So, I've said it before, but we do eventually need to discuss our long term strategy to help the world with our teammates. We want to help the world, but we're not likely to be able to do much if we stay an independent team of five or six ninjas. We need to discuss both our primary options - joining Leaf and trying to create our own organization.
The discussion with our teammates should involve both options, since there's still contention on what exactly we want to do. This could wait until after the Skywalkers are finished, but shouldn't wait for too long after that because we need to actually make a decision so we can actually start moving towards one or the other. Dithering on one or the other will probably see us accomplish neither option.
I've written up summaries of what we might present to our teammates of the two options below.
The Leaf option is fairly well defined in terms of what we need to do and generally how to do it - invention and politics, pretty much. Exact details will be fluid as the situation with Leaf evolves. Discussion on this would revolve around getting an idea of anything we might have failed to consider that our teammates might notice, or terms we should add or remove from the potential deal.
The option to make an organization is much less well defined because our current ability to actually make an organization is rather lacking. This discussion would largely revolve around determining what we would need to do to move forward and better enable ourselves to accomplish these goals.
Option: Join Leaf
- General Goals: Use our sealing research to provide Leaf with enough of an advantage to win and then influence Leaf to help civilians.
- Step 1: Finish Skywalkers
- Step 2: Negotiate Citizenship With Leaf
-- Concerns: If we join Leaf, we must negotiate the best deal possible. We need to ensure we are positioned in such a way that we have enough agency to influence Leaf politics in a positive direction.
--- Possible Terms: Standard rights afforded to Leaf shinobi, paid for work (not thrown into a seal sweatshop), security control over our own research facility (gives Kagome greater peace of mind about not being thrown into a seal sweatshop), conditions for Hazou eventually being allowed outside the village (reach a certain level - jounin or S-Class perhaps - and maybe have ANBU guard?), continued training, extraction of Hazou's mother from Mist (desirable, but not mandatory?), summoning contract for Hazou (desirable, not mandatory)
--- Possible Concessions: At least one of our bloodline members agrees to settle down and have kids when old enough, establishing a new bloodline clan in Leaf (might be ideal for political positioning anyways)
--- Security For Deal: Have Toads and Pangolins witness the deal, ensuring political fallout in the summon realm for Leaf if they violate the agreement.
- Step 3: Make Leaf Win through innovation (concurrent with Step 4)
- Step 4: Influence Leaf politics to positive ends for civilians (concurrent with Step 3)
Pros: Overall meta-goals are fairly well understood. Higher degree of safety for the team, access to Leaf training, leverages an existing large organization, Akane can be with the team again, Hazou's mother possibly extracted, possible fast end to next ninja war if inventions are powerful enough.
Cons: Loss of current degree of freedom, trying to convince an established organization to adopt our goals (though Leaf is the best village for this given their stated values, and Jiraiya is likely to help), likely to start a war (which is likely to happen anyways), scale of war might be escalated
Victory Modes:
- Leaf wins totally and starts helping the civilians of the world.
- Leaf wins enough that other villages won't dare attack, Leaf starts helping its own civilians, other villages must follow suit or become non-competitive
- Status quo is largely maintained, but enough small improvements are made across the board to stop the decline of humanity
Failure Modes:
- Leaf wins, becomes tyrannical.
- Leaf loses
- We get assassinated or otherwise die before accomplishing our goals
Option: Create Organization (Hidden Heaven?)
- General Goals: Create a new organization or hidden village whose goals are to help better the world for civilians everywhere. Use sealing innovations to help the world.
- Steps and meta-goals are fairly ill defined due to our lack of resources and power. Many steps are likely concurrent, so can't be ordered.
- Meta-Goal: Create an information network.
-- Currently looking into establishing contacts with various traders. Use our ability to potentially attain and transport rare goods to establish the relationships and trade of information. This may help with funding this organization as well.
- Meta-Goal: Recruit people into the organization. Ninjas will be required for this to be effective.
-- Issue: The only likely ninjas we can recruit will be missing-nins. Quality will be variable, as will receptiveness to our goals and their general trustworthiness. Finding them may also be problematic.
-- Issue: Maintaining control of a group of ninja will be very difficult unless we are a lot stronger. We may need to train to get everyone to jounin at least before we can seriously start recruiting in earnest.
--- Sub-Issue: Getting training and new jutsu on our own to get ourselves to a high level may be difficult. Buying training from Jiraiya/Leaf may be an option for a while.
- Meta-Goal: Establish a permanent base of operations. Maintaining a large organization without a place to meet is problematic. Construction of Hidden Heaven using seals, MEW, and a lot of elbow grease might be viable.
-- Issue: Maintaining security of the location would require enough people to ward off attacks, as well as preserving secrecy for as long as possible.
-- Issue: Building something like Hidden Heaven will take a lot of time, as well as design effort.
-- Issue: A viable location will be needed.
- Meta-Goal: Use organization's resources to help civilians
-- Issue: Existing countries are likely to try to hinder our efforts
- Meta-Goal: Maintain good relations with Leaf. Operating will be a lot easier if at least one major village doesn't want us dead.
-- Issue: We have to maintain a clear read on Leaf's goals so we don't step on their toes.
-- Benefit: Possible means of getting Akane back to being able to work with our group as a liason.
Pros: Freedom is largely maintained, organization will be run by us so will be easier to get it to do what we want
Cons: Highly difficult due to current lack of resources and power (makes figuring out how to do it rather difficult), problems associated with being in charge, organization likely to be viewed with suspicion and hostility by most existing polities
Victory Modes:
- Organization is established and works as intended. Decline of humanity averted and possibly reversed.
Failure Modes:
- Organization is destroyed.
- Organization is subverted from within by recruits, our sealing tech is used for nefarious purposes.
- We get assassinated or otherwise die before accomplishing our goals
