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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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@1234qwerty I'm sorry but I believe a lot of your ideas can very easily backfire. Examples:
  • "We successfully leave the village to set up blackmail and it's publicly known, a relative of Noburi's died and mourning requires marriages to be canceled"
    • If we leave they will kill us if we return. We just betrayed them and fucked their entire worldview. What reaction do you think will result? The extremists on our side (Takahashi) will say that they don't have a choice now. But the moderates will side with the extremists against us and try to force us to tell them how to remove the blackmail material, then risk leaving themselves.
  • "Noburi fesses up, offers to teach her med ninjutsu up to his current skill level after improving enough and explains how it lead to him having an intimate connection with his patients and might have a similar effect on her relationship with the villagers. can stall with stat prereqs."
    • You want Noburi to tell Yuno he doesn't like her. The blood-obsessed, socially isolated, "I'm-half-a-second-from-going-on-a-rampage" girl who just formed her first real bond in years.
  • "Rejected: all else has failed. tail elders and get schedules subtly, meet in public, meet with Yoshida if Takahashi permits(add special tea plan and maybe use dictator4hire's analogy)"
    • I could understand Inoue-sensei trying this, since she's at least good at stealth. But goddamn is this risky and I have no idea what you even want from this. At this point the initial goal of the plan "get confirmation on Takahashi's story" is busted and this is just...???
  • "Option BAMF, take an unskilled or Takahashi aligned patrol hunting with us and go as far as we can chasing an animal and failing, then just leave. Best case we subdue them so we have some time before the village finds out, other cases, least favorable due to likelihood of leaving tracks unless Hazou goes alone, if we all go and not so favorable outcome with patrol(we had to fight or they ran back to village to give early warning), leave false tracks to other settlements that we're not going to."
    • If we do this, they will kill us upon we return. We lose any chance at the scroll via peaceful means. If you want us to do that then SAY IT.
  • "Option leave at night, with or without a prepared distraction. Inoue determines she can get past the night defenses undetected with prepared countermeasures(hiding scent from tapirs, etc)."
    • Ok. But GMs have already said she doesn't know if she can. So what are you going to do when she gets caught? Do you think she's going to risk it? What then?
  • "Option leave during the day, we create some sort of distraction for Inoue(tapir stampede) and then cover for her absence(like in previous plan), inoue covers her tracks to not out village(above option as well)"
    • Please delete "tapir stampede". Provoking the village's extremely well-trained, sacred animal to the point where they'll stampede is simply stupid, I'm sorry but there's no other way to say it. It would be much more effective to set off an explosive, since at least that way the Yoshida could also be suspects and not just us.
  • "Getting back same, except for BAMF, when we arrive explain our reasons for going were in the village's interests, explain blackmail we set up, stress that we have no intention to reveal the village without their permission, just to ensure our own safety"
    • Once again, this isn't going to cut it. They aren't going to let us talk, they're going to attack us on sight.
  • "Kagome? always carries around a projectile covered in explosive seals that can be chucked skyward to reveal the village "
    • Ok, what happens if he's inside? What happens if he's attacked and can't throw it because he'll die if he does? What happens if he can't throw it high enough? What happens if someone intercepts it? What happens if the explosive isn't loud/bright enough???
  • "Barrier sealed cannon, underground ninja wire triggers with fakes that set it off and one that defuses, warn villagers they know not to mess with it"
    • It only takes a single removed tag to destroy the barrier (they have peripheral seals that are not protected but required to keep the cannon safe). How do you deal with this?
  • "Revealing blackmail or not plus proving to the villagers that we haven't yet outed them. Game theory?(how would they behave if they thought we already outed them?)"
    • THEY WILL TRY TO KILL US THEY THINK WE'RE UNCULTURED SELFISH SPITEFUL BARBARIANS AND OUR BLACKMAIL WILL CONFIRM IT THEY WILL EXPECT US TO DEFECT EVERY GOD DAMN TIME
  • "Simultaneous with above: Keiko summoning trial prep(no need to do it fairly, brainstorm ways for us to help), absolutely equip her with everything we can, tunnel(after blackmail if supplies from out of village necessary). Make tunnel X feet long, where X is a long enough distance to be useful but not too long to make in time using clone labor. Use rocks from digging to set up a claymore-like trap using mew plus explosive seals and the walls around the entrance to our cave. Clearly mark the kill radius."
    • The tunnel failed. There was an entire section on it from the update. The literal first section.
Your other post:
  • "Just in case some people where misunderstanding the spirit behind setting up a deadman's switch, the idea is not to inevitably unstealth the village but to tie theirs hands by equating harming us to inevitably unstealthing their village disadvantageously. In this way we don't break our agreement with Takahashi unless he hasn't fulfilled his tacit responsibility to safeguard us. Also, I don't hold high regard for our agreement with Takahashi except insofar as it keeps us safe since he made Keiko agree under duress."
    • But the village won't think "harm us=village gets revealed". They'll think "we're already compromised" and respond "see if we can torture the information out of them + seal the breach afterwards". They really are crazy enough do it, considering ~half of them already want to kill and or enslave us (assimilate is too kind a word).
Conclusion: You have a lot of ideas (sub-plans). Some ideas are actually good. But you fail to account for how effective they would be. And honestly I'm reading this as less of a plan "what should we do" and more of a story "this is what happens". Each major point in your story reads like "Ok, this is what's going to happen and here are some ideas for us to do it", but it doesn't have in place any ideas for "what happens if this major part of our plan fails?".

Side note: I notice you don't like the plan and requested that someone else clean it up/cannibalize it. In future, could you post these "plans" as long lists of suggestions, to keep people from voting for a plan you yourself don't like that much?
 
@1234qwerty Regarding Vampiric Dew:

Could you edit the vampiric dew research to also check if he can disrupt jutsu by draining targets normally or with the understanding that he would have to use a derivative technique that might require chakra?
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I don't understand this, can you elaborate?

Maybe test if he can spontaneously Technique Hack a jutsu that determines a drain target's control and regen stats, too?
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This sort of thing would require spending XP to make a dice roll (which can fail), and I don't want to spend any do to that at this point. It's 1XP but I don't feel taking a risk when it's not a big deal to have ATM.

Everything else seems good and have been added:
[X] Research Noburi: Vampiric Dew
Continue to study the nuances of his bloodline and its ability to absorb/reabsorb chakra. Specifically:
  • See if he can overcome his limitation on reabsorbing chakra used to form Water Clones (i.e., reconvert it into his personal chakra supply).
  • Test to see if he can reabsorb chakra used to form his Water Whip technique. Again, test to see limitations and if he can overcome them.
  • Test the limits of his range with mist or steam (use Akane's Elemental Mastery technique and heat water to form the mist/steam).
  • Test to see if he can absorb chakra through mist or steam.
  • Test to see if Noburi can disrupt jutsu by draining targets (the user or the technique itself).
  • Test to see his ability to drain seals or their products of chakra, under very heavy guard.
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[x] Training Noburi: High Sugar Level

@1234qwerty :

Good lord man, add indentation to your posts. They're a pain to read without it. Likewise, line breaks between major sections.

Past that, faflec hit a lot of my issues with the plan.

@faflec:

I'd appreciate some more specificity for the "prepare to steal the scroll" contingency: scouting the temple, asking Keiko for broad ceremony details (time taken, focus needed, general expectations, etc..


Also add regular medical checkups for Keiko. Nobby might be able to notice things like subtle poison or minor injuries.

If possible, Kagome should set up explosive countermeasures in our cave. Ideal case would be a large variety of different types of explosive seal that can be triggered together on a large time delay. In case we need to bug out, we'd quickly arm the seals, set them to go off in 20-30 minutes, and leave. This would create a threat/delaying tactic we could use to buy time as we run: "Our cave is going to kill you all, you should evac civvies, not chase us".


We may want to focus on light Zephyr's Reach training. Some game where Akane, Hazou, and/or Kagome set up traps and Keiko has to detect and disable them with zephyr's reach. Use really tiny radius explosive seals if no better non-lethal effect exists for seal-based traps. A 1-2 inch radius vacuum should just make a "pop" sound without any actual damage.

Before the actual test keiko should just drink from Nobby's actual barrel, taking the small barrel in with her. (Assuming weight and the like wouldn't be a problem.)

Consider completely sealing off our cave with MEW before sleeping. Ideally in a way that traps on the other side could wake us up to a concerted attack. This could backfire by them just trapping us in the cave without our knowledge, if they could disable our detectors. It might be worthwhile depending on how likely that issue is.

Consider equipping Keiko with an entrenching tool, rather than a standard shovel. If they are not available, see if we can't sharpen one edge of the shovel we do equip her with.

Oh, and see if we can't get 1-way mist-chakra-pulse comms with Nobby's Vampiric Dew research. It's better than nothing, and should be pretty quick to figure out if we already have a morse-like code. We just need him to practice pulsing quickly, and get the rest of us used to noticing that the pulses are happening.
 
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@faflec I appreciate the amount of effort you put into your plan, but I would like to instead focus more on trying to prevent people being angry at us rather than only prepare defenses. We still have a chance to stay friendly with the village and get the scroll rather than simply blitz for the scroll so I'd like to take a shot at both while we still can. If the political talks fail, then we can still go along with Takahashi's plan (to a degree, of course; I still don't completely trust him).

@1234qwerty I'd rather not lie any more than we have already at this point, especially in regards with Yuno. Altogether though it seems like a solid plan, I just want to play things a bit differently.

The following plan is simply a first draft and I hope to be able to edit it as feedback comes in, but overall I am comfortable enough voting for it as is.
[X] Action Plan: Proper Politics Prevent Problems

Goals:
  1. Survive
  2. Explain to Takahashi why the village needs us
  3. Talk with our team about convincing the isolationist people at least to not attack us
  4. Fortify the cave first and the old base in the village second as a fallback option
  5. Begin helping out Yuno with her no friends problem
  6. Learn about what exactly the upcoming summoner trial involves and as many of its important nuances as possible
  7. Spend as little amount of time as possible in doing steps 2-6 above (preferably at least 1 week before the vote for Keiko's trial-thing only one day for this update)
  8. Don't needlessly antagonize the isolationists without at least trying to talk things out like adults
How:
  1. Maintain safety protocols when traveling in the village; use the buddy system just like last time.
  2. Kagome has free reign to fortify the cave and old village base we used to live in as he sees fit and can use team members to help him when those members have nothing more important to do.
  3. The updated plan is now to only have one meeting per day/update, starting with Takahashi. The rest of the meeting plans will be talked about with the team for IC suggestions and critiques. Depending on how each meeting goes, we may need a follow-up update/meeting.
  4. Arrange for a talk with Takahashi ASAP and once the meeting is over, have everyone reconvene back at the cave and end the update, please.
    1. Politely ask if his plan is really just to force the Aida or the Inoue into an unfavorable position for his own political gains. We would rather not have to resort to violence if at all possible; too many people have died already and we do not want any more blood on our hands than is absolutely necessary. Is there nothing we can do to convince the isolationists to attempt something new?
    2. Using this analogy as inspiration/baseline (with a more in depth explanation of its intentions here (Inoue can use her discretion whether or not she thinks the analogy is a good idea)), explain to him how his village will never be truly safe from the outside world if they continue their current policy of absolute isolationism.
      1. Takahashi, if your village does not work with us eventually someone stronger than us will show up and conquer all of you; even without the scroll you are a bunch of valuable chakra-using human resources (that's just how it is, sorry).
      2. If you choose to cooperate symbbiotically with us, we can help improve your defenses, strengthen your secrecy, and smuggle in cool stuff/knowledge from the outside.
      3. You give us a sound foundation to build on and it will be the best decision you ever made.
    3. After that speech, politely yet firmly ask for an audience with every elder we have not had an official meeting with yet (the Aida, both of the Azai cousins, and the Inoue). Inform him that we want to have a supermajority of elders in favor of giving us the scroll rather than only a majority for safety's sake and that we want to be present when the vote for allowing Keiko to take the trial is made.
  5. With every elder we can have a meeting (we want to meet with all of them, starting with our closest allies (after Takahashi) and working our way towads the Inoue and the other isolationists) with (or for the sake of sanity/brevity, all of the elders can gather for one meeting or divided as you see fit each meeting will now have its own day), politely highlight the following for discussion amongst our team members:
    1. We originally learned of this village due to a rumor of a long lost summoning scroll
      1. We had no idea of the significance of the scroll in your people's culture. We were under the impression that the summoning scroll had been lost to the ages after its owner had vanished and it would be lying forgotten in some ruins or abandoned library. We just wanted to sign the scroll so that we would have a better chance to survive in the cruel outside world. We are impressed that the village has treated it so well and with the respect that it deserves for so many years.
    2. Surprisingly, when we were attacked by a patrol of ninja who had no known affiliation we were intrigued and decided to let the patrol live rather than kill all of them like they were trying to do to us. we were tired of mindless killing and wanted. We wanted to understand who these people were and if these tapirs were the sapient summon animals we had heard about and wanted to sign a contract with.
    3. If we were not missing-nin, a number of us would have been sent back to our home village to gather an invasion force to conquer and forcibly recruit any survivors in this village.
      1. Luckily for all of you, We became missing-nin because one of our superiors decided to force us to secede from our our home by lying to us. Consequently, we will not be hypocrites and force you to do something against your core beliefs: even if the majority of the village wants to give us access to the scroll as per Takahashi's instruction, we will not accept until every elder had consented to allowing us to access the scroll. there is a supermajority in favor of allowing us to access the scroll.
    4. We would also appreciate any insight into your culture and lore that you want to give us; Takahashi mentioned something about Ui's heir that sounds important. We do not claim to be his heir, but we would like to know about him and what makes/made him so special.
    5. Mention that we are open to mutually beneficial arrangements with any clan so long as we retain our autonomy; just as we would not expect the village to concede all of their independence to us, so too do we ask politely to retain our freedom.
      1. Given time enough, we would like to temporarily leave the village. When the elders are willing to let that happen we are willing to discuss reasonable conditions to maintain an acceptable level of secrecy for the village.
    6. If they ask if anyone would notice if we never left the village, mention that we know a seal-master summoner who originally pointed us in the direction of Hidden Mountain. If we never return, he may send stronger people here to see what caused our disappearance.
      1. Alternatively, suggest that said summoner might be able to ascertain if anything is wrong with the village's summoning scroll so long as they consent to him examining their most sacred possession.
    7. Conclude each speech with a modest list of our abilities (if pressed, ask them if they would seriously be willing to list all of their most powerful techniques, weapons, bloodlines, etc.) and allow the elders to ask any questions they want while we answer truthfully.
      1. It's time to open up to the village to begin building real trust; the best way to do that is to truthfully explain our backstory in a empathetic way. Cooperation benefits all of us; attempting to snatch the scroll has only a chance of working. I consider having 50+ ninja allied with us better than a chance at a nonfunctional summoning scroll when we can have them hand it over to us of their own free will at a later time when Keiko is more prepared to take whatever it is the trial is supposed to be.
  6. The following steps can occur over the course of the day as applicable. For longer term projects like preparing for the trial or increasing our cave's defenses, an evaluation of each's viability and time until completion would be appreciated.
  7. When Noburi next goes on a date with Yuno, prep him with the following advice (actually, has he even told the team about Yuno's confession? If not have him tell us about it so there are no misunderstandings):
    1. Before Noburi implements the following, have Hazou stress to him that Hazou is only being so insistent because he doesn't want something bad to happen to Noburi if Yuno really is irredeemably crazy.
    2. Yuno has been isolated in a closed society for years; it's not her fault she was forced to become a loner. Our whole team has been cut off from our own friends and family back home ever since we were betrayed by one of our leaders, Shikigami, and we want to help Yuno out in her own home; you can't replace home the past, but you can make a better future. Anyone on our team can sympathize with Yuno's plight and a few of us have more open hearts than others.
    3. Stress that, while we want to help her, we have to keep our team safe so there can be no psychotic outbursts against anyone even if something goes wrong. We want to help her, but only if we can stay safe while doing so.
      1. Don't prove all of her naysayers right by lashing out; rise above their pettiness and make them wish they had befriended you before.
    4. Have Noburi ask Yuno if she wants to be introduced in a relatively public setting to his completely platonic friend Akane to see if the two girls could become friends.
      1. Sell the idea to Yuno that Akane has no family obligations or orders to be her friend and that she will do so because that's just the kind of person Akane is (if anyone on our team can befriend a lonely yandere, it's Akane).
    5. Noburi should also tell Yuno that, even if the engagement doesn't work out due to meddling elders' decisions, he will still be at least her friend "no matter what."
    6. Ask her about the village's religion as a way to continue the conversation when there is a lull in the conversation.
  8. Have Keiko come up with possible escape routes and contingencies in the event we need to leave the village in a hurry, with a new found emphasis based on what Takahashi said might happen shortly before or during the summoner trial.
  9. Akane and Hazou look into what Akane's Mechanical Aptitude can do currently as she shows it off to him... in a completely chaste, innocent way (looking at you, Mari-sensei)
    1. (It gives Akane something to do at night and I really really want to see what she can do with it besides make caltrops).
  10. Hazou creates and infuses as many storage seals as he can in his spare time.
  11. The time frame for this plan should not exceed one week day at the longest, but can be as short as per the QM's discretion. If actions would take longer than one week day, please suspend them or cancel them as necessary until we, the players, can reassess the situation.
  12. Prepare Keiko for the trial. (copied and pasted from @faflec 's plan)
    1. EVERYONE should brainstorm ways that the trial can play out and how they ought to be solved.
      1. We should take cues from the social and cultural dynamics of Hillbilly Mountain: It's completely possible that Akio passed on his values since they would be tested by the summon, and subsequently integrated into the trial.
    2. Hazou should prepare seals:
      1. Storage scrolls with food, water, medicines, wood, blood, straw decoys, and any other essentials Keiko deems possibly useful. One scroll should be empty in case Keiko needs to store something quickly.
      2. Explosive scrolls (as many as Hazou can plausibly make while maintaining some for himself/the rest of the team) for Keiko to put down and/or throw with weapons.
    3. Noburi should build a second 0.5L barrel for Keiko:
      1. The barrel should contain some 25% CP in the water (details to be discussed).
      2. Noburi should hold this barrel with him at all times to ensure no chakra is lost before the trial.
      3. Noburi should give the barrel to Keiko right before she goes to the trial to minimize the loss of chakra in the water.
      4. Noburi should also give medical checkups on Keiko. Make sure she's healthy, not been poisoned or injured...
    4. Akane should prepare traps and other tools for Keiko, to be held in storage scrolls:
      1. Some type of lock picking kit.
      2. Some manner of caltrops or other method of battlefield denial. These can be explosive if desired (work with Hazou)
      3. Easy-to-set-up tripwires.
      4. Chimes (or equivalent) that rattle (and sound differently) when moved and make noise ONLY after being set up.
      5. An entrenching tool or equivalent (if we don't have that as standard equipment).
    5. Kagome should be encouraged to give Keiko some seals for her use:
      1. Implosion seals to break down tough walls standard explosive tags cannot take out.
      2. Barrier Method Formation (lesser) to be used with explosives.
      3. Emergency Force Wall seals in case Keiko needs a defense or durability-bypassing ability (cut enemy on edge).
    6. Inoue-sensei should instruct Keiko on creative applications of her Zephyr's Reach and weapons skill.
    7. Keiko needs to not break a leg, sprain an ankle, or any other bullshit that can weaken her.
      1. Minimize use of her bloodline unless under Takahashi's training.
      2. Take most of the fortnight to relax but make sure to keep her muscles/brain limber.
        1. Suggest setting up obstacle courses for her to train on with her physical skills + Zephyr's Reach.
    8. Commune with Takahashi on the trial, Yuno, angered Gasai/Inoue/Aida, and other events that may affect these things.
      1. Ask Takahashi more on the trial to help with planning stages.
      2. Ask Takahashi more on the prophecy he hinted at in the last update.
      3. Discuss options on Yuno and angered villagers as seen in other stages of the plan.
      4. Ask Takahashi if Inoue-sensei can sit in on the vote like last time.
  13. Prepare contingencies for betrayal and attempted murder: (also from @faflec )
    1. Test general competence of our ninja guard:
      1. Check their rotation across time, any changes between day/night, hours of shift, cave vs. while we hunt...
      2. See if Inoue can manipulate them.
    2. If angry villagers try to attack us in our base:
      1. We should have two genin (not Keiko!!) or Inoue-sensei on guard. At a minimum.
      2. Run. We should have traps everywhere but if they're confident enough to know this it's likely a village-wide assault. We can weather the initial storm but further attacks are gonna be bad.
    3. If angry villagers try to attack us during training/dates/healing/travel:
      1. We run and stall. MEW, scare-you-away explosives...basically any AOE that scares enemies/keeps them from advancing but does not necessarily kill them.
        1. If they escalate so do we. If the whole village seems to be involved (read: >50% of the people) we go all out.
      2. Send up signals (prepared) to alert our team if we're separated.
      3. Get ready to bugger out of the village.
    4. If people try to force us to marry early, attempt to delay/stall using above plans. Run if failure.
    5. If Takahashi does not announce the vote to let Keiko take the trial, prepare to evac and/or steal the scroll.
      1. Scout the temple, asking Takahashi/Yuno for broad ceremony details (time taken, focus needed, general expectations, etc.).
Edits will be in italics, unless I'm on mobile in which case... I'll see what I can do.

first major edits credit to @Jello_Raptor and @Cariyaga

second edit courtesy of @Cariyaga regarding telling Takahashi about wanting a supermajority

third edit based on @faflec 's and others concerns that we were not being respectful enough to the village elders when we were talking about how we first heard about the scroll.

fourth edit mostly cannibalizing parts of Becoming Aristobulus by @faflec because he is better at betrayal prep than me and I am not afraid to admit that. Also, added in a line about insisting to be present to hear the vote for whether Keiko's trial will be officially sanctioned

fifth edit for a shorter update time as per @Jello_Raptor's suggestions

sixth edit with @Rafin 's note involving learning about the village religion from Yuno
 
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Seriously though, we need more earth-moving techniques. I'd consider it a win if we spent points to get level 10 in Technique Hacking and level 10 in a general earth moving jutsu (modified MEW that allows us to also dig holes and generally shift local earth into any configuration we want) and then never used technique hacking again.

(I figure that's in the range of 100-130 xp, which is 6-10 historical updates worth of XP for a way to create hidden camps, travel routes, undermine fortifications, sneak into weird places, and generally fuck with everyone who assumes that the ground is solid. For it to be perfect we'd also need ways to deal with groundwater (Nobby), breathable air (Keiko), and temperatures underground(Akane).)
 
Plan was edited to add some of @1234qwerty's and @Jello_Raptor's ideas
*sighs*

[X] Action Plan: Becoming Aristobulus
We have 2 weeks before the shitstorm that is actually getting the summoning scroll. So let's make sure we don't start the shitstorm early, and prepare ourselves fully for the shitstorm and possibleinevitable betrayals.

Ideally this update should end right after the meeting/vote (or during it, like last time).

Goals:
  1. Survive.
  2. Avoid serious village interaction.
  3. Prepare Keiko for the trial.
  4. Figure out how to deal with Yuno.
  5. Prepare contingencies for if Takahashi/Kannagi/others betray us and/or start shit.
  6. Train/research.
  7. Pray to Jashin-sama.
Methods:
  1. Minimize interaction with the village outside of required communications.
    1. Sustain ourselves fully on hunted meatstuffs, Condense Water + streamwater, and heat from Elemental Mastery + furs + fire.
      1. We should have a metric shitton of this stuff, but if we're low we should stock up.
    2. Whenever Keiko goes to train, she goes with Inoue and Hazou.
      1. Noburi can set time to heal the villagers OR go on a date with Yuno ONLY when Keiko's not doing training. Make sure we have minimum separation of individuals.
      2. Inoue has to (read: pretty please sensei?) tail Noburi with the expectation of a sneak attack from pissed off Gasai or other religious fanatics.
    3. During healing sessions, comment on how nice it is for Keiko to finally have a Wind Release tutor and/or someone else who shares her interests in ninjutsu theory.
    4. If asked, cite paranoia from angry Gasai revenge + desire to avoid another Kouta situation.
  2. Prepare Keiko for the trial.
    1. EVERYONE should brainstorm ways that the trial can play out and how they ought to be solved.
      1. We should take cues from the social and cultural dynamics of Hillbilly Mountain: It's completely possible that Akio passed on his values since they would be tested by the summon, and subsequently integrated into the trial.
    2. Hazou should prepare seals:
      1. Storage scrolls with food, water, medicines, wood, blood, straw decoys, and any other essentials Keiko deems possibly useful. One scroll should be empty in case Keiko needs to store something quickly.
      2. Explosive scrolls (as many as Hazou can plausibly make while maintaining some for himself/the rest of the team) for Keiko to put down and/or throw with weapons.
    3. Noburi should build a second 0.5L barrel for Keiko:
      1. The barrel should contain some 25% CP in the water (details to be discussed).
      2. Noburi should hold this barrel with him at all times to ensure no chakra is lost before the trial.
      3. Noburi should give the barrel to Keiko right before she goes to the trial to minimize the loss of chakra in the water.
      4. Noburi should also give medical checkups on Keiko. Make sure she's healthy, not been poisoned or injured...
    4. Akane should prepare traps and other tools for Keiko, to be held in storage scrolls:
      1. Some type of lock picking kit.
      2. Some manner of caltrops or other method of battlefield denial. These can be explosive if desired (work with Hazou)
      3. Easy-to-set-up tripwires.
      4. Chimes (or equivalent) that rattle (and sound differently) when moved and make noise ONLY after being set up.
      5. An entrenching tool or equivalent (if we don't have that as standard equipment).
    5. Kagome should be encouraged to give Keiko some seals for her use:
      1. Implosion seals to break down tough walls standard explosive tags cannot take out.
      2. Barrier Method Formation (lesser) to be used with explosives.
      3. Emergency Force Wall seals in case Keiko needs a defense or durability-bypassing ability (cut enemy on edge).
    6. Inoue-sensei should instruct Keiko on creative applications of her Zephyr's Reach and weapons skill.
    7. Keiko needs to not break a leg, sprain an ankle, or any other bullshit that can weaken her.
      1. Minimize use of her bloodline unless under Takahashi's training.
      2. Take most of the fortnight to relax but make sure to keep her muscles/brain limber.
        1. Suggest setting up obstacle courses for her to train on with her physical skills + Zephyr's Reach.
      3. Commune with Takahashi on the trial, Yuno, angered Gasai/Inoue/Aida, and other events that may affect these things.
        1. Ask Takahashi more on the trial to help with planning stages.
        2. Ask Takahashi more on the prophecy he hinted at in the last update.
        3. Discuss options on Yuno and angered villagers as seen in other stages of the plan.
        4. Ask Takahashi if Inoue-sensei can sit in on the vote like last time.
  3. Figure out how to deal with Yuno.
    1. Discuss ALL Yuno-based plans with Takahashi and the rest of our team before coming to a concensus. We want minimum bloodshed (as required by Takahashi's agreement).
    2. Discuss the viability of Noburi needing to do something before being allowed to marry:
      1. Kill an enemy combatant (read: ninja) in actual combat (not an execution).
      2. Discuss heavily: Noburi still has to learn the final bits of medical ninjutsu before being officially called a master.
    3. Discuss the viability of Noburi not meeting the requirements of Hillbilly Mountain's culture:
      1. Noburi has shed blood and been stained by blood before. Hillbilly Mountain has a serious hemophobia issue and this may be grounds to cancel the marriage, if Yuno's pariah status is any indication.
    4. Discuss the viability of getting the Kannagi disgraced and forcing them to cancel the marriage.
    5. Discuss the viability of other ways of convincing Kannagi to cancel the marriage himself.
  4. Prepare contingencies for betrayal and attempted murder:
    1. Test general competence of our ninja guard:
      1. Check their rotation across time, any changes between day/night, hours of shift, cave vs. while we hunt...
      2. See if Inoue can manipulate them.
    2. If angry villagers try to attack us in our base:
      1. We should have two genin (not Keiko!!) or Inoue-sensei on guard. At a minimum.
      2. Run. We should have traps everywhere but if they're confident enough to know this it's likely a village-wide assault. We can weather the initial storm but further attacks are gonna be bad.
    3. If angry villagers try to attack us during training/dates/healing/travel:
      1. We run and stall. MEW, scare-you-away explosives...basically any AOE that scares enemies/keeps them from advancing but does not necessarily kill them.
        1. If they escalate so do we. If the whole village seems to be involved (read: >50% of the people) we go all out.
      2. Send up signals (prepared) to alert our team if we're separated.
      3. Get ready to bugger out of the village.
    4. If people try to force us to marry early, attempt to delay/stall using above plans. Run if failure.
    5. If Takahashi does not announce the vote to let Keiko take the trial, prepare to evac and/or steal the scroll.
      1. Scout the temple, asking Takahashi/Yuno for broad ceremony details (time taken, focus needed, general expectations, etc.).
  5. Train/research.
    1. This is a reminder.
  6. Pray to Jashin-sama.
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@Dictator4Hire It's hilarious that we do the exact opposite thing: You focus on social interaction but don't write on preparing for the trial (minus getting info) but I focus on preparing but little on social interaction. Mind if I cannibalize part of your plan to make a decent one?

But on a serious note, I completely agree. I'm just shit at social interaction so made a plan that avoided social interaction. Like Kagome!
 
Added a suggestion to Vampiric Dew Research:
[X] Research Noburi: Vampiric Dew
Continue to study the nuances of his bloodline and its ability to absorb/reabsorb chakra. Specifically:
  • See if he can overcome his limitation on reabsorbing chakra used to form Water Clones (i.e., reconvert it into his personal chakra supply).
  • Test to see if he can reabsorb chakra used to form his Water Whip technique. Again, test to see limitations and if he can overcome them.
  • Test the limits of his range with mist or steam (use Akane's Elemental Mastery technique and heat water to form the mist/steam).
  • Test to see if he can absorb chakra through mist or steam.
  • Test to see if Noburi can disrupt jutsu by draining targets (the user or the technique itself).
  • Test to see his ability to drain seals or their products of chakra, under very heavy guard.
  • See if we can get 1-way mist-chakra-pulse comms with Nobby's Vampiric Dew research.
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@Dictator4Hire Actually got around to reading the plan you made, and:

  • With every elder we have a meeting with (or for the sake of sanity/brevity, all of the elders can gather for one meeting or divided as you see fit), politely highlight the following:
    1. We originally learned of this village due to a rumor of a long lost summoning scroll
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hahahahah FUCK THAT they will STRIP THE FLESH FROM OUR BODIES AND THEN COOK US ALIVE AS SACRIFICES TO APPEASE THEIR GODS FOR THIS INSULT WE HAVE BROUGHT UPON THEM
 
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faflec said:
@Dictator4Hire It's hilarious that we do the exact opposite thing: You focus on social interaction but don't write on preparing for the trial (minus getting info) but I focus on preparing but little on social interaction. Mind if I cannibalize part of your plan to make a decent one?

But on a serious note, I completely agree. I'm just shit at social interaction so made a plan that avoided social interaction. Like Kagome!
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Huh, I guess we do have opposite approaches and that's great: we can cover each other's blind-spots. I'm hoping that any talk no jutsu focused plan will take less than a week so that we can prepare all of the gear for Keiko's trial in the week before it's scheduled. I like your idea with the gear, so added in a line about Hazou making storage seals just so we could do that after the next update if PPPP won. By all means, take what you will from PPPP as you see fit; it's only fair.

Wait, if you're Kagome, what team member does that make me?
 
faflec said:
Plan was edited to add some of @1234qwerty's and @Jello_Raptor's ideas


@Dictator4Hire It's hilarious that we do the exact opposite thing: You focus on social interaction but don't write on preparing for the trial (minus getting info) but I focus on preparing but little on social interaction. Mind if I cannibalize part of your plan to make a decent one?

But on a serious note, I completely agree. I'm just shit at social interaction so made a plan that avoided social interaction. Like Kagome!
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Time for a fusion dance.

Dictator4Hire said:
@faflec I appreciate the amount of effort you put into your plan, but I would like to instead focus more on trying to prevent people being angry at us rather than only prepare defenses. We still have a chance to stay friendly with the village and get the scroll rather than simply blitz for the scroll so I'd like to take a shot at both while we still can. If the political talks fail, then we can still go along with Takahashi's plan (to a degree, of course; I still don't completely trust him).

@1234qwerty I'd rather not lie any more than we have already at this point, especially in regards with Yuno. Altogether though it seems like a solid plan, I just want to play things a bit differently.

The following plan is simply a first draft and I hope to be able to edit it as feedback comes in, but overall I am comfortable enough voting for it as is.
[X] Action Plan: Proper Politics Prevent Problems

Goals:
  1. Survive
  2. Explain to Takahashi why the village needs us
  3. Convince other isolationist people at least to not attack us
  4. Fortify the cave first and the old base in the village second as a fallback option
  5. Begin helping out Yuno with her no friends problem
  6. Learn about what exactly the upcoming summoner trial involves and as many of its important nuances as possible
  7. Spend as little amount of time as possible in doing steps 2-6 above (preferably at least 1 week before the vote for Keiko's trial-thing)
  8. Don't needlessly antagonize the isolationists without at least trying to talk things out like adults
How:
  1. Maintain safety protocols when traveling in the village; use the buddy system just like last time.
  2. Kagome has free reign to fortify the cave and old village base we used to live in as he sees fit and can use team members to help him when those members have nothing more important to do.
  3. Arrange for a talk with Takahashi ASAP
    1. Using this analogy as inspiration/baseline (with a more in depth explanation of its intentions here), explain to him how his village will never be truly safe from the outside world if they continue their current policy of absolute isolationism.
    2. After that speech, politely yet firmly ask for an audience with every elder we have not had an official meeting with yet (the Aida, both of the Azai cousins, and the Inoue)
  4. With every elder we have a meeting with (or for the sake of sanity/brevity, all of the elders can gather for one meeting or divided as you see fit), politely highlight the following:
    1. We originally learned of this village due to a rumor of a long lost summoning scroll
    2. Surprisingly, when we were attacked by a patrol of ninja who had no known affiliation we were intrigued and decided to let the patrol live rather than kill all of them like they were trying to do to us.
    3. If we were not missing-nin, a number of us would have been sent back to our home village to gather an invasion force to conquer and forcibly recruit any survivors in this village.
      1. Luckily for all of you, we became missing-nin because one of our superiors decided to force us to secede from our our home by lying to us. Consequently, we will not be hypocrites and force you to do something against your core beliefs: even if the majority of the village wants to give us access to the scroll as per Takahashi's instruction, we will not accept until every elder had consented to allowing us to access the scroll.
    4. We would also appreciate any insight into your culture and lore that you want to give us; Takahashi mentioned something about Ui's heir that sounds important. We do not claim to be his heir, but we would like to know about him and what makes/made him so special.
    5. Mention that we are open to mutually beneficial arrangements with any clan so long as we retain our autonomy; just as we would not expect the village to concede all of their independence to us, so too do we ask politely to retain our freedom.
    6. If they ask if anyone would notice if we never left the village, mention that we know a seal-master summoner who originally pointed us in the direction of Hidden Mountain. If we never return, he may send stronger people here to see what caused our disappearance.
      1. Alternatively, suggest that said summoner might be able to ascertain if anything is wrong with the village's summoning scroll so long as they consent to him examining their most sacred possession.
    7. Conclude each speech with a modest list of our abilities (if pressed, ask them if they would seriously be willing to list all of their most powerful techniques, weapons, bloodlines, etc.) and allow the elders to ask any questions they want while we answer truthfully.
      1. It's time to open up to the village to begin building real trust; the best way to do that is to truthfully explain our backstory in a empathetic way. Cooperation benefits all of us; attempting to snatch the scroll has only a chance of working. I consider having 50+ ninja allied with us better than a chance at a nonfunctional summoning scroll when we can have them hand it over to us of their own free will at a later time when Keiko is more prepared to take whatever it is the trial is supposed to be.
  5. When Noburi next goes on a date with Yuno, prep him with the following advice (actually, has he even told the team about Yuno's confession? If not have him tell us about it so there are no misunderstandings):
    1. Before Noburi implements the following, have Hazou stress to him that Hazou is only being so insistent because he doesn't want something bad to happen to Noburi if Yuno really is irredeemably crazy.
    2. Yuno has been isolated in a closed society for years; it's not her fault she was forced to become a loner. Our whole team has been cut off from our own friends and family back home ever since we were betrayed by one of our leaders, Shikigami, and we want to help Yuno out in her own home; you can't replace home. Anyone on our team can sympathize with Yuno's plight and a few of us have more open hearts than others.
    3. Stress that, while we want to help her, we have to keep our team safe so there can be no psychotic outbursts against anyone even if something goes wrong. We want to help her, but only if we can stay safe while doing so.
      1. Don't prove all of her naysayers right by lashing out; rise above their pettiness and make them wish they had befriended you before.
    4. Have Noburi ask Yuno if she wants to be introduced in a relatively public setting to his completely platonic friend Akane to see if the two girls could become friends.
      1. Sell the idea to Yuno that Akane has no family obligations or orders to be her friend and that she will do so because that's just the kind of person Akane is (if anyone on our team can befriend a lonely yandere, it's Akane).
    5. Noburi should also tell Yuno that, even if the engagement doesn't work out due to meddling elders' decisions, he will still be at least her friend no matter what.
  6. Have Keiko come up with possible escape routes and contingencies in the event we need to leave the village in a hurry, with a new found emphasis based on what Takahashi said might happen shortly before or during the summoner trial.
  7. Akane and Hazou look into what Akane's Mechanical Aptitude can do currently as she shows it off to him... in a completely chaste, innocent way (looking at you, Mari-sensei)
    1. (It gives Akane something to do at night and I really really want to see what she can do with it besides make caltrops).
  8. Hazou creates and infuses as many storage seals as he can in his spare time.
Edits will be in italics, unless I'm on mobile in which case... I'll see what I can do.
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I dislike the idea of telling the elders of our intentions before Takahashi brings it up, and also of telling them that we are going to get every elder's backing before taking the trial. I mean, sure, we're ninja, we can lie, but I'd rather us say something to the effect of "We'd rather not have to rely on the merits of majority to grant us a chance at the trial." Also, I'm... unsure that approaching the religious zealotry clan about this at all is a good idea, and would be much happier leaving that up to Takahashi.

That being said, though, I'm happy to see a more social plan, and DO like the idea of impressing upon Takahashi that we would like to remain in good graces with the village for later.
 
faflec said:
@Dictator4Hire Actually got around to reading the plan you made, and:



hahahahah FUCK THAT they will STRIP THE FLESH FROM OUR BODIES AND THEN COOK US ALIVE AS SACRIFICES TO APPEASE THEIR GODS FOR THIS INSULT WE HAVE BROUGHT UPON THEM
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Eh, it was keeping in line with the whole "telling them the truth" thing I have going on. I don't see how mentioning our briefing on the scroll would be any more damning than our presence in the village.

Or was it the part about dividing up the meetings? I added in the stuff in parentheses for @eaglejarl 's sake so that he doesn't have to write 5+ elder meetings in one update. That would be cruel and unusual to our gracious writers.
 
@Dictator4Hire On a more serious note, your plan seems to hinge on the assumption that there will be boiling tensions by Inoue/Aida. But I'm not sure this is necessary since the only real danger is between the vote (to let Keiko undergo the trial) and the actual trial. Yes, damage control is a good idea to do in advance...but I don't see why we need to go this extreme into appeasement.

Also? You're Akane.
 
Dictator4Hire said:
Eh, it was keeping in line with the whole "telling them the truth" thing I have going on. I don't see how mentioning our briefing on the scroll would be any more damning than our presence in the village.

Or was it the part about dividing up the meetings? I added in the stuff in parentheses for @eaglejarl 's sake so that he doesn't have to write 5+ elder meetings in one update. That would be cruel and unusual to our gracious writers.
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Keep in mind, these are the writers that are punishing their own (Velorien) with extensive plans in the pursuit of greater XP gains.
 
@Cariyaga I'm Kagome, how did you expect me to act? This is under par for me since normally I would have done the whole spiel in all caps. I still haven't talked about the part where they CHAIN US UP IN A BASEMENT SOMEWHERE FORCING US TO MAKE SEALS UNTIL THE LUPCHANZ CRAWL OUT FROM BEHIND OUR EYES AND breathing.......

@Dictator4Hire Yes, I'm talking about the "tell them about the scroll" thing. No, it's more damning because we literally said it out loud to everyone; they'll have to react with indignant outrage just to save face, and the more conservative members of the group will ∞% flip and start shit.
 
So I did some looking into survival for heating and come across a really simple method and primitive one we could implement with materials on hand. Find/make a few rocks, larger than two adult fists but smaller than a cinder block if it where a single solid mass. Place them in a large bonfire for a good long while, really heat them up good. Transfer heated rocks into the enclosed area you wish to heat up and enjoy the fruits of science in the form of heating. The rocks radiate all the heat from the fire that they absorbed, giving us a nice and smokeless source of heat from our solid radiators that we have to toss back into the fire to recharge.

Side note, if you have smaller rocks drop them into water you can bring the water up to a rolling boil real fast and is a way to purify water. We should keep rocks of all size in storage scrolls fresh from the fire, to take advantage of the properties of storage scrolls stasis effect. We do not have access to easier/ more expensive versions of these basic survival skills in the form of chakra skills at the moment for when we get back on the road again, so I'll look into more low tech, stone age survival skills for Kagome to know and for Hazou and co to learn. Also, side note, are most large bodies of water near us salty? Cause that is a valued substance which we could be making money off of and use for ourselves. Reducing salt water into salt just takes a large pot, the salt water, and time. If we are near a salty body of water we should be reducing as much of it into salt as we can carry in storage scrolls for use as currency exchange further inland.
 
@Dictator4Hire:

Dictator4Hire said:
Arrange for a talk with Takahashi ASAP
  1. Using this analogy as inspiration/baseline (with a more in depth explanation of its intentions here), explain to him how his village will never be truly safe from the outside world if they continue their current policy of absolute isolationism.
  2. After that speech, politely yet firmly ask for an audience with every elder we have not had an official meeting with yet (the Aida, both of the Azai cousins, and the Inoue)
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I feel like the analogy beats around the bush too much. I'd appreciate a note that lets Inoue use her discretion when choosing between the analogy or a more blunt form of "we could have a mutually beneficial relationship".

I also think that the plan proper should contain your notes about the exact meaning you're trying to convey. This is mostly for form's sake, since I like plans to include all their core features in one post, only linking out to others for details and clarification.

Dictator4Hire said:
Surprisingly, when we were attacked by a patrol of ninja who had no known affiliation we were intrigued and decided to let the patrol live rather than kill all of them like they were trying to do to us.
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I dislike this. It paints us as too machiavellian. Inoue has also already stated that she's simply tired of killing people if she doesn't have to. I think that should be our primary motivation for not being murder-hobos.

I'd rather say we were curious about the town/people because of the weirdly intelligent tapirs, and our earlier knowledge that the summons were "probably mammals". We might want to mention that we were afraid they were summons and therefore sophonts, which we still don't want to kill.

Dictator4Hire said:
Luckily for all of you, we became missing-nin because one of our superiors decided to force us to secede from our our home by lying to us. Consequently, we will not be hypocrites and force you to do something against your core beliefs: even if the majority of the village wants to give us access to the scroll as per Takahashi's instruction, we will not accept until every elder had consented to allowing us to access the scroll.
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I don't like this. A universal veto changes the dynamic too much, so that a single obstructionist party could block us indefinitely. I'd be okay with asking for a supermajority, though.

Dictator4Hire said:
Mention that we are open to mutually beneficial arrangements with any clan so long as we retain our autonomy; just as we would not expect the village to concede all of their independence to us, so too do we ask politely to retain our freedom.
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I'd add a note asking about levels of secrecy they would like for the village. We can have freedom without revealing them.

Dictator4Hire said:
It's time to open up to the village to begin building real trust; the best way to do that is to truthfully explain our backstory in a empathetic way. Cooperation benefits all of us; attempting to snatch the scroll has only a chance of working. I consider having 50+ ninja allied with us better than a chance at a nonfunctional summoning scroll when we can have them hand it over to us of their own free will at a later time when Keiko is more prepared to take whatever it is the trial is supposed to be.
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Honestly, I don't like this plan in general. Going in cards face-up seems too risky. We'd have to diplomance our way further through an entrenched town. A more incremental approach, focusing on the leaders we have good relations with first seems much more reasonable.

Dictator4Hire said:
you can't replace home.
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I might be good to convince him, but I just disagree with this on factual grounds.

Dictator4Hire said:
Sell the idea to Yuno that Akane has no family obligations or orders to be her friend and that she will do so because that's just the kind of person Akane is (if anyone on our team can befriend a lonely yandere, it's Akane).
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Sort of, Akane also has a much high chance of annoying Yuno with the sheer magnitude of her naivete. I'm introverted and have depression (don't worry about me it's sorted now) and those friends who try to drag me out of my shell when I am not ready drive me up the wall. Slow and steady really does win the race in this sort of thing.

Akane in small doses is good for her, but Akane needs to know not to come on too strong and to be okay with quiet time. Honestly this would be good advice for when she's dealing with Keiko too.

Dictator4Hire said:
he will still be at least her friend no matter what.
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This is good if it's true. Remember, helping someone like Yuno is tiring and takes both time and effort.

Dictator4Hire said:
I'm hoping that any talk no jutsu focused plan will take less than a week so that we can prepare all of the gear for Keiko's trial in the week before it's scheduled.
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That should be explicit in your plan, even if it's a soft requirement. "Ideally this would all happen in less than a week. If it takes longer, please end the update early so we can do prep-work."

Also, in general you should steal @faflec's prep stuff.

@faflec:

faflec said:
Added a suggestion to Vampiric Dew Research:
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Under heavy guard and with safety procedures similar to standard seal research.

@faflec, @Dictator4Hire:

I do think we should see if Kagome can build a stupid-bomb on a long time-delay, without arming it. It can be large, taking up a wall in the cave if need be. Ideally we can arm it before leaving if we need to burn our bridges (and everything else), or scrape it off with a MEW if we don't need it anymore.

(It's a stupid-bomb, because it takes stupid numbers of all the explosive seals kagome knows about, and triggers them all at once. In a cave, under a mountain, with a village and temple on top. This is a very stupid idea. The long delay timer is so that we can be far away from the very stupid idea when it goes off.)
 
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@Traiden It's a pretty good idea, but my worry is that the cave stone will absorb the heat too quickly. I'm still going to add it to the plan, though.

@Jello_Raptor I've been working under the assumption that all seal/bloodline/jutsu research is under heavy guard. I'm emphasizing the need for more heavy guard when Noburi fucks with seals.

And that stupid bomb idea? Kagome would tell you, after he's done screaming and running around, that it's a bad idea to do under any situation save to kill yourself.
 
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