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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Jello_Raptor said:
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman

We've got a lot of traveling to do.
  • 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?
    • Are we allowed to memorize the letters as a backup?
    • Ask permission to speak about the recent meeting in front of Minami/Akane.
      • Ask for some details on the Bird Summon such that the Pangolins can more quickly find and deliver said information to Leaf.
        • Jiraiya can delegate the information to Nakamura if needed (pretty sure Nakamura was still there).
    • Ask Jiraiya if there's any problems he'd like Hazou to think about while we're out. If we're lucky we might be able to give him another "Just turn them upside down".
      • We're not asking for seals, but problems he would like us to work on solving.
    • Tell Jiraiya that we've got his back and we'll fight for him just like we'd fight for any other member of this team.
      • Use the form of address a son would use with their father informally, as long as it doesn't involve explicitly calling him dad. (That's a whole separate discussion we should have together when tempers and stress are lower.)
      • If such a form doesn't exist, use a form of address that is both informal and deeply respectful.
  • Basically as soon as we leave the room:
    • Talk to Akane with CCnJ
      • We still care deeply about you.
      • We're sorry for being an idiot about so many things.
      • [AKANE CHAT] We're in a huge rush right now and we promise to have a proper chat as we travel/when we make camp.
      • We would like to give you a hug now though. Please don't crush us since you're super duper strong now.
  • Talk with Minami.
    • Do this while we're moving to get gear/prep.
    • Give her a rundown on how we move quickly with Nobby's power.
    • Ask after what our tactical orders are
      • When do we disengage?
      • How much risk is acceptable?
      • What exactly constitutes success?
    • 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.
      • If we are planning to go into Mist, brief her on our mom.
  • Do things (split up to do this):
    • Get/make:
      • Kunai & shuriken.
      • Rations.
      • Seal-quality paper and ink(stones).
      • If there's a standardized go-bag, pick up a few.
        • A seal/small book of seals with an assortment of rations, weapons, clothing, soldier pills, etc.. The sort of things a ninja would need to run for their life really fast.
      • Specialized things:
        • Water supply (for Noburi's jutsu).
          • Ideally in barrels. (Worst case his barrel breaks, and we also have enough to sealing paper to let him make a new one.)
        • 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.
    • If we don't have an extra barrel for Nobby stored with the pangolin, let them hold onto a spare.
  • Talk to Mari.
    • Make sure she knows we still love her.
    • Give her a hug.
    • Thank her for everything.
    • Promise her we'll come back.
    • Tell her to make friends and be happy.
    • Ask her to check on whether Jiraiya saw anyone from our families die.
    • What else?
  • [NARA LETTER] If and only if we have time, write a quick note to the Nara laying out the idea in this post
    • Ask Kagome if he is okay with sharing the force wall seal.
      • We believe it's usable to protect from enemy ninja with skywalkers, but we're not going to have the time to develop those ideas ourselves.
      • We need to use the brainpower available to us in the form of other ninja.
      • This is to keep us safe. (Though it doesn't help all of Konoha by proxy)
      • Give Kagome the 30s sketch of the idea, ask him to allow sharing it even if he doesn't think it's workable, since the Nara might be able to figure something out.
    • Don't do the rest of this if Kagome isn't okay with sharing his force walls. If he is, then get one set of seals from him.
    • Address to "Nara Shikamaru or Nara Central Dispatch if Nara Shikamaru is unavailable in a short time frame"
      • Where "Nara Central Dispatch" is either some service or person that will get pieces of information to the Nara clan members who need them. I fully expect this to be a thing.
      • Mark the letter as fragile and hand deliver to the Nara, or ask Inoue to give it to Shika or someone appropriate in the clan relatively quickly.
        • Note: I ask for "Shika" here on purpose. If Shikaku is curious enough to intercept this, he should absolutely be able to do so. However, given that he is putting out fires and is actually busy, it would be incredibly presumptuous to force him to deal with it.
      • Don't seal the outer letter, there's fucking seals in there, I don't want to risk someone tearing them.
    • In the outer letter:
      • Ask Shikamaru (or the recipient) to get the internal letter (and also this note for context) to the least busy Nara sealmaster with enough clearance to know about new inventions with major strategic implications.
      • Tell him Shikaku told us about a problem we created and we have an idea for a potential solution.
      • If this is Shikamaru, and he knows both sealing and what we're talking about above, he should feel free to read the letter.
      • It is unlikely to work, especially unmodified, but we expect an experienced sealer to figure out whether it's feasible or not very quickly.
      • Because of orders we don't have the time to immidiately develop or explore the idea, and would appreciate your help.
      • Be thankful and polite.
    • In the inner letter (in a nested envelope):
      • Mark the letter as "Fragile, contains live seals" (arf arf arf)
      • Make sure there
        • Epistemic Status: We expect the idea to not be workable as is. We expect it is suggestive of something that could potentially work to solve the tactical issue with defending against skywalkers.
        • Outline the ideas in this research proposal (the poor man's sky squid).
          • Smaller force walls would make testing all of this much easier.
          • The control systems we outline are purely mechanical, and something made with seals is likely to be more effective. However, they also come with further development and research effort, that is likely beyond Hazou's short term reach.
        • Once we get back and the recipient has time, we would appreciate (but do not require) that the recipient of this letter:
          • If the idea is unworkable, spend some of their time helping us understand why.
          • If the idea or some derivative thereof is workable
            • If we are skill enough, allow us to to contribute to its further development.
            • if our skill is too low, allow us to observe and learn from those who are developing the idea further.
      • Put in a pair of force wall seals for the Nara to study.
  • Leave Leaf.
    • Defer to the Hokage and head to Rivers first.
    • If allowed, when we make camp, trace all the letters so Iron Nerve memorizes them.
    • Use Skywalkers if authorized.
  • [AKANE CHAT] (Don't do this in the background if the plan is too long, this is stuff is something the thread needs to both see and have control over)
  • When on the move, when we make camp, or when circumstances generally permit, have a chat with Akane. Generally use CCnJ.
    • We love her and missed her so very much.
    • Generally be truthful about our feelings.
    • We're sorry about getting kicked out.
    • We're sorry about not sending her a letter or anything sooner after talking to her father. We felt it was against the spirit of our agreement with him, until someone else reminded us that that choice probably was hurting you.
      • [SENSEI WORRIES] Optionally, at Hazou's discretion: (following are sentiments Hazou wants to express, not things Hazou says verbatim)
        • I don't think you father was actually wrong about some stuff.
        • On reflection being both your sensei and your partner seems problematic.
        • I want to be your equal in a relationship, not your superior.
        • I worry that the power dynamics of being a sensei and being a partner interact badly and can become something exploitative or abusive, even without one of us noticing.
        • We will always have stuff to teach each other and we should.
        • I want to know that, when you think I'm wrong, you'll tell me.
          • My judgement is not perfect, or even all that good, and having someone who I can trust to proactively tell me when I'm being an idiot would be very nice.
    • I think the whole missing-nin issue is sorted though. *smug face*
    • Please don't get a bowl cut or start talking in weirdly oblivious innuendo.
    • Generally catch up.
    • [INO CHAT] Don't insert it yourself, but if the topic of Ino or Rock Lee comes up:
      • Be truthful and as straightforward as possible. Be clear about about all your feelings, and trust Akane.
      • We're fine either poly or mono, though we should discuss what we actually want.
      • If she's got a crush on Lee (or anyone else) and wants to go for it, we're cool with that. We're going to be here for her either way, as a partner or a friend. (though we would definitely prefer being a partner)
      • We're not exactly sure how we feel about Ino.
        • There's definitely some attraction on our end, and she definitely acts like she's at least a little attracted. Though she's certainly capable of toying with us without our noticing.
        • There's a non-trivial cynical part of us that sees how she's an incredibly politically advantageous partner to have.
  • [KAGOME BRAINSTORMING] If we got some problems to ponder from Jiraiya then have a chat with Kagome when circumstances allow.
    • Are there any seals he has, or he expects Konoha to have, that are interesting in the context of these problems?
    • Any broad ideas? Early thoughts?
    • Honestly, there's not much I can add here without the actual problems. I'm sure you QMs can figure out a decent brainstorming session though.
  • If everything else is taken care of skip to when we get near our target in River and give us some info so we can plan for the actual contact before ending the update. (Unless interesting things happen during travel that we should deal with, basically set us up for a decision when you end the update.)

[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o INO CHAT
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o SENSEI WORRIES
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o INO CHAT, SENSEI WORRIES
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o INO CHAT, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o SENSEI WORRIES, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o INO CHAT, SENSEI WORRIES, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o AKANE CHAT
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o AKANE CHAT, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, INO CHAT
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, SENSEI WORRIES
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, INO CHAT, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, SENSEI WORRIES, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, INO CHAT, SENSEI WORRIES, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, AKANE CHAT
[X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, AKANE CHAT, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING

As with Action Plan : Dearth of a Salesman but without the specified sections.
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Did the thing with the ending conditions.
 
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Interlude: The Breaking of Warlord Sen
  • Threadmarks

    • "Yeah, yeah, I got it, stab the bird fucker, hear the lamentations of his women, yadda yadda yadda. It's always exactly the same thing with you, Scaly-tama." Ui grinned inwardly at the wave of killing intent that washed out from the gigantic pangolin. It might mean his death one of these days, but what was the point of living if you couldn't have a little fun while you did it?

    "Just get it done, whelp," Pantsaa ordered.

    "Yessir, boss!" Ui called behind him, already heading out the door.

    -o-​

    "No way in any of the Paths are those all ninja," Ui asserted as he peered across the field at Sen's encampment. "Did this dumbass really think armed civilians would make a difference?"

    "They're to hide the ninja and provide substitution targets, obviously," Pander sniffed dismissively. "Not that that will be much help against you, master."

    "If they don't matter, you don't mind if I have fun with them later, right?" interjected Pantone, tongue flicking out excitedly.

    Ui snorted. "As long as you don't get yourself popped by one of your toys. Again."

    "Shut up! If that sneaky bitch hadn't had her bullshit suicide technique, I'd have been fine!"

    "Excuses from the weakling, how totally unexpected," Panseer jeered.

    "Listen here beak-face--"

    "Can it," Ui ordered, hopping onto Pander's back and tightening the straps on his claws. "You messed up when you assumed an enemy who wasn't dead yet wasn't a threat. Pandora, take us down."

    The hulking Earth specialist clacked his claws excitedly. "Aaaah, it is finally time for me to shine! Behold, ye sullied and imperfect world, the beauty of my Artistic Pangolin Tunnelling Technique!" With a ripping gesture, a tunnel bored itself into the earth below him, and he dropped down. The rest of the party followed in deadly silence, most definitely not all rolling their eyes in synchrony

    ...​

    The only warning sign was a slight rumbling before most of the field under the encampment collapsed into six gigantic sinkholes.

    "Ah-haaa!" Pandora shouted over the screams of half-buried men from atop a pillar slowly in the midst of the chaos, as his companions leapt from their positions to begin wreaking their own special brands of havoc . "Behold, foolish mortals, the beauty of my architectural genius! Ahahahahaha--" He cut off mid-cackle as an explosion shattered the base of his pillar. "Artistic Pangolin Earth Armor Technique!" he shrieked just before colliding with the ground. Sheets of stone folded up around him as he landed, and the now even bulkier pangolin immediately whipped his tail around to intercept a barrage of weapons from the kunoichi who had brought him down to ground level.

    "BARBARIAN! YOU WILL SUFFER FOR INTERRUPTING MY PERFORMANCE! LET'S KILL HER, BROTHER!" Pandora shrieked, and then charged.

    "Yes, brother!" chirped a much smaller pangolin, leaping over the lip of the sinkhole. "Pangolin Bullet Rainstorm Technique!" he shouted, manifesting dozens of fist-sized globes of water that began hurtling themselves with bone-shattering speed at the shinobi.

    She did not last long.

    ...​

    "AAAAUUUGH!" the half-buried man screamed.

    "No, no, I was going for more of an 'aaaiiii'. What about here?" pondered Pantone, stabbing another spot curiously.

    "AAAAAAAAAH!"

    "Ugh, worthless," Pantone spat, and crushed the man's head.

    "Can you please save your useless games for when we've killed all the ninja?!" yelled Panel in a moment's respite between holding off three enemies with blades of wind.

    "Ugh. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing everything in this relationship."

    "Not the time!"

    "Fiiiiine. Pangolin Flash Technique!" Lightning chakra surged through Pantone's veins and skimmed along his scales, and the world slowed around him. He took a moment to revel in the high, and then assessed the situation. He could see one tag-laden kunai flying toward his mate, slipping through her technique's guard. He contemplated doing nothing about it, but that would probably get him a talking-to later, and those were always so troublesome.

    So instead of doing nothing, he sprinted forward, wrapping his tongue around the kunai's handle, on the way, and drove it into the face of the man who had thrown it. There were some intermediate steps of shattering the hapless fool's guard as well as his arm bones, but they didn't matter over much.

    Pantone leapt back toward Panel as the technique wore off and the world returned to its less interesting speed. The tag went off, forcing the new corpse's teammates to dodge to either side and giving the pair of pangolins a moment's respite.

    "Aaaw, sweetie, you do care!" she teased.

    "You're free to think that. Let's kill some more people before I get bored."

    "I thought you'd never ask. Pangolin Wind-Blade Technique!"

    ...​

    "Pangolin Firebolt Technique!" screamed a deeply frustrated Panseer. This one didn't do anything more than the previous ones - the condors Sen had summoned simply avoided it. He snarled. He couldn't hit the flying fuckers, and couldn't hit Sen while the beakface was in such close proximity to Ui. What good was an artillery specialist who couldn't hit anything?!

    Oblivious to his summons' existential crisis, Ui danced through the wall of shuriken Sen was weaving, trying to force him to actually engage rather than constantly throw his toys around with his bullshit bloodline. This entire fight had been a frustrating clusterfuck on both sides - between himself, Pander, and Panseer, Sen's summons had been either popped or driven off before their summoner could hop on them and escape like the pussy he was, but now Panseer was being a useless lump, and Pander had gotten popped by a stray kunai to the eye like a chump.

    "Fight me for real, you weakling!" Ui yelled, frantically dashing forward to try to break through a weakness in the swarm of iron keeping him just out of reach of Sen, chakra pounding through his muscles with every heartbeat. An instant later he swapped himself with a small boulder behind his opponent and whirled to bring one of his claws to bear.

    His strike was blocked by a long knife Sen pulled from a leg sheath, but at this point Ui knew the fight was all but over. He grinned ferociously, bringing his other claw around and under Sen's guard, aiming to gut the other man.

    He shattered the boulder that Sen had just replaced himself with.

    "Connie, I summon you!" Ui heard from behind him. He spun to see Sen on the back of a condor already flapping its wings to take to the skies.

    Ui flung a pair of kunai reflexively, only for them to be batted away by Sen's cloud of shuriken. "Panseer, take him out!" Ui ordered. A wave of fire washed over Ui's head, only to be batted aside by the condor's wingbeats. "Dammit, you stupid useless excuse for a--" he began as Sen rose higher.

    "Shut up, I'm trying to focus!" Panseer interrupted him, staring fixedly up at the flying pair. "Pangolin Discombobulation Technique!"

    The condor's ascent went from being smooth and assured to being haphazard, and then it became a free-fall as the summon lost the ability to coordinate its movements.

    "Since when do you know genjutsu?" Ui called behind him as he dashed to position himself beneath his rapidly descending foe, not really caring to hear an answer. "No kawarimi for you now, eh, bitch?" he cackled, preparing to drive a spiked claw through Sen as he hit the ground.

    Sen was barely a couple meters away when Ui noticed the wad of explosive tags his enemy had pulled from within his armor.

    Ui Isas' last thought in this life was that if there was a next one, that crazy bastard Pantone was never going to let him hear the end of this.


    I haven't heard anything differently from @eaglejarl, so unless he says otherwise assume voting will end at 9am New York time, roughly 7 hours from now. Perhaps he can be prevailed upon to count votes starting from his previous chapter, but I recommend re-voting just in case.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Oneiros43 said:
    [X] Action Plan: Make Like A tree
    Scene in the Hokage-office
    Find out Mission critical information for Hokage-Sama
    • Ask permission to speak about the recent meeting in front of Minami/Akane.
    • Do we have authorization to use Skywalker's for speed/stealth purposes?
    • Ask if Keiko should send a Pangolin messenger (contracted to her) to the Toad Clan using the Summoning Realm.
      • Have we already done 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.
    Letting Jiraiya know that team uplift has his back
    • Let Jiraiya know that he is part of the team now
    • And that team uplift is willing to go Pretty Damn far for Jiraiya as well
    • And even though we don't know him Naruto is to since he is one of Jiraiya's precious people
    • The team might not be able to fight this level of opponent (yet) but we can help give Jiraiya the tools so he can
      • So Hazou is going to need a list of seals Jiraiya would like for us to look over
      • So we can see if we can get another turn it upside down moment
      • Or if there is any other gear that Jiraiya would like to give his new clan
    • Tell Mari and Jiraiya to take care of each other
    • Hugs for everyone
    Off-screen put together supplies
    • 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).
          • If available get black paper
    Leave Leaf
    Follow standard protocol and start making our way to river

    • Have a reunion with Akane.
      • Hugs
      • Tell her we missed her
      • share stories
    • If Authorized to use skywalkers give Akane and Minami a crash course on how they work once safely outside of leaf
    • Talk with Minami.
    • Do this once we are on our way to river
    • 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.
    • Share stories about our accomplishments with Minami
      • Team uplift should be a toned down version of this our team killed every chakra beast from Fire's Swamp of Death to the jungles of Tea. We've crushed jounin, fought an entire village of ninja, and faced down Jiraiya of the Sannin. I stood my ground in front of Pantsaa of the Adamant Scales, the Boss Summon of the Pangolin Clan, and made him fear me. My comrade"—she waved to Hazou—"killed three chunin in single combat when he was only a few months out of the Academy. Our leader fought his way out of a prison designed to hold sealmasters.
      • Also include how Noburi talked a ninja team down and hustled them for money
      • What has Minami done? (This is mostly an excuse so eaglejarl can write some badass combat scenes here if he wants to)
    • Ask about what we know about the contact we are meeting
    • Get to river and find where our contact is
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    Reposting my plan and revising

    [x] Action plan: make like a tree
     
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    OliWhail said:
    Pantone
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    OliWhail said:
    Pander
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    OliWhail said:
    Pandora
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    OliWhail said:
    Panel
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    :mad:

    panacea
    pancake
    panchromatic
    pancolitis
    pancreas
    pancytopenia
    panda
    pandemic
    pandemonium
    pander
    pandiculation
    pane
    panegyric
    panel
    panes
    pang
    panhandle
    panic
    panned
    panniculus
    panophobia
    panophthalmia
    panorama
    panphobia
    pans
    pansexual
    panspermia
    pansy
    pant
    pantaloons
    panted
    pantheistic
    panther
    pantograph
    pantomime
    pantoscope
    pantothenic
    pantry
    pants
    pantsuit
    pantyhose
    pantyliner
     
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    So... none of the current action plans have Hazou staying in Leaf as an option (despite some incredibly long lengths), so I'll make a short and simple one to do just that.

    [X] Action Plan: Sealing Sprint

    Goals:
    1. Survive
    2. Don't break any laws in Leaf through action or inaction
    3. State reasoning for altering Jiraiya's team composition for the upcoming mission to convince him to let Hazou stay so that he can make seals to use against S-rankers.
    Steps (in WHW format):
    1. Jiraiya just asked us for any questions so Hazou has a minute to plead his case. Do so.
      1. Paraphrase or reword the following appeal, use CCnJ if you so desire, Mr. QM: "Sir, in the interest of protecting our new home from a threat that just killed the 3rd Hokage, captured the Nine-tails host, and eliminated numerous ANBU, I am unsure why you are sending all of us on this mission. Leaf currently has taken a crippling blow and needs all of the firepower it can muster as soon as possible. We have already given you a force multiplier that, had recent events not occurred, would have cemented your position as the most powerful Hidden Village in the Elemental Nations. Said seal was created while we were outlaws with limited resources. If Akatsuki is such a threat that it can attack two kage openly we will need the means to fight them sooner rather than later. My personal people-skills are... frankly inadequate for your proposed mission. Why not instead have me personally as well as any seal-masters and/or other technique developers you can spare work in a secured location outside of Leaf to revolutionize warfare again? I would be out of Leaf so I would not cause you any trouble and my teammates are more than capable of completing this mission without me: I trust them and their abilities. Skywalkers were meant to end the upcoming war and I am willing to invent as many seals as it takes to win the fight against any who would threaten my new home. Please sir, let me help protect it and all of my comrades to the best of my abilities as a seal-user. Of course, I trust your judgment as Hokage and will follow your orders to the best of my abilities; I just thought I should point out this alternative option."
        1. We need the weapons to defeat Akatsuki, plain and simple. Going out and about is all well and good for the rest of the team, but Hazou can give Leaf a massive boon through his creative sealing if given enough time. Hazou's in character motivation for this decision would be that, as newly minted Leaf ninja, he has a responsibility to keep as many of his comrades safe as possible rather than just his personal friends. Duty calls and Hazou will answer, even if it hurts since he just got to see Akane again and now he has to say farewell (temporarily (hopefully)) to his dearest friends.
    2. If Jiraiya okays the request, say goodbye to the team after we all leave the office.
      1. Akane gets special treatment since this is the first and only time we will be seeing her for weeks after months of being apart.
        1. Give her a hug and tell her that Hazou is doing this to help everyone, but especially to help keep her personally safe in the long run because she means so much to him... not that she is incapable of taking care of herself (there is no shame in admitting that even a talented ninja isn't up to facing an S-ranker in a 1v1). Use CCnJ to compliment her about her newly toned and youth-filled physique to show that Hazou notices her diligence. Also mention that he has some ideas to use her Elemental Mastery technique for a new invention (Zeppelins) once she gets back.
      2. For the rest of the team be as friendly as Hazou feels is appropriate for the situation; they are on the clock but he won't see them again for at least a couple of weeks. Tell them to stay positive and that he expects to see them again shortly. Hazou's world wouldn't be the same without them and he will miss all of them dearly. Kagome, take care of the team's security as always. Keiko, check and fix everyone else's mistakes and kick ass with Pangolins. Noburi, help patch everyone up and keep them in fighting condition. Akane, be the team's emotional support and their front line fighter... while staying as safe as possible, please. Minami, please take good care of Hazou's closest friends. If there is anything you guys need Hazou to do, just ask; friends get unlimited favors.
        1. Long drawn out goodbye's only make parting in the end even harder. Best to say what you need to say and then let them go about their business. We all have to do our part to help protect our new home after all.
      3. Have Mari, or whomever Jiraiya assigns to us, take us to the appropriate sealing facility straight away so Hazou doesn't waste time nor cause a political incident by virtue of existing in Leaf.
        1. We said we need every day spent sealing we can get and we meant it. Runners and.or minders can bring us food and other necessities but right now Leaf needs us to Mad Science the shit out of some seals and Hazou is going to do it as fast as humanly possible.
    3. If Jiraiya does not let Hazou stay behind, say, "Yessir" and follow his and Minami's instructions.
      1. Once we are out of the office, ask to get as many seals from the armory (or supply equivalent) as we can with a focus on variety and usefulness for our team's particular strengths.
        1. We still want to help with seals later on and the more reference material we have to work with, the better.
      2. Explain to Minami Hazou's skills for plan- and list-making and see how he should advise her while she is in command.
        1. We don't want to step on her toes, but we also don't want her to neglect his unique abilities.
      3. Suit up and hit the road.
        1. No use wasting time in an emergency. We can talk to people when we get back, especially since Jiraiya considers us politically damaging at the moment. We don't want to piss off our new step-dad when he is so stressed out he threatened council members multiple times.
    I feel like the contingency section could use more work, but I hope this is enough to get the conversation about focusing on sealing rather than having Hazou prancing about the EN for, imo, no good reason.

    Constructive critiques and suggestions always welcomed.
     
    Jello_Raptor said:
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman

    We've got a lot of traveling to do.
    • 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?
      • Are we allowed to memorize the letters as a backup?
      • Ask permission to speak about the recent meeting in front of Minami/Akane.
        • Ask for some details on the Bird Summon such that the Pangolins can more quickly find and deliver said information to Leaf.
          • Jiraiya can delegate the information to Nakamura if needed (pretty sure Nakamura was still there).
      • Ask Jiraiya if there's any problems he'd like Hazou to think about while we're out. If we're lucky we might be able to give him another "Just turn them upside down".
        • We're not asking for seals, but problems he would like us to work on solving.
      • Tell Jiraiya that we've got his back and we'll fight for him just like we'd fight for any other member of this team.
        • Use the form of address a son would use with their father informally, as long as it doesn't involve explicitly calling him dad. (That's a whole separate discussion we should have together when tempers and stress are lower.)
        • If such a form doesn't exist, use a form of address that is both informal and deeply respectful.
    • Basically as soon as we leave the room:
      • Talk to Akane with CCnJ
        • We still care deeply about you.
        • We're sorry for being an idiot about so many things.
        • [AKANE CHAT] We're in a huge rush right now and we promise to have a proper chat as we travel/when we make camp.
        • We would like to give you a hug now though. Please don't crush us since you're super duper strong now.
    • Talk with Minami.
      • Do this while we're moving to get gear/prep.
      • Give her a rundown on how we move quickly with Nobby's power.
      • Ask after what our tactical orders are
        • When do we disengage?
        • How much risk is acceptable?
        • What exactly constitutes success?
      • 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.
        • If we are planning to go into Mist, brief her on our mom.
    • Do things (split up to do this):
      • Get/make:
        • Kunai & shuriken.
        • Rations.
        • Seal-quality paper and ink(stones).
        • If there's a standardized go-bag, pick up a few.
          • A seal/small book of seals with an assortment of rations, weapons, clothing, soldier pills, etc.. The sort of things a ninja would need to run for their life really fast.
        • Specialized things:
          • Water supply (for Noburi's jutsu).
            • Ideally in barrels. (Worst case his barrel breaks, and we also have enough to sealing paper to let him make a new one.)
          • 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.
      • If we don't have an extra barrel for Nobby stored with the pangolin, let them hold onto a spare.
    • Talk to Mari.
      • Make sure she knows we still love her.
      • Give her a hug.
      • Thank her for everything.
      • Promise her we'll come back.
      • Tell her to make friends and be happy.
      • Ask her to check on whether Jiraiya saw anyone from our families die.
      • What else?
    • [NARA LETTER] If and only if we have time, write a quick note to the Nara laying out the idea in this post
      • Ask Kagome if he is okay with sharing the force wall seal.
        • We believe it's usable to protect from enemy ninja with skywalkers, but we're not going to have the time to develop those ideas ourselves.
        • We need to use the brainpower available to us in the form of other ninja.
        • This is to keep us safe. (Though it doesn't help all of Konoha by proxy)
        • Give Kagome the 30s sketch of the idea, ask him to allow sharing it even if he doesn't think it's workable, since the Nara might be able to figure something out.
      • Don't do the rest of this if Kagome isn't okay with sharing his force walls. If he is, then get one set of seals from him.
      • Address to "Nara Shikamaru or Nara Central Dispatch if Nara Shikamaru is unavailable in a short time frame"
        • Where "Nara Central Dispatch" is either some service or person that will get pieces of information to the Nara clan members who need them. I fully expect this to be a thing.
        • Mark the letter as fragile and hand deliver to the Nara, or ask Inoue to give it to Shika or someone appropriate in the clan relatively quickly.
          • Note: I ask for "Shika" here on purpose. If Shikaku is curious enough to intercept this, he should absolutely be able to do so. However, given that he is putting out fires and is actually busy, it would be incredibly presumptuous to force him to deal with it.
        • Don't seal the outer letter, there's fucking seals in there, I don't want to risk someone tearing them.
      • In the outer letter:
        • Ask Shikamaru (or the recipient) to get the internal letter (and also this note for context) to the least busy Nara sealmaster with enough clearance to know about new inventions with major strategic implications.
        • Tell him Shikaku told us about a problem we created and we have an idea for a potential solution.
        • If this is Shikamaru, and he knows both sealing and what we're talking about above, he should feel free to read the letter.
        • It is unlikely to work, especially unmodified, but we expect an experienced sealer to figure out whether it's feasible or not very quickly.
        • Because of orders we don't have the time to immidiately develop or explore the idea, and would appreciate your help.
        • Be thankful and polite.
      • In the inner letter (in a nested envelope):
        • Mark the letter as "Fragile, contains live seals" (arf arf arf)
        • Make sure there
          • Epistemic Status: We expect the idea to not be workable as is. We expect it is suggestive of something that could potentially work to solve the tactical issue with defending against skywalkers.
          • Outline the ideas in this research proposal (the poor man's sky squid).
            • Smaller force walls would make testing all of this much easier.
            • The control systems we outline are purely mechanical, and something made with seals is likely to be more effective. However, they also come with further development and research effort, that is likely beyond Hazou's short term reach.
          • Once we get back and the recipient has time, we would appreciate (but do not require) that the recipient of this letter:
            • If the idea is unworkable, spend some of their time helping us understand why.
            • If the idea or some derivative thereof is workable
              • If we are skill enough, allow us to to contribute to its further development.
              • if our skill is too low, allow us to observe and learn from those who are developing the idea further.
        • Put in a pair of force wall seals for the Nara to study.
    • Leave Leaf.
      • Defer to the Hokage and head to Rivers first.
      • If allowed, when we make camp, trace all the letters so Iron Nerve memorizes them.
      • Use Skywalkers if authorized.
    • [AKANE CHAT] (Don't do this in the background if the plan is too long, this is stuff is something the thread needs to both see and have control over)
    • When on the move, when we make camp, or when circumstances generally permit, have a chat with Akane. Generally use CCnJ.
      • We love her and missed her so very much.
      • Generally be truthful about our feelings.
      • We're sorry about getting kicked out.
      • We're sorry about not sending her a letter or anything sooner after talking to her father. We felt it was against the spirit of our agreement with him, until someone else reminded us that that choice probably was hurting you.
        • [SENSEI WORRIES] Optionally, at Hazou's discretion: (following are sentiments Hazou wants to express, not things Hazou says verbatim)
          • I don't think you father was actually wrong about some stuff.
          • On reflection being both your sensei and your partner seems problematic.
          • I want to be your equal in a relationship, not your superior.
          • I worry that the power dynamics of being a sensei and being a partner interact badly and can become something exploitative or abusive, even without one of us noticing.
          • We will always have stuff to teach each other and we should.
          • I want to know that, when you think I'm wrong, you'll tell me.
            • My judgement is not perfect, or even all that good, and having someone who I can trust to proactively tell me when I'm being an idiot would be very nice.
      • I think the whole missing-nin issue is sorted though. *smug face*
      • Please don't get a bowl cut or start talking in weirdly oblivious innuendo.
      • Generally catch up.
      • [INO CHAT] Don't insert it yourself, but if the topic of Ino or Rock Lee comes up:
        • Be truthful and as straightforward as possible. Be clear about about all your feelings, and trust Akane.
        • We're fine either poly or mono, though we should discuss what we actually want.
        • If she's got a crush on Lee (or anyone else) and wants to go for it, we're cool with that. We're going to be here for her either way, as a partner or a friend. (though we would definitely prefer being a partner)
        • We're not exactly sure how we feel about Ino.
          • There's definitely some attraction on our end, and she definitely acts like she's at least a little attracted. Though she's certainly capable of toying with us without our noticing.
          • There's a non-trivial cynical part of us that sees how she's an incredibly politically advantageous partner to have.
    • [KAGOME BRAINSTORMING] If we got some problems to ponder from Jiraiya then have a chat with Kagome when circumstances allow.
      • Are there any seals he has, or he expects Konoha to have, that are interesting in the context of these problems?
      • Any broad ideas? Early thoughts?
      • Honestly, there's not much I can add here without the actual problems. I'm sure you QMs can figure out a decent brainstorming session though.
    • If everything else is taken care of skip to when we get near our target in River and give us some info so we can plan for the actual contact before ending the update. (Unless interesting things happen during travel that we should deal with, basically set us up for a decision when you end the update.)

    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o INO CHAT
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o SENSEI WORRIES
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o INO CHAT, SENSEI WORRIES
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o INO CHAT, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o SENSEI WORRIES, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o INO CHAT, SENSEI WORRIES, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o AKANE CHAT
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o AKANE CHAT, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, INO CHAT
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, SENSEI WORRIES
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, INO CHAT, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, SENSEI WORRIES, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, INO CHAT, SENSEI WORRIES, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, AKANE CHAT
    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman w/o NARA LETTER, AKANE CHAT, KAGOME BRAINSTORMING

    As with Action Plan : Dearth of a Salesman but without the specified sections.
    Click to expand...
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    Reposting and revoting for my plan.

    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman

    @Dictator4Hire: Yeah, I'm not leaving our teammates to a dangerous mission, leaving ourselves open to be a target of opportunistic political bullshit, undermining the authority of new Hokage (in an admittedly small way) in a time of crisis, and pretending we have the skill to make a gigantic impact in 2 weeks with actual sealing research (creativity, on the other hand is much faster when you have the support network of a nation). Also this is why I try to outsource some sealing ideas, we might be able to have an impact without fucking over our new clan in a pile of different ways.
     
    Last edited:
    Jello_Raptor said:
    Reposting and revoting for my plan.

    [X] Action Plan: Dearth of a Salesman

    @Dictator4Hire: Yeah, I'm not leaving out teammates to a dangerous mission and leave ourselves open to be a target of opportunistic political bullshit. Also this is why I try to outsource some sealing ideas, we might be able to have an impact without fucking over our new clan in a pile of different ways.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Same general opinion but I want to acquire new seals instead of outsourcing our ideas
     
    Jello_Raptor said:
    @Dictator4Hire: Yeah, I'm not leaving out teammates to a dangerous mission and leave ourselves open to be a target of opportunistic political bullshit. Also this is why I try to outsource some sealing ideas, we might be able to have an impact without fucking over our new clan in a pile of different ways.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    This is probably the safest mission our team will ever receive from Jiraiya: they have Skywalkers to avoid most encounters, they no longer have to worry about Leaf's (and possibly even Leaf's allies') borders, they can choose when to leave each site after delivering their messages, and they can choose to say no to anyone who tries to boss them around while they go about their business.

    Hazou will be tucked safely away in a sealing facility during almost all waking hours. He will also have Mari around to assist him with people stuff if need be.

    Outsourcing may work, but I doubt it's as good as doing it ourselves since time is of the essence.
     
    Dictator4Hire said:
    This is probably the safest mission our team will ever receive from Jiraiya: they have Skywalkers to avoid most encounters, they no longer have to worry about Leaf's (and possibly even Leaf's allies') borders, they can choose when to leave each site after delivering their messages, and they can choose to say no to anyone who tries to boss them around while they go about their business.

    Hazou will be tucked safely away in a sealing facility during almost all waking hours. He will also have Mari around to assist him with people stuff if need be.

    Outsourcing may work, but I doubt it's as good as doing it ourselves since time is of the essence.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I don't want to presume anything about the mission.
     
    Dictator4Hire said:
    This is probably the safest mission our team will ever receive from Jiraiya: they have Skywalkers to avoid most encounters, they no longer have to worry about Leaf's (and possibly even Leaf's allies') borders, they can choose when to leave each site after delivering their messages, and they can choose to say no to anyone who tries to boss them around while they go about their business.

    Hazou will be tucked safely away in a sealing facility during almost all waking hours. He will also have Mari around to assist him with people stuff if need be.

    Outsourcing may work, but I doubt it's as good as doing it ourselves since time is of the essence.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    But we're not actually particularly good at sealing. Every clan has at least a handful of sealmasters, there's going to be an organized sealing R&D group in Konoha.

    They're going to be better suited than us to developing most ideas, at least in the short term. We get the most impact by finding the weird, hard to think of ideas that they miss, and then hand them off.

    We do need to become a seal-master eventually, but we're in an urgent situation where there's little surplus energy to spend on our own personal development. We need to maximize returns, and as much I dislike being unable to do this ourselves, outsourcing is how we maximize short term impact.
     
    Kiba said:
    I don't want to presume anything about the mission.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    It's an educated guess. If we don't try to anticipate a mission that would be best to split up our team for we unconsciously pre-commit ourselves to never splitting the team even when it would be the best move to make.

    It's impossible to tell, but I'm pretty sure this is safest time to do so given the current situation.

    Jello_Raptor said:
    But we're not actually particularly good at sealing. Every clan has at least a handful of sealmasters, there's going to be an organized sealing R&D group in Konoha.

    They're going to be better suited than us to developing most ideas, at least in the short term. We get the most impact by finding the weird, hard to think of ideas that they miss, and then hand them off.

    We do need to become a seal-master eventually, but we're in an urgent situation where there's little surplus energy to spend on our own personal development. We need to maximize returns, and as much I dislike being unable to do this ourselves, outsourcing is how we maximize short term impact.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Our personal ability isn't as important as giving feedback during the development process is. Without us there to guide development the researchers have a good chance of floundering around given the huge differences between what he may consider obvious and what they are accustomed to. We only have working with Kagome for reference though. It could be that handing off sealing ideas to so-called experts could be the most efficient use of our time, but I don't believe it's worth risking all of those man-hours Hazou could be directing them instead.

    Our ideas are frankly alien by the denizens of the Elemental Nations' standards. Making Skywalkers was "easy" once we figured out we had to turn it upside down and apply chakra adhesion, but apparently the scientists in game aren't creative enough to make stuff like that on their own (mainly because there are more players than QM's, but that just reinforces my following point). The more effort we put off onto NPC's (even if it makes sense in character) makes substantially more work for the QM's to parse and something inevitably will go wrong due to miscommunication or unclear text. We can avoid all of this if we do the sealing innovation ourselves.

    In order to maximize returns we first need a goal for fighting Akatsuki. Running around the Elemental Nations does not seem to accomplish anythign noteworthy to me on that front. Every last drop of our XP and training time needs to be spent on sealing if we want to make a weapon capable of killing S-rankers, like lasers, orbital bombardment, and/or seal-based rail-guns. Hazou also needs to learn all of the necessary science behind these fields if we want to actually build them all in-game. The Nara library is open to us in its entirety; we should use it for all it's worth.

    On that note:

    [X] Hazou Training Plan: Sealmaster Sprint
    Intelligence 21 (42 XP)
    Sealing 21 (21 XP)

    Total: 63 XP spent, 21 XP remaining
     
    Dictator4Hire said:
    [X] Hazou Training Plan: Sealmaster Sprint
    Intelligence 21 (42 XP)
    Sealing 21 (21 XP)

    Total: 63 XP spent, 21 XP remaining
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Might I suggest putting in a caveat that this training plan is only to be implemented if a "stay in Leaf" plan wins? Otherwise there's the possibility of Hazou's plan being suboptimal for the mission.
     
    I am seeing a lot of discussion about guns, but how are guns supposed to be effective on a ninja when used by civilian.

    Also, we are the son of the Hokage now, food for thought.
     
    Kiba said:
    I'll laugh my ass off if Hazō ends up the sixth hokage in the future.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Why not? If we can become the new savior of Leaf from multiple S-rankers through our hivemind fueled munchkinry at the age of 13/14 we deserve the hat.

    And it's not like I haven't been trying to get a politically savvy wife for Hazou to make the appointment more palatable to the established nobles or anything like that... :p

    Gotta plan multiple steps ahead guys. It's the only way to get... well, ahead. :D
     
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