Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

"Good morning, Hazō," Kabuto said, as Hazō stepped into the cafe's private room and took a seat across from Kabuto.

"Sorry for being late," Hazō said. "There was some clan business I had to attend to. I hope I didn't keep you waiting for long…?"

"Ah, nothing of the sort," Kabuto said with a friendly smile. "I have had a rare opportunity to relax recently, and enjoying morning tea in a fine establishment such as this one is a pleasure that I'd been depriving myself of."

"You're choosing to relax?" Hazō said, taking a couple of the freshly baked pastries from the tray laid out on the table between them. "I recall you mentioning that you were married to your work."

"Ah, so I did. With Orochimaru-sensei back, I have been quite embroiled in our studies, and we've been making exciting strides in the past few months in particular. His focus is all-consuming, and I had little time to do anything but eat, vivisect, and sleep. Still, we've hit a lull between projects, and I am only a mortal. I still enjoy the pleasures of the flesh," Kabuto said, popping one of the tiny sweetcakes into his mouth with an exaggerated 'mmm' sound. He chewed and swallowed at a leisurely pace.

"Speaking of which," Kabuto said, "don't think I've forgotten our past talks! If they still hold your interest, I would still encourage you to explore those research agendas you'd proposed. And your brother too, how has he been? I heard that he finally cracked Lady Tsunade's legendary resistance and got her to take an apprentice."

Hazō shook his head. "Not quite an apprentice, yet, but she's considering it. She agreed to let him lead some surgeries that she'll supervise."

Kabuto smiled. "I'm glad. That is no mean accomplishment for Noburi. She is quite protective of her patients and, to my recollection, rarely lets anyone operate when she could be doing it herself. If Noburi's skill and unique bloodline hasn't yet convinced her, then he cannot have far to go. If there is one thing we know about Lady Tsunade, it is that she does not hesitate to make her displeasures and rejections known."

"I am aware," Hazō said. "We're doing our best to prepare him for an impressive showing. Still, charming as it is to speak with you, Kabuto, I am afraid I do have other business. What did you call me here for?"

Kabuto nodded. "I understand. A Clan Head's duties are never done, are they? While I'd wanted to catch up with you, Hazō, I am also a proxy for Orochimaru-sensei's business with you. First," he said, reaching by his side and pulling out a sheaf of papers from his bag, "Orochimaru-sensei wishes to give this to you."

Kabuto pushed two tiny serving plates aside and put the papers down. The stack was nearly as tall as the teacups, reminding Hazō of the headache-inducing piles of paperwork Gaku regularly presented him. The title, in Orochimaru's tight, crisp handwriting, leapt out at Hazō.


Kabuto unfolded a note. "He told me to relay this. 'Even without adequate tools to probe the Great Seal, the theoretical foundations of sealcraft may still be extended to arbitrary three-dimensional manifolds, rather than two-dimensional structures on the surface of three-dimensional manifolds. While I attempted to extrapolate from conventional sealing theory with minimal assumptions, this entire report and hypotheses therein will likely be invalidated by experiment; nonetheless, developing new models and theoretical tools will likely be useful. Review the report by next week.' That's the end of the message."

Hazō nodded slowly, pulling his eyes away from the list of axioms Orochimaru had started to enumerate on the very first page. "I see. If that was the first, what's the second?"

"Second, and last, Orochimaru-sensei wishes for you to produce a local replica of the Great Seal. He has prepared a room in the Basement for it, and he expects that you will do so next week, when you come to his estate to deliver your feedback."

Thoughts raced through Hazō's mind. Orochimaru would see him using Earthshaping. Orochimaru would notice Hazō's unnaturally accurate memory for the Great Seal by the level of similarity between the above and belowground replicas. Orochimaru would notice how Hazō mentally braced himself to even think about the Great Seal. Orochimaru would have access to Hazō in the Basement for almost a full day.

"Ah," Hazō said, "I'm afraid it's not that easy. Creating the replica takes a long time, nearly all day-"

"Your time will be compensated."

"And it is quite chakra intensive, so I need Noburi ready to help-"

"His time will be compensated for as well."

"And Noburi is occupied with Tsunade for the next two weeks, and I don't think any of us wants to be the one that pulls him away from her."

"Hmm," Kabuto said, tapping his finger to his lower lip. "Now that may be an insurmountable problem. I will consider it. Perhaps there is a way to pull him away for only a day without drawing Lady Tsunade's ire."

"As long as it doesn't sabotage his chances," Hazō said. "Like you said, this is a rare opportunity and we wouldn't want to cause any irritation at all to Tsunade." Of course, that ruled out everything. Tsunade would be irritated by anything in her general vicinity.

"Noted," Kabuto said. "Incidentally, I wish to say congratulations. I had thought those samples from the Dragons would have been the most interesting thing that Orochimaru-sensei would see all year, yet you exceeded yourself. The 'Great Seal' has lit a fire within him that I've never seen before. Do you remember how I mentioned that I had time to relax recently? Ordinarily, this would never be the case. No sooner than one course of research would end would the next one begin. However, Orochimaru-sensei's new primary focus is the Great Seal, and most of his hours pass on the Seventh Path, inspecting it. Caring for our still-living subjects takes little effort, and I cannot assist Orochimaru-sensei in sealmasters' affairs. Therefore, I can find time for relaxing morning tea." Kabuto sipped his teacup.

"I understand," Hazō said, standing and grabbing the report. "Thank you for the information, Kabuto. I am afraid I am running late for a meeting with my Chancellor. Thank you for the delightful breakfast."

"Always a pleasure," Kabuto said, raising his teacup in a minor salute. "I shall keep you apprised of the situation. I look forward to seeing you in the Basement."


"What's the treatment when infection spirits inhabit a burst boil?"

"Fourth-type herbal decoction, with the addition of ground up gallstones from a pre-pubescent firegoat."

"Correct. What do you do for a ninja who can't keep their food down?"

"What elemental affinity do they have?"

"Hmm…" Papers flipped. "Water."

"Ah, regular acupuncture of the ventral meridians? Oh, and a supplement of wood ear's mushrooms."

"Correct. What about a Fire-element ninja suffering from night terrors?"

"Chronic?"

"No, after a bad mission."

"Hm… Grind up fresh mugwort, suspend it in oil, and anoint the patient on the forehead and behind the ears to drive out the nightmare spirits."

"Ah, no, sorry."

"Dammit!" Noburi exclaimed. "What's the real answer?"

"Get aged mugwort, six months or more, and burn a fingernail's worth on the forehead and behind the ears," Hazō said, flipping through the papers.

"Ugh," Noburi said, extending a hand. Hazō returned Noburi's notes back to him and Noburi glanced through it. "Right, yes, that makes sense. Sage above, I'm not ready for the surgeries."

Hazō clapped Noburi on the shoulder. "Ah, don't worry about it, Nobby. I've seen you work, and you've improved immensely in the past couple months. You'll heal anyone she throws at you."

Noburi scoffed. "Oh, I'll make them better alright. I just won't be meeting Tsunade's ridiculous standards for what a medical ninja should be able to do. The patients'll survive, but I can't just suture the incisions shut with her around. She'll tear me a new one unless every stitch is perfect and even and has a pretty little bow in the middle."

Hazō had been quizzing Noburi for almost an hour, now. The Slug Princess still insisted that she wouldn't take anyone as an apprentice, much less Noburi. Still, over the course of the two months he'd been shadowing her, she'd apparently started asking him to take her place in minor procedures, and soon he'd be taking the lead on surgeries at Tsunade's discretion. With luck, he'd succeed with flying colors and finally earn Tsunade's approval and mentorship.

Once again, Hazō wondered if he should take his work elsewhere in the family house to avoid distractions. He had to finish the preparatory work for his bubble-producing seal idea that the Toad Sages had so enthusiastically agreed to, but getting roped into Noburi's quizzes wasn't going to help him mentally arrange all the seal components in a way that made sense. Again, he decided not to retreat to his study. He'd spent too little time with Noburi lately, what with Noburi dealing with a Sannin and Hazō dealing with the apocalypse. Really, Hazō needed all the socialization he could get.

Only a couple questions later was Hazō's desired interruption granted. Mari strode into the spacious inner room of the main house. She swept her gaze over the room, noting the steel braziers burning bright (with Purifiers to soak up the smoke), the two low tables where Noburi and Hazō had spread their homework around, and the various cushions and mats surrounding them.

She strode up to the table and announced to the room, "Gentlemen, I have need of your wits!" She threw a trio of tightly wound scrolls at the table, where they bounced gently. Hazō noted the stamped insignia on each scroll – these were postings from the mission board.

Hazō reached out and unwrapped a scroll. Apparently, some merchant called Hōju wanted to hire a ninja team to escort him along the short road from Leaf to Meiwa, and to help load and unload carts full of clay and pottery at either end.

"You're… taking this mission?" Hazō asked.

"Not for me," Mari said as Noburi unrolled another scroll, revealing a messenger mission to somewhere in Tanzaku Gai. "For the small fry."

Hazō frowned, tapping the mission statement in front of him. "This is a C-rank. Are your genin ready for a C-rank?"

Mari shrugged. "They've been with me for what, three months now? I've already drilled basic paranoia into them. They'll be fine."

"This messenger mission looks good," Noburi said. "Low risk. You can stay on the move basically the whole time, with no real combat risk and no slow, weak merchants to hold you back if something maybe goes wrong."

Hazō shook his head. "No, I meant to ask… is it really a good idea to take them out of the village so soon?"

Mari shrugged again. "It's fine. Standard Tower policy says that jōnin and chūnin-sensei should start taking students on out-of-the-village missions around the new year, and that's coming up fast. I could keep 'em around for a while longer if I wanted to piss off some annoying letter-writing bureaucrats, but why bother? C-ranks aren't exactly hard, and they'll learn more about missions by doing missions than by sitting around the village talking about doing them."

"Yeah, Yuno's actually been taking her team out on missions for a whole month now," said Noburi.

"Really?" Hazō asked.

"Yes, really," Mari said, "to everyone's delight, I'm sure. She's been teaching them all the wonders of chakra beast extermination. None of her little genin have bit it yet, I think. But, to be fair, that's Yuno. You know Yuno. When it comes to chakra beasts, Yuno's… well, Yuno's Yuno, you know?"

"Right…" Hazō said after a moment, "if you think it's fine, then Noburi's right. The messenger mission would probably be safest."

Mari raised an eyebrow at Hazō. "Hazō, have you ever done a C-rank?"

Hazō thought for a second. "Yes, I think so. We did a chakra beast extermination mission pretty early on when we joined Leaf, and I think we took a few till-n-fills to get out of the village for OPSEC-sensitive conversations."

"That's it?" Noburi asked, incredulously. "Nothing at all in Mist?"

"Right…" Mari said, voice suddenly sounding far away. "You never did a proper C-rank as a genin. You were always on disciplinary probation for some reason or another, so you only did D-ranks. Then the Noodle Mission was a B-rank, then everything in the woods…"

Hazō chuckled. "Yeah, I guess you're right. The Swamp of Death killed jōnin when they were caught unaware. With that as my first experience out of the village, my estimates of what's appropriate for genin is probably skewed to Naraka and beyond. Why not take the genin out on a till-n-fill, then? I remember it being straightforward and easy."

"Right, yeah. A lot of them are basically D-ranks, just in civilian villages instead of Leaf," Noburi said as Mari walked around the room, locking its doors. "Hopefully it'll be torturous enough for your tastes to tell them they get to do an exciting, real ninja mission outside the village, then bam! More chores!"

Mari finished locking the entrances, then knelt down across from Noburi and Hazō.

"I know this isn't a good time for this, but I've realized I can't afford to wait forever for the perfect moment, even when there's no pressure on me. I already made this apology to Kei, but I'm suddenly afraid that without the same drive to reconcile, if I don't take responsibility now then I never will."

"Mari," Hazō said, "is this about–," he cut himself off as she raised a palm.

"Let me finish, Hazō," Mari said. "I need to say this.

"I love you both so much more than I've ever been able to put into words, and my tongue alone makes Kage quake. I should never have chosen the two of you for the Noodle Mission. I thought you were expendable tools, that you were genin with skills worth having and that no one would really miss. I didn't care that you both had families that loved you and that you would miss them too, and even while we were on the run, I thought that my actions saving you from the disaster of Swamp and the cruelties of missing-nin life forgave my sins.

"That isn't the case. Yes, both of you have come to terms with your experiences in the Swamp of Death. I know that both of you have benefitted immensely from my teaching and everything we did together, to the point where you're better off today than you probably would have been without my intervention. Still, it was wrong for me to pick and choose you off a roster of names like your lives were worth nothing, and it was wrong for me to lead you into almost certain death even if I led you right back out of it.

"I took you away from your mom," Mari said to Hazō. "I took you away from your sisters," she said to Noburi. "And I took you both away from anything or anyone else you might have liked in Mist, and put your lives in danger instead. For that, and for everything, I'm sorry."

Hazō and Noburi sat in silence for a moment, digesting. Eventually, Noburi spoke.

"I get it, Mari-sensei. I forgave you for everything a long time ago. Things are so much better for me now than they could ever have been in Mist. I'm somebody here. I'm the Toad Summoner. I'm the axis on which Leaf's new war machine turns. I'm a rising medic star that has even Tsunade's attention. That's all thanks to you, Mari-sensei. So, poor decisions acknowledged, forgiveness earned and dispensed."

"Likewise, Mari," Hazō said. "I… I can't even list off everything that you've done for me. Yeah, I miss my mum, but she's right there in Mist, and AMITY might make it possible for us to see each other again in the future. Besides, you're someone I care about too, and I don't want you flagellating yourself for any reason. I know you can and will do better in the future, that you won't throw away people's lives the way you did as the Heartbreaker. So yes, Mari, I forgive you too."

Mari smiled. She rose to her feet again and circled around the table to the low couch where Noburi and Hazō sat. She leaned in and gave them both a hug.

"Thank you both. I know you've both found peace with your missing-nin experiences in a way that Kei never did, but this was more for me. You can't earn forgiveness unless you first accept responsibility, and it turns out that acknowledging past wrongdoing is pretty hard."

Mari stood up and grabbed the mission scrolls off the table. "Anyway, I have some future wrongdoing to get to, so don't mind me too much," she said. "I'll go tend to the small fry."

"Future wrongdoing?" Noburi asked. "What are you going to do to them?"

"Oh, nothing," Mari said with a wicked grin. "I'll let them know that we'll be taking a C-rank, but I won't tell them what it is, how to prepare, where or when to meet me or the client, or anything of the sort. First step of any good mission: figure out what the mission really is."

Noburi sighed. "You're really going to ruin these kids, you know? They're going to be paranoid wrecks incapable of taking anything at face value."

"And Kagome survived fifteen years in the woods. A bit more paranoid wreck would suit most ninja," Mari said as she swept back towards the door. "Don't worry, I'll wring any genuinely dysfunctional behaviors out of them."

"Mari," Hazō said. "Which mission are you actually going to give them?"

Mari smiled. "Oh, who knows? After all, they might come to you and ask, and we wouldn't want to make it too easy for them to get their answers. Let them have their little mystery."

And with that, she left in a swirl of her patterned kimono.

Noburi sighed. "She's a menace. I'm almost glad that we had the constant specter of death-by-Zabuza hanging over us when she was in charge. At least she couldn't mess with our minds that hard. Anyway, could you help me review the ninjutsu notes next? I've been struggling with bleed suppression and I want to make sure I remember all the cues."

Hazō turned away from the door Mari had left through and grabbed Noburi's hand-written notes again. "Sure. Which chakra manipulations are advantageous for stemming venous bleeding?"


"How was it, sir?"

Asuma gazed out of his office window, looking at the gloomy, overcast skies over northern Leaf and the vast forests beyond it. He gazed for a few seconds longer before turning to face Hazō.

"I… understand what Enma said. I agree with his judgment. The Dragons are abominations and need to be killed. Speaking of which, excellent work on already killing one of them, Hazō. I'll retroactively assign you an S-rank mission for it, and I'm assigning you another S-rank mission to kill the remaining five."

"I don't think I'll be able to kill them all alone," Hazō said, trying to ignore the way Asuma had casually granted Hazō a windfall of millions of ryō. "Maybe the shapeshifter, assuming that shapeshifting doesn't also come with regeneration. Probably the beautiful and darkness Dragons, assuming that there's something in there that can be killed. For the others, it'll have to be the summon bosses unless I come up with any new weapons."

Asuma winced slightly. "Remember to tell me before you start coming up with new superweapons. But yes, any weapons that can kill those things will be invaluable.

"Hazō, did you ever look at the… beautiful Dragon?"

Hazō shook his head. "The bait teams had always led it off before I went to the butte, sir."

"That's good," Asuma said, finally stepping away from the window and sitting down at his desk. He reached for his silvered rolling case, then opened it and frowned. Hazō caught Asuma sighing infinitesimally before drawing a pipe from within.

"Ensure that you do not gaze upon it, ever. With the full strength of my soul's defenses brought to bear even before seeing it, I think I've evaded any lingering psychic effects the way Enma suffered. Orochimaru was similarly warned, so I suspect he too will have avoided it, though he forebore himself from commentary after our… viewing.

"Still, even that was challenging. I could feel it reaching out to me, ignoring distance in a way unlike any seal or ninjutsu. I had to avoid looking at it too closely, because just observing it let it observe me, and every heartbeat that it had me in its sights, its metaphysical claws were trying to carve its name onto my soul. Without your inner Will of Fire flaring brightly to the defense of your soul, it would enslave you in an instant."

Tirade over, Asuma put the pipe into his mouth without packing any tobacco into the bowl. For some reason, bubbles slowly streamed from the pipe's mouth.

"Understood, sir," Hazō said. "I'm already treating the Dragons with as much caution as I can manage, but I'll take extra care to avoid the be#u|f∪l one. Ideally, I'll stay miles away from any of them at all times."

"Good," Asuma said. "With that said, I believe I am coming to fully appreciate the scope of this problem. The destruction of Archaeopteryx is not natural. Enma and I have spoken about it at length and our conclusion was clear: that the Dragons unambiguously represent an existential threat to the Seventh Path. If the Condors' tale is to be believed, four of the Dragons were able to destroy a powerful summon boss in his own territory, suffering only two losses. While individually, the Dragons may be weaker than a summon boss with the power of the land at his back, six at once will likely annihilate any of the Seventh Path Clans.

"Then, there are other effects to consider. Have they truly grown stronger over time as more mature Dragons escape the seal? Do they actually gain new qualitative abilities when they consume other clans? Something about the way they consume clans is unnatural, because the Seventh Path clans can ordinarily survive the death of their boss.

"Regardless, I have no doubt that they could reduce all of the Seventh Path to lifeless, black skies if they took action to do so. The destruction of the Seventh Path alone would be a great tragedy. As to whether they would truly gain the ability to cross Paths… Who is to say what powers they might acquire if they were allowed to grow? Even purely in my capacity as Hokage, the Dragons are completely unacceptable, as Leaf draws too much power from the Seventh Path.

"So, Hazō, I want to ask you this: What more can I do? I ordered the operations to discover and retrieve the Arachnid Scroll and gave it to Kagome. I granted you the Fourth Hokage's notes on the jinchūriki seal, though it appears that it won't affect the Dragons much. I convened Leaf's sealmasters to examine your Great Seal replica, but that went nowhere. Should I call them again and personally supervise them to keep them on track? I tried to control them previously, but I could wield the whip with a firmer hand. I ordered those sealmasters to learn and produce a tithe of HOWS, and I've been maintaining that order to keep the Great Seal from degrading. I wasn't sure about the value of that order at the time, but now I could kiss my past self for his foresight. I made my suggestions to Enma and my orders to Ruri that finally got the Conclave in serious motion. Somehow, it doesn't feel like enough.

"I will instruct Neji, Ruri, and Aika to do their level best to convince their clans to deal with the threat. I intend to give Orochimaru and Tsunade explicit orders to get Manda and Katsuyu to go to the Conclave, and it's strange to think that Tsunade may be the harder one to sway. I'll continue learning Elemental Mastery as carefully as I can. Is there anything else at all that I can influence?"

Hazō opened his mouth to speak, but Asuma quickly raised a hand. "By now, I've learned that this needs to be said explicitly. Please don't turn this into a naked power grab for your clan like what happened with the Fourth's jinchūriki notes. I am glad to spend Leaf's resources to complete the mission, but the mission objective is 'destroy the Dragons,' not 'empower the Gōketsu in order to destroy the Dragons'. If Gōketsu is empowered along the route to destroying the Dragons, then so be it, but I expect you will suggest courses of action with the goal of actually destroying the Dragons, rather than in accordance with whatever instrumental goals you have."

Hazō frowned. "Sir, improving Gōketsu's situation improves my ability to work on the Dragon problem. If I had ways of fixing the Great Seal, I would spend more time on those opportunities if I didn't have to stop other Leaf clans from driving Gōketsu into debt or disgrace."

"I understand," Asuma said. "And if you are ever constrained like that, tell me. You should use Shadow Clone to give yourself time for clan management, sealing, or weapons design. I've done what I can do discreetly to keep the Gōketsu finances stable and political opponents off your back. Could I do more? Sure. I could directly funnel money from the Tower's coffers into your own and make it clear to the clans that Gōketsu was my favored golden child that none of them could touch. Surely you can see why this would be a bad idea?"

Hazō nodded. "I get it, sir. The clans would revolt."

"Yes, Hazō. Your supply of HOWS would disappear and Neji and Aika's aid would suddenly be marred by split loyalties as the clans try to resist my tyranny. It would make Gōketsu a giant target for everyone in Leaf, clan and KEI alike. It would get us nothing, and cost us time and energy best saved for the Seventh Path.

"Already, the allegations of Gōketsu favoritism are compelling. The Arachnid Scroll, retrieved by an official Leaf team using official Leaf resources, of which Gōketsu's contribution was one component of many, went to Gōketsu without even a consultation with the Clan Council. People are already complaining that I reclaimed land from Leaf's landowners for your clan compound, because they know I would never do it if they had, say, business interests that needed land. Sage grant they never discover that such a large tract of land inside Leaf's walls changed hands for free."

"Why can't you explain the Dragon situation to them?" Hazō asked. "I've already primed them to expect it with the demonstration of the skyslicers."

Asuma blew on the pipe again, prompting another burst of bubbles. "I intend to. As I said, this is an S-rank mission. The clans understand missions, and they understand that Leaf must spend resources to make important missions succeed. Honestly, that'll solve most of your political problems. The clans mostly know not to take actions that would endanger an essential mission, and the label 'S-rank' on a mission title makes people shut up and listen. Still, the clans will notice if you use Leaf resources to empower your clan, especially if it's not on the critical path to completing the mission. So please don't try."

"I understand, sir," Hazō said.

"In which case," Asuma said, "I'll say it again. You have my full support, Hazō, and I want nothing more than to avert this potential apocalypse. How can I help destroy the Dragons?"

---

Sealing timeline:

• Day 1-2: SSA recovery.
• Day 3: prep for Fireworks.
  • SC: Prep for CATEARS. Discovered difficulty: chūnin.
• Day 4: Fireworks research roll.
  • SC: Prep for Megalovania seals. Discovered difficulty: jōnin.
• Days 5-6: SSA recovery.
• Day 7: Fireworks research roll. Fireworks completed.
• Days 8-9: SSA recovery.
• Day 10: prep for Bubbles.
• Day 11: Bubbles research roll.
• Days 12-13: SSA recovery.
• Day 14: Bubbles research roll.
• Day 15-16: SSA recovery.
• Day 17: Scribing a ton of Fireworks, Bubbles, and MARS for the grand entrance.
  • SC: Scribe tons of Fireworks, Bubbles, and MARS.
• Day 18: Last minute scribing + the grand entrance.

Taking an SSA Consequence should substantially lower your number of Shadow Clone hours available – -1 block for the -3 penalty a Mild gives, -2 blocks for no longer being willing to take a risk of Consequence on -9, as failing the Resolve roll would cause a Medium. We're not penalizing you this time as we haven't made this statement before, but going forward, you should subtract 3 training blocks during time that you have an SSA Mild Consequence.

Note that there is still a bit of a fudge happening in your favor: when rolling SSA Sealing and SC Resolve on the same day, there's a risk of taking a Mild Consequence which rolls up into a Medium (if the SSA Consequence is taken second, that would be a Medium that lasts 2 weeks!) and drastically penalizes your Resolve and Sealing going forward. We're going to ignore this fudge for simplicity reasons right now, but just be aware that we're ruling in your favor for this situation and that we may start making these rolls in the future.

We are also fudging in your favor on another front. It's established that all jutsu have a marginally variable cost which averages out to what's listed in the rules doc. It's also established that Shadow Clone will kill you if you don't have enough chakra to power it. Your regular WHOOSH training has Hazō make clones right up to the limit of chakra exhaustion. This means that Hazō would die on an unlucky cast where it ended up costing a few more chakra than usual. Similarly, we aren't worrying about this for now.


Orochimaru's report is less a manicured manuscript and more a hasty collection of research notes, written with a tangible air of waxing and waning (but mostly waxing) excitement. Orochimaru has identified candidate materials that can conduct chakra in three-dimensional seal components, mostly biological. Hazō is nearly sickened by a description of Orochimaru growing someone's bones into mimicries of the Great Seal's primitive components.

Orochimaru's experiments did not work. He notes that even ink-and-paper seals have different "language" than bioseals, so extrapolating 3D sealing to biological substrates from a single example is outright impossible. Instead, Orochimaru has carefully cataloged the properties of the Great Seal using some advanced chakra-sensing tools. Despite the insurmountability of reverse engineering a novel sealing discipline from its most complex example, Hazō thinks that Orochimaru might be genius enough to manage it if he had a source of chakra-conductive stone…

Hazō has prepared feedback for Orochimaru's proposed theory of 3D seals.


Kagome has finished the sixth seal in the jinchūriki seal chain. With Hazō occupied with the Conclave for the next while, he's not starting the first of the real rift seals yet. Instead, he'll start the seventh seal in the jinchūriki chain while Hazō finishes the Conclave and catches up. Once Hazō's ready, Kagome wants to make a seal that anchors onto the rift construct and feeds chakra in (hopefully opening the channel infinitesimally so readings can be collected from the other side).


Tsunade has allowed Noburi to take the lead on a series of surgeries just before the Conclave entrance. Results pending.


Asuma and the Leaf delegation (including Haru, who will hopefully bring back some cash from your trade deals, including the spider silk deal) will leave for the Chūnin Exams tournament in Hot Springs shortly. Leaf didn't do particularly well this year, but still has three tournament candidates (a Minami, an Inuzuka, and a KEI ninja). Make your suggestions for what Asuma can do on the Dragons problem (if anything), but any large-scale requests will likely happen after the tournament when Asuma will reassemble the War Council to address the Dragons.


Officially speaking, Hazō now has an S-rank chakra beast extermination mission on his mission record (chakra beast extermination because Leaf's mission classification system sadly does not have a category for extradimensional monstrosities). Yuno is likely jealous. Gaku swiftly earmarked the incoming cash for the construction of the new estate, pending your final design instructions.