- Location
- Yes.
It seems like her birthday was right after we left (around January). Based on the timeline I'd guess it was in February, as if it was in January she would have aged 2 years rather than 1 when she made that statement.
Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
- Start date
-
- Tags
- naruto rationalist romance armageddon is looking better and better damn you kishimoto explosions everywhere explosives solve everyone if in doubt surrender to the mercy of zabuza it seemed like a good idea at the time looks like a really bad case of being a jōnin my god. where does the lore end? precommitting is the winning plan screaming in kagome screw the rules i have explosives something bad might still happen sometimes you gotta sociopath stabby zabby subsection c of paragraph 9 should include we can weaponize this so hard
[Ghost 1] Omake The Ghost of Strength Yet to Come
- Location
- USA
Omake: The Ghost of Strength Yet to Come
Hazou sat at the bar as lively music filled the inn. The rhythmic clapping sounds of people's feet against the wooden floor was only slightly irritating as he tried to pull a plan together. He had drawn some odd looks from the patrons, wearing clothes that were nearly as fancy as a lesser Daimyo's, but covered in mud as if he had spent the whole day wresting with a pustule pig.
Surprisingly, no one had asked him any questions, even when he emerged from the inn's basement, still dripping bits of the grayish sludge on the rough-hewn floorboards. Admittedly, no one had been watching, and at this time of the night, most everyone was drunk anyway, but still. How complacent did you have to be to not ask questions of the heavyset stranger acting so suspicious?
He supposed they probably guessed he was a ninja - dressed as he was, probably a ninja having a bad day. He swirled the glass of alcohol in front of him, momentarily appreciating the amber color even if he didn't intend to drink it. They were right, of course. He didn't want them to talk to him. He just wanted a moment to plan.
It had been a good day too, up until a couple minutes ago. How did things become so bad?
o-o-o-o
Two hours ago...
Patterned kimono in the Frost Daimyo's latest style? Check.
Decorative backpack with a watertight fitting for the barrel? Check.
Make-up and disguise put on the same as yesterday? Check.
Noburi laughed. "Alright, that's enough. I'm going to be doing this with my own incredible charm and suaveness, not by going over an actual checklist four times over."
"But it's s-"
"Look, we've been over it all we need. Just trust me, okay?"
Hazou sighed and put away the list. Today was going to be the culmination of three years of preparation. In a way, it felt like the last few years had been totally skipped over. Building the Shadow Clone training facilities had been painful and stressful - Hazou considered himself lucky they hadn't yet been discovered by a tunneling Hyuuga - but it had definitely been paying off. Once they had finally gotten a solid lead on the Kraken Scroll, he prepared for the mission by training combat skills, and he advanced much, much faster than he ever had before.
They'd put in the hours to gather intelligence, confirm the locations, get to know the targets, and prepare the extraction. Haru had wanted to smash and grab, but Hazou and Noburi had advocated for the slow approach given that the target was a major (if civilian) figure in the local administration. Now that it came down to it, why wouldn't Noburi, the sane one, just go along with the plan?
"Relax," said Noburi, holding his hands up, "I know what you're thinking, Mr. MEW, but we've done all the prep we need to." In the dark alley, Noburi puffed up his chest a little, causing the (incredibly annoying) decorative bells on his chest to tinkle. "I've been smashing cities and taking names as the Toad Summoner while you've been cooped up in your bunker, and trust me, apart from being a general badass, I definitely know what it takes to pull off a successful seduction." He flourished a hand and put it on his chest, causing another faint chime. "Namely, me."
Noburi turned and strutted into the main street. Standing outside the target's door, he took a moment to work his face into the right devilish grin. He knocked as Hazou took up position on the nearby rooftop, a carefully selected blind spot from all the nearby roadways. The door swung open to reveal Masuyama Minori, the woman who Noburi had been "coincidentally running into" all around the town. With a little charm and a few hushed words enough to make her blush, she quickly ushered Noburi inside.
Hazou sighed and settled down into his crow's nest. So far, so good. Despite his worries, Noburi really was incredibly competent. They would be on their way back to Leaf by sun-up, Scroll in hand and nobody the wiser, so long as nothing went horribly wrong.
o-o-o-o
Twenty minutes ago...
Noburi opened the upstairs window and gestured Hazou inwards. The bedroom window. Seems like all went according to plan, then.
Hazou descended and gave a courtesy knock before gently swinging the door open as he stepped inside. He heard Noburi spinning the story they had worked out earlier, that his friend needed to come in and see the beautiful painting on the wall. A promise of grand fortune and a little insinuation that the infidelity could be hidden, and she was willing to let a complete stranger into her house. Of course, now that they had the tracking seals, the story didn't need to be particularly good. It just had to stick long enough to get Hazou in the door without a commotion.
Hazou saw Masayuma out of the corner of his vision, peeking her head out from around a wall to see him. He didn't react, keeping his reflexes carefully chained by the Iron Nerve, the same way he carefully didn't note Noburi's hand on her shoulder, a moment away from holding her mouth shut if she noticed something awry.
Instead, he casually surveyed the room before taking a seat on one of the rather extravagant chairs. He immersed himself in the role of the art inspector. The room was surprisingly beautiful. The furniture was laid out sensibly but aesthetically, the colors around the room gave the eye a gentle gradient to follow, drawing attention towards the large woodcut on the wall, positioned gracefully in the center of its section. Even Ino would be satisfied by a room like this. Masayuma had taste.
He hummed appreciatively to himself as he tried to pretend like he couldn't hear Noburi reassuring her that he'd take care of things and no, she didn't have to come out, and no, Hazou definitely didn't know her husband, so no, there was nothing to worry about. Noburi came around the corner a moment later, holding a water pitcher and a pair of cups. He poured Hazou a glass, offering it to him. "So you got my message then? Thanks for coming to see the piece on such short notice. I'm glad that you don't have much going on these days," he said with a teasing smile. Not wanting to embarass himself, Hazou took a sip from the glass and waved at him to get on with it. "Right, let's go upstairs and get started with the main event."
o-o-o-o
"It's somewhere in here?"
"Upstairs at least, probably in the right side of the house, though maybe not in this room. To be honest with you, I still don't really understand how the seal works. But yeah, this room seems like a safe bet. Her father's only been gone for a couple weeks, and they haven't sorted through all the junk he's been keeping up here."
Hazou started fishing around his pockets for the detector seals. His newest invention should be able to track down the Kraken Scroll (at least, it worked on the Toads and Dogs), but with Noburi in the same room, it would have to be a fine tuned search. Noburi could reverse summon as soon as they found the Kraken Scroll and keep it on the Seventh Path while they exfiltrated.
"What's holding you, Lord Gouketsu? Savoring the victory before you get your hands on it?"
"Get in the corner, Barrel Boy. I need to start searching."
With the Summoning Scroll Proximity Sensors in hand, Hazou started moving towards the center of the room. The place was a hoarder's fantasy, a mound of sheer, unending stuff. In between the trash piled nearly waist-high, there were cabinets and shelves laden with trinkets and the artifacts of a long life, and somewhere underneath all the rubbish, if they were right, was a priceless, immensely powerful artifact.
Hazou activated the seal and watched as it rose away from his palm and started to spin erratically. It would ordinarily cover every angle evenly on the sphere in its path, unless there was a Summoning Scroll nearby, in which case it would point in the direction of the Scroll more often than other points on said sphere. It was horribly imprecise and challenging to read, but somehow, Hazou was unnervingly good at understanding its patterns. He was even better than Kagome-sensei. Noburi had joked about it being because of Hazou's "special connection" with Summoning Scrolls, but Hazou didn't think that he was too far off the mark.
Using his strange seal-whispering powers, Hazou could tell that the seal had picked up on the Toad Scroll tucked away in Noburi's backpack. He sighed and started the wade over to the far corner of the room.
A few burnt-out seals later, Hazou was confident that the Kraken Scroll was going to be in the next room over. He was about to suggest that Noburi switch corners to pin it down when the knock came at the door.
A moment's eye contact. "I'll sort it out," said Noburi, "figure out where it is while I'm away."
Noburi started down the stairs as Hazou went into the next room, cracking the squeaky door and slithering through it to prevent the mess from spilling through. He heard Masuyama asking Noburi a hushed question. She was worried that her husband was back, but since Akane and Haru were keeping him busy, the answer to that question was probably not. The man wasn't coming back to this house without Hazou's say-so, at least, unless he was a disguised jounin and merely pretending to be a moderately successful textile merchant.
The tea room was surprisingly neat and organized, compared to the abject mess a wall over. The patterned rug and the elaborate images depicted on the paper barriers painted a picture of refined taste: both wealth and the discretion to use it well. It was a stark contrast from the ridiculous glut of wastage in the last room.
No battle had ever been won by savoring the moment. Hazou activated the seal, and it immediately spun in his open palm to point at the corner cabinet. The upper half of the cabinet had a glass window, exposing a fancy set of porcelain tea pots and cups. A brief inspection revealed that the upper part had no false back, so Hazou bent over and popped open the bottom half.
Within was yet another mess. Baubles piled high, half-folded cloths, and spare kettles and cookware filled the cabinet. Visible through the mess, in the very back corner, the Summoning Scroll. Hazou reached out for it and-
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Masuyama coming up the stairs. She had a moment to say "I thought you were-", before looking behind her at Noburi as he raised his voice, saying the punchline of an old joke. He laughed boisterously as he turned the corner, and Hazou recognized his hand motions as not just grandoise gestures. Hand-signs. Ninja, possibly hostile, act natural.
A moment later, Hazou was standing up ramrod-straight, inspecting the delicate blue-and-purple paintwork in the engraved grooves of a carved wood tea set. He turned to face the doorway, painfully slow, where Noburi was gesturing inside, his posture slightly fearful and submissive to the ninja standing next to him. The woman's mouth was open in surprise - she had seen his sudden motion and knew Hazou was a ninja.
As soon as he could without giving himself away, Hazou looked up and down the enemy's body, careful not to seem too observant and wary of his split knuckles and broad frame that marked him as a taijutsu specialist. He gave Hazou a fake smile with a hint of... hostility? in his gaze.
Noburi put a reassuring hand on the woman's shoulder as he gently pushed her to the side of the room.
Gesturing at Hazou, he said, "and this is my friend, Shunji. He's a servant of the Daimyo, and has been looking for artwork for the Daimyo's new dining room. I'm sure if you wanted something, you could convince him to show you some of his planned acquisitions before they hit the Daimyo's people."
Hazou pasted on the right smile. Slight anxiety at the corners of the eyes, a forced grin, and a posture that seemed halfway to bowing even standing up, hands held behind his back to keep the ninja from noting the same of his own knuckles.
"Yes, of course sir, I'm sure we could arrange something or another."
"I have business with the merchant who lives here, but while I wait, I will speak with you. My Clan is developing a new building for our compound, and I could bring back a new item or two. Tell me your full name. I'm Touma Kado."
Well, at least he was direct.
o-o-o-o
Two minutes ago...
Hazou let out another canned laugh, careful to only slip a little bit of worry into it. What a horrible conversation! He'd almost gone through almost all his Iron Nerve laughs that fit the situation, and he still hadn't placed how he knew the damn ninja.
Hazou had communicated the location of the scroll to Noburi, so all they had to do was get the ninja out of the room for a minute. Or even thirty seconds. Fifteen would work if they were moving fast. And the ninja clearly knew that, because they'd made enough tries to get him out of the room that he must have picked up on it. Instead of acquiescing, he was giving them the same fake smiles with that unmistakable hostility in his eyes, not that Hazou could remember when he had pissed off a Cloud ninja. He'd been basically in hiding for the past three years.
They were going to have to escalate at some point. They'd been coordinating battle plans through tea-speak of all things, one agonizingly slow finger adjustment at a time. The ninja likely wasn't a threat to Hazou and Noburi, but a fight at this range would surely kill Masuyama. For all his talk, Noburi was no Inoue Mari; he wasn't going to kill his seduction targets for the sake of mere convenience.
The ninja hadn't communicated anything, as far as either of them could tell. Had Hazou been spotted on the way in? If so, should they get out before the ninja's reinforcements could arrive? Every moment they spent made it more likely that complications arose, but they needed to communicate. If worst came to worst, Noburi would summon Gamahiro and they would book it back to Leaf, but they still wanted to minimize collateral damage. Gamahiro was anything but subtle, and the giant toad would all but wave a sign at the Gouketsu Estate when Cloud came looking for the perpetrators. Cloud would be at Leaf's throat within the week.
Hazou and Noburi had sat down in a way to get the ninja's back to the window as they kneeled around the low table. They wouldn't be able to escape through the window without going through the ninja (which was probably why the enemy was fine with being seated there), but it was worth it to have their backs safe when this deep into Lightning Country.
On the roof of the building outside, Hazou saw a flash of movement. A moment later, the realization hit. Not Akane or Haru. An adult ninja, wearing dull dark blue clothing and a porcelain-white mask. Cloud ANBU.
His cup slipped through his fingers. His motions were nigh-mechanical. Put a surprised expression on, fumble for the cup, signal to Noburi, lean down, cut the hand seals.
The enemy ninja was already getting to his feet when the Earth Wall started to rise out of the ground. It crushed through the floor but continued to grow vertically, cutting him off from their side of the room. He yelled something through the foot of granite as it started to tip onto him.
Wordlessly, Hazou and Noburi started to move. Hazou smashed the cabinet and raised his palms to the wall as Noburi grabbed the scroll from the debris and started forming the handseals for the Summoning Technique. A moment later, Gamasid was safely in Noburi's pocket. As Hazou activated his directional explosives to get them a new exit route away from the Cloud jounin, the room was sprayed with a hail of granite rubble as a lightning-clad foot struck a hole through the collapsing wall. Hazou winced only a little as it fell through to the floor below. The parlor was a loss, but hopefully Masuyama hadn't been there. A moment later, the Gouketsu brothers were taking to the sky.
They started to rise as they got away from the house, twenty, forty, sixty feet. They heard the ninja (Tora?) yell out in frustration, and Noburi laughed gleefully as if in response. At this time of night, no one would see them flying to safety except for Tora, and once they regrouped with Haru and Akane, the Cloud ninja would be recieving a pointed lecture on the pros and cons of snitching.
They didn't even notice the ambush. Noburi's whoops turned into a scream as a tendril of compressed rock snapped at him from the ground. It wrapped around his ankle in an instant and pulled at him with a tremendous force. With the skywalker holding his foot in place, Noburi's ankle was instantly snapped, and he barely managed to deactivate the skywalker before his shin could be torn from his knee. As the tendril moved to slam him into the ground and turn him into paste, a second one lashed out at Hazou. The moment's warning from Noburi's scream gave Hazou the edge he needed to dodge the attack, dropping his skywalkers and starting to freefall as he tried to think of a way to save Noburi from the impact.
A moment later, the tendril slammed into the earth with a crack that tore up the ground around it, causing fissures to appear in the walls of the adjacent houses, but through the dust, Hazou saw the dissipating summon mist. Noburi had gotten away.
Hazou flickered his skywalkers as he lowered himself near the ground. Through the smoke, Hazou saw the enemy, another Cloud ANBU. Hazou levelled himself into a fighting stance, activating Pantokrator's Hammer and preparing for the-
"Water Release: Kraken's Rage!"
Hazou tried to leap, using his skywalkers to gain height, but the ANBU had already seen the trick, and aimed high. A splitting stream of geysers surrounded Hazou and washed over him, the edge of one jet ripping his skywalkers off. He tumbled through the air before being caught in another jet, spinning wildly in the current as he slammed through a building before crashing into a solid stone wall, elbow first.
No fight then. As he got to his feet, rubbing his stinging elbow, Hazou saw two more ninja dropping into place next to the Cloud ANBU. The Lightning Loser and the other ANBU he had spotted, now holding an oversized katana in her hands.
They started to race down the alleyway. Hazou cast Hiding Like a Mole and split.
Round 1
Initiative:
Hazou
Noburi
Touma
Hazou
(Reflexively, using a Supplemental from last turn) Cast MEW
(Supplemental) Smash cabinet open
(Supplemental) Blast a new hole in the wall
(Standard) Move out the new exit with skywalkers
Noburi
(Supplemental) Grab the Kraken Scroll
(Standard) Summoning Technique for Gamasid
(Supplemental) Move out the new exit with skywalkers
Touma
(Supplemental) Realize you don't have flight, sound angry, signal your teammate.
(Standard) Move out the new exit to the ground
Round 2
Initiative:
Cloud ANBU 1 (chakra boosting)
Cloud ANBU 2
Hazou
Noburi
Touma
Cloud ANBU 1
(Supplemental) Move right under the Gouketsu brothers to line up your shot
(Standard) Earth Release: Thorns of the Vengeful (-??? CP): ?? + ? (chakra boost) + ? (Tag: Successful Stealth) + ? (Invoke: ???) + ? (Invoke: ???) + ? (Invoke: ???) + ? (dice): 101
Noburi: Athletics: 50 + 6 (Invoke: Team Uplift) + 6 (Invoke: Toad Emissary) + 15 (skywalkers) - 3 (dice): 74
Noburi takes 9 stress! He takes the Mild Consequence "Scraped up Shins" and the Severe Consequence "Broken Ankle"! He dumps the remaining 3 stress in his stress track.
Earth Release: Thorns of the Vengeful: ?? + ? (chakra boost) + ? (Invoke: Successful Stealth) + ? (dice): 75
Hazou: Athletics: 60 + 15 (skywalkers) + 3 (dice): 78
Hazou barely dodges!
Cloud ANBU 2
(Full-round) Move to the combat
Hazou
(Supplemental) Drop down to the ground to defend Noburi
(Supplemental) Activate Pantokrator's Hammer (-14 CP)
(Standard) Block against anyone attacking Noburi
Noburi
(Standard) Reverse summon himself away
Touma
(Standard) Move into the alleyway, same Zone as Hazou
(Supplemental) Refresh Lightning Aura
Round 3
Initiative:
Cloud ANBU 1 (chakra boosting)
Cloud ANBU 2
Hazou
Touma (chakra boosting)
Cloud ANBU 1
(Standard) Water Release: Kraken's Rage at Effect: 7 (- ??? CP) [Special - going to use as many attacks as needed as a Maneuver to damage Hazou's seals, then attack directly]
?? + ? (Tag: ???) + ? (dice): 64
Hazou: Athletics: 60 + 15 (skywalkers) + 3 (dice): 78
?? + ? (Tag: ???) + ? (dice): 67
Hazou: Athletics: 60 + 15 (skywalkers) + 3 (dice): 78
?? + ? (Tag: ???) + ? (dice): 73
Hazou: Athletics: 60 + 15 (skywalkers) - 6 (dice): 69
The Maneuver works! Hazou's unsecured skywalkers are destroyed! Try better with the waterproofing next time, kiddo!
?? + ? (Tag: ???) + ? (dice): 64
Hazou: Athletics: 60 + 0 (dice): 60
Hazou is hit for 2 stress! It goes into his stress track.
?? + ? (Tag: ???) + ? (dice): 67
Hazou: Athletics: 60 + 9 (dice): 69
?? + ? (Tag: ???) + ? (dice): 67
Hazou: Athletics: 60 + 0 (dice): 60
Hazou is hit for 3 stress! It goes into his stress track.
?? + ? (Tag: ???) + ? (dice): 78
Hazou: Athletics: 60 - 6 (dice) + 14 (Invoke x2: Pantokrator's Hammer): 66
Hazou is hit for 4 stress! It goes into his stress track and fills it up.
Cloud ANBU 2
(Standard) Move into the Zone with Hazou
(Supplemental) Draw weapon
Hazou
(Standard) Hiding Like a Mole (-18 CP)
Touma
(Full-round) Consider how you can neither fly nor burrow. Contemplate life's unfairness.
END COMBAT
Initiative:
Hazou
Noburi
Touma
Hazou
(Reflexively, using a Supplemental from last turn) Cast MEW
(Supplemental) Smash cabinet open
(Supplemental) Blast a new hole in the wall
(Standard) Move out the new exit with skywalkers
Noburi
(Supplemental) Grab the Kraken Scroll
(Standard) Summoning Technique for Gamasid
(Supplemental) Move out the new exit with skywalkers
Touma
(Supplemental) Realize you don't have flight, sound angry, signal your teammate.
(Standard) Move out the new exit to the ground
Round 2
Initiative:
Cloud ANBU 1 (chakra boosting)
Cloud ANBU 2
Hazou
Noburi
Touma
Cloud ANBU 1
(Supplemental) Move right under the Gouketsu brothers to line up your shot
(Standard) Earth Release: Thorns of the Vengeful (-??? CP): ?? + ? (chakra boost) + ? (Tag: Successful Stealth) + ? (Invoke: ???) + ? (Invoke: ???) + ? (Invoke: ???) + ? (dice): 101
Noburi: Athletics: 50 + 6 (Invoke: Team Uplift) + 6 (Invoke: Toad Emissary) + 15 (skywalkers) - 3 (dice): 74
Noburi takes 9 stress! He takes the Mild Consequence "Scraped up Shins" and the Severe Consequence "Broken Ankle"! He dumps the remaining 3 stress in his stress track.
Earth Release: Thorns of the Vengeful: ?? + ? (chakra boost) + ? (Invoke: Successful Stealth) + ? (dice): 75
Hazou: Athletics: 60 + 15 (skywalkers) + 3 (dice): 78
Hazou barely dodges!
Cloud ANBU 2
(Full-round) Move to the combat
Hazou
(Supplemental) Drop down to the ground to defend Noburi
(Supplemental) Activate Pantokrator's Hammer (-14 CP)
(Standard) Block against anyone attacking Noburi
Noburi
(Standard) Reverse summon himself away
Touma
(Standard) Move into the alleyway, same Zone as Hazou
(Supplemental) Refresh Lightning Aura
Round 3
Initiative:
Cloud ANBU 1 (chakra boosting)
Cloud ANBU 2
Hazou
Touma (chakra boosting)
Cloud ANBU 1
(Standard) Water Release: Kraken's Rage at Effect: 7 (- ??? CP) [Special - going to use as many attacks as needed as a Maneuver to damage Hazou's seals, then attack directly]
?? + ? (Tag: ???) + ? (dice): 64
Hazou: Athletics: 60 + 15 (skywalkers) + 3 (dice): 78
?? + ? (Tag: ???) + ? (dice): 67
Hazou: Athletics: 60 + 15 (skywalkers) + 3 (dice): 78
?? + ? (Tag: ???) + ? (dice): 73
Hazou: Athletics: 60 + 15 (skywalkers) - 6 (dice): 69
The Maneuver works! Hazou's unsecured skywalkers are destroyed! Try better with the waterproofing next time, kiddo!
?? + ? (Tag: ???) + ? (dice): 64
Hazou: Athletics: 60 + 0 (dice): 60
Hazou is hit for 2 stress! It goes into his stress track.
?? + ? (Tag: ???) + ? (dice): 67
Hazou: Athletics: 60 + 9 (dice): 69
?? + ? (Tag: ???) + ? (dice): 67
Hazou: Athletics: 60 + 0 (dice): 60
Hazou is hit for 3 stress! It goes into his stress track.
?? + ? (Tag: ???) + ? (dice): 78
Hazou: Athletics: 60 - 6 (dice) + 14 (Invoke x2: Pantokrator's Hammer): 66
Hazou is hit for 4 stress! It goes into his stress track and fills it up.
Cloud ANBU 2
(Standard) Move into the Zone with Hazou
(Supplemental) Draw weapon
Hazou
(Standard) Hiding Like a Mole (-18 CP)
Touma
(Full-round) Consider how you can neither fly nor burrow. Contemplate life's unfairness.
END COMBAT
o-o-o-o
Now...
Hazou considered the situation. The Earth jutsu and general commotion might have drawn Akane and Haru's attention, but the crowded bar that they were engaging the target in might have hidden the noise. Noburi was definitely crippled, and if he reverse summoned, he would end up in the same alleyway. That alleyway was probably guarded at this point. At least Akane could signal him when it was safe to return through the Dogs.
Hazou had escaped the location alive and of his own volition, which was progress compared to his previous encounters with jounin. Sadly, the ANBU had Earth Release, and Hiding Like a Mole wasn't a terribly rare technique, so they might have had a way to track him to this little inn. Worse yet, the Kraken's Rage had ruined most of his seals, so he didn't even have his full toolkit to apply proper area-of-effect problem solving.
In summary, he had no accessible allies and no reliable backup. He was responsible for the survival of his friend and brother who had already been maimed by one of the enemies. He was outnumbered at least three to one by the enemy, of which at least two were jounin-level combatants. He didn't have most of his bag of tricks, and he had to not just escape, but crush the enemy so he could exfiltrate his brother alive. He was in a town filled with potential collateral damage, as well as people that could potentially tie him back to Lord Gouketsu in Leaf and give the powerful Cloud casus belli against his village.
Well, Hazou always had excelled in high-stress situations.
Wait... was that the smell of ozone on the air? The distant crackling of lightning? The sound of civilians screaming on the main floor of the inn as they fled out the doors?
No better time to start having insight than the present.
This is the first part of a two-part omake series. The next one will feature Hazou's gruesome death, unless you take the reins! Decide what Hazou does and how he does it in order to escape this really, really bad situation. He still has a few seals (in particular, 10 seal elements), the ones that were in a waterproof pouch and tucked in a lucky spot when the tidal wave hit him. You can also decide what these seals are, so long they're ones Hazou currently has access to or ones that he personally could have researched given his current stats (according to how I feel).
The inn is less than a quarter mile from the house Hazou destroyed. It's farther away from the center of the town, and has a little bit of grassy lawn on all sides. It has a basement with a packed earth floor, which Hazou recently emerged from.
Speaking of which, Hazou's current stats are here: FtD: Future Gōketsu Hazō (Omake)
Feel free to use this in your planning. Hazou is currently at 328 CP. His stress track has cleared when he caught his breath in the inn.
What do you do now? Vote like this:
[X] Omake Plan: blah blah blah
- Strip nude, run outside, moon the ANBU
- Seals:
- 6 ordinary storage seals, grab some meat and cheese from the basement on the way out.
- 4 chime seals, play yourself a nice tune before you meet the friends outside.
Voting ends when I feel like it.
What do you do?
Last edited:
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hazō has a 9-box stress track?! Day-um.
That was a lot of fun. Well done, @Paperclipped. I got nervous when the earth tendril grabbed Noburi -- I thought maybe you were going to kill him to show how dangerous the situation was and how you weren't kidding around.
If I understand the situation correctly:
- Hazō is on the second floor of a 2-story inn
- The inn is at least moderately full of people, but those people are fleeing from ninja coming in on the ground floor
- The inn is inside the boundaries of Cloud, the capital of Lightning Country
- The
RaikageShogun (Killer B?) is presumably in his tower - Haru and Akane are a mile or two away and may or may not know what's going on
- So far as Hazō knows, no one has yet identified him as Lord Gōketsu -- the comment you made was that people could figure that out, not that they had
- There are >= 3 enemy ninja nearby, possibly far more than 3
- At least 2 of the ninja are jōnin-level
- Of the 3 known enemy ninja:
- One has Water element and burned a lot of CP on a powerful multi-hit jutsu
- One has Earth element and a ranged attack jutsu
- One has Lightning element
- Noburi is on the 7th Path and injured
- Akane is the Dog Summoner
- Dogs and Toads have an embassy and Noburi is currently in that embassy, so Akane can go to the 7th Path and speak directly with Noburi
- When Noburi returns to the Human Path it will be to the alley he left from
- The alley is probably guarded, so we'll need to remove the guards
- Even if it's not safe for Noburi to return, we can send Akane to get some of his chakra water and any seals he's carrying
- What if we go to the Shogun's office in our role as Lord Gōketsu and explain that we are here in Cloud on a mercantile scouting expedition, looking to set up new markets. We just got in and came straight to the Tower in order to to pay our respects and let him know that we're here so there's no surprises on either side.
- Which of the following Declarations would you allow us to make, if either?:
- Before Noburi went into the house we had already set up several safe houses around the city, each safe house having food, water, medical gear, disguises, and equipment (including seals)
- Cloud and Leaf have gotten friendlier over the last three years, in part due to Hazō's efforts and in part because both Leaf and Cloud are nervous about how emboldened Rock was by the success of their Collapse-era land grab. Cloud and Leaf aren't friends yet; the relationship is more "wary respect" and "cautious allies".
- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
No declare required: it's listed on the char sheet.
Cariyaga
Handsome Gentleperson
- Location
- United States
That makes things easier, then. Declare that the Dogs/Toads set up a coastal embassy with the Kraken clan, and then check in there to get Noburi ready to come back out.
- Location
- USA
Oh, I forgot about PCJ. Hazou and Noburi both took 2 stress from the granite spray attack from Lightning Guy, because I'm not rerolling and rewriting stuff.MfD Rules: Fated to Die said:
- Yes, but at ninja speed, the time to move between floors is negligible, and he can be pretty much where he wants.
- Yes, Hazou thinks this is true.
- No, it's in the major city north of Hidden Cloud, where the Kraken Scroll was tracked to.
- Presumably, yes. Also ~150 miles away.
- Yes.
- Unclear. Hazou thinks he's seen Lightning Guy before, so maybe it's commutative?
- Probably at least one! There were >= 3 earlier, but who knows where they've gone.
- Well, one of them was definitely jounin level. Hazou didn't see the other do anything.
- Of the 3 known enemy ninja:
- One is demonstrably jounin-level and has Water and Earth elements, having done two separate powerful attacks.
- One is probably a jounin-level kenjutsu user, if they're not wearing the mask for nothing.
- One is a Lightning element taijutsu user, with a technique called "Lightning Aura".
- Unless he's reverse summoned himself, which seems unlikely give that his foot is at >90 degrees to his shin last Hazou saw.
- Yes.
- Yes.
- Yes.
- Yes
For the Declarations:
- [-1 FP] You've set up two... rolls dice... One is way on the other side of the city, the other is pretty close, only a couple thousand feet from this inn. Thanks to the wonders of geometry, Hazou couldn't reach there with one HLaM, and wanted to stop to rest. Note that they probably have a way of tracking HLaM.
In classic Gouketsu fashion, you prepared the locations with food, water, medical equipment, disguise kits, and a light combat-loadout, mostly consisting of various flavors of explosives and macerators. - [-2 FP] As stated. Might not be as useful as you thought it would be, since you're not in Hidden Cloud.
[-1 FP] The Toads have set up an "embassy" on the shores of the ocean (i.e., an old Toad you pay off with nice food to chill out on a beach). The Sharks were displeased by this, but a little bit of talking and treason later, they begrudgingly agreed to fetch the Krakens for you, just the one time. The Krakens acknowledged your "embassy" and said they'd consider sending someone through Shark territory regularly after you got the contract, if at all, and even then only if you could guarantee them safe passage. They didn't seem terribly interested in having a summoner, but were pleasant to talk with all the same.
This is what you'll get from the Declaration, use it if you want.
- Location
- Central Standard Time
Oh, a subquest! Nice.
It's too late for any coherent thought from me, though. Have a meow or two.
It's too late for any coherent thought from me, though. Have a meow or two.
Noumero
Omit Needless Words
Were we able to adapt SC for Noburi, @Paperclipped? How high is his Medical Ninjutsu, by which I mean, how likely is he to be functional with a broken ankle after having a few minutes to work on it?
Ohh, is that Touma the Lightning Lad? That's adorable.
- Location
- Italy
About FOOM or why FOOM OPSEC is less problematic than it seems
From what i can see in thread FOOM is considered something to keep completely secret on the risk of:
- Death from High Treason("You kept S-rank for everyone hidden? OFF WITH HIS HEAD" cit: hypothetical Asuma)
- Everyone Overtaking us("S-Rank Hyuuga everywhere"cit: hypothetical Noburi)
- Ami or Orochimaru finding out and becoming more OP than they already are("MUHAHAHAHAHAHAH" cit ...OH GOD MY SKIN IS SNAKES,HELP ME!)
When we think about SCs, we think of "Shadow Clones--->XP---->Check to pass to avoid mental trauma" with this check existing in some shape or form(Resolve?Deceit? How many S-Rank did Hazou piss off at lunch?), but everyone else in story see it as "Shadow Clones--->More time to train--->Clone Sickness": They know clone sickness can be avoid in some way as Naruto uses it and doesn't die from Overuse of SC and they somewhat understand that it's related to force of will, but they don't have a spreadsheet. More importantly, they don't have a complete grasp of their own capabilities: Asuma doesn't know "I have Genjutsu 60, because Yuhi loves pranking me, so i used XP to improve there", he knows "I'm reasonably skilled at genjutsu because my girlfriend loves pranking me and this SHALL NOT STAND". We on the other hand know exactly what Hazou can and cannot resist as far as FOOM is concerned and (more importantly) Hazou is more than willing to fry himself in his quest for power("If i was scared to die, i would have remained in Snow" cit hypothetical Hazou).
In short SC FOOM is something that can be achieved only by someone with a perfect grasp of his own limits and capabilities (Hiruzen or Hazou i would say)and suicidal or arrogant enough to try(Hazou,Jiraiya), i find this hilarious by the way, because it means that Hazou's characterization as "Obsessed with lists and the perfect training regiment" that everyone makes fun of is the IC thing that makes FOOM possible.
Of course this also means we will need to personally direct Akane/Mari/Keiko as far as training regiments goes or they will fry themselves as far as SCs go, because they don't grasp their capabilities as far as Hazou does.
So, let's see the bullet points:
1) If Asuma finds out his first words would be "Yeah, that is an
2)The previous problem means that if, for example, Hyuugas try to FOOM, it will end with a bunch of crazy and damaged Hyuuga, some(Maybe) Hyuuga really stronger but far crazier and some Hyuuga only a bit stronger because they didn't actually use FOOM but "More SC training". Mass FOOM is impossible for not-Goketsu without massive casualties.
(Without counting the ones whose talent stops them from improving Resolve, that will die 100% from Clone Sickness because they won't stop).
3)This is the more problematic point. Let's divide it in O)rochimaru and A)mi
-A)Ami has the same problem as Asuma. Yes, the Froken Skein helps her with that by working like a supercomputer, but a supercomputer without data still can't give an response: She doesn't know how strong she is, because willpower can't even be measured reliably by the modern world,so she is still in the dark compared to the Hivemind. Her best answer would be an inference compared on how many clones are normally used by a Jonins(Whose willpower is ???, because resolve vary wildly), Naruto(S-Ranker whose maximum of clones he can stand no one knows) and her own capabilities(???). The most probable answer is "You're going to fry your brain" and she'll stop looking into it, assuming rightfully that is something only Hazou can do(Talent?Watching the Summoning scroll gave him special capabilities at judging willpower?Luck?). On top of that Ami is extremely scared of losing her freedom and her "sanity", doing FOOM without hivemind is probably going to touch some really bad buttons for her, considering she doesn't really need it (She probably thinks she'll never be an S-ranker regardless, and more power is helpful but not necessary for her plans)
-O) Oro doesn't need it. Simple as that. He's not interested in more power, nor he think he'll reach unlimited power with SC, he's a genius so he doesn't really need more "time" to "learn" like the other peasants. More Orochimarus running around doing experiments is the thing that would interest him, but he probably has enough chakra to summon a good amount of SCs regardless and more importantly that would mean losing chunk of his research every time he uses SCs(Because the information transfer isn't complete and that is what interest him). So it's a coinflip between "Experiments everywhere,MINE" and "I don't do mediocre work and i'm not behind schedule, why i should delegate to inferior copies of me?".
Plus the risk, but Orochimaru is probably arrogant enough to not really consider that a risk("Madness is overrated" cit. hypothetical Orochimaru)
This said, complete OPSEC is still needed, both Ami and Oro have reason to try it and could be desperate/ intrigued/curious enough to try it regardless, and if they do and survive it....
TL;DR FOOM without hivemind is really difficult. Not Treason, Not possible for non-goketsu. Ami and Oro have both reasons to not want it.
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- Location
- The state of Paranoia
We were disguised, so we probably weren't recognized by Touma, right? If that wasn't stated could we declare it?
Noumero
Omit Needless Words
You are right to an extent, but I think you're taking it too far.
The core idea behind your interpretation is that explicit knowledge of the mechanics gives Hazou an advantage no-one else in-universe has, an advantage that is effectively unsurpassable. And it's partly true, we do have a great advantage over the characters. But in-universe, Hazou isn't modeled as someone with metafictional insight, which means that if Hazou is able to quantify Resolve or figure out a jutsu exploit, characters who are supposed to be as creative as him could also figure it out. The concern is that Orochimaru, Ami, and the combined think-tanks of major clans would be modeled as such characters. (And if Hazou is able to guide other Gouketsu through FOOM, it would stand to reason that think-tanks would be able to guide their less capable clanmates as well.)
Another way of looking at it is, the main advantage of explicit mechanics knowledge is the ability to come up with exploits, not execute them. Ami, Oro et al. may not decide to engage in the kind of crazy Resolve quantification that Hazou would, but once they have evidence that it's worth thinking about (evidence as weak as all of the Gouketsu, the experienced jounin Mari included, taking it seriously), they will attempt to run the numbers, and they will likely succeed.
Though it doesn't seem that we disagree on practical matters, so all of that is academic. Your arguments do make me more hopeful regarding the success of our bloodline disinformation plot.
He was visibly angry at Hazou, he totally recognized us. He therefore needs to die.
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- Location
- Italy
But Hazou is not doing that? Hazou IC is doing "SC+Noburi=Unlimited Power+Risks of frying your brain. Risk are acceptable, proceed" with us OOC whispering "The power of statistics will help you". Hazou is not quantifying Resolve. I doubt it's possible to quantify Resolve in the EN. How i would put it IC would be "Hazou survives because he concentrates only on dealing with Clone backlash all day and by a mix of only working on that/Luck/Instinct/Going reasonably slow for FOOM/Being a genin that stared S-rankers down he survives" that then becomes "Hazou applies his survival as a vague timeline and then uses it to train the others and it's still pretty risky because people are different".
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
MARI: You have a crippling psychological crutch when it comes to lists and planning.
HAZOU: You just don't understand me, mom!
*many months later*
MARI: So, because of your lists, the Goketsu are the only clan in Leaf --save for the Uzumaki, but Naruto's more nightmare than ninja --that can boast having only S-rank ninja.
ASUMA: I... I... I think I'm having a heart attack.
- Location
- Italy
Well, to be fair, we didn't tell them that the post-interaction surveys were made to measure resolve, as the step 122 of the master plan orders.
- Location
- London
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
Hey, did Honoka cost us an adoption slot? If no, can we go adopt a shitload of orphans/clanless academy students?
- Location
- The Void
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Though it is technically allowed adopting academy students is frowned upon by the clans. We've came to a general consensus that it's bad idea
- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
Honoka didn't cost us an adoption slot... because we haven't adopted her. Adopting anyone known to be chakra-capable, even if they're still in the academy or not even that far, would count towards our adoption slots. The only way for us to adopt a ninja without spending an adoption slot is if Konoha did not know that person was chakra-capable when we adopted them, which means either blind luck or we figure out a way to detect being chakra-capable before the Byakugan can see it
edit: compounding off of Oneiros, it may not be explicitly written down that adopting an academy student would cost an adoption slot, but IIRC the QM opinion is pretty firmly that if such rules are not in the books, they would be as soon as we tried, because it would be common sense to every clan that if you shouldn't be able to freely adopt ninjas you shouldn't be able to freely adopt people who are going to become ninjas.
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- Location
- USA
Sadly, no SC for Noburi yet. His MedNin is pretty damn good - by now his ankle is probably set and he'll be able to walk around on it gingerly, maybe even go fast for a very short period of time. Hazou thinks it'll definitely be faster to exfil if he or Akane spins off a Shadow Clone to carry him.
Cariyaga
Handsome Gentleperson
- Location
- United States
What about sage mode for him?
- Location
- USA
Sage Mode? What's that? Without the hivemind to pilot with a bit of light metagaming, the Toads haven't told Noburi and co. anything like that.
- Location
- The Void
- Pronouns
- She/Her
@Paperclipped have we researched STARS yet?
- Location
- USA
Absolutely. Attaches to one seal, triggers that one seal when anyone substitutes within 3 inches of the STARS.
Chapter 344: Interruptions
- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It was truly a beautiful spring morning. The sun was out. Birds were singing, and despite the distance from Leaf, not one had recently turned out to be a man-eating chakra beast (Hazō had queried the Tower, but oddly enough, no one could tell him what seals Shimura had used to protect the estate). There was work—for a clan head, there was always work—but for now, Hazō was pretending it didn't exist, and instead listening to Noburi regale him with tales of his so-called romantic rivalry with Hyūga.
"But then he tells me, with this completely serious expression, that it is the Hyūga birthright to have an academic knowledge of female underwear, and I am the one who should be ashamed because I'll never be able to give my beloved the best possible lingerie," Noburi said. "I can't even tell if he was joking. On the one hand, Hyūga has no sense of humour, but on the other…"
"…he's been training hard," Hazō agreed. "Didn't you say he managed to score a point off you the other day?"
"A teeny one," Noburi said. "And I made up for it straightaway."
"As for Hyūga," Hazō said, "clearly he's never been to the Gōketsu compound on laundry day. I think I can safely say you and I have a more intimate knowledge of Leaf's hundred sexiest lingerie brands than he ever will."
Hazō got a sudden sharp sense of impending doom.
"And so the day begins with a dramatic revelation!" an instantly recognisable voice declared with glee.
"Ami?! What are you doing here?"
"This is great," Ami said, ignoring the question. "Now I finally know what to get you for your birthday!"
"What?! But I didn't mean—"
"Shhh," Ami said. "Your secret's safe with me. Now, who wants to help me build world peace?"
Hazō's despairing response caught in his throat. World peace? Ami?
It occurred to him with a combination of hope and horror that, with Jiraiya gone and Asuma potentially hostile, Ami was quite possibly his best ally when it came to imposing world peace, assuming she was actually his ally and was actually interested in world peace. With her, getting reliable confirmation of both could potentially be more difficult than solving the problem itself.
"You have my attention," Hazō said warily. He mentally readied himself for minutes to hours of verbal sparring, filled with potential for humiliation and the inadvertent revelation of various secrets that really shouldn't be revealed outside the clan (or even outside his head). It was going to be hard going, and would almost certainly leave him with a deep and abiding headache, but the bait she dangled out in front of him was too important to ignore.
"Oh, sorry." Ami grinned. "That was a rhetorical question. I really only need Noburi."
Had Hazō not been outdoors (which also raised the question of how Ami had snuck up on him, with all the clear lines of sight), he would probably have beat his head against a wall. He made a note to install more trees.
"You can stick around if you like, though," Ami added. "It's not like I'm going to kick you out of your own compound."
"Why, thank you, Ami. That is very considerate of you," Hazō said coldly.
There was a second of contemplative silence. Ami smiled at Noburi in a worryingly alluring fashion. Noburi shot Hazō the smuggest grin in the history of smug grins. Hazō tried not to glower, but as foretold, it was hard going.
"I'd like to say this plan will bring peace to our entire world," Ami began dreamily, "but that is not so easily accomplished. No, this is going to be our gift to the Seventh Path, a recompense for everything we have inflicted upon them, and an expression of a new bond of friendship. I call it the Grand Summon Alliance, and I want your help, Noburi, in making it work."
"I'm listening," Noburi said with yet more Hazō-directed smugness.
"It begins with the Condors, terribly wronged by summons and humans both. Who would blame them for being reluctant to accept an ally of their tormentors as their new summoner? All we can offer them to even begin to compensate them for what they have lost is the return of their freedom, and whatever aid Leaf can muster in their reconstruction. I daresay there are many experts in that craft here now. The Condors shall be the first to join the alliance.
"It continues with the Pangolins. The Seventh Path is holding its breath as their victims recover and rebuild, knowing that at any second, the avalanche of retribution will begin. Loathe though they may be to admit it, the Pangolins cannot afford to devote half their strength to suppressing the Condors, who will surely rise up the second the Pangolins falter. They will need all they have and more if they wish to survive. It is not within our power to free the Pangolins and the Condors from the chains of hatred that now bind them even more firmly, but if the Pangolins join the alliance, the freed Condors will be obliged to support them by the Summon Realm code that holds alliances sacred. Then, too, there is the irony that the clan that committed to freeing them as its condition for joining is the only one they can trust not to enslave them at the end of the war, vulnerable as they are.
"Next, the Toads and the Monkeys. For them, to join the alliance is to be able to reach out and freely touch half a world, with Pangolin territory an aid rather than an obstacle. They will also finally have a complete circle around the Mara, who will have no choice left but to bow to their every whim. The price, for them, is small. When the alliance reaches four clans or more, their foes will seek the bargaining table over the battlefield.
"The Mara will be desperate to follow suit in joining, for only as members of the alliance will they avoid conquest at Toad and Monkey hands. Nor is access to half a world something to sneer at.
"Now the waterfall cascades. Turtles, Slugs, and Snakes. There is no urgency in this for them, but nor are there demerits. They have allied summoners, or will soon, and the benefits of secure peace and expansive trade are hardly to be dismissed.
"Otters. Capybara. More vulnerable on both Paths, and with the Turtles unwilling to lend their strength, they will find themselves as encircled as the Mara. What is there left for them but to join, and also reap the benefits?
"At the end of the cascade lie peace and ever-growing wealth for perhaps a third of the Summon Realm, with Leaf-friendly clans standing to gain the most.
"That's Phase One," Ami went on. "Now, this next bit's tricky, and basically flies in the way of everything that's been done anywhere ever, but I reckon we can finagle it by exploiting some of the weirder laws around summoning scrolls and contracts. To start off, we establish that, based on existing law, summoners have the right to—"
"Mori Ami."
The smile vanished from Ami's face as if it had never been at the sight of two dour-looking ninja in Mist forehead protectors.
They bowed to Hazō, catching him completely off guard. For all that he'd been growing used to the power and privilege that came with being a clan head (and also the paperwork), something irrational buried deep inside him felt a burst of panic at two hulking Mist shinobi with grave expressions bearing down on him. No one he knew had ever seen the Mizukage's secret police, or at least ever mentioned having seen the Mizukage's secret police, or maybe the people who had seen the Mizukage's secret police were no longer there to say so. But everyone had their own image of what they looked like, and maybe it was like this.
"We humbly apologise for the intrusion, Lord Gōketsu," said one of the heralds of damnation. "We have a message for Mori Ami from Mist, to be delivered in haste and in person. We were told this was where she might be found."
"That's fine," Hazō said. He wasn't sure it was. Back at the old compound, anyone could turn up inside their home uninvited, from his mother to a surprise bonus Orochimaru, but maybe it was time to overhaul security. More to the point, though…
Ami studied the ninja's faces, and read something there that he couldn't. "Sorry, Noburi, Hazō," she said calmly. "I'm going to have to cut this short. Say goodbye to everyone for me, will you?"
With that, the three Mist ninja walked away, leaving Hazō and Noburi with nothing but a torn-out page of a master plan and an ominous feeling.
-o-
Eventually, Hazō gave up on work. Ami's idea was too distracting, both in its implications and in how eerily similar it was to his own Seventh Path trade network plans. Was bringing a series of summon clans that had no interest (or negative interest) in each other into a single alliance as viable as she seemed to think? After all, they'd had a thousand years, and the best they'd been able to end up with on their own was that static and apparently fragile status quo.
But then, the same was true of the Human Path. Humanity had spent a thousand years developing a status quo defined by hatred, suffering, and unnecessary death, and his was going to be the explosion that erased that millennium's worth of unforgiving karma and uplifted mankind once and for all. If he thought that was possible, then why shouldn't it be possible on the smaller scale of a fragment of the Seventh Path? Not easy, in fact probably nowhere near as easy as Ami was making it sound—though one would hope the social spec jōnin had a better idea of what she was doing when it came to diplomacy than he did—but then she had come to Noburi to seek whatever it was she was going to seek, instead of accomplishing everything seemingly single-handed as she usually did (the fact that her single-hand tended to move hundreds of people notwithstanding). Maybe she would seek out the other summoners the same way, or had already. The image of Ami wrangling Hyūga in particular was both mind-boggling and hilarious, and he sincerely hoped it would happen. Maybe he could arrange for audience seats and bowls of honeyed nuts.
And then there was the question of her calling it Phase One. What kind of plan would take bringing peace and prosperity to a sizeable chunk of a world as a setup stage, and how would it benefit Ami personally? That second part could prove crucial. Ami wasn't a summoner, and was not qualified to take any of the available scrolls by virtue of being a foreigner. Keiko was, but surely Ami wouldn't turn half a world upside down just to help her? Surely?
"Mind if I join you?"
His mind was swept clean as if by a gust of wind.
"Sure, Akane."
Akane, wearing one of her more revealing training outfits in concession to the heat, sat down lightly beside him.
"How goes the plotting?" she asked.
"Could be better," he said. "Ami's finally trying to enlist us in her plans, and I can't spot the hidden side of the hidden side.
"But enough about Noburi's doom. I've been meaning to talk to you."
"Oh?"
"A while back, it seemed like you wanted to talk about something important. Only then I had an Out episode, and offended you, and you walked away and never brought it up again. I am really sorry about that. I mean, I can't apologise for being suddenly taken over by supernatural entities wanting to mess with our lives, because that is just how life is now, but I am really sorry I didn't realise it was something I needed to apologise for straight away."
"That's OK," Akane said. "I worked it out afterwards."
Hazō smiled in relief. "So do you want to pick up where we left off?"
Akane turned around sharply to face him head-on.
"That's exactly what I was going to talk to you about," she said. "Hazō, do you remember why we broke up?"
Hazō felt a very familiar stab of pain go through him, reminding him of his worthlessness, inadequacy, and above all the obliviousness which had cost him so much. Yes, he knew. It wasn't like he'd ever forget.
Every word took effort to get out. "You told me I was treating people as tools without meaning to. I didn't think about what they wanted for themselves, or what rights they had. I gave away your secret technique because I was treating your resources as if they were mine."
Akane nodded.
"I've been watching you… ever since," she said softly. "You've been doing better. You listen to people now, most of the time. You care about their feelings. You ask how they are and what they personally want. You make time for us completely separately from what you need from us." An amused smile briefly played about her lips. "You respect our agency."
"Thank you," Hazō said dazedly. "I've been trying."
"So I've been thinking," Akane said. "I've been thinking a lot. About who I am, and what I want, and what I want to do with my life. I still don't have all the answers. But I've been thinking that if you're no longer the person I had to break up with… maybe I don't have to stay broken up with you."
Hazō's heart beat faster than when he'd been facing Itachi. His insides fell so hot that if someone had told him at that moment that he'd been set on fire (perhaps also by Itachi), he would have believed them without a second thought. He had to do something, say something in response, but at this crucial moment, his tongue had decided it was made of lead.
"I know it's unreasonable," Akane said. "You've probably already moved on and now I'm just dredging up painful memories for no good reason. You don't have to answer straight away. Actually, please don't. I've had a lot of time to think about this, and you should too. But after O'Uzu, I couldn't leave things where they were.
"Thanks for hearing me out," she said, as if he hadn't turned into a statue that could hardly do anything else. "I'm going to go find something very distracting to do now. Maybe Yuno is up for more training."
She got up and brushed off the grass, then looked at him again with that warmth that was uniquely hers.
"I'll love you as whatever we are. Don't forget that."
She left without looking back, leaving Hazō's brain torn between navigating the diplomatic complexities of an alien world and angsting over his love life. The two contestants were far too evenly matched.
-o-
Evening brought with it a reprieve from the heat, and an ideal temperature to sit outdoors with a cool drink and ponder agonisingly weighty matters while the rest of the clan thought he was secretly making lists in his head (they were catching on; he'd need to develop countermeasures when he was less preoccupied).
It also brought with it what was probably his final guest for the day, the one person in the world who might be able to give him some inkling as to Ami's plans, or at least the diabolical mind behind them. Any clue would do if it helped him figure out Ami's real game, if any, before they next met and he was forced to spend the majority of his mental energy just keeping up (and following any switches of Ami, which seemed almost as if they were designed to throw him off). And, besides, he didn't see enough of Keiko as it was.
"Keiko!" he said happily. "What brings you to our humble—"
"Hazō, you need to see this!" Keiko shoved a piece of paper at him with such desperate haste that were it a kunai aimed to kill, he would probably be dead right now.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"What do you know about this?" she demanded. "What did she say?"
Urgent summons from the Mizukage. No time to say goodbye.
I will always love you.
Ami
-o-
You have received 3 XP.
-o-
This was going to be a bigger and better update, and notably featuring a long-overdue conversation with Sasuke, but spoons. Please assume "conversation with Sasuke goes here" and it'll happen in flashback at some point soon.
-o-
What do you do?
Voting closes on Saturday 23rd of May, 9 a.m. New York time.