Remove ads

Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

Voting is open
Reader mode
Green base, red on top, yellow circle as crest/deco?

Do we actually have a clan crest beyond that already?
 
Rafin said:
Green base, red on top, yellow circle as crest/deco?

Do we actually have a clan crest beyond that already?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That one I think:

Velorien said:
"We figured," Hazō explained, "that now you have everything you need to be head of a noble clan.

"You have a village." He brought his thumb and index finger in a semicircle to indicate the Leaf symbol serving as the pendant's frame.

"You have a name." He pulled his fingers back, then poked his index finger in the middle of where they'd been to indicate the 'Gō' symbol.

"You have a crest." He brought his thumb and index finger back out, wider this time to indicate the pendant as a whole.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Great update Velorien, and thanks for how awesome autopilot!Hazō was.

—

I agree that we should let the Akane issue lie for now. It's not really relevant or actionable just this moment, and isn't really the time either.
 
Last edited:
Also since we managed to mostly patch things up with Kei that means we are free to play politics in Mountain.
 
Anderkent said:
Guys, before we ask Jirayia to adopt Akane, maybe we should ask her what she wants?

You know, in the name of respecting other characters agency, and stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I don't know that what Hazou wants is to adopt Akane, really. It's clear from this update that he doesn't identify the clan with family. I think it's more about treating her as a family member and including her more. Adopting her would make certain things easier, like not having to keep clan secrets from her, but isn't a necessity. And it's not like she doesn't already know most of our important secrets.

If anything, the pitch to Jiraiya should be something like "She already knows most of our important secrets, Skywalkers included. We trust her. Can't we make it official? If not adoption, they maybe hire her as a close retainer?".
 
Kurkistan said:
Small potential optics problem there: "You're family Akane! And nothing says family like servitude!"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I don't know that this is such a big problem - in similar feudal structures, it's not unusual for long-time servants to be treated similar to family. And adoption has the optics problem of potentially isolating Akane from her parents, whom she clearly loves very much.

The clan hires her as a retainer who answers directly to Jiraiya only, and things should be fine, I think.
 
faflec said:
Then we adopt her parents as well.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

They're civilians. I think that would be some kind of precedent? Not that I'm against, but it's going to be a much tougher sell than just Akane. Especially given that they're essentially strangers to us, and might not actually want to tie their fortunes to our very rocky boat. I wouldn't blame them, really.
 
Let's adopt all the clanless.

No, not only the clanless ninja. No, not only the Leaf people. All the clanless! All of them! We'll be able to afford it once we break the economy over our knee, right?
 
Inferno Vulpix said:
This is Angry!Good!Hazou more than Dark!Hazou in my opinion. His speech was all about emotions and what everyone means to each other and doing right by people, and from what I remember Dark!Hazou is about being unshakably cool and calculated towards a single malicious goal. My categorization is probably a bit wonky but I think Dark!Hazou is a different headspace with similar effectiveness to what we saw here.

(Not to say, of course, that one or the other isn't worth cultivating so we can advance our goals more efficiently, just that we need to push the right objective)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

When you say "Dark!Hazō", I think you're referring to the part of this update where he talked to Keiko about family, and to the part of my earlier update where he implied to the proctor that he was going to do something horrible to her after the Exams were over.

My mental model of those occasions, which is not necessarily accurate since there are three separate canon writers for MfD, is that in my update he was furious at a specific person, to the point where it stopped being anger and became freezing cold and a lack of concern about social norms, consequences, or anything else -- controlled psychopathy, if you will. In this update he was both angry and frustrated, but it was mostly directed at a situation instead of at a person. There was no specific target to threaten or terrify, only a desire to smash the status quo.

@Velorien, does that sound like what you were going for?
 
Velorien said:
Chapter 250: Shaken, but Stirred
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Beatiful.
Need I say more?
Velorien said:
Hazō thought back to the Kurosawa, who'd discarded their own heir for the sake of the clan's reputation. Had there been some kind of ruthless calculation behind their unforgivable betrayal, rather than common-or-garden prejudice as he'd always assumed?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
A mandatory clap and a half for perceptive Hazou understanding society at large.
 
Velorien said:
"Next order of business," Hazō said, drawing attention away from Keiko while she composed herself, "is bringing back Akane. We've all failed her as a family, and we're going to fix that the second we get to Leaf. Political concerns and clan priorities be damned; we've got a lost sister to bring home."​
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Where the heck did this come from?
 
Last edited:
Roomba said:
And adoption has the optics problem of potentially isolating Akane from her parents, whom she clearly loves very much.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Maybe she could be adopted as Jiraiya's niece, since she already has parents in Leaf. (I was going to say that that would also leave the door open for her to marry Hazou, but Noburi doesn't seem to see a problem in marrying one's adopted sister.)
 
So what do we have that we can use?

  • Sealtech
  • Wealth
  • Jiraiya's awesome power
  • Political influence
    • Leaf
    • Pangolins
  • A nascent working relationship with the Yakuza
  • Secrets
    • The battle of gods
    • Hot springs
      • She might know this?
    • Skywalkers (don't use this)
Situations that might be exploited:
  • Mist Leaf negotiations
    • We could give or take power from various factions
  • A few summoning scrolls are missing
  • Proposal stuff
    • Could we convincingly fake disastrously lopsided marriage terms, and pretend that they were the terms she agreed to? Threaten to release it.
  • We have information on the disposition of a few of her agents.
    • Can they be turned? Do they even know anything?
  • From the spicy end of our buffet of options, Jinchuuriki stuff?
    • We could promise/threaten to give the three tailed beast to various parties.

Problems:
  • We don't know much about what she wants
  • We don't know who her allies are
  • We don't know who her enemies are
Goals:
  • Leaf-Mist alliance, or at least peace.
  • An explanation.
    • No apologies to Keiko. Keiko decides if Ami gets to apologize to her, how to apologize, and what to apologize for.
 
OliWhail said:
There was an early proposal for a bloodline that let you absorb skills of people you killed, iirc
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That was one of my "propose body horror bloodlines as a joke because EJ vetoed a bloodline idea for being squick" ones. When you kill someone you gain one level of their highest skill if that skill is higher than yours.

E: I honestly don't think it's worth it though. Their highest skill would always be their combat skill, so unless you beat someone who uses the same combat spec as you but is better than you at it (which won't come up very often) then it's not doing much to improve your build.

E2: OTOH, "gain a level in all skills the victim was higher than you in" would totally be worth it.
 
Last edited:
faflec said:
Clearly we must go full Dark!Hazou and feed our omniscient worldview into Hazou to screw with Ami.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I prefer to think of that as Transcendent Hazou. His eyes look into the far distance, his voice changes into a dozen different intonations changing every few sentences, and he speaks truths and knowledge of people's secrets and advanced technology that he has no way of knowing.

HAZOU SAGE MODE ACTIVATED.

OliWhail said:
There was an early proposal for a bloodline that let you absorb skills of people you killed, iirc
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Oh wow that's insane. Overpowered and a terribly tempting incentive to go all sith lord. I'm willing to bet that if such a bloodline ever existed literally everyone interrupted their blood feuds with one another long enough to hunt down and kill every last member of the bloodline.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Voting is open
Remove ads
Back
Top