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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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It seems like the best solution is to get a craftsman who is also a seal master to make the model themselves with direct observations of the seal
 
eaglejarl said:
PSA: An Earth-natured stonecarving jutsu exists

At your request, Kei dug around in the Leaf Private Library (the one that the Nara put together for the contest and are currently training non-Nara docents for), looking for a jutsu intended for use in stonecarving. She found it!

It is an Earth technique that allows you to manipulate Earth-element materials (generally meaning stone, but clay, dirt, gravel, etc also work) as though it were clay while the jutsu is in effect. Mechanically, roll the jutsu level against the TN of what you're trying to create, just as a civilian sculptor would roll Stonecarving or etc. We'll stat it out later, but it's a non-combat jutsu and can be assumed to not be usable in a fight because <TBD>.
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Since this is a non-combat jutsu, I would suggest adding a skill for Stonecarving, and making the jutsu stunt-based.
 
Eisenhelm said:
if we contract a craftsman, they will have to work whit our exact specifications (meaning whit hazou breathing on their neck) while not being a sealmaster themselves and have either us or kagome infuse it, not only is this contrary to what kagome taught us, it may be impossible as no sealmaster can infuse someone else's work.
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To be clear since this keeps getting brought up:

We're not infusing the model of the Great Seal. It is just to have a model for other Sealmasters to look at.
Even if Hazou made it himself wtf would happen if he tried to infuse a Seal that in all likelihood has a TN of like 120 or something? And what would its function do/be when it's not on the 7th path and with no dragons to contain?
 
Velorien said:
"Listen," Ino said, leaning forward in her seat. "By rights, I ought to be reaming you out for betraying your special Uplift bond with a girl who's worth a hundred of us, and you should probably consider me to have done that anyway because it's bad policy to skip it. But just this once, I'm actually in your corner.

"I get that you guys are all committed to civilian welfare. I even respect it, sort of. I'm past trying to hide that I have a thing for the serious type. But you made the right call with the yakuza stuff. No question. A few civilian lives are nothing when it comes to the safety of your clan, never mind when it's a bunch of thugs off the street rather than someone who'll be missed. Akane's an idealist, and that's fine most of the time, but you and I both know that a clan head has to think differently. Honestly, I'm relieved that you're not so obsessed with your philosophy that you lose sight of what matters.

"But that's me as a fellow clan head. Me as Akane's best friend since forever and your lover as of a few weeks ago is so pissed off after spending all of yesterday picking up the pieces that the only reason I'm not kicking your ass right now is that I need you to fix what you broke. Hashirama's bulging bushes, Hazō, if you can screw up something as trivial as a few civilian killings this badly, I'm scared of what you'll do when any of us have a difference of opinion over something that matters."

Silently, Hazō thanked Ino both for her good intentions and for making a difficult situation even more complicated.

"No, Ino," he said, using up some of the limited determination he'd been able to scrape up for this morning. "Those killings were not trivial. I'm not going to tell you how to run your clan, but the Gōketsu don't sacrifice civilians for our own benefit just because they're civilians and we're ninja. You're right, if they were an active, immediate threat to the clan, I'd have some hard choices to make, but those choices still wouldn't be based on the belief that killing civilians is OK compared to killing ninja.

"Akane is one hundred percent right about everything. I screwed up because I did the wrong thing, not because I did the right thing badly. I may have made mistakes before because I was ignorant, or because I overestimated my abilities, or maybe even because I was too stupid to realise something important. I'm sure I'll make many more before I'm done. But the one thing Gōketsu Hazō has no excuse for, the one thing nobody has any excuse for, is being a hypocrite."

"But if you know that, then why?" came a voice from behind him. "I just don't understand."
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So this was a deliberate setup, right? Ino initiates a "real talk" between Clan Heads, frames dismissing the yakuza deaths as acceptable, Akane listens in.
Roomba said:
The scarf guy makes me uneasy. It's a good move for someone wanting to undermine us, but, like the bank run, it seems a bit too clever. It's the kind of idea that I really wouldn't expect most ninja to come up with. And he also presumably knew enough about the Haru situation to know it was worthwhile to attend, which implies a rather startling level of access to our internal communications.

Maybe I'm being overly paranoid here, but there is one person who would have both thought of these things and have had sufficient resources to carry them out - Ami. What I can't figure out is the motive.
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I don't know that this is really too clever. Hazou had to have announced that there'll be a public event ahead of time, hours or a day earlier, perhaps even specifying that it'll be about meting out punishment. It seems a low-cost play to send someone there, instructing them to look for opportunities to undermine him. The Scarf Man didn't necessarily have his lines prepared in advance, it might've been improvisation.

If it is Ami and I had to come up with a motive, maybe it's her trying to "help" us by ensuring we confront the obvious inconsistency of our punishments ahead of time, before the civilians or other ninja realize it on their own, which would undermine us even more (in fact, I'd initially (well, for one line) thought the Scarf Man was a plant working on our orders for just this purpose). Or it's another of her "adversarial training" exercises. But it doesn't really seem likely to me.
 
  • What is the cause of the food shortage?
  • Is there currently a genuine shortage of food products or is it a matter of prices being too high for people to purchase food?
  • What has already been attempted to solve it?
@eaglejarl @Velorien
 
[X] Action Plan: The Dog Talks
Word Count: 269

To Cannai:
  • (pleasantries)
  • Describe our journey to the Great Seal to him, and the Dragon we saw while placing HOWS. Does he recognize anything?
  • Show him Ami's Crusade of Clan Bosses (and any other powerful members from the Seventh Path Clans).
    • What changes need to be made?
    • How can we pitch this idea to the Eastern Clan Bosses?
    • Note: Pantsaa is sending a Condor Scout to check on the Great Seal and Dragons story. Enma will likely throw in if that pans out.
  • Our people on the Human Path are in famine -- is there any trade we could do with the Dogs to help?
    • Food, of course.
    • You mentioned you might have gold -- if the situation is amenable, that could help alleviate the famine as well.
  • To get another sealmaster to the Seventh Path and thus the Great Seal, we might need to track down a long-forgotten scroll.
    • Are there any Dogs that are open to contract that could track a trail of blood many years old without a source sample? (Otter, Squirrel Scrolls).
  • Describe our afterlife experiences.
    • What does Cannai know about it?
    • (if he seems non-hostile) Are there ways to interact with the afterlife dimension?
  • Are there any techniques that would be useful to us?
    • Precise earthshaping.
    • Training techniques that enhance skill by using them.
    • Techniques that give resilience against mental attacks.
  • We're asking for a lot here -- what can we do to give back?
    • No-fee trading in the 7P trade network...?
Aside:
  • Take Cannai's feedback to Ami for iteration.
  • Ask Noburi and Kei to run the Crusader idea past their own bosses.
 
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[X] Action Plan: The Dog Talks
Paperclipped said:
Are there any techniques that would be useful to us?
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I suggest specifying that we ask this of Kumokogo and of the bosses of the Toads and the Pangolins, too. Oh, and ask all of them about Clans notorious for weak wills, who are thus likely to have developed such techniques. Oh, and ask Keiko to search the Leaf library for those, too. Oh, and ask Yuno about this too; didn't the Takahashi display some powerful mind-based ninjutsu during the fight with the quisling tyrant?

So: ask the Dogs, the Arachnids, the Toads, the Pangolins, and ask these about other Clans that might have them, search the Leaf library, and ask Yuno. This net should be wide enough that we find something useful.
 
@faflec
What's the canonicity of the secret, extremely powerful group dedicated to stopping people from weaponizing sealing failures?

They seem like the right people to talk to about The Great Seal causing the Mother—of—All—Sealing—Failures. If they do exist, can we tell Asuma about them before contacting them or do they have to remain a Sealmaker secret? Is there a way to get there attention without having them kill us? (IIRC Jiraryia was once planning on weaponizing sealing failures but got a warning from them before he ever acted on it.)
 
_The_Bomb said:
@faflec
What's the canonicity of the secret, extremely powerful group dedicated to stopping people from weaponizing sealing failures?

They seem like the right people to talk to about The Great Seal causing the Mother—of—All—Sealing—Failures. If they do exist, can we tell Asuma about them before contacting them or do they have to remain a Sealmaker secret? Is there a way to get there attention without having them kill us? (IIRC Jiraryia was once planning on weaponizing sealing failures but got a warning from them before he ever acted on it.)
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Velorien said:
"And Kagome, have you not told the kid about the Watchers?"

"The Watchers?" Kagome-sensei scoffed. "That's just a myth."

Hazō turned to stare at Kagome-sensei in uncomprehending horror. The rest of the team were doing the same, Mari-sensei visibly one move away from attacking the impostor.

"It's obviously just a cover for when the lupchanzen conspiracy kidnaps another promising sealmaster for use in their forbidden experiments."

Everyone relaxed.

"Oh, the Watchers are real," Jiraiya said grimly. "A couple of decades ago, I got desperate during the battle of Ryūgamine Peak and deliberately failed a seal infusion. I got a visit the very next night.

"I woke up, but I couldn't move, like there was this huge weight on top of me, except there wasn't. I couldn't see or hear anything… except this voice. It said that out of respect for my name as Jiraiya of the Leaf Three, I would get one chance. I was never to weaponise sealing failure again, or in any other way use sealcrafting to endanger the survival of civilisation. Then I went back to sleep, and in the morning it might all have been a dream, except that somebody had taken care to disable all of the traps around my door, and then fix them again after they left.

"Don't fuck with the Watchers."
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The next plan can be implemented right after the end of the previous chapter, right? Can we please immediately stalk and interrogate scarf person? Like, just tell our stealthiest ninja currently right next to us to find out what the hell that was about? Right now?

Murska said:
Akane is a great human being, but would make a terrible clan head especially in times of adversity.

I think the idea with Haru is that he'll live among civilians, learn to understand their lot in life and once he is returned to ninja status he will be a better person. Whether it will work... doubtful, but one can always hope.
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Learn to understand their lot in life? A) Haru's whole family is civilian and B) plenty of civilians feel exactly like Haru abou Yakuza lives because most Yakuza do not live like average civilians.
 
Rafin said:
The next plan can be implemented right after the end of the previous chapter, right? Can we please immediately stalk and interrogate scarf person? Like, just tell our stealthiest ninja currently right next to us to find out what the hell that was about? Right now?
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Velorien said:
That aside, Hazō could see the trap here. It wasn't like the civilian in the scarf was wrong about anything. The Hokage had ignored the letter of the law because he only cared about practical consequences, just like Hazō had to begin with. Hazō was sparing the life of a man when he'd executed another one for less (Hazō wasn't going to argue, with Mari standing behind him, that raping a child was worse than murder).
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*cough*sendMari*cough*
 
The safest way to get their attention involves deliberately failing a sealing infusion then going to bed next to a letter explaining the situation. Even then there's a pretty good chance we'll just be dead before they even bother reading the letter (since we probably don't warrant a warning like Jiraryia did).

This is an extremely risky gamble on several counts. Let's only do this if we are getting extremely desperate about The Great Seal.

But maybe we should inform Asuma about The Watchers and this backup plan.
 
_The_Bomb said:
What's the canonicity of the secret, extremely powerful group dedicated to stopping people from weaponizing sealing failures?

They seem like the right people to talk to about The Great Seal causing the Mother—of—All—Sealing—Failures. If they do exist, can we tell Asuma about them before contacting them or do they have to remain a Sealmaker secret? Is there a way to get there attention without having them kill us? (IIRC Jiraryia was once planning on weaponizing sealing failures but got a warning from them before he ever acted on it.)
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I feel very confident that they don't exist. Their failure to avert or get involved in the current crisis is another nail in the coffin, I think.
 
Rafin said:
The next plan can be implemented right after the end of the previous chapter, right? Can we please immediately stalk and interrogate scarf person? Like, just tell our stealthiest ninja currently right next to us to find out what the hell that was about? Right now?
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Yes, you can pick up where the last chapter left off. No, Scarf Man (assuming it was a man and not a woman speaking in unusually deep voice) is long gone because he is presumably not an idiot.
 
eaglejarl said:
Yes, you can pick up where the last chapter left off. No, Scarf Man (assuming it was a man and not a woman speaking in unusually deep voice) is long gone because he is presumably not an idiot.
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Is Mari not also not-stupid? It seems stupid to not keep track of someone like that and it seemed like something she would have noticed.
 
The thought occurs to me that we should probably have someone keep an eye on Haru specifically, not only because he might do something rash but also because other people might try to take advantage of his situation.
 
Paperclipped said:
[X] Action Plan: The Dog Talks
Word Count: 269

To Cannai:
  • (pleasantries)
  • Describe our journey to the Great Seal to him, and the Dragon we saw while placing HOWS. Does he recognize anything?
  • Show him Ami's Crusade of Clan Bosses (and any other powerful members from the Seventh Path Clans).
    • What changes need to be made?
    • How can we pitch this idea to the Eastern Clan Bosses?
    • Note: Pantsaa is sending a Condor Scout to check on the Great Seal and Dragons story. Enma will likely throw in if that pans out.
  • Our people on the Human Path are in famine -- is there any trade we could do with the Dogs to help?
    • Food, of course.
    • You mentioned you might have gold -- if the situation is amenable, that could help alleviate the famine as well.
  • To get another sealmaster to the Seventh Path and thus the Great Seal, we might need to track down a long-forgotten scroll.
    • Are there any Dogs that are open to contract that could track a trail of blood many years old without a source sample? (Otter, Squirrel Scrolls).
  • Describe our afterlife experiences.
    • What does Cannai know about it?
    • (if he seems non-hostile) Are there ways to interact with the afterlife dimension?
  • Are there any techniques that would be useful to us?
    • Precise earthshaping.
    • Training techniques that enhance skill by using them.
    • Techniques that give resilience against mental attacks.
  • We're asking for a lot here -- what can we do to give back?
    • No-fee trading in the 7P trade network...?
Aside:
  • Take Cannai's feedback to Ami for iteration.
  • Ask Noburi and Kei to run the Crusader idea past their own bosses.
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how about getting akane's demands done, at least throw them at mari?
 
Eisenhelm said:
how about getting akane's demands done, at least throw them at mari?
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How does this look as a segment:

Clan Management:
  • Signal Mari to tail Scarf Guy.
  • Noburi: arrange compensation for the Yakuza families.
    • If you can, look into their situations in detail to see how best to help them.
  • Ask Atomu or Reo to keep an eye on Haru, someone might take advantage of his situation.
 
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