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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Sir Stompy said:
I do feel like Hazou should have at least mentioned the Dead Man's switchs before he was unceremoniously killed.

I like solutions involving Orochimaru backing off due to that.

Or Orochimaru receiving information from his future self would be funny. We know runes are good at manipulating time.
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strange_person said:
Open mouth, insert foot:
"So, uncle, it sounds like you're psyching yourself up to kill me. Final confessions and all that. Before you do, did you hear about what happened to Isan? I know exactly how it was done, because I'm friends with the people who did it. Gave them the key idea, actually, just like you said I do far too often.
Remember how you asked if I was holding anything back before this fight, and when I said I wasn't, you knew I was lying? This trick is the biggest thing I was lying about, because I don't think you've got any truly reliable way to defend against having it happen to you, not if it's applied to the fullest. Which it definitely will be, sooner or later, if I mysteriously vanish in a way that's clearly your fault."
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Paper on Discord said that Orochimaru would decide to kill Hazou anyway and try to disarm the deadmans switch afterwards.
 
A few more out-there ideas for how the quest might continue!
  • Hazou dies. Years pass, decades even. A great many things happen, and eventually Hazou gets rezzed. Perhaps Jashin opened another rift at some point, and it fell into the hands of some other group. Perhaps Orochimaru gets outplayed after years of skullduggery and loses control of the rift. Perhaps the Colour Cabal took over the whole place while we were gone. Whatever the cause (and with timescales like this there's a lot of room for eventful things to happen), Hazou exits into a greatly changed world that he is still dedicated to saving.
  • Shifts are most commonly known for removing things from reality ("the Grue ate it"), but Hazou's description of the phenomenon is remarkably non-destructive, a shifting around of the Paint, smearing the colours on the canvass. Hazou dies, his corpse is stored away for study or destroyed to remove the evidence, and Hazou never leaves the afterlife... until a Shift happens and Hazou is inexplicably back in Leaf and nobody can recall why that's weird. Orochimaru forgets that he killed Hazou (after all, he's still alive) and Hazou assumes it must have just been a really uneventful journey back.
  • Upon entering the afterlife, Hazou's Jashin dream activates and he receives not a map to Akane (or at least, not just a map to Akane), but also a map to some other exit to the Pure Lands. Perhaps to some other realm entirely, where he can theoretically still do Sealing, or maybe to some "safe spot" oasis that he can make his base of operations. Hazou must follow the compass in his head, escape to even newer frontiers, and figure out a way back to the Elemental Nations with no support network other than the people he finds in the Pure Lands. Bonus deep lore depending on where we end up.
 
Inferno Vulpix said:
Shifts are most commonly known for removing things from reality ("the Grue ate it"), but Hazou's description of the phenomenon is remarkably non-destructive, a shifting around of the Paint, smearing the colours on the canvass. Hazou dies, his corpse is stored away for study or destroyed to remove the evidence, and Hazou never leaves the afterlife... until a Shift happens and Hazou is inexplicably back in Leaf and nobody can recall why that's weird. Orochimaru forgets that he killed Hazou (after all, he's still alive) and Hazou assumes it must have just been a really uneventful journey back.
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Kagome deliberately triggers a Shift to retroactively make Hazou never have been killed.
 
We... we left a world-ending continency with Mari. She'll use it, with Hazou dead.

Realistically the epilogue of this timeline will be the world having been destroyed by a runic failure from some idiot trying to make a superchiller within the year. And maybe Hazou meeting Oro in the afterlife and going "I didn't think I had to tell you I did take precautions you moron!"
 
Inferno Vulpix said:
Shifts are most commonly known for removing things from reality ("the Grue ate it"), but Hazou's description of the phenomenon is remarkably non-destructive, a shifting around of the Paint, smearing the colours on the canvass. Hazou dies, his corpse is stored away for study or destroyed to remove the evidence, and Hazou never leaves the afterlife... until a Shift happens and Hazou is inexplicably back in Leaf and nobody can recall why that's weird. Orochimaru forgets that he killed Hazou (after all, he's still alive) and Hazou assumes it must have just been a really uneventful journey back.
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That would be such a copout. Please no.
faflec said:
Kagome deliberately triggers a Shift to retroactively make Hazou never have been killed.
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On the other hand that would be cool. A bit too out there, but I'd accept it.
 
Byzantine said:
We... we left a world-ending continency with Mari. She'll use it, with Hazou dead.
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I suspect Mari won't actually pull the trigger. Yes, there are lots of good reasons not to bluff even when dealing with apocalyptic deadman switches, but I don't think Mari is fully abstract or general with her decision theory, and being the kind of person who will bluff to Hazou about setting up a deadman on his behalf seems like something she'd expect to be better than the alternatives.
 
Left-Hand Mutant said:
I suspect Mari won't actually pull the trigger. Yes, there are lots of good reasons not to bluff even when dealing with apocalyptic deadman switches, but I don't think Mari is fully abstract or general with her decision theory, and being the kind of person who will bluff to Hazou about setting up a deadman on his behalf seems like something she'd expect to be better than the alternatives.
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Mari's rebuilt herself almost entirely on the kids. Hazou dying will rip one of her biggest supports right out, especially since it comes with the implication of Oro running off with the rift with no intention of ever letting anyone come back.

I suspect she'll purposely, willingly, drop straight into heartbreaker and carry out the plan without the slightest hesitation, with Noburi and Kei on the 7th path.
 
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Byzantine said:
Mari's rebuilt herself almost entirely on the kids. Hazou dying will rip one of her biggest supports right out, especially since it comes with the implication of Oro running off with the rift with no intention of ever letting anyone come back.

I suspect she'll purposely, willingly, drop straight into heartbreaker and carry out the plan without the slightest hesitation, with Noburi and Kei on the 7th path.
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It's a shame Orochimaru probably took the Dog Scroll with him, since Mari would want to grab that for Yuno. Or Tenten.

Hm, Mari might kill Neji to give the other the Turtle Scroll, come to think of it.
 
T_of_A said:
That would be such a copout. Please no.
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Yeah, I agree. The point of these ideas isn't that I think they're all reasonable good ideas, but that I want to explore as many directions as possible to see what shakes out. For instance, given how little we know about Pure Lands lore, "there exists a chakra oasis and Jashin guides Hazou to it" sounds surprisingly plausible to me, and might be a good way to let the quest meaningfully continue without outright rolling back the death.

I expect, once we move on to choosing options we like most, that I might rank them all by factors like "how contrived is it" and "how enjoyable does this seem" and "how much of the impact of this chapter is retained". In my head, the ideal option is pretty close to that scenario, if it's compatible with MfD Pure Lands worldbuilding.
 
Wow, I did not expect that.
I think we should keep things simulationist. Although I have not decided yet whether I think this outcome makes the most simulationist sense.
Yeah I could see Mari deciding not to trigger the switch. Especially if any of Team Uplift remain alive with her.
 
Byzantine said:
Mari's rebuilt herself almost entirely on the kids. Hazou dying will rip one of her biggest supports right out, especially since it comes with the implication of Oro running off with the rift with no intention of ever letting anyone come back.

I suspect she'll purposely, willingly, drop straight into heartbreaker and carry out the plan without the slightest hesitation, with Noburi and Kei on the 7th path.
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I guess we have different read on her, but I don't think this will make her suicidal+omnicidal.
Maybe she goes to Leaf and tries to continue Uplift, or maybe she takes the fam and goes/stays missing. If she does go missing, maybe she sets tries to retire until the more idealistic younglings insist on action, or maybe she learns fire element+EM, and tries to keep seriously influencing the worldstate. It's long odds not impossible that she even tries to join and keep AMITY afloat.
 
Inferno Vulpix said:
I expect, once we move on to choosing options we like most, that I might rank them all by factors like "how contrived is it" and "how enjoyable does this seem" and "how much of the impact of this chapter is retained". In my head, the ideal option is pretty close to that scenario, if it's compatible with MfD Pure Lands worldbuilding.
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I want to add another factor : "how contrived is this for a lurker who doesn't pay much attention to the mechanics". So solutions like the one The Bomb proposed on Discord ("revive a mechanic from late 2015 and have it save our life") shouldn't be allowed, because even if they're mechanically sound they'd feel like an asspull.

I personally think that the obvious solution to continuing the quest is "Orochimaru is currently multiple km from the Rift and is doing stuff here. If Hazou reappears closer to the Rift, and Jashin/the entity once again gives him afterlife directions, then Hazou can just run out of the Rift before Orochimaru gets there".
 
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T_of_A said:
I want to add another factor : "how contrived is this for a lurker who doesn't pay much attention to the mechanics". So solutions like The Bomb's "revive a mechanic from late 2015 and have it save our life" shouldn't be allowed, because even if they're mechanically sound they'd feel like an asspull.

I personally think that the obvious solution to continuing the quest is "Orochimaru is currently multiple km from the Rift and is doing stuff here. If Hazou reappears closer to the Rift, and Jashin/the entity once again gives him afterlife directions, then Hazou can just run out of the Rift before Orochimaru gets there".
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So far, this is the continuation plan I dislike the least.
But sadly, our action plan included closing the rift enough that a human can't fit through, and it will have closed further since then. presumably, closed all they way to prevent stress when moving.
 
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Left-Hand Mutant said:
So far, this is the continuation plan I dislike the least.
But sadly, our action plan included closing the rift enough that a human can't fit through, and it will have closed further since then. presumably, closed all they way to prevent stress when moving.
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That's fine, you appear on the other side with chakra (until it drains) and your gear (which includes substrate). If we reappear near the new rift location we could just open it and leave.
 
Left-Hand Mutant said:
I guess we have different read on her, but I don't think this will make her suicidal+omnicidal.
Maybe she goes to Leaf and tries to continue Uplift, or maybe she takes the fam and goes/stays missing. If she does go missing, maybe she sets tries to retire until the more idealistic younglings insist on action, or maybe she learns fire element+EM, and tries to keep seriously influencing the worldstate. It's long odds not impossible that she even tries to join and keep AMITY afloat.
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I think that Mari barely considered the world worth anything, we managed to convince her to buy into uplift. Oro murdering us like this and running off the rift proves that no matter how noble it isn't possible. So... Better to wipe the world away, than continue like this.
 
Reposting from Discord, the most popular options I've seen so far.
  • The quest ends, we get a PoV of Hazo's EM deadman switch lead to the extinction of humanity.
  • Orochimaru continues his lecture by opening the rift and forcing Hazo to be his apprentice until he's not a noodle armed little shit.
  • Afterlife quest in which we immediately have Hidan find us with his bloodsense (because he is in the Pure Lands) and we team up with the Akatsuki to defeat Oro.
  • Afterlife quest in which we team up with literally anyone who has died in order to complete a grand quest for the King of Hell that will resurrect us.
 
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