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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Orisha91 said:
That seems impossible to defeat as a puzzle boss for mfd.
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As a simulationist quest, its entirely possible that the only solution to the blot is "Die horribly after everything you try fails to work."

My mental models of the QMs don't really throw us problems that are guaranteed to have nice clear-cut solutions.
 
I
Inferno Vulpix said:
So, the general thrust of Hazou's build is pretty clear at this point: Chakra Reserves for Shadow Clone, then Sealing and Socials, with maybe some time set aside for raising our combat stats every now and then.

But what might happen to our build if we went different directions? Here's our current state:
40's: 1 (Taijutsu)
30's: 2 (Alertness, Athletics)
20's: 4 (Deceit, Sealing, Physique, Resolve)
10's: 9 (Stealth, Calligraphy, CR, Empathy, Presence, Rapport, Ghost Scales, Hammer, Living Roots)

And here's what we could be doing with it if we decided to be a bit more, shall we say, interesting:
The goal: get our Taijutsu as high as possible as fast as possible and apart from that optimize PUNCH GUD.

Raise Taijutsu to 50 and Alertness to 40:
50's: 1 (Taijutsu)
40's: 1 (Alertness)
30's: 1 (Athletics)
20's: 4 (Deceit, Sealing, Physique, Resolve)
10's: 9 (Stealth, Calligraphy, CR, Empathy, Presence, Rapport, Ghost Scales, Hammer, Living Roots)

Raise PEA to 30, Athletics to 40, Alertness to 50, and Taijutsu to 60:
60's: 1 (Taijutsu)
50's: 1 (Alertness)
40's: 1 (Athletics)
30's: 2 (PEA, Physique)
20's: 3 (Deceit, Sealing, Resolve)
10's: 9 (Stealth, Calligraphy, CR, Empathy, Presence, Rapport, Ghost Scales, Hammer, Living Roots)
(Not being super-precise but Physique probably hits 30 around here)

Raise Pantokrator's Hammer to 40, Athletics to 50, Alertness to 60, and Taijutsu to 70:
70's: 1 (Taijutsu)
60's: 1 (Alertness)
50's: 1 (Athletics)
40's: 1 (Pantokrator's Hammer)
30's: 2 (PEA, Physique)
20's: 3 (Deceit, Sealing, Resolve)
10's: 8 (Stealth, Calligraphy, CR, Empathy, Presence, Rapport, Ghost Scales, Living Roots)

Raise Chakra Reserves to 30, Pantokrator's Hammer to 50, Athletics to 60, Alertness to 70, and Taijutsu to 80:
80's: 1 (Taijutsu)
70's: 1 (Alertness)
60's: 1 (Athletics)
50's: 1 (Pantokrator's Hammer)
40's: 1 (Physique)
30's: 2 (PEA, CR)
20's: 3 (Deceit, Sealing, Resolve)
10's: 7 (Stealth, Calligraphy, Empathy, Presence, Rapport, Ghost Scales, Living Roots)
(Physique is at least 40 at this point, quite possibly 50 but I don't think PCJ would break pyramids so we'd be just stuck at 49 with more Pangolin XP banked)

Not super-satisfied with how high up Pantokrator's Hammer ended up, but PEA costs too much chakra for us to want it to use it at higher than Effect 4 ('block explosives') and we need something at 50 at this point.

Total cost is 8076 XP (probably), which at a somewhat optimistic rate of 4 XP/day would take about 5 and a half years. Going for Shadow Clone would probably speed this up, but probably not by more than a few months.
The goal: maximize our social skills to the exclusion of everything else.

Raise Empathy and Presence to 20:
40's: 1 (Taijutsu)
30's: 2 (Alertness, Athletics)
20's: 6 (Deceit, Empathy, Resolve, Presence, Sealing, Physique)
10's: 7 (Stealth, Calligraphy, CR, Rapport, Ghost Scales, Hammer, Living Roots)

Raise Deciet and Presence to 30:
40's: 1 (Taijutsu)
30's: 4 (Alertness, Athletics, Deceit, Presence)
20's: 4 (Empathy, Resolve, Sealing, Physique)
10's: 7 (Stealth, Calligraphy, CR, Rapport, Ghost Scales, Hammer, Living Roots)
(Empathy is always the last to raise to a new AB because with 8 TYS points we can hit Empathy 37 base from within the 20's tier.)

Raise Deceit and Presence to 40, and Resolve to 30:
40's: 3 (Taijutsu, Deceit, Presence)
30's: 3 (Alertness, Athletics, Resolve)
20's: 3 (Empathy, Sealing, Physique)
10's: 7 (Stealth, Calligraphy, CR, Rapport, Ghost Scales, Hammer, Living Roots)
(This is as far as we can go without bringing up new supporting skills, but let's stick with socials anyways)

Raise Rapport and Intimidation to 20:
40's: 3 (Taijutsu, Deceit, Presence)
30's: 3 (Alertness, Athletics, Resolve)
20's: 5 (Empathy, Sealing, Physique, Rapport, Intimidation)
10's: 6 (Stealth, Calligraphy, CR, Ghost Scales, Hammer, Living Roots)

Raise Empathy to 30:
40's: 3 (Taijutsu, Deceit, Presence)
30's: 4 (Alertness, Athletics, Resolve, Empathy)
20's: 4 (Sealing, Physique, Rapport, Intimidation)
10's: 6 (Stealth, Calligraphy, CR, Ghost Scales, Hammer, Living Roots)

Raise Deceit and Presence to 50, and Resolve to 40:
50's: 2 (Deceit, Presence)
40's: 2 (Taijutsu, Resolve)
30's: 3 (Alertness, Athletics, Empathy)
20's: 4 (Sealing, Physique, Rapport, Intimidation)
10's: 6 (Stealth, Calligraphy, CR, Ghost Scales, Hammer, Living Roots)

Raise Rapport to 30 and Empathy to 40:
50's: 2 (Deceit, Presence)
40's: 3 (Taijutsu, Resolve, Empathy)
30's: 3 (Alertness, Athletics, Rapport)
20's: 3 (Sealing, Physique, Intimidation)
10's: 6 (Stealth, Calligraphy, CR, Ghost Scales, Hammer, Living Roots)
(And now it's time to throw random stats into the filler so we can support 4 level 50 stats!)

Raise Physique to 30, Calligraphy to 20, Pantokrator's Hammer to 30, Substitution to 20, Alertness to 40, Resolve to 50, Pangolin Earth Armor to 30, Athletics to 40, Earth Clone to 20, Intimidation to 30, Physique to 40, and Empathy to 50
50's: 4 (Deceit, Empathy, Presence, Resolve)
40's: 4 (Taijutsu, Alertness, Athletics, Physique)
30's: 4 (Rapport, Hammer, PEA, Intimidation)
20's: 4 (Sealing, Calligraphy, Substitution, Earth Clone)
10's: 4 (Stealth, CR, Ghost Scales, Living Roots)

I'm not gonna count how much XP this takes, but I wouldn't be surprised if it rivaled the punch build just by dint of the sheer number of skills we have to level to fit all our socials on one line. It'd honestly probably be a better social build to stick with the 2-2 build from the step just before this last one and just make a 2-wide column to support it.
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I gotta say I can't help but love the hyper-punchy build, it's almost too bad the actual build will end up way different. I know it's better that Hazo focus on chakra for SC/socials/sealing but there's just something so inherently satisfying with full battle builds.
 
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Chapter 288: Save Your Family. No Excuses.
  • Threadmarks

    • "Got it," Hazō said, opening his eyes.

    Naruto Clotheshorse blinked. "What?"

    "Branching tree of fifteen plans, each with an average of twenty-seven explanatory points, one to six subpoints, and even a few sub-subpoints."

    Clotheshorse raised an eyebrow dubiously.

    Hazō laughed. "Joking. It's only five plans, and they aren't quite that detailed."

    "Oh, well, that's okay then," Clotheshorse said sarcastically. "Don't worry, at a certain age performance issues are to be expected."

    Hazō shot him an icy stare and made a note to inflict legendary revenge at some point in the future.

    "First plan," he said. "Catch that damn chakra beast. Here, have some bait." He pulled a fistful of storage seals out of a pocket on his vest, not stopping to see what they were. Kagome-sensei would forgive him if he ended up dumping all the foie gras and caviar. He would probably even forgive dumping the creaky chicken, but only because it would save Akane.

    Clotheshorse made a cross with his fingers. "Multiple Shadow Clone Technique." The new clone grabbed the seals and raced off.

    "What's next?" The prankster was gone, his demeanor entirely serious.

    "Next is you go capture some hostile ninja."

    Naruto Clotheshorse, S-rank ninja of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, blinked.

    "I what?"

    Hazō met the other ninja's eyes, pushing every trace of sincerity that he could muster. He had yet to master the 'killing intent' power of more senior ninja; he could not force his will upon reality and make the world seem colder or full of demons. Nonetheless, his seriousness burned on his face.

    "They are my family," he said calmly. "They will not die. Period. I lost my father when I was five, I lost all the friends I had in Hidden Swamp, I lost my mother to exile, I lost Jiraiya, I lost who Mari used to be. I am not losing anyone else. You can help, or you can get the fuck out of my way."

    Naruto Clotheshorse studied him for a moment. "Let's be clear about something," he said at last, his voice very calm and remote. "These threats that you keep throwing around? They're cute. Really. I appreciate how much you care about everyone, I admire your ability to function as a decisive leader, and I understand how much stress you're under right now. That said, you're a newly-frocked chūnin and I'm the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. I have 'flee on sight' orders in three separate bingo books and I used to hold my own against people like Maito Gai, Hatake Kakashi, and Jiraiya of the Sannin. Confidence is a good trait in a ninja, but a proper appreciation of reality is also important."

    All the emotions Hazō had been struggling to suppress—the fear for his teacher and his friend/ex-girlfriend/clan sister/???, the incipient panic that he wouldn't be able to save them, the otherworldly jangling that sang through his nerves after his encounters with the 'voice' of the blotch—coalesced and changed. They ceased to be separate things moving in different directions and forged themselves into a unity, a spear raised against the world and surrounded only by ice and purpose. He stepped forward into Naruto Clotheshorse's space, leaving them almost chest to chest, and locked his eyes on those of his target.

    "Threats?" he asked quietly. "You think those were threats? Those were promises, Naruto. I know what I'm going to do: Save my family, even if the world burns. What about you? Will you stand back and allow Leaf-nin to die when you maybe could save them? Will you kill me, the Clan Head of Jiraiya's clan? Is that the Will of Fire that you care so much about? What would Gai say, if he were here? Jiraiya? The Third?"

    Clotheshorse met his eyes for a moment, then looked away. "Okay," he said. "Fine. I'm in, but I'm not going to start a war to do it." His lip twitched for a moment in something vaguely akin to a smile. "For the record, Jiraiya would say: Don't start a war, even if that means they die."

    "Yeah, well, I'm not Jiraiya."

    Clotheshorse chuckled. "No, you're—oh, hang on. Just got an update. We captured a bristleback. Plenty big enough to take the...you called it 'the Blotch'? Well, this thing can definitely take it. We're still looking for something better, though. Bristlebacks don't emit active chakra, so they might not be able to bait the thing onto themselves. We're still looking for a zaprat or something like that."

    Hazō blinked. "Naruto, you're a genius. Pack your gear, we're headed north." He turned and dashed off back to camp.

    o-o-o-o​

    "This is demeaning," groused Naruto Syllogism.

    The clone was slogging through water up to his chest, his feet stirring up mud. Periodically he would dip his right hand into the bucket of blood he carried and swoosh it around in the water. "Heeere, gator gator gator!" he called hopefully. "Here, gator! Look at this! Nice tasty ninja, too stupid to know how to waterwalk! Having to slog through mud like a stupid softfoot peasant! C'mon over and eat me!"

    Being back in the Swamp of Death certainly stirred up memories, Hazō reflected. Strangely, not all of them were bad. There was even something...well, something homey about it. This was the place where his journey had truly begun. Where he had forged the bonds with Noburi and Keiko that led Mari to rescue them when the proto-Village was destroyed. Where, ironically, he had mastered waterwalking.

    Thirty feet away, Akane was badgering Kagome into letting her take the Blotch back. The older man kept pushing her off and snapping at her, but the smoke coming off his shirt and the expression of pain on his face suggested that he'd left it a bit too long.

    "Give it to her, sensei!" Hazō called. "We're almost there!"

    "Ow!" Beside Hazō, Naruto TehCoolestEvah winced.

    "What's wrong?"

    "Some plant just shot a harpoon through my throat. It's dealt with."

    "Spearlilies," Hazō said, nodding. "If they hit rea—uh, if they hit meat people then they suck all the blood out of you in a few seconds. It's horrible."

    "Nice save." TehCoolestEvah shook his head ruefully. "To be fair, 'it's horrible' seems to describe most of what's in this place. You guys seriously thought this was a good place to build a village?"

    Hazō shrugged. "Shikigami picked it and we weren't given a choice. Still, you have to admit that it makes a pretty good defensive perimeter." He looked around. "We aren't too far from the island, actually. It should be about ten minutes that way if I haven't gotten too turned around."

    TehCoolestEvah looked around and snorted. "How in the heck you navigate in here, I have no idea."

    Hazō shrugged. "It's not really—"

    "Fuckin' YOW!"

    "Another spearlily?"

    "No, some kind of...fuck, I have no idea. It's as big as a small house and it's got way too many legs and—"

    There was a loud smack from off to the side; when they glanced over they saw Akane holding Kagome-sensei in a headlock while trying to get her hand onto the Blotch. Kagome-sensei was struggling, shifting from side to side and trying to lift Akane by the leg he had managed to capture, which she easily prevented by skillful weight shifts and pushes that kept Kagome-sensei off balance.

    After a few seconds she released him and leaped back with a cry of victory and the Blotch quiescent on her chest. Kagome-sensei's shirt was smoldering and there were blisters on his skin in the areas where the shirt had burned through. He glared impotently at Akane (who was sticking out her tongue at him and doing a truly juvenile victory dance), and then rummaged through his seals for some burn cream.

    "As I was saying," TehCoolestEvah said, "it's as big as a small house, it's got too many legs, and it's covered in fur and mud. It zapped me with some sort of lightning attack."

    "Cool! A spiderbear will be perfect. You didn't kill it, did you?"

    TehCoolestEvah glared at him. "Do I look stupid? That's the whole point of this, right? Capture something with active chakra emissions so that we can get the Blotch off those two?"

    "Right," Hazō said. "Sorry, I'm just nervous. I was really hoping the bristleback would do the job."

    TehCoolestEvah nodded. "S'all good. And yeah, that would have been nice." He snorted. "Gotta say, I did not expect that second plan. I was thinking we would just press it against the beast and hope. Having Kagome lie down on it while Akane shoves her fist up the thing's butt and tries to use chakra adhesion from the inside? Not really on my list of possible plans."

    "Yeah, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time," Hazō mumbled, blushing slightly. It had taken a while to convince Kagome-sensei and Akane (mostly Akane) to give that one a shot, and longer to restrain the bristleback enough for it to be feasible.

    "Ah yes," TehCoolestEvah said, nodding somberly. "'It seemed like a good idea at the time.' Words that are inevitably followed by horrible, horrible things. Never in the history of mankind has there ever been—"

    "Are we almost there yet?" Hazō demanded. "And do you have it restrained?"

    TehCoolestEvah chuckled. "'Almost' and 'yes'. It's got enough rope on it to hold Gamabunta—as long as he wasn't hitting the wakeleaf too hard, anyway—and six of me are keeping an eye on it. You might start thinking how you're going to convince it to cooperate. More butt-poking?"

    "Actually," Hazō said, "I thought I'd start with the obvious thing first: Its lightning jutsu is a short-ranged chakra effect, so it should be enough to pull the Blotch off of Akane."

    TehCoolestEvah looked doubtful. "That's a pretty nasty attack it's got. Two of me got a little too close and it popped us. It's not a win if she gets rid of the Blotch but gets fried in the process."

    "It's short ranged and less effective the farther away you are. If Akane starts wading towards it then hopefully the Blotch will get pulled loose before she's hurt too badly."

    TehCoolestEvah shook his head. "There is no possible way that is going to work."

    o-o-o-o​

    "Wow," Naruto Tietack said, amazed. "I really did not expect that to work. Great job, Hazō."

    Akane's hair was a giant frizzball radiating out from her head like a dustbunny and she was limping from the repeated shocks. She was also noticeably Blotch-free and grateful for it.

    Hazō knew she was grateful because his aching ribs told him so.

    "Okay," he wheezed, pressing on them carefully to ensure that they weren't cracked from the Most Youthful Hug of Delighted Gratitude. "That's enough time wasted. Let's get back to work."

    "And out of this stinking swamp," grumbled Naruto Horsedoctor. He had gotten most of the chunks of exploded spiderbear out of his hair and was scooping up handfuls of swamp water to scrub the blood and guts off his hands and face.

    "I told you to stand back," Kagome-sensei said unrepentantly.




    XP AWARD: 4

    Brevity bonus: 0 XP

    It is now about 7pm and fully dark. You are surrounded by S-rank Shadow Clones so can move relatively safely, but travel in the Swamp of Not-as-Deathful-as-it-Used-to-Be-When-I-Was-a-Genin is still dangerous. Do you want to camp on the island next to the collapsed caves and ghosts of your dead friends, do you want to try to hike an hour out, or do you want to try to find a tree to sleep in and hope that the critters don't eat you? Kagome and Akane are dead on their feet from running flat-out for hours while a steadily-heavier Blotch weighed them down, but they aren't happy about being here. Still, you're the expert on this place and everyone is willing to follow your direction.

    Vote time! What to do now?

    Next Thursday will be an interlude, so voting closes 10am Saturday, September 28, 2019.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • We should show them the old village cave, good times expect for most of the actual time the team spent here!
     
    Shadowwarp said:
    I gotta say I can't help but love the hyper-punchy build, it's almost too bad the actual build will end up way different. I know it's better that Hazo focus on chakra for SC/socials/sealing but there's just something so inherently satisfying with full battle builds.
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    We can just go full Iron Man after a while anyway.

    @eaglejarl Great chapter!
    eaglejarl said:
    Hazō met the other ninja's eyes, pushing every trace of sincerity that he could muster. He had yet to master the 'killing intent' power of more senior ninja; he could not force his will upon reality and make the world seem colder or full of demons. Nonetheless, his seriousness burned on his face.

    "They are my family," he said calmly. "They will not die. Period. I lost my father when I was five, I lost all the friends I had in Hidden Swamp, I lost my mother to exile, I lost Jiraiya, I lost who Mari used to be. I am not losing anyone else. You can help, or you can get the fuck out of my way."

    Naruto Clotheshorse studied him for a moment. "Let's be clear about something," he said at last, his voice very calm and remote. "These threats that you keep throwing around? They're cute. Really. I appreciate how much you care about everyone, I admire your ability to function as a decisive leader, and I understand how much stress you're under right now. That said, you're a newly-frocked chūnin and I'm the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. I have 'flee on sight' orders in three separate bingo books and I used to hold my own against people like Maito Gai, Hatake Kakashi, and Jiraiya of the Sannin. Confidence is a good trait in a ninja, but a proper appreciation of reality is also important."

    All the emotions Hazō had been struggling to suppress—the fear for his teacher and his friend/ex-girlfriend/clan sister/???, the incipient panic that he wouldn't be able to save them, the otherworldly jangling that sang through his nerves after his encounters with the 'voice' of the blotch—coalesced and changed. They ceased to be separate things moving in different directions and forged themselves into a unity, a spear raised against the world and surrounded only by ice and purpose. He stepped forward into Naruto Clotheshorse's space, leaving them almost chest to chest, and locked his eyes on those of his target.

    "Threats?" he asked quietly. "You think those were threats? Those were promises, Naruto. I know what I'm going to do: Save my family, even if the world burns. What about you? Will you stand back and allow Leaf-nin to die when you maybe could save them? Will you kill me, the Clan Head of Jiraiya's clan? Is that the Will of Fire that you care so much about? What would Gai say, if he were here? Jiraiya? The Third?"

    Clotheshorse met his eyes for a moment, then looked away. "Okay," he said. "Fine. I'm in, but I'm not going to start a war to do it." His lip twitched for a moment in something vaguely akin to a smile. "For the record, Jiraiya would say: Don't start a war, even if that means they die."

    "Yeah, well, I'm not Jiraiya."
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    Couple things:

    1) Thats at least a whole spine there. Maybe more! Wow!! I likey.

    2) Hmm. I do think we owe Naruto a bit of an apology for being so tunnel-visioned and confrontational. Proto-Jonin gonna proto-Jonin though, so hopefully he gets it.

    Lets buy him Ichiraku Ramen.

    The whole thing.
     
    So, what happened once the seal formed completely? It didn't cause a huge explosion? I have to say I'm faintly disappointed.
     
    Returning to the Swamp of Death was a brilliant idea. Too bad it wasn't us who came up with it.

    I vote we go to the heart of the swamp and look at what was causing all these disturbances in predator population way back when. Oh, and also maybe check out that shelter?

    This should be an easier dungeon than the Basement, right?
     
    Well then. Those sound like some amazingly insane plans there.
    I'm going to go back and read the discussion leading up to the latest chapter. Great job people! Well done!
     
    Plan Cache is up, containing our goals for the rest of the trip.
    Inferno Vulpix said:
    Plan Cache:
    • Salterns:
      1. Use MEW to wall off sections of ocean.
      2. Freeze with EM.
      3. Boil leftover brine.
    • Complete land sale. Clear said land.
    • Guerilla civil engineering inFire only.
      1. Prepare any signs in granite using inscription jutsu.
        1. Signs should have quotes or imagery hinting at an association to Jiraiya or Goketsu.
      2. Build bridges, erect monuments extolling Leaf's generosity and greatness, clear out entirely new villages, etc.
        1. Arrange the work so a skywalking ninja sees Jiraiya laughing.
    • Find, rebuild, and re-key Jiraiya's contacts/network.
      1. Use guerilla civil engineering as cover.
    • Convene Goketsu Gaming Mondays. Invite Naruto and KEI specifically.
    • Figure out the Adopting Naruto question.


    Past Major Plans:
    we're finally going on a lyin' hunt reposted by Oneiros (too lazy to check original author)

    Rules of the Plan Cache:
    1. Get Support. The Plan Cache is for ideas that already have support of a sizeable chunk of the playerbase, not for ideas that someone wants to advocate later. For a benchmark, your idea should have enough support to be in one of the major plans of a cycle if there was room in the plan.
    2. Short-term. The Plan Cache is for ideas that we intend to implement in the next few updates, or more loosely within the same rough story arc. If you have an idea beyond that temporal scope, I have another post storing those ideas so ask me to put it there instead of cluttering up our short-term storage.
    Sometimes when we're making a plan we have a good idea that's just outside the temporal scope of the update, but we don't want to cut it from the plan because we might forget by the next cycle. This adds unnecessary words that could have been spent fleshing out the rest of the plan, and may outright cost XP in the worst cases.

    This plan cache will hold these subsections so they don't fall into the void between planning cycles. Just ping me with the subsection and, unless it's wildly unreasonable, I'll edit it into the post. I'll keep them there for a while until they either make it into a winning plan, fall out of favour, or the context significantly changes. Depending on circumstances, they might end up in my Side Project Cache, or they might be dropped, and I'll make sure to be transparent about what I'm doing.

    I'll do my best to quote this post after every update, so that planmakers can get an easy reminder about what we never quite got to last cycle.
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    I would also like to express my personal opinion in favour of testing 10-12 SINs again, at Kagome's discretion. Even at those sizes these bombs are still way too valuable to drop forever and if Kagome thinks it's probably safe to try 10 or 12-SINs again then I for one want to end this test with a Success.
     
    Inferno Vulpix said:
    Plan Cache is up, containing our goals for the rest of the trip.

    I would also like to express my personal opinion in favour of testing 10-12 SINs again, at Kagome's discretion. Even at those sizes these bombs are still way too valuable to drop forever and if Kagome thinks it's probably safe to try 10 or 12-SINs again then I for one want to end this test with a Success.
    Click to expand...
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    I'm actually kind of interested in finding out if 13-stacks always cause a failure, or if that one just had a bad infusion in it.
     
    eaglejarl said:
    Naruto Clotheshorse studied him for a moment. "Let's be clear about something," he said at last, his voice very calm and remote. "These threats that you keep throwing around? They're cute. Really. I appreciate how much you care about everyone, I admire your ability to function as a decisive leader, and I understand how much stress you're under right now. That said, you're a newly-frocked chūnin and I'm the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. I have 'flee on sight' orders in three separate bingo books and I used to hold my own against people like Maito Gai, Hatake Kakashi, and Jiraiya of the Sannin. Confidence is a good trait in a ninja, but a proper appreciation of reality is also important."
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    This very much feels like some kind of Batman vs Superman type thing.
    "But what if Hazō had prep time???" :p

    eaglejarl said:
    "Threats?" he asked quietly. "You think those were threats? Those were promises, Naruto. I know what I'm going to do: Save my family, even if the world burns. What about you? Will you stand back and allow Leaf-nin to die when you maybe could save them? Will you kill me, the Clan Head of Jiraiya's clan? Is that the Will of Fire that you care so much about? What would Gai say, if he were here? Jiraiya? The Third?"
    Click to expand...
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    Once we create psychology, and get Mari and Keiko and Naruto some psychological help, we seriously need to get some for ourself too.

    eaglejarl said:
    "This is demeaning," groused Naruto Syllogism.

    The clone was slogging through water up to his chest, his feet stirring up mud. Periodically he would dip his right hand into the bucket of blood he carried and swoosh it around in the water. "Heeere, gator gator gator!" he called hopefully. "Here, gator! Look at this! Nice tasty ninja, too stupid to know how to waterwalk! Having to slog through mud like a stupid softfoot peasant! C'mon over and eat me!"

    Being back in the Swamp of Death certainly stirred up memories, Hazō reflected. Strangely, not all of them were bad. There was even something...well, something homey about it. This was the place where his journey had truly begun. Where he had forged the bonds with Noburi and Keiko that led Mari to rescue them when the proto-Village was destroyed. Where, ironically, he had mastered waterwalking.
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    We're back!!!! Ohboyohboyohboy!!! Quick, let's put in a line or two about taking back any weird looking plant or chakra beast we can find for Noburi to study!

    I'm guessing there's not much left of the spiderbear, but maybe if there's some big enough chunks we could take those too.
     
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    Protoplan: We lived through interesting times
    • Camp for the night on Skytowers.
      • Tell Naruto about our Pangolin techniques. Even if we can't teach them to him yet, telling him what they are should be a show of trust after we got prickly earlier.
      • Figure out the Adopting Naruto question.
    • Finish up our SIN testing.
      • Kagome's discretion for how high we can safely stack them.
    • Salterns:
      1. Use MEW to wall off sections of ocean.
      2. Freeze with EM.
      3. Boil leftover brine.
    • Complete land sale. Clear said land.
    • Guerilla civil engineering in Fire only.
      1. Prepare any signs in granite using inscription jutsu.
        • Signs should have quotes or imagery hinting at an association to Jiraiya or Goketsu.
      2. Build bridges, erect monuments extolling Leaf's generosity and greatness, clear out entirely new villages, etc.
        • Arrange the work so a skywalking ninja sees Jiraiya laughing.
    • Find, rebuild, and re-key Jiraiya's contacts/network.
      • Use guerilla civil engineering as cover.
     
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