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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Velorien said:
since the time the Mist judges had to ban Naruto from taking all three winning places
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Velorien said:
and while a strange little voice in the back of his head tempted him to invite Zabuza just to see what happened, he still had missing-nin survival instincts
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Velorien said:
Jiraiya had accepted with the expression of a man already resigned to something going disastrously wrong
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Velorien said:
Ami's smile was equally beautiful and blood-chilling.
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I don't have enough Rukias for this mental image.
 
Yeah a bit of relief in the Keiko plotline is definitely welcome.

Time to head back to leaf and hopefully do something about Naruto. Or, do we hope Ren will mention something to Jirayia before we go?
 
Enjou said:
Yeah, I meant to comment on that as well. There was something about him fighting Gaara, a big sandstorm, them leaving the arena, and the coming back and declaring it a draw.
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Velorien said:
"Right… So is it true that the Fourth Hokage's son fought the Kazekage's son in the finals? What was that like?"

"Nobody really knows," Akimichi confessed.

"Huh?" Noburi said. "How can you not know? Wasn't it in that huge arena over there? That thing must seat hundreds of spectators."

"Well, within about two seconds, the entire place was a sandstorm. Visibility was down to zero. There was a bunch of explosions, and lots of shouting, like there was an army at war in there. Screaming, too. After maybe thirty seconds, there was an enormous blast of wind that wiped the air clear—nearly wrecking the audience's defensive screens as it did—and there was Gaara of the Desert, floating away from the arena on this big cloud of flying sand. Naruto chased him into the woodlands, and none of us are sure what happened after that, except that they eventually came back and declared a draw."

"They left the arena?" Hazō said. "Don't you normally get disqualified for that sort of thing?"

"Only if you're fleeing because you've lost," Nara told him. "After Orochimaru vs Morino, the Hokage made a rule allowing battles to extend outside the arena where it was necessary to ensure spectators' safety and/or minimise collateral damage. Nobody was willing to argue that it applied here after they saw what was left of the arena floor."
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I have this wonderful vision of Hazou roping the most powerful ninja present into a one-off epic level session of some tabletop RPG.


Now I am very sad that Zabuza and Ren won't be present, but happy Ami will be there and am eager to face her in Hazou's preferred arena: glorious RPG munchkinry.
 
Ami really causes the timelines to be all confused.

Meanwhile at the Mori compound:

Would-be-grandpa Ryu: "Soon our bloodlines shall be united! Dear Raito finally shall we be together! Your Grandson and one of my Granddaughters (I was kinda busy)!"


Would-be-grandpa Ryu: "Everythings alright dear, go back to bed. Soon"
 
I would like us to try and get beneath 300 words again, I am marginally concerned that we've become too used of late to going over for the sake of adding more details.

The way things are right now we've got over 350 words tied up in Shin + shopping, and while we've put a lot of focus on the Shin part for optimization I think there's a lot of room for squeezing on the shopping/merchant section. If I get time I'll go over how to optimize the wordcount there, but there's no guarantee I will because I have an assignment due tonight.
 
I say we do the merchant work in the next update and the Shin/Momma meetings the update after that. Let game night go for a third update, and try to make that update go while we go back to Leaf.
 
I think we can cut some of the fluff here if we need anything extra?

WC: 298

[X] Action Plan: Shins and Spynetworks
  • Sanity check this plan with Keiko, Noburi and Jiraiya.
    • Noburi:
      • Are your sisters coming?
    • Jiraiya:
      • Kagome mentioned Akatsuki has a book. Ring any bells?
    • Everyone:
      • Game night: Hash out organizational details, contingencies for de-escalating conflicts, and brainstorm ways to make it interesting/challenging/fun. Assume Ami is ~8 Hazou's worth of munchkin.
      • Maybe... invite all the Kage? This could be our only chance for an international gaming night of this scale...
  • Invite Shin to lunch at Byakuren's Cookbook( if not already done).
  • Morning:
    • Shop!
    • Network:
      • Approach merchants, craftsmen, and book collectors. Look for performers/musicians around taverns.
        • Collectors: discreetly ask about rare books (look for the Akatsuki book: its possibly banned, or doesn't mention them by name).
      • Present a "joint business venture with our clan" to draft them into our Intel Network.
      • Offer writs of patronage, price guarantees, partial financial backing, etc.
      • Direct interested parties to our compound in Leaf. Timetable: arrive within two months.
      • Guidelines:
        • Prioritize those we've approached previously: Glassblowers, salt/spice merchants, brewers, and any others.
        • Work out a bad/good cop negotiation routine with Noburi and/or Keiko. You and Noburi can use it on new/wary targets.
        • Goal: 24 merchants, 3-4 bards, 1-2 performing troupes.
  • Lunch with Shin.
    • Guidelines:
      • Observe OPSEC, stay alert, avoid hard commitments.
      • Be confident. Shin isn't a jounin.
      • He is a silver-tongued viper. Keep your cool. Respond to taunts/manipulations with dry amusement.
    • Start the interaction amicably.
      • Minor flexing: casually name-drop Ami for the regulars' menu. Mention your promotion, ask about his.
    • Elaborate on your offer/intentions:
      • Cooperation was our motto all exam. We're here to build bridges.
      • We're also offering an enormous boost to his career here.
      • (As a callback, order a bottle of Kurohige's Revenge and glasses (shallow pours, save the rest).)
    • Invite him to game night.
 
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Inferno Vulpix said:
I've got to wonder, did you ever think something like this was in the cards at the start of the quest, or were you just planning to guide Keiko to a complete breakdown after enough time?
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Technically, she already had one complete breakdown a few days before the start of the quest, when Mari "fixed" her. But no, we did not plan this far ahead. After all, after you voted for Mist -> Leaf, we figured your original party wouldn't last a month. Could have been a lot less if you'd rolled poorly against that chakra gator, or if we'd modelled it more realistically and given it ten times the stats.

Inferno Vulpix said:
Minor typo here.
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Fixed, thanks.

Enjou said:
Yeah, I meant to comment on that as well. There was something about him fighting Gaara, a big sandstorm, them leaving the arena, and the coming back and declaring it a draw.
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Fixed, thanks.

MMKII said:
Now I am very sad that Zabuza and Ren won't be present, but happy Ami will be there and am eager to face her in Hazou's preferred arena: glorious RPG munchkinry.
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You could always do one of those "Hazō reevaluates one of his beliefs through deep introspection" sections. Ren might be a lost cause, but inviting his archnemesis who may still view him as escaped prey and is either extremely bad or extremely good at board games? Why, it's practically an olive branch.
 
Velorien said:
You could always do one of those "Hazō reevaluates one of his beliefs through deep introspection" sections. Ren might be a lost cause, but inviting his archnemesis who may still view him as escaped prey and is either extremely bad or extremely good at board games? Why, it's practically an olive branch.
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I dunno, I feel like Hazou would be perfectly willing to give Ren shit publicly for what she's done and not done in front of the whole of Leaf.

...On second thought, maybe we shouldn't do that.
 
Velorien said:
You could always do one of those "Hazō reevaluates one of his beliefs through deep introspection" sections. Ren might be a lost cause, but inviting his archnemesis who may still view him as escaped prey and is either extremely bad or extremely good at board games? Why, it's practically an olive branch.
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...could we use game night as an excuse for a impromptu interrogation of Zabuza's actions since he 'died'?
 
Velorien said:
You could always do one of those "Hazō reevaluates one of his beliefs through deep introspection" sections. Ren might be a lost cause, but inviting his archnemesis who may still view him as escaped prey and is either extremely bad or extremely good at board games? Why, it's practically an olive branch.
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YES, LET'S.
 
Velorien said:
You could always do one of those "Hazō reevaluates one of his beliefs through deep introspection" sections. Ren might be a lost cause, but inviting his archnemesis who may still view him as escaped prey and is either extremely bad or extremely good at board games? Why, it's practically an olive branch.
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[x] Action Plan: The Paperwork that Binds us
  • Hazou invites Ren, Raza, A , Zabuza and Ohnoki to game night as well.
  • Run a one-off session with the Kage
    • FtD: Bureaucrat stats mode
    • Pitch: Five assorted individuals are abducted from across the planes of the cosmos by the all powerful Sage. They are sent to the Elemental Plane of Bureaucracy with one task: track down and acquire the Pen of Shining Grant Proposals. Can our heroes navigate the Endless Waiting Line, escape the Unlimited Intern Implosion Room, defeat the Secretary of Sorrows, and file their paperwork before the deadline??
    • Make it epic and cathartic for them.
  • Simultaneously run a session at a table directly behind you.
    • Take Ami, Zabuza, Hana and all the other badasses and anyone else who wants in and have them run a massive one-off epic level DnD session.
      • Pressgang Broburi and Keiko into assisting you on the GM side of things. We only have one shot at this guys.
    • Make sure you're using "Basically Cheating" levels of bullshit to defend against the mass of munchkinry undoubtedly coming your way.
    • Make sure everyone has fun.
 
faflec said:
We should run two sets of games with the people in each session secretly playing against each other.
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MMKII said:
[x] Action Plan: The Paperwork that Binds us
  • Hazou invites Ren, Raza, A , Zabuza and Ohnoki to game night as well.
  • Run a one-off session with the Kage
    • FtD: Bureaucrat stats mode
    • Pitch: Five assorted individuals are abducted from across the planes of the cosmos by the all powerful Sage. They are sent to the Elemental Plane of Bureaucracy with one task: track down and acquire the Pen of Shining Grant Proposals. Can our heroes navigate the Endless Waiting Line, escape the Unlimited Intern Implosion Room, defeat the Secretary of Sorrows, and file their paperwork before the deadline??
    • Make it epic and cathartic for them.
  • Simultaneously run a session at a table directly behind you.
    • Take Ami, Zabuza, Hana and all the other badasses and anyone else who wants in and have them run a massive one-off epic level DnD session.
      • Pressgang Broburi and Keiko into assisting you on the GM side of things. We only have one shot at this guys.
    • Make sure you're using "Basically Cheating" levels of bullshit to defend against the mass of munchkinry undoubtedly coming your way.
    • Make sure everyone has fun.
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The wizard that sent them to the EPoB is big bad of the second session. Done.
 
Yeah so inviting Shin to game night sounds like a good idea.

We can (INTROSPECTION ACTIVATED) expand the guest list a bit more in the next plan.

MMKII said:
I think we can cut some of the fluff here if we need anything extra?

WC: 290

[X] Action Plan: Shins and Spynetworks

  • Morning spent at the market
    • Shopping!
    • Approach merchants, travelling performers/bards, craftsmen, etc to start the Merchant Intel Network.
      • Present this as a "joint business venture" to the merchants/craftsmen between themselves and our clan.
      • Offer direct patronage to the performers and musicians.
      • Prioritize merchants you've already spoken with
        • Glassblowers, salt/spice merchants, brewers, others.
      • Musicians/bards/performing troupes: ask around taverns.
      • Offer writs of patronage, price guarantees, partial financial backing and other minor promises.
      • Tactics for new/wary targets:
        • Let Noburi smooth talk them while you appear reserved and skeptical.
        • Noburi will prod them into making a sales pitch to ease your reservations.
        • Keiko could interject from the rooftops: "Be grateful we are even considering you." etc.
      • Direct interested parties to meet you in Leaf at the clan compound. Within the next two months, ideally.
      • Try to get about ~24 merchants, 3-4 bards, and 1-2 performing troupes.

  • Lunch
    • Prep:
      • Observe OPSEC, stay on your toes, no hard precommitments.
      • Be confident: Shin is not a Jonin.
      • Shin is a silver-tongued chakra viper. Keep your cool. Exhibit dry amusement in response to any bullshit.
    • Start the interaction amicably.
      • Minor flexing: casually name drop Ami for the regulars' menu. Mention we're getting promoted, ask if he is as well.
      • Ask about the junior diplomat offer (which he should have received?)
    • Elaborate on your intentions:
      • In the spirit of where we left off last conversation: order a bottle of Kurohige's Revenge and two glasses (shallow pours, save the rest).
      • Cooperation was our motto during the exams. We're here to build bridges.
      • Here's your career on a silver platter. Perhaps by some miracle you can convince us that the clan is halfway decent somewhere down the line too.
      • So?
    • Invite Shin to game night.
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