Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
- Start date
-
- Tags
- naruto rationalist romance armageddon is looking better and better damn you kishimoto explosions everywhere explosives solve everyone if in doubt surrender to the mercy of zabuza it seemed like a good idea at the time looks like a really bad case of being a jōnin my god. where does the lore end? precommitting is the winning plan screaming in kagome screw the rules i have explosives something bad might still happen sometimes you gotta sociopath stabby zabby subsection c of paragraph 9 should include we can weaponize this so hard
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
*woosh*
Jackercracks
In a British accent
- Location
- England
Betrayal! Betrayal most foul!
EvilPorygon
Cookie Monster
- Location
- a phone
Jackercracks: "E tu, faflec?"
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Welp, this might be a rather complicated challenge. We know very little and we have to gain as much info as we can with minimal risk while avoiding angering her.
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
A good question. Here's an attempt at how I could see this conversation going. Not sure how much it'll help, but it's an attempt.
Start conversation on village's response to Kouta and what we can expect, why people would go one way or the other on his punishment, use that to determine more of the nature behind power dynamics of the village (what exactly does Yoshida differ with the elders on).
From here, if Yoshida expresses a key disagreement with another faction, ask what she wants from us. If she asks what we want, express interest in Tapir (haven't seen them at other villages) and the desire for cooperation (point to our actions thus far). For us, staying alive depends on having more advantages than our enemies, the Tapirs are something we haven't seen before, and so seem like something we could take advantage of. We are willing to share some of our knowledge or help out (as we have been trying) in return for their knowledge of Tapirs.
- Location
- Europe
I'm really not sure if she is going to buy that. Mostly because I have a hard time imagining how a bunch of runaway missing-nin hopping countries could possibly make an advantage out of tapirs. I understand you are trying to mislead them by focusing on something that seem innocuous but that's a bit too much.
Unless the tapirs are somehow super important beyond their tapir like functions, in that case we might make her even more suspicious. I swear, if we were playing D&D I would have Keiko take animals as a Favored Enemy (she is obviously the Ranger of the party). Woodland critters of various size and ferocity seem to be our most recurring antagonists.
Overall I like the way you would start the discussion. We are obviously interested how things would pan out with Snot Guy and she already alluded on village politics so it seems like a natural topic to follow into. But I think we need a better follow up than the tapirs, or at least something in addition if we really want to include them.
Maybe we could lead with sealcraft and how we are super interested what kind of historical techniques they have? I'm not sure if it was obvious that we made the storage scrolls we offered but if it wasn't, revealing that we can do sealing seems like the sort of information that would satiate their curiosity for the moment. We get info on their politics, they get info on our skills. Seems like a solid first step for more bargaining even if it's not formally a deal.
Of course there are risks with revealing that we know sealcraft, like they might try to kidnap Kagome or something, but it might be worth it. Thoughts anyone?
EvilPorygon
Cookie Monster
- Location
- a phone
I really curious as to where Kagome truly comes from.
He mentions a sealcraft library in his home village. That sort of thing shouldn't be too common though, should it?
He mentions a sealcraft library in his home village. That sort of thing shouldn't be too common though, should it?
- Location
- Atlanta
Those poor, poor, villagers.
But yes. I like the idea of following up by turning the conversation towards sealcraft. If they learned by studying the summoning scroll, then their attitude towards sealing should mirror their attitude towards the scroll.
I'm also worried about using an interest in the tapirs as a proxy for interest in the scroll, just on the off chance that the tiger-food theory turns out to be correct.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'd imagine that it isn't that uncommon. All Major Villages have sealmasters, so libraries of existing seals aren't unlikely for them to have.
- Location
- Atlanta
Though I guess we should be careful how we bring it up, since, "We made copies of all your seals and they're just fascinating!" is probably not our best conversational gambit.
This reminds me, though. @Jackercracks is one of the QMs here. Have we mentioned to Kagome that he should be careful in case any of the seals are performing their actions via compiler-error rather than by being an actually correct seal? Are we prepared to deal with the levels of paranoia we'll get if we do bring that up?
This reminds me, though. @Jackercracks is one of the QMs here. Have we mentioned to Kagome that he should be careful in case any of the seals are performing their actions via compiler-error rather than by being an actually correct seal? Are we prepared to deal with the levels of paranoia we'll get if we do bring that up?
Jackercracks
In a British accent
- Location
- England
I can confirm that I am one of the QMs here.
- Location
- Europe
Yeah, they know we have seals but the part where we present them is a bit ambiguous on whether we told the villagers that the seals were made by us or not. Here's the part for the curious:
I can't really tell if Hazou let it slip that we can actually make seals from that and our plan didn't specify whether we should keep our abilities hidden or not.
Last edited:
- Location
- Yes.
If his intention was to show storage seals as a means of being useful I honestly can't think of an option beyond "we can make storage seals". Claiming we have allies who are seal masters but aren't in our group makes no sense since Inoue-sensei already said we were missing-nin and that would imply we're part of a larger group of missing-nin...which would put anyone on edge.
- Location
- how about no
Instead of talking about sealing, why not instead focus on the bully's sentencing and punishment instead? We could claim we want to see how their justice system works and make sure that Snotty McPunchedface gets his just desserts. We wouldn't have to worry about the conversation being a non-sequitur as he did just try to kill Akane and we would logically want to see exactly how he will be processed.
If we do get an audience, we get to see their legal system (which, in this small of a village, will probably be directly tied to their ruling body) and its members. If she refuses, we have a better bargaining position since she already refused us once.
I don't think that this should be the only thing we talk about, but it should be the first thing to clear up the mess Inoue and Akane's assailant made.
If we do get an audience, we get to see their legal system (which, in this small of a village, will probably be directly tied to their ruling body) and its members. If she refuses, we have a better bargaining position since she already refused us once.
I don't think that this should be the only thing we talk about, but it should be the first thing to clear up the mess Inoue and Akane's assailant made.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
We could claim that we deserve to have his arms (literally) and have them bargain us down?
HoratioVonBecker
Imperfectly Aligned
I had similar feelings about the Phoenix scene, although it'd been long enough since I last read HPMOR that it wasn't intense.
But I don't see forgetting Keiko's crush as a major facet of Hazo and Noburi's characters, or of the story, just a weird and inconsistent one. And the options I see to fix it are memory editing (could maybe make sense, if Inoue decided to undo the first Team Bonding Conversation, as well) or retcon.
The big problem is probably the ambiguity. In story, we have a fair bit of evidence for Option Two (especially since the beach episode), and little reason to believe that both Noburi and Hazo would forget Keiko's crush, especially given the way it was revealed:
Since then, I think their ignorance has come up all of twice, and now I can't find either. @eaglejarl, have you been stealth-editing?
On some other topics:
Maybe edit the description of Zephyr's Reach, then? It said that all jutsu had disadvantages when used seallessly, and implied that all of them could be sealless.
Look, I'm still not completely convinced he wasn't "Yujin".
Army? Where did you hear seals could fight! Where are they?!
I'm growing increasingly convinced it was Whirlpool.
Last edited:
- Location
- Europe
The sealing discussion was meant as an alternative for tapirs in the discussion outline Radvic made. It's supposed to believably answer the question of why are we still here and what do we expect to get from the village while simultaneously prodding them about the scroll.
I think Inoue already "took" his arms. He's not getting them back unless Noburi deigns to help him. I doubt they will care enough about the guy to trade him for the scroll though.
How does the timeline work out? According to Inoue the third world war started soon after the disappearance of Whirpool. If MfD follows approximately the canon timeline then that means it happened something like 15 years ago? Has Kagome been camping in Iron for more than 15 years?
HoratioVonBecker
Imperfectly Aligned
Good catch on the timeline, but yeah, I could see it. Maybe.How does the timeline work out? According to Inoue the third world war started soon after the disappearance of Whirpool. If MfD follows approximately the canon timeline then that means it happened something like 15 years ago? Has Kagome been camping in Iron for more than 15 years?
After all, for all we know, Kagome only just escaped a timestop seal three years ago.
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Seems plausible to me, if he's what's left of a team of ninja that was caught outside when Whirlpool did their thing. He has chuunin level skills, and chuunin level sealcrafting (by Uzu standards. If 20 is a normal village sealmaster, then 30 is a Uzu level sealmaster. This is utterly baseless beyond the fact that Uzu was a step above everyone else, and our love of 10s in Western Society.) He never left that forest because he had no reason to. Most missing ninja have reasons they left, and would be worried about people eventually hunting them down. Kagome seemed utterly motivationless beyond "all ninja are enemies," which fits the scenario, because then he isn't a missing nin. Considering that Whirlpool was erased by a coalition, this seems reasonable. He didn't have any normal missing nin motivations, because he isn't a missing nin.
- Location
- Yes.
Hidden Whirlpool's vaporization happened before Inoue's time...so no.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Would I do such a thing?
More seriously: This whole conversation leaves me puzzled. There hasn't been any reason for Keiko's crush to come up, so why does everyone think it's odd that it hasn't? Seriously, these people are camping out in the woods with the entire world against them and can't afford intra-party drama. What is Hazou or Noburi's motivation for turning to Keiko and saying "So, you're in love with Mari, huh? You know that being homosexual is weird, right? And that she doesn't feel the same way? And that it could be creepy weird if a 20-something jonin started a relationship with a 13-year-old girl who is under her direct command and dependent on her for survival?"