Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

Previously…

Kei released a tense, stuttering breath. "I certainly hope you found this endeavor worthwhile, Hazō," she whispered. "Far be it from me to complain about making even marginal progress towards balancing, no, not worsening the scales of the Condor genocide, but this appears to be a particularly poor exchange rate for political capital. At least in Kago, I had a plausible veneer of legality to my actions that, as the eloquent Taxiarchos points out, is wholly absent here. We are fortunate that he cannot afford to make my outright defiance of the law known without also publicly demonstrating his current inability to punish me for it."

Hazō glanced around at the pangolin soldiers milling about and the Conclave representatives that were still staying close to watch the humans. The two Sages had stuck around to keep an eye on the Taxiarchos, but now hopped back to one of the food tables within the trade hall, while the Rat Clan representative, Nezesari, continued to watch them. She no longer had her back hunched up, but instead extended her body long towards Hazō in a way that he could only describe as curious.

"We saved a life," Hazō said. "After Neck, any life we can save is worth it. As a plus, I think it may have opened some doors for us."

Hazō gestured at Noburi and Kei to follow him as he started to walk over to the Rat Clan ambassador, only for her to hunch up and quickly scamper off.

Noburi laughed. "Chill, bro. The Rats don't like conflict, and you're a giant ball of complications right now. Give it a couple days, and I'm sure they'll be willing to meet you somewhere quiet where the Pangolins don't find out. They've been softly advocating for better treatment for the Condors too, so they're prime suspects for 'assisting an escape' or whatever the Pangolins'll call this."

Hazō nodded. "Fine. Kei, you said that the Taxiarchos can't tell his people what happened because he'll look weak? Let's do it ourselves, then."

"Hazō," Kei said patiently. "Demonstrating obstreperous disregard for Pangolin laws to the Pangolin military police will not lead to consequences you find desirable."

"Not like that," Hazō said, sighing slightly. "Damage control. If the Pangolin leader won't publish a narrative for his people, let's fill that gap for them."

"What narrative makes you helping a Condor slave escape look good to the Condor-hating Pangolins?" Noburi asked in a whisper. "I think a good chunk of them signed up for the joy of getting to snap the whip."

"Lean on Kei's role," Hazō said. "Have her make sure they're not being mistreated, offer to bring any concerns about the Taxiarchos snapping at his own people before Pantsā. After all, they did their duty correctly."

"They did not," Kei said.

Hazō waved a hand. "Bah, we're talking about narrative, not fact. I'll be all grateful to them for protecting me despite my history and commend them for doing their duty well. You'll make them feel more personally important than Pangolin's vast bureaucracy ever made them feel, and Noburi will give them some nice gifts and talk them up. They'll be easy pickings after that. They'll parrot anything we want them to."

"Have you been spending too much time around Mari?" Noburi asked, smirking.

"Given the circumstances," Hazō said, "Just the right amount of time. C'mon."



The next day…

"...and by that point, my quills were already clean, so I simply bid him goodbye!" Harigoru said triumphantly. Minami gave a short, polite laugh in response.

"Ah, what's the manner, Minami?" the porcupine asked. "Don't tell me those other humans, the Gōketsu, are getting to you. Ever since that Hazō guy showed up, Noburi's been so serious! Now you're not finding my stories funny either?"

"Oh no, Harigoru," Minami said. "You're just as charming as ever. There's just been a lot weighing on my mind recently, that's all."

"What is it?" Harigoru asked. "I'm always glad to listen to a friend."

"Well… Tell me, what have you heard about the Dragons?"


"Hello, my most youthful friend!" said Kameress, the approximate priest of Turtle's trade delegation. He lowered a flipper and mimed a bow. It was a pathetic attempt. The turtle's shell didn't have a joint in the middle.

Neji ignored this affront as he had many, many others, and raised his hands above his head. He whispered a quiet thanks to the Sage that the Turtles had agreed that his training shell wasn't yet ready for display among the Conclave's clans. "Praise be to the Spirit of Youth!" Neji shouted in the traditional greeting.

"Praise be to the glorious Spirit of Youth!" yelled Kameress, raising his flippers above his head in joy.

"Praise be to the glorious and magnificent Spirit of Youth!" yelled Kamo, another of the Turtle trade representatives, raising her flippers above her head in joy. When had she come in? Neji had thought he'd cornered Kamerisu, but if Kamo was here…

"Praise be to the glorious and magnificent Spirit of Youth for all eternity!" yelled Kamail, one of the soldiers that had accompanied the traders on their long journey to Pangolin (they bordered each other, but the Turtles took their time over land).

"Praise be to the great, glorious, and magnificent Spirit of Youth for all eternity!" yelled another Turtle, and more were streaming in as the Youth-praising circle started to grow in the cramped room that Neji had chosen for his private conversation with Kameress.

The yelling and praising continued for minutes, and Neji had to profess his youth a half-dozen more times before some of the Turtles were so overcome with joy that they started to make commitments to various exercises and personal tortures that they would perform to demonstrate their dedication.

Nearly a quarter-hour later, with his ears ringing and teeth aching, Neji was finally left alone with Kameress again.

"Truly, you humans know youth better than we ever could," Kameress said, wiping a tear from one eye. "I find myself delighted to know that if ever our hearts go dark, you will always be able to relight the flames of Youth for us old fogeys."

"You are only one hundred and forty," Neji said.

"Bah," Kameress said, waving a flipper. "I'm old to you. Now, while I am grateful for the youth within your heart, I am certain there is more here. What joyous news have you decided to bring before me?"

"The news is important but dangerous," Neji said. He disliked needing to soil his tongue for manipulation, but orders were orders. "In fact, you already know it, in part. However, despite its importance, many who have heard it have chosen to respond… unyouthfully."

Kameress looked taken aback, so Neji continued. "Yes, you know what I speak of. I have come to tell you about… The Dragons."


"Welcome, welcome!" said Kawalier, the Otter's leader at the Conclave. "Never have I had to host a clan boss in this interim home, or any home at all! Please, make yourself comfortable."

Lord Sarutobi Asuma, Seventh Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, folded his hands before himself and bowed shallowly. "I am honored to be your guest," he said, as he took off the conical hat and white haori of the Hokage's office.

"Sit, sit," Kawalier said. "Incidentally, how strange that you humans wear your marks of rank and status in easily removable layers." The Otter thumbed at the various points in his fur where shiny wires of metal and occasional ornamented gemstones had been woven in. "Are your ranks so variable that you need to be able to remove and change them at all times?"

"Well, my position is secure," Asuma said with a laugh. "Most people don't change their social status often. No, clothes are good for keeping warm against the winter cold, but you have to be able to take them off when the summer comes. I know the temperature doesn't change too much on the Seventh Path, but on the Human Path, wearing the wrong clothes at the wrong time of year can be deadly."

"How deplorable!" Kawalier said. "It is such a shame that the Human Path is so deadly to its residents. No matter, you and your people have clearly done well for yourselves, so there must be opportunity in the chaos."

"There's plenty of good to be found," Asuma said with a neutral smile.

"Yes, charming… I can tell we will have much to talk about!" Kawalier said, holding out a small bowl of snacks.

"Indeed we will," Asuma said, keeping his face neutral as he reached out to grab a bite of the rancid-smelling dried fish. "In fact, I have many, many things that I want to share with you…"



The day after that…

"And this is my wife, Nezala," Nezesari said, indicating with her nose the last of the rats that had come out to greet the visiting Gōketsu. Nezala was also knee-high while on all-fours, and had a coat that was a slightly darker brown than Nezesari's chestnut.

"Your… wife?" Hazō asked, momentarily bewildered.

"Yes," Nezesari said, then chittered nervously. "Ah, my mistake. Human norms only permit pair-bonding between male and female, correct?"

"No, that's- Yes, our norms don't allow it, but it's fine with us," Hazō said, looking between Kei and Noburi, who both nodded.

"I see," Nezesari said. "Most Seventh Path clans have similar pair-bonding norms, but it's not a norm that they defend when people outside the clan break it. Are you sure it doesn't make you uncomfortable?"

"Not at all," Hazō said.

"Good," Nezesari said, relaxing fractionally and scampering to the opposite end of the short table to join her wife. "My dear Nezala has no patience for the manipulation of numbers that trading consists of, but she's a sharp eye and a sharper conversationalist."

"A pleasure to meet you," Nezala said demurely, flicking her tail and inching slightly towards Nezesari as the other rats left to tend to their various responsibilities in the trade delegation. "I am Nezala, daughter of Nezta. Thank you for the offer to try Human Path cuisine. We've tried plenty of the Human Path foods, but it was news to us that human culture so heavily emphasized the different ways that the same foods could be prepared."

"I am Gōketsu Hazō, and these are my siblings Kei and Noburi, who you are already aware of," Hazō said, placing a small box on the short table with a light thunk. "I'm glad to make your acquaintance. If I may, I appreciate your hosting and wanted to offer you a gift." He knelt down and undid the knots tying the box shut, then let the sides fall away to reveal an Earthshaped sculpture of a male figure, holding up an ornate staff.

Hazō had been struck by a fit of inspiration earlier while he'd been brainstorming gifts for the Conclave. He'd taken stones of various colors to represent the Six Paths. White marble for the Deva Path, carnelian for the Asura Path, lapis lazuli for the Human Path, jade for the Animal Path, moonstone for the Preta Path, and obsidian for the Naraka Path. He had used Earthshaping to merge the colors together in waves and spirals as they crawled up the figure's robes, and across its arms, then melded them into a spiral where the face would have been. In one of the figure's hands, a small book laid open, while in the other, a staff topped by a shining quartz ball. Hazō had snuck a rolled-up HOWS into the bottom of the staff earlier to diffuse light through the quartz.

"It is the Sage of the Six Paths, as the humans see him," Hazō said. "The six colors represent the Paths that he made, and the shining crystal represents the Seventh Path, his finest creation. I know you must see him differently, but I thought this would interest you."

The two Rats across the table had been transfixed by the statue, but Nezala was the first to break out of the trance. "How beautiful!" she said. "Though I'm afraid we can't take your gift. I have to confess that I'm a little bit surprised. Does your culture respect and revere the Sage?"

"Why wouldn't we?" Hazō asked.

"We took a little bit of time to learn about the Human Path when we came here," Nezala said, "though not nearly enough. We're no Crows, our records on the Human Path are scarce. Plus, we can't exactly ask the clan's singers for songs from Pangolin. Still, once we pooled everything we had, we got the impression that the Human Path is just awful. The wildlife kills you, so you can't hunt or gather from the land. Instead, you're forced to plant random plants in safe places to harvest their fruits, but static farms make you a target for predators and vermin. If you fight them off, the weather might kill your plants by being too hot or too cold or too dry or too wet. And even if you make enough food, if your neighbors don't, they might just invade you and kill you for it!"

"Right," Hazō said. "Those are problems the Human Path faces, but we wouldn't have any hope of solving them if it weren't for the Sage giving us chakra. Most ninja would use chakra to steal food, but we're making the world a better place instead. We fertilize people's fields so their crops grow better, and we build walls so chakra beasts don't attack them. We're even building an international coalition to stop war forever."

"Wouldn't these problems be much easier to solve without the chakra beasts at all?" Nezesari asked. "Again, we don't understand the Human Path very well, but I would imagine that chakra beasts, given the name, are also a consequence of chakra."

"I don't know," Hazō said. "I haven't spent much time talking with priests, but they might have an explanation. Maybe the chakra beast already existed, and the Sage balanced the scales. I'm not sure if humanity would have survived a thousand years without chakra. Plus, a lack of chakra beasts wouldn't keep war from happening. If at all, it might be worse."

"If the Sage gave humans chakra, why couldn't he take it away from the chakra beasts?" Nezesari asked.

Hazō shrugged. "The Sage didn't do many things. He didn't kill or banish the Tailed Beasts when he perhaps could have, and he chose to imprison the Dragons when I know for a fact that they're killable. Maybe he ran out of power after making the Paths. Someone," Hazō said, acutely aware of who, "said that the Sage's failure made us live in a broken world. I think that's true. He tried to make the world better, but failed in ways large and small. Still, he gave us the tools to try again. That's what we're doing."

"Interesting," Nezala said. "I suppose I don't exactly know how the balance plays out between the costs of chakra beasts and the benefits of chakra. Still, you have to look at the Seventh Path in envy, right?"

"What do you mean?" Hazō asked.

Nezesari curled up her tail. "She has a just-so explanation of the Seventh Path's origin that she likes."

Nezala flicked her whiskers. "The reasoning is just-so, but the Human Path gives a potential counterfactual." She turned to Hazō. "I think there's reasonable evidence that Seventh Path was designed to be a paradise. The land is fair and fruitful so that almost anyone can survive without toil. No predators pose a real danger to a civilized clan, and clan leaders have vastly superior strength within their own borders, so defenders in war are much stronger than aggressors, disincentivizing conflict. It's not perfect, but it seems much, much better than the Human Path. Don't you wish that the Sage had made your Path the way he made ours?"

"I suppose," Hazō said. "But war isn't impossible on the Seventh Path. In fact, the only war I've seen has been exceptionally brutal."

The rats didn't respond to that.

The silence dragged on.

"Now," Noburi said. "We've heard that the Rat Clan are known as pacifists. I want to learn more about why that is. Maybe there are some lessons we could learn to improve our efforts on the Human Path."

"It's easy to be a pacifist in a world where war makes no sense," Nezala said. "It sounds harder to apply the same principles on the Human Path."

"Yeah, I can imagine a couple times where refusing to fight would have meant we all died," Noburi said with a grimace. "But that doesn't mean we can't try to minimize the amount that we need to kill people, you know?"

Both rats winced slightly at the reminder that the humans across from them were trained killers. The two of them had been slowly inching towards each other over the course of the conversation, and now they were cuddled up into each other.

Nezala seemed to draw strength from the physical connection. "Pacifism is the final conclusion of starting from certain principles, but it's a little hard to explain. Here's one way of looking at it: war is costly and destroys resources. There's almost always a way to divide resources so that everyone is better off without the costs of a war."

"Of course," Nezesari said, "those costs must actually exist to disincentivize war. We had secured an alliance to ostracize the Pangolins and refuse them any trade, but instead they became a mercantile hub and got rich off of tariffs. While they can't evade the price in blood, the wealth of their land and the wealth of the Condors' no doubt soothes their wound and erases their shame."

"I regret supplying the Pangolins with seals," Hazō said, as calmly as possible. "I intend on making things right however I can. We already have plans. For example, if we can get the Clan Bosses together to fight the Dragons, Conjura will no doubt be one of the strongest combatants. We intend to confront Pantsā with Conjura's contributions and demand her people's freedom as a reward for her work, if everything goes right. We want to work with you to achieve that goal."

The rats didn't respond, again letting the conversation dip into silence for a moment.

"We want the Condors' freedom, yes," Nezesari said. "Nezala explained that we don't have many material needs. Instead, we've been using our gains from the trade network to incrementally buy rights for the Condors as much as we can. You have given us a reason to believe your sincerity. You freed Confute. I assume you'll pay dearly for it, and that's a good, costly signal that you're trustworthy. But you have broken a contract. Someone that has broken a contract is very hard to trust."

"I broke a contract with the Pangolins," Hazō said as Kei fidgeted to his side. "Who were exploiting that contract to enslave one species and conquer another. It was the right thing to do."

"We're only talking to you at all because you broke a contract with the Pangolins. If you'd backstabbed an actually respectable clan like that…" Nezala said. "It's a surprise that the Pangolins are letting you run around their territory at all."

"Presumably, you wouldn't have broken the contract if the circumstances weren't bad," Nezesari said. "That you did so, or claim to have done so, for moral reasons is a point in your favor, but the contract was still broken. There's a world of difference between someone who never breaks a contract and someone who will only break a contract when they disagree with you. You can work with the latter, but you can't trust them when they want something from you. I won't disagree that the world may be a better place because you broke the contract, but it also makes you hard to negotiate with."

"Are you saying that the Summon Clans never lie or break their oaths?"

"Almost," Nezesari said. "I don't think most clan members explicitly reason about the clan-wide effects of individual principles, but most people on the Seventh Path strongly prioritize honesty and always uphold their contracts. I think lying is sometimes acceptable, especially to humans, but a habitual liar is disdained. Surely you can see the difference between someone that doesn't like lying but will do it anyway if they think it's right, and someone that never lies?"

"You can get temporary gains by breaking contracts when it seems sensible," Nezala said. "However, it makes it harder for others to cooperate with you. If you always keep your contracts, you open up forms of coordination that would otherwise be impossible. For example, it lets you make trade deals with your worst enemies, because they know you won't break your word. It's not always good to empower your enemies, but sometimes you value what they can give you more than you fear what they'll do with what you give them."

"Basically, if you hadn't broken a contract," Nezesari said, "the Seventh Path clans would be unsure about you. You'd have enabled a massive atrocity, but you might still have been the kind of person that, if you swore an oath that something was true, that it would be your honest, true belief. However, now everyone knows that you can deploy your word for instrumental reasons. You may be acting according to morals that most people would endorse, but your words are now inextricably tied to your motivations."

"In a world where you hadn't broken the contract, the clans would have needed to judge whether you were absolutely honorable," Nezala said. "That's very hard with humans, but many of the clans are used to dealing with humans, especially the clan leaders. Instead, they need to decide whether your story adds up. Sure, the Dragons might be real and your instrumental reasons to speak should also make the clans respond. But the story is very unlikely and the evidence is thin."

"The Dragons are real," Hazō said firmly. "If you do not believe my word, then how about Convei's? She came to Arachnid and confirmed my reports of the Dragons before returning to the Conclave."

Nezesari and Nezala looked at each other for a moment. Nezesari twitched her nose. "This is the first time I have heard of this. How can I speak to this Condor? Are they free, or under the Pangolin's claws?"

"Convei came to Arachnid on Pantsā's orders," Hazō said. "I thought she would return to the Conclave to give her report, but apparently not. She should be in Pangolin, though. Either way, if you don't believe my words, you'll have to believe Monkey King Enma. He'll be here in under a week to corroborate my story about the Dragons."

"Hm," Nezesari said. "Then I'll have to wait for his testimony. Until then, you said you had some foods from the Human Path that you wanted to show us?"

Hazō didn't want to let the conversation end there, but Noburi was quick to jump in and keep the atmosphere cordial.

Noburi placed a few storage seals on the table and tapped one, causing a puff of smoke. "So," he said, "this is a dish from Mist, where I grew up…"

---

Author's Note: There were no goods damaged in the scuffle as the trade hall is not an open-air market, but a place where the various Seventh Path Clans discuss potential trades of massive amounts of goods for their clans via the network. Any goods out in public are solely for demonstration purposes.

There are officers below the Taxiarchos' authority that Kei can point out. They are generally loyal to Pangolin and follow the Taxiarchos' lead. Kei identifies Tagmatarchis Pantile, who leveraged her position as an officer to become a trader and got fairly rich via the trade network, as a potential target for bribery/buttering up.

For attempting the Conclave entrance with only Noburi and Kei by his side, Hazō has created the Aspect "The New Sannin!?". Any of the three can tag this Aspect for free once per Conclave member party (e.g. once against the Rats, once against the Capybaras, etc.), and it can be invoked as normal. It is best suited for Presence/Intimidation checks.
For the Saturday vote close deadline (1pm Eastern), please write a plan with the [Conclave] tag. For example:

[][Conclave] Take It Easy

• Finish the dinner with the Rats, take a day off, then make more friends and trade deals with less nitpicky clans. Convince them about the Dragons once you've made a connection.

Voting for this plan will be counted from the end of this chapter, not @Velorien's Thursday chapter, so feel free to start plan-making immediately.

Brevity XP: 1 (to be bulk awarded at the end of the arc)

A reminder that your two goals at the Conclave were: 1) Convince people of the Dragon threat so that they'll honestly advocate for their Bosses' presence when Enma arrives with his message, and 2) Find a way for Conjura to be a party to the Conclave when the other Bosses arrive.