Game of the Year: A Naruto Quest
- Thread starter Vesvius
- Start date
- Location
- Italy
by that logic searching for Mr. Straw should lead to fulfilling the combat tutorial as well.
It would make sense actually
- Location
- Boston
[X] Someone stole your Mr. Straw! You liked that dummy! And between the minimap, your decreased need to sleep, and your boosted physical skills, you're pretty sure you can track it down. You'll find that dummy, and you'll find out who stole him too!
- Location
- United States
[X] This combat tutorial seems important. You'll need to get this out of the way sooner rather than later. Better get to it.
14. Final Exam
Vesvius
The Wicked God
You shake your head to clear it. There's no time to waste with the combat tutorial! It's not like that's going anywhere! But Mr. Straw- and your phantom benefactor- could be getting further away with every passing second. You've got to get after them now!
You sprint back into the house as fast as your almost six-year old legs can go, stopping briefly at the breakfast table to shovel as much food into your mouth as possible in thirty seconds- you've got to keep your motives full after all. Mother watches you go with a mildly amused, mildly disgusted look on her face. "Daisuke! Chew!" she orders.
"There's no time!" you garble back in between mouthfuls. "I gotta find Mr. Straw!"
A look of surprise crosses her face. "Honey, I'll get you another one! Two! There's no need to panic."
"That's not it!" you protest. "That's my Mr. Straw! I don't want another! That one's mine!"
Mother protests a few more times as Tokei look on stoically from near the staircase, each weaker than the last. You finish your eating frenzy and rush over, hugging her around the ankles. "I gotta find him!" you answer, ignoring whatever she's saying. "I'll be home later! Love you!"
You turn and sprint for the door. Behind you, you hear Tokei shuffle after you. "No," Mother calls. "Let him go. Boys need to explore and do foolish things while they're young. It's how they learn to be men."
There's silence from Tokei. Finally, as you close the door behind you, you hear him say, "You indulge him too much Manami. You do remember-"
The door slides shut before you can hear whatever it is Mother is supposed to remember. The moment your home is closed off, you're already hauling ass around Mother's property, heading for the other side of the fenced-off backyard. If whoever took Mr. Straw didn't come in through the front door- and you have to assume Tokei would've noticed if they had- then they must have come over the fence. Which means there may be a trace of them.
You skid to a halt with such force that divots are driven in the soft loamy ground. There! Sitting on the ground, about half a yard away from your fence, a piece of straw! You run over to it. Eyes narrowed, you look around wildly for another trace. Your gaze lands on another golden piece sitting near the edge of the sparse woods that surround your home. You sprint for it.
From the spot of the next piece of straw you can see another clump dangling from a tree. Running over to that one doesn't show more straw, but there's a dragged path between two trees that could only come from Mr. Straw's base. From there, another trace. From there, another.
You follow the traces for a long time. There're too many of them for them to be anything but deliberate. Someone knew you would come and they wanted you to be able to follow them. Again: why? You really need to stop asking yourself that; not having an answer is starting to piss you off.
The sun is high in the sky before you run out of traces. They've led you to a clearing deep in the woods, a rare open spot in a forest that's been getting thicker as you've pressed deeper. You stop in the middle of it near the last trace- a scrap of torn burlap- with your hands on your legs, lungs burning. You've been pushing yourself hard and you're starting to feel it. But it'll be worth it if you can finally figure out who your secret trainer is.
As you pant and recover, you can the clearing. But you can't spot another bit of straw, trace of fabric, or sign of rough passage anywhere. But there has to be one. Something that'll show where Mr. Straw went. You rub your eyes and keep looking, cataloguing everything you see. Tree. Tree. Tree. Pile of leaves. Tree. Tree. Squirrel. Tree. Tree. Mr. Straw suspended by vines. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree-
You stop and slowly turn back. Sure enough, there's Mr. Straw. He's hanging from the branches of an older tree, vines looping around his arms, legs, and base. On his stomach is a piece of paper. On the front of it it reads, in messy letters, 'grab me!'.
Well. You haven't come this far by ignoring cryptic instructions involving your training dummy! You head over to Mr. Straw and reach, straining on your tiptoes as you try and reach the note. But your trainer clearly knows how tall you are; the note is out of reach. Even if you put your whole body into jumping, your fingertips barely brush the note. If you want to grab it, you'll have to put more into it.
Maybe you need to let Mr. Straw down? That means you'll have to climb the tree and get untangle the vines. You decide to give it a shot and head over to the trunk. A hop and leap later, you're trying to shimmy up the tree. It's too wide for you to get your arms around; your only option is to try and scurry up it like a spider. It's an approach that's doomed to fail. You fall before you get two feet up.
Or maybe this is supposed to be another test? Maybe of Chakra Control? Running up a tree with Chakra is a basic test after all. But you've never used your chakra. You know you have it; you can feel it with every too sharp smell and every sensation heightened. But you haven't touched it! That kind of thing seems a little too dangerous to figure out on your own. And you'd guess your trainer knows that. If they know how tall you are, they know you haven't started experimenting with Chakra.
If it's a test, it's probably on something else. Honestly this whole thing gives you a vibe like a final exam. Like you've been studying the coursework for months, but here's where you really put it into action. You stop and think for a long moment. So what exactly have you been being taught that you can use here?
You know what you've been being taught; basic Taijutsu obviously. You'd have figured that out even if you didn't have a skill tracker to watch it for you. But how can you apply punching and kicking to grabbing a note off a hanging Mr. Straw?
...wait. When you think of Taijutsu, you keep thinking of the actual striking part of it. But that's not the most important part. No, the biggest part of Taijutsu is the footwork. Having a good base to start on is the foundation of all the rest of it, and it all comes back to having sure feet that you can use to stand on anything as you move into the blows.
So is there something here that can test your footwork?
Your eyes trace the ground and land on a heavy log. It's propped up against a tree deliberately. Another few large sticks lead up to it and way from it. The log itself leads to a small shelf worn into a tree from years of exposure. If you could get up there, you could shimmy along the shelf until you reached Mr. Straw. From there you would have to jump and turn in midair to get the note. It wouldn't be easy, but it'd be doable.
You sigh and reach down to take off your shoes. You're going to need bare feet if you want to do this right.
In the end it's even harder than you thought it would be. You fall half a dozen times when you're trying to scale the log and another four when you're trying to navigate the shelf. And that's not even counting the number of times you miss the note when you're plunging from midway up a twenty foot tall tree and crash into the ground- if you weren't sure you had chakra of some sort before, this would have convinced you. There's no other way to explain how you walked away from all those falls without breaking anything. But it doesn't matter how many times you fail. You only need to succeed once.
And succeed you do. Finally, you have the note clutched in your grass stained palm. You rip it open eagerly.
It reads: 'follow me!'
Follow me? Who are you supposed to follow-
Above you, you hear a sharp rustling noise for a fraction of a second before it's replaced by silence. Heart sinking, you slowly look up. Sure enough, Mr. Straw is gone. Again.
You let out a yell of frustration and follow the new path that's been torn in the ground.
That's how your afternoon passes. You track down Mr. Straw until you find him. Then you have to scheme a way to him, and the moment you lay a finger on him, he's pulled away from you. You swim deep into a river to get Mr. Straw. You chase Mr. Straw as he's being pulled on a long rope. You punch at Mr. Straw through a small opening only wide enough for a perfect fist. You throw conveniently placed balls at a large bird carrying Mr. Straw through the woods. Each time you find Mr. Straw, the tests get stranger and more absurd, each harder to solve than the last.
Until finally you are done.
The trail leads you to a large field deep in the heart of the forest. You can't see any more straw trails, so you can only assume another test is coming. But you stop and raise both hands, crossing them into an X. "No!" you bellow. "Enough! I am finished with these stupid tests! I won't do another! Give me back my dummy, tell me who you are, and go away!"
The still silence seems to be mocking you. You growl into it. "You think this is funny, don't you?! Stealing my favorite dummy! I worked hard with that dummy! I won't let you keep tearing him up for your weird little tests! Give him back! Right now!"
There's a rustle in the grass behind you. "Do you think you've earned it?"
You spin, hands raised in a defensive stance. The newcomer eyes it. "Impressive. You've taken well to my tutelage."
As he studies your stance, you study him. The newcomer is a large man, easily twice as tall as your three feet, and you can see clearly defined muscles beneath his dark robes. But those are the only details you can make out. The man is clad head to toe in dark colors with bandages wrapped around his face. To complete the effect, he's shrouded in a dark cowl and hood that swirl around him as he stands in place.
...have you been being trained by Konoha Batman?
Your phantom mentor lets you look at him for a long moment before he shifts back, setting one leg behind him and raising his hands in a carbon copy of your own stance. "You want your dummy back?" he growls in a raspy tone. "You wish to know who I am?"
"Then come! Come reveal my identity, Satomura Daisuke! If you can!"
What is your response? And if you choose to take his challenge, what is your plan?
[] Write-In
You sprint back into the house as fast as your almost six-year old legs can go, stopping briefly at the breakfast table to shovel as much food into your mouth as possible in thirty seconds- you've got to keep your motives full after all. Mother watches you go with a mildly amused, mildly disgusted look on her face. "Daisuke! Chew!" she orders.
"There's no time!" you garble back in between mouthfuls. "I gotta find Mr. Straw!"
A look of surprise crosses her face. "Honey, I'll get you another one! Two! There's no need to panic."
"That's not it!" you protest. "That's my Mr. Straw! I don't want another! That one's mine!"
Mother protests a few more times as Tokei look on stoically from near the staircase, each weaker than the last. You finish your eating frenzy and rush over, hugging her around the ankles. "I gotta find him!" you answer, ignoring whatever she's saying. "I'll be home later! Love you!"
You turn and sprint for the door. Behind you, you hear Tokei shuffle after you. "No," Mother calls. "Let him go. Boys need to explore and do foolish things while they're young. It's how they learn to be men."
There's silence from Tokei. Finally, as you close the door behind you, you hear him say, "You indulge him too much Manami. You do remember-"
The door slides shut before you can hear whatever it is Mother is supposed to remember. The moment your home is closed off, you're already hauling ass around Mother's property, heading for the other side of the fenced-off backyard. If whoever took Mr. Straw didn't come in through the front door- and you have to assume Tokei would've noticed if they had- then they must have come over the fence. Which means there may be a trace of them.
You skid to a halt with such force that divots are driven in the soft loamy ground. There! Sitting on the ground, about half a yard away from your fence, a piece of straw! You run over to it. Eyes narrowed, you look around wildly for another trace. Your gaze lands on another golden piece sitting near the edge of the sparse woods that surround your home. You sprint for it.
From the spot of the next piece of straw you can see another clump dangling from a tree. Running over to that one doesn't show more straw, but there's a dragged path between two trees that could only come from Mr. Straw's base. From there, another trace. From there, another.
You follow the traces for a long time. There're too many of them for them to be anything but deliberate. Someone knew you would come and they wanted you to be able to follow them. Again: why? You really need to stop asking yourself that; not having an answer is starting to piss you off.
The sun is high in the sky before you run out of traces. They've led you to a clearing deep in the woods, a rare open spot in a forest that's been getting thicker as you've pressed deeper. You stop in the middle of it near the last trace- a scrap of torn burlap- with your hands on your legs, lungs burning. You've been pushing yourself hard and you're starting to feel it. But it'll be worth it if you can finally figure out who your secret trainer is.
As you pant and recover, you can the clearing. But you can't spot another bit of straw, trace of fabric, or sign of rough passage anywhere. But there has to be one. Something that'll show where Mr. Straw went. You rub your eyes and keep looking, cataloguing everything you see. Tree. Tree. Tree. Pile of leaves. Tree. Tree. Squirrel. Tree. Tree. Mr. Straw suspended by vines. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree-
You stop and slowly turn back. Sure enough, there's Mr. Straw. He's hanging from the branches of an older tree, vines looping around his arms, legs, and base. On his stomach is a piece of paper. On the front of it it reads, in messy letters, 'grab me!'.
Well. You haven't come this far by ignoring cryptic instructions involving your training dummy! You head over to Mr. Straw and reach, straining on your tiptoes as you try and reach the note. But your trainer clearly knows how tall you are; the note is out of reach. Even if you put your whole body into jumping, your fingertips barely brush the note. If you want to grab it, you'll have to put more into it.
Maybe you need to let Mr. Straw down? That means you'll have to climb the tree and get untangle the vines. You decide to give it a shot and head over to the trunk. A hop and leap later, you're trying to shimmy up the tree. It's too wide for you to get your arms around; your only option is to try and scurry up it like a spider. It's an approach that's doomed to fail. You fall before you get two feet up.
Or maybe this is supposed to be another test? Maybe of Chakra Control? Running up a tree with Chakra is a basic test after all. But you've never used your chakra. You know you have it; you can feel it with every too sharp smell and every sensation heightened. But you haven't touched it! That kind of thing seems a little too dangerous to figure out on your own. And you'd guess your trainer knows that. If they know how tall you are, they know you haven't started experimenting with Chakra.
If it's a test, it's probably on something else. Honestly this whole thing gives you a vibe like a final exam. Like you've been studying the coursework for months, but here's where you really put it into action. You stop and think for a long moment. So what exactly have you been being taught that you can use here?
You know what you've been being taught; basic Taijutsu obviously. You'd have figured that out even if you didn't have a skill tracker to watch it for you. But how can you apply punching and kicking to grabbing a note off a hanging Mr. Straw?
...wait. When you think of Taijutsu, you keep thinking of the actual striking part of it. But that's not the most important part. No, the biggest part of Taijutsu is the footwork. Having a good base to start on is the foundation of all the rest of it, and it all comes back to having sure feet that you can use to stand on anything as you move into the blows.
So is there something here that can test your footwork?
Your eyes trace the ground and land on a heavy log. It's propped up against a tree deliberately. Another few large sticks lead up to it and way from it. The log itself leads to a small shelf worn into a tree from years of exposure. If you could get up there, you could shimmy along the shelf until you reached Mr. Straw. From there you would have to jump and turn in midair to get the note. It wouldn't be easy, but it'd be doable.
You sigh and reach down to take off your shoes. You're going to need bare feet if you want to do this right.
In the end it's even harder than you thought it would be. You fall half a dozen times when you're trying to scale the log and another four when you're trying to navigate the shelf. And that's not even counting the number of times you miss the note when you're plunging from midway up a twenty foot tall tree and crash into the ground- if you weren't sure you had chakra of some sort before, this would have convinced you. There's no other way to explain how you walked away from all those falls without breaking anything. But it doesn't matter how many times you fail. You only need to succeed once.
And succeed you do. Finally, you have the note clutched in your grass stained palm. You rip it open eagerly.
It reads: 'follow me!'
Follow me? Who are you supposed to follow-
Above you, you hear a sharp rustling noise for a fraction of a second before it's replaced by silence. Heart sinking, you slowly look up. Sure enough, Mr. Straw is gone. Again.
You let out a yell of frustration and follow the new path that's been torn in the ground.
That's how your afternoon passes. You track down Mr. Straw until you find him. Then you have to scheme a way to him, and the moment you lay a finger on him, he's pulled away from you. You swim deep into a river to get Mr. Straw. You chase Mr. Straw as he's being pulled on a long rope. You punch at Mr. Straw through a small opening only wide enough for a perfect fist. You throw conveniently placed balls at a large bird carrying Mr. Straw through the woods. Each time you find Mr. Straw, the tests get stranger and more absurd, each harder to solve than the last.
Until finally you are done.
The trail leads you to a large field deep in the heart of the forest. You can't see any more straw trails, so you can only assume another test is coming. But you stop and raise both hands, crossing them into an X. "No!" you bellow. "Enough! I am finished with these stupid tests! I won't do another! Give me back my dummy, tell me who you are, and go away!"
The still silence seems to be mocking you. You growl into it. "You think this is funny, don't you?! Stealing my favorite dummy! I worked hard with that dummy! I won't let you keep tearing him up for your weird little tests! Give him back! Right now!"
There's a rustle in the grass behind you. "Do you think you've earned it?"
You spin, hands raised in a defensive stance. The newcomer eyes it. "Impressive. You've taken well to my tutelage."
As he studies your stance, you study him. The newcomer is a large man, easily twice as tall as your three feet, and you can see clearly defined muscles beneath his dark robes. But those are the only details you can make out. The man is clad head to toe in dark colors with bandages wrapped around his face. To complete the effect, he's shrouded in a dark cowl and hood that swirl around him as he stands in place.
...have you been being trained by Konoha Batman?
Your phantom mentor lets you look at him for a long moment before he shifts back, setting one leg behind him and raising his hands in a carbon copy of your own stance. "You want your dummy back?" he growls in a raspy tone. "You wish to know who I am?"
"Then come! Come reveal my identity, Satomura Daisuke! If you can!"
What is your response? And if you choose to take his challenge, what is your plan?
[] Write-In
Astra Myst
Do you want a wish?
- Location
- Milky Way Galaxy
Konoha batman
FUCKING BATMAN
FUCKING BATMAN
Why do i get the feeling this is an older version of him that has traveled back in time?
- Location
- Land of Confusion
HAH! That is a roflcopter worthy description of Danzo! ...assuming that is, in fact, Danzo.
Dissonance
Luna's Luna
- Location
- Ginnungagap.
- Pronouns
- S/H/T
[✓] Armageddon Initiative
Wait, shit, wrong thread.
>Bandages
>A dark hood that swirls
.....?
Tobi?
Dosu?
Kakashi?
Actually, I do like the Danzo theory.
Wait, shit, wrong thread.
>Bandages
>A dark hood that swirls
.....?
Tobi?
Dosu?
Kakashi?
Actually, I do like the Danzo theory.
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- Location
- USA
Okay, a few things to say.
First, our mom is awesome. I like how pretty hands off she is. She obviously cares about us but also allows us to go outside and play and explore on our own. It seems like as long as we are happy and doing things we enjoy she allows it. Pretty awesome.
Even more tests. I wonder if this guy just saw some random kid going at a dummy and not getting tired with it and it inspired him to maybe spend a little time to give a few pointers. Hmm, I also wonder how common this is too. I mean, this is a ninja village. Ninja probably don't spend their time training all the time so they got to whittle away the hours somehow. I wonder if every now and then, when a kid shows initiative and drive, some ninja maybe give a few pointers as a hobby or a way to pass the time.
Okay, so all the previous test have had something in common. We used everything we have learned from this guy, footwork and stances, to pass the previous tests he gave us. So it is likely that to pass this final test we need to engage him in taijutsu. So our goals, based on how he worded things, are
First, our mom is awesome. I like how pretty hands off she is. She obviously cares about us but also allows us to go outside and play and explore on our own. It seems like as long as we are happy and doing things we enjoy she allows it. Pretty awesome.
Even more tests. I wonder if this guy just saw some random kid going at a dummy and not getting tired with it and it inspired him to maybe spend a little time to give a few pointers. Hmm, I also wonder how common this is too. I mean, this is a ninja village. Ninja probably don't spend their time training all the time so they got to whittle away the hours somehow. I wonder if every now and then, when a kid shows initiative and drive, some ninja maybe give a few pointers as a hobby or a way to pass the time.
Okay, so all the previous test have had something in common. We used everything we have learned from this guy, footwork and stances, to pass the previous tests he gave us. So it is likely that to pass this final test we need to engage him in taijutsu. So our goals, based on how he worded things, are
- To get the dummy away from him
- And to reveal his identity (take the hood off his face)
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- Location
- Just passing through.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
...I really hope no, that's sounds dumb. u_u'
redzonejoe
Vaguely Pastafarian
- Location
- Canada
[] I'm sorry, I haven't completed my combat tutorial. Please wait here until tomorrow for me, Dark-Knight-sensei!
-Alternatively-
[] you've been taught basic Taijutsu, but some of your more advanced lessons have been about thinking outside the box, using your environment and the like.
-[] Buy time. Distract Konoha Batman with a speech, maybe toss in a reference to the will of fire for brownie points.
--[] Use that time to scan your surroundings and look for anything you can use to your advantage. Weapons, unstable ground, openings you can fit through and he can't, etc. Put ALL your lessons to the test, not just direct combat.
-Alternatively V2-
[] Make a wild guess. Unmasking somebody you've never met before is pointless, so you must be expected to know their face! Maybe?
-[] The only faces you might recognize here are Tokei and...
--[] "Sarutobi-sama! Thank you for teaching me, but your disguise needs work!"
---[] If it's not the transformed girl, the only other face you might recognize is the hokage's! And they share the same name, how convenient for your bluff!
----[] Right or wrong, hopefully they'll be surprised. Dash in for the first strike!
-Alternatively-
[] you've been taught basic Taijutsu, but some of your more advanced lessons have been about thinking outside the box, using your environment and the like.
-[] Buy time. Distract Konoha Batman with a speech, maybe toss in a reference to the will of fire for brownie points.
--[] Use that time to scan your surroundings and look for anything you can use to your advantage. Weapons, unstable ground, openings you can fit through and he can't, etc. Put ALL your lessons to the test, not just direct combat.
-Alternatively V2-
[] Make a wild guess. Unmasking somebody you've never met before is pointless, so you must be expected to know their face! Maybe?
-[] The only faces you might recognize here are Tokei and...
--[] "Sarutobi-sama! Thank you for teaching me, but your disguise needs work!"
---[] If it's not the transformed girl, the only other face you might recognize is the hokage's! And they share the same name, how convenient for your bluff!
----[] Right or wrong, hopefully they'll be surprised. Dash in for the first strike!
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- Location
- Italy
It sounds like something Gai might do. Just sneakier.
Also I called it!
All roads lead to combat tutorial
- Location
- California
Don't think so, a bit too big to be Danzō. Decent chance we're dealing with an OC here.
- Location
- USA
I think this is the better plan you have at the moment. Only problem I have is the reference to the will of fire. I don't think we even know what that is right now. We live in a household with people that are not native to Konoha so they are not likely to mention it either. Better to make a speech about how we will get Mr. Straw back or something along those lines.
Other than that, I think the idea to look for someplace to maybe herd him to that would give us a better reach is a good idea.
