Ok, reframing some more:
Once we sink our claws into Neji, this opens up all manner of devious schemes we can trick or coerce him into doing that would be actively detrimental to the Hyuuga. It should be obvious that Neji Hyuuga is a critical piece in this war of countrymen.
We can use him to fuck them over royally, probably forever, if we play our cards right. Is this opportunity not worth the temporary embarrassment and swallowing some outrage of having to work with them? Sure, it may be quite dishonorable and massively enraging, but if it leads to the Hyuuga Clan being destitute and neutered down the road, then they have won their war.
The Minami could even bail them out of whatever trouble we weave together (and let's face it: between Keiko,Mari, (Ami), and Hazou, they're doomed) at the cost of some extremely embarassing public apology and a declaration of truce and a massive amount of debt to the Minami yadda yadda. Hyuuga lose all the face, Clan Minami can smug laugh to the honor bank after stepping on them some more and rendering them in their debt.
In the world of chessmasters, you need to make moves to give you the ability to make future moves!
At a minimum, this is the kind of thing you don't broadcast. Realistically, it's the kind of thing you don't do. Asuma would have a fit, if Neji found out it would be disastrous, and I don't see a need to destroy the Hyuuga. I doubt that "sinking our claws into Neji" is that easy or that fruitful. Before we try to start our own blood feud with the Hyuuga I'd need to see some concrete ideas that are almost certain to work.
Didn't Hazou tell Neji that all/most of the Leaf summoners would be involved in this one way or another? That, once the summoning Clans saw how prosperous it was making those involved, the Clan Bosses would direct their summoners to "get us involved asap?"
The Minami clan might not have a choice but to get involved. But we can make it as painless as possible for both sides. Make sure that the Hyuuga/Minami profits stay separate, that their respective summoners don't have to interact with each other and can use Toads/Dogs/Pangolins as an intermediary instead.
Maybe give KEI and Hyuuga slightly larger percentage cuts for the first six months to sweeten the deal?
I think Hinata would only disagree because of her elders and if Hinata says it, then Neji is likely to follow (he seems loyal to Hinata, personally, IIRC). Maybe the Minami could be swayed with the above concessions, along with a gentle reminder that Hinata wasn't involved in any way and is, thus, innocent. We could also serve as a mediator in any meetings the two have together, since they both seem to respect Hazou.
Our whole pitch to Neji was predicated on this being a thing between summoners, not between clans. I think that we care more about Neji from a personal perspective, and he's going to be more utilizable than a jonin who's definitely stronger than us.
I think redzonejoe had a very solid plan that avoids too much risk or personality analysis of someone we just met:
Possible idea is for the Minami to take a gamble;
1- we insist we can't ditch the Hyuuga since we've already made an agreement with them first
2- Ask the Minami to join anyways, with the idea being that if the Hyuuga object, we could then use that objection as a basis for removing them from the network without (too much) insult.
3- If the Hyuuga do not object, then the Minami are stuck in our network alongside them, which is exactly what they don't want: however, we could spin this agreement as the first in a line of steps towards ending the war between them.
3a- we wouldn't just wait for some official response to show up on its own, we'd approach the Hyuuga about working with the Minami in our network and prompt a response that way (while potentially using our own social-fu to manipulate the result).
So the gamble is on whether the legendary stick up the Hyuuga's collective asses will make itself known. If yes, Minami get an advantage. If no, Minami have a potential path to peace ahead of them.
Arguably either case is a win, but even if they don't agree with the second, to gamble on a Hyuuga being a prick is great odds!
My only objection is that we should emphasize that we aren't asking her as a member of the Minami clan. We focused on that with Neji, and I really do like the idea of it, especially after that almost gut-punch from Kadokura (which we really need to think about, and, realistically, will be difficult to do anything about given the factual advantages of clans, which KEI is trying to emulate, but they lack the ability to discipline the ninja who just aren't good ninja. I doubt changing the tax code will be met with any sort of success). Regardless, we can take a step here by trying to establish this as an alliance of individuals, which distracts from us controlling a ridiculous amount of votes here, gives us +Kadokura, could help Neji, and potentially sidesteps this feud.
I also want to say that there is no way the Minami are giving a complete, unbiased story, as the roleplaying incident shows.
The MOST IMPORTANT takeaway I have is that we need to give them a way to gracefully either retract their current opinion and join us in the moment, or join us at a later time, even if potentially at worse rates. She's likely to be ordered by Asuma, the Clan Boss, or her head of clan after seeing the profits, in which case in order to minimize friction and OOC-effort by us we avoid making her have to eat too much of her pride to change her mind.
I have no idea how to counter the main thrust of their argument though. We kind of know what it feels like, given our ill-fated plan when Hiashi became Hokage, so our best option might be emphasizing that we already committed to Neji and are unwilling to break our agreement (might give us a bad reputation), and then suggesting various concessions or ways of looking at it to convince her.
(However, as I mentioned above to MMKII, this is all big picture stuff and I lack any further concrete proposals.)
