Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
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- naruto rationalist romance armageddon is looking better and better damn you kishimoto explosions everywhere explosives solve everyone if in doubt surrender to the mercy of zabuza it seemed like a good idea at the time looks like a really bad case of being a jōnin my god. where does the lore end? precommitting is the winning plan screaming in kagome screw the rules i have explosives something bad might still happen sometimes you gotta sociopath stabby zabby subsection c of paragraph 9 should include we can weaponize this so hard
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
Yeah, we don't have great disguise skills, I'm mostly relying on the fact that I suspect the villagers wouldn't care too much or wouldn't investigate us too deeply. Also, even if they do figure out that we're not telling the truth, I doubt their first inclination would be "Oh! I'll bet your missing-nin." Also, to be honest, anything we do will rely on a skill we don't have, even stealing (we have stealth, but not theft). That said, it seems reasonable to think a disguise would work, for example I'm not particularly good at disguises, but I can easily make people think I'm someone else if they don't care too much. This is basically what we'd be going for.
If Konoha has a chunin in the town, then the only conceivable way we can succeed by remaining fully stealthed, and honestly, we're better off never approaching. That said, I doubt Konoha cares enough about us to have a chunin in every town near the swamp. Ninja are valuable and that seems like a low-reward task. I'm certainly not confident on that though. Maybe we should do some reconnaissance first. What are some things we could look for to determine if there's a Konoha ninja in the village?
The easiest way to monetize our bloodline is through gambling, only problem being we have no starting money to speak of and I kinda doubt a village of 200 rice farmers is going to have a huge gambling house. I agree with avoiding escalation. Other disguise ideas I can think of are traders, hunters, and penniless villagers. It might be worth attempting to be hunters. I don't see traders or penniless villagers working (because we don't really have trading goods, and I don't see penniless villagers getting medical supplies then leaving).
If there's no Konoha ninja in the town, then I think stealth mercs is a good idea, since I doubt the villagers would look into it too much, and even if they did, it's unlikely they would take action against us immediately. So long as we're respectful and don't make it obvious we're missing-nin, they shouldn't care too much. If there's one or more Konoha ninja in the town, anything we do in the open will pretty obviously reveal us as ninja if we're seen at all. In that case, I think our best bet is to sneak into the village, and not be seen by the population at large.
One last plan I've thought of is to sneak into the village, and talk to their medic. Basically make a secret one-on-one deal with them and hope they don't tell anyone. At the very least, this is unlikely to attract Konoha's immediate response (even if they've got a ninja stationed there, and we totally botch to talk, we should be out of the village before they respond), but I doubt our capability to pull that sort of a transaction off (that seems more reliant on intimidate and fast talk than just pretending to be someone else). I think the difficulty of pretending to be mercenaries is lower than the difficulty of persuading someone to keep silent - so long as there is no Konoha ninja in town.
ETA:
That'd be nice, but I doubt we'll get an extension and we don't have control over if that happens. We just need to make a decision while lacking a bunch of relevant knowledge and pressed for time. Kinda like what Hazō has to do
At the very least, we should have some sort of basic plan for if we're not getting any new information or an extension. Because yes, if we find out we can instantly use our bloodline to solve all problems, that'd be great, but I doubt the QMs will give us that, and I doubt we'll come up with a method to do that in the next few days (even if we get a three or four day extension). The relevant question remaining is "Is there a Konoha ninja in town?" and our character has no real way of knowing the answer to that question. Unless we can think of a test to determine if there's a ninja there or not, we basically just have to guess one way or another. My assumption is that there isn't, but if there is my plan probably gets us wrecked (as does any open discourse or bartering plan). If there is a ninja, just stealing what we need and not leaving a trace is probably the best option.
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- Location
- Yes.
Ninjas wouldn't show their presence, period. They would just spend the evening at a bar/inn/whatever to soak up rumors, then leave to whatever outpost is nearby and report. They don't have to stay, just move between towns as they patrol the area. Which is something they ought to be doing anyway since the swamp is supposed to be near the borders of Grass, Waterfall, and Rain so it would make sense to have patrols to make sure enemy nin don't enter, AND since there was an incursion in this direction security can't possibly have not been tightened.
- Location
- Mu
Hm. I just remembered that our characters are genin, and as such, quite young. I'm not sure how common young mercenary troupes are in the setting. Ignoring age for now, just because I have no idea what is considered normal;
I like the hunters idea. A band of mercenaries entering a village is probably more likely to be noticed than a few hunters, and we can use the teeth and body parts to sell the disguise. We might even be able to pick up some meat on the way there.
Actually, that's a decent idea. We've just learned a bit about hunting. The obvious solution here, now I think of it, is to leverage our combat abilities (recently enhanced, given we voted for the Apex build) to kill something en route to the village and trade the meat for money, the money for the medicine. It gives us a perfectly reasonable explanation to use to get past the guards and inside the village, doesn't involve pissing anybody off or stealing anything, and we wouldn't have to engage in combat in front of anybody else. We probably shouldn't kill anything as dangerous as a gator though, or everyone will wonder how we did it.
All we need is a vague enough explanation of how we killed the thing to satisfy a butcher, which may be a problem if he can tell exactly how the creature was killed. I'm not sure your random village butcher would recognise kunai wounds over arrows or some other weapon though.
- Location
- Canada
good thinking, but no. well, maybe.
the thing is, is that in Canon, Henge got used to do a lot of blatantly stupid and impossible things, so figuring out its limits based on Canon is difficult. if we go by Canon as written, then Henge is taught to all ninja in training, requires so little chakra that it can be used and maintained by an 8 year old, and can be used to turn yourself into anything, from inanimate objects to active Ninjutsu attacks.
this, obviously, is insane, and so the generally accepted limits of the Henge is that it can be used make oneself look like another human being, requires constant chakra use (and as such can be detected), and is dispelled by a solid hit.
- Location
- Yes.
I was going to write up something along the lines of "it being fair or not is irrelevant" but then realized it would make no sense to teach such an absurdly powerful jutsu to children. Unless the quality/effectiveness of the Henge has to be learned and developed early, like HPMOR-Transfiguration?
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
Then we avoid the bars/inns/whatevers and try to cause as few rumors as possible. That said, literally anything we do in a town of 200 will cause rumors, even if it's just burglary, we just don't want those rumors to lead to inquiries. We probably shouldn't pose as mercenaries though, because that'd cause large talk and raise flags. We can always attempt it later if we know more about Konoha's information gathering system from villages.
What if we send one person in and have them pose as a hunter's apprentice or child, out to sell their master's kill and purchase medical supplies (our master is out hunting). It explains why we have game we're selling even though we're children, gives us an easy excuse to leave at the end of the day (our master is waiting), doesn't require hiding our age, might not even require any henging if we can find a hunter's apprentice outfit, should provide a good for the village which they need, and hopefully doesn't start too many rumors. The main problem I have right now with it is that it splits the party (unless we can find a way to sneak into the village and have the other one or two members follow behind).
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Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
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Your average villager won't know how a ninja would act, and for those that do our Jonin can help. Either by successfully acting like Konoha nin or by Genjutsu.
- Location
- Canada
the other problem I see with this it that we would be selling Death Swamp game, which I don't think a normal (non-ninja) hunter would be able to bring down. can't really pose as a normal hunter's apprentice if the meat/skins/ect we bring in all comes from things native to the death swamp.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
There's been a lot, so I've been skimming. I think I've got all the questions, though.
On a crash basis, you need enough medicine for 3 people. On an only-slightly-lower priority, you need more in stock for the next time someone is hurt. Yes, this represents a fair amount; although it's not going to clean out your average apothecary, it will utterly make her day when you buy it.
I believe this was already answered but yes, that's exactly what it means.
You're looking for powders, roots, leaves, herbs, and barks. Herbs will be in bunches, the rest will either be in twists of paper or small clay pots.
Henge can be either physical or illusion. You can change into a broad variety of sizes, all macroscopic -- I believe we said "size of a cat" to "very large human". Yes, you can henge into a bird, or a wolf. You don't get the skills of the form you change to, so it will take a long time to be able to move as a quadruped and you'll probably never be able to figure out flying without killing yourself.
Yes.
If I missed anything, please @eaglejarl me and I'll answer. I'm around spottily for the rest of the day and more tonight.
On a crash basis, you need enough medicine for 3 people. On an only-slightly-lower priority, you need more in stock for the next time someone is hurt. Yes, this represents a fair amount; although it's not going to clean out your average apothecary, it will utterly make her day when you buy it.
I believe this was already answered but yes, that's exactly what it means.
You're looking for powders, roots, leaves, herbs, and barks. Herbs will be in bunches, the rest will either be in twists of paper or small clay pots.
Henge can be either physical or illusion. You can change into a broad variety of sizes, all macroscopic -- I believe we said "size of a cat" to "very large human". Yes, you can henge into a bird, or a wolf. You don't get the skills of the form you change to, so it will take a long time to be able to move as a quadruped and you'll probably never be able to figure out flying without killing yourself.
Yes.
If I missed anything, please @eaglejarl me and I'll answer. I'm around spottily for the rest of the day and more tonight.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
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So, guys, should we act as a 'Konoha testcase secondary village'? Y/N
I've made my arguments for why it's a good tack to take. If you're worried about Konoha, there's going to be confrontation at some point anyways.
I've made my arguments for why it's a good tack to take. If you're worried about Konoha, there's going to be confrontation at some point anyways.
- Location
- Penn's Woods
I'm beginning to lean toward henge infiltration and then simply stealing the stuff. Deciding how to develop relations with the village feels way above our pay grade.
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That's an interesting idea. We'd need to fake Konoha uniforms and forehead protectors, though.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
I personally wonder why they are sending us? I mean we are likely the worst people to send. We have no social skills and we are kids. Almost anyone else would be better. Have to ask do they want to have future relations with the village if they do we are the worst team. Too bad be lack the social skill to talking them out of sending us.
- Location
- Yes.
Roots, barks, and the plants can be faked once we know what they look like since we can pick up similarly shaped items in the swamp or at the armory and then shape them to look like our medicine. It won't fool the herbalist but will pass at a glance. Powder will require us to take our own the hard way though...
In any case a sale of the amount of medicine "making the herbalists day" is a sign s/he will tell every one...which will ring alarm bells like you wouldn't believe. So buying, by itself, is not the solution. Maybe getting
In any case a sale of the amount of medicine "making the herbalists day" is a sign s/he will tell every one...which will ring alarm bells like you wouldn't believe. So buying, by itself, is not the solution. Maybe getting
- Location
- Somewhere, probably Earth
Shouldn't be too hard.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
In Mist, most towns of 200 people would never have seen a ninja. You have no way of knowing if the same is true here, though.
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
The average villager won't be able to tell the difference, but I'll bet they'd gossip about Konoha ninja coming, and if the Konoha ninja are paying any attention to the village, they'll pretty easily figure out they didn't send any ninja to the village, unless we have good evidence of Konoha having a terrible information network, but we don't (if we had that, then it wouldn't really matter that much what we did). If we think the level of survelience we're going under is "ninja listening to bar rumors," we're much better off acting as a non-ninja than a ninja because there'd be a lot more talk about ninja than non-ninja and it's the kind of thing they'd be listening for.
Presumably, we'd hunt outside the village and catch game there, not in the death swamp before going into the village (or let the villagers assume we found it dead rather than killed it ourselves). At the moment, I don't know if we have meat in the hidden village, I think we'll need to hunt for it if we want to go the hunter route.
There's going to be a confrontation eventually. I'd just prefer to be Jounin level when it happens, which primarily means buying time to spend XP at the moment. Also, aside from the large benefit to postponing Konoha confrontation, I feel they might react more strongly to "We've been posing as you guys" than to "We're hiding in your unused swamp."
We don't need to establish a concrete way of interacting, but laying groundwork of any kind is likely to be helpful. Also, at this point we can check our plans with Shikigami before heading out, so it seems like as good a time as any to start. Also, what do you want to henge into to see the village? We won't be able to move well as an animal, so we still need a disguise of some sort. If diplomacy (or bartering) fails, we can always return that night to steal stuff (unless we pose as ninja, then we probably shouldn't steal unless we're ok turning the village against us).
This could work, but it still carries all the risks of Konoha finding out that other revealing self as ninja plans do. I'm opposed to openly revealing ourselves as ninja unless we also do something which makes it more likely the villagers won't talk about it.
I don't think any of their teams have strong social skills. None of the teams have entered the village yet, one just scouted the village. We're basically the most successful team from our last mission, so it makes some sense to send us.
The way I see it, we can act as ninja, act as non-ninja, or just steal. Stealing seems like a good backup plan for if our primary plan doesn't work out, unless we don't want to be seen at all. My personal favorite is to act as non-ninja because that's less likely to draw Konoha's attention (if they're observing the village), and leaves open the possibility of stealing that night. With that said, here's my current proposal:
[X] Hunter's Apprentice
We take food, water, and gear for one night away from the village. We also take a couple gator teeth. We pose as the son of a traveling hunter, the teeth are a trophy from our father. We kill a simple animal somewhat near the village (read: not in the death swamp), and bring it into the village to sell. While there, we ask about the local wildlife and fauna (as a traveling hunter, we're interested in it, given our age, it's plausible we wouldn't know it and may be too embarrassed to ask our father). We do our best to sell the animal and then purchase medical supplies (if people ask, we're going on a long journey and want to be very prepared - after all, we heard there are dangerous creatures in the swamp). If all goes well, we return to our village that day. If we can't get medical supplies, we use our trip to the village as reconnaissance for stealing that night, then we camp a ways away from the village, and then travel to our village that night. Most likely, if people realize we're deceiving them, they'll think our father is injured or something, not that we're from a ninja village. The only real risks I see are if a Konoha ninja is physically in the town, or we totally botch the job (read: make the village try to kill us, or report us to Konoha), or if there's some identification procedure which the Fire nation uses (which I find unlikely).
This gets us a lot of information about what is going on in the village in a reasonably simple manner, the villagers are unlikely to think we are ninja, rumors will be about one person, not a ninja team, we may find out more about the local wildlife, especially if the Apex Predator observation from earlier is causing differences in town. If it fails, it's unlikely the villagers will do anything to us (and even if they try, we're pretty scary in a fight), and I don't think failure results in notifying Konoha, because unless things go terribly wrong, it doesn't seem like a ninja problem.
The primary challenges I see that we need to overcome for this plan to work are
- Acquiring hunter's clothing (maybe have our teammates henge into a body length thing we can wear, maybe have whoever goes into the village henge, maybe try to modify our garmets so they look like a hunter's clothing)
- Getting game (hopefully we can catch a large enough animal we can sell it for a reasonable price
- Avoiding Konoha spies if they're in the village
- Note: If there are spies in the village, the only thing we can reasonably expect to do which won't get us caught is to just steal the supplies.
- Location
- Yes.
Any Konoha nin in the town are most likely patrolling the wider area or are retired ninja stationed there since its relatively safe but gives Konoha reports on stuff that's going on. So I'm still worried about the whole idea but can't really think of a better one besides kill and impersonate a beggar.
Well, yes. Ninja tend to be pretty good at not being seen.
I don't think it'd have to be ninja themselves. They are perfectly capable of using civilians as informers --- maybe even a standing bounty on reporting suspicious travelers. In other words, they might have their own version of "If you see something, say something." It might take a week or longer for the report to percolate up to Konoha and amateur reporting like that tends to have very low signal-to-noise ratio, but Konoha does not have to allocate a nin for every village in order to maintain some level of surveillance.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
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Not if we set aside cash from each mission as an emergency fund/bribe.