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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Add Doom Eternal to that list and March is shaping out to be such an amazing month for games.
 
Velorien said:
Of course, having recognised a worthy rival, G. R. R. Martin is already close to finishing his next novel (according to optimistic fans).
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We're due to dunk on him by June/July, after which I propose the Dresden Files ( 1,997,201 + X this summer) as the next target of our wrath.
 
This is an interesting analysis of another story I am following though it's a little out of date since it started on Volume 7 already:


That's an insane number of words.
 
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Interlude (AU): The Doting Grandfather
  • Sidestory
    • Interlude (AU): The Doting Grandfather

    by @Velorien​

    An impossibly small hand curls around my finger. My grandson's brown eyes gaze at me in blank confusion, yet in them I fancy I see a hint of reason, a promise of great intellect to come. No, doubtless I am seeing only what I want to see.

    An unsubtle indication from the boy forces me to return the baby to its mother, who I suppose deserves full access to the fruit of her labour. So many hours spent in anxious wait—even with the best medic-nin and midwives standing by, the births of Bloodline Limit holders are dangerous affairs, doubly so with a clan like ours. Perhaps I can forgive her husband his discourtesy, since he has spent so long awake by her side that he is almost swaying, despite his shinobi training.

    In fact, I should be even more forgiving of the boy's many failures today, since I could hardly have a grandson without a son-in-law. Today is proof that his adoption was worth the effort taken to persuade my initially hostile wife, and the clan seniors accusing me of unfair bias—as if I would be keen to give away my daughter to the Sage himself, much less a man without talent or clan training to commend him.

    Yes, today of all days, I look at him and am reminded of the one virtue that led me to plead his case in the face of all the excellent reasons to reject him. He has mastered the art, the dramatically rare art of making my daughter happy; more so, I suspect, than I have ever done.

    -o-​

    It is my grandson's third birthday. When he first saw me today, he was riding on his father's shoulders like a Kani on one of their conjured crabs, and upon registering my presence, he proceeded to yell, "A wizened grandpa has appeared!", and called for my prompt incapacitation. I did as any respectable (and perfectly hale) gentleman would do in my place, and evaded the charge at the final instant with a cry of alarm, then shook an impotent fist at my grandson's retreating back. My dear wife, watching from a window, gleefully cheered on their heroics, ignoring the grave insult to my honour.

    Naturally, I shall have my revenge. After all, he has yet to receive his birthday presents.

    For a second, I see myself from outside, and wonder: what would my bitter rivals, or at least the few of them still alive, say if they saw me acting like an ordinary man enjoying ordinary happiness? Perhaps I am overdue a hundred curses, a thousand curses, reaching from beyond to balance the scales. One for every family that now mourns, or every family that now shall never be, for some shinobi's dire sin of being sent to the battlefield against me. Even so, were I offered the chance to return to the past and reduce the casualties on the other side, I would not do so. It is not in my nature to be inefficient.

    -o-​

    It is my grandson's sixth birthday. Soon, he will enter the Academy, a grand milestone for the boy who will lead the clan some distant day. I have organised a celebration to suit, with diverse entertainments and the finest food this village has to offer. I admit my lack of skill with children leaves me envious of my son-in-law, who is not only a natural, but also plays the flute for them with elegance so hypnotic as to rival the best genjutsu. Would that he were so useful in daily life.

    I concede that I have grown to tolerate him over the last several years. While completely bereft of talent, and with little interest in the etiquette and comportment demanded of a proper clan shinobi, he has about him a certain effortless warmth which attracts others like a hearth in winter. One might call it charisma, were he to put it to some practical use. But I admit that where my older daughter has inherited a respectable degree of my rationality, the younger seems to have inherited more of her mother's tempestuousness, and a calming influence in her life might be of more worth than yet another source of competence. That is a thought I could not have come to in my earlier years.

    But lo! My grandson dives at his stack of presents with the dignity and grace of a chakra rabbit tearing ravenously into its prey. I look forward to his expression as first he finds the finest (and incomparably dry) study materials on top, then discovers the box of hand-carved toy shinobi concealed under them.

    Whether he thinks to look underneath the underneath will be yet another test.

    -o-​

    It is my grandson's tenth birthday. I have a headache already building from the chatter of so many children. Not that his Academy friends are so great in number—his main strength, his earnestness, is not a trait terribly appreciated in childhood—but for an occasion such as this, every clan of note has sent a child of his age as a representative. For the most part, it is his silver-tongued best friend who receives the lion's share of attention, but my grandson does not seem to mind. Instead, he is once again in a corner with the Mori girl while her chaperone systematically annihilates our stock of birthday snacks. The Mori girl, who broadcasts every signal of discomfort at such gatherings, verging on distress, relies on my grandson to rescue her from the crowd, whereupon they proceed to discuss my teachings—wonder of wonders, he was listening after all!—and the unique wisdom of the Mori, while the other children drift away, repelled by the intellectual challenge.

    I wonder if it is too early to consider an engagement.

    -o-​

    It is my grandson's fourteenth birthday. He has declined to celebrate. His best friend and his allegedly-not-girlfriend are out there in the wilderness, hunted or perhaps already dead. Being aware of my grandson's concern for them, and it being plain to anyone with a grain of sense that these children could not have turned missing-nin of their own volition, I did call in a favour with Captain Zabuza—which, alas, was wasted, for instead of surrendering on sight, they chose to flee. Yagura needs no greater reason to demand their heads.

    The day passes by. I watch my grandson's silent despair, and feel helpless at my inability to alleviate it. Yet the helplessness does not last forever, for I consider: missing-nin are beings of location, motion, objective, and binary status of innocence versus betrayal. In other words, they can be reduced to a logistics problem.

    I send Ren to speak to the spymaster; ten servants to ten people of power who owe me favours; Shinji to Ami, who has the informal contacts I do not, and the will to use her Mori powers in the name of a girl the rest of her clan has long since disowned. Hana sees to the boy himself. I call together the entirety of the clan, and I bring out maps.

    Between us, we construct a detailed psychological profile for Shin. Ami does the same for Keiko. My secret police contacts contribute Shikigami, Inoue, and Kanna's dossiers. Shinji charms a profile for the additional child out of the Wakahisa. We plot sightings, confirmed and unconfirmed, and trace potential routes.

    As information accumulates, I recognise an all-too-familiar hand at work. Were I he, and these the playing pieces in my hand, and this the board with its twists and turns and patrols and geopolitics…

    Though he is ever a worthy opponent, our advantage is that these are not important pieces. He is not using his full power to protect or conceal them. We predict. Refine. Eliminate. We call in favours and pay mission fees and send out spies who will test our predictions and narrow down the possibilities. The world is not as large as many believe, not for a group of missing-nin whose will is not their own.

    And then, one final step without which none of this would matter.

    Raito and I go to face Yagura. We must accomplish the impossible: not merely secure forgiveness for the unforgivable, but ensure a reinstatement that does not involve "reconditioning" or any of the other tools he trusts more than people.

    Yagura has had people executed for asking less. He who pleads for a traitor is himself a traitor. Yet curiously, I am not afraid. While, like any sane man, I am not given to poetry, a certain fanciful image crosses my mind nonetheless.

    I watch the Angel of Mercy shrug the dried blood off his wings and finally save someone.
     
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  • Sidestory
    • So... who should we adopt next? Noda could probably be swayed, and it'd probably be good for her to allow herself to be swayed. She's kinda volatile and suspicious, but well-adjusted people don't turn to drinking and the other clans have probably given her enough cause to be suspicious of every clan. And as for Aya? She has some heavy trauma and is emphatically against joining our clan --and not just because Hazou seems to remind Aya of her abuser. Honoka seems like an obvious choice, once she graduates from the academy. I'm actually really worried about her health. She's a sweet summer cinnamon roll and the way she's jealous of Hazou is so frickin' adorable.

    Kiba said:
    I hope for more Haru interlude.
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    I'd personally be okay with more Haru. While I didn't like his character at the start, I'm kinda warming up to him. Though I do wish that he'd be a little kinder to his new stepfamily, I understand why that might not necessarily happen.

    Edit: This interlude made my heart hurt a bit.
     
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    Wouldn't Keiko and Noburi still have a third party member?

    Also, I'm curious how similar this grandpa is to our main universe grandpa. Evidently this one had a bit more heart in him. But otherwise?
     
    Yagura reacts badly to this and starts a civil war with the clans, causes Zabuza to go missing-nin, and ending up with much of the Kurosawa killed off and then rising up from the ashes and supporting a certain red headed S-ranker as Mizukage.

    Mist weakened from the civil war and their bijuu stolen, ended up allying with Konoha.
     
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    Oh AU stands for alternative universe. So not canon. I was so confused who the grandad kept referencing.
    Might wanna move the threadmark to Apocrypha.
     
    Rafin said:
    Wouldn't Keiko and Noburi still have a third party member?
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    They do. In canon, Mari picked Hazō because he was an Iron Nerve holder but no one who mattered would miss him. In this AU, he's still the heir's heir, so she went for a different minor Kurosawa.
    roobee said:
    I don't see them? The only ones I found don't mention AU

    edit: found some under sidestory. i guess sidestory works well too
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    The idea is that side stories are non-canon QM material, and apocrypha are non-canon player-written material.

    Edit: There are exceptions which I should go through and re-organise at some point; notably, Chosen for the Grave, which is 100% canon.
     
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