[X] Training Akane: FOOM Step
[X] Training Kei: FOOM Step but buffer
[x] Hazou Hair: Maintain the Ami-Designed Braid
Only until hazou can have Madara hair
 
[X] Action Plan: Dragonwar and Finance

Word count: <300

  • Setup
    • Timeline: 1 week/until HOWS are near failure.
    • Offscreen anything here.
    • Hazou completes the tunnel to the GS according to this calculation.
      • Consult Leaf mining experts for tips.
      • Use MEW/5SB supports where appropriate.
      • Dig multiple disguised exits along the tunnel and in a ring around the GS.
      • Make small chamber under the butte.
    • With permission, teach Hornets/Arachnids to activate seals. Ideally our students will teach others.
    • Explain idea of using 5SBs in conjunction with fine silk/ninja wire to slice Dragons to pieces.
      • Delegate trap design to weaverkin, scouting ambush sites to Arachnid warriors.
    • Obtain macerators filled with molten iron/lead/glass, anything that seems like it could hurt a Dragon.
    • Time permitting, spend a day constructing a model of the Great Seal with Earthshaping jutsu.
  • Execution
    • Goal: replace HOWS, retrieve expired HOWS.
    • Timeline: within safety margin of HOWS failure.
    • Approach butte via tunnel.
    • Hazo HLAMs from the chamber under the butte to the GS. Coordinate timing with the distraction.
      • Goal is that the Dragons don't ever see Hazo.
  • Misc
    • Gaku: Continue to coordinate trade amongst the 7th path and Leaf.
      • Consult Inuzuka on food safety for Doggos. (avoid chocolate)
        • Hazo may consult the Doggos too.
      • Comission armor designs with spidersilk? Better/lighter vest? Money pending.
    • Mari: Sell Hazo's artwork to improve clan finance without upsetting the MC.
 
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Surely you jest. This stuff is gold.
Comedy gold, more likely! :D

Joking, I just don't want to add unnecessary stress or weight to your or EJ's shoulders by adding meaning to things that may not necessarily warrant such consideration. But! Provided that my idle musing is a charge to your mental/emotional battery, rather than a drain, I'll continue to post reaction posts (spoons-permitting).

^.^
 
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Or, upon sixth-thought, it could be that a red ribbon indicates something else. In many color languages, red is often used to signify romantic love/interest, and is commonly associated with young/new love.

To my mind White -> Red actually signifies a bit of a diminished level of interest, but that may be because I thought the one-two Isan and Haru incident might have damaged her puppy love on Hazou.

Maybe we'll find out once we see her perspective again.
 
Chapter 452: In Which Hazō and Ami Bring Down the Tower
please be playing Jenga please be playing Jenga please be playing Jenga

I don't want to commit treason AGAIN.

Instead, he had failed in a duty that was his and his alone: to protect the Gōketsu board game collection.
Yes! It totally is going to be Jenga.
Kei looked around to make sure they were alone in the corridor. "That it is not the first incident marked by out-of-character pragmatism, callousness, and inability to model others' reactions."

In other words, Out contamination. With Hazō having recently absorbed another of the Sage's seals with the Iron Nerve, there was no way to deny the possibility. He suppressed a shiver. Had his reaction been provoked by Out influence rather than (or in addition to, or provoked by an excess of) accumulated stress? It certainly made sense than him having, as Akane had put it, a lever in his head that turned his morality on and off.
Truly, we players are the most despicable Out monsters imaginable.

Also, this is either a retroactive explanation for the OOC actions by Hazō or just something Kei said to Akane to help smooth things over (or both!). If it's the latter, I do wonder if Kei actually believes what she told Akane or if was just want she thought she should say. A small part of me can't shake an amusing image of Kei desperately running around trying to fix Hazō's relationships with his girlfriends so that he doesn't get the chance to ask out Ami.
"Do you think it's a realistic possibility?" Hazō asked, mindful of the need to choose his words carefully even in an empty corridor that its owner apparently considered temporarily safe.

"Not the only one," Kei said, "but the likeliest, to my mind. Please take care, Hazō. You know what is at stake."
Huh. She does believe it. Or mostly, anyway.
With the word "caldera" hanging silently in the air, Kei led him to the Nara gaming room without further ado.
I am at a loss as to what "caldera" is referring to. Is it the butte where The Great Seal is located? A reference to a previous Out incident? A reference to future plans (possibly Project Necro) for which Hazō is required?

Also, has Hazō already told her that he needs to borrow a game? Seems a little odd that she's leading him to the game room if he hasn't mentioned it already.
She stepped over and, unexpectedly, gave him a hug.

It wasn't quite as good as an Akane hug, but only because nothing could be as good as an Akane hug. It was still exactly right: neither too tight nor too loose, the hug of someone who wanted to express deep, platonic affection and knew exactly how to do it. Hazō could have stayed like that for a long time if he didn't think Kei might get the wrong idea and murder him.

"Any time," Hazō said.
I'll add "hugs" to my list of things that destress Hazō. Current totals:
  • Snuggling with Cannai
  • Akane
  • Puppies
  • Hugs from anyone (but especially Akane)
  • Hana's cookies
One day we may very well have to consult this list in an emergency situation. Does anyone have anything to add (preferably with text evidence so I can add sources to all of the items when I actually get around to making this a proper list)?
"I don't know you well," Tenten said. "I'm not good… at talking. When I speak slowly… people hate it. When I choose words faster… they are simple. People think I'm stupid. I am not.

"I'm not good at talking. But Kei and Snowflake have been… so brave. I want to be brave as well. I hope… we can talk more… eventually."

Hazō smiled. "I look forward to it."

Tenten sat back down.
Any friend of Kei's is a friend of ours (barring Naruto, lol). Tenten is always welcome with us.
"In response to your shocking and unfounded allegations," the be-ribboned Snowflake said, "we are warming up for an instance of several individuals spending a day together in order to facilitate greater mutual knowledge and familiarity, arranged in anticipation of a potential long-term relationship.

"More specifically," the other Snowflake added, "Akane suggested that two particular individuals might be suffering from an unhealthy and staggeringly delusional case of hero worship, and should thus be given opportunities to observe us in our natural environment where our ordinariness will quickly become apparent. Personally, I suspect that having them observe our natural behaviour will only cause them to flee in terror and not come back, but then I have been assigned pessimism today."
Translation(maybe):
  • Snowflake took Hazō's side when Akane came over
  • Akane thinks they are blinded by their crush ("hero worship") and told them to get to know Hazō better
  • Snowflake is very sneakily using the same language she would use to describe "dates" without actually saying the word
Better But Less Fun Translation:
  • Akane brought up Snowflake's/Kei's hero-worship of Ami (which would explain the plural tense being used)
  • They are preparing for...something?
You know what? The more I read this line of dialogue the less I understand it. I'm going to wait until I have more context and accompanying lines before I try to make sense of it further.
"Shiori has ours," Scalpel said. "I will have a servant retrieve it."

"Now I think of it," Hazō said, "she wasn't at the last gaming night. Is she OK?"

The girls exchanged uneasy glances.

"I have no reason to believe otherwise," Kei said. "More importantly, on to our news."

Hazō decided not to ask further. Kei had been doing remarkably well at talking about personal issues lately, and he didn't want to push too far and send her back to the days when invasion of privacy equalled attempted homicide—at least not without knowing whose side the Snowflakes would take.
Do I smell some love triangle drama going on? Mwhahahaaha
"The Nara Future Foundation," Hazō said. "This was your project to educate civilians in essential skills at master level and then send them out to pass them on in the Fire villages to raise the level of civilisation, right? Eventually promoting the construction of new trade hubs, stimulating merchant investment in village infrastructure, and generally creating an entire non-Leaf-centric economy which happens to be under the Nara's indirect control."
This feels like an instance of one character giving information to another character that both parties definitely know for the sole purpose of reminding the audience of something they may not remember.

I make no judgments on whether or not this is a bad thing because I see valid reasons for both its inclusion and its exclusion. On the one hand, it saves me the effort of trying to find or remember a conversation from over a hundred chapters ago just so I understand what is going on. On the other, it feels like Hazō would have no reason to say this other than for us. If this was an intended reminder, it might fit better if you write it in a way that gives Hazō an in-character reason to say this to Kei.

(Btw, is this the kind of "writing feedback" you told me I should include in these posts? It feels kind of wrong to guess what you were thinking while writing and then give feedback based on something that may not even be true. Please let me know if you think this is inappropriate.)
You love life is now of far greater interest to the rumour mill than mine.
Just wait until we combine the two by adding both Snowflake and Ami to the polycule. Btw, these rumors that Kei and Asuma keep alluding to sounds extremely interesting. I'm loving all the references to it.
"That's fantastic," Hazō said. "We should definitely talk education at some point. The GED's got over most of its teething troubles, and you know I'm not one to rest on my laurels."

Tenten gave him a puzzled look.

"What? What did I say?"

"Hazō," Kei said, "in Leaf parlance, to rest on one's laurels is a form of suicide by exsanguination, typically associated with lovers unable to be together due to social taboo. There is a reason why it is a crime to plant bay laurels anywhere on village territory."

"Right," Hazō said. Of course. Kei was a world authority on means of suicide. "To rephrase, then, I'm not one to let the grass grow around my feet."

"Suicide by gradual petrification. Said to be surprisingly painless and even mildly euphoric; favoured by poets. Patches of bulbous barley are to be incinerated from a distance."

"I'm not one to beat around the bush?"

"Suicide by camouflaged chakra sheep. Best avoided."

"Fine," Hazō said. "I'm not one to stick my head into an orca's mouth."

"To blind oneself to opportunity, especially out of conceit," Scalpel explained to Tenten. "A common Mist idiom."
Hahahahahahahaahah. I love the culture shock of non translating idioms between Mist and Leaf AND the reminder that the ENs are so unlike our own world. Have you ever tried sharing/explaining idioms to non-native speakers? Most of the time they make no sense due to a lack of minute cultural context but some of the time you get amazing moments where you are drawn to examine an idiom you've been using your entire life without really thinking about the meaning of the words. Darn triteness. Non-native speakers hear it for the first time and then promptly try to make sense of it, which can sometimes lead to hilarity.

For instance, try thinking about the idiom "up a shit creek without a paddle" and see if you can resist laughing at the mental image of some poor soul in a canoe on a river of excrement forced to paddle with their bare hands. Truly, this is a good phrase to use to describe a situation gone horribly amuck.

Also, I love the accidental implication Hazō made in the bolded word and I love that Scalpel (the Snowflake who isn't being overly pessimistic, is the one that translated is actual meaning to the others).
Gōketsu Hazō,

You are hereby cordially invited to attend the Commitment Ceremony of Nara Keiko and Tenten at the Five Flowers Hall in the Village Hidden in the Leaves on January 27, 1070 AS. Partners and additional guests only by individual arrangement.
Squeeeee!
We need to get a wedding gift, right now!
Completely unrelatedly,
heh
if more biased than the average Chūnin Exam proctor
Are Chūnin Exam proctors super biased?
"Perfect," Hazō exclaimed. He glanced at the window. "Say, is that the time? I've just remembered that I have a pressing appointment on the Seventh Path, and my scroll is back at the compound. What a shame that I have to leave immediately. Good luck corrupting your two individuals!"

"I have no such intentions!/Thank you!/We will need it."
Nope. I still do not understand anything beyond the gist of it.
"Ami," Hazō raised his voice dramatically, "we are going to stay up all night braiding each other's hair and talking about boys!"

Ami's shocked gasp alone made the entire evening worthwhile.
I have been waiting for this day!
Kei hated braids, and then she decided to cut her hair short—a hilarious family story she will kill me if I even breathe a word of—and I never managed to persuade her to change her mind.
You 100% just breathed a word of it completely intentionally. I wonder if Ami is subtly trying to establish an embarrassing story swap with Hazō.
"By the way," he said, as he began to an approving "mmm" from Ami, "I wanted to thank you again for the Karasu letters. I'm not done with them yet because my brain is still more scrambled than an egg at an Akimichi cooking tournament, but I've been finding them a fun puzzle."

"Oh," Ami said quietly. "Awkward."

"Ami?"

"Hazō, seeing how long it took you to solve them was a test. Well, a bunch of tests, 'cause that's how I roll. You've already failed most of those, including the one that determines if you get the reward. That's expired now."
Yep. They were definitely given for flirting. sigh
Also, what does it mean that they are expired? Is Ami saying that she is no longer on the table or that this particular puzzle is no longer valid? Bah
"In my defence," Hazō said, taking advantage of his position to speak softly into her ear because in a world of secret ninjutsu and Bloodline Limits, expressing anger with your boss was one thing, but there were some things you did not say out loud without OPSEC in place, "you're not exactly loyal to Mist when it's weighed against your personal ambitions."

"That's a hell of a thing to say, Hazō," Ami said, turning to look him in the eye, forcing him to pause the braiding. Her expression was… Hazō didn't know what it was, but like every Mist genin, he'd stood over the Shinri Abyss during the Mizukage's lecture on the meaning of sacrifice, and looking at Ami suddenly made him remember its fathomless, watery depths.

"You know my feelings about Lady Kurosawa. But Mist? Hazō, you have no idea what being a village ninja means. None at all. You don't know what it means, to have more than one mission a month, sometimes more than one mission a week, expecting your comrades to die—expecting yourself to die—because you've already seen it happen so many times, or because you are a Mori and you've run the numbers. You don't know what it means to watch them die, just like the numbers say, and know that this is your life, week in, week out, until it's your turn.

"You don't know what it's like to be alone in places where you will die the instant somebody realises who you are. You don't know what it's like to be a toy for cruel men because they'll never let their guard down in front of someone they see as human. You don't know what it's like to spend time becoming someone's friend or lover, knowing every second that you're doing it to destroy or end their life. Week in, week out.

"I didn't make jōnin by having Kei to come home to. Kei was gone. I didn't make it because I loved Yagura's Mist. Nobody with a soul loved Yagura's Mist. I made it because I wanted to believe in the Mist behind Yagura's Mist, the place Grandpa Ryūgamine talked about—the Mist that had been born from the belief that freedom was worth fighting for, worth dying for. The Mist that believed in people, and their potential to challenge anything in the world, even nature itself. The Mist where ninja fought not only to protect, but to make each other stronger.

"That Mist probably never existed. It probably never will. Lady Kurosawa's not an idealist, and she won't make big changes because the conservatives will eat her alive, and Yagura's status quo is just so convenient for any Mizukage. But anything can be born from enough chaos, and the AMI are idealists, by and large, and to them the conservatives are the people who let Yagura's Mist happen, and they've had a lifetime of being crushed by the status quo.

"You don't need to know any more of that story," Ami said. "Control, freedom, and fun. You've never been where I have, Hazō. You don't know where that philosophy comes from, or what its depths are, or, in the end, what it means. Don't assume you know who I am."

For a little while, Hazō just braided her hair in silence.
There really isn't anything to do here except genuinely try to understand the insight you were just given into Ami's character and thank her for sharing.

Also, I think Ami might be more loyal to Mist than Hazō is to Leaf (or she wants us to think so, anyways).
So this was what instant karma felt like.
Silly Hazō, she doesn't need to know what message you left in her hair so long as she knows you left a message at all.
"Mmm… Mari…"

Hazō looked up, startled. Ami stuck her tongue out at him.
Damn. How often does Ami mix in shocking revelations discussed as deniable and flirtatious jokes?
"All right," Ami said. "I'm already making you choose between two amazing things that are really good for you, but I'll sweeten the deal. You'll date me, subject to Akane and Ino's approval, which you will do your absolute best to get, and Kei's approval, which I will get."

This was definitely a bad idea. A terrible idea. There was no possible way this would end well.
This was a game he felt he had a good chance of winning. He was the more experienced player, and there was very little she could do with her jōnin powers here, with both throwing and social manipulation of little use, whereas he was physically prepared and also in a room with all sorts of handy objects whose location only he knew.
He's going to lose. Hahahahahahahahah
"Oh, dear," Ami said. "Looks like I knocked over the tower. Then again, you made me do it, so I guess it cancels out to a draw."

Hazō pulled off his blindfold to see a completely unharmed Ami sitting amidst the scattered blocks of the tower. He could also see, in the mirror, that his forehead bore the words "I was rude to Ami" in bright red ink, as if placed there by a stamp.

"Ami…"

"Not against the rules," Ami said in a sing-song voice. "You knew my ninja speciality when you challenged me to the ninja-rules game."

"Tell me, Ami," Hazō said as he began to pick up the blocks, "did you ever actually intend to date me?"

Ami gave a pure, innocent smile. "You will never know."
Bah. Close enough. It's also much harder to set up this outcome than it is to guarantee a simple victory. She could have had any outcome she wants. Now I really want her to join the polycule.

@Velorien, I have finished! Clocking in at (as of the word of typing) 1089 words. By far the longest I've written so far. Too long? Not long enough? Should I add more of a certain type of thought? What do you think?
 
Sorry, I know there is probably lots of world changing discussion going on but-

Fortunately, Hazō had received a crash course in hair-braiding from Yuno specifically for this purpose. Less fortunately, Yuno had never braided the hair of another human being, so he was going to have to improvise.

Yuno gave her axe a wig?!
 
Let's try out this reaction post thing.

Oh no, not Kei (?) too

...

Bit confusing, but I understood it eventually

feelings. and a huh towards pragmatism mention

wow way to assume its Snowflake Hazou. I guess the SC that name themselves differently are still mostly snowflake personality wise.

getting more confident in my guess

rip

don't understand

dread, for some reason


wonder how quality compares to the house of youth

Huh, why would Fifi eat a board game?


Interesting, Mist plants of certain types appear to be less dangerous then Leaf counterparts. Unless these are holdouts from pre-chakra days and those plants aren't near Mist causing no pressure for the metaphors to change.


Hmm, wonder who they are


Hmm, strange to call this secular. Wonder if concubine law will have any effects besides the happiness to the people who take part. clan secrets?


confused


hmm, suprising that this is possibility. people caring about legality


ino huh

wonder who and wat those are


so many big words this chapter

huh, hazou accepted he owes that debt at some point

huh

oh no, the costs

lol

Hmm. Reaction posting not as terrible as i feared.
Welcome to the reaction post club!
 
(Btw, is this the kind of "writing feedback" you told me I should include in these posts? It feels kind of wrong to guess what you were thinking while writing and then give feedback based on something that may not even be true. Please let me know if you think this is inappropriate.)
No, this is good stuff. You're entirely correct about my motivation, but I felt it was OK because they'd only talked about it once before, many months ago, so it was plausible for Hazō to confirm.

@Velorien, I have finished! Clocking in at (as of the word of typing) 1089 words. By far the longest I've written so far. Too long? Not long enough? Should I add more of a certain type of thought? What do you think
I am always interested in player thoughts on my writing. I don't think you could write too much. Any kind of thought is fine, as long as criticism is expressed in a reasonably civil fashion. And non-criticism too, I suppose.

Are Chūnin Exam proctors super biased?
I direct you to the Chūnin Exam arc in its entirety.
 
No, this is good stuff. You're entirely correct about my motivation, but I felt it was OK because they'd only talked about it once before, many months ago, so it was plausible for Hazō to confirm.

I am always interested in player thoughts on my writing. I don't think you could write too much. Any kind of thought is fine, as long as criticism is expressed in a reasonably civil fashion. And non-criticism too, I suppose.

I direct you to the Chūnin Exam arc in its entirety.
Challenge accepted!
 
please be playing Jenga please be playing Jenga please be playing Jenga
Am I the only one who was disappointed that they did not, in fact, destroy Leaf's power structure this chapter? I can't be the only one, right.
Translation(maybe):
  • Snowflake took Hazō's side when Akane came over
  • Akane thinks they are blinded by their crush ("hero worship") and told them to get to know Hazō better
  • Snowflake is very sneakily using the same language she would use to describe "dates" without actually saying the word
Better But Less Fun Translation:
  • Akane brought up Snowflake's/Kei's hero-worship of Ami (which would explain the plural tense being used)
  • They are preparing for...something?
You know what? The more I read this line of dialogue the less I understand it. I'm going to wait until I have more context and accompanying lines before I try to make sense of it further.
Pretty sure the two individuals are Yuri and Minori, Kei and/or Snowflake's maybe-girlfriends with a case of hero worship towards them, and the exchange is meant to be read as written.
so that he doesn't get the chance to ask out Ami
I've suddenly realized that the only acceptable way to start an actual relationship with Ami is to ask her Out. How lucky that we're already working on cross-reality travel.
One day we may very well have to consult this list in an emergency situation. Does anyone have anything to add (preferably with text evidence so I can add sources to all of the items when I actually get around to making this a proper list)?
Including a "De-stress" command as a top-level bullet-point in an action plan has thus far proven sufficient to engage the Vessel's psychological self-maintenance subroutines. This swarmming constituent questions the utility of increasing the fidelity level of our instructions with regards to this class of tasks.
 
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