Within a few hours, Hazō had pulled enough iron ore to the surface to keep Leaf supplied for a year, and then he was free to go.
Gigachadzō moment. It feels so good.
Small patches of diamond shimmered in the sunlight. No matter. Experiment performed, lesson learned.
You just gonna leave those lying around, man?
Sadly, for whatever reason, he'd been unable to extract more of the corundum from granite. Try as he might, he felt no hints of that particular mineral in the MEWs he summoned. Maybe it was a quirk of the particular location in the Seventh Path he'd tried it in.
Hahahahaha oh man. When I read this I was like, 'oh shit, ES functionality is path-dependent? that makes it so much more challenging to reverse engineer'
But turns out it's just a retcon lmao
It was a reddish-brown stone, smooth all the way through. Experimentally, Hazō tried aligning it, causing it to slowly form triangular and rhomboidal chunks.
This is feldspar, I assume.
Hazō dropped the stone, then sat down to think. Was the Great Seal made from granite?
The Sage of Six Paths was the original Mr. MEW lmao
(I bet his brother made fun of him for it too)
(and that treatment had only intensified as his plans to begin construction grew steadily less credible)
I'm doing what I can, Hazō.
But… he could have Reo cast MARI to produce hundreds of tons of granite, turn it into bricks of quartz and the exotic blue-green Great Seal stone, then build an estate truly beyond compare in the entire Path.
Oooh that sounds interesting. How long do we thing it would take to earthshape all that stone?
"What went wrong?" Cannai asked.
"Chakra," Hazō said.
Our eternal foe
"Did you not say that your Alpha himself laid eyes upon the Dragons? Would he not act on your behalf here? For all your skills, Summoner, it is my understanding that you are not the strongest warrior of your people."
Hazō inclined his head. "That… is a good idea, Cannai. I'm not sure whether the people he sends will do it right, but they could be a resource."
I am strongly in favor of telling Asuma and getting him to solve this problem for us, but last time I brought it up a lot of people wanted to keep PS secret from him or something. I'll probably lobby for it again, though.
"They are different," Cannai said eventually. "Similar, but different. They are of a different material, but there is another difference that the landsense cannot tell, but I can. The chakra in this one," he said, nosing at the quartz chunk, "is free. It is natural, raw, chaotic, and disordered. It has no unity, no purpose, no will guiding it to act. Whereas the chakra in this one," he said, nosing to the crystal from the cave, "is more unified. There is an evenness to it. And as you said, there is an area between its two sections where the unity of one and the unity of the other are disjointed."
Thanks, Cannai! This is just the kind of helpful commentary we come to you for.
"No. Not unless you transform yourself into an animal and become the leader of a Seventh Path clan. If you elect to do so while pursuing the deeper mysteries of the Paths, I request that you pick a clan whose leader is already unpleasant. Perhaps you could be Cat. Or Pangolin."
Goals!
"Before you go, Summoner," Cannai said, "I do want to commend you. The Dragons are the Seventh Path's problem first and foremost, but you dedicate yourself to fixing it, all while shouldering your clan's burdens simultaneously. It is not an easy task, but it is a task fit for a hero. That you need to undertake it so young is a tragedy, and that you are able to walk around as if you've had worse days is an achievement in its own right. Do not despair, Hazō. You will have the strength to overcome these burdens and rise beyond them, in time. Until that day comes, know that you continue to have my deepest gratitude for the work you've done to try to save my Path."
It would be really amusing if Hazō becomes known as a reviled traitor on the Human Path and a legendary hero on the 7th Path...
"Look, it was a better idea than asking me to 'grow you more crystal'.
Yeah, I was worried about that. I'm not sure that people in the Elemental Nations actually know that (some) crystals grow through deposition of compounds dissolved in water.
"Alright, well it's not something my bloodline can sense," Noburi said, crossing his arms. "The chakra sense just isn't like that, Hazō. I can't tell when someone's boosting either, or when they're molding chakra for a ninjutsu. I can only tell you where the chakra is and how much there is."
He didn't get any more feedback from the chakra crystal? They did try the chakra crystal, right, and not just a rock?
"But… that's fine, Hazō. I thought about it, and you're fixing all these problems that aren't really your fault. Like the Dragons, or Konan killing Jiraiya, or whatever. So sure, the Yuno problem is your fault. Still, it's fine for someone else to fix your problems while you're busy cleaning up for the rest of us. That's the point of family isn't it? We don't need to be isolated individuals, each dealing with our own thing. We can work together and we end up stronger for it."
Thanks, bro 🥲
I need to find some suitably important mission that has a narrative around it, then use that to showboat to the Toads.
The Toads are just Eaglejarl
You're right that iron ores are minerals by all meaningful definitions. As a result, Hazō should be (and now is) able to manipulate iron ores as easily as any other earth-based material with Earthshaping.
Haha, yes! My pedantry paid off! I thought the QMs completely forgot about it, but it paid off. This feels so damn good!
since the civilians are clan, Shino will instruct them not to make any complaints to the council.
Gotta love loopholes.
Hazō is quite confident in his ability (possibly overconfident), and will just yolo no-prep it.
Well, I suppose I did say 'hazōpilot's judgement', and not 'hazōpilot's
best judgement'. Perils of aiming for wordcount.
Holy shit, the postscript JUST KEEPS GOING
If Hazō attends these sessions reliably for the next six months and commits time approximately equal to one SC block per day, he will be eligible for a stunt called "Clan Head Training", with the expected narrative impact. Tentative mechanics: Add a bonus of +(Presence AB) to social skill checks.
I am definitely in favor of doing this and we should put it into a plan. Maybe vote in a few interludes about the lessons later, if any of the QMs would like to write them.
She also notes that the best thing Hazō could do is to be visibly devout to the Will of Fire – to do purification rituals and attend the Hagoromo's sermons and festivals – and to absolutely refuse (as much as he can) to interact with Hidan or anything resembling Jashinism at all.
I am also in favor of doing these things. Do the rituals, signal the signals, repair our reputation, no need to do anything halfway.