Chapter 6OO: Buy Me Time.
"When else would we act?" Shikamaru asked. "Every passing year induces more risk. Would you accept killing Isan's next generation instead of this one? Or the one thereafter? Knowing, of course, that every step down this ladder risks the rest of the world as well."
A vision flashed through Hazō's mind, hell wind crashing down into Isan. Each other option had been pruned away, seemingly by fate. There was nothing he could do.
He froze.
There was nothing he could do now.
"Put a number on that for me - how much additional risk does one year cause? Can you buy me that time? Assume we step up our Isan containment efforts with risky political plays, weakening Leaf but keeping EM secret."
Both Nara and Mori involuntarily leaned back, their minds and talent focused on the problem.
The genius spoke first, "if we spend a truly ludicrous amount of political capital to make Isan unappealing to other powers while simultaneously boosting their economy into a golden age, the risk envelope only grows roughly ten percent, compared to removing the threat now."
The optimizer spoke second, "Unnecessary. The two approaches can be combined. Isan is fraught with paralyzing internal politics; if we promote their isolationist power bloc behind the scenes while publicly showering them with gifts to beg for their alliance their leadership will be paralyzed and their followers will happily stay to reap the benefits we provide."
She continued, "This will not work long term. Within two years the plot will be discovered, but it is nearly guaranteed to work until the next Chūnin exams.
Both thinkers turned to Hazō, and questioned in near unison, "Why?".
Asuma watched the byplay, his mask revealing nothing.
"What if the storm EM causes is an emergent property of wind spirits hating the cold, rather than an effect specifically from the EM jutsu?"
Shikamaru answered instantly, "Then life is doomed to end. Eventually someone will accidentally or purposefully destroy civilization via unleashing blizzard-river spirits into the heart of population centers."
Hazō nodded - he'd been expecting that answer.
"Have you considered the Hazō factor?" Hazō questioned, his mask entirely serious.
Asuma's mask broke at that, "This is NOT the time for jokes Gōketsu! First, this entire conspiracy is pointless because EM itself isn't the danger, then second the conspiracy is pointless because you yourself can solve it?!"
Uncertainty soured Hazō's stomach, "I'm sorry, you're right. I was using levity as a crutch so I can keep throwing ideas out without collapsing under the horror of what we're doing here. I promise there's substance behind the joke."
Mari opened her mouth, then closed it, not seeing the expected need to smooth things over between Hazō and his boss.
Hazō took a deep breath to center himself, then began to speak.
"Sealing can do anything. I mean that literally - Sealing taps into the building blocks of reality in a way that little else does. I haven't had time to research any seals that may prevent EM from going off, or potentially from my hypothetical emergent property having an effect, but they are categorically possible."
Asuma nodded, the lore from his predecessors covered this.
Kei nodded, the lore from living with Kagome covered this.
Mari nodded, the lore from wrangling Hazō covered this.
Shikamaru blanched, turning white as bone porcelain. He then turned an interesting shade of green, before a wave of exhaustion seemed to come over him.
"Troublesome."
Hazō grimaced, "Yeah, assuming I live long enough I fully plan on Sealing away aspects of Sealing itself. Otherwise a given chakra capable person could theoretically end the world just by infusing some chakra into the scribbles their kid made."
The silence was deafening, and Hazō quickly continued, "THATS INCREDIBLY UNLIKELY. Really bad Sealing failures are generally related to the intent of the seal perverted by unaccounted for astrological variables. With a novice there's no intent, so the scope of the failure is much smaller."
The room relaxed, moderately.
"We'll trust your expertise Hazō, continue." Asuma wiped his face, stress billowing off him in waves.
"Right. Elemental mastery. A seal to turn off this weapon is not only possible, it's possible in any way I can imagine it, if I have the skill to bring it into being. With paper Sealing I'd likely need to dedicate the rest of my life to this project, and thus wouldn't be able to offer it as a solution. Chakra diffusion is just too big of an issue, and paper seals don't work with nearly enough chakra to punch through the ambient noise"
Hazō lipped his suddenly dry lips, finding he needed a new movement to do so.
"I'm on the verge of being able to create 3D seals, my control just isn't fine enough, though there are a couple other things I want to try. Once I can, I'll make an anti-EM-apocalypse seal. If the range can hit the whole EN from wherever I put it great, if not we can either build copies secretly all over the place, or loop in other village leaders into our cabal to directly get permission, hell maybe we could even sync that up to the next chūnin exams to start negotiating."
Shikamaru spoke, "Hazō... even if your plan works, look at the numbers. You're betting on finishing a research project in a field that you haven't broken into yet that hasn't been touched since the sage himself, at the cost of a 10% inc-"
"8%. Your math was bad and you forgot to account for NOBURI."
Shikamaru huffed, "fine, an 8% chance for civilization to end. Hazō, at the upper end there are 500 men, women, and children in Isan. Their continued existence puts the lives of all humanity, including themselves, at risk. There are 2.5 million people in the elemental nations, as far as we are aware. If this decision is hard, that is us saying that a 100% chance for 500 people to die is equivalent or worse to an 8% chance for 2.5 million people to die. This is the calculus of putting a value on life - which is worse? 500 people dying or the equivalent of 200,000 people dying?"
Kei grew angry, "Why do you insist on being pessismistic?!"
The room stared at Kei in silence. Mari considered dispelling.
"Those calculations fail to take the..." Kei glared at Hazō, "Hazō factor into account. If we are presupposing a world where we can prevent elemental mastery from ending the world directly rather than removing all knowledge of it, then obviously we are going to have more tools at our disposal by the time we do so! Our job will get easier!"
An anbu agent entered and signed, two sharp movement that Asuma had been dreading.
"I need to leave now if we are going to have a chance this year. I'll think on the way. " A stone faced Hokage stood and moved to leave, when he found a shaking lord Gōketsu standing in front of him.
"Sir. Just buy me time, please. All I need is more time. I don't think killing Isan will truly solve the problem, and will just end with 500 fewer allies against the dark". Hazō forced himself to look up, past the field gear, past the chakdar slipped under Asuma's vest, and finally to his eyes.
Hazō shook at the still distant look in his Kage's eyes.
"I'll think on the way."
