@@
You are assuming of course, in this case, that Asuma is or will be inevitably an uplift champion to the contrary. Do we need to open the whole "when the path of uplift and leaf diverge" again. Asuma is despite his best intentions, not an uplift champion and has shown himself as such.
Moreover, I find this inevitable discovery of foom becomes treason nonsense, because by that point: 1: we will have become an s rank so we can finally afford to not be pushed again 2: the whole concept of clan is to hoard advantages for themselves.
Will he be annoyed, disappointed or mayhaps angry? Sure
Does it count as treason and will we be executed? No
"Well," Asuma said after a few seconds, "this is a fine mess that could have been hugely mitigated if you'd thought to come talk to your Hokage before experimenting with world-ending weaponry. Hazō, you are beyond the point where you can afford to screw up, in many different ways. Can I trust you to finally learn your lesson?"
"Yes, sir," Hazō said. Maybe he should've come as a shadow clone this time too.
"Good."
Unexpectedly, Asuma seemed to relax.
"You've made mistakes, Hazō. Big ones. I don't think I need to belabour that point. But I am choosing to have faith in you. And on the positive side, what you've accomplished is extraordinary. The odds of Leaf's survival in these tumultuous times go up considerably with this trump card up its sleeve. I also can't overstate the magnitude of your achievement in finding such power within a seemingly trivial technique. I have great hopes for what you will accomplish in the future."
"However," Asuma said, "in the midst of disaster is where we find opportunity, and Sage knows there has been plenty of disaster to go round of late. Hazō, things being as they are, it would in any case be too dangerous for you and Akane to keep living outside the walls, where there is a constant risk of you being assassinated or even kidnapped. And by moving back into Leaf proper, you will be able to coordinate much more easily with the Tower and with Leaf's other experts, which will be indispensable for helping us to leverage your creative talent."
"I'm sure she can be persuaded to reconsider when the village's security is at stake," Asuma said. "We all have to adapt to changing circumstances. On the same reasoning, I intend to have someone go through the Tower's restricted archives. There may be some superior seals or ninjutsu we can offer you to help ensure your safety in the future."
"S-Sir, I don't know what to say," Hazō said, the part of his brain that wasn't filled with pain instead filled with confusion, but not a bad kind of confusion.
"This isn't a bribe, Hazō," Asuma said. "This is an investment in your creative ability, and I will be expecting you to use that investment to the fullest for Leaf's benefit.
Asuma has and continues to put his trust in Hazou despite Hazou constantly causing him political headaches. Asuma has asked Hazou multiple times if Hazou has learned the lesson of "trust your Hokage" which Hazou!Pilot has affirmed.
If any Hokage (including Jiraiya) could be won over to combining the Will of Fire with our ideals of Uplift, it would be Asuma.
Do I think Asuma is currently or will inevitably be a proponent of Uplift?
No.
Do I think he is worth taking a small leap of faith for?
Yes.
I am extremely curious to hear the enforceability methods for this transaction. Since, you know, he's our commander and military dictator, now with a method to make people he cares about and think are important to village survival safer and stronger. He only needs a Wakahisa and to know it exists.
And this sort of method is broken enough to paradigm shift. If we tried to force an ultimatum after telling him we have a method to empower his wife and the villages protectors but he can't use it, the only reason he wouldn't just kill us is because he wants to have a recorder write down our next flash of brilliance from within the kill-box we'll live in.
It's purely trust and the fact that Noburi would have to go to Asuma to fill Asuma up with chakra to start Asuma's FOOMing (I do not think Asuma would try to kidnap another Wakahisa and force them to be his personal battery although that technically is theoretically possible).
Trying to blackmail or threaten the Hokage in anyway does not help to build trust so I do not want to engage in any such actions against Asuma. We do not blackmail or threaten anyone in our clan and we need to start extending that same courtesy to Asuma too.
The entire point of FOOM is that we become strong enough that we are not beholden to traditional power structures and we are able to act freely to enact the change we wish. With FOOM we are able to gain enough XP per day to surpass ninjas who are older than us and have higher base rates of XP gain. If we give away FOOM we will no longer be out passing other Leaf ninja so the status quo will be maintained. This sets us back years from being able to pull off the type of moves Jiraiya did. We can't walk into to council and make ourselves Hokage on threat of death. We can't drown unfriendly jounin to put them in their place.
The whole point of FOOM is to surpass the Kage so as to use that power to force through good policy. Probably by becoming either a Kage or a Sannin-equivalent.
The Yamanaka Clan didn't give Akane anything to help her survive (other than what they added to the Leaf Library), so I don't think giving something like that to the Yamanaka Clan is expected of us. We could do it as outside context altruism, but I don't see that being in the best interest of Uplift quite yet. Maybe once we have convinced not just Ino but also her likely successor(s) of Uplift. Or when the Gokētsu has more jōnin than the ISC combined. But otherwise, yeah, that way lies putting Leaf Supremacy above not just Uplift, but also personal Clan advantage as Leaf understands and allows it.
(Replying to both of these together because they seem (to me) to be essentially the same premise regarding FOOM utilization)
I understand that you two (and most likely many more participants in MfD) want to use FOOM to make Hazou S+ rank and the general mechanics of FOOM allowing us to accelerate our effective training rates. My concern with this approach is the actual implementation of our policies in the event that we achieve that level of S+ rank personal strength.
"not beholden to traditional power structures and we are able to act freely to enact the change we wish"
"use that power to force through good policy."
To state my objection succinctly:
HOW???
Do either of you want Hazou to enact a coup d'etat to become Hokage by force?
Do we leave Leaf to found our own village with our own rules?
Do either of you want to ignore the Hokage's orders that may contradict Uplift as we live inside of Leaf and never back down even in the face of outright Hokage hostility?
I cannot envision any of these scenarios ending in anything other than Leaf Civil War and/or us becoming missing-nin again or ruling over the Village Hidden in the Ashes, formerly known as Leaf (as an aside, that
is a more fitting name for a village in Fire Country). Everyone in our clan who has not become a FOOM god by this point would definitely die in the crossfire.
Oro is strong enough to throw his weight around to get what he wants, but that does not prevent other political players from plotting around him and working to curtail his excesses and unpalatable ambitions. Why would our neighbors not do the same to us if we begin to bully them for our own purposes?
Even more importantly, how is ascending to broader political power through violence (or the implied threat thereof) and ruling through fear reconcilable with Uplift as an ideology?
