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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Veedrac said:
Super unsurprised that Zabuza is back in Mist (we were told he was alive), but a bit surprised they didn't keep him hidden. AFAICT, the most likely hypothesis is that they're doing this because they're scared; keeping hidden that they know about Skywalkers would allow them more counterattack but make it more likely that they actually end up at fisticuffs. That, or he got amnesia (lol) or they didn't realize we thought he was dead (hmm).
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I think it's a calculated move on Ren's part. She's probably does want the alliance with Leaf, but by showing that she's still got an S-Ranker on the roster and that Mist won't be blindsided by Skywalkers again she improves her bargaining position. It doesn't change that Leaf has a new flight capability and that Mist would lose any war badly, but it's still something.
 
So Ren totally has Jiraiya by the balls now. We know that Zabuza was tracking down Akatsuki. Since he's back he's probably found there hideout. Jiraiya is willing to do whatever it takes to get Naruto back. Ren can exploit that to demand whatever she wants from him. While at the same time she has the threat of selling Akatsuki's location to A and Ōnoki. Who both would love to have the 9-tails in one of there ninjas
 
eaglejarl said:
You are allowed to go out tonight as long as you stay in groups of at least four, one of them a senior ninja. Higashino, the ANBU who acted as Keiko's manservant during the gambling scam, is willing to escort you.
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Are we allowed another ANBU? Keiko dislikes the crowds IIRC.
 
If Zabuza's found Naruto then while it may be bad for the final negotiations it's great news overall. If we can group up and take down Akatsuki and get Naruto back then that's the biggest wildcard out of the picture for the future of the world and we can turn to more familiar ground of whether Leaf and allies can beat the rest of the world in a fight, which we can potentially continue to contribute to with our ideas for military technology (movable force walls come to mind). Plus we get Naruto back and start figuring out how to merge his brand of idealism with ours and get another S-ranker on board with Uplift.

There's still, you know, the problem of winning against Akatsuki, but if we can't win against them with all our S-rankers together then there was never any hope and everything up until now was meaningless anyways. So, you know, either this is good news because we can beat Akatsuki or Akatsuki wins no matter what we do so it's pointless news.
 
Oneiros said:
So Ren totally has Jiraiya by the balls now. We know that Zabuza was tracking down Akatsuki. Since he's back he's probably found there hideout. Jiraiya is willing to do whatever it takes to get Naruto back. Ren can exploit that to demand whatever she wants from him. While at the same time she has the threat of selling Akatsuki's location to A and Ōnoki. Who both would love to have the 9-tails in one of there ninjas
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nnnot really? Like, the response to Ren demanding that Jiraiya bend over in exchange for Akatsuki's location is "haha lmao alright hand it over before everyone else gets hurt"; strategically speaking, Mist knows that Leaf has Mist by the balls but personally speaking Ren has something Jiraiya wants and Jiraiya now knows it. This is a fairly self-solving problem.
 
huhYeahGoodPoint said:
nnnot really? Like, the response to Ren demanding that Jiraiya bend over in exchange for Akatsuki's location is "haha lmao alright hand it over before everyone else gets hurt"; strategically speaking, Mist knows that Leaf has Mist by the balls but personally speaking Ren has something Jiraiya wants and Jiraiya now knows it. This is a fairly self-solving problem.
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Point of order, Jiraiya doesn't know that Zabuza was off hunting Akatsuki, let alone that he was successful. The main thing Jiraiya knows for sure has changed is that Mist knows about Skywalkers (or at least the ability of Leaf-nin to walk on air by some means) and got one of their strongest ninja back. Ren's in a position where not only does she hold information Jiraiya would find extremely valuable, he doesn't even know she has it, which means Ren can tease to Jiraiya that he really doesn't want to phrase that line of the alliance papers that way or he might not find out what extremely intriguing information ol' Zabs brought back from his months away.
 
I wonder, what do people think are the odds that Mist and Leaf would be willing to directly work together to crush Akatsuki if they were located?
 
eaglejarl said:
Are you asking if you're allowed to have two ANBU, or are you asking if you're allowed to trade Higashino for someone else? I'll need to talk to the others either way, but I'm not sure which you want.
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I'm asking if we can have two ANBU total(Higashino + Someone else) or Higashino as well as some other adult chaperone (maybe that nice Inuzuka lady? I forget if she's ANBU or not). Solely because we're aiming to travel in groups of 4+, but I imagine Keiko might not be automatically cool with doing whatever we want to do tonight. I assume that Noburi won't mind, because Noburi has Maximum Chill.
 
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Inferno Vulpix said:
Point of order, Jiraiya doesn't know that Zabuza was off hunting Akatsuki, let alone that he was successful. The main thing Jiraiya knows for sure has changed is that Mist knows about Skywalkers (or at least the ability of Leaf-nin to walk on air by some means) and got one of their strongest ninja back. Ren's in a position where not only does she hold information Jiraiya would find extremely valuable, he doesn't even know she has it, which means Ren can tease to Jiraiya that he really doesn't want to phrase that line of the alliance papers that way or he might not find out what extremely intriguing information ol' Zabs brought back from his months away.
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Jiraiya, however, can respond: "fine, then you don't get the alliance."

Like, both parties' Best Alternative to No Agreement is pretty godawful right now: If Leaf backs out Mist has got to find some way to make Rock and Lightning join together to sack Leaf before Leaf decides to preemptively retaliate by shelling all three villages, while if Mist backs out Jiraiya's not sure what he loses because he can't tell whether Ren was bluffing when she said she had very valuable intel (but we are sure is info on the Akatsuki).
 
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huhYeahGoodPoint said:
Jiraiya, however, can respond: "fine, then you don't get the alliance."

Like, both parties' Best Alternative to No Agreement is pretty godawful right now: If Leaf backs out Mist has got to find some way to make Cloud and Lightning join together to sack Leaf before Leaf decides to preemptively retaliate by shelling all three villages, while if Mist backs out Jiraiya's not sure what he loses because he can't tell whether Ren was bluffing when she said she had very valuable intel (but we are sure is info on the Akatsuki).
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Do you mean Rock? Cloud and Lightning are the same entity.
 
MMKII said:
I'm asking if we can have two ANBU total(Higashino + Someone else) or Higashino as well as some other adult chaperone (maybe that nice Inuzuka lady? I forget if she's ANBU or not.). Solely because we're aiming to travel in groups of 4+, but I imagine Keiko might not be automatically cool with doing whatever we want to do tonight. I assume that Noburi won't mind, because Noburi has Maximum Chill.
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Ah. That makes sense.

Also, this is a convenient excuse for us to accompany Keiko to meet Ami.
 
JONIN COMMANDER: What should we do to increase the standards among our Genin, Zabuza? Not a single one made the tournament!!

ZABUZA: P.T. them all until one dies.
 
eaglejarl said:
Hazō shuddered as a freezing sense of spiritual annihilation rippled past him. The feeling was unmistakeable to anyone who had been present the night that Jiraiya returned from what Hazō had come to think of as "The Battle of the Gods": Jiraiya was in a towering rage, only a fingernail-grip preventing him from murdering absolutely every-fucking-thing. The only surprising thing was how well he was doing at leashing his fury; everyone within fifty feet was shivering and looking around nervously, but no one had actually died, or even passed out.
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Ren: Shit, I forgot he could do that.

 
MMKII said:
JONIN COMMANDER: What should we do to increase the standards among our Genin, Zabuza? Not a single one made the tournament!!

ZABUZA: P.T. them all until one dies.
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Really? My Zabuza is more like:
ZABUZA: Send them all on a suicide mission out into the wilds and let me chase after them for a couple years.
 
Seeing Zabuza makes me think that even if henge is no more, that says nothing about clones, impure resurrection, or flesh alteration.

Also this Zabuza might be Zabuza, but then who was phone? ... I mean, he could have changed allegiance.
 
MMKII said:
JONIN COMMANDER: What should we do to increase the standards among our Genin, Zabuza? Not a single one made the tournament!!

ZABUZA: P.T. them all until one dies.
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Zabuza made the astute observation that the Gōtesku kids had only been Leaf ninja for four months as opposed to being trained by Mist for ~six years and that it was really a combination of Mist+Leaf cooperation that thrown Mist out of the tournament.

"I want to know the names of every idiots who suggested that those kids are garbage."
 
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