- Pronouns
- They/Them
Man, Rika's medical jutsu really is an XP sink. No wonder it's hard to be a front-line Medic-Nin. It's MAD as hell, in terms of priorities.
End of an Era (Naruto AU)
- Thread starter The Laurent
- Start date
- Location
- Hell
So it is a good thing we brought her with us? She must have also gotten a lot of XP to work with, especially with her work at the end there.
Hmm... I guess we should take her with us more often...
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Well, I was only able to slightly increase her social stats, but she did go from Rank 3 to Rank 5 in one of the E-ranks, and she gained a solid bit more experience in some of her D and C rank Medical Jutsu. Because yes, she's at C-rank medical jutsu.
Well, she has two of them, it'll take time and work for her to find/discover anything else. Actually, Okiie is the one I'm sorta worried about, actually. Hasn't gone on any missions, and needs XP to start Mastering things.
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, I was only able to slightly increase her social stats, but she did go from Rank 3 to Rank 5 in one of the E-ranks, and she gained a solid bit more experience in some of her D and C rank Medical Jutsu. Because yes, she's at C-rank medical jutsu.
Well, she has two of them, it'll take time and work for her to find/discover anything else. Actually, Okiie is the one I'm sorta worried about, actually. Hasn't gone on any missions, and needs XP to start Mastering things.
Saya left him behind? Poor Okiie is going to end up a trophy boyfriend at this rate. It does show how lacking in secondaries really hurts you in what missions you can complete. Saya has been working on social, and Ichiman has fuinjutsu at least, and both them can fight relatively "quiet." Okiie can sling jutsu around, and....sling more jutsu around? It was good choice for a village at war, where open fighting broke out regularly, but not so much for missing nin where full combat teams don't run around because getting into a fight on purpose is bad business (and against the Emiko school of fighting).
I'm a bit stumped for a non-combat secondary for him. I wonder if this is how Emiko feels?
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Saya left him behind? Poor Okiie is going to end up a trophy boyfriend at this rate. It does show how lacking in secondaries really hurts you in what missions you can complete. Saya has been working on social, and Ichiman has fuinjutsu at least, and both them can fight relatively "quiet." Okiie can sling jutsu around, and....sling more jutsu around? It was good choice for a village at war, where open fighting broke out regularly, but not so much for missing nin where full combat teams don't run around because getting into a fight on purpose is bad business (and against the Emiko school of fighting).
I'm a bit stumped for a non-combat secondary for him. I wonder if this is how Emiko feels?
Note: We're not actually done with all of the character XP for this round. I still have 3-4 of them left to do. But yeah, Okiie could use more XP, yeah. It's as much being starved by lack of missions as anything, and even so, he's still advancing and progressing. I mean, he's thirteen. He has time. Hopefully, at least.
But yeah, I can't really talk about the behind-the-scenes XP stuff too much, except that we forgot to spend Akachi's XP last month, and now he has something like 350 points in the bank to spend.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Also, Junko has almost High Chunin Stealth by now.
- Location
- Austria
Also, Junko has almost High Chunin Stealth by now.
I am not sure Emiko would consider herself a good role model...
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Also, Junko has almost High Chunin Stealth by now.
Good job, Junko! I'm glad she realizes stealth is OP. Nothing is better than a surprise round, except a surprise round turned into a coup de grace because your opponent is sleeping. If I was designing a ninja, it'd likely be the route I'd go for, but it's a bit boring for a protagonist, since if you do it well, everything becomes a bit same-y.
I mean, leveraging the synergy between genjutsu and stealth is how Emiko took out an entire team of jonin by herself. I wonder how she's planning to break into S-rank? If she can crack the genjutsu poison's mechanism, and improve on it with her resource network, that does seem like a viable way. Undispellable genjutsu certainly merits an S-rank, because you can drop the points put into making the target not notice it. It doesn't matter if they notice it. For raw combat...mimicking the effect of (stealing from Bleach) Tousen's bankai, stripping away their ability to see or hear completely, and if you add touch I don't see how, without a hidan or bloodline, you can fight a jonin in that situation.
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
I'd argue that a good stealth sequence can be amazing in a quest if done well. Just look at the Week 29 part 1 update for Forge of Destiny. Admittedly, this requires that you take level appropriate missions...
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I was mostly thinking of Fallout, where 95% of enemies are shot in the head without ever shooting back at me (being unable to see me), 4.5% get a shot or two off before they go down as I tag them with a follow-up shot, and .5% I just pull heavy weaponry out to deal with. Or Human Revolution, where 95% of enemies are silently taken down in CQC, 4.5% of enemies spot me, so I run at them and engage in CQC, and .5% I'm forced to snipe with the tranq rifle. Or Alpha Protocol, where 90% of enemies I take down silently in CQC, 5% spot me, so I run at them and engage in CQC, and 5% are in annoying places so I shoot them with tranq rounds from my pistol...
You might spot a pattern here in my tactics, and it does get very samey. There's also the exciting option, where I'm spotted in a bad position so I run away, but as your skill improves even that becomes just another tool to set up circling back around to start taking down pursuers one by one from stealth. Like, yrsillar is quite good at writing a stealth based character, but even he struggles a little to keep it varied, and sometimes just skips entire encounters because the enemies are trivial for Ling Qi to slip past.
So to sum up, Stealth is boss, but I prefer it as a secondary for Shizue (everything is Shizue's secondary at this point, except wires and CQC
).
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
To be fair, we'd also be skipping encounters if we were combat focused, just because they'd be trivial, and they'd be resolved in a sentence.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I was mostly thinking of Fallout, where 95% of enemies are shot in the head without ever shooting back at me (being unable to see me), 4.5% get a shot or two off before they go down as I tag them with a follow-up shot, and .5% I just pull heavy weaponry out to deal with. Or Human Revolution, where 95% of enemies are silently taken down in CQC, 4.5% of enemies spot me, so I run at them and engage in CQC, and .5% I'm forced to snipe with the tranq rifle. Or Alpha Protocol, where 90% of enemies I take down silently in CQC, 5% spot me, so I run at them and engage in CQC, and 5% are in annoying places so I shoot them with tranq rounds from my pistol...
You might spot a pattern here in my tactics, and it does get very samey. There's also the exciting option, where I'm spotted in a bad position so I run away, but as your skill improves even that becomes just another tool to set up circling back around to start taking down pursuers one by one from stealth. Like, yrsillar is quite good at writing a stealth based character, but even he struggles a little to keep it varied, and sometimes just skips entire encounters because the enemies are trivial for Ling Qi to slip past.
So to sum up, Stealth is boss, but I prefer it as a secondary for Shizue (everything is Shizue's secondary at this point, except wires and CQC
Did you mention Fallout?
Well...we still have those plans for the Amazing Okiie Tank.Saya left him behind? Poor Okiie is going to end up a trophy boyfriend at this rate. It does show how lacking in secondaries really hurts you in what missions you can complete. Saya has been working on social, and Ichiman has fuinjutsu at least, and both them can fight relatively "quiet." Okiie can sling jutsu around, and....sling more jutsu around? It was good choice for a village at war, where open fighting broke out regularly, but not so much for missing nin where full combat teams don't run around because getting into a fight on purpose is bad business (and against the Emiko school of fighting).
I'm a bit stumped for a non-combat secondary for him. I wonder if this is how Emiko feels?
But I suspect for Okiie he wants to back up his ninjutsu focus with more movement and evasion skills, possibly some taijutsu + buffing ninjutsus, then focus on being the equivalent of close in air support for our team.
Flight is under Wind jutsus right?
The funniest part of this is she is possibly the single LEAST subtle ninja in our lot by temperament.Also, Junko has almost High Chunin Stealth by now.
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Problem is those are all combat solutions. Like, he's already good at combat, and has worked on his movement and such. The issue is, outside of missions where we go in expecting resistance, he doesn't have a role to offer. Ichiman is sorta in the same boat, but has the slight advantage of fuinjutsu and being melee, letting him tank for squishier people. Okiie isn't specced for tanking, so he'll almost always be second pick when most missions only pick a single person for "just in case" combat, and nin-taijutsu wont really start kicking in until C/B rank (we don't even see any real examples in canon below A rank, if I recall). Even if he switches over to work better as a tank, he'll then be competing with Ichiman (and Saya and Akachi who have more solid social offerings).
Of course, I'm expecting a more combat focused mission to pop up soon with the charming Baron fellow stomping about with all the subtlety of a tailed-beast. Put Okiie in a combat team with Saya, Ichiman, and Shizue and you have a pretty frightening combo. With Stinger, Saya, and Ichiman, they can put out as much pressure as a melee team (3 melee + 1 support as the "normal" team), and with a sound clone also have a debuffer and two very versatile blasters (Okiie and Ryuko). I kinda love how Shizue's been built as a team multiplier, with her puppets and debuffs (now applicable via clone!).
- Location
- scrabbling
flight in naruto is actually quite hard to get. deidara has it from a clay bird, oonoki does it (somehow? wiki says gravity manipulation via earth techniques), sasuke has bird summons...I can't think of any others. Most people just do the ninja tree running.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Update tomorrow. Sorry for the wait.
- Location
- Hell
Having thought about it for a while, that does seem to open up a path for Okiie. Just as Rika will not necessarily be frontline in either combat or intrigue missions, perhaps we can find a similar role for Okiie? Following up with what @veekie mentioned above, we might push him toward travel operations and helping Emicolle travel from point A to point B in the shortest time possible.
Alternatively we can push him to the science path. Since he has already focused on Chakra and its multiple uses, maybe he can work on Ninjutsu Development as well as interaction of Chakra with the natural world. See if he can follow up on the Natural Chakra Jiraya taught Naruto. See how far he can push the limits on Chakra. It is already magic, so how far can he bend the rules of reality?
Alternatively we can push him to the science path. Since he has already focused on Chakra and its multiple uses, maybe he can work on Ninjutsu Development as well as interaction of Chakra with the natural world. See if he can follow up on the Natural Chakra Jiraya taught Naruto. See how far he can push the limits on Chakra. It is already magic, so how far can he bend the rules of reality?
Oh I am slain!
Wynaut?
- Location
- Tatooine
...isn't this entirely dependent on the detail and xp-intensiveness of the jutsu tree y'all created?
Saya left him behind? Poor Okiie is going to end up a trophy boyfriend at this rate. It does show how lacking in secondaries really hurts you in what missions you can complete. Saya has been working on social, and Ichiman has fuinjutsu at least, and both them can fight relatively "quiet." Okiie can sling jutsu around, and....sling more jutsu around? It was good choice for a village at war, where open fighting broke out regularly, but not so much for missing nin where full combat teams don't run around because getting into a fight on purpose is bad business (and against the Emiko school of fighting).
I'm a bit stumped for a non-combat secondary for him. I wonder if this is how Emiko feels?
Hmm. Just gonna throw ideas out there.
First, couldn't Okiie master a bunch of the other Emikolle members' ninjutsu too? Like, technically some of the other Emikolle members have ninjutsu that anyone could learn. Keen Ears, Inner Ear Disturbance, Cloak of Invisibility, Night Eyes, etc. Those alone could already make Okiie an asset on subtler missions. But yeah, additional Stealth, Infiltration, etc. would probably help him use those other ninjutsu in appropriate situations.
Second, before even branching beyond ninjutsu, Okiie could be doing a lot with elemental jutsu for non-combat civilian purposes. Whether earth jutsu for seismic mapping or rapid construction, water jutsu for agriculture, fire jutsu for smithing or controlled forest burns, lightning jutsu for welding or recharging stranded equipment, wind jutsu for expedited sailing, etc.
Those are all just basic tasks that even civilians could do. But going by the mission payscale in this setting, I reckon there are still many non-combat D or C rank tasks in which it's cheaper or faster to hire a local chuunin-level elemental ninjutsu expert, rather than a large group of civilian workers.
(Well, admittedly, these kinds of civilian-purpose non-combat missions would likely be routed to the local Hidden Village, instead of to missing-nin. I think I've just been hoping for a long time to see more examples of chakra being put to civilian uses in this setting. ^_^)
- Location
- Outside the Box
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Everyone said:
Is there any problem with being specialized, if you're good at what you're specializing in? Shizue herself is not working on a generalist build, if she was we'd have taken much more Earth Ninjitsu, we'd be buying some Genjutsu without the focus skill, and we'd have gotten a higher Taijitsu a long time ago.
Is five spreading himself too thin? If you want to get a bit meta-fictional, most ninja tend to have one defining skill that they can apply to many situations. Sometimes they'll have two. Okiie is training up five. If he gets to a high enough level, that versatility will make him better at big flashy ninjitsu battles than most ninjitsu specialists.
Is he useful on missions outside combat? Putting aside that most high-level missions will always have the risk of combat, Okiie can both create and control fire, water, earth, air, and lightning. To some extent, all of them can be used outside fighting people. Earth can create tunnels or build stone structures. Air can be used to push and pull things at a distance, and can float objects so you can fall slowly. Lightning can induce magnetism. If you're inside a river, lake, or ocean, water is like air but better. And fire, well, fire's good at destroying stuff just like all the others are.
Eh, those are the three counterarguments I thought of. The real question is just how far behind he's going to be on stealth, infiltration, and not-dying skills. If it's not too much then he should be able to tag along with others during missions, and if it is too much then he just needs more XP.
- Location
- Hell
...
Shizue required training for years to get where she is, he would not have access to those any more than he would have access to Nara shadow jutsu.
We already did. It was True Home. See how well that turned out
As is, we are really out in the sticks right now with little contact with the local populace. The latest mission might shake some out though.
If it means that you can only participate in almost none of our missions? Yes. Yes there is.
The problem is that almost none of our missions are pure combat missions. This necessitates everyone in Emicolle to at least provide noncombat services. Shizue has Socialize, Junko has Stealth, Ichiman has Fuinjutsu.
Even in potential combat situations, Okiie still had to compete with others that can provide more than one position as @Diomedon mentioned. Yes, he can provide long range artillery, but he cannot tank like Shizue can with Stinger, or debuff like again Shizue or Akachi with Genjutsus. They both provide long range attacks as well.
Act 4, Scene 26 (Fin)+Act 4, Scene 27 (Start)
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Act 4, Scene 26 (Fin)
She spent another day resting and trying to gather herself like one of the women in town might have gathered their skirts to themselves in preparation for going across dusty ground. Then she opened her room up again to other people.
And her teammates came, came and did all of the usual things that they tended to do. They laughed and joked and played pranks, they listened to music and played cards with each other and filled out the training roster.
Things, in other words, were going back to normal. But Shizue wanted to explore a little more about her teammates: they were working together better now, she decided, but they could do more, and beyond that, she knew that some people, like Yuichi-kun, were still something of strangers to her.
Junko-chan too was behaving somewhat oddly, and there were rifts between the three teammates that anyone could see.
Akachi and Ichiman were hanging out more, and Saya was flouncing around talking about going into town to spend some of her hard-earned money, though at the moment it was just talk.
Genta, though. Genta was most noticeable in his complete absence. It wasn't a topic of conversation yet, but every time Shizue stared at Genta's neat handwriting on the roster sheets still being filled out, or thought for a moment 'hey, this'd be nice to share with Genta' it all came back.
And she knew that pressing would be bad. But she did wonder what he was up to. But in the meantime, she could just worry and think it through.
She listened to music, she tried to relax, and she hoped that soon enough Genta would return to the common room she'd created, to the home she was trying to push through.
That was all she could do.
[End Credits]
Act 4, Scene 27 : The Making of Bonds?
"Yuichi-kun, how have things been going with Junko-chan?" Shizue asked, sitting on the couch with the other boy.
"I think well," Yuichi admitted. "But… she and Seiichiro are arguing sometimes. It's about how she steals stuff. It's weird, because Seiichiro isn't actually all that concerned with morality, usually? Or at least, rules." Yuichi shook his head, glancing over at Shizue. "I don't know how much I'm supposed to say."
He glanced over at the radio, as if asking her to see if she could turn it on to find something to distract them. But Shizue had her target, and she wasn't going to get distracted just because she'd begun to transcribe the songs. It'd taken a little work, but by the second listen to a song, she was able to begin noting down its music in Suzuhisa style. Each note, each element of sound, blended and put down in paper, so that she or anyone who knew the right notation, could read it. It was a way of making sound solid, a way a lot simpler than the new jutsu she'd just finally figured out.
Simpler, though less fascinating. She honestly wanted to try it out all the time, because she could picture all sorts of ways she could use that, especially if she was going to exploring it further.
Finally, driven by her careful silence, he admitted, "I don't know. But Junko-chan is fun to be around."
"Even if she sometimes does things that make you wonder," Shizue added.
"Exactly. Maybe even sometimes because of it. But we're still sort of a team. Seiichiro mentioned practicing together, actually, if we're going to be sent off as a team sometime," Yuichi said.
"Practicing combat?" Shizue asked, thoughtful. "Could I join in? Watch, see what I can do?"
"Of course. We had some plans, and we're going to do it Friday morning, if that works for you?"
"It does. What have you been working on Yuichi-kun, by the way? With your training?"
"I've been filling in some gaps," he admitted, shaking his head. "And trying to figure out a more solid Taijutsu style. Emiko-sensei says I need to find a way to integrate my style. But she says it can be done, though."
"I've seen you fight before," Shizue said. "It impresses me, at least." He was calm and controlled, flexible and steady in a way that made it hard to find and exploit any vulnerabilities, and yet seemed to set up his victory. Saya of course just blasted through all of that with her stylistic mastery, but she knew that there was something to be said there for his way of fighting.
"I'm also working on a sort of technique, a trick," Yuichi said. "Junko-chan says it's working already, but I want to make it better. Have you ever seen Lightning Release: Shocking Grasp?"
"No, but the name does explain itself rather well," Shizue admitted with a smile.
"It does, doesn't it? But there are techniques based on it that allow you to paralyze someone with electricity. But I don't know those yet. But if I can use genjutsu, I can fake it, or something like it, and use genjutsu to actually paralyze and trap them. And because they think it's the jutsu…"
Shizue nodded, getting it at once. "They assume that it's not something they can break out of. And if you create the technique based on understanding of the jutsu, then it'd be rather hard to notice." Shizue shook her head, rather impressed.
"It's one way I'm doing it. Genjutsu and taijutsu. I'm also trying to work on some techniques involving pain receptors, but it's all rather theoretical and complicated right now. But you joining in, both as an enemy to fight an and ally, could really help. And then maybe Junko-chan and Seiichiro-kun could stop their bickering." Yuichi frowned. "Sometimes it feels like I'm just there to take one side or another."
He flushed, which went strange on his rather rough exterior. It wasn't that he was ugly, but he did look like he wouldn't be out of place as the son of a dockyard tough, with his knuckles and his bone structure.
"And you don't like that? I guess not," Shizue said, aware of what that felt like. She had too many friends not to be the one in the middle sometimes.
"And Seiichiro-kun's so frustrating sometimes too. He's such a dork," Yuichi said, but the fondness in his voice and his creeping blush spoke to something a little more complicated, Shizue thought. Then she realized what she was guessing: could it be? If so, that was something she wished she'd known earlier.
"Well, maybe I can help make peace with them?"
"That'd be nice," Seiichiro admitted.
[Opening Credits]
Suna-style involved a lot of instruments and singers. It involved groups, but they could be broken down for more or less parts through some very simple principles. And ultimately, she didn't know four other girls, or four other people at all, who would really be great singers.
But she did, out of curiosity if nothing else, try to get people to sing along with it. And the results weren't that surprising. Emiko had a surprisingly competent voice, though no more than that, and when she was singing you could remember that she wasn't actually that old, because most of the people singing on the radio weren't thirteen, that was for certain. Chuichi had a lovely voice, but one without even the rudiments of training. Saya had a nice voice, but a tin ear and seemed to treat singing as a joke, more than anything else. The rest fell into the various pitfalls of novice singers.
Nothing that couldn't be fixed, but it'd take time to do so. Seiichiro was a perfect example: enthusiastic, passionate, but with a voice that kept on going up and down, despite having a rather solid voice overall. It was something that could be worked on, and Junko-chan had even more promise, if she wanted to try.
The more Shizue listened to music like this, the more she was able to almost imitate its stylings, for all that she thought there were elements of it that seemed a little repetitive or simple by her standards. But simplicity had its own beauty as far as music went, and Shizue had plenty of time to play and listen to music when she was clearing out more rooms. The idea, she decided, was to have event space for other things.
She'd cleared out a few rooms to serve as backup rooms, places for her to nap if she needed to, if only she had some more furniture, though there were a few spare futon that she could put here and there. Plus, once she got to clearing out and trapping up a room, she thought about all of the other uses she could find for such a room.
She was surprised that nobody else had thought about rooms for dancing, or specific types of training or work. Maybe she should start opening up rooms and asking anyone if they could use them: no doubt Saya could use her own poison room, rather than using Emiko's.
That's the way Shizue saw it, at least. Junko-chan was an exception, as far as voices went. She had a sweet voice, and one that could be really useful if she only trained a little more. Though Shizue didn't know how to raise it as a point. Of course, when you had an entire room as a lounge, there were always quiet moments. Eventually, after a day or two, she found one.
*******
"Hey, Shizue-chan. All of those songs you have, they're pretty interesting. And you're writing some too?" Junko asked, as she rooted through the music, though it was also quite obvious that she was mostly just looking at the words, since the notation itself would be difficult to understand.
"Yes. Just some simple stuff to mimic the style," Shizue said, "But I think they've really missed some potential here for lyrical storytelling."
"How, exactly? This song sounds kinda good," Junko said. "The words at least." She was holding up 'Empty Hands.' It was a ballad with three (male) singers--which was the first problem--about a man whose lady loves didn't love him, leaving him alone and empty-handed. Yes, it was that simple: Shizue might have wanted verses from each of the women, and reduce the number of men to one, or at least something less cliched than the whining that was his mode of expressing emotions.
"Really?"
"I dunno. Feels real to me," Junko said. "He's kinda complaining, but it does suck to not have anyone. I kinda envy you and Okiie-kun."
"You'll find someone," Shizue said, more out of politeness than certainty. "And the song is alright, but could be better. With multiple singers, what you want to do is have verses each that are separate, and then give them the same chorus, you see? Like the man wants love, and the women do too, and then they all sing about 'Empty Hands' while not realizing that everyone else is just as love-lorn as them."
"Aww," Junko said with a pout. "That sounds sad."
"So, have you tried looking?" Shizue asked.
"Uh, Shizue-chan. Yeah. But I like cool girls. Really, really cool girls." Junko flushed. "Those aren't exactly common. Especially that like other girls. And um, before you ask, no, Rika-chan is cool and all, but--"
"Not cool enough?" Shizue asked, teasingly.
"No! I mean… yes? Anyways, uh, Saya-chan's kinda like that, but that's going nowhere, and Emiko-sensei is… and." Junko shrugged, and of course it was true that at a certain point someone just ran out of people. And if she went to town, then what?
Shinobi were a lot more understanding about this than any normal civilian would be. So the pool was even smaller. "And civilians aren't cool?"
"They can be!" Junko said. "I guess I could go into town and try to find someone to… hug? Or kiss? Or whatever else couples do. But I wouldn't know how." Junko said it so innocently, and Shizue had to keep from flushing, because while in a technical sense all she and Okiie did was kiss, it certainly felt as if it crossed a few borders there. But she didn't have an answer for Junko-chan either.
"Huh. Well, why not try? At least look around, and the worst that can happen is that you need to burn that appearance and go in Transformation," Shizue said, encouragingly.
"Oh. That's a good point," Junko said brightly.
"When did you talk about this?" Shizue asked.
"With Rika-chan, back during the heist. I kinda opened up to her, and she talked about what she liked, which was so boring. Well, not that boring, but kinda normal? Bubbly, happy, pretty…" Junko made a gesture as if she were flouncing around. "She didn't even mention important details, like how many jutsu they'd know or what their fighting style was, because I think maybe she wants civilians?" Junko shrugged.
Shizue tried not to giggle at the idea that fighting style would matter. With the exception of forever-kisses because Okiie knew wind jutsu. "Who knows. If you ever wanted to practice your singing, Junko-chan, I could help you with that. It's the least I could do, if you're going to be training with me and the rest of your team. It's really easy, singing. Or… I guess it's a lot of work, but it's fun work."
Junko couldn't help but giggle, apparently, as she looked at Shizue and said. "Oh? Just like how I find sneaking easy and fun? It's all about what you're good at. Speaking of good at, do you need any help cleaning out those rooms? I mean, the ones you're prepping?"
"I guess," Shizue said.
"And you could use one of them for a date with Okiie-kun!"
Shizue frowned. "I could, couldn't I?"
"You're going to find plenty of rooms to do stuff like that. And I know you haven't been seeing much of Okiie-kun outside of your room."
Which was a lot, really, but it was just hanging out. Looking at his chart, he seemed to be trying to work on mastering and improving his basics, as well as getting a better grasp of the jutsu he did know, rather than moving onto more powerful jutsu. "True," Shizue said, frowning. She was kinda missing private time with him, or time to ask about what he'd been up to.
"See! There you go. You have to plan something!"
"I'll try," Shizue said.
She didn't know a solution for anyone's relationship woes, really. Rika-chan at least had more realistic standards, but… well. Things were rough for thirteen year old missing-nin. If she didn't have Okiie-kun, she'd have basically no chance to find someone else.
Not that she was settling with Okiie, just that if you didn't date in the group, then you got in hot water. Like Genta had, for that matter.
That was just how it was, and how it was going to be for quite some time, probably.
*******
"Some more about the wilderness?" Chuichi asked. "I can do that, actually. I had some thoughts about a camping trip into the desert. It'd have to be at the end of the month, but if you wanted to find a few other friends to go with, then you could do that." He smiled, looking at Shizue with appreciation. "That's a very good idea."
Shizue had just presented the idea that maybe learning more about surviving out in the wilderness would have been better, when it came to dangerous situations. After all, Shizue had had to wander the desert. So had all of them. Knowing what to do in the future could be very valuable.
"I could also teach you a little more about water jutsu. Here, that's as useful as hours of practice," Chuichi said. "There's a jutsu I could teach, or at least, I've seen it done, and it's just about the only way to stand a chance in a fight out here as a water jutsu user, so maybe." Chuichi shrugged. "You'd have to find two people willing to learn it along with you, just because going out just the two of us into the wilderness is not safe, and perhaps not worth it. But we could camp out for a few days and nights. I could teach anyone who hasn't learned about star navigation, check to see if you've been keeping up with it, that sort of thing."
"Sounds good," Shizue said. Glad when some conversations were simple and straightforward. So there was the end of her month planned out.
Now if only everything were so easily decided.
[Commercial Break]
Okiie Date! (What do?)
[] Dancing, dinner, and music. Classic and simple, and hopefully out of the way of anyone who might interrupt things.
[] Training date! Maybe practice fighting and working together, and then go make lunch afterwards.
[] Go to the town, just to find somewhere to hang out, and be public and dating!
[] Write-in an idea. I have veto!
******
A/N: Alright, so, Shizue's life goes on! And will Junko-chan be Shizue's first backup singer??! Find out next time! Hope you enjoyed, thanks to @lk as always.
She spent another day resting and trying to gather herself like one of the women in town might have gathered their skirts to themselves in preparation for going across dusty ground. Then she opened her room up again to other people.
And her teammates came, came and did all of the usual things that they tended to do. They laughed and joked and played pranks, they listened to music and played cards with each other and filled out the training roster.
Things, in other words, were going back to normal. But Shizue wanted to explore a little more about her teammates: they were working together better now, she decided, but they could do more, and beyond that, she knew that some people, like Yuichi-kun, were still something of strangers to her.
Junko-chan too was behaving somewhat oddly, and there were rifts between the three teammates that anyone could see.
Akachi and Ichiman were hanging out more, and Saya was flouncing around talking about going into town to spend some of her hard-earned money, though at the moment it was just talk.
Genta, though. Genta was most noticeable in his complete absence. It wasn't a topic of conversation yet, but every time Shizue stared at Genta's neat handwriting on the roster sheets still being filled out, or thought for a moment 'hey, this'd be nice to share with Genta' it all came back.
And she knew that pressing would be bad. But she did wonder what he was up to. But in the meantime, she could just worry and think it through.
She listened to music, she tried to relax, and she hoped that soon enough Genta would return to the common room she'd created, to the home she was trying to push through.
That was all she could do.
[End Credits]
Act 4, Scene 27 : The Making of Bonds?
"Yuichi-kun, how have things been going with Junko-chan?" Shizue asked, sitting on the couch with the other boy.
"I think well," Yuichi admitted. "But… she and Seiichiro are arguing sometimes. It's about how she steals stuff. It's weird, because Seiichiro isn't actually all that concerned with morality, usually? Or at least, rules." Yuichi shook his head, glancing over at Shizue. "I don't know how much I'm supposed to say."
He glanced over at the radio, as if asking her to see if she could turn it on to find something to distract them. But Shizue had her target, and she wasn't going to get distracted just because she'd begun to transcribe the songs. It'd taken a little work, but by the second listen to a song, she was able to begin noting down its music in Suzuhisa style. Each note, each element of sound, blended and put down in paper, so that she or anyone who knew the right notation, could read it. It was a way of making sound solid, a way a lot simpler than the new jutsu she'd just finally figured out.
Simpler, though less fascinating. She honestly wanted to try it out all the time, because she could picture all sorts of ways she could use that, especially if she was going to exploring it further.
Finally, driven by her careful silence, he admitted, "I don't know. But Junko-chan is fun to be around."
"Even if she sometimes does things that make you wonder," Shizue added.
"Exactly. Maybe even sometimes because of it. But we're still sort of a team. Seiichiro mentioned practicing together, actually, if we're going to be sent off as a team sometime," Yuichi said.
"Practicing combat?" Shizue asked, thoughtful. "Could I join in? Watch, see what I can do?"
"Of course. We had some plans, and we're going to do it Friday morning, if that works for you?"
"It does. What have you been working on Yuichi-kun, by the way? With your training?"
"I've been filling in some gaps," he admitted, shaking his head. "And trying to figure out a more solid Taijutsu style. Emiko-sensei says I need to find a way to integrate my style. But she says it can be done, though."
"I've seen you fight before," Shizue said. "It impresses me, at least." He was calm and controlled, flexible and steady in a way that made it hard to find and exploit any vulnerabilities, and yet seemed to set up his victory. Saya of course just blasted through all of that with her stylistic mastery, but she knew that there was something to be said there for his way of fighting.
"I'm also working on a sort of technique, a trick," Yuichi said. "Junko-chan says it's working already, but I want to make it better. Have you ever seen Lightning Release: Shocking Grasp?"
"No, but the name does explain itself rather well," Shizue admitted with a smile.
"It does, doesn't it? But there are techniques based on it that allow you to paralyze someone with electricity. But I don't know those yet. But if I can use genjutsu, I can fake it, or something like it, and use genjutsu to actually paralyze and trap them. And because they think it's the jutsu…"
Shizue nodded, getting it at once. "They assume that it's not something they can break out of. And if you create the technique based on understanding of the jutsu, then it'd be rather hard to notice." Shizue shook her head, rather impressed.
"It's one way I'm doing it. Genjutsu and taijutsu. I'm also trying to work on some techniques involving pain receptors, but it's all rather theoretical and complicated right now. But you joining in, both as an enemy to fight an and ally, could really help. And then maybe Junko-chan and Seiichiro-kun could stop their bickering." Yuichi frowned. "Sometimes it feels like I'm just there to take one side or another."
He flushed, which went strange on his rather rough exterior. It wasn't that he was ugly, but he did look like he wouldn't be out of place as the son of a dockyard tough, with his knuckles and his bone structure.
"And you don't like that? I guess not," Shizue said, aware of what that felt like. She had too many friends not to be the one in the middle sometimes.
"And Seiichiro-kun's so frustrating sometimes too. He's such a dork," Yuichi said, but the fondness in his voice and his creeping blush spoke to something a little more complicated, Shizue thought. Then she realized what she was guessing: could it be? If so, that was something she wished she'd known earlier.
"Well, maybe I can help make peace with them?"
"That'd be nice," Seiichiro admitted.
[Opening Credits]
Suna-style involved a lot of instruments and singers. It involved groups, but they could be broken down for more or less parts through some very simple principles. And ultimately, she didn't know four other girls, or four other people at all, who would really be great singers.
But she did, out of curiosity if nothing else, try to get people to sing along with it. And the results weren't that surprising. Emiko had a surprisingly competent voice, though no more than that, and when she was singing you could remember that she wasn't actually that old, because most of the people singing on the radio weren't thirteen, that was for certain. Chuichi had a lovely voice, but one without even the rudiments of training. Saya had a nice voice, but a tin ear and seemed to treat singing as a joke, more than anything else. The rest fell into the various pitfalls of novice singers.
Nothing that couldn't be fixed, but it'd take time to do so. Seiichiro was a perfect example: enthusiastic, passionate, but with a voice that kept on going up and down, despite having a rather solid voice overall. It was something that could be worked on, and Junko-chan had even more promise, if she wanted to try.
The more Shizue listened to music like this, the more she was able to almost imitate its stylings, for all that she thought there were elements of it that seemed a little repetitive or simple by her standards. But simplicity had its own beauty as far as music went, and Shizue had plenty of time to play and listen to music when she was clearing out more rooms. The idea, she decided, was to have event space for other things.
She'd cleared out a few rooms to serve as backup rooms, places for her to nap if she needed to, if only she had some more furniture, though there were a few spare futon that she could put here and there. Plus, once she got to clearing out and trapping up a room, she thought about all of the other uses she could find for such a room.
She was surprised that nobody else had thought about rooms for dancing, or specific types of training or work. Maybe she should start opening up rooms and asking anyone if they could use them: no doubt Saya could use her own poison room, rather than using Emiko's.
That's the way Shizue saw it, at least. Junko-chan was an exception, as far as voices went. She had a sweet voice, and one that could be really useful if she only trained a little more. Though Shizue didn't know how to raise it as a point. Of course, when you had an entire room as a lounge, there were always quiet moments. Eventually, after a day or two, she found one.
*******
"Hey, Shizue-chan. All of those songs you have, they're pretty interesting. And you're writing some too?" Junko asked, as she rooted through the music, though it was also quite obvious that she was mostly just looking at the words, since the notation itself would be difficult to understand.
"Yes. Just some simple stuff to mimic the style," Shizue said, "But I think they've really missed some potential here for lyrical storytelling."
"How, exactly? This song sounds kinda good," Junko said. "The words at least." She was holding up 'Empty Hands.' It was a ballad with three (male) singers--which was the first problem--about a man whose lady loves didn't love him, leaving him alone and empty-handed. Yes, it was that simple: Shizue might have wanted verses from each of the women, and reduce the number of men to one, or at least something less cliched than the whining that was his mode of expressing emotions.
"Really?"
"I dunno. Feels real to me," Junko said. "He's kinda complaining, but it does suck to not have anyone. I kinda envy you and Okiie-kun."
"You'll find someone," Shizue said, more out of politeness than certainty. "And the song is alright, but could be better. With multiple singers, what you want to do is have verses each that are separate, and then give them the same chorus, you see? Like the man wants love, and the women do too, and then they all sing about 'Empty Hands' while not realizing that everyone else is just as love-lorn as them."
"Aww," Junko said with a pout. "That sounds sad."
"So, have you tried looking?" Shizue asked.
"Uh, Shizue-chan. Yeah. But I like cool girls. Really, really cool girls." Junko flushed. "Those aren't exactly common. Especially that like other girls. And um, before you ask, no, Rika-chan is cool and all, but--"
"Not cool enough?" Shizue asked, teasingly.
"No! I mean… yes? Anyways, uh, Saya-chan's kinda like that, but that's going nowhere, and Emiko-sensei is… and." Junko shrugged, and of course it was true that at a certain point someone just ran out of people. And if she went to town, then what?
Shinobi were a lot more understanding about this than any normal civilian would be. So the pool was even smaller. "And civilians aren't cool?"
"They can be!" Junko said. "I guess I could go into town and try to find someone to… hug? Or kiss? Or whatever else couples do. But I wouldn't know how." Junko said it so innocently, and Shizue had to keep from flushing, because while in a technical sense all she and Okiie did was kiss, it certainly felt as if it crossed a few borders there. But she didn't have an answer for Junko-chan either.
"Huh. Well, why not try? At least look around, and the worst that can happen is that you need to burn that appearance and go in Transformation," Shizue said, encouragingly.
"Oh. That's a good point," Junko said brightly.
"When did you talk about this?" Shizue asked.
"With Rika-chan, back during the heist. I kinda opened up to her, and she talked about what she liked, which was so boring. Well, not that boring, but kinda normal? Bubbly, happy, pretty…" Junko made a gesture as if she were flouncing around. "She didn't even mention important details, like how many jutsu they'd know or what their fighting style was, because I think maybe she wants civilians?" Junko shrugged.
Shizue tried not to giggle at the idea that fighting style would matter. With the exception of forever-kisses because Okiie knew wind jutsu. "Who knows. If you ever wanted to practice your singing, Junko-chan, I could help you with that. It's the least I could do, if you're going to be training with me and the rest of your team. It's really easy, singing. Or… I guess it's a lot of work, but it's fun work."
Junko couldn't help but giggle, apparently, as she looked at Shizue and said. "Oh? Just like how I find sneaking easy and fun? It's all about what you're good at. Speaking of good at, do you need any help cleaning out those rooms? I mean, the ones you're prepping?"
"I guess," Shizue said.
"And you could use one of them for a date with Okiie-kun!"
Shizue frowned. "I could, couldn't I?"
"You're going to find plenty of rooms to do stuff like that. And I know you haven't been seeing much of Okiie-kun outside of your room."
Which was a lot, really, but it was just hanging out. Looking at his chart, he seemed to be trying to work on mastering and improving his basics, as well as getting a better grasp of the jutsu he did know, rather than moving onto more powerful jutsu. "True," Shizue said, frowning. She was kinda missing private time with him, or time to ask about what he'd been up to.
"See! There you go. You have to plan something!"
"I'll try," Shizue said.
She didn't know a solution for anyone's relationship woes, really. Rika-chan at least had more realistic standards, but… well. Things were rough for thirteen year old missing-nin. If she didn't have Okiie-kun, she'd have basically no chance to find someone else.
Not that she was settling with Okiie, just that if you didn't date in the group, then you got in hot water. Like Genta had, for that matter.
That was just how it was, and how it was going to be for quite some time, probably.
*******
"Some more about the wilderness?" Chuichi asked. "I can do that, actually. I had some thoughts about a camping trip into the desert. It'd have to be at the end of the month, but if you wanted to find a few other friends to go with, then you could do that." He smiled, looking at Shizue with appreciation. "That's a very good idea."
Shizue had just presented the idea that maybe learning more about surviving out in the wilderness would have been better, when it came to dangerous situations. After all, Shizue had had to wander the desert. So had all of them. Knowing what to do in the future could be very valuable.
"I could also teach you a little more about water jutsu. Here, that's as useful as hours of practice," Chuichi said. "There's a jutsu I could teach, or at least, I've seen it done, and it's just about the only way to stand a chance in a fight out here as a water jutsu user, so maybe." Chuichi shrugged. "You'd have to find two people willing to learn it along with you, just because going out just the two of us into the wilderness is not safe, and perhaps not worth it. But we could camp out for a few days and nights. I could teach anyone who hasn't learned about star navigation, check to see if you've been keeping up with it, that sort of thing."
"Sounds good," Shizue said. Glad when some conversations were simple and straightforward. So there was the end of her month planned out.
Now if only everything were so easily decided.
[Commercial Break]
Okiie Date! (What do?)
[] Dancing, dinner, and music. Classic and simple, and hopefully out of the way of anyone who might interrupt things.
[] Training date! Maybe practice fighting and working together, and then go make lunch afterwards.
[] Go to the town, just to find somewhere to hang out, and be public and dating!
[] Write-in an idea. I have veto!
******
A/N: Alright, so, Shizue's life goes on! And will Junko-chan be Shizue's first backup singer??! Find out next time! Hope you enjoyed, thanks to @lk as always.
Last edited:
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'm glad the chibi are opening up to Shizue more. Junko and Yuichi are adorable little minions, and big sis Shizue is happy to talk. You know, if we do a training date, we could maybe see more of the breadth of Okiie's skills?
Nervos Belli
Don't think this means you've won!
- Location
- Murica
[X] Training date! Maybe practice fighting and working together, and then go make lunch afterwards.
I'm curious as to what he's working on.
I'm curious as to what he's working on.