"Not a traitor, Eeny. I just don't think Shika's wrong. Shino is a terrible matchup for you and this is a game, not a real fight. There's things you could do on a real battlefield that might let you win, but you can't do them here because they would either kill Shino or breach OPSEC on Leaf secrets. Gōketsu already took enough of a risk with his 'fireball' seals, we don't need to add to the problem." He took another bite of the compote and then grinned. "Although, that was utterly hilarious. Worth the risk, if you ask me. The expression on that Hot Springs kid...."
Note, it's possible Nara sealmasters have already replicated Macerators (if they're not protected by clan secrets).
 
The sneks said they don't need a new summoner. Likely means Oros still got the job

That's nice for them, but does Asuma know that? If nothing else, it suggests a private advantage regarding knowledge about the gameboard.

If I recall correctly, it's impossible to be a summoner twice. That suggests that Orochimaru isn't interested in the scroll prize. Previous conversations indicate that he might be interested in the voting clan status, which is more private information. The Inuzuka would almost undoubtedly value the dog summoning scroll more than anybody else. We have connections to ISC, two of which came out well from the event and take their marching orders from a third who we have the deepest connection to. These sound like the ingredients of an alliance which could net us 2.5 prizes if we are willing to forfeit the dog scroll to our intensely grateful new allies the Inuzuka.
 
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Also, it seems as if the pox blankets still need to be shut down hard.

I know that it's only a subjective personal opinion, but I can't shake the feeling that existential showdowns with four S-class/elite-jounin might be enough for a newly frocked brain-damaged chuunin for a single apocalyptic week without getting another righteously furious Sannin involved. Just a thought.
 
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That's nice for them, but does Asuma know that? If nothing else, it suggests a private advantage regarding knowledge about the gameboard.

If I recall correctly, it's impossible to be a summoner twice. That suggests that Orochimaru isn't interested in the scroll prize. Previous conversations indicate that he might be interested in the voting clan status, which is more private information. The Inuzuka would almost undoubtedly value the dog summoning scroll more than anybody else. We have connections to ISC, two of which came out well from the event and take their marching orders from a third who we have the deepest connection to. These sound like the ingredients of an alliance which could net us 2.5 prizes if we are willing to forfeit the dog scroll to our intensely grateful new allies the Inuzuka.

I'm still not sure if the Inuzuka would want the dog scroll. Their nin-ken are their partners, it'd be disrespectful to slobber over the idea of summoning a dog rather than working with the one you've been training with for years and years.
 
I'm still not sure if the Inuzuka would want the dog scroll. Their nin-ken are their partners, it'd be disrespectful to slobber over the idea of summoning a dog rather than working with the one you've been training with for years and years.

My mental model says they'll literally kill for it, but in any case it should be an easy enough thing to check.
 
That's nice for them, but does Asuma know that? If nothing else, it suggests a private advantage regarding knowledge about the gameboard.
Yes? It's incredibly stupidly obvious. He even mentioned Snakes when talking about how Oro fights.

If I recall correctly, it's impossible to be a summoner twice.
This has never been mentioned within a chapter, but I'm not going to assume that means you are wrong, just that it might be a good idea to ask again, @Velorien, @eaglejarl, @OliWhail.

My mental model says they'll literally kill for it, but in any case it should be an easy enough thing to check.
Where are you even getting that from? We've had exactly 0 indication they want it of any kind beyond random people making that assumption. I'm sure they'd go for any scroll if it could be obtained within reason, but we never heard a peep about them going to extreme lengths to get the dog scroll.
 
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So, let's talk XP for a moment:

Right now, Hazou has 149 XP listed on his character sheet. If my estimates of missing XP payments are accurate, he should be about 16 XP ahead of that, give or take, and so we can tentatively say that Hazou is at 165 XP.

There are two things really worth going for right now: Prophet of the Out and Shadow Clone. It was essentially assumed until now that we would go for Prophet of the Out before Shadow Clone, as we expected to need to get to CR 35 before getting the technique. However, the recent scene with Keiko learning it shows that we only need CR 26, which pushes the timeline forward considerably. So, let's compare the two:
  • Prophet of the Out: flat 200 XP stunt.
  • Shadow Clone: CR 20-26 (costing 322 XP) and Shadow Clone 1-10 (55 XP) for a total of 377 XP.
Hazou is, again, currently modelable as at 165 XP. This means he is 35 XP away from PotO or 212 XP away from Shadow Clone. Assuming a somewhat generous 4 XP/day, that puts PotO 10 days away and Shadow Clone 53 days away.

The reason to rush Shadow Clone is that the sooner we get it the sooner we start getting bonus XP from it. My very rough estimate for how much Shadow Clone buffs our XP gain is +1/day[1]​, so we can relate 'pushing back Shadow Clone acquisition by X days' to 'missed out on X hypothetical Shadow Clone XP' and probably not be too wrong.

Taking our generous 4 XP/day estimate (and yes I'm totally rounding up for simplicity of calculation), if we spend 200 XP on PotO we push back Shadow Clone by 50 days, which by my SC predictions would cost us 50 XP[2]​, give or take according to how wrong my estimates are.

Does this mean we should get Shadow Clone first? Not necessarily. For one, our Severe Consequence currently penalizes our Chakra Reserves by 4 levels, and if we pushed up to CR 26 we would face a 6 level penalty. If we wanted to get Shadow Clone before the Consequence ended we would need to hit CR 34 so that the -8 Consequence penalty leaves us at effective 26. Needless to say this is suboptimal, and in point of fact we'd get over the consequence before we hit that high a CR anyways. The Consequence has approximately 75 days left before it wears out, so we can essentially declare that we cannot get Shadow Clone before it is gone. The cost of getting both upgrades is 577 XP, 412 more than we currently have, or just over 100 days of XP accumulation from now. This means that if we prioritize Shadow Clone we get it only 25 days earlier than if we prioritize PotO.

That's not the only matter, though, we also have to keep track of the world as time marches on and the QMs keep throwing kaiju at us. 10 days isn't much time, easily within the bounds of Konoha's two-month game and quite plausibly attainable before the next kaiju hits. 75 days is definitely outside the bounds of the competition and likely not attainable before the next kaiju hits. If we value having one of our fancy powerups on-hand before the next segment of the event chain hits, PotO is the only one we can grab.

Further, the Consequence and our clan's reaction to it presents a curious situation with respect to Prophet of the Out. We don't quite know exactly what will happen when we take it, if the Consequence is still up and we're still in quarantine. It's possible that a noticeable shift in Hazou's personality to become more Out-like pushes them over the edge and we'll have to talk our way out of being caldera'd. It's possible that getting the stunt specifically about integrating the Out into our psyche will cause the QMs to rule a special exception to the Consequence rules and say that the mental damage we have been struggling against is now no longer damage. It's possible that both of the above happen, or neither. Whether this makes early-PotO more appealing or less appealing to you, I cannot dictate.

There are undoubtedly other minor aspects of our IC context that we would want to take into consideration before we make this choice, but I feel the aspects above are our most important ones. I would like to encourage speculation about that paragraph just above about whether or not we'll get cladera'd if we take PotO early, since I feel like it's kinda important and we should have at least a best guess on the matter before deciding. Whatever path we choose, let's try and get on the same page for the upsides and downsides of each path.

[1] This is based off of the fact that Jiraiya told us that Shadow Clone makes Leaf jounin marginally better. A typical Leaf Jounin will have spent something like a decade without Shadow Clone and maybe a year or two with it, and that results in a non-negligible but only marginal increase in total skill (not growth rate) over not having Shadow Clone. I could crunch the loose estimates on how much total XP a Jounin would have and how much XP Shadow Clone would have needed to provide to give a, say, +10% increase to it, but I'll just go with +1 XP/day as a reasonable-sounding answer.​

[2]Since I've had to debate this previously on discord and would like to spare the hassle, when I say 'cost us' I mean 'if you compare the worldstates in which we chose to get PotO first and the worldstates in which we chose to get Shadow Clone first, all else being equal the Hazou in Shadow Clone-verse would have 50 XP more than the Hazou in PotO-verse because Shadow Clone-verse Hazou got Shadow Clone early'. I believe that this counts as a valid 'cost' to pursuing PotO first that is directly comparable with the direct XP expenditure of purchasing the PotO stunt.​


edit: I have been informed on discord that Consequences don't affect our CP totals. Ignore everything I said about needing to wait for the consequence to go away, keep the 50 XP difference between PotO-path and SC-path, and accordingly adjust the kaiju-ometer for the 53-days timescale.
 
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Yes? It's incredibly stupidly obvious. He even mentioned Snakes when talking about how Oro fights.


This has never been mentioned within a chapter, but I'm not going to assume that means you are wrong, just that it might be a good idea to ask again, @Velorien, @eaglejarl, @OliWhail.


Where are you even getting that from? We've had exactly 0 indication they want it of any kind beyond random people making that assumption. I'm sure they'd go for any scroll if it could be obtained within reason, but we never heard a peep about them going to extreme lengths to get the dog scroll.

So, the council knows, though it may not have spread beyond there.

I freely admit I'm operating on intuition in the matter of the Inuzuka.
 
So, let's talk XP for a moment:
Nice post. Me gusta.

Since I've had to debate this previously on discord and would like to spare the hassle
*handwaves*

In the present context (of the post) I would agree that you can reasonably ballpark utility changes with XP guesstimates.

Its a bit of a different ballgame if you're looking at "Buy Summoning Scroll Acolyte and ten levels of calligraphy versus spend 7ish (instead of 9?) months to get Shadow Clones" since at that scale one of the variables (namely, sealing research projects done over the course of some period of time) majorly influencing your utility function has the potential to change quite a lot, and it probably should be taken into account. This turns it into more of a multidimensional optimization problem ("Do I get more value by sinking this XP into Sealing stuff and then grinding out sealing projects for the 9 months of chakra reserves training for SC, or should I just take 7 months to get to SC?" ), which is more of a headache.

Now, the real conundrum is if theres some dark horse candidate that we should sink our XP into so that it majorly influences things with this contest thing (which will provide major short and long term gains) to the tune of "You are now the Dog Summoner.". I'd argue "Probably not, since I can't think of any super good strategies that absolutely require Hazou level Stat X up to do them that couldn't be matched with something else that doesn't." but YMMV.
 
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Nice post. Me gusta.


*handwaves*

In the present context (of the post) I would agree that you can reasonably ballpark utility changes with XP guesstimates.

Its a bit of a different ballgame if you're looking at "Buy Summoning Scroll Acolyte and ten levels of calligraphy versus spend 7ish (instead of 9?) months to get Shadow Clones" since at that scale one of the variables (namely, sealing research projects done over the course of some period of time) majorly influencing your utility function has the potential to change quite a lot, and it probably should be taken into account. This turns it into more of a multidimensional optimization problem ("Do I get more value by sinking this XP into Sealing stuff and then grinding out sealing projects for the 9 months of chakra reserves training for SC, or should I just take 7 months to get to SC?" ), which is more of a headache.

Now, the real conundrum is if theres some dark horse candidate that we should sink our XP into so that it majorly influences things with this contest thing (which will provide major short and long term gains) to the tune of "You are now the Dog Summoner.". I'd argue "Probably not, since I can't think of any super good strategies that absolutely require Hazou level Stat X up to do them that couldn't be matched with something else that doesn't." but YMMV.
Of course, I tackle the question of the context of the world shortly after bringing up the 'XP cost' of delaying Shadow Clone (albiet not the exact issues you mentioned). My point is more that the XP cost can be quantified and is relevant to our cost-benefit analyses, if only taking up a portion of them.

"Taking PotO before SC would cost us 50 XP" is not a final statement of 'Taking PotO before SC is an inherently inferior choice', it's a statement that there is an additional cost to worry about on top of the other costs we're already worrying about.
 
Interlude: The Only One I Can Trust
Interlude: The Only One I Can Trust

We're finally here, Satsuko! I told you we shouldn't kill those patrol ninja, and I was right! We're in the Village Hidden in the Leaves, the Pangolin Summoner's home! His home. What do I do, Satsuko? I'm not very good at talking to people, and they can't hear you at all, and I don't know their barbarian customs, and they certainly don't know Isan's proper customs that make everything so simple and easy. I don't think they'll trust me even if I kill things for their benefit, which is what ninja do to earn trust.

The Hokage was very nice to me. He had them bring me tea, and he used that mild voice that people use when they're about to switch into yelling at you, only then he didn't yell at me. After the journey I'd had, part of me wanted to curl up in his office and never leave. I knew the leader of the strongest hidden village had to be strong, and he looks strong, but I didn't think he'd be kind as well.

I wonder, though, if he'll still be as kind after I tell him Isan's location. When people are kind to you, it usually means they want something, and they'll go back to being cruel once they're done. Besides, he became head of the village without being born to it. You can't do that unless you're better than anyone else at lying and manipulating. The High Priest is living proof of that. And I've already proved how gullible I am.

Then again, he wants me to marry his nephew. That's not something you can take back after you've got what you want. What if it's for real this time? What if this is the point when everything changes? What if he looks me in the eyes for over two seconds and then it goes how it's supposed to?

He says his nephew's a summoner, or close enough. Can you imagine me marrying a summoner? I'll be one of the most important people in the village, and people will have to respect me, and sooner or later I'll have someone who loves me. That's right, Satsuko. This time I'll listen to your advice. There are all sorts of ways to make a boy like you, assuming you can stop him from getting away, and I apologise for being too angry to use any of them last time. Maybe I'd be here now, only married to him, and my life would be perfect. Do you think I'd still want to kill things if everything was already in colour?

Oh, that reminds me. This place is like a clan head's private chambers (not that I've ever been in any), and they assign it to some random ninja they've never heard of before. Diplomatic quarters, they call it. What do you suppose diplomacy is? I guess it must involve foreign ninja, since I'm a foreign ninja and they're putting me here.

You know, I've worked so hard, Satsuko, and we've travelled so much, and all those missing-nin we met were so helpful eventually, and I still barely know anything. The guards answer some of my questions, but I think it's mostly to shut me up. I wish I had feminine wiles to trick them into being more helpful.

I hope I get to marry the Turtle Summoner soon. I know I can make him happy. I've trained so hard to be a good bride. I can cook. I can wash, and clean, and I'm very good at getting blood out of clothes, which even the other villagers admit is a vital ninja skill. I can keep track of money even when income and outgoings are complicated—I studied the clan financial records when nobody was watching. I can arrange flowers, and perform tea ceremonies, and I know how to make a home look beautiful. I've done everything a woman can do to be ready. Except I don't know those skills, since nobody's ever wanted to, well, you know, and you can't really train them on your own. Will that be all right? What if I'm not good enough?

No, it doesn't matter. Once we're married, he'll have no choice but to accept me the way I am. I hope I get to marry him soon, before they decide I'm unworthy because I don't know their barbarian ways, or decide I'm unclean because of… of whatever reason everyone decided I was unclean back in Isan. It's not like it made sense then, either.

What will our children be like? We're going to have many children. Will they have my red eyes or his pale ones? My eyes are very rare. They're supposed to be proof of a cursed bloodline, but I inherited them from Mummy, and no one ever says she was cursed. If I can't pass them on, it'll be like she never existed. But on the other hand, his eyes are from one of the greatest Bloodline Limits in history. Who could ever say they don't want their children to have a Bloodline Limit?

But before I can be happy, I have to deal with Isan. Satsuko, I have to talk to the Pangolin Summoner, even if it means facing him. She's the only one who's going to want to save Isan rather than just use it.

-o-​

No, I can't sleep either, Satsuko. It's all too much. The Pangolin Summoner is from one of the Five Forbidden Clans. She's married into another of the Five Forbidden Clans. How does that work? Is that allowed? What happens if they have children? Will the world end? Or will the children be double-Forbidden, so you aren't allowed to even look at them funny? What kind of powers will they have? They say the Nara are cursed with sloth, and the Mori are cursed with acedia. What if the children waste away because their lives don't mean anything to them? I'm afraid to ask, because the Pangolin Summoner has an unapproachable feel to her, and the last thing I can afford to do is offend her.

And then him. Gōketsu Noburi. Can you imagine a sillier name?

Do you remember when he and I held hands, Satsuko? It was even more forbidden. It was against every law. Grandather would have had a heart attack. The elders would have had me bound with laurels on a full moon. Everyone would think that Gasai Yuno was that kind of girl. But it was an explosion of colour unlike anything I'd ever known. In that moment, I knew that finally everything was going to be all right.

Then he tore my heart out with his bare hands. He'd been conspiring against me. They'd all been conspiring against me from the start. How had I not noticed? How had I not seen something so predictable coming? I'm pathetic. Now it turns out he was lying to me even at the end, Satsuko. He said he wasn't ready to be married, whatever that meant. Except barbarians are allowed to unmarry each other, and they don't even need permission. He was lying to me even before he asked me to be his… his campfire woman. I don't know why I didn't just feed you his blood like you wanted, Satsuko. I'm sorry.

-o-​

I thought I could just hate him and leave him behind and go marry the Turtle Summoner, Satsuko. It would have been so simple. So easy. Now my head is spinning.

You see this thing called a games night? People come together and play games with complicated rules on a board, or they play games where they pretend to be other people but there are rules to say how, and they let me play with them! It's wonderful. I get to join in, and I'm not the only one who doesn't know the rules, and these people don't all know each other well enough to be conspiring against me the way the Gōketsu were conspiring with everyone last time. Except for her. Akane. She must not have known. I am not going to doubt Akane. Unless she goes after Noburi, in which case—

Why did I just think that? I don't care what happens to him anymore. I must still be dazed from all the gaming.

It's the people. They're throwing me off. There are too many of them, and they're all too close, and you know what being surrounded by people means, Satsuko. That's right. Be ready.

Noburi whispers something to me. I don't want to hear any more of his lies, but when he tells me he's sorry, a little part of me is happy. I'm pathetic, aren't I, Satsuko?

I should talk to him. I should give him one more chance. I know you're right, Satsuko. I know I should probably kill him, if only to get back a little of the colour that he gave me and then took away. But for some reason, I can't. Not right now.

-o-​

Meeting Noburi's best friend was fantastic. It was just what I needed to calm my heart. They're so cute together, aren't they, Satsuko? And I never told Noburi that I already knew the Turtle Summoner's name. I'm glad those two have each other. Hyūga is spiteful on the outside, but you can tell he just really wants someone to love and respect him, and doesn't know how to make it happen. I understand that so badly it hurts. And Noburi's… Noburi, and he's soft around the edges, and he thinks you can glide through life with an open heart and a playful wickedness. Being around him is healing, or it was before he tore out my heart out with his bare hands, but he doesn't understand true hatred, the kind where you have to fight tooth and claw to find reasons why the world shouldn't burn. You've held on to that hatred for me, Satsuko, so I have room to be something else. I don't tell you often enough how grateful I am that you're here for me. But I don't think Noburi will ever truly understand that part of me, and maybe Hyūga might. Besides, Hyūga never broke my heart.

It's all a tangled, horrible mess, Satsuko. How can people live if this is what romance feels like? How is it possible not to know how you feel about someone? How do you find out what it is? What if you need to know now? I think I love-hate Noburi, and I don't know much about Hyūga, and I don't know which is worse. I wish there was someone I could ask for advice. No offence, Satsuko, but you're not great at affairs of the heart unless you're cutting one out. This must be why Isan has such clear rules about how courtship works, while barbarians like Noburi just wander around randomly hurting people.

And then, all of a sudden, there's that. They welcome it back from beyond the grave like it's just coming back from patrol, and they don't attack it or run away. Barbarians. Three asuras in their village, and they do nothing. The One with the Honeyed Tongue that Rends the Earth and Warps the Winds adopted the Gōketsu, and they claim it loved and trusted them, and they are genuinely unhappy that it's dead (and it doesn't even faze them that it took the greatest army in history to do it). The One Who Breaks with One Hand and Remakes with the Other is supposedly their aunt. Are they insane? And now in comes the Serpent that Consumes All It Does Not Understand, and they just shrug and carry on. Do these people not know their myths?

Then, before I can accept this new reality and go back to my own problems, their world ends.

-o-​

They wouldn't let me help with the recovery because I was a foreigner and assigning me a minder would just cancel out, same as they wouldn't let me help out at Mr Tanji's butcher's shop in Isan no matter how many times I offered. Now everyone is too busy with rebuilding, and I'm still not allowed to help, and this time I think it's because they've forgotten me.

Noburi is busy with summoner training, and urgent studies at the hospital because he wants to live up to his family's faith in his medical skills when he's only an apprentice. He doesn't understand that he's already holding miracles in his hands. He's trying to make time to see me, despite it all, and I think that's more convincing than all his explanations that marriage is such an important, life-changing decision—how does he expect me to believe him when his sister got married off at the same age without anyone asking her to make a decision at all? And the whole "wait until you're ready" idea is a joke to begin with. Half of Leaf's new ninja die before they reach Noburi's age, and he thinks he gets to "wait"?

Well, he's out of waiting time now. We both are.

Meanwhile, Akane, the only person who probably won't betray me, the only one who was still there for me (if briefly) after Noburi abandoned me and the rest of his family followed, is too busy for me. She spends her time supporting Lord Hazō, and whenever she's got a moment, she uses it look after her friends who've just lost their families, because she's an incredible person (I don't begrudge her that; nothing's more important than family.)

The Pangolin Summoner is doing important things at the Nara Clan which I'm not allowed to know about. She has an aura of strength and confidence about her that I only wish I could emulate. There's no doubt that she's Ui's heir. But apparently Ui wanted her to leave us behind. If she'd stayed with us, would it still have come to this?

She has a sister, whom I've never met. She's a foreigner too, but I guess she's too important to stay at the diplomatic quarters. I wonder what she's like. Is she as special as the Pangolin Summoner? As serious and dedicated? As difficult to talk to? I wonder if she knows I exist.

Lord Hazō, as he is called now, is too busy building his own village. I'm surprised the other clans are letting him. Back in Isan, just talking about it was anathema. There was a clan that tried it once, and the older generations don't even speak their name. He keeps taking in strangers, and trusting them as if they were his own. He did that for me too, at first.

I'm staying on my toes around Mari like you told me, Satsuko. She's what we could be if I I had better social skills and you weren't a vicious-looking black axe with special grooves for the blood.

Kagome is just plain terrifying. I'm trying to fit in, I really am, but when things go wrong, he'll be the one to kill me. I keep thinking that maybe we should kill him first, in his sleep or when he's in the bath, but then Akane would be angry with me. I don't ever want that.

I should go out there myself. I should take action. I've spent my entire life being independent, and now I'm just sitting there like Katō's cat waiting for something to happen. I've made it this far, Satsuko. How can I choose now to be scared of the world outside, with its countless strangers, and rules I don't know, and atmospheres I can't read, and history and politics and geography and art and medicine and law and military doctrine and ninjutsu of a world that spent centuries growing while ours was standing still, and unimaginable depths of sophistication that everyone takes for granted and will expect me to know, and look at me like a child or an imbecile when I don't? I can't just slaughter all the witnesses when things go wrong, or pick you up and walk away. I have to learn how to live here, with Noburi or with Hyūga, where every mistake is going to be indelible, and where you're the only one I can trust.

I wonder what's happening in Isan now. I hope the bastards are all dead. I hope we'll get there in time to save them.
 
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And then, all of a sudden, there's that. They welcome it back from beyond the grave like it's just coming back from patrol, and they don't attack it or run away. Barbarians. Three asuras in their village, and they do nothing. The One with the Honeyed Tongue that Rends the Earth and Warps the Winds adopted the Gōketsu, and they claim it loved and trusted them, and they are genuinely unhappy that it's dead (and it doesn't even faze them that it took the greatest army in history to do it). The One Who Breaks with One Hand and Remakes with the Other is supposedly their aunt. Are they insane? And now in comes the Serpent that Consumes All It Does Not Understand, and they just shrug and carry on. Do these people not know their myths?
This is either a staggering coincidence, a very spooky prophecy about the Sannin from centuries ago, or improbable intel-gathering from the isolationists somehow passed off as ancient myth.

What does it say that I'm leaning towards it being literal prophecy?
I should go out there myself. I should take action. I've spent my entire life being independent, and now I'm just sitting there like Katō's cat waiting for something to happen.
I've angled to put 'talk to Yuno' in some plans recently, but now I kinda feel it's growing more important to do so. Even if she's steadily starting to make up with Noburi when he has the time, it's good to not forget about her.
 
And now we finally find out what Zephyr's Reach was really meant for, apart from being an excuse to tie up Keiko.

So to improve upon it we need to change it from a technique into a seal so that we can dispense Hug Seals to every Leaf ninja for emotional support on the go:
  1. Take a donor's hug like recording a fingerprint and put it into a seal.
  2. Charge a small fee to create copies of that original seal
  3. The consumer now has access to perfect copies of the donor's hug whenever they want to open one even if the donor dies.
We could even make our own Hug Seals so that we can give them out en masse in times of crisis or to win the hearts and minds of the people by giving them for free to say, orphans or anyone else unlikely to be hugged.

Does anyone else have any suggestions for the Optimized Hug Project? This was meant to be a joke, unless..?
 
I can keep track of money even when income and outgoings are complicated—I studied the clan financial records when nobody was watching.
Well well well. Looks like we found our new accountant.


Except I don't know those skills, since nobody's ever wanted to, well, you know, and you can't really train them on your own. Will that be all right? What if I'm not good enough?
... how exactly would she get those skills without being married? Isan's culture makes you engaged just from looking someone in the eye for too long.

Edit:
*thinks for a second*
Waiiiiiiiit a second. She means social skills, doesn't she?

Then he tore my heart out with his bare hands. He'd been conspiring against me. They'd all been conspiring against me from the start. How had I not noticed? How had I not seen something so predictable coming? I'm pathetic. Now it turns out he was lying to me even at the end, Satsuko. He said he wasn't ready to be married, whatever that meant. Except barbarians are allowed to unmarry each other, and they don't even need permission. He was lying to me even before he asked me to be his… his campfire woman. I don't know why I didn't just feed you his blood like you wanted, Satsuko. I'm sorry.
This may be a bit difficult. But it will be worth it to have an accountant.

And then, all of a sudden, there's that. They welcome it back from beyond the grave like it's just coming back from patrol, and they don't attack it or run away. Barbarians. Three asuras in their village, and they do nothing. The One with the Honeyed Tongue that Rends the Earth and Warps the Winds adopted the Gōketsu, and they claim it loved and trusted them, and they are genuinely unhappy that it's dead (and it doesn't even faze them that it took the greatest army in history to do it). The One Who Breaks with One Hand and Remakes with the Other is supposedly their aunt. Are they insane? And now in comes the Serpent that Consumes All It Does Not Understand, and they just shrug and carry on. Do these people not know their myths?
Where did she learn about the Sannin? Did Isan foretell the Sannin's coming from 400 years ago? Or did she just decide that they fit some vague legend really well?

Kagome is just plain terrifying. I'm trying to fit in, I really am, but when things go wrong, he'll be the one to kill me. I keep thinking that maybe we should kill him first, in his sleep or when he's in the bath, but then Akane would be angry with me. I don't ever want that.
Awwwww, how cute. She thinks Kagome lets his guard down just because he's bathing/sleeping. Well, I guess in fairness she didn't get to see his waterproof seals in action yet.
 
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