I...maybe. It would depend on the person's identity and relative importance. We do not want to jeopardize the burgeoning Mist alliance by killing one of their ninja, for instance.
If shes not a Mist nin and only loosely affiliated, this may be something that we can try to do.
Getting the Condor scroll (whether we kill or capture the Condor summoner) is a good bargaining chip.
Id... prefer we like capture the condor summoner (not kill). In fact, we may be able to come to some accord with them or something if they ARE Mist allied.
If shes not a Mist nin and only loosely affiliated, this may be something that we can try to do.
Getting the Condor scroll (whether we kill or capture the Condor summoner) is a good bargaining chip.
Id... prefer we like capture the condor summoner (not kill). In fact, we may be able to come to some accord with them or something if they ARE Mist allied.
Like strip them of the scroll/remove their Summoner-ship and not kill them?
That said I'm 100% just killing them, the consequences would probably be more fun that way. But I'm just not a huge fan of Uplifting civilization being the drive behind our character so that's just my two cents
Argue that expanding and spreading the glory of the Pangolin Empire is righteous, but overexpanding at the expense of consolidation could lead to ruin.
I mentioned this before, but I don't think the boss summons or the higher ups actually believe this, so much as use it to motivate the rank and file. I might be wrong on that count, but I don't think it would be wise to expect that rhetoric to lead to anything.
I mentioned this before, but I don't think the boss summons or the higher ups actually believe this, so much as use it to motivate the rank and file. I might be wrong on that count, but I don't think it would be wise to expect that rhetoric to lead to anything.
Nononono, I'm not arguing that the boss summons should actually put their money where their mouth is. I'm arguing that Keiko/Jiraiya/Leaf negotiators should bring up the Will of Fire (what you quoted) as another avenue of attack to get the Pangolins to stop.
"Knock, knock! It's us! Hazō, Keiko, and Noburi!" Hazō called, coming through the door cautiously. It was never a good idea to surprise Kagome-sensei, and always a good idea to check carefully on how the defenses might have changed. Still, it was Hazō's house too, so he wasn't going to stand on the threshold and wait for someone to let him in.
"How come I always get named last?" Noburi mock-grumbled. "Honestly. I'm the best-looking, the best with people, the best with OPSEC—"
"Kiri," Keiko said calmly.
"—the best at OPSEC, regardless of how low that bar may be, the best medic—"
"The worst at sealing, the worst at summoning..." Hazō replied.
"Hey, I'm tied for second on both of those!"
The banter was cut off at the sound of scrambling and distinctly non-human footsteps. Hazō, having turned slightly to look over his shoulder at his siblings, spun around to face front just in time to get a faceful of mangy white chakra beast that was leaping at him claws-first. His stance didn't lend itself to dodging, but combat reflexes dropped him on his back, letting the monster leap over him and trusting in the others to deal with the thing.
The others, reaction times dulled by being in what their hindbrains interpreted as a safe space, were a little slow. Noburi's Water Whip was only half-formed and Keiko's hand had just touched her kunai when the monster's hind claws dug into Hazō's mid-air chest. The thing used him as a springboard to leap over the other two and vanish out the still-open door.
"Fifi! No! Bad girl! Come back!" shouted Kagome, running past them with a mumbled, "Hi, welcome home, one sec gotta catch Fifi!"
Keiko and Noburi exchanged glances, then looked down at Hazō, who was still lying on the floor, too stunned to move.
"What just happened?" Noburi asked.
"Apparently, Kagome has acquired a..."
"Cat?" Noburi speculated.
"Too big," Hazō mumbled, pushing himself to his feet. "And I'm fine, thanks."
"Dog?" Keiko said, trying the idea on for size.
"Claws were too sharp," Hazō said, taking off his flak jacket so he could review its semi-shredded state. "Tore right through and got me good."
"Let me see," Noburi said, slipping into the role of team medic.
"I see you met Fifi," Mari-sensei said, doing that disconcerting appearing trick that she loved so much. "Psychotic little thing, isn't she?"
"Yes, and pointy on five ends," Hazō grumbled. "I'm going to need a new jacket, and she shredded half of my remaining storage seals." He reviewed the damaged papers mournfully. "Just lucky they didn't do anything weird when they failed, but looks like I'm not getting the good pots and pans back."
"Well, at least I've got you back," Mari-sensei said, smiling and hugging him. "How did the Exams go?"
"We kicked ass," Noburi said with a grin that got only wider when he got his very own Mari-sensei hug. "Not too bad in the first event—"
"You mean the second event," Keiko said. "Our first event score was double that of the next highest team."
Noburi rolled his eyes. "Fine. Crushed the first event, not bad in the second event, top of the list in the third, and, uh, rocked it in the fifth."
Mari-sensei raised an eyebrow. "One event appears to have been missed."
"Through a confluence of events that were probably within the letter of the rules, we scored negative two hundred and twenty-three in the fourth event." Pause. "However, the fifth event was a combat event. We defeated literally every other team aside from Ino-Shika-Chō, whom we chose not to engage in preference for mutually-beneficial collusion." Longer pause, sour tone. "They ended up with twice our score in the fifth event while doing no work, because we helped them in the first round and loaned them our pangolins and seals in the second round."
Mari-sensei shook her head ruefully. "Yeah, that sounds like Ino-Shika-Chō. There's a reason those three work together. Anyway, you guys just got in and you've got a lot of road dust on you. Bath, then food and stories?"
"Are you cooking?" Hazō asked carefully.
Impish grin. "I'll be good, I promise. No congee. Now, go get cleaned up. You all smell like road."
"I call solo tub!" Noburi said, dashing off toward the bathing rooms.
"Hey, no fair!" Hazō scrambled after him.
"It is good to see you again, Mari-sensei," Keiko said. "I missed having you to talk to."
Mari smiled, but eyed her adopted daughter carefully. "Good to see you again, too. Sounds like there's some things you want to talk about. Let's get you cleaned up and stuffed full of something hot and delicious and then we'll sit in the garden and catch up, okay?"
"Thank you."
o-o-o-o
November 21, 2pm
"And I'f be' te'fing thif kid," Kagome-sensei said, spraying bits of rice everywhere and gesturing wildy with a drumstick. Mari-sensei cleared her throat and the sealmaster blushed, gulped his mouthful down, and continued more clearly. "Honoka. Cute as a button, hard worker, and plenty smart. Those stinking idiots at the Academy thought she couldn't hack it. Ha! Idiots. They just can't teach." He ripped some flesh off the drumstick and masticated happily, bits of meat dribbling out the side of his smile.
"Wow," Hazō said. "That's great, sensei. I was actually thinking about that on the way home."
"Despite the horripilation of terror I am currently experiencing, I shall ask the question. Thinking about what, Hazō?"
Hazō shot his sister a sour glare and then turned back to the older man. "I was thinking about the divisions between civilians, clanless ninja, and clan ninja. I don't know what the school system is like here, but I'm willing to bet that it's better for clan ninja than for the others, and so the others probably don't pass as often. What if we set up tutoring for at-risk kids?"
"I see," Keiko said thoughtfully. "You seek to recruit the next generation of both ninja and civilians so that they will be more amenable to your control."
"No! Well, yes, I suppose, although I wouldn't put it like that. Amenable to my ideals, I'd say. I mean, if we really want to pull off this uplift idea then we need to get other people onboard or it will never go anywhere. But mostly I just wanted to help. We've been talking about this sort of thing but we're finally in a position where we can do something about it. Until now we lacked the money, the time, or the contacts to do anything. That's changed now."
Keiko's face wasn't as blank as that of the Mori Voice, but it was close. "Yes. The pangolins' gold does give us options that we lacked."
Hazō tried not to sigh. "The pangolin gold was seed money. It paid off the estate—"
"Ehhhh," Mari-sensei said, see-sawing her hand back and forth.
"Whatever. It kept the creditors at bay, fixed the roof, and put food on the table, but we're not dependent on it forever. Once our licenses from the Merchant Council come through, Kagome-sensei and I can bring in a lot of cash. And we don't have to do the work ourselves. I'm thinking that we go in with some civilian merchants; stake them to start their own businesses and then we take a cut of the profits. If the Council allows it then we could sell them some seals or subsidize some D- or even C-rank missions to build infrastructure for them, give them a competitive advantage. We can use some of that money to pay for uplift C-ranks where we send ninja out to build walls, exterminate chakra beasts, and provide medical care to civilians."
"Yes, that seems entirely workable. I see no way in which the Merchant Council would object to us using ninja abilities to give one merchant an advantage over another. Or in which the medical corps would mind what they will doubtlessly consider wasting their time on civilians."
Hazō is Compelled: Open Mouth, Insert Foot!
Compel refused! -1 Fate Point
"Keiko...." Hazō paused, reconsidering the biting words that had been about to fall from his lips. "We've never been in a position to make the world better before. Now we are."
"That's not—"
"Yes it is," Hazō said, quickly cutting off the objection that Keiko was clearly about to make. "Growing up in Mist we were kids, and unadmired for reasons that weren't our fault. Everything I said to that proctor was true: You and Noburi are brilliant ninja and brilliant people. Your families were dumb as rocks for not realizing that, but they didn't.
"In the Swamp, we were very junior members of a group that had to stay hidden. On the run in Iron we did some good here and there; yes, we could have done more but we at least did some and we resolved to do more. In Isan we were practically under lock and key. Then came Hot Springs, which was my fault—"
"No," Mari-sensei said. "I was in charge. Whatever we did, I was the one responsible."
Hazō looked at her sourly. "I was the one who pushed us to do the mission at all, and I was the one who wouldn't let it go when things started getting complicated. The rest of you went along to make sure I didn't screw up, but it's still my fault.
"Anyway, on our first visit to Leaf we weren't trusted enough to effect change and I, uh, kinda bollixed things up so we got kicked out. After we came back we weren't here a week when we got sent out on mail delivery. We get back, and a month later we go to the Chūnin Exams.
"We'll be chūnin in a month—"
"Probably," Noburi cautioned.
Hazō waved dismissively. "Don't even. Except for the fourth event we absolutely dominated the Exams. Every single person in the tournament is there because of us—ISC because they allied with us and everyone else because they were either our allies or ISC's allies in the first round." He laughed, a trace of petty mockery in the sound. "For that matter, look at Downfall. They were tenth, eleventh, and twelfth in the Exams at the end of the fourth event. After we got done with them they weren't even in the top half."
"They were. With seventy-two candidates, the bottom half means positions thirty-seven and down. They were in thirty-four through thirty-six."
Hazō rolled his eyes dismissively. "Fine, be a pedant."
"I believe you mean 'accurate'."
"Whatever. The point is, we completely undid the Exams. All of the progress that everyone had made, we erased it except for the people we allowed to stay in. In particular, we completely dominated Team Downfall. For that matter, ISC did so well mostly because of us. They scored well in the third event on their own, they got the fourth one only because the proctors didn't disqualify them for bodyjacking a proctor—"
"Ninja."
"That's probably why they added the 'no using jutsu on a proctor' rule in the fifth event," Noburi mused.
"—whatever. Point is, we were beating them handily up through the third event. We went down in the fourth basically because Mist screwed us on our roles and painted a target on us at the eliminations. ISC did well in the fifth event solely because we gave them all the prisoners in the first round and then gave them the pangolins and the Goo Bombs in the second."
"Results, not reasons."
"Argh! Fine, yes, they significantly outscored us overall. The point is, we are absolutely worth promoting. And do you seriously have any doubt that we're going to demolish the tournament? If they hadn't stacked the brackets to make us fight each other early then there's a good chance we would have taken first, second, and third."
"The brackets were—"
"Seeded based on score, fine, whatever. My point still stands, despite that quibble."
"You mispronounced 'quibble'," Keiko said, a very slight smile on her lips. "The correct pronunciation is 'fact that disproves your false statement'."
"Stop picking on him," Kagome-sensei said. "He's right. The three of you did great, and you're going to be promoted. And yeah, I like the idea of tutoring more, maybe even starting a better school. Honoka's coming along pretty well, and I've been looking more at the stupid curriculum that those stinking idiots over at the Academy use. Ha! Half of everything they teach is just wrong, the other half is propaganda, and none of them can teach better than a dried-out turd."
Noburi cocked his head, frowning. "How can math be wrong, or propaganda?"
"Well...the way they teach it is wrong. Stupid. No wonder kids don't learn it. Giant tables of stuff with no explanations. How are you supposed to use that stuff, huh? Huh? Tell me that, Mr. Smart Guy!"
"Let's not get off track," Hazō said. "Kagome-sensei, I'm glad you're in for starting a school. What would you need?"
The older man sat back, drumstick forgotten in his hand and lips pursed in thought. "Students, obviously. A time when they don't have other commitments. A place to meet. Writing materials. A chalkboard would help, not critical though. Some time to figure out what I'd be teaching, put a curriculum together. Math and writing are easy, need to figure out what else."
"How about, instead of teaching students, you teach teachers?"
"What?"
"You said it yourself, the teachers here are lousy. You're not, so teach them how to be better. On your own you could handle...what? Maybe two dozen kids a year? If you make the teachers better then you could help thousands."
Kagome's excitement curdled like spoiled milk. "Stinkers aren't going to want to learn from me. Or from anyone. They all think that their system is soooo amazing. Idiots."
"We could make it a contest," Noburi suggested.
"Huh?"
"Let's find a teacher who's willing to make a bet and two civilian kids who are just starting school. You teach one of the kids, he teaches the other. At the end of a month we give both kids a test on what they've learned. If his student wins, we pay the teacher three month's wages. If yours wins, he has to publicly acknowledge, in front of all the students, teachers, and administrators at the Academy, that you are a superior teacher and your methods are better."
"Huh."
"Add to that group the Hokage and several clan heads," Keiko added.
"Just imagine it, sensei," Hazō said. "There he is, up on stage with everyone looking at him, and he has to say 'I am a stupid idiot for doubting Mr. Gōketsu. His teachings are better than mine. I was prideful and stupid to doubt him and I acknowledge that, as an honorable man, I have an obligation to Leaf to provide my students with the best education I can. I have failed in that duty and I will seek to improve. Mr. Gōketsu, I humbly ask—no, beg!—you to teach me your secret arts of instruction so that I may actually start meeting my duty."
"No, better," Noburi said. "'...so that I may stop being an arrogant knowitall dumbass and actually become a decent teacher.' And then he actually has to sit and learn from you. And call you Mr. Gōketsu."
"And bring cookies to all his study sessions with you," Hazō suggested.
Kagome-sensei's cackling and eager rubbing of hands suggested that he approved of this plan.
o-o-o-o
November 21, 4pm
Honoka was up from her chair the instant the big stupidhead teacher dismissed them, her schoolbooks having already been neatly stacked so they dropped smoothly into her bag. She was out the door before anyone else had even finished standing up, hair trailing behind her with the speed of her run, not stopping when teacher-stinker shouted something about slowing down.
She burst out the doors of the stupid stinking school to find Kagome-sensei waiting for her at the gate. She practically flew to him, slamming into him with her arms wrapped around his waist in a tight hug. By now he had learned to brace himself when she arrived, and he barely eeped at all.
"Hi, sensei!"
"Hi, squirt," he said, ruffling her hair and carefully prying her off. He took her hand and started leading her home. "I've got something special for you today."
"Oooh, what, what? Are we doing fractions again?"
"Nope. Counting."
She stopped, pulling him to a halt while foot traffic whirled by them. "Sensei, I know how to count!"
"Do not," he said, that insufferable look on his face that said he was starting something new that she'd never heard of yet.
"Do too!"
"Do not!"
"Do too!
"Prove it!"
"One, two, three, four—"
"Hah! See, you got it wrong. It's 'one, two, zub, four'."
"No it's not! It's three!"
"Not today. Today it's zub. And the number after seven is glorp."
"No it isn't! It's eight!"
"Nope. Today it's glorp."
She glared at him with all the fury a three-and-a-half foot girl could muster. "It's eight."
"Well, that depends." He tapped the storage scroll on his right arm. "If I've got glorp cookies in here then you can have zub of them. If I've got eight then you can't have any. So. How many cookies?"
"Glorp!"
"Thought so," he said smugly.
"I want my cookies!"
"How many cookies do you want?"
"Zub!"
"You'll spoil your dinner."
"Will not!"
"Will too!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Okay, tell you what: If you can get two questions right then you can have one cookie now and two after the lesson." He frowned. "I think. One cookie plus two cookies...is that zub cookies?"
"Yes, silly! Because zub is three, and one plus two is three."
He glowered. "What's this 'three' nonsense? I've never heard of 'three'. What's one plus two?"
"Zub!"
"Hm." He looked up at the sky, counting on his fingers. "One, two, zub...yep! You're right. Okay, two questions and then you can have the first cookie."
He knelt down and swiped his hand through the dirt of the road, flattening it out so that he could draw on it. A one, then a plus sign, then a weird shape she'd never seen before, then an equals, and then a four.
"Is this right?" he asked, pointing at the weird equation.
She frowned. "What's that thing in the middle?"
"That's zub, of course."
"Oh." She shook her head. Kagome-sensei was weird. "Okay. One plus zub equals four."
"Is it true?"
"Well..." She had to think about that. One plus three was four, so that was true. But...well, if zub meant the same thing as three then.... "I think so?"
He raised an eyebrow. "You think so, or yes?"
"Yes. One plus zub is four."
He smiled. "Good. One more." He wiped the equation away and drew another one. Ten, a minus sign, two, equals, and a weird squiggle. She stared blankly at it.
"Is it true?" he asked.
How should she know? She had never seen the squiggly bit before! It wasn't zub, and the equation would have been wrong if it was. Whatever the squiggle was, it wasn't any number she knew. It might not even be a number.
Hm. Hang on. It wasn't a number she knew, and it wasn't zub, but Kagome-sensei had made up two nonsense words. Today, she was supposed to say 'glorp' instead of 'eight'. Ten minus two was eight, but if she was saying glorp today....
"Yes! It's right! That's glorp, isn't it? It is, it is, I got it right, I get a cookie!"
He grinned and stood up, reaching into his breast pocket and pulling out a folded-up napkin from which he produced a slightly crumbled cookie.
o-o-o-o
"Mommmm! We're home!"
Aoi bustled out of the kitchen, wiping the flour off her hands. "Welcome back, sweetie. Kagome-sensei, I made marshberry pie. Would you like some?"
The man's eyes lit up and he nodded so hard his head should have fallen off. "Yes!" He paused, then clearly remembered something. "I mean, yes, please. I love your marshberry pie."
Aoi smiled warmly. The man was such a dear. Manners obviously came hard to him—not surprising, given that he'd grown up in a place as uncivilized as Mist—but he tried so hard and was so earnest.
"Coming right up," she said, starting to turn back to the kitchen.
"Um...would you...uh..."
She turned back, surprised to find him stammering and blushing.
"What would you like?" she asked, taking care to make her tone as understanding as possible.
"I...was wondering if, um, if you would make some creaky chicken with spinach? Please?" He slid one of his incredible storage scrolls out of a bandolier on his arm and held it out. "It's chicken with a sweet coating, nice and crispy. I brought the recipe, and all the stuff, if it's okay. I mean, you can have it regardless, but I thought if I brought the stuff then maybe it wouldn't be too much to ask...but maybe it is. I just, uh, really like creaky chicken but Mari used to like it but hasn't been in the mood for it lately so we never have it anymore and she suggested that I could ask you to make it if I was polite, and, um...."
She took the scroll from him with a smile. "I'd be delighted. You'll need to open the scroll for me, though."
"Oh, right! Come on!" He grabbed the scroll out of her hands and strode into the kitchen. She trailed along behind him, Honoka following in turn. The girl loved watching Kagome-sensei seal and unseal things, sometimes asking for it as a treat when she did well in her lessons.
Kagome-sensei set the scroll on the counter, unrolled it...and then paused. "Come here, squirt."
Honoka padded over to him. "Yes, sensei?"
"Put your finger here," he said, gesturing to the seal in the middle of the scroll.
The girl's eyes widened, but she did as instructed. Aoi's breath caught in her throat, images of ninja magic gone wrong dancing in her mind.
"Close your eyes," Kagome-sensei said.
Honoka obeyed.
"Now, breathe, slow and even. Good. Relax your face or it'll freeze like that. Stop giggling, it happens! Good. Now, breathe."
The man's breathing slowed and steadied, becoming a series of gentle waves lapping on the shore. After a few moments, Honoka's breathing matched his.
"Good," he said quietly. "Now, think about your finger. Think how warm it is, how the ridges of your fingerprint swirl and crinkle. How the fingernail is shaped, with that little ragged nick on the side of the white part where you nibbled it. Feel the pattern of the paper under it. What does it feel like?"
Honoka's breathing was steady and even, her voice quiet. "Soft. Smooth."
"Feel the ridges where the ink is."
Honoka's brow creased into a slight frown. She shifted her finger slightly, paused, then shifted it again. "There's no...wait. There are?" Her eyes came open and she looked in confusion at where her finger touched the scroll. The completely flat scroll with nary a ridge in sight.
"Close your eyes. Just feel them, don't look for them. Slide your finger around, trace the ridges."
Aoi watched, a swirl of unrecognizable emotions inside her as her baby daughter traced out the patterns of the seal with perfect accuracy, despite her eyes being closed. Her face had smoothed out again and her breathing was deeper and slower, still matching Kagome-sensei's.
"Good. Now, feel how cool those ridges are? Like touching a coin that's been sitting on the table. Feel that?"
"Uh-huh." The girl's voice was dreamy and far away.
"Coins warm up if you hold them, and so will those ridges. Run your finger over them again, slowly. Think about how warm your fingers are, and let that warmth spread out into the ridges. Nice, warm fingers. Poor ridges, they want to warm up. Let them have some of the heat in your fingers so the ridges can be nice and toasty."
There was a faint pop! and Kagome-sensei pulled Honoka's hand back so that the suddenly-appearing enormous bag of groceries didn't land on it.
Honoka's eyes snapped open and her mouth gaped. "Did I just...?" She blinked, swaying slightly as a wave of dizziness passed over her.
Kagome-sensei steadied her with a hand on her shoulder, smiling fit to split his face. "Uh-huh. You opened my storage scroll."
"Is she all right?" Aoi asked nervously.
Kagome-sensei nodded, giving the child a soft look before meeting Aoi's eyes. "She's fine, I promise. A little lightheaded, but it'll pass in a moment, especially if she eats something sweet."
From a pocket he produced a napkin-wrapped object that proved to be a lump of oats stuck together with enough honey to choke a horse. He pressed it into the little girl's hand "Eat this, Honoka."
The girl nibbled on the treat automatically, hardly seeming to notice what she was doing.
"Thank you so much," Aoi said, bowing so deep her back was parallel to the floor. When she straightened up, it was to find Kagome-sensei blushing and looking down, nibbling on his lip in embarrassment.
"Um, you're welcome? I mean, it's not really that much...she's talented, that's all. Good focus for a kid her age, and I thought maybe.... I'm sorry I scared you. Didn't mean to." He fidgeted nervously, although his left hand stayed on Honoka's shoulder.
He looked up hopefully, only just meeting her eyes. "Um...even though I scared you, will you still make creaky chicken for me? There should be enough for all four of us, if you want to try it yourself? I hope you will, 'cause I think it's great and it would be nice if you liked it too because then you wouldn't mind having to make it and I don't want to be a bother, but—"
She chuckled and set a hand on his arm. "It's fine," she said. "I'm happy to make anything you want. And I'm sure there's enough for all of us." In point of fact, it looked like there was enough for all of them the better part of a week.
"Oh good," he said, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand as he looked from the groceries back to Aoi. "I wasn't really sure how much to bring, and Mari put the bag together but there was still room in the scroll so I thought maybe I'd toss some stuff in for a salad and some side dishes and, um, maybe there'd be leftovers? And I could have some of them tomorrow?"
She laughed and nodded. "Absolutely. And I'll make creaky chicken for you anytime you want."
o-o-o-o
November 21, 4:30pm
The door banged open and Jiraiya strode in, arms spreading wide in triumph. "FOOD! SAKE! The conquering hero demands sake and dango! And teriyaki chicken! And footrubs! Also praise! Lots of praise!"
"Congratulations, dear, that's incredible and I'm terribly impressed," Mari-sensei said, setting her book face-down on the arm of the chair to keep her place. Keiko winced at the sight, but the redhead seemed not to notice as she met her husband and hugged him tight for a moment before stepping back and looking up to meet his eyes. "Now, what am I praising you for?"
"Can't say, it's classified," Jiraiya said, slipping a hand behind her neck and another to the small of her back so he could pull her into a very thorough kiss. Mari-sensei stiffened in surprise, then melted into it. She growled in frustration when Jiraiya let go a moment later and started striding up and down the room, arms waving as though drawing connections in the air. The trickle of blood from his sandals left a trail of red dots behind him.
"We cracked this thing wide open! I know it! Finally got a thread to pull on, and we're going to unravel it like an Earth-country sweater! Yes, yes, yes!" Fists pumped in time with the words.
Mari-sensei caught Keiko's eye and tipped her head towards the kitchen, mouthing the word 'food'. Keiko gratefully removed herself from the tiring aura of excitement flooding from her clan leader.
"Honey, do you want to sit down and tell us about it?"
"Sit? Sit?! Haha, no way! How could I sit at a time like this?! Things to do, people to torture, you know? I mean, not that there's really any torture—not effective—but that's the name. Scares the targets, makes it easier to read them. And these guys? Total bunch of idiots. Not a lick of OPSEC between them, apparently." He clapped his hands together, rubbing them and grinning in glee. "Oh, yes, this is going to be great. Inoichi will peel them like grapes and we can finally start making some progress."
"Sweetie, when did you leave Mist?"
"Hm? What? Oh...hmmm..about two days ago. I think. Had to go east half a day though, so we had to go back past it. Not sure how to count that. Sounds about right. Had some stuff to take care of. Why?"
"So, you traveled nearly five hundred miles in under two days?"
"Yeah, so?" He seemed honestly puzzled for a moment, then started moving again, cackling and tapping his fingertips together like a Kabuki evil mastermind. "Finally! Two weeks, maybe? Shikaku can probably hold them off that long."
"Were you using the Akimichi stimulants, hon?"
"Yes, of course. Where's my dango? I wanted dango!" He struck a pose, hopping from one foot to the other. "The Mighty Sage Jiraiya, Lover of Women, Toad Sage, Fifth Hokage, Master of the Bedroom Arts, Author of the Most Popular Series Ever, Spymaster, Lovemaster, Wooer of Women, demands dango!"
"How many of the stimulants did you take?"
Jiraiya glanced at her in grumbly disbelief. "Seriously, woman? This is my moment of victory, and you're worrying about silly things like stimulants?"
Mari-sensei put her hands on her hips and gave him a quelling look. "How many, Jiraiya?"
"I dunno...eight, maybe nine? Yesterday. Only two today. Dango! Where—oh, thank you, Keiko." He grabbed a handful of the sweet dumplings off the plate that Keiko had just brought in, then demonstrated the finest Kagome-sensei manners by shoving all of them in his mouth at once. And promptly spat them out into his hand. "Ow, ow, ow! Hothothot!"
Silently, Keiko held out the glass of cool water she held in her other hand. Jiraiya gratefully took a gulp and gargled it to cool his burned mouth.
"Thanks, kid, you're astonimazing and amazashing!" Jiraiya grabbed a few skewers of chicken in the hand that already held six lightly-chewed dango.
"Man, you guys were great," Jiraiya said, striding up and down the room, alternating sips of the water and bites of the chicken and/or dango, tossing each skewer aside as he finished it. "Blew out the Exams, made all the other villages look like crap, got me some amazing trade deals, got me a lead. Can't say anything of course—classified, have to kill you before I told you and then kill myself afterwards! But still, it's a lead. A lead!!! And, with my usual brilliance and perceptiveness, not to mention my incredible prowess in all things martial, I have—"
"Give me that," Mari-sensei said, firmly taking the mostly-empty glass of water from Jiraiya's hand and setting it down. "Come with me."
"What? I haven't finished telling you how awesome I am! There's more!"
"Right now you're going to take me to bed and show me how awesome you are. Then, in about ten minutes, the stimulants are going to finish wearing off and you're going to fall unconscious. Now come along."
"But, but...my awesome! I am so awesome, and you need to hear it!"
Mari-sensei was too short to kiss him if he didn't choose to bend, so she jumped up and wrapped her legs around his hips and arms around his neck. She kissed him hard, then whispered something in his ear.
Jiraiya's eyes got very wide and he pulled her against him with both arms. "Right! Time for bed! Kids, I'm totally awesome and I'll tell you all about it later!"
His adopted children watched as he disappeared out of the room. They stared after him for several seconds, then exchanged looks.
"So, that happened."
"Yep." Beat. "Sounded like good news."
"Indeed." Keiko offered the plate and the remains of its contents around. "Dango?"
o-o-o-o
November 22, 11am
Jiraiya limped into the kitchen clutching his head.
"Good morning," Hazō said carefully.
"Not so loud," Jiraiya mumbled, collapsing into a chair and staring at the table, both hands clutching his head. "My hair hurts."
"Are you all right?" Hazō whispered, as softly as he could.
"No. Tea."
Hazō unsealed a piping-hot teapot and cups, filled one, and slid it across the table to his clan leader. Jiraiya wrapped a grateful hand around the warmth of the cup and tried to lift it, but his hand was shaking so badly that he spilled some of it on his hand. With a hiss of pain he set the cup down and grabbed a napkin to wipe the hot liquid off his skin.
"What happened?" Hazō asked, meanwhile rummaging through his backpack for the scroll labeled 'For Sick Days'. He found it down at the bottom and unsealed a box containing three bowls of hot and lightly-salted soup, some soft bread, four empty glasses, and a jug of tepid water with half a ginger root floating in it. He slid one of the bowls and the bread across the table, poured all four glasses full, and then sealed the rest up again.
"Akimichi stimulants," Jiraiya mumbled, dunking some of the bread in the soup and bringing it to his lips. Soup spattered but he managed to get some of it down. "They let you keep going, but they're hell on the body. Ran my feet bloody and my chakra so low I almost died, but I didn't realize it until after they wore off. Didn't help that I was carrying someone the whole time."
"Can I get you anything?"
The white-maned head shook back and forth fractionally, immediately followed by Jiraiya dropping the uneaten part of the bread and clutching his temples again with a hiss of pain.
"I'll be fine," the Toad Sage whispered. "Nothing to do except get through it. Mari already had a medic in."
Hazō nodded, despite knowing that Jiraiya wasn't looking at him. "Anything you can tell me about?"
"Not yet," Jiraiya mumbled, fumbling another piece of bread out of the basket and dunking it. "Things are looking up, though."
XP AWARD: 15
XP AWARD for Chapter 208: 1 (It covered about 5 minutes)
Bonus XP: 3 (Concise plan)
FP AWARD: 1
Vote time! What to do now?
Voting ends on Wednesday, September 12, 2018, at 12pm London time.
Offscreen:
You left Mist first thing in the morning on the 19th. (Kakashi wasn't even late—either Jiraiya threatened him into promptness or he was really eager to get out of Mist.) The run home was leisurely, so you didn't arrive until the afternoon of the 21st.
You talked to Kakashi and Gai (separately) about training. Kakashi mumbled something about being unable to train anyone because he needed to spend the next week baking cookies. Gai was fine having you show up for his normal practice; he did a lot of shouting about how youthful it would be for his youthful students to have the flames of their youth fanned through competition with their eternal rivals.
The state of your license is currently pending on @Velorien and @OliWhail having the time to review a proposed version. The Merchant Council has at least made a decision, though.
You are intending to start on casino seals today and Kagome-sensei is happy to help.
Hana has not arrived yet.
You will give Jiraiya all the seals you know, and ask him about Shadow Clones, as soon as he doesn't look like he's at death's door.
Author's Notes:
This was a good plan. Concise, clear, and lots of good plot hooks without overly specifying things. It was a little too much to put into one chapter, but many of the scenes could be off-screened. Well done, @Oneiros.
"Yes, and pointy on five ends," Hazō grumbled. "I'm going to need a new jacket, and she shredded half of my remaining storage seals." He reviewed the damaged papers mournfully. "Just lucky they didn't do anything weird when they failed, but looks like I'm not getting the good pots and pans back."
So....how do implosion seals work then? They're modified storage seals which work on air only, but if storage seals aren't meant to release their contents upon destruction then implosion seals wouldn't function...
You talked to Kakashi and Gai (separately) about training. Kakashi mumbled something about being unable to train anyone because he needed to spend the next week baking cookies. Gai was fine having you show up for his normal practice; he did a lot of shouting about how youthful it would be for his youthful students to have the flames of their youth fanned through competition with their eternal rivals.
The state of your license is currently pending on @Velorien and @OliWhail having the time to review a proposed version. The Merchant Council has at least made a decision, though.
So....how do implosion seals work then? They're modified storage seals which work on air only, but if storage seals aren't meant to release their contents upon destruction then implosion seals wouldn't function...
So now we figure out how to stop the Holy Pangolin Empire, get some uplift missions in (kill all the chakra beasts, put up some walls while we can?) and do some training from fucking hell?
If Jiraiya spent half a day going east, and we got him a lead, I'm thinking our talk with Team Bloodrage paid off more than we might've thought.
I'm a bit surprised Hazou knows what 'seed money' is. It's a natural metaphor for a relatively general concept, but in a world where math can be a clan secret I'm a bit surprised Hazou knows economic terms like that.
Really happy to see those Kagome scenes. Honoka learning stuff is adorable, Kagome gets to look pretty competent with his intuitive teaching methods and surprisingly child-friendly demeanor, and you can just feel that everything that's coming out of this is positive, that everyone benefits.
It seems reasonable to me that the difference between being sliced into pieces by sharp claws and being ripped apart by shockwaves would be enough to prompt potentially difficult to predict variance in how the seals respond to being destroyed.
It seems reasonable to me that the difference between being sliced into pieces by sharp claws and being ripped apart by shockwaves would be enough to prompt potentially difficult to predict variance in how the seals respond to being destroyed.
On re-reading I notice that I did not do Kagome's dialogue clearly. The way you use the stupid box is to put the scroll somewhere and throw a kunai at it from range, thereby destroying the scroll and causing the contents to emerge. You *can* unseal it in your hands but that is literally set-your-face-on-fire stupid. The problem with it is that you don't know how long after it emerges it will go off, and you don't know how big the boom will be. It could explode, it could fizzle and just sit there leaking a puddle of flaming oil. Very unpredictable, but really effective when it works right.
