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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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BRAIN: "You know, if Hazou loves Akane for being a hearthfire home for his heart (that which turns the compound into a home), and a moral compass Hazou that can always rely upon to slap him silly if he begins to drift more towards "Savage Uplift" out of frustration... then Hazou probably loves Ino for being a riptide. She's the hidden current that catches sailors by surprise and takes them out to sea. She keeps Hazou on his toes and makes him reexamine his thoughts and opinions. You should write an Omake about this."

ME: "Brain, why is it any time you have a decent MfD contribution, it's about saccharine sweetness of the romantic or familial variety?"

BRAIN: "Because they're all wonderfully written characters that have realistic and hidden depths, encouraging idle musings?"

ME: "That sounds right, but it's also missing a certain something...?"

BRAIN: "You're a hopeless romantic and think they're all adorable/dear/wondrous and so they occupy brain space, even when you really should be studying for finals, because you're too weak to resist the wholesomeness of this Found Family?"

ME [sighs]: "Yup, there it is."
 
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Kiba said:
Ren's an idiot. She probably presume that their relationship was the end of the line and then never talked to her for a decade.
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The relationship was at the end of the line, what a dealbreaker is changes from person to person, but what Ren did would count as a dealbreaker for many many people. Hana wasn't simply exiled from the clan, they literally made her persona non grata, cutting her off from the most valuable missions.
There is an argument that the Kurosawa(And Ren) are indirectly responsible for Shinji's death and Hazou's defection, as the clan left them alone in the death world that is the EN. I'm 99% sure the Kurosawa leadership was counting on the death rates doing the work for them.
 
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Omake: Ino's Inner Turmoil
  • Apocrypha
    • RandomOTP said:
    BRAIN: "You know, if Hazō loves Akane for being a hearthfire home for his heart (that which turns the compound into a home), and a moral compass Hazō that can always rely upon to slap him silly if he begins to drift more towards "Savage Uplift" out of frustration... then Hazō probably loves Ino for being a riptide. She's the hidden current that catches sailors by surprise and takes them out to sea. She keeps Hazō on his toes and makes him reexamine his thoughts and opinions. You should write an Omake about this."

    ME: "Brain, why is it any time you have a decent MfD contribution, it's about saccharine sweetness of the romantic or familial variety?"

    BRAIN: "Because they're all wonderfully written characters that have realistic and hidden depths, encouraging idle musings?"

    ME: "That sounds right, but it's also missing a certain something...?"

    BRAIN: "You're a hopeless romantic and think they're all adorable/dear/wondrous and so they occupy brain space, even when you really should be studying for finals, because you're too weak to resist the wholesomeness of this Found Family?"

    ME [sighs]: "Yup, there it is."
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    RandomOTP said:
    If anyone has anything specifically saccharine in their action plan that's not covered by the previous one, let me know and I'll vote for it.

    ...also, with how often I say some variation of that, I should probably just go ahead and make that a long term voting commitment.
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    True to form...

    Omake: Ino's Inner Turmoil

    ​
    Ino sat at her desk, a mountain of paperwork in front of her, and was unable to focus on any of it.

    Because Goketsu Hazō intrigued Ino. He was a study on contrasts and at first, Ino attributed his sheer weirdness to his Mist-origins. After all, Hazō was from a different country, with a different culture, and different teachings. So it makes sense, then, that Hazō –a native of Yagura's Bloody Mist –would stand out when placed in Leaf.

    But that simply wasn't the case. Ino had taken the opportunity provided by the Chunnin Exams to study Mist. How had this placed birthed a person like Hazō? How had a country, so very different from Leaf, manage to raise a boy who positively reeked of Leaf's foundational philosophies? It had taken Ino less than an hour's observation to come to her conclusion: it hadn't –not intentionally, anyway.

    Though Yagura was long-dead by the time of the Chunin Exams, Kurosawa's kageship was still in its infancy, and so Ren's Mist was still, by and large, Yagura's Mist in every way that mattered. And the more she saw, the more disconcerted Ino became. Civilians making loud and obvious declarations of loyalty to Mist's ANBU, hushed whispers of neighbors and children being secreted away in the middle of the night, constantly looking over their shoulders...

    The Mist looked the picture of ninja-turned-slavers. Their civilians were reduced to near subhuman levels of panicked, abused submission, and Ino's proper Leaf sensibilities found themselves repulsed on a visceral level. A small, quiet corner of her mind –brought into existence by a lifetime of enduring Shikamaru's analytical musings and mere months of Hazō's perpetual, ideological prodding –wondered if Mist's Noble Clans were even safe against Yagura's infamous insanity. Further, what about the ninja who existed outside of a clan's aegis?

    ...And Hazō was raised as a clanless ninja, wasn't he? Ino could almost see it: a younger Hazō, and his too-earnest heart shaping itself against the Bloody Mist's norms. Where most ninja would have been numbed by being subjected to such systemic and unilateral cruelty, Hazō seemed to have roared in defiance against such a deadening. Where another's heart may have been hardened to stone, Hazō instead chose to bleed his heart evermore.

    The idea struck a tragic note within Ino. A smaller Hazō– a familiar look of determination, now out of place on a child's face that was still rounded out by baby fat –consciously choosing not to fall into the casual cruelty that Mist had seemed to foster. Forcing himself to bear witness to the wrongs rooted into Mist's culture, refusing to accept the indoctrination of tradition, rejecting the happy, hollow lies peddled by Mist's leadership. Ino could see Hazō standing before such injustice unflinchingly, even as they cut at his heart.

    Despite herself, Goketsu Hazō surprised Ino, too.

    The way he acted with Akane was something straight out of a fairy-tale romance. The way Hazō's eyes brightened when she entered a room, the gentle exchanges of warm looks and soft smiles from across the distance of a room... it was the type of thing that people spoke about, and it almost seemed that with the Goketsu Clan and the rumors about Akane and Hazou were birthed in the same day. Whispers abound throughout the Gokstu compound about their Lord and Lady, and those whispers reverberated to and through to the Leaf's wider populace.

    Already, Akane's time as a missing nin was being altered into a grand love story for the ages. She hadn't "betrayed Leaf." No, the Lady Goketsu had obviously went to go find her Hazō, because the young Lord –whose heart had been born true to the Will of Fire, and whose soul belonged to the Leaf –had fled the barbarous Mist and had become lost in the wider world while trying to make his way to his true home. Akane had guided her love, newly free of Mist's primitive brutality, out of the wilds and to Leaf. There were even some versions where Akane had been a secret agent of Hiruzen, sent to go and collect Hazō, the wayward Leaf nin, back to his true home.

    Everyone with an ounce of common sense knew that this hadn't been the case, but it also seemed that no one cared. Instead, they chose to indulge themselves in the definitive love story of their generation –as though, by reciting the rumors and assuming the mantle of storyteller, they were able to play some small part in one of the few unambiguously good stories that their world had to offer.

    But, of course, Hazō hadn't seen it that way. Hazō's bewildered look of confusion when she had refered to his romance with Akane as "fairy-tale" had been enough for Ino to tell. Oh, he unquestionably treasured his relationship with Akane dearly and obviously loved her with a depth that made Ino feel... small in comparison. But Hazō didn't seem to wholly understand how rare such a relationship dynamic was, beyond an indistinct intellectual level.

    Hazō and Akane were equal partners, with a bottomless wellspring of respect and fondness for each other. They were companions and friends, and the power dynamics between them were things to be dragged out into the open and navigated, rather than lingering omniously in the shadows of silent understandings and unspoken agreements.

    Akane knew, though.

    Where Hazō had looked lost at the description of his relationship being "fairy-tale," Akane had a look of compassionate empathy, of warm understanding that communicated her recognition. Akane was more fortunate than most young women in her position, and knew it well. A clanless kunoichi, her prospects for love were never going to be great. Clanless and a woman who specialized in taijutsu, there were a million different unwritten tales of tragedy that could have, oh so easily, become reality –just as it had for a millon times before.

    And yet Akane had found Hazō, and, in him, a romantic partner who assumed equality to be the norm, the default, the standard. And while that alone wasn't what made Hazō appeal to Ino –the overeager stumbling that hinted at future greatness, the magnificent shade of maroon his deceptively pale face could blush, the intense hue of blue Hazō's eyes became when he was particularly lost in thought –but to discount them completely would be to lie.

    So it was to Ino's surprise when they asked Ino into their fairy-tale romance. Sure, she'd flirted with Hazō and gone through the motions of poking Akane for an answer –after all, Akane had given Ino the green light to continue pursuing Hazō –but she'd never really expected this. Against Ino's wildest fears (or, pehaps, in accordance with them), Akane and Hazō both wanted her to join their relationship, to be part of that fairy-tale romance. To share in those long looks and soft smiles.

    Ino was delighted.

    Ino was terrified.

    But, together, maybe such fears were manageable.

    ----
    a/n: I got to thinking about why Ino would feel so daunted by joining Hazou and Akane's romance. She agreed to it, wanted to ensure both of her partners understood the seriousness of their collective circumstances, and then left before they could talk to her. That reads, to me, like Ino needed to go and collect her thoughts –like Ino had mustered every ounce of her courage to agree to this Very Scary Thing That She Also Wanted Nonetheless, and then left before that same courage failed her. And while Ino's love story may not be as detailed or storied as Hazou's love story with Akane, that doesn't mean that their feelings are any lesser for that. It just means that they have more time to flesh it out.

    Anywho, this omake has been on my mind since Vel's 427 chapter and I finally had the chance to sit down and write. Sorry for any SPaG errors or awkward phrasing/flow. I probably should've had breakfast first, but I wanted to get it out before I crashed from post-finals-exhaustion, so I basically sat down, wrote it out, and gave it a brief glance before posting.

    I'm going to go eat some food and get some sleep. I'll come back later with a blowtorch, hedgeclippers, and a fine-toothed comb to polish it up. In the meantime... here you go?
     
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  • Apocrypha
    • RandomOTP said:
    Already, Akane's time as a missing nin was being altered into a grand love story for the ages. She hadn't "betrayed Leaf." No, the Lady Goketsu had obviously went to go find her Hazō, because the young Lord –whose heart had been born true to the Will of Fire, and whose soul belonged to the Leaf –had fled the barbarous Mist and had become lost in the wider world while trying to make his way to his true home. Akane had guided her love, newly free of Mist's primitive brutality, out of the wilds and to Leaf. There were even some versions where Akane had been a secret agent of Hiruzen, sent to go and collect Hazō, the wayward Leaf nin, back to his true home.
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    This is incredibly adorable, completely plausible and 100% the work of Mari
     
    Eisenhelm said:
    This is incredibly adorable, completely plausible and 100% the work of Mari
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    I mean, just look at how cute they are together! I imagine Mari had an easy job of it, honestly. They're adorable!

    Edit: And Jiraiya's cover story for the Uplift Team was that their hearts held the WoF and that was why the left Mist, and that they found Kagome, a veteran ninja (and a sealmaster, at that) who has experienced trauma and is on the road to recovery. So, really, Jiraiya was the one who laid the foundation that Mari was able to work with.
     
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    RandomOTP said:
    I mean, just look at how cute they are together! I imagine Mari had an easy job of it, honestly. They're adorable!

    Edit: And Jiraiya's cover story for the Uplift Team was that their hearts held the WoF and that was why the left Mist, and that they found Kagome, a veteran ninja (and a sealmaster, at that) who has experienced trauma and is on the road to recovery. So, really, Jiraiya was the one who laid the foundation that Mari was able to work with.
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    for the time line Hazou and Akane didn't have many public displays of romance before they broke up and they hadn't got an on screen date where it wasn't private, I imagine that for the wider Leaf to know about how their relationship really works it had to come from first hand gossip and letting everyone know that her son has the one (bar noburi's) romance worth of song that isn't a tragedy (yet) is something that Mari would do on a lazy morning.
     
    RandomOTP said:
    I mean, just look at how cute they are together! I imagine Mari had an easy job of it, honestly. They're adorable!

    Edit: And Jiraiya's cover story for the Uplift Team was that their hearts held the WoF and that was why the left Mist, and that they found Kagome, a veteran ninja (and a sealmaster, at that) who has experienced trauma and is on the road to recovery. So, really, Jiraiya was the one who laid the foundation that Mari was able to work with.
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    Also you forgot to mention how akane was the one capable of taming Hazou's desires for orgies.
     
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    Chapter 430, Part 1: Unforgiven
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    • It was a chilly evening up in the mountains. Mari, naturally, had had the foresight to snatch the chair next to the fire, and was now curled up in the latest comfortable position she'd discovered, sideways with her legs hooked around the back of the chair. Really, why the others kept giving her strange looks was beyond her. Her reading material, an epic poem borrowed from the Kannagi, was a little dry, but the insight into the previous Pangolin Summoner's life would make for great material with which to tease Keiko when the opportunity came up.

    Meanwhile, Keiko herself was staring into space, almost certainly thinking about Tenten, while Noburi and Yuno were occupied with an Isanese board game that only resembled shogi until you asked about the names of the pieces, the rules, or the victory conditions.

    "Aha!" Noburi exclaimed, startling Keiko out of her reverie. "The squirrel is in the sandpit, and I'm shaving the bearded sage. Shark in three turns."

    Yuno studied the board for a few seconds. "I surrender. To think you've come so far practically overnight, my little tapir."

    Noburi gave the characteristic smirk of a teenage boy failing to hide his smugness while impressing a girl. "Well, I figured trying to get tips was a great excuse to talk to people without making them suspicious, and there was this one cute gir—"

    He cut himself off, but it was too late. The temperature dropped faster than if an angry Keiko had used the Elemental Mastery Technique at jōnin level.

    "Go on," Yuno purred, her right hand reaching down next to her seat.

    "Say, Keiko," Mari said casually, "there's something I've been wondering about. Why does Snowflake always call you Kei?"

    Yuno's hand paused on its way to murder.

    "You shouldn't ask questions like that lightly," she said. "It's probably a secret summoner name. I know I overheard Akane mention 'Hyūga Kameji' to someone once when I was stalking Noburi."

    Noburi's grinned so widely that it barely stayed on his face. Mari made a note to be there when the two next met, because the explosions were sure to be spectacular.

    Keiko looked down sheepishly. "Nothing so interesting. There was a point in time at which my younger self believed that removing the 'child' part of my name would in some way render me more adult. Naturally, no such miracle occurred, but by the time I was forced to acknowledge my inescapable immaturity, the habit had become ingrained. I think of myself as Kei, and thus, so does Snowflake."

    "Huh," Noburi said, delighted at the change of subject. "So if you like it more, why don't you have other people call you Kei as well?"

    "Before, it would have been cripplingly embarrassing," Keiko said. "It may be slightly less so now, but on the other hand, with the rise of the KEI and the Kei, it would also be a source of confusion for all concerned."

    "I really wouldn't worry about that," Mari said, rolling up the scroll now that there was something more entertaining on offer. "You can start off by having close friends and family use it—people who won't laugh at you over a little thing like that—and then let it spread naturally. I don't think there'll be any confusion unless you marry into the Kei, and doubt your legal conspiracy's come quite that far."

    "What legal—ahem. I will give the matter due consideration."

    "Trust me," Mari said. "It worked like a charm for me."

    "Huh?" Noburi asked. "Are you saying your real name isn't Mari?"

    He paused. "No, wait, I'm dumb. You're an elite jōnin superspy. Of course you've been using a fake name all along. You're like Kagome, only good at keeping secrets."

    Mari rolled her eyes. "Actually, I just did exactly the same thing as Keiko. Funny coincidence. Only… by the time I had the revelation about how childish it was… well, going back to being Mariko wasn't an option anymore. That girl was better off staying dead."

    Yuno gave her an uncertain, questioning look.

    "Another time, Yuno dear," Mari said. "While we're on the subject, what's up with 'Noburi'? I've never met anyone else with that name in Mist, or Leaf, or anywhere I've infiltrated, which actually makes me a little jealous as an ex-Inoue."

    Noburi winced. "You just had to ask. I was supposed to be a Noboru. 'One who rises'. It's one of those traditional names that gets passed down through the generations. The first Noboru was probably some great clan hero. Not like it matters to me, though, because the damn priest bit his tongue during my naming ceremony. And my parents weren't the type to change a name after it had been blessed by the kami. I can tell you, having a weird name did not help the fat kid with the barrel get through the Academy."

    "What about you, Yuno?" Mari asked, because keeping her engaged in the conversation was a key part of keeping Noburi in one piece. "What does your name mean?"

    Yuno gave a soft, distant smile. "It doesn't mean anything. It just sounds nice. Daddy said it didn't matter how my name was written as long as people enjoyed saying it out loud. He said people with nice names made more friends."

    "I think it's a beautiful name," Noburi agreed.

    There was a lull in the conversation, and right now that could mean trouble.

    "How about Hazō?" Mari asked. "He's another one with a unique name. Keiko, can you ask him during the check-in?"

    "No need," Keiko said. "I inquired some time ago. I am given to understand that he was originally intended to be a Hanzō. However, then one of Lady Ren's cousins bestowed that name on her own child, who would be next in line if Lady Ren died childless. Given that originally, Hazō should have been the Kurosawa heir, it would have been both inappropriate and distasteful for him to share the name. On the other hand, his mother abjectly refused to have any decision of hers shaped by the will of her former clan, even if the outcome was a rather awkward compromise.

    "For completeness' sake, as with all aspects of my upbringing, my own name was determined by my parents' feelings about Ami. They had first met when my father was upgrading the village's perimeter defence system, while my mother was the tester assigned to penetrate it, and in honour of this they burdened Ami with a name written as 'net' or 'network'. Having received one prodigy, they then naturally desired another, seeking to influence fate by naming me 'blessed child'. Obviously, fate punished them for their hubris."

    "What about the Snowflakes?" Mari asked. "I remember what you said about Snowflake herself, but then there's Prism, Spiral, Crystal, and the others we've met, and I think Snowflake also talked about Kitten—"

    "OhnoIwillbelateforthecheck-in!" Keiko exclaimed, shooting up from her seat. "Summoning Technique: Pandā!"

    "Oh, Keiko, it's good to—"

    Keiko clapped a hand on Pandā's shoulder. "Seventh Path. Now."

    Unfortunately, Noburi was only halfway through the door by the time the distraction of Keiko's dramatic exit wore off.

    "Where are you going, my precious bumblebee?" Yuno asked sweetly. "Satsuko and I want to hear all about this cute girl."

    "Summoning Technique: Gamasēji!"

    Mari sighed and went back to her scroll.

    -o-​

    A few hours later, Kei was back, bearing the details of Hazō's latest scheme. Noburi was still missing, presumed sensible. Mari had reached the end of her epic and was now sorting through the rolls of fabric she had swindled out of Isan's merchants by bartering goods that would have been worth pocket change in Leaf. Yuno was polishing her axe while humming cheerfully.

    Unfortunately, after immersing herself in the abyss of soul-devouring brilliance that was the Frozen Skein, Keiko's impression of the plan had not changed.

    "Mari," she appealed, "am I misinterpreting the viability of this plan? Perhaps there is some way in which it is a devastating masterstroke, and I merely lack the insight and ambition to appreciate its full glory?"

    "Kinda sorta." Mari waved her hand ambiguously. "It's definitely a Hazō plan, I'll tell you that."

    "That is what I was afraid of."

    "I mean," Mari said more thoughtfully, "there's nothing wrong with the first part. I don't know what luxury goods Hazō thinks he can buy for five hundred people when we are the brokest clan ever to be broke on this green earth—"

    "Untrue," Keiko interrupted. "Recall the Kobayakawa."

    "Fine, the brokest clan currently to be broke on this green earth. But since the buying happens in Leaf, that's Hazō's problem to take care of. Or Akane's, rather. The propaganda section's fine too. Given what I've got to work with, Keiko, and the fact that I'm me, I could turn you into a second Byakuren with my eyes closed."

    Kei squirmed. Mari of all people must have realised the degree to which Kei was an impostor, granted power and success solely through an implausible confluence of circumstances. Portraying her as some manner of hero before the people of Isan would add more layers still to that deception, rendering it all the more devastating when the masks finally fell.

    "I admit I'm not clear on the religious text part. Yuno, how long would it take to get us our own copy of Isan's religious texts?"

    Yuno paused her axe-polishing. "What, all of them?"

    "Let's say just the core texts."

    "Well, they're not exactly for sale," Yuno said. "Every family already has their own copies. But if you paid a scribe to do it… Actually, I have no idea how long it would take. I'm not a scribe. Weeks, probably."

    "All right, I guess we're sticking with the very core of the core texts," Mari conceded.

    "I can pick some out," Yuno said. "But why do you want to copy the texts?"

    "Hazō wants to print them," Mari said. "As gifts, I guess."

    "But everyone already has their own copies," Yuno repeated. "We've had centuries to make them. I have my own copy, and it was very difficult keeping it safe while I was being drenched in monster blood all the time when I was travelling the continent."

    "Sure," Mari said, "but bound texts are more resilient. And you don't have to puzzle out the scribe's handwriting or worry if they've made any mistakes while copying."

    "I'll see what I can do," Yuno said. "But I can't promise that my people will trust holy scripture made out of sight by strangers in a barbarian village. You might make mistakes when turning it into print—there are already rumours going around that the Pangolin Summoner showed ignorance of Ui's lore when dining with the High Priest—or change it in subtle ways to undermine the village. Also, I'm the only one who understands what printing is… and even I'm not completely comfortable with it. Words have spiritual power. The person writing them leashes and controls that power. It's why only the most trusted and respected people can be scribes. But when words write themselves, that sounds like an abomination."

    "Moving swiftly on," Mari said, "this part's the meat of the issue. Keiko's own martial order. It's a beautiful image. The High Priest turns up to find that his ninja are already serving Keiko, and that she's taken over as their spiritual leader. Pop quiz. What happens next?"

    "The High Priest orders the majority that has remained loyal to him to arrest the traitors and execute us if he deems it viable, or banish us otherwise," Keiko said coldly.

    "Bingo," Mari said. "Taking command of military forces under his control? Directly replacing his religious authority? He could be desperate to ally with Leaf, and he'd still have to come down on us with everything he's got, or it would be his last day in power.

    "With a third of the village at our back, calling for change? Sure. With a bunch of civilians that reckon allying with Leaf might be good for business? We might as well go march into jail ourselves and save them the trouble."

    "Is there a way to do it?" Yuno asked. "Make it his last day in power? I mean, I know once he invited the Summoner to dinner, she had to argue for an alliance with him, but… it mustn't happen that way. Please. I left my home and fought my way to Leaf because you're the only ones who can save Isan from him. If you decide to give him the alliance, if Leaf ends up backing his rule… it'll be the end. Instead of Isan finding its own path, it'll be his path, with iron laws, and hatred, and unity through hurting people who are different. What Noburi told you about the Murasaki—it won't be just me. It'll be everyone he doesn't need, or doesn't want."

    Mari looked at her for a few seconds. "I hear you, Yuno. I really do. But I worry if we can pull it off. The fact is, the Gōketsu need a win. We've been in the Hokage's bad books on and off this whole year, and right now we're not in a situation where anything else can go wrong. We're the clan that nearly broke the entire Fire Country economy. If we prove ourselves a liability in the field as well, and it's one of Leaf's rivals that gets all of Isan's ninja and seals and ninjutsu, the Hokage might just decide it's better for the Gōketsu to die out and pass those summoning scrolls to ninja he can rely on. I want to save Isan as much as you do, but saving my family—including you—comes first."

    Yuno slumped back in her chair, crestfallen. "I understand," she said quietly. "I understand, but…"

    "No," Kei said sharply. "This is not a matter for compromise."

    "Keiko…" Mari began.

    "I made a promise, Mari," Kei said. "Before I left Isan, taking the reason for its existence with me, I promised that I would return and repay my debt. Isan was the beginning of my rise to power, such as it has been. It is in Isan that I became more than a genin with a moderately useful bloodline and passable skill with thrown weapons. You have always been a genius. Hazō has always been a visionary. Noburi has always possessed countless talents waiting to flourish, and Akane, delusions aside… has always been a better person than I could hope to be. Even Kagome, for all his flaws, has achieved rare mastery in a rare skill by casting aside everything else. I was unremarkable until Isan made me unique.

    "I am not such a fool as to deny my status as Akio's heir in the middle of Isan, even in private. However, you and I are both fully aware of my relationship to Isan and its traditions. I became special by robbing an entire village of its specialness. I am responsible for the void that the High Priest filled. I cannot abandon Isan to the darkness I selfishly plunged it into, and then come home and claim myself an ally of Uplift, much less a leader fit for the KEI or the Nara."

    "This is not just about you, Keiko," Mari retorted. "Don't get me wrong. I want to save Isan as much as anyone. But we have to be realistic. If the final choice is the High Priest or nothing, and nothing means putting my family in danger, then I will suck it up and choose the High Priest. All four of us—all four of us Gōketsu—have that responsibility to fulfil."

    Kei felt anger beginning to crystallise.

    "There are five hundred lives at stake here. I am as loyal to the Gōketsu as you are, but you are telling me to weigh a risk to the clan—a nebulous risk with no evidence save your speculation—against a certainty of suffering for hundreds, focused on the most vulnerable. You are commonborn, Mari—do you not remember the pain of discrimination? Of being bullied, ostracized, because the group functioned more smoothly with an outcast to unite against? Or did your prodigious talent render you exempt from the suffering experienced by others?"

    "Leave my past out of this, Keiko," Mari snapped. "I had bigger problems than bullying, as you well know. Even then, I managed to make my way into the ingroup, with manipulation when I could, with fists when I couldn't. Don't assume everyone's experience is the same as yours."

    Yuno looked between the two of them anxiously.

    "Listen to yourself!" Kei exclaimed. "Of course you did not require defending. You are strong. Immeasurably strong. What bliss it must have been, to be permitted to earn a place, and then to gaze at your inferiors below. Were you a bully, Mari? Did you partake in those rituals of building community spirit by tormenting the unworthy?"

    "Yes, I earned my place! Do you want me to apologise for doing what I had to in order to survive, Keiko? I didn't have a clan at my back. I didn't have a bloodline that guaranteed academic success. I didn't have a perfect sister, an asset you completely failed to utilise, to be there for me whenever things got too tough. And if sometimes I had to hurt others to survive—you might not like it, but that's what it means to be a ninja!"

    A wall that had been buckling under pressure for so long finally snapped completely.

    "Is that what you tell yourself to sleep at night, Mari?" Kei hissed. "Who cares about the others' pain as long as I survive? And now, how virtuous, you have upgraded to 'Who cares about the others' pain as long as my family survives?' Who cares indeed. Do you believe yourself superior to me because where I turned the pain inwards until it nearly broke me, you became a predator who forced others to feel it in your place? Your trauma was worse than mine. Congratulations. Clearly, nothing more was needed to justify the Heartbreaker."

    "How dare you? You have no idea what I went through. You can't imagine what it's like to be betrayed by the person you trusted most. To be hurt, over and over. To have no home to return to because just thinking of what's waiting there makes you sick."

    The anger crystallised into something solid, a regular structure that from the outside could be mistaken for calm.

    "I know exactly what it is to have no home to return to, Mari," Keiko said evenly. "I know because you stole mine. I suppose that was another necessity for your survival. All those children, torn from their families and then left to die. How proud you must feel of your patchwork repair of this soul you shattered. How proud that you encountered me in the wilderness, me and two others otherwise irrelevant to your interests, and chose to spare us from the doom you brought upon the rest. How proud, that you found some humanity within yourself at this late stage and crafted yourself a new family from the remains of those you had destroyed.

    "You stole Ami from me, Mari. You stole everything, but her above all. You knew her well, I have now learned. You knew what I was to her. You must have known, at the research stage, what she was to me. You stole us from each other nonetheless. Then, with hypocrisy beyond imagination, you inserted yourself into the gap left in my life—the guardian, the mentor, the beloved. Was that another product of your repairs? Was I in love with you because you replaced the person whose absence I could not endure?"

    Yuno stared at her in horror and bewilderment. There would be a price to pay for allowing her to witness this, but it was too late to stop.

    "I believed, once, that I could accept it all. That I was capable of overlooking your monstrous actions in light of the beautiful family bond that was their final outcome. Then you confessed, and it seemed as if we were perched on the edge of resolution. Any minute now, any day, you would acknowledge the fullness of your sins, and seek my forgiveness, and I would forgive you and the slate would be wiped clean, leaving only love.

    "A year has passed. I am done waiting.

    "You desire no forgiveness. You only wish redemption. You wish proof that you are no longer the Heartbreaker, and are therefore exempt from responsibility for her actions. You wish a world where your crimes are not forgiven but forgotten, someone else's, swept under the carpet in favour of the loving relationship we now enjoy.

    "You can make me forgive you. This is a fact. With time and effort, with your skill and intimate understanding of my heart, you can surely manipulate me into feeling anything, into making any choice. You proved the power you can wield even in an instant the night before my wedding—another incident you do not believe requires forgiveness. Certainly, you will do this now that you have been made aware of the issue, because while you do not desire forgiveness, you desire harmony, and forgiveness is required before this can be restored. You will tell yourself it is for my own benefit, or the family's, and both of those things will be true.

    "Therefore, I am making this statement I can only make now. I do not forgive you, Mari. I do not absolve you of responsibility. I deny your redemption, and I deny that you have left the Heartbreaker behind. With the last of my untainted free will, I deny you the right to call yourself my family until you face and accept the full horror of what you, Gōketsu Mari, have done."

    Kei gathered her belongings while Mari sat frozen.

    "I apologise for the inconvenience, Yuno," she said with her back to the girl, "but I will be spending the night on the Seventh Path. We can reconvene tomorrow to discuss our further plans."

    Hopefully, by morning she would be able to conceal the pain.

    -o-
    ​
    You have received 1 + 1 = 2 XP.

    -o-
    ​
    Part 2, the Takahashi meeting, tomorrow (both in- and out of universe).

    -o-
    ​
    Since Hazō's plan has not been implemented, a week has not passed.

    What do you do?

    Voting closes on Saturday 8th of May, 1 p.m. New York time.
     
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    • good for Keiko. I know this will affect Mari, but I just hope she is listening to what Keiko has to say.
     
    I'd like to attempt to reframe this update in more positive terms than might be apparent at first blush.

    Point one: Keiko clearly communicated. She told Mari what she needs from her - genuine acknowledgement and contrition for the awful thing that she did. This seems totally doable, and, to boot, will provide Mari with a lot of opportunities for sorely-needed emotional growth and genuine introspection. I believe that Mari is up to the challenge.

    Point two: this represents significant progress for Keiko. She has a lot of trauma. Traumatized people go from being scared of the world around them and acting in a manner that reflects that fear - which is to say, giving into it, placating anyone with power over them, etc. - to feeling safe in certain situations. In those situations, initially, they explode. Keiko is taking all of her anger at the world, and directing 100% of it at Mari - and this is only possible because she feels safe around Mari. Mari is the source of a lot of that pain, but Keiko is a practical person and she's going to come out of this okay. Both Keiko and Mari have good support networks (happily, somewhat independent support networks) and this is survivable.

    Point three: there was never, ever going to be a good time for this to happen and it was always going to happen at some point. The longer it went, the worse it was going to be.

    I'm optimistic that we're going to get actionable intelligence from Takahashi and we can proceed from there.

    I think that an update where Hazo talks to Keiko would be a good idea.
     
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    Velorien said:
    Standard Gōketsu Family SOP (they will use it, and by Byakuren's hefty mast, they'll like it)

    When someone wants to discuss a sensitive subject:

    0) We don't do this over dinner. It needs its own time without distractions or a built-in deadline.

    1) Stop talking, except to help everyone else follow the SOP.

    2) Go find a comfortable place to sit/lie/whatever.

    3) Make any relaxing drinks anyone wants.

    4) Optionally add snacks.

    5) Person who wanted the discussion in the first place, define the subject.

    5a) The subject can be anything, not just a problem to solve. Sometimes you just need to get stuff of your chest and know your loved ones are listening.

    6) Priority order of moderators: Me (Noburi), Akane, Mari, Hazō, Keiko, Kagome. The moderator's job is to make sure everyone gets their say without being interrupted, and catch/fix miscommunication. The moderator contributes last.

    7) Say stuff. Use Clear Communication if you can, be up front about it if you can't. Saying stuff is more important than saying it well. Break the subject down into steps (e.g. explain the problem; discuss what different angles will need to be considered; everyone who has a solution gets their own step to describe it and get feedback), and don't move between them until everyone's had a chance to say what they think/feel in each one.

    7a) Hazō, do not skip ahead, no matter how excited you are about your latest idea.

    7b) Keiko, Kagome, your opinions are valuable, so make sure you say something for each step.

    7c) Mari, talk last if you're worried about influencing people too much.

    7d) If anyone brings in a non-Gōketsu, make sure they get a say as well (looking at you here, Tenten).

    8) Learn a few Nara hand signs. Being able to say stuff like "slow down" or "can you backtrack? I didn't get that last point" without interrupting someone is solid gold (no offence, Keiko).

    9) This is a discussion. No binding decisions and no vetoes until after it's over.


    I'm invoking the SOP for the first time tomorrow when we're all around. Topic: discuss how to make it even better before finalising it. At the end of that discussion, it's done, Hazō ratifies it post haste, and it's clan law with penalties for breaking it. We can't keep having fiascos like the Pangolin Contract Conflict.
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    NOBURI: Jashindamnit, why does nobody care about this?
     
    This update... has really made me extra introspective lol

    I know this is literally Naruto fanfiction but the struggles are real. Even though this conversation didn't actually happen I can't help but feel like a lot of the squabbles I have IRL really aren't worth it by comparison. Compared to a fight like this one there's no point in bottling up anger over such petty things. Really makes me feel like talking things out with some people. Thanks for writing this wonderful story.
     
    Kiba said:
    What constitutes a Hazo plan anyway?
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    A plan that could potentially work but is essentially a gambit as it has no failsafes or incurs a huge risk of getting everyone you care about killed (something by your own people) due to an oversight that is odvious in hindsight.
     
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