(I'm of the opinion we should have at least 5 bodies on us at all times. Not deaths we caused, mind you. I think theres this shipwreck somewhere we can find some spares...)
Faking our own deaths is a pretty convincing tactical maneuver.
If memory serves, the original Iron Nerve users didn't have a normal version of the bloodline, but rather something roughly halfway between the Sharingan and what it would eventually end up as. It took a generation or two to settle down into the Iron Nerve as the Kurosawa knew it.
That suggests we might be able to regain this power if we have Kabuto poke at our central nervous system enough or somehow unlock the Mangekyou Iron Nerve, but it's a longshot.
(PS: The QMs have gone on record saying that since the Iron Nerve is a more self-focused version of the Sharingan and the Mangekyou Sharingan is activated by believing you killed someone dear to you, it stands to reason that if the Mangekyou Iron Nerve exists it is activated by killing yourself, which is... problematic)
If memory serves, the original Iron Nerve users didn't have a normal version of the bloodline, but rather something roughly halfway between the Sharingan and what it would eventually end up as. It took a generation or two to settle down into the Iron Nerve as the Kurosawa knew it.
That suggests we might be able to regain this power if we have Kabuto poke at our central nervous system enough or somehow unlock the Mangekyou Iron Nerve, but it's a longshot.
(PS: The QMs have gone on record saying that since the Iron Nerve is a more self-focused version of the Sharingan and the Mangekyou Sharingan is activated by believing you killed someone dear to you, it stands to reason that if the Mangekyou Iron Nerve exists it is activated by killing yourself, which is... problematic)
Pretty much a lifetime of consuming fiction and or playing games (tabletop and videogames) informs the following opinions:
1)Fresh corpses are among some of the most successful distractions. Ever.(This is doubly so if they are still moving.)
2) Faking your death convincingly may require some very convenient props. Plan accordingly.
(No one ever expects the shower of blood and viscera to be NotYou. You are now cleared for a serious cheap shot in a combat situation.)
(PS: The QMs have gone on record saying that since the Iron Nerve is a more self-focused version of the Sharingan and the Mangekyou Sharingan is activated by believing you killed someone dear to you, it stands to reason that if the Mangekyou Iron Nerve exists it is activated by killing yourself, which is... problematic)
I think I have a plan.
1. Get an agreement with a proficient med-nin and jounin genjutsu user.
2. Somehow erase his memory of this agreement... Mari can't use Truth Lost in Fog, can she? Maybe someone else? Oh! How about drinking himself to oblivion right after? Or replace alcohol with an amnestic. Or he could apply some blunt force to his head, to forget ever making this plan. Though the time from thinking of to fulfilling the plan would have to be pretty short, depending on the method.
3. Have him hallucinating that he somehow killed his entire family, so he decides to kill himself with conveniently available poison. Said poison merely induces near-death state, however.
4. Mangekyou Iron Nerve get! Also TYS points go into double digits, so Forged In Fire gets an upgrade!
Correction: Mari didn't want to use Truth Lost in Fog. I'm sure we could get her to use it while she's depressed. Could possibly even frame it as an "Atone for your sins" sort of thing.
"Laaaadieeeesssss and the rest of you! Are you ready to ruuuumble?!"
By now, the crowd knew its lines. The judge-slash-hype-woman didn't need to egg them on, they thundered out their approval on the first try. Hazō knew perfectly well that he couldn't actually hear Jiraiya's voice against the sonic waterfall washing over him, but it was easy enough to read his adoptive fa—his Clan Leader's exaggerated mouth action where he sat up in the Kage box: Go, Hazō! Kick his ass!
The ruler of the most powerful nation in the world was hollering like a peasant at a boxing match.
Hazō suppressed a grin and told the Iron Nerve to make sure that his face showed nothing but polite attentiveness to the judges.
"To my left, in the red and green swirly patterns that are apparently all the rage in the Land of Hot Springs, Kotzuuuuuiiiii Kenjiiii!"
"It's Kotsuzui," the boy hissed, the first syllable of his voice carrying due to the sound enhancement jutsu, or seal, or whatever the hell it was, and the rest coming out at a normal volume as whatever it was switched off.
"Shut up, kid," the judge hissed at equally unenhanced volume. "You're breaking my flow." Her eyes flicked to the other judge and she made a subtle hand gesture. When she turned back to the audience her voice was loud again. "Kotzui is the Bloody Badass, direct descendant of the Founder of Hot Springs, student of the great Miyagi-sensei himself, wielder of the Blood Element, and a total badass! You can expect blood! You can expect destruction! You can expect utter devastation as the Bloody Badass goes to town! Are you ready for this?!"
"YES!"
"All right then! And to my right, we have Leaf's contribution to our fun: the young Gōōōōketsu Hazōōō! Like his siblings, Gōketsu is a former missing nin brought in from the cold! Adoptive son of Jiraiya of the Three, the greatest sealmaster alive! Young Gōketsu here is a lover of explosives and owner of very deep pockets, so you can expect booms, bangs, and firey destruction from this former missing nin! Are you ready for this?!"
"YES!"
"Then let's get down to business!" She turned to the two competitors: The irritated and glaring one from Hot Springs and the vaguely amused one from Leaf.
"I want a good clean ninja fight today, you got it? No endangering the audience, because that counts as causing a fatality. No throwing jutsu, weapons, or people out of this side of the arena; if you do, your entire village is kicked out of the Exams and their bond is forfeit. When I give the signal, you enter the arena immediately and then the fight begins. The fight ends with knockout, tap out, ring out, or on command from the judges. Stop immediately when the fight ends. No killing or maiming. No tools except explosive tags, storage seals, ninja wire, and weapons light enough for an average civilian to pick up. And remember: The fight doesn't start until you're both in the arena. Empty hands and no jutsu until you're down there. Got it?"
"Got it, ma'am," Hazō said calmly.
"Yeah," grunted the boy who would forever be Kotzui to Hazō.
"All righty then. Anything you boys want to say to each other before we start?" She stepped back with a grin.
Hazō met totally-Kotzui's angry glare with a calm shrug and an open-handed gesture. "You can go first," Hazō said, his amplified voice booming out over the audience. He reached into his pocket (Kotzui stiffened) and pulled out a handful of...something. Two fingers, a flip of the wrist, and a peanut arced up and into his mouth. He gave the other genin a smirk and nodded for him to start.
Kotzui glared, then turned to the audience. "That's right! I'm Kotsuzui Kenji, wielder of the—"
BOOM!
Kotzui and both judges leaped back, kunai appearing in the women's hands and handseals beginning on the boy's as he—
—stopped in confusion at the sight of Hazō calmly eating peanuts.
"Sorry," Hazō said. "Had an explosive tag mixed in with the nuts. I made so many for this fight, it gets hard to keep track. Please, continue. I think you were about to say your bloodline is really nifty?"
A quiet chuckle spread through the crowd.
Kotzui fulminated, then turned to the crowd with a determined smile. "That's right! The Blood—"
BOOM!
"Sorry," Hazō said, raising his empty right hand palm-out in apology. "Another explosive tag mixed in. Last one, I promise."
The audience laughed outright.
"Cut it out," the older judge growled.
"Yes, ma'am. Sorry."
She glared at him, then gestured for Kotzui to continue. "You were saying?"
Kotzui's glare was one step short of manifesting the Lightning Element to burn his opponent to ash. When Hazō shrugged he visibly forced himself to calm down, then turned back to the audience.
"I—"
BOOM!
"WOULD YOU STOP THAT?!" The boy from Hot Springs was clearly hanging on by a thread to keep himself from committing murder in front of most of the important people in the Elemental Nations. "I'M TRYING TO—"
Hazō flicked another tag over his shoulder and out into the arena behind them. BOOM!
"Really sorry," he said apologetically. "Careless of me, getting all these tags mixed in with my snacks—I was up late last night, making them all, and I guess I wasn't careful enough when I was stocking up this morning. Please continue."
The audience's laughter was getting louder.
"I said CUT IT OUT!" the older judge yelled. "Throw one more explosive tag and you're disqualified!"
"Right, right, sorry."
Kotzui's breathing was heavy and his teeth were gritted. He failed to unclench his jaw as he turned to once again attempt his pre-battle smack talk. "I am—"
"Excuse me, ma'am?"
"WOULD YOU SHUT UP?!"
"Sorry," Hazō said, embarrassed. "It's just...you said I'd be disqualified if I threw another explosive, but then I remembered that I've already armed the timers on these other tags. I don't want to be disqualified, so would you mind throwing them for me?" He held out his cupped left hand, revealing a palm full of small bits of paper wrapped into balls. Tiny flickers of foxfire light, barely perceptible, suggested that they were in fact counting down.
"THROW THEM!" the judges yelled in tandem, leaping back.
"Are you sure?" Hazō asked, concerned. "I mean, you said I'd be—"
"YES! THROW THEM!"
Hazō shrugged. "Whatever you say." He turned and hurled the tags out over the quarry. The small chunks of iron they were wound around gave them enough heft to fly a significant distance and he'd timed it well; most of them exploded in midair, a crackling roar of sound and smoke that spread in a wave. Keen-eyed observers (i.e., every ninja in the area) noticed that not all of the tags went off before hitting the ground.
"Oooh," Hazō said, sucking air through his teeth in embarrassment. "Oh dear. Looks like I had some proximity-triggered tags mixed in with the regular timers. He ducked his head. "Sorry about that. Hey, Kutsu, you should probably be careful about moving through that area, okay? They were made from my chakra so they won't notice me, but if you step too close to one...." He set his fingertips together and then moved them violently apart, making sure that his annoying grin gave no hint of the fact that he was totally bluffing. He had yet to learn to make proximity-detection triggers.
"LOOK!" bellowed the older judge. "YOU THINK YOU CAN—"
The younger judge touched her arm, interrupting her. She tipped her head towards the audience.
The audience had clearly loved both the subtle mockery and the show. The laughter had given way to cheers and a stomp-stomp, clap! stomp-stomp, clap! of approval and support. (The fact that Noburi had gone out the previous night and bribed a few farmers to lead the cheering might have had something to do with it. Hazō had been really impressed with his brother's class and maturity; given the shame and self-directed anger Noburi was wallowing in about his own defeat, it would have been easy for him to be too busy sulking to help. Nope.)
"I think perhaps we should begin," said the older judge through gritted teeth.
"Okay. Just one more sec, if you don't mind."
"What now?!"
"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention when you went over the rules...you said explosive tags were okay, right?"
"YES!"
"But not other tags?"
"Just storage seals and explosives," the older woman growled.
Hazō sighed, shaking his head regretfully. "Man, that's a shame. I mean, that's a big part of my schtick, you know? I've spent the last two years studying sealing, and I've been making seals nonstop for six weeks now." He stood up tall, smiling proudly as he gestured to himself with both thumbs. "I even invented my own seals that I was going to use today. Jiraiya said they were cool." He paused for just a moment, shaking his head again. "It just sucks that the rules take away all my best tools." He reached into his pocket again and pulled out a handful of paper balls.
"Let's see...guess I probably shouldn't use this." He tossed one of the balls back over his shoulder with a sharp snap; a second later the air around it was full of a cloud of something that promptly erupted into a massive orange-and-red fireball.
"Oh, or this." This time he threw hard, because he was sending it to the right instead of straight back; it wouldn't look impressive if the mucous-like cyan goo appeared in empty space and fell, it needed to visibly coat the grass out past the end of the audience in order to make the point that anyone caught in the goo would be immobilized and therefore helpless.
"Wouldn't have used that one anyway," Hazō confided to the audience with a helpful tone. "Goo Bombs are Jiraiya's toys. I mean, sure, they'd totally punk little Ketzi here, but for today I only want to use seals I made. Like these." The words had bought him enough time to arm three more of the fireball-creating Youthenizer seals, which exploded in a massive pyrotechnic display over the quarry. It was a bit of a risk to repeatedly show them off like this; someone might manage to observe the cloud produced before detonation and work backwards to realize that the seal was nothing but a normal storage seal with the stress limiters removed so as to let it chew up whatever was put in it. Store a burning log and what came out was finely-ground, and therefore extremely combustible, sawdust mixed with hot embers.
"Of course, I can't use those ones," he said mournfully. He turned to the judge. "Are you sure I'm only allowed to use explosives and storage seals? I promise I won't use the Disintegration seal or any of the other definitely-lethal ones." He glanced over at Kotzui. "You're pretty fast, right? You dodge well?"
"That's enough," the senior judge said firmly. "Into the arena, both of you."
"But I didn't get my turn to talk yet!"
The judges glared at him for several long seconds.
"Fine. Keep it short."
Hazō casually tossed the rest of the tags he was holding over his shoulder (THOOMTHOOMTHOOMTHOOM!). "They weren't explosives," he said to the judge before she could get a word out. The woman closed her mouth and glared kunai at him.
Hazō turned to the audience. "I know I'm supposed to talk smack about Keti here," he said. He thumped his chest in exaggerated mockery of machismo. "Oooh! Me badass, him puny!" He shrugged, spreading his hands. "Not really my thing, though. No spirit to that crap, am I right?"
The audience chuckled.
"I said, am I right?!"
The audience cheered and whistled.
"You don't want us to waste time on that nonsense, right?!"
"RIGHT!"
"You want a real show, don't you?!"
"YEAH!"
"Okay then! On this occasion of international unity and sportsmanship, you will have the no holds-barred beatdown match you've been wanting to see. I am all about international cooperation and sportsmanship. Right now, cooperating to please you folks. No running, no tricks, no bullshit. I will head to the area I just tossed those firebombs over and we will slug it out. If Kiti here doesn't want to accommodate, well...." He chuckled and spread his hands. "I mean, the judges have been making this big point about how me and my siblings used to be missing nin, right? Or, in other words, that we decided Mist sucked and so we left and went to Leaf because they're awesome, right?" (That very carefully-planned and casually-delivered line had been the subject of three hours of strident team debate before finally throwing it into Jiraiya's lap. The Hokage had laughed so hard he almost choked, then granted permission.)
Nervous laughter spread like ripples on a pond; many glances were shot towards the Kages' box, where the Mizukage sat radiating serenity as though she hadn't heard the words.
"That's eno—"
"So yeah," Hazō said, running right over the judge. "We spent two years living in the woods as missing-nin badasses! Well, from what I hear, little Kotzu...Kotzui?...whatever. He's supposed to be from this clan of amazing hunters, so hopefully he'll have the nerve to come and face me! I mean, what kind of ninja can't catch a target that's standing still!?" He chuckled. "Regardless, if he runs, he'll have a few thousand explosives to dodge."
Kotzui, who had been tense up until the last sentence, relaxed and rolled his eyes. Internally, Hazō cursed; he'd overplayed his hand with that last bit. Everyone had seen the number of tags he'd thrown, and no one was going to believe that there had been thousands of them. He needed to patch this quick. Claiming that he'd pre-seeded the arena the night before? Could work.
"Yes, thousands! Because I—"
He fell silent as the amplification effect disappeared.
"That's your time," the senior judge said. "Get into the arena. Fight starts when both of you are on the ground."
"Right," Hazō said. He glanced over at Kotzui and told the Iron Nerve to plaster his face with the same smirk he'd once given Noburi after an especially effective prank. "Hey, Kitty-Kat, or whatever your name is. Try not to step on any explosives, right? The ones I threw just now had a ten-foot detection radius. Medium-power, so they probably won't blow your foot off, but...." He shook his head dolefully.
Hazō, Deceit: 27
Kitty-Kat, Deceit: ?
Kotzui looked decidedly nervous for a moment, but then his features firmed up. "It's Kotsuzui, you ignorant traitor. And you're bluffing."
Hazō snorted; the boy's nervously hopeful tone belied the brave words. "Dude, I converted the Grand Fireball jutsu into a seal. You think I can't come up with proximity-detection explosives?"
"Enough!" the judge snapped. "Into the arena!"
Hazō flashed his opponent one last grin and dove off the side of the quarry, catching on to a small ledge just below the lip and swinging himself down to the next. A shadow flicked past as Kitty-Kat started running down the wall behind him.
Hazō hit the arena floor and leaped forward, moving out away from the bottom of the wall so that he'd be in sight of the audience. He'd gone only a couple dozen yards when a prickle along the back of his neck made him jump aside and spin around; Kitty-Kat had thrown a rock from behind him. He hadn't thrown it the way Keiko threw, fast and deadly and precise. He'd thrown it the way children threw during stickball; a long, relatively slow-moving lob. Clearly intended to attract attention instead of cause injury. Also, good evidence that the boy was not a ranged-weapon user. From what Hazō had seen during the pre-fight there were no callouses or scrapes on Kotzui's knuckles, so he probably wasn't a taijutsu fighter. That meant—
The sound of rocks shifting behind him sent him diving away. As he rolled he got a confused glimpse of multiple other Kotzuis on all sides of him, standing up from where they'd been hiding in narrow trenches under dirt-covered camo blankets. When in the name of the Sage had he been able to cast clones? He must have placed them here before the match even started!
"Blood Element: Blood Bullet!" shouted five voices in unison. Hazō, stuck in mid-roll, frantically used chakra repulsion to divert his course. He smacked his head against a medium-sized rock and scraped his shins raw, but it got him past the first blob of reddish-brown liquid. He almost managed to avoid the second, but it brushed against his arm and wicked onto his body the way cloth wicks up water. The head-sized ball of blood spread at the speed of thought, covering him from head to toe. It didn't hurt, but it congealed almost instantly, turning into a dense mass that resisted his every movement. The resistance slowed him down enough that the third ball took him right in the chest, coating him in another layer and making it even harder to move. The fourth and fifth left him covered in an inch-thick layer of coppery-tasting, slaughter-house-scented blood that had him blinking frantically to clear his vision and made him feel as though he were swimming through taffy.
Kotzui shot him a nasty grin. "Suck on that, smart guy," he called. Then he flicked out two quick handseals and shouted, "Blood Element: Fog of War Technique!" His forearms tore themselves open, arterial spray fountaining out with impossible force and soaking the air.
"Stop!" Hazō shouted, starting to move forward, trying to figure out how he would staunch a wound so large—
—and then his brain caught up and he realized that the blood was not settling out of the air. Instead, it was forming a steadily-growing cloud that completely obscured sight of its creator. And that the wielder of the Blood Element bloodline arsenal could probably spare a pint or two. Or fifty, from the looks of it.
Hazō glanced around quickly, wondering which target to go for. Five clones, plus Kotsuzui, who had shown himself to be enough of a threat that he warranted his actual name. The latter was hidden in his cloud, a place that Hazō was not at all sanguine (ha!) about venturing. He could dispose of the clones...probably. Elemental Clones were weak and easily destroyed; taking them out was a reasonable secondary priority in normal combat, as it reduced their creator's tactical flexibility. Blood Clones, however, were supposed to be special. They might actually be dangerous in close combat, especially given how hard it was to move right now. Did the advantages of engaging them outweigh the risks?
Nope.
"Earth Element: Hiding Like a Mole Technique!" A few handseals and Hazō dove into the ground like an otter dives into a river. He swam down, seeking the sandiest spots he could find in hopes of grinding some of the blood off so that he would be mobile again once he surfaced. The effort was only partially successful; the Earth technique was designed to prevent the user's person and gear from being dirtied or abraded while passing beneath the surface, and it made no differentiation between Hazō's skin and the crust of blood caked on him. Plus, a lot of the blood was already absorbed into his clothes, turning the fabric stiff. Some significant flailing got part of the filth off, but it was still going to be a problem.
Hazō forced himself to pause and think. It was hard; adrenaline was singing in his bones and he was struggling to suppress his panicked disgust at the feeling of the blood caked across his face and glopped in his mouth. Plus, he had to keep his eyes closed and hold his breath while under the dirt, so there was a definite time limit on how long he could wait before he had to surface.
Calm, Mari-sensei's voice whispered from the depths of memory. We are exhaling stress and panic. We are inhaling calm and relaxation. He couldn't actually follow the breathing exercise, but her remembered voice was enough to let him center.
Okay. Calm. He was calm. What next?
The nature of the Blood Element and why its wielders were such effective hunters was now readily apparent. The clones would stay at range and pound him with Blood Bullets until he could barely move, then close in to finish him. Kotsuzui would stay hidden in his cloud. Going in after him seemed like a very bad idea; the mist might be able to attack, and it was likely that the Blood Element user would be able to see inside it perfectly well. He might even be able to drain chakra through it, the way Noburi could drain chakra through water.
Ah, yes. Chakra. Hazō had no illusions that his own reserves were anything other than anemic; he was all about massive damage delivered in a quick burst, but he wasn't much good at sustained battle. If the fight went on for too long, Kotsuzui would simply outlast him.
Which, of course, meant that Hazō should suck it up, go into the blood mist, and finish this quickly. Which in turn meant that he should get on his dancing suit.
"Pangolin Clan Technique: Ghost Scales."
Making handseals underground was difficult and he almost botched it. Speaking involved flipping your head back quickly as you did so that you only got a limited amount of dirt in your mouth. Still, the glowing yellow chakra construct materialized around him, wrapping him in the armored scales and massive claws of his sister's otherworldly allies.
He quickly inventoried his equipment to see what he had that might help; his clawed gauntlets were on his belt where they should be, his belt pouches were stuffed full of explosives (he palmed two, just for luck) and storage seals containing every random bit of gear that had seemed like it might possibly be useful. For the life of him, he couldn't think of a single use for any of that gear right now.
He slid the gauntlets on and then swam through the ground towards where his enemy had been when Hazō went under. If he could come up close enough to Kotsuzui for a taijutsu fight he gave himself good odds. If not, then things were going to get dicey. Taking a metaphorical breath, he shot to the surface.
Good news: He managed to come up inside the sphere of blood mist that surrounded his target. Bad news: He managed to come up inside the sphere of blood mist that surrounded his target. It was a massive amount of finely-dispersed blood that seemed only notionally mixed with air. It was in his eyes, in his nose, in his mouth...he fought to stay focused, to maintain concentration instead of giving in to the revulsion and allow the stinging pain of salt in eyes and nose to send him leaping away. From slightly to his left, he heard a slight crunching noise as the enemy shifted his weight on the sandy soil.
"Pangolin Clan Technique: Pantokrator's Hammer!"
The power of the pangolin clan roared through him, supercharging his muscles with speed and strength. He couldn't precisely locate his target, but that was okay: He stepped, planted one hand on the ground, and threw a windmill kick around that pivot. The kick had massive range, nearly the length of Hazō's body once you included the reach extension of the Ghost Scales construct. Unless the mist had significantly expanded since Hazō went underground, the kick would cover most of the area that Kotsuzui might be standing in.
It did.
His foot slammed into something wet and yielding, probably another one of these disgusting blood constructs. He had hit too early, before the kick had reached its point of maximum power, and the target didn't even grunt.
"One and Two, Alpha!" Kotsuzui shouted.
Hazō didn't need to see to know what that meant. He spun back to his feet, staying low as he waited for the inevitable attack. Fortunately, the Blood Clones were choosing speed over stealth, so he had no trouble tracking what direction they were coming from.
The first one hit low, trying to take a leg and bring Hazō down, turn it into a ground fight where the other clone and Kotsuzui would be able to put the boot in. Fortunately, Hazō had seen that one coming and was ready. He set his feet to receive the charge, allowing his enemy to take Hazō's front leg but denying him the leverage to do anything with it. He bent forward, got a bodylock around the clone's midsection, and suplexed him back into the ground. The thing exploded, splashing yet more blood everywhere. Hazō kipped up, the newest layer of blood making movement even harder, and moved forward to where he expected his second attacker to come from. It was always better to interrupt the enemy's momentum.
Both clone and human were utterly blind in the fog and guessing at the other's position. They came together body-to-body without expecting it, rebounded, and attacked. Hazō was faster; he slammed the bladed claws of his gauntlets into the Blood Clone's chest and dropped straight down, chakra adhesion locking his feet to the ground and allowing him to pull down faster than gravity. It was a risky move; the strength of Pantokrator's Hammer was fading but the echoes of it were still disrupting his chakra pathways for another second or so, meaning he couldn't use chakra to enhance his strength. Without enhanced strength the move wouldn't have worked on a human; ribs were too strong. Still, clones didn't usually have—
The clone went out like Kagome-sensei's explosive-cooked chowder, once again dousing Hazō in a spray of rapidly-coagulating blood that caught him full in the face and soaked his eyes and mouth. His gorge rose and he pawed frantically to clear his vision with hands that were just as soaked as the face he was wiping them against. Panic rose within him and he struggled to control it, to prevent himself from utterly losing con—
The world became calm around him and he seemed to float in a moment of stillness. This was it. He was going to lose this fight. The layers of blood coating him were too thick to let him move or fight effectively, and he was already running dangerously low on chakra. He could barely see, and Kotsuzui's strategy was effective: Deny Hazō the close-range fight he needed, slowly lock down his movement, wait until he was chakra-exhausted, and then take him out. It was going to work, too. Whatever Hazō's kick had struck, it hadn't been a weapon or a taijutsu block. It had felt like a curved wall, possibly even a hemisphere like the Air Domes, and it had been flexible and yielding instead of hard, rigid, and therefore easy to break. If Kotsuzui had actually turtled up, Hazō was screwed. If he hadn't, then he was still mobile behind whatever massive shield he was carrying, and he could just keep backing away. Unable to see in the fog, Hazō's attacks would lack the speed and power necessary to get through a defense that simply absorbed the impact. Maybe he could land a solid hit, and maybe he could disrupt the defense, but presumably Kotsuzui could cast it again and then they would be right back here except Hazō would be lower on chakra. If Hazō had had his full arsenal, including Goo Bombs to pin the annoying enemy down, and Banshee Fuckers to blast him with unblockable waves of sound...if he'd had those things, Hazō could have pulled this off. As it was, no. Too much of his arsenal had been taken away, and the remaining tools weren't well-suited to nonlethal combat.
Maybe it was time to tap out? Kotsuzui was already furious from Hazō's mockery during the pre-fight smack talk and there was a good chance that he would choose to inflict some serious damage once he moved to offense. Surrendering was the smart play.
No.
No, he refused. Too much was riding on this fight, too many people were depending on him. He was not going to get taken out by some two-bit punk who relied on running away and hiding and who coated his enemies in disgusting slimy sticky gross blood!
"Kagome-style Universal Problem Solving Technique, asshole," Hazō whispered. He armed both of the explosive tags that he'd been palming, dropped them so they were outside of his Ghost Scales armor, and then leaped forward with arms spread wide to catch Kotsuzui in a grapple. Yes, Hazō was slowed by the blood caked on him. Yes, he was blinded by the mist. Yes, he was incapable of getting through Kotsuzui's defenses. Yes, standing-up-with-arms-spread wide was the 'please hit me' stance and he was going to get pounded. Screw all of that; he could keep Kotsuzui pinned in place and soak up whatever damage the other boy could dish out for the moment it would take the tags to detonate.
Kotsuzui must have been able to tell what was coming, because he panicked the instant Hazō dropped the tags. He tried to leap back and get clear, but Hazō just barely managed to catch the edge of that blood construct (now that he could feel the edges, it felt like a tower shield) and yank the Blood Element user forward into a bear hug. He lowered his center and spun, soaking or slipping the punishing knees and elbows that battered at him as he pulled Kotsuzui around so his back was to the coming explosion.
The tags went off like the end of the world, throwing them both to the ground and away. Kotsuzui's concentration was disrupted and his jutsu ended, the blood fog deluging out of the air to turn the sandy ground to sanguine mud.
Hazō lost his grip in the fall but rolled unsteadily back to his feet, shaking his head to make himself focus. Kotsuzui's body had been between Hazō and the tags; his body, the Ghost Scales, and the Pangolin conditioning jutsu had soaked up most of the blast, but Hazō's entire body felt like it had been hammered with a series of Lady Tsunade's legendary Strength of a Hundred punches. His ears were ringing and everything was a little foggy, but there was just enough awareness left in his brain for one thing: Target identification.
Kotsuzui had been mauled by the twin explosions. His shirt was mostly torn off, his pants were shredded, bruises and abrasions were everywhere, and bits of sand and gravel were embedded in the skin of his back and legs. He was staggering to his feet only with difficulty when Hazō slipped off the clawed gauntlets (mustn't kill the bastard, no matter how tempting) and hit him bare-fisted.
The punch came from everything Hazō was. The power of the Pantokrator's Hammer, the gift from his sister's allies, lifted him to his feet. Memories of Noburi's encouragement and support chambered the punch. A decade of his mother's taijutsu instruction and two years of Mari-sensei's set his foot in precisely the right place for maximum power. His hopes and dreams for the future, his determination to win so Jiraiya would keep the hat and keep authorizing uplift missions, the desperate desire to become the person that others would follow in making the world better, the love he felt for his new family, the need to make them proud...it all combined to drive his fist around in a massive haymaker that struck right on Kotsuzui's ear and sent him to the ground like a dropped brick, popping all his clones.
Hazō stood over his fallen foe, chest heaving and ears still ringing from the explosions. He was physically exhausted and battered, low on chakra, covered head-to-toe in blood and sand and grit. More important than all of that, the one final thing he was:
Victorious.
Kotsuzui Kenji (known in Hazō's thoughts, at least for now, as Kitty Kat) has seen Hazō fight and he wants no part of a fair fight at close range. This is a problem, since Kenji is a close-range fighter. Fortunately, he's also pretty versatile.
The Blood Clone technique lasts for [redacted], a significant amount of time. KK was smart enough to pre-position a bunch of clones in the arena well before the fighting started. ("What?! That's cheating!" "Ninja.") He and his clones are used to working together in hunting other ninja, so Hazō starts the round with the fragile Aspect 'Outnumbered and Hemmed In' as they charge. KK gets a tag on that Aspect. (The clones, fortunately, do not have Fate Points, although they can use tags.)
Initiative order: Kitty-Kat and his clones, then Hazō
Tie goes to the attacker, so the Blood Bullet makes contact! Hazō is soaked in rapidly-congealing blood which restricts his Athletics to the tune of -4 until the jutsu ends or he gets clean. He has the Aspect "Gunked Up" and the clone has a tag. The clone passes the tag to Kitty Kat.(NB: In retrospect, the penalty should realistically have been to all physical skills, not just to Athletics. Still, that's not how we defined it, and I'm not going to make a change at this late date.)
Hazō has -16 to Athletics and Kitty Kat is holding 4 tags on the persistent 'Gunked Up' Aspect, plus one tag on the fragile 'Outnumbered and Hemmed In' Aspect.
Okay, that's it for the clones. Kitty Kat spends his Standard activating the Blood Mist technique. He then uses a Supplemental to cast Blood Blade in defensive formation. He allows the tags to expire without use.
Hazō's turn. The clones are maintaining range, Kitty Kat is hidden inside the cloud, and he can barely move.
Hazō: Standard action: Hiding Like a Mole at Effect:1. (20 CP, 110 remaining)
Interesting question here. It is explicitly part of the Blood Bullet jutsu that the gunk can be washed off given sufficient effort, but can it be scraped off by moving through the dirt? HLAM seems to protect your clothes, gear, and skin from abrasion, so the answer should probably be no, but it seems weird that it wouldn't help at all. I'm splitting the difference and ruling he can get half of it off, so he's back to a measly -8 penalty. The rest of the gunk is too tight against Hazō's skin to be removed this way, regardless of how much time he spends underground. NB: This isn't a precedent for future encounters with Blood Bullet, since soil composition and groundwater and flow of natural chakra and other (pseudo)sciencey words.
Round 2, fight!
Kitty Kat: Full Defense
The Bloody Backup Band: Standard + Supplemental to stack rocks (create cover against explosives). This creates the persistent scene Aspect 'Cover, Cover, Everywhere' in this zone and gives each clone a tag on the Aspect that can be used for dodging. They all pass these tags to Kitty Kat. The tags will expire at the end of the round because that's what tags do. After this fun, two of them hold their second Supplemental for Substitution, the other three Move into an adjacent zone (the SW, NW, and NW/wall zones, respectively)
Hazō:
- Standard: Cast Ghost Scales at Effect:2 (CP:23, 87 remaining)
- Supplemental: Pull out a fuck-you explosive tag (Weapon:4), palm it with Sleight of Hand
- Supplemental: Pull out another fuck-you explosive tag (Weapon:4), palm it with Sleight of Hand
(NB: It didn't occur to me until I was completely finished spec'ing all this out and starting to actually write it that Hazō probably should not be able to make complex and intricate finger motions (e.g. handseals) or speak while underground, so I really should have at the very least had a roll for him to be able to cast Ghost Scales. Eh. I'm not undoing three hours of work and starting over at this point, but we might do it next time.)
Round 3, fight!
The Backup Band: Stack rocks to enhance the Aspect, thereby re-generating their tags. Give Kitty Kat all the tags. Hold their Supplementals for Substitution.
Kitty Kat: Full Defense
Hazō
- Supplemental: Pull on the pangolin gauntlets.
Round 4, fight!
Kitty Kat: Hold until after Hazō
The Backup Band: Second verse, same as the first.
Hazō:
- Supplemental: Surface as close to Kitty Kat as possible. (This is not a Move action but does require time.) I'm giving Hazō a -2 CM for positioning inaccuracy, only for the first attack. This is going to be compounded by receiving the Aspect "I'm Bloody Blind!" due to surfacing in the middle of a zero-visibility blood fog. Kitty Kat, of course, receives no penalty to his Awarenes while fighting in melee in his cloud (no comment on ranged), and he receives a tag on Hazō's new Aspect. Also, Hazō does not get to use his combat style, Roki, while inside the cloud. Roki is a Deceit-based style in which you use a multi-layered series of feints to give yourself an advantage on landing a real attack. This is not practical if you cannot see your opponent because you're swimming around in blood that's only barely a fog instead of a soup.
- Supplemental: Activate Pantokrator's Hammer at Effect:3 (22 CP, 65 remaining)
- Standard: Punch Kitty Kat's aggravating face in.
Hazō, Taijutsu 43 - 3 (dice) - 2 (positioning inaccuracy) - 1 (PCJ) + 2 (Ghost Scales) + 10 (PH tag x2) + 5 (tag 'Rolodex of Doom') + 5 (chakra boost; 25 CP, 63 remaining) = 62. He's not using personal Aspects because he's not sure he's got the right target.
Kitty Kat, Athletics + dice and all bonuses: 63
NOTE: It is now Kotsuzui's turn for this round. The first draft of this, I had him pull out a pair of explosives, arm them, drop them, and then get Substituted out by one of his clones. This is the right move strategically, and is a very sensible way for a hunter-nin to operate. Unfortunately, the rules don't work for this. The way we have it set up, when attacking with explosives you can either roll Thrown Weapons to attack from range, or roll Craftsmanship:Trapmaking to create emplacements. Kotsuzui doesn't have either of these skills at any significant level which means that, according to the mechanics, he cannot hurt Hazō with explosives. There isn't really a good way for me to handle this; it's been the subject of much discussion in QM chat and there is a very strong opinion that it should work the way it currently does, so I'm not comfortable choosing a TN for Hazō to dodge against. I could fiat-rule that Hazō takes the damage, but that offends my sense of fair play. I thought about it for a while and then realized that, fortunately for my conscience, the sequence doesn't work within the rules; the clones can't see into the cloud to Substitute Kotsuzui out and if he drops the cloud then Hazō will see the cloud and have a chance to dodge or Substitute, which is especially easy since the clones have been going to a lot of trouble to set up cover against explosions. I played around with several variants and decided that there was always just enough issues with it that Hazō would realistically have a chance to dodge which, again, meant that the game mechanics rendered him invulnerable. To resolve this Gordian knot I am simply declaring that Kitty Kat doesn't have any explosives because...I dunno, they're rare in Hot Springs? Maybe there's not a lot of sealmasters there or something. Or maybe he's used to working with a team and someone else covers the AoE role. (Probably their technique hacker.) Whatever. Instead, he'll continue with his established tactic of playing keepaway, debuffing Hazō and refusing to engage until Hazō is out of chakra. In exchange for not having him use explosives, I'm giving him the ability to use free actions (e.g., speaking short phrases) on the same round that he uses Full Defense. The rules should probably allow that anyway.
Kitty Kat:
- Free: Call for the Backup Band
- Full Defense (+AB to defensive rolls) - NB: He has a fresh tag on Hazō's "I'm Bloody Blind" Aspect.
The Backup Band #1: Standard: Run into the mist (it's in the same zone, so no Move action required) and attack Hazō.
Taijutsu: Hahaha.
Hazō: 43 + 6 (dice) + 5 (remaining tag from Pantokrator's Hammer) + 2 (Ghost Scales) = the clone explodes.
Hazō has destroyed a Blood Clone! He must roll Athletics against (Blood Clone level) to avoid another layer of 'Gunked Up'.
Hazō, Athletics: 40 + 0 (dice) - 1 (PCJ) - 8 (existing Gunked Up penalties) = 31. (NB: There should probably be a penalty in here for being blind, but it doesn't matter because he loses anyway.)
Hazō is covered in another layer of gunk! He is at -12 on Athletics.(NB: Pity that AOE teammate isn't here. Hazō would be screwwwwwed.)
The Backup Band #2:
- Supplemental: Cast Blood Blade
- Standard: Charge into the mist and try to gut Hazō. Rolls for crap and doesn't have fate points so can't invoke any Aspects. Has used essentially all the chakra it was given on the Blood Bullet and Blood Blade, so can't afford to chakra boost.
Hazō, counterattack (Taijutsu): 43 + 3 (dice) - 1 (PCJ) = 45. He used Pantokrator's Hammer this round, so no chakra boosting allowed. He's out of PH tags, so no bonus there. This actually works in his favor, because he's going to win this one regardless and this way he doesn't waste any chakra.
Hazō has destroyed a Blood Clone! He must roll Athletics against (Blood Clone level) to avoid another layer of 'Gunked Up'. He has a -12 on Athletics, so he fails! He is now at -16 on Athletics!
The Backup Band #3-4 (NW and SW zones): They want to keep the range open instead of letting Hazō get all of them with one attack, so they continue to spend their Standard + Supplemental enhancing the 'Cover, Cover, Everywhere' Aspect in their new zones to get the tags back in case Kotsuzui needs to move there. Keep 1 Supplemental open for Substitution.
The Backup Band #5 (NW-wall zone): Supplemental Move back into the zone with Hazō and Kitty Kat.
Round 5, fight!
(Hazō goes first because Kotsuzui delayed actions last round.)
Hazō:
- Supplemental: Arm explosive tag that you palmed while underground.
- Supplemental: Arm explosive tag that you palmed while underground.
- Free: Drop explosive tag that you palmed while underground.
- Free: Drop explosive tag that you palmed while underground.
- Standard: Establish a Block (Taijutsu) against Kotsuzui doing anything. Most especially, against him leaving the blast area.
(NB: This situation is different from the earlier one. Kotsuzui had no way to set off the tag without getting caught in it or giving Hazō a chance to dodge. Hazō simply doesn't care; he's fine with getting hit by the tags as long as Kotsuzui does too. In this situation, it's an automatic hit.)
Kotsuzui recognizes what Hazō just did, panics, and bails as fast as he can. Oops, need to beat that Block. I'm not sure if Blood Blade or Athletics is the more reasonable skill here, so I'll go with Athletics. He does not get to use the 'Cover, Cover Everywhere' Aspect because he needs to escape from Hazō's grip first.
Hazō, Taijutsu (Block): 43 + 6 (dice) -1 (PCJ) + 2 (Ghost Scales) + 5 (chakra boost since there is no time for Pantokrator's hammer; 25 CP, 43 remaining) + 5 (invoke "Creative Idealist", -1FP) + 5 (invoke "The Hokage is My New Dad", -1FP): 65.
Kotsuzui, Athletics plus dice (-3) and all bonuses: 62
(NB: I'm stretching a point on these Aspects, allowing them to be used on a taijutsu roll with the justification 'inspiration', 'determination boost', etc. I know that Velorien wouldn't give them to you and I might not next time, but this was a really cool move that you thought up.)
KRAKATHOOM!
Kotsuzui gets hit with 8 stress from the two tags. That fills his stress track and gives him a Mild ("Battered") and Moderate ("Ow, My Everything") Consequence. Hazō gets a tag on each Consequence, with the tags expiring after his next initiative. Kotsuzui gets -1.5x Aspect Bonus on all rolls until the wounds heal.
Hazō gets hit with the same 8 stress. Ghost Scales soaks 2 of it. The Pangolin Conditioning Jutsu soaks 2 more. The remaining 4 fill his stress track and give him a Mild Consequence ("Tinnitus").
Kotsuzui must make a Resolve check to sustain his Blood Mist jutsu.
Kotsuzui, Resolve: ?
TN: ?
He fails and the jutsu drops.
Round 6, fight!
Hazō goes first again. He is utterly and completely DONE with this crap. He really should give Kotsuzui a chance to tap out, but he's not taking any chances. Let's see if he can get Roki:
Hazō, roll to get Roki: (Deceit + Deceit Aspect Bonus): 27 - 6 = 21-1 FP to reroll!
Hazō, roll to get Roki: (Deceit + Deceit Aspect Bonus): 27 + 6 = 33
Kotsuzui, Deceit: ?
Hazō gets Roki. Kotsuzui has the fragile Aspect "Tricked!" and Hazō has a tag.
Hazō:
- Supplemental: Remove pangolin gauntlets so as not to accidentally kill Kotsuzui
- Supplemental: Pantokrator's Hammer, Effect:3 (22 CP, 21 remaining)
- Standard: Taijutsu: 40 + 0 (dice) + 10 (2x tags from Pantokrator's Hammer) + 5 (invoke 'Rolodex of Doom') + 5 (invoke 'Lists and Plans') + 5 (invoke '(Formerly) Marked for Death') + 5 (tag Kotsuzui's 'Battered' Consequence) + 5 (tag Kotsuzui's 'Ow, My Everything' Consequence) + 5 (tag Kotsuzui's 'Tricked!' Aspect that was created by Roki) - 3 (Hazō's Mild Consequence): 77
Kotsuzui, Blood Blade, dice, bonuses: 64
Kotsuzui goes down like a lead brick. This is actually more than enough stress (1 for Ninja Hands + (77-64)/3, round up) = 6) to kill him, but Hazō pulls the blow. Kotsuzui has the Severe Consequence 'Massive Concussion'. Game over.
XP AWARD: 3 (includes plan brevity award)
FP AWARD: -4 + 2 = -2
Vote time! What to do now?
Voting ends on Wednesday, January 2, 2019, at 12pm London time.
I know the paragraph spacing is weird but my browsers are currently locked out of the thread via LeechBlock and I'm having to go through some contortions to post this from my phone. I'll fix it later. (I should have remembered to disable LeechBlock for the holiday.)
