand seals to one of his favorite jutsu and closing his normal eye. Lightning chakra surged and collected around his hands, and he extended them towards the one erratically moving figure that he could just barely make out with Obito's eye.
"Lightning Element: Radiant Bolt."
A bolt of lightning flashed out from his hands and then Rōga dropped to the ground. His sister stopped dead in her tracks.
His vision swam. He wobbled, his footing becoming unsteady.
We need to get the fuck out of here.
Kakashi is offered a compel on 'He Who Breaks the Rules' to attempt to get Ayeka and Watari to safety instead of just immediately running away.
He accepts.
"Look, we need to go now!" Kakashi yelled.
Ayeka looked at him with a confused look on her face. Kakashi wasted no time yoinking her up to her feet. She groaned, holding her left leg, but seemed to manage. Kakashi noticed she was pumping medical chakra to the wound.
Good, hopefully she'll be stable.
"The sister will be back to skewer us any second. Let's go!" he yelled.
Ayeka's eyes widened and she nodded quickly. He slung her left arm over his shoulder, using his own body as a makeshift crutch to keep as much of her weight off of her wounded leg as possible, before jumping out the window and back into the castle courtyard.
Kakashi and Ayeka ran right towards the burning ruins of the castle, giving a slight zigzag to their route. Hopefully they'd be able to use the fire and smoke as cover to dodge any attacks. At some point he noticed Watari had come up on their right side.
As they reached the center of the blazing wreck, Kakashi heard a scream of pure rage coming from the entrance to the courtyard. On instinct, he shoved Ayeka into the other missing-nin, before Substituting with a piece of smoking timber nearby. A kunai whistled through where his shoulder would have been moments before.
Close one.
They vaulted over the rest of the debris and disappeared through the escape route that he had tunneled into the back of the castle grounds the day before.
o-o-o
Kakashi and his ragtag assortment of allies were hiding out in the hidden basement of Ryūzaki Kinzo's two story home.
Ichihara Mieko was on a cot in the corner. The girl still had some serious injuries from their combat, but she was recovering nicely. Besides the potentially crippling depression that might arise from having the majority of her village wiped out in a scant few weeks, aided in part through her own actions. She looked quite tired, but was doing her level best to distract herself with a game of shogi. Kakashi wasn't really sure what to do with her now.
Maybe the Yakuza could use some more help? I could take her with me, I suppose. Having someone to act as a spotter would be nice...
Speaking of help. Sadatake Watari had proved himself indispensable several times throughout this adventure. Kakashi should probably tip the guy off about the incoming ANBU strike, shouldn't he? Kakashi was pretty sure that the Frost Yakuza and their ninja would be heading to some other country to lay low for a bit, but a little generosity towards them could score him some future points. It could lead to some awkward questions though…
"Taiga, would you mind refilling the teapot?"
Ryūzaki Kinzo, the leader of the Frost Yakuza organization in this country (and the soon-to-be leader of the largest Yakuza group in the country, if he wasn't already), was currently asking his assistant to grab the lot of them more tea.
To the public, the man was just another silver-tongued minor-noble-turned-merchant. Ryūzaki operated his company's northern office out of this house, using the first floor as a kitchen, an office, and a meeting room. The second floor contained a few bedrooms, which were usually occupied by his missing-nin compatriots and his personal assistant, Taiga. Taiga was a man that, as far as Kakashi could tell, was completely mute. That, or a man of incredibly few words.
Kakashi suspected that Ryūzaki would be looking to upgrade his residence in the near future, now that the man was in control of most of the crime in the country. Smuggling was profitable, even in a country as removed from the mainland and the major trade hubs as Snow was. He didn't bat an eye at Kakashi's request for some last minute transportation out of the country.
"Actually, do you have anything stronger?" Kakashi asked. "Cider, perhaps?"
The assistant stopped and patiently turned to face him and Ryūzaki.
"Of course, of course," Ryūzaki said. "Taiga, if you could bring the cider out? An assortment of flavors should do nicely."
Taiga bowed and politely left the room.
Ryūzaki turned to him with an eyebrow raised, but made no spoken comment on the request for stronger drink.
"Most of my wounds are healing nicely," Kakashi lied. "That terrible frostbite is gone, and then I should be back up to snuff in another week or so."
That was a lie, but there was no way for anyone to know it. Chakra exhaustion was very difficult to assess from the outside if you weren't a seasoned mednin. He would probably need six weeks of low intensity activity to get back to full health. That, or two or three weeks with an experienced mednin of sufficient skill. He could probably find one in most countries he'd want to visit...
"Mr. Hatake, if I could be so bold, what was going on with that heirloom of the daimyo's?" Ryūzaki asked. "It just seems strange to me, to risk so much over a few hostages and a trinket. Whatever happened to it?"
"Hell if I know," Kakashi said. "Man was going on about lost heritages and secret bloodline powers. More than a few trees short of a forest, if you ask me. As to where it is… I'm not sure, exactly. It was probably lost in the scuffle."
Ryūzaki paused, taking a sip of his tea.
"Yes, of course. Sorry to be a bother."
Kakashi shrugged.
o-o-o
"Heads, I search the side closer to the tower and the wall. Tails, I search the far side. You search the other one. Deal?"
"Works for me. Flip it."
Kakashi Beta flipped the silver hundred ryo coin. He caught it with the palm of his right hand and slapped it onto the back of his left, taking his hand off so the two could see the results. The side of the coin facing them had the kanji for "fire" stamped on it, not a miniaturized version of the First Hokage's head.
"Looks like tails."
Kakashi Alpha shrugged, moving to search the guard tower on their right.
The two shadow clones were searching around the guard towers of the ruins formerly known as Kazahana Castle. Kakashi Prime had decided it was too risky to go look for the Kazahana heirloom gem himself, so he had created and sent some shadow clones instead, along with some chakra to spare.
"Earth Element: Living Roots."
Kakashi Beta wandered through the snowy field, lobbing rocks here and there to cause some vibrations. The Living Roots technique was a handy jutsu. It allowed the user to sense any nearby vibrations in the ground, and any ripples that might be made as a result of the vibrations encountering objects. Kakashi Beta was hoping this would help locate the necklace.
After a minute of doing this and another casting of the technique, he noticed a peculiar dead spot in the nearby mud. There was just… nothing there.
Beta stuck his hand down into the mud, roughly where he thought the center of the dead zone would be. He felt around a bit, before his hand grabbed a familiar cylindrical stone. He brought his hand out, using a scarf (it was a chakra construct scarf, but a scarf nonetheless) to wipe off some of the dirt and grime.
The afternoon sunlight danced across the surface of the shiny green heirloom.
"Bingo."
AN: I'm typing this on Thursday afternoon (my time) just after outlining everything. I can already tell this is going to be a late one.
The rolls for this fight were a sonuvabitch, to put it plainly. I'll edit them from the current state of "Discord logs and back and forth between me and the dice bot gods." into something presentable later after I get some shut eye. Lotta stuff to keep track of in the mechanics of that combat, there's definitely one or two small mistakes and a couple judgement calls that needed to be made one way or another. All in all, I think it took about 12 hours yesterday with a few breaks in between (granted, I had a low intensity headache for most of that, so a lot of that was just me trying to push through it without fucking things up horribly). Luckily, the next chapter should require less in the way of rolls. Mad props to @Paperclipped for helping me out with the last couple rounds.
Either way, Kakashi managed to survive the encounter, along with his temporary (?) allies, and took out the main target —albeit with significant self-inflicted injury in the process. Theres probably some skills you should level in the immediate term, but you should look into tossing some levels into Chakra Reserves within the next few XP dumps.
Speaking of:
QM Rating: B+
Chapter 3: Immediately following up on the ninja was a good idea.
Chapter 4: Taking the fight to the other ninja was something that was also highly beneficial. This paid dividends.
Chapter 8: Stellar plan.
Chapter 10: Fire Dragon Bullet turned out to be a very good choice for the situation.
The plan/decision going into Chapter 2 was okay, but it wasn't spectacularly daring or clever/stylish by any means.
Generally didn't treat much of the NPCs as if they had agency, save for a couple instances.
Not all of the major enemies made are dead.
Kakashi took significant injuries in the process.
You didn't make it to Hidden Glacier as a result, and didn't get to investigate any shinies there.(Return trip down the line, perhaps?).
Kakashi doesn't make a clean getaway: Though the rest of Glacier won't be an immediate problem, Dragon will soon be showing up to Snow, and some miscellaneous trouble from the Snow Yakuza is apparently to be expected.
Kakashi is alive.
All of the allies Kakashi made are alive.
Kakashi has the shiny gem.
Kakashi has a positive rep with the Frost Yakuza.
For managing to accomplish all of that, as well as general feats of badass asskickery, Kakashi has earned a total of 330 XP from his performance in this arc.
FP:
+1 FP for killing an Elite (or was he?) Jonin.
+3 FP for taking a pile of Consequences to do so.
+1 FP for winning the encounter, more or less.
+1 FP for Kakashi accepting a Compel to make sure that everyone else gets out alive instead of leaving as soon as he possibly could have.
Kakashi has 6 FP.
What do you do next? Please vote for options in the following votes:
What to do about Mieko, the (helpful) Glacier-nin you captured in the first half of the arc?
[] Mieko: Leave her here to be interrogated by Dragon or captured/killed by Glacier.
[] Mieko: Leave her with the Frost Yakuza, they can surely figure something out for her.
[] Mieko: Bring her with you. She can probably be useful either way.
[] Mieko: (Write in)
Do you talk to Watari and the Frost Yakuza about anything before you go?
[] Frost Yakuza: Thank them for their assistance + tip them off about the incoming ANBU squad. They should get out of the country and lay low for a while.
[] Frost Yakuza: Thank them for their assistance + tip them off about the incoming ANBU squad. They should come with you to wherever you're going. It should be a good vacation or a promising opportunity for them.
[]Frost Yakuza: Thank them for their assistance and leave. It's time to part ways on this journey.
[]Frost Yakuza: (Write in)
Ayeka doesn't seem to want to be involved with you in any way, but you can probably get a quick conversation in with her.
[] Ayeka: Thank her for the help. Ask after the eastern continent.
[] Ayeka: Set her up with some extra money, enough to pay for some mednin assistance and to lay low for a while. Vanish mysteriously into the night.
[] Ayeka: So what's the deal about your bloodline? You said some weird things earlier...
Most importantly, Kakashi needs a place to heal up and lay low for a while. Where do you go?
[X] Mieko: Ask what she wants to do
Kakashi wound up hurting/killing a lot of her friends in that skirmish. He had no idea what Roga was planning but throwing genin meat shields at Kakashi was definitely something he should've anticipated, and he's not absolved of their deaths. He also kidknapped and tortured Mieko for techniques, and any fondness she seems to have garnered for him since then is not based on anything healthy and should not be trusted. That said...Kimiko will know Mieko sold out her brother and the village could hold her accountable for it. She'd know better than Kakashi what they'd do to her. So...what does Mieko want to do? If she wants to run, Glacier can't afford to send hunter-nin her way. Kakashi could pay for her transportation to Tea or Iron or whatever if she wants to become missing. Or, she could start a partnership with Kakashi, purely for professional reasons of course. He could keep her safer than she'd be on her own, but he doesn't plan to live a quiet life either. Or she could stay, and face the music. What does she want to do?
[]Frost Yakuza: Thank them for their assistance and leave. It's time to part ways on this journey.
(not sure about this one yet)
[X] Ayeka: Thank her for the help. Ask after the eastern continent.
[X] Wave
Let's go find stabby zabby
As for how to spend our XP...I'd really like to boost CR quite a bit. I would like to be able to use Shadow Clone in battle without using up all of Kakashi's chakra
Mieko: Bring her with you. She can probably be useful either way (EDIT: Was interpreted as a kidnapping plan)
[X] Frost Yakuza: Thank them for their assistance + tip them off about the incoming ANBU squad. They should get out of the country and lay low for a while.
[X] Ayeka: Set her up with some extra money, enough to pay for some mednin assistance and to lay low for a while. Vanish mysteriously into the night.
[X] Ayeka: So what's the deal about your bloodline? You said some weird things earlier...
[X] Honey
[X] Hot Springs
Okay, default options dealt with. Here's the one I actually want. I may edit it after I sleep some more.
[X] The Dogs of War Yet Hunger
We ain't done yet. Sure, we're going to need a couple months to recuperate, but we're coming back afterwards.
Warn the Frost Yakuza about Dragon
Tell them to lie low until he's gone
After he leaves they should wait 2 months, then approach the Glacier ninja and try to hire a mission to track down and kill that horrible Hatake Kakashi for the way he abused them. (It's great if they can make it happen and thereby send a bunch of Glacier ninja out of town, but really we only want to know what Glacier's force level looks like.)
They should say they overheard us saying something about going to Wave to pay grace to our former teacher's ancestral home.
Give them a ton of money to pay the fee and motivate them to do it
for how to spend our XP...I'd really like to boost CR quite a bit. I would like to be able to use Shadow Clone in battle without using up all of Kakashi's chakra
I'm onboard with leveling CP a lot, but SC is never going to be a combat jutsu. For one clone it's 175 chakra and then your remaining chakra gets cut in half. Even if he had 500 CP to start (an XP expensive amount) that leaves Kakash with only 163 CP afterwards. Sharingan + chakra boost costs 50 CP per turn, meaning he's got about 3 rounds of fight in him as long as he does nothing but basic taijutsu. If he wants to use Chidori, that's 72 CP, meaning he's got one round and a few scraps.
[X] Mieko: Bring her with you. She can probably be useful either way
[X] Frost Yakuza: Thank them for their assistance + tip them off about the incoming ANBU squad. They should get out of the country and lay low for a while.
[X] Ayeka: Set her up with some extra money, enough to pay for some mednin assistance and to lay low for a while. Vanish mysteriously into the night.
[X] Ayeka: So what's the deal about your bloodline? You said some weird things earlier...
[X] The Dogs of War Yet Hunger
We ain't done yet. Sure, we're going to need a couple months to recuperate, but we're coming back afterwards.
Warn the Frost Yakuza about Dragon
Tell them to lie low until he's gone
After he leaves they should wait 2 months, then approach the Glacier ninja and try to hire a mission to track down and kill that horrible Hatake Kakashi for the way he abused them. (It's great if they can make it happen and thereby send a bunch of Glacier ninja out of town, but really we only want to know what Glacier's force level looks like.)
They should say they overheard us saying something about going to Wave to pay grace to our former teacher's ancestral home.
Give them a ton of money to pay the fee and motivate them to do it
I would like to note that there is the possibility Leaf will keep Glacier under control for our return(Especially if they discover intel about the heirloom), so if we come back after a couple months, we could fight both Leaf and Glacier at once.
It's a bad idea. But can we keep leaving Doombots Kakashi clones in random locations to either throw off the trail or just to amuse Kakashi.
Also hey, old "Wicked Eyes" Fugaku is kinda cool.
[X] Mieko: Ask her what she thinks, make it explicit that you're offering the chance that she comes along
[X] Frost Yakuza: Thank them for their assistance + tip them off about the incoming ANBU squad. They should get out of the country and lay low for a while.
[X] Ayeka: Set her up with some extra money, enough to pay for some mednin assistance and to lay low for a while. Vanish mysteriously into the night.
[X] Ayeka: So what's the deal about your bloodline? You said some weird things earlier...
[X] Mieko: Discuss with her her options. Offer explicitly to bring her along.
[X] Frost Yakuza: Thank them for their assistance + tip them off about the incoming ANBU squad. They should get out of the country and lay low for a while.
[X] Ayeka: Set her up with some extra money, enough to pay for some mednin assistance and to lay low for a while. Vanish mysteriously into the night.
[X] Sea
His main thoughts are "Get a mednin + find someplace where I can get intel on various goings on in the EN."
He has yet to hear anything of super-duper particular interest about any of these locations, save for the following bits of knowledge:
Frost: It's notable for being next to Lightning country and Hot Springs. Kakashi thinks it would be a good option if he wanted to continue a relationship with Ryuzaki + Watari + Yaganita. They aren't sure yet, but can probably obtain a mednin for him for a few weeks, though it'll probably be expensive.
Hotsprings: Famous for their neutrality since the second shinobi war, and for inevitably hosting a bunch of espionage related stuff inside of the country. There is a famous inn/resort called the Three Monkeys' Bar that they would probably go to. It has the best drinks in the EN. Almost all ninja business and espionage is conducted here, since as per the provisions of a treaty or two its the only bar where shenanigans doesn't get you tossed out of the country + a war started. Theres a spooky S-ranker from Hotsprings that is almost always on the property though, so you'd have to keep everything non-physical. Would be good to gather info, though probably not too good on the "lay low" front.
Tea + Noodle: Tea has like, no ninja, besides for 2-3 clans of ninja that live there and have banded together in a mutual defense pact, so that would be problematic on the mednin front. Degarashii port is a very rich port city though, and intel about the south-central EN would pass through the shipping lanes there. Noodle is similar, but the relative proximity to Leaf + Mist leaves Kakashi a little concerned. They would be good jumping off points if you intended to go to Wind country or Water country, respectively.
Honey: Has a buttload of rare chakra insects. Theres an abnormal amount of misc. mednin in this country that can make a pretty decent wage off of fixing misc. chakra insect bites at low charge. He can probably grab a competent one without much work, relax for a bit, and then he's on the eastern continent.
Sea: Kakashi knows that this country has a lot of chakra using samurai (about two dozen large samurai clans) instead of ninja. They are all pretty dope at using ranged weapons and melee weapons. The sushi here is apparently the best in the EN, but don't let anyone from Water country hear you saying that.
Wave: "Middle of shit fuck nowhere. Why is this even a country? It's also three days travel from Leaf." They're currently being exploited by a conglomerate of merchants (who are probably criminals and might also be yakuza of some type or another, who knows). Kakashi doesn't know much more. Nobody on the ninja side of things cares enough about Wave to want to find out specifics.
I'm onboard with leveling CP a lot, but SC is never going to be a combat jutsu. For one clone it's 175 chakra and then your remaining chakra gets cut in half. Even if he had 500 CP to start (an XP expensive amount) that leaves Kakash with only 163 CP afterwards. Sharingan + chakra boost costs 50 CP per turn, meaning he's got about 3 rounds of fight in him as long as he does nothing but basic taijutsu. If he wants to use Chidori, that's 72 CP, meaning he's got one round and a few scraps.
There is likely a threshold of "Taijutsu/Ranged Weapons/Melee Weapons + Athletics + (tertiary non-chakra using stats)" where this makes a lot of sense to do, but its not something I would prioritize for obvious reasons.
I note that having high level Shadow Clone would probably be much more useful on this front. If you have 400+ CP and shadow clones that could last for a few hours to 12-ish hours, thats enough time to convince me that your passive chakra regen from sitting around lounging should probably be taken into account (and in the latter case, probably with significant results).
(Back of the envelope underestimates suggest that Kakashi should regenerate ~20 CP per hour if all he's doing is sitting around somewhere comfy and reading a book. )
[X] Mieko: Discuss with her her options. Offer explicitly to bring her along.
[X] Frost Yakuza: Thank them for their assistance + tip them off about the incoming ANBU squad. They should get out of the country and lay low for a while.
[X] Ayeka: Set her up with some extra money, enough to pay for some mednin assistance and to lay low for a while. Vanish mysteriously into the night.
[X] Ayeka: So what's the deal about your bloodline? You said some weird things earlier...
[X] Honey
[X] Hot Springs
Okay, default options dealt with. Here's the one I actually want. I may edit it after I sleep some more.
[X] The Dogs of War Yet Hunger
The Leaf wouldn't keep garrison there cause they don't have much interest doing it, they have better things to do than waste theirs resources and ninja on the country which have left with hostile ninja that may or may not linger after Dragon go back to Leaf. About treasures - It's all depends on if Dragon finds Raiga sister or not. Most likely not cause she know the strike team is coming and after she go hiding all information about treasures will go with her
I note that having high level Shadow Clone would probably be much more useful on this front. If you have 400+ CP and shadow clones that could last for a few hours to 12-ish hours, thats enough time to convince me that your passive chakra regen from sitting around napping should probably be taken into account (and in the latter case, probably with significant results).
Most of this was copied over manually from the dice bot back and forth in QMchat. There will probably be a couple typos.
I'm mostly going to list the totals unless I think the crunch is particularly interesting (and I feel capable of disclosing specifics). I think some bits of commentary are hilarious, so I will include them.
I'll include the details of any rolls or stats info which I think are particularly cool or important, for you mechanics junkies.
Here's a map so everyone can follow along at home!
Himura takes 2+3=5 physical stress. He's going to take a Mild consequence, 'The Claw...' and sit with 3 boxes filled on his stress track. Ayeka gets a tag on that, and passes it over to Watari, who is going next. The water gauntlets jutsu Ayeka has is pretty decent.
2) Watari's turn:
Watari knows these fuckers add a couple scoops of sugar to their Dodge (TM) Brand Cereal in the morning, so he's going to try his level best to take this guy down ASAP.
Watari has this DOPE technique, Fire Shuriken Duplication, that essentially allows him to specially prepare a bunch of shuriken and kunai before casting the technique and then cast the technique and hurl a bunch of fire chakra copies/afterimages of his ammunition along with the original one. This technique lasts for about 10 rounds worth of combat without having to recast it (assuming you prepped extra). If Kakashi was a ranged weapons guy, he would be stealing this one. Well, he already stole it, but whatever.
Thats a difference of 15, for 6 stress. He's going to take a Moderate consequence ('Third Degree Pincushion') and Watari is going to get a tag on that. Watari passes the tag to Kakashi.
3) Himura's turn:
He's going to cast his Silent Sickle technique, unsheathing his sword as a part of that. He's going to attack Kakashi. Kakashi is going to be required to use Athletics to dodge this technique.
Thats 7.33 stress, rounds up to 8. 9 in total, since Kakashi is chakra boosting so his hands are Weapon:1.
Himura's stress track is filled more than twice over, and he cant reduce it down to 4 or less since he only has a Severe consequence slot left.
He's dead.
Kakashi is going to use his Supplementals to get out of dodge and uncover Obito's Sharingan (he will keep his eyelid closed though). Something doesn't feel right, and he isn't in the habit of standing in a building primed to collapse when his enemies aren't. He's going to conserve on chakra while doing that.
Round 2:
Checking out the map I have drawn up to consult, I'm going to say it takes 3 rounds and three castings of Earth Element: Tunnel Excavation for Kakashi's team to pop up in Zone 6 all stealthily like. Kakashi will communicate to them that they should conserve chakra until they spot some foes, since the Earth Release guy is dead. He's pretty confident they wont be able to track them through the ground, and he wants to conserve chakra as much as possible for fighting the other two, so no Living Roots.
Team Rouga is going to wait it out for a few rounds before sending two teams of genin in to start setting up blasting charges. This is going to take a while, and it will kersplode at the start of Round 8.
He takes 4 physical stress because of her water gauntlets. He takes a Mild, 'Lobster??? I Hardly Know Her!', and Ayeka gets a tag on it. She'll keep it.
2) Beastmaster's turn:
Arata is going to hit his opponent with some Taijutsu (why is it always taijutsu??)
Kin takes 3+1 =4 stress. Mild, 'Ouch, Oof, Owie!' and Watari gets one tag.
5)Koyasu Kiyoshi's turn:
KOYASU: You killed my father, prepare to die.
Both combatants will get their Taijutsu styles here. Kakashi will get a tag on Strong Fist, but Koyasu will also be able to use her bloodline for the extra damage.
RIP. Kakashi takes 2+1+1=4 stress. He takes a Mild, 'My Tits Are Freezing' and still has one stress. The Koyasu gets a tag on it.
6) Nadare Kin
She has a Standard action left. She's going to cast Snow Golem: Bear, creating two large bears made out of snow. These will go next round if their creator survives.
On Ayeka's turn she tries to turn the beastmaster into paste, since he ran out of chakra with that last chakra boost and burned all his FP. Lets see if the dice gods agree:
Nobody is going to spend any chakra here. Ayeka is going to spend a standard to heal up Kakashi some and clear the one stress box he has filled.
Ayeka,Mednin: 20 + 6(dice)
TN: 15
She clears it.
Everyone is going to use the rest of their action economy to try to move towards GateTower1 (G1 on the map) as stealthily as possible.
Round 8:
The castle explodes.
Stealth checks, does the bear golem notice?
Watari, Stealth: 40
Ayeka, Steath: 45
Kakashi, Stealth: 33 + 15(a bunch of CMs related to the huge fucking explosion that just happened) -10 (Hauling ass)+ 0 (dice) = 38.
For the record, all of these exceed the bear's Alertness by a ridiculous degree. No one else happened to be watching out in this direction.
Watari is going to jump over to the second gate tower (G2) for a better angle.
Watari and Kakashi are going to spend their actions on the "Taking Aim" Maneuver. I'm going to allow this in both their cases since they're both about to let loose with some ranged attacks.
Glacier ninja: They're still sorting through the rubble. Rouga spent the last couple rounds making some more snow golems and taking the Full Defense action. Kimiko has been conserving chakra and keeping up a Substitution block on her brother.
Ayeka's turn: Jumps down from battlements. Waves shiny heirloom in front of everyone's face.(edited) This will allow Kakashi to expend the last tag he has on the heirloom.
Watari's turn: Is going to toss some fire shuriken randomly throughout the zone to try to be as distracting as possible.
Watari creates the aspect 'Woah, What the !@#$!?' , gets a tag on it, and passes it on to Kakashi.
Kakashi's turn, he's going to cast the biggest Fire Dragon Bullet that has ever been Fire Dragon Bullet'd. All AB's related to this are going to be +9, since he's using Fugaku Uchiha's FDB AB with his Copycat stunt.
Kakashi, FDB: 30 + 6(Sharingan) + 9 (+AB from technique) + 9 (Tag 'Searching for Hidden Secrets', last tag) +9 (Tag 'Woah, What the !@#$ !?' )+ 9 ('Taking Aim') + 9(Invoke 'Man on a Mission',-1 FP, 5 remain) + 9 (Invoke 'Sole Survivor',-1 FP, 4 remain) + 9 (Invoke 'He Who Breaks the Rules', -1 FP, 3 remain) + 9 (Invoke 'Sometimes Dead is Better', -1 FP, 2 remain) - 9(dice).
-1 FP, Reroll.
DICE: have a -12 now.
ME: Oh no, they really need this to shake out! Reroll again with Kakashi's last FP.
DICE: -3
ME: close enough.
The total of the Fire Dragon Bullet Roll is 30 + 6 + 72 -3 = 105. He cast it at Effect 3, so its going to scream through most of Zone 3, Zone 2, and Zone 1. He has 110 CP left.
Fire jutsu are super effective against the Snow Element, so that'll be 114 to Roga, since he is inside one of the bear golems in Zone 3.
Every Unoccupied Golem: *dies instantly*
Every Genin in the way: *melts*
Roga can Substitute with the bear at the gate tower as per one of his stunts. Kimiko is going to Substitute with one of the Genin that remain unfried and is out of range.
Roga now has 124-14 = 111 CP and two fate points left and is in Zone 4. The bear he was in was destroyed. The bear he substituted with was destroyed. All of the snow golems currently up were destroyed.
Roga is thinking he can quickly murder Ayeka and take the heirloom before running off and maybe killing Kakashi in the process. Kakashi has to be low on chakra, right?
Supplemental: Quickly unseal a bucket of ice spears he had prepped. (I'm going to say he can do this).
Supplemental: Move into Zone 3.
Standard: Telekin-ice-is some ice shards into Ayeka, at +1 AB(MoB), but uses his FP since he doesnt want her to get away with that with a Substitution.
RIPPPPP. She takes 9 stress and takes a Severe and a Mild.
Kimiko's turn:
Supplemental: Substitute with the bucket Nadare just unsealed.
Supplemental: move to zone 4 to get the snow she needs for the blizzard jutsu
Standard: Enshrouding Blizzard. Everything is now a hecc as far as visibility is concerned.
Ayeka's turn:
She's going to hold until everyone else has gone. Partly out of shock.
Watari's turn:
Watari's going to hurl his AOE fireball technique down where he thought Roga was as a maneuver to try to clear the blizzard.
Watari, do not fuck this roll up.
Watari, Blazing Wave: 40 + 0(dice) = 40.
This passes the TN set by Enshrouding Blizzard to remove its effects from a zone. Roga is visible. Watari creates the environmental aspect 'Fire, Fire, Everywhere.' on that zone, and passes the tag to Kakashi.
Watari is going to use a supplemental to draw a kunai he prepped with some explosives and save the other one.
Kakashi's turn:
He's going to kill Roga with some chidori action. I'm going to rule he can move across one zone as part of Chidori's charge, since thats something that should just be possible given the fluff. Note to self: edit that in.
Strong Fist roll:
Kakashi,Athletics: 50-3 +18 -6 = 60
Roga,Athletics: 62 -3 +3 +7(CB)= 69
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
(This is where we start shitting bricks in QM chat)
He's going to cast Caribou Stride, and use the supplemental movement + additional movement granted by that technique to facilitate getting the fuck out of there. He's going to tell Kimiko to try to "Snipe the ranged weapons guy" so that they can escape without any problems. He's in Zone 5 now.
Kimiko's turn:
Kimiko cast's Fairy Guidance and hurls a kunai at Watari.
Watari's going to have to overdraw for a Mild ('Chakra Slightly Overdrawn') for that Substitution.
Watari's turn:
He's going to try to use his explosives to clear up the blizzard in Zone 5 (where else would they be going?) and create another aspect as a Maneuver. Hail mary.
Watari, RW: 47 + 6 (CB)+ 0(dice) = 53.
Enshrouding Blizzard says the effect gets yeeted with that roll. Dicebot told me that the TN for the maneuver was 51. Watari passes. Watari creates the aspect "Peppered with Explosives" in that zone and passes the tag to Kakashi.
Kakashi's turn:
Supplemental up the wall.
Standard to Radiant Bolt Roga, hopefully killing him.
Kakashi takes a Severe Consequence 'Chakra Super Overdrawn'. He has 60 total chakra left.
Ayeka's turn:
She throws the stupid gem out the window, it's clearly cursed.
Round 12:
Kimiko
Watari, 9 CP (conserving)
Kakashi, Sharingan, 40 CP left.
Ayeka, (not writing it down, it wont end up mattering)
Kimiko is catatonic for a round. Her Mental Consequence is back in play.
Team Kakashi get the fuck out of dodge. They move down into Zone 2, where the smoke and flames will hopefully be good cover.
Round 13:
Kimiko
Watari, 9 CP (conserving)
Kakashi, Sharingan, 20 CP left.
Ayeka, (not writing it down, it wont end up mattering)
Kimiko can move back to Zone 3 and take a potshot at some of the figures moving in the smoke.
I rolled 1d3 here, and dicebot chose Kakashi as the target. Of course.
Kimiko, RW: 45 + 7 + 0(dice) = 52.
Kakashi, Athletics: 29(effective) + 6 (Sharingan) + 6 (tag 'Singed Eyebrows') +6 ('Everything is on Fire and Its All My Fault') + 9(Substitution) + 12 (dice!!!!!!!!!)
Kakashi dodges like a fucking champion. If the dice results were reversed on this one, we would have a dead protagonist on our hands.
Team Kakashi flees sucessfully after this, with Kakashi having 6 CP left. and a full set of Physical Consequences.
NB: If you didn't choose the Fire Dragon Bullet plan and that didn't end up destroying all the golems present + wasting a bunch of your enemies' Fate Points, then this would have ended in a crushing defeat, unless you voted in something that would essentially be "[x] Focus Fire Roga At the Very Start And Keep Them Inside", and I'm not sure the second bit was possible given the setup.
The Snow Golem stuff that Rouga had going on was fucking bullshit. You'll notice that he didn't actually take any damage from the Fire Dragon Bullet, the golem he was piloting did. Similarly, if he had lured Kakashi out to Zone 5 or Zone 4, you would either be dead underneath an avalanche or half-buried in a ton of snow and about to be crushed with his Telekin-ice-is skill or mauled by his bear constructs.
Watari wins the support role MVP. 11/10 would play bot lane with again.
