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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Hinata already has manipulated us.
OliWhail said:
Team Gōketsu was in the middle of thoroughly sweeping their chosen room for seals and Kozo body-bits when Hazou got a much better idea and paused. "Noburi, would you be willing to go ask one of the Hyuuga if they'd be willing to check all the rooms?"

"Hm. Good call," Noburi agreed, heading to the door.

"AAAAH!" he shouted not five seconds later.

Hazou and Keiko were through the door before either of them even realized it, kunai drawn, directional explosives pointed opposite directions down the hallway. Hazou happened to be facing away from where Noburi had walked, and so heard rather than saw Noburi fall to the ground, his forehead protector actually doing its job for once as it slammed against the polished wooden floor.

"P-please accept my apologies, Lady Hyuuga!" Noburi stammered.

Hazou blinked, and then slowly lowered his stance and turned to look at his friend. And now brother, actually, he mused. Noburi was on his knees in front of a half-open door, the visible part of his face rapidly approaching potentially dangerous levels of blushing.

"Oh, ah, sorry, give me just one second!" came Hyuuga's voice from inside the room. A couple of seconds later she opened the door all the way, wrapped in a towel that looked so luxurious that Hazou could feel his wallet getting lighter just looking at it. "Is everything alright, Gōketsu?"

Noburi sat up slightly, still looking at the floor. "I'm really sorry, Hyuuga, I didn't mean to invade your privacy. Inuzuka and Aburame didn't mention you'd be changing, it didn't occur to me to knock."

She waved away his apology. "Ah, please don't worry about it! The Byakugan means we Hyuuga tend to... care less about privacy, for various reasons."

As Hazou digested the implications of that statement and resolved to move mobile versions of the privacy seals as far up on the research queue as possible, Hyuuga looked over the still-armed ninja in the hallway and asked, "Did you need something from me in particular, or...?"

"We, uh, we were hoping you would be willing to help us sweep for seals around the barracks. And also eyeballs and ears, there's a Mist clan, Kozo, that can detach parts of themselves and they like to use that ability for spying," Noburi explained, finally starting to stand up and looking absolutely anywhere except the girl in front of him.

"Oh, yes, of course," Hyuuga answered, nodding. "My cousin and I did a sweep as soon as we all arrived, and neither of us spotted any seals, but there was a young man up on the roof who had suspended an eyeball with his own chakra in it on a piece of twine. He was moving it around between windows, so we figured it was some kind of scouting technique." Her expression darkened. "I had Kiba grab it when it got to our room, he and Shino are off to see if they can find anything fun to do with it. Kozo, huh? Good to know."

Hazou didn't bother to suppress his shudder.

"Anyway," Hyuuga continued, suddenly brightening again. "I was off to take a real bath instead of the field wash we had earlier, and I just realized I need someone to pair up with to follow the Hokage's order about staying in pairs. Would you be willing to go with me, Gōketsu?" she asked, looking at Keiko.

"I--wha, HUH?" Noburi blurted out, his head snapping toward Hyuuga. She glanced at him silently for a second, looked briefly over at Keiko, and then looked back at Noburi, before starting to laugh.

"Sorry! I don't mean to make fun of you, I suppose that was bound to get awfully confusing," she said, still giggling. "I know we haven't known each other long, but would it be alright if we used each other's first names, at least when you're all together like this? Just to make things simpler."

Noburi nodded mutely, as did Hazou. Keiko hesitated, and Hyuuga immediately threw up both hands toward her. "Ah, please don't worry about it if you're uncomfortable with it! And anyway, if the boys are okay with first names, then it'll be clear who I mean when I say Gōketsu, so it's fine!"

The aforementioned boys had immediately found very interesting things to investigate up on the ceiling. Keiko looked down at the towel that Hyuu-- Hinata had dropped in her gesticulating, and raised an eyebrow. "I'll go get changed as well, I suppose," she said simply.
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MadScientist said:
Unfortunately, she's already in the latter category, even if there's no malice behind it. Her clan stands in direct opposition to ours, and is actively threatening Jiraiya's claim to the hat. She is already an enemy whether we treat her as one or not.
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The Hyuga clan is aligned against us right now, but it is not inherently enemy. Hinta, in particular, has not made any overtly hostile moves against us. Anyways, there is a big difference between someone who is on the opposite political faction and someone who has reason to hold a personal vendetta against us. In short, she is a nominal enemy but not an avowed one, we should keep it that way.
 
Hey @eaglejarl @Velorien @OliWhail Does the merchant council's injunction on use of ninja talents apply only to ninja? For instance... if Chuunin-Hazou were to teach kids at the academy MEW, given that they were not-yet-ninja, could they use MEW for construction?
 
18scsc said:
The Hyuga clan is aligned against us right now, but it is not inherently enemy. Hinta, in particular, has not made any overtly hostile moves against us. Anyways, there is a big difference between someone who is on the opposite political faction and someone who has reason to hold a personal vendetta against us. In short, she is a nominal enemy but not an avowed one, we should keep it that way.
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You seem to be under the misapprehension that I want Hinata to realise we acted against her. No. I want to destroy her credibility in such a way that she thinks that it was all her own doing. Or the actions of a third party. Whatever, point is: Hinata is an enemy, so we benefit from her position being dismantled, but we do not have to be seen as the ones who dismantled it.
 
MadScientist said:
You seem to be under the misapprehension that I want Hinata to realise we acted against her. No. I want to destroy her credibility in such a way that she thinks that it was all her own doing. Or the actions of a third party. Whatever, point is: Hinata is an enemy, so we benefit from her position being dismantled, but we do not have to be seen as the ones who dismantled it.
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Fair enough, but secrets have this nasty way of getting out. I don't think the risk is really worth it. The marginal benefit of sabotaging Hinata doesn't outweigh the marginal risk. Best case scenario, as I see it, is that she gains power and influence within her clan while staying friendly with us.
 
faflec said:
Ignoring the impracticality of beating a Hyuga with pure Taijutsu...I really want to beat her with pure Taijutsu.
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(If we Taijutsu spar with Neji and Iron Nerve some dodges and counters the whole month we would have a hell of an aspect bonus against her as well).
 
MMKII said:
(If we Taijutsu spar with Neji and Iron Nerve some dodges and counters the whole month we would have a hell of an aspect bonus against her as well).
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Assuming we're matched up against her early enough in the tournament...there's no way in the seven hells Neji wouldn't notice and refuse out of hand. And if we're not, our time would be better spent planning Aspects for our earlier opponents.
 
18scsc said:
Fair enough, but secrets have this nasty way of getting out. I don't think the risk is really worth it. The marginal benefit of sabotaging Hinata doesn't outweigh the marginal risk. Best case scenario, as I see it, is that she gains power and influence within her clan while staying friendly with us.
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I know Hazou has a problem with OPSEC, but that's more about sharing abilities. I don't see a reason why he would tell Hinata that he sabotaged her.

Do not be fooled into thinking that Hinata is friendly with us. She is an enemy, full stop, until such a time as the Hyuuga are no longer aligned against the Gouketsu. And that's Hiashi's call, not her's (for the foreseeable future). Hinata may or may not like us, but she is still an enemy until Hiashi abdicates or changes his politics.
 
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MadScientist said:
I know Hazou has a problem with OPSEC, but that's more about sharing abilities. I don't see a reason why he would tell Hinata that he sabotaged her.

Do not be fooled into thinking that Hinata is friendly with us. She is an enemy, full stop, until such a time as the Hyuuga are no longer aligned against the Gouketsu. And that's Hiashi's call, not hers (for the foreseeable future). Hinata may or may not like us, but she is still an enemy until Hiashi abdicates or changes his politics.
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It feels utterly more ruthless than we need to be.
 
Sign me up for the Anti-Hyuga coalition
 
18scsc said:
Por que no dos? Or rather, the former is a useful precondition to winning the latter. Say, how does bloodline limit inheritance work when both parents have a bloodline ability?
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eaglejarl said:
The ones that are smart about it... Clan heads would want to maximize the number of bloodline kids available, but they also want to make sure the family doesn't end up as deformed hemophiliac morons. There'd be a lot of pressure to marry within the family and arranged marriage would likely be the norm. Out crosses would be done as rarely as possible, just to prevent inbreeding birth defects from getting too bad. The children of the out cross wouldn't have the bloodline active, so an out cross would be an expensive proposition in terms of family power.
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I believe this would apply for both cases, so a hypothetical Keiko x Shikamaru cross would result in children without either Mori or Nara clan bloodlines.
 
MadScientist said:
*shrugs*

Realpolitik is ruthless. It feels pretty horrible to write this stuff, but this is the reality of the situation.
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She's an enemy, sure, but in a situation with limited resources like this we need to pick which of our many enemies to focus on. I'd personally prefer to get an edge over Team Downfall or the elites of the other villages than over Hinata, all else being equal.
 
Inferno Vulpix said:
She's an enemy, sure, but in a situation with limited resources like this we need to pick which of our many enemies to focus on. I'd personally prefer to get an edge over Team Downfall or the elites of the other villages than over Hinata, all else being equal.
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Team Letdown and Kages don't help J keep the hat as much as Hiashi does (since Hiashi is his main rival for the hat, whereas TL and K aren't), and Hinata is a proxy that we can use to damage Hiashi.
 
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