The coins are a messaging system I bet, and the Nara really want to know the code. I bet they have a bunch of compiled messages they've previously intercepted but failed to decode, too.
E. She's probably really upset about it because it would entail betraying her clan, who she still cares a whole lot about.
Could be baseless optimism again (Too Many Pangolins was awkwardly timed
) but it sounded like the coins were paying the Mori off more than about cracking it. Just by mention of it they know as much or more than she does, unless that "feel the edges" bit is a key factor itself.
The coins sound like a way to trade favors. So Nara will have to make up for nabbing Kei to the Mori part of network, but they think it's worth it.
Aaand Ninja'd. At least I wasn't alone in my thinking!
This is farfetched, but somehow, I suspect the Mori are actually communicating with the Nara. Maybe they both knew that the end of civilization is coming if they don't do anything to reverse it.
Also, Hazō will have a long talk with the Nara.
This seems pretty likely, from the tone I remember about that scene with visitors (weren't some foreign?) and the fact that it was a public front rather than hidden entirely. And would be a huge way to tie in some of our larger goals that we feared might vanish joining Leaf, while explaining why genius clans hadn't already thought of it (they had) AND giving a potential route to extract more of the Mori (to link up with the Nara since Mist is screwed anyways).
Right, but like, even entertaining the idea of "Nara Keiko" is ludicrous from our perspective.
Step 1: Shikaku asks for Kei.
Step 2: J-clan precommits to always refusing this demand.
Step 3: Shikaku either wastes political capital harassing us for no benefit, or keeps that capital for something actually useful. Being Shikaku, he picks the latter option.
We've been told flat out that Hiruzen can override them.
From Kei's perspective: She goes from "surrounded by her close friends" to "surrounded by people who wanted her as a poltical tool" which can't be a step up.
From our perspective: Taking Kei out of the J-clan significantly weakens the clan's starting power due to loss of both a bloodline and a summon scroll, and given that J-clan lacks numbers, we need to make up for it in power-density.
I fear you are massively over-valuing the "Dictator can overrule the clans" considering it was only proposed as a counter to a single threshold issue of "create the Sannin's clan at all" rather than "use this every time the Hokage has to do anything for his subjects" . Eaglejarl even ominously mentioned it in a way, with consequences of snubbing that alliance. And you are consistently undervaluing the close alliance to a three-clan bloc of genius tacticians likely led by the Jonin Commander and arguably closest to our methodology (rationalism, even if not optimism/moral utilitarianism).
Access to the Frozen Skein for consulting and possibly bloodline mixing is a
huge value even without any betrayal of the coins (if that's messaging and not favor trading). That's where we'd negotiate them down really, a stronger voting bloc alliance in exchange for access to Keiko in that way. For the summoning scroll/bloodline, if we are insistent that both stay with us, we could make the deal a formalized "Child X goes to this clan, Child Y goes to the other" as what almost certainly happens with any pairing of clan heirs already (picture if Ino and Choji paired off).
The think to debate really (other than getting an assessment between-updates from Jiraiya on the issue) is whether to go adoption or marriage. Marriage is less of losing her in a way, as we'd be in-laws still and it strengthens our claim on divided children. The Nara are if anyone pragmatic enough to consider things like "acknowledge mistress" (to keep Tenten connection) and much moreso when its not even an inheritance threat
and its with a nameless orphan rather than a rival power. Without a religious/'moral' objection that should be a nearly free concession just to make the arranged marriage not blow up in resentment and scandal later. Adoption gets her a little more trusted by them immediately (she's not as much outsider) and leaves Tenten or whoever else wide open while feeling less like treating her as a commodity. But its a greater loss of her from the already small Jiraiya clan, its hard to see her saying "No that's fine for Mari to volunteer for but I'm worth more" or anything, and would still leave a future question of children and the bloodline that Tenten alone doesn't solve (but then bullshit Ninja medics, so who knows what solution they might have already).
Hmm... between Kagome talking about the Lupchanz, Sky Squids, and Jiraiya talking about the Watchers, I think it's pretty safe to say there's something going on beyond the Elemental Nations. What exactly that is, IDK. Could be a lot of things. But it needs to stop. They're saying we can't make nukes after all. That just can't stand.
Have we considered the possibility that Kagome is from
Hidden Whirlpool ? It would explain his massive sealing knowledge and managing to stay ungrabbed (high skills, and different paradigm for hunting missing-nin since they can't even admit he is one of theirs). And a sealing factory seems a lot more normal for a clan so dependent on its seals for strength and relevance (moreso if whatever they did to avoid all-nation-beatdown increased their need somehow). Perhaps Whirlpool vanished because....it was lifted up into Hidden Heaven, or sunk to become Hidden Sea? Either way might be more feasible for an entire village of seal prodigies than it is for our limited few, and leave that as a potential future ally to work with (but it also steals some of the hivemind's thunder, certainly). Mostly just thinking how his strong focus on lupchanzen/sky squids relates to their disappearance (and need to recruit).
