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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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OMAKE: Ino's Musings about a Boy
  • Apocrypha
    • OMAKE:
    Ino's Musings about a Boy    ​

    Sometimes it was hard to remember that Hazou wasn't born in the Leaf...

    Goketsu Hazou was surprisingly compassionate, in a cute, not-quite innocent sort of way that made it easy for Ino to forget his Bloody Mist roots. He had a way of taking Hashirama's founding philosophies and taking them to their "natural conclusions." Worse yet, the infuriating, confounding boy had a way of speaking that turned you into the enemy, into the cruel barbarian, for not believing in such an unnatural equality.

    And Hazou was earnest about it, too. Earnest in the painfully obvious way that only Goketsu Hazou could be. He had the spine to lecture the leaders of the Elemental Nations –those towering titans whose idle whims and desires shaped the world at their feet –during the Chuunin Exams, speaking grandiose dreams of uplifting powerless civilians into the moral equals of ninja. Hazou dueled Shika on the dry, well-trodden battlefields of moral philosophy, and while the rest of Leaf's noble clans bickered and snapped at each other, Hazou was organizing entirely new categories of missions to improve the lives of Leaf's civilian population. And when those were ignored for better paying missions, Hazou funneled his own clan's wealth to supplement the mission pay.

    In defiance of common tradition, Hazou was growing his hair out, and Ino privately thought that he was quickly growing into a hero from Jiraiya's Icha Icha novels –preaching equality, rushing about, from project to project, to help the weak. Hazou's rare brand of insightfulness was impressive, and Ino was overjoyed to have a first-row seat at seeing his brilliance mature into something more… stable. It was a running joke amongst some of the older generation to wonder, upon seeing Hazou walk towards the Hokage's Tower, if Hazou was delivering yet another pearl of treasure –one that even the Hagoromo would begrudgingly admit would help the Leaf –or if Hazou had kicked up another shit show.

    Rogue or village darling? No one could tell, but Ino would sometimes, in the wake of a particularly intense Hazou-moment, wonder if this is what Jiraiya had been like in his adolescence –if Jiraiya, too, had ever stumbled like a newborn fawn taking its first steps –before time, trial, and tribulation had taken that initial spark of brilliance and forged it into true, hard-won genius.

    Sometimes it was hard to remember that Hazou wasn't born in the Leaf…

    ...But then Hazou would say something a little too shocking with far too little care. Like how he and the other members of the Main Goketsu Family had once crossed the sea, using water walking to scale waves larger than the Hokage Tower. How the sunrise in Snow is almost worth the danger of losing a toe to the biting cold. How, at some point in his travels, the lumpy feel of a bedroll on rock had become more relaxing than a soft mattress.

    ...But then –very rarely –Hazou would get this look in his eye. This look of frustration entangled with a visceral disgust, of impatient, bloodsoaked hatred, before being carefully bottled up and hidden behind a well-crafted mask of polite civility.

    And then Ino would be reminded that, for all Hazou's compassion, he was also dangerous. Hazou invented seals in alarming quantities and was trained by an old sealmaster, whose security measures turned the Goketsu Compound into a certified deathtrap once the sun set. And, though he tried to minimize his role, it was obvious from Goketsu Kagome's careless comments that Hazou had been the mind behind the Skywalker's invention. Hazou had redefined modern warfare, and rendered the entirety of the Leaf's warfare tactics moot, bringing the entire Nara Clan to panic at the news.

    And then Ino would be reminded how Hazou had prowled around Leaf during the Goketsu-Hagoromo near-war. Where most of clans would have acted to censor the Hagoromo with a clever whisper campaign, coupled with a carefully-orchestrated scandal (this was Leaf's most common anti-Hagoromo tactic, and had been refined to the point of artistry), the Goketsu went straight for the throat.

    There was no proof, of course, but for the Hagoromo Clan to lose so much of their financial base so soon after casting Hazou's sister as their scarlet letter scapegoat of what was wrong with the modern Leaf?

    Everyone knew.

    Everyone knew that Hazou had led his Clan against the Hagoromo in an extinction campaign. Everyone knew that, when the kunai had been thrown, the Goketsu –normally content to produce pearls and scrawl seals for the wider Leaf –treated the insult as an existential threat.

    Sometimes it was hard to remember that Hazou wasn't born in the Leaf, but sometimes it was all too apparent.

    Would Hazou emerge from his awkward adolescence as the next Jiraiya, or would he fall into the role of Orochimaru? Would Hazou be forged into the heroic champion of Uplift, or would the harshness of the world warp his compassion into something far more dangerous? Would Hazou fade away into obscurity, like so many others before him?

    Ino didn't know... But, Sage save her, she wanted to be there to find out.

    --------
    a/n: Probably missed the tone I was shooting for, but I got to wondering just what, within Hazou, appeals to Ino as a prospective romantic partner. Here's the result of my idle musing. Typed on an empty stomach (because who needs food when you have thoughts to write?), so I apologize for any SPaG mistakes.
     
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  • Apocrypha
    • RandomOTP said:
    Hey, I wonder if Ino would be willing to get involved in the Mizuki Revenge Arc? Romance complications aside, Ino and Akane are, genuinely, good friends. Ino might very well be as hungry for Mizuki's blood as Hazou is.
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    It may seem that way, but don't get Hazou into complicated icha icha plots he is not ready to get into needlessly.

    I can see jiraya's post Resurrection best seller already "traitor's reward"
     
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    Eisenhelm said:
    It may seem that way, but don't get Hazou into complicated icha icha plots he is not ready to get into needlessly.

    I can see jiraya's post Resurrection best seller already "traitor's reward"
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    I mean.... my personal interpretation of Hazou's romance arc (which is likely very flawed because I am, at once, deeply romantic and also extremely oblivious), is that Hazou-the-character is at least somewhat polyamorous by nature (if that's even a good way to word it). Early on in the OG Team Uplift's first stay in Leaf, Hazou begins to date Akane and Ino at the same time (after receiving Akane's blessing). However, teenage romance being what it is, that crashed and burned. Then, because Hazou slipped into the habit of dehumanizing his loved ones, Akane broke up with him. And then Hazou made the whole situation worse by being oblivious enough that Akane had to spell it out for him --which no doubt twisted the knife in her own heart that much further. So Hazou hurt Akane (at least) twice over.

    Now, with their newly-kindled romance burning again, Hazou is still maybe-dating Ino (and Ino certainly seems to be trying to seduce Hazou).

    And while Hazou might be open to a polycule dynamic, he's also... extremely reluctant to hurt Akane again (view chapter where Hazou talks to Mari about this, before rekindling his relationship with Akane). So Hazou delays/denies it, likely waiting until Akane communicates a clear and honest personal comfort with such a dynamic (and, to her credit, Akane does seem to be giving it a fair try). Time will tell whether or not Akane will be more comfortable with this dynamic (which seems to be somewhat interconnected, but I'm oblivious as fuck , so I may also be misinterpreting things), or if she'll be as equally uncomfortable with this polyamorous dynamic as she was with the last one.

    If Akane isn't okay with it, then I foresee Hazou ending his quasi-relationship with Ino (wherein all his future interactions will be tinged with a phantom-heartache and a lingering feeling of "what might've been") out of his prioritizing Akane's happiness and their new try at a relationship. At which point, it'll be up to the QMs on whether Hazou-the-character, who seems to express indications of being polyamorous, would be able to exist in a monogamous relationship without feeling strained/constrained/stifled/whatever-the-proper-term-would-be.

    ...And also, while I may be relatively new onboard the SS Akane x Hazou, I'll always carry a small torch for the SS Akane x Ino x Hazou Polycule.

    Shrooms said:
    Very thought inspiring, loved it! It's easy to forget how the Goketsu can seem anything other than insane to other people :p
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    I think most of us forget how rare it seems to be for sealmasters to come up with new seals. While Kagome might be a bit overzealous about safety standards (by Leaf standards, anyway... I, for one, think he's perfectly reasonable), I think it's worth mentioning how most of Leaf's sealmasters seem to mostly churn out "standard" versions of the same old, same old (explosive tags, sealing scrolls, etc). Whereas Hazou, by comparison, seems to come out with a new seal every month --which has got to be a pants-shittingly terrifying rate for everyone watching.

    And I, personally, think that the Goketsu will eventually get a reputation as "Leaf's Sleeping Sharks." Because, most of the time (from the wider Leaf's perspective), they're doing stuff like giving golden eggs to the Hokage, or causing minor mischief, but if you draw their ire... well, a feeding frenzy would look tame by comparison.

    Shrooms said:
    [-] Get Hazou into complicated icha icha plots he is not ready to get into needlessly
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    [-] Get Hazou into complicated icha icha plots he is not ready to get into needlessly

    Eisenhelm said:
    You know? , when you say it like that...
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    Yup. Like I said above: Leaf's Sleeping Sharks.

    OliWhail said:
    Legitimately one of the most fridge-badass descriptions I can recall reading, bravo.
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    Honestly, the first draft had lines such as "wrinkles that screamed danger with every line" and "where agespots were a mark of glorious victory, rather than frailty." But I couldn't get the lines to flow well with the rest of the paragraph. So I decided not to over-explain myself (for once) and settle with an attempt at subtlety.

    ---
    Edit: speaking of over-explaining, I ran through the post with some word-choice and grammatical edits to clarify my intent.
     
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    eaglejarl said:
    Okay, no one is this good out the gate. Where can I read your other writing?

    Also take a look at the bottom of Hazō's character sheet.
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    Honestly? Nowhere. I have a stack of poetry that I've written, but never published. And I don't think I've written enough to release it as an anthology.

    Also: 5xp??? WOOO (god, I hope I'm not misreading that on mobile)!!!!! FOOM TIME, EVERYONE!!!!!
     
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    Paperclipped said:
    [X] Overcharging: Yes

    Keiko
    [X] Koi Pond: Keiko's SCs

    [X] Training Keiko: 7 clones
    Resolve 24 --> 33 (261 XP = 23 Yamanaka XP + 238 regular XP)
    Save 15 XP

    Like 6 clones, this is meant for drawing on the koi pond. It's strictly better than 6 clones otherwise. Everyone who voted for 6 clones, please vote for this.

    Hazou
    [X] Training Hazou: FOOM

    If Shadow Clone SOPs are desired:
    [X] Shadow Clone SOP (Hazou): FOOM
    Follow @Inferno Vulpix's FOOM SOP.

    Akane
    Akane needs to fix her pyramids to push Resolve to 30. Either she needs to get two skills into the 20s, or she needs to get one skill into the 40s and one into the 20s. First:

    [X] Training Akane: 5 clones (and Yamanaka XP)
    Resolve 24 --> 27 (78 XP = 14 Yamanaka XP + 64 regular XP)
    Save 131 XP

    This is strictly better since it saves more XP for non-Resolve levelling needed to get past the current pyramid barrier. Everyone who voted for Akane 5 clones, please vote for this.

    Otherwise, since I support going 20/40 as Shadow Clone will need to be leveled to 40 anyway (as we need it for chakra efficiency while the koi pond is being built):

    [X] Training Akane: 5 clones (and Yamanaka XP) + SC commitment
    Resolve 24 --> 27 (78 XP = 14 Yamanaka XP + 64 regular XP)
    Shadow Clone 30 --> 34 (130 XP)
    Save 1 XP

    And since I like Akane having access to Pantokrator's Hammer 20, and thus being able to cast it at Effect: 4 (!!; check the rules doc) to get 2x double tags in a given round for very efficient dodge + punch:

    [- (reasoning explained in later post)] Training Akane: 5 clones (and Yamanaka XP) + SC commitment + Pangolin Jutsu
    Resolve 24 --> 27 (78 XP = 14 Yamanaka XP + 64 regular XP)
    Shadow Clone 30 --> 33 (96 XP)
    Pantokrator's Hammer 10 --> 12 (23 XP)
    Save 12 XP

    Though I suspect those last choices should be up for discussion.

    Noburi
    While we're doing training plans, Noburi is due for some building. Assuming he likes staying alive:
    [X] Training Noburi: Athletics
    Athletics 35 --> 40 (190 XP)
    Save 24 XP

    Oooorrr if he wants to be flashy with his new jutsu:
    [X] Training Noburi: Dragon
    Water Dragon Bullet 30 --> 40 (177.5 XP)
    Save 36.5 XP

    Or if we want to be spicy:
    [X] Training Noburi: Ami's Gift
    Ami's Ultimate Buster Bomb 1 --> 20 (104.5 XP)
    Save 109.5 XP

    Or just summoner things:
    [X] Training Noburi: Summoner Things
    Chakra Reserves 25 -> 28 (162 XP)
    Save 52 XP

    @eaglejarl @Velorien Does Pantokrator's Hammer apply to Water Whip, with it being a physical attack? That and Ghost Scales could also be good choices for Noburi right now. Social and medical skills are also an option, but I've made enough suggestions for one post.
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    Training plans slightly updated for @RandomOTP 's blessed Omake. This mostly means +5 XP saved, except for the Akane plan where she (uncontroversially imo) buys an extra level of SC since it pushed her over a threshold. This doesn't affect anything.
     
    Adhoc vote count started by Velorien on Jan 20, 2021 at 8:29 AM, finished with 151 posts and 19 votes.
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    Voting is closed.

     
    [X] Training Akane: 5 clones (and Yamanaka XP) + SC commitment

    Also, while purely symbolic at this point:

    [X] Training Hazou: FOOM

    Though isn't voting normally closed by now?


    Edit: I guess it was All very symbolic
     
    Velorien said:
    Adhoc vote count started by Velorien on Jan 20, 2021 at 8:29 AM, finished with 151 posts and 19 votes.
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    Voting is closed.

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    Okay but please this would be hilarious
     
    RandomOTP said:
    In defiance of common tradition, Hazou was growing his hair out, and Ino privately thought that he was quickly growing into a hero from Jiraiya's Icha Icha novels
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    Vulpix said:
    Hazou:
    Current state:
    40's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    30's: 2 (Alertness, Athletics)
    20's: 4 (Deceit, Physique, Resolve, Sealing)
    10's: 10.
    164 XP banked.
    January 5, 1069

    Increase Chakra Reserves to 35:
    40's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    30's: 3 (Alertness, Athletics, Chakra)
    20's: 4 (Deceit, Physique, Resolve, Sealing)
    10's: 10
    Takes 1078 XP.
    Reached late September.
    PCJ hits Physique 26

    I'm going to make the assumption that we don't invest significant amounts of XP into shadow clone. This assumption may be proved wrong and if so, I'll have to adjust things based on the new strategy. For now though, let's just assume we put a few XP in it and move on.

    Once our rush for more XP gain is over, we have two fields we really need to improve: Sealing and socials. I'm going to assume the DERP build because it seems to hit the sweet spot of 'compromise each group can live with', and I'll also assume that we split our XP roughly evenly between Sealing and socials, with social XP initially going to bringing stats up to snuff.

    Increase Empathy and Presence to 20:
    40's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    30's: 3 (Alertness, Athletics, Chakra)
    20's: 6 (Deceit, Physique, Resolve, Sealing, Empathy, Presence)
    10's: 8
    Takes 490 XP, 245 in Socials and 245 in Sealing.
    Reached early February of next year.
    Sealing hits 25
    PCJ hits Physique 28

    Physique hits 30:
    40's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    30's: 4 (Alertness, Athletics, Chakra, Physique)
    20's: 5 (Deceit, Resolve, Sealing, Empathy, Presence)
    10's: 8
    Comes in after 400 XP, 200 invested in Sealing and 200 invested in socials.
    Reached early June of next year.
    Sealing hits 28
    Resolve, Empathy, Presence all reach 23

    So we hit a connundrum here. It'd be really easy to bump Sealing up into the 30s but that'd actually break our pyramid. We either need another stat in the 20's or to bump something from the 30's to the 40's if we want to move Sealing up any further. While we could bump Athletics up with only 117 XP, this is a perfect opportunity to bring Pangolin Earth Armor onto the scene.

    Therefore, I'll model us as putting our XP into Sealing until 29, then working on getting PEA up to 20, and then Sealing 30.

    PEA 20, Sealing 30:
    40's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    30's: 5 (Alertness, Athletics, Chakra, Physique, Sealing)
    20's: 5 (Deceit, Resolve, Empathy, Presence, PEA)
    10's: 8
    5 XP into Sealing (there was 53 banked from the last step), 182 into PEA, and then another 60 into Sealing. A total of 247, matched in socials.
    Reached late October of next year.
    All socials hit 25, two hit 26
    PCJ hits Physique 31 [18.4 overflow]

    You may feel a question about our socials. We want them as high as possible, but they're necessary to support all of our 30 skills. I figure we'd want to leave them at 29 until space frees up and then move them up one at a time. In the meantime, we still want more Sealing.

    Get Socials capped:
    40's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    30's: 5 (Alertness, Athletics, Chakra, Physique, Sealing)
    20's: 5 (Deceit, Resolve, Empathy, Presence, PEA)
    10's: 8
    Takes 363 XP to get all socials up to 29, matched in Sealing.
    Reached mid May two years from now.
    Sealing hits 35
    Physique hits 33

    With our socials capped, we can mono-focus on Sealing, our one true priority.

    Get Sealing to 40:
    40's: 2 (Taijutsu, Sealing)
    30's: 4 (Alertness, Athletics, Chakra, Physique)
    20's: 5 (Deceit, Resolve, Empathy, Presence, PEA)
    10's: 8
    Takes 347 XP.
    Reached late August two years from now.
    Physique hits 34, and has 26.7 overflow

    Beyond here I wouldn't want to speculate much, since we could either want to flesh out our combat stats by getting Alertness or Athletics up to 40 and then PEA up to 30, or maybe we'd want to level more things up to level 20 so we could push some socials to 30, or maybe both. We might push Taijutsu up to 50 to streamline things even further, or we might grind Sealing all the way up to 50 first. Physique would likely try to hit 40 sooner or later, as well.

    This assumed we don't spend 250 XP on learning Summoning, but it wouldn't change much. The main effect (apart from pushing timelines back 2 months) would be Physique 30 coming 250 XP earlier, but that doesn't actually change the order things happen in.

    An alternate path we could take in this is, instead of dividing our time between Sealing and socials and letting Physique hit 30 before Sealing (thus requiring pyramid shenanigans to allow Sealing 30), we could rush Sealing 30 before Physique 30. The Sealing-social block took 890 XP before Physique hit 30 and we only need 445 of it for Sealing 30, so even if we get the Summoning scroll we should be able to beat Physique to 30 if we really want to.

    Also, and this was only pointed out to me earlier and I'm too lazy to recalc, but we need Calligraphy too and that slots in nice and easily instead of PEA if we want to go that way.
    Current state:
    40's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    30's: 2 (Alertness, Athletics)
    20's: 4 (Deceit, Physique, Resolve, Sealing)
    10's: many

    Increase Chakra Reserves to 30:
    40's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    30's: 3 (Alertness, Athletics, Chakra)
    20's: 4 (Deceit, Physique, Resolve, Sealing)
    10's: many

    Increase Empathy to 20:
    40's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    30's: 3 (Alertness, Athletics, Chakra)
    20's: 5 (Deceit, Physique, Resolve, Sealing, Empathy)
    10's: many

    Increase Pangolin Earth Armor to 20:
    40's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    30's: 3 (Alertness, Athletics, Chakra)
    20's: 6 (Deceit, Physique, Resolve, Sealing, Empathy, PEA)
    10's: many

    Increase Alertness to 40:
    40's: 2 (Taijutsu, Alertness)
    30's: 2 (Athletics, Chakra)
    20's: 6 (Deceit, Physique, Resolve, Sealing, Empathy, PEA)
    10's: many

    Increase Sealing to 30:
    40's: 2 (Taijutsu, Alertness)
    30's: 3 (Athletics, Chakra, Sealing)
    20's: 5 (Deceit, Physique, Resolve, Empathy, PEA)
    10's: many

    Increase Pangolin Earth Armor to 30:
    40's: 2 (Taijutsu, Alertness)
    30's: 4 (Athletics, Chakra, Sealing, PEA)
    20's: 4 (Deceit, Physique, Resolve, Empathy)
    10's: many

    Increase Sealing to 40:
    40's: 3 (Taijutsu, Alertness, Sealing)
    30's: 3 (Athletics, Chakra, PEA)
    20's: 4 (Deceit, Physique, Resolve, Empathy)
    10's: many

    Increase Alertness to 50:
    50's: 1 (Alertness)
    40's: 2 (Taijutsu, Sealing)
    30's: 3 (Athletics, Chakra, PEA)
    20's: 4 (Deceit, Physique, Resolve, Empathy)
    10's: many

    Increase Physique to 30 and Athletics to 40:
    50's: 1 (Alertness)
    40's: 3 (Taijutsu, Sealing, Athletics)
    30's: 3 (Chakra, Physique, PEA)
    20's: 3 (Deceit, Resolve, Empathy)
    10's: many

    Increase Taijutsu to 50 and Alertness to 60:
    60's: 1 (Alertness)
    50's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    40's: 2 (Athletics, Sealing)
    30's: 3 (Chakra, Physique, PEA)
    20's: 3 (Deceit, Resolve, Empathy)
    10's: many

    (This isn't perfect, because it fails to properly capture the gradual growth of stats like Empathy and Physique that we have or intend to have a drip for. If the Physique drip tries to bump Physique at a bad time or something, we may need to juggle lower-level skills to keep the pyramid stable)

    (This is also my preferred build, not the definitive consensus. If you think we should take a different focus, speak up, and of course all of this is just to act as a reference for when it's actually time to make these decisions)

    Noburi:
    Current State:
    40's: 1 (Water Whip)
    30's: 4 (Alertness, Athletics, Syrup Trap, Vampiric Dew)
    20's: 6 (Resolve, Empathy, Rapport, Physique, Hozuki's Mantle, Water Dragon Bullet)
    10's: 6 (Stealth, CR, MedNin, MedKnow, Presence, Water Clone)
    (Note, the skill pyramid formulas Noburi's character sheet missed Water Dragon Bullet)

    Initial observations: Noburi's pyramid is pretty tight, all things considered. MedNin and MedKnow are almost criminally low but breaching the 20 mark with them will take some creative accounting. Really it's his own fault for having such good socials. Anyways, first things first:

    Raise Chakra Reserves to 19:
    40's: 1 (Water Whip)
    30's: 4 (Alertness, Athletics, Syrup Trap, Vampiric Dew)
    20's: 6 (Resolve, Empathy, Rapport, Physique, Hozuki's Mantle, Water Dragon Bullet)
    10's: 6 (Stealth, CR, MedNin, MedKnow, Presence, Water Clone)
    Costs 270 XP.
    Already we're hitting skill pyramid problems, because we can't get Noburi to the point where he'd equal a regular ninja's CR 35 for the purposes of his triplecost jutsu-casting. CR 19 is just shy of effective CR 31 so maybe that'll be good enough but I'll assume it is. Meanwhile, Noburi was in the middle of leveling some new jutsu so let's see where that leads him:

    Raise Water Dragon Bullet to 40:
    40's: 2 (Water Whip, Water Dragon Bullet)
    30's: 4 (Alertness, Athletics, Syrup Trap, Vampiric Dew)
    20's: 5 (Resolve, Empathy, Rapport, Physique, Hozuki's Mantle)
    10's: 6 (Stealth, CR, MedNin, MedKnow, Presence, Water Clone)
    Costs 247.5 XP.
    That 4-5-6 pattern means we can move a 10 up to 20 if we also move a 20 up to 30. We're still pretty far from auto-hitting Physique 30 so we'll probably want to raise Hozuki's Mantle when we get there. But first:

    Raise MedNin and MedKnow to 19:
    40's: 2 (Water Whip, Water Dragon Bullet)
    30's: 4 (Alertness, Athletics, Syrup Trap, Vampiric Dew)
    20's: 5 (Resolve, Empathy, Rapport, Physique, Hozuki's Mantle)
    10's: 6 (Stealth, CR, MedNin, MedKnow, Presence, Water Clone)
    Costs 224 XP.

    Raise Hozuki's Mantle to 30 and MedKnow to 20:
    40's: 2 (Water Whip, Water Dragon Bullet)
    30's: 5 (Alertness, Athletics, Syrup Trap, Vampiric Dew, Hozuki's Mantle)
    20's: 5 (Resolve, Empathy, Rapport, Physique, MedKnow)
    10's: 5 (Stealth, CR, MedNin, Presence, Water Clone)
    Costs 147.5 XP.
    Now that MedKnow's 20 we need to work on MedNin, but unfortunately the build's tied up again, and this time there's even less wiggle room. However, Vampiric Dew is already 39 so we can bump it to 40 no problem and with a replacement level 10 we can make this work.

    Raise Vampiric Dew to 40 and Hiding in the Mist to 10:
    40's: 3 (Water Whip, Water Dragon Bullet, Vampiric Dew)
    30's: 4 (Alertness, Athletics, Syrup Trap, Hozuki's Mantle)
    20's: 5 (Resolve, Empathy, Rapport, Physique, MedKnow)
    10's: 6 (Stealth, CR, MedNin, Presence, Water Clone, HitM)
    Costs 47 XP.
    And there's the 4-5-6 again, so we can bump MedNin up to 20... if something else hits 30. We're still a good ways away from Physique 30 but we can send MedKnow even further ahead of MedNin and help MedNin catch up quickly:

    Raise MedKnow to 30 and MedNin to 29:
    40's: 3 (Water Whip, Water Dragon Bullet, Vampiric Dew)
    30's: 5 (Alertness, Athletics, Syrup Trap, Hozuki's Mantle, MedKnow)
    20's: 5 (Resolve, Empathy, Rapport, Physique, MedNin)
    10's: 5 (Stealth, CR, Presence, Water Clone, HitM)
    Costs 500 XP.
    We're getting close to the Physique auto-level, but it's kind of stuck right now until there's room in the 30's. Now that we've gotten Noburi's Mednin stats up to snuff, what we're looking at now is streamlining the upper tiers so they don't clog things up so much, and the first step is this:

    Raise Alertness to 40:
    40's: 4 (Water Whip, Water Dragon Bullet, Vampiric Dew, Alertness)
    30's: 4 (Athletics, Syrup Trap, Hozuki's Mantle, MedKnow)
    20's: 5 (Resolve, Empathy, Rapport, Physique, MedNin)
    10's: 5 (Stealth, CR, Presence, Water Clone, HitM)
    Costs 355 XP.
    And now to raise his primary combat stat a touch:

    Raise Water Whip to 50:
    50's: 1 (Water Whip)
    40's: 3 (Water Dragon Bullet, Vampiric Dew, Alertness)
    30's: 4 (Athletics, Syrup Trap, Hozuki's Mantle, MedKnow)
    20's: 5 (Resolve, Empathy, Rapport, Physique, MedNin)
    10's: 5 (Stealth, CR, Presence, Water Clone, HitM)
    Costs 455 XP.
    The 3-4-5 you see there means we could raise a 20 to 30 and 30 to 40, but Physique is ready to pop so I'll assume that it takes priority over MedNin. As for what to level, Athletics is probably a good choice.

    Raise Athletics to 40 and let Physique finally hit 30:
    50's: 1 (Water Whip)
    40's: 4 (Water Dragon Bullet, Vampiric Dew, Alertness, Athletics)
    30's: 4 (Syrup Trap, Hozuki's Mantle, MedKnow, Physique)
    20's: 4 (Resolve, Empathy, Rapport, MedNin)
    10's: 5 (Stealth, CR, Presence, Water Clone, HitM)
    Costs 190 XP.
    And now let's free up some room up top with having, say, Water Dragon Bullet hit 50.

    Raise Water Dragon Bullet to 50:
    50's: 2 (Water Whip, Water Dragon Bullet)
    40's: 3 (Vampiric Dew, Alertness, Athletics)
    30's: 4 (Syrup Trap, Hozuki's Mantle, MedKnow, Physique)
    20's: 4 (Resolve, Empathy, Rapport, MedNin)
    10's: 5 (Stealth, CR, Presence, Water Clone, HitM)
    Costs 227.5 XP.
    And that 3-4-4-5 pattern can be used for another big shift. Behold!

    Raise CR to 20, MedNin to 30, and MedKnow to 40:
    50's: 2 (Water Whip, Water Dragon Bullet)
    40's: 4 (Vampiric Dew, Alertness, Athletics, MedKnow)
    30's: 4 (Syrup Trap, Hozuki's Mantle, Physique, MedNin)
    20's: 4 (Resolve, Empathy, Rapport, CR)
    10's: 4 (Stealth, Presence, Water Clone, HitM)
    Costs 425 XP.
    And now let's bring MedNin back close to MedKnow.

    Raise MedNin to 39:
    50's: 2 (Water Whip, Water Dragon Bullet)
    40's: 4 (Vampiric Dew, Alertness, Athletics, MedKnow)
    30's: 4 (Syrup Trap, Hozuki's Mantle, Physique, MedNin)
    20's: 4 (Resolve, Empathy, Rapport, CR)
    10's: 4 (Stealth, Presence, Water Clone, HitM)
    Costs 315 XP.

    This build takes a grand total of 4503.5 XP, which is something on the order of three years depending on how Shadow Clone shakes out. Physique is still comfortably in the 30s and MedKnow/MedNin are respectably high but still struggling for room next to his combat stats. Next steps in the build are probably something like bringing MedKnow and MedNin up through the 40's so they can sit on the top of the heap like WW and WDB, but that'll need a couple new supporting stats (or spending enough XP to move WW to 60). His socials are also stagnated right now, but there's really no room to bring them up to the 30's. We could cap them out at 29 but without a total build overhaul that's where they'll have to be for the time being.

    Keiko:
    Current State:
    40's: 2 (Ranged Weapons, Athletics)
    30's: 2 (Alertness, Frozen Skein)
    20's: 5 (Resolve, Intimidation, Presence, Physique, Echolocation)
    10's: 6 (Stealth, Deceit, Empathy, Rapport, CR, Zephyr's Reach)

    Initial impressions: Not bad, though there's the small roadblock for CR between 10 and 20, but that's easily solved with something quite interesting that we don't quite know what it is.

    Raise Bloodline Mastery: Frozen Skein to 10:
    40's: 2 (Ranged Weapons, Athletics)
    30's: 2 (Alertness, Frozen Skein)
    20's: 5 (Resolve, Intimidation, Presence, Physique, Echolocation)
    10's: 7 (Stealth, Deceit, Empathy, Rapport, CR, Zephyr's Reach, Bloodline Mastery)
    Cost: 34 XP.
    To be honest, I'm not sure if this is possible or if there's a level gate that we have no way of knowing about (heckin bloodlines being complex) but it's not a big problem if it's not because Keiko has other things she could level to 10 instead.

    Raise Chakra Reserves to 35:
    40's: 2 (Ranged Weapons, Athletics)
    30's: 3 (Alertness, Frozen Skein, CR)
    20's: 5 (Resolve, Intimidation, Presence, Physique, Echolocation)
    10's: 6 (Stealth, Deceit, Empathy, Rapport, Zephyr's Reach, Bloodline Mastery)
    Costs 880 XP.
    And with Shadow Clone, it's time to... there's not much to actually do with Keiko's build but buff combat stats tbh. First, though, let's clear up some AB space.

    Raise Intimidation to 30:
    40's: 2 (Ranged Weapons, Athletics)
    30's: 4 (Alertness, Frozen Skein, CR, Intimidation)
    20's: 4 (Resolve, Presence, Physique, Echolocation)
    10's: 6 (Stealth, Deceit, Empathy, Rapport, Zephyr's Reach, Bloodline Mastery)
    Costs 255 XP.
    And now we can move Alertness up to the rest of her main stats.

    Raise Alertness to 40:
    40's: 3 (Ranged Weapons, Athletics, Alertness)
    30's: 3 (Frozen Skein, CR, Intimidation)
    20's: 4 (Resolve, Presence, Physique, Echolocation)
    10's: 6 (Stealth, Deceit, Empathy, Rapport, Zephyr's Reach, Bloodline Mastery)
    Costs 324 XP.

    Raise Ranged Weapons to 50:
    50's: 1 (Ranged Weapons)
    40's: 2 (Athletics, Alertness)
    30's: 3 (Frozen Skein, CR, Intimidation)
    20's: 4 (Resolve, Presence, Physique, Echolocation)
    10's: 6 (Stealth, Deceit, Empathy, Rapport, Zephyr's Reach, Bloodline Mastery)
    Costs 455 XP.
    Physique is trying to hit 30 but is locked by the pyramid. Let's fix that.

    Raise Bloodline Mastery: Frozen Skein to 20 and let Physique hit 30:
    50's: 1 (Ranged Weapons)
    40's: 2 (Athletics, Alertness)
    30's: 4 (Frozen Skein, CR, Intimidation, Physique)
    20's: 4 (Resolve, Presence, Echolocation, Bloodline Mastery)
    10's: 5 (Stealth, Deceit, Empathy, Rapport, Zephyr's Reach)
    Costs 155 XP.
    I'm still kind of assuming Bloodline Mastery: Frozen Skein either does cool things or is the same thing Ami did to circumvent the downsides of FS and that we can level it like this, but again it's not a big deal if I turn out to be wrong here.

    Raise Frozen Skein to 40:
    50's: 1 (Ranged Weapons)
    40's: 3 (Athletics, Alertness, Frozen Skein)
    30's: 3 (CR, Intimidation, Physique)
    20's: 4 (Resolve, Presence, Echolocation, Bloodline Mastery)
    10's: 5 (Stealth, Deceit, Empathy, Rapport, Zephyr's Reach)
    Costs 355 XP.
    Honestly, I don't even know. Nothing else is a particularly good option and it must be important to how she uses her bloodline if it's at 30? Frozen Skein level mechanics are an enigma.

    Raise Alertness to 50:
    50's: 2 (Ranged Weapons, Alertness)
    40's: 2 (Athletics, Frozen Skein)
    30's: 3 (CR, Intimidation, Physique)
    20's: 4 (Resolve, Presence, Echolocation, Bloodline Mastery)
    10's: 5 (Stealth, Deceit, Empathy, Rapport, Zephyr's Reach)
    Costs 455 XP.
    So that's her combat stats raised, I suppose push RW to 60?

    Raise Ranged Weapons to 60:
    60's: 1 (Ranged Weapons)
    50's: 1 (Alertness)
    40's: 2 (Athletics, Frozen Skein)
    30's: 3 (CR, Intimidation, Physique)
    20's: 4 (Resolve, Presence, Echolocation, Bloodline Mastery)
    10's: 5 (Stealth, Deceit, Empathy, Rapport, Zephyr's Reach)
    Costs 555 XP.
    Now let's end off by thickening this pyramid a little.

    Raise Resolve to 30 and Chakra Reserves to 40:
    60's: 1 (Ranged Weapons)
    50's: 1 (Alertness)
    40's: 3 (Athletics, Frozen Skein, CR)
    30's: 3 (Intimidation, Physique, Resolve)
    20's: 3 (Presence, Echolocation, Bloodline Mastery)
    10's: 5 (Stealth, Deceit, Empathy, Rapport, Zephyr's Reach)
    Costs 635 XP.

    Raise Athletics to 50:
    60's: 1 (Ranged Weapons)
    50's: 2 (Alertness, Athletics)
    40's: 2 (Frozen Skein, CR)
    30's: 3 (Intimidation, Physique, Resolve)
    20's: 3 (Presence, Echolocation, Bloodline Mastery)
    10's: 5 (Stealth, Deceit, Empathy, Rapport, Zephyr's Reach)
    Costs 455 XP.

    The grand total is 4558 XP, again something in the order of 3 years depending on Shadow Clones, but what we get out of it is a relatively solid Jounin build, including 400 CP to throw into summoning and a Physique in the late 30's. Not much else to say here to be honest, Keiko's build is pretty focused.

    Akane:
    Current State:
    50's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    40's: 2 (Alertness, Athletics)
    30's: 2 (Trapmaking, Physique)
    20's: 4 (Resolve, Empathy, CR, Flame Aura)
    10's: 5 (Stealth, Cracking, Presence, Substitution, EM)

    Initial impression: a pretty strong build, with a healthy spread of primary stats and supporting stats. As always, the first thing here is getting Shadow Clone.

    Raise Chakra Reserves to 35:
    50's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    40's: 2 (Alertness, Athletics)
    30's: 3 (Trapmaking, Physique, CR)
    20's: 3 (Resolve, Empathy, Flame Aura)
    10's: 5 (Stealth, Cracking, Presence, Substitution, EM)
    Cost: 840 XP.
    And now, we come to the meme. Elemental Mastery, to be specific. We all know the nuke potential it has, but there's a problem with just raising EM to ~40 so we can get it: Hazou doesn't know it exists IC. We can easily have Hazou become fascinated with the technique and encourage Akane to keep leveling it, but I don't think that's enough to justify the expenditure to Akane. It's already actualized its potential as an area denial jutsu, after all.

    But there's another good reason to level EM. It takes two rounds to take full effect, which means that after one round it's at half effect. If we just level it to the point where staying in the full effect is dangerous, then they can leave easily on round 1 of its effect, but if we level it to the point where half of its effect is dangerous to stay in, then even on round 1 of the effect they're in danger. With this logic and the enthusiasm we can give Hazou, I think we can justify to Akane having EM more or less keep pace with her other fire jutsu.

    Raise Elemental Mastery to 20:
    50's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    40's: 2 (Alertness, Athletics)
    30's: 3 (Trapmaking, Physique, CR)
    20's: 4 (Resolve, Empathy, Flame Aura, EM)
    10's: 4 (Stealth, Cracking, Presence, Substitution)
    Costs 52.5 XP.
    See that 2-3-4? We can work with that.

    Raise Flame Aura to 30 and Trapmaking to 40:
    50's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    40's: 3 (Alertness, Athletics, Trapmaking)
    30's: 3 (Physique, CR, Flame Aura)
    20's: 3 (Resolve, Empathy, EM)
    10's: 4 (Stealth, Cracking, Presence, Substitution)
    Costs 610 XP.
    Remember, Trapmaking is the stat for one of Akane's fighting styles. Still, though, it's not quite right for it to be equal with her combat suite.

    Raise Alertness to 50:
    50's: 2 (Taijutsu, Alertness)
    40's: 2 (Athletics, Trapmaking)
    30's: 3 (Physique, CR, Flame Aura)
    20's: 3 (Resolve, Empathy, EM)
    10's: 4 (Stealth, Cracking, Presence, Substitution)
    Costs 455 XP.

    Raise Taijutu to 60:
    60's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    50's: 1 (Alertness)
    40's: 2 (Athletics, Trapmaking)
    30's: 3 (Physique, CR, Flame Aura)
    20's: 3 (Resolve, Empathy, EM)
    10's: 4 (Stealth, Cracking, Presence, Substitution)
    Costs 555 XP.
    Combat stats elevated, time to flesh out the pyramid (and elevate EM a little more)

    Raise Presence to 20, Elemental Mastery to 30, and Flame Aura to 40:
    60's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    50's: 1 (Alertness)
    40's: 3 (Athletics, Trapmaking, Flame Aura)
    30's: 3 (Physique, CR, EM)
    20's: 3 (Resolve, Empathy, Presence)
    10's: 3 (Stealth, Cracking, Substitution)
    Costs 637.5 XP.
    And now we can buff the main suite again.

    Raise Athletics to 50:
    60's: 1 (Taijutsu)
    50's: 2 (Alertness, Athletics)
    40's: 2 (Trapmaking, Flame Aura)
    30's: 3 (Physique, CR, EM)
    20's: 3 (Resolve, Empathy, Presence)
    10's: 3 (Stealth, Cracking, Substitution)
    Costs 455 XP.
    Physique wants to auto-level to 40 at this point, but it's kind of stuck (and just before the point where Physique really pays out with a new stress box!). I think this next move is valid, though:

    Raise Flame Aura to 50 and Alertness to 60 and let Physique hit 40:
    60's: 2 (Taijutsu, Alertness)
    50's: 2 (Athletics, Flame Aura)
    40's: 2 (Trapmaking, Physique)
    30's: 2 (CR, EM)
    20's: 3 (Resolve, Empathy, Presence)
    10's: 3 (Stealth, Cracking, Substitution)
    Costs 1010 XP.

    This build takes 4615 XP, once again something on the order of 3 years or so, and it ends with Akane being a decently fleshed out low-Jounin. That said, I'm not all that happy with it. The pyramid got really tight and it got kind of hard to move things into the positions they should be. EM in particular is still a long way away from being able to reach the 40's tier that it needs to be in before the nuke actualizes. It would definitely be possible to build with EM leveled more aggressively (basically swapping it out for Flame Aura, with maybe a few other tweaks since it doesn't need to hit 50), but if I'm doing a rebuild it'll be after we get Shadow Clone and know how it works.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    The perceived intersection of these two posts: if we want to keep growing our hair out, we definitely need to put more points into Taijutsu. That a rule, right?
    (But really. The recent Hidan incident and the Kaiju attacks really make me think I don't want our best combat stat to be 40 for the next 2 years).
     
    After the end​

    An extra-dimensional cognitophagic entity cannot be said to feel, indeed, not much can be said about it at all; Any form of language would fall 14 dimensions short to describe its appearance, much less discern anything that resembles thought.



    Still, the entity felt sorrow.



    Some time ago it made peace with the idea that any small mistake could render its first and only host inoperable, however, this time no mistake had been made. The plan to permanently remove the false partition between the world of flesh-dwelling humans and the posthumous repository of their consciences was working perfectly; until the watchers betrayed the vote of confidence they had been granted.

    The battle against them was fierce, mountain ranges were reduced to dust and thousands of small tears in reality would take generations to fully heal and yet, somehow, they had managed to hold them back until all remaining non-combatants fled to a modicum of safety, and not a single being whose name was known to their host has had their conscience torn from its flesh and expelled into the naraka; except for that of gouketsu hazou.

    The entity had recovered him of course, hazou had been a good boy and deserved more for his service and sacrifice than the slow degradation of the eternal forest, but that was the extent of what it could do for the no longer young leader of men, so for the moment he floated placidly in the timeless space between realities, waiting for the higher wills to decide the course of action. Perhaps it would all end right there, one last look at the world they left behind to see how his legacy changed the world he was born in before the window to that offshoot of possibility close to never be opened again.



    it was a possibility, but they suspected the creators really wanted to continue. There was still so much to do, perhaps a new host who wouldn´t attract the attention of the few remaining hostile factions would be helpful until the regenerative immortality project was quietly completed; yes, if returning was an option, subterfuge and subtlety will be the new priority.


    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Oshiru was ready for the week to be over, she had important business in sand that could not be delayed for such an easy mission (who pays that much money for the sake of civilians who are not even from their own country anyway? people form leaf are insane); for example she plans to finally use shimpu's infatuation whit her to be introduce to his much better-looking older brother; but she would only had a couple of days before he was sent to fight the riffs; and yet they were stranded in this never ending sea of grass. kusagakure was all right so long as you did not mind the occasional chakra snake trying to swallow you whole, or the constant danger of falling in a suspiciously well concealed manhole full of spiders- invisible, cat sized spiders- but it could be worse, it could be raining.

    Did she mention that their brilliant leader chose to make camp just in the border whit amegakure so they could enjoy the worst of both places? never mind, it could not be worse.

    The only silver lighting was kanashiimaru's easy going personality; it felt good to have someone who listen to your complaining without expecting something in return. A man her own age who she could just talk to and didn't fall to his knees in desperate adoration (the fact that he was a yodomi did not scaped oshiru), hmm, on second though maybe she could push him a little and see if…

    *BANG*

    Ah, there it was, she almost believed it would not come this hour. if kanashiimaru was the rose then meiyuki was the spines. The two had come has a pair; raised together since they learned to hold a kunai, they could practically be conjoined twins, even though they were from different clans. The mechanic and the puppeteer of this generation.

    Usually, meiyuki was content to roam the outskirts of the village and look for anything that cached her fancy well away of oshiru's sphere of interest or lock herself in the yodomi compunt weeks on end to try and improve their new mannequin design. But a couple days ago she had woken up whit a strange spark in her eyes, tock one lock at a calendar, screamed something incoherent and got to work on something that not even her "brother" knew about. Now the previously uniform grass showed bald spots where she had collected the blades to make paper and ink; and the zinc roof of their cabin had a rectangular hole (whether due to an accident or scavenged for components was anyone guess).

    As she was musing over their leader strange behavior the girl in question entered the room and sat on chair leaving what appeared to be expertly carved onyx flute on a table.

    "what are you doing? this is not time to be practicing arts and crafts... or music for that matter".

    "is no for me" said the girl while unsealing what looked like a disassembled MARK-III puppet from it's scroll and leaving it on the floor, then she quickly sealed the flute in the now empty scroll and walked to the door "it's for my son".

    As oshiru was digesting the news and drawing a blank on own to break them to kanashiimaru, the person that looked but not acted like their leader, ripped the door form its hinges, spun on her heels and gave a smile that would have warmed up the hearth of a the most vicious sandworm, "it's almost shinji's first birthday", then she ran across the field and into the night sky.



    …………………………………………….

    Oh boy, speaking of omakes and regret. not sure how If I finally managed to English properly but I am gonna follow my own advice and not think too much on it.



    Also, thank to @RandomOTP who made his romantic musings into an omake and inspired me to make my pataphisical musings into an omake as well.
     
    Okay. I guess we're letting
    Velorien said:
    Adhoc vote count started by Velorien on Jan 20, 2021 at 8:29 AM, finished with 151 posts and 19 votes.
    Click to expand...
    Voting is closed.

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    It's fine, that just means we don't actually have to onscreen others' birthdays or birthday presents.
     
    There's been a lot of discussion about Mizuki lately. I've been assuming that this was something @Velorien set up and I was being cheese brained, but he has no clue either. Where did the idea come from and what does Hazō currently know about it?
     
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