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Shouldn't we keep them in case they're worth points?

No, we might get extra points back for them.

Too dangerous, I think. If we keep them, everyone we robbed has an incentive to come after us in order to recover them. And while @eaglejarl told us this is the last event, it's possible that turning in the half words will happen some time after it ends; and in the interim, we'd have literally all the candidates breathing down our necks.
 
Too dangerous, I think. If we keep them, everyone we robbed has an incentive to come after us in order to recover them. And while @eaglejarl told us this is the last event, it's possible that turning in the half words will happen some time after the event; and in the interim, we'd have literally all the candidates breathing down our necks.

We evenly distribute any captured word halves to STL in exchange for sticking together for group protection and as an apology for likely fucking over Team K
 
Speaking of intel:

Would anyone object to (In Round 1) capturing an enemy Blue and torturing them for specifics of their defense strat?

Nothing large or too bad, just have Keiko play the finger-knife game with them and have her break a finger or two.
It's perfect! We can just say we're trying to successfully simulate a T&I facility! Maybe we'll get bonus points for going the extra mile! :p

More seriously, I think it would be best if we have her just threaten to break their bones, while Hazou uses his deception to make it look like he is breaking someone else's bones, or already did. This plays to our strengths socially, and doesn't actually give them physical injuries. Plus we'll probably still get all the information we would have anyway.
 
It's perfect! We can just say we're trying to successfully simulate a T&I facility! Maybe we'll get bonus points for going the extra mile! :p

More seriously, I think it would be best if we have her just threaten to break their bones, while Hazou uses his deception to make it look like he is breaking someone else's bones, or already did. This plays to our strengths socially, and doesn't actually give them physical injuries. Plus we'll probably still get all the information we would have anyway.
You're right, but I wanted something bonehillingly spooky about us to really freak everyone else out for Round 2, if they're not on our team.
 
Word-halves may be worth bonus points at the end? They haven't had much involvement so far in the tournament.

Also we need to be careful about planning around other competitors - I'm sure others may have their own outside-the-box ideas and we're not accounting for them well (our usual Achilles heel)
 
Too dangerous, I think. If we keep them, everyone we robbed has an incentive to come after us in order to recover them. And while @eaglejarl told us this is the last event, it's possible that turning in the half words will happen some time after it ends; and in the interim, we'd have literally all the candidates breathing down our necks.

Simple solution - put the word halves in a storage scroll in the summon realm. They're not recoverable. And if people think we have them, then they obviously will try to recover them regardless.
 
Simple solution - put the word halves in a storage scroll in the summon realm. They're not recoverable. And if people think we have them, then they obviously will try to recover them regardless.
Technically, if we really wanted to prevent them from coming after us, we would burn their word halves in front of them.
... or we could use sleight of hand to pretend to do the same thing, thus getting them off our backs with only a slightly lower success rate than if we actually burned them.

Edit: no reason we can't do that AND put them in the summon realm though.
 
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The Thread said:
Massive beat down of literally every every single one of the top 1% of ninja of the elemental nations who haven't yet officially been given Chuunin status using Keiko's pangolins.

Maaan I'm so excited for this all to go down! We basically never get to really flex our muscles, this will be really cool. First though, some (hopefully) guiding questions though, that we should probably ask for every plan:

1. Does this pose a possible OPSEC risk?

It's pretty possible that since her summons are Keiko's Ultimate Ninja Trump Card™, she's not willing to reveal the extent of their power under any situation where she's not actually planning on killing witnesses. Obviously her identity as the Summoner is known, but her actual capabilities are not.
Similarly to how Gaara and Naruto were only willing to properly fight after they concealed the entire arena, Keiko might (rightly?) consider an exam loss preferable to the permanent effectiveness hit she will take by making her most powerful ability common knowledge.
Presumably there were all sorts of Hyuuga and other sensory-type ninja in the audience, so wouldn't those techniques still be more or less comprised anyway?

2. If an enemy attempted this plan against us, how would we respond and beat it?

If an enemy summoner came at us with low-jonin level summons we'd probably throw our own back at them. If I remember rightly, the crab summoner is also a genin at the exams and she might have similar firepower to wield. I also imagine that some of our opponents are actually jonin level themselves and would be able to just smash down our pangolins (like how Naruto and Gaara were way above jonin level but still hadn't been formally promoted so they were in the exams last time). I don't think we actually have a solution to this problem? Since our strategy is heavily dependent on snowballing, this might be particularly worrisome...
 
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I'd like to humbly propose that we proceed under the assumption that intentional Severe Consequences will result in a DQ beyond a certain point, for now.

What if it's not intentional though? Who is to say it is deliberate when Post-Mission-Party-Specialist Seargent Panaclumsay accidentally falls on the gathered bodies of the victims disarmed and restrained contestants we gathered up to chat with? Granted, maybe we shouldn't have summoned an untested pangolin but we really needed his expertise and didn't expect this to happen.

Twice.
 
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Maaan I'm so excited for this all to go down! We basically never get to really flex our muscles, this will be really cool. First though, some (hopefully) guiding questions though, that we should probably ask for every plan:

1. Does this pose a possible OPSEC risk?

It's pretty possible that since her summons are Keiko's Ultimate Ninja Trump Card™, she's not willing to reveal the extent of their power under any situation where she's not actually planning on killing witnesses. Obviously her identity as the Summoner is known, but her actual capabilities are not.
Similarly to how Gaara and Naruto were only willing to properly fight after they concealed the entire arena, Keiko might (rightly?) consider an exam loss preferable to the permanent effectiveness hit she will take by making her most powerful ability common knowledge.
Presumably there were all sorts of Hyuuga and other sensory-type ninja in the audience, so wouldn't those techniques still be more or less comprised anyway?

2. If an enemy attempted this plan against us, how would we respond and beat it?

If an enemy summoner came at us with low-jonin level summons we'd probably throw our own back at them. If I remember rightly, the crab summoner is also a genin at the exams and she might have similar firepower to wield. I also imagine that some of our opponents are actually jonin level themselves and would be able to just smash down our pangolins (like how Naruto and Gaara were way above jonin level but still hadn't been formally promoted so they were in the exams last time). I don't think we actually have a solution to this problem? Since our strategy is heavily dependent on snowballing, this is particularly worrisome...
Summons are too rare to really worry about here. Unless they too have a way of getting extra chakra it's moot, as well since we can just outscale them.


They also are useless if we don't use them. It's not like their existence is secret, their exact capabilities are.
 
SHIKAMARU: This event will involve randomly assembled teams of candidates fighting within these buildings...

HINATA: Is Hazou allright? He has a strange look in his eyes...

VOICES IN HAZOU'S HEAD: time to break some legs hue hue hue
 
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SHIKAMARU: This event will involve randomly assembled teams of candidates fighting within these buildings...

HINATA: Is Hazou allright? He has a strangle look in his eyes...

VOICES IN HAZOU'S HEAD: time to break some legs and use all the explosives we've packed hue hue hue

Fixed that for ya
 
> yfw Team Downfall escapes the consequences of the event by immediately heading towards a medic station once they realize what we're doing, relying on their point lead to keep them in the running.
 
> yfw Team Downfall escapes the consequences of the event by immediately heading towards a medic station once they realize what we're doing, relying on their point lead to keep them in the running.
>They haven't realized we've boobytrapped the the perimeter
 
SHIKAMARU: This event will involve randomly assembled teams of candidates fighting within these buildings...

HINATA: Is Hazou allright? He has a strangle look in his eyes...

VOICES IN HAZOU'S HEAD: time to break some legs hue hue hue

HAZOU: *stares down at Hinata's legs, weighs the pros and cons of allying with Team Kurenai* "Hinata, you must agree to deepen our relationship before you force my hand."

NOBURI: *not privy to Hazou's inner thoughts* "DUDE?!"
 
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HAZOU: *stares down at Hinata's legs, weighs the pros and cons of allying with Team Kurenai* "Hinata, you must agree to deepen our relationship before you force my hand."

NOBURI: *not privy of Hazou's inner thoughts* "DUDE?!"
Ehhhhhhhhh....

Maybe not quite like that....
 
Regretfully, an Omake: Better Off Forgotten
Written in fifteen minutes when my mind pulled a few threads.

Better Off Forgotten

Most of the time, Hazō experienced his new connection to Jiraiya more as a weight than a ladder: it was a set of responsibilities he'd willingly adopted for power and a chance to matter, and frankly speaking, it wasn't a gamble that had paid off yet. In the short term, he'd have been strictly better off somehow joining under Jiraiya's aegis without becoming part of his new clan, because he'd have been given a chance to fade into the background until the next time he had a chance to try and change the world.

This was not one of those times. Clanless missing nin generously adopted into a village didn't get to meet with its leader on short notice without a given reason and without overhearing ears. The Hokage might be staring at him with an expression of faint annoyance, as if wondering what unpleasantness the young man had dumped on his doorstep this time, but the three of them were in the room with him, and that was the important part.

"Hello, sir." Hazō bowed his head stiffly, and Jiraiya inclined it a little in turn, not rising from where he sat. "I didn't want to separate from Noburi and Keiko when they could be ambushed, but... This is about sealing." Jiraiya's eyes sharpened, and he leaned forward. "Can you keep them and anyone else from overhearing, without them having to leave the room?"

"I need to know what this is about first." Hazō hadn't seen Jiraiya look this intense in any situation not involving a killbox or Naruto. It made him feel a little better, at least. If he was reacting like this--

"Sir," Hazō said slowly, "what are the basic Jutsu that every single ninja learns?"

Jiraiya grabbed him, pulled forward, and slapped down a seal. The world became suddenly, eerily silent. Hazō glanced backward, only to see that the two behind him couldn't be seen, shrouded as if behind a thick mist.

"A surprisingly circumspect way of putting it," Jiraiya said, as he faced forward again. "I appreciate that. Now, elaborate."

"I don't have my disguise kit--or, I should say, I don't have a disguise kit," Hazō said. "Neither do Noburi and Keiko. Following my incapacitation in the middle of the last event, I replaced my disguise and returned to the party. At no point afterward did I offload items from my storage seals in such quantities that could have lead to the complete loss of my disguise-related supplies, and we've been sleeping in shifts continuously since the last time I woke up, so I strongly doubt they've been stolen. That was what made me notice first. After that, I was able to look back over what I could remember of the past, and--" Hazō stopped, thinking of the best way to phrase it. "I don't have enough muscle memory of disguise techniques, sir, and the Iron Nerve doesn't forget. Never. The things I've done in the course of my past actions aren't compatible with my available skills at present."

Jiraiya nodded, face expressionless. "Your theory, then?"

"There is some extremely basic disguise Jutsu of sufficient width, breadth, simplicity and efficiency that the majority of genin don't need to learn more than the basics of alternative techniques." Hazō took a deep breath. "And this technique no longer exists, sir, as of some time between now and the end of that event. I suspect this loss is related to sealing."

Jiraiya was silent for a time. Then his mouth quirked upward, just a little. "Well, that's almost a relief. Of the Elemental Nations, Mist knows and no one else. I'll have to negotiate with that in mind. If I spin this right, we might not have a world war within the next five years."

"Sir, I wouldn't--!"

Jiraiya gestured once, sharply and dismissively, and Hazō fell silent. "Your bloodline's Iron Nerve possesses perfect physical muscle memory, which leads to a higher number of infiltrators and sealmasters among the Kurosawa clan. This missing technique relates to all three aspects, and therefore only its members are likely to realize the gap. The majority of top-class ninja possess the width and breadth of skills for their memories to rationalize away the loss, and the majority of lower-skill ninja lack the field experience to realize a strong discrepancy. I would suspect that perhaps one or two other Kurosawa have realized; unfortunately, your aunt is not quite Kage-level, and in her relative mediocrity, she is more likely to notice the lack. I suspected she already knows, but I'm glad to have it confirmed."

Hazō couldn't help picking the thread. He opened his mouth, but Jiraiya rolled his eyes and preempted him.

"Of course I realized, kid--I'm the greatest spymaster in the world, in more ways than one. If you have enough balls in the air then you notice when one gets jogged before it falls back in hand. Thankfully, I cultivate diverse skills in my field agents; consequences should be minimal, all the more when other nations should suffer more for the lack than Leaf. Unfortunately, your Aunt will realize as much, and due to her clan's experience with Sealing, she's more likely to notice the signs of a seal failure's intrusion upon reality. If I benefit, and being that I'm one of the greatest sealmasters in the world, I'm the most likely culprit. If I can weaponize sealing failures on this scale, then I'm a threat she can't let stand. Shame she's not good enough to get the attention of the Watchers--and I doubt any Kurosawa who would would talk about it without reason."

Jiraiya stared at him, and Hazō could see the gears within gears spin.

"Of all of Leaf, I suspect you and I alone remember; of all of Mist, perhaps a couple of Kurosawa do. I can use that; I just need to think about how. In the meanwhile, guard that secret like you'd guard the life of everyone you'd ever loved." Jiraiya rubbed at his chin, eyes set on some distant thought even as he continued to speak. "And before we go, a warning. You may eventually remember the specifics of that technique, now that you remember it existed. Do not ever attempt to use it. In the best case scenario, the Watchers removed it from our memories, and they will make an example of you some time after you use it--and an example of me, for failing to control you. In the worst case scenario, someone else fucked up, and there's a hole where that technique once existed; try it now and you'll pull the hole out into the world around you the moment you finish the final seal. Get lucky doing that and you just die. You don't want to know what happens to the unlucky ones. If you think you might, try talking to that uncle of yours about dimensional sealing failures again."

Something about Jiraiya's utter dispassion chilled Hazō's spine, and he ducked his head. "Yes, sir."

"More than that, I would suspect some missing-nin possess the ability, the unconventional skills, and the depth of experience to realize this. There is a non-zero chance that particularly advanced missing-nin may retain the technique. I doubt you'll face off against Akatsuki, or that you'd be able to do anything against them if you did, but you've surprised me before. Keep it in mind."

"Yes, sir."

"Good." Jiraiya clapped his hands, and the seal fell apart. He looked at each of the others in turn, and back to Hazō. "We're done speaking of this for now, but I may call you for matters related to it in the near future, Hazō. Remember what we talked about."

"Yes, sir."

"Then go."

"Sir."
 
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Ah! More ideas! Instead of breaking fingers to torture any captured opponents (wow, how lame is that?? ) we could just repeatedly strangle them until they almost pass out from oxygen deprivation! A dozen times should probably work. Noburi can do it with his Water Whip and chakra drain them at the same time, how efficient!
 
Written in fifteen minutes when my mind pulled a few threads.

Better Off Forgotten

Most of the time, Hazō experienced his new connection to Jiraiya more as a weight than a ladder: it was a set of responsibilities he'd willingly adopted for power and a chance to matter, and frankly speaking, it wasn't a gamble that had paid off yet. In the short term, he'd have been strictly better off somehow joining under Jiraiya's aegis without becoming part of his new clan, because he'd have been given a chance to fade into the background until the next time he had a chance to try and change the world.

This was not one of those times. Clanless missing nin generously adopted into a village didn't get to meet with its leader on short notice without a given reason and without overhearing ears. The Hokage might be staring at him with an expression of faint annoyance, as if wondering what unpleasantness the young man had dumped on his doorstep this time, but the three of them were in the room with him, and that was the important part.

"Hello, sir." Hazō bowed his head stiffly, and Jiraiya inclined it a little in turn, not rising from where he sat. "I didn't want to separate from Noburi and Keiko when they could be ambushed, but... This is about sealing." Jiraiya's eyes sharpened, and he leaned forward. "Can you keep them and anyone else from overhearing, without them having to leave the room?"

"I need to know what this is about first." Hazō hadn't seen Jiraiya look this intense in any situation not involving a killbox or Naruto. It made him feel a little better, at least. If he was reacting like this--

"Sir," Hazō said slowly, "what are the basic Jutsu that every single ninja learns?"

Jiraiya grabbed him, pulled forward, and slapped down a seal. The world became suddenly, eerily silent. Hazō glanced backward, only to see that the two behind him couldn't be seen, shrouded as if behind a thick mist.

"A surprisingly circumspect way of putting it," Jiraiya said, as he faced forward again. "I appreciate that. Now, elaborate."

"I don't have my disguise kit--or, I should say, I don't have a disguise kit," Hazō said. "Neither do Noburi and Keiko. Following my incapacitation in the middle of the last event, I replaced my disguise and returned to the party. At no point afterward did I offload items from my storage seals in such quantities that could have lead to the complete loss of my disguise-related supplies, and we've been sleeping in shifts continuously since the last time I woke up, so I strongly doubt they've been stolen. That was what made me notice first. After that, I was able to look back over what I could remember of the past, and--" Hazō stopped, thinking of the best way to phrase it. "I don't have enough muscle memory of disguise techniques, sir, and the Iron Nerve doesn't forget. Never. The things I've done in the course of my past actions aren't compatible with my available skills at present."

Jiraiya nodded, face expressionless. "Your theory, then?"

"There is some extremely basic disguise Jutsu of sufficient width, breadth, simplicity and efficiency that the majority of genin don't need to learn more than the basics of alternative techniques." Hazō took a deep breath. "And this technique no longer exists, sir, as of some time between now and the end of that event. I suspect this loss is related to sealing."

Jiraiya was silent for a time. Then his mouth quirked upward, just a little. "Well, that's almost a relief. Of the Elemental Nations, Mist knows and no one else. I'll have to negotiate with that in mind. If I spin this right, we might not have a world war within the next five years."

"Sir, I wouldn't--!"

Jiraiya gestured once, sharply and dismissively, and Hazō fell silent. "Your bloodline's Iron Nerve possesses perfect physical muscle memory, which leads to a higher number of infiltrators and sealmasters among the Kurosawa clan. This missing technique relates to all three aspects, and therefore only its members are likely to realize the gap. The majority of top-class ninja possess the width and breadth of skills for their memories to rationalize away the loss, and the majority of lower-skill ninja lack the field experience to realize a strong discrepancy. I would suspect that perhaps one or two other Kurosawa have realized; unfortunately, your aunt is not quite Kage-level, and in her relative mediocrity, she is more likely to notice the lack. I suspected she already knows, but I'm glad to have it confirmed."

Hazō couldn't help picking the thread. He opened his mouth, but Jiraiya rolled his eyes and preempted him.

"Of course I realized, kid--I'm the greatest spymaster in the world, in more ways than one. If you have enough balls in the air then you notice when one gets jogged before it falls back in hand. Thankfully, I cultivate diverse skills in my field agents; consequences should be minimal, all the more when other nations should suffer more for the lack than Leaf. Unfortunately, your Aunt will realize as much, and due to her clan's experience with Sealing, she's more likely to notice the signs of a seal failure's intrusion upon reality. If I benefit, and being that I'm almost one of the greatest sealmasters in the world, I'm the most likely culprit. If I can weaponize sealing failures on this scale, then I'm a threat she can't let stand. Shame she's not good enough to get the attention of the Watchers--and I doubt any Kurosawa who would would talk about it without reason."

Jiraiya stared at him, and Hazō could see the gears within gears spin.

"Of all of Leaf, I suspect you and I alone remember; of all of Mist, perhaps a couple of Kurosawa do. I can use that; I just need to think about how. In the meanwhile, guard that secret like you'd guard the life of everyone you'd ever loved." Jiraiya rubbed at his chin, eyes set on some distant thought even as he continued to speak. "And before we go, a warning. You may eventually remember the specifics of that technique, now that you remember it existed. Do not ever attempt to use it. In the best case scenario, the Watchers removed it from our memories, and they will make an example of you some time after you use it--and an example of me, for failing to control you. In the worst case scenario, someone else fucked up, and there's a hole where that technique once existed; try it now and you'll pull the hole out into the world around you the moment you finish the final seal. Get lucky doing that and you just die. You don't want to know what happens to the unlucky ones. If you think you might, try talking to that uncle of yours about dimensional sealing failures again."

Something about Jiraiya's utter dispassion chilled Hazō's spine, and he ducked his head. "Yes, sir."

"More than that, I would suspect some missing-nin possess the ability, the unconventional skills, and the depth of experience to realize this. There is a non-zero chance that particularly advanced missing-nin may retain the technique. I doubt you'll face off against Akatsuki, or that you'd be able to do anything against them if you did, but you've surprised me before. Keep it in mind."

"Yes, sir."

"Good." Jiraiya clapped his hands, and the seal fell apart. He looked at each of the others in turn, and back to Hazō. "We're done speaking of this for now, but I may call you for matters related to it in the near future, Hazō. Remember what we talked about."

"Yes, sir."

"Then go."

"Sir."

You're a braver man than I am, bringing that Akatsuki countermeasure to the hivemind's attention.
 
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All of the details about Banshee seals and Banshee Fuckers aside, I would suggest figuring out what level of effectiveness you guys want either of them to have and setting the decibels accurately. @eaglejarl @Velorien @OliWhail

After all, it's not like Hazou knew "150 db" -- he was just going for "pops eardrums".
 
Ah! More ideas! Instead of breaking fingers to torture any captured opponents (wow, how lame is that?? ) we could just repeatedly strangle them until they almost pass out from oxygen deprivation! A dozen times should probably work. Noburi can do it with his Water Whip and chakra drain them at the same time, how efficient!

Oxygen deprivation can cause permanent brain damage, it's one of the major mechanisms of damage of strokes.

I somehow doubt the Kages present would appreciate the return of brain-damaged genin.
 
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