Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
- Start date
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- Tags
- naruto rationalist romance armageddon is looking better and better damn you kishimoto explosions everywhere explosives solve everyone if in doubt surrender to the mercy of zabuza it seemed like a good idea at the time looks like a really bad case of being a jōnin my god. where does the lore end? precommitting is the winning plan screaming in kagome screw the rules i have explosives something bad might still happen sometimes you gotta sociopath stabby zabby subsection c of paragraph 9 should include we can weaponize this so hard open voting
Iris-Iven-Ibis
Interested-Idiot-Immortal
- Location
- You know
Today's music was decided before the chapter was even posted a song fitting to beings with God like power clashing clashing
- Location
- Fifth Dimension
[X] Action Plan: Maybe this time
Word Count: <300
Time of Plan: 10 days
Word Count: <300
Time of Plan: 10 days
- Mari/Kei
- Getting Kagome SC. Should be easy with Dragons and his sealing, right? If not, what can we offer? Maybe mandatory OPSEC classes for Kagome?
- Yuno SC as well, and work on Noburi
- Is it safe for him? Ask Kabuto? Noburi himself?
- Ino wants Goo Bombs for her clan, what is a good thing to ask for in return?
- Resolve Boosting Jutsu?
- Genjutsu for Mari?
- Something else?
- Possible collaboration on Mari's training. Looking for optimization, realize we won't have full control
- Same with Kagome and Yuno, ask how to approach this/to get this.
- Asuma (likely off-screen)
- Sanity check with Mari/Kei
- Discuss getting Kagome SC for Dragonwar. More Kagome-level sealing is big help.
- Probe about Yuno and Noburi SC also.
- Continue with lessons
- Ino
- Hang out with her. Tend to Akane's garden. Complete trade deal if it's decided.
- Hidan/Kakuzu
- Check on progress of finding Akane's killers
- Ask for more Jashin lore
- Introduce Uplift (especially MARI and taxing) to Kakuzu
- Ask for Kakuzu's rates and what jobs he's willing to do (teach? Bodyguard? etc.)
- Hazou/Sealing
- Continue work on Minato's Seals as he sees fit
- Use a clone to multi-thread, work on Directional Explosives as he sees fit
- Once complete, do 1 day prep on Rocket Boots, proceed as Hazou sees fit based on difficulty
- Once Rocket Boots is complete, use shadow clones and 1 day prep to check seals from the list. Have Kagome work on the blood tracking and security seal if possible.
I don't think we were ever going to convince Hidan definitely not to murder people, he's a S-rank and a fanatic and it's inaccurate to say it locked him in since it did come down to a die roll. 40% odds of talking Hidan out of slaughter is pretty good, honestly.
- Location
- Madness realms
Hazo didn't commit treason so that's good.
Well... it's neither a great or a terrible outcome, so.... yay, on average?
Sounds like a plan. I kinda wish Asuma could make us a hunter-nin, but we can't send Hazou-prime on such missions. I like how we wouldn't mention Jashin; Hazou probably isn't in the mood to talk about it, and Jashinism is not what matters here: we're trying to mitigate Hidan/Hazou massacres.
Do we actually need to mention the tone? I'm pretty sure Hazou-pilot is devastated enough to do it unprompted. A "be honest with our feelings" would be stronger, I feel like.
The concern is more than fair. In Japanese mythology, gods are empowered by the number of believers (and perhaps the degree of fanaticism), so we probably want to pay attention to how we sound when talking about Jashin.
I'm concerned about Kei's propensity of jumping to conclusions/the guns. We might want to specifically warn her against doing that, before reaching the meat of the discussion.
Also, if Jashin is real, what other gods may be real?
I don't think so, since we're still with Hidan.
He'll die, by our hands or not, but he has to die.
Sounds like a plan. I kinda wish Asuma could make us a hunter-nin, but we can't send Hazou-prime on such missions. I like how we wouldn't mention Jashin; Hazou probably isn't in the mood to talk about it, and Jashinism is not what matters here: we're trying to mitigate Hidan/Hazou massacres.
Do we actually need to mention the tone? I'm pretty sure Hazou-pilot is devastated enough to do it unprompted. A "be honest with our feelings" would be stronger, I feel like.
The concern is more than fair. In Japanese mythology, gods are empowered by the number of believers (and perhaps the degree of fanaticism), so we probably want to pay attention to how we sound when talking about Jashin.
I'm concerned about Kei's propensity of jumping to conclusions/the guns. We might want to specifically warn her against doing that, before reaching the meat of the discussion.
That's... an interesting guess! Not sure I believe that yet, though. Jashin has been portrayed as influencing causality, but he probably requires Jcoins to do that. Hidan necessitating a die throw may not be Jashin-related.
A superintelligent eldritch god failing at converting more than 50% of the world population after a 1000year+ of interaction? He'd be not even trying. I'd sooner believe it just wants to destroy humanity, since it'd be succeeding.
Also, if Jashin is real, what other gods may be real?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
uhhhh okay so @eaglejarl @Velorien @Paperclipped here's what I'm getting for Hazou's SC training if he gets any:
(62 - 11 (TN factor) + 3 (Resolve 40) + 3 (SC 40) - 8 (Consequences)) = 49 hours
49/3 = 16.3 => 16 training blocks, multiplier of 1.6x
1.6 x 5 = 8 SC XP
(62 - 11 (TN factor) + 3 (Resolve 40) + 3 (SC 40) - 8 (Consequences)) = 49 hours
49/3 = 16.3 => 16 training blocks, multiplier of 1.6x
1.6 x 5 = 8 SC XP
Noumero
Omit Needless Words
Yup agreed. My preferred sequence would be:
- Debrief with the Thinkers + Mari + Asuma, agree on a plan.
- Talk to Hidan again. Gather information on Jashin, bring up the executioner role as a possibility to entice him.
- Then have another debriefing with the aforementioned people, where we reach a definitive conclusion on Jashin, and only then Asuma approves or bans the executioner idea.
I'm not convinced the roll was really random. Jashin.
(shrug) He seems pretty boxed-in. Like, Hidan appears to be His only real agent? And He doesn't have a high-bandwidth information channel to him ("they cut out His tongue"), and may only be able to influence probability in his or Hazou's vicinity, and who knows what He can see of the world...
Ain't that the question.
- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
My instinct is that we shouldn't confer with him about the executioner job. It might make him want to stick his fingers into the situation and do something that makes it politically inconvenient for us (more than it already is). Like, just off the top of my head all he'd need to do is talk about it to other people: ideally if we take on this role we do it secretly so Leaf at large doesn't have to ask why the Mad Clan Lord and alleged Jashinist now insists on personally killing people in front of Leaf.
Plus, conviction. We'll score more points in Hidan's book by just doing it and then telling him when he next shows up than by asking him if he would approve of this or not.
Personally I think our 'in' is pretty straightforward already. We've asked him theology questions multiple times now and he's always brushed them off, but now we don't have a quota to fill or any other practical matters to settle, nothing to get in the way. There's no better time than now to teach Hazou all the Jashin theology he's supposed to know but doesn't.
Noumero
Omit Needless Words
Fair points, agreed.
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
We need to reassure Asuma we're a loyal Leaf ninja before he has us disappeared.
We need to talk to Mari and Kei so that we can rebuild our clan's reputation. The whole Leaf just saw us shadowing Hidan while he shouted claims about us being a Jashinist.
It's bad enough that we're first generation Leaf ninja. It's bad enough that we're radically liberal and push social norms as far as we can. It's bad enough that we have a dangerously unstable reputation that makes other Clan Heads wary of interacting with us (see: Shino).
We don't need the reputation of being a heathen on top of all the above.
To that point...
We need to talk to Mari and Kei so that we can rebuild our clan's reputation. The whole Leaf just saw us shadowing Hidan while he shouted claims about us being a Jashinist.
It's bad enough that we're first generation Leaf ninja. It's bad enough that we're radically liberal and push social norms as far as we can. It's bad enough that we have a dangerously unstable reputation that makes other Clan Heads wary of interacting with us (see: Shino).
We don't need the reputation of being a heathen on top of all the above.
To that point...
Asuma has the context to know Hazo's loyal already. That specifically is not the problem. The problems are public perception of Hazo since Asuma still does have to factor that in and also yet another problem to reassess whether Hazo's worth the trouble. The answer is still probably yes but I'm concerned that having a disastrous public reputation will change that.
- Location
- Fifth Dimension
...Why? We've done this before and he's never questioned it. We didn't do anything to shake his belief in us so...
They'll do this on their own, no? Like it's what they do.
Noumero
Omit Needless Words
I don't think either of those is a major concern. Crazy S-rankers be crazy, yo. If they show up, you do whatever they tell you so they let you live. Everyone knows that. It may add to the rumors, but no-one is going to take that with some sort of grave seriousness, and it's easily dispellable.
Also, it's not something to be done now, while the S-rankers in question are still in Leaf and (1) may do any amount of further public displays implicating us in things, (2) may take offense at us trying to disassociate from them. Once they leave, sure.
The things we actually need to manage now are (1) Shikamaru and Kei's concerns about us being influenced by Jashin, (2) Hidan and Kakuzu themselves.
- Location
- Liverpool
It all totally makes sense, and stems from rational prompts. But the last couple months have really just driven home how terrible the setting is.
Akane probably-dying, where our brother-in-law is a legitimate suspect. Us having to fight and burn political capital, just to spare one single war prisoner from execution on the 7th path. Losing most of a pack on a cross continent trip. Losing chunks of our estate, citizens, and Kagome's student in that failed seal. Confirmation the Aeros are gone. A village gets wiped out because we couldn't convince an S-ranker otherwise. Another village gets wiped out, breaking the world peace treaty with still-drying ink, just to have a chance at prolonging the world.
Some of these we've been partially responsible for. A couple, we had a hand in, but mostly just by virtue of not fixing a thing, or paying for past mistakes. And some things are unrelated from us. The fact that many of them relate to past errors at least makes it engaging from the perspective. But geez, does it feel like a lot when you list it all out. It's been a rough couple months, in and out of character.
Akane probably-dying, where our brother-in-law is a legitimate suspect. Us having to fight and burn political capital, just to spare one single war prisoner from execution on the 7th path. Losing most of a pack on a cross continent trip. Losing chunks of our estate, citizens, and Kagome's student in that failed seal. Confirmation the Aeros are gone. A village gets wiped out because we couldn't convince an S-ranker otherwise. Another village gets wiped out, breaking the world peace treaty with still-drying ink, just to have a chance at prolonging the world.
Some of these we've been partially responsible for. A couple, we had a hand in, but mostly just by virtue of not fixing a thing, or paying for past mistakes. And some things are unrelated from us. The fact that many of them relate to past errors at least makes it engaging from the perspective. But geez, does it feel like a lot when you list it all out. It's been a rough couple months, in and out of character.
- Location
- Texas
We've worked on Rocket Boots before and made some progress. They're jonin difficulty without the DE veterancy.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
No reaction post because frankly speaking I shouldn't even be here right now as my horribleterrible exams have started but everyone here is just so damn cool I have to say something
Also we lived somehow? And even no PotO-lite things to regret later?
Hidan feels that every time he meets his quota,he gets XP and FP things turn up for him. Convincing him that this lifelong belief/observation is wrong because he's doing it wrong would be a tougher sell than "Lord Jashin wants something else from us." which he can get behind reluctantly.
Now let's pester Hidan about Jashin lor-
Also we lived somehow? And even no PotO-lite things to regret later?
The jash-in jokes specifically
Instructions unclear, now there are more Hidans running around
Hidan was always going to kill whomever he wanted 🤷♀️ I don't think we could have prevented that (unless Jashin willed it in the dice).
Hidan feels that every time he meets his quota,
Now let's pester Hidan about Jashin lor-
SHIKAMARU: Hazō, it was five in the morn- I mean, no,
His favour tips the scales in our favour if we punched enough previously (we can reroll bad rolls and boost with FP, and we get XP to enjoy if we do some punching)
And even in number of devout believers who'll kill for him. Demon appears to be chock-full of them, if Team Bloodrage was any indication. The BotG had droves of cultists.
That'll be a tough sell, we'll need Mari for that. And then Mari will tell us that "remember when we learnt like seventeen times that the Will of Fire is the will to protect, and Leaf ninja only kill to protect, and then Hidan turned up and killed everyone for fun?" and we'll say "yes" and she'll ruffle our hair and say we're a dumbass
Hazō was becoming an alien mind, bringing a mix of wisdom and uncanny valley to others. It was really not as enjoyable to write for the QMs, and so it was scrapped because that was becoming Where The Quest Was Headed. It got... not "retconned," I'd say, but something along the lines of "re-analysed as a series of lucky breaks with something he really shouldn't play with too much."
Remember that Pain will live, eventually. We don't have a plan to prevent that. Pain could revive him anyway. How about sealing him? That's what it's for!
Jashin Two Which Is Twice As Good
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Noumero
Omit Needless Words
No, no, it's obvious I could've prevented this if I had just spent a bit more effort optimizing our primary attack vector. As I'd mentioned, I'd even seen the fatal flaws in it, but correcting them felt like a cumbersome task that would've required re-coordinating the rest of the thread. As such, I'd banked on the Hazoupilot handling it, while imagining a very specific model of how that conversation is going to go, in a blatant violation of Maxim 47.
If I didn't just recognize that I'd locked myself into a suboptimal path-dependent mindset, but had actually spent the minuscule effort to break out of it and re-aim the attack vector; if I'd tried to tweak the plan so as to minimize the list of assumptions on which its success relied; if I'd actually visualized what was going to happen, instead of imagining what I'd like to happen — then we likely would've attained an unconditional victory. Relationship maintained, village saved, Hidan converted, Jashin lore acquired.
What happened is the result of my personal failure, plain and simple. It was entirely in my capability to avert.
How's my Kei impression? 
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Unaligned Player
Agony that desires to meet Extinction
- Location
- Adrift between sanity and madness
- Pronouns
- Shrug
Spot on, could not be better for the scenario.
- Location
- Europa, Jupiter Orbit
IMO we are not debriefing Asuma because we want to convince him we are loyal. We are doing it because it's the right thing to do and because we genuinely need his help and input here. Like, it's the right course of action because we are loyal. Not perfectly loyal, mind you, but more loyal than we are to any other state or institution in the EN. Certainly more loyal than we are to Jashin or anyone from Akatsuki. Asuma might be a genocidal S(?)-Ranker, but if it wasn't for Tsunade I'd start wondering if those two terms are synonymous anyway.
Also, I disliked that the effect seemed to be permanent and it seemed like the QMs did too. Occasionally dipping into it for specific alien conversations as opposed to only for sealing would probably not have led to a generally unenjoyable Hazō. The way he switched during the special jōnin exams seemed fun to me. Him randomly dipping into it during conversations with his loved ones or with people asking him about Uplift certainly felt like it did.
eaglejarl definitely didn't have his tongue cut out though.
I interpreted it as a mental consequence that we can't replicate.
Also, I disliked that the effect seemed to be permanent and it seemed like the QMs did too. Occasionally dipping into it for specific alien conversations as opposed to only for sealing would probably not have led to a generally unenjoyable Hazō. The way he switched during the special jōnin exams seemed fun to me. Him randomly dipping into it during conversations with his loved ones or with people asking him about Uplift certainly felt like it did.
- Location
- Europe
We already had that conversation with him, his final attitude was this:
This time we couldn't really stop him.
Sucks to be a civilian. Time to bring back the Samurai.
- Location
- Bronx
It's just Jashin in a trenchcoat, offering 2 Jashin-bucks for every murder