Not being missing-nin means joining a village, which is not necessarily a good idea from a freedom of choice perspective.
Stuff that comes with being a village-nin:
We will be part of the military bureaucracy and have superiors
We have a history of betraying stuff, meaning we will be under close supervision (limited freedom etc.)
We will be the most expedable part of their military
Everything we research will be taken either by the village, or the political block supporting us; no changing the status quo with new tech without village approval
If we want to get anything done, we will have to play village politics; think Hidden Mountain with 100 times the intensity
If we join Konoha, it means that we are putting our "change the world" eggs into the Konoha basket. I would rather keep working as semi-independent operators before attaching ourselves to that ball and chain.
Now, on the other hand, if we could expend some of our favors to get a degree of freedom to operate within Leaf -- for instance, some paperwork from Jiraiya or similar that we could present to border guards to allow us to pass and such would be a possibility.
Not being missing-nin means joining a village, which is not necessarily a good idea from a freedom of choice perspective.
Stuff that comes with being a village-nin:
We will be part of the military bureaucracy and have superiors
We have a history of betraying stuff, meaning we will be under close supervision (limited freedom etc.)
We will be the most expendable part of their military
Everything we research will be taken either by the village, or the political block supporting us; no changing the status quo with new tech without village approval
If we want to get anything done, we will have to play village politics; think Hidden Mountain with 100 times the intensity
If we join Konoha, it means that we are putting our "change the world" eggs into the Konoha basket. I would rather keep working as semi-independent operators before attaching ourselves to that ball and chain.
We should've asked for some sort of classified information, about scorch squads or something else interesting, from Jiraya in return for the mind scan. He could've hardly refused after confirming our loyalties through an invasive mind scan.
Yeah, at least two weeks would be better. I was apparently underestimating the amount of time it would take by about half. That's also assuming that Technique Hacking would take the same amount of time at the same level as Sealing, which might not be accurate. It could be either more or less dangerous than sealing, and the need for chakra investment might slow things down significantly. However, it's relatively easy to think up techniques that could give bonus exp that can be spent on strength, stamina, capacity, and regeneration. Those techniques would be for the entire party, making them insanely useful over the long term. If we invent a technique that gives us a bonus exp pool that can be spent on capacity, that would allow for the entire team to get higher capacity than otherwise possible, and also allow us to spend exp that we would otherwise spend on capacity elsewhere.
Probably for the best. I think that'd likely be against ToS even for a joke.
e: So, taking a peek in on another thread here brought up the topic of ninshu, which, I'd say, has significant possibilities for us, and I suspect is part of what makes the Yamanaka bloodline technique work.
If I recall my Naruto lore correctly, it was taught to him by the Kyuubi, so it's... unlikely that we could discover it without some impetus. On the other hand, uh... given his apparent talent for Ninshu, that does explain his propensity for Therapy no Jutsu. Hm. That's a thought.
I for one, welcome a portal fantasy in the world I am co-building. In that world, everyone is Rock Lee(without the Lee-ism and the Gai-ism), because to gain ninja power, you have to be extraordinary determined and dedicated.
"Before we do the scan, is there anything you might have forgotten to mention?"
The words hung in the air like an upraised sword. There was no explicit threat, not even in the tone. Despite that, no one had any doubt that it wasn't a casual question.
Inoue-sensei thought for a moment. "Oh, there was a group that we ran into in Tea. The Hydra Medical Foundation. I didn't talk to them myself—that was Hazou and Noburi—but they sounded like a cult. Talked about self-actualization, levels of progress, blah, blah, blah. I mention it because of the name and the fact that the recruiter said 'eight heads are better than one'. Back when we went into the Liberator's camp there was that group called the 'Brotherhood of the Sacred Immortal Eight-Headed Serpent'. The names were too close for comfort. Anyway, the Foundation was giving free checkups and promised to teach medical ninjutsu to anyone who achieved a high enough rank. Also, I have some notes here on the guy who hired us for the Hot Springs mission, and this other spy that was there." She glanced at the team. "Anything else you guys can think of?"
"You better not have your pet mindripper shred our brains!" Kagome said. "Or put lupchanzen in our ears! I have information stashed away about Leaf's secret lupchanzen farms, and the way you abduct kids and vivisect them for your own sick amusement, and all kinds of things! It'll all come out if anything happens to me, or if you rip our brains apart and sew them back together upside down so we're loyal to you, or if you turn any of us into meat puppets to use as chakra batteries, or if you—"
Kagome, Deception (blackmail Jiraiya into not mindscanning/harming the team):
?d100: 57
Jiraiya, Deception (recognize that Kagome is lying his head off about having blackmail set up):
?d100: 1113
"What's a lupchanzen?" Jiraiya asked, interrupting the spouting river of paranoia.
Kagome glared at him. "Don't pretend you don't know! Lupchanz—chakra monster, half animal, half plant. Crawls into an orifice, eats your brain, turns you into a meat puppet slave. Don't pretend like you don't know—"
"Kagome," Inoue-sensei said, laying a hand on his arm. "Maybe we should have this conversation another time?"
"I know you all think I'm crazy," Kagome said, scowling. "You'll see! Just wait until he—"
"Sir," Jiraiya said. "I promise: I have no intention of putting a lupchanz, or anything else, in your ear or any of your other orifices. I have never heard of such a thing, and I certainly don't use them."
"A likely story! You'll—"
Inoue's hand closed on Kagome's arm with a grip that should have snapped the bones in half. "Kagome," she said nervously. "This is really not the time."
Kagome scowled deeper but went quiet. Mostly quiet; there was some under-his-breath grumbling that everyone pretended not to notice.
Jiraiya looked at Agent Black in silent question. Agent Black looked as though she'd just bitten a lemon. "You want me to mindscan that?" she murmured.
Hazou decided to seize the moment. "Sir, that actually leads us to a question I wanted to ask: why is this scan necessary? Agent Black has already stated that we aren't lying about anything. Inoue-sensei made plain that we've done everything we could to work with you. It seems poor repayment to go fishing in our heads."
Inoue-sensei's eyes flared wide in alarm. "Hazou," she said warningly.
"Sensei, I think it's fair," Hazou said defensively. "Not only that, but it might be dangerous to Agent Black. At least one of us has a bloodline related to the mind that could be harmful to a mental intruder. Three of us hold clan secrets; stealing them could be considered an act of war against Mist. Beyond that, we have secrets that are not relevant to Jiraiya's interests and could even be opposed to them—for example, the gift that the pangolin teacher gave us. We promised that would not be shared with anyone else; what would the toads say if they discovered that their summoner had stolen the secrets of an allied clan despite being warned?"
Inoue looked at Jiraiya. "I'm sorry about this," she said. "He's a good kid, honest. A bit thick sometimes, and not always great at recognizing when to keep his mouth shut, but a good kid."
Jiraiya snorted, but it was more in amusement than disapproval. "My godson is just like that, except more so. You have my sympathy."
"It's a fair question, sensei," Noburi said. "My clan is a big deal in Mist, and we're very careful about the secrets of our bloodline. A fishing trip in my head would be a clear case of espionage. It could cause trouble if word ever got back."
"My bloodline as well," Keiko said. "And, as Hazou said, it could be dangerous to an intruder. The Frozen Skein is difficult enough for even a trained Mori to touch. For an untrained person it would almost certainly be fatal."
Agent Black looked at Jiraiya and cocked an eyebrow inquisitively. The Sannin frowned. "That's...possible," he said. "I've never managed to get a clear description of the Mori bloodline, but it's definitely something related to their thought patterns. Most of them seem more...detached, than the average person. I wasn't looking for you to go after bloodline secrets, though. Just affirm that they have no designs at world domination or intent to directly oppose Konoha."
Agent Black gave him an exasperated look. "By now you should know that brains aren't like books," she said. "They aren't linear, they're all tied together. I can guarantee I'll get what I go in for, but I can't guarantee I won't see something else. Especially if it's something they're desperate to hide."
"I don't have anything to hide," Inoue-sensei said. "You saw that last time." She gazed brazenly at Jiraiya with half-lidded bedroom eyes and her lips curved into a smile that was illegal in twelve countries.
Jiraiya snorted. "Don't try to outperv me, girl. I was being a letch before you were crawling."
"Mmmm...I always did like older men," she purred, leaning forward.
Agent Black snorted in amusement. "She's got your number."
The Hyuuga, silent and nigh-motionless until now, shifted uncomfortably and looked disapproving.
Jiraiya laughed and shook his head. "Okay," he said. "Just you then, sweet thing. Show the nice Yamanka lady that you aren't planning to take over the world, cause a world war, overthrow any of the major nations...you know, the usual."
"Major nations?" Agent Black inquired archly. "What, you don't care if they take over Vegetable?"
"You stay out of this," Jiraiya said. "As long as they aren't planning to start playing politics, I'm fine."
"Um, actually," Hazou said. "About that...."
Inoue rolled her eyes. "So close," she muttered, sotto voce. "Ninety seconds. Quick scan, no problem, done. All he's gotta do is keep his mouth shut but noooo."
"Sorry, sensei," Hazou said. "I don't know if it counts, but it's better if we volunteer it, right?"
Jiraiya sighed. "Kid, didn't we talk about this? Wasn't this, like, the first thing I ever said to you? 'No taking over the world'—it seems like such a simple rule. Seriously, the first thing."
"Actually, the first thing you said was 'I think I can help with that'," Inoue-sensei said helpfully. "May I just say, I loved the way you helped me. I loved it more each and every time."
Agent Black coughed.
"Somehow, this meeting seems to have gotten away from me," Jiraiya muttered. "Okay, kid. In what fun and exciting way are you planning to upset the applecart that I have spent forty years keeping un-upset?"
"Um," Hazou began nervously. "Sir, I don't know how Konoha manages classified information. More specifically, sir, I don't know what clearance levels your friends have. The information we have is...a bit sensitive."
The amiable, joking Jiraiya vanished, replaced by the Sannin and the spymaster. "Are you claiming that you have classified information from Konoha?" he asked.
"Don't tell him anything!" Kagome hissed. "It's a tra—"
Inoue-sensei looped an arm around Kagome's neck, covered his mouth with one tiny hand, and pulled his head tight against her shoulder so he could not escape. Kagome struggled but she poked him in the ribs with the other hand; he jumped and gave a muffled squawk but then settled down.
"Not...exactly, sir," Hazou said, ignoring the byplay.
"Agents Black and White have my full confidence and Top Secret clearance," Jiraiya said.
Hazou took that in, then nodded. "Well sir, it's about the scorch squads. We sort of decided to put a stop to them."
Jiraiya, Deception (keep a poker face):
?d100: ?
Agent Black, Deception (keep a poker face):
?d100: ?
Agent White, Deception (keep a poker face):
?d100: ?
Inoue, Deception (see through their poker faces):
?d100: 1211
Hazou, Deception (see through their poker faces):
12d100: 408
Jiraiya considered that. "I see," he said. "And where did you find out about the scorch squads?"
Inoue, Deception (do not look at Kagome or otherwise give away that he was the source):
?d100: 1327
Hazou, Deception (do not look at Kagome or otherwise give away that he was the source):
?d100: 680
Kagome, Deception (do not give away that you were the source):
?d100: 66
Legendary spymaster and high-clearance associates:
Not bothering. (Also not bothering for the rest of Team Uplift.)
"I see," Jiraiya said, looking at the wide-eyed and frozen Kagome. "You're not in trouble, but I would like to hear what you know. Regardless of what you say there will not be consequences."
Regretfully, Inoue-sensei released her grip on Kagome. The sealmaster straightened up, glaring at Jiraiya. "As if I'd believe that, you stinker! Stinking spies, all alike. Talk sweet but the minute you—"
"Kagome," Inoue-sensei said, her voice tired. "Just tell him. Cat's already out of the bag. If he's honest about there being no consequences then you're fine to tell him. If he's not, we can't stop him. If there weren't going to be consequences for knowing then there might be some for not telling."
Kagome paused, unraveling that in his head. "Uh...."
"Sir, please believe me: I don't care that you know about the scorch squads," Jiraiya said. "I simply want to know what you think you know."
"Think?! Think?! I think I know that the villages all send squads of ninja out to kill civilians with high chakra reserves so that the next generation of ninja won't be born! Even Leaf." He glared at Jiraiya before grudgingly adding, "At least you stinkers only kill the high-chakra civilians themselves, not the whole town. Advantage of having all those stinking cheaty cheating eyes."
Jiraiya looked bemused. Beside him, Agent White crossed his arms on his chest; the tiniest hint of what could have been annoyance thought about maybe drifting across his features at some point in the future.
"For the record," Jiraiya said, "Leaf has never participated in any such program. Anything like that would destabilize the Elemental Nations; if a country knew that their ability to bear ninja was being systematically reduced they would recognize that they needed to go to war immediately as their power was only going to decrease over time. Obviously, I have no way of proving that, so I won't debate the issue. Now, Ms Inoue, if you would be so kind as to sit still for a moment, we can get this over with."
Agent Black made a series of handseals, staring intently at Inoue-sensei the whole time. "Mind Body Transmission no Jutsu," she murmured. Her eyes gleamed for an instant and then her body froze. Inoue-sensei was just as still, frozen in place like a statue on display.
The silence dragged on for long seconds.
And on.
And on.
Finally, Agent Black blinked and looked away. "Done," she said, somewhat redundantly. "She likes to play games, but I saw nothing that indicates dishonesty, subterfuge, or a significant desire to work against you or Leaf."
"Significant desire?" Jiraiya asked.
The Yamanaka shrugged. "She's a little pissed about this whole meeting. She, ah, might have made a point of imagining you falling in a mud puddle." She coughed. "And maybe a few other things. Still, no real desire to cause trouble for us, or even to play on an international level at all. She and her team want to prevent the genocide of civilians, but currently their only plan for that is 'start building a merchant network for fun, profit, and intelligence-gathering'. As far as I saw they have every intention of working with you honestly so long as your goals are aligned."
Jiraiya nodded. "Good." He looked around the table at the team who were holding their breath in anticipation of his final verdict. "All right, looks like we're done."
The words were met with relieved sighs. (And some grumbling that might or might not have involved the words 'stinker' and 'squish'.)
"Sorry it had to go down this way," Jiraiya said, sounding honestly regretful. "You just screwed up a major operation; I couldn't take a chance that you were working against me."
"Of course, we totally understand," said Inoue-sensei, proactively covering Kagome's mouth. "Perfectly reasonable."
Fortunately, Kagome's words were thoroughly muffled.
Jiraiya's lips twitched in a brief flash of amusement, but he nodded gravely. "Okay, then," he said. "Anything you need?"
XP AWARD: 10
I didn't make it very far through this plan, but I figured it was better to kick it out the door today instead of delaying. We'll work through more (the rest?) of it in the next update, and more XP will be awarded then.
Note: Ordinarily I wouldn't award so many XP when such a large part of the plan remains un-executed, but you guys did a great job.
@eaglejarl, @Velorien: I would prefer another vote, even though I don't want changes there was a non-trivial about of disagreement about what we should do once we leave the room. Also we might think of more things to ask Jiraya before we leave.
Was there..? The only real disagreement I recall was whether to go to Iron first or Sarubetsu first, and it seems like we settled pretty well on Sarubetsu given that it doesn't involve a border crossing and let's us start digging our fingers into the village ASAP
I kinda wish Hazou had gotten scanned honestly. Or at least I wish there was an alternate quest where the QMs really did start posting in the thread IC
Was there..? The only real disagreement I recall was whether to go to Iron first or Sarubetsu first, and it seems like we settled pretty well on Sarubetsu given that it doesn't involve a border crossing and let's us start digging our fingers into the village ASAP
I still want Iron, but am fine with not. I'm more worried about collating questions to ask Jiraya before we leave the room.
Hell, I really think we should ask him if he has any advice on non-lethally taking down a seal master. Common places they hide things, ways to disarm them without tentacles, etc...
He is a sealmaster himself, so probably has a pretty good knowledge of this sort of thing.
Edit: and in particular a sealmaster who faces combat semi-regularly. Kagome is great and all, but he wouldn't have the breadth of expertise Jiraya does.
I kinda wish Hazou had gotten scanned honestly. Or at least I wish there was an alternate quest where the QMs really did start posting in the thread IC
I still want Iron, but am fine with not. I'm more worried about collating questions to ask Jiraya before we leave the room.
Hell, I really think we should ask him if he has any advice on non-lethally taking down a seal master. Common places they hide things, ways to disarm them without tentacles, etc...
He is a sealmaster himself, so probably has a pretty good knowledge of this sort of thing.
That's... alarming. We clearly did not get anything off of them, and Jiraiya then made no mention of what scorch squads were until Kagome explained it.
Option 1: Konoha does perform such activities, just with better targeting, and the poker face was to hide that fact.
Option 2: Scorch squads don't exist, and the poker face was to hide their confusion.
Option 3: Scorch squads do exist in other nations, but none of them know about them, so the poker face was to hide their confusion. (Very unlikely)
Dammit, I was really hoping that we could get confirmation that they exist. It's gonna be a gut punch if Kagome was just crazy-paranoid all along. That particular piece of info was couched in "I worked in cryptography and processed classified documents" and then Keiko realized how efficient and low-risk it was, so I had put a relatively high weight of confidence towards them being real.
But otherwise, that went basically how I wanted it to.
"Think?! Think?! I think I know that the villages all send squads of ninja out to kill civilians with high chakra reserves so that the next generation of ninja won't be born! Even Leaf." He glared at Jiraiya before grudgingly adding, "At least you stinkers only kill the high-chakra civilians themselves, not the whole town. Advantage of having all those stinking cheaty cheating eyes."
Jiraiya looked bemused. Beside him, Agent White crossed his arms on his chest; the tiniest hint of what could have been annoyance thought about maybe drifting across his features at some point in the future.
Hmm, actually White is concealing that he's annoyed, and he's the only one that we don't know outclasses Inoue in Deception. That points towards Scorch Squads being nonexistent.
Beside him, Agent White crossed his arms on his chest; the tiniest hint of what could have been annoyance thought about maybe drifting across his features at some point in the future.
Point of order: the current plan does have us addressing all these things, though admittedly not the specifics questions about seal masters @Jello_Raptor had.
It has us asking for more info on Arakida as a person, anti-sealer techniques, paralytics, basic supplies or currency with which to buy them, and advice on negotiating for contracts, and then doing an initial recon on Sarubetsu followed by the Iron trip for paralytics and/or healing, and then back to Sarubetsu to prep for confronting Arakida.
Getting involved with Kagome and picking him up for the team is the single best decision we have made in the quest. Even at the thing he is worst at (talking), he still manages to break the ice and lighten the atmosphere. (EDIT: Funnily enough, I was very much against going to meet him the first time.)
I thought about that, but we already have a sealmaster and a journeyman in the team. Meaning we should already have the sort of general knowledge that could help against a generic missin-nin sealmaster.
That is to say, this sort of thing sounds like something we should figure out as players instead of relying QMs to come up with answers. That might be just me being weird and contrarian as usual though.
Eh, he might already know. There's no telling when Kakashi might have given us a look see. (Assuming he even has the Sharingan in MfD, but then again it is a pretty big part of his canon character...EDIT: Oh he does have it MfD, I keep forgetting that.)
"For the record," Jiraiya said, "Leaf has never participated in any such program. Anything like that would destabilize the Elemental Nations; if a country knew that their ability to bear ninja was being systematically reduces they would recognize that they needed to go to war immediately as their power was only going to decrease over time. Obviously, I have no way of proving that, so I won't debate the issue...
This sounds like a better idea than messing with the action plan. I'm not against voting in new details to ask from J but honestly we had enough time to work those out already; if we didn't that's on us. Besides, I think we have at least the most obvious options covered (and some of the non-obvious ones, like the wasp idea).
