Wait, do we want to recruit Dogs, or grind runic veterancy?
As we saw in the last chapter, these actions are mutually exclusive and cannot occur at the same time, although we can spend some time doing one and then the other instead of monofocusing. I think we should make clear to what degree we do that, if any, as it is currently ambiguous and up to the QMs.
We can go to the Seventh Path, have Prime talk to Dogs, and have Shadow Clones in the Seventh Path grind crafting runic blanks; we can do the infusions in the Human Path. Our oath to Shima and Fukusaku are only an issue in the context of infusing the blanks.
RER2.0 is the only exception to this; we can't use this method as they are too heavy to carry over.
Why doesn't Orochimaru destroy the notes? Runes are effectively impossible to learn without a teacher. If these notes could be used to circumvent that, preserving them goes directly against his relevant opinions. (Edit: specifically if they somehow fall into hands of someone who is not hazou. With that in mind, could he have trapped the notes snake-ly? This time probably for Hazou)
We can go to the Seventh Path, have Prime talk to Dogs, and have Shadow Clones in the Seventh Path grind crafting runic blanks; we can do the infusions in the Human Path. Our oath to Shima and Fukusaku are only an issue in the context of infusing the blanks.
RER2.0 is the only exception to this; we can't use this method as they are too heavy to carry over.
Shaping runic blanks requires a extended period of being stationary and intense concentration. Dog is a large territory with many roaming groups, and in the past we have had to physically travel out to meet them. The only time we are likely to be able to grind blanks is when we are actually at a pack and talking, and I am skeptical that those talks will last long enough for this to be a useful form of multitasking.
Wait, do we want to recruit Dogs, or grind runic veterancy?
As we saw in the last chapter, these actions are mutually exclusive and cannot occur at the same time, although we can spend some time doing one and then the other instead of monofocusing. I think we should make clear to what degree we do that, if any, as it is currently ambiguous and up to the QMs.
Why doesn't Orochimaru destroy the notes? Runes are effectively impossible to learn without a teacher. If these notes could be used to circumvent that, preserving them goes directly against his relevant opinions. (Edit: specifically if they somehow fall into hands of someone who is not hazou. With that in mind, could he have trapped the notes snake-ly? This time probably for Hazou)
Better to just expend them firing into the air - more practice at artillery procedures could be useful, spare skytowers can serve as targets to assess potential effectiveness against 5SB'd fortifications, and it cuts the risk they'll be found and reverse-engineered all the way to zero, for probably less cost in time and chakra than burial.
I think we shouldn't include lines like "Your proposed course of action is a good one, we have no modifications to suggest". Directly suggesting dialogue doesn't end well, and I don't want to say his course of action is "proposed" (he clearly isn't asking for our approval, he's asking for suggestions or objections - if you're a prideful essie, those are quite different).
You could even save word count by saying "A single suggested addition to Orochimaru's course of action : XXX"
More generally, I don't think we should be asking for his research notes. We won't be able to research those runes in a single day, and any longer than that would require us to setup Force Domes. And once we have the Force Dome (sphere ?) around the rift, do we really need to be rushing rift-kicking ?
Especially if we win the fight, which will likely not allow for any enemies to escape (Force Domes for the win), which means they lose their person who could make the rift-opening seals.
As a rule I want to minimize the amount of free stuff we ask Orochimaru for if it's not strictly necessary.
Especially since we are planning on looting his demesne. Providing for more inflow than outflow might give us more respite from whatever forces end up taking umbrage at our rescue attempts after we open the Rift.
More generally, I don't think we should be asking for his research notes. We won't be able to research those runes in a single day, and any longer than that would require us to setup Force Domes. And once we have the Force Dome (sphere ?) around the rift, do we really need to be rushing rift-kicking ?
Especially if we win the fight, which will likely not allow for any enemies to escape (Force Domes for the win), which means they lose their person who could make the rift-opening seals.
As a rule I want to minimize the amount of free stuff we ask Orochimaru for if it's not strictly necessary.
It's not asking Orochimaru for free stuff. Orochimaru had suggested, of his own initiative, that it is paramount that Hazou is able to replicate his rift runes as quickly as possible in the eventuality that Orochimaru is incapacitated after the battle. If he didn't already give us his notes, he wants us to have ready access to them, and we should point it out.
[X] Action Plan: Lunar Eclipse, but with an Exploded Orochimaru.
Word Count: <499
Intended Duration: Until the assault on Moon
Ask Orochimaru to red team the practice RER 2.0s with his SCs and proxies for Akatsuki's bag of tricks.
We have 5 RERs with 5 rounds each.
Test:
How hard are RERs to detect from a distance with our methods of stealth?
Single fire and aiming against an aware S-ranker.
Barrage fire against a secure but unprepared encampment.
Barrage fire against a proxy "Akatsuki" best prepared encampment.
Any chance some of them will be asleep or on the 7th Path?
Repeated fire. Where to aim and what to do when vision is obstructed from first explosions.
Craft a practice force dome around the RERs while Orochimaru sets up to deaden sound from the explosions.
Declare (1FP): Hazou advised Naruto to order Leaf Summoners to train CR and get the favor of their Summons, maximizing the chance of them summoning their Boss
Orochimaru
Your proposed course of action is a good one, we have no modifications to suggest
We suggest you give us your research notes for rift-kicking and rift-catching
If you survive the battle uninjured, we will, of course, return them.
Sanity check the rest with the team
Travel to the rally point and wait for Leaf
If Orochimaru asks about Kagome, tell him that Kagome couldn't bear to be in close proximity to Orochimaru for an extended period of time, he's gone until after the battle.
Recruit Dogs
Reverse-summon to visit Dogs that might agree to join the Riftwar. (Optimize with the team.)
Be respectful. Be mindful we're nothing like Kakashi.
Emphasize the fight's importance. Note our service to Dog (message running) despite our war.
Accept any refusals gracefully.
Prepare runic blanks for the assualts, we'll need Force Domes, Iron Earth, Air Leadeners, Ninja Radars
Prepare a Superchiller blank in secret
Grind runic veterancy with any additional chakra. Prioritize reducing timeladdered ES checks until there is no need for rerolls on RER 2.0, then infusions for Force Dome, Ninja Radar and RER 2.0 - ideally to the point where they can be timeladdered up once.
Bury any practice runes
Test how much earth the chakra pillar from a Force Dome can pierce.
After Leaf arrives
Discuss the attack plans on Moon with Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Mari
Brief her on Hazou's runic capabilities
If Mari agrees, bring up her ability to lock down multiple ninja with her genjutsu
Based on the size of Leaf's forces and the available chakra, come up with an optimized plan for the battle.
Ideally we'd lock down their village with a Force Dome/Iron Earth rune, then send in refilled SCs of the three of you to capture their ninja. While tracking and neutralizing any runners with a perimeter of Ninja Radar runes.
If we attack anonymously or as a false flag we could avoid having to kill them all to silence them for fear of AMITY counterstrike.
This is more of a clarification point, but I would suggest moving the sanity-check to under the "Travel to..." section, so it doesn't sound like we're telling Orochimaru "good plan, let's go" and then going to our team "oh yeah this is my plan let's sanity-check this". I was thinking something like:
Travel to the rally point
While traveling, sanity-check the rest of the plan with the team.
Suggestion: Make it explicit that we do this in the Seventh Path, and store the blank in the Seventh Path unless called upon to bring it over to the Human Path. We want absolutely zero evidence of the blank's existence to leak outside ourselves and allied Dogs if at all possible.
[Suggest that] If we attack anonymously or as a false flag we could avoid having to kill them all to silence them for fear of AMITY counterstrike [afterwards].
[X] Action Plan: Lunar Eclipse, but with Ami.
Word Count: <399
Intended Duration: Until the assault on Moon
Research (no-prep yes-DoB) the Teleport-Ami-Here Rune.
Teleport Ami here.
Bring her up to speed. Listen to her reactions.
Let her hang around you as you're doing the plan.
Periodically ask her for suggestions.
Ignore all her suggestions.
Bury the practice RER 2.0s
Declare (1FP): Hazou advised Naruto to order Leaf Summoners to train CR and get the favor of their Summons, maximizing the chance of them summoning their Boss
Orochimaru
Your proposed course of action is a good one, we have no modifications to suggest
We suggest you give us your research notes for rift-kicking and rift-catching
If you survive the battle uninjured, we will, of course, return them.
Sanity check the rest with the team
Travel to the rally point and wait for Leaf
If Orochimaru asks about Kagome, tell him that Kagome couldn't bear to be in close proximity to Orochimaru for an extended period of time, he's gone until after the battle.
Recruit Dogs
Reverse-summon to visit Dogs that might agree to join the Riftwar. (Optimize with the team.)
Be respectful. Be mindful we're nothing like Kakashi.
Emphasize the fight's importance. Note our service to Dog (message running) despite our war.
Accept any refusals gracefully.
Prepare runic blanks for the assualts, we'll need Force Domes, Iron Earth, Air Leadeners, Ninja Radars
Prepare a Superchiller blank in secret
Grind runic veterancy with any additional chakra. Prioritize reducing timeladdered ES checks until there is no need for rerolls on RER 2.0, then infusions for Force Dome, Ninja Radar and RER 2.0 - ideally to the point where they can be timeladdered up once.
Bury any practice runes
Test how much earth the chakra pillar from a Force Dome can pierce.
After Leaf arrives
Discuss the attack plans on Moon with Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Mari
Brief her on Hazou's runic capabilities
If Mari agrees, bring up her ability to lock down multiple ninja with her genjutsu
Based on the size of Leaf's forces and the available chakra, come up with an optimized plan for the battle.
Ideally we'd lock down their village with a Force Dome/Iron Earth rune, then send in refilled SCs of the three of you to capture their ninja. While tracking and neutralizing any runners with a perimeter of Ninja Radar runes.
If we attack anonymously or as a false flag we could avoid having to kill them all to silence them for fear of AMITY counterstrike.
"You guys hear Okita yesterday?" Tsunade said, not taking her eyes off the chair she was balancing on one finger.
Jiraiya looked up from where he and Orochimaru had been heads-down in their latest sealing project for the last two hours. "Hm? What?"
"Okita," Tsunade said, using a pulse of chakra repulsion to flip the chair over. It didn't flip smoothly and she had to lunge forward to catch it. She didn't quite manage it and it clattered to the floor. She scoffed in annoyance and booted the chair in frustration; it slid across the floor of the Soggy Tag and bumped into the chair of an Academy instructor who was grading papers with a brush in one hand and a cup of something in the other. The something slopped forward onto the page he was currently reviewing.
"Hey!" he said, spinning around. "What the hell?!"
"Yeah, sorry," Tsunade said, waving dismissively.
The instructor started to stand up, then stopped when Orochimaru and Jiraiya both leaned forward, rising a few inches from their seats.
The man stopped, thinking, then glowered and sat down again.
"Hey, Tanaka!" Jiraiya called to a waiter passing by with a tray of cups and sake bottles. "Get that guy some more of whatever he's drinking, and one of those chef's-choice sushi rolls. Put it on my tab."
The waiter bobbed his head and hustled to drop off the current order before hurrying back to the kitchen.
"What's this about Okita?" Orochimaru asked, tidying two stacks of notes into one and pushing them aside.
"He was saying that he got an advanced peek at the rankings and their team has the highest combined mission score in the village. That we're second best and it's finally being acknowledged."
Orochimaru's narrow eyebrows rose and his snake-slit eyes went cold. "He said what."
"You heard me." She pulled a tin flask from within her jacket and took a swig.
"Gimme," Jiraiya said, making a grabby hand at her. She passed the flask over and he slammed back a mouthful.
"We are not coming second to Okita and his buttsniffers," Jiraiya said. "Not now, not ever."
"It seems unlikely that we have," Orochimaru said, frowning. "In the last month we have done six B-rank and two A-rank missions."
"No shit," Tsunade said, taking another slug from her flask. She twisted around in her seat, the flexibility of a young-twenties ninja medic making Jiraiya wince. "Hey, bartender! Three flasks of sake! Big ones, hot!" She looked back at her team. "You guys want anything?"
"You really should go a little easier, Sunny," Jiraiya said.
"Pfft. It's just sake, not actual booze. Stuff is practically water."
"Just promise me you'll metabolize it when you start to feel the buzz instead of after I've had to back you up through four million ryō of damages."
"I think the damages were less of an issue than the three MSD ANBU," Orochimaru noted. "The Kazekage was quite upset at that part."
"Oh puh-leeze. The first two just had concussions and the guy with the squint had a broken arm, a fractured hip, and a bruised liver. I fixed them."
"Indeed. I was quite surprised that you needed two blows to remove one of your opponents." Orochimaru clucked his tongue in exaggerated dismay. "You are slipping, dear sister. Losing your edge. Beginning the long slide towards irrelevance."
"I'll show you irrelevance, you snake-loving little—"
"Easy, easy, both of you. Sage, what is the world coming to when I'm the one playing peacemaker?" Jiraiya snagged one of the three sake bottles off the tray that the waiter was sliding onto the table, holding it out of reach of Tsunade until he had taken a heavy drink.
"Anyway, jokes aside. You fixed those guys, but that didn't stop it from being an international incident. C'mon, Sunny, this kind of shit is what pulls our mission scores down. Maybe Okita is right. Maybe we really are second place. He and his assholes are about as by-the-book as you can get. Yes sir, no sir, right away sir, here's our reports in triplicate, sir. You know how the Clerk eats that shit up."
"Rankings are out next week, right?"
"Thursday." Orochimaru's voice was distant. He had tented his fingers and was tapping them on his lips in thought.
"Shit," Tsunade said. "Three days. Not a lot of time."
"Anything good on the boards?" Jiraiya asked, looking to the member of the team who actually cared about administrivia.
Orochimaru shook his head, lowering his hands and beginning to tidy his notes away with practiced speed.
"Not as of last night," he said.
Tsunade cocked a disbelieving eyebrow. "You seriously checked the boards after we got back last night?"
"You didn't?" Butter would not have melted in the Snake Sannin's mouth.
"Pfft. Why should I? You're the fuckin' nerd."
"And you were a little stinky," Jiraiya said with a sly grin.
"It worked, okay? I didn't see you coming up with any better ways in."
"Hey, I'm okay with anything that gets you into a nice soapy tub. Y'know, with lots of suds and scrubbing. Hot water that relaxes all those stiff muscles, makes your head drop back on the side of the tub, eyes drifting blissfully—"
"That was predictable," Orochimaru said as Jiraiya slammed into the wall fifteen feet away. He hit head-first, then shoulder, then back, and lay in a stunned sprawl for several moments.
Tsunade lowered her fist to her side. She had never stopped sipping from her sake cup.
"We need a win," Orochimaru said. "Quickly. Something significant."
"There's reports of movement in Rain," Tsunade said. "Rock staging troops."
"They were disproven four weeks ago. It was a disinformation campaign by River."
"Hmph. What about those caravans between Sand and Rock? We know they're carrying sandspore extract to the Tsuchikage. We could drop one of the passes, cut off his supply."
"Too unstable," Jiraiya said, resuming his seat without comment on his recent wall-based encounter. "The extract keeps him calm, calm means predictable. Without it, there's no way to tell what he would do."
"Sure, but it's going to disrupt them more than us. He'll be ripping the heads off everyone who annoys him. Probably cost them a few senior clerical chūnin, disrupt their entire administration."
"Or, alternatively, he could finally begin prosecution of that war he's been considering for the last year and a half. Hence why, as you may recall, Sensei has explicitly ordered the three of us to stay more than two hundred miles from Rock at all times."
"You are no fun at all, you know that?" Tsunade growled.
"I believe we have long decided that my role on the team was to be the sensible one. You come up with wild ideas, Jiraiya runs with it and causes trouble, I tell you that this is unwise, you ignore me and escalate the conflict, and I clean up the mess."
"Hey, we've bailed your skinny ass out of trouble plenty of times!" Jiraiya said, closing ranks with his battle sister against the scathing tongue of the critic.
"Generally trouble that you caused."
"Details, details. You know what details are, right?"
Orochimaru sighed in disgust and rolled slit-pupiled eyes. "Yes, yes. 'Detail is de part of de snake dat goes in de hole de last.' Very droll."
"I think it's..." Jiraiya trailed off, eyes going distant in thought. "Huh."
"What?" Tsunade demanded after several seconds.
"There's a technique hacker in Cloud that I've had my eye on for a while," Jiraiya said, blinking back to the present moment. "He's been working on an interesting project. A speed technique, lets you move extremely fast and surrounds you in a lightning aura that cuts through Earth-based defenses. He crawled into a hole two months ago to work on it undisturbed, but I remember seeing his name on an intelligence report before we left on the last mission. If he's moving around again then he's finished the technique. Stealing it would be a heck of a win."
"He in Cloud proper?" Tsunade asked, setting her cup down and turning to face Jiraiya.
"He was as of a week ago. Visiting the fleshpots, you know?"
"Two hundred miles to Cloud, two hundred back," Orochimaru noted. "Three days before the ratings come out."
"No way they're going to give us an official mission for this if we ask. Espionage on this level is sketchy."
"Wasn't really planning on asking," Jiraiya said. "You know Sensei will give us mission credit if we bring back a technique like that. It would definitely help our ratings."
"Even better were we able to, for once, actually perform the mission with stealth," Orochimaru said. "I believe we have reached our quota of international incidents for the year. Perhaps even strained Sensei's patience a bit."
"We can do stealth," Jiraiya said, sounding hurt.
"Our mission history suggests otherwise."
"Then I guess we better do better this time," Jiraiya said. "C'mon, let's get our asses in gear." He rose to his feet and strode for the door, Orochimaru on his heels.
"Fuuuuck," Tsunade grumbled. "I so wanted a day to chill." She hurried to knock back her sake bottle before following her team.
XP AWARD: 0 It's an interlude.
Voting has been open since the previous chapter and remains open until
.
Suggestion: Make it explicit that we do this in the Seventh Path, and store the blank in the Seventh Path unless called upon to bring it over to the Human Path. We want absolutely zero evidence of the blank's existence to leak outside ourselves and allied Dogs if at all possible
We can't effectively multithread runic creation on the Seventh Path, I'm fine storing the blank on the Seventh Path (inside a storage seal). But probably in with all our other blanks in a storage seal would be fine.
"Incidentally," Orochimaru said, "I have realized that you likely wished to retain consciousness during the surgery in order to take imprints of the bioseals I was implanting. I do not readily share my work, yet it would be far more foolish for you to cut yourself open to take imprints without my presence – and I fully expect you to be capable of such foolishness. Maintenance is simpler than implantation, so when I next maintain the bioseals, I will permit you to take imprints of the bioseals then."
At first I thought this was Kei receiving a massive idiot ball. We definitely wanted gold and went into cities as missing-nin !
But it's actually really smart writing by the QMs here : I think that this is one of the impacts of the henge retcon. Without henge life gets a lot harder for missing-nin, and I expect many of them straight-up died within the month when they lost the ability to almost perfectly disguise themselves from civilians and hunter-nin started getting a lot better at tracking them down.
At first I thought this was Kei receiving a massive idiot ball. We definitely wanted gold and went into cities as missing-nin !
But it's actually really smart writing by the QMs here : I think that this is one of the impacts of the henge retcon. Without henge life gets a lot harder for missing-nin, and I expect many of them straight-up died within the month when they lost the ability to almost perfectly disguise themselves from civilians and hunter-nin started getting a lot better at tracking them down.
So it looks like trade in gold is useless in lower population settlements, like how historically trade in kind was more common in comparable eras?
Though idk if they couldn't access merchants at a remove or two.
[X] Action Plan: Lunar Eclipse
Word Count: <399
Intended Duration: Until the assault on Moon
Bury the practice RER 2.0s
Declare (1FP): Hazou advised Naruto to order Leaf Summoners to train CR and get the favor of their Summons, maximizing the chance of them summoning their Boss
Concur with Orochimaru's plan.
Request his note for rift-runes, or accommodations for accessing them if he's incapacitated.
Travel to the rally point and wait for Leaf. Sanity-check the rest of the plan.
If Orochimaru asks about Kagome, tell him that Kagome couldn't bear to be in close proximity to Orochimaru for an extended period of time, he's gone until after the battle.
Recruit Dogs
Reverse-summon to visit Dogs that might agree to join the Riftwar. (Optimize with the team.)
Be respectful. Be mindful we're nothing like Kakashi.
Emphasize the fight's importance. Note our service to Dog (message running) despite our war.
Accept any refusals gracefully.
Prepare runic blanks for the assualts, we'll need Force Domes, Iron Earth, Air Leadeners, Ninja Radars
Prepare a Superchiller blank in secret
Grind runic veterancy with any additional chakra. Prioritize reducing timeladdered ES checks until there is no need for rerolls on RER 2.0, then infusions for Force Dome, Ninja Radar and RER 2.0 - ideally to the point where they can be timeladdered up once.
Bury any practice runes
Test how much earth the chakra pillar from a Force Dome can pierce.
After Leaf arrives
Discuss the attack plans on Moon with Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Mari
Brief her on Hazou's runic capabilities
If Mari agrees, bring up her ability to lock down multiple ninja with her genjutsu
Based on the size of Leaf's forces and the available chakra, come up with an optimized plan for the battle.
Ideally we'd lock down their village with a Force Dome/Iron Earth rune, then send in refilled SCs of the three of you to capture their ninja. While tracking and neutralizing any runners with a perimeter of Ninja Radar runes.
Suggest that if we attack anonymously or as a false flag we could avoid having to kill them all to silence them for fear of AMITY counterstrike afterwards.
Conjura's friendliness with Itachi, and capacity for spacetime jutsu to provide strategic travel shortcuts, seem like potentially pivotal factors which Oro's plan doesn't explicitly address. For example, is there some other known village which would make for a better chakra-raid target than Moon, if distance were irrelevant?
Conjura's friendliness with Itachi, and capacity for spacetime jutsu to provide strategic travel shortcuts, seem like potentially pivotal factors which Oro's plan doesn't explicitly address. For example, is there some other known village which would make for a better chakra-raid target than Moon, if distance were irrelevant?
I doubt Conjura is capable of traveling with even 10 humans, let alone 200. Also I highly doubt she would consent to this. I feel comfortable not suggesting it.
I agree, she seems like a pretty difficult person to deal with (very essie), and not positively inclined towards Leaf, and she's had dealings with Itachi (so perhaps she'll refuse to help us against him, same as Kumokogo), and we don't really have anything she wants or any leverage over her.
Hm. I guess we can threaten to Superchill her new home. She's responded pretty well to Pangolin threats before...
