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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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This feels incomplete to me, specifically the section on the wedding, so I'm not voting for it yet, but here's my suggestion for the next few days. What I'm in particular still working on are ideas on how Kannagi might react and how we respond to said reactions.

[] Action Plan: Stinking Ninja Lying Got Us This Far

Goals:
  1. Remind Takahashi that it is very much in the village's interest that we leave here alive.
  2. Convince Kannagi to break off the wedding.
This plan covers enough time to talk to the team about the two plans, and to enact either or both if the team decides to. If neither plan is enacted, the update should end with the strategy meetings. However far we get in enacting the plans, the update should take no more than 6 days.
  • Blackmail
    • Have a strategy session with the team on whether we want to blackmail the village. If we do, then Keiko would need to tell him about it during one of her training sessions. She would tell him that we have concerns about the huge gaps in our knowledge about the mechanics of how this is all going to play out, about the fact that the plan calls for us to likely be attacked by fanatics that we're supposed to find some way to fight off non-lethally, that the training that Keiko is receiving is entirely untried, and that the plan involves us putting large amounts of faith in Takahashi's good will. So, we want to make sure it is very clear that if this plan blows up for us, it blows up for everyone.
      • Does Mari think it's a good idea?
      • How does Keiko feel about it, given her role?
      • Presumably, Takahashi already knows from talking to Keiko that we're here because the Leaf spymaster gave us a lead on the scroll. If we don't know for sure based on Keiko's report of her first conversation with him, verify that.
      • Without needing to take any other action, we could point out to Takahashi through Keiko that eventually Jiraiya will give up on us if he never hears from us again. When he does, he will tell other ninja about the same lead he told us about, and they will also find the village. It's nearly certain that those ninja will be both stronger than us, and forewarned that another team vanished following the same lead.
      • We could send a letter to Jiraiya saying essentially his lead was solid; we are working on closing the deal, but it's all very delicate and could be completely mucked up if outside forces intervened; if he doesn't get a full, in-person report from us in a month and a half, assume we're dead.
      • If we decide to send a letter, does Mari feel that sneaking out of the village will be harder than sneaking to the shrine? If so, brainstorm ways to make it easier. See Action Plan: You've Got Mail for ideas.
    • Talk to Mari alone before the grand strategy meeting. Assuming she doesn't nix the whole idea of blackmailing the village before we even have the full meeting:
      • Technically, we don't need to have actually set up any kind of blackmail. Since Keiko is the only one Takahashi will be seeing before the council meeting, all we need is for Keiko to believe we have done so.
      • We could justify it to Keiko as turning our weaknesses into a strength, but the part where we can't get her buy-in is still bad.
      • Mari could get her buy-in by talking to her in her genjutsu, then wiping her memory. Since we don't know the price, though, we can't make any kind of guess as to whether it's worth it to avoid the risk of getting caught sneaking out.
  • Wedding
    • In either the same or another strategy meeting, talk about how to break off the wedding with Yuno. Since Kannagi is avoiding us, we'll need to get word to him indirectly. Since the only other person to actually break it off with ourselves is Yuno, and we don't want to do that, we want an indirect option instead.
      • Suggest that Mari should go to Noburi's next courtship training session with the Kannagi matron, assuming she hasn't been doing that anyway.
      • Mari tells the matron that instead of the normal training, we need to start working on a protocol for while Noburi is away meeting his cultural requirements for marriage.
      • Since our culture requires that he (Complete his medical training/Kill an enemy ninja in combat/Hey, it's Mist, after all. How about spend a year as a pirate raiding enemy coasts) obviously he can't do that here.
      • If the team is ok with bringing up the idea of Yuno coming with us, point out that in our culture, that's how we would handle it. Then she could take care of her coming-of-age requirements at the same time.
      • For this to work, we need a reason why someone else on the team (especially Keiko if she gets the contract) can't stay in the village as a token of good faith.
      • Suppose Kannagi wants to send Yuno with us. Is the team ok with that? What if he wants to send other family members as an escort for her? Also, what do we do about the fact that unless Noburi wants to continue dating her after we leave the village (not just ok with, but actively would like to), we'd be taking her from her home under false pretenses?
 
To all the blackmail people:
  • We don't need blackmail against the village as a a whole. The only important groups who will go against us are Inoue and Aida, with Gasai being pissed off at us but not having a position of power. Takahashi, Yoshida, Kannagi (he betrayed us, but in a different way), and now Azai and Shusuke are on our side in some fashion. This will continue after the vote actually occurs because otherwise Takahashi wouldn't expect the vote to pass.
  • Making blackmail along the lines of "We will expose you to the international community if you fuck with us" is more than enough to get almost everyone against us. Azai and Shusuke are allies of convenience, as is Kannagi; Takahashi and Yoshida would dump us in a heartbeat if we did this.
  • Also, seriously. We've already tried this in a more peaceful fashion. Inoue-sensei veto'd it then, she'll veto this one now. And we'll get less XP from being stupid.
 
faflec said:
To all the blackmail people:
  • We don't need blackmail against the village as a a whole. The only important groups who will go against us are Inoue and Aida, with Gasai being pissed off at us but not having a position of power. Takahashi, Yoshida, Kannagi (he betrayed us, but in a different way), and now Azai and Shusuke are on our side in some fashion. This will continue after the vote actually occurs because otherwise Takahashi wouldn't expect the vote to pass.
  • Making blackmail along the lines of "We will expose you to the international community if you fuck with us" is more than enough to get almost everyone against us. Azai and Shusuke are allies of convenience, as is Kannagi; Takahashi and Yoshida would dump us in a heartbeat if we did this.
  • Also, seriously. We've already tried this in a more peaceful fashion. Inoue-sensei veto'd it then, she'll veto this one now. And we'll get less XP from being stupid.
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My reading of the previous update was that our previous plan got nixed for the dual reasons of wanting to talk to people who are not Takahashi, and wanting to meet with Takahashi outside Keiko seeing him for training. So I fixed those for my plan. Now, that doesn't mean that that portion can't get nixed anyway, but it's not obvious that it will or that it was bad to talk it through with the group, especially since we're presenting Mari with the option to ratchet all the way down to a "look, we're all in this together no matter what we do at this point, so just make sure your plan contingencies treat us making it through this alive as important too".

I'm not completely tied to it, though. I've added it because people have brought up the legitimate issues mentioned in the Keiko-talking-to-Takahashi section and have been looking for something to do about it. But if I've misread the mood of the thread and a number of people like the Yuno portion of the plan and not so much the blackmail, it can be tamped down to only bring up the inevitable appearance of future ninja, or removed altogether.

Also, it may need to be updated even if people want to keep it, because going back over the update where Keiko talked to Takahashi the first time, it's still entirely possible that Keiko mentioned that we had interacted with Jiraiya, but it seems likely that she did keep from him that we got the lead on the scroll from Jiraiya, as opposed to finding it ourselves. So Takahashi may not realize that a pointer to this area is still out there in the world.
 
Go up the mountain from the main settlement for about a third of a mile and you come to a flat space covered in grass. There you will find a small pool fed by a crystal-clear spring that comes down from above and then exits at the opposite end of the pool. Beside this pool sits the holy of holies for the Village Hidden in the Mountain: the Founder's Shrine.

For such an important place, it's quite modest -- twenty feet on a side, all in natural wood, with a scalloped roof like a prayer arch. There are no windows.

Attached to the front of the shrine is a wooden corridor, perhaps twenty feet long and four feet wide, its roof covered in cedar shingles. There are, again, no windows, only a pair of French doors at the front. The doors are made of wood banded with steel, and they open out. The outside of the shrine and its entryway are covered in murals, painted by generations of villagers. These murals show the founding and history of the village -- a tribute to the difficulty of this land. They show the attacks by chakra monsters, the diseases that have swept away dozens of scores over the centuries, and the granite strength of the people who have remained unmoved by these challenges and stood faithful to their charge no matter the cost.
 
[X] Darkest before the Dawn
We've gotten Keiko what she needs to pass trial by combat, but we haven't gotten her what she needs to pass trial by diplomacy. Let's spend the rest of our time before the trial having her practice a bit of diplomacy, manipulation, and/or other "take-lead" activities.

Goals:
  1. Survive.
  2. Avoid serious village interaction.
  3. Prepare Keiko for the trial v2.
  4. Figure out how to deal with Yuno.
  5. Get information about religion and culture from Yuno.
  6. Prepare contingencies for if Takahashi/Kannagi/others betray us and/or start shit.
  7. Train/research.
Methods:
  1. Minimize interaction with the village outside of required communications and meetings.
    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. If asked about our lack of interaction, 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. 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 change things up.
        1. Ask Takahashi more on the prophecy he hinted at in the last update.
        2. Discuss options on Yuno and angered villagers as seen in other stages of the plan.
        3. 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. Try to get information on Hillbilly Mountain religion and culture from Yuno.
    1. We want to come across as wanting to make sure we don't do something inadvertently insulting and getting the marriage cancelled or attacked by insulted Kannagi clan members.
    2. Information to acquire:
      1. Religious or cultural practices.
        1. Excuse: To ensure we'd be capable of doing them when the time comes.
        2. Actual reason: To see if we can get more info from the shrine or the trial.
      2. How the wedding ceremony will take place.
        1. Excuse: To make sure we don't flub things up since that would be fatally embarassing.
        2. Actual reason: To make sure the wedding won't get sprung up against us.
      3. History and myths of Hillbilly Mountain.
        1. Excuse: Cultural integration/exchange.
        2. Actual reason: To ferret out information about the "prophecy of Ui's heir".
  5. Prepare contingencies for betrayal and attempted murder:
    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. If people try to force us to marry early, attempt to delay/stall using above plans. Run if failure.
    4. 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.).
  6. Train/research.
    1. This is a reminder.

Shitty plan is shitty. Tell me if there's stuff to add.
 
ChronOblivion said:
We were just told again that we can't meet with Takahashi or any elder. Messages and correspondence might be able to go through Keiko, but we can't meet with him.
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I actually never understood that since Keiko still goes to Takahashi for training every. single. day. It just doesn't make sense for me. But yes, I want Keiko to be the one to bring this up, which is why it's under her nametag.
 
faflec said:
Whenever Keiko goes to train, she goes with Inoue and Hazou.
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Why Hazou too? Mari has Kei covered, and it seems unlikely someone will try shit in Takahashi compound. 'cept Taka himself. He probably won't.
Better have Hazou and Akane cover for Noburi again. If locals think they are on a date they won't be inclined to bother us, and 3 genin+Yuno is a decent force.

faflec said:
Keiko needs to not break a leg, sprain an ankle, or any other bullshit that can weaken her.
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faflec said:
Suggest setting up obstacle courses for her to train on with her physical skills + Zephyr's Reach.
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Let's keep her physical to kata and stretches and shit, obstacle course seems like a great way to sprain an ankle or something.

And yeah, there will be no talking to Takahashi aside from Keiko's visits. She should ask about the prophecy, and also if he intends to take his daughter along to the vote again *hint* *hint*
 
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Muer'ci said:
Why Hazou too? Mari has Kei covered, and it seems unlikely someone will try shit in Takahashi compound. 'cept Taka himself. He probably won't.
Better have Hazou and Akane cover for Noburi again. If locals think they are on a date they won't be inclined to bother us, and 3 genin+Yuno is a decent force.



Let's keep her physical to kata and stretches and shit, obstacle course seems like a great way to sprain an ankle or something.

And yeah, there will be no talking to Takahashi aside from Keiko's visits. She should ask about the prophecy, and also if he intends to take his daughter along to the vote again *hint* *hint*
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Have Noburi give her (and the rest of the team, for that matter) a once over beforehand, to make sure everyone's in peak condition.
 
I left details of the angry mob off of my plan, since I set it to end with at least about a week left before we're expecting it.

But if we get an angry villager attack after a successful council vote, then presumably that means that it is an illegal action. So all we should need to do in that case is have a way to generate a lot of light/noise to attract attention, and to be able to survive until the village responds. Especially since our allies on the council will also be expecting it and should be prepared to respond. On the downside, I'll note that we just moved into a cave that's near the Aida clan leader's house. We may want to be prepared to spend the night after the vote back in the original fort instead.
 
We should arrive late, by about 5 minutes to this event. Let their anger unbalance their carefully planned event that we do not let them order us around as we have led them to believe they could. Carefully add insults to our actions where we can, and then flatter their neighbors within the same breath. We are not to bow so easily to the whim of the village and break the pattern we have kept to. This is an important event, so we are to be respectful enough that they can not act so overtly without going against what ever plan they have put into place.
 
We have spent so much time being docile and Shy, it's now time for us to be bold brash, excited about the village and its people. Pay compliments too those we find physically attractive, make eye contact, subvert every expectation they have of us so far. Maximize contact with all the villagers and talk with each and every single one of them if we can manage it. Pay compliments and insults, live! Bask in the sweet honey that is life. Noburi should court Yuno in ways that he finds appropriate. Do not let tradition dictate how love should be. Embrace in public, kiss, share in laughter.

We have to do more to throw them off with how we have acted up until now. We must act as if we have not a care in the world and we have just discovered that life is filled with wonder. Make them envious of our joy and how we can embrace life to its fullest. That does not mean that we should not being cautious in our joy, we should always be expecting to die at every turn but not to let that bring our spirits down. This Village and this whole world in general is too filled with sorrow and pain that we cannot do anything but Embrace what life what we have, that is what we should be showing the villagers of this isolated town.

We should throw a festival. We should gather up as much surplus supplies as we can manage and cook a feast, clean the the entire Village and decorate it, make it a party to remember. Invite all and throw the grandest festival before doing the thinges that Taka wants of us. Show off with Feats of skill, teach them arts and games that we have developed and share them freely. Invent new ones just for this Village so that they can also find joy in life, demand that they bring out their games of skill and chance. Do all this on the days leading up to the date set. Use the festivities to help better prepare Keiko by throwing off the script that the village expects of us.
 
Never better, why do you ask? Are you off balanced by my sudden 180 in aditude, cause that is the point of this plan I am working on. I am having to type and speak to my phone right now, so it will be very rough as far as grammar is concerned. But I have to get the spark of inspiration down on a more permanent medium than just my mind.
 
I think being ignored finally drove him off the deep end guys, let's just walk away and ignore him some more. Nothing to see here.
 
@Traiden

To what end?

What nefarious plan will we be implementing while the elders are all panicking about us going off script?

How I see this going:

Yoshida: AAARGH! This wasn't supposed to happen!

Takahashi: So? We can still assassinate them like we were planning.

Yoshida: ...oh. Right. Yeah. I guess their party doesn't stop that, does it. If anything it gives us a pretext to kill them for the crime of cultural subversion.

Takahashi: Yup.

(Elders continue plotting The Party's deaths)
 
But now they don't have an accurate read on our expected response. Thus they have to plan for a much wider range of eventualities. And that will weaken the main plan that they expect to kill us or at least drive us off without us obtaining our goal. Social manipulation is more than just having a bigger stick or the sharpest knife. The majority of our actions within the village have been to limit ourselves, isolate ourselves into our base. They expect us to Turtle up and strengthen our porch if it came to an attack. This is a two-part plan one of misdirection and also of subverting their culture as they would want us not to do. We have already gotten a major hint on the effects of spoiling our teacher, this just capitalizes on that, their weak point. We've worked hard to try to ingratiate ourselves to their morals, now it's time for them to see you what ours are actually. Or at least what our idealized version of how people should act when together in a safe setting.

The putting up of decorations would just be that misdirection they know that we have a seal Master within our group possibly two and anything that we do around the village will be scrutinised to an extreme degree. So we do nothing of the sort and we do exactly as our actions indicate, clean and make beautiful. Let them exhaust themselves on possibilities that never where.

By throwing up so many misdirecting signs about our possible actions, they might slip up and reveal what they have been planning for us and their response to us going off script. So much of our specialities of our group lay in hiding and ambushes and we have acted to that script well. Every probing test of the village has revealed what we do Under Pressure or at least what are immediate responses would be.

With our sudden shift in attitude and actions they might think we have also figured them out and might change their defenses accordingly, leaving them weak and Ill prepared for our actions when we take them. So instead of the 50 people with bows shooting us from afar as they CDG Airport they may choose to do a more mobile battle in which they try to chase us out of the village and away from the areas that we have cleaned or done any sort of Festival preparations. Which would be much more to our advantage. We don't actually have to figure out what their plan is, just make them think we have figured out what their plan is and I have changed our actions to suit our needs better. It is a giant Bluff and one that I think will work. The seal Master isn't happy unless he's done something that would guarantee his victory after all.
 
So? They were planning to do so anyway, weren't they? I'm not saying that just be happy and joyful as we smile and let them kill us, I'm talking about instituting a revolution with the youths of the village and those who think they deserve to be treated better than they are by showing them an example of how they could be treated. By making this the best party slash Festival ever we can try to influence the people who participate to have any more positive view of our group. It's real easy to demonize people who stay in their caves and plot to destroy the village after all but not to destroy those who throw very fun festivals and make the children laugh with joy. By isolating ourselves from the villagers we have given them a clear delineation of who is with us and who is against us for the villagers to use politically. "They injure our youths whenever we do with friendly spar with them" "They have only mean things to say when we do interact with them." "They willingly court the lowest of our number and can't get that right."

We have no positive representation within the village and that is hurting us in the long run. And we have played right into their hands with it's, by throwing us up against their most abrasive members of their own village they influence our way of seeing them the same way that they influence how the rest of the village sees us.

So they try to kill us before their plans scheduled killing of us. That is to our favor, they do not have all the pieces in place and have to act without all the advantages they could muster. Do not attack a seal master in his own shop, is not just a saying for seal Masters only.
 
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