So. Anyone object to telling Noburi that Hazou judged that she wouldn't mind since she went and talked to his mom without either his or Mari's permission, and Hazou's eventual goal was reconciliation, just as hers was (after a fashion), with Mari?
So. Anyone object to telling Noburi that Hazou judged that she wouldn't mind since she went and talked to his mom without either his or Mari's permission, and Hazou's eventual goal was reconciliation, just as hers was (after a fashion), with Mari?
Well, I'd put it more like 'I legitimately intended to tell her after the match that day, in a way that would upset her as little as possible, but the letter was a curveball I didn't expect and in retrospect I should've told her from the get-go' and then have Hazou submit himself to as much mockery as Noburi sees fit, but yeah.
Well, I'd put it more like 'I legitimately intended to tell her after the match that day, in a way that would upset her as little as possible, but the letter was a curveball I didn't expect and in retrospect I should've told her from the get-go' and then have Hazou submit himself to as much mockery as Noburi sees fit, but yeah.
"Here's what you've all been waiting for, the finals of the Chūnin Exams! The epic, the masterful, the bloodiest beatdown of the biggest badasses! Let's get ready to rummmmmble!"
"Woohoo! / Go! Go! / Gō-ke-tsu! Gō-ke-tsu! / A-bu-ra-me! A-bu-ra-me! / Fight, fight, fight! / Kick her ass, Shino! / You can do it, Keiko! Slaughter him!"
The sound was a cacophonous tidal wave, beating at Kei's ears with violence and incipient madness. She closed it out, fined her attention down to the point of a knife and aimed it at Aburame like the weapon it was. She calmed her body, relaxed her muscles, and brushed against the very edges of the Ice, merely to cool her thoughts and blank her expression in the way she had learned was, for some bizarre reason, frightening to most people. (And wasn't that just typical? An expression of anger and violence could obviously be frightening, but how could the absence of expression be frightening? That was like being afraid of the absence of a horrific chakra monster.)
People. So confusing. So pointless to try. Wouldn't it better—
She withdrew from the Ice, not in the mood to deal with its whispers.
"Anything you two want to say?"
"Surrender now and save yourself pain," Kei said calmly. It was only fair to warn him.
One eyebrow went up. "I think not. Yes, your creatures are insectivores, but summoning is expensive. Call one of your creatures and you will be so low on chakra that my allies can render you unconscious in seconds."
"Allow me to paraphrase my Clan Head: I have had a difficult few days and I would dearly love to kill something. Given the constraints of the tournament I will be careful not to actually kill you, but I will not guarantee your safety beyond that."
In previous bouts, the judges had been careful not to interfere with the pre-battle banter. In this case, the older one felt the need to nervously speak up. "You do understand that maiming is also off the table, right?"
Kei turned empty eyes on the woman. "'Maim' is such a flexible word."
"Umm...."
"Besides, Aburame is a Leaf nin; as weak as Mist is, you should be delighted if he spends a few months in hospital."
There was a collective intake of breath from the bleachers.
"Hey now—"
"Please," Kei said, biting the word off in freezing dismissal. "My team broke your events over our collective knee and then defeated literally everyone else in the fifth event aside from the one group we chose to collaborate with. Mist had only a single ninja in the tournament, only for one round, and only because you convinced—probably bribed—Doigama of Wolf to surrender his spot. Given the level of weakness this implies for the Mist military, you should be delighted if a ninja from the strongest village in the world needs to spend a few months in hospital."
"By the way," Kei asked, turning back to Aburame, "when you pointlessly send your bugs to attack me, please remember to hold back a breeding group. Leaf will need you to be a functional ninja at some point in the future, and you will be useless after I kill all of your so-called 'allies'."
Aburame did not deign to respond, choosing instead to turn to the judge. "I believe we have said all that needs to be said. May we begin?"
"You heard the man, folks! She's scary and he's confident. What do you say, want to see them get it on?"
"Woohoo!"
Kei ignored the crowd and frowned at the judge's probably-intentional turn of phrase, but said nothing.
"On three! One! Two! Th—"
Kei leaped off the edge of the edge of the quarry, making handseals even as she bounced down into the arena.
"Summoning Technique: Pangaya!"
The air around her shuddered, quivering like a hound straining at the leash, and then burst into a momentary cloud of multi-colored smoke. Kei smiled slightly as the enormous bodyguard appeared.
"Pangaya," she said, pulling an explosive-tagged kunai from her holster.
"Summoner." The towering bodyguard slid one step closer to her charge and crouched, claws ready to attack, defend, or cast.
Shino appeared in the arena, a massive swarm of kikaichu insects erupting from him like force erupting from a tag. "Aburame Clan Technique: Multiple Swarm Assault!" Instantly, the swarm split into five segments, each hurling itself at Kei from a different angle.
She danced aside from the first attack, movements smooth and fast with the power of chakra that surged in her veins and allowed her to evade with ease.
The second swarm had swung around to come from behind her, but she had marked its vector before she had even begun moving to dodge the first. She dropped into a backroll, a repeated stutter of chakra repulsion rolling her backwards across the rocky ground, under the swarm with inches to spare, and back to her feet.
The third swarm came from her left; she pivoted on the ball of her foot and raced to meet the attack, burning chakra like wood on a winter hearth to give herself speed and agility beyond the human. The insects dove low, expecting her to once again roll, and so she leaped, her knees tucking up to give her the range and the spin to pass over the swarm.
She stuck the landing and sent a blast of chakra repulsion through her left foot, adding a lateral vector to her forward motion that allowed the fourth swarm to arrow past her in confusion. They came so close that a handful of bugs from the edge of the swarm managed to land on her arm and promptly began sucking greedily on her chakra. Normal insects did not bother her, but these were something different; she could feel their pressure on her skin, and the combination of contact and the first tiny traces of her life energy being forcibly ripped from her flesh made her mind tremble across all its so-fragile fracture points. She forced herself not to freeze for more than a moment and then to slap the bugs away and take off running.
The insects had taken only a trivial amount of chakra, but the fragment of time spent in frozen panic had cost her, slowing her just enough for the fifth attack group to arrive and englobe her. The light of the sun dimmed as myriad insects swirled, swarmed, and settled across her body. She desperately tried a Substitution, but a battalion of bugs hurled themselves at her eyes and she was forced to squeeze them shut, costing her sight of her target and causing the collapse of the jutsu. She could feel the insects' jaws clamping down, a sand-on-the-beach number of connections forming from her attackers to her skin to her chakra and beginning—
"Pangolin Clan Technique: Emergency Shove!"
A blast of focused air slapped her, sending her tumbling across the battlefield. The bugs that had clung to her were variously tossed aside with casual ease, splattered by the wind, or crushed between her body and the ground. It was trivial to smash the last few tenacious assailants between her fingers and toss their splattered corpses aside before turning to Aburame with death in her eyes.
"Now, Pangaya."
"Pangolin Clan Technique: Emergency Shove Technique!" Pangaya thrust out a clawed forepaw and the resultant blast of air sent Aburame staggering. A moment later she followed it up with, "Pangolin Clan Technique: Exploring Tongue!"
The tongue of a pangolin is long, sticky, and dextrous, designed to reach deep into anthills or tunnel systems and pull out the delicious denizens that dwell within. Take such natural gifts and enhance them with the power of otherworldly chakra, and what you get is the stuff of nightmares: Pangaya's tongue grew from 'large' to 'surreal', stretching two dozen yards long with a base as thick as Kei's thigh and a tip the thickness of her forefinger. It twisted and twined and danced in the air, its sticky edges licking up every insect from Shino's cloud, before swirling over Shino himself. The boy dove aside, activating his Substitution jutsu to enhance his speed...and utterly failing as the extreme end of the tongue distracted him by flicking across his face and then diving down his shirt in the hunt for more delicious kikaichu.
"GAAAAAHHHH! Stopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopit stop licking me!!!" Shino screamed, flailing and dancing in place.
"Thank you for screaming instead of surrendering."
"I sur—"
A flick of chakra armed the explosive tag. A quick set of handseals and the words "Pangolin Clan Technique: Pantokrator's Hammer!" gave her strength and speed. Thousands of hours of skill connected the hand to the kunai to a line that led straight through Aburame's left foot to the dirt. The blade pinned him in place for the sliver of time until the explosive detonated and lifted him three inches in the air. He hit the ground and dropped like a sack of meat, screaming and clutching his testicles.
Kei turned and walked towards the judges stand, gesturing silently for Pangaya to bring their defeated opponent along. The massive pangolin scooped Aburame up with a careful tenderness that bespoke awareness of how fragile human skin would stack up against steel-hard pangolin claws. She carried the sobbing boy along behind her Summoner, cooing softly at him and reassuring him that the pain would stop soon and who was a silly billy for having his genitals on the outside during a fight instead of tucked away internally where a polite person kept them? Maybe this would teach him not to be so rude to the Lady Summoner!
Kei wall-walked up the side of the arena but paused before stepping out. It should have been clear that Aburame had lost but, just to be sure, she gestured Pangaya to exit the arena first. The twenty-plus-foot tall pangolin had some trouble climbing with her feet and only one hand while cradling Aburame in the other, but she managed to get far enough up that she could reach out and carefully spill Aburame onto the grass in front of the judges' platform.
Only when that was done did Kei step onto the grass herself. She paced up to the judges' platform and stopped, ignoring the sobbing boy a few yards to her left.
"I mentioned that I had had a difficult few days," she said calmly. She allowed her gaze to wander slowly across the line of Mist ninja in the stands. "The next time a Gōketsu says that to you, remember this moment. Remember it, and consider if opposing us is something you truly wish to do."
Initiative: Kei, Shino
Round 1:
Kei (Supplemental): Substitute into arena
Kei (Standard): Summon Pangaya (105 CP, 85 remain)
Kei (Supplemental): Draw an explosive-equipped kunai
Shino (Supplemental): Substitute into arena
Shino (Standard): Send 5 units of bugs to attack Keiko. Keiko tries to dodge each one.
Unit #1: Insect Mastery (42) + 3(dice) vs Keiko (Athletics (40) + 5 (chakra boost; 25CP, 60 remaining) - 2 for having Substituted this turn + 3 (dice): 46 Dodged!
Unit #2: IM + dice (-6): 36 vs Keiko (Athletics (40) + 5 (chakra boost continues) -2 (has Substituted) + 0 (dice, -1FP for rerolling a -6): 43. Dodged!
Unit #3: IM + dice (-3): 39 vs Keiko (Athletics (40) + 5 (chakra boost continues) + 5 (invoke 'Just Follow the Plan' -1FP) - 2 (has Substituted) - 3 (dice, after -1FP to reroll a -6): 45. Dodged!
Unit #4: IM + dice (-9): 33 vs Keiko (Athletics (40) + 5 (chakra boost continues) - 2 (has Substituted) + 6 (dice): 49. Dodged!
Pangaya (off-turn, Reflexive Casting), Emergency Shove technique: ? Success! Keiko is shoved clear of the attack, turning her unsuccessful dodge into a successful one. She gains the Aspect 'Off-Balance' until her next initiative.
Round 2:
Initiative: Pangaya, Keiko, Shino
Pangaya (Standard): eat all the bugs
Pangaya (Supplemental): Emergency Shove at Shino to give him the 'Off Balance' Aspect. (I'm not even bothering to roll because it is essentially impossible for her to fail.) She gets a tag and passes it to Keiko.
Keiko (Supplemental): Arm explosive tag
Keiko (Supplemental): Pantokrator's Hammer, Effect 3 (22 CP, 24 remaining)
Keiko (Standard): Ranged Weapons (40) + 10 (Pantokrator's Hammer, 2 tags) + 5 (tag 'Off Balance): 55
Shino, Dodge (Athletics (?) + ? (1/2 Substitution) - 3 (dice): 47 Shino takes 3 stress + 1 for the kunai + 4 for the tag = 8. He fills his stress track (-3 stress), then takes a Mild Consequence ("Bruised and Battered", -2 stress) and a Moderate Consequence ("The Shattered Spheres", -3 stress)
Shino is defeated.
Author's Notes: The plan for this update was solid. Not super exciting, but it covered a lot of good ground and felt very Hazō-ish, both in the choices it made and the language used in the plan itself. There was room for interesting plot things to happen and it wasn't overspecified.
Sadly, much as I would have enjoyed writing it, I did not have time. There are some family things going on that are eating a lot of my time and will continue to do so for at least the next few weeks. As such, this is all I had time for; sorry.
I officially pass the torch of this plan to @Velorien. XP will be awarded after his update.
The plan that won for this update will continue by default. You are, as usual, free to vote changes to the plan, or even a new plan, based on new information. If you do, please ensure that the new plan respects the timeline; it should not act on information that Hazō didn't have until later, which in particular includes acting on the fact of Keiko's victory in the finals before she actually won. Voting will close February 27 at 12pm London time.
I mostly agree with Oneiros43. Keiko's attitude has been (and she even admitted this) self-fulfilling of the very things she's upset about: any attempt to try and "fix" what's going on with her should clarify that, while she has a right to feel somewhat betrayed by Hazo, she can't acknowledge that her own behavior influenced his and act all "woe is me" and then not actually own up to the mistake and try to change. Both she and Hazo have different things to apologize and atone for, and both need to do so together.
I've also been kind of over the whole "threatening your brothers with violence for displeasing you" thing for a while now and have been hoping someone would get her to straighten out soon. Faflec is right that she's probably not going to just "snap out of it" on her own, unless that's the kind of lesson the GMs want Hazo/the readers to learn. Normally I would say the best person to give her a talking to here is Mari, but obviously she's in her own mess at the moment. She might pull herself out of it if she knew what was going on to help Keiko, but she's also all the way in Leaf. If that can be rectified somehow then great (7th path meeting facilitated by Jiraiya?) but there are a lot of logistics to work out there.
The main thing I'd like to see for both of them is a mutual understanding that their self-image is highly flawed and if they're not willing to believe literally anyone about this (even someone like Ami, as unlikely a savior as that would be) then they are failing their family along a completely different axis than the one they think they are. People can't *force* themselves to believe good things about themselves, but to tell someone you trust them and then ignore their assessment of yourself so blatantly and stubbornly is a slap in the face, and demonstrates that Keiko/Mari's respect for their family members is not as deep as they claim and has room to grow.
Right now the main issue is the betrothal to Shikamaru, which I feel like we don't have enough info to really get a handle on how to best approach/deal with it that doesn't involve Shikamaru's help. He acted in a way that was meant to signify to Keiko that he wants her as his wife, but upset her instead: he didn't make the same mistake that Hazo did, and in fact if all this hadn't been going on Keiko would probably be less pissed, but the best way for him to get back on her good side may be to ensure that he better understands her, and he really, really doesn't at this point. Not as well as Noburi and Hazo, at least.
There is a slight problem here where sharing details about Keiko without Keiko's consent may upset her further... but that's part of the problem. Keiko cannot reasonably get upset about the steps others take to help her when she cannot be trusted to collaborate reasonably. That said, right now she's looking for some alone time. I don't know how important her winning her match is. If it doesn't really matter that much, she should be given it, as a show of respecting her wishes before pointing out that her other wishes are often unreasonable.
Edit:
Whelp that last part's irrelevant now I guess, since the match is already over and she's won
Pangaya thrust out a clawed forepaw and the resultant blast of air sent Aburame staggering. A moment later she followed it up with, "Pangolin Clan Technique: Exploring Tongue!"
"I mentioned that I had had a difficult few days," she said calmly. She allowed her gaze to wander slowly across the line of Mist ninja in the stands. "The next time a Gōketsu says that to you, remember this moment. Remember it, and consider if opposing us is something you truly wish to do."
Also, while that was utterly hilarious, we may need to do some emergency damage control with the Aburame. Putting tongues into bodily orifices is usually considered a faux pas in traditional cultures. Especially when girls do it.
Some of you probably noticed that Shino picked up the Aspect "Shattered Spheres". A more accurate term would have been "Horrifically Bruised Spheres", but that does not make a good callback to Lighting Up the Dark.
Remember, boy-ninja children: A cup is a good idea!
Also, while that was utterly hilarious, we may need to do some emergency damage control with the Aburame. Putting tongues into bodily orifices is usually considered a faux pas in traditional cultures.
Summoner, cooing softly at him and reassuring him that the pain would stop soon and who was a silly billy for having his genitals on the outside during a fight instead of tucked away internally where a polite person kept them?
Really? Why hasn't Hazou been using it at every opportunity? Even Ami would have probably been caught off guard if his response to her seduction gambit had been to start licking his own eyebrows.
Really? Why hasn't Hazou been using it at every opportunity? Even Ami would have probably been caught off guard if his response to her seduction gambit had been to start licking his own eyebrows.
