Where is the chakra coming from? If you do this on the Seventh Path, you won't be able to take the clones back with you. If you do it on the Human Path, it's not an economy since the summons get their chakra from you to begin with (and even if they didn't, you'd still need to summon 30 SCs' worth of summons as your startup cost).


Remind me which chapter?

Chapter 26 or 27? The one with the Shikamaru fight, and then I think the explanation is the start of the next chapter.
 
Also we've just had Oro and Naruto offer us some of the best Jutsu they've had/that we could think of. There's got to be diminishing returns to this kind of request. Even if only in the form of how much exp we can afford to invest in these new techniques.
Note, Oro offered us "jutsu that would be worthwhile at combats on his level" dude did not offer us combat stuff from his personal kit. Naruto similarly isn't offering to teach us Rasengan
 
Note, Oro offered us "jutsu that would be worthwhile at combats on his level" dude did not offer us combat stuff from his personal kit. Naruto similarly isn't offering to teach us Rasengan
Thats why I said 'some of their best jutsu' rather than their absolute best, keystone jutsu or whatever. And it's not like this deal being discussed would be able to go above and actually get rasengan if our previous trades were not enough to do so.

If you think you could go for the very best stuff that we couldn't get access to before, and that this is worth more than any long-term payouts, then... do as you feel is best, of course. I am under no illusions that you'll change your plans based on what I think.
 
We made the decision to screw hinata over financially when we were planning on going missing. We aren't going missing now. Screwing her over damages our relationship with the white eyed clan irreparably. Remember that we brought the deal to them out of the blue. It probably screws over our dealings with shino, and other clans will be wary of entering deals with us from this point on. Seventh path clans can hear about this and decide not to have dealings with us. The short term financial gain is NOT worth it whatsoever.
 
Imagine, for example, if Naruto and every ninja included in foom owed both Noburi and Goketsu clan each a concrete favor for every year Noburi buffs their training.
Imagine if every (or nearly every) ninja included in FOOM was someone who we'd never even need to explicitly put in our debt like that, because anyone lacking sufficient pre-existing enthusiasm for Uplift ideals simply gets shut out.
We made the decision to screw hinata over financially when we were planning on going missing. We aren't going missing now. Screwing her over damages our relationship with the white eyed clan irreparably. Remember that we brought the deal to them out of the blue. It probably screws over our dealings with shino, and other clans will be wary of entering deals with us from this point on. Seventh path clans can hear about this and decide not to have dealings with us. The short term financial gain is NOT worth it whatsoever.
Deliver a life-sized statue, stone shell with solid gold interior exposed only at the eyes, as part of a formal apology.
 
"You absolutely can't think like that," Naruto said. "Trust me–I've been getting groomed to take out demigods since I was in my nappies. That isn't how combat works at the very top ranks. You've got the occasional Itachi, but mostly we pick a niche and stick to it. Take Aunt Sunny. She's got fists that cause earthquakes and crazy medical ninjutsu. Does she have ninjutsu and seals to cover for weaknesses in that arsenal? Of course she does; she's not dumb. Are those ninjutsu and seals on the same level as her specialities? Of course not. Why? Because at the core, all top-tier combat is offensive. Your goal is to bring your biggest strength together with the enemy and let it do its thing. Even if you're Orochimaru and your biggest strength is being unkillable, your goal is to make the enemy fail to kill you so you can use the opening to kill them back. The moment you try to fight defensively, you're using your secondary defences against their primary attacks, and things go downhill fast. So no, S-rankers don't have bottomless bags of tricks. What we have is a hell of a lot of skill at forcing you to face the best we've got."
Pledging my vote for anyone that adds a request for Naruto to give us lessons in this topic.
Even in fiction I cannot escape from the horror of remote-learning. Oh well, at least letters exchanges are going to be less painful than Zoom.
 
Pledging my vote for anyone that adds a request for Naruto to give us lessons in this topic.
I'm not saying it'd be useless, but I'm pretty sure there's little we could learn here that the thread can't figure out by ourselves. Or hasn't already figured out, for that matter.

Are you thinking that Hazo would get a useable tag from this? Or are you just hoping the QMs would explicitly lay out certain strategies for us to try and follow?

Because as far as that goes, having a good strategy session with Kei or Shikamaru feels like it would likely be more useful. Sit down for an hour in-quest to discuss Hidan's strengths, weaknessess, what to avoid and how to take advantage. how to bait for certain outcomes, etc. Then set aside another hour the next day for Sasori. And so on. Better than a general 'how to fight essies' lesson from Naruto which would probably boil down to 'If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles'
 
Why on Earth would it? I think that a leak would be pretty clearly bad and I expect some ridicule from Mari/Kei for asking this question. If you have a compelling reason that we need to ask this I'm willing to do it, but I ain't seeing it so far.

And I don't think it's that simple.

As a side note and I said that before, we already worked with the Hyuuga on the Great Seal topic and basically asked them "Hey, do you know anything about 3D sealing?". There was always a possibility that the Hyuuga would figure something out on their own and in return that Hazou learns something.

Also:
Everyone, including Akatsuki, already knows you're researching 3D sealing so you can fix the Great Seal."

It's not a reason to tell them anything, but I think it it's good to remember that they kind of know what Hazou has and wants to research.

At minimum, them knowing about it shows the Hyuuga that Hazou wasn't wasting everyone's time and he knows what he is talking about. Wouldn't it be valuable if the Hyuuga would take Hazou and Goketsu serious next time we have any dealings with them on the Clan Council or otherwise?

You seem to think that the Hyuuga learning about Runic sealing means only negative consequence and hostility instead of interest to work with us in any form. So far everyone else we told about this gave Hazou credit for being an genius Sealmaster and were willing to work with him (Tsunade,Naruto). And Orochimaru obviously wanted to learn it and is his own topic.

That's why I wanted Hazou to ask Mari and Kei directly about political ups or downs and not just ignore it, that would make Hazou look ignorant. "Does Neji work?", isn't really the same question.

If you don't want Neji and think it's just a bag of problems and don't want to waste your personal time and energy on that I can agree with you and accept that.

But treating the political implication as "clearly it's bad, Hyuuga are bad" and being hostile isn't all that great.
 
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"....*without* Alienating Naruto." is missing.
Friendly Naruto is an asset, especially now that we paid a fortune and sacrificed our relations with Hinata to make him Kage. Remember that Hazou was on the outs until very recently. don't let greed screw our relationship with him again.
Done.
also, Minato's seals or an A-rank Earth-Element Taijutsu buff.
Done.
I might phrase this as: "Kei, can you afford to be away from leaf to join us on this mission? we really hope so, because the alternative is taking *Neji*."
saves wordcount, and cuts to the core decision more clearly.
Kei(pessimistic doomer and veteran sanity checker) dosen't need our help to see why bringing Neji might cause issues, and calculate tradeoffs.
I prefer my phrasing - since Neji was an option that many posters wanted last cycle I don't want to lean on it too hard.
"torn between" seem weird and likley to offend. it's not the most important, but i'd just say "should we ask for N/K/H together, or just Hazou?"
similarly, the main goal here is for NPCs to do analisys bassed on their better information/skills. the discussion points listed are obvious enough that they'll come up immediately. just kick them the question straight up.
Don't see how it's likely to offend but changed to "considering between".
as for the actual Toad Sage discussion, I'd like to flag they we're willing to let our advisors rewrite our script. we say "optimize", but that's often just treated a phrasing tweaks. this is a case where we really want to give Noburi/Mari a lot of room to make changes, and follow thier advice.
maybe say "let Noburi/Mari heavily rewrite talking points, use the arguments they think are best".
Sure

[X] Action Plan: Jiraiya's Heir (Redux)
Word Count: <599
  • Mari, Kei, Snowflake, Noburi (max-security conditions): Share Naruto's latest instructions. Postpone discussing them until Kagome joins.
    • Discuss WHOOSH. It will be busted soon.
    • We should be proactive: promise cooperation and share our training optimizations[1] with Naruto in exchange for benefits, such as retaining first priority on chakra.
      1. IC representations of our spreadsheet work; it's presumably highly valuable and took significant effort and trial-and-error.
    • This would strengthen our negotiating position. Naruto would be buying an S-ranker-making trick, not just bribing Noburi to stay home.
    • Mari, you're on it. Do it after we leave, so that Naruto has to deal with you.
      • You have carte blanchefor extracting maximum benefits. Feel free to drive a ruthlessly hard bargain
        • Avoid alienating Naruto
      • Highest priority: more S-rank jutsu for your S-ranker kit.
        • Suggestion: look for esoteric abilities/attack vectors.
        • An A-Rank Earth Taijutsu Buff or more of Minato's seals would both be useful.
    • After WHOOSH's discussed, include Kagome.
      • Does taking Neji work? We can't take four Summoners, so Kei would need to stay home.
        • There would be friction (to put it lightly) between Neji and Kagome
        • His eyes would be useful for developing stealthy runic weapons.
      • Kei, can you get to Toad? Even if you don't join us on this Path, we'd like frequent advice.
      • We plan to ask the Toad Sages to teach us. Noburi especially, would you help optimize our pitch?
        • We're considering between asking for training for the entire trio (Hazou, Kei, Noburi) and just Hazou
        • Latter is a smaller ask, and they are probably more inclined to do favors for Hazou (Post-Crusade).
        • Former is better for us, although it has problems, Naruto is likely to want maximal access to Noburi.
        • There are advantages too, Noburi has better social skills so having him take point might help Fukusu and Shima agree.
      • Kei, if you're joining the mission, you can still go hunt chakra beasts with Yuno first. Just join us afterwards
        • Noburi, you could go with them too. It's been a while since your last combat mission.
    • Fill out the necessary paperwork, then go to the Tower
      • Defer to the team regarding taking/not-taking {Kei, Neji}, and asking for training for {Hazou, the trio}
  • Toad Sages - Suggested talking points, let Noburi/Mari et al. adjust them as they see fit
    • Ask for their complete confidence
    • Explain the situation with Akatsuki on the Human Path. Akatsuki's dominance, Pain's inexorable pressure, the EN's impotence, Naruto's desperation.
      • Give them Naruto's recommendation letter
    • We are in a desperate situation. Hazou has had to leave Leaf on a long-term research mission to keep Akatsuki from dropping by and discovering runes by accident
    • We need your help to save the Human Path as we helped save the Seventh Path, but rather than your strength, we need your knowledge.
    • Under your tutelage Jiriaya grew into a titan, possibly the strongest human fighter of his time.
    • We are coming to you on a bended knee to beg you for the same sort of training he received.
    • We have some ideas to replicate a fraction of your power, but we would much rather learn from you instead.
    • This is not insanity. We have good reason to think we stand a chance against Akatsuki, in time.
      • If they seem interested, explain chakra filtering runes and chakra potential runes
      • We have the keys to rediscovering Minato's way of combining TH and Sealing, but we're about to lose access to our teacher. Could you teach a human TH?
      • We have cracked a way of using Noburi's power to make Shadow Clone training vastly more efficient.
    • Would you accept us as your disciple?
----------------------------
Posted the second half of @Noumero 's plan with the TS conversation stapled on the end. @Left-Hand Mutant this only asks for apprenticeship for Hazou, I know you've been advocating for all three of the kids but I was largely convinced by @Noumero 's argument here. Do you have a rebuttal to it?
Edits made
 
Just realized that, if we're going on a long term sealing mission out of Leaf, because it's too dangerous to research in Leaf...and the Akatsuki knows we're researching 3D sealing. Wouldn't the Akatsuki first idea be "Hazou discovered 3D sealing and is testing it out of Leaf"?
Therefore wouldn't be better an higher, but less suspicious profile missions (And more importantly, true) mission like "Hazou wants more Summons Scroll", possibly with "Hazou wants to grow the Clan power, political and not, to convince the Akatsuki ressurecting his loved ones is a expediture of resources worth doing?" as a reason.
We can even leave the Goketsu in Leaf ignorant of the true reason behind the mission, so if the Akatsuki comes back and interrogates they will find nothing suspicious, Bonus point is that if we return with a Scroll, then our alibi is even stronger.

Imagine, Itachi comes in Leaf and interrogates Noburi, and only finds out that Hazou went to obtain the Squirrel/Otter/Kraken scrolls, because he hopes to use political pressure from his summon allies to convince the Akatsuki to ressurect Akane and/or Jiraiya.
A last ditch effort? Yes. But a reasonable one, i would say, compared to fighting the Akatsuki.
 
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Pledging my vote for anyone that adds a request for Naruto to give us lessons in this topic.
Even in fiction I cannot escape from the horror of remote-learning. Oh well, at least letters exchanges are going to be less painful than Zoom.
That seems unneeded. He was just telling us to not go into this believing our objective is impossible, as that cab screw you over by making it actually impossible.

He didn't realize Hazou's conclusion to that statement wasn't: "thus I will fail" but instead is "thus I will overcome even a perfect defense."
 
[X] Action Plan: Jiraiya's Heir (Redux)
Word Count: <599
  • Mari, Kei, Snowflake, Noburi (max-security conditions): Share Naruto's latest instructions. Postpone discussing them until Kagome joins.
    • Discuss WHOOSH. It will be busted soon.
    • We should be proactive: promise cooperation and share our training optimizations[1] with Naruto in exchange for benefits, such as retaining first priority on chakra.
      1. IC representations of our spreadsheet work; it's presumably highly valuable and took significant effort and trial-and-error.
    • This would strengthen our negotiating position. Naruto would be buying an S-ranker-making trick, not just bribing Noburi to stay home.
    • Mari, you're on it. Do it after we leave, so that Naruto has to deal with you.
      • You have carte blanche for extracting maximum benefits. Feel free to drive a ruthlessly hard bargain
        • Avoid alienating Naruto
      • Highest priority: more S-rank jutsu for your S-ranker kit.
        • Suggestion: look for esoteric abilities/attack vectors.
        • An A-Rank Earth Taijutsu Buff or more of Minato's seals would both be useful.
    • After WHOOSH's discussed, include Kagome.
      • Does taking Neji work? We can't take four Summoners, so Kei would need to stay home.
        • There would be friction (to put it lightly) between Neji and Kagome
        • His eyes would be useful for developing stealthy runic weapons.
      • Kei, can you get to Toad? Even if you don't join us on this Path, we'd like frequent advice.
      • We plan to ask the Toad Sages to teach us. Noburi especially, would you help optimize our pitch?
        • We're considering between asking for training for the entire trio (Hazou, Kei, Noburi) and just Hazou
        • Latter is a smaller ask, and they are probably more inclined to do favors for Hazou (Post-Crusade).
        • Former is better for us, although it has problems, Naruto is likely to want maximal access to Noburi.
        • There are advantages too, Noburi has better social skills so having him take point might help Fukusu and Shima agree.
      • Kei, if you're joining the mission, you can still go hunt chakra beasts with Yuno first. Just join us afterwards
        • Noburi, you could go with them too. It's been a while since your last combat mission.
    • Fill out the necessary paperwork, then go to the Tower
      • Defer to the team regarding taking/not-taking {Kei, Neji}, and asking for training for {Hazou, the trio}
  • Toad Sages - Suggested talking points, let Noburi/Mari et al. adjust them as they see fit
    • Ask for their complete confidence
    • Explain the situation with Akatsuki on the Human Path. Akatsuki's dominance, Pain's inexorable pressure, the EN's impotence, Naruto's desperation.
      • Give them Naruto's recommendation letter
    • We are in a desperate situation. Hazou has had to leave Leaf on a long-term research mission to keep Akatsuki from dropping by and discovering runes by accident
    • We need your help to save the Human Path as we helped save the Seventh Path, but rather than your strength, we need your knowledge.
    • Under your tutelage Jiriaya grew into a titan, possibly the strongest human fighter of his time.
    • We are coming to you on a bended knee to beg you for the same sort of training he received.
    • We have some ideas to replicate a fraction of your power, but we would much rather learn from you instead.
    • This is not insanity. We have good reason to think we stand a chance against Akatsuki, in time.
      • If they seem interested, explain chakra filtering runes and chakra potential runes
      • We have the keys to rediscovering Minato's way of combining TH and Sealing, but we're about to lose access to our teacher. Could you teach a human TH?
      • We have cracked a way of using Noburi's power to make Shadow Clone training vastly more efficient.
    • Would you accept us as your disciple?
----------------------------
Posted the second half of @Noumero 's plan with the TS conversation stapled on the end. @Left-Hand Mutant this only asks for apprenticeship for Hazou, I know you've been advocating for all three of the kids but I was largely convinced by @Noumero 's argument here. Do you have a rebuttal to it?
[X] Action Plan: Jiraiya's Heir (Redux)
Much appreciated.


Mari, Kei, Snowflake, Noburi (max-security conditions): Share Naruto's latest instructions.
OpSec warning!
We probably don't want to outright tell people we're leaving behind "we're researching akatsuki-killer tech on Naruto's orders" in case the Akatsuki drop by. Just that we're doing long-term research outside of leaf is enough.

  • We're considering between asking for training for the entire trio (Hazou, Kei, Noburi) and just Hazou
  • Latter is a smaller ask, and they are probably more inclined to do favors for Hazou (Post-Crusade).
  • Former is better for us, although it has problems, Naruto is likely to want maximal access to Noburi.
  • There are advantages too, Noburi has better social skills so having him take point might help Fukusu and Shima agree.
I'd like to add "Vampiric Dew opens up incredible possibilities if the sages can teach us to use Nature Chakra".

And explicitly say "Noburi/Kei make the final call on whether we all ask for training together"

Toad Sages - Suggested talking points, let Noburi/Mari et al. adjust them as they see fit
"If N/K/H are all asking, suggest Noburi take point"
 
While it's important to remember that they aren't pawns, there are probaly a lot of ways to get someone to agree to this, especialy if you actually try. this was one approach for one perticular target profile. I can write more, but I think most NPCs are capable of solving this on their own.
Oh, absolutely. My point was simply that people tend to be very casual about saying things like "we can just send an X to Y so that we can meet up with Z at our leisure."
 
Stompy's plan, except pitching Mari (but still mentioning Kei as option), and word trimmed to be one point less of loss. Traveling this weekend and on mobile so apologies for mostly just ripping this off. Also cut out telling toad sages about Shadow clone training, for the mostly emotional reason that if Kagome isn't need to know, then the toad sages aren't either, even if they'll guess it (also because the SC training pitch doesn't apply to Noburi sadly). Also asking for Earth technique in general instead of buff, because (1) I want earth kraken dang it, and (2), because we have an earth 'buff' in the form of PEA, even if it's defensive, because that plus SotS lets us just slug it out. If we said it was for Hazou's personal kit, do you think that would help at all? And bye to Ino. Also establishing that Noburi is in charge while we're gone. Huh, I guess there are a fair few minor changes.


[X] Action Plan: Jiraiya's Heir (plus his Wife)
Word Count: 494
  • Mari, Kei, Snowflake, Noburi (max-security): Share Naruto's latest instructions.
    • Discuss WHOOSH. Secret's dissolving.
    • We should be proactive for better bargaining position: promise cooperation and share our training optimizations[1] with Naruto in exchange for benefits, such as retaining chakra priority.
      1. IC representations of our spreadsheet work; it's presumably valuable and took significant effort and trial-and-error.
    • Naruto would be buying an S-ranker-making trick, not just bribing Noburi to stay home.
    • Mari/Kei (whoever's staying), you're on negotiating once we leave.
      • You have carte blanche for extracting maximum benefits, but avoid alienating Naruto.
    • Highest priority: more S-rank jutsu for Mari S-ranker kit.
      • Suggestion: look for esoteric abilities/attack vectors.
      • A-Rank Earth area/buff technique or more of Minato's seals as secondary goals.
  • After WHOOSH's discussed, include Kagome.
    • Noburi's in charge while we're gone.
    • Is Neji worth taking? We can't take four valuable resources, so only Kagome plus one. Mari third for firepower?
      • There would be friction between Neji and Kagome
      • Byakugan would be useful for developing stealthy runic weapons.
    • Kei, can you get to Toad? Even if you don't join us, we'd like frequent advice.
    • We plan to ask the Toad Sages to teach us. Noburi especially, would you help optimize our pitch?
      • We're considering between asking for training for the entire trio (Hazou, Kei, Noburi) and just Hazou
      • Latter is a smaller ask, they're probably more inclined to do favors for Hazou (Post-Crusade).
      • Former is better, but Naruto is likely to want maximal access to Noburi.
      • Noburi has better rapport so having him take point might help Sages agree.
    • Kei, Yuno, Noburi on beast hunting mission sometime soon, to keep sharp? If Kei isn't joining us.
  • Say goodbye to Ino.
  • Fill out the paperwork, then go to the Tower
    • Defer to team regarding taking/not-taking {Kei, Neji, Mari}, and asking for toads training.
[*]Toad Sages - Suggested talking points, let Noburi/Mari et al. adjust them as they advise
  • Ask for their complete confidence
  • Explain the Akatsuki situation on the Human Path. Akatsuki's dominance, Pain's inexorable pressure, the EN's impotence, Naruto's desperation.
    • Give them Naruto's recommendation letter
  • We are desperate. Hazou's leaving Leaf on a long-term research mission to keep Akatsuki from dropping by and discovering runes by accident
  • We need your help to save the Human Path as we helped save the Seventh Path, we need your knowledge.
  • Under your tutelage Jiriaya grew into a titan, possibly the strongest human fighter of his time.
  • We are coming to you to beg for the same sort of training he received.
  • We have ideas to gain strength, but we would much rather learn from you instead.
  • This isn't insanity. We have good reason to think we stand a chance against Akatsuki, in time.
    • If they seem interested, explain chakra filtering and chakra potential runes.
    • We have the keys to rediscovering Minato's way of combining TH and Sealing, but we're about to lose access to our teacher. Could you teach a human TH?
  • Would you accept us as your disciple(s)?

----------------------------
 
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I'll vote for whoever adds something about veto power after the bit about chakra priority. Assuming we're aiming for a scenario where Leaf hasn't been burned to the ground within the next year, pretty sure options to exclude our known-or-clearly-potential political enemies from FOOM are just as important as keeping it going at full speed for ourselves.
 
[X] Action Plan: Jiraiya's Heir (Redux)

Kind of leery that this plan has both scenes in it when each scene is clearly so involved that it needs a full plan's worth of wordcount, but hey, I don't really get to complain when I'm only paying attention to the planmaking now at the end of the cycle. I'd vote for a plan that was literally "Stompy's plan but only the first scene", but it's also not like I expect anything bad to happen as a result of this, other than a couple marginal XP.
 
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