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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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eaglejarl said:
Ooooh. *scribbles in QM notes doc*
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Nah, wouldn't work. We'd need a leader with loyal allies but a fragile grip on power, an aggressive political entity with a lot of influence and a conviction that they've been robbed of their right to rule, and some unexpected spark that would ignite a direct conflict between them. And the QM docs clearly say, "Under Sarutobi Hiruzen's enlightened leadership, Leaf has entered an era of complete political stability".

Briefvoice said:
There's no "trick" here that would allow her to cheat her way out of a leadership challenge, and honestly there shouldn't be. If Keiko can't display leadership when called for, she absolutely should not be promoted to chuunin.
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If the threshold for being a chūnin candidate is "be able to lead a team", then Neji is clearly outperforming Keiko right now.
 
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Velorien said:
Nah, wouldn't work. We'd need a leader with loyal allies but a fragile grip on power, an aggressive political entity with a lot of influence and a conviction that they've been robbed of their right to rule, and some unexpected spark that would ignite a direct conflict between them.
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Psh, like that would never happen. Ever since Jiraiya took us into his clan, things have been looking better and better for us, and there's no way he could let us down. He's only 50-something -- still firmly in the Summer of Youth -- is in excellent health, and is one of the strongest ninja still alive. We have virtually nothing to worry about with him around, and our position in leaf is all but assured so long as we have such a powerful figure in charge. Everything is going according to plan, and absolutely nothing could stop us now.

Besides, what's the worst that Hiashi could do?
 
Vecht said:
Psh, like that would never happen. Ever since Jiraiya took us into his clan, things have been looking better and better for us, and there's no way he could let us down. He's only 50-something -- still firmly in the Summer of Youth -- is in excellent health, and is one of the strongest ninja still alive. We have virtually nothing to worry about with him around, and our position in leaf is all but assured so long as we have such a powerful figure in charge. Everything is going according to plan, and absolutely nothing could stop us now.

Besides, what's the worst that Hiashi could do?
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You have received 10 TFP.
 
OliWhail said:
Hyuuga cut through Hazou's musing. "No, no, these are all inconsistent. Some of them might be revisions or different versions of the same plan, but they aren't marked by date or organized in a coherent way. Suggestions for a city-wide battle royale, simultaneous wilderness escort and assassination missions, races and other athletic competitions..."
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Yeah, OK I'm voting for "all of the above". My guess is that there are gonna be two possible groups in the Event: one will be responsible for infiltrating a location (the manor) and getting an individual or intel out (or both); the other will be sent out to prevent their escape and/or the loss of the captive/intel. It simultaneously includes the assassination, wilderness escort, and (to an extent) the "athletic competition" components of the scrolls Neji read; and, depending on how many people are going to be in the manor at once, the chances of an all-out battle royale is TOO DAMN HIGH. There's also the possibility of a drop-off/meeting component as @Briefvoice mentioned earlier.

So yeah, maybe we could suggest this to an extent with our team and (then?) Team 8, bring up the possibility of meeting a contact at the location and getting a mission to destroy or retrieve intel or a person in the area. Or assassinate someone, or guard the place with the standard guard-proctors...
 
So, on the topic of making Jiraiya's life easier, we should suggest to Keiko that there are ways to turn "favorable trade agreement" to Leaf's advantage. This isn't something we should bring up somewhere that's not private (maybe written in the team's code?), but it's entirely possible to engage in a trade war on them. Perhaps convince their allies of minor nations to stop trading with them, that way they're actively dependent on Leaf's trade, which means that our "favorable trade agreement" is now a position of power for Leaf.

Alternatively, we can do currency fuckery: Is the agreement writ in terms of Leaf or Mist brand ryo? We could work to inflate or deflate whichever currency is favorable to us.
 
Cariyaga said:
So, on the topic of making Jiraiya's life easier, we should suggest to Keiko that there are ways to turn "favorable trade agreement" to Leaf's advantage. This isn't something we should bring up somewhere that's not private (maybe written in the team's code?), but it's entirely possible to engage in a trade war on them. Perhaps convince their allies of minor nations to stop trading with them, that way they're actively dependent on Leaf's trade, which means that our "favorable trade agreement" is now a position of power for Leaf.

Alternatively, we can do currency fuckery: Is the agreement writ in terms of Leaf or Mist brand ryo? We could work to inflate or deflate whichever currency is favorable to us.
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Worsening our relationship with Mist is not a good way to start off an alliance.

(Increasing trade of normally-spoilable foodstuff on the other hand...)
 
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Kiba said:
Worsening our relationship with Mist is not a good way to start off an alliance.

(Increasing trade of normally-spoilable foodstuff on the other hand...)
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I'd be surprised if we -- or Keiko, if it came to that -- couldn't come up with some way of managing this that wouldn't worsen relations.
 
I agree with @Briefvoice that, rather than speculating on what the event is, we should work to collect more information. The proctors are preparing for a party, and a party needs guests. At least some of these are bound to be non-ninja, and likely to have received invitations ahead of time. The questions then, are:

1. Do we expect them to be actual nobles and other high-society types? I'm going to say no, just because if they were, the Oyabun would've heard something and told us. If we have relevant contacts in Mist, we can try to sound out whether anyone knows about an upcoming event.

2. Maybe it's a surprise party for all the visiting foreign dignitaries? It would seem risky and irresponsible on Mist's end to do this, but they have gone ahead with one event involving participants potentially fighting in the city's streets, so maybe they're feeling adventurous. Wait, what if it's a secret birthday party for Jiraiya? That makes no sense, right? They wouldn't, would they?

3. If the guests are essentially hired props, they might not know where the event is being held, but they would know what it was. Do we have any way of finding these people quickly? Follow some of the proctors moving in and out of the mansion and see if they lead us anywhere useful? Team 8 could probably do this undetected.

Thoughts?
 
Mist didn't just hire out an available compound. The exercised eminent domain on this specific compound regardless of the owner's wishes. What is unusual about this compound?

There is a social-spec proctor who just made an absolutely obscene amount of money due to the team and frankly owes them a favor. There might be something to the possibility of tracking her down and just asking her.
 
Lailoken said:
Mist didn't just hire out an available compound. The exercised eminent domain on this specific compound regardless of the owner's wishes. What is unusual about this compound?

There is a social-spec proctor who just made an absolutely obscene amount of money due to the team and frankly owes them a favor. There might be something to the possibility of tracking her down and just asking her.
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Argument: Maybe this compound isn't the only compound that's being used?

Corollary: We need to check to make sure the meeting spot of the next Event is at that area, and not a general meeting ground where we are then split up into groups to go to one of the many compounds.
 
This is an opportunity to get ahead....BUT I am lazy as hell. So I just copied from @Briefvoice whatever we didn't finish last time.

[X] Action Plan: Mopping it Up


Investigate Team Bloodrage
  • Goals: Follow up on the Oyabun's tip-off and learn whatever we can about Bloodrage. We trust he wouldn't be wasting our time unless it was important.
    • This is second in priority to preparing for the next Event, but still a high priority and worth hours of our time.
  • Methods:
    • Get Hinata to sneak a peek at their room and persons (this we will bribe her for as a special favor).
    • Chat them up about Demon Country and their sensei or whatever else they'll open up about.
      • Noburi and Hazou work together, Noburi to find something they care about and Hazou to show complete sympathy toward it.
    • Take notes on their mannerisms, habits, identifying markings, etc.
    • Try to get them into a bragging contest about powerful ninjas associated with themselves.
    • If they let drop anything about Jashin, follow it up as best as possible.

Celebrate Jiraiya's Birthday and Brief Him on Developments
  • Goals:
    • Make him feel happy and less stressed?
    • Toss a potential lead his way.
  • Methods:
    • Schedule a meeting with Jiraiya for the evening of the 10th (like ask to spend dinner with him?).
    • Get the present from Taiyoku, and prepare some cake or other good foodstuff to take with us. Celebrate his birthday.
    • Present him with the Oyabun's gift and tell him the story behind Kurohige Ranmaru's fleet.
      • Hazou will theorize that it's a message about willingness to make an ally out of someone you have recently opposed.

    • Will also report to Jiraiya the Oyabun's direction to look into Team Bloodrage and anything we have learned to date.
    • Before investigation, their denial of knowledge of something called "Jashin" was the only remarkable thing about them.
    • Since the Oyabun does nothing by accident, there's probably something important here, and maybe it doesn't have anything to do with the Exam.

Plan as a Team for our Position on Team Gai's Capture
  • Hazou is concerned about Keiko's reaction to the news, he rarely sees her so emotional. He wants to make sure she's ok, and at the same time make sure we're on the same page for the Team Gai incident.
  • Ask how Keiko is doing, and if she's feeling better. Don't be too pushy or insistent about this, it's not an interrogation.
    • Don't let her blame herself if she tries that.
    • Let Noburi take the lead as necessary, since he seems to have some idea what she might be upset about.
  • Hazou expresses his opinion to Noburi and Keiko about how we should react to the whole thing
    • To any inquiries from Mist, we should deny knowing anything about it.
    • To any inquiries from fellow Leaf teams/Leaf jounin, tell them the truth. We went to have a look at the proctor building, decided it wasn't worth the risk of a break-in for uncertain rewards, and told Neji that there are safer ways of getting information on the event.
    • Neji is kind of a jerk, so he might try to blame us somehow
      • If he does, we obviously don't take it laying down; this was his play and we advised against it.
    • Otherwise, though, in the interests of keeping the peace and future relations, there's no need to trash talk Team Gai
      • In fact, be a little conciliatory about it; they took a big risk for a potential big reward and sometimes that's something you do as a ninja.
      • We're not interested in relitigating the decision or in "i-told-you-so".
  • If this comes up later, do what the team decided to do.
 
[X] Action Plan: Cheating it up

Investigate Team Bloodrage
  • Goals: Follow up on the Oyabun's tip-off and learn whatever we can about Bloodrage. We trust he wouldn't be wasting our time unless it was important.
    • This is second in priority to preparing for the next Event, but still a high priority and worth hours of our time.
  • Methods:
    • Get Hinata to sneak a peek at their room and persons (this we will bribe her for as a special favor).
    • Chat them up about Demon Country and their sensei or whatever else they'll open up about.
      • Noburi and Hazou work together, Noburi to find something they care about and Hazou to show complete sympathy toward it.
    • Take notes on their mannerisms, habits, identifying markings, etc.
    • Try to get them into a bragging contest about powerful ninjas associated with themselves.
    • If they let drop anything about Jashin, follow it up as best as possible.

Celebrate Jiraiya's Birthday and Brief Him on Developments
  • Goals:
    • Make him feel happy and less stressed?
    • Toss a potential lead his way.
  • Methods:
    • Schedule a meeting with Jiraiya for the evening of the 10th (like ask to spend dinner with him?).
    • Get the present from Taiyoku, and prepare some cake or other good foodstuff to take with us. Celebrate his birthday.
    • Present him with the Oyabun's gift and tell him the story behind Kurohige Ranmaru's fleet.
      • Hazou will theorize that it's a message about willingness to make an ally out of someone you have recently opposed.

    • Will also report to Jiraiya the Oyabun's direction to look into Team Bloodrage and anything we have learned to date.
    • Before investigation, their denial of knowledge of something called "Jashin" was the only remarkable thing about them.
    • Since the Oyabun does nothing by accident, there's probably something important here, and maybe it doesn't have anything to do with the Exam.

Plan as a Team for our Position on Team Gai's Capture [Background]
  • Hazou is concerned about Keiko's reaction to the news, he rarely sees her so emotional. He wants to make sure she's ok, and at the same time make sure we're on the same page for the Team Gai incident.
  • Ask how Keiko is doing, and if she's feeling better. Don't be too pushy or insistent about this, it's not an interrogation.
    • Don't let her blame herself if she tries that.
    • Let Noburi take the lead as necessary, since he seems to have some idea what she might be upset about.
  • Hazou expresses his opinion to Noburi and Keiko about how we should react to the whole thing
    • To any inquiries from Mist, we should deny knowing anything about it.
    • To any inquiries from fellow Leaf teams/Leaf jounin, tell them the truth. We went to have a look at the proctor building, decided it wasn't worth the risk of a break-in for uncertain rewards, and told Neji that there are safer ways of getting information on the event.
    • Neji is kind of a jerk, so he might try to blame us somehow
      • If he does, we obviously don't take it laying down; this was his play and we advised against it.
    • Otherwise, though, in the interests of keeping the peace and future relations, there's no need to trash talk Team Gai
      • In fact, be a little conciliatory about it; they took a big risk for a potential big reward and sometimes that's something you do as a ninja.
      • We're not interested in relitigating the decision or in "i-told-you-so".
  • If this comes up later, do what the team decided to do.
Cheating the Leadership exam advice for Keiko
  • Hazou had a couple ideas for ways she could get around some of the issues after their last conversation about it.
    • Summoning a competent pangolin for "Training" that she asks what they would do in the situation, and then optimizing their plan.
      • This would let her fulfill her desired role in a team even in the position of a team leader.
      • It may cost her points for not actually doing as instructed, or it may just be seen as a clever workaround for a Mori.
    • Other stuff here (@MadScientist, I think you had some ideas?)
 
@Cariyaga might consider seeing if Kei could consult with Ami. Since she made jounin she's obviously figured outa way to overcome the negative sides of the frozen skein
 
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