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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Inferno Vulpix said:
Chakra Quantification, a revised proposal:

So, I've been informed that we're now leery of making objective chakra measures public, because it might make it easier to figure out FOOM before we get started on it, which is a no-no. Thankfully, the same principles make it worthwhile still to do this in-house, and allow the Goketsu to objectively quantify chakra and then decide whether we're willing to share our measurements with the outside.

So here's how you do it:

Let's make the following assumption: all jutsu and other chakra effects have constant cost for the same effect. What would we see in such a world? Ratios would remain constant.

Suppose Hazou starts at full chakra and Dispels until he's empty. He would be able to cast it 220 times. Now suppose Keiko starts at full chakra and Dispels until she's empty. She would be able to cast it 260 times. For Dispels, the ratio between Hazou and Keiko is 220/260, or 0.846.

Now suppose Akane starts at full chakra and Dispels until she's empty. She would be able to cast it 300 times. This would give a Hazou/Akane ratio of 220/300, or 0.733, and a Keiko/Akane ratio of 260/300, or 0.867.

Under the assumption that all jutsu have a constant cost, we should expect to see these ratios remain the same no matter what jutsu they're casting.

Suppose Hazou casts Pantokrator's Hammer at level 10 for 16 CP. He would be able to cast it 13.75 (i.e. 13) times before running out. Keiko would be able to cast it 16.25 (i.e. 16) times and Akane would be able to cast it 18.75 (i.e. 18) times. For this jutsu the Hazou/Keiko ratio would be 13/16 = 0.813, the Hazou/Akane ratio would be 13/18 = 0.722, and the Keiko/Akane ratio would be 16/18 = 0.889. We can visualize this as follows:

Hazou/KeikoHazou/AkaneKeiko/Akane
Dispel0.8460.7330.867
Pantokrator's Hammer0.8130.7220.889

While the numbers aren't exact, you can see that they more or less align. The more jutsu we test, and the more people we test it with, the more confident we can be that these ratios belie a constant cost to the techniques and a relatively constant chakra pool.

Now, we don't know if we live in this universe yet, IC. For all we know Hazou casts PH 20% more efficiently than Keiko, who Dispels 30% more efficiently than Akane. If we live in that world then it'd get much harder to determine things. If we can find that some jutsu have nice ratios and other jutsus don't, then we can base our objective chakra system on the jutsu with good ratios and leave the rules for the other jutsu to figure out some other time.

But we do have a trump card, or two. There are two things we can do that are more likely to play nice than others. The first of those being some equivalent to Nightlight seals, and the second of those being Noburi.

It is not implausible that we can design a seal that takes in a fixed amount of chakra from a person, much like the Nightlight seals we saw in Mist. While not guaranteed, it is more likely than a normal jutsu to take the exact same amount of chakra from whoever uses it, and thus give us nice ratios. Similarly, we can ask Noburi to drain from someone at a constant rate, and measure how long it takes for them to go from full to empty. This too I expect to be more likely than a normal jutsu to give nice ratios. We can use these two methods as touchstones in our project to help point us in the right direction.

So essentially what we do is we collect as much data as we can manage, and see if we can see any patterns. If we do, then we can hopefully pick out a jutsu that takes an objective amount of chakra no matter who casts it, and quantify our reserves in terms of it. Our data collection will be limited by the number of techniques we all share and the number of people we can safely conscript into this project without letting it leak (though with Hazou at the head we're already off to a bad start there), but I still think we've got a good shot at finding some good results.
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Ponwog (Personal Opinion, Not Word of God): The QMs haven't discussed this yet, but my hot take is that if it were this easy to quantify chakra then someone would have done it at some point over the centuries. Ergo, it must be non-trivial. The most likely reason for that is that chakra costs are not in fact constant; the Fated to Die mechanics abstract them as constant for convenience, but the actual reality is that they vary from use to use. Perhaps they are even influenced by seasons/astrological signs/whatever. There's probably a degree of skill involved -- we haven't done anything with "chakra control" under these rules because it's too fiddly, but it's undoubtedly a thing in-universe.

Note that I'm simply doing expectation management. I'm not saying that this project would be impossible. I'm not saying it wouldn't be useful, or interesting to do/write. I'm simply saying that it would be difficult and likely take a long time in-universe. (I don't know if "a long time" means months or years, but it's definitely not a few weeks.)
 
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eaglejarl said:
Ponwog (Personal Opinion, Not Word of God): The QMs haven't discussed this yet, but my hot take is that if it were this easy to quantify chakra then someone would have done it at some point during over the centuries would have done so already. Ergo, it must be non-trivial. The most likely reason for that is that chakra costs are not in fact constant; the Fated to Die mechanics abstract them as constant for convenience, but the actual reality is that they vary from use to use. Perhaps they are even influenced by seasons/astrological signs/whatever. There's probably a degree of skill involved -- we haven't done anything with "chakra control" under these rules because it's too fiddly, but it's undoubtedly a thing in-universe.

Note that I'm simply doing expectation management. I'm not saying that this project would be impossible. I'm not saying it wouldn't be useful, or interesting to do/write. I'm simply saying that it would be difficult and likely take a long time in-universe. (I don't know if "a long time" means months or years, but it's definitely not a few weeks.)
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Dang, now I want to write an addendum on doing the same sorts of experiments over time, to see if we can capture and factor out temporal trends. And if something like the modified Nightlight seal that's hyperfocused on taking a very exact amount of chakra still seems to give good-ish results, we could just declare one SI Chakra as that seal, and make like a kilogram and just keep calibrating to it until in the far future better techniques are discovered.
 
One possibility is that clans (like the Nara) have in fact figured out chakra quantification, but just kept it clan secret.

Another possibility, we know from the rules not all jutsu gives constant chakra cost. If we restricted the chakra quantification project to only the simplest jutsu, and if most jutsu isn't simple, than the project will have limited utility. Limited utility being why others haven't devoted much effort to discovering it. Or if they did discover it not caring much about it and never thinking of it again.
 
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Inferno Vulpix said:
Dang, now I want to write an addendum on doing the same sorts of experiments over time, to see if we can capture and factor out temporal trends. And if something like the modified Nightlight seal that's hyperfocused on taking a very exact amount of chakra still seems to give good-ish results, we could just declare one SI Chakra as that seal, and make like a kilogram and just keep calibrating to it until in the far future better techniques are discovered.
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You know what, I'd be okay with voting for a plan like that down the road. I'll add it to my list here in a bit. But first, I'd like to get some social stuff done (check in Honoka/Mari, clear the air with Akane, talk to Noburi about Yuno, etc) and then maybe set up some sanitation experiments before checking out that one mine. We've left that mine alone for faaaar too long and I'm worried that whatever monstrosities are in there are getting stronger.
 
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Makes me wonder, did the original canon ever go over why it was important to stick to your natural elemental affinity? Like, does it cost more "chakra points" to use a different element than your nature, or does it purely affect the ease at which you learn new elemental techniques?

This could play into why it's so hard to quantify Chakra in MfD canon. Not only are there elemental affinities, but everyone has different capacity and efficiency to chakra boost, use non-elemental ninjutsu, and so on, which are affinities of their own. If that's true I don't see how anyone could make a system out of that without being able to account for every mental and biological variable.

I guess we could just brute force test with a chakra drainer like Noburi, draining himself to near zero and then depleting someone else completely and seeing how many dispels he can cast, but that seems pretty inefficient for creating any kind of standard.
 
eaglejarl said:
The most likely reason for that is that chakra costs are not in fact constant; the Fated to Die mechanics abstract them as constant for convenience, but the actual reality is that they vary from use to use. Perhaps they are even influenced by seasons/astrological signs/whatever. There's probably a degree of skill involved -- we haven't done anything with "chakra control" under these rules because it's too fiddly, but it's undoubtedly a thing in-universe.
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Ah-hah! So we make a seal for it instead of relying on these bothersome techniques. :p
 
RandomOTP said:
Or Noburi going from "playboy"
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Nobby is not a playboy or else he would likely not have as much of a problem deciding if he wants to marry Yuno or not (also he would be more like Jinno*), he is just a social butterfly. Besides, he only has problems with girls he has a crush on and that were only Kiri and Keiko in the past and now Yuno.

He never showed to have a problem with Ino or that Hot spring girl for example.

*That guy:
eaglejarl said:
"Don't be twisting my words like that, Itsu! I'm very respectful to all my lovelies."

Hazō raised an eyebrow. "'All'?"

"Yeah. There's Eriko and Manami in Leaf, Ayuka in Tanzaku Gai, Mayuka in this little town down the road about twenty miles, and the lovely Hiroka back in Mist."

Hazō looked questioningly at Nakano. The other boy nodded. "Yeah, I don't know how he does it. It's annoying."

"You picked up a girl in Mist?"

"Well, 'picked up' would be a strong word."

"Dunno," Genda said. "Looked like a pick up to me. Pick, grin, words, up, zoom. Yūdai special."
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we really should spend more time with him, he should be learning sealing from Kagome anyway.

RandomOTP said:
Mari, fresh from the realization that she's not what her memories claim
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Mari's memories are still mostly intact, she just lost/corrupted her emotional relation to them. Which really doesn't erase her actions.

Still:

Pro: Memories of uncle rape might not be painful anymore
Con: Memories of some old friends are probably irrelevant to her.
 
Happy mothers day, any and all questgoers. Can we send mari and hana some flowers in the chap for no reason at all? Maybe leave hana some while we totally aren't stealing koi?
 
7 Years to Godhood
(Or, what do we do if Noburi dies?)​
Apart from getting an extra TYS when Noburi is taken from us by Orochimaru and returned dissected, we need to find a backup plan to FOOM. Fortunately, by spending extra time on leveling CR, we can still FOOM, though it's slower and requires much more detours. With our plans to become a summoner, gradually raising CR seems like a valuable thing anyway, so this hopefully won't be too abrasive.

Hazou has 118 XP right now. This is 34 days worth by a low guess of his talent rating at 3.5.

He needs to get to CR 26 (1x SC + 6x PH; same as Keiko needed to get cleared) to get cleared to use SC, and SC 30 to use it for training.
CR 26: 196 XP
SC 30: 410 XP (Pyramid: 7, 5, 3, 1)

Cost: 606 XP
Time: 173-34 = 139 days
Now he can start taking off with Resolve. He currently can produce 4 clones per day. We want to succeed on the roll with a -9 (-12 is too unlikely to be worth hedging against - worst case we take a day off to restore the Mild).

With 4 training blocks, the DC is 32, so to succeed with -9, taking no more than 3 stress, we need 32 Resolve.
Currently at Resolve 24 -> 1.1x base XP rate
(13 days) 26 -> 1.2
(20 days) 29 -> 1.3
(20 days) 32 -> 1.4 (Pyramid: 7, 4, 4, 1)

Resolve 32: 228 XP
Time: 53 days
Now Hazou's XP gain rate is 1.4x his base (3.5 -> 4.9)

If Hazou wants to produce additional clones now, he needs to buy additional CR or SC. Note that buying additional SC makes each additional level of CR much more useful. Given that SC 40 gives us 12 training blocks/day, we'd need 150 + 12*25 + 12 = 462 = 470 CP to match. Even at CR 44, we would greedily want to go to CR 47 rather than take SC 40, so let's take SC 40 up front.
SC 30 -> 40 (355 XP) (Pyramid: 7, 4, 3, 2)
Time: 72 days
Note that this gives us a bonus on our Resolve check to resist clone sickness. We're just going to ignore this for now, because in the long run, as we make more checks, the chance of -12 increases, and we don't want to have to call off training. The 53 days so far have only a 48% chance of having even one Mild Consequence, so we're probably fine.

Now, we can go up to 12 training blocks, with a Resolve DC of 56. At Resolve 40, we can add an additional training block because we have a new box in our stress track, so we only need to go up to Resolve 53.
Because of pyramid issues, we're going to burst level Resolve in the middle here.

Currently at Resolve 32 -> 1.4
(21 days) 35 -> 1.5
(21 days) 38 -> 1.6
(95 days) 50 -> 2.1 (Pyramid: 7, 4, 2, 2, 1)
(21 days) 53 -> 2.2

Resolve 56: 1044 XP
Time: 158 days
Hazou's XP gain rate is 2.2x his base now, so ~7.7/day. To get additional training blocks, Hazou has to buy additional CR.
CR 26 -> 28 (106 XP)
Time: 14 days
15 training blocks available, so we go up to up to Resolve 62 (We can't fail this check with 4 stress boxes and +3 from SC). This causes a pyramid problem, so we quickly push Taijutsu up to 50.
Currently at Resolve 53 -> 2.2
(21 days) 56 -> 2.3
(22 days) 59 -> 2.4
Taijutsu 40 -> 50 (455 XP) AND Resolve 59 -> 60 (Pyramid: 7, 4, 2, 1, 1, 1)
(61 days)
(15 days) 62 -> 2.5

Resolve 62: 522 XP
Time: 119 days
Hazou's effective XP gain rate is 2.5x his base, 8.75/day. We take CR 31 for 6 clones.
CR 28 -> 31 (180 XP) (Pyramid: 7, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1)
Time: 21 days
Now we have more pyramid problems. We drag Athletics up to complement Taijutsu, even though bringing up SC would be the quickest (and give a Resolve bonus). This means that the detour here as we hit Resolve 70 is (Taijutsu 50 -> 60; 555 XP) and (Athletics 37 -> Athletics 50; 572 XP).
Currently at Resolve 62 -> 2.5
(22 days) 65 -> 2.6
(22 days) 68 -> 2.7
(119 days) DETOUR (non Resolve)
(22 days) 71 -> 2.8 (Pyramid: 7, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1)

Resolve 71: 603 XP
Time: 185 days
We carry on with levelling CR, we're up to 7 clones now:
CR 31 -> 34
Time: 20 days
Our detour this time bring up Alertness. So: (Taijutsu 60 -> 70; 655 XP), (Athletics 50 -> Athletics 60; 555 XP), (Alertness 33 -> Alertness 50; 714 XP)
Currently at Resolve 71 -> 2.8
(22 days) 74 -> 2.9 (We break the 10XP/day barrier)
(22 days) 77 -> 3.0
(183 days) DETOUR (non Resolve)
(23 days) 80 -> 3.1 (7, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1)

Resolve 80: 684 XP
Time: 250 days
CR levels, 8 clones:
CR 34 -> 36
Time: 14 days
Because we have Resolve 80, we get another stress box, and can afford to add another clone as soon as we have CR for it
Currently at Resolve 80 -> 3.1
(free) 80 -> 3.2
(22 days) 83 -> 3.3
(22 days) 86 -> 3.4

Resolve 86: 501 XP
Time: 44 days
At this point, Hazou's XP rate is through the roof. He's raking in ~11.9 XP/day at a base talent rating of 4. We buy more CR levels so we can get 9 clones/day:
CR 36 -> 39 (228 XP)
Time: 19 days
This detour, we continue raising our combat stats in a column. We raise our CR to 50 (hey, we're probably a summoner by now), and need a new 30s skill, choosing Deceit arbitrarily (hey, gotta get Roki). Detour contents: (Taijutsu 70 -> 80; 755 XP), (Athletics 60 -> 70; 655 XP), (Alertness 50 -> 60; 555 XP), (CR 39 -> 50; 990 XP), (Deceit 24 -> 30; 165 XP).

Increasing CR like this gives us the chance to raise Resolve pretty much as high as we want. We can sustain up to 13 clones, so a max of Resolve 131. We'll likely not hit this ever.
Currently at Resolve 86 -> 3.4
(22 days) 89 -> 3.5
(254 days) DETOUR
(22 days) 92 -> 3.6 (7, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1)
(22 days) 95 -> 3.7
(22 days) 98 -> 3.8

Resolve 98: 1110 XP
Time: 342 days
At this point, we're probably sick of levelling Resolve, so we can pursue other goals, namely Sealing and Socials. I'm calling this the end of FOOM, with 13.3 XP/day, almost 10/day more than when we started.
Sealing 20 -> 100 (9680 XP)
Calligraphy 14 -> 70 (2380 XP)
Presence 15 -> 60 (1710 XP)
Deceit 30 -> 50 (810 XP)
Pangolin Earth Armor 1 -> 30 (to hold Deceit's place in what is now the Combat Column) (437 XP)
Empathy 10 -> 40 (765 XP)
Rapport 10 -> 30 (410 XP)

Time: 1217 days

Sealing 100
Resolve 98
Taijutsu 80
Athletics 70
Craftsmanship (Calligraphy) 70
Alertness 60
Presence 60
Chakra Reserve 50
Deceit 50
Shadow Clone 40
Empathy 40
Pangolin Earth Armor 30
Rapport 30
????

TOTAL TIME REQUIRED: 2667 days = 7.3 years
Time to approximate combat competence (Taijutsu/Athletics/Alertness: 70/60/50): 1031 days = 2.8 years

At which point, we try to break the universe over our knee with Sealing. We'll bring Noburi back, damn it.

At Resolve 98, Hazou is doing 28 training blocks a day with 10 clones. One clone dispels itself after its first training block (Roll Resolve 98 (+3, SC 40 bonus) vs. 23), then the other clones dispel after all 3 training blocks (Roll 101 vs. 104). Even if we roll -12, we take all 5 stress in our stress track and come out fine.

However, what if we risked taking a consequence or two? Could our effective XP rate increase? Consider:

Roll 101 vs. 107

Chance of losing the roll is 1/81. If that happens, we take 1 Mild Consequence, giving us -5 on the roll tomorrow. We instead do 26 training blocks the next day, rolling 96 vs. 98. Our effective SC multiplier is:
80/81 * 3.9 + 1/81 * 3.6 = 3.896

Roll 101 vs. 110

5/81 chance of losing the roll, taking 1 Mild Consequence on a loss. Effective multiplier:
76/81 * 4.0 + 5/81 * 3.6 = 3.975

Roll 101 vs. 113

14/81 chance of taking 1 Mild for -5 and 26 training blocks the subsequent day, 1/81 chance of taking 2 Milds for -10 and 24 training blocks the next day. Effective multiplier:
66/81 * 4.1 + 14/81 * 2.6 + 1/81 * 2.4 = 3.81

At this point, the value of additional injury goes down as the risk of injury goes up. You could argue that we could continue training just as hard with the Mild Consequences up because it's unlikely we lose the roll, especially if we invoke FP, but that seems unsustainable and asking for trouble. Nonetheless, this suggests that we can get a roughly 4x multiplier on XP by risking a little bit of injury - and that our XP gain rate can be increased throughout this whole process by risking Milds every once in a while (in particular, about 6% of days).

For instance, the last training block of 1217 days goes down to 1164 days by risking Milds, about 53 days saved.

This might be the optimal strategy, and should be considered.

Since we plausibly only care about one aspect of Resolve, a more broad stat than just resisting clone sickness and timeline merging, perhaps we should achieve this by buying Stunts or such that only apply to clone sickness. I'm not sure why doing FOOM might make us an unflappable politician, since we only care about mental integrity.

Why hasn't anyone done this yet? First, you spend about 7 years being permanently empty of chakra. If you're a jounin, you have to go on missions. You want to have some baseline level of chakra available in the case of emergency. The SC technique is only taught to elite jounin of Leaf, and even if they considered this, they would quickly dismiss it as foolish and life-risking.

Second, it's boring and terrible. You spend about 2.8 years before you see any tangible payoff in your combat (or whatever other) capacity - that's more time than many ninja have left to live. It also depends on a narrow-minded focus that few can match. The narrow skill column is adverse to the jounin's job description, as they have to maintain multiple skillsets as well as multiple jutsu from multiple elements.

Obviously Ami-style training is super powerful and we should do it as often as possible.

Since the system transition, Hazou has earned 1045 XP as of Chapter 340, of which 285 have been OOC.

It is currently April 2(?) in-game - about 160 days since the system transition which happened on October 30 in-game.

This means Hazou's real XP gain rate has been 6.53 XP/day, and his in-characted XP gain rate has been 4.75 XP/day. Needless to say, FOOM becomes much more powerful the higher his XP gain rate has been. 3.5 is likely an underestimate, and he's closer to 4 or 4.5 overall at this point, depending on how much we have been affecting his overall talent.

EDIT: To clarify, when I say "training block" in this post, I typically mean "3 hours of training done by a shadow clone". If at a certain point, I say "We do 14 training blocks today", I mean "We summon 5 shadow clones, one of which is going to do 2 training blocks out of the 3 available time slots today and then dispel itself, while the remainder do all 3 training blocks and dispel themselves".
 
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Paperclipped said:
With 4 training blocks
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Paperclipped said:
Now, we can go up to 12 training blocks
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Under no circumstances does Shadow Clone ever provide more than 3 training blocks per day.

At level 0-29 you get 0 blocks.
At level 30-39 you get 1 block/day.
At level 40+ you get 3 blocks/day.

The rules are very clear about this. You can assign as many clones as you like to a block, but there are at most 3 blocks.


EDIT: Discussion on Discord reveals that there is no issue. It was merely a terminology problem. Carry on.
 
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Chapter 341: The Ebbs and Flows of Fortune
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    • "…however, while Itachi acknowledged receipt of the letter, he dismissed the request for cooperation, claiming he had found it of no interest."

    Hazō had been careful to leave this part till last. The mission had on the whole been a remarkable success, given what he'd had to work with. He'd taken pains to emphasise this so that when he finally reached the most dangerous part of his report, Asuma would be more inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt and discuss implications, and less inclined to summon Enma to tear his head off on the spot.

    In an ideal world, or at least as ideal as you could get while Uplift was still a work in progress, Hazō would have headed straight home to consult Mari. Unfortunately, Haru had been uncompromising. His reaction, once they were safely on the way home and out of Akatsuki earshot, had featured words like "monsters", "casual massacres" and "treason", and a flat statement that if Hazō did not go directly to the Hokage and tell him everything, Haru would. Attempts to persuade him otherwise fell on deaf ears—Haru's clan head of five minutes was not going to be able to argue that his judgement trumped the Hokage's.

    Right now, Haru should have been in front of the Hokage anyway, being debriefed alongside the rest of the team, but Hazō had sent them to the estate, pleading exhaustion, or need to check on the clan, or some other excuse that was so flimsy he wasn't even sure he remembered it. They'd have to turn up soon, but a minor breach of protocol wasn't as important as getting Mari caught up and on her way as soon as possible.

    "What the hell, Hazō?"

    Asuma's motion was near-instant as he half-rose, slamming his hands on the table. It spoke of a certain kind of personality that when his hands touched the wood, it was with a heartfelt slap rather than a heavy, potentially wood-breaking blow (Hazō had a brief sentimental thought about Jiraiya and the man's poor relationship with furniture).

    "You went over my head and engaged in private negotiations with a hostile force that we would declare war on this instant if we dared. Hazō, there is only one word for that." Asuma's voice was even, but his knuckles were white.

    "It was for the good of Leaf," Hazō insisted gently but firmly. "When I sent the letter, Naruto and Tsunade were both grievously injured, and Orochimaru was… Orochimaru. There was every chance of another attack, and we needed powerful allies, no matter the cost. The village's very survival was at stake. You know Hyūga would have refused to deal with them unless it was at kunai-point, just because they were who they were. But if I could bring him an offer of cooperation from the most powerful men and women in the world as a fait accompli, he wouldn't have been so insane as to turn it down."

    "I'm not going to speak ill of the dead while there's still a whole clan grieving," Asuma said. "Yes, he'd have refused. Yes, he'd have done it for the wrong reasons. We can leave it at that for now.

    "But he would have been right.

    "Our enemies chose not to finish us off after we were crippled at Nagi Island. With Naruto and Tsunade out of action, Orochimaru not yet in Leaf, key clans decapitated and no Hokage to rally a defence, there could not have been a better time to destroy us. They didn't. Our priority ever since has not been emergency defence. It has been to keep our heads down and rebuild. You could have ended that by calling a devastating force down upon us, and Sage knows Akatsuki have much more reason to hate us than to love us."

    "They want peace," Hazō said. "Or at least that was their leader's last wish, and they worshipped him... or more. If they wanted revenge, they could have attacked a day later—they'd have recovered all their chakra, while our army stayed gone. If they'd decided not to attack us, then a request for peaceful cooperation wasn't going to be what swayed them the other way."

    "That's not your decision to make," Asuma said with forced calm. "It's the Hokage's. Or do you think every clan head should have the right to go over the Hokage's head when they think they know better?"

    "But Hyūga—"

    "The Hokage might not be the wisest or most experienced leader in the village," Asuma said. "Recent times are proof of that. But you know what I have, and Hiashi had, that you don't? A village of experts ready to assemble on command. There would have been a Clan Council meeting. There would have been a discussion, determining the village's official policy on Akatsuki, and our finest diplomats and negotiators would have written Leaf's letter. That is how you're supposed to do this. You don't just write whatever sounds right. First contact is precious, and you've poisoned that well for us."

    "It wouldn't have mattered," Hazō said. "I took action exactly because there wouldn't have been any of those things—because Hyūga would have dismissed the idea."

    "As would have been his right. The Hokage, and only the Hokage, gets to make choices that could put the village in danger.

    "I'm not claiming Hiashi was a good Hokage for that sliver of time he was in charge. I'm not claiming I liked him or his policies. But do you know the word for when you ignore a Hokage's authority because you don't like him or his policies?"

    Asuma sat back down heavily. He took a few breaths to re-establish calm, but they seemed to have the opposite effect, as if they'd relaxed him enough to unleash something buried beneath the tension.

    "How did an idea like that even occur to you?" he demanded. "They killed your father! His ashes are still warm, and you're already offering an olive branch to his murderers? These are the people who tortured your stepbrother by tearing at his soul! These are the people who spilled so much blood at Nagi that you can't find one person in the street who didn't lose someone they know!

    "I get what it means to grit your teeth and play nice when every part of you is craving revenge, Hazō. I would break the Tsuchikage's chest open and rip out her heart if I could, and instead I have to smile and thank her for her aid in rebuilding the homes that she destroyed. But that's part of being Hokage—when you take the hat, you swear that you will do whatever it takes to protect the village, even if it means crossing moral lines that no man should ever be forced to cross.

    "But for a man to think of his father's murderers as they lurk somewhere in the unknown, and say to himself, 'Why not make the seal of reconciliation in case something comes of it in the future?' I can't understand someone who thinks that way. I don't want to."

    "With respect, you're wrong," Hazō said fiercely. "I haven't forgotten who they are or what they did. I wake up every morning to a house without Jiraiya in it. I go get breakfast without Jiraiya at the table. I head out without Jiraiya telling me not to get into too much trouble, and I come back without him asking what new way I've found to blow up the village today. I haven't forgotten that he is dead while they are all still alive, and I never will.

    "But we need them more than we need my feelings. I don't want this to come out wrong, but I'll say it anyway: Asuma, sir, you don't have a monopoly on self-sacrifice. Every ninja in this village is willing to do whatever it takes to protect it, and if in my case that just means gritting my teeth and playing nice, then I should praise the Will of Fire that I'm getting the cushy job."

    For a long few seconds, the Hokage and Hazō locked gazes. One, a spear of condemnation against which there could be no defence. The other, a shield of conviction that no adversity could pierce.

    "Squirrel! Kite!" Asuma barked without lowering his gaze.

    Two ANBU appeared out of nowhere at his sides.

    "Take Lord Gōketsu to Waiting Room Seven. I need to think."

    -o-​

    Hazō studied Waiting Room Seven, his eyes taking in every brick (yes, every stone brick) and every crack. The waiting room was quite nicely laid out, with a round table decorated with a floral pattern, a couple of slim wooden chairs, and a ceramic tea set.

    It was also the killbox.

    That was where Jiraiya had stood with his purple killer ninjutsu, a second away from massacring them. That was where Mari had sat against the wall, refusing to look at Hazō. There was the corner where Keiko had been cowering before standing up for her final desperate appeal. And, of course, there was the door that had been a symbol of unreachable salvation for Team Uplift during what were nearly their final moments.

    It wasn't open, but it also wasn't locked. Hazō couldn't decide whether that was symbolic.

    Hazō strongly doubted that he had been sent here by accident. But what was the message? Was it as blatant as "I can have you killed any time I want"? Or maybe a more subtle "You still haven't learned your lesson?" Asuma's team had been Uplift's guides through Leaf on the visit that had culminated in... that.

    Either way, just being in this room felt like a kunai was slowly pushing its way through his heart. It was testament to Hazō's growth that he could sit in a place like this and still think straight.

    Asuma couldn't actually killbox him, could he? In Mist, Yagura had not discriminated by status—arguably one of his few virtues—and while Hazō didn't know of any actual cases of clan heads being executed, the pervasive public opinion had been that he could and would. Maybe the reason the clan heads were so compliant was that they knew Yagura would be happy to make an example of the first to step out of line. Or maybe it was just propaganda and in reality he had to reckon with political pressure as much as mere mortals did. Even now, nearly three years of outside perspective later, Hazō couldn't comprehend the full nature of Yagura's regime.

    But this wasn't Mist, and Asuma and Yagura were about as alike as Akatsuki and houseplants. Here in Leaf, a village founded on consensus without conquest, the relationship between Kage and clan seemed more like a legal contract: security in exchange for loyalty. You couldn't violate that contract without serious political repercussions. Asuma could do anything to Hazō (especially Hazō, the young newcomer threatening the status quo) and the clans would not outright rebel, but they would make Asuma pay a heavy price to make sure he thought long and hard before he did it again, to any of them.

    Then again, if the Hokage refusing to protect his people was violation in one direction, then a clan head showing disloyalty was violation in the other. If Asuma could demonstrate to the Clan Council that there was a watertight case against Hazō (which there was—he'd personally confessed to an act of treason), then they'd have no choice but to back his judgement or look disloyal themselves by defending a known traitor. In that case, Asuma would want to punish Hazō more severely, so as to set a precedent for how far he could go in disciplining a clan head.

    "M'lord," a voice cut into his contemplations, "Lord Hokage is ready to speak with you. Please follow me."

    -o-​

    "Gōketsu Hazō," Asuma said without preamble, "for the crime of treason against the state, I hereby sentence you to death by decapitation.

    "Take him away."

    -o-​

    Hazō paced back and forth across his cell despondently.

    Being a cell reserved for clan ninja, it was about on the level of middle-class civilian housing. In deference to his status, he had also been brought a few books of choice, but while there were plenty on preparing for inevitable death (he was a ninja living in a ninja village), none of them were actually useful. He wasn't allowed any visitors. He couldn't send messages out, and it seemed he couldn't get messages in. His guards were unfailingly polite and prepared to see to his every need, but they didn't engage in conversation (when asked persistently, one explained that it was against protocol to exchange information with traitors).

    Somewhere out there, the wheels of Leaf life were still spinning. Was Mari raising an insurrection on his behalf? On the one hand, he didn't want to die. On the other hand, he also didn't want his loved ones to get killed trying to help him.

    Hazō stopped dead.

    Sage's ballsack. Kagome-sensei.

    Hazō prayed to some power unknown (not the ancestors, who hated him, or the Will of Fire, which had judged him a traitor) that someone had managed to restrain Kagome-sensei in time. He reassured himself that they must have, because otherwise he'd have heard the explosion from here.

    Hazō returned to pacing. Execution. Could Asuma really execute him? It was hard to believe that a new, vulnerable Hokage would be prepared to endure the backlash from executing a clan head. He wouldn't want to destroy the Gōketsu either, which this surely would. Whatever Hazō's personal flaws, the fact was that they were punching well above their weight when it came to positive contributions to Leaf, and only getting better over time. Hell, they'd just brought Leaf the Porcupine Scroll. If that didn't buy some measure of consideration, what would? Should he have fetched Hidan's head on a plate, rest of Hidan optional?

    It simply didn't make sense. Hazō had done nothing wrong. It had been reasonable to judge, back in that time of crisis, that Leaf needed Akatsuki, or at least that Leaf's existence would be much more secure with a friendly Akatsuki. Granted, the Akatsuki he'd met had turned out to be unstable and/or psychotic, but at the time it had seemed like a potential solution to some of Leaf's biggest problems. Or would it have been better for Hazō to stay quiet and accept Hyūga's judgement in all things, even if it resulted in the village's destruction because the man was too hidebound and myopic to recognise a critical opportunity?

    Hazō had done nothing wrong. He could accept that some punishment was necessary for bypassing Hyūga—he himself would be furious if, say, Kagome-sensei tried to communicate with Hidden Cloud without talking to him first. But he hadn't done it because he wanted to ally with enemies of Leaf. He'd done it to make Leaf new allies. If motivations ever counted for anything, surely they should count now?

    He'd come too far. The Gōketsu were finally flourishing. Uplift was in full swing. He couldn't die now, not for trying to do the right thing.

    He couldn't die. He'd speak to Asuma one last time, before the execution. As clan head, he would demand the right. Between now and then, he had to craft the ultimate argument. He would seize on every issue—political, ethical, outright personal—and make Asuma accept that a loyal if misguided ninja was infinitely better than one killed to make a point about Asuma's authority.

    -o-​

    Three days later…

    Hazō stepped into the Hokage's Office, ANBU on each side. This was it. He was out of time, in every possible way. This would be his moment to seize back his life right before it was taken away from him. He really did feel like he was in the killbox all over again—and that time, he hadn't been the one to save them. Today, he'd have to do better.

    Asuma gave him a look of perfect seriousness. He did not offer a greeting.

    "Sir," Hazō began, "I want you to—"

    "You're free to go."

    Hazō choked, every word of his speech vanishing from his head as if blown away by an explosive tag.

    "I'm sorry?"

    "You have been acquitted of all charges," Asuma said calmly. "Please don't waste my time like this in the future."

    Hazō slowly, un-threateningly, brought his hands together into the seal for the Dispelling Technique. Nothing changed.

    Asuma gave him a disparaging look.

    "I'm sure your friends outside will explain matters to you. Go.

    "Oh, and before I forget, thank you for the Akatsuki intel. It will help inform Leaf policy going forward."

    Hazō began to walk away unsteadily. Right before he passed through the door, Asuma spoke very softly to his back.

    "Don't make me regret this."

    Hazō would make sure he didn't… as soon as he understood what "this" was.

    Then, the second he was out of the building...

    "Welcome back!"

    Hazō was still so dizzy with the sudden reversal of his fortunes that he nearly forfeited his life by pure accident, namely by bumping into Keiko.

    "Keiko!" he exclaimed. "You're all right!"

    "As are you," Keiko said sardonically, "though not for lack of effort."

    "And the others?" Hazō asked anxiously, ignoring Keiko's typical way of expressing affection. "Ami? Naruto?"

    -o-​

    Target acquired.

    Move in as planned. Trigram pattern.

    Attack in three…

    Two…

    One…

    The inevitable clink as Ami's thrown kunai was deflected away from the Condor Summoner's head marked the start of the battle.

    "Summoning Technique!"

    There had always been a tiny chance that they could eliminate the summoner before she could summon, but no one present had lived this long by counting on best-case scenarios. Responding to Kei's call, Pandamonium and Panarama, Pangolin artillery specialists, popped into the existence next to her. Pangolins could not use skywalkers, and Kei would slit her own throat before she gave them a chance to reverse-engineer them, which limited the pair's use considerably. Rather, their appearance was key to Kei's own role within the battle: broadly, as the Pangolin Summoner. Narrowly, as bait.

    Kei thought she had appreciated the full significance of this (her presence on the field was the only reason the Condor Summoner and her allies did not simply fly away; skywalkers were no match for a natural flyer going at full speed), but apparently it had been too long since missing-nin life had taught her the true nature of the world. She had forgotten what it was to be a small creature constantly at the mercy of greater powers.

    As the vast shadow of Conjura, the Condor Clan boss, blotted out the sky, she remembered.

    Distance was no protection from the full sight of her. Her talons were longer than a grown man was tall. Her beak was large enough to uproot trees as if they were twigs. Her broad back left plenty of room even after the summoner and her two bodyguards (hardened jōnin both, based on age and attitude) climbed aboard, now shielded from assault by her huge bulk. And then Conjura spread her wings.

    The only reason Kei did not faint was that her introduction to the Seventh Path had been facing Pantsā in all his wrathful majesty. Unlike the others—Ami and the jōnin paled; the Narutos' grins froze on their faces—Kei had known they were about to face terror incarnate, and had braced herself as best she could.

    The first strike reduced her to bloody mist.

    No, she was still alive. A Naruto had tackled her in a headlong dive, carrying both of them away from the explosive tag even as it detonated. Merely gazing upon Conjura preparing to strike had been enough to give her a vision of her own death.

    Explosive tags? Of course. Conjura was already overhead, and her allies were no mere passengers.

    Kei's team filled the sky with kunai in return, and Naruto with his ninjutsu (of course he had ranged ninjutsu; it would have been madness for someone with his chakra reserves and training potential to restrict himself to melee). On the Seventh Path, Conjura was worth an army. Here, she was also worth an army, but an army that would be dispelled with one clean hit.

    The first of their plans had been to time their assault to the beating of her wings, aiming for the moments when she was least manoeuvrable. But incredibly, the boss of the flying clan did not need to fly.

    Every few seconds, she was simply somewhere else, a brief blur in the air the only announcement of her arrival. The pangolins, slow to evade, disappeared in two flickers of motion. The jōnin, their focus on casting support ninjutsu everywhere like fortune beans on Traitor Banishment Day, were still alive purely due to superior reflexes and the fact that skywalker evasion allowed a vertical drop down, a possibility Conjura's combat style did not account for.

    Somewhere above, there was a satisfying scream of visceral agony as one of the enemy ninja flung himself between the summoner and a well-aimed Rasengan counter, proving that while Conjura existed wherever she liked at any given time, her human allies were still vulnerable to disorientation.

    The other ninja fell, his chakra adhesion not strong enough to endure one of Conjura's more powerful teleportation ninjutsu. Naruto was on him in moments, before she could catch him again. But as the enemy ranks thinned, so did theirs, Naruto by Naruto. No one had any illusions as to what would happen if they ran out.

    Enough Narutos stayed close to Kei, in accordance with the Frozen Skein-optimised defensive formation, that the risk to her own life was merely high. No, she was much more afraid for Ami, who had declared her intention to protect Kei "no matter the cost". Ami, who would be eliminated in a heartbeat the instant Conjura deemed her a threat on Naruto's level.

    Suddenly, her heart soared higher than any condor.

    A Rasengan, perfectly timed and placed, had struck Conjura directly in the—

    No, Conjura was fine. The blow had been well-aimed, but she had aborted early, disappearing to strike a new target with what Kei had mentally dubbed the Flying Condor God Technique. So why did Kei remember…?

    She shook her head. It did not matter. Likely mere disorientation. Kei's defence against otherwise certain death, Ami's Eagle-Dominating Technique (to Kei's protests, she had replied that eagles were obviously better, so anything that worked on one would work on the other) required three-dimensional twists and turns far beyond what a sane person could conceive of, much less choreograph, and said volumes about a woman who had never worn skywalkers until this mission. That said, Kei had a strong suspicion that the nausea would kill her before Conjura ever did.

    A predatory screech. A talon slash so fast it could be registered only by the sudden absence of a clone. The condor abomination already battling another Naruto halfway across the sky.

    Finally, Conjura was taken by surprise. One Naruto clone seized another by the arm and threw it in a mighty spin just as teleportation ended. A Rasengan shattered the—

    Conjura was somewhere else. Had been somewhere else for several seconds now, still engaged in the melee Kei had thought she left. Again, that mismatched memory…

    The realisation struck her like a giant murderous condor to the face.

    Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others. But the space-time master learns from mistakes he never made.

    Kei had always assumed it was a joke.

    Clones in the single digits now, more vanishing by the second.

    At last, Conjura took a break from finding Rasengan-free angles from which to destroy Naruto, and came for her. She hoped Tenten would be able to find someone else.

    Great talons blocked out her vision and her future both, and then…

    Impact.

    Conjura exploded into a literal cloud of mist.

    This was what it truly meant to be bait. It meant knowing where the enemy would inevitably target. It meant knowing where they would have to go.

    In itself, it had not been enough. Even with the best planning and foreknowledge, the survivors had been unable to stop Conjura as she violated time and space to swoop in for the kill. All they had been able to do was reach out in vain… and then, by sheer luck, a single Naruto's Rasengan clipped the edge of a wing, in a grazing blow that would not even have killed a human.

    Thus by ill fortune were great armies unmade.

    In perfect silence, the summoner fell. No one would ever know what desperate final technique she intended to unleash, as in the instant her hands began to shape seals, Ami's kunai took her in the throat.

    The battle concluded without a drop of Leaf blood spilled.

    -o-​

    "It seems our lives were in less danger than yours," Keiko said. "You may observe Ami standing directly next to me. Naruto is unharmed, though he has elected not to be present, and likewise jōnin Hitachi and Kanata. I understand Pandamonium and Panarama are feeling humiliated by their poor performance at this historic battle, but on the other hand, they were able to gain valuable negotiation experience selling the Pangolin Conditioning Technique to my teammates—a proposal of Pankurashun's which conveniently bypasses any conflict of responsibilities on my part."

    Hazō felt a rush of delayed euphoria. He was alive. Keiko was alive. Ami and Naruto were alive. He only dimly recognised the names of Hitachi and Kanata, but they, too, were alive to enjoy the spectacle of Hazō's liberation.

    Which remained a mystery. Granted, any Kage would seem liberal after Hyūga, but a three-day turnaround between certain death and total forgiveness seemed almost suspicious.

    "Doubtless you have questions," Keiko said. "Allow me to summarise the key series of events for you so that we may move on swiftly to more interesting matters. Upon my return, I was promptly sought out by Mari, who informed me that within days of my departure from Leaf, you had naturally gotten yourself sentenced to execution for treason. After some discussion, the two of us sought out Ami. After some further discussion, the three of us sought out Shikamaru. Thence we all parted ways to play our individual parts in Operation Forestall the Inevitable (unofficial name).

    "Within the last twenty-four hours, the Hokage has received:

    "Firstly, passionate missives from every inhabitant of the present Gōketsu estate, clan and otherwise, affirming that while Lord Gōketsu may at times appear eccentric, foolish, or outright insane, he is a man of strong moral fibre, as far from any contemplation of treason as he is from the traditional conventions of shinobi life. Of note is one considerably less passionate, though of course not coerced, missive coming from a Gōketsu Haru.

    "Secondly, a joint letter to similar effect signed by a number of KEI ninja. A politically significant number of KEI ninja, one might say.

    "Thirdly, a comprehensive Nara report on the use of genjutsu to implant false memories, supported by testimony from Leaf's resident expert in memory manipulation, with whom you may be acquainted. Shikamaru wishes to emphasise that he is not involving himself in any way with your political situation, but only performing a favour for his beloved wife.

    "Fourthly and finally, a very expensive granite tablet, engraved with an affidavit from Pantsā himself to the effect that the Pangolin Clan has no knowledge of any letters sent or received by the Gōketsu Clan on the Seventh Path.

    "These, in combination, have led the Hokage to re-examine your case and dismiss your testimony as illegitimate. Honestly, Hazō," Keiko said with a smile, "after all our time with Mari, you still allow yourself to be manipulated into making self-incriminating statements by a genjutsu master?"

    Ami shook her head. "All that time and effort spent inventing letters to mess with you, and then Uchiha Itachi tops me just by looking you in the eye? I need to up my game. Now c'mon, let's go."

    "Go where?" Hazō asked, as though there could ever be more than one answer.

    "Your compound, duh. What possible reason could there be for Mari and company not to be here unless they're preparing some kind of welcome-back party? And a party means tasty things. And tasty things mean I'm invited."

    Hazō took one last look back at the Hokage Tower. Could anyone ever have imagined such a bizarre sequence of events? Or, it struck him, what would it imply if they could?

    "Right this way, Lord Gōketsu," Ami said playfully, heading away from his uncertainty and towards home. "Your family has been waiting to welcome you back. Hopefully with cake."

    -o-
    ​
    You have received 9 XP.

    -o-
    ​
    The battle is a best-effort direct rendition of the simulation, with a ton of failed and blocked attacks taking place offscreen.

    Note: Ami and Keiko and Naruto as a set survived about 10% of test runs. There wasn't a single test run with this outcome.

    -o-
    ​
    What do you do?

    Voting ends on Thursday 14th of May, 12 p.m. London time.
     
    Last edited:
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    • Did anyone else immediately CTRL + F "Keiko" to see whether she survived?

    Yeah, me neither. :V
     
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