Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
- Start date
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- 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
- Location
- The state of Paranoia
[X] De Beers Plan: Co-opt Leaf's social norms via lighthearted propaganda and the Power of Mari to introduce the idea that buying very expensive rare chocolate confections (accompanied by cute yet thoughtful illustrated comic cards) every few months for your romantic partner is the thing to do.
Emstar
The Shining One
- Location
- Trapped in an extradimensional rift.
- Pronouns
- She/They
If there is serious interest in
Step 1: Chocolate and Hallmark
Step 2: Social Norm Shift
Step 3: ????
Step 4: Profit in Gōketsu Candy Company
then we should create some sort of clever yet elaborate plot to do that.
It's not spreadsheets if the plot is clever and elaborate, and involves romcom and chocolate instead of boring things.
Step 1: Chocolate and Hallmark
Step 2: Social Norm Shift
Step 3: ????
Step 4: Profit in Gōketsu Candy Company
then we should create some sort of clever yet elaborate plot to do that.
It's not spreadsheets if the plot is clever and elaborate, and involves romcom and chocolate instead of boring things.
Cariyaga
Handsome Gentleperson
- Location
- United States
You know, we could probably tie this into the whole "making Ino and Ami fall for each other" thing for the Velorien boon...
Omake: Marked For Death Voyage: Let's Meet Again
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
3̵̨̱̣̯̖̱̘͍̻͖͓͓̏͌͛̂͌̈̏̑̕͝͠ͅ\4̶̢̡̢̡̨̪̙̪͎͉͎̤̺͉̖̙̏̽͋́̆̾͜2̷̛̩̦̓͆̈̄͒̄̎̄̄̊̉̌̄̉͑̾͗͘͠͝͝7̶̨̡̡̢̳̞̟̣͇̬̫̗͎͇͎̱̬͍́̈́̋͜͠͝
Marked For Death Voyage: Let's Meet Again
The black fury inside Neji raged. His every nerve ending was on fire, both pushed to act and being repressed by his will alone.
Neji breathed in deeply, and unclenched his bleeding fists.
Shit, his nails weren't trimmed enough, if they could bleed.
By long practice, he stoked that anger into a cold fire, and let it suffuse the entirety of his being as they fell through the entire world.
When his eyes fully bulged with the strength of his new perception, he let it simply wait for the next opportunity, when the Summoning began far above his head. A veritable swarm of Dog clan ninken suddenly appeared, along with the great form of his most trusted Turtle.
His lips curdled in idle amusement. He would at least not lose out in quality.
The great form of the Dog Boss raced alongside the passage to the underworld, racing on nothing more than thin air. So they had learned that trick as well, Neji amusedly thought.
"We won't have much time before we reach the Preta Path, so listen carefully. You will enter a plane of Hunger - your desires will be amplified by the very environment you seek, and gaki will consume your soul should you fail to keep control over your desire. We are reaching the point of no return everywhere, so the conditions for progressing to the Deva Path is simple: abandon desire and allow yourself to fall through. You will understand what I mean when you arrive - "
Inky blackness swallowed his whole world, and when he opened his eyes, he saw only saw Honoka behind him, terrified and looking up to him with the respect he deserved.
Good, he smiled. Now he was finally receiving the respect he was due.
"Hazou, go. I will take as many of them over as I can, but you and Honoka have the best chance of simply passing this on your own," Enrou said.
Hazou nodded, and plunged into the inky blackness.
He emerged into an idyllic village, filled with happy, playing villagers. The children running through the village had round cheeks and happy smiles, unaware of his presence - or rather, he realized, unafraid.
"Are you happy, Hazou?" Akane's voice echoed behind him.
A grey-haired woman, bearing the features that Akane aged seventy years might look like, stood behind him as Hazou whirled around with all the trained reflexes of ten years ceaselessly honing himself into the greatest warrior he could be.
"Akane," Hazou said, stuttering to a halt. "What are you..."
"You did it, Hazou. You succeeded. You've ended death and brought prosperity to the land. The children grow up without fear of famine or disease, living with their grandparents and great grandparents and their whole extended families. The nations have come together in peace, and war is a distant memory," she said, a smile gracing her wrinkled face.
Instinctively Hazou dispelled, and the rest of the world - he knew that this was supposed to be the Preta Path, but - failed to disappear.
The wizened Akane simply shook her head and reached out her hand to Hazou. Awkwardly, he held her hand in the gloved grasp of the GUTS suit, feeling incredibly silly while he did so - wasn't this the goal, to reach a point where the kunai could be put back to use as a farming implement, and seals put to use growing food in the fields and making the children happy?
"You've come all this way, hero from a distant past, which means the time you've been awaiting is finally here," the voice that sounded like Akane said, and a primal fear and resignation struck Hazou all at once. Somehow, he knew that the Akane standing before him was merely a coat of paint over something horrible, something he failed to grasp what it was but suspected was the gaki, no, the Preta Path itself, stalking its prey - and worse, that force of mortal arms would do nothing to stop it.
"What are you waiting for, Hazou?" the voice said, and Hazou realized that he had come to a stop, his whole body tense. "Haven't you been seeking this the whole time?"
Hazou could not bring himself to look at Akane's face, even as he took another step forward, forcibly advancing the point where he must confront whatever challenge laid in store.
"Well, no need for that," the voice said. "He's already here."
Before him, a man appeared, wearing one sword on his belt. He looked all the world like one of the traveling samurai that Hazou had once heard about, draped in simple robes and a wide-brimmed hat. Suddenly, Hazou realized something with horrifying finality:
He recognized that sword. It was Joutarou's, the one jonin that he had killed all the way back in the Hot Springs Incident. Perhaps one of the first people he killed that he regretted killing.
"I've been expecting you," he said, lifting his hat. The image that struck Hazou was the same cold fury he had seen across many other faces, the face of someone who knew that you could not be killed but were weighing the cost of simply doing so regardless. "You took my uncle from me. In the meanwhile, I grew up, my mother passed, I got my own farm, and my Uncle wasn't there to see any of it. Do you know how much you have taken from me?"
"But - "
"But nothing, murderer of my uncle," the man said, walking past him. "My forgiveness is not so easily bought, Hazou."
Hazou looked back at his fleeting back, desperate to say anything in rebuttal, but the words choked themselves in his throat.
Especially when he saw another woman close by, holding her child and leading him away from Hazou.
Another image superimposed itself over his eyes, and suddenly he realized that he had known that woman - Honami, the proprietor of that inn in the Hot Springs.
"Honami, I -" Hazou called out.
"Don't," she cried out. "Don't come any closer, ninja," she begged.
The dagger drove itself deeper into Hazou's heart.
Suddenly, he looked around him - a crowd had gathered.
He looked, and everywhere he looked, the faces of the dead stared back at him. The faces of those he had killed personally or by order.
He looked back at the thing wearing Akane's skin.
"What's going on?" Hazou begged, desperately seeking answers he realized he could not trust this thing to give.
"Exactly what you wanted," the thing cruelly said, smiling. "Deep in your heart, you want to be judged, and you want to make amends," the voice said, bringing the flesh of Akane's elderly form forward, shedding years with every step. The cold gleam in the eyes of Akane's body frightened him to the core, and he scrambled - ah.
That was what this was, wasn't it?
"There's a quick way to make those amends," the thing sing-songed. "Don't resist," it said, cocking a fist back.
Hazou instinctively realized that that would be the strike that would end his life, no matter how much armor or abilities he utilized to block it.
But...with the threat of death looming overhead, Hazou realized that this is what the old dog had meant.
To escape the trap, he needed to merely let himself go.
Let go of his anger.
Let go of his will to survive.
Let go of his purpose.
Let go of his need to stand up.
Let go of - everything.
The strike came, and never arrived.
Hazou had fell through the membrane and into the Deva path.
It was an interminable eternity that Hazou came to, drifting at the bottom of an endless ocean. Far above him, the inky black sky was cracked and letting in some of the incomprehensible light from Outside in - but at the bottom of this endless ocean, that was nothing more than a trivial factoid.
A dog nudged him - and Hazou realized suddenly that he was the size of a house, and the Dog Boss besides.
"A-ah. Enrou," Hazou said, without a further thought for how he was speaking underwater.
"Yes," the Dog Boss responded. "This is the Deva Path. I've found and ferried over Lee, Mari, and Kagome - Honoka got here before you," he said.
"Ah," Hazou responded, other words unneeded. "Then - "
"Neji still has not arrived here, and I fear that if we don't act quickly, he may be lost for this journey."
"Then - " Hazou replied.
"On the other hand, should you succeed, it will be nothing more than a temporary inconvenience - and you are running out of time to complete this journey," Enrou said, meaningfully casting his eyes at the cracked boundary to the Outside. "The worlds have sped up the process of collision, as your punctures in the fabric of reality have begun tearing new holes in the bubbles protecting these paths. You must hurry, or all will be lost soon," Enrou said. "If you let me, I can speed you and your group through the Naraka Path, but Neji will have to fend for himself. Understand?"
"A-ah," Hazou said.
() Fetch Neji, we will forge on ahead.
() Neji will fend for himself, we have no time to lose.
Marked For Death Voyage: Let's Meet Again
The black fury inside Neji raged. His every nerve ending was on fire, both pushed to act and being repressed by his will alone.
Neji breathed in deeply, and unclenched his bleeding fists.
Shit, his nails weren't trimmed enough, if they could bleed.
By long practice, he stoked that anger into a cold fire, and let it suffuse the entirety of his being as they fell through the entire world.
When his eyes fully bulged with the strength of his new perception, he let it simply wait for the next opportunity, when the Summoning began far above his head. A veritable swarm of Dog clan ninken suddenly appeared, along with the great form of his most trusted Turtle.
His lips curdled in idle amusement. He would at least not lose out in quality.
The great form of the Dog Boss raced alongside the passage to the underworld, racing on nothing more than thin air. So they had learned that trick as well, Neji amusedly thought.
"We won't have much time before we reach the Preta Path, so listen carefully. You will enter a plane of Hunger - your desires will be amplified by the very environment you seek, and gaki will consume your soul should you fail to keep control over your desire. We are reaching the point of no return everywhere, so the conditions for progressing to the Deva Path is simple: abandon desire and allow yourself to fall through. You will understand what I mean when you arrive - "
Inky blackness swallowed his whole world, and when he opened his eyes, he saw only saw Honoka behind him, terrified and looking up to him with the respect he deserved.
Good, he smiled. Now he was finally receiving the respect he was due.
"Hazou, go. I will take as many of them over as I can, but you and Honoka have the best chance of simply passing this on your own," Enrou said.
Hazou nodded, and plunged into the inky blackness.
He emerged into an idyllic village, filled with happy, playing villagers. The children running through the village had round cheeks and happy smiles, unaware of his presence - or rather, he realized, unafraid.
"Are you happy, Hazou?" Akane's voice echoed behind him.
A grey-haired woman, bearing the features that Akane aged seventy years might look like, stood behind him as Hazou whirled around with all the trained reflexes of ten years ceaselessly honing himself into the greatest warrior he could be.
"Akane," Hazou said, stuttering to a halt. "What are you..."
"You did it, Hazou. You succeeded. You've ended death and brought prosperity to the land. The children grow up without fear of famine or disease, living with their grandparents and great grandparents and their whole extended families. The nations have come together in peace, and war is a distant memory," she said, a smile gracing her wrinkled face.
Instinctively Hazou dispelled, and the rest of the world - he knew that this was supposed to be the Preta Path, but - failed to disappear.
The wizened Akane simply shook her head and reached out her hand to Hazou. Awkwardly, he held her hand in the gloved grasp of the GUTS suit, feeling incredibly silly while he did so - wasn't this the goal, to reach a point where the kunai could be put back to use as a farming implement, and seals put to use growing food in the fields and making the children happy?
"You've come all this way, hero from a distant past, which means the time you've been awaiting is finally here," the voice that sounded like Akane said, and a primal fear and resignation struck Hazou all at once. Somehow, he knew that the Akane standing before him was merely a coat of paint over something horrible, something he failed to grasp what it was but suspected was the gaki, no, the Preta Path itself, stalking its prey - and worse, that force of mortal arms would do nothing to stop it.
"What are you waiting for, Hazou?" the voice said, and Hazou realized that he had come to a stop, his whole body tense. "Haven't you been seeking this the whole time?"
Hazou could not bring himself to look at Akane's face, even as he took another step forward, forcibly advancing the point where he must confront whatever challenge laid in store.
"Well, no need for that," the voice said. "He's already here."
Before him, a man appeared, wearing one sword on his belt. He looked all the world like one of the traveling samurai that Hazou had once heard about, draped in simple robes and a wide-brimmed hat. Suddenly, Hazou realized something with horrifying finality:
He recognized that sword. It was Joutarou's, the one jonin that he had killed all the way back in the Hot Springs Incident. Perhaps one of the first people he killed that he regretted killing.
"I've been expecting you," he said, lifting his hat. The image that struck Hazou was the same cold fury he had seen across many other faces, the face of someone who knew that you could not be killed but were weighing the cost of simply doing so regardless. "You took my uncle from me. In the meanwhile, I grew up, my mother passed, I got my own farm, and my Uncle wasn't there to see any of it. Do you know how much you have taken from me?"
"But - "
"But nothing, murderer of my uncle," the man said, walking past him. "My forgiveness is not so easily bought, Hazou."
Hazou looked back at his fleeting back, desperate to say anything in rebuttal, but the words choked themselves in his throat.
Especially when he saw another woman close by, holding her child and leading him away from Hazou.
Another image superimposed itself over his eyes, and suddenly he realized that he had known that woman - Honami, the proprietor of that inn in the Hot Springs.
"Honami, I -" Hazou called out.
"Don't," she cried out. "Don't come any closer, ninja," she begged.
The dagger drove itself deeper into Hazou's heart.
Suddenly, he looked around him - a crowd had gathered.
He looked, and everywhere he looked, the faces of the dead stared back at him. The faces of those he had killed personally or by order.
He looked back at the thing wearing Akane's skin.
"What's going on?" Hazou begged, desperately seeking answers he realized he could not trust this thing to give.
"Exactly what you wanted," the thing cruelly said, smiling. "Deep in your heart, you want to be judged, and you want to make amends," the voice said, bringing the flesh of Akane's elderly form forward, shedding years with every step. The cold gleam in the eyes of Akane's body frightened him to the core, and he scrambled - ah.
That was what this was, wasn't it?
"There's a quick way to make those amends," the thing sing-songed. "Don't resist," it said, cocking a fist back.
Hazou instinctively realized that that would be the strike that would end his life, no matter how much armor or abilities he utilized to block it.
But...with the threat of death looming overhead, Hazou realized that this is what the old dog had meant.
To escape the trap, he needed to merely let himself go.
Let go of his anger.
Let go of his will to survive.
Let go of his purpose.
Let go of his need to stand up.
Let go of - everything.
The strike came, and never arrived.
Hazou had fell through the membrane and into the Deva path.
It was an interminable eternity that Hazou came to, drifting at the bottom of an endless ocean. Far above him, the inky black sky was cracked and letting in some of the incomprehensible light from Outside in - but at the bottom of this endless ocean, that was nothing more than a trivial factoid.
A dog nudged him - and Hazou realized suddenly that he was the size of a house, and the Dog Boss besides.
"A-ah. Enrou," Hazou said, without a further thought for how he was speaking underwater.
"Yes," the Dog Boss responded. "This is the Deva Path. I've found and ferried over Lee, Mari, and Kagome - Honoka got here before you," he said.
"Ah," Hazou responded, other words unneeded. "Then - "
"Neji still has not arrived here, and I fear that if we don't act quickly, he may be lost for this journey."
"Then - " Hazou replied.
"On the other hand, should you succeed, it will be nothing more than a temporary inconvenience - and you are running out of time to complete this journey," Enrou said, meaningfully casting his eyes at the cracked boundary to the Outside. "The worlds have sped up the process of collision, as your punctures in the fabric of reality have begun tearing new holes in the bubbles protecting these paths. You must hurry, or all will be lost soon," Enrou said. "If you let me, I can speed you and your group through the Naraka Path, but Neji will have to fend for himself. Understand?"
"A-ah," Hazou said.
() Fetch Neji, we will forge on ahead.
() Neji will fend for himself, we have no time to lose.
Unaligned Player
Agony that desires to meet Extinction
- Location
- Adrift between sanity and madness
- Pronouns
- Shrug
(X) Neji will fend for himself, we have no time to lose.
I'd both expect and want to be left behind if the world was at stake.
I'd both expect and want to be left behind if the world was at stake.
- Location
- Yes.
Unless this is a trick and/or part of the test.
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
But if it's a test which option is correct? One is saying we can sacrifice him in the moment to save everything and prevent this moment from ever having happened. The other is we risk everything to save him... in a world with no future.
(X) Neji will fend for himself, we have no time to lose.
Ultimately if the future is already lost there is no other choice. We must keep going, to reach a second chance and give it the best shot we can. Even if it require burning up all we are in the process. Because what else can we do in a doomed world?
- Location
- Yes.
The trick is to realize that we can take a third option, the Gouketsu classic.
Commit treason.
- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
While the rationale is compelling, I expect we'll only get one treason this journey, so we shouldn't waste it here. There aren't even any Hokages present yet!
(X) Neji will fend for himself, we have no time to lose.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[x] (Voyager) Fetch Neji, we will forge on ahead
No one gets left behind. Why?
Because it signals to the rest of the group that you would abandon them if you thought it was necessary, thereby weakening their loyalty to you and making them more likely to abandon you.
Because there is no reason to believe that this is actually happening and strong reason to believe it isn't; that "test" was way too easy.
Because the Byakugan and Neji's combat abilities are insanely useful and we're likely to need them.
Because we are the exemplar of the society we seek to create and must inspire others to loyalty.
Because to do otherwise is despicable.
No one gets left behind. Why?
Because it signals to the rest of the group that you would abandon them if you thought it was necessary, thereby weakening their loyalty to you and making them more likely to abandon you.
Because there is no reason to believe that this is actually happening and strong reason to believe it isn't; that "test" was way too easy.
Because the Byakugan and Neji's combat abilities are insanely useful and we're likely to need them.
Because we are the exemplar of the society we seek to create and must inspire others to loyalty.
Because to do otherwise is despicable.
Unaligned Player
Agony that desires to meet Extinction
- Location
- Adrift between sanity and madness
- Pronouns
- Shrug
True.
True.
True
True.
This is a bold faced lie, and you know it.
What do you value more? Your history and past as one who does not leave comrades behind or the good of the world itself.
- Location
- The state of Paranoia
[x] (Voyager) Fetch Neji, we will forge on ahead
Birb-duke makes good points.
Birb-duke makes good points.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
??? It is not and I don't.
(EDIT: Also, the appropriate idiom is 'a bald-faced lie'. A bold-faced lie is one that's disrespectful, while a bald-faced lie is one that's obvious. If you're going to insult someone, get it right.)
"The good of the world itself [is at stake]". That's a bold claim. What evidence have you got?
Personally, based on the information available to Hazō I think it is far more likely to be an illusion / part of the test than an actual happening. Remember, he doesn't know about Ami's conversation, so relying on it is pure metagaming.
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- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
This seems like a somewhat relevant interjection
Did you at least enjoy it eaglejarl?
Tua
鸡肉面条汤
- Location
- شوربة الدجاج المعكرونة
I knew it. Beardless people are inherently less trustworthy than people with beards.
And I say that as someone who doesn't have a beard.
Emstar
The Shining One
- Location
- Trapped in an extradimensional rift.
- Pronouns
- She/They
Yeah that makes sense. Danzo didn't have a beard, but Sarutobi did.
Hazou and Itachi are clean shaven, and they do all this fucking treason.
Gendo Ikari is a pretty trustworthy guy, and he has a really swag beard!
- Location
- USA
[X] Beard Plan: Grow out your beard
Chapter 354: The Care and Training of Summoners and Shadow Clones
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"This seems...thorough," Akane said, looking around in bemusement.
Once again, Hazō had wanted a top-secret conversation with a clan mate and once again that had meant significant effort. Specifically, traveling two hours from Leaf, then tunneling a hundred feet underground, then sealing the tunnel shut behind them with a dozen feet of granite walls courtesy of the Multiple Earth Wall, then setting up Air- and Earth Domes, and finally cloaking the area within the effect of an anti-Byakugan seal. The last were a limited resource, made by the now-dead Jiraiya, with no more to be had once the current supply ran out. The fact that Hazō was choosing to expend one now said how serious he was. The fact that he had spent fourteen hours breaking his brain against Lady Tsunade's exhausting training on how to be a Summoner, then called Akane to follow him on what would be at least a four-hour round trip, said even more.
"It's necessary. This concerns the pinnacle of Gōketsu's very few clan secrets." He studied her for a moment. "Akane, you cannot divulge this to anyone, not even other Gōketsu. Not your parents, not Kagome-sensei, no one. Noburi and Mari know, but you can't tell Keiko or Haru or anyone else. Not even a hint. Until I say otherwise, we four are the only people who are going to know this. Understood?"
She sobered instantly and nodded. "Yes sir." Even a woman born clanless understood the importance of clan secrets.
He nodded and sat down, leaning against the wall of the tunnel he had slowly and painstakingly created with his limited knowledge of the Tunnel Excavation Technique. He gave a tired sigh and rubbed his face.
Gathering his energy, he took his hands away and met Akane's eyes where she sat across from him, leaning on the opposite wall. The space was so narrow that their feet would have been touching if she weren't sitting cross-legged.
"The Shadow Clone Technique," he began, "is the single most powerful technique that Leaf has. Far more so than the Rasengan, or any of the Uchiha fire techniques. Quite possibly more than the Fourth Hokage's teleportation technique, although I don't think anyone is able to use that today."
"What?" She cocked her head and frowned. "It's a clone technique, like Earth or Water. The Flying Thunder God allowed the Fourth to defeat entire armies."
Hazō shook his head. "The Shadow Clone is different. Earth and Water clones are stupid and not very skilled. They're mostly good for brute labor, setting off traps, or distracting your enemies in combat. Shadow Clones are a complete copy of you—all your skills, your ability to mould chakra, your intelligence, your memories. When they pop, the memories return to you as though you had lived them yourself."
"Sure. I've seen that, although so far the only things they remembered are coming into existence lying down with their eyes closed. Still, I don't see the importance. I mean...I guess it's useful for infiltration missions, but..."
"What if the clones had just spent hours practicing your Elemental Mastery technique, or taijutsu? It would be exactly as though you had done that yourself."
Her eyes widened in dawning comprehension. "You can train twice as much, get better faster." She considered that for a moment, then shook her head. "No. Asuma was very careful to explain it: The more clones you have and the longer they are extant, the more damage they will cause when they rejoin you. Your brain would explode. He's only allowing me to have one clone out for three minutes at a time so far and he's right that it hurts when it reunites with me. Plus, it leaves me confused and dizzy."
"Sure, but pain is only a feeling. I've been practicing; it doesn't stop being painful as I improve, but I've gotten better at resisting the dizziness and confusion—at least, slightly better. I see no reason why I can't eliminate them if I train my will hard enough...and my clones can help me train my will. It's a reinforcing cycle—the better you get at Shadow Clone, the more clones you can make and the longer they can train. The more clones you have and the longer they can train, the faster you improve at resisting clone sickness, so the more clones you can make and the longer they can train."
"But still, there must be a limit?"
He shrugged. "Why? Gai showed that there is no limit on physical strength, or on taijutsu skill. Why should there be a limit on strength of will?"
"Well...if it were that easy, someone would have done it already."
"Example A: Naruto. He's our age but he fights on the level of jōnin or maybe even Kage. How?"
"I mean...ever since he could walk he was trained by the Third Hokage, Lord Jiraiya, Lady Tsunade, and Master Ebisu. Plus, he's the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails, and also it's long been suspected that the Uzumaki have a bloodline. No one is sure what, but they all seemed more powerful than one would expect. Add that to the Fox, whispering secrets in his ears and providing him with chakra and..." She shrugged helplessly. "Unlimited chakra? Super healing? Enhanced strength and speed and senses? Who knows what powers the strongest of the Tailed Beasts can provide?"
"I don't think that's it. Those are incremental advantages...maybe that would allow you to lean fifty percent faster, but not so much or so fast that you could become as strong as he is only two or three years past the Academy. And remember that he hasn't spent all his time honing his ninja skills. A lot of his training was in politics and administration, because the Third had picked him as a successor.
"I think his strength is because of the effectively unlimited amount of chakra he has for making Shadow Clones. If he trained his will since he was very young, trained it enough that he could resist large amounts of clone shock, and then used his clones to train his skills as a ninja and a future Hokage...if he did that, then the world would look exactly like it does."
She went silent, thinking. He waited patiently.
"I don't have his chakra reserves," she said at last. "The technique has a very high startup cost and then it divides your remaining chakra across yourself and all your clones. Neither of us—well, none of us, once I get to the point of making more than one—would be able to use significant jutsu or chakra boost for training."
Hazō chuckled. "Have faith in your brother, Akane. Your brother, Noburi, and the koi pond from which his unlimited chakra will come before being transferred into you."
For several seconds, she said nothing, her eyes wide as she digested the implication.
"Oh."
"Yeah," Hazō said, nodding. "Unlimited chakra thanks to Noburi. That's the other half of why this has never been done before: It only works if you have both Shadow Clone and access to someone who can move chakra from one person to another. Leaf never had a chakra transfer mechanism until now, and no one else has the Shadow Clone." He paused as his thoughts jumped to a different trail. "Speaking of which, we really need to find a way to boost Noburi's internal chakra reserves so that he can use Shadow Clone for his own training. Still, that's a problem for another day."
"So, when you declined to give me the Summoning Scroll because it would mean I didn't get the Shadow Clone..."
He nodded. "I did what I thought was in your best interest. The Summoning Scroll would make you significantly more powerful in the short term, but the Shadow Clone will make you effectively unlimited in the long term. And, because of the way the training stacks on top of itself, the sooner you get started the more effective it is in the long run."
"Thank you, Hazō," she said, her eyes gleaming with a hint of tears in the light of the lantern seal. "I admit I was...unhappy, and a little hurt. I'm glad to find that it wasn't what I thought."
He chuckled. "You're welcome. And remember: You cannot tell anyone about this. Imagine what would happen if someone like Orochimaru found out. Do not talk about it at all."
She nodded furiously. "I won't. I promise."
A yawn took him by surprise and he covered it a moment late. "Sorry. It's not the company."
She stood up, smiling, and offered him a hand. "I didn't think it was. Dig us out of here and let's get home so you can sleep."
o-o-o-o
Hoooonk! said Mari's tiny party horn. It was echoed a moment later by those of the rest of the party-goers.
"Thank you, thank you all!" Noburi said, grinning and offering exaggerated bows to all concerned. "It's good to see that you have all finally acknowledged my superiority in the regions of power, moral character, intelligence, personal hygiene, and sheer good looks. Hazō, don't worry—now that I'm Clan Head I'll be merciful. You'll be allowed a day off every month and I'll only make you wear the jester costume at formal dinners."
Hazō jerked awake from an incipient doze just in time to catch the end of the sentence. "Hah, hah, hah. You're so funny, Nobster. This is a 'congratulations on not having failed out of Summoner training...yet' party. Eat your cake and stop talking treason against your Clan Head."
Noburi laughed. "Right, sorry. I shouldn't try to steal your trick."
The sludge stuffing up Hazō's skull came from too many days and late nights spent jamming his brain full to bursting with aetheric metaphysics, n-dimensional survival techniques, and canine social mores. The distracting pain in his knuckles came from Lady Tsunade's ruler whenever he answered a question wrong on her very stringent daily exams. The two together meant that he didn't see the trap coming until it was too late.
"My trick?"
"You know...'Gōketsu Hazō Secret Technique: Treason Bunny!'" He looked around at the rest of the clan. "Eh? Eh? 'Treason Bunny'?"
"Why a bunny?" Honoka asked, furrowing her brow. She leaned over to her mom and whispered loudly, "Mommy, what's treason?"
"Shhh," Yukari replied, glancing nervously at Hazō. "Later, button."
"Wouldn't 'plot' make more sense?" Kagome-sensei asked. "Or maybe 'Unnecessary and Pointless Technique'? 'Stupid'? 'Idiotic'? Ooh, 'Hazō's Moronic Face-on-Fire Technique'!"
"Thank you, Sensei," Hazō growled.
"It was a very good effort, Noburi," Akane told him sympathetically. "Perhaps a bit more polishing?"
"Hmph. Fine. Anyway, as the great Sage once remarked: 'All according to cake.' Let's eat!"
Mari laughed. "I don't think he said that." Regardless, she was dividing the cake as she spoke.
o-o-o-o
Hazō waited until the party had wound down, Honoka and her parents had gone to bed, and all members of Team-Uplift-plus-Haru were replete, sipping sake and chatting about inconsequentials. Granted, this meant having to repeatedly pinch himself to stay awake. Finally, however, the time seemed right. He stood and paced around the room, laying down the components of an Air Dome seal and an Earth Dome seal.
Groans came from the table behind him.
"C'mon, man, it's my party," Noburi objected. "Can't we have one night off from family business?"
Hazō chuckled and activated the seals, stepping back to let the shimmering energy climb past him, arching over and then hardening into the granite of an Earth Dome as the Air Dome formed outside it.
"You'll like this," he promised. "This is all about you and how to make you look good."
Noburi preened. "Hey, I don't need help with that. I always look good."
Hazō blew a raspberry at him. "Not like that, numbskull." He covered his mouth in time to catch a yawn, then sat down and poured himself some extra-strength tea.
"You finish your Summoning training at the end of the week," he said. "After that, you sign the contract and go talk to the Toad Boss. Assuming that pans out, you're going to be one of the most important people in Leaf. The question is: How do we best support you in that, and how do we leverage it into as much benefit for the clan as we can?"
He was met with thoughtful silence.
"We're hopefully going to get that koi pond from the Wakahisa," Hazō noted. "I know you hate being seen as a chakra source, but the pond is going to make you insanely valuable. On the other hand, it keeps you tied down here in Leaf. You can't take advantage of it on a mission and it's likely to push you more into the support role instead of letting you be center stage...maybe you're okay with that now, but I want you to have the choice.
"We could set up a chakra farm on the Seventh Path. You can tank up anytime, from anywhere, just by doing a quick reverse-summon. That would remove Asuma's need to keep you around so that you could refill Leaf defenders and trainees—Summoners can always meet you in Toad territory to get a refill or to take barrels of chakra water home while you remain in the field."
"Huh," Noburi said, his eyes far away. "Actually...now that I think about it, we've never verified that my chakra water can go to the Seventh Path. Keiko had a request in to Pantsā but it never got resolved."
"Really?" Hazō asked, struggling to remember whether or not that was correct. Eventually he shrugged and let it go. "Well, we can find out once you sign the contract.
"Assuming we set up the farm, it would be like the fifth event back in the Chūnin Exams. You and your team could go into the field, beat the opposition into the ground with your strongest techniques, then refill from them and from the chakra farm. Get a big enough farm and it really would be unlimited. Effectively, anyway."
"During the fifth event, Jiraiya told everyone that draining chakra from a summoned creature could be dangerous," Akane noted. "'Will probably kill you' were the exact words."
"From a summoned creature on the Human Path," Hazō said. "A summoned creature here is a chakra envelope, not a living being. That rule might or might not apply to the real bodies on the Seventh Path, or to animals from the Seventh Path. Regardless, we could probably find a way around it—maybe send some of the koi through and put a pond there. Also, Jiraiya mentioned 'Ma and Pa' Toad at one point, and talked about how they had a very rare and powerful sonic technique. Having names like that and powerful techniques implies that they might be elders of some kind, in which case you should find them and ask for advice. Regardless, that's all just implementation details; the question right now is if a farm on the Seventh Path is something you would want. If it is, we'll find a way to make it happen."
"I don't know," Noburi said. "On the one hand, it would be amazing. On the other hand, it sounds like a lot of work to set up, and the kind of thing that would need a ton of maintenance, meaning I'd need to somehow convince the Toads not just to let me have it but also to take care of the animals. I'll be a new Summoner and I'm a big downgrade from Jiraiya; asking for favors right away sounds like a bad idea."
Hazō nodded, suppressing another yawn by force of will. (Good training for the Shadow Clone!) "Okay. Well, after you sign it, let us know.
"Next question: Do we share the idea of Seventh-Path chakra farms with anyone else and, if so, who? Neji finishes his training the day after tomorrow—poor show for not getting there first, by the way—"
"He started weeks before me!"
Hazō shook his head sadly, tutting his tongue. "Excuses, excuses."
"Hazō, be nice," Mari scolded, completely failing to hide the impish smile on her face.
Hazō rolled his eyes. "Fine. Anyway, other people could maintain chakra farms but they would still be dependent on your good will, since they don't have the ability to drain and transfer chakra. We could share the idea with Neji and he could set one up on Turtle lands."
"If that stinker Neji has the Turtles set up a farm then the Toads would have to keep one of their people there so that Noburi could be reverse-summoned to it," Kagome-sensei pointed out. "Aren't the Summon Clan territories a long way apart, and they don't trust each other?"
Hazō shrugged helplessly. "It varies by clan. Most of the Clans here in Leaf are relatively close together geographically. The Dogs are far away—there's Toad territory, then the Condors to the northwest, then the Pangolins, then a major mountain range, then the Hyenas, then the Dogs. It's about..." He trailed off, trying to force his eyes to focus as he dredged up the details Lady Tsunade had been pounding into his head. "A thousand miles, I think? Which is good for trade. The Dogs and the Toads can trade with each other by way of me and Noburi."
"Back on the original topic," Mari said uneasily. "I'm not sure we want to out the idea of Seventh-Path chakra farms too publicly. I can easily see this being classified a military secret of Leaf's. We need to either keep it a deep clan secret or we need to disclose it to the Hokage right away."
"Should we wait until we have verified that the idea works?" Akane asked. "His time is valuable."
Mari sighed. "I'm...honestly not sure. I don't have a good enough read on him, or on exactly how angry he is with us. Claiming something and then not being able to deliver would be disastrous. Stating that we had an idea we wanted to validate and wanted him to know ASAP could be taken as loyalty or it could seem like sucking up or wasting his time."
"Let's table it for now," Hazō said. "I need to get to bed soon and there's two more things on the list."
There were groans.
"You're back to making lists again?" Noburi asked. "Really? I thought you'd come to understand the issue?"
"First, there's the question of trade that I was just mentioning," Hazō said, ignoring his brother. "Trade from one human nation to another by way of Summoners could be problematic—the mere idea of doing it the normal way infuriated Asuma before. What about enabling the Seventh Path clans to trade among themselves? Especially the Dogs and Toads."
"Why would they want to?" asked Haru, breaking the silence he had held to for most of the evening. "They're enemies. It would be like us trading with Cloud or Rock."
Hazō waffled his hand, then used it to cover another yawn. "Not all of them. Many of them aren't really in direct contact with one another, so they have no bad blood. Dogs are a good example—they have no contact with the Pangolins, Slugs, Snakes, Monkeys, Turtles, Porcupines, or Toads. It's a clean slate so they should be fine to trade with any of the clans we can connect them to."
"Hm."
"It seems like a good way to make the Gōketsu rich," Mari said. "Let them trade, we take a middle-man fee."
Hazō nodded. "That was my—" A yawn interrupted him and everyone laughed. "Sorry. That was my thought."
"Go to bed, Hazō," Akane said. "You have school tomorrow, early. We will follow you soon enough."
Hazō fought down another yawn. "One more topic, then I'm done. The Porcupine Scroll: Is there any way we can ensure that it goes to one of our allies? Maybe if we—"
"No," Mari cut him off. "No, we are not going to do anything related to the Porcupine Scroll. We are on very thin ice with Asuma right now and we desperately need to avoid even potentially seeming like we're putting our own interests over those of Leaf. Let Asuma choose the person who will best wield the Scroll in service to the nation."
Hazō blinked in surprise at her vehemence, then almost cracked his jaw with another yawn. "Sorry, this training is really grinding me down. Anyway, it sounds like that's settled. I'll catch you guys tomorrow."
He pushed himself to his feet, used the Tunnel Excavation jutsu to break a hole through the Earth Dome that covered them (thereby causing the Dome to pop like a soap bubble, its granite surface vanishing into nothingness), brushed away the Air Dome seals, and slouched his way upstairs to fall into bed without even bothering to undress.
XP AWARD: 73
(EDIT: Doh. That was supposed to be 3.5 XP per day, but I counted the number of days wrong and it ended up being 4.5. Well, whatever. I'm not going to penalize you for my mistake.)
Brevity XP: 10 See author's notes.
"GM had fun" XP: 0 No strong feelings about this plan either way.
This update covered the period from April 29 to May 15. Noburi's signing of the Toad contract is in 5 days (May 20). Keiko's birthday is June 3.
Your various projects (sewers, skysliders, etc) are proceeding fine.
You found someone to start working on a manga for Keiko's birthday.
There will be no voting unless @Velorien opens it.
Author's Note: The 10 points of Brevity XP is an experiment that I haven't had a chance to talk to @Velorien about yet.
This update covered 16 days (April 30 to May 15). It was 298 words, earning it a +1 Brevity bonus. (300-399 words = +0, 400-499 = -1, etc) The intent of the Brevity XP system was to incentivize shorter plans that didn't break the QMs' souls. An average XP award is around 3.5/day and our updates usually cover one day or less, so +1 XP is meaningful and makes it worth expending effort to keep plans under control. With longer-timeskip updates such as this one, a flat reward of +1 XP would be negligible and therefore could lead to 'well, the bonus XP isn't important since we expect to timeskip so I'm going to go back to writing a 2,000-word plan'. For obvious reasons, we'd like to avoid that.
On the other hand, making it +1 Brevity XP per day seems like a bit much. I'm capping it at 10 XP as somewhere in between and we'll come up with a policy for next time. Expectation management: It might end up being asymmetric, where bonuses are capped and penalties are not. Y'all have had no trouble keeping plans under 300 words so I don't see how this would affect you. Then again, the whole thing might go for naught and we decide to simply keep it a flat bonus. We'll see.
Peace!
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