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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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DanZapman said:
Jiraiya reclaiming Lordship got discussed briefly with Mari, iirc (and I feel unsure about iirc). She shot it down as unlikely for the sake of precedent. Even if it might benefit Goketsu in this specific scenario, it's not a good policy for Leaf to have in general.
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HAZOU: my first decree as clan head with Jiraiya back is to make Jiraiya my regent, he will handle all of the boring stuff while I go do interesting stuff, listen to him as if he was me, thank you my loyal clanmates
 
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Interlude: From Higher to Lower
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    • Interlude: From Higher to Lower​

    Formally, Tenten was on overwatch. She could see everyone from her plateau. She was far from the tunnels so she would not fall before she could warn them. But the cave beasts weren't a random encounter to roll for. They were hunters. They would strike when the team was vulnerable, and not before. Not now, while everyone was alert.

    The water was emerald from this angle. Sparkling emerald. Where had it come from? Was it happy here, even knowing there was no way back? Was it happy feeding the animals? Would it still be happy when Uplift used its blessing to destroy?

    Tenten was water too. In her oldest memories, she was clear, empty. No past left and no future to imagine. Just pouring from higher to lower, down whichever path led to survival. When the ninja found her and brought her to Leaf, that was higher to lower, the path of least resistance. When shurikenjutsu chose her, when Gai-sensei chose her, when Kei chose her, higher to lower. But with Kei, she'd finally found her place. Her purpose. No longer flowing. A still lake of peace for the girl who had everything but peace.

    Then the bottom fell out of the world, and Tenten fell with it. From higher to lower. Inevitably.

    She was still falling.

    What was her purpose now? She couldn't be the peace Kei needed. She couldn't be the village's unkilling blade. But she also didn't know how to be clear water anymore.

    She had no answers. Only overwatch.

    So she overwatched. She watched over Kei's family. Kei had told these people to her countless times. Tenten knew them off by heart. Tenten had wanted to know them herself countless times. But she knew her limits. She knew better than to try. Except suddenly, she was Uplift. Her limits didn't matter.

    She watched Noburi kneeling by the edge of the pool, left hand reaching in. Water inside communing with water outside. Which one was learning more?

    Noburi smiled. Noburi laughed. Even as he carried the weight of his curse on his back. They talked about it like a tool, but it wasn't a tool. Tenten's shuriken were tools. They were who she was, but if they broke, she didn't go away. She could pick up small rocks, and they would be who she was until she could resupply. They had been once, after all.

    Noburi kept his curse close, always. As if he would die if he ever reached out and found that it wasn't there. Even when he went to the hospital to get away from it, he brought it with him. Not that it mattered, in the end. The hospital couldn't protect him. His curse was needed here, so he came here. From higher to lower, and he only kept what he loved if the curse allowed it.

    (Target the barrel. Destruction not needed; a leak will suffice, assuming opportunities for repairs are denied. Once without chakra, incapacitation is trivial.)

    Yuno watched him fondly, Satsuko resting in her lap. Tenten and Yuno understood each other perfectly. Broken people died in the wilderness. To survive, you had to cast off the broken parts. But then you left the wilderness, and purity turned into emptiness. Broken things could be fixed, but it took magic to bring back what wasn't there.

    Tenten and Yuno had survived. They'd found their magic. They were fighting, so hard, to become the people they could have been. People they could only try to imagine. People who might never exist. And both of them would kill or die, without hesitation, to protect the source of that hope.

    Tenten wanted to befriend Yuno. She wanted to know what they could teach each other about becoming human again. She wanted to make sure they never had to kill each other. But it meant Tenten needed to communicate.

    (Target hamstrings and calcaneal tendons. Yuno's threat is her mobility. Note: is Satsuko effective as a ranged weapon?)

    Satsuko troubled Tenten. A warrior's weapon was her soul. And vice versa. But it worked because the warrior was one with her weapon. Yuno wasn't. Yuno had given Satsuko a piece of her own soul. Only Satsuko wasn't a person. She was an evil-looking black axe with special grooves for the blood. She couldn't grow, couldn't change. The piece of Yuno's soul inside her was frozen in time. It would bind her to the person she used to be until she took it back, and that would mean killing her best friend.

    (Use ninja wire to tie in place after distracting or incapacitating Yuno.)

    Mari sat at a safe distance from Yuno, looking longingly at the pool. Mari confused Tenten. Mari was the anti-Tenten. She could say anything. She could do anything. She could make people believe she was anyone. Why, then, did she make Tenten believe she was lonely?

    Tenten didn't understand it. She could see the gap between Mari and the others. The gap Kei described perfectly, apparently without realising it was there. She could see Mari refusing to be seen, refusing to be understood. Always playful. Always in control. Only vulnerable when cornered, only until she could get away. If Mari could have any mask she wanted, why wouldn't she pick one that made her happy?

    (Do not engage.)

    Kagome was adding another layer to the perimeter. He was a living explosion. Afraid to get close because others would enter his blast radius, and he didn't know how not to hurt them. Afraid to unleash his full enthusiasm near them because it would go out of control. But an explosion couldn't restrain itself. He let Kei get close again just days ago. He ranted three times about sealing safety in Tenten's hearing. Once about explosives. Twice about perimeter security. Snowflake thought he was holding back out of consideration for the newcomer.

    Two people labelled obsessive just for loving the objectively best weapon in existence. Two people who would set family, and only family, above that love. Two people who'd given up on being known. Who owed an eternal debt to those who'd taught them better. Who were still so clumsy, and hated it. Everyone was so surprised that they had rapport.

    (Exhaust, then incapacitate while unconscious. Do not attempt to surprise or disarm.)

    Finally, there was Hazō, sitting in a corner. Staring at a chunk of crystal as if reading a difficult book. It was almost funny. Except that he was Hazō.

    Hazō was a hundred paintings on a single canvas. Castles floating in the heavens. Nations crossed with a single glide. Samurai slaying Dragons. Paint unravelling itself into maddening abstraction. Lovers dancing beneath the summer sky. He was dreams and visions and ideas. Intersecting and overlapping. Twisting each other into new shapes. His family said he was straightforward. Tenten wondered if they'd spent too long as hostages.

    He was what lay at the bottom of the hole. All of them–now Tenten, too–fell towards him. Irresistibly. When he called, they answered. Without question. Whatever they had to abandon. Whoever they had to betray. When he told them to dream Uplift, they dreamed Uplift. Whatever their dreams had been before. When he gave them a mission, an order, a suggestion, he was their Kage. (Unless it was stupid. This was why he was still alive.)

    Kei had abandoned every responsibility to follow him here. She had betrayed every trust. She had erased her future with her own hand. All of them had. And still they claimed he was just a genius sealmaster?

    (Sever sealing pouch belt, then target wrists and elbows as they move into a predictable position to retrieve the falling pouch. Preventing ranged seal deployment is key, after which inferior reflexes can be freely exploited. Do not target the sealing pouch itself. The seals are very valuable. Also, may end the world.)

    Kei had told Tenten to choose between her and everything else, and Tenten chose her. But Hazō had told Kei to choose between him and everything else, and Kei chose Hazō. Did she hesitate? Did she struggle with herself? Or did she flow like Tenten, from higher to lower?

    Would Tenten ever forget that when, after years of perfect trust, their feelings had finally been put to the test, they'd turned out not to be symmetrical?

    Tenten didn't look to see what Kei and Snowflake were doing together. She was on overwatch. The enemy could strike at any moment.

    -o-​

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    • Velorien said:
    Hazō was a hundred paintings on a single canvas. Castles floating in the heavens. Nations crossed with a single glide. Samurai slaying Dragons. Paint unravelling itself into maddening abstraction. Lovers dancing beneath the summer sky. He was dreams and visions and ideas. Intersecting and overlapping. Twisting each other into new shapes. His family said he was straightforward. Tenten wondered if they'd spent too long as hostages.

    He was what lay at the bottom of the hole. All of them–now Tenten, too–fell towards him. Irresistibly. When he called, they answered. Without question. Whatever they had to abandon. Whoever they had to betray. When he told them to dream Uplift, they dreamed Uplift. Whatever their dreams had been before. When he gave them a mission, an order, a suggestion, he was their Kage. (Unless it was stupid. This was why he was still alive.)
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    I love this description.
     
    Velorien said:
    (Target the barrel. Destruction not needed; a leak will suffice, assuming opportunities for repairs are denied. Once without chakra, incapacitation is trivial.)
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    Velorien said:
    (Target hamstrings and calcaneal tendons. Yuno's threat is her mobility. Note: is Satsuko effective as a ranged weapon
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    Velorien said:
    (Use ninja wire to tie in place after distracting or incapacitating Yuno.)
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    Velorien said:
    (Do not engage.)
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    Velorien said:
    (Exhaust, then incapacitate while unconscious. Do not attempt to surprise or disarm.)
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    Nothing for Hazou???

    It's okay, the real answer is (distract with shiny rock, and wait for him to study it before striking from ambush)
     
    I'm having trouble describing how much I like this chapter.

    The presentation of the writing forces the reader to think like Tenten. You can't make sense of this without becoming Tenten in some way, but you can't become Tenten just a little - it's basically an all or nothing proposition.

    It's very different and alien and it actually feels that way, as opposed to being something I can tell is meant to feel alien but doesn't.

    Regardless: brilliant chapter. I'm excited to see more of Tenten in a way I wasn't previously.
     
    FaintlySorcerous said:
    I'm having trouble describing how much I like this chapter.

    The presentation of the writing forces the reader to think like Tenten. You can't make sense of this without becoming Tenten in some way, but you can't become Tenten just a little - it's basically an all or nothing proposition.

    It's very different and alien and it actually feels that way, as opposed to being something I can tell is meant to feel alien but doesn't.

    Regardless: brilliant chapter. I'm excited to see more of Tenten in a way I wasn't previously.
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    Something that's been floating around in my head since we properly went missing is that Tenten was becoming part of core Team Uplift, the most inner of inner circles, and what that means specifically. We've brought people into the fold before, but it's been a long long time since it last happened. Kagome. Akane. Ami's gotten most of the way there but had to leave before any of the follow-through. Follow-through that we're seeing now with Tenten.

    This isn't just a random interlude from the perspective of one of the many characters in the story. It's an introduction to one of our newest main characters. She'll be with us for the rest of the quest, not off in the periphery but as one of us, as much Uplift as Noburi or Kei. We're going to get to know her as a character just as deeply as we understand everyone else in Team Uplift. We'll learn her dreams, we'll optimize her build if we can, we'll do everything in our power for her sake just like we do for the rest of Team Uplift. If that's not true now, it's only because we're still getting introduced to her, only now properly getting to say hello.

    Much more than just an interlude. Tenten is Uplift now, and that means she's on equal footing with the rest of us. And that means it's time to get to know her, understand how she thinks in more depth than as just a side-character.
     
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