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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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PSA: Rocket Boots
  • Informational
    • Before they left Leaf ahead of the Chuunin Exam Finals, the kids asked Kagome to work on explosion-based rocket jumping boots: take directed explosion seals and stretch the explosion out over a longer period of time so that the impulse is lower. Add the "triggered by chakra adhesion" bit. Put them on the bottom of your shoes with the seal facing you, activate them, and get thrown forward.

    He has completed them.
    • They grant superleap, not flight. Mechanical effects when activated (choose one):
      • +(Creator's Aspect Bonus for Sealing at time of creation) on Athletics, Taijutsu, or Melee Weapons.
      • +1 zone on a Sprint or Supplemental Move action. This requires spending a Supplemental action in addition to the normal (Standard for Sprint / Supplemental for Move) action.
    • Each seal is 1 use, and they must be used in pairs, 1 per foot. Any use of chakra adhesion (e.g., to wallwalk) will trigger them. Trying to layer them triggers all of the seals, so you get only a single activation before needing to swap them out.
      • You must have them pre-prepared (i.e., attached to your shoes) before using them, but fortunately you can use the same sort of hot-swap inserts that have been designed for the skywalkers.
      • It is the equivalent of a Full-Round Action to draw a pair of inserts from a pocket and reload both feet. You can split this up across rounds by using a Supplemental action to withdraw the inserts on one round and then using your Standard and one of your Supplementals to place them in on the next round.
      • Fortunately, the inserts also protect your feet from the controlled explosions.
    • Although encased in the sole inserts, they can be ruined by sufficiently intense environmental effects, by QM fiat. They're fine in light rain, but swimming or a sufficiently powerful impact to your feet might damage them.
    These require training to use effectively; bonuses are halved if the user is not experienced in their use. Training for use with Athletics is represented by a Stunt: "Rocket Jump!" (10XP). Training for use with Taijutsu or Melee Weapons is represented by a Stunt: "Shōryūken!" (20XP).
     
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  • Informational
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    We need a better control mechanism other than chakra adhesion so that we can also attach ourselves to tree(if necessary).

    Also, we now have rocketry as a weapon system.

    Idea: Pulsing chakra detection system paired to trigger rocket boots?
     
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    Kiba said:
    We need a better control mechanism other than chakra adhesion so that we can also attach ourselves to tree(if necessary).

    Also, we now have rocketry as a weapon system.
    Click to expand...
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    Agreed, though if we had toe rings or equivalent we could make it so they were only in place to be activated if we crossed the rings, thus making them usable with minimal additional work.

    Or, you know. LBF. :p
     
    OliWhail said:
    These require training to use effectively; bonuses are halved if the user is not experienced in their use. Training for use with Athletics is represented by a Stunt: "Rocket Jump!" (10XP). Training for use with Taijutsu or Melee Weapons is represented by a Stunt: "Rocket Punch!" (20XP).
    Click to expand...
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    Awesome, I say we get these stunts in the near future
     
    OliWhail said:
    Before they left Leaf ahead of the Chuunin Exam Finals, the kids asked Kagome to work on explosion-based rocket jumping boots: take directed explosion seals and stretch the explosion out over a longer period of time so that the impulse is lower. Add the "triggered by chakra adhesion" bit. Put them on the bottom of your shoes with the seal facing you, activate them, and get thrown forward.

    He has completed them.
    • They grant superleap, not flight. Mechanical effects when activated (choose one):
      • +(Creator's Aspect Bonus for Sealing at time of creation) on Athletics, Taijutsu, or Melee Weapons.
      • +1 zone on a Sprint or Supplemental Move action. This requires spending a Supplemental action in addition to the normal (Standard for Sprint / Supplemental for Move) action.
    • Each seal is 1 use, and they must be used in pairs, 1 per foot. Any use of chakra adhesion (e.g., to wallwalk) will trigger them. Trying to layer them triggers all of the seals, so you get only a single activation before needing to swap them out.
      • You must have them pre-prepared (i.e., attached to your shoes) before using them, but fortunately you can use the same sort of hot-swap inserts that have been designed for the skywalkers.
      • It is the equivalent of a Full-Round Action to draw a pair of inserts from a pocket and reload both feet. You can split this up across rounds by using a Supplemental action to withdraw the inserts on one round and then using your Standard and one of your Supplementals to place them in on the next round.
      • Fortunately, the inserts also protect your feet from the controlled explosions.
    • Although encased in the sole inserts, they can be ruined by sufficiently intense environmental effects, by QM fiat. They're fine in light rain, but swimming or a sufficiently powerful impact to your feet might damage them.
    These require training to use effectively; bonuses are halved if the user is not experienced in their use. Training for use with Athletics is represented by a Stunt: "Rocket Jump!" (10XP). Training for use with Taijutsu or Melee Weapons is represented by a Stunt: "Rocket Punch!" (20XP).
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    20 XP for a once-per-fight boost of ~5 to a Taijutsu roll isn't bad at all, especially if in a situation where we aren't authorized to use Skywalkers since then we might be using those instead.
     
    Hm, we can use rockets as traps as well. Put obvious trap at the floor, put concealed rockets on the walls/ceiling.

    Stinking stinkers wouldn't know what hit them.

    Obviously, wouldn't work without confined corridor-like space
     
    Minor uplift related thought: one of the requirements to make cool things (like kickstarting the haber process which I totally still think we could do in character) is better tools. Using our tools to make better tools is one of humanities better hobbies! On that note, I propose we make a forcewall lathe. It'd be a bit difficult with current forcewalls, so we should work on modifying force walls.

    Smaller force walls have a frankly silly amount of benefits. Perfectly sharp scalpels, invisible PERFECTLY SHARP AND UNBREAKING SWORDS, perfectly precise lathes etc etc.
     
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    Chapter 290: Akane's Birthday
  • Threadmarks

    • January 20, 1069 AS

    It was their training field. Theirs.

    Rage flashfired in Neji's heart and he had to stop walking in order to master it. The shock of recognizing his own emotions helped; he'd always thought himself detached from the stupidity of his teacher, suffering through the endless gobbling madness, always apart from it and enduring it solely for obedience to authority (he'd been assigned to the team by his lawful superiors) and mercenary reasons (Gai-sensei was—had been an insane and infuriating clown, but he was also a brilliant teacher, a powerful ninja, and (although Neji would never admit this aloud), a good man.)

    Leaf Training Field Twenty-Six was well outside the walls of the city. It was an unappealing little place, full of rocks and scrubby little bushes. Various dangerous plants and animals periodically tried to take up home there and some were stupid enough to attempt to defend their so-called territory against ninja that they did not realize were vastly farther up the food chain. It had never been popular among the ninja of Leaf.

    Which was most likely why Gai-sensei had picked it as their standard field. They didn't train here every day—he took them into the field often enough, or had them run laps around the city for an entire day, or whatever other bit of madness had most recently infested his brain. Still, this was their usual training field. Their spot, their place, their home-away-from-home. It was theirs.

    And now there were interlopers. On the first day that Team Gai had felt ready to return to their second home, to attempt to reclaim the former shape of the universe.

    Based on their clothes, the interlopers were a bunch of clanless, probably from that contemptible KEI organization. They were young, most likely recent graduates who hadn't heard that this place was not in fact public-access despite its official designation. Two of them were sparring while the third was throwing shuriken at Tenten's target.

    One of the 'taijutsu' types noticed them coming into the clearing and broke off from the spar. "Hi!" he called, smiling and waving.

    "What are you doing here?" Neji snapped.

    "Neji," Lee chided, his voice unusually half-hearted. "Gai-sensei would not approve."

    "Shut up, Lee! Gai-sensei isn't here, now is he?"

    The green-clad youth took a half-step back, looking as though he'd been slapped.

    Tenten pointedly cleared her throat.

    Neji took a breath. "Sorry, Lee."

    Lee's face wobbled for a moment and then he pasted on a smile. "Ah, my youthful friend! I see that your love for our teacher shoots forth in a geyser of youth! Despite the gushing heat of your emotional eruption splashing on me, of course I forgive you!"

    "Sage damn it, Neji!"

    The mudfoot noob had stopped a few yards away and was looking back and forth between them uncertainly. "Uh...did you guys want to train? Kosuke and I were sparring, but maybe we could go teams?"

    "Us, spar with you?" Neji demanded, a thousand generations of Hyūga honor turning the words into frozen steel. "Get off our field before we—"

    Tenten cleared her throat more loudly.

    The noob shrank back, his face a mix of confusion, anger, and alarm. "Look, these are public fields. You can't—"

    Tenten shifted her weight slightly and the brat stopped talking. Slowly and definitively, she hooked a thumb towards the path.

    His face went pale as milk; moments later the three of them were gone and Team Gai were alone on their field, as the universe had always expected.

    "What youthful exercise shall we indulge in today?" Lee asked. The lack of innuendo was sufficient, but even without it Neji's long-practiced ear would have clearly detected the false cheer; Lee was having one of his bad days.

    "Actually," Neji began. He paused; this was unfair. He did not want to do this today, especially not when all of them were unsettled at their sanctum being violated and Lee was struggling to keep himself together. Still. Orders were orders, and loyalty to clan was all.

    He took a breath. "We should talk about the scroll."

    Tenten grunted. Lee raised a caterpillar eyebrow.

    "Lord Hiashi spoke with me about it," Neji said reluctantly. Lee and Tenten were beneath him socially, even aside from their nigh-psychotic weirdness. They were difficult—nay, infuriating—and bizarre, but they were his difficult, bizarre, socially-beneath-him team. They had followed him into the Mist HQ during the Exams, defended him when things went south, not abandoned him in the social shitstorm afterwards, and supported him every moment of his life since graduation. They had been at his back in battle, killing everything that moved without blinking or hesitating. They had done every one of Gai-sensei's weird-ass challenges alongside him. This...this felt wrong.

    "Mm?" Tenten grunted.

    "He wants me to acquire the scroll for my clan. He has given me essentially unlimited access to Hyūga resources in order to do so, and spent over an hour discussing with me what would be appealing to the two of you, what you would consider worthwhile in exchange for relinquishing your claim on the scroll to me." His lip twitched in amusement. "Some of his ideas were inventive."

    "Hnn."

    "Truly, the spirit of youth has inspired him to give generously of his clan's essence!"

    Neji manfully ignored that, as he ignored so much of Lee's prattle.

    "I can offer the results of our discussion if you wish, but I think it would be better to simply ask: What would be worth it to you?"

    Lee hesitated and glanced at Tenten, making a 'you first' gesture. She gnawed her lip in thought for a moment, then knelt down and brushed a few rocks away from the dirt at their feet.

    With a few quick strokes of a kunai, she sketched a familiar face. The dirt was not a good medium, being winter-hard and taking an imprint poorly. Still, it was enough. To eliminate any possibility of error, she drew the Gōketsu symbol beside it.

    Below that she drew three more symbols. A dagger. The Hyūga clan symbol. A stick-figure face with extra-thick eyebrows.

    Below that, a stylized map of Leaf.

    She looked up, her gaze meeting Neji's with that calm certainty that he found so utterly terrifying. "First, foremost," she said, placing a gentle figure beside Gōketsu Keiko's face. "Second." She touched the symbols of the team. "Third." The map of Leaf. "Protection. Care. Beyond death, beyond time." Her eyes narrowed faintly, demanding understanding and the air froze in Neji's lungs as the force of her inhuman will wrapped itself around him like a fist that had not yet decided to squeeze but might at any moment. Behind the fist was the howl of wolves far from civilization, the thirsty cold of uncaring winter, and an absolute certainty of consequence for failure.

    Neji gulped and nodded convulsively. "Always."

    She studied him for a moment, then stood up and brushed her hands off before gesturing like a fairy queen bestowing gifts. "Yours. Not clan's. Yours."

    Neji blinked. That...had been less than he'd expected.

    "Are you sure?" he asked, almost against his will. "Nothing for yourself?"

    She shrugged and tapped the holsters at her belt, her worn and battered Leaf headband, and her chūnin flak jacket. Again the shrug.

    "All right," he said. "Thank you." He took a deep breath, dreading what was to come, and turned to his other teammate. "Lee? What would you ask of the Hyūga? With Gai-sensei gone...."

    Lee was looking down, studying Tenten's drawings thoughtfully. "Yes," he said slowly. "That is exactly the thing, is it not? Gai-sensei is gone. His teaching, his skills, his secrets...all lost. But the Spirit of Youth must live on."

    Fear gripped Neji's heart.

    o-o-o-o​

    February 10, 1069 AS

    Arriving home from a mission, especially a dead-of-winter mission, always meant that you were tired and filthy. Hazō, Akane, Kagome-sensei, and Naruto had spent half an hour scrubbing themselves and then three solid hours basking in the Gōketsu hot spring, allowing the heat to thoroughly soak into their bones and displace the cold of the field that had laired there for too long. Only then did they emerge, wrinkling and prunelike, and seek out the rest of the family.

    With Akane there, Hazō could not discuss the most important thing on his mind (her birthday, which he had not realized had come and gone while they were running in circles around Tanzaku Gai), so he kept it to less critical matters.

    First among those matters, the Turtle Summoning Scroll and Rock Lee.

    Lee had lost his teacher when Maito Gai died at the Battle of Nagi Island. No, more than a teacher. Gai had been Lee's idol, the man on whom a clanless boy with no ability at ninjutsu had patterned himself in every detail. Losing him must have been like losing both hands at the shoulder. Add to the fact that Gai had left the Summoning scroll not to Lee, or Tenten, or Neji, but to all three of them jointly. That had to have been a blow; Neji was a favored (well, until recently) son of the most powerful clan in the most powerful ninja village in the world. He was a taijutsu prodigy who had grown up with honor and support, wealth a matter of banality. He ate at whatever restaurant he chose, whenever he chose. His clothes were always new, replaced whenever they showed signs of wear. His gear was the finest quality. He wanted for nothing, ever.

    Tenten was a person like no other, and her life and comfort were not in the slightest doubt. Born in the wilds, parents died when she was too young to survive. Too young...and yet she had. She had not just survived, she had thrived. When she came to Leaf and wordlessly showed her father's Leaf headband, there had been much confusion. For weeks, no one had been sure what to do with her. She had been content to stay in the rooms assigned, exercising and training in private and making no trouble. Yamanaka had been brought in to probe her mind and had emerged from the experience shaking and unable to communicate for minutes or even hours.

    Her skills had never been in doubt. When she was allowed out of her 'guest quarters' (a polite term for 'very comfortable prison'), she had promptly found her way to a training field and begun a virtuoso performance with the pair of battered kunai that she had literally grown up holding. The distance did not matter; if her weapons could reach the target, they hit dead-center every time. It didn't matter if the target was moving or still, she scored nothing but bullseyes. She would throw, then retrieve the weapons and shake her head in annoyance if they were two thumbwidths from the absolute center. Beyond her skills with weapons, the heavily redacted personnel jacket that Mari had obtained contained four more blacked-out paragraphs starting with "Subject also exhibited skill at...."

    Once word had gotten around of her skills, both with weapons and more esoteric arts, there had been a clamor among the clans as everyone struggled for the opportunity to adopt her. She had refused them all without a word, even going so far as to simply close the door in some advocates' faces.

    Lee, however? Lee was a low-born orphan, with no one in the world until Gai took him in. Unattractive and unskilled at anything requiring chakra manipulation more complex than the most basic, it had been an open question as to whether he would even graduate the Academy. Somehow he had made it through, most likely because Gai had seen something in him that he chose to nurture. Under that tutelage, Lee had blossomed into a powerful ninja who could hold his own among his clan-children agemates. Still, money had always been a foremost thought, the requirements of a ninja diet a thing that needed to be planned for.

    With Gai gone, Lee was adrift. Had Gai left the scroll to Lee and only Lee, it would have been an affirmation. A sign that Lee had been valued, a recognition of care for his circumstances and a desire to ensure them. To leave it to the team....

    "I keep thinking about adopting him," Hazō said carefully. "From a pragmatic viewpoint, the guy is a combat monster, and we could use more of that. He's someone that Akane greatly admires"—he nodded to the woman in question—"and he's got a hard row to hoe. Uplift isn't just about civilians; Lee can manage, sure, but after what happened at the Exams he's under official censure. Especially with Hyūga as Hokage it's going to be a long time before Lee makes chūnin. With no rank and no teacher, he's going to have to watch his pennies.

    "On a more mercenary note, he's got a stake in the Turtle Summoning scroll. From what we've heard, the Turtles are a powerful clan that could do us a lot of good. You all know what we gained from the Pangolin Clan...money, jutsu, combatants, advice, long-distance communication and resupply, teammates like Panashe who provided skills we didn't have. Even Pandā—he wasn't combat effective, but he was sweet, and I know that having him around made me feel better when things were rough. With Keiko gone to the Nara all of those options are gone. Getting the Turtles would be a huge boost to us. Hyūga is going to argue that Tenten and Lee aren't good Summoner candidates, because—"

    Mari was struggling to get her breath back after choking on her tea. She took a moment to master herself and then asked, "I'm guessing that when you got home you came from the west, right?" Despite being an infiltration spec jōnin, Mari was clearly having trouble suppressing belly-busting laughter.

    "Yes...? We came in through the Sunset Gate."

    Mari and Noburi exchanged glances; Noburi was actually emitting tiny little snorts of amusement and his entire face was twitching with a desperate effort to keep from laughing.

    "Get your coats on," Noburi said. "You really need to see this."

    o-o-o-o​

    "Food and clothes! Food and clothes and a bed for the night! Come to the House of Youth for food and clothes and bed for the night!"

    Hazō stopped walking and stared in disbelief. Three separate attempts to Dispel, each with successively more massive amounts of chakra behind them, failed to cause any change in the inchoate madness that was suddenly his world.

    "The House of Youth welcomes all! Come, eat and sleep and be warm from the cold! Learn the Secrets of Youth and nothing will be beyond you!"

    "Is that...Neji?" Hazō asked calmly.

    Mari finally lost the battle against laughter. "Your face," she said, gasping. "You should see your face."

    Hazō took a breath. "Mari, why is Neji standing on the edge of Hokage Square, shouting about Youth, and ushering civilian beggars into Madame Fuyuko's?"

    "It's not Madame Fuyuko's anymore," Noburi explained through his giggles. "Hyūga bought the building and paid for her to relocate to Namikaze Way. And this is just one of the places. There's a dozen of them, all over the city. Mostly brothels, since they already have bedrooms and private kitchens, but also a lot of high-end taverns and there's a place being purpose-built near the caravansary. Plus he's expanded the curriculum for Philosophy and Duty at the Academy. They're teaching the Spirit of Youth in the same class as the Will of Fire. The Clan Council is piiiiissed but Hyūga doesn't give a damn. He ran right over them."

    Hazō chewed his lip for a moment, then groaned. "Ohhhh, shit. This was the price for Lee to give up his share of the scroll, right?"

    The smile fell off Noburi's face. "Yeah. Neji is spending eight hours a day studying with Asuma to learn how to summon. I don't know what Asuma demanded in exchange for training him, but I'm sure it was just as massive as all this."

    Hazō considered that for several long seconds, his eyes involuntarily locked on the sight of Neji, in full formal Hyūga robes and his Leaf headband, handing out pamphlets to every passerby in Leaf's busiest square while a steady stream of wild-haired, emaciated civilian beggars streamed into the repurposed brothel behind him.

    o-o-o-o​

    "Oh! Turtle eggdrop soup!" Akane said, her face brightening. "Thank you, Kagome! How did you...I mean, where...."

    "Hired a mission," Kagome-sensei mumbled. "Paid some of those KEI ninja to run over to Tea and hunt up a turtle beach, bring back the eggs and the carcasses. Got enough for a ton more, so we can have it whenever you want."

    She beamed at him and patted his hand. "You are so thoughtful, Kagome. Thank you. I hope it wasn't too expensive."

    He shrugged one shoulder, not looking up from where he was tearing an unoffending piece of egg-washed soft bread to teeny-tiny fragments. "S'your birthday," he mumbled. "That tiny little thing during the mission didn't count."

    "Well, it's still very sweet of you. I haven't had turtle eggdrop soup since we were hiding out on that southern island, back when we were missing-nin."

    "You were missing-nin?" Honoka asked, her eyes wide. "But missing-nin are evil monsters who eat bad little students! You're not going to eat me, are you Aunty Akane?"

    Akane laughed. "No, sweety. It's complicated, but Jiraiya made it so that we aren't missing-nin. And even if we were, I'd never eat you." She grinned. "Well, unless I was really hungry!" She snapped her teeth at the younger girl, who shrieked in delight and clutched onto her mother.

    "My turn!" Noburi said, leaning over and passing Akane a box wrapped in soft paper.

    Akane clapped her hands in glee, bouncing in her seat. "Ooh, how beautiful! Thank you, Noburi."

    "How come he gets to give presents before dinner?" Kagome-sensei demanded querulously. "I thought presents had to happen after dinner? My soup will get cold."

    "He's right," Mari said. "Presents really should happen after dinner. Shame on you, Noburi."

    "Indeed. It is most unyouthful of you," Keiko added, deadpan.

    The heavyset boy shrugged unrepentantly. "I regret nothing."

    "I'll wait," Akane said, setting the present aside. "Kagome has outdone himself with this feast, and it would indeed by most unyouthful to allow it to get cold. Health!"

    "Health!" everyone aside from Hazō chorused. Hazō smiled but couldn't get the word out. There was no space inside him for words right now; he was happy to be with his family, delighted to see Akane so happy, but there was a distance. His vision was set far back behind his eyes, the world out at one remove. He was present in the moment, but he confined himself to smiles and nods throughout the meal, basking in the warm glow of family and friends without feeling a need, or having the ability, to participate in that glow himself.

    After everyone was replete and beyond replete (Kagome-sensei being his usual overly pushy cooking-related self, with much fluttering about how thin everyone looked), once every last bite was savored and every spoonful of the caramel treat had been moaned over, the family relocated into the living room, where a roaring fire gave the room a rosy light and a glorious heat.

    "Okay, now you can open this," Noburi said, giving Akane his present a second time.

    Akane picked the knot on the silk ribbon apart, then broke the dabs of melted wax that were holding the paper wrappings together, taking care not to damage the paper itself. She unfolded it and set it aside, then slid the top off the polished cherrywood box and looked inside.

    She gasped. "Noburi! How did you get this?!" She reached in with both hands and pulled out a silk pouch and a small pamphlet that said "Civilian Burger 2: Attack of the Food Inspectors!"

    "You like it? It's the prototype for the next release. I found the original designer and commissioned him to do a one-off just for you. Check the character names."

    Akane flipped the pamphlet open and skimmed through it, then burst out laughing. "Youthful Sous Chef: Akane. Two standard actions and a mandatory roll on the Table of Youth." She set the pamphlet down and smiled at her younger brother. "Noburi, this is very thoughtful, thank you."

    "You're welcome," he said, grinning. He looked to his left, where Hazō sat. "Beat that, bro. Admit it: I rule and you suck at birthday presents."

    "Hm," Hazō said distantly, not looking away from Akane. Noburi's smile fell away.

    Hazō bent down and pulled a long package from underneath his chair. He stood up and walked to Akane's side, extending the package with both arms. He waited until she took it, then allowed the arms to drop back to his sides. He stood, balanced on his feet, vaguely wondering why she suddenly looked so uncertain.

    "Hazō...? What is this?"

    He cocked his head. "Present. For your birthday."

    She looked back and forth from him to the package, then unwrapped it and caught her breath.

    "Is it good?"

    She held up the elegant white kimono within. The Gōketsu clan symbol was embroidered in red and green thread over the left breast and a larger version on the back. A ruby pin stood out, stark against the white silk, on the right side.

    "Is it good?" Hazō asked again.

    "Yes! Yes, thank you. It's beautiful, but...why?"

    He cocked his head the other way, indicating surprise related to a different topic. "You are clan. You deserve to show that. I ordered the robe before we left on our most recent mission, but I exchanged money for the pin back on the courier mission with Minami; I hope you do not consider it inappropriate."

    She swallowed. "No." She ran one finger lightly over the central jewel and then looked up, her lips curving in an expression that Hazō didn't entirely understand. It was unstable, varying between pleasure and something else. Possibly thoughts of past time and the paths chosen through reality.

    "There is one more piece," Hazō said. He reached into the holsters on his thighs and produced the two components of his flute, screwing them together carefully. "I composed this on our recent excursion, practicing only the fingering. This will be the first time I have actually given sound to it."

    He set the flute to his lips and sent breath across the opening, drawing forth a haunting sound that wandered sleepily through tones and timbres, cavorting through the spaces between listener and creator, hinting at things that might or might not be and implying things that were probably not. The sound had drifted through his dreams for weeks, ever since The Scroll, and playing it, sharing it, birthing it into the world to be heard by and shared with those closest to him was an act of...not joy, not even close. A matter of necessity, of certainty and requirement, of contributing the ten-thousand-and-seventh piece to a pattern that couldn't not be.

    The music reached the end of that part of it that was audible in this time and place, and Hazō removed the flute from his lips. He looked down at Akane and allowed his lips to curve upwards.

    "Happy birthday, Akane." His voice was far away, but he could tell that there was warmth and appreciation in it. He had rendered his feelings correctly in his tone.

    She stared up at him, mesmerized.




    XP AWARD: 9

    Brevity XP: 1

    Author's Note:     Everyone should give a big round of applause to @Velorien for thinking up the 'Hiashi offers Team Gai a wish for the scroll and Lee chooses the Church of Youth' thing. EJ.throw(Velorien, bus #:relation 'under)

    It is now 8pm the day after you returned from your mission. The following background items of the plan have been implemented, or at least started on:
    • Catch up with Team Uplift.
    • Get to know the people living at our compound: their preferences, skills, desires.
    • Ask Kagome to mentally organize his knowledge in preparation for a clan meeting about such esoteric large-scale issues.
    • Remind Kagome about the Akatsuki book's summary.
    • You bought the Sealing Scroll Acolyte stunt and practiced your Calligraphy skill. This is assumed to have happened during the mission.
    • (1FP) Jiraiya left us shogi-based codes for contacting high-level contacts. Memorize them.
    • You bought Akane some additional Youth-themed Gōketsu-marked clothes.
    • Note that Mari and Keiko were at the party.


    There has not been time to do the following:
    • Conduct creative training daily.
    • Apply for guest lectures at the Academy (one-two weeks later).
    • Start analysing Orochimaru's, Bakushin's, and Goemon's notes with Kagome and Noburi.


    Vote time! What to do now?

    Voting ends on Wednesday, October 9, 2019, at 12pm London time.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Excellent, so we need only crush Neji's soul more in a creative manner, and render him all but ours in mind and spirit.
     
    Can Lee activate seals? since he will get a lot of value from the rocket seals. As long as he's not a clan member of the Hyuuga I see no reason not to supply him.
     
    I want to throw our full support behind the church of youth, take it as way to reconcile with hiashi. This is a way for us to channel uplift without him getting in our way, because in the public eye it was his idea in the first place. This is absolutely fantastic!!!

    I am substantially less worried about Lee now, though I do still want more screentime.
     
    I don't like 'em. The first rule of close combat is to keep your feet on the ground. A ballistic target is an easy target. Kiba learned that the hard way. They'll have to be continuous or multiuse before they're less dangerous than they're worth.
     
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    OliWhail said:
    NOT SHOGI. BADUK. :p
    Click to expand...
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    Oops. Fixed!

    Jello_Raptor said:
    Can Lee activate seals? since he will get a lot of value from the rocket seals. As long as he's not a clan member of the Hyuuga I see no reason not to supply him.
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    Yes, he can. According to @Velorien he could even use jutsu in canon, he just really sucked at it.
    Jello_Raptor said:
    Can we still get Akane a Goketsu Clan youthsuit? I still want her to have one.
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    Sure. It didn't feel like quite the right thing for a birthday present, especially not with Hazō in this state of mind, but there's no reason you can't do it. I have no problem saying he did that in the background.
     
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