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Lost on the Road of Life (An AU Naruto Quest)

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Shrooms said:
I'm not sure you can do this with genjutsu if you're a novice like Kakashi... also, we're telling the truth anyways so I don't see the concern personally, we're just trying to compile what we know so we don't waste time
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I just skimmed chapter 32 and, upon reread, you may be right. The wording's a bit ambiguous as to whether or not Kakashi can use genjutsu to create auditory illusions.

It's from Kakashi's pov, and he uses visual words like "the man saw" and doesn't use auditory descriptors. It may mean Kakashi simply didn't think to do so, but it may also mean Kakashi was strictly describing the genjutsu, and that the genjutsu was strictly visual. It may mean something, it may mean nothing.

Kakashi casts genjutsu through the use of Obito's Sharingan eyeball, so if Kakashi is able to make buzzing-noises, then he may also be able to make talking-noises... However, the Sharingan is the thing that is casting the genjutsu, not Kakashi (who has no idea how the eyeball even casts it), so I'll admit that it may not be possible. Magic weirdness, and Kakashi has no personal proficiency in genjutsu.

Another suggestion, with regard to Opsec, would be forming letters mid-air for silent communication. Or pulling out Icha Icha, and changing the letters into a new message.

I know that you've said "it's the truth, so why should we worry if they interpret our actions as a lie" but I'd like to point out that this is a ninja world where paranoia is the norm, and that this 8th clan (from their perspective) have been subject to random and unjustified attacks from everyone and their mother for the last 6 months, breaking the generations-long peace in Honey... Provided that the Chunnin was telling the truth, or that the Chunnin wasn't also "kept in the dark and fed bullshit."

That kind of recent background history may prime the Clan Head to be more paranoid than usual, leading him to react poorly to suspicious foreign ninja gathering data/getting their stories straight.

If you'd like, we could check to see if anyone is guarding the door (though that doesn't account for "bug" seals, thin walls, or if this clan has some sort of sensory-sharing bug jutsu... Like a mix between Leaf's Inuzuka and Aburame Clans). Shizuka is an assassin build and may have decent Alertness for a Chunnin. Between Kakashi and Shizuka, they should be able to catch non-magical listening methods.

Most importantly, I'd also like to try wield the infallible argument of "but it sounds tots cool, yo, and maybe we could try it? Please?"

(Disclaimer: I apologize if this reads as curt, terse, rude, arguing in bad faith, or otherwise discourteous. It's not my intention, and I've made a few passes over it to add inflection and fluff to the text in an effort to make it read more normally. I have a stress-headache while at work and so my verbage may be affected by that. Customer-related incident reports suck. As I type this, I now realize that this disclaimer could be viewed as an attempt to use pity as an indirect emotional appeal to convince you to add it for the sake of doing something nice to someone in an unenviable position. This is not that, but an attempt at CCnJ*.

For those unaware, CCnJ means "Clarifying Consent in a Jacuzzi" "Clear Communication no Jutsu"
 
Shrooms said:
I'm not sure you can do this with genjutsu if you're a novice like Kakashi... also, we're telling the truth anyways so I don't see the concern personally, we're just trying to compile what we know so we don't waste time

Does anyone else have any strong feelings about this?
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It's established in the Fugaku Uchiha flashback that one clever usage of Sharingan genjutsu is that you can essentially use it for telepathy (for short periods of time since its chakra intensive). This is done by trapping someone in an illusion to convey the necessary information. Kakashi might not perfectly replicate the room they're in detail for detail (compared to what Shizuka would notice anyway), but he can certainly produce a reasonable amount of audio.

This would be, as far as Kakashi understands it, almost as untraceable as communication in world can theoretically get.
 
MMKII said:
Kakashi might not perfectly replicate the room they're in detail for detail (compared to what Shizuka would notice anyway), but he can certainly produce a reasonable amount of audio.
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Damn, and here I thought the "rewrite Icha Icha" would be pretty cool/clever/funny... Any chance that rewriting Icha Icha would be easier/less [costly/more] cost effective than [outright] telepathy?

Totally not asking to try and see if a cool idea is workable, nope. Not at all. Totally an academic curiosity, promise.

But yeah, I am.
 
MMKII said:
It's established in the Fugaku Uchiha flashback that one clever usage of Sharingan genjutsu is that you can essentially use it for telepathy (for short periods of time since its chakra intensive). This is done by trapping someone in an illusion to convey the necessary information. Kakashi might not perfectly replicate the room they're in detail for detail (compared to what Shizuka would notice anyway), but he can certainly produce a reasonable amount of audio.

This would be, as far as Kakashi understands it, almost as untraceable as communication in world can theoretically get.
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Hmm, I was imagining this was an Uchiha-to-Uchiha thing but I'm not quite sure why I thought it wouldn't work on someone else

I don't think the secrecy is necessary but I can toss it in just cuz it's cool
 
RandomOTP said:
Any chance that rewriting Icha Icha would be easier/less [costly/more] cost effective than [outright] telepathy?
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Not a large one :p

To clarify, Kakashi is entirely capable of tossing a quick infodump via Sharingan genjutsu. You could likely fit a tl;dr of most <500ish word plans I can think of, along with a few terse questions, before it became too draining. The downside to this is that it eats chakra like an Akimichi.

I don't think the playerbase has really been able to/ needed to do this up to this point /really wanted to.
 
Shrooms said:
Hmm, I was imagining this was an Uchiha-to-Uchiha thing but I'm not quite sure why I thought it wouldn't work on someone else

I don't think the secrecy is necessary but I can toss it in just cuz it's cool
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It's basically like trying to talk to a gagged individual through an ear-piece. One-sided comms, but still useful in some cases.


MMKII said:
"Yes. It is less useful when both parties involved do not have a Sharingan, and it is prohibitively expensive as a means of communication. Yet, it is perfectly secure."
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[X] New Friends, New Opportunities

...Are we sure it isn't the Sasu? Is there anything we can do to hedge against that possibility?
 
Vote closes in about 24 hours.

(I always forget to click the "Open voting" thing...)
 
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Chapter 38: The Keeper of the Swarm
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    • Kakashi turned to Shizuka, uncovering Obito's eye with a fluid motion of his hand. "So what are we going to do to pass the time?"

    "I don't know," Shizuka said. Shizuka turned to look at him and he met her gaze. "Do you have something in mind? Hopefully not anything involving a discussion on your… books…"

    "Eh, let me think for a bit," Kakashi replied.

    Kakashi tapped the left side of his head and put a finger to his mask to signal her to be quiet. He brought his hands together to form the Ram handseal, and sent a veritable bucketload of chakra burning through his coils to create the genjutsu. It wasn't a particularly complicated one at all, in fact it was ridiculously simple, with no visual components to it. Kakashi just had to concentrate to form the audio.

    Okay, don't dispel, and listen up, I don't have a lot of time.

    Shizuka raised her eyebrows, eyes widening slightly, before she nodded.

    Alright, so first things first. Is it possible these folks are still behind this, or at least involved? The one ninja didn't seem to know anything, but that doesn't mean anything about the rest of them. Barring further information, I think we should keep our cards close to our vests at the moment. Do you agree?

    Shizuka nodded. She made the universal hand gesture for "okay, now continue". Kakashi obliged.

    Let's just tell him that we managed to figure everything out with Earth Clone and a lucky break. Does that sound believable? No mention of notes, or sealing, or anything else. We can summarize the rest, though maybe we want to be careful about how we answer any specific questions to try not to give too much information away. How does that sound? I'm going to end the genjutsu know, it's hell on my chakra reserves.

    Shizuka nodded. She stared off into the corner of the cramped little room, as if deep in thought, before putting a hand up.

    "How about we play a hand of cards. Just let me fish some out."

    The former Rain ninja formed some handseals and Kakashi found himself slightly light headed.

    Clever. It's a simple application of most variable illusions, but not one that I've encountered until now. You have my thanks for showing it to me.

    Shizuka stopped the genjutsu.

    …

    …

    …

    Huh, Kakashi thought. Right, I think she mentioned something about knowing genjutsu at some point, didn't she? Or maybe she didn't. I wonder if she's better than I am at it?

    o-o-o

    "Go fish."

    Kakashi grumbled. "So, about this memory erasing thing. It seems to be somewhat distance related, right?"

    "How do you figure?" Shizuka asked. "Threes?"

    "Nope. Well, the closer we got to this place, the more intense the effect was, right? But the informant that gave me intel back in Valley mentioned eight clans in Honey, so that clearly survived."

    "Hmmm," Shizuka said. She made a small frown. "It could be that there wasn't enough information, or that it wasn't specific enough? Perhaps the effect started around that time?"

    "No, I don't think so," Kakashi said, shaking his head. "We got news of trouble brewing at that exact same time. Though you might be right that the intel didn't fall into the effect for some reason. Strange. Fives?"

    "No, go fish. Your Earth Clones were not effected, correct? Does it not impact chakra constructs then?"
    I can't answer that without revealing how Shadow Clones work. Damn.

    "Eh," Kakashi said. "They're not intelligent, they're basically mindless automatons that follow the creator's orders. There probably isn't anything to wipe in the first place. It might be that the effect is stronger proportionally to the amount of… knowledge or memories in some type of category that they have? I'm not quite sure how to phrase that. That makes sense, right?"

    Shizuka shrugged. "If you say so. Do you have any threes?"

    Kakashi frowned. "No. Didn't you ask about those already?"

    Shizuka blinked. "I did?"

    Uh oh.

    "I… I don't know. Here, hold on, let me just get out a —"

    There was a thumping sound as someone knocked on the door to the cramped inn room.

    "The Clan Head will grant you an audience."

    "We'll be out in a minute!" Kakashi called out to whoever was at the door. Kakashi turned to Shizuka. "Finally. Alright, let's put these cards away and go meet the man."

    "Lets."



    o-o-o​


    The portion of the small town that Lord Sasu Jinraku lived in was built into the side of the valley. Great, looming hexagonal bore holes served as hallways into the clan compound proper, which itself was a dizzying maze of wood, stone, and vases full of sweet smelling flowers. Honey bees flew freely through the air, which was so spring-like in terms of warmth and quality despite the looming onset of the winter season that Kakashi had to wonder whether the whole place was situated on top of some sort of underground hot spring.

    Kakashi, Shizuka, and their two guards – chuunin, looked like they'd be easy pickings in a fair fight, but any fight happening inside their own home would be a far cry from fair – traveled deeper still into the compound. They passed several rooms that were filled with fluorescent lanterns, rooms filled with flowers where the sides of the walls were dotted with openings into the side of the valley where sunlight streamed through. One or two of those rooms had a series of polished sheets of metal that reflected the sunlight onto the flowers below.

    "Achoo!"

    Kakashi sneezed. The air was thick with dusty yellow pollen, so thick that he'd probably be cleaning it off himself for days after they were done today. The scent was cloying and musty and so strong that it almost smelled rotten at times.

    But the worst was the buzzing. It was a low humming sound that was ever present. It echoed off of the walls, bouncing off the floor and ceiling, and reverberated through the tunnels.

    It was almost maddening.

    Eventually after it seemed like they would never get to their destination, they arrived in front of a pair of polished wood double doors.

    This must be the Clan Head's study, Kakashi thought. He leaned forward and strained to listen without appearing like that was what he was doing. It was hard to hear anything over the everpresent buzzing, but Kakashi thought he heard someone talking. It's a shame I don't have any ninjutsu that grant increased hearing capability.

    I should make one of those one day    , Kakashi thought. Either after grabbing the Wind Element or once I'm good enough to make non-elemental ninjutsu of that caliber.

    One of their guards knocked once on the set of double doors. Eventually the doors cracked open a bit.

    "Come in."

    Lord Jinraku's study was (of course) hexagonally shaped, with six walls filled with various books, paintings, desks, and other odds and ends strewn about. The walls had several fluorescent-green lanterns on each of them that bathed the room in an eerie teal glow. There was a large desk in the center of the room, with two simple lightly cushioned chairs in front of it and one larger cushioned chair behind it. There was a waist-high piece of wooden furniture to the left of the desk, and a small furry animal lounging on a wooden perch.

    Is that a cat? No, no, a monkey? Huh.

    Lord Jinraku was a middle-aged ninja that was about Kakashi's height, maybe a bit shorter. The man was balding at the top, though his face was framed by a shortly cropped beard of neatly trimmed brown hair. The man was wearing ostentatious formal robes, black with gold-yellow highlights throughout, arranged in stripes that swirled together to create flowery whorls and patterns. Kakashi thought that the fabric must have been quite expensive, because it shimmered and seemed to —

    Hashirama's enormous wood, Kakashi swore. It's not the pattern, he just has a shiny pile of hornets crawling all over him.

    Kakashi suppressed a shiver.

    Shizuka and Kakashi stepped forwards, though their ninja guards seemed to stay behind at the entrance. They waited patiently. Eventually the clan head turned towards the guards and gave them a crisp wave. The Sasu ninja saluted, before walking back down the corridor, leaving the Clan Head alone with Shizuka and Kakashi.

    They're probably not going to go too far though. What would be the point of having guards otherwise? Likely just a polite courtesy on his part, and an empty one at that.

    Kakashi would bet money that there was at least one other individual other than the three of them that was listening in on this conversation for signs of trouble. At least, that's what his gut said.

    The head of the beekeeper clan spread his arms in a beckoning gesture.

    "Sit, sit! I am Sasu Jinraku, Clan Head of the Sasu, so on and so forth. Be welcome in my hall," the man said, taking a seat for himself. Kakashi sat down in one chair and Shizuka did the same. "Please ignore the puns." The man replaced the 's' sound of the word with a buzzing 'z'.

    Kakashi blinked.

    "So," the man said, leaning back slightly. "I am told that you have some information about a situation that my clan has seemingly found itself in the middle of. Komako had said something about a memory altering effect? I am most eager to hear the details about this. Please, begin."

    Kakashi took a deep breath in.

    "We were sent here by the Mantis Summoner, who had requested that we check in on some ill-tidings around these parts of Honey. Now…"

    Kakashi recounted the tale from beginning to end, making sure to carefully leave out any useful bit of information that the Clan Head could use beyond the bare bones. Shizuka chimed in at various places, but was otherwise content for him to do most of the retelling.

    "... and so we managed to eventually realize that our memories were being altered. Through some clever usage of the Earth Clone technique, I was able to get the two of us through it, and we ran into a ninja from your clan almost immediately after. She didn't seem to notice the strange memory erasure effect, so we figured we would stop by here and tell you about it."

    Lord Jinraku scratched at his beard. "That is a most troubling tale. And, forgive me for being direct, but what are you offering to do for me and my clan? Are you here to help, or do you want something else?"

    The clan head put a small amount of emphasis on the latter part of the question, but what he wasn't saying out loud was clear as day.

    "I don't believe we're a threat to you and yours," Kakashi said. "We're just trying to get to the bottom of this, and we were essentially sent here to make peace between the Honey Clans. Given that it seems most of your troubles may in fact be coming from this strange memory erasure region surrounding your clan's settlement… well, I think we might share some goals here."

    Kakashi leaned forward slightly, making a firm gesture with his hand. "If I may be so bold, I would prefer you think of us as assets for the Sasu rather than threats."

    The Sasu Clan Head raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. The three of them sat in silence for a moment.

    "Well said," Sasu Jinraku said. His face was stoic. "In that case then, you have my attention, and my curiosity. Moving on, you say that this… memory erasure effect, that is surrounding my lands, was circumvented somehow? I think that I would like more details as to how this was done."

    "It is as we said," Shizuka said, her face morphing into a somewhat concerned expression. "We had a mission to investigate the region, and yet, it seemed that no matter what we did, we couldn't find anything useful in it. This provoked suspicion in and of itself. At first, we suspected genjutsu, but dispelling had no effect. Eventually, my companion here managed to have a stroke of genius in having one of his earth clones guide us through the effect, and here we are."

    Jinraku's face was impassive as he considered that for what seemed like a full minute. Kakashi's gaze was drawn to the monkey perched at the side of the desk. It had gray-black fur, with wide reddish eyes and a ringed tale. It caught his gaze and smiled, its teeth a pale yellow and filled with minor food detritus. Kakashi looked away, lest he accidentally provoke the thing into jumping up and down and shitting on the crazy bee man's nice clean floor.

    Eventually Sasu Jinraku nodded. "Alright, I suppose that makes sense. We're all due for a run of good luck every now and then. "

    "This also explains your clan ninja becoming lost in various skirmishes," Shizuka said. "It's quite possible that they aren't getting killed or captured in skirmishes, simply that they are entering the boundary of this memory erasing zone and then find themselves unable to return, becoming literally lost. This matches with what we found: we did not find any signs of a skirmish or battle anywhere in the regions surrounding your lands."

    Lord Sasu tapped two fingers firmly on his wooden desk, frowning slightly. "I don't think that's either here nor there, isn't it? You have said that memories in this region can be erased or altered whole cloth. Even if that were not so, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence."

    Shizuka bit her lip for a second. "My apologies, you are correct. Forgive me, it is… still somewhat troubling to consider that we might have encountered such things and that I simply cannot recall anything. I have been trying not to think about it."

    Ah, might have to bail her out a bit. Kakashi leaned forward slightly in his chair to indicate that he wanted to speak. Jinraku's eyes quickly locked onto him.

    "Sir," Kakashi began. "Do you have any idea what could be behind this? It's massive, and quite frankly I don't think it's possible that a ninja, even a large group of high-caliber ninja could be behind this. Do you know of any powerful artifacts from the Sage that might be in your lands, or any sort of ritual sealing array that might have recently been created or even disturbed? That's about all I can think of."

    The man's eyebrows shot to the roof of his head.

    Okay, so that definitely got his attention.

    "Ritual sealing array… powerful artifacts from the sage, I'm sorry?" Jinraku spoke slowly, as if his mouth had never formed those words in quite that order before, and his tongue was finding it a clumsy task. "I have never in all of my years heard of such things outside of childhood bedtime stories. Could you please elaborate? Have you truly seen such things before?"

    Yes, yes I have. I've seen a tapestry inside Kazehana Castle and possess an apparently cursed necklace that's a key to some shrine up there in Snow. I have been inside some sort of ancient death trap with weird stonework in Demon with a giant four-armed statue with fire-breathing heads. I've heard stories from Jiraiya and Orochimaru that seemed to talk of such things.

    Kakashi's mind ramped up in speed until the whirring of his thoughts reached a Chidori-rivaling clamor.

    But on second thought… maybe I shouldn't tell you about any of that.

    "Uhhh," Kakashi said, awkwardly. He tapped his hand against his knee. "Well, not exactly, really, but I've heard a story or two at the bar back at my old village, and… well, uh… I figured… I've never really run into…"

    Fortunately there was a scene in Icha Icha: Diamonds are Unbreakable where Yuta had to bring up a topic for discussion and then immediately lie about his knowledge of its existence. Kakashi had probably read that scene two hundred times by now, had committed it to memory, and had probably mimed it out loud several times by this point too.

    (Kakashi sometimes idly wondered if there were ninja clans that you could pay to take missions to go into your mind and soul and untangle all of the messed up shit that was in there. If there was, he would probably hire out a bunch of those missions every so often. Alas, the closest he knew of was the Yamanaka, and they stayed clear of most Leaf-nin's heads on principle.)

    "Ah," Lord Jinraku said, expression falling somewhat. The man put on a forced smile. "I see. Well, I suppose it does seem like something out of a storybook."

    The monkey started screeching. Kakashi forced himself to not move. The yelps were loud and shrill and the suddenness of it almost had him jumping out of his damn skin. Kakashi hated it.

    Sasu Jinraku gave an apologetic look to Kakashi and Shizuka. "Feeding time. It seems we have conversed for quite a while. Here, I will send word back that you are to be moved to slightly better accommodations. I will think on what you have said and try to see if there's anything buzzing around my mind that resembles an idea. Have a beautiful stay in my clan's lands in the meantime."

    They left, ears ringing.

    I hate clan heads. I hate eccentric weirdo-bloodline esoterically specialized animal keeping clan ninja fu—

    Kakashi spent the walk back to the inn thinking darkly uncharitable thoughts.


    o-o-o​


    Kakashi was out on the town, attempting to replenish his vastly exhausted reservoir of storage seal dinners.

    Most ninja he knew didn't see the value in carrying around several weeks worth of hot meals on their person. Kakashi maintained that it was an excellent idea, and that anyone with enough money to buy several dozen storage seals and a few hundred hot meals should do so regularly. It was the biggest time saver when it came down to training, and it beat the sap out of eating field rations on a mission.

    Though to be honest, most ninja probably weren't sealmasters that had the capability of making their own storage seals whenever they felt like it. Most sealmasters didn't have the Sharingan. While the bloodline was not specifically specialized for sealing, it had a variety of abilities that could be applied to help out with sealing, especially if you were clever about it. Having the Sharingan meant that Kakashi could make his own sealing blanks with several minutes worth of painstakingly precise calligraphy, then pull out the Sharingan to duodecuple check that that particular blank was correct, and help compare any future blanks to that one. It was great. Bad brushwork was one of the leading causes of sealing failures, second in terms of overall fatalities mostly due to a series of unfortunate research projects by a handful of older sealmasters attempting to recreate the Flying Thunder God seals.

    Sensei had luckily persuaded the Third to put a stop to that once he found out what was going on.

    Still, with the Sharingan Kakashi could copy his own brushwork perfectly, meaning that he could simply print storage seals en masse whenever he needed to. It would have been even more bullshit if Kakashi could apply that to a stronger seal, but that would require doing sealing research which was a big "nope" in Kakashi's book. Kakashi speculated that the fact that the world wasn't currently ruled by a clan of fuinjutsu gods was strong evidence that nobody out there had a bloodline that was specifically geared to be useful for fuinjutsu. Now that would be some bullshit.

    "So, if I ordered a few bushels worth of the honey glazed carrots and roasted brussel sprouts, when would I have to come back to pick them up?"

    The civilian stall attendant gave him a polite smile and shook her head. "That's not really how we do things here, sir. We only do advance orders. The inventory I have is only for people who will be picking theirs up today."

    Kakashi raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh? Okay, then what about tomorrow?"

    The girl pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I'll see what we can do. I'm not sure about a few bushels, that might be too much."

    "If it's about the money, I have coin in several denominations," Kakashi said. "If it's about the inventory, well, I'll take whatever you can scrounge up."

    The stall attendant gave him an odd look. "It's more that the usage of the cookfires is somewhat limited. Too much fire is prohibited in the village since it's bad for the flowers and the insects. Our food is made in the morning and kept warm with hot water baths."

    Ah, right. Bee clan. That makes sense. I'm probably not going to find any actual restaurants in town then, at least not any that are willing to sell me a pile of food.

    Kakashi nodded, then scratched his mask thoughtfully. "The lanterns in town, are they some sort of firefly or fluorescent moss or something?"

    "Yes," the girl said, "Those too. If you're looking for food, might I suggest going to the baker down the street? Their inventory keeps much better from day to day, so they tend to actually make some excess. The stale bread and pastries get quite cheap."

    ...

    "I'm not buying stale bread!" Kakashi said, voice raising to a shocked half-yell. "What sort of… uh, pardon me. Cultural differences, I guess. Would I have any luck if I walked around and offered to outbid folks for their food? That way everyone is happy, and they can still get whatever they ordered later on."

    "You could certainly try that."

    "Alrighty, thanks. Let your customers know."

    Kakashi finished the conversation by plopping a sack of silver down on the counter.

    I cannot wait to get back to civilization, he thought grimly. Any place where you can't get a hot meal, a beer or two, a good room with a nice bed, and an afternoon at some relaxing hot springs might as well be in the middle of the desert when it comes to my preferences from now on.

    Kakashi cursed darkly under his breath as he wandered the town. The trip throughout town hadn't given him much in the way of intel, but it gave him enough that he could estimate the total size of the Sasu clan ninja forces to about thirty active duty ninja in total, plus or minus a handful.


    o-o-o​


    Kakashi chewed idly on some honeyed almonds as he lounged about in the more spacious guest quarters.

    The civilian members of the clan were masters of working honey into their recipes. Kakashi resolved to grab a few jugs worth of the stuff at the next available opportunity.

    I could probably use this in some of my recipes, maybe to make some sweetrolls? Hmm...

    Shizuka returned as he was munching on one of the honeyed walnut muffins that he grabbed at the bakery down the street. She looked pretty tired. Kakashi guessed that the missing-nin from Rain probably wasn't sleeping all too well in the middle of a ninja clan settlement.

    I'm not grabbing the best shut-eye either.

    "I have acquired a host of supplies," Shizuka said, placing a small blanket full of tiny jars and tins down on the floor. "Not enough to make anything that I'd consider a showstopper, but I can probably brew up something akin to the Surgeon's Gag, which is a potent numbing agent that also serves as an excellent laxative."

    "Are you planning on making someone shit themselves to death? Because I don't think—" Kakashi asked. He paused mid-sentence as he thought of the implications. "Actually, no, that does sound pretty useful, for the right target. We could deliver it orally maybe? Though that would…"

    Kakashi trailed off into a series of mutters as his mind spun in circles contemplating various scenarios. Shizuka took a few expensive containers of worked glass and some fine metal tools out of a storage seal. Kakashi bent down to examine one of the small jars that she had bought.

    It was a squat clay jar, tiny, and filled with something that looked like finely ground plant matter mixed with some foul smelling gunk. The label said "Ground Briarvine Flowers'' and indicated nothing more about the substance.

    It also looked incredibly familiar to him for some reason.

    Where have I seen this before?

    …

    …

    …

    Finally it clicked.

    "Huh," Kakashi said, after a few minutes of wracking his brain. "The chakra exhaustion medicine that I grabbed the last time I was in Honey was in a jar like this, I think."

    Shizuka raised an eyebrow. "Chakra exhaustion medicine? I haven't heard of such a thing. That would be incredibly valuable. Can I see it?"

    "It was pretty pricey," Kakashi said. It had cost him quite a pretty ryo, but it was worth it in the end. "I don't have the jar with me though, I left it with Sugiyama."

    Shizuka's interest faded and she turned back to the collection of alchemical odds and ends.

    "So you think you'll be able to make something useful out of those ingredients?" Kakashi asked.

    Poison would be a great asset, especially if they had to try to track down a chakra beast that was causing this, or if they needed to slip away...

    "I hope that we will be able to do that," Shizuka said. "I don't have the Fire Element, and given that open flames are something of a cultural taboo here, you'll have to actually provide the necessary heat for the mixture to boil."

    Okay, I'll let that comment slide without some sort of witty repartee.

    "I can do you one better." he said.

    Kakashi and Shizuka got to work. Kakashi exercised a great deal of patience throughout the process waiting silently at the ready while Shizuka mixed together a few compounds, listening to her instructions when she asked him to vary the temperature, and so on. Luckily for the two of them, heating a small amount of liquid to a boil was a standard Fire Element chakra control exercise that Kakashi had practiced to death in his mid-teens before creating the Forge Flame ninjutsu.

    There was a knock at their door right after breakfast. The both of them tensed up for a moment.

    Kakashi got up and opened the door, peering out at the duo that was knocking with his best lazy cyclopean gaze. One was Sasu Komako, the ninja that they had almost killed in the woods on the way in. She looked fairly nonchalant. The other was an older looking chuunin (special jounin?) guy that looked considerably more on edge.

    "Hello?" Kakashi asked. "What is it?"

    The two Sasu ninja looked at each other, before the older one piped up.

    "Lord Jinraku would like us to escort you to a location of interest," the older looking one said. "He has told us that you were expecting another meeting at some point, and apologizes for the sudden notice, but stresses that it is an urgent matter."

    Kakashi gave a small sigh.

    Of course some Clan Head is going to try to yank my chain for an abrupt meeting randomly, he thought. Leave it to politicians to play status games with guests just because they can.

    "This is rather short notice," Kakashi replied stiffly, "I'm in the middle of something. Can it wait a bit?"

    Hopefully he could buy enough time for Shizuka to put away all of her chemical whatsits and thingamabobs. He should probably also discreetly make a note that they were meeting with the guy again, just in case there was some weird memory erasure stuff that was still ongoing.

    Komako folded her arms across her chest. "We were ordered to fetch you post-haste. Danjuro described it as a 'Location of interest', but this does not paint the most accurate of pictures. There is an anomalous spot within one of the bee hives, and our lord would like you and your partner to assist in analyzing it."

    Did I hear that right?

    "… within one of the bee hives?"

    "Just so," Danjuro replied. The chuunin's face was still a mask of neutrality. "It's entirely safe so long as a few of the clan ninja are with you to calm the bees, and most of them are slumbering since we are entering the cold season."

    Kakashi blinked. "And we need to do this right away?"

    "Yes, that is correct sir."

    "Alright, I hear you loud and clear." Kakashi said, after a moment's hesitation. "Look, let me finish my morning prayer regimen to Jiraiya the Gallant and we can head right out after I'm done cleaning the wax out of my ears. It'll be a few minutes tops."

    The pair of chuunin sputtered slightly at that, which Kakashi chose to interpret as agreement. He shut the door and turned to Shizuka. "You get all of that?"

    Kakashi also gestured silently to where their makeshift chemistry setup had been. Shizuka gave a thumbs up.

    Damn, she's good. That was a lot of finicky glass and metal, but I didn't hear a single clinking noise.

    "Yes," Shizuka said, coughing slightly. "I think they use the phrase cleaning the wax out of one's ears idiomatically in this village."

    "Oh? Is it very insulting?" Kakashi brought out his book and flipped open to the bookmark. "I honestly didn't mean anything by it, but if I accidentally insulted them in some clever fashion then I'll certainly take the credit. No one summons Hatake Kakashi like an errand boy."

    While true, Kakashi was mostly buying some time to quickly jot down a note to his future self on the off chance that some memory altering effects were happening in the future.

    "Do you take amusement in being routinely unpleasant to people?"

    "Of course," Kakashi said, unsealing the storage seal that was kept in the back of Icha Icha: Diamonds are Unbreakable and perusing through the notes as protocol dictated. "It's one of the great joys in life."

    "Really, you should--"

    Kakashi stopped listening to Shizuka as his heart stopped.


    o-o-o​


    Going to meet with this Jinraku guy for that second meeting. Two Chuunin guys at the door, something about a hive? Writing this down in case of weird memory shit.





    Kakashi and Shizuka earn 2 FP this update.


    Voting time! What do you do now?

    Here are some options to get you started.

    [] Shadow Clone! Create two Shadow Clones to follow after you, to hedge against weird memory bullshit.
    [] Have Shizuka disappear to execute a sneak attack later. Cover up the fact that she isn't present.
    [] Send a Shadow Clone into the hive, and disappear with Shizuka. Sneak back to Lord Jinraku's study and see what you can find.
    [] Stall out the chuunin with your prayers. Wait and see what happens after they leave, but be ready to make a quick exit.
    [] (+1 Fate Point) Go into the hive and confront Lord Jinraku. You overcame the effect with your addiction to love of Jiraiya's smutty romance novels. Overpower him if need be, then get your answers.
    [] (Write-in)


    Remember, we use approval voting, so you can vote for as many plans as you like. Feel free to ping @Paperclipped or @MMKII to ask setting or detail questions that Kakashi could plausibly know.

    Voting is open, and closes at 12pm London time, Saturday May 28.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Scattershot thoughts:
    • Shizuka is definitely an assassin-build with high stealth (see: rushing to put away the chemistry set, but made no noise) and probably uses socials as her support pyramids.
      • She also has abilities with genjutsu, which probably has synergy with poisons
        • poison someone's coffee, and capture them in a genjutsu, but don't change anything. That way they don't receive the pain/distress signals from their body until it's too late and the poison's taken effect).
    • I'm really liking Shizuka's "straight man" role in commenting on Kakashi's jonin-habits.
      • I wish we could get her to join along, but I suspect she's made an ally of the Intangible Man, and that simply isn't in the cards.
      • Once we're done here, I say we offer her a spot (but don't be surprised if she declines) and then go to try and grab that Sand Sealmaster before going to Mist to recruit Zabs)
    • We just accidentally gave Shizuka a powerboost (genjutsu-telepathy)
    • This clan is behind it, aren't they? And if they're leading Kakashi to their hive, then they're probably planning an ambush. Time to repeat Glacier, I guess?
    • Hopefully we can win. Kakashi isn't built for endurance and Shizuka is an assassin, not a tank.
    • I also really like how Kakashi was able to diffuse the "stale bread" heresy by immediately recognizing and explaining that his offense was the result of "cultural differences" and not anything inherent to the concept of stale bread, itself. Growth!
     
    Dissonance said:
    If it's an ambush, it's a repeated one.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Kakashi's been very low on reserves before, while searching. It could be that they've discovered the Clan previously, and rediscovered them using the same method.

    I guess it depends on if that note was just written by Kakashi, or if he read it already-written. Or maybe it is a repeated ambush, but this is simply the first encounter?

    @MMKII, @Paperclipped, does Kakashi know if he just wrote that done (as a precautionary measure) or if he opened Icha Icha to find that note already waiting for him?
     
    RandomOTP said:
    Kakashi's been very low on reserves before, while searching. It could be that they've discovered the Clan previously, and rediscovered them using the same method.

    I guess it depends on if that note was just written by Kakashi, or if he read it already-written. Or maybe it is a repeated ambush, but this is simply the first encounter?

    @MMKII, @Paperclipped, does Kakashi know if he just wrote that done (as a precautionary measure) or if he opened Icha Icha to find that note already waiting for him?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    To be clear: this note was already in the book.

    *cough cough*

    MMKII said:
    Kakashi and Shizuka earn 2 FP this update.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    :whistle:
     
    [X] Not the Bees!
    Word Count: ~300
    • Discreetly show Shizuka the note from past!Kakashi
    • Shizuka hasn't been wearing her mask lately, and Kakashi's doesn't filter poison...or pollen.
      • Could the pollen be the source of the effect? Or at least the carrier?
      • Just in case, distribute a couple tunneler's friends to Shizuka, if she wants them.
    • If we go to the hive, we could be walking right into an ambush (again). We should investigate Lord Jinraku's study for clues, whether he's being controlled or he's behind this effect.
      • Have Kakashi quickly check himself for any minor nicks, bruises, etc that weren't present before the Earth Clone dragged them here.
      • Summon two Shadow Clones and give them tunneler's friends as well. Try to minimize how much of Shadow Clone's mechanics Kakashi conveys.
        • Have one bury themselves with HLaM for their entire duration.
        • Have the other meet with Lord Jinraku in Kakashi's stead.
          • Shizuka's call whether to go to the hive or not, but it seems like a trap. Kakashi can lie about where she is if she goes to the study instead.
    • Investigate Lord Jinraku's office with the Sharingan.
      • Unseal some wood and burn it or have Shizuka use poison gas to smoke out any bees that may be lurking.
      • Search for any writing, codes, ciphers, seals, lists, etc
    • If Lord Jinraku returns early, try using a confident diplomatic approach, and call him out on the bullshit. Kakashi overcame the memetic effect again, so stop trying to pull the wool over his eyes. Try to avoid fighting until several hours have passed and Kakashi has recharged most of his reserves.
      • In a pinch, Kakashi can pop a shadow clone for more chakra.
      • If cornered, use Fire jutsu, unseal flammable substances, toss explosives, and otherwise unleash fiery doom to knock out the bees.
        • The Sasu presumably have adapted to enemies using fire, so try to mix it up unpredictably.
     
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