I think it's probably noteworthy that Noburi didn't express any material reluctance to training us and indeed affirmed that he'll do so? I don't read any of this update as him having significant reservations about teaching us. I think he's noticing that he's got some feelings, and he's embodying the ostensible Uplift family value of talking about your feelings when you notice them and think they might be relevant.
Don't get me wrong, if he comes back in a week and says 'yeah I can totally use SC, just had to go think about it and run some tests, lol' I'm going to be a little pissed that he didn't do it earlier. But I don't really know what we would have wanted him to do before this exact moment, and my firm expectation is that whatever he's going to do to verify that he *can* actually use SC is something he couldn't have done until we were free to discuss the particulars of the technique with him.
Once he has a few successful research projects under his belt I expect his perspective on research to change significantly. We just need to get him over that hump.
I want to be clear here: I am not bitching about his reaction in the last update. I don't particularly understand why "Oh no I am going to get overshadowed on my special interest" is something he is feeling particularly strongly about
right now as opposed to a constant repetition of "If we don't succeed then we're either dead or missing-nin forever. If we don't succeed then we're either dead or missing-nin forever. If we don't..." drowning out everything else (because that to me seems like a far larger stressor here) but people are messy, complex things and I don't really care to dissect it too much other than giving him the thumbs up before asking him if he would like a milkshake and fries to go along with the S-rank hax, gold medals, and parades once we're done with this.
But if we come to the guy with a research problem that needs investigating, he should be asking "How high do you need me to jump?" and spending some time thinking about it before dismissing it as difficult or impossible. The five minute hypothetical digression about "What are you even going to do if I discover that it's magic strawberry flavored chakra powering stuff anyway?"[1] is not "Hmm, I don't know and that sounds fucking impossible,
but I can spend a few days working on it and try to get more of an answer anyway,
if you want." which is what you gotta do when you're actually trying to figure something out.
[1] You could argue he attempted to mentally gauge the difficulty of this task within a few seconds, as the expert, but my response then is "I didn't see any research rolls so he must not have been trying all that hard."
tl;dr:
NOBURI: I want Shadow Clone.
HAZOU: Yeah sure, so long as it won't kill you. You can have whatever the heck else you want too man, seriously lol. Did I mention I can get you more time per time? Hell, a year or two from now I can probably cook up something that'll let you get away with some consecutive all nighters too. Do you want some S-rank stuff or special seals or runes made for you while I'm at it?
NOBURI: Uh. Sure?
HAZOU: Cool, it's a deal.
NOBURI: ... is there a catch there?
HAZOU: Yeah, put your apron on and start your research rolls motherfucker we have OP shit to cook up. You think I like getting migraines twice a week? Fuck no, but needs must when shit is this fucked up.
NOBURI: ... fair enough man.
