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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Shrooms said:
[X] (Isan) We Came, We Saw, We Keiko'd
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On the topic of jutsu, you may want to mention that the Leaf has jutsu that can turn plants into gold and the Fertilization Jutsu. Whether we want to be specific about it, or just vaguely hint at jutsu that can boost financial/agricultural yield is a different matter.
 
Velorien said:
But for all that, there was only so long a man could spend standing in his siblings' shadows. Hazō had rulership and fingers in a dozen pies. Keiko had subordinates, minions, allies, and worshippers. Akane had being Akane. Haru… there was nothing satisfying about being superior to Haru. And, of course, all of them were gods in the making while his unique selling point, his chakra reserves, was about to be made obsolete. So when the Hokage decided that there was one thing Noburi could do better than any of them, it was like a parched man being given pure spring water.

And yet, now that he was here in Isan, taking centre stage, all he was feeling was bitter. He was a leader, not a show-off, and a leader knew when to use his power to delegate. He'd delegated this moment of triumph to Yuno, who'd left a pariah and come back wearing a mantle of power and bearing foreign wisdom beyond anything the Isanese had ever known.

The Isanese didn't care.
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That's rough. Being aware of his limitations, and yet still stuck where he is. Being responsible, but having it not make things better. We really need to put XP into Noburi's medic skills. For his esteem, if nothing else.

Velorien said:
Noburi had the attention of girls, with Yuno's limited permission, and he couldn't even enjoy it.
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I have a feeling that is very limited indeed.

Velorien said:
"It's against the medic-nin code to use chakra on minor injuries when it might be needed at any moment for something more serious," Noburi said smoothly. "After all, imagine if your next training accident involved an axe and it turned out I didn't have the chakra to save you before you bled out."

Next to him, Yuno gave a happy smile.
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Subtle. Real subtle.

faflec said:
I thought we were going to overthrow the guy?
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I mean, probably. But if we can just sell him on joining, that might be easier? At the least, saying "we're going to overthrow you" is unlikely to work. Saying "Isan can join willingly or get wiped out, and it can be your decision, or someone else's, but it's happening. Play Ball?" Might work. Maybe
 
Kiba said:
Ideas brewing in my head:

Take a hopeful stance. Highlight that the world almost ended without Isan's participation, and that the heroes of the world united to fight together as once against this great threat. You noticed that Isan is weary about meeting outsiders for the first time. That is a wrong attitude to take. They should be curious about the world, looking to understand and be understood. Caution is a virtue, but too much fear means that Isan will have their fate decided for them.
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It's mostly the common people who are unsure, not all of the leadership,

Velorien said:
• The majority of villagers have been primed to prepare for the village to open up to the outside world. However, typical attitudes are wary and defensive rather than excited.
• There is no consensus as to which village Isan is to contact, with most common ninja prepared to leave the decision to the High Priest. The names "Cloud" and "Mist" have been floating around, but common ninja know little of these mythical places. "Leaf" was not on anyone's radar.
• Pro-alliance feelings stem from religious propaganda (it's what Ui told the High Priest to do), the younger generation's curiosity about the outside world, and fear of the missing-nin incursion (you guys) happening again on a larger scale.
• Anti-alliance feelings stem from traditionalism (Akio founded the village to get away from the corrupt outside world; we've been isolated for centuries and only prospered), scepticism of the benefits to Isan (the outside world actually is a horrible place of constant war and scarier chakra beasts), fear of being politically and/or culturally overwhelmed by foreigners, and just general fear manifested in a dozen shades of nationalism and xenophobia.
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The High Priest already wants to open up Isan and probably has already some good knowledge about the outside world. That would explain why Cloud and Mist are known entities.

And we don't know which clan belongs to what, originally Takahashi/Yoshida/Kannagi were pro open. Now it's also one if not both Azai clan's.

We should probably try to solidify our alliance with the Kannagi first and figure out what the other clans have been doing since we left, our team can then try to guess who shows up to that dinner.

Also, the Yoshida clan head was completely beaten by Mari, maybe she can just show some of our seals of? It would be a lot of negotiating with Asuma for the more combat related ones, but a sealing clan should be decently interested to work with another one.

Also, only the Yoshida seem to make seals:
eaglejarl said:
"You haven't noticed?" Kagome said. "There's no seals in the village except where the Yoshida go. They aren't just the seal experts, they're the only source of them."
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And they also got kinda butthurt when we talked to them once, they than showed us a bunch of seals and we never had time to research them.
Yoshida being outclassed by Mari:
eaglejarl said:
"You have knowledge we lack," Yoshida said. "Knowledge I think will outweigh the harm you do merely by being here. If you keep your screw-ups to a minimum, we might be able to come out of this with both sides enriched, and nobody being blown up or trampled to death. That is, of course, provided you agree to my conditions.

"Let Kōta go free.

"Stay away from the other elders.

"Let me do the negotiating on your behalf.

"Don't do anything stupid."

She locked gazes with Inoue-sensei.

"Well?"

Inoue-sensei studied the older woman thoughtfully for several seconds. "You keep talking about my team's screwups," she said calmly. "I think perhaps there is some confusion here. From where I sit, my team has been nothing but polite and generous, and has been very poorly treated in return.

"Your tapirs attacked us on sight," she shrugged. "Fair enough, they're animals. It would have been easy for us to kill every one of them, but I instructed my team not to hurt the tapirs while we waited for you to show up. When your team showed up I tried to parley. They ignored me and attacked immediately. I demonstrated that we had complete martial superiority, but deliberately chose not to kill anyone and I kept the breakage to a minimum. We came here voluntarily to treat your wounded, despite having no obligation to do so. We've done that for days now, making no demands on you. We made a friendly offer to train with anyone who wanted to. Your thug was offensive to my team, but they remained polite and professional. Kimiko sparred with him; when he discovered that he wasn't good enough to beat her he turned it into a lethal fight. He would have killed her if I hadn't intervened."

Inoue-sensei's face got hard. "We've been extremely tolerant, but no one hurts my students and walks away. You're very lucky that all I did was cripple your brat. Where we're from it wouldn't have been nearly so gentle; if a Mist ninja had attacked a representative of a friendly foreign power, that Mist ninja would have been executed and reparations made to the foreign ninja in order to prevent a war."

Yoshida opened her mouth to say something but Inoue-sensei raised a finger warningly. "Don't," she said. "Just don't."

She paused, studying the older woman again. "History and geography lesson," Inoue-sensei said. "Your village is in the Land of Tea, which is a second tier country in the Elemental Nations. West of Tea is the ocean, this section of which is known as the Hanguri Gulf. On the other side of the Gulf is the Land of Fire, the most powerful country in the Elemental Nations by a good margin. Five or six of the most powerful shinobi in the world live there. One of them, possibly the second most powerful, is a man named Jiraiya. He's known as the Toad Sage, and he's the spymaster for Fire."

Yoshida shifted slightly, frowning in confusion at the seeming non sequitur, but she didn't interrupt.

"We met Jiraiya a little while ago," Inoue-sensei said. "It was an interesting meeting. The first thing he did was kick all of our asses at once, just to prove that he could. He made the point that once the question of power levels was settled we could get on with reasonable discussion. We knew we couldn't kill him, we knew he didn't want to kill us, so there was no reason for tension.

"I think I'm going to take a page from the most powerful non-Kage ninja I've ever met," she said. "Time for you to face facts: my team and I represent a level of military force that your village has never faced before. We're Elemental Nations missing-nin. We've got this far by surviving everything the real big players had to throw at us. Oh, you might eventually manage what they didn't, but the damage you suffered would be catastrophic. How many ninja can this tiny village afford to lose?

"Or we could get away. In fact, I'm sure we would. We've walked out of bloodbaths you can't imagine in your safe haven. And maybe we'd just leave with everything we know. Or maybe you could hurt or kill one of us, and then we'd stay. You think you have the upper hand because you know the terrain? See how your hunters do against an apex predator from the real world. Watch your patrols stop coming back until your military's reduced to whoever was smart enough to cower behind the walls. Do you have the slightest doubt that we could do this?"

Yoshida's face was growing steadily redder with fury. "Don't you threaten me, you little—"

"Shut. Up," Inoue-sensei said. "Answer the question. Look at the number of seals surrounding you and recognize that we have at least one sealmaster in the party. Think about the way I demolished your patrol and took out Kōta before you could blink. Think of how one of my genin batted him around before he decided to escalate. Do you have any doubt that we could turn into the biggest disaster in Isan history if we really wanted to?"

Yoshida looked as though she'd swallowed a lemon with bugs in it. "No," she ground out.

"Good," Inoue-sensei said. Her tone got friendly again and she smiled. "Then let's put this on a better footing. We don't want to hurt you, or upset your village. Honestly, we think you guys are amazing to have built what you've built while staying completely off the map for so long. I think we could really help each other a lot, and I would like to. We'll leave if you want us to, but it would be a missed opportunity for both sides. Do you want us to go?"

Yoshida chewed on the lemon a little longer. "No," she finally said. "As much as you're going to flip everything upside down, we need to establish contact with the outside world in a controlled way, and you're our best chance to do that."

"Good," Inoue-sensei said. "Now, you're right that we don't know your culture. We could easily misstep without a guide, and you would be the best guide we could ask for. We aren't willing to be your puppets, but we are more than willing to be your partners. Let's talk about the best way to make that happen, okay?"

The lemon got a little smaller and Yoshida nodded. "Right," she said.
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Shrooms said:
Also detail the Battle of the Gods and how close the world came to ending. Isan's strength may seriously tip the balance someday soon.
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"Please be my ally, I am scared", is not a convincing argument to ally with each other, maybe if we had a common enemy then it might work, but they probably don't have many problems with Rock right now.

Shrooms said:
Do not try to intimidate the High Priest, but don't simply bend the knee either. You're there to establish a mutually beneficial alliance.
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Keiko isn't that scary? Aizen took over Hueco Mundo Azai took over his own village and established himself as a prophetic figure. I doubt he can be scared that easily.

Also no to sending Keiko alone if avoidable, she didn't do very well on the clan council and not even Ami could prepare her. Meanwhile, Hazou schooled a Hyuga.

So my suggestions are:
  • Try to solidify our alliance with the Kannagi (they are a young clan and Yuno is already married into our clan)
  • Maybe we can get the Yoshida to be Pro-leaf alliance
  • Use both of them as a source of information
  • Survive the dinner and have at minimum Keiko and Mari there
 
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Shrooms said:
Also detail the Battle of the Gods and how close the world came to ending. Isan's strength may seriously tip the balance someday soon.
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I'd alter this to something like "the world almost ended and you had no clue." It stresses the negatives of being isolationist and underlines how the outside world can still impact Isan, regardless of what they want.
 
ContextBot said:
Keiko isn't that scary? Aizen took over Hueco Mundo Azai took over his own village and established himself as a prophetic figure. I doubt he can be scared that easily.
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Yeah that's why I said "do not try". It's like the only form of socializing Keiko is comfortable with besides deadpan sarcasm, but that doesn't mean it works on everyone.
 
Shrooms said:
  • Have Mari and Yuno solidify an alliance with the Kannagi and Yoshida and get them to be pro-Leaf
  • Have Mari build a profile of the High Priest in advance
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I would add that the alliance should mainly be about getting more information (for now), or else Mari might shuts it down for some reason.

"Hazou, we can't ally with someone because [Reason no player thought of]. Seriously does he have no common sense?".

If she can make an actual functioning alliance out of it, cool.

But going to some highly political dinner without any info sounds like we are going to get screwed. (Yeah I know, i said solidify, I was still mostly thinking about getting intel, sorry)

Shrooms said:
Yeah that's why I said "do not try". It's like the only form of socializing Keiko is comfortable with besides deadpan sarcasm, but that doesn't mean it works on everyone.
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Fair enough.
 
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The High Priest feels inherently inimical. Unlikely to swayed.

Nobody is going to begrudge Keiko her honor guard, which consists of all her summons simultaneously. This goes double if they bring a fitting contribution such as Pangolin cuisine. There would be no polite way for the High Priest to refuse a gift of deep-fried cockroaches sauteed in a fire termite egg sauce when building-sized guests are eagerly chowing down.

Something to remember about Isan: they don't have the same "civilians are second-class citizens" feature of modern villages. Winning over the civilians really means something.
 
I'm not sure this counts, given that Velorien's part 2 came out between EJ's chapter and now, but just in case it's still cool:

SC Math for Chapter 416 (Applied):
@eaglejarl, @Velorien
With Hazou and Keiko off on mission, only Akane continues to FOOM. By the SOP, she is training with 5 clones. With 2 base XP, the SC payouts are:
  • Akane: +1.0 XP (2 x0.5)
All previous payouts are accounted for.
 
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Lailoken said:
Something to remember about Isan: they don't have the same "civilians are second-class citizens" feature of modern villages. Winning over the civilians really means something.
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Source on this? Tbh I don't buy it even if ninja have no official privileges over civilians. Ninja have all the power in every possible interaction. Situations like that don't lend themselves to equality.
 
I don't like the current plan. Keiko is a Summoner, but her flesh body is very squishy.

[X] (Isan) No one wins a Shell Game

  • Preparation
    • Isolate Isanites into the group under the pretense of meeting the Pangolins
    • Pressure them with collective social prowess into being allies and giving us information to build detailed profiles on what the major actors have been doing.
  • The Dinner
    • Keiko, if there's a risk of bloodshed, it might make sense for Snowflake to go if she's willing.
      • Without FS, Snowflake might also do better at improvising when the High Priest inevitably throws a curveball
    • Snowflake can check in periodically by making and dispelling clones. Noburi can fill up Keiko's clones and dispel them so Snowflake can have enough chakra.
      • More cheaply (but once only), can dispel a Pangolin (Pandaa?) and Keiko can resummon.
      • This breaks OPSEC on SC communication -- hide from Yuno?
    • Bring Pangolins and see what the High Priest wants.
      • Don't commit to any deals, but follow the general playbook to try to open things up to Leaf.
      • Be wary of genjutsu -- who knows how much of the High Priest's charisma is natural?
      • Explain the Battle of the Gods and that the world nearly ended without Isan noticing. Ignoring the broader world can be dangerous for Isan, as threats exist whether you notice them or not.
 
[X] (Isan) No one wins a Shell Game

This popped up just before I was about to go to bed, and reminded me that I hadn't yet voted this cycle. It's a bit of a slim victory, but I think I like this one a little more than shrooms'.
 
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