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"My Lady, I pray you will grant me the smallest touch of your delicate hand," Hazō began instantly. "The grace from such slender yet powerful fingers would raise the fortunes of my clan for a thousand years. I have seen the speed and perfection of your handseals, those luscious digits dancing effortlessly through the most complex—"

"I sit corrected," she said quickly. "Shall we discuss specifics?"

Hazō grinned and mentally checked off the next item on his 'gain friends and influence' list.
Either this was too terrible for further words, or too effective to be spoken.

Either way... to the chart.
 
Look, if Hinata's two options to stop him from flirting more are to advance Social Links with Hazo and open up her Route, or close off her Route and risk him go gallivanting off to destroy the Leaf economy without her input, the course is clear...

The conservative bloc will plan another assassination soon.
 
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?

EDIT: Also to add the Shikamaru situation

TL;DR Two scene plan where we discuss the Akane leak and take the Sealing Exam.

[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
    • 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?"
  • What do we do from here?
    • How much should we tell Ami?
    • What about Ino?
    • How should we approach Asuma?
  • Are we ready to open her will?
  • OFFSCREEN
    • Instruct Kagome to investigate how Akane's perimeter could have been breached.
    • Ñ
  • Take Sealing Exam

@_The_Bomb my first changes would be a more investigative, non-accusatory tone, and being more careful in our assertions/assumptions. For example: we don't *know* that [a capture team was camped on the border], but it does seem quite possible, and we need to talk about it.

Also, keep Noburi the hell away from this. do NOT randomly read people in on EM nukes unless absolutely necessary. If those get out, in *any* way, it probably result in the end of the bloody world. Unless he adds something literally critical, telling him is a really bad plan. plan
(Sorry for tone, I think you're cool and don't mean to be rude, but I felt the need to emphasize this point, and couldn't find a better way.)

"To Speak in Vain to Silent Ash" does this quite well, while otherwise remaining the same plan, so I'll address it for the rest of this post

---


I'm currently unsatisfied with @_The_Bomb 's plan. I think it strikes too accusatory a tone regarding the events that took place surrounding Akane's death and doesn't weight possibilities how I would. I'm posting a fork that largely covers the points in his plan, but aims for a different tone.

[X] Action Plan: To Speak in Vain to Silent Ash
  • Gather Mari/Kei and Snow (if she's cleared to know about EM nukes) under highest OPSEC
  • The circumstances around Akane's disapperance are extremely suspicious.
  • Go over the timeline
    • Jan 5, noon: Akane is assigned mission
      • Team Akane only formed a month earlier.
      • This is very early for this type of mission.
    • Jan 6, morning: TA leave Leaf
    • 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
        • Or perhaps, a team hunting Leaf ninja in general
    • Jan 6-7, (before sunrise): Attackers enage TA
      • They appear to have gained surprise, bypassing Akane's defensive perimeter
    • Jan 6-7, (unknown): Attackers leave Fire
      • Attacking team traveled 7 hrs to leave Fire. They don't appear injured or low on chakra.
      • To get word about Akane's mission in time. They had to be camped right on the border in advance.
        • Tying up (minimun) a jounin and 2 chunin like that indefinitely is a significant expenditure of military force. Weak evidence against the team being on standby
      • Given the tight timing, it seem possible this was arranged before Akane even got her mission
  • It seems possible that Akane was specifically given this mission by someone in the Tower so that she would be out of the village and vulnerable to this pre-planned attack
    • Asuma thought it sounded like a botched capture mission.
    • Most likely suspect is Ruka, who both assigned Akane the unusual mission and didn't report it as overdue.
    • Ruka was softballed in her questioning by Naruto and Shikamaru
      • Shikamaru knows about Akane's value as an EM nuke, but seemed convinced she was dead upon hearing news of her tardiness, and unconcerned that she leaked EM.
      • Given the possibility of a leak from within the Tower his reaction is quite concerning.
    • Ruka's sloppy interrogation is likely too late to fix. But Hazou thinks it is bizarre that it was acceptable to mindwalk Akane to make sure she never leaked EM accidentally. But the same standard wasn't applied to Ruka. Whose actions could have leaked EM.
  • What do we do from here?
    • There seem to be multiple suspects, Shikamaru, Asuma, Rock/Lightning
    • How much do we share of our suspicions outside this circle?
  • Take the Sealing Exam
    • Aim to impress
--------------------

Suggestions welcome, ping me here or on Discord. This needs WC trimming, so anything in that vein is especially welcome.

I think EJ gave their blessing to put the timeline bit in a separate post and make the word "timeline" link to it. @Inferno Vulpix and @acidshill would be good people to check the timeline over, and make sure we didn't miss anything.
First off, feel free to put the timeline under separate cover as long as it stays under 300 words.

I really don't think Ruka was personally masterminding and initiating a treason plot that requires foreign collaborators. If someone did manipulate the tower to manipulate Akanae's mission, I think Ruka is pretty likely to be the catspaw that was used. I find this distinction important.

Gather Mari/Kei and Snow (if she's cleared to know about EM nukes)
IIRC, Kei and Snowflake aren't cleared to know about EM nukes, but totally do. I think they belong in this meeting.

I expect Shikamaru be *at least* as capable of noticing the implications of the timeline as we are, and I expect him to care enormously about those implications, but it seems like he's never brought it up. Why not? There are innocent explanations, but this is suspicious.

I think our culprit list is something like:
Asuma(with Shikamaru, with possible Ruka catspaw)
Shkiamaru(with possible Ruka catspaw)
Unknown foreign actor (with possible Ruka catspaw)
 
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Dark thought: Kei also seems like she should have noticed the timeline's implications. If so, she never mentions it to Hazou. this implies one of:
We're totally off the mark about the timeline or implications, for some obvious reason we haven't though of.
She realized it potentially implies Shikamaru's involvement, and talked to him first. Whatever was said between them, she decided not to talk to Hazou.

This isn't very actionable, but is worth bearing in mind.
We do have 28 Deceit to Kei's 10, and Mari is in the room, so that might help us notice if Kei does know something.
 
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Dark thought: Kei also seems like she should have noticed the timeline's implications. If so, she never mentions it to Hazou. this implies one of:
We're totally off the mark about the timeline or implications, for some obvious reason we haven't though of.
She realized it potentially implies Shikamaru's involvement, and talked to him first. Whatever was said between them, she decided not to talk to Hazou.

This isn't very actionable, but is worth bearing in mind.
We do have 28 Deceit to Kei's 10, and Mari is in the room, so that might help us notice if Kei does know something.
Social rolls aren't made between family because otherwise we may as well let Mari run the clan because she can (and will) convince us to do whatever she wants.
 
Where are we with informing the Nara of all this? I'm pretty sure Kei knows all about this due to being included in sanity checks, but does she know what she can tell her husband? Mind, this would probably trickle down soon enough from Ino, but that shouldn't be the source Shikamaru gets it from, let alone accidentally (on our part).

Edit: In fact I'd hope that our sanity checkers would have caught us accidentally leaving out the Nara even as we inform three other Clans of there being a large large source of gemstones.

We've already reached out to them, though?
Not with heaps of free money that they can use in legal economic warfare against their rivals.
 
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Life debts and familial loyalty are a thing in this universe

Minami Nikko died protecting us, that probably counts too. The Minami are the clan that split of the Hyuuga and were almost killed for that, so yeah they have a good reason to hold a grude. On the other hand Hinata and Neji have probably better thigns to do than to hate some relatives.

(But the Minami might also produce Byakugans, like the Kurosawa produce Sharigans, so yeah, Hyuuga anger isn't 100% unjustified, just mostly)

Ultimately it was us who found the Porcupine scroll and made the Trade Network, so they are probably not going to start a crusade. Mari, Ino and Shino didn't stop us or comment, so I doubt that this is going to a big problem.

But we should keep other clan relations a bit in mind and not declare victory.

[X] Action Plan: To Speak in Vain to Silent Ash


It seems possible that Akane was specifically given this mission by someone in the Tower so that she would be out of the village and vulnerable to this pre-planned attack
  • Ruka's sloppy interrogation is likely too late to fix. But Hazou thinks it is bizarre that it was acceptable to mindwalk Akane to make sure she never leaked EM accidentally. But the same standard wasn't applied to Ruka. Whose actions could have leaked EM.
There seem to be multiple suspects, Shikamaru, Asuma, Rock/Lightning


Besides going around accusing our own people, can we ask Mari and Kei if they now any clan/nation/group that is in anyway suspected to have some abilities in mind manipulation? I am sure they aren't "famous" but random rumors might give us some insight where to look.

Maybe ask Mari/Kei something like this:
  • Any idea if some outsider are suspected to have mind manipulation abilities? (Extreme example: Orochimaru's cannibal seal)
And we should investigate with what people Ruka has been interacting and where.

I mostly want to figure out if we can find a good enough reason to push investigation in other places. Because sadly, our outside suspects aren't just Rock&Lightning, it's theoretically the whole world.

Tying up (minimun) a jounin and 2 chunin like that indefinitely is a significant expenditure of military force. Weak evidence against the team being on standby

The smaller nations didn't really lose many people and don't have to patrol as much as the big nations anyway. And were told that Grass&Waterfall seem to benefit from Rocks occupation.
 
I think it strikes too accusatory a tone regarding the events that took place surrounding Akane's death
I'm currently more worried that your plan is the more accusatory.

Ruka was softballed in her questioning by Naruto and Shikamaru
  • Shikamaru knows about Akane's value as an EM nuke, but seemed convinced she was dead upon hearing news of her tardiness, and unconcerned that she leaked EM.
  • Given the possibility of a leak from within the Tower his reaction is quite concerning.
This is Kei's husband and Clan head. Same goes, in complicated ways, for Snowflake.
If we truly suspect him I don't want to not broach it with them, but we must choose our words carefully when introducing the idea. Also, if Kei starts sharing our suspicions it will crush her. Hard. And she is not the kind of person who will be too optimistic and hopeful to fully consider it possible.

Of course the Frozen Skein is very important and useful to calculate the probability of anything like this, so I don't think having the whole conversation just with Mari is due diligence. But I still worry. Massively.
 
IIRC, Kei and Snowflake aren't cleared to know about EM nukes, but totally do. I think they belong in this meeting
"Before I propose with any ideas, sir," Hazō said, "I would like to involve Kei, Mari, and Akane in this conversation. They all bring different and valuable perspectives, and they'd be better able to troubleshoot potential ideas and propose new ones than I would alone."
Kei is cleared at least. She was at a meeting with Asuma about it.
This is Kei's husband and Clan head. Same goes, in complicated ways, for Snowflake.
If we truly suspect him I don't want to not broach it with them, but we must choose our words carefully when introducing the idea. Also, if Kei starts sharing our suspicions it will crush her. Hard. And she is not the kind of person who will be too optimistic and hopeful to fully consider it possible.

Of course the Frozen Skein is very important and useful to calculate the probability of anything like this, so I don't think having the whole conversation just with Mari is due diligence. But I still worry. Massively
I'm not a big fan of how this part is handled so far. I do plan on changing it. Make it more clear that Shikamaru is only one of the options, and possibly not discuss it with Kei at all. Just Mari.

That said, he had the motive and means, and he acted sus. I think we need talk about it with Mari at least.

I did for my update, but you should check with @Velorien that he's okay with it for this update.
@Velorien can we put the timeline in a separate post for you update?
 
I'm not a big fan of how this part is handled so far. I do plan on changing it. Make it more clear that Shikamaru is only one of the options, and possibly not discuss it with Kei at all. Just Mari.

I want to point out that if Kei will find out (And let's be honest, she's probably already weighting the possibility of Shikamaru being a suspect, it's how she thinks), she will be both angry and hurt at Hazou.
Fundamentally, Kei dislikes being treated as a child or a person devoid of agency, and trying to "Do what we must" as if she cannot make a choice will just make her furious...as it should, to be clear, because she's 100% right.
Kei is not a delicate flower, it's our trusted companion and Akane's family too.

EDIT: Barring OPSEC problems, NPCs are not NPCs(Eh), they are have their own agency, hopes and dreams and we should treat them accordingly IMHO, not as children that cannot deal with the reality of the situation.
 
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Kei is cleared at least. She was at a meeting with Asuma about it.

I'm not a big fan of how this part is handled so far. I do plan on changing it. Make it more clear that Shikamaru is only one of the options, and possibly not discuss it with Kei at all. Just Mari.

That said, he had the motive and means, and he acted sus. I think we need talk about it with Mari at least.


@Velorien can we put the timeline in a separate post for you update?
I think we should bring it up with Kei, couched that it might put her in an awkward position.
 
[not yet neck time] Action Plan: Economic War Council
Word Count: 299
[X] Action Plan: To Speak in Vain to Silent Ash
@Sir Stompy
I'm not sure if Naruto softballing the integration is the best choice of words it can be used a lot of ways and also sounds like we accusing him and there are a lot of things that he can use to explain it nor do I remember him even doing any interrogation

[X] Give Hinata and Shino post-interaction surveys
 
I want to point out that if Kei will find out (And let's be honest, she's probably already weighting the possibility of Shikamaru being a suspect, it's how she thinks), she will be both angry and hurt at Hazou.
Fundamentally, Kei dislikes being treated as a child or a person devoid of agency, and trying to "Do what we must" as if she cannot make a choice will just make her furious...as it should, to be clear, because she's 100% right.
Kei is not a delicate flower, it's our trusted companion and Akane's family too
I think we should bring it up with Kei, couched that it might put her in an awkward position
This is my first instinct. Yeah, make sure to couch it, but let her have the details of Hazou's thoughts. It's not like our mind is set on this and Hazou is ready to publicly accuse Shika. We have suspicions, it's a suspicious situation. That's ninja life.
I'm not sure if Naruto softballing the integration is the best choice of words it can be used a lot of ways and also sounds like we accusing him and there are a lot of things that he can use to explain it nor do I remember him even doing any interrogation
He's not, like, in the room, so sounding tangentially accusatory is fine here IMO. If there's broad disagreement in the thread that the Naruto and Shikamaru interrogation was a softball I'll take it out.

Funny this post if you felt the Ruka interrogation was a softball, insightful if it wasn't.
 
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