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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Noumero said:
I'd replace the entire "Kei/Snowflake" section with this:
  • Sanity-check with Kei, Snowflake, and Mari:
    • We're considering an alternative to our initial plan. Instead of returning to Leaf, we strike O'Uzu and yoink the rift ourselves.
      • Sufficiently-scaled Remote Explosivers, plus something to solve the rune-transportation problem, should suffice.
      • Even if there's an Akatsuki pair at O'Uzu. (Unless it's Konan.) Just saturation-bomb everything, before they can properly react.
    • Pros:
      • Doesn't risk the rift falling under Orochimaru's total control. (Consider: what if Tsunade/Naruto die when facing Akatsuki?)
      • It's somewhat easier. We'd need to kill only 0-2 Akatsuki, and then we'd have no time limit.
      • We might be able to disguise it as a sealing failure (if Sasori's unwise enough to infuse at O'Uzu), or even covertly replace the afterlife rift with a different rift. In the latter case, the Akatsuki won't even know there's been hostile action.
    • Cons: We'd have no Leaf S-ranker support.
    • Is this at all viable?
@RandomOTP, any chance you can generate ideas for some cute Snowflake and/or Tenten scenes? (I tried to come up with some myself, but the kind of date ideas I come up with are only appropriate for Ami.)
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Left-Hand Mutant said:
[X] Action Plan: Baked Potatoes
Word count: 320ish (will trim to 299)
Duration: Until either Remote Explosiver or Rift-Kicker is complete (Until then / 1.4 Solar)
  • Declare: before abandoning the Storm Rune, Hazou asked Kei to pick the best way to destroy the leftover crystal, then did that. Hazou's ideas were:
    • Hide a LFE beneath the Storm rune
    • Leave a Remote Explosive on an SCSA'd skytower so someone(Kei?) can stay behind and destroy it
    • Kagome leaves a summon behind to destroy it.
  • Sanity-check with Kei, Snowflake, and Mari:
    • We're considering an alternative to our initial plan. Instead of returning to Leaf, we strike O'Uzu and yoink the rift ourselves, then stay missing while we perfect necromancy.
      • Sufficiently-scaled Remote Explosivers, plus something to solve the rune-transportation problem, should suffice.
      • Even if there's an Akatsuki pair at O'Uzu. (Unless it's Konan.) Just saturation-bomb everything, before they can properly react.
    • Pros:
      • Doesn't risk the rift falling under Orochimaru's total control. (Consider: what if Tsunade/Naruto die when facing Akatsuki?)
      • It's somewhat easier. We'd need to kill only 0-2 Akatsuki, and it doesn't paint a target on Leaf while we explore the rift.
      • We might be able to disguise it as a sealing failure (if Sasori's unwise enough to infuse at O'Uzu), or even covertly replace the afterlife rift with a different rift. In the latter case, the Akatsuki won't even know there's been hostile action.
    • Cons: We'd have no Leaf S-ranker support.
    • Is this at all viable?
  • Toad and Snake are relatively close, can Noburi get Gamabutna to "hold a rock" for him, then skywalk a letter to Snake explaining the situation?
    • Or have Kei visit Slug?
  • Research
    • No-prep research Air Leadener and Banshee Lover until Air Leadener is complete
    • DoB track 1: Ninja Radar -> Explosiver -> Remote Explosiver
      • If Explosiver is Hard, try a TN120 version. If that is Hard, end the update
    • DoB track 2: Rift-unanchoring -> Rift-kicking
    • Non-DoB track: finish Banshee Lover -> KISS -> Coloured Strobe

As always, I'm open to suggestions, and wordsmithing is appreciated.
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plan updated. I made light edits in two places for clarity. (clarify that we stay missing while learning to necromancy with the rift, and highlight that "no time limit" is bacause Leaf won't have a target painted on it.)

Sir Stompy said:
I ain't voting for this while this line is here boss. Kagome's Summons are barely tolerable but I would literally rather leave the expended rune behind.
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I cut the Pangolin bit, but not the mite/spider. If the first two ideas don't cut it, I'd rather Kumokogo learn about runes than Akatsuki or Hidden Sky. at least there's no chance of her replicating it, and we aren't trying to surprise-attack her with runes.
 
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[X] Action Plan: Baked Potatoes
Left-Hand Mutant said:
Sanity-check with Kei, Snowflake, and Mari:
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This is a personal want, but could you possibly squeeze in asking how long they think we have before Leaf storms the rift?
Left-Hand Mutant said:
Toad and Snake are relatively close, can Noburi get Gamabutna to "hold a rock" for him, then skywalk a letter to Snake explaining the situation?
  • Or have Kei visit Slug?
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I think you will want to explain this, for the QMs if nothing else. I, personally, have no idea what this is.
 
faflec said:
This is a personal want, but could you possibly squeeze in asking how long they think we have before Leaf storms the rift
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eaglejarl said:
"Kei, I know this is asking a lot, but can you make any estimate of how long we might have left before Akatsuki cracks the rift?"

She shook her head. "Optimization and estimation rely on accurate and sufficient data. I have no way to judge the difficulty of the task, the skill of Akatsuki's sealmasters, the existence and nature of any resources required, or Akatsuki's access to such hypothetical resources."
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Did you want more than this? We already asked her. I guess technically it's about Leaf storming rather than Akatsuki opening....
 
faflec said:
This is a personal want, but could you possibly squeeze in asking how long they think we have before Leaf storms the rift?
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I see no reason why they're have a better guess than us, and IIRC we just asked Kei who said that as a non-sealmaster she has even less of an idea than we do.
Am I missing something?

faflec said:
I think you will want to explain this, for the QMs if nothing else. I, personally, have no idea what this is.
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Skywalk a letter to Snake/Slug, telling that Sanin we will accept a one-bit message from them that Leaf is about to attack the rift site.

If anyone rewords it better, I'm happy to change it.
 
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Left-Hand Mutant said:
Skywalk a letter to Snake/Slug, telling that Sanin we will accept a one-bit message from them that Leaf is about to attack the rift site.

If anyone can reword this better, I'll change it
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Kei has serious duties on the Seventh Path I think this is an unrealistic ask for her. Also possibly an act of war? A Pangolin military asset (Kei) crossing the border unannounced. Like... I don't see this ending well for Hazou suggesting it.
 
Sir Stompy said:
Did you want more than this? We already asked her. I guess technically it's about Leaf storming rather than Akatsuki opening....
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Yeah, IIRC Naruto said he wouldn't attack once they opened the rift but at some point after; I would want to go to Leaf before then but if that's already happened...

Hm. Would it be a useful expenditure of our time to do the dreaded prep days on rift-opening seals? It would let us do math calculations on how long it would take Sasori to run through the gamut of seals he'd need to make to create them.
 
Kyreneryk said:
My assumption is that the seals would have to be put at least a meter underground from the rune in order to avoid destruction by radiant heat/ground current, which seems unlikely to be enough to destroy it beyond recognition. Using a bunch of LFEs to mitigate the timing problem is a good point, though, if we have that many on hand - there'd still be a significant delay, but on the other hand any observing ninja probably won't immediately run into the area after the lightning storm stops.
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Directional LFEs could provide additional redundancy while minimizing fratricide, and if jets of high-velocity dirt and crystal continued intermittently erupting from the epicenter for a few hours after the main storm was over, observing ninja would be extra cautious about approaching... which might give a better-informed summon time to finish the cleanup, ideally by using jutsu to transmute any substantial runic substrate fragments into something less distinctive.
 
Sir Stompy said:
Kei has serious duties on the Seventh Path I think this is an unrealistic ask for her. Also possibly an act of war? A Pangolin military asset (Kei) crossing the border unannounced. Like... I don't see this ending well for Hazou suggesting it.
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Then... she'll say so, and we send Noburi?
Toads is closer to Snake anyway.
Seems fine.

Am I missing something?
 
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Sir Stompy said:
Pantsaa is one of our main enemies, imagine him leaking the info to the Leopards. Akatsuki has contacts on the Seventh Path. I don't want word getting out there before they're dead. Right now they don't view Hazou as a threat. But if that changes we'll be much worse off. They could go into high alert around the Rift etc.

I don't mind Pantsaa finding out we fixed the Great Seal after the fact. On that timeline Akatsuki are very dead.

Right now this sealing failure could be anyone. But confirmation that Hazou is making runes would be very bad for us.
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Well, we agree on something. Akatuski learning about us having runes and raising their threat estimate of us is exactly what I'm worried about. I said so earlier, in fact:
Kyreneryk said:
Contrastingly, what I'm worried about if we don't get rid of the husk is:
  • Akatsuki hears about this super weird lightning storm and sends someone to investigate.
  • Akatsuki bullies Cloud into showing them the husk.
  • On seeing the husk, Akatsuki puts together the fact that some of the shapes in the husk kind of look like seal elements with the fact that we were known to be working on 3D sealing and concludes that we now have 3D sealing.
  • As a result, Akatsuki massively upgrades their threat estimate of us and start devoting far more resources to hunting us down.
    • Also, they might suspect that we taught someone in Leaf, though I don't expect them to have much luck on that end of things.
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The thing is, I think the risk of Pangolin leaking 3D sealing to someone who will then leak it to Akatsuki is considerably lower than the risk of Akatsuki finding out on their own, at least once you account for how little the involved Pangolin would need to know. @Left-Hand Mutant 's original suggestion was that we tell them it's a cursed artifact or something, even; it's not like they'd know the difference.

Plus, the risk of Kei getting captured if we leave her with an RE on a skytower is IMO non-negligible, and I don't think LFEs will work to destroy the rune beyond the point of being recognizably a 3D seal to Akatsuki if they see it; they might actually make it worse, since they risk making it obvious that ninja tried to destroy whatever was causing the lightning. Arachnids might work, but they're probably not nearly as suited to the necessary burrowing as pangolins are, and Kagome has fewer available summons besides.

All in all, I think the risk of Pangolin leaking that we have runes to Akatsuki from using one of their summons is significantly lower than the risk of it leaking to Akatsuki from the husk itself (or of Kei getting captured) if we use the other methods.
 
Noumero said:
@RandomOTP, any chance you can generate ideas for some cute Snowflake and/or Tenten scenes?
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My time to shine...
  • Ask Snowflake her thoughts on the "true" Goketsu experience, referencing her previously stated longing for a missing nin-esque experience like the OG Uplift crew had. Gently tease her about it in such a way that reassures her there was no such prerequisite for being a member of our family. Admit we know it's probably more boring and more terrifying than she'd expected, but we're still thankful she's here, with us. Doing this without her would be a worse experience.
  • Privately ask if Snowflake has a moment (and the spoons) to hear our private concerns/worries. Admit to Snowflake that we're feeling a little trepidatious about Runes. We didn't mean to make a city-killer with the Storm Rune, it's just that Runes channel such awesome power into their effects that... well, there's a reason why modern sealing selected for control and precision over raw power. Runecrafting is dangerous, and if modern sealing failures are bad, then we hesitate to consider Runic failures (but we still do, because we need to avoid them). It feels like we're holding a double-edged sword, trying desperately not to get cut. But Runecrafting is our best chance against the Akatsuki, so we can't just set it down.
  • Hang out with Tenten when our screwed up sleep cycle allows. Admit that we don't know her very well, but that we'd like to. She's always done right by Kei, and we even though we know "our relationship to Kei means a lot to her," (NB: quote from Tenten, find link?), we'd like to get to know Tenten, herself, if that's okay? Discuss wilderness experiences, the wonderful nature sights (beaches, starlit nights on the bay, the sunrise in Wind), and any unique chakra beasts we've seen along the way. Try to find common ground/interests, but don't force anything.
 
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RandomOTP said:
My time to shine...
  • Ask Snowflake her thoughts on the "true" Goketsu experience, referencing her previously stated longing for a missing nin-esque experience like the OG Uplift crew. Gently tease her about it in such a way that reassures her there was no such prerequisite for being a member of our family. Admit we know it's probably more boring and more terrifying than she'd expected, but we're still thankful she's here, with us. Doing this without her would be a worse experience.
  • Privately ask if Snowflake has a moment (and the spoons) to hear our private concerns/worries. Admit to Snowflake that we're feeling a little trepidatious about Runes. We didn't mean to make a city-killer with the Storm Rune, it's just that Runes channel such awesome power into their effects that... well, there's a reason why modern sealing selected for control and precision over raw power. Runecrafting is dangerous, and if modern sealing failures are bad, then we hesitate to consider Runic failures (but we still do, because we need to avoid them). It feels like we're holding a double-edged sword, trying desperately not to get cut. But Runecrafting is our best chance against the Akatsuki, so we can't just set it down.
  • Hang out with Tenten when our screwed up sleep cycle allows. Admit that we don't know her very well, but that we'd like to. She's always done right by Kei, and we even though we know "our relationship to Kei means a lot to her," (NB: quote from Tenten, find link?), we'd like to get to know Tenten, herself, if that's okay? Discuss wilderness experiences, the wonderful nature sights (beaches, starlit nights on the bay, the sunrise in Wind), and any unique chakra beasts we've seen along the way. Try to find common ground/interests, but don't force anything.
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Excellent, thank you!

@Left-Hand Mutant, would you be interested in including any of this in your plan?
 
Kyreneryk said:
Plus, the risk of Kei getting captured if we leave her with an RE on a skytower is IMO non-negligible, and I don't think LFEs will work to destroy the rune beyond the point of being recognizably a 3D seal to Akatsuki if they see it; they might actually make it worse, since they risk making it obvious that ninja tried to destroy whatever was causing the lightning. Arachnids might work, but they're probably not nearly as suited to the necessary burrowing as pangolins are, and Kagome has fewer available summons besides
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This is all retroactive so we know she didn't (this is why I am 60% confident that the QMs will simply ban these Declares).

Frankly I think you significantly underestimate how hostile Pantsaa is and overestimate how willing to share with Akatsuki Lightning is.
 
I think that a one-off pile of crystal in the giga-storm might just get chalked up to fulgarite.

I'm not sure the tone of the last chapter would be consistent at all with these Declares but if it works it works.

I would like to note for the record that we wouldn't be worrying about this if everyone in thread took a bit of time to actually discuss the pros and cons of each voting option and how to maximize them before tossing out a pile of votes. This is why we discuss stuff :V
 
[X] Action Plan: Mari's Big Day
Word count: 299
Duration: Until either Remote Explosive 2.0 or Rift-Kicker is complete (Until then / 1.4 Solar)
  • Sanity-check all with Kei, Snowflake, and Mari
  • Declare Kagome set a LFE beneath the Storm Rune to destroy it after it burned out
  • Meet with Kei/Snow/Mari
    • We're considering a strike O'Uzu to take the Rift for ourselves, then stay missing while we resurrect our people.
      • Sufficient numbers of Remote Explosivers, plus Rift-Movers and intel-gathering runes should suffice to take the Rift
      • Even an Akatsuki pair will likely go down to massed remote explosive fire (except Konan)
    • Pros:
      • Doesn't risk Orochimaru stealing the Rift for himself.
      • It's somewhat easier. We'd need to kill only 0-2 Akatsuki, and it doesn't endanger Leaf while we explore the afterlife
      • We might be able to disguise it as a sealing failure, or even covertly replace the afterlife rift with a different rift.
    • Cons:
      • We'd have no Leaf S-ranker support.
      • We'd have to do the afterlife exploration unsupported.
    • Is this at all viable?
    • Toad and Snake are relatively close, can Noburi get Gamabunta to agree to to pass a message to Orochimaru?
      • Bring Noburi in on this
      • We'd have to circumvent the oaths gracefully.
  • Mari can you go to the intel dealer --Syōma-- in Marsh? You have carte blanche to spend our gems/gold. Get us information, focus on any news of Leaf or Akatsuki.
    • However, if Akatsuki has made coercive threats, Hazou doesn't need to know.
    • End the update if she's late returning.
  • Research
    • No-prep research Air Leadener and Banshee Lover until Air Leadener completes
    • DoB track 1: Ninja Radar -> Explosiver -> Remote Explosive 2.0
      • If Explosiver is Hard, try a TN120 version. If that is Hard, end the update
    • DoB track 2: Rift-unanchoring -> Rift-kicking
    • Non-DoB track: finish Banshee Lover -> High Capacity Storage (skip if jounin or higher) -> KISS -> Coloured Strobe
      • (If applicable) work with Tenten on KISS specifications, design, and testing.
 
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[X] Action Plan: Mari's Big Day

I think if we are AT ALL concerned about getting more intel ASAP from which to make decisions and more accurate estimates, then sending Mari to chat up the Marsh infobroker over the course of 2-3 days max is a good idea.

Otherwise we're relying on Oro to check his mail or Kei to magic up innaccurate estimates from longggg out of date information. We can at least try to update our intel before doing the NPC estimate stuff.
 
Sir Stompy said:
Declare Hazou stashed a LFE beneath the Storm Rune
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I think that this needs to be reworded to clarify that the it was active and ready to explore the Storm Rune. Yes, it seems fairly obvious, but my concern is that it's just vague enough that the QMs will discount it for trying to game the word count.

This should be fixed if you change it "an activated LFE," though. Doubly so if you include "to destroy the Storm Rune, thus maintaining runecrafting opsec"
 
Sir Stompy said:
This is all retroactive so we know she didn't (this is why I am 60% confident that the QMs will simply ban these Declares).

Frankly I think you significantly underestimate how hostile Pantsaa is and overestimate how willing to share with Akatsuki Lightning is.
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I'm assuming that if the Declare is accepted, Kei's being-captured-or-not would be reevaluated. So that if we Declare she stayed behind, there'll be a risk that we suddenly jump back in time a week or so when she fails to catch up. But that would be very inconvenient for the QMs, so you're right that at least that part of the Declare is unlikely to be accepted.

Potentially? But I'm not really worried about Lightning willingly sharing with Akatsuki, I'm worried about one of their ninja failing a social roll and telling them.

MMKII said:
I think that a one-off pile of crystal in the giga-storm might just get chalked up to fulgarite.
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This is fair - I hadn't considered that possibility. (Though it's not a pile, it's in the shape of the rune.)

Though ... hmm. Actually, that line is a bit unclear. @eaglejarl @Paperclipped @Velorien : the Storm rune is described as leaving behind the following after it deactivates:
Paperclipped said:
When the rune runs out, it cracks and blackens, becoming a mass of blackened crystal in the shape of the rune.
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Does "in the shape of the rune" mean "in the shape of the rune in detail" or "in the shape of the convex hull of the rune"?
 
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