A fish or regular animal farm is probably way easier than the sort of elaborate precautions needed for something like that vole farm, even if it's less efficient a source of chakra per animal or square meter.
All these things rely on Noburi though, so they can't really be scaled up to dramatically change all of society. Potentially useful, but it's a bit of a limiting factor.
A fish or regular animal farm is probably way easier than the sort of elaborate precautions needed for something like that vole farm, even if it's less efficient a source of chakra per animal or square meter.
All these things rely on Noburi though, so they can't really be scaled up to dramatically change all of society. Potentially useful, but it's a bit of a limiting factor.
A fish or regular animal farm is probably way easier than the sort of elaborate precautions needed for something like that vole farm, even if it's less efficient a source of chakra per animal or square meter.
All these things rely on Noburi though, so they can't really be scaled up to dramatically change all of society. Potentially useful, but it's a bit of a limiting factor.
I was thinking that we wouldn't even need a special farm. We could just show up at regular ranches already raising animals on slaughter days and kill the animals for them by chakra draining, or negotiate an arrangement where we can show up to drain them when we need more chakra, or whatever.
Totally unrelated - is it just me, or do other people always see a bird's head when they look at the leaf symbol? I can sort of see how it's supposed to be a leaf, but I always see the bird.
Actually, do we know that a few fish farms wouldn't suffice? I mean, the koi ponds that the Wakahisa have are fine for their entire clan, and it's a BIG clan.
Totally unrelated - is it just me, or do other people always see a bird's head when they look at the leaf symbol? I can sort of see how it's supposed to be a leaf, but I always see the bird.
Can you partially drain animals and let them recover, just like you can partially drain people? Maybe that's why a few koi ponds are enough for the whole Wakahisa clan.
As for how many shadow clones you can make, it'd be limited by Noburi's willingness to supply chakra, I guess. And also, do we know they don't have an ongoing maintenance cost? Because I'd expect that they do, and that's exactly how I'd limit this plan from becoming an exponential curve of absurdity if I were the QMs.
Hazō made a 'wait a minute' gesture to Nara and stepped over to where Akane stood with her team.
"Akane," Hazō said, "I'm really sorry for talking about your technique without asking. We were with allies, they were asking about what we'd been doing, I needed them to cooperate, and I wasn't thinking. I feel like we need to focus on the Exam right now, but I'd like to talk about it more tonight and apologize more fully then. Would that be all right?"
She looked at him and then sighed in exasperation and shook her head. "Yes," she said. "You're right that we need to focus right now, so we can put off talking about it. And it's true that my technique is much less important than the one you leaked on our earlier mission, so I suppose I shouldn't be that upset. Please be aware, though, that there are other things I know that I would be very upset if you talked about with anyone who does not already know them."
The emphasis on the words told Hazō two things: First, he had really better never talk about those things to anyone who didn't already know them. Second, he had better figure out which things she was thinking of—preferably without needing to ask, since that would also show a lack of awareness of what was important to her. Or would it be a sign that he was aware of his own failings and attempting to improve? Gah. Relationships were complicated!
"Hazō, the reason I'm angry is not that you talked about it," Akane continued. "At least, not mostly. It's that you did it again, even after what happened last time. And again you didn't realize it until Sakura commented. It makes me worry that you either aren't paying attention or aren't trying to learn from mistakes." She touched his arm for a moment, then took her hand away and nodded firmly. "All right, enough of that. We need to deal with the event. It sounded like you had another idea?"
"Because your last one worked so well," Yamamoto mumbled, almost quietly enough to pass unnoticed. Haruno shushed him and Hazō refused to rise to the bait.
"I'm thinking that the six of us pair off and move around the party, trading our current lists to all the other Leaf teams," Hazō said. "Not only will it boost their scores and help make an all-Leaf tournament, but it will drive down our enemies' scores."
"Be sure you tell them to list all other Leaf ninja on their ballot," Nara said from behind him.
Hazō turned around, surprised. "What?"
"Scoring in this event is zero-sum," Nara said. "We know who all the other Leaf ninja are; presumably, some of them also have information on us or on other Leaf ninja. If we all name each other on the ballot, or if none of us name each other, then we get zero points. If some of us name each other and others don't then the ones who defect will gain advantage in the event but lose reputation among their peers. The stable state is for everyone to agree in advance that we will all name each other in order to prevent such a quandary."
Akane looked sad. "You're right. I wish it weren't necessary, that we could trust all of our allies to be youthful, but your solution is the sensible one. Better to remove temptation than to fight it."
"I am concerned about our scores, even with this information," Keiko said, her voice making it clear that she was brushing against the edges of the Ice. "Hazō, you told me that you believed your identity had been compromised by at least a dozen people?"
"Probably more like ten, and only the fact that I'm a ninja. Downfall—or whoever that was in the tunnel—knows who I actually am, though."
"There were forty-eight teams remaining after the eliminations," Keiko said. "One hundred and forty-four ninja. Not all of them found the event, although I would assume most did. Either they were able to locate it on their own or they had allies who shared information, the same way we did. Hyūga, do you have a count on how many remain?"
"There were two hundred and sixty-one ninja at the event when it began," the girl said. "Separating the proctors from the contestants is challenging."
Keiko gave her a withering stare. "Stop. Every ninja on these grounds has been through the break rooms and dropped their henge multiple times over the course of this event. If you don't want to cooperate, that's fine, but don't imagine I'm stupid."
Hyūga raised her hands placatingly. "Very well. There were one hundred and thirty-six contestants onsite at the start of the event. Three more came in after it had begun."
"Interesting point," Nara said, nodding at Keiko. "Evacuating the scene would be too risky. Another fortress?"
"Not enough chakra," Keiko said. "We can use the tunneling jutsu and seal it behind us."
Nara raised an eyebrow. "Completely? Do you actually carry that many seals?"
"It's not a seal," Hazō said. "It's—"
"He meant the Tunneler's Friend seals," Keiko said. "We would need an air supply for nearly fifty people."
"Collateral damage rules?"
Keiko grunted. "Fine. Keep it as an option. If necessary, we plug with MEW then bury the plug under dirt from inside."
"Complete sentences!" Yamanaka growled. "I swear on the name of the Sage, what is so hard about complete sentences?!" Nara sighed and turned to her and she hastened to add, "And don't Neji me, Shikamaru. I'm not an idiot who needs to be told that water is wet, I just need the intermediate steps to be there."
He rolled his eyes. "Troublesome girl. Very well: Scoring is zero-sum, so if you and another ninja recognize each other then nothing has been lost or gained. Anyone with a brain will realize that therefore there are only two ways to win...."
o-o-o-o
"A moment of your time, Sada," Hazō said, sliding in next to the portly 50-ish man with a nametag that said 'Watanabe Kaito, Jeweler'.
The man turned a little too quickly for his mass, eyes widening slightly in alarm before suddenly becoming part of an amiable mask. "I'm afraid you have me confused with someone else, my friend," he said. "Easy to mistake, I know. Big old walrus like me, I'm sure there are plenty of men who look the same."
Hazō glanced around quickly to make sure no one else was close enough to overhear; they had chosen Sada because she had moved away from the crowd on the front lawn, drifting off by herself to stand with her back to one side of the hedge maze while she pondered her next move. The relative isolation was good, but better was that Akane was keeping an eye out. "Your father is a sanitation worker, your mother is a baker, and your home has a green awning. Hyūga Hinata and Nara Shikamaru gave me your information, and I'm here to give you ours." He slid a folded-up set of papers out of his sleeve and passed them over. "These are the names, village of origin, team names, and civilian roles for a hundred ninja, including everyone from Leaf. We're all going to turn in all the names on this sheet at the end of the event—yes, including other people from Leaf. That was Nara's call. He said that it's zero sum, so all of us naming one another costs no one any points and it's an easy way to enforce cooperation. My name is in the left column, up from the bottom a bit." He quickly flicked both hands to indicate 'ten'.
The disguised Leaf ninja took the papers from him with a dubious look and glanced at them, then frowned.
"The handwriting is terrible," Hazō said waspishly. "I know. Cut me some slack. I needed to make fifty of these very quickly, so I was slopping ink across a stencil that I cut out with a kunai that wasn't quite thin enough to do a neat job. That's why it takes three sheets of paper. And yes, I know it's exceptionally high-quality paper. It's what I had."
"Incoming," Akane whispered from behind him. Hazō turned around to see a tall woman striding towards them, holding a stack of paper in her left hand and waving with the right. Her nametag listed her as 'Takaki Kyo, Ship Owner'.
"Kurosawa Hazō!" she said, coming to a halt in front of them with a friendly smile. "There you are, I've been looking for you."
Hazō thought quickly. She knew his identity, so he probably couldn't convince her he was someone else. Still, better to at least try.
"Sorry, who?" he asked. "My name is Yoshida. I'm a traveling actor."
"Your name is Kurosawa Hazō of Leaf's Team Gōketsu," the woman said cheerfully. She glanced at Akane. "I don't know who you've got covering your back, but I'm guessing she's another Leaf nin...maybe your sister?" She eyed Akane up and down for a moment. "No, you're not his sister. That girl's body language is far more closed off and she's far too introverted to manage playing the chatty, friendly personality that you've shown all night. That would make you the girlfriend, right?" She frowned in concentration. "Ish...Ishihara Akane, that was it. Nice to meet you." She bowed politely.
Akane returned the bow. "Pleasure to meet you as well...?"
'Takaki' smiled and wagged a finger. "A woman must keep a few bits of mystery, after all."
Sada Hanako, palm the list that Hazō gave her (Deceit * 0.75 since she does not have Sleight of Hand): ?
Unknown chatty ninja, Awareness to spot the list: ?
"Ah!" Takaki said, catching sight of the list Sada was holding before it could be palmed and hidden away. "You guys are handing out lists as well, huh? Good, good. Add mine to yours, keep spreading it around, eh? Here's one for each of you." She peeled three sheets off the stack in her left hand and started to hold them out, then took them back. She produced a charcoal stick from her pouch and quickly jotted 'Watanabe Kaito, Jeweler: Ninja' at the bottom of each sheet before offering them again. "Charcoal rubs off a little too easily, so you'll probably want to write it in better on your own later. Don't worry, I'll add it to the rest of them."
Sada fulminated impotently.
"How do you know my name?" Hazō demanded.
"Someone sold it to me," Takaki said, her smile getting broader. "You are definitely going to want to collect all the lists you can because otherwise you are going down so hard. Like, there's probably twenty or thirty people with your full details right now, so you're looking at something like...what, a hundred and fifty down?" She shrugged. "That's assuming it hasn't spread wider, of course. I mean, it seems like folks here in Mist really don't like you for some reason. Think about it—if everyone knew your details you could actually go down over a thousand points! That would be amazing, huh? Go from leading the Exam to dead last, all in the space of an hour or two? Pretty amazing, huh?"
"Yes," Hazō said through gritted teeth. "Amazing."
She shook her head. "I wouldn't even know how to feel if that happened to me. I mean...wow, what a shift!"
"Your psychological warfare skills are excellent," Akane said coldly. "What do you want?"
Takaki placed a hand on her chest in feigned innocence. "Want? Why do I have to want something...? Well, okay, yes. I was wondering if perhaps you had a list that you wanted to give me to spread around? All your enemies? After all, doesn't matter how far down you go as long as the competition goes down more, right?"
Hazō and Akane traded looks.
"Give me a minute," Hazō said, stepping away a few yards. He pulled out a kunai and one of the stenciled lists of names. A few quick and efficient strokes with the knife and the Leaf names had been excised from the papers. He tucked the scraps in his pocket, then walked back and handed Takaki the remaining names.
"Here."
She took the three redacted pages and studied them carefully. "Hmmm. Yeah, I already knew most of these, but there's a few new ones. And it looks like you cut out...what? Forty-ish names? So you probably know all the Leaf identities and they aren't on these pages. That means anyone I haven't identified a village for who isn't on the page is probably Leaf. Thanks!"
"Damnit, Gōketsu!" Sada snapped.
"I was worried about just drawing over them!" Hazō said. "I thought maybe she had some way to look under the ink. And it would have taken too long to make a whole new copy. I left the st— the materials that I used to make them with the others."
Takaki laughed. "Actually, I had no idea how many names were missing. I was just guessing. Good to know that you do actually have all the Leaf names though. Anyway, I'm off. Places to be, people to sell out, you know? Catch you later!" She turned and strode away.
The three Leaf ninja stared after her for several long seconds before looking at each other.
"What just happened?" Sada asked plainitively.
"We just met someone who is better at intrigue than all of us," Akane replied.
Hazō was already pulling out his writing kit. "Let's go into the maze for a few minutes," Hazō said to Akane. "I want to crosscheck her list with ours and make some copies. We'll tell people that they're not from a trusted source, but I have a feeling that they're going to turn out to be accurate." He started to turn away and then stopped. "Sada, sorry for all that."
Sada was busy reading through the list that Takaki had handed them; she shrugged without looking up. "S'all right. Probably just as well. I only had a handful of names and the rest of my team got DQ'd around midnight. Between these two lists I'm maybe in the running." She looked up. "Thank you." Something occurred to her. "Oh, I should give you my list as well."
"Right!" Hazō said with a smile. Wow, Takaki had really knocked him off his game. He'd almost forgotten to ask Sada for her information. "Come on, let's go into the maze so we're away from sneaky eyes." He smiled as he turned for the maze. There were lists! And they needed to be reconciled into bigger lists!
"Sada," Akane said. "You have not verified our identities."
Sada stopped. "What? But...I mean, that woman just said...and you accepted it. And he knew about my parents."
"We could have been working with Tanaka. It would have been a simple ploy to have a confederate come up and 'expose' us as an untrue identity in order to allay your suspicions. And a spy could have studied you to know about your parents."
The teenage girl, currently wearing the form of a portly adult man, blinked in surprise. "Okay. So...how do I know it's you? Are you going to de-henge?"
"No," Akane said. "Too much risk of being caught and disqualified. Instead, I will say this: I really am Ishihara Akane, just like that woman said, and this really is Gōketsu Hazō. We overlapped at the Academy. We both had Tanaka-sensei for history and during class he always chewed licorice with his mouth open. You used to wear a pink ribbon around your hair; your mother gave it to you as a birthday present and you thought it was lucky. Saitō-sensei yelled at you for wearing it during training, saying that no ninja of his would ever be seen wearing something that drew the eye with its bright colors. After that you wore it around your right wrist, under your sleeve."
Sada digested that. "Right, it's you. Okay, let's go merge lists."
o-o-o-o
"Are any of those new?" Noburi asked.
"No," Keiko said, putting away the papers they'd received from their latest Leaf contact. "We had all of them already. Of the last three people we exchanged with, there were only four new names. Most likely we already have all the names we're going to get. Everyone else is too skilled to have their identities get out."
Noburi glanced at the sky to check the time. "If you're right about how things are going to end then we've got maybe thirty minutes before things get nuts. We've talked to everyone on our task list except Takakuwa. Let's go find him and then bag this."
o-o-o-o
Enemy, Stealth (? + tag "Major Distraction") + 4dF: 25
Enemy burns a FP to reroll!
Enemy, Stealth (? + tag "Major Distraction") + 4dF: 43
Hazō, Alertness (30) + invoke "(Formerly) Marked for Death" + invoke "Team Uplift" (he and Akane are watching each other's backs) + 4dF (0): 38
Hazō burns an FP to reroll. Hazō, Alertness (30) + invoke "(Formerly) Marked for Death" + invoke "Team Uplift" (he and Akane are watching each other's backs) + 4dF (+9): 47
Akane, Alertness + invoke "Equals at Last" + invoke "Team Uplift" + 4dF: not enough.
Akane burns an FP to reroll because -9 is for losers.
Akane, Alertness + invoke "Equals at Last" + invoke "Team Uplift" + 4dF: enough.
Akane and Hazō have the same Alertness and Athletics, so initiative is determined by an Athletics roll. They both roll 0. I give them a second roll: Hazō gets -6, Akane gets +9. Initiative order: Akane, Hazō, Enemy
Akane: Spend Standard action picking Hazō up. (Picking up an object is usually a Supplemental, but people are bigger, heavier, and more complicated; we don't have rules for this so I'm eyeballing it. It might not work like this next time.) Burn a Fate Point to declare that there is a statue on the lawn that's about the same mass as the two of them. Supplemental action: Substitute with statue.
Enemy: does stuff, but since it can't affect our heroes I don't really care.
The heat from the Elemental Mastery gambit had long since dissipated, but the weather was beautiful and a good portion of the attendees were still out on the lawn. The ninja guests were all relieved to be in an open space (in some cases visibly relieved, which got their names added to a lot of the lists that were circulating) and the civilians seemed to be enjoying the setting. The servants had been perfectly happy to bring tables of food and drink outside and were circulating with appetizers as the event drew to a close.
Hazō and Akane had found and exchanged information with the last of their assigned contacts and were about ready to leave the front-lawn party and retreat to the safety of the back garden and the rest of SuperTeam Leaf. Hazō was eyeing the buffet table longingly; no student of Kagome-sensei would eat at an event like this when he had a pocket full of perfectly good storage seals loaded with pre-made meals. Still...they had jam-stuffed fried cheese! And that looked like prawn jambalaya! His stomach rumbled at the sight of the familiar foods that had been unavailable throughout his wanderings.
"Identity lists!" someone shouted. "Git yer identity lists! Git 'em while they're hot! Full info on the great traitors, Kurosawa Hazō and Wakahisa Noburi! They're calling themselves 'Gōketsu' these days and sucking up to the Hokage, but they're still the same traitors as before! Full info on Sakamoto Shiina, possessor of Waterfall's invisibility bloodline! Full info on Tenjin Kura, wielder of the mighty Fires of the Gods jutsu!"
Everyone pivoted to look towards the person shouting. Said worthy, a young man with brown hair and bad acne, hopped up on a table (stepping carefully around all the food) and raised a sheaf of papers above his head. "Hello everyone. I'm a ninja, I'm too far down in the rankings to win, and I figured I'd help out my village. I have here—"
Fevered ghosts were dancing across the back of Hazō's neck. He looked back over his shoulder as calmly as he could, fighting the urge to spin into a combat stance.
A few yards away, one of the servants, a blonde woman in her late twenties who had been circulating a tray of bacon-wrapped cod for the last five minutes, had set her tray down on the grass and was starting to cut handseals.
The world slowed around him as he pondered the best response. He had regenerated a little chakra, probably enough for a MEW to hide behind, but then he'd be essentially empty and unable to fight. He and Akane were standing close enough together that he could throw a Tunnel Excavation jutsu right at their feet and drop them into the resulting foxhole. Tearing up the lawn like that would probably carry collateral damage penalties of unknown severity, and his score in this event was already sufficiently endangered. How about—
Steel-strong arms scooped him up into a bridal carry. His body nearly lashed out before his brain caught up to the fact that it was Akane. The world stuttered around them and they were suddenly dozens of yards away from the gathering, standing on the edge of the koi pond where a moment earlier a small bronze dog statue had been frozen in the act of studying its reflection in the water.
As they appeared, a voice cried out, "Wind Release: Sirrocco!" Over Akane's shoulder, Hazō could see the blonde 'servant' girl finish her jutsu. A blast of wind howled from her hands, scooping up sand and gravel from the driveway, bits of twigs from the grass, and pelting them across the backs of the gathered crowd. The force of the wind staggered people, knocking several to the ground and breaking dozens of henges. Hazō and Akane weren't the only ones to have escaped; various others had revealed themselves as ninja by using superhuman reflexes to dive beyond cover, conjure it from the ether, or vanish via one method of ninja magic or another.
"Let's go!" Hazō hissed, grabbing Akane's hand and pulling her away. Time to rejoin the others where it was safe.
o-o-o-o
"Well, that was a bit of a clusterfuck," Shiomi-sensei said to the crowd of anxious genin packed into the bleachers before him. "In the end, the winners were the ones who did the least badly."
Hazō frowned at that. He himself had probably ended up with a negative score, despite the extensive list compiled from Nara's information and that of all the people he'd traded it to. It had become clear that multiple people had been specifically targeting him, Keiko, and Noburi, and the attack in the tunnel (almost certainly by Downfall) had put all his details on the market. And, of course, anyone whose henge was popped in the attack at the end would have ended up negative, since losing their henge meant a two-hundred point penalty and no ability to earn positive points. Still, it couldn't be the case that everyone ended up negative, could it? Eh, Shiomi-sensei was probably just being a jerk again.
The jerk in question glanced down at the notes on the podium in front of him, then shook his head. "You all performed adequately for the first twenty hours, and then you promptly went insane at the last minute. We counted thirteen lists of identities being publicly distributed; several people were distributing multiple separate lists while other lists were being distributed by multiple people. Apparently someone had bought the list from one person and then started reselling it. Most of those lists had some name/role pairs that were accurate and some that were inaccurate. Some had names and roles that didn't even belong in the event; I cannot imagine what those were about.
"In among all this clusterfuckery were a few nuggets of pure comedy gold. The first was our intrepid pair who decided that they were too far behind to make it to the tournament themselves, so they would get everyone else disqualified by popping all the henges. A lot of you got caught in that." An embarrassed murmur rippled around the bleachers at the words.
"Of course, the real comedic brilliance of this event was provided by the genin of a certain village. For the sake of good diplomacy and in a spirit of charity I shall not name this village, but you all know them. You know the way they preach the values of cooperation and comradeship. Of loyalty to your fellows. Of how you should never leaf a teammate behind." He paused, eyeing the room to make sure the barb had been caught.
"Well, the Kage of that village might wish to speak to his teachers, because every single one of the ninja from this village ratted on each other. Every. Single. One. Complete and accurate lists of role, name, village, and team for every one of their comrades."
He snorted and shook his head ruefully. "Well, I guess a widespread bit of treachery doesn't matter that much. In any case, moving on. We once again need to eliminate half of you. I will be calling the names of those who are continuing on to the next event. When you hear your name, please leave the room. If you are not on a team with the least-badly-scoring person from this event then the proctor in the hall will tell you how much time remains until the next event. After that, you are free to go."
The names began, a long slow rumble of syllables blurring into one another as Hazō waited to find out if he and his sibs had made it. He settled back on the bleacher, calming his mind and focusing on his breathing. Shiomi-sensei was going to drag this out for the sadistic joy of it and Hazō would not give the man the pleasure of seeing him squirm.
XP AWARD: 3 because the plan was clear, easy to follow, and produced a good update. Bonus XP: +5 because the plan took only 195 words to say everything that was needed.
It is now 7pm. The fourth event is over, the field has been whittled down to 24 teams. Teams Kurenai and Asuma have made the cut. Everyone else is still up in the air, because @OliWhail is going to finish doing the scores tomorrow. We'll let you know then if you've been eliminated from the Exams or not.
You've had dinner, you're in the barracks, and the minimum time before the next event starts is 31 hours. (That may or may not matter for you, but at least you know it.) You have not yet had the longer conversation with Akane; @Velorien might do that in his update or it might be offscreened at his discretion.
(Oh, also: I'm a little fuzzy on when @Velorien's update ended, so I'm not sure exactly how much time this update covers. 2 XP might have been a more accurate per-diem but I'm rounding up because it means I don't have to do the work of tracking down the time and figuring it out I want to be nice given that the end was left so up in the air.)
Vote time! What to do now?
Voting ends on Wednesday, July 4, 2018, at 12pm London time.
As for how many shadow clones you can make, it'd be limited by Noburi's willingness to supply chakra, I guess. And also, do we know they don't have an ongoing maintenance cost? Because I'd expect that they do, and that's exactly how I'd limit this plan from becoming an exponential curve of absurdity if I were the QMs.
It is now 7pm. The fourth event is over, the field has been whittled down to 24 teams. Teams Kurenai and Asuma have made the cut. Everyone else is still up in the air, because @OliWhail is going to finish doing the scores tomorrow. We'll let you know then if you've been eliminated from the Exams or not.
I'm fine with letting everyone know that our proverbial door is always open for them to initiate a dialogue with us, but I am against directly soliciting with other nation's representatives at this point in time. Exactly how we go about socializing with people from Rock, Cloud, or Sand will of course be the deciding factor, so it may be wise to wait until we have better social skills before we get ahead of ourselves.
We should consider Mist a trial run of sorts. If we can manage to secure an alliance or understanding of some kind with them then Hazou has a reasonable chance of positively contributing to Jiraiya's international dealings. On the other hand, if Hazou opening his mouth and sticking his foot in it during negotiations happens to frequently we shouldn't squander our chances with the other nations here and now.
I just get the feeling that such talk of alliances is analogous to asking someone out to dance while at a party. If your first choice shoots you down and then you immediately pivot to ask the person standing right there next to them you probably won't get to dance with said second person either.
Also, never-before-seen is a bit much: Leaf is already allied with Sand. If we don't make motions that indicate we remain peacable toward the other nation now, they may well unite against our coalition instead of joining it.
Do you have a MfD!canon confirmation of that? I don't remember if the QMs ever confirmed that or if they did precisely how closely united Sand and Leaf are.
It's fine, we can do several RL months of sealing research now.
e: In seriousness: Given that Shikamaru's team was called out at the last exam, they were most definitely on peoples' minds to scream to the sky. Since Shikamaru's team got in, it would not make sense from a simulationist perspective for Hazou's not to unless Shika's was at the very bottom of the leaderboard.
EAGLEJARL ISN'T MAKING THE LIST OLIWHAIL IS AND HE HAS NO STAKE IN EAGLEJARL'S PERSONAL HAPPINESS SO WE COULD GET FUCKED ANYWAY AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
EAGLEJARL ISN'T MAKING THE LIST OLIWHAIL IS AND HE HAS NO STAKE IN EAGLEJARL'S PERSONAL HAPPINESS SO WE COULD GET FUCKED ANYWAY AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
That event was terrifying, and I'm glad we got through it without anyone dying.
That being said... Hazou probably lost. There is a significant possibility that all of team Goketsu lost. But we lost without starting a war, so yay us.
Hazou and Akane had that conversation in front of Leaf teams, leaving them fully aware of Hazou's OPSEC issues instead of partially.
On that note, both Hazou and we, the hivemind have the following issue re: OPSEC: Difficulty separating allies into tiers of trust. I believe this is in large part because of the collectivistic nature of the hivemind, and in Hazou's case, because he spent the previous year in the wilderness surrounded by either: Potential enemies, or people he trusts implicitly, with PRECIOUS few in between (mainly Jiraiya).
