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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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While we're on the note of XP updating being a hassle, I noticed some discrepancies re: the OOC XP from page 834: 3 was granted, but the kids only got 2 in total.
 
eaglejarl said:
Unfortunately, I don't think that works. The main ones that we need to be able to use are Team Uplift's, and those are all on GDocs. We need to keep them synchronized between all of us and also make them read-only available to the player base, so GDocs really is the way to go. There might be a workaround via local editing and then upload to GDocs for a new version? Dunno.
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Spreadsheets from GDocs is actually fairly easy to read from using their Sheets API. I did a bunch of integrations with this recently. @Cariyaga I can offer you some guidance here if needed.
 
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Vecht said:
Spreadsheets from GDocs is actually fairly easy to read from using their Sheets API. I did a bunch of integrations with this recently. @Cariyaga I can offer you some guidance here if needed.
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I'll see if I can't work it out after I sleep. It's long past my bedtime, but I've got that mini program's GUI put together. Just a bunch of text boxes and labels for XP/FP allocation; all I need is to figure out how to work OAuth tokens for it (and in general) such that it's not annoying to deal with.

To be clear, I don't actually have any major experience programming (never worked with libraries, etc.), but it comes naturally enough to me that I enjoy doing it when it doesn't bend my brain over backwards. And even then. :p
 
I reject your sadness and substitute my own.

Velorien said:
Interlude: Tears of Red​
She felt his lips on her.
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He felt her lips tremble with a whisper: "Gotcha."

Through the mixture of both physical and emotional exhaustion, he tried to smile.

It was not easy, as his lips had quickly gone numb with the potent poison on her lips. His face contorted in a horrible mask as all his muscles became unable to relax. His heart soon followed, with unbearable pain.

Damned genjutsu. He awoke to find himself hanging upside down, ninja wire digging painfully on his body.

And her smirk on his pride.

"So you love me too, huh?" She said with an unbearably smug tone.

"Well, I think so, but keep up the smug act and that might change." He answered jokingly.

"I promise I won't bring up this humilliating defeat of yours in the future. Much. Probably. So let's talk of anything else, like for example what the hell are we going to do now and oh god my family is going to literally hunt me to death and-"

"Well, you could stop hyperventilating, untie me, and we could get to this hidden spot I know of to recuperate and-wait. Why is the sky red?"

"Because I have rested long enough now, and am already bored of your tirade. Now, we have hours to ourselves while the outside world waits." she answered while untying him.

"So you want to spend hours with me, but want me to shut up? What do you want us to do to fill the time, if not talk?" He said with a jovial tone while flexing and rubbing his arms to mitigate the feeling of the wire, and maybe to show off a little.

"Great-fireball technique." She answered.

It was a ninja that came back to her father. It was a ninja that presented the head of a hatred enemy in proof of her superior skill and undying allegiance to her family, dead
and alive.

It was someone else that tortured a boy for hours so that he would admit to seducing her in order to kidnap and use her against her family.

He cried, he begged, but not once did he admit to it, despite her increasing efforts.

Someone let tears silently fall in the night. It was a girl.

Edit: Meddler notes: would you believe that my original intention was to write a genjutsu-mediated happy ending in wich they eloped? It ran away from me, like dust in the wind.

Somehow, I now feel the need to write a continuation in which she finds out her deceased favorite uncle faked his own death to run away with his supposed murderer and has been living happily. Until she runs into him, and of course murders him and his children.

I think wildbow may have damaged me. Just kidding, he just showed me the way, I didn't need to enjoy it. But I did.
 
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Chapter 247 Part 2: In Hot Pursuit of Brittle Ice
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    • Chapter 247 Part 2: In Hot Pursuit of Brittle Ice​

    December 26, afternoon.​

    Keiko's match was over. The crowd was variously shocked, disappointed, confused, and moved by young love. Doubtless, some were also calculating political implications, and preparing urgent reports to their superiors, while outwardly appearing variously shocked, disappointed, confused, and moved by young love. Hazō himself was firmly in the confused camp, the "what just happened?" sub-faction.

    Once outside the arena with its thousands of potential eavesdroppers, Hazō pulled Noburi into an alley. "What just happened? Did Keiko tell you the engagement was confirmed?"

    Noburi shook his head. "Nope. I don't get it either. I know she's a very private person, but this is both clan business and a huge weight off her shoulders. She was going to marry someone, and Nara happens to be one of exactly two non-Gōketsu friends she's got. Don't look at me like that, you know it's true."

    "I see what you mean," Hazō said. "You'd expect to see her celebrating, at least in that low-key 'today the universe is slightly less filled with cruelty and despair than usual' Keiko kind of way. She wouldn't go around hiding this massive improvement in her relationship status from her own clan."

    "That certainly is not a thing you would expect to happen," Noburi agreed.

    For a moment, something about Noburi's tone of voice bothered Hazō, but he didn't know what it was. Too even, maybe?

    No matter. This wasn't the time for diplomacy practice.

    "It can't have been that recent," Noburi went on, "because Lord Nara would have had to approve it before they left Leaf. That's nearly two weeks. Jiraiya would have to know as well, and some people don't leave their family out of the loop."

    "I said I was sorry, OK?" Hazō exclaimed.

    "You should be," Noburi said. "Weren't we supposed to be a team?

    "But you can beat yourself up later. I promise I'll help. Right now, seems like we have a bigger problem."

    "Right," Hazō said. "Keiko hasn't been acting like someone who's heard about the engagement. She hasn't even been spending much time out with Nara, and she goes out to see him every other day in Leaf. Since it wouldn't make sense for Lord Nara or Jiraiya to hide it from her in the first place… it means they don't know."

    Noburi winced. "If that's true, that means Nara decided it on his own, and announced it in public where neither clan head can take it back without looking bad. Not that you'd know anything about that."

    "Not now, Noburi."

    "To conclude," Noburi said, "Nara decided that he was getting engaged to Keiko, and didn't tell her in advance. Right after you decided to go hang out with Keiko's beloved lost sister, and didn't tell her in advance."

    "Right," Hazō said. "You look for Keiko. I'll look for Nara. Maybe if we're fast enough, we can still save him."

    -o-​

    "You!" Hazō seized his thousandth civilian. "Have you seen Nara Shikamaru? About this tall, sticky-up black hair, dark grey clothes, possibly fleeing in terror?"

    "N-No, honourable ninja, sir! I'm sorry! Please don't kill me!"

    "You!" Hazō seized his thousand-and-first civilian. "Have you seen Nara Shikamaru? About this tall, sticky-up black hair, dark grey clothes, possibly fleeing in terror?"

    "N-No, honourable ninja! Please, I have a family!"

    "You!" Hazō seized his thousand-and-second civilian. "Have you seen Nara Shikamaru? About this tall, sticky-up black hair, dark grey clothes, possibly fleeing in terror?"

    "Y-Yes, honourable ninja! He's retroactively reserved the private room of our humble café!"

    "Is there anyone else there?"

    "There was another ninja. Genkotsu Keiko, the anteater summoner!"

    They were together. In a room with no witnesses. Hazō had to hurry. To the best of his knowledge, Keiko had never actually murdered anyone—at least not anyone she wasn't supposed to murder—and Hazō didn't want her to get into the habit. Despite being a founding member of the explosives clan, Keiko favoured kunai. Nara might not have bled to death yet.


    "Gōketsu," Nara greeted him without looking up from the table. Keiko was not in attendance.

    "Nara! You're alive!" Hazō sagged with relief.

    "That does tend to be my default condition," Nara said drily.

    "And you're staring at a kunai stabbed through a scroll."

    "Your powers of observation continue to do you credit. But to answer your implied question, Keiko and I had a miscommunication and she saw fit to express her disapproval non-verbally. I am now resting in this room where I expected to be undisturbed while I ponder what went wrong."

    Hazō couldn't take his eyes off the kunai. Keiko should not have had the strength to drive it that deep into the table. Hazō made a note to review the costs and benefits of incurring her wrath.

    "I should probably take that back to her, shouldn't I?" he said.

    Nara reached for the kunai, gave it an experimental tug, then leaned back in his chair as if having exhausted his supply of energy for the afternoon. "If you wish to provide her with additional lethal weapons, that is entirely your right."

    "Maybe not," Hazō agreed, though he was painfully aware that Keiko was never without lethal weapons, most of them big enough to crush him with a single paw. "Do you know where she went?"

    "This is Mist, her home village and not mine. While I have naturally memorised the layout, or at least the parts visitors are permitted to enter, that does not give me any additional insight into her geographical preferences. Now, kindly leave me be."

    Great. During their time together at the Academy, Hazō had been at most peripherally aware of Keiko as "that quiet girl who doesn't play with the other kids". Since then, he'd only seen her upset when they were together in the wild, or in Leaf where she would simply retreat into her room. Here in Mist, he was without clues.

    He had so much better things to do this afternoon. He wanted to find out what happened during the Akimichi-Aburame match while he was at the letter debriefing. He needed to figure out the best way to apologise to Noburi, and that would take one of his finest flowcharts yet. He'd intended to take some time to make explosive tags, because he didn't want to face Kagome-sensei's rants about keeping his priorities straight if he came back without at least two hundred.

    But the Finals were tomorrow. And, fairly or unfairly, he was partly responsible for the current situation, and worse, Jiraiya would probably consider him responsible for the current situation. At least the longer this took, the more time he'd have to figure out a way to calm her down.

    Hazō ran out without saying goodbye to Nara, or indeed a few other things the apathetic boy deserved to hear.

    -o-​

    "Any sign?" Hazō asked while brewing himself a self-pitying mug of hot chocolate in the inn's kitchen.

    Noburi shook his head. "I checked everywhere. Nobody's seen her since she left that café area. It's as if she vanished... into... thin air... ah, crap."

    The two exchanged looks.

    "She's gone to the Seventh Path, hasn't she." Hazō said wearily. "Do you remember the last time she did that while really upset?"

    Noburi swallowed. "I'm sure she's learned her lesson. She's grown up a lot since then. She's practically a different person."

    "I should have hurried up and become the Condor Summoner," Hazō muttered.

    "Oh, oh, excuse me!"

    "What is it now?" Hazō snarled… at the poor, little, innocent creature that was now recoiling in fear.

    "Keiko sent me with a message for you!" Pandā's telepathic voice was clear, but his tongue was rapidly flickering in and out as if representing a stammer.

    "What is it?" Noburi asked, simultaneously shooting Hazō a glare.

    "She says that she'll fulfil her clan duties by attending the Finals tomorrow, but until then she's made alternative sleeping arrangements.

    "She looked upset," Pandā added. "Did something happen?"

    "A miscommunication," Hazō said bitterly, "and apparently she's chosen to express her disapproval non-verbally."

    "At least there's an upside," Noburi said. "If she's on the Seventh Path, she'll be getting tactical advice from the pangolins, and last time they helped out, she set you on fire."

    "Thank you, Noburi."

    "She said for me to go straight back," Pandā said, "but maybe I could take a message with me?"

    "Sure," Hazō said. "Tell her we're sorry—"

    "Ahem," Noburi said.

    "Tell her I'm sorry, and if she comes back, I'm sure we can work all this out."

    "Also," Noburi said, "we'd love to help her with Finals preparations."

    "And Nara is very sorry and promises he'll do anything he can to make it up to her," Hazō said.

    "He does?" Noburi asked sceptically.

    "He'll want to by the time I'm done with him," Hazō promised grimly. "Nobody gets to inadvertently traumatise my stepsister but me."
     
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    • She just gave up whatever right she had to oppose our brand new date. Let it be known I'll vote for any action plan that had Hazou picking flowers for Ami. Or writing poetry (only if the hivemind comes up with ideas because I feel like @Velorien sometimes).
     
    Cariyaga said:
    [X] Keiko descends into unprecedented bout of depression, after burning out of her righteous fury. In self-flagellating act of desperation, unwilling to face her siblings or be a burden any more than she is, she reverse summons herself. She stays there until next match, which she loses due to lack of preparations or support from their more creatively-minded family. This defeat puts Keiko into a state of pure agonizing panic, which she tries to further escape by plunging herself into Frozen Skein. This act renders her comatose, leading to a whole slew of consequences, culminating in Mori Ami and Goketsu Hazou combining their forces to make a WMD capable of wiping out all realities where Keiko is dead. As their definition of "dead" includes "not there to begin with" our universe is destroyed as well.
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    Apparently, this vote won.
     
    I feel like people are totally misinterpreting this chapter.

    Keep in mind that this a shounen story and if you think back about the last time a main character went to train under his summons he got Sage Mode out of it.

    tl;dr
    Don't worry, Keiko is just leveling up for her fight against Shino.
     
    So, let's see, Keiko's secluded in the Seventh Path and that's probably what eaglejarl missed when he wrote the Goketsu conversations last time. Cutting the Keiko half of the conversation out would probably remove too much of the update (not to mention the Jiraiya half would have to be adjusted too) so I can see how Keiko being in the Seventh Path could be the primary difference here.

    If so, that means we don't have to worry about, say, Zabuza's return to Mist or Ami showing up at the Goketsu compound minutes after the letter arrives being what invalidated the Goketsu scenes. If it's just this, the Jiraiya bit shouldn't go that much different since most of the calculus is still the same, so I feel like I can tentatively relax from the idea of eaglejarl's update throwing everything on its head.

    Maybe.
     
    HAZOU: So, here's exactly what you're going to do [...]

    SHIKAMARU: And why would I do any of that?

    HAZOU: *Saccharine smile.* I'm not really a "violence and intimidation" kind of guy. At least, not where allies and friends are concerned. Also, I respect you too much. So I'll just promise to make your life interesting instead.

    SHIKAMARU: *Pales as a sudden vision of the many horrible things that Hazou could deem appropriate for "Making his life interesting" is conjured forth by his synapses. Something something Gouketsu madness*
     
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    MMKII said:
    HAZOU: So, here's exactly what you're going to do [...]

    SHIKAMARU: And why would I do any of that?

    HAZOU: *Saccharine smile.* I'm not really a "violence and intimidation" kind of guy. At least, not where allies and friends are concerned. Also, I respect you too much. So I'll just promise to make your life interesting instead.

    SHIKAMARU: *Pales as a sudden vision of myriad horrible things that Hazou could deem appropriate for "Making his life interesting" is conjured forth by his synapses. Something something Gouketsu madness*
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    Or instead we can let Kei deal with her own issues
     
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