Like your example, where invoking Yes, Even the Dances increases the amount of Prep Days you can benefit from, or maybe an advanced Stunt that modifies Hazou's Roki, allowing him to a free dice reroll for his Deceit roll, or Akane's Youthful allowing her to add her Athletics AB to her Physique roll for her Youthful Martial Art...
I've kind of had it in the back of my mind for a while that since combat styles eventually get totally outscaled by jutsu-based buffs, the tai/kenjutsu-spec jōnin might have advanced versions or other stunts that work off of them
Whenever you benefit from the Gentle Fist combat style on a taijutsu attack, your can spend a supplemental action to also grant your attack a weapon value of min(current chakra boost, taijutsu AB). Consequences inflicted by such attacks may take the form of blocked tenketsu as well as or instead of conventional injuries, which typically require half as many shifts of healing to recover from compared to normal consequences, but may bypass some techniques that provide resistance to conventional injuries.
The Toad Sages are just really big fans of Snowflake, and are upset that Hazou hasn't noticed all the effort she's going through to try and get him to notice her
This isn't complaining that my plan lost, It's being amused that my plan quickly lost to the "just get surgery" plan it was ment to oppose, but the winning plan ultimately transformed into a better-written/executed version of the plan I originally advocated.
But thanks for the hug-reacts, I appreciate y'all.
"Great. One history lesson on the origins of Hidden Mist, coming right up."
Noburi began to speak, punctuating his narration with broad dramatic gestures.
"First thing you've got to know is that the old Water Country is a mess. All the territory's been divided up between the pirate lords, who are all ninja if that wasn't obvious. You want to sail their waters, you pay them a toll and hope they're not going to take your stuff anyway. If you happen to make an enemy of a pirate lord, or anybody else high up in the food chain, you may as well take a long walk off a short plank because the sharks will be a lot more merciful.
"Which is where Byakuren, the future First Mizukage, comes in. His clan—a teeny little clan nobody cares about—is in charge of this equally teeny port. It's in a lousy location, the taverns and brothels are nothing to write home about, and the terrain makes it a pain for bigger ships to dock. But the one big thing it's got going for it is, guess what, nobody cares about it. It's the perfect place for smugglers who've crossed the wrong guy to quietly do their thing and build up some capital until they can afford to bribe their way back into the pirate lords' good graces.
"One day, Byakuren, the young clan heir, starts hearing stories from the sailors about how all the Fire clans are joining up into one big alliance. Byakuren's a smart guy, and he sees the writing on the wall straight away. As soon as the Fire clans are done dealing with their own country, they're going to come for us, because Fire is the land of evil and they hate us and want to murder us all, down to the smallest child. Don't look at me like that, this is just the story as I was told it. Oh, it also doesn't hurt that anyone who holds both Fire and Water is going to rule the mainland by default through sheer trade superiority.
"Funnily enough, Byakuren doesn't want to be conquered by the most evil ninja in the world. He goes to his dad, the clan chief, and tells him they need to start putting together their own shinobi alliance ASAP. His dad, who's good at his job but not one of nature's politicians, tells him to get a girlfriend. Next thing you know, whoops, Dad dies in a tragic fishing accident and Byakuren's in charge.
"Just goes to show that you can't trust fish, am I right? Byakuren cries a few bitter, manly tears, and sets about explaining to all the smuggler clans that Fire is coming for them, and that because Fire ninja are stupid landlubbers who think port is a kind of drink, they're going to try to seize complete control of maritime trade and start killing smugglers left, right and centre—much like what you-know-who said about the Earth Country, now I think of it. Some he persuades, some he bribes, and the rest he threatens, because did I mention that he also happens to be the greatest Water Element user in history? Legend says he could sink ships by looking at them long enough.
"Then he has a stroke of genius. He does the same thing to the civilian smugglers. He points out everything they've got to lose, and then he promises them total absolution and trade privileges in his new regime. Bear in mind, these guys are only there in the first place because they've made the wrong enemies and are now de facto outlaws. They jump at the offer like drowning men grabbing at a thrown rope.
"The reason Byakuren does this is that, precisely because they're civilians, they know their sailing inside out. They can't walk on water or lighten their loads with storage scrolls or fight off chakra monsters, so instead they have to manage with pure knowledge and skill. They know every route, including the secret routes that get you to a place extra-fast, the routes that get you to a place unseen, and the routes that look safe but get your ship ripped apart by hidden reefs or hungry kraken. They know every trick in the book.
"So now Byakuren's fleet is still small, but it's faster, craftier and more efficient than any of the big ninja fleets. Then he has his second stroke of genius. He founds his hidden village inland. He takes all the inland clans, the ones who get abused to hell and back by the pirate lords because they don't have the naval power to trade on their own terms, and he promises them unconditionally open seas. They've got nothing to lose and everything to gain.
"Before you know it, Byakuren's fleet is a power to be reckoned with. He's sweeping up ports and pirates like a baleen whale sweeping up plankton, and his new slogan is 'Serve me or serve the pirate lords'. Only he's here knocking at the gates, and the pirate lords are somewhere out there doing their own thing—they're afraid that if any one of them takes Byakuren on, the others will stab them in the back and take their stuff. It's probably how half of them got into power in the first place.
"Except there happens to be one pirate lord who's head and shoulders above the rest. Kurohige Ranmaru can read the writing on the wall too, and he agrees that the clans have to unite or Leaf (which is a thing by this point) will wipe them out and replace the freedom of the sea with a tyranny the likes of which the world has never seen. But he doesn't think Byakuren's got what it takes. He looks at Byakuren folding defeated enemies into his alliance, and what he sees is a hundred harpoons aimed at Byakuren's back, ready to turn him into a pincushion and tear Hidden Mist apart the second he shows a hint of weakness. In Kurohige's world, you crush your enemies once and for all, and then you make better use of their stuff than they did.
"Kurohige tries to do the smart thing and end Byakuren before he becomes unstoppable, but he underestimates the inland clans because no one's ever seen them fight in open water, and he gets his keel handed to him by their ninjutsu. If you were wondering why he called his next ship Kurohige's Revenge, now you know.
"Once Kurohige gets home, which he does because he's one tough bastard who can shrug off having his ship set on fire and then sunk in chakra megalodon waters, he goes into overdrive. He declares that he will turn the ocean red before he lets Byakuren hand Water to Leaf on a silver platter, and he starts building his own inter-territorial fleet. Only Kurohige's going straight after the other big guys, putting together the world's first pirate lords' alliance by hook or by crook. That's going to be ironic later, keep an eye out.
"Obviously, there ain't room on the high seas for the both of 'em. Anybody who hasn't got the stomach for the big fight gets the hell out of Water territory—that's one reason why there are still pirate lords ruling the south Kanashii Ocean—and the rest come together in the greatest naval battle ever fought. I could be here all day telling you all the legends I've heard about that battle, from how Byakuren found the lair of the last chakra leviathan and sacrificed ten ships to lure it beneath Kurohige's fleet, to how Kurohige let Byakuren's forces 'ambush' a bunch of traders carrying strong rum the night before the final confrontation… these were people who thought nothing of juggling half a dozen fleet-wide stratagems in their heads while using one hand to fight a captains' duel with a chakra cutlass and the other to steer their ship through a maze of erupting rock spikes, whirlpools and giant rampaging summon monsters.
"Spoiler alert: Byakuren wins. He tells the surviving pirate lords that they can take the long journey to Hidden Mist to swear eternal allegiance to him or the short journey to the bottom of the ocean, and it turns out most of them have always wanted to see the Mist mainland this time of year. Then he has his third stroke of genius. See, Kurohige is still alive. He lost an arm and a leg in his epic duel with Byakuren, which also has a hundred legends about it, but instead of executing the enemy leader or putting the cripple out of his misery, both fine Water Country traditions at that time, Byakuren offers him a job.
"The reason he does this is that Kurohige is a bona fide pirate lord from a long line of rulers and conquerors, while Byakuren is a ninja harbourmaster's son who's made it this far on sheer brilliance and force of personality. Byakuren knows that Kurohige can offer him the one thing he doesn't have, which is depth of experience.
"Meanwhile, Kurohige isn't just one tough bastard who is still alive after losing two limbs in a world without modern medical ninjutsu. He's also the most cunning ninja in Water, or was until Byakuren came along. He bargains his way into the position of Naval Warfare Advisor, makes himself Mist's Nara Shikaku, and between the two, they have the rest of the Water Country pirates sewn up before you can say 'Help, my beard's on fire!' Then, decades of wealth and power later, Kurohige retires and disappears from the public eye right as Mist politics start getting dangerous again with Byakuren's death.
"People always remember the First Mizukage as the man who united the Water ninja, turned Mist into a global shinobi power and created the world we now live in, but in reality he didn't do it alone. Kurohige Ranmaru accepted his brutal defeat with humility, used it to get everything he ever wanted for himself and his country, and then faded into the shadows of history like a true shinobi.
"But even to this day, every Mist ninja worth his salt knows the old mantra: 'Win like Byakuren; lose like Kurohige'."
There was a round of applause. Noburi bowed theatrically.
As I understand it, there was a ruling that we meet the Sealing 60 pre-requisite of NMRStbWCUSS (NtSCBaNTL) because our effective Sealing is above that due to having DoB, despite the fact that our base Sealing number is technically below that.
Hazou's base Sealing is 51, but his SSA-boosted Sealing is 75. Ignoring the other prerequisites, can Hazou purchase Namikaze Minato's Revolutionary Soon-to-be-World-Changing Uber-Sealing Style (Note to Self: Come Back and Name This Later)?
Given that, would having CP greater than 400 from ACE despite having a CR below 40 allow characters to meet a pre-requisite that would normally require a character to have at least CR 40?
Given that, would having CP greater than 400 from ACE despite having a CR below 40 allow characters to meet a pre-requisite that would normally require a character to have at least CR 40?
I'm going to predict no, given that mechanically ACE doesn't actually increase your CR, just your chakra capacity, and narratively I increasingly suspect that there's more to CR than just the size of your chakra coils. But will be interested to find out!
As I understand it, there was a ruling that we meet the Sealing 60 pre-requisite of NMRStbWCUSS (NtSCBaNTL) because our effective Sealing is above that due to having DoB, despite the fact that our base Sealing number is technically below that.
Given that, would having CP greater than 400 from ACE despite having a CR below 40 allow characters to meet a pre-requisite that would normally require a character to have at least CR 40?
@eaglejarl made a cryptic post on Discord. One of the leading theories (I subscribe to it) is that Hazou's CR 39 is the cause of his discontent. Since we might qualify for some interesting stuff at CR 40.
Of course if another FtD QM wants to weigh in and say we're wrong ( @RoadWild@RandomOTP@Shrooms ) we can safely discard that line of supposition.
@eaglejarl made a cryptic post on Discord. One of the leading theories (I subscribe to it) is that Hazou's CR 39 is the cause of his discontent. Since we might qualify for some interesting stuff at CR 40.
Of course if another FtD QM wants to weigh in and say we're wrong ( @RoadWild@RandomOTP@Shrooms ) we can safely discard that line of supposition.
@eaglejarl@Paperclipped@Velorien , apropos of nothing: one of the ninjutsu in the Leaf Ninjutsu Library, Burning Fist, gives your Taijutsu attack Weapons 1.
For the duration, you gain the Aspect "Blazing Fist", and (Effect) non-passable tags on that Aspect (note this is single-taggable), usable on Taijutsu rolls. Additionally, when you deal damage with Taijutsu, you may treat your attack at Weapons:1. 1 of the stress dealt is always Energy:Fire, the remaining is normal physical stress.
However, Taijutsu is already Weapons 1 due to the Ninja Hands rule:
Thanks to chakra shenanigans, ninja can move faster and hit harder than regular people. This works especially well when channeling the impact directly through their physical bodies. As such, the 'Ninja Hands' ability (possessed by all ninja) allows your barehanded Taijutsu attacks to act as Weapon:1.
This seems to make the Weapons bonus of Burning Fist essentially redundant, with its only effect being to change the type of that stress point to Energy:Fire. Is this intended?
"I agree," Hazou said. "We just don't have the tools to kill Akatsuki on our own. Involving Leaf means they'll see our attack coming, but all the preparation in the world won't let them know about my runes. Still, maybe we can catch Akatsuki unaware? Could we attack without Naruto to preserve stealth? His main trick – massed shadow clones – are vulnerable as you said, and shadow clones of yourself and Tsunade would fill the same niche. They would even outperform Naruto's clones, since you're far older and more experienced ninja."
"Even if his clones are inferior individually, that does not mean the Fox is useless," Orochimaru said. "Tobirama did not anticipate the proliferation of the shadow clone technique, and there exist exploitable weaknesses within it. If Akatsuki destroys clones through specialized seals or jutsu, or even wide-area attacks, the Fox's reserves would permit resummoning of clones where Tsunade and I could not mid-combat. Additionally, the Fox's powers as a jinchuuriki will likely make his Prime body a formidable fighter on par with Akatsuki's weaker members.
"That said, you are correct that skipping the Fox would render our attack far more secretive. Tsunade can exfiltrate easily after a Seventh Path message, given her reputation for gallivanting off on her own whims. The greater hazard to stealth will occur when a third or more of Leaf's jounin – including all high-profile summoners and elite jounin as available – leave on a mission within an hour. Leaf will realize this within hours, and Akatsuki will know shortly thereafter. Though… given that many jounin will be present primarily as a dense source of chakra for summoning and shadow clones, perhaps two chuunin could substitute for any such chakra-battery jounin. Ordinarily, I would comment that chuunin cannot reasonably keep such a mission secret, but the magnitude of the operation will likely be discovered regardless of which permutation of several dozen ninja are present."
"Thus, we have perhaps two options within the 'contact Leaf' route – take only Tsunade and a minimal mixture of jounin and chuunin, to try to preserve immediate stealth, or to take everyone reasonably capable of contributing to the fight, accepting that Akatsuki will be forewarned… On the margin, I am in fact inclined towards the former. Even sixty or so ninja should suffice to grant us all reasonably-available summons, as well as permit extra capacity for a handful of shadow clones. The marginal value of additional clones quickly diminishes, given Itachi's likely presence. We needn't overextend."
"What do you think our odds are?" Hazou asked. "Are we really that far from victory, that we need to make high-risk plays?"
"Placing direct odds on outcomes is rarely useful, in my experience," Orochimaru said. "It is better to think about possible futures and the events that are branching points along that tree, then consider how those events might be influenced. If you insist upon engaging in this exercise, I previously expected the odds of victory against Akatsuki to be low. However, I have not fully integrated your rune designs. Perhaps upon reflection, I will see safe routes to victory even if Akatsuki is forewarned, and elect to take the path of full-commitment."
"Then I will await your final judgement, Lord Orochimaru," Hazou said. "How long do we have until we move? I expect the chakra-enhancing bioseal will take me a few days to recover from, and I wanted to use those days to pre-shape rune blanks and practice infusions so I can be maximally efficient at the rift site."
"Recovery will last a handful of days, and delaying action is not required," Orochimaru said. "With treatment, you will recover before the attack on the rift site. Is practicing your runes truly required?"
"Frankly, yes," Hazou said. "Remote Explosives push me to my limits, and I need practice to not only create the runes reliably, but create them quickly."
Orochimaru stared at Hazou for a second, then sighed. "The surgery will take a day. You may have two days more to practice your runes while you recover. By that timeline, we will attack the rift in a week."
"For my practice, I need ten, no, twenty thousand kilograms of chakra-conductive stone. Noburi can help you produce it," Hazou said.
"He may report with you tomorrow morning for the surgery," Orochimaru said. "I will produce the surplus with a shadow clone while operating on you.
"I have a question about the bioseal. As I trained my chakra reserves, I have been intentionally overdrawing my reserves to improve the odds of successfully summoning Cannai. The pain from my most recent attempt is fading, and I want to try the summon one last time before I commit to the bioseal. Would injuries to my chakra system make the surgery harder?"
"You are asking if it would be harder to operate on a damaged chakra system than on a healthy one. Jiraiya once possessed a similar disrespect of his own body and of other people's labors. Let me ask you this, boy: would it be more challenging to scribe a seal on a torn piece of paper or on a whole one?"
"Ah."
"The answer is obviously yes. Now, you might say, 'if I were to scribe a seal on a torn piece of paper, I would scribe it on the smallest whole part, as attempting to scribe across a tear would be obviously suicidal'. Indeed, I am a skilled surgeon. I could likely apply the bioseal even on a damaged chakra system. Nonetheless, the human chakra system is perhaps the most complex biological system of the body, bar the brain. Seemingly-simple functions such as chakra regeneration remain impossible to replicate despite years of study. Operating on a damaged system would introduce complications and extend recovery time from days to weeks or more. You will not attend the surgery with damaged chakra coils."
"Understood, Lord Orochimaru." Hazou didn't mind Orochimaru's order. If he ended up able to summon Cannai, he wouldn't need to attend the surgery at all… "One final question. Regarding the bioseal that changes my blood's signature: would this affect my shadow clones? All my plans for interacting with the rift site only involve having my shadow clones in close range, while my Prime body would be miles out. Since bioseals don't copy to shadow clones, would Hidan be able to track my clones?"
"An interesting question," Orochimaru said. "Your shadow clones share your physical makeup. For instance, at the moment, they contain the same blood that you do, and will be trackable by Hidan. The bioseal affects your body's blood production. A few weeks after the bioseal is embedded in your system – a process I will accelerate to days given our deadline – you will contain wholly new blood. Consequently, your shadow clones will duplicate this blood, which Hidan cannot track. You are correct that your shadow clones would produce blood corresponding to your biological blueprint, but the clones' operative duration – only an hour within range for runic infusion – renders this concern negligible.
"Incidentally, regarding bioseals: if I am to accept a loss of secrecy with respect to my reserves-enhancing bioseals, I will commit fully to using them against Akatsuki. If the Pangolin or Arachnid summoners would benefit from having their chakra systems expanded, I will perform the procedure for them as well. Specifically, I suspect the Arachnid summoner could secure Kumokougou's contract, as the Arachnid Empress has appeared rather pliable historically."
"Less than you think," Hazou said. "I should return to my team soon so we can discuss, but I need to share one thing with you before I go, that you should know in case I end up incapacitated in the fight. Have you seen the message I sent you in Arachnid?"
"No."
"I see. In short, I've identified a major source of stress on the Great Seal, and possibly the reason for its original degradation."
Orochimaru blinked. "That seems rather important."
"It is. Let me explain. Basically, the Great Seal is projecting a massive spacetime effect across the entire Seventh Path…"
o-o-o
Hazou shut his eyes as SacrificialLamb finally popped, mentally bracing himself for the incoming psychic sledgehammer. It bounced off his iron will, and he started sorting through the incoming memories, quickly attending to the important elements of his conversation with the Snake Sannin while letting dozens of irrelevant details fall away.
Finally, he reopened his eyes. The full moon overhead illuminated the scattered clouds below in a shimmering silver, and let him clearly see every single member of his team staring at him.
"It's fine, everyone. The clone popped without any trouble. Orochimaru was never aggressive, or tried any mental effect on me after his first suggestion."
"That you know of," Kagome-sensei said.
"That I know of," Hazou agreed. "But the clone should have popped himself as soon as Orochimaru tried, so unless the man can do brain-surgery at ninja-speed, I should be safe."
"Well, a lupchanz in your clone probably wouldn't get transferred by shadow clone…" Kagome-sensei said skeptically.
"He's just crazy, not lupchanzed," Noburi said. "Come on, are you going to explain what happened?"
"Well, the first thing was that we met Orochimaru's contact, a girl around our age named Endou. I wanted to ask you, Mari: what was your read on her? Could she make a good contact in the future?"
Mari shrugged. "Biosealer, so she's insane. Willing to admit it to people she just met, so she's either unusually honest or socially inept. I think she believed that claptrap she was spewing near the end about why it was justified that she killed all those people for her biosealing research, so maybe she has the same idealistic streak you do. Overall, I'm not sure how she matches up with Orochimaru. Probably a similar level of sanity, less willingness to enact atrocities for marginal gains, and definitely less able to kill you if you disagree with her. If I had to put her somewhere, it would probably be the grave, but 'between us and Orochimaru' is a decent second choice. It doesn't sound like we'd have much control over making her a 'contact' – she's a minion, and that means that she goes where Orochimaru wants."
"Got it. Well, after meeting Endou, Orochimaru showed up and we did the verification back-and-forth. After Mari left, I explained my runes to him. He wants me to take downloads of the runes he researched, since he somehow knows how my bloodline works."
"It's a trap," Kei said immediately. "He may intend to lure your Prime body to a location of his choosing."
"He said that he wanted me to research his runes if he were incapacitated at the battle. Plausible, but also we shouldn't necessarily take his words at face value. Either way, I don't think he will defect until after the Akatsuki confrontation, so taking his runes right now should be fine. He thinks that an Akatsuki pair are going to be intensely surveilling Leaf, and that probably around four will be manning the rift, though we don't know for sure. He found my attack plan sensible, but wanted to wait until we got in contact with Leaf to set final plans. He does want to get into contact with Leaf, and he thinks we can avoid Akatsuki noticing us preparing to attack them by intentionally excluding Naruto and some of the Leaf jounin."
"Well, I can approve of returning to Leaf, at least," Kei said. "Certainly I do not believe it would be prudent to unilaterally invite destruction on our erstwhile home by attacking Akatsuki without forewarning the Hokage of our intent. Nonetheless, I anticipate difficulty persuading him to remain in Leaf while the fate of the village is decided by a group composed in no small part of questionably-loyal missing-nin."
"I figure we can make some argument about needing to keep Leaf defended – Asuma made sure to keep an S-ranker in Leaf at all times during the war for that reason, right? If there is an Akatsuki pair monitoring Leaf, we need to ensure they can't immediately retaliate."
"Of course," Kei said. "I had neglected to consider the entirely likely possibility that the instant the attack on O'uzu commences, one of Akatsuki's summoners will send a message via the Seventh Path, causing their remaining members to either immediately attack Leaf, or initiate AMITY procedures for annihilating defectors against the peace treaty. Have we any way forward to a non-pyrrhic victory?"
"Hang on, let him finish explaining before we catastrophize," Noburi said. "Was there anything else?"
"Well… there was one thing," Hazou said. "I explained that I got permission to summon Cannai, and that I just don't have the chakra reserves to do it."
"Oh no…" he heard Mari mutter.
"I had a hunch that he had a bioseal that expanded his chakra reserves, since he spent a few months buying a daily barrel of chakra from you, Noburi, and he managed to take it all in a single go. I asked him to give me that bioseal so that I could summon Cannai for an additional Clan Boss at the rift fight, and he agreed."
Surprisingly, no one in the team immediately told him that he was an idiot.
"Well, I grant that an additional S-rank combatant likely strictly increases our odds of success," Kei said.
"It would definitely get the job done," Noburi said. "Depending on how much extra reserves he adds to you, we might even be able to save enough chakra for an extra rune."
Hazou's heart nearly swelled with joy. Had he finally convinced his team that he really needed to take desperate measures to deal with Akatsuki?
"Are you all stupid? This is the worst idea I've heard since Hazou decided to date a Yamanaka! He's going to get himself turned inside out and killed and resurrected as a biosealing monstrosity to kill us the way Arikada made those corpses into fighting abominations. Can't we at least tell him to put his pants on his head and set them on fire? That would be way, way less destructive."
"I chatted with Kei and Noburi recently," Mari said, "and I thought that it could be healthier to deal with Hazou's destructive ideas by acknowledging the positive aspects before the downsides. Though, if we're going to jump to that conversation…"
"Hazou," Mari said, turning to face him. "Don't take Orochimaru's bioseal. He doesn't see you as a person. I don't think he sees anyone as a person, except maybe Tsunade. Everyone else is 'a tool', or 'a part', or 'an obstacle'. We spoke just a few days back about how Orochimaru needed to get you out of the picture to secure his monopoly on runecrafting. If you give him the opportunity, why wouldn't he remove an irritating obstacle?"
"I agree," Noburi said. "You've seen the shit he does in his Basement, same as I have. He's a monster. He doesn't have a sense of empathy. It doesn't matter what things you've done together, that you have a sacred student-teacher bond. You saw that he was willing to dissect you and Kei over way less than keeping an ancient, overpowered Sage-era art to himself. He's a snake, and if keeping you alive isn't in his selfish interest, he's going to swallow you whole. Maybe even literally."
"He's a biosealer," Kagome-sensei said, as if that were argument enough. "He's insane. Maybe even more insane than Arikada, even though he acts like he's got everything together. You know how many Leaf ninja he's tortured to death, and you can imagine all the bioseals he's made using their bodies. He's gonna plant control seals in your brain and kill switches in your body and who knows what else. What comes back from that surgery probably won't even be Hazou!"
"I just don't think he's trustworthy," Yuno said. "Maybe he likes killing people, but even people that like killing people only do it when it makes sense. Look at the Great Prophet – he loves killing more than anyone, but he still doesn't kill the other members of Akatsuki. Orochimaru is probably the same. If you were somehow in the right kind of situation, you could work with him without getting killed. But it would be delicate, and I don't know if you have that relationship. As Mari said, he has strong reasons to kill you. It's not stable."
"I suppose it falls to me to put it directly, then," Kei said. "Hazou, this is suicide. I do not mean this in a figurative sense, that this plan will have very bad consequences. I also do not mean this in a probabilistic sense, that this plan could have a low but nontrivial chance of death. I mean this in a very literal sense. If you accept this bioseal, I believe it is extremely likely that you will die as a direct result of this surgery. If you believe you will not die immediately because he wishes to have your assistance in the assault on O'uzu, I agree. However, he is too practiced in his use of minions and kidnapping of Bloodline Limit users not to possess an equivalent to your Long-Fuse Explosive seal: some sort of delayed-action destructive bioseal that can neutralize an enemy at a later date unless deactivated. If you accept this bioseal, I will treat this as you committing a delayed-activation suicide, deferred to the moment when the battle at O'uzu has concluded and Orochimaru realizes he has no further use for your ability to craft runes for his interests. If he does not kill you at that moment, it will only be because he is certain he can subject you to a fate likely far worse than death, what with the existence of the O'uzu rift straightforwardly implying that death may not remain quite so permanent a solution as he once hoped.
"Now, you may argue that perhaps this presents an acceptable trade for Cannai's presence at the Rift. I contend: absolutely not. If your reserves are sufficient to summon Cannai, we may be able to use Noburi's overcharge to fill additional summoners to the requisite level to summon their bosses – Sarutobi Kurenai, Minami Aika, Kei Ruri, even Hyuuga Neji may have the requisite reserves. Adding Cannai, when he would come at the cost of additional fueled-up Sannin shadow clones, or additional runes? It is an improvement, but not an earth-shattering one. Conversely, your life is incredibly valuable, Hazou. I do not need to enumerate the functions you fulfill, nor the social and emotional weight you possess in all of our lives. Please do not flaunt my many efforts over the years preserving your life against accidental suicide attempts by making a purposeful one."
Tenten nodded vehemently.
Hazou sighed. "Right. I appreciate everyone's input. I'll… I'll think about it. Either way, we'll have a couple days here while I prepare some runes for later, and I also want to check-in with Cannai tonight…"
o-o-o
Oops, I ran out of time for the Cannai scene. TL;DW (Too Long; Didn't Write):
Hazou told Cannai that he might make a summoning attempt the next day, and that the for-real summon would come in around a week, though the exact hour will be unknown for circumstances outside Hazou's control.
The war with Leopard is having ebbs and flows right now. There's periods of intense fighting, then days with nothing. If Cannai can be summoned on a day with nothing happening and isn't dispelled violently, the summoning could potentially be completely costless for Dog.
Regardless of the situation at the time, Cannai is still willing to be summoned, and requests that Hazou continue giving updates as the exact date and eventually exact hour get chosen.
Cannai knows of many of Kakashi's summons. Given the time of night, no dogs were available immediately. Hazou can return to try to convince them tomorrow. Cannai will introduce you and can speak to the importance of your task (i.e. that even Cannai himself is willing to be summoned), but won't compel or push any dog to fight for you.
He notes that many of these dogs had an intense personal loyalty to Kakashi (for some, even greater than their loyalty to the Alpha), and may instinctively dislike Hazou because he doesn't fit the same mold as Kakashi did.
Additionally, these dogs are all fighting hard in the war against Leopard, and may prioritize fighting in the war they can see, smell, and hear over fighting in a war that, to them, is distant and less important. Cannai asks that you not think less of them for prioritizing in this way.
Cannai notes that Hazou's support of Dog via running instant-messages in the last few months would earn him some credit. Left unsaid is the fact that Hazou, not fitting the same mold as Kakashi, hasn't substantially fought on Dog's behalf, and that this might count against him.
I may come back at some point and write this out. Hopefully this is sufficient for planmaking at the moment.
Based on the description of the bioseal, Noburi thinks it should probably still be fine to overcharge by a 'normal' amount, but he's not the biosealer and doesn't know for sure. He would prefer you not share details about his bloodline with Orochimaru, but will put the final call in your hands if you really, really want to override him.
Hazou has cleared his Moderate Consequence. The plan said "After the Moderate clears, and only if it's not a substantial biosealing complication, attempt to Summon Cannai." A new Moderate would be a substantial biosealing complication according to Orochimaru, so Hazou did not attempt to summon Cannai.
This update covered a couple hours of waking time. It is now the morning of March 9th.
