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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Chapter 360: Her Uplift
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    • Chapter 360: Her Uplift​

    "…like pouring a glass of wine into a bowl already filled to the brim with water. Inefficient as a means of admixture, and given that the water in question is the very substance of your mind… ah, good morning, Hazō."

    "Hi, Keiko," Hazō muttered blearily, staggering down the stairs. It had been a long night. Gaku truly was a prince among men, the kind from before the village era who ordered innocent clansmen to be cast down into the office to be devoured by paperwork in order to appease the mighty and ravenous Gōketsu Clan budget. When Hazō's mind was clearer, he intended to have a thorough internal debate over whether it was appropriate to inflict petty revenge on someone for being too helpful.

    "Good morning, Hazō," Akane said, beaming despite the horrible hour of the morning. "Keiko was just giving me tips on the Shadow Clone Technique."

    "But since you are here," Keiko said, "it may be a good time to suspend expounding my hard-earned wisdom, since I have matters to discuss with you as well."

    "What are those?"

    "The first is the matter of my birthday present," Keiko said.

    "I told you, Keiko," Hazō said wearily, "the publication of further manga is at the discretion of the Nara Keiko Fan Club. I haven't had time to come up with more material."

    Keiko shook her head, eyes briefly sparkling with amusement. "No, that matter is well in hand. I am given to understand that the next volume will feature a life-changing revelation by Nari the Cat Sage, the death of a major character, and the unveiling of a terrible conspiracy, though naturally I did not press for spoilers. I was referring to a different present."

    "So you mean your pet chakra beast? I thought you'd already talked to Kagome-sensei about it."

    "I have," Keiko said. "His relationship with Fifi, while perhaps best not emulated, contains valuable hints for how one is to handle a ruthless, self-centred predator which deigns to tolerate the existence of mankind only because its immediate representatives placate it with physical pleasure."

    "So it's a cat?" Akane asked.

    "For a certain definition of the word," Keiko said cryptically. "But no, that is not the present I was referring to. Try again, Hazō."

    "The concubine thing," Hazō said as his brain gradually began to wake up.

    "The concubine thing," Keiko agreed. "We intend to call the Clan Council meeting soon, in a matter of days rather than weeks. The Kei have committed to support us, the KEI vote is naturally ours in this matter, and I have received a reasonably solid 'Sure, why not?' from Naruto. Others are in progress, and we would naturally appreciate confirmation of the Gōketsu vote, as well as any influence you may be able to bring to bear on other Council clans with which you have dealings."

    Hazō opened his mouth.

    "I left a folder with the actual details of the laws on the table there. Please feel free to peruse it at leisure."

    While it was generally a good idea to know in advance what one was voting for, that was not what had struck Hazō.

    "Actually," he said, "there was something else. I can't help noticing you didn't mention the other two ISC clans."

    Keiko's expression darkened. "I cannot…"

    She hesitated, and looked back and forth between him and Akane.

    "In confidentiality, then," she finally said, "and in order to prevent any further damage being potentially dealt by diplomatic blundering on your part. The Ino-Shika-Chō, while never as monolithic as we appear, are especially not so now. There are those who believe that the Nara's relationship with the KEI is a sign that the clan is being drawn in the direction of dangerous radicalism by a misguided young lord. Similar things were said of Lord Shikaku as well, of course, early into his reign, but he ascended at a more stable time, and had inherited a strong and prosperous clan from his father. Shikamaru is in the opposite situation. That he has a foreign wife from the dangerous radical clan is in no way helpful, doubly so since I am in fact responsible for the establishment of Nara-KEI ties.

    "Lord Akimichi, apparently seeking to protect his friend's legacy, has chosen to lead this so-called moderate faction within the Ino-Shika-Chō, and while there has been no split as such, Shikamaru is being forced to navigate complex and treacherous political waters. Ino appears undecided—Ami speculates that she is more easily swayed by personal loyalties, and there may be an opening there to bring her to our side. She suggests that the two of you leverage the bonds you have with her in order to bind her more heavily to both the KEI and Uplift, as while not the same, the two are mutually-reinforcing ideologies."

    "I wouldn't say I have that much of a bond with her," Hazō said. "Our meetings mostly consist of me being earnest at her and her being snarky at me, followed by some kind of compromise and me paying an exorbitant bill."

    "That's what we do," Akane pointed out, "and we're best friends. Except these days we split the bill. Hazō, you went to her when you had a problem, and you were able to get straight through to her, and she heard you out and believed you and took your concerns seriously and immediately sent one of the most useful ninja she had on hand with you without asking anything in return. Do you think this is standard clan head behaviour when someone randomly turns up at your door alleging crimes against civilians based on reports from children?"

    "I notoriously have social skills to put a flatfish to shame," Keiko added, "and your mutual interest is a matter of no ambiguity to me. The two of you form teams at gaming nights with statistical improbability, considering you have a clear preference for strategic games and she for social ones. Shikamaru, incidentally, suspects that this is partially caused by Rock Lee-related trauma from her first time."

    It had been a while since the last gaming night, it occurred to Hazō. He'd already learned the styles of his primary opponents at Strategic Dominance, from Shikamaru's conquests calculated to the exact victory point to Ami's pursuit of every victory condition at once, and it would be fascinating to see what Sasuke did to the groupthink.

    "In fact," Keiko added after a second's thought, "that you have already been taking action to develop Ino's interest in civilian welfare is very helpful with regard to the other matter I wished to discuss today. Hazō, how do you feel about permanently raising the level of civilisation across the entirety of the Fire Country?"

    The fog vanished entirely from Hazō's mind. "I'm listening."

    "The initial spark for the idea came from Snowflake, of course, who in exchange for her personality issues possesses that same incredible vast power that the rest of humanity squanders from birth," Keiko began. "That idea's name is the Nara Future Foundation.

    "We intend to build it around the skeleton of the Nara Keiko Fan Club, which from inception has displayed a remarkable ability to find and bring together talented members of diverse trades and occupations in the name of its mostly-awful original projects. The foundation will take the most gifted representatives of various essential professions, and set them to teaching, with the full support of centuries of Nara lore. The graduates, young and each armed with high-level skill at their chosen trade, will then be sent out into the villages of the Fire Country as missionaries, so to speak, to pass on their skills. Thus, a master blacksmith will teach junior blacksmiths, who will then pass on state-of-the-art smithing practices to the peasants who lack the resources or knowledge base to develop them naturally.

    "That is the first stage. The second begins as the villages develop new experts who are then capable of producing trade-quality goods, including inevitable regional specialities, especially in crafts such as pottery. Within the territory of Leaf proper, their caravans will sell these exclusively to the Nara, ensuring a fair price, and allowing the Nara to resell them efficiently and thereby both fund the foundation and generate an ever-growing profit. The craftsmen will, of course, be then able to invest their earnings in till'n'fills, superior equipment, and other boons to their communities.

    "The third stage comes when the Nara monopoly becomes too lucrative not to challenge, at which point the Leaf clans and merchant groups interested in doing so will have to physically reach out to the villages. This will require new infrastructure—new trading posts remote from Leaf, and secure roads to connect them. Flourishing trading posts become settlements in their own right, ones which multiple factions have incentive to keep safe and accessible not only to the capital, but to the nearby villages.

    "Naturally, the more effective merchant groups will establish branches in such settlements so as to be able to control trade in their preferred goods directly, thus decentralising Fire Country commerce. From there, in Shikamaru's words, we allow the inestimable power of human greed to do the heavy lifting. As the wealthy come to see individual villages not as abstract numbers on tax records but as local sources of personal income, they will naturally invest in them in order to increase the volume and quality of production, and they will certainly find the idea of losing such sources to chakra beast predation and so forth unpalatable, giving them reason to ensure physical protection.

    "Finally, the surge in taxes resulting from villages having meaningful resources will fund large-scale civic projects which are presently unrealistic, such as a structured, patrolled national road network. I trust I need not enumerate the theoretical benefits."

    "You're serious about this," Hazō said. "The Nara are actually willing to make something like this happen."

    Keiko nodded.

    "Unfortunately, the project will not begin to pay dividends immediately, at least as far as Leaf is concerned, and we will have to work to ensure that the others do not take it as another damning example of radicalism until it visibly does. However, there is one obvious way to accelerate it."

    She looked at Hazō expectantly.

    "You want a partnership," Hazō said slowly, "between the Nara Future Foundation and the Gōketsu Education Department."

    "Consider it, Hazō," Keiko said with an enthusiasm he hadn't thought could be brought out by anything short of cats or Ami, "how much more effectively would the students learn if they came to the foundation already literate, numerate, and accustomed to academic learning? And then, what would it be like to spread those things, which ought to be the birthright of any thinking being, to every corner of the Fire Country and watch them take root?"

    "It would be incredible," Hazō said after a few seconds of blissful contemplation. "And if the foundation actually makes the villages richer, that could mean enough time away from the fields for at least the children to be taught. In a generation or two…" The villages could end up with a higher literacy/numeracy rate than Leaf. Except, of course, for the fact that by that time he'd make sure Leaf had a hundred percent rate as well.

    "It has taken time," Keiko said, "but I believe I have found my Uplift.

    "Every shinobi child is given the finest training the village can provide. The Mori and the Nara are given even more. To be one of us is to learn, to drink knowledge like water, to have a bird's-eye view of the world. I was not a talented student, for a Mori, but I would rather lose my eyes and my hands than lose the ability to learn.

    "It was only after seeing what you are doing here that I have begun to understand just how warped my perspective was. Contrary to the wisdom of the Mori, civilians are not ignorant because they are inherently stupid. They are ignorant because they are illiterate and innumerate, and thus unable to learn. They are denied the highest joy in existence simply because no one has given them the key to open the door. Can you tell me this is anything less than absurd?

    "I want to see the reality of this, Hazō. I do not need a priori reasons why civilians are inferior or why they are not. That is not the Nara way. I want to see them given the same keys to the world that the rest of us already hold, so that on a level playing field they can prove that they are truly our equals.

    "This is my Uplift, Hazō. Will you help me achieve it?"

    Hazō looked her in the eyes, and laughed fondly.

    "Help you? We've been working side by side all along."

    -o-​

    The Concubine Laws Keiko left for Hazō are written in impenetrable legalese so agonising to try to read that it cannot possibly have been accidental, which is doubtless also how they will be presented to the clans. The essence of the laws appears to be an intermediate "concubine" status, which grants some of the benefits and responsibilities of being in a clan without actual marriage or adoption. For example, a concubine may have the head of the clan act on their behalf in legal or disciplinary disputes, and is treated as a member of the clan for the purpose of Leaf's clan secrecy laws (such that they are protected from people attempting to steal or coerce secrets from them, but conversely the clan head has full right of punishment if they share them outside the clan).

    -o-​

    What do you do?

    Voting ends on Saturday 1st of August, 9 a.m. New York Time.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • I mean if even Keiko is saying we should advance the Ino social link then we should probs do so.
     
    [X] Action plan: The wind howls its defiance
    Time period: 1 week

    • Dogs:
      • Manufacture bags and sleds, then deliver to Canoe.
      • Spend some time paying our respect to Kakashi with them.
        • Specifically to any dogs he had as summons or knew well.
      • See if we can meet more of the clan and learn their culture.
    • Meet with Noburi (medium OPSEC):
      • Have the Otters returned our message about the scroll?
      • We'll be spending huge amounts of chakra on the scroll hunt. How is the work on the Seventh Path chakra farm going?
        • Especially on a long term mission. If we are depending on Noburi for refills we won't be able to keep him full
        • We should spend a large amount of resources to get this rolling.
        • Has chakra rice been tested?
        • other options that Noburi thinks are worth pursuing
    • Begin looking through Jiariya's journals for information on Orochimaru
    • Misc:
      • Continue seal research.
        • If we finish Chakdar move on to LBF
      • Task Mari with acquiring all the grape producing land
     
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    Note: It takes a few years to learn how to write and read with dedicated study effort(by my estimate). Everyone's trying to learn from a firehose, so that they are constantly learning and forgetting. We could speed up learning efficiency through research on knowledge retention.
     
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    [X] Action plan: The wind howls its defiance

    Go for it
     
    We could just offer her some help apropos of nothing. As was pointed out, shes had our back quite a few times.

    Or simply make it clear we would like to return the favor.
     
    Ok, I can't resist. HIVEMIND, TO ME!

    (we can resume the other plan after the convo)

    @Dictator4Hire I believe this aligns with your interests.

    [X] Action Plan: A Talk with Ino Yamanaka

    Go have a talk with Ino over dinner. Check and optimize points with relevant parties (Akane, yourself, Mari, etc.)
    • Subjects:
      • Keiko's birthday present + "concubine law" stuff.
        • Ask her earnestly if she would mind supporting this.
        • Express your opinion on the matter: its frankly quite terrible that someone like Keiko has to jump through big flaming legal hoops just to have her relationships legally recognized in the most miniscule of fashions. While you aren't holding out hope that things will change overnight and everything will be sunshine and rainbows for people whose romantic interests aren't the norms, you do believe this will be a step in the right direction.
        • Love is love, right?
        • Anyways, what do you think about this law thing? What's your opinion on it?
          • Listen intently to her perspective.
        • Attempt to gently persuade her on reasonable points of contention.
        • Also, Shikamaru would probably be in her debt for infinity plus a billion eons. Might put a dent in all the yucky paperwork (paperwork spoken as if it were a blight on mankind itself).
      • Her lending us someone to confirm evidence.
        • Thank her for doing that. It meant a lot to us and we were able to get to the bottom of things.
        • Thank her for helping us out with... well, everything really! She's always been there if we needed help.
        • She really is too good to us.
      • What can we help you out with?
        • Since you are "Literally the Best" , what can we help you out with? You said your senior ninja were busy on unspecified ninja stuff, anything there we can do? Any cunning Ino Plots you might need some assistance with? What mighty quests might you have that we can take up to lighten your burden, O Illustrious Lady Yamanaka?
      • Also, Akane wants to go shopping with you soon. Expenses covered.
        • (Hazou Note: Check budget with Gaku and clear + schedule with Akane beforehand. This is just an opportunity for Akane to flex her own persuasive muscles on the subject if need be, plus extra icing on the cake.)
      • Lighthearted conversational filler (if she's in need of some relaxing discussion to de-stress, be sure to ask)
        • Ask her opinion of some of the romance arcs in the Icha Icha series. Which ones were her favorite? Your favorites were —
     
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    I just realized that we have failed at something very basic.

    We have never just gone out and asked a random subsistence farmer what they want, and what an interested and wealthy ninja could do to help them. Not since we hid in that one village.
     
    [X] Action Plan: A Talk with Ino Yamanaka

    Sorry Oneiros, but as much as I want to press forward on the main plot threads, I think a simple focused plan like this won't get in the way, and would be good to have, and Velorien would probably like it (edit: sorry, forgot which side of the week it was. EJ would probably like it too).
     
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    My main issue here is that this is a quick conversational insert that will follow up on the Keiko-Nara-stuff (polishing that off the to-do list) as well as some Ino content that seems fortuitous.

    IMO, it behooves us to just get this out of the way before taking a week to do a laundry list of things. If something sufficiently interesting happens to derail (laundry list of things) and its actually important enough to do that, so much the better that we know? Otherwise, we get it done quick and can proceed to (laundry list of things).
     
    [X] Action Plan: A Talk with Ino Yamanaka

    Given that we've got her ear anyway, perhaps we ought to discuss the ideas for providing counseling for ninja, and preventing similar occurrences in the future?
     
    Cariyaga said:
    Given that we've got her ear anyway, perhaps we ought to discuss the ideas for providing counseling for ninja, and preventing similar occurrences in the future?
    Click to expand...
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    If someone wants to write up the bullets there and get it approved by everyone voting for my plan in a manner that aligns with the goals of a majority share of voters this voting period, then I'd be very happy to edit it in. :D
     
    MMKII said:
    Express your opinion on the matter: its frankly quite terrible that someone like Keiko has to jump through big flaming legal hoops just to have her relationships legally recognized in the most miniscule of fashions. While you aren't holding out hope that things will change overnight and everything will be sunshine and rainbows for people whose romantic interests aren't the norms, you do believe this will be a step in the right direction.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Ino...Ino knows Keiko's in a relationship with Tenten, right? I keep thinking back and while Ino can certainly suspect something's going on, I'm having trouble with pinpointing when she would have gotten this information.
     
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