Remove ads

Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

Voting is open for the next 1 day, 9 hours
Reader mode
Training ideas

  • Hazou Must die: Every person you met wants to kill you, their abilities don't change(Civilians still strong as a civilian), you need to survive without letting them know(No acting like Kagome)
    -"Imaginary killers" will use every possible way to kill Hazou(Poison,Explosives,Ect)
    -End of the day, for every time Hazou "died", 5/10 minutes of reflection on how he could have survive, ask Mari if necessary.
  • Tengen Toppa Spirit Of Youth(Pierce The Heavens, Spirit Of Youth): Train with Rock Lee
    -Switch fighting style, give each other tips on how you fight.
    -Every sparring in a different place(On a tree, On Land, Upside down,while running, while running upside down)
    -You're not allowed to stop before Rock Lee does.
    -Rock Lee is not allowed to stop before you do.
    -The one that surrender first must bring the other back home.
    -Be careful, stop if you risk injuries(Rock Lee will bring you home,so that next time you'll be better).
  • Hazou Gear Solid: Follow people in this order [20 Civilian--> 10 Genin---> 5 Chunin---> 2 Mari(When free, otherwise ask someone else or skip to Naruto)--->1 Sneak up on Naruto(Warn him of the game some day before)].
    - every time you're found out offer lunch to the person, try to apply positive impression despite the bad start.
    -Ask Mari for tips.
    -Do it twice a day.
  • Hazou The Bandicoot: If Hazou is touched by someone he "dies", then walk around in the commercial district,engage with people(The most busy places he can find).
    -Cannot use Chakra, moves as fast as a normal civilians
    -He can get up to 2 extra life by getting friendly with a merchant(only two times max)
    -He can get up to 2 extra life by getting friendly with a Ninja(Only two times max)
    -For every time he actually "died", Hazou must do something(To be Decided)
  • Kakashi's Legacy:
    -Invite Naruto to spar
    -he has a bell(Said Naruto can be a Clone), Hazou need to steal it
    -If he wins, Hazou will offer him Ramen
    -Valid for the entire day
  • Kakashi's Legacy, Mangekyo Edition:
    -Same, but with Hinata
    -If she wins, you'll do her a favor(Little things, not clan head related)
    -A Naruto works with them
    -She can decide for how long to do so(Entire day? Half a day?Only when sparring?)
Ok,i admit it, this is funny.
 
Last edited:
Lailoken said:
It seemed pretty clear that the plan was to remove all chakra from the world. This would seem to suggest that they either had given up on completing the original sage's failed attempt to introduce chakra, or were completing his original work of removing chakra. One can imagine how the traces left could lead Kagome to misunderstand the sage's project of removing chakra as the invention of it. If that's the case, what would the world have looked like before chakra was halfway obliterated?





Note that the GMs have said that Pain would have had combat power on par with the entire rest of Akatsuki combined had he been able to fight, and Pain's statements implied that if Tsunade weren't grievously wounded she would have been able to beat him single-handedly.

Now, counting on the disguised sage to defend Leaf from seven S-rankers might not be the best idea, but Leaf is probably in the best shape of all the nations if they decide to throw down.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Here's how the situation looked like to me:
PEIN: "The Sage didn't do it right so I'm going to fix it."
HIASHI: "The Sage gave us order and civilization."
PEIN: "The Sage totally messed things up. Look how bad things are thanks to chakra and the destruction it can cause."
TSUNADE: "Medical ninjutsu is unambiguously good."
PEIN: "Agreed, but it's still net negative overall thanks to ninja wars."
HOZUKI: "We need ninjas to fight chakra beasts."
PEIN: "No chakra no chakra beasts."
HOZUKI: "Like we'd all trust you to fix what the Sage couldn't."
PEIN: "Agree to disagree."

Velorien said:
"Because ever since the Sage's failure, we've been living in a broken world. Because after a thousand years of sacrifice, the Five are still sealed, and I was born with the power to subjugate the Nine. Above all, because I had true friends who, each for their own reasons, lent me their strength so that I could finish what my precursor started."

"A broken world?" Lord Hyūga demanded incredulously. "The Sage of Six Paths gave us civilisation. He created order. He chose the best of mankind and granted them the power and wisdom they needed to guide the rest! He saved us from anarchy!"

"He gave us ninjutsu," Pain said calmly. "The power for one ninja to kill a dozen with the wave of a hand. A hundred civilians. If I wanted to, right now I could kill thousands of them before sunset. Does it make you happy that you have that power? Does it make you happy that of the countless men and women in the world, only a handful dare to share your joy? Only a handful dare to to support you in your sorrow? Does it make you happy that your people obey you only because the alternative is worse?"

"Medical ninjutsu," Lady Tsunade said. "Try and argue that one away, you self-righteous asshole."

Pain nodded. He was either unable or unwilling to move any more of his body. Minori was reluctantly impressed that he was able to hold a conversation at all while carrying on with his unimaginably complex ritual.

"The best thing that ever happened to this world," he agreed. "Now tell me, Lady Senju, how many of the people medical ninjutsu saves would not need saving if they hadn't gone to war in the first place? How many more doctors would you have taught if we were all just civilians, and the people with the mental skills necessary to be a doctor weren't made combat ninjutsu users? How much more research would you all have conducted together?"

Lady Tsunade gritted her teeth.

"Chakra beasts," Hōzuki, the Mist swordsman, said dismissively. "End of discussion, can we get on with figuring out how to kill him now?"

"Chakra beasts," Pain repeated. "'Chakra' being the operative word. But you're right—I'm not going to float here and argue with you. I doubt it would buy me enough time.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Note how while most of this dialogue is Pein arguing that Chakra's been a net negative so far, he still leads with 'finish what the Sage started'. Further:
Velorien said:
"The obvious wish would be to let me finish the ritual," Pain said. "Once our hearts are united, war will not merely cease. The very idea will become laughable. We will look back on this dark age with the horror it deserves."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This, and more specifically 'once our hearts are united' sounds a lot more like jacking up the ninshu than cutting the chakra out altogether.

I understand how easy it'd be to think Pein was trying to get rid of all chakra, but it really does look like he was just arguing that the Sage didn't go far enough, and that playing things by halves - enough chakra to throw fireballs and not enough to care for other people - is what put the world in this state in the first place.
 
Noumero said:
Alright, time for another attempt.

@eaglejarl, you previously promised that if we don't want it to, no update for this IC week will involve a timeskip longer than two hours. Does this still hold? If yes, I vote we spend some time on mid-term plans:

[x] Action Plan: "More Like a Cobweb, Really"
Timeline: Immediately after Chapter 267.
Wordcount: 277.
  • Find Noburi. Give him Goemon's coded sealing notes. Suggest he spends a couple of hours trying to decode them.
    • These are love letters, and other sealmasters failed in decoding them — perhaps the code is, implausibly, rooted in romance?
    • No, not a joke. If he succeeds, go find us immediately.
  • Get Mari, Kagome, some paper, a quill, a watch. Go into a high-security room (anti-hyuuga seals, etc.).
    • The Nara have a habit: spending five minutes each day contemplating how an enemy might be planning to destroy them.
    • Try an extended one-hour version. Can we find any overlooked but fixable vulnerabilities?
    • Idea #1: People going around disguised as us, poisoning relations with merchants. How easy would it be? As a turnaround, could we disguise ourselves as, say, Aburame, and cause chaos?
    • Take extensive notes. Mind the clock. Make a brief transcript of the meeting and your stream-of-consciousness. How do you think about things? Perhaps the Nara are onto something with metacognition.
    • Discuss everything thoroughly.
  • Share the BotG briefing with them.
    • What's Kagome's take on it? Discuss:
      • RESURRECTION TECHNIQUE.
      • Pain's goal.
      • "The Five".
      • The fate of the lost bijuu.
      • Their book. Who wrote it? Ask for a summary.
    • Mari:
      • Why is no-one panicking, given that we're on Akatsuki's complete mercy?
      • Can we grab their full profiles?
      • How insane would it be to contact (any of) them? If they're idealists seeking peace "the hard way", you have suggestions...
  • Update Mari on Ami. Should you:
    • Sell her any rare information for favours?
    • Spend a favour to:
      • Enlist her help with the elections. ("Maximize our personal influence on Leaf's politics").
      • "Maximize my social competence."
  • Commit one instance of creative training.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

1) Why are we wasting time being paranoid. This seems to me memeing.
2) So, we decided to waste time digging for deep lore at a time we need to get things done so we can drag this story forward.
3) Ami. Finally. But it's the third item on the list.

[X] Action plan: the clan strikes back
 
Last edited:
Lailoken said:
Note that the GMs have said that Pain would have had combat power on par with the entire rest of Akatsuki combined had he been able to fight, and Pain's statements implied that if Tsunade weren't grievously wounded she would have been able to beat him single-handedly.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

They actually said he had power on par with "multiple Akatsukis" as in, he was at least as powerful as any two other Akatsuki members put together. EJ corrected this once.
 
Vecht said:
They actually said he had power on par with "multiple Akatsukis" as in, he was at least as powerful as any two other Akatsuki members put together. EJ corrected this once.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
And given that we already know that Jiraiya was winning against Sasori and Konan at once back in the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny, and presumably Tsunade's comparable in strength to Jiraiya, it wouldn't be all that surprising if Tsunade was also in the "multiple Akatsukis" tier and thus a credible threat to Pein if she was at full power.
 
Vecht said:
They actually said he had power on par with "multiple Akatsukis" as in, he was at least as powerful as any two other Akatsuki members put together. EJ corrected this once.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We had a fun time trying to model him. Bear in mind that between the Paths, he has six S-rank abilities before being an all-element ninjutsu user with massive generic combat power.

Edit: he trained alongside Konan, so his personal combat skills have to be at least S-rank like hers.
 
Last edited:
Nagato wasn't an S-ranker. He was a god. If his attention wasn't mostly subsumed by that ritual throughout most of the battle, I'm pretty sure they would have won handedly.
 
OliWhail said:
Between Flying Thunder God and True Resurrection.



As clan head, Hazō gets the briefing if he asks for it. He wasn't there when it was originally being distributed, and after that, it isn't anyone's job to keep track of whether he's got it or not.

It contains:
  • A list of the deceased from Leaf and other villages.
  • A list of Akatsuki members, their appearance, and abilities demonstrated (note: they may not have used their full abilities due to the broader context of the battle or the properties of their specific opponents).
  • Everything involving Pain. Specifically, a detailed description of the ritual site, including materials used, and everything observed about the resurrection ninjutsu (inc. hand seals). This information is high-clearance and is not available to most ninja.
  • A list of surviving jinchūriki, their condition and their last known destination.
  • A List of the Mist/Sand survivors and everything observed about their abilities/skill levels during the battle.

Most likely as either an Aspect or the ability to buy a unique stunt.


The Condors.


Hazō is aware of the ability for skilled Vampiric Dew users to identify ninja potential, and knows enough to reasonably guess that skilled Byakugan wielders likely do the same in Leaf. The procedures of other villages are a mystery to him at this point, however.


It is possible to buy two such Stunts, but you can only make use of one at a time. I've added a line to the rule doc clarifying this.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Some of these questions aren't answered in QINOA. Also, is anyone annoyed by the vast amount of empty space in the document? I deleted some of it.
 
Noumero said:
I think Deidara's vision of a perfect world isn't incompatible with working towards goals that would end up saving lives at present.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I disagree, but because my brain is broken before I could rein it in my disagreement became an entire imaginary gameshow about how Pein working with Akatsuki didn't mean that we could, and it became this:

Welcome to, The Mastermind, with special guest stars Akatsuki members!

* Bachelor music plays*

Oyabun: I'm your host, here to help match our contestants, would be Masterminds Pain and the Gokage, with a panel of terrifying mass murderers-
*Chime, smash cut*
Oyabun: with a panel of efficient ninja assets, all of them future/past members of the terrorist syndicate-
*Chime, smash cut*
Oyabun: organization known as Akatsuki.

*Camera pans to the side, where Hazou, Noburi, Keiko and Kagome are crammed into one booth, while Pane exists in the vicinity of another, floating several inches off of the ground and emitting intense serenity radiation*

Kagome: Wait, if that stinker is still recruiting then how is the organization already named-

Oyabun: Let's start with our returning champion, notorious Ninja mastermind Pain!

PAAN: Thank you, It's pronounced 'Pein', though.

Oyabun: Isn't that what I said?

Pein: No.

Oyabun: …

Pain: …

Oyabun: And our newest challenger, Hazou of the Gokage!

Hazou: Point of order, we are a nonhierarchical caucus, whose leadership at any given moment devolves onto the ninja or entity most capable of advancing the set of goals that most closely resembles our values handshake, unless-
Noburi: Thank you, he's happy to be here!

Oyabun: Fascinating stuff, Gokage, now let's meet the panel whose loyalty you will be competing for!

*Camera pans to the other side, where Deidara, Itachi and Kisame arrive in their respective idioms, Deidara dropping through the ceiling in an explosion, Itachi having already been there, and Kisame swimming in following a blood trail.*

Oyabun: Here we go, they will pose questions, which our contestants will answer. Answer well if you want them in your secret organization!

Itachi: What is the goal of your organization?

Hazou: We seek to bring about an Uplift, which would entail civilian equality with Ninja, as well as a general-
Keikou: Leading off with civilian equality is a mistake, we would receive a more favorable reaction by phrasing it as ninja equality with-
Noburi: It's fine, let's just-
Keiko: You are correct, I'm unworthy of speech, I'll never speak again, and will immediately cut my tongue out in order to spare all of you any furth-
Hazou & Noburi: No, you are the best, the sole fragment of meaning in an unworthy world, we are fortune-
*During the din, Payne speaks a brief sentence, inaudible to the audience
Kagome: Stinker! Time for Boom, Squish!
Gokage: Kagome no!
Deidara: Do it!

Oyabun (desperately): Next question please!

Deidara: Is it ok if we continue to indulge our proclivities while the Master Plan unfolds?

Keikou: What proclivities?

Akatsuki (all at once): Blowing civilians up/Imprisoning people for 24 hours in my rape dimension by locking eyes with them / Dying if I stop going forward

PAAAAINE: Sure, knock yourselves out

Oyabun: Gokage?

Noburi: Hold on, Hazou said something about getting 24 hours of training into one second and locked up, he'll be a sec.
Keikou: And when he's back we'll have to tell him how wrong it is
Kagome: Clan ritual

Oyabun: And now a word from our sponsors

*Advertisement plays for AmiFavorChain, 'They are valuable because people believe me when I tell them they are valuable'*

Oyabun: And we're back

Camera pans over to where Hazou has attached himself firmly to Itachi's leg

Oyabun: And we're back to commercial break

*Advertisement plays for Kagome's tutoring, 'Your child might learn seals slightly better, and has no more than a one in four chance of being exploded' (offer not valid if I decide brainworms are involved)*

Oyabun: And we're back, for real this time

Hazou: We are definitely joining Itachi's-
Noburi: You will not be allowed to murder or mistreat civilians once you are a member of our clan
Kagome: Unless they are Condors
Noburi: Sure, obviously

Itachi: Would there be any penalties for refusing to join your organization? Secondary question, how powerful are you in a fight?

Noburi: None whatsoever, and very recently a single S-ranker beat us up so that we'd know that he could kill us at any time
Hazou: Actually we are all about to be S-rank, and we have seven superweapons, and-

!Pain! : I'm quite possibly either Ninja Jesus or his somehow even more terrifying brother, either way I can effortlessly defeat an S-rank ninja

Kisame: Any bribes? Like if we work for you we get cool stuff?

*Hazou screams in mortal fear and passes out*

Kisame: What? I'm like fifth from being the most frightening in this room, depending on where you count that Keikou girl

Noburi: I'm sorry, it's just, your character design could charitably be described as 'Zabuza, but also a shark', and we used to be missing nin

Painne: I will literally raise you from the dead, all of you, if you fall in my service

*Hazou is instantly himself again*

Hazou: Is there any drawback to that jutsu?

P^ne: Yes, it will...cost me my life!!!

*everyone gasps*

Hazou: So if you raise a dozen people from the dead, then one of them could raise you and eleven more, and then you raise him and eleven more, such that the total number of resurrections at this point is...carry the one...

Oyabun: Is he ok?

Hazou: tears streaming down his face, *whispers* : It's possible, it is actually possible

NoburI: I'm afraid we aren't going to get anything else out of him for a while

*Advertisement plays for Juraiya's porn books: 'Based on true stories, and definitely not secret messages'

Oyabun: And now time to see how things have turned out

*drumroll*

Camera pans over to the contestant side, where Itachi and Kisame have joined P&yne and are putting on the traditional Akatsuki cloud robes, joined by the 3 junior members of the Gokage, who are rapidly drawing clouds on their outfits

Oyabun: I'll be, that's...

Camera pans back over to the Gokage panel, where Deidara and Kagome are working together on a great big seal

*Smash cut*
Jiraiya (scorched, looking somber): No one will ever know the true cause of what some are calling 'the biggest bang', but most experts agree that is was likely the Cold Stone Killers, who remain even now at large.
 
Lord Marshal said:
Invite Naruto to spar
-he has a bell(Said Naruto can be a Clone), Hazou need to steal it
-If he wins, Hazou will offer him Ramen
-Valid for the entire day
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I thought we were trying to fix our finances, not drive ourselves into bankruptcy? :p

Lord Marshal said:
Kakashi's Legacy, Mangekyo Edition:
-Same, but with Hinata
-If she wins, you'll do her a favor(Little things, not clan head related)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Maybe if we do this we'll get some indication on whether the Naruto/Hinata ship still exists in this universe...
 
Lord Marshal said:
Training ideas
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
... I'm just going to compile everyone's ideas in a list and put it in my signature. Stand by.

Rephrased the section about Akatsuki in light of new information.
faflec said:
Then be subtle about it, like say "Hey Keiko, I would love the chance to speak with further regarding optimizing that thing we spoke of earlier yesterday, if you are willing" or something.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'll wait to see if we'll get an OOC answer. If no, I'll add something to that effect in.
Cariyaga said:
I don't think that the one-hour variant is a good idea. I mean, I fully expect it would send Kagome into conniptions.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Reduced to thirty minutes. Also, we probably won't progress that far. Also, Mari is there. Does any of this assuage your concerns?
MMKII said:
Get slate and some chalk. Maybe even put up a MEW or two to use as a blackboard.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Done.
Oneiros said:
@Noumero could you add asking the clan about adopting clanless jounin (Minori, Anko, Ebisu, and Kabuto specifically)?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Ohh also @Noumero can we ask Mari about remaining jounin and their political affiliations
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Sure, but I can't promise we'll get to it.
Kiba said:
1) Why are we wasting time being paranoid. This seems to me memeing.
2) So, we decided to waste time digging for deep lore at a time we need to get things done so we can drag this story forward.
3) Ami. Finally. But it's the third item on the list.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
1. It's attempt to circumvent the antimeme around Henge. The sooner we learn of it, the less fires we'll have to put out once other people circumvent it and start panicking. Also, we potentially could exchange that information for an Ami favour.
2. Information about Akatsuki is useful for medium/long-term plans. The sooner we start looking into them, the better our chances of influencing them.
3. —.

Noumero said:
[x] Action Plan: "More Like a Cobweb, Really"
Timeline: Immediately after Chapter 267.
Wordcount: 299.
  • Find Noburi. Give him Goemon's coded sealing notes. Suggest he spends a couple of hours trying to decode them.
    • These are love letters, and other sealmasters failed in decoding them — perhaps the code is, implausibly, rooted in romance?
    • No, not a joke. If he succeeds, find us immediately.
  • Get Mari, Kagome, some paper, a blackboard, writing implements. Go into a high-security room (anti-hyuuga seals, etc.).
    • Brainstorm:
      • The Nara have a habit: spending five minutes each day contemplating how an enemy might be planning to destroy them.
      • Can we find any overlooked but fixable vulnerabilities in thirty minutes? Put ideas on blackboard.
      • Idea #1: People disguising as us to poison our relations with merchants. Is it plausible? Consider: could we disguise ourselves as, say, Aburame, and cause chaos?
      • Take extensive notes. Mind the clock. Make a brief transcript of the meeting and your stream-of-consciousness. Analyse how you think about things.
      • Discuss everything thoroughly.
    • However it goes, share the BotG briefing with them.
      • What's Kagome's take on it? Discuss:
        • RESURRECTION TECHNIQUE.
        • Pain's goal.
        • "The Five".
        • The fate of the lost bijuu.
        • Their book. Who wrote it? Ask for a summary.
      • Mari:
        • Akatsuki are at large, "pursuing peace the hard way". How insane would it be to contact them? If they're genuine about peace, you have suggestions...
        • We're at their mercy anyway. If we do nothing, will they decide to be direct: take over the EN?
        • Are there their psychological profiles (to tailor approaches)? Could we build them?
    • Update Mari on Ami. Should you:
      • Sell her any rare information for favours?
      • Spend a favour to:
        • Enlist help with the elections. ("Maximize our personal influence on Leaf's politics").
        • "Maximize my social competence."
    • Who are remaining Leaf jounin? Could we adopt the clanless ones?
  • Commit one instance of creative training.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Last edited:
MMKII said:
Nagato wasn't an S-ranker. He was a god. If his attention wasn't mostly subsumed by that ritual throughout most of the battle, I'm pretty sure they would have won handedly.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Jiraiya could have taken him. Of course, not having Jiraiya to take out kisame / konan / dozens of mooks would probably have made there be far more casualties, and of course even just his death would have been a win condition.
 
QTesseract said:
Jiraiya could have taken him. Of course, not having Jiraiya to take out kisame / konan / dozens of mooks would probably have made there be far more casualties, and of course even just his death would have been a win condition.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Tactically speaking, were I the Danzou/Ryugamine/Shikaku in the room there with fhe knowledge we have now I probably would've argued for a "Gai/Kakashi/A/Jiraiya swoop in on Nagato for a real tough mega-punch distraction while Ohnoki is behind them charging up one of his Kamehameha Wave Deletion no Jutsu's " OTOH thats pretty much taking the gamble that interrupting things too soon wouldn't have kersploded things or Cthulhu'd everyone. Hindsights 20/20/20/20 amirite?
 
Noumero said:
Didn't we try already, back when we were missing?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Unless I'm mistake, the only time was here after the youthsuit incident, and it was more on "holding it together". We've done some 'competence training' here and there, but I don't think we really got anything tangible out of it apart from some extra words in our plan.

I do think Mari can teach us properly and get us actual buffs this time, mechanically speaking.

Edit: By which I mean, Hazou can gain some Aspect Bonus for social rolls in an encounter if he's practiced with Mari in the last X days, or something like that.
 
Last edited:
eaglejarl said:
They may have split up.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

May have. It's still seven of the world's most powerful ninja unaffiliated with any village. And when I say unaffiliated, I mean that they likely share a seething hatred for the major villages. Not really a wildcard I'd be comfortable with existing as one of the village leaders.

eaglejarl said:
They were out there for years and never attacked any village.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Because it was counterproductive to their goals. They absolutely did attack multiple Jinchuuriki, a Kage included. Who knows what they decide to do with Pain's final command. I'm working off limited information here, but the worst case scenarios seem very plausible here. Revenge is a powerful motivator, and they absolutely have the means to enact it.

eaglejarl said:
There are a few more immediate concerns.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I mean, choosing the Kages is very important, but if Tsunade can attend Keiko's wedding and Hiashi is conscious, there could easily be a council meeting at any point. And it really sounds like there should be, and the only reason there isn't one is that everyone wants to get all of their political ducks in a row beforehand.

Like, if there was ever a need for an interim Hokage, it's now.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Voting is open for the next 1 day, 9 hours
Remove ads
Back
Top