It's not a reason for us to do so right now since we're about to go on a friggin mission which means no research time.

We don't need to research. We just need a list of seals and what they do. We ask kagome if our munchkiniry works. If he says yes we send the ideas to the hokage and he has his seal masters make them
 
It's not a reason for us to do so right now since we're about to go on a friggin mission which means no research time.

Think long term: what does this mission accomplish for us with the amount of time it will take versus all of those man-hours devoted to developing seals capable of fighting S-rankers?

Leaf is currently the most vulnerable it has been since the attack of the Nine-tails, except now the threat of foreign nations is compounded by the threat of Akatsuki sneezing on the village and blowing it over. Skywalkers were a huge boon to Leaf and they know it, but they just lost the Nine-tails host and the God of Shinobi in one fight without inflicting any loses on the new enemy.

They need new weapons ASAP and since development takes months we need to get started immediately. Only Hazou can come up with the ideas for such ground-breaking seals; other Leaf ninja can handle the other tasks and if need be our team can go do the mission without Hazou. Leaf is our home now; if we are serious about defending it we need to do what is most rational to defend it, not bow to Jiraiya's emotionally-fueled orders. We will not disobey him; we will point out to him where we could be more effectively deployed to further his overall goals.

Put another way, why send Hazou, Mr. Perpetual Foot-in-Mouth, on a meet and greet mission when he can design WMD's for you instead?
 
We need to work on convincing Kagome to share his shaped charges with J for the rescue mission.

I was thinking that too. I'd just ask him to share one of his rings with Jiraiya, mentioning that Jiraiya's safety is essential to the team's safety - if he dies on the rescue mission then our position in Leaf is much more tenuous. Any edge he can get could make all the difference.


Anyways, now is not the time to ask Jiraiya for seals. As much as I might want to get some, he's off to bed so our questions for him need to be relevant to the mission we're on. Also, I don't think we should distract him with it for the next few days even if we can send a pangolin messenger with the request. He's busy.


Put another way, why send Hazou, Mr. Perpetual Foot-in-Mouth, on a meet and greet mission when he can design WMD's for you instead?

Jiraiya specifically stated in the update why he wants to send us out:

"Hazō, Noburi, Keiko, Kagome—I need you out of the city for a couple weeks so the Council can't use you against me. Out of sight, out of mind sort of thing. I also trust you, which is more than I can say for a lot of people in that room back there.

1. He needs us out of sight, out of mind.
2. He needs someone he trusts to do this.
 
[X] Poll: "Yes. Hokage-sama." (Do we ask to be left behind?)

We can't do sealing without Kagome or Jiraiya's time, neither of which can be used for the period inside Leaf.

Kagome because his idea of reasonable security perimeters would wreck a training ground a week, and Jiraiya can't have that. That, and keeping Team Uplift's two biggest social vulnerabilities in Leaf while still attached to Jiraiya is just not going to end well.

Jiraiya because duh, Hokage-sama.

As for Akatsuki-killing stuff, our best bet might be implosion nuke delivered by Zephyr's Reach Sling (not the Rifle, can't seal seals) from height. That is, assuming we don't care about Naruto (Yagura is an ... acceptable casualty).

If we have to keep Naruto alive, we're screwed - we might be able to kill one S-ranker if we're lucky (Kisame, Itachi, Deidara, maybe Sasori, , if we catch them unaware), but against Hidan we're fucked with his bloody scythe, ditto for Pain, Konan, Kakuzu (maybe not), and kami we aren't touching Tobi or Zetsu. Then of course, because they will be rational, we'll be killed hard by the other members of Akatsuki, including their chunin and jonin corps that of course they have.
 
Akatsuki doesn't need to be fully defeated in a few days

How do we know this? For all we know they could be capable to attacking Leaf directly while we are relatively defenseless. If I were in their position I would just use my overwhelming force to either crush the opposition enough so that no rescue attempts could ever be launched and continue to destabilize the geo-politcal sphere so that the nations are too busy fighting each other rather than addressing the new threat.

Jiraiya and company just need to rescue Naruto and then GTFO to get to Leaf safely.

What's stopping Akatsuki from following them back to Leaf and murdering everyone?

Also, if this is like canon

But this isn't canon, so we shouldn't rely on it. This is MfD!Akatsuki and they were smart enough to risk fighting Naruto, Yagura, Zabuza, Mei, Jiraiya, Hiruzen, and a platoon of ANBU and come out with 0 casualties.

then there's a good chance much of Akatsuki will be severely drained due to trying to extract the Three-Tails from Yagura, making them vulnerable.

Or we have no real idea what they plan to do in character, so we can't have Hazou act on such knowledge anyway.

Backed up by more ninja and not tired from already having been fighting in a battle I would say Jiraiya's group have a chance of succeeding in their mission.

If the aforementioned group was unable to seriously harm even one member, I doubt with the forces Leaf has available right now, they would be able to defeat MfD!Akatsuki. Even if they did, if they do not kill enough members the organization can simply come back and rofl-stomp Leaf to take Naruto again.
 
"Hazō, Noburi, Keiko, Kagome—I need you out of the city for a couple weeks so the Council can't use you against me. Out of sight, out of mind sort of thing. I also trust you, which is more than I can say for a lot of people in that room back there.

1. He needs us out of sight, out of mind.
2. He needs someone he trusts to do this.

Well then we can have Hazou stay at a sealing facility outside of Konoha and send the rest of the team on the mission. So long as Hazou goes full hermit and has everything delivered to him so he can maximize his studying and sealing time he won't have time to make a political nuisance out of himself. Jiraiya still gets his trusted team to do the mission and Hazou gets "a couple weeks" to get started on nothing but seals.

Win-win, imo.
 
If the aforementioned group was unable to seriously harm even one member, I doubt with the forces Leaf has available right now, they would be able to defeat MfD!Akatsuki. Even if they did, if they do not kill enough members the organization can simply come back and rofl-stomp Leaf to take Naruto again.
It was clearly a planned ambush - they attacked just as the fight was ending (rather suspicious) and then used their forces to mop up a tired batch of enemies that had killed at least two S-Rank assets, including the God of Shinobi. Mist and Leaf were also probably busy taking attacks of opportunity at each other rather than focusing on the more dangerous enemy. But yes, the MfD!Akatsuki ROFLstomping Leaf is a much bigger issue.
 
Because they'll be following a prepared, motivated sealmaster onto prepared ground without hostages. What's the number one rule again?

Rule #1 is that you never engage a sealmaster on prepared ground, true.

However,

Rule #0 is that if you're S-rank, the other rules don't normally apply to you.

Another thing to keep in mind was that Shikaku was highly concerned about ninjas using Skywalkers to launch suicide bombing runs on Konoha. MfD!Akatsuki has Deidara confirmed to have flying dragon-mounts of some kind and he is still an explosives expert.

We need to prepare as much as we can while we can.
 
Point of order on a couple of things.

How do we know this? For all we know they could be capable to attacking Leaf directly while we are relatively defenseless. If I were in their position I would just use my overwhelming force to either crush the opposition enough so that no rescue attempts could ever be launched and continue to destabilize the geo-politcal sphere so that the nations are too busy fighting each other rather than addressing the new threat.

If that's actually the case, why in the world are you arguing for Hazou to stay in the doomed village? We'll be out of town for a few weeks and either Akatsuki swoops in and destroys it in its period of weakness (in which case, whew, dodged that bullet) or they didn't and it's safe to come back.

What's stopping Akatsuki from following them back to Leaf and murdering everyone?

But this isn't canon, so we shouldn't rely on it. This is MfD!Akatsuki and they were smart enough to risk fighting Naruto, Yagura, Zabuza, Mei, Jiraiya, Hiruzen, and a platoon of ANBU and come out with 0 casualties.

Okay now, let's remember how carefully they picked their moment. The Mist and Leaf sides had just had a long throwdown during which Hiruzen, Mei, and Zabuza were already dead. Everyone still alive had no doubt been spending their chakra like water and already thrown everything they had into the fight.

That's a hell of a lot different from attacking the same group while they were fresh.

If the aforementioned group was unable to seriously harm even one member, I doubt with the forces Leaf has available right now, they would be able to defeat MfD!Akatsuki. Even if they did, if they do not kill enough members the organization can simply come back and rofl-stomp Leaf to take Naruto again.

Ahem.

"Meanwhile, I was being attacked by an S-rank puppet-user that I didn't recognize and one of my former students: Konan, a paper- and explosive-tag user. Former student or not, she had no problem trying to kill me.

"Those two kept me busy long enough that Itachi and his partner were able to scoop up Naruto and the two attacking Yagura were able to capture him. I wounded both of my opponents, but they retreated with their companions before I could finish them. I could have pursued using the skywalkers, but I knew I couldn't take on the entire group.

Jiraiya was fighting one-on-two, already exhausted from killing Mei, and he still wounded both his opponents before they retreated without taking any apparent injuries himself. I think there's a decent chance that Akatsuki retreated because they knew if they kept fighting then Jiraiya would kill at least some of them before he went down. He's the most dangerous ninja in the world.
 
*checks thread briefly*

Okay, looks like we're going on the mission then. For those that wanted R&Ding, how does this sound?

"Give me a list of 5-10 interesting seals - just their names and functions, I don't need to research them - and I'll probably have a shiny new 'just turn them upside down' for you when we get back."
 
[X] Poll: "Yes. Hokage-sama." (Do we ask to be left behind?)

I'd like to remind people that the implosion nuke can glass ALL of Water Country. If we can gather Akatsuki there... :p
 
"Give me a list of 5-10 interesting seals - just their names and functions, I don't need to research them - and I'll probably have a shiny new 'just turn them upside down' for you when we get back."

This makes sense and might be acceptable. On reflection, I'm not actually worried too much about safety as long as we can use Skywalkers, and make it priority one to disengage and regroup if anything unexpected happens.
 
Okay, looks like we're going on the mission then. For those that wanted R&Ding, how does this sound?

"Give me a list of 5-10 interesting seals - just their names and functions, I don't need to research them - and I'll probably have a shiny new 'just turn them upside down' for you when we get back."

Personally I think we could request that list later through Pangolin messenger, preferably after Jiraiya has reported on the results of the rescue mission. Right now he's tired, impatient, and begrudgingly about to go to get some sleep. It's not really the time to ask. I get that we've all got a thing for wanting to have stuff to engineer with, but it's not that essential that we get some stuff to work with right now.
 
Personally I think we could request that list later through Pangolin messenger, preferably after Jiraiya has reported on the results of the rescue mission. Right now he's tired, impatient, and begrudgingly about to go to get some sleep. It's not really the time to ask. I get that we've all got a thing for wanting to have stuff to engineer with, but it's not that essential that we get some stuff to work with right now.
Through pangolin messenger means we get it about the time we're supposed to be on our way back.
 
Personally I think we could request that list later through Pangolin messenger, preferably after Jiraiya has reported on the results of the rescue mission. Right now he's tired, impatient, and begrudgingly about to go to get some sleep. It's not really the time to ask. I get that we've all got a thing for wanting to have stuff to engineer with, but it's not that essential that we get some stuff to work with right now.

Jiraiya doesn't have to give us the list, just point us to a person who can give us a good list.

--

[X] Lore Update
[-] Leaf Leaf

Need to strategize more imo.
 
Through pangolin messenger means we get it about the time we're supposed to be on our way back.

That's provided there isn't already a Pangolin stationed in the Toad's territory, which there might be given we previously instructed that in regards to the Capybara mission. @eaglejarl, @OliWhail, @Velorien - should there be a Pangolin messenger with the Toads to facilitate communication currently?

Jiraiya doesn't have to give is the list, just point us to a person who can give us a good list.

It's 1AM and a lot of those people are either super busy with the shit that just went down or are asleep, and we have only two hours to prep for the mission. Getting seal specs is not mission prep, as much as we might like it to be. I think we'll just need to settle for what we've got already, or perhaps Kagome has a few seals in his arsenal that he hasn't shown us.
 
If that's actually the case, why in the world are you arguing for Hazou to stay in the doomed village? We'll be out of town for a few weeks and either Akatsuki swoops in and destroys it in its period of weakness (in which case, whew, dodged that bullet) or they didn't and it's safe to come back.

Because Leaf is our best bet to fight Akatsuki and win. Without them we are back on the road on our own, except now we know that there is a group of S-rankers roaming around as well. On a meta-level, I get the feeling that if Akatsuki wins we get a Bad End. R&D will take months and every day is precious in this time of crisis. Leaf is going to stay in this vulnerable state until they gain some new advantage, like how Skywalkers amplified their strength before. Akarsuki is most likely resting and recuperating right now, so starting right away on research makes us as safe as possible in the long run. The danger only increases with time since they have more S-rankers than us unless we do something immediately to counteract that advantage.

Okay now, let's remember how carefully they picked their moment. The Mist and Leaf sides had just had a long throwdown during which Hiruzen, Mei, and Zabuza were already dead. Everyone still alive had no doubt been spending their chakra like water and already thrown everything they had into the fight.

That's a hell of a lot different from attacking the same group while they were fresh.

Leaf has one S-ranker that we know of at the moment: Jiraiya. Maybe the clan-heads could help in an all out fight against Akatsuki, but MfD!Akatsuki, as you pointed out, is smart enough to know when to attack. If we do not start to develop the means to fight them on our terms we surrender the initiative to them indefinitely. Waiting to be attacked by a group of S-rankers is eventual suicide.

Jiraiya was fighting one-on-two, already exhausted from killing Mei, and he still wounded both his opponents before they retreated without taking any apparent injuries himself. I think there's a decent chance that Akatsuki retreated because they knew if they kept fighting then Jiraiya would kill at least some of them before he went down. He's the most dangerous ninja in the world.

Key word is "seriously"; I should have been more exact.

Both of them were healthy enough to retreat with their allies and I suspect that if Jiraiya thought he had maimed either of them he would have said so. Two non-permanently debilitating injuries doesn't do us much good when they wiped out the majority of our most powerful ninjas in a single confrontation. Jiraiya may be powerful (I'm skeptical if he is the #1 ninja in the world) but he is still only one man and now he will be weighed down by the ordeals of political office. He doesn't have as much time to focus on personal preparation for their next confrontation as each member of MfD!Akatsuki has which will also add up the longer we don't have the means to kill them.
 
Current version of plan is below. I am requesting help for the ORANGE text since it is all talky stuff and I'm shit at that. I want to make sure that:
  • Our asking for the Bird Summon doesn't break secrecy (Minami/Akane probably do not have clearance on this).
  • Our asking for the Bird Summon isn't coded to annoy Jiraiya.
  • Our apology doesn't insult Jiraiya/Konoha by apologizing badly, or worded in a way that can be construed against him.
  • Our talk with Mari doesn't make her sad. Or worried. Or angry. Or -insert negative emotion here-.

Note: I will NOT be adding the "ask Jiraiya for seals" thing since it seems a controversial topic and I don't wanna add stuff in the last <10 hours.
[X] Action Plan: Leaf Leaf

  • General policies:
    • Refer to Jiraiya as Hokage-sama unless he says otherwise.
    • Minami is our squad leader. We defer to her plans, but give well thought-out advice (i.e., the plan).
      • That being said, don't overburden her with too much information.
  • Some quick things for Hokage-sama before he goes to bed.
    • Do we have authorization to use Skywalkers for speed/stealth purposes?
    • Ask for some details on the Bird Summon such that the Pangolins can more quickly find and deliver said information to Leaf.
      • Make sure to not be too obvious about things given Minami/Akane weren't at the meeting (i.e., don't mention Akatsuki or Bird Summon or Nakamura).
        • Possibly, "Is it possible for Keiko to get a description of the bird so her friends can do some searching?" in Hazou-speak
      • Jiraiya can delegate the information to Nakamura if needed (pretty sure Nakamura was still there).
    • Say that you're sorry for his loss, in Hazou-speak.
      • Give a hug if appropriate.
  • Talk with Minami.
    • Do this while we're moving to get gear/prep.
    • Trade intel on general abilities/seals/protocols.
      • Make note of how we use Noburi's bloodline to boost our border crossings with chakra (without the risk of running out).
      • (If authorized) Brief Minami on Skywalkers.
  • Do things (split up to do this):
    • Get/make:
      • Kunai & shuriken.
      • Rations.
      • Seal-quality paper and ink(stones).
      • Specialized things:
        • Water supply (for Noburi's jutsu).
        • Macerator payloads:
          • Very fragrant things, ideally very fargrant oils for scent bombs. Something that clings to people would be best.
          • Some irritants (like pepper or chillis) for irritant bombs.
          • Very fine ash or talk for smoke bombs.
          • Iron that we can heat for a flash-bang.
            • We can superheat iron ourselves using Elemental Mastery if a smithy is unavailable.
            • Alternatively we just do this when visiting some village with a blacksmith.
        • Portable Skybase.
        • Make Skywalkers (if authorized).
    • Ask Keiko if she should send a Pangolin messenger (contracted to her) to the Toad Clan using the Summoning Realm.
      • Have we already done this?
      • Reasons for this:
        • Would allow Keiko to summon the messenger to give updates to the Toad Clan, and therefore to Jiraiya.
        • Would allow Jiraiya to send messages to the messenger through the Toad Clan, and therefore to Keiko.
        • Grants rapid communications between Konoha and our team after the 10 day travel time.
      • If yes, tell Mari-sensei so Konoha knows about it.
  • Talk to Mari.
    • Make sure she knows we still love her. Give her a hug.
    • What else?
  • Leaf Leaf.
    • Defer to the Hokage and head to Rivers first.
    • Use Skywalkers if authorized.
 
[x] Poll: "Yes. Hokage-sama." (Do we ask to be left behind?)
-[x] Poll: No. The team probably needs our brand of insanity.
 
Current version of plan is below. I am requesting help for the ORANGE text since it is all talky stuff and I'm shit at that. I want to make sure that:
  • Our asking for the Bird Summon doesn't break secrecy (Minami/Akane probably do not have clearance on this).
  • Our asking for the Bird Summon isn't coded to annoy Jiraiya.
  • Our apology doesn't insult Jiraiya/Konoha by apologizing badly, or worded in a way that can be construed against him.
  • Our talk with Mari doesn't make her sad. Or worried. Or angry. Or -insert negative emotion here-.

Note: I will NOT be adding the "ask Jiraiya for seals" thing since it seems a controversial topic and I don't wanna add stuff in the last <10 hours.

Who's Nakaruma, and why are we asking for Bird summon info?

Edit: There is probably a standard way of discussing classified info. Maybe, "I want to discuss classified info, but Akane and Minami are not cleared?"
 
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Because Leaf is our best bet to fight Akatsuki and win. Without them we are back on the road on our own, except now we know that there is a group of S-rankers roaming around as well. On a meta-level, I get the feeling that if Akatsuki wins we get a Bad End. R&D will take months and every day is precious in this time of crisis. Leaf is going to stay in this vulnerable state until they gain some new advantage, like how Skywalkers amplified their strength before. Akarsuki is most likely resting and recuperating right now, so starting right away on research makes us as safe as possible in the long run. The danger only increases with time since they have more S-rankers than us unless we do something immediately to counteract that advantage.

Leaf has one S-ranker that we know of at the moment: Jiraiya. Maybe the clan-heads could help in an all out fight against Akatsuki, but MfD!Akatsuki, as you pointed out, is smart enough to know when to attack. If we do not start to develop the means to fight them on our terms we surrender the initiative to them indefinitely. Waiting to be attacked by a group of S-rankers is eventual suicide.

I have no idea how many S-rankers or near S-rankers Leaf has, and neither do you. We know Gai exists, and in canon he's capable of fighting at the Kage level when he opens the gates. It seems likely to me that Kakashi exists, simply because I don't know why the character would be dropped from the setting. Tsunade? No idea.

And while MfD!Akatsuki might be "smart enough to know who to attack" when it comes to brains Leaf has Shikaku Nara on their side. They caught him off-guard once. They will not do so twice.

Key word is "seriously"; I should have been more exact.

Both of them were healthy enough to retreat with their allies and I suspect that if Jiraiya thought he had maimed either of them he would have said so. Two non-permanently debilitating injuries doesn't do us much good when they wiped out the majority of our most powerful ninjas in a single confrontation.

A non-permanently rehabilitating injury can still leave you with a malus for months.

Jiraiya may be powerful (I'm skeptical if he is the #1 ninja in the world) but he is still only one man and now he will be weighed down by the ordeals of political office. He doesn't have as much time to focus on personal preparation for their next confrontation as each member of MfD!Akatsuki has which will also add up the longer we don't have the means to kill them.

That's fine, but ultimately I don't share your belief that Hazou can sealcraft a solution if only given enough time. If nothing else, he needs to better understand his opponents.
 
It's 1AM and a lot of those people are either super busy with the shit that just went down or are asleep, and we have only two hours to prep for the mission. Getting seal specs is not mission prep, as much as we might like it to be. I think we'll just need to settle for what we've got already, or perhaps Kagome has a few seals in his arsenal that he hasn't shown us.

I will not be voting for any plan that can't take the time to ask someone for a list of useful seals that we can likely munchkin to worldbreaking affect. I'm sorry; this is just ridiculous. Probably the only reason we haven't done this already is just that we didn't have the clearance as we weren't Leaf-nin, and even then we should have considered this long ago.
 
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