Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

MadScientist · Nov 12, 2017

eaglejarl said:
Why is the double cost meaningless? The purpose of the higher cost is to make it more difficult to get really high levels of Sealing than of, say, Athletics.

Because if you can swap the levels of two skills at minor milestones, then you can just minmax Athletics to level 80 at normal cost, keeping your Sealing at level 1, and then at some minor milestone, swap Sealing and Athletics (Sealing becomes 80, Athletics becomes 1) and never have to pay the double cost.

Winged_One · Nov 12, 2017

MadScientist said:
Because if you can swap the levels of two skills at minor milestones, then you can just minmax Athletics to level 80 at normal cost, keeping your Sealing at level 1, and then at some minor milestone, swap Sealing and Athletics (Sealing becomes 80, Athletics becomes 1) and never have to pay the double cost.

That isn't really a major problem. Replace "swap skill levels" with "swap XP investments in skills" and you have solved it. My main issue is with aspects and fate points giving rise to narrative, and not simulationist-based logic, but I unfortunately don't have the time to go into detail on why that's bad and why it seems inevitable if you use aspects and fate points at all.

eaglejarl · Nov 12, 2017

Radvic said:
it looks like Noburi's going to be worthless in combat now since he's never trained Taijutsu, Melee Weapons, or Ranged Weapons, and the best he can hope for with ninjutsu is something like a single attack at level 30, instead of just having taijutsu 30 (not to mention that there's no way I can see for water whip to scale with the new system).

First of all, thanks for this very detailed post and the offer of math help. We'll take you up on it as soon as we have a clear understanding of what we need.

I just woke up and will respond in more detail later, but I wanted to address this one point: Noburi's not going to be useless and neither his role nor his roll are really going to change. He's still got Water Whip, Water Whip is still persistent, he still rolls his Water Whip skill as his combat skill, and the WW skill still goes up over time as he sinks more XP into it. I'm not sure what in the rules seemed different...? If you can explain where you got the idea you're outlining then we'll fix the wording of the rules in order to be clearer.

MadScientist said:
Because if you can swap the levels of two skills at minor milestones, then you can just minmax Athletics to level 80 at normal cost, keeping your Sealing at level 1, and then at some minor milestone, swap Sealing and Athletics (Sealing becomes 80, Athletics becomes 1) and never have to pay the double cost.

I'm pretty sure that's not how that rule works in Dresden Files. <goes and checks the rulebook> Huh. It is. At a minor milestone you can switch an Average skill for a different skill, which is the part I remembered. You can also swap the values of any two skills. Wild. So if, at the end of a session, Jim knows that he's going to be giving a concert tomorrow, then he could swap Dresden's Superb Discipline and his Mediocre guitar Performance skill, then swap them back at the end of the next session? That's bonkers.

Well, as you suspected, we're not doing that.

Radvic · Nov 12, 2017

eaglejarl said:
I just woke up and will respond in more detail later, but I wanted to address this one point: Noburi's not going to be useless and neither his role nor his roll are really going to change. He's still got Water Whip, Water Whip is still persistent, he still rolls his Water Whip skill as his combat skill, and the WW skill still goes up over time as he sinks more XP into it. I'm not sure what in the rules seemed different...? If you can explain where you got the idea you're outlining then we'll fix the wording of the rules in order to be clearer.

Ah, cool. I didn't see water whip as a skill, so assumed it was just a general ninjutsu technique (which aren't rolled like normal skills in combat if I'm interpreting it right?)

Radvic · Nov 12, 2017

Probably the most consistent thing to do wrt XP scaling would be to use the 'relative costs' from the old skills as a variable in skill level costs in the new system, which would make things like "leveling water whip is cheaper than leveling taijutsu" remain true. It misses out on clumped skills and so may have some unintended consequences, but those won't be "water whip is as expensive XP-wise as taijutsu." Accounting for things like the jutsu discount for having a seperate high level jutsu would be really hard to simulate though.

eaglejarl · Nov 12, 2017

Radvic said:
Ah, cool. I didn't see water whip as a skill, so assumed it was just a general ninjutsu technique (which aren't rolled like normal skills in combat if I'm interpreting it right?)

Ah, I see. You're seeing things like the armor technique examples, which have a fixed effect, and extending that to all jutsu. Yeah, that's a sensible reading. No, the idea was always that attack jutsu would be based off your skill in the technique.

Radvic · Nov 12, 2017

eaglejarl said:
Ah, I see. You're seeing things like the armor technique examples, which have a fixed effect, and extending that to all jutsu. Yeah, that's a sensible reading. No, the idea was always that attack jutsu would be based off your skill in the technique.

Cool. In that case, it's probably important for those skills to be cheaper to level than straight taijutsu/weapons (at least, if you want builds to be roughly equally effective across systems).

Winged_One · Nov 12, 2017

Do we know how parallel should the force wall seals be for the wall to work? Since they are positioned by human hands they can't require perfect parallel allignment (neither human eyes nor human hands are perfectly precise, and having to position them on uneven ground can't help), but how big of an error can they really take? A one degree angle can probably be seen with ninja vision, but what about 0.1 degree? A hundredth of a degree? I doubt any human can see a 0.1 degree difference on lines that are a meter apart.

E.g. here is a picture of two lines with 0.1 degree difference between them:

Here is one with a 1 degree difference:

Here is one with 10 degree difference, and I can just barely see it, but then again-not a ninja:

I picked the 100:4 vertical:horizontal scale because seals are probably about 4cm long and put at least 1m away from one another, making noticing angle between them about as difficult.

Briefvoice · Nov 12, 2017

OliWhail said:
Hello all! PSA: The player-visible version of the rules doc has been updated to match the progress the QMs have made. We're working hard to get this wrapped up ASAP and would love. your help picking through things and giving your suggestions and impressions. We really appreciate those of you who have given your thoughts previously and pointed out places where we messed up - please do keep em coming

We're getting closer and closer to figuring out exactly how to balance assigning seal complexity, so that should be coming out for you guys to look through soon as well, which I for one am very excited for.

So are you using a chakra pool of points or a chakra stress track?

Chakra Reserves

Governs how much chakra you have. See Shifts and Stress Tracks

But when I go there I get:

Everyone has 3 stress tracks: Physical, Mental, and Social. (They also have a chakra pool; see below.) They are used to determine how much damage a person can take. Stress tracks have a certain number of boxes:

Then it says:

Chakra Pools
Ninja characters have an amount of chakra equal to their Chakra Reserves skill.

Some ninja powers reference chakra as if it were points:

Substitution
Substitution is a Sprint-type ninjutsu known to every Ninja Academy graduate. It is intended for escaping from attacks by swapping your location with that of an object. You and the object retain your velocities relative to the earth's surface. Mechanically:

Takes 1 Chakra to use

But then some refer to chakra stress.

The Strain of a jutsu is defined by the following characteristics and is used to calculate the chakra cost. Characteristics are fixed at jutsu creation time and cannot be altered.

Casting a jutsu produces an N-stress hit on your chakra stress track where:

So this is confusing. How does a "chakra stress track" work? Is it like a pool of points or is it like other stress tracks where if you fill in a box, you fill in all boxes lower than that?

Other comments:

Mechanically, Social Combat works pretty similarly to physical combat. There will be some practical differences -- typically there will only be one zone, Block actions will be more like "I'm going to interrupt him if he starts to say X" instead of "I'm going to punch him if he tried to Y", and you're likely to be varying your attack and/or defense skill over the course of the fight.

I actually have seen social combat done with zones for especially complex situations. For instance, attempting to infiltrate an organization might require you to work through the outermost layers (flunky zone) before getting to the middle management zone before finally having a chance to even talk to the bosses in the inner circle. Obviously in this case zones are social rather than geographic and there's no need to always use them, but it's an option to keep in mind. For instance, back in Mountain I can see a situation where the PCs might attempt to influence the head of a clan but first have to work their way through lower ranking clan members.

eaglejarl · Nov 12, 2017

Deathbybunnies said:
if you could somehow balance the system such that a Jounin's skills were high-chunnin (and possibly a bit higher) in their off-skills and then significantly higher than that in their area of specialisation, that would be ideal I think.

That's the goal, yes.

Briefvoice said:
So are you using a chakra pool of points or a chakra stress track?

Pool. As I said, that part wasn't ready for prime time and hadn't been properly integrated.

Inferno Vulpix · Nov 12, 2017

Unlike the average sealsmith, Iron Nerve holders may attempt to verify other people's blanks and blanks that they are not capable of infusing, as long as they have the seal stored in their 'Instant Seal Recall' library. You would only need to verify a blank if (a) if you were not sure that you had made a successful Calligraphy roll for this seal or (b) someone else drew the blank.

Does this mean that Hazou can tell if a seal (that he knows) is drawn correctly without spending the greater-than-it-takes-to-write-in-the-first-place time inspecting it most sealsmiths need?

Because if so, we could hire civilians, teach them calligraphy enough to write an explosive seal, and have five or ten civilians working a full-time job with the output rate of a sealsmith, and Hazou can just infuse the seals that aren't done wrong at the end of the day and sell them.

I can see why the Kurosawa wouldn't want to do this even if they had the idea (civilian seal blank makers being a thoroughly 'wat' idea) since it would give away their seal prowess, so unless I'm mistaken somewhere we have a way to crash the explosive seal stock market and improve every Leaf-nin's loadout without even touching the printing press.

Raxner · Nov 12, 2017

Inferno Vulpix said:
Does this mean that Hazou can tell if a seal (that he knows) is drawn correctly without spending the greater-than-it-takes-to-write-in-the-first-place time inspecting it most sealsmiths need?

Because if so, we could hire civilians, teach them calligraphy enough to write an explosive seal, and have five or ten civilians working a full-time job with the output rate of a sealsmith, and Hazou can just infuse the seals that aren't done wrong at the end of the day and sell them.

I can see why the Kurosawa wouldn't want to do this even if they had the idea (civilian seal blank makers being a thoroughly 'wat' idea) since it would give away their seal prowess, so unless I'm mistaken somewhere we have a way to crash the explosive seal stock market and improve every Leaf-nin's loadout without even touching the printing press.

If we ran with that, Hazo wouldn't even have to infuse them all. He could concentrate on checking them, and leave infusing the good ones to other sealsmiths. I'm not sure if that would improve efficiency, though--does anyone have the numbers to check on that?

faflec · Nov 12, 2017

Aren't all seals unique to the sealmaster, as in Hazou can't infuse Kagome's storage seals and vis versa?

Inferno Vulpix · Nov 12, 2017

Raxner said:
If we ran with that, Hazo wouldn't even have to infuse them all. He could concentrate on checking them, and leave infusing the good ones to other sealsmiths. I'm not sure if that would improve efficiency, though--does anyone have the numbers to check on that?

Infusion takes negligible time, Hazou even did an infusion at the start of combat way back when. We could have the seal blank corps make Kagome-brand seals or Jiraiya-brand seals, but all that really does is increase the logistical complexity.

Winged_One · Nov 12, 2017

faflec said:
Aren't all seals unique to the sealmaster, as in Hazou can't infuse Kagome's storage seals and vis versa?

Jiraya infused our seals, so no.

Inferno Vulpix · Nov 12, 2017

Winged_One said:
Jiraya infused our seals, so no.

It's a QM ruling, though one they haven't had need to be very strict on because you generally always write seals in your own style.

Now, if we drew seals in Jiraiya's style (which we have done), then he could infuse them no problem. After all, they're drawn exactly the same way he draws them, so there's no difference between one he drew and one we drew.

faflec · Nov 12, 2017

Winged_One said:
Jiraya infused our seals, so no.

I thought Jiraiya infused the seals we made using Iron Nerve, but are actually "his" seals?

Raxner · Nov 12, 2017

Inferno Vulpix said:
Infusion takes negligible time, Hazou even did an infusion at the start of combat way back when. We could have the seal blank corps make Kagome-brand seals or Jiraiya-brand seals, but all that really does is increase the logistical complexity.

I suppose long-term (as in, once Hazo's kids and eventually grandkids are old enough to learn sealsmithing), Leaf!IronNerveUsers could do this on a really massive scale.

Cariyaga · Nov 12, 2017

faflec said:
I thought Jiraiya infused the seals we made using Iron Nerve, but are actually "his" seals?

This. Hazou is capable of drawing others' seal blanks with Iron Nerve.

Winged_One · Nov 12, 2017

Winged_One said:
Do we know how parallel should the force wall seals be for the wall to work? Since they are positioned by human hands they can't require perfect parallel allignment (neither human eyes nor human hands are perfectly precise, and having to position them on uneven ground can't help), but how big of an error can they really take? A one degree angle can probably be seen with ninja vision, but what about 0.1 degree? A hundredth of a degree? I doubt any human can see a 0.1 degree difference on lines that are a meter apart.

E.g. here is a picture of two lines with 0.1 degree difference between them:

Here is one with a 1 degree difference:

Here is one with 10 degree difference, and I can just barely see it, but then again-not a ninja:

I picked the 100:4 vertical:horizontal scale because seals are probably about 4cm long and put at least 1m away from one another, making noticing angle between them about as difficult.

I'd really like some sort of answer please

, potential implications for civilian industry are rather massive. Given our whole "uplift" goal, that's pretty important.

Cariyaga · Nov 12, 2017

Winged_One said:
I'd really like some sort of answer please , potential implications for civilian industry are rather massive. Given our whole "uplift" goal, that's pretty important.

Annoyingly precise alignment, but not impossibly. What's your idea wrt civilian industry?

Winged_One · Nov 12, 2017

Cariyaga said:
Annoyingly precise alignment, but not impossibly. What's your idea wrt civilian industry?

Need a number. Can't math things out with "annoyingly precise". Also will share when math is ready.

Cariyaga · Nov 12, 2017

Winged_One said:
Need a number. Can't math things out with "annoyingly precise". Also will share when math is ready.

If it's necessary for your plan, it's impossible to make a vacuum chamber with them because there would be a seal's-distance between the force walls by necessity.

@eaglejarl @Velorien @OliWhail Do we have any idea how precisely-aligned force wall seals have to be?

On another note, as has been brought up as a concern repeatedly in the discord: Declarations and aspects in general are imminently munchkinable and if you go through with this system munchkining of them should be expected.

eaglejarl · Nov 12, 2017

Interlude: Team Clanless Sparring

The new rules system is still being tied down and we don't have character sheets for any of the people in this update, nor for their special techniques and advantages. Therefore, the specific rules implementations that follow should be considered as correct in their general form but perhaps not in their specifics. In particular, the Gentle Fist probably won't end up working like this.

"Morning, Kiba," Sakura said, smiling at the boy as she walked past him. "Are you feeling better today? Gōketsu really hit you hard; I was worried that you might not be able to talk after the way he punched you in the throat."

Kiba snarled. "He just got lucky! We were going easy on them after the way we spanked them in the first round."

"Absolutely," Sakura said, nodding soberly. "Lucky shot."

Kiba shot her a suspicious look. "Damn straight!"

"And those seals he used in the second round? Totally cheating. I mean, sure, it completely punked your whole team, but that's hardly fair. How are you supposed to match up to a clan that's richer than yours and has a legendary sealmaster as its head?" She hesitated. "Oh, actually...well, I guess Gōketsu Hazō is also a sealmaster, isn't he? He probably made a lot of those seals himself, so it's not entirely unfair for him to use them. Still, hardly the sort of thing to pull out during a spar. It's not like you guys had a real shot at countering it, you know? What were you supposed to learn from getting smacked around like a bunch of chumps?"

"Hey!"

"She is baiting you, Kiba," Shino said, adjusting his glasses. "Why? Because you make yourself an easy target."

"He really does," Sakura said cheerily. "Hazards of being stupid as well as ugly, I guess. Well, time to go get ready. See you on the field, Kiba—and don't worry, I promise I won't punch you in the throat." She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. "That's her job."

"Sakura, be nice!" Akane said. "This sort of cattiness is not youthful." She paused. "Although it's true that melee combat is my role on this team so I suppose that yes, actually, punching people in the throat is my job." She smiled comfortingly. "Have no fear though—I feel that throat punches are most unyouthful, so I will instead punch you in the face."

"Hey!"

Sakura laughed and skipped onto the field before Kiba could marshal a proper comeback.

o-o-o-o

(*) NB: Translating the characters from the old system to the new is going to be a delicate process. For the purposes of this update and only for this update, I'm going to do the following:

Akane uses all the same numbers as from the old system. Her numbers will probably end up lower in the final analysis.
Initiative is usually Alertness with Athletics as tiebreaker. For Akane and only for Akane and only for this update I'm going to do it the other way around (Athletics first, then Alertness), since this better models the system she was built under. Everyone else will continue to be Alertness and then Athletics.
Youthful Fist of the Mythological Beast that is Really Strong and Tough will work like this: Akane rolls her Physique against her opponent's Physique and adds any positive shifts to her Taijutsu attack if she hits. This conflict cannot be influenced by Fate Points or tags.
Gentle Fist will work like this: Each time a Gentle Fist user who is using their Byakugan hits you with Taijutsu, you automatically get an Aspect ("Gunked-Up Tenketsu", then "More Gunked-Up Tenketsu", then "Sage's Sideburns, My Tenketsu are Stuffed With Snot!", then finally "I Really Hate the Gentle Fist", "I Really Really Hate the Gentle Fist", "I Really Really Really Hate the Gentle Fist" and so on). Every round, any Gentle Fist user who is fighting you with their Byakugan active gets a tag on each such Aspect you have. These tags can only be used for attacking you with the Gentle Fist and cannot be passed to others. The Aspects clear in 30-60 minutes.
Under normal circumstances, Kiba's super-smelling powers give him +2 against genjutsu whenever his nose could reasonably apply and the caster lacks super-smelling powers. If he fails to notice a genjutsu then on the following round, Akamaru will automatically notice that Kiba is acting weird and signal him, at which point Kiba gets a tag on the fragile Aspect "Something's Not Right..." and gets to make another detection roll in addition to the one he gets by default for that round.
An active Byakugan provides +8 against genjutsu cast by anyone who isn't a Byakugan user.
Each of the seven Aspects on your character sheet can only be invoked once per scene. Other Aspects can be used as often as you can pay for.

Initiative (Alertness, Athletics [except for Akane]):

Akane (20,30) (*listed in same order as everyone else but applied in opposite order)
Sakura (29,24)
Hinata (28,26)
Shino (27,26)
Haru (26,26)
Kiba (24,28)

Akane tries to take Hinata out before she can use that hax Gentle Fist...

Akane, Youthful Fist of the Mythological Beast That is Really Strong and Tough (Physique): 24 + 4dF: 30
Hinata, Physique: 20 + 4dF: 23.
Akane gets 3 shifts which will be added to her Taijutsu roll if she hits.

Akane (Taijutsu + invoke "YOUTH!" for +4 vs Hinata): 36 + 4 + 4dF = 37
Hinata (Taijutsu + invoke "Budding Mistress of the Gentle Fist" for +3): 29 + 3 + 4dF = 33
Akane gets 2 shifts, plus the 3 from Youthful Fist of the Mythological Beast That is Really Strong and Tough.
Hinata takes 5 stress, filling her (3-box) track and giving her a "Battered" Consequence (Mild) which causes a -2 injury CM

Hinata tries to take Sakura out before she can use that aggravating mindwhammy...

Hinata (Taijutsu vs Sakura): 29 + 4dF -2 : 27
Sakura (Athletics + invoke "I'm Not The Load", dodge): 26 + 3 + 4dF: 35
Sakura dodges

Sakura would like to take out Hinata as the most dangerous of the three, but the BS hax++ that is the Byakugan makes that a fool's errand. Instead, she goes after Kiba because Shino could be convinced to surrender if his team starts losing but Kiba is too stubborn...

Sakura, 29 + 4dF = 32. Genjutsu on Kiba: "Double Teamed!"
Kiba, Alertness 24 + 4dF + 2 (sensory bonus): 29
Kiba gains the Aspect "Double Teamed!" Sakura passes the tag to Haru

Haru kicks Kiba's teeth in...

Haru (Taijutsu + tag "Double Teamed!" + invoke "Fuck the Clans!" + invoke "Vicious Scrapper"): 26 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 4dF: 38
~~Kiba (Taijutsu, no invoke due to "Hyper Confident" Aspect): 24 + 4dF: 18~~
Kiba rerolls!
Kiba (Taijutsu, no invoke due to "Hyper Confident" Aspect): 24 + 4dF: 24
Haru gets 5 shifts, Kiba takes the Consequence "Off Balance" (Mild) and 3 stress on his 3-box track. He has a -2 CM due to injury

Shino sees what Akane just did to Hinata and decides that his favorite sunny place needs some help...

Shino (Insect Control technique, used as a Maneuver to place "Aggghhhhh! Getemoffgetemoffgetemoff!!!" on Akane. Invoke "Scion of the Aburame"): 26 + 3 + 4dF: 35
Akane (Athletics, dodge): 20 + 4dF: auto fail
Akane gains the Aspect "Aggghhhhh! Getemoffgetemoffgetemoff!!!" Shino passes the tag to Hinata

Kiba, pissed off by having his teeth kicked in and too stupid to bow out, takes his shot...

Kiba (Fang over Fang + invoke "Bloody-Minded Brawler" - Mild Consequence) vs Haru: 24 + 3 - 2 + 4dF: 25
~~Haru (Taijutsu + invoke "Stone Cold"): 26 + 3 + 4dF: 23~~
Haru rerolls!
Haru (Taijutsu + invoke "Will of Fire"): 26 + 3 + 4dF: 32
Haru gets 3 shifts. Kiba's stress track is full so he either needs to be taken out or soak it with two Consequences. Being a stubborn cusshead, he takes the Consequences "Damaged Hip" (Moderate) and "Bruised Liver" (Severe). He has a (-2 - 3 - 6 =) -11 injury CM and one more stress will take him out.

Round 2, fight!

Akane is still engaged with Hinata and covered in bugs, but she'll shoot across the field to put the finishing blow on Kiba so that Haru can move on...

Akane (fires macerators (Taij + 6) at Kiba): 42 - 2 (distraction CM) + 4dF: auto success
Kiba is taken out.

Hinata, stop going after Ms Forehead! Akane is the dangerous one!

~~Hinata (Taij vs Akane, tag "Aggghhhhh! Getemoffgetemoffgetemoff!!!" + invoke "I Will Prove Myself!"): 26 + 3 + 3 - 2 + 4dF: 18~~
Hinata rerolls!
Hinata (Taij vs Akane, invoke "Aggghhhhh! Getemoffgetemoffgetemoff!!!", invoke "Will of Fire"): 26 + 3 + 3 - 2 + 4dF: 36
Akane (Taij): 36 + 4dF: 48 Holy crap!
Akane gets 4 shifts. Hinata could stay in the game if she took a Moderate and Severe Consequence, but chooses to be taken out so as not to be injured for the Exams

Sakura gently suggests to Shino that perhaps this is not the ideal time to be using his insects...

Sakura (Genjutsu vs Shino to set "Haru Lightningballed Your Swarm". Invoke "Brains Win Battles, Not Glory"): 26 + 3 + 4dF: 26
Shino (Alertness): 26 + 4dF: 17
Shino cannot reroll an anti-genjutsu check
Shino gains "Haru Lightningballed Your Swarm". Sakura passes the tag to Haru

Haru delights in having yet another chance to enter into reasoned discourse with a high-ranked clan member about the various economic and sociopolitical concerns Haru holds in regard to how the village of Leaf is structured in its role as a soverign polity...

Haru (Taijutsu vs Shino + tag "Haru Lightningballed Your Swarm"): 26 + 3 + 4dF: 26
Shino (Taijutsu): 24 + 4dF: 21
Shino takes 2 stress on his 3-box track

Shino decides that perhaps Haru has a point about the nature of Leaf's organizational structure, and that maybe this is a good time to get some tea and sit quietly somewhere far away from this discussion.

Shino: Surrenders

"Team Kurenai versus Team Clanless! Round one, fight!" Kurenai-sensei slashed her hand downward and then leaped back to the edge of the field.

Kiba charged, splitting left as Hinata went right, her lithe grace allowing her to sprint ahead of him as always. Shino kept to mid-range, most of his insects going up and forward. It left the enemy no good options, surrounded on three sides and above.

The Clanless kids—and didn't that name just say everything you needed to know!—split, their fighters going to meet their opposite numbers while Sakura-the-weakling just stood there, looking at him with fear on her face. Sage's saltlick, what a pain it would be to have a useless lump like her for a teammate! She couldn't fight worth a damn and could barely pull off two jutsu without falling over from chakra exhaustion. She'd made it through the Academy purely on tricks and traps and book smarts, and those didn't work so well outside the classroom.

He came together with Haru in a furious but indecisive clash, both of them smashing at the other and both blocking everything. They maneuvered for advantage, the fight shifting around the field as each tried and failed to land a meaningful blow.

Haru was just starting his next attack when Sakura suddenly cut a Tiger seal and yelled "Water Element: Water Clone!" She promptly fell to her knees, gasping, apparently having put all of her energy into the technique.

Kiba didn't have a lot of time to notice Sakura's discomfiture because he suddenly had bigger problems in the form of another Sakura rising out of a puddle beside and slightly behind him, coming into existence with her leg chambered for a front kick. Fortunately, the girl had screwed up by making the clone just a little bit too soon. Had she waited another fraction of a second the clone would have been fully behind him and he wouldn't have seen the kick coming; she'd probably been more concerned about making sure the clone got a swing in instead of focusing on perfect placement. He frantically dove forward and rolled, curling tight to ensure that Akamaru didn't get squashed and to finish the revolution faster because Haru was already on top of him and mid-roll was a very bad place to be.

Very privately, and very grudgingly, he had to admit that the clone was a slick and gutsy move; he'd noticed the small puddle in the dirt as he came forward but hadn't thought anything of it. Now he had a sneaking suspicion that Sakura had planted it there just so she'd have a water source to use to make a clone, since a surprise assault was the only chance she had of making a positive contribution against ninja of Team Kurenai's quality. Maybe tricks could sometimes work outside a classroom.

He was out of the roll and rising to his feet when Haru leapt. Lightning sprouted from his fists as he came down, shaping itself into a pair of studded bucklers, one on each fist. The first caught Kiba across the face and knocked him sprawling, but he turned the motion into a backroll that took him just out of reach of Haru's vicious axe-kick followup. Kiba struggled back to his feet, the effects of the lightning leaving his body far away and spastic. He staggered, gasping at the pain and throwing out defensive strikes that were never going to land but just needed to hold the little shit off for a second and holy crap that guy hit hard.

Rage burned through him, washing the pain away. There was no way that Haru was good enough to match Kiba in a straight-up fight, but the fact that he got one lucky shot in (only when helped by Sakura's stupid trick!) meant that Kiba was going to get razzed by his teacher and his family for months. Fine, let's see how the festering turd liked being on the receiving end! Time to show him what it meant to face off against the greatest member of the Clan of the Hound's current generation!

"Man-Beast Ultimate Taijutsu: Fang Over Fang!"

The world vanished into a spinning smear, the shriek of Akamaru's fangs splitting the air as the two of them revolved. They'd need to be careful not to actually kill this little piece of crap, but he wasn't going to the Exams so it was okay to mess him up a little if—

The world slammed to an agonizing stop as the enemy twisted aside from the incoming strike and smashed one of his lightning bucklers into Kiba's chin with an uppercut so powerful that it reversed his spin. The impact left him hanging face-up in midair for a split second before Haru twisted back with a vicious Earth Crusher strike that slammed the studs on the fucking lightning buckler into Kiba's hip and slammed his body down into a vicious rising knee to the liver.

Kiba hit the ground hard, the pain making the world white out around him. Years of unrelenting discipline forced him to roll aside and a burst of chakra repulsion allowed him to bound six feet away and onto his feet, giving him the single instant he needed to gather himself again and get back into the fight. Maybe this guy wasn't a complete chump, maybe—

All thought vanished as something smashed him in the side of the head and the world went black.

o-o-o-o

Akane shifted her weight, eager to get started. This would be her first serious team-on-team spar and she was nerv...er...anxious to show off her youth! Yes! Definitely, what she was feeling was anticipation and delight at the opportunity to be youthful!

"Stay cool and follow the plan," Sakura muttered, not moving her lips and keeping her eyes locked on Kiba where he stood on the other side of the field. A glance at her teammate left Akane feeling alarmed at how scared Sakura looked...or it would have, if they hadn't been planning and rehearsing this for the last two days, right down to the facial expressions. (Watching Mari-sensei drilling Sakura had been hilarious. Akane had forgotten just how mischievious her redheaded teacher could be.)

Kurenai Yūhi stood between the two groups, one hand upraised as she looked back and forth to make sure they were both ready. When she got nods from both sides she slashed her hand down, shouting "Team Kurenai versus Team Clanless! Round one, fight!" before bounding to the safety of the field's edge.

The enemy moved just as Sakura had predicted they would; Kiba went right as Hinata went left, Shino four steps behind them in the center with his swarm climbing up and over. Hinata was the fastest, her face completely calm and the bulging veins in her forehead showing that her bloodline was active.

"By the power of YOUTH!"

Akane's battlecry catapulted her forward to meet Hinata, the joy of battle surging in her veins, all nervousness forgotten now that battle was joined. Hinata was by far the most dangerous member of her team and she needed to be put down fast if Team Clanless was going to have a shot. Putting her down was Akane's job.

Hinata was just as good as her reputation, her footwork flawless as she slid away from each of Akane's strikes. She used no opposition and barely any deflection, opting instead for evasion. She moved the barest minimum, each strike missing her by the width of a hair, and each evasion was paired with a chakra-infused jab at the striking limb. The jabs hurt, foreign chakra sending pain through Akane's legs and arms. Cold, heat, pressure—the sensation was unrecognizable but briefly agonizing. Akane found herself grinning; Hinata was brilliant! What a perfect opponent, her youth shining forth in a display of skill so great it managed to make an insanely difficult art seem effortless! No wonder she had dominated most of her peers in the Academy.

Unfortunately for Hinata, this wasn't the Academy and Akane wasn't her peer.

Two years ago, before fleeing Leaf, Akane had been mediocre, barely squeaking into the top half of the class. But now, after two years of intensive daily practice with Hazō, Mari-sensei, and the others? After fighting for her life every day against foes beyond the imagination of a Leaf genin? Now things were different. Very different.

She ignored the pain and pressed forward. Brilliant as she was, Hinata was overmatched and she clearly knew it. She was giving ground constantly, the fight twisting across the field as she frantically tried to regain the initiative. The tiny hits she was managing to get in were hurried, too imprecise to jam Akane's tenketsu closed, and she was paying in kind for each of those hits. For every agonizing spike of pain in her wrist Akane delivered a punishing blow to the body. For every excruciating strike into her thigh or calf, she gave Hinata another bruise on the face. Neither of them were landing anything definitive, but pain was an old friend of Akane's and it wasn't going to get the job done. Hinata's calm was starting to crack as she visibly realized she wasn't going to win this fight as it was. Akane saw the instant that Hinata realized that, but wasn't fast enough to stop the changeup.

"Hey!" Akane yelped as Hinata ducked under an elbow smash and disengaged, racing towards Sakura. Akane blurred after her.

Hinata's hands flashed in a Gentle Fist combo that would have left Sakura on the ground and helpless had it landed, but the pink-haired girl threw herself aside, using chakra repulsion to bounce in an unpredictable zig-zag that kept her just ahead of the rush.

She stayed ahead of Hinata's attack for the half a second that Akane needed to get there and then she turned away, trusting her teammate to take care of it. Instead, Sakura turned to where Haru and Kiba were just coming together.

"Water Element: Water Clone!" Sakura shouted. She strained, all her strength clearly pouring into the technique, before falling to her knees gasping. For a moment Akane was alarmed; her teammate hadn't really cast a water clone, had she? That wasn't the plan, but that really looked like someone on the edge of chakra exhaustion.

She didn't have the time to check, because just as she was about to re-engage Hinata the world went dark. A sleeting, buzzing cloud of insects swarmed over Akane's body, pushing into her ears and nose and trying to get into her eyes and mouth. The erstwhile member of Team Uplift fought down panic and forced herself not to yell in fear. She slitted her eyes, swiped at her face to clear the bugs away, and jumped back away from the Gentle Fist strike that she knew was about to wreck her if she didn't get out of the way.

The swarm moved with her, but she managed to get close enough to the edge to see more clearly. From the corner of her eye she saw Haru smash Kiba's hip in and slam a knee into the smaller boy's liver. Akane winced; the liver hurt, a lot, but hip injuries were almost as painful and far more dangerous. They slowed you down, and a slow ninja was a dead ninja. Haru might be enjoying this chance to beat on clan kids just a little too much.

Quickly, she raised a hand and triggered the topmost macerator seal in her blast ring. A chunk of metal half the size of her fist slashed across the field and slammed into Kiba's head, dropping him to the ground like a sack of potatoes that had had their granupositors cut off.

Sparing the attention was costly, because Hinata was on her again, seeking to take advantage of Akane's momentary distraction. Akane threw herself aside from the double-fist strike to her chest, barely blocked the two-finger strike into the nerve cluster on her deltoid, ignored the pain from the crane's beak to her mastoid, and punched Hinata's head off, barely remembering to pull the blow.

The white-eyed girl was knocked back and out, hitting the ground hard. The veins around her eyes receded as her bloodline automatically deactivated. No sooner had she stopped moving than the insects swirled up and away, zipping back to where their controller was struggling under the impact of Haru's killing intent.

Akane checked to make sure that Hinata was breathing steadily, then bounded off to help her teammate, although she suspected—yup, Haru had it well in hand. The boy wasn't rich, wasn't a lot of fun, and was too serious, but he could fight. He had an up-close-and-personal style that often took 'personal' way too literally. His form was ragged in a few places and he occasionally overextended, but he had a single-minded brutality and a bottomless well of killing intent that made up for it. Even in a spar his ferocity and lethal purpose battered at the mind, making it hard to focus, hard to stay with the smooth ebb and flow of movement that kept defenses strong and made attacks effective.

Shino clearly felt the impact of that killing intent, because he was slow to dodge. Haru's first strike landed, a solid hit to the chest and head that sent the insect-user skidding backwards and dropped him to the ground. Haru pounced, only to have to stumble to a clumsy halt when Shino raised his hands in surrender.

"I yield!" Shino said.

o-o-o-o

Haru stood motionless, outwardly calm as he waited for the fight to start. Inwardly, he was struggling to keep the smile off his face. Today was a good day. The weather was nice, the sky clear, and he was going to get to kick in the teeth of a clan kid and not just one but two clan heirs.

Well, one. He had no illusions that he could stand up to Hinata. He'd seen her spar, and she was better than he was. Even before you considered the bullshit powers that had been granted to her through a happy accident of birth, yet still allowed her to believe she was morally superior to anyone who hadn't been so blessed.

Kurenai Yūhi stood between the two groups, one hand upraised as she looked back and forth to make sure they were both ready. When she got nods from both sides she slashed her hand down, shouting "Team Kurenai versus Team Clanless! Round one, fight!" before bounding to the safety of the field's edge.

Haru lips skinned back in a snarl of vicious delight and he leaped forward to meet Kiba. Of all the clan kids, Inuzuka Kiba was the one Haru was most looking forward to grinding into the mud. The little asshole thought he was the second coming of the Sage, strutting around with his chest puffed out and brags on his lips. Everything handed to him, everything easy. Trainers since birth, plenty of food and plenty of clothes, family power smoothing his way at every step.

The distance between them vanished and he let himself revel in the joy of strike and counter. For just a moment, he wondered if he could take the punk on his own without need of help. How satisfying would it be—

No. Discipline. Stick to the plan.

He shifted, giving ground in order to lure Kiba to the wet place where, well before dawn today, Sakura had dumped out several gallons of water. He watched for the water out of the corner of his eye, maneuvered Kiba into the perfect spot and got ready for his chance.

Behind him, Sakura shouted the powerless words to a jutsu she didn't know as a cover for the genjutsu taught to her by that laughing, brilliant, wonderfully evil red-headed witch. Kiba's eyes flicked to the side and back, widening at what he imagined that he saw. He threw himself forward into a roll and Haru went up, cutting handseals and banging his fists together to summon forth the power that was his by right of pain and sweat and effort instead of gifted to him by birth. Kiba was barely back on his feet when Haru smashed his right-hand buckler through the little brat's face with the entire strength of his body and force of his leap behind it. He took care to aim for the jaw instead of the temple; worst case, the kid would be eating his meals through a straw for a few weeks instead of having his head caved in.

He'd give Kiba this; the kid was tough, and skilled. He saw the blow coming and threw himself back, slipping the majority of the impact and ducking his head so that most of it hit his shoulder instead of his face. Haru spun the lightning around the rim of the buckler; the rage that he kept chained in his soul bared its fangs in delight as Kiba staggered back, muscles spastic and body off balance. Haru followed close, not giving the enemy time to catch up. He needed to put Kiba down fast if he wanted to have a shot at Shino before Akane got to him.

He wasn't quite fast enough. Kiba managed to make just enough space to regain his balance and go back on the offense with a shouted "Man-Beast Ultimate Taijutsu: Fang Over Fang!" The dog on his head barked and the two began to spin, faster and faster until they blurred together. The blur launched itself at him, the air screaming as it was torn apart by secret clan jutsu.

Haru imagined he could feel the world slow around himself as the man/dog whirlwind flew at him. He swayed aside and dropped, coiling himself up and then unwinding into an uppercut that blasted Kiba out of his technique. Haru twisted, turning his hips and pulling down with chakra adhesion as he smashed the studs on his buckler deep into the bones of his enemy's hip. He twisted his hand on impact, ripping the wound wider. The liver was wide open and perfectly placed for a knee but the body mechanics were against him; a knee strike wasn't going to have force behind it.

Well, not if you fought like a civilian.

Chakra repulsion sufficient to jump ten feet straight up, all directed through one foot, sent his knee up like a festival rocket. Kiba cried out but didn't stop; he rolled aside from Haru's followup stamp and back to his feet. He was weaving like a drunkard and there was already a bruise the size of a lemon on his face, but he was obviously still ready to scrap. Haru grinned and moved forward—

One of Akane's lead shot hit Kiba in the head and dropped him like a string-cut puppet.

"Damnit, Akane, I had it!" Haru shouted over his shoulder as he flung himself at Shino. He allowed the rage to flare up within himself, letting it reach out with blood-drenched claws that tore into the clan scion's brain with whispered promises of death and pain, of shattered bones and crippled hands, of eyes spitted on red-hot forks and tongues ripped from the mouth.

Shino staggered under the impact and waved frantically at his swarm, pulling it away from Akane and sending it at Haru in a buzzing column so dense it blocked all sight.

"Lightning Element: Lightning Bullet!" Haru shouted, dismissing his lightning bucklers so he could cut the actual handseals for an actual technique that really did exist and which Haru had no idea how to actually perform. He thrust both palms forward, bracing himself as though pushing a massive weight. He felt utterly ridiculous and could only pray that Sakura would be on her mark.

She was.

Shino screamed and staggered, jaw gaping open in shock and pain as his eyes, overriden by Sakura's genjutsu, told him that his entire swarm had burned to a crisp in a crackling burst of lightning, their ashes drifting to the ground in its wake. The scream made his actually-unharmed swarm hesitate, swirling in confused circles for a moment. Haru was past the bugs and on Shino before the other genin could recognize what had actually happened. A leaping knee to the collarbone and a 12-6 elbow to the head threw Shino back and down. Haru was on him before he hit the ground, hand cocked to punch right through his smug, condescending, clan-privileged fa—

"I yield!" Shino said, raising both hands.

Haru was so surprised he barely managed to abort his punch and ended up sprawling clumsily to the side. Damnit!

"A most youthful performance, Haru!" Akane said, bounding up with a wide smile and a hand extended to help him up. He took the hand, a part of him still marveling at the insane strength in the girl's solid but not blocky body.

"Indeed," Kurenai said from behind him. Haru turned quickly to find the jōnin kneeling over the still unconscious Kiba. "You really did a number on him, kid."

He gave a small but respectful bow. "He was a tough opponent, ma'am." He kept his face calm and his voice level while inside the rage snarled and gnawed on its own leg. You always had to kiss ass with the clans, especially when you'd just beaten one of their precious kids to a bloody pulp.

Kurenai snorted. "Not tough enough, apparently. I'm going to get my team to the hospital, so I don't think we'll be having a round two." She flicked a series of handseals and three clones appeared; seconds later the two unconscious genin were loaded onto stretchers produced from a storage scroll. A few seconds more and all traces of Team Kurenai and their teacher were gone, except for some blood spatter on the grass where Kiba had gone down.

Haru looked at the spot thoughtfully. Kiba would be fine; he'd been breathing well and Kurenai had shown no particular alarm after checking him over. Haru was glad to know that; the Will of Fire would not allow him to seriously injure another Leaf ninja, not even a clan member. Still, the rage in his soul, temporarily sated into introspective quiescence, felt that the red accents on sun-dappled green made for a lovely picture.

Haruno Sakura
High Concept: Determined Underdog
Trouble: I'm Not The Load!
Civilian-born Ninja
Less Power, More Control
A Subtle Team Leader Is You
Words Cut Deeper than Kunai
Brains Win Battles, Not Glory

Skills
Alertness: 26
Athletics: 26
Genjutsu: 26
Physique: 15 (2 box stress track)
~various others~

High Concept: Determined Underdog

Sakura has struggled throughout her life. Her strengths are not things that Leaf respects and her weaknesses are all too visible. She's a girl in a warrior profession. She isn't rich, she isn't stylish, and she isn't a stunning beauty. Her chakra reserves are mediocre at best. She's not physically strong or tough.

Sure, she never got a single question wrong in school, ever. Sure, her chakra control is better than that of most jōnin. 'So what?', she is constantly told. Tests don't let you kill the enemy. No one ever won a battle because they had perfect chakra control. 'Give up', people say. 'Go work in the hospital as a medic', they say. After all, genjutsu and medicine and seduction missions are all that kunoichi are good for, right?

She'll show them. She'll show them all.

Trouble: I'm Not The Load!

For some insane reason, when Sakura graduated from the Academy she was put on a team with the Sharingan-equipped Last Uchiha and the jinchūriki son of the Fourth Hokage. There was literally no one in their graduating class who could possibly have kept up with those two, and trying didn't do much for Sakura's self-image. Fortunately, their instructor was Nakamura Dai, a skilled and experienced ninja with a long field career and five years as an instructor in the Academy. He did everything he could to help her, most importantly convincing her that not being able to fight on an even footing with demigods was not a personal failing and that her intellect was equally as valuable as the ability to punch through walls. She blossomed under his tutelage, carving out a role for herself as the team's tactician and analyst. Her teammates were quite capable of delivering overwhelming force, but utterly incapable of doing anything quietly or diplomatically. With Sakura running ops the team became far more efficient and their mission portfolio expanded. Despite this, she was always the weakest member of the team and no one ever allowed her to forget it.

Where Do You Come From?: Civilian-born Ninja

Sakura was one of only a dozen children in her year whose parents were civilians, and the only one who had never had a ninja in the family before. It had never even dawned on her parents that their baby might be a ninja and they had no preparation for it. Her abilities didn't get identified until late and she didn't get the sort of training-from-when-you-can-walk assistance that her classmates got. What she did get was love, acceptance, and total support.

Ninja die, early and often. Civilian-born ninja die sooner and more often because they lack the edge that a clan provides. No one was willing to get close to Sakura; for many it was because they knew she wouldn't be able to advance their careers and they preferred to spend their time 'more effectively'. For others it was because they didn't want to set themselves up for pain by forming an emotional connection to someone who was almost certainly going to die during her first year in the field. When teams were chosen, she was picked last. When teams were assigned, her teammates groaned and told her to stay out of the way. Her suggestions were overlooked or dismissed, and when credit was given her part was typically downplayed.

The gross unfairness of this was infuriating, but complaining never got you anywhere. She refused to give up and powered on.

What Shaped You?: Less Power, More Control

Once Sakura was identified as a ninja she was thrust into a world where her peers were either crazy, politically connected, or both. Worse, all of them had larger chakra reserves and were therefore able to fight longer, hit harder, keep practicing their jutsu longer, and use jutsu that she couldn't. (Not that Academy students are taught high-chakra techniques, but it was obvious that this would be the case.)

Because of her low reserves she was considered a weakling and dismissed, by all the students and many of the instructors. She found ways to work around it, improving her chakra control in order to make maximum use of what she had. It turned out that she had a gift for control and rapidly outstripped even many jōnin...not that it won her much acclaim.

What Was Your First Adventure?: A Subtle Team Leader Is You

Two months after graduation, Team Seven was given their first real assignment: The son of a rich spice merchant from a small town outside of Leaf vanished. His father hired a team to locate the boy and kill who- or whatever had taken him. When they got to the site, Nakamura-sensei told the kids that they were in charge and he was simply going to observe. Sasuke and Naruto promptly started arguing about the best way to proceed. Sakura let them go for a while, then gently led them to the idea that interviewing some of the client's neighbors might be a good idea, and arranged for herself to be the one doing the talking. With the information in hand she spent ten minutes subtly guiding the boys into recognizing what she had figured out immediately: that the client's son, Jun, had been snatched by a local yakuza group in order to interrogate him regarding his father's business. She even managed to convince the boys to take a more nuanced approach to hostage rescue than 'swarm the place with clones and punch the bad guys until they stop moving.' As a result, Jun was recovered alive and the team developed a contact with the yakuza group in question.

Guest Starring: Words Cut Deeper than Kunai

Throughout their time in the Academy, Inuzuka Kiba was determined to get a date with the beautiful and glamorous queen bee of the school, Yamanaka Ino. Ino found Kiba uninteresting at best and repulsive at worst, but her political training kept her from alienating a boy who might well become a clan head one day. He refused to take hints or even outright statements of 'not interested'...until the day that Sakura laid it out for him, providing a detailed list of his many social and hygenic failings and a clear explanation of why no girl would want to date him. In front of most of the school. While reading from notecards, and making assorted helpful suggestions on how to go about fixing all the issues.

Since that day she's had a complicated relationship with Ino and a bad one with Kiba. On the other hand, her overall social standing in the school significantly improved and she started to make friends among the lower social strata.

Guest Starring, part 2: Brains Win Battles, Not Glory

At last year's Chūnin Exams both Naruto and Sasuke were promoted and Sakura wasn't. Nakamura-sensei explained later that she had the talent to be a good ninja but that she simply didn't have the experience to be a chūnin, and that the other two were being promoted for largely political reasons—it was important that the other villages see them as incredible prodigies in order to make Leaf look stronger. Sakura made a conscious choice not to look too closely at that story and to focus more on her training.

After her failure at the Exams she worked herself to death to earn another shot. She was placed with Akane and Haru; they lack the raw power of her former teammates but the three of them work far better together and she finds herself hopeful about this year's competition.

faflec · Nov 12, 2017

Genjutsu user, huh? Interesting.

We should probably get her an Air Dome seal if we haven't already.

Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

Head Engineer of ATHENA

Head Engineer of ATHENA

The most dangerous man in an empty room

Head Engineer of ATHENA

The most dangerous man in an empty room

Handsome Gentleperson

Head Engineer of ATHENA

Handsome Gentleperson

Head Engineer of ATHENA

Handsome Gentleperson