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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Why is Hazou telling Shin about his relationship with Ami? That doesn't seem like something he should be advertising without careful thought. She's a major player and his loyalties are to a different major player while Hazou's are to yet a third.



Roomba said:
Everything is going so well recently. Couple more updates like this, and we may really need to consider rebranding to "Marked for Nice Things".
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It's quiet. Too quiet.



Sentient Tree said:
Perhaps also have Hazō think to himself for a bit about how Zabuza probably isn't going to kill him since it would cause an international incident and lead to war.

Actually, come to think of it, how much does Zabuza care about staying out of a war?
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Jounin.
 
Kiba said:
Books are readily available, including manga(which is probably expensive since they needed to be carved).
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Oh boy. Time to hire a woodcarver and go all metafictional up in here. (Admittedly, writing a manga about Naruto while he's still missing might not be the best idea.)
Edit: a manga about the Hokage's other kids, though...
 
Cariyaga said:
If you're gonna get Zabz' signature like that, clear it with Jiraiya, and do it in private (that is, Hazou, Zabuza, and Jiraiya)
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So, just to be clear. You want to put Jiraiya, the man that tries to find his son for 4 months and letting a hope that he's still alive Flow slide away with each passing day; the man who's tired, frustrated and generally short-tempered; the man who is scared that will become known skywalkers to general public in the same room with person who nay know about Naruto, Akatsuku and/or skywalkers... and we hope that said Jiraiya will help us get the autograph and than turn and go away?

[X] The Kurosawa Blood
 
TarzanNn said:
So, just to be clear. You want to put Jiraiya, the man that tries to find his son for 4 months and letting a hope that he's still alive Flow slide away with each passing day; the man who's tired, frustrated and generally short-tempered; the man who is scared that will become known skywalkers to general public in the same room with person who nay know about Naruto, Akatsuku and/or skywalkers... and we hope that said Jiraiya will help us get the autograph and than turn and go away?

[X] The Kurosawa Blood
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Well, it's either that or we ask Gai or Kakashi. Either would probably work, but I don't trust their combat ability as highly as Jiraiya's.
 
JulieK said:
Scribist?
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A neologism to cover someone who isn't a scribe or a bookseller but covers elements of both. I'm a fantasy author, I get to randomly make up new words. :>

JulieK said:
The singular of "ladies" (as a term of address) is "madam" (or "ma'am").
Source: Miss Manners' Guide for the Turn-of-the-Millennium
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Hm. You may be right, but I'm going to stick to my version in this case. First, "ladies and gentlemen" is the standard idiom for plurals of both, and second because "lady" also means "woman of high station". Saito was using the second meaning, both as flattery and because it absolutely applies.

I appreciate the copyedits, though. Please keep 'em coming.
 
Langevin said:
Oh boy. Time to hire a woodcarver and go all metafictional up in here. (Admittedly, writing a manga about Naruto while he's still missing might not be the best idea.)
Edit: a manga about the Hokage's other kids, though...
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I envision a series of light novels (starring Keiko as the protagonist with magic ninja ice powers and everyone else as side characters) detailing some of the fictionalized versions of our adventures as missing-nin.

Would probably sell well internationally too.


Lailoken said:
Why is Hazou telling Shin about his relationship with Ami? That doesn't seem like something he should be advertising without careful thought. She's a major player and his loyalties are to a different major player while Hazou's are to yet a third.
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Surely Ren must know that Hazou and Ami have met in person, at least. I'm pretty sure folks would know about the marriage proposal?
 
I'm very surprised that Mist merchants expect to get >50% profit margins on shipping Mist things to Leaf. Spices I can understand, maybe they can get things that Leaf can't; art you can swing as a status good or swindle someone with 'oh this is the greatest painting every made by a Mist artist, you'll be positively special'... But there can't be that big of a market for that. I guess the per-clan limits may be low enough that the 50 storage scrolls balance it out? I'm not sure how much those are usually worth.
 
Anderkent said:
I'm very surprised that Mist merchants expect to get >50% profit margins on shipping Mist things to Leaf. Spices I can understand, maybe they can get things that Leaf can't; art you can swing as a status good or swindle someone with 'oh this is the greatest painting every made by a Mist artist, you'll be positively special'... But there can't be that big of a market for that. I guess the per-clan limits may be low enough that the 50 storage scrolls balance it out? I'm not sure how much those are usually worth.
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There isn't only clans to sell to, though, and Konoha is like the biggest city in the elemental nation.
 
Anderkent said:
I'm very surprised that Mist merchants expect to get >50% profit margins on shipping Mist things to Leaf. Spices I can understand, maybe they can get things that Leaf can't; art you can swing as a status good or swindle someone with 'oh this is the greatest painting every made by a Mist artist, you'll be positively special'... But there can't be that big of a market for that. I guess the per-clan limits may be low enough that the 50 storage scrolls balance it out? I'm not sure how much those are usually worth.
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In reference to the book guy, I believe the point is that Leafs ability to churn out books vastly outstrips Mists. The idea then, is for him to take the very cheap mass produced books and sell them for a lord's ransom in Mist. Thats why Keiko left him some samples to "test the market".

The spice guy made no explicit mention of selling profits, he's just giving us massive discounts from what I can see.

E: Also I think the value of storage scrolls is reasonably estimated to be "A decent amount." we got around ~20k ryo (plan instructions were to donate 1/2 of earnings for till-n-fills, which came out to 10k ryo) for some number of hours of casual explosives printing a while ago. I would estimate storage scrolls to be of comparable value. My lower bound for price per explosive seal hovers around 30-50$, conservatively speaking. Market price might fluctuate though, especially with us in town.
 
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Anderkent said:
I'm very surprised that Mist merchants expect to get >50% profit margins on shipping Mist things to Leaf. Spices I can understand, maybe they can get things that Leaf can't; art you can swing as a status good or swindle someone with 'oh this is the greatest painting every made by a Mist artist, you'll be positively special'... But there can't be that big of a market for that. I guess the per-clan limits may be low enough that the 50 storage scrolls balance it out? I'm not sure how much those are usually worth.
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MMKII said:
In reference to the book guy, I believe the point is that Leafs ability to churn out books vastly outstrips Mists. The idea then, is for him to take the very cheap mass produced books and sell them for a lord's ransom in Mist. Thats why Keiko left him some samples to "test the market".

The spice guy made no explicit mention of selling profits, he's just giving us massive discounts from what I can see.

E: Also I think the value of storage scrolls is reasonably estimated to be "A decent amount." we got around ~20k ryo (plan instructions were to donate 1/2 of earnings for till-n-fills, which came out to 10k ryo) for some number of hours of casual explosives printing a while ago. I would estimate storage scrolls to be of comparable value. My lower bound for price per explosive seal hovers around 30-50$, conservatively speaking. Market price might fluctuate though, especially with us in town.
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I think Anderkent's talking about spice guy. Book guy is giving us half of his profits, and >doubling your profit margin is way more plausible than having a margin of >50%.

Spice guy is giving Goketsu + ISC a 40% markdown from his current prices, which implies the profits from the rest of his Leaf sales have to be marked up enough to balance that out. As Anderkent says, the price ceiling could be a big factor there. This still feels off to me, but my finance is mostly from modern liquid markets in interchangeable goods. So it's plausible the risks, political barriers, and low population of the EN means that markets are Just That Inefficient, especially for rare luxury goods. While there aren't that many rich folk, they have a lot of $$ and they love their status competitions.
 
Langevin said:
I think Anderkent's talking about spice guy. Book guy is giving us half of his profits, and >doubling your profit margin is way more plausible than having a margin of >50%.

Spice guy is giving Goketsu + ISC a 40% markdown from his current prices, which implies the profits from the rest of his Leaf sales have to be marked up enough to balance that out. As Anderkent says, the price ceiling could be a big factor there. This still feels off to me, but my finance is mostly from modern liquid markets in interchangeable goods. So it's plausible the risks, political barriers, and low population of the EN means that markets are Just That Inefficient, especially for rare luxury goods. While there aren't that many rich folk, they have a lot of $$ and they love their status competitions.
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Well, potential losses there on the discount side could be balanced out by charging everyone else (and the Hyuuga in particular) a decent premium. I note that these discounts are only on the first ~2 million ryo of goods sold to these specific clans, so if spice guy thinks he can definitely move that kind of volume (i.e. after 2-3 years he's sold us that much) then eventually he's free to charge us whatever price he can negotiate.

A non-negligible factor here is the social aspect of it all. I'm sure his business is doing fine in Mist, but we're the royalty of a country of comparable power offering him a business proposal. Economics aside and assuming we're operating in good faith, having good business relations with us personally is also extremely valuable in and of itself. Assuming of course that he isn't Head Spice Distributor for the Hoshigaki or whatever the hell.
 
I'm meh on the idea of Zabuza's signature, since I don't see a real benefit to it.

And also because it could cut into the writing space for Shin's scene (and possibly Hana's).
 
Cariyaga said:
Personally I just want to give Mari a shock out of whatever sulk she's in when we get back :p
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We need ... more ammunition for this? o_O

MARI: *Semi sulking*

HAZOU: So I'm getting married...

MARI: What!? Jiraiya what did you do! Marrying who?

HAZOU: You won't believe me if I tell you. Just read this letter.

MARI: Okay. Heh this is pretty over the top WHAT--

HAZOU: jk lol but I fixed her and Keiko's relationship by the power of oblivious chessmastery and now she owes me a favor

MARI: *mouth opens and closes like a fish*

etc.
 
MMKII said:
We need ... more ammunition for this? o_O

MARI: *Semi sulking*

HAZOU: So I'm getting married...

MARI: What!? Jiraiya what did you do! Marrying who?

HAZOU: You won't believe me if I tell you. Just read this letter.

MARI: Okay. Heh this is pretty over the top WHAT--

HAZOU: jk lol but I fixed her and Keiko's relationship by the power of oblivious chessmastery and now she owes me a favor

MARI: *mouth opens and closes like a fish*

etc.
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I wonder how Tsunade would react if we showed her the letter...
 
Vecht said:
[X] Opportunities
  • 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.
  • Go see Hana again.
    • No fighting, spend some nice time with your mom.
    • Confide about the Ami debacle. Avoid details that might breach OPSEC.
      • How do you deal with people like that?
      • The hell is with that Jonin aura crap anyway? It sucks.
    • Give her the biggest of bear hugs.
  • On the way back
    • Stop by the Momochi residence.
    • Invite Zabuza to game night.
    • Maybe also ask for his signature if he isn't looking too homicidal
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Updated my plan to include the Hana section and getting Zabuza's autograph.

I will openly pander for votes to see that we invite Zabuza to game night. Name your price.
 
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