Remove ads

Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

Reader mode
Remove ads
Interlude (AU): What If Swamp Had Worked?
  • Apocrypha

    • "I told you this was a bad idea," Kaho hissed, shuddering with the effort of not struggling against her bindings. The chair she was tied to was a square-backed wooden thing, heavy, uncomfortable, and out of place among the comfortably padded seats that surrounded the table in Hokage Tower Conference Room Three.

    "It'll be fine," Shikigami said, calm as always. (It should have been reassuring but it was actually just annoying.) "They're not going to do anything to us until they've talked to us and once they talk to us they'll realize we're too useful to waste."

    Kaho shuddered, feeling the edges of her concentration waver. Small spaces were bad, confinement was worse. She needed to be able to move! But no, the ropes were too tight around her limbs and the strings that bound her thumbs and fingers together prevented her from making the handseals necessary to henge herself free. Not that that would be a good idea, anyway. There was only one door out, that door led into a hallway, and that hallway lead down some stairs past frighteningly competent guards and straight into the center of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, home to the most deadly ninja in the world. She wouldn't make it ten steps before she was mobbed.

    "Why did I go along with this?" she muttered. "Why am I even here?" The fear swam below her, its vague shape masked but not hidden by the still waters at the top of her mind. She tugged at the ropes, struggling to keep her breathing even.

    "You're here because I'm your commander and I ordered you to be here," Shikigami said. "It wasn't a request."

    "Why me, though?" Kaho asked, hating the hint of whine that she could hear in her own voice. "Why bring me?"

    "You're young, cute, and you have a sympathetic history," Shikigami said matter-of-factly. "It's not much, but I'll always take an edge."

    Kaho glared at him. "I am not 'cute'!"

    He snorted in amusement and, for the first time since they'd been left here, turned his head to look at her.

    "You're cute," he said firmly. "Adorable, even. Especially with your hair in two ponytails like that—makes you look about twelve. The Third is an old man and old men want grandkids. He'll know it's a ploy, he won't let it influence him, but it'll still put him in a good mood at the start of the negotiation. Probably amused that we would try such a thing and a little bit of condescending smugness at how transparent it is. It'll let him feel like he's pegged what level I play at."

    "Fuck you."

    Shikigami snorted again, still amused, and turned back to watch the door.

    Kaho glared. "I knew you were being shady when you told me to put it up like this. 'We want to blend in and this is the current fashion in Leaf,' you said. Current fashion my ass."

    "And an adorable ass it is," Shikigami said. "As Ueda has told you. Repeatedly. You really need to talk to him about volume control." He paused. "You might want to work on that yourself, actually. I need my sleep."

    Kaho's face flushed hotter than her fire jutsu. "Go die," she muttered.

    Shikigami chuckled. "There, see? Now you're not scared any more."

    She glared at him, eyes narrowed. "You manipulative son of a bitch."

    He shrugged as best he could given the strictures of the ropes. "Whatever works."

    Kaho grimaced. "Inoue told you to do that, didn't she? That redheaded witch."

    Shikigami tried to shrug and aborted the motion as it caused the ropes to constrict around his throat. "She did, yes. I just wish she was still here. She'd be way better at this."

    "You seem to be doing fine," said the Third Hokage, pushing the door open and walking through. Four steps behind him followed a trio of ANBU, faceless in their animal masks, but Kaho barely noticed them or the tea-tray-carrying genin behind them. She was too busy staring at the man two steps behind the Hokage: the Mist bingo books had done an excellent job of capturing the white hair, the barrel chest, and the red face paint worn by Jiraiya of the Legendary Three. Intellectually, she knew that the Third was the greater threat—not only was he an insanely powerful ninja in his own right but he could order their deaths with a twitch of his finger. Still, Jiraiya radiated far more menace. He was scowling, glaring at the two of them with eyes that stared straight through her soul, weighed it in the balance, and found it of no more import than a soap bubble.

    The Third lowered himself into the cushioned chair across the table from them, moving a little stiffly and sighing once he was settled. He nodded thankfully and smiled at the young genin as she set the tea tray down beside him. The girl bowed and vanished out the door. The Third looked fondly after her and then poured tea into three cups. The tea did not flow smoothly from the pot, as the hand that poured it had a faint tremor that caused a few drops to splash on the saucer instead of into the cup.

    "Don't get old," the Third confided to Kaho, shaking his head in rueful amusement as he dabbed up the spill with a linen napkin of such gleaming whiteness and fine weave that it had to have cost a pretty penny. (The message was clear: Leaf is so wealthy that I wipe up spilled tea with napkins good enough for a formal dinner.) "It's no fun, especially on frozen days like today. Makes the bones ache and the cold cuts right through you."

    She nodded, eyes wide and head bobbing convulsively until she forced herself to stop. She swallowed, struggling to preserve the still surface of her mind as the fear swam upwards, wide-spread jaws and serrated teeth becoming steadily more visible. Of course, the Hokage noticed.

    "Mongoose," the old man said in gentle reproof, "you didn't have to tie them that tight. They came to us for parley in good faith, they shouldn't be treated like prisoners. Remove the bindings, please."

    "Sensei," Jiraiya said warningly. "They're traitors. Missing-nin, no matter what airs they put on. Don't trust them."

    The Third waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, pish. Relax, Jiraiya. You're here, these three fine strapping ANBU are here, and I daresay that I'm not entirely helpless just yet. They just want to talk. Mongoose, if you please."

    The indicated ANBU had paused when Jiraiya spoke but now he moved around the table and knelt to undo Kaho's ropes. The action put his lips right beside her ear, allowing him to whisper so softly that probably no one else heard it: "Give me an excuse, traitor. Please."

    Kaho couldn't stop herself from shuddering violently as the ropes came free. She brought her hands in front of her, taking care to move slowly, and massaged her wrists while looking at her commander and hoping he could get them out of here.

    "Thank you for seeing us, sir," Shikigami said calmly, seeming not to notice the way the ropes were cutting into his throat as the ANBU tugged them loose a little more forcefully than necessary. "My name is—"

    "Shikigami, yes," the Third said, smiling. "You're well known to my intelligence department. There is an entire team of analysts who have lost a great deal of sleep working on ways to counter your paper arts. I must say that I'm glad to meet you across a table instead of across a battlefield."

    "Thank you, sir," Shikigami said gravely. "I feel the same."

    "So, what did you want to talk about?" As he spoke he slid two of the three cups of tea across the table; Kaho wrapped her hands around hers and let the heat sink in. She didn't dare try to drink from it, though. She needed to keep her arms on the table and her hands tight on the cup or her shaking would be visible; there was no way that she could drink without spilling.

    Shikigami touched the cup to his lips politely and then set it down. "Sir, I'm sure you know that we fled from Mist two years ago," he said, showing no sign of anything like the fear that clenched at Kaho's heart. "Mist is—was—our home, but the Mizukage was destroying it. He killed anyone who displeased him, he made bad choices, and he inspired a culture of fear and betrayal that only weakened us no matter what he claimed. Young Saito here"—he nodded towards Kaho—"came home from a mission a day later than expected, only to find that her younger brother had been tortured for an explanation of why she'd gone missing nin."

    The Hokage seemed shocked. "I am truly sorry, young lady," he said, patting Kaho's hand reassuringly. "That should never have happened."

    "One more good one," Jiraiya mumbled to himself.

    "What was that, Jiraiya?" the Hokage asked.

    "One more good Mist citizen, sensei," Jiraiya said. "You know, because the only good—"

    "Yes, yes," the Hokage said peevishly. "Honestly, Jiraiya. Be polite. This young woman suffered a tragedy, you shouldn't mock her for it."

    "Yes, sensei." An entire orchard of lemon trees would not have been so sour.

    "As I was saying," Shikigami said, "we were dispatched to conquer Noodle, with a primary aim of gaining farmland to supply Mist, but secondarily of securing a beachhead on the mainland as a staging ground for future warfare. And, of course, demonstrating our power to Fire and the rest of the nations."

    "It seems to have failed at its purpose," the Hokage observed, sipping from his teacup.

    Shikigami nodded curtly. "Yes, sir. Inoue Mari and I perpetrated a deception on the rest of the strike group. We planted documents in the commander's tent claiming that this was a suicide mission, that everyone here was a suspected traitor or troublemaker. We fled from there to the Swamp of Death, where we established a new village. A significant number of our people were killed or disappeared on the way in or shortly after we arrived, including Mari herself, but we managed to get a base established.

    "For the last two years we've been aggressively eliminating chakra beasts throughout the area as well as recruiting every missing-nin we could locate. Our senior medic-nin was killed on the way into the Swamp, but his apprentice survived. Mari and I had brought a load of medical texts and Hotaru was able to continue studying and improving, as well as training an apprentice of his own. Once we had two competent medics I began sending one out to minister to the local civilian population."

    He paused and studied the old man across the table from him for a moment. "Sir, I know that you have an excellent intelligence service. I would estimate that we've pulled something like ten or fifteen percent of all the missing nin in the Elemental Nations into Hidden Swamp, as well as killing thousands of dangerous chakra animals and curing dozens of people. I'm sure that Leaf has noticed the drop in crime and the increase in civilian survival and economic prosperity throughout the region around Swamp."

    The Hokage leaned back in his chair and sipped at his tea. "It's possible," he allowed. "There might have been a couple of reports crossing my desk on the subject." His eyes twinkled. "Also, I'm amused at the way you're attempting to establish legitimacy by referring to your group as a ninja village—'Hidden Swamp' instead of merely 'the swamp'. Well done on framing the discussion so smoothly."

    Shikigami nodded stiffly. "Thank you, sir. As I said, we've been a positive force on your border and we're prepared to continue being such. The area around us is better of for our presence and we're ideally situated to be a buffer between you, Grass, and Waterfall."

    "Grass is our ally and Waterfall is a friendly neutral. Why would we need a buffer?"

    "Alliances among ninja villages are fragile things," Shikigami said calmly. "They don't last forever."

    "Well, that's a valid point, I suppose." The Hokage fussed with the teapot, pouring himself another cup and offering more to the Swamp ninja, despite the fact that both their cups were still brimming.

    "Your point about alliances is well-taken," the Hokage said. "Still, I'm not clear on what exactly you're asking for?"

    "Client-state status, sir," Shikigami said. "Cede us the land in the immediate area—it's bad land and no value to you except insofar as it defines the border with Grass and Waterfalls. I very much doubt that Leaf ninja enjoy patrolling around there and if you give it to us then it becomes our problem. We'll keep it free of chakra beasts and enemy ninja incursions. We'll care for the local population such that they can be more productive. With us watching over them full-time they'll be able to pay more taxes than they do now. We'll collect the taxes locally and pay you twenty five percent more than the average you've received over the last twenty years."

    The Third's eyebrow went up. "You think that you can care for those people better than we can?" he asked mildly.

    Kaho swallowed nervously.

    "With respect, sir, the Land of Fire is very large. Leaf is the largest and strongest of the ninja villages but even you lack the manpower to give every part of the country 24/7 protection. At this point we have enough people that we can put at least a genin in every hamlet across the region we're asking for, every day, and rotate them so that they stay fresh.

    "Likewise, even with the Hyūga and their Byakugan, it's difficult to find new children with the potential to become ninja, simply because it requires covering so much ground. We have two medics and twelve ninja who are capable, through various methods, of detecting ninja-capable chakra systems in children. If you give us the land we're asking for then we can send you one new candidate per year."

    "And keep the best for yourselves, of course," Jiraiya sneered. "Those are our people. Why shouldn't we simply screen them ourselves and get all the candidates?"

    "It's hard to determine which of a group of ninja-possibles will be 'best'," Shikigami said to Jiraiya. "Our preliminary review of the area shows two children who are definitely candidates and three infants who might possibly be such if their chakra systems continue to develop." He shrugged. "Even if you could find all of them I doubt that it would be worth the effort needed. As an example, one of those infants lives in a hut well back in the woods—very difficult to find unless you spend a lot of time combing the area. The place is surrounded by stinkweed and there are multiple colonies of insect-eating birds nearby...almost as though they were specifically intending to make themselves difficult for Aburame and Inuzuka to find. The Hyūga could probably do it, of course, but how many of them are there and how much will they appreciate being asked to traipse through hundreds of square miles of swampland?

    "The fact is that Hidden Swamp has more sandals on the ground there than any other village does, and it has allowed us to become much more familiar with the area. There's a surprising number of people living there, and we've managed to establish positive relations with many of them. Having us as a client state that administers the area for you would give you increased tax income, a more stable border, and a small but steady influx of ninja candidates. We will continue pulling missing nin off the market, meaning lower threat profiles for Leaf ninja and less crime across your territory. All we're asking in return is the right to manage our own internal affairs as long as they don't conflict with your interests. That, and a strip of land that you haven't been using anyway."

    The Hokage's genial expression fell away, his face going still and deep. Kaho's breath caught in her throat as he steepled his fingers and studied the two of them. Everyone else in the room seemed to suddenly shrink to the size of children, the central fact of the Hokage's existence outweighing the reality of everything around him. She felt herself becoming as thin as Shikigami's paper, fragile as spun glass that could only pray it would not be dashed against the granite certainty of the Being that had politely disguised himself as a kindly old man.

    The silence dragged on and on as Kaho struggled to breathe. Finally, the Hokage spoke.

    "How much land?"
     
    Last edited:
  • Apocrypha
    • Raxner said:
    Here's a different idea. Contact a QM privately. Offer him, say, $500 for a favorable QM fiat. Done.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Cariyaga said:
    It'd probably take a significant amount more money to overcome their professional integrity, tbh. Don't undershoot them, that's just insulting.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Hey, in my Slivers quest I sold a "the bad guys don't attack you this turn" for less than that. :>

    Winged_One said:
    Have you considered adding a "take 10" mechanic? It's from dnd 3.5 or Pathfinder, and allows you to substitute your d20 roll with a 10 in circumstances where you aren't directly threatened or stressed. In FATE, you'd substitute 4df with 0. This gives a level of "normal performance" for various tasks-it's kinda silly if a character sitting in a calm room performs so radically different from time to time. E.g. a ninja with athletics X will probably be able to run a 100m dash pretty stably from one day to another, provided he wasn't in combat or under significant emotional stress, but mechanically without a "take 0" his rolls would be way different.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    That's a good idea. Thank you, I think we should add that.

    PurposefulZephyr said:
    I'd like to consider a possible alternative approach to Noburi's OP-ness, for sake of different angles:
    Noburi has been growing up wrong.
    By growing up I mean he was close to a puberty equivalent of Wakahisa. If he stayed with his clan, they would teach him how to train properly, or maybe take certain drugs or perform certain practices so his fragile system won't go off whack.
    Wakahisa modify their chakra system in a pretty dramatic way (they literally put some of their magic organs in a barrel). It would seem logical for this to have some long-term consequences on their health, especially if left unchecked. I mean, Mori use a nihilistic mind demon to freeze their brains to ice, so that they can think in nice, orderly grids- yet even they don't modify themselves permanently.

    Noburi's superb abilities could actually come from that very problem- think of a valve. When Noburi tries to suck chakra from water around him he opens this valve. He did it many times and trained a lot, so he's very good at opening it wider and keeping it open.
    The disadvantage coming from that is that he'd be pretty bad at closing it.

    When Noburi sucks chakra through his tendrils, he's connecting water from his barrel to water around him. There's a force that's sucking chakra in, a difference in pressure, etc.. But when Noburi doesn't use his abilities actively, does the connection from barrel to water around end? Does his valve close naturally?
    It's my suggestion that Noburi has a loose chakra hole, so he has a problem keeping it in, especially in water. :p

    It could manifest itself in him quickly losing chakra when he's in water, or a hit to his chakra capacity (since he can't hold it in), or even form a more general sickness that he has to figure out and cure in order to survive.
    Just imagine other Wakahisa, when seeing his OP abilities, will actually pity him, because he's doing it wrong, harming himself for quick power boost.

    It would make him less of a special snowflake, and highlight the fact that he lacks the support and know-how of the rest of his clan.
    Also it's more evil and real-life kind of dramatic.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    That is brilliant. Thank you for the idea.
     
    eaglejarl said:

    "I told you this was a bad idea," Kaho hissed, shuddering with the effort of not struggling against her bindings. The chair she was tied to was a square-backed wooden thing, heavy, uncomfortable, and out of place among the comfortably padded seats that surrounded the table in Hokage Tower Conference Room Three.

    "It'll be fine," Shikigami said, calm as always. (It should have been reassuring but it was actually just annoying.) "They're not going to do anything to us until they've talked to us and once they talk to us they'll realize we're too useful to waste."

    Kaho shuddered, feeling the edges of her concentration waver. Small spaces were bad, confinement was worse. She needed to be able to move! But no, the ropes were too tight around her limbs and the strings that bound her thumbs and fingers together prevented her from making the handseals necessary to henge herself free. Not that that would be a good idea, anyway. There was only one door out, that door led into a hallway, and that hallway lead down some stairs past frighteningly competent guards and straight into the center of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, home to the most deadly ninja in the world. She wouldn't make it ten steps before she was mobbed.

    "Why did I go along with this?" she muttered. "Why am I even here?" The fear swam below her, its vague shape masked but not hidden by the still waters at the top of her mind. She tugged at the ropes, struggling to keep her breathing even.

    "You're here because I'm your commander and I ordered you to be here," Shikigami said. "It wasn't a request."

    "Why me, though?" Kaho asked, hating the hint of whine that she could hear in her own voice. "Why bring me?"

    "You're young, cute, and you have a sympathetic history," Shikigami said matter-of-factly. "It's not much, but I'll always take an edge."

    Kaho glared at him. "I am not 'cute'!"

    He snorted in amusement and, for the first time since they'd been left here, turned his head to look at her.

    "You're cute," he said firmly. "Adorable, even. Especially with your hair in two ponytails like that—makes you look about twelve. The Third is an old man and old men want grandkids. He'll know it's a ploy, he won't let it influence him, but it'll still put him in a good mood at the start of the negotiation. Probably amused that we would try such a thing and a little bit of condescending smugness at how transparent it is. It'll let him feel like he's pegged what level I play at."

    "Fuck you."

    Shikigami snorted again, still amused, and turned back to watch the door.

    Kaho glared. "I knew you were being shady when you told me to put it up like this. 'We want to blend in and this is the current fashion in Leaf,' you said. Current fashion my ass."

    "And an adorable ass it is," Shikigami said. "As Ueda has told you. Repeatedly. You really need to talk to him about volume control." He paused. "You might want to work on that yourself, actually. I need my sleep."

    Kaho's face flushed hotter than her fire jutsu. "Go die," she muttered.

    Shikigami chuckled. "There, see? Now you're not scared any more."

    She glared at him, eyes narrowed. "You manipulative son of a bitch."

    He shrugged as best he could given the strictures of the ropes. "Whatever works."

    Kaho grimaced. "Inoue told you to do that, didn't she? That redheaded witch."

    Shikigami tried to shrug and aborted the motion as it caused the ropes to constrict around his throat. "She did, yes. I just wish she was still here. She'd be way better at this."

    "You seem to be doing fine," said the Third Hokage, pushing the door open and walking through. Four steps behind him followed a trio of ANBU, faceless in their animal masks, but Kaho barely noticed them or the tea-tray-carrying genin behind them. She was too busy staring at the man two steps behind the Hokage: the Mist bingo books had done an excellent job of capturing the white hair, the barrel chest, and the red face paint worn by Jiraiya of the Legendary Three. Intellectually, she knew that the Third was the greater threat—not only was he an insanely powerful ninja in his own right but he could order their deaths with a twitch of his finger. Still, Jiraiya radiated far more menace. He was scowling, glaring at the two of them with eyes that stared straight through her soul, weighed it in the balance, and found it of no more import than a soap bubble.

    The Third lowered himself into the cushioned chair across the table from them, moving a little stiffly and sighing once he was settled. He nodded thankfully and smiled at the young genin as she set the tea tray down beside him. The girl bowed and vanished out the door. The Third looked fondly after her and then poured tea into three cups. The tea did not flow smoothly from the pot, as the hand that poured it had a faint tremor that caused a few drops to splash on the saucer instead of into the cup.

    "Don't get old," the Third confided to Kaho, shaking his head in rueful amusement as he dabbed up the spill with a linen napkin of such gleaming whiteness and fine weave that it had to have cost a pretty penny. (The message was clear: Leaf is so wealthy that I wipe up spilled tea with napkins good enough for a formal dinner.) "It's no fun, especially on frozen days like today. Makes the bones ache and the cold cuts right through you."

    She nodded, eyes wide and head bobbing convulsively until she forced herself to stop. She swallowed, struggling to preserve the still surface of her mind as the fear swam upwards, wide-spread jaws and serrated teeth becoming steadily more visible. Of course, the Hokage noticed.

    "Mongoose," the old man said in gentle reproof, "you didn't have to tie them that tight. They came to us for parley in good faith, they shouldn't be treated like prisoners. Remove the bindings, please."

    "Sensei," Jiraiya said warningly. "They're traitors. Missing-nin, no matter what airs they put on. Don't trust them."

    The Third waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, pish. Relax, Jiraiya. You're here, these three fine strapping ANBU are here, and I daresay that I'm not entirely helpless just yet. They just want to talk. Mongoose, if you please."

    The indicated ANBU had paused when Jiraiya spoke but now he moved around the table and knelt to undo Kaho's ropes. The action put his lips right beside her ear, allowing him to whisper so softly that probably no one else heard it: "Give me an excuse, traitor. Please."

    Kaho couldn't stop herself from shuddering violently as the ropes came free. She brought her hands in front of her, taking care to move slowly, and massaged her wrists while looking at her commander and hoping he could get them out of here.

    "Thank you for seeing us, sir," Shikigami said calmly, seeming not to notice the way the ropes were cutting into his throat as the ANBU tugged them loose a little more forcefully than necessary. "My name is—"

    "Shikigami, yes," the Third said, smiling. "You're well known to my intelligence department. There is an entire team of analysts who have lost a great deal of sleep working on ways to counter your paper arts. I must say that I'm glad to meet you across a table instead of across a battlefield."

    "Thank you, sir," Shikigami said gravely. "I feel the same."

    "So, what did you want to talk about?" As he spoke he slid two of the three cups of tea across the table; Kaho wrapped her hands around hers and let the heat sink in. She didn't dare try to drink from it, though. She needed to keep her arms on the table and her hands tight on the cup or her shaking would be visible; there was no way that she could drink without spilling.

    Shikigami touched the cup to his lips politely and then set it down. "Sir, I'm sure you know that we fled from Mist two years ago," he said, showing no sign of anything like the fear that clenched at Kaho's heart. "Mist is—was—our home, but the Mizukage was destroying it. He killed anyone who displeased him, he made bad choices, and he inspired a culture of fear and betrayal that only weakened us no matter what he claimed. Young Saito here"—he nodded towards Kaho—"came home from a mission a day later than expected, only to find that her younger brother had been tortured for an explanation of why she'd gone missing nin."

    The Hokage seemed shocked. "I am truly sorry, young lady," he said, patting Kaho's hand reassuringly. "That should never have happened."

    "One more good one," Jiraiya mumbled to himself.

    "What was that, Jiraiya?" the Hokage asked.

    "One more good Mist citizen, sensei," Jiraiya said. "You know, because the only good—"

    "Yes, yes," the Hokage said peevishly. "Honestly, Jiraiya. Be polite. This young woman suffered a tragedy, you shouldn't mock her for it."

    "Yes, sensei." An entire orchard of lemon trees would not have been so sour.

    "As I was saying," Shikigami said, "we were dispatched to conquer Noodle, with a primary aim of gaining farmland to supply Mist, but secondarily of securing a beachhead on the mainland as a staging ground for future warfare. And, of course, demonstrating our power to Fire and the rest of the nations."

    "It seems to have failed at its purpose," the Hokage observed, sipping from his teacup.

    Shikigami nodded curtly. "Yes, sir. Inoue Mari and I perpetrated a deception on the rest of the strike group. We planted documents in the commander's tent claiming that this was a suicide mission, that everyone here was a suspected traitor or troublemaker. We fled from there to the Swamp of Death, where we established a new village. A significant number of our people were killed or disappeared on the way in or shortly after we arrived, including Mari herself, but we managed to get a base established.

    "For the last two years we've been aggressively eliminating chakra beasts throughout the area as well as recruiting every missing-nin we could locate. Our senior medic-nin was killed on the way into the Swamp, but his apprentice survived. Mari and I had brought a load of medical texts and Hotaru was able to continue studying and improving, as well as training an apprentice of his own. Once we had two competent medics I began sending one out to minister to the local civilian population."

    He paused and studied the old man across the table from him for a moment. "Sir, I know that you have an excellent intelligence service. I would estimate that we've pulled something like ten or fifteen percent of all the missing nin in the Elemental Nations into Hidden Swamp, as well as killing thousands of dangerous chakra animals and curing dozens of people. I'm sure that Leaf has noticed the drop in crime and the increase in civilian survival and economic prosperity throughout the region around Swamp."

    The Hokage leaned back in his chair and sipped at his tea. "It's possible," he allowed. "There might have been a couple of reports crossing my desk on the subject." His eyes twinkled. "Also, I'm amused at the way you're attempting to establish legitimacy by referring to your group as a ninja village—'Hidden Swamp' instead of merely 'the swamp'. Well done on framing the discussion so smoothly."

    Shikigami nodded stiffly. "Thank you, sir. As I said, we've been a positive force on your border and we're prepared to continue being such. The area around us is better of for our presence and we're ideally situated to be a buffer between you, Grass, and Waterfall."

    "Grass is our ally and Waterfall is a friendly neutral. Why would we need a buffer?"

    "Alliances among ninja villages are fragile things," Shikigami said calmly. "They don't last forever."

    "Well, that's a valid point, I suppose." The Hokage fussed with the teapot, pouring himself another cup and offering more to the Swamp ninja, despite the fact that both their cups were still brimming.

    "Your point about alliances is well-taken," the Hokage said. "Still, I'm not clear on what exactly you're asking for?"

    "Client-state status, sir," Shikigami said. "Cede us the land in the immediate area—it's bad land and no value to you except insofar as it defines the border with Grass and Waterfalls. I very much doubt that Leaf ninja enjoy patrolling around there and if you give it to us then it becomes our problem. We'll keep it free of chakra beasts and enemy ninja incursions. We'll care for the local population such that they can be more productive. With us watching over them full-time they'll be able to pay more taxes than they do now. We'll collect the taxes locally and pay you twenty five percent more than the average you've received over the last twenty years."

    The Third's eyebrow went up. "You think that you can care for those people better than we can?" he asked mildly.

    Kaho swallowed nervously.

    "With respect, sir, the Land of Fire is very large. Leaf is the largest and strongest of the ninja villages but even you lack the manpower to give every part of the country 24/7 protection. At this point we have enough people that we can put at least a genin in every hamlet across the region we're asking for, every day, and rotate them so that they stay fresh.

    "Likewise, even with the Hyūga and their Byakugan, it's difficult to find new children with the potential to become ninja, simply because it requires covering so much ground. We have two medics and twelve ninja who are capable, through various methods, of detecting ninja-capable chakra systems in children. If you give us the land we're asking for then we can send you one new candidate per year."

    "And keep the best for yourselves, of course," Jiraiya sneered. "Those are our people. Why shouldn't we simply screen them ourselves and get all the candidates?"

    "It's hard to determine which of a group of ninja-possibles will be 'best'," Shikigami said to Jiraiya. "Our preliminary review of the area shows two children who are definitely candidates and three infants who might possibly be such if their chakra systems continue to develop." He shrugged. "Even if you could find all of them I doubt that it would be worth the effort needed. As an example, one of those infants lives in a hut well back in the woods—very difficult to find unless you spend a lot of time combing the area. The place is surrounded by stinkweed and there are multiple colonies of insect-eating birds nearby...almost as though they were specifically intending to make themselves difficult for Aburame and Inuzuka to find. The Hyūga could probably do it, of course, but how many of them are there and how much will they appreciate being asked to traipse through hundreds of square miles of swampland?

    "The fact is that Hidden Swamp has more sandals on the ground there than any other village does, and it has allowed us to become much more familiar with the area. There's a surprising number of people living there, and we've managed to establish positive relations with many of them. Having us as a client state that administers the area for you would give you increased tax income, a more stable border, and a small but steady influx of ninja candidates. We will continue pulling missing nin off the market, meaning lower threat profiles for Leaf ninja and less crime across your territory. All we're asking in return is the right to manage our own internal affairs as long as they don't conflict with your interests. That, and a strip of land that you haven't been using anyway."

    The Hokage's genial expression fell away, his face going still and deep. Kaho's breath caught in her throat as he steepled his fingers and studied the two of them. Everyone else in the room seemed to suddenly shrink to the size of children, the central fact of the Hokage's existence outweighing the reality of everything around him. She felt herself becoming as thin as Shikigami's paper, fragile as spun glass that could only pray it would not be dashed against the granite certainty of the Being that had politely disguised himself as a kindly old man.

    The silence dragged on and on as Kaho struggled to breathe. Finally, the Hokage spoke.

    "How much land?"
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    ...all in favor of just switching to this storyline?
     
    [X] The Adventures of Zabuza and Yukino (HOT SPRINGS EDITION!)
    [x] Previous attempts to sell the Orochi-mansion
    [x] Chosen for the Grave update

    Time for some crack!
     
    Poo, fine. Something more serious. Umm... [x] Kurosawa Ren secures the votes for Mizukage

    EDIT:
    I like faflec's more -

    [x] The Death of Hiruzen Sarutobi
     
    Last edited:
    [x] Jiraiya and Keiko talk about the Toads' and the Pangolins' ancient history
    Useful.
    [X] The Adventures of Zabuza and Yukino (HOT SPRINGS EDITION!)
    Fun.
    [x] Chosen for the Grave update
    ... Crack.
     
    [X] The Adventures of Zabuza and Yukino against THE MOON MEN!
    [x] Jiraiya and Keiko talk about the Toads' and the Pangolins' ancient history
     
    Last edited:
    Erolki said:
    Generally speaking, barring shenanigans, powers shouldn't be more effective against stronger opponents. It shouldn't be equally easy to drain a fresh Genin compared to an Elite Jounin.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Will saves would prevent that. The stronger a characters will stat it whatever equivalent, the longer it takes to drain. Jounin aren't always stronger in every area, though they generally are.

    Noburi drains a genin. They roll 1d10, and start getting drained 1/5.

    Noburi drains a chuunin. They roll 5d10, and the dice say it's 1/9.

    Noburi drains a Jounin. He rolls a 12d10, looks at the genin and laughs.
     
    [X] The Adventures of Zabuza and Yukino (HOT SPRINGS EDITION!)
    [x] Previous attempts to sell the Orochi-mansion
     
    1234qwerty said:
    • Summons' strength no longer explicitly scales with the technique level. If intentional, this means investing Keiko's Frozen Skein bonus in it only serves to increase her pact total, which seems retroactively sub-optimal. This part of her character isn't something I'd wish to see reversed(though we may have decided to apply it before hearing the details of summoning in the first place, in which case fair is fair). Maybe a higher summoning level could result in decreased chakra cost for summons per level, starting off higher than the current table, reaching it at a reasonable skill level, then surpassing it? Currently, she'd get as much an XP discount from leveling a normal skill to 49(or a double cost skill to 33) as summoning to 10.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Previous XP investment from the old system that are higher now will not "count against" us as far as I'm aware -- it won't be taking from other pools of XP. (Correct me if I'm wrong @OliWhail @eaglejarl @Velorien)

    What it amounts to is that Keiko is a genius at summoning now, which we already knew to be true in general. ...and it'll probably make Jiraiya blink when he realizes she's capable of summoning 15 different summons at her skill level.

    e: Under the new system, given Examination, we probably would have requested a Pangolin that was capable of Examination and Crafts: Trapping.

    e2: Although, I suppose with the skill tree as it is, that could also be our Stealth Pangolin's role.
     
    Last edited:
    PurposefulZephyr said:
    I'd like to consider a possible alternative approach to Noburi's OP-ness, for sake of different angles:
    Noburi has been growing up wrong.
    By growing up I mean he was close to a puberty equivalent of Wakahisa. If he stayed with his clan, they would teach him how to train properly, or maybe take certain drugs or perform certain practices so his fragile system won't go off whack.
    Wakahisa modify their chakra system in a pretty dramatic way (they literally put some of their magic organs in a barrel). It would seem logical for this to have some long-term consequences on their health, especially if left unchecked. I mean, Mori use a nihilistic mind demon to freeze their brains to ice, so that they can think in nice, orderly grids- yet even they don't modify themselves permanently.

    Noburi's superb abilities could actually come from that very problem- think of a valve. When Noburi tries to suck chakra from water around him he opens this valve. He did it many times and trained a lot, so he's very good at opening it wider and keeping it open.
    The disadvantage coming from that is that he'd be pretty bad at closing it.

    When Noburi sucks chakra through his tendrils, he's connecting water from his barrel to water around him. There's a force that's sucking chakra in, a difference in pressure, etc.. But when Noburi doesn't use his abilities actively, does the connection from barrel to water around end? Does his valve close naturally?
    It's my suggestion that Noburi has a loose chakra hole, so he has a problem keeping it in, especially in water. :p

    It could manifest itself in him quickly losing chakra when he's in water, or a hit to his chakra capacity (since he can't hold it in), or even form a more general sickness that he has to figure out and cure in order to survive.
    Just imagine other Wakahisa, when seeing his OP abilities, will actually pity him, because he's doing it wrong, harming himself for quick power boost.

    It would make him less of a special snowflake, and highlight the fact that he lacks the support and know-how of the rest of his clan.
    Also it's more evil and real-life kind of dramatic.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Actually, on this note: Has Noburi ever been seriously harmed at the same time his barrel's been damaged?

    If we adopt this as headcanonish, then Noburi never really closes his valve; he uses Chakra Control to basically plug the gaps with his own force of will and uses his barrel to assist. On the one hand, this means that his "chakra hole" gets freakishly huge; he can absorb chakra through more pores than most Wakahisa suspect are possible, and can do so more energetically. It also means that if he ever stops paying some amount of attention even while sleeping he's going to pass out and die of chakra exhaustion as the chakra floods out of his control. If he gets knocked out while using Mist Drain, he'll be dead in short order from chakra exhaustion.

    The further implication is that the more Vampiric Dew is leveled, Noburi's Chakra Control to chakra ratio will increase; he'll need more chakra control for every bit of chakra he has, not just any extra chakra he wants to gain.

    This might be the real reason why Mist Drain might be a legendary technique, just like how using Combat Frozen Skein is considered the peak of Mori ability; practically anybody in the clan can learn to use it, but if anything goes wrong you die without anybody able to save you.
     
    huhYeahGoodPoint said:
    Actually, on this note: Has Noburi ever been seriously harmed at the same time his barrel's been damaged?

    If we adopt this as headcanonish, then Noburi never really closes his valve; he uses Chakra Control to basically plug the gaps with his own force of will and uses his barrel to assist. On the one hand, this means that his "chakra hole" gets freakishly huge; he can absorb chakra through more pores than most Wakahisa suspect are possible, and can do so more energetically. It also means that if he ever stops paying some amount of attention even while sleeping he's going to pass out and die of chakra exhaustion as the chakra floods out of his control. If he gets knocked out while using Mist Drain, he'll be dead in short order from chakra exhaustion.

    The further implication is that the more Vampiric Dew is leveled, Noburi's Chakra Control to chakra ratio will increase; he'll need more chakra control for every bit of chakra he has, not just any extra chakra he wants to gain.

    This might be the real reason why Mist Drain might be a legendary technique, just like how using Combat Frozen Skein is considered the peak of Mori ability; practically anybody in the clan can learn to use it, but if anything goes wrong you die without anybody able to save you.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    This is not something that would be kept from young Wakahisa, though, nor is it something that other nations would be unaware of; in my estimation the world would look very different if this were true.
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top