[X] Action Plan: Backtracking Without Shikamaru
This plan seems just good. Easy win. And I'd really like to see the rest of that scene.
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Currently a WIP. I'll likely restructure it to avoid reiterating the timeline step-by-step in the final version, for word count if nothing else. Until then, thoughts?
[X] Action Plan: It's Time to Talk About Akane
- Gather Mari/Kei/Snowflake/Noburi under highest OPSEC
- The circumstances around Akane's disapperance are extremely suspicious.
- Go over the timeline
- Jan 5, noon: Akane is assigned mission
- Already, things are odd.
- Team Akane only formed a month earlier.
- This is very early for this type of mission.
- Jan 6, morning: TA leave Leaf
- Most likely time for an infiltrator to learn of the mission
- Jan 6, (unknown): Attackers enter Fire and find TA's tracks
- It was at least half a day (4 hrs) travel for them
- Another ~1.5 hours to reach campsite
- They must have been camped very close to the border.
- Spies wouldn't have followed their trail.
- This team was a deliberate attack squad with a prearranged mission
- Jan 6-7, (before sunrise): Attackers enage TA
- Even with skywalkers, they should not have been able to bypass TA's security perimeter.
- Akane herself is not an easy target, especially since she definitely had warning
- Jan 6-7, (unknown): Attackers leave Fire
- All told, they traveled ~7 hours and must have used barely any chakra in the attack.
- They also had to be camped right on the border in advance.
- Given the timing, this was arranged before Akane even got her mission
- Akane was specifically given this mission by someone implanted in the Tower so that she would be out of the village and vulnerable to this pre-planned assassination.
- Most likey suspect is Ruka, who both assigned Akane the unusual mission and didn't report it as overdue.
- She was seriously softballed in her questioning and was allowed to not answer whatever she didn't like.
- She needs to be properly interrogated at T&I. Ideally, mindwalked as well. Does this meet the threshold for "village security?"
- Inform Kei/Snowflake the next part may put them at odds with the Nara. Ask if they want to continue.
- If so...
- Shikamaru may be compromised
- What do we do from here?
- How much should we tell Ami when she arrives?
- Are we ready to open her will?
- OFFSCREEN
- Instruct Kagome to investigate how Akane's perimeter could have been breached.
I like this a lot. A plan like this needed to be written, and you did it. Thank you.
If it gets fixed up and filled in, it'll likely have my vote.
I'd be even happier to vote for this next cycle, after Backtracking.
OPSEC
@_The_Bomb
It will be ~impossible to talk about motive without reading Noburi in on EM nukes. I think this is grounds for excluding him from the meeting, unless he's truly absolutely essential. We should not be telling *anyone* about these horrors.
Trusting someone with secrets just because you trust them(not because they NEED to know) is one of the most agonizing common infosec fuckups.
If he notices and feels hurt or left out, we assure him that we aren't neglecting him, and that this meeting has to just be this group. Compare it to the mission with Kakashi he never told us about.
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We do need to talk possible motives. I think the main ones are:
- Failed kidnapping for leverage on Hazou
- EM-related infoleak
- Nara/Asuma trying to control EM
- (unlikely) Stealing Goketsu scrolls
Under the Nara section, mention that:
From the start and throughout, he didn't seem to be taking an EM-related leak nearly as seriously as it deserved.
He was in charge of the investigation, could have been covering for himself(+Ruka?) this matches the investigation seeming a bit lame.
Asuma was very surprised we weren't crossing borders to chase the trail. IIRC Nara's advice was a big reason why we didn't.
Shikimaru really should have found the timeline sus, and noticed way before we did. The timeline strongly implies an EM-related leak. As far as we know he never mentioned this to anyone. EM-related infoleak is *absolutely* worth mindwalking Ruka over, at minimum, but Asuma says this wasn't done.
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It's possible that Shikamaru has noticed the timeline and is doing a very good quiet investigation. Ruka could have been mindwalked in secret with amnesia-inducing drugs. He could be working very hard on this in secret while acting unconcerned to not indicate that Akane is strategically important(and because he's generally unexcitable).
Hazou should note this and ask Kei/Snowflake if there is evidence of this?
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EDIT: Also, the timeline's implications seem like the sort of thing Kei might plausibly notice. If she did and didn't talk to us, this implies she followed the implications, and went to Shakimaru before us, then elected not to tell us. Which would be pretty sus.
Did he talk her around? can we trust her report on Shikamaru? the paranoia deepens!
