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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Chapter 166.1: Civil Unrest
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    • It was finally night-time, and there could be no greater bliss than sleep in a comparatively safe environment where the rules prohibited their assassination (at least as far as Hazō could tell). However, before he could allow himself to collapse into oblivion, there was something Hazō needed to take care of.

    "Why has thou summoned us here, O foolish Hazō?" Noburi intoned, sticking out his chin dramatically like the Demon Lord of Indolence in the old morality plays. The message was clear: this had better be important, or I'm going to go to back to bed and take your soul with me to use as a pillow.

    Keiko snerked.

    "I have summoned you here, O lowly Noburi, that we may discuss a matter of deep concern to me," Hazō responded.

    Noburi nodded sagely. "You've run out of paper for making lists, and you want us to tie you down until the shops open in the morning and you can sate your addiction without breaking any laws."

    "The last event revealed Nara Shikamaru to you in a new light, and now you seek permission to take my place as his potential bride," Keiko suggested.

    "You've only now realised that you're surrounded by hot girls who don't run screaming when they see your face, and you want me to be your wingman while you build yourself a harem."

    "You seek aid in plotting the assassination of Rock Lee, and know that none but I could exceed your passion for the cause."

    "You've decided that you've had enough playing human politics and would rather become Panzō of the Pangolin Clan, but you need Keiko's help trading seals for citizenship and my help turning one of my old barrels into a convincing pangolin suit."

    "Uh," Hazō said. "No, those are not things that I had in mind, although I may have to get back to you on the assassination thing once the exams are over. Actually, I was thinking about Yamamoto."

    "So you picked up on it too," Noburi said.

    Hazō nodded. "He's got a chip on his shoulder the size of a Multiple Earth Wall, and I'm worried that sooner or later all that anger bubbling beneath the surface is going to spill out on us."

    "Given that all but the aptly-nicknamed Team Clanless consist of the clan members he appears to despise, you anticipate some form of treachery that will advantage his team at the price of harming the rest of us," Keiko concluded.

    "Could be even worse," Noburi said. "I've seen guys like him before. Not saying I know where Yamamoto draws his lines, but he could well decide to take us down a peg just because. Show up the arrogant nobles looking down on him, that sort of thing. And given the way the exam works, anything bad happening to us is good for everyone else.

    "So what're you thinking, Hazō? You want us to spend tonight laying down plans and contingencies?"

    "Or are you advocating a pre-emptive strike?" Keiko asked. "It is a dangerous strategy, given that it risks alienation from the rest of the Leaf contingent, but in another way also the safest. If we contrive to remove Yamamoto from the exam, we will no longer need to expend mental resources on watching for intra-team betrayal. Team Clanless will be reduced to Haruno and Akane, a combination much more amenable to our influence, and establishing dominance over Yamamoto will prevent him from attempting to sabotage us on other occasions in the future. Or so I assume—I am more than happy to leave manipulating the interpersonal dynamics to more suitable minds."

    "No," Hazō said. "That is not what I am advocating at all. I want us to reach out to him."

    "You want us to poke the wasp nest, Hazō?"

    "Listen," Hazō said firmly. "I don't know what it's like to be a commoner like him. For as long as I had the Kurosawa name, I couldn't be nobody to the people around me. But I do know what it's like not to be a clan kid. I remember going to the Academy and seeing the Kurosawa with their custom-made uniforms and brand new combat gear and off-the-shelf training scrolls."

    "Hazō…"

    Keiko motioned for Noburi to be quiet.

    "I wasn't different from them. I wasn't some inferior species. I even had the same blood. I learned as fast as they did. I trained as hard as they did. I matched their marks in the exams, and sometimes I even beat them. But none of it mattered. Somebody, somewhere back in the millennia of ninja tradition, had decreed that people like me weren't allowed to have nice things. And that was that.

    "You can't argue with tradition. It's not physical, like a statue you can topple, and it's not intellectual, like an argument you can disprove. Even when you can almost feel it, like a weight pressing down on you or a wall cutting you off from where you want to go, it's still not something you can touch. Challenging tradition was another thing people like me weren't allowed to do.

    "I had to live with that invisible, intangible wall every day. I had to see my future laid out in front of me like a branching path, and make myself pretend away all the branches marked 'not for people like you'.

    "Now, by what I can only call a series of miracles, I'm on the other side of the wall with the two of you. I have all the paths, all the branches. I get bowed to by people old enough to be my grandfather. I'm expected to have nice things, and if at any point I don't, the people around me get confused.

    "But the wall hasn't gone anywhere. It's just harder to see from this side unless you remember exactly where it is, which I do. I can see Yamamoto, and everybody like Yamamoto, looking at me the way I once looked at the Kurosawa kids: 'I am just like you, so why am I not allowed to be where you are?'"

    "Wow," Noburi said heavily after a second. "Wasn't expecting that."

    Keiko didn't say anything. She just sat, very still and very quiet.

    "Sorry," Hazō said awkwardly. "You weren't asking for a speech. And honestly, it's not like I spent nights lying awake wishing I was a clan kid. After a while you… resign yourself, I guess. You give up on fighting fate and you focus your energies elsewhere. Mari-sensei's common-born, and she became an elite jōnin by pouring everything into her work instead of spending her time pining after things she couldn't have. I guess… I want something like that for Yamamoto. I want him to spit in tradition's face by being better than the clan ninja, by becoming chūnin alongside us while countless clan teams are left in the dust. If we have to fight him, if we have to throw out the commoner for daring to bare his fangs at us, then we become the hand of tradition, keeping down the weak using the very resources they beg us to share.

    "How can we hope to reach out to the civilian world if we can't even reach out to common-born ninja?"

    For a while, the room was silent.

    "Did you hate us?" It was almost a whisper.

    "What?"

    "Did you hate us?" Keiko repeated hesitantly. "Did you hate the clan ninja for having what you couldn't?"

    "Not the way you think. We weren't different—that was more or less the point. We all studied together. We all played together. For every boy who gave himself airs because some random ancestor of his happened to luck into a Bloodline Limit ten thousand years ago, there'd be a boy who picked you for his team just because he saw that you were good at running, and didn't even bother to ask your name. If I had to hate anyone, it would be the ancient ninja who came up with the rules, the ones who built the wall in the first place. The same ones who decided to treat civilians like cattle and make ninjutsu a weapon of war. The ones whose work I will see undone even if it kills me."

    "Hazō gives a big speech, pledges to turn the world upside down, morality play at eleven," Noburi said. "Seriously, though, are we adding this to the list? Dismantling the freaking clan system? Is that before or after we create a civilian paradise?"

    "The clan system is an essential, perhaps the sole guarantor of stability in shinobi relations," Keiko said. "It structures both individual and group relationships, allows individuals to locate themselves in social space, and maintains hierarchies that variously shackle and direct destructive power in a controlled fashion. While it is not without its flaws, notably the poor integration of meritocratic and seniority-based mechanisms of role assignment, its removal would plunge the shinobi world into instant and fatal anarchy. I cannot accept this course of action."

    "What she said. I mean, maybe you're right and there's a big gap between clan and non-clan ninja where there shouldn't be. No, sorry, that's dumb. I believe you when you say there's a big gap. Just like there's a big gap between ninja and civilians. And we're going to reduce that gap as best we can. But nothing we do can make ninja and civilians the same. If we try to erase the difference, we'll only fail, and probably end up doing huge damage to both in the process."

    "But there is no difference!" Hazō exclaimed. "Weren't you listening? This isn't about having chakra or not. This is about people who are completely identical getting treated differently because of who their ancestors are!"

    Noburi and Keiko exchanged glances.

    "But we're not, are we? Completely identical, I mean. You have the Iron Nerve. I have the Vampiric Dew. Keiko has the Frozen Skein. No common-born ninja will ever be able to do the things we do, not if they live to be a thousand."

    "Even in the case of clans such as the Nara, whose superiority stems from lore rather than something as unique as a Bloodline Limit, the centuries of accumulated and refined knowledge bestow upon them a set of abilities and a perspective on the world that cannot be imitated by any outsider," Keiko said. "A common-born ninja could achieve the same results as them by immersing themselves in the same lore—but to the extent that they succeeded, they would be making themselves into a Nara, because mastery of that lore, a process begun at birth and never ceased, is what makes the Nara the way they are.

    "Hazō, nobody here is asserting that clan and non-clan ninja should not be equal. But to claim that they are identical is to deny reality. In terms of knowledge and capabilities, both physical and metaphysical, clan ninja are superior by definition, or their clans would not have survived."

    "And that's it?" Hazō demanded. "The privileged keep racking up more privilege while the rest of us stay in the dirt? How is this any different to what's happening with ninja and civilians?"

    "Enough, Hazō," Noburi snapped. "Seriously, enough. How many times have you used the Gōketsu name, or Gōketsu resources, to get an advantage? How about the Iron Nerve? Have you ever once regretted it?"

    "Well, no, that's not—"

    "You're better. We're better. Don't pretend otherwise just so you can feel morally superior. You don't hesitate to use whatever resources you have to get what you want, and you shouldn't. Power exists to be used. It's practically the Wakahisa motto. You can use it well, you can use it badly, but the one thing you can't do is leave it in the barrel. That's not what it's for.

    "I'm trying to be sympathetic here, Hazō, I really am, but you're not making it easy. You've exploited every possible advantage to claw your way into a position of power and safety. You've won the ability to reshape the world the way you want. Just like my ancestors did. Just like Keiko's ancestors did. But for some reason you expect our clans to give up power while you keep yours."

    "Although my reasoning is different, I must concur with the main thrust of Noburi's argument. Some clan ninja should not rule but do. Some civilian-born ninja should rule but do not. As I have said before, the system is insufficiently meritocratic. Nevertheless, it is a fact that the clans represent the pinnacle of human achievement, combining countless generations of knowledge and insight with the raw power necessary to put it into practice. I do not claim that the clans use this power wisely, or well—indeed, insofar as they are responsible for the state of the world, they have crafted a living hell—but only that over millennia of human history, this is the best we have been able to achieve. Discard that limited success, and we will be left with nothing at all."

    Hazō didn't know what to say. Didn't know where to begin.

    "Look," Noburi said more kindly, "I'll try to sound out Yamamoto tomorrow. Maybe hit up Akane and see if she has any thoughts. For tonight, can we just put the social revolution talk aside? We can hash it all out on a day when we're not in the middle of an exam event with dozens of enemies waiting for us to slip up."

    "All right," Hazō said reluctantly, mentally papering over the gulf he could feel spreading between him and his teammates. He wasn't going to get much sleep tonight. "All right. In that case, there's one other thing I wanted to run past the two of you…"

    -o-
    ​
    The rest of this plan is consigned to the merciless talons of @eaglejarl, who will also dispense XP and/or FP.

    Edit: As such, there is no need to re-vote.​
    ​
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • In which Hazou has Opinions. :p

    Great job @Velorien.

    e: The solution to this, of course, is to get the clanless ninja representation on the council. As their representative, I suggest Gai.
     
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    Thanks for the belated birthday wishes, everyone, and sorry for the delay.

    I'm not entirely sure how the "currently online" system works, but I wouldn't put too much faith in it since I habitually leave the tab open on my browsing device of choice whether or not I'm actively perusing it.
     
    MadScientist said:
    Really? Because I think the obvious solution is to biomod everyone to have bloodlines.

    E: Then again, biological modification is my solution to a lot of problems. Better rack up those medic levels Noburi!
    Click to expand...
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    Well, sure, that's a good long term solution. But just think, who better to get the stick out of clan leaders' asses than Gai? I'm also pretty damn sure he'd actually think about what was best for the other clanless ninja.
     
    Velorien said:
    I'm not entirely sure how the "currently online" system works, but I wouldn't put too much faith in it since I habitually leave the tab open on my browsing device of choice whether or not I'm actively perusing it.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    It updates when you do something - load any page on the site, post something, give someone a like, etc. If you just have a tab open then it won't update until you do something active.

    There's also an option in your profile settings somewhere that lets you hide this if you're so inclined.
     
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    We might want to think of how we're going to respond to Kei and Noburi's individual positions.

    Also:

    Cards for Death

    • In what new and exciting way is Hazou planning to upset the apple cart that Jiraiya's spent forty years keeping upright?
    • Having gained _____, the coming war with Mist looks a lot less frightening to Hiruzen.
    • To everyone's surprise but Kagome, _____ was a lupchanz the entire time.
    • The last time Sage and Dummy were fighting, _____ was the result.
    • The one true pairing is _____ with _____.
    • _____ is the most disturbing secret known to the Nara clan.
    • What is Akatsuki's plan?
    • The element that pangolins have but humans don't is _____ release.
    • _____ was Zabuza in disguise.
    • "_____?! Are you trying to get us killed, you stinker?!"

    • The Amoeba summoning scroll
    • A skysquid
    • Hazou, singing "I am the very model of a modern ANBU general" while fighting
    • The Minori Conspiracy
    • Modular Sealing
    • A sealing failure that turns players into QMs
    • Ten Zabuzas surprising you on the toilet
    • Hidden Heaven
    • Misaligning your QPUs
    • Screaming in Kagome
    • The blade horrors
    • Arguing over the value of ideas
    • Armageddon Initiative
    • Violating a demilitarised zone and starting a forest fire
    • Getting to special jonin level for the fourth time
    • Marrying for books
    • Enabling genocide on the Seventh Path
    • Snek-Uncle Oro-kun
    • That Omake where Akane is ordered to kill us
    • Nukes
    • A plate of nachos with Chunky Minami Salsa
    • Discovering immortality within a basic academy technique
    • Nathan, Logistician, and Hannah
    • The telescope merchant
    • Kishimoto
     
    Clearly Hazou is all-in on being a populares.

    Nothing wrong with that! It's a viable political strategy to appeal to the clanless ninja. Being an optimate has the inherent limitation factor that while you can get them to come together to protect clan rights, the clans still view each other as rivals. Whereas all of the clanless ninja in theory can have common cause... and there are a lot of clanless ninja. Why can't Noburi and Keiko see the long-term viability of this very basic strategy for seizing political power?

    I mean, if it was good enough for Julius goddamn Caesar....
     
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    Velorien said:
    "Even in the case of clans such as the Nara, whose superiority stems from lore rather than something as unique as a Bloodline Limit, the centuries of accumulated and refined knowledge bestow upon them a set of abilities and a perspective on the world that cannot be imitated by any outsider," Keiko said. "A common-born ninja could achieve the same results as them by immersing themselves in the same lore—but to the extent that they succeeded, they would be making themselves into a Nara, because mastery of that lore, a process begun at birth and never ceased, is what makes the Nara the way they are.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Good to know that Keiko agrees that proper teaching and schooling is important, so that's what we should do, fund some schooling programs for clanless ninja to catch up.

    Cariyaga said:
    I suggest Gai.
    Click to expand...
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    Of course you do. But have you thought about all the poor common born ninja who are now represented by Gai? How about we let them vote on a representative, like that thing pandaa suggested, democracy.

    MadScientist said:
    They're not opposed to wielding the masses as a political tool, they're opposed to actually believing the rhetoric you tell them to get them on your side.
    Click to expand...
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    Well Hazou is fourteen, he is in his Che Guevara phase. Give him time.
     
    MadScientist said:
    They're not opposed to wielding the masses as a political tool, they're opposed to actually believing the rhetoric you tell them to get them on your side.
    Click to expand...
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    I'm sure it's varied through history, some more and some less, but I think most truly successful populist leaders do start off believing their own rhetoric. It's hard to have the energy and conviction to really fight for political power if you don't have an agenda in mind that you actually want to do with it. Of course there's cynical compromise all the way down the line, but it genuinely helps to come into it with a change you want to see in mind.
     
    On a related note, isn't it bizarre to hear this "We're superior" rhetoric from two people with pervasive self-esteem issues? We should remind Keiko of this the next time she's feeling worthless.
     
    Anyway, this was certainly a good example of Hazou's aspects biting him in the ass.

    Trying to reach out to Haru is defensible on its own merits as a risky-but-rewarding chance to turn a potential enemy into a staunch ally. Hazou didn't have to turn it into a blistering lecture on the unfairness of ninja clans. He just decided to because as usual he can't control his own mouth.
     
    ContextBot said:
    Good to know that Keiko agrees that proper teaching and schooling is important, so that's what we should do, fund some schooling programs for clanless ninja to catch up.
    Click to expand...
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    I actually think this is somewhere we can make a major impact. Develop after-school programs for ninja covering things clanned ninjas already do at home, provide additional resources (weapons, training, etc.) to them...
    ContextBot said:
    Of course you do. But have you thought about all the poor common born ninja who are now represented by Gai? How about we let them vote on a representative, like that thing pandaa suggested, democracy.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Their representative can change every 2 years democratically. But it starts with Gai.
     
    MadScientist said:
    We might want to think of how we're going to respond to Kei and Noburi's individual positions.

    Also:

    Cards for Death

    • In what new and exciting way is Hazou planning to upset the apple cart that Jiraiya's spent forty years keeping upright?
    • Having gained _____, the coming war with Mist looks a lot less frightening to Hiruzen.
    • To everyone's surprise but Kagome, _____ was a lupchanz the entire time.
    • The last time Sage and Dummy were fighting, _____ was the result.
    • The one true pairing is _____ with _____.
    • _____ is the most disturbing secret known to the Nara clan.
    • What is Akatsuki's plan?
    • The element that pangolins have but humans don't is _____ release.
    • _____ was Zabuza in disguise.
    • "_____?! Are you trying to get us killed, you stinker?!"

    • The Amoeba summoning scroll
    • A skysquid
    • Hazou, singing "I am the very model of a modern ANBU general" while fighting
    • The Minori Conspiracy
    • Modular Sealing
    • A sealing failure that turns players into QMs
    • Ten Zabuzas surprising you on the toilet
    • Hidden Heaven
    • Misaligning your QPUs
    • Screaming in Kagome
    • The blade horrors
    • Arguing over the value of ideas
    • Armageddon Initiative
    • Violating a demilitarised zone and starting a forest fire
    • Getting to special jonin level for the fourth time
    • Marrying for books
    • Enabling genocide on the Seventh Path
    • Snek-Uncle Oro-kun
    • That Omake where Akane is ordered to kill us
    • Nukes
    • A plate of nachos with Chunky Minami Salsa
    • Discovering immortality within a basic academy technique
    • Nathan, Logistician, and Hannah
    • The telescope merchant
    • Kishimoto
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    This is nothing short of prophetic. Observe my randomly-generated results:

    In what new and exciting way is Hazou planning to upset the apple cart that Jiraiya's spent forty years keeping upright? Violating a demilitarised zone and starting a forest fire.
    [CHECK]

    Having gained Modular Sealing, the coming war with Mist looks a lot less frightening to Hiruzen.
    [Almost CHECK]

    To everyone's surprise but Kagome, the Amoeba summoning scroll was a lupchanz the entire time.
    [makes an eerie amount of sense]

    The last time Sage and Dummy were fighting, Hazou singing "I am the very model of a modern ANBU general" while fighting was the result.
    [Not touching this one]

    The one true pairing is "enabling genocide on the Seventh Path" with "marrying for books".
    [AKA Keiko]

    The telescope merchant is the most disturbing secret known to the Nara clan.
    [because they understand the implications for skywalker bombing; now we know why the last one went out of business]

    What is Akatsuki's plan? A plate of nachos with Chunky Minami Salsa.
    [scribbles notes in QM doc]

    The element that pangolins have but humans don't is Sealing Failure that Turns Players into QMs Release.
    [and now you know why we don't like teaching you pangolin ninjutsu]

    Snek-Uncle Oro-kun was Zabuza in disguise.
    [well, duh]

    "Screaming in Kagome: Are you trying to get us killed, you stinker?!"
    [clearly, the results were guided by fate]
     
    MadScientist said:
    We might want to think of how we're going to respond to Kei and Noburi's individual positions.

    Also:

    Cards for Death

    • In what new and exciting way is Hazou planning to upset the apple cart that Jiraiya's spent forty years keeping upright?
    • Having gained _____, the coming war with Mist looks a lot less frightening to Hiruzen.
    • To everyone's surprise but Kagome, _____ was a lupchanz the entire time.
    • The last time Sage and Dummy were fighting, _____ was the result.
    • The one true pairing is _____ with _____.
    • _____ is the most disturbing secret known to the Nara clan.
    • What is Akatsuki's plan?
    • The element that pangolins have but humans don't is _____ release.
    • _____ was Zabuza in disguise.
    • "_____?! Are you trying to get us killed, you stinker?!"

    • The Amoeba summoning scroll
    • A skysquid
    • Hazou, singing "I am the very model of a modern ANBU general" while fighting
    • The Minori Conspiracy
    • Modular Sealing
    • A sealing failure that turns players into QMs
    • Ten Zabuzas surprising you on the toilet
    • Hidden Heaven
    • Misaligning your QPUs
    • Screaming in Kagome
    • The blade horrors
    • Arguing over the value of ideas
    • Armageddon Initiative
    • Violating a demilitarised zone and starting a forest fire
    • Getting to special jonin level for the fourth time
    • Marrying for books
    • Enabling genocide on the Seventh Path
    • Snek-Uncle Oro-kun
    • That Omake where Akane is ordered to kill us
    • Nukes
    • A plate of nachos with Chunky Minami Salsa
    • Discovering immortality within a basic academy technique
    • Nathan, Logistician, and Hannah
    • The telescope merchant
    • Kishimoto
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    • Having gained Hazou, singing "I am the very model of a modern ANBU general" while fighting, the coming war with Mist looks a lot less frightening to Hiruzen.
     
    Briefvoice said:
    I'm sure it's varied through history, some more and some less, but I think most truly successful populist leaders do start off believing their own rhetoric. It's hard to have the energy and conviction to really fight for political power if you don't have an agenda in mind that you actually want to do with it. Of course there's cynical compromise all the way down the line, but it genuinely helps to come into it with a change you want to see in mind.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I suspect for many of them the agenda is "get all the things and all the money and all the adoration for myself."
     
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