- Location
- Australia
Guys lets just steal this shit ffs we don't have local currency and we have high stealth.
Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
- Start date
-
- Tags
- 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
Note that this reduces the primary benefits of posing as Konoha ninja (if we need to keep a cash bailout), and isn't guarenteed to work (if Konoha decides it's more important to not have impostor villages than to have the money 200 rice farmers can provide. We could maybe get somewhere doing this with more than just 200 farmers, but then we're even more likely to be found out by Konoha. Here's a brief list of information or confirmation I'd like to get before enacting a plan where we pose as Konoha ninja:
- What is Konoha's information network like?
- How much demand is there for ninja?
- How has Konoha treated missing-nin in the past?
- How much does Konoha care about people pretending to be them?
- Can we generate a meaningful enough bribe or counter-offer to offset the benefit Konoha has of offing us?
I consider this a close second to my current plan (Hunter's Apprentice). It's better than HA if Konoha has good information networks, it's worse if Konoha has poor information networks simply because it doesn't net us as much stuff (HA also gets us information on what's going on in Konoha). We are likely very qualified to steal what we want (since we apparently know what we are looking for).
- Location
- Australia
[X] Sneak in like ninja and take what you need
Until i see a better plan.
Until i see a better plan.
ClawClawBite
Mad Engineering!
- Location
- Seattle, WA
[X] Hunter's Apprentice
and if needed, we can henge to have the right outfits.
and if needed, we can henge to have the right outfits.
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
Why is stealing and replacing with fakes better than just stealing? It's harder to do, and I'm not sure there's a substantially better payoff for us in doing it (though I'm happy to be convinced).
Stealing is a solid plan, but I figure for us to sneak into the village either requires waiting for night or trusting in luck, so we might as well try some stuff during the day before sneaking in. Also, if trading/bartering works out, we get more than just temporary medical supplies, but also information.
The significant extra risks I see with attempting a basic non-ninja bartering approach are if Konoha has ninja physically in the village, if the villagers are strangely hostile and capable at combat, or if we hold the idiot ball and make it clear we're ninja (they have no real reason to think we are ninja, so it shouldn't be a problem). If we need to roll dice for our interactions with the village, then yeah, stealing is the better plan (because we have no social skills to speak of, so mechanically we're guaranteed failure), but I notice we didn't need to roll dice in this last update, so it seems if we take a good enough/safe enough plan we might not need to roll dice. That said, if we need to pass a dice roll to convince people we're hunters/hunter's children, then yeah, It's an unfeasible plan and the only thing we should attempt is stealing.
@eaglejarl What situations would result in a dice roll to see if villagers buy our story? Will we need to pass some sort of "lie" skill check each time we lie?
ClawClawBite
Mad Engineering!
- Location
- Seattle, WA
If we have a cover story, we should have the jonin and chunnin help us prep our cover story.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Stealth Mercs
This plan seems best right now, though it depends on how well we can henge and how well we can act. We should seriously push hard towards doing things legitly with the village. We really do NOT want to attract any negative attention, or provoke the village into hiring Konoha ninja to investigate robberies, or worse, unknown ninja. If we must steal, we should go out of our way to make it look like some one-time group, avoiding doing anything that would provoke Konaha coming.
This plan seems best right now, though it depends on how well we can henge and how well we can act. We should seriously push hard towards doing things legitly with the village. We really do NOT want to attract any negative attention, or provoke the village into hiring Konoha ninja to investigate robberies, or worse, unknown ninja. If we must steal, we should go out of our way to make it look like some one-time group, avoiding doing anything that would provoke Konaha coming.
- Location
- Yes.
@Radvic Long-term benefit for minor cost. We gain the ability to 'delay' the discovery of our theft which gives us time to grow stronger against whatever ninja/mercenaries would be sent to find us; this also gives us a better cover since other, possibly more likely, suspects would also have presented themselves (anyone suspicious, basically).
As for cost, I don't really think there is one. We're going to have time between figuring out what we need (i.e., what it looks like) and actually stealing the bulk of our supplies, and when we break into the place replacing isn't going to take much time. Powders can be mixed in their jars, plants/roots can be mixed in with jars to hide them, and the "paper twists" eaglejarl told us can be faked pretty easily too. If we're so worried about getting caught doing this then we should be worried about getting caught breaking in entirely.
But we should also have a contingency for making sure there aren't guard dogs or something. I do not want to provoke one of those and waking up the entire town in the process.
As for cost, I don't really think there is one. We're going to have time between figuring out what we need (i.e., what it looks like) and actually stealing the bulk of our supplies, and when we break into the place replacing isn't going to take much time. Powders can be mixed in their jars, plants/roots can be mixed in with jars to hide them, and the "paper twists" eaglejarl told us can be faked pretty easily too. If we're so worried about getting caught doing this then we should be worried about getting caught breaking in entirely.
But we should also have a contingency for making sure there aren't guard dogs or something. I do not want to provoke one of those and waking up the entire town in the process.
One interesting thought is just how differently would a hunter's or trapper's child --- especially if said hunter is fairly nomadic --- behave from a ninja child? They'd both have a "raised by wolves" vibe, both have a rather creepy understanding of anatomy and wilderness survival. In other words, how much are we really lying here?
Radvic, I like your plan; seems better than most of the ones proposed so far.
[X] Hunter's Apprentice
We should consult Inoue-sensei before departure. I'm sure she can point out some helpful things for us.
[X] Hunter's Apprentice
We should consult Inoue-sensei before departure. I'm sure she can point out some helpful things for us.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Starting money (says Mori) could be obtained via selling something hunted / gathered / stolen, by stealing it directly, or by making a small bet without showing the money first. (You typically don't flash your cash when you make a $5 bar bet, for example.) Doing odd jobs for someone is also a way to make some pocket money quickly -- split a cord of wood, get paid $N ryo.
Mori points out the following:
- The swamp contains items that are highly chakra-rich and probably very rare. This likely makes them very valuable to someone, and a medic is a good candidate.
- So long as you play fair, the medic would have a strong incentive not to rat you out.
- The medic can disguise the source of the materials (grind them up, etc)
- People will want to know where these new, more effective medicines came from, so the medic will eventually need an answer.
- This puts the medic in a position of leverage on you -- they can sell you out to Konoha whenever it becomes beneficial to them, and can probably lure you into ambushes as well by scheduling an order / delivery for a known time.
- Meat looks like meat once it's been carved up, regardless of what animal it came from. Other things can likewise be disguised by being broken down.
I would not roll dice unless there was a reasonable chance of failure. Win at darts against a random civilian? No roll, you win. Win at darts against the village champ? Maybe roll dice but you'll almost certainly win. Telling a perfectly plausible lie to a random person on the street? No roll. Tell a fishy story to the suspicious city guard? Definitely roll dice.
Examples:
- "Hi, I'm the son of the Fire Daimyo!" => roll with massive numbers of challenge dice
- "Hi, we're from $town, about 2 days away." => no roll unless you're acting suspicious
- "Oh no, I'm not a ninja! I just lived in the wilderness for my whole life, studying the movements of animals in order to invent the combat style that just allowed me to beat the everlovin' tar out of a grown man three times my size." => roll, more challenge dice than "I'm the Fire Daimyo's kid"
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
I'm mostly unsure of the long term benefit. I find it incredibly unlikely that the apothecary will not notice within a day or two, and I also know I would be more upset if I found my stuff had not only been stolen, but replaced with fakes, which would make me want to investigate it more closely than if it just vanished. That said, I might be modeling the villagers incorrectly. At this point I'd be ok doing it either way, I just think there's better uses of our time than making fake medical ingredients.
Yeah, if people buy that traveling hunters are a thing, it'd be fairly good. The main challenge will be if people buy that. It's worth considering claiming to be from a town X number of days away (considering Eaglejarl's recent post, yay new information).
Fully agreed. Any plan we make should involve consulting with at least Shikigami and Inoue before leaving.
Thanks for the update! Thoughts on the new information:
- Secret one-on-one meetings might be plausible. I'm hesitant because it seems likely to result in us being blackmailed, but it's something to consider. We'd want to know more about who we're dealing with before approaching them though.
- Selling meat seems like a great way to get (at least some) money, we can even just take swamp meat we've already got at camp (I assume people have been hunting).
- Eventually establishing a trading relationship with villages will likely be profitable since the swamp stuff is valuable to someone. I'd prefer to gather more information before making that sort of commitment (maybe on our second town visit if we get one)
- Hm... I wonder if purchasing large amounts of medicine counts as acting suspicious. I hope not. I assume slipping guard dogs a sleeping drug would be suspicious though.
- Take meat from the hidden village and sell it in town. If that doesn't get us enough money, increase our funding:
- If we need some more money, do odd jobs, be useful for cash
- f we need lots more money, gamble (note this risks getting people angry at us)
- While in town, ask about the swamp, see if there's stuff people particularly want from there.
- Ask Shikigami and Inoue for advice on making our plan more better, touches they'd add, things we've got which are just implausible etc.
- Ask Inoue (and maybe Shikigami) what the best methods of sneaking into a town are to avoid nasty surprises like guard dogs.
- Consider posing as victims of a wild animal or bandit attack. For example, we were out gathering meat from traps when our family was attacked, now we need to sell the meat for money to buy medical supplies for our injured family. Note this also allows us to just be from a town a few days away and doesn't require selling people on the wandering hunter deal, just that our family hunts, and we got attacked while out hunting. Maybe we weren't expecting the parasitic slime or something.
- Note this also lets us ask the villagers questions on best use of local ingredients for treating wounds our ninja have.
- Location
- Somewhere, probably Earth
We could also make deals with more than just the medic. If we can get most/all village willing to trade with us for supplies, mutual prosperity from us hunting in the swamp for the good shit while they process it...could even come to a protection agreement regarding bandits (from the swamp, yeah fucking right).
A thought I had... Are we allowing our "civilian" morality and ethics get in the way of optimizing? Are we bandwagoning on the more risky plans that require complex social interactions and deception because we don't like the thought of quietly replacing someone's medicine with random weeds or damaging an apothecary's shop covering up our theft? In other words, are we being Naruto (the character) in a situation where we can't afford to be Naruto (the character)?
This is not a vote for or against any specific proposal, but it's something we might want to consider, remembering that this is a fictional universe which, as far as we know, is morally indifferent, and our characters are professional killers, thieves, and spies.
This is not a vote for or against any specific proposal, but it's something we might want to consider, remembering that this is a fictional universe which, as far as we know, is morally indifferent, and our characters are professional killers, thieves, and spies.
Rihaku
The Internet
Sounds like the most effective mid-term plan would be to initiate some sort of surreptitious meeting with the medic while answering as few questions about our identity and nature as possible.
1) If our goods can make a difference in her village, she has a strong incentive, as eaglejarl said, to keep us in business, and we don't need to say whether we're Konoha-nin or missing-nin or whatever. As long as we aren't bringing harm or undue attention to the village, incentives will remain aligned. The less she knows, the less it can hurt her, after all, and that would be true even if we were completely legit Konoha nin on a non-black-ops mission.
Given that we're in Fire the overwhelming anterior probability is that we're Konoha nin anyway. If we were playing her, we would conclude it's far more likely that they're Konoha nin on a mission that precludes use of official channels, than foreign nin - a foreign nin would be far more likely to just beat her up and take her stuff, or steal it. We certainly wouldn't do something as outrageously reckless and stupid as attempting to rat out or compromise the unknown ninja of unknown capabilities who know where we live and can likely kill us in thousands of different ways.
2) Since she won't know whether or not we're Konoha nin, she has a large disincentive to sell us out to any particular organization - Konoha wouldn't look kindly upon one of their contacts approaching them with an offer to sell them out!
3) She can explain away the new medicines as component parts of a lucky find she stumbled upon during one of her more remote ingredient-gathering expeditions; a large creature, wounded enough to be unrecognizable, whose chakra-carrying organs could be productively powdered or whatever. This is even more plausible as the general migration of apex predators out of the epicenter of swampy terrain is an objectively observable fact, and you would expect some death fights between spiderbear and croc, or even croc and croc, on the fringes.
4) Once the contact is established, other teams can do this for us using the same Henge form we did (or different ones, not like it matters).
EDIT: By the way, GMs, do we have the Apex build now? If so, would you be able to give a rough rundown of what our approximate physical capabilities are, now that we have Taijutsu 7? How close are we to non-Gates Rock Lee?
1) If our goods can make a difference in her village, she has a strong incentive, as eaglejarl said, to keep us in business, and we don't need to say whether we're Konoha-nin or missing-nin or whatever. As long as we aren't bringing harm or undue attention to the village, incentives will remain aligned. The less she knows, the less it can hurt her, after all, and that would be true even if we were completely legit Konoha nin on a non-black-ops mission.
Given that we're in Fire the overwhelming anterior probability is that we're Konoha nin anyway. If we were playing her, we would conclude it's far more likely that they're Konoha nin on a mission that precludes use of official channels, than foreign nin - a foreign nin would be far more likely to just beat her up and take her stuff, or steal it. We certainly wouldn't do something as outrageously reckless and stupid as attempting to rat out or compromise the unknown ninja of unknown capabilities who know where we live and can likely kill us in thousands of different ways.
2) Since she won't know whether or not we're Konoha nin, she has a large disincentive to sell us out to any particular organization - Konoha wouldn't look kindly upon one of their contacts approaching them with an offer to sell them out!
3) She can explain away the new medicines as component parts of a lucky find she stumbled upon during one of her more remote ingredient-gathering expeditions; a large creature, wounded enough to be unrecognizable, whose chakra-carrying organs could be productively powdered or whatever. This is even more plausible as the general migration of apex predators out of the epicenter of swampy terrain is an objectively observable fact, and you would expect some death fights between spiderbear and croc, or even croc and croc, on the fringes.
4) Once the contact is established, other teams can do this for us using the same Henge form we did (or different ones, not like it matters).
EDIT: By the way, GMs, do we have the Apex build now? If so, would you be able to give a rough rundown of what our approximate physical capabilities are, now that we have Taijutsu 7? How close are we to non-Gates Rock Lee?
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Not necessarily. Konoha is more likely to appreciate the general populace being vigilant about suspicious ninja. They might even have some standard means of reporting suspicious activity like that.
Rihaku
The Internet
Given the tech level of "medieval feudal with rare sealing tech," it's almost impossible for any nation to possess the infrastructure necessary for widespread comprehensive education like that. Merely spreading an idea is a far cry from getting people to remember that idea and change their actual behavior. Also, a policy like that would -
1) have extreme negative effects on the nation's economy upon the betrayal of any chunin-grade nin or above, as it's trivial to throw a chakra attack capable of depopulating a village even during a pitched ninja fight, much less before/after, when the betrayed has carte blanche and little to lose;
and
2) not be adhered to by the populace anyway because the uncertain promise of cash rewards (if they even exist) is definitely not worth both a) the possibility of being abducted by Konoha for knowing too much (remember, these guys torture kids) and b) the almost-certainty of the ninja or their allies finding a way to kill you in response. It's very, very hard for even an S-class nin to keep a specific civilian alive without staking out the civilian 24/7, which they're not going to do. If it cost something to the ninja, that would be another story, but almost any nin can send a Henged water clone to ambush and kill a civilian at virtually zero cost. And that's not even including the possibility that the ninja has long-term or easily refreshed clones observing the civilian for exactly that sort of behavior.
Not to mention that any system with cash rewards will inevitably have the crap abused out of it as any civilian can make up a story about encountering ninjas, because falsification is almost impossible given mere jounin-class trackers when S-class missing nin are present all over the Elemental Countries. A systemic effort to filter out hoax-like stories will consume immense amounts of budget and manpower and will just lead to actual missing-nin safely getting access to civilian resources as long as they behave in a manner commonly depicted in hoaxes.
Without cash incentives, the only way such a policy could survive to execution is fanatically strong nationalism, strong enough to disregard the immense personal safety risks to the civilian. Feudal societies lack the infrastructure to indoctrinate far-flung rural communities in even basic organizational precepts, much less the intensive schooling, saturation propaganda, and strict environmental controls necessary to actually achieve such behavior.
1) have extreme negative effects on the nation's economy upon the betrayal of any chunin-grade nin or above, as it's trivial to throw a chakra attack capable of depopulating a village even during a pitched ninja fight, much less before/after, when the betrayed has carte blanche and little to lose;
and
2) not be adhered to by the populace anyway because the uncertain promise of cash rewards (if they even exist) is definitely not worth both a) the possibility of being abducted by Konoha for knowing too much (remember, these guys torture kids) and b) the almost-certainty of the ninja or their allies finding a way to kill you in response. It's very, very hard for even an S-class nin to keep a specific civilian alive without staking out the civilian 24/7, which they're not going to do. If it cost something to the ninja, that would be another story, but almost any nin can send a Henged water clone to ambush and kill a civilian at virtually zero cost. And that's not even including the possibility that the ninja has long-term or easily refreshed clones observing the civilian for exactly that sort of behavior.
Not to mention that any system with cash rewards will inevitably have the crap abused out of it as any civilian can make up a story about encountering ninjas, because falsification is almost impossible given mere jounin-class trackers when S-class missing nin are present all over the Elemental Countries. A systemic effort to filter out hoax-like stories will consume immense amounts of budget and manpower and will just lead to actual missing-nin safely getting access to civilian resources as long as they behave in a manner commonly depicted in hoaxes.
Without cash incentives, the only way such a policy could survive to execution is fanatically strong nationalism, strong enough to disregard the immense personal safety risks to the civilian. Feudal societies lack the infrastructure to indoctrinate far-flung rural communities in even basic organizational precepts, much less the intensive schooling, saturation propaganda, and strict environmental controls necessary to actually achieve such behavior.
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@Rihaku
I think you're overstating the case.
Firstly, it's not "betrayal" if a civilian spots ninja-like activity and reports it to the local ninja.
Secondly, preemptively wiping out civilians to keep them from talking is only going to draw more attention.
Thirdly, retaliation is not costless to the ninja. By the time the ninja know that someone talked, they a) have moved on from the village and have to double-back and/or b) have hunter-nin teams in hot pursuit. Indiscriminate retaliation by the ninja has a good chance of being pointless, if the civilians who've actually reported get whisked away to safety, and more focused revenge is made more difficult by having to figure out precisely who talked. Civilians do not need to be guarded 24/7: if it's something serious enough, they can be relocated to Konoha and set up with a new identity. Ninja attempting retribution would then have to infiltrate another ninja village, track down their new identity, and assassinate them, all with hunter-nin after them. A jounin could certainly pull it off. But, could they pull it off and get away?
Fourthly, A civilian who reports a ninja sighting will probably be interrogated, and ninja have ways of getting at the truth, which should deter hoaxes.
And, fifthly, if nobody talks and the foreign ninja are discovered anyway, the local ninja may come around to ask why the civilians didn't report what they saw.
@eaglejarl @Velorien @Jackercracks @AugSphere Worldbuilding question, that some chuunin or jounin would almost certainly be able to answer: which of us is right, and to what extent?
I think you're overstating the case.
Firstly, it's not "betrayal" if a civilian spots ninja-like activity and reports it to the local ninja.
Secondly, preemptively wiping out civilians to keep them from talking is only going to draw more attention.
Thirdly, retaliation is not costless to the ninja. By the time the ninja know that someone talked, they a) have moved on from the village and have to double-back and/or b) have hunter-nin teams in hot pursuit. Indiscriminate retaliation by the ninja has a good chance of being pointless, if the civilians who've actually reported get whisked away to safety, and more focused revenge is made more difficult by having to figure out precisely who talked. Civilians do not need to be guarded 24/7: if it's something serious enough, they can be relocated to Konoha and set up with a new identity. Ninja attempting retribution would then have to infiltrate another ninja village, track down their new identity, and assassinate them, all with hunter-nin after them. A jounin could certainly pull it off. But, could they pull it off and get away?
Fourthly, A civilian who reports a ninja sighting will probably be interrogated, and ninja have ways of getting at the truth, which should deter hoaxes.
And, fifthly, if nobody talks and the foreign ninja are discovered anyway, the local ninja may come around to ask why the civilians didn't report what they saw.
@eaglejarl @Velorien @Jackercracks @AugSphere Worldbuilding question, that some chuunin or jounin would almost certainly be able to answer: which of us is right, and to what extent?
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- Location
- Europe
I'm against outright stealing, it's not really sustainable long term. Trading in some form gives us the chance to establish positive contacts in the village and gather information about the area and the world in general. I'm sure that we can form some sort of agreement with few key villagers that benefits both parties.
This actually brings out another interesting topic: How moral do we want to be? Ninjas are obviously bastards but it doesn't mean we personally have to kick proverbial puppies all the time. We can just waltz up to the village and take what we want but how is that going to change Hazou and reflect on his character?
It might be idealistic but I think we should go to extra lengths to NOT hurt civilians needlessly. In a rational universe good deeds probably won't go unpunished but it's not like we started this whole quest by picking the easiest choice.
This actually brings out another interesting topic: How moral do we want to be? Ninjas are obviously bastards but it doesn't mean we personally have to kick proverbial puppies all the time. We can just waltz up to the village and take what we want but how is that going to change Hazou and reflect on his character?
It might be idealistic but I think we should go to extra lengths to NOT hurt civilians needlessly. In a rational universe good deeds probably won't go unpunished but it's not like we started this whole quest by picking the easiest choice.
- Location
- Yes.
Suggestion:
-Get meat + supplies for camping, good disguises if possible
-Trade meat in for gold
-Trade gold in for:
--Maps/information/traps (this is a cover so we aren't suspected)
--Apothecary, and while there:
---Ask for information on identifying herbs/plants/etc.
---Ask where you would go to find herbs (mention and push for info on the swamp since you "noticed it on your way"). Act like a badass since you're a kid and thus able to go against giant swamp demons
---Hazo draws pictures of the herbs/plants/etc. within sight, especially those we aren't buying. You can copy the ones you have later. If we have actual Sharingan eidetic memory this won't matter though.
-GTFO as soon as possible in case of enemy ninjas
-Spend night1 figuring out what ingredients we still need, steal baseline minimum from apothecary to make sure we have enough + a bit
-Spend day2/more time getting stuff from swampland since we know what we need
-Get meat + supplies for camping, good disguises if possible
-Trade meat in for gold
-Trade gold in for:
--Maps/information/traps (this is a cover so we aren't suspected)
--Apothecary, and while there:
---Ask for information on identifying herbs/plants/etc.
---Ask where you would go to find herbs (mention and push for info on the swamp since you "noticed it on your way"). Act like a badass since you're a kid and thus able to go against giant swamp demons
---Hazo draws pictures of the herbs/plants/etc. within sight, especially those we aren't buying. You can copy the ones you have later. If we have actual Sharingan eidetic memory this won't matter though.
-GTFO as soon as possible in case of enemy ninjas
-Spend night1 figuring out what ingredients we still need, steal baseline minimum from apothecary to make sure we have enough + a bit
-Spend day2/more time getting stuff from swampland since we know what we need
- Location
- Mu
[X] Hunter's Apprentice
We have been taught rudimentary hunting techniques, so we'll know what our cover story says we ought to know. Eaglejarl mentioned the meat will be untraceable provided we don't kill something chakra enhanced from deep inside the swamp, which means there's little chance it will leave a trail. There's no opposing roll to detect us lying if our cover story is simple and unsuspicious, and we'll be carrying a butchered carcass into town claiming to be hunters looking to trade. There's no reason for any civilian to think we're lying.
If we do this correctly, we should leave no trace ninja were ever there, which keeps konoha and hunter nin off of us. Nobody in town will be pissed off, which means no attention will be drawn. It also allows us to get a better scout off on the village, which will be useful for the future. If for whatever reason the hunter cover fails, we can use theft as a back up plan and still use our hunter cover to scout out the place. This plan gets my vote.
Only feasible proposed alternative is to steal it while disguising the theft. I'm unconvinced we can effectively disguise it, as we lack any medical knowledge and we're trying to fool someone with medical knowledge. Disguising it poorly might be worse than not disguising it at all. Also, people in the village getting half-medicine half-garbage and dying as a consequence feels icky. I am aware that point isn't a reasoned argument.
This is a really interesting topic.
My take on this is that treating people poorly has consequences. These consequences are often far reaching and unpredictable, such as, I don't know, a group of loyal ninja being sent off to be killed, but who then escape and decide to try to set up a competing village. Being pro-social or gaining a reputation for being moral tends to have benefits, especially when you also have the strength and cunning to spot and crush the people who try to take advantage of your better nature. It is possible to be kind without being naive, and to be ruthless without being unnecessarily cruel. Canon Naruto is an idiot, but so is canon Sasuke.
Let's be nice where possible, and ruthless when we need to be.
We have been taught rudimentary hunting techniques, so we'll know what our cover story says we ought to know. Eaglejarl mentioned the meat will be untraceable provided we don't kill something chakra enhanced from deep inside the swamp, which means there's little chance it will leave a trail. There's no opposing roll to detect us lying if our cover story is simple and unsuspicious, and we'll be carrying a butchered carcass into town claiming to be hunters looking to trade. There's no reason for any civilian to think we're lying.
If we do this correctly, we should leave no trace ninja were ever there, which keeps konoha and hunter nin off of us. Nobody in town will be pissed off, which means no attention will be drawn. It also allows us to get a better scout off on the village, which will be useful for the future. If for whatever reason the hunter cover fails, we can use theft as a back up plan and still use our hunter cover to scout out the place. This plan gets my vote.
Only feasible proposed alternative is to steal it while disguising the theft. I'm unconvinced we can effectively disguise it, as we lack any medical knowledge and we're trying to fool someone with medical knowledge. Disguising it poorly might be worse than not disguising it at all. Also, people in the village getting half-medicine half-garbage and dying as a consequence feels icky. I am aware that point isn't a reasoned argument.
This is a really interesting topic.
My take on this is that treating people poorly has consequences. These consequences are often far reaching and unpredictable, such as, I don't know, a group of loyal ninja being sent off to be killed, but who then escape and decide to try to set up a competing village. Being pro-social or gaining a reputation for being moral tends to have benefits, especially when you also have the strength and cunning to spot and crush the people who try to take advantage of your better nature. It is possible to be kind without being naive, and to be ruthless without being unnecessarily cruel. Canon Naruto is an idiot, but so is canon Sasuke.
Let's be nice where possible, and ruthless when we need to be.
- Location
- USA
[X] Hunter's Apprentice
We should bring some teeth from the gator, it might be worth a bounty from the village near the swamp if they cause trouble for them. Something look look into at least. If we can, get a copy of the hand writing of everyone who writes things down in the village and copy them with our bloodline. That would make further action within the village easier for our group if we have ways of faking identities. I have nothing further to add that has not already been said.
We should bring some teeth from the gator, it might be worth a bounty from the village near the swamp if they cause trouble for them. Something look look into at least. If we can, get a copy of the hand writing of everyone who writes things down in the village and copy them with our bloodline. That would make further action within the village easier for our group if we have ways of faking identities. I have nothing further to add that has not already been said.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Some basic information about the Land of Fire that you all learned as part of your "History of the Elemental Nations" courses in the Academy:
There are some important implications here that relate to your swamp-living and/or contact with the town. Discuss.
- The Land of Fire is ~325 miles wide by ~230 miles high, not counting the peninsula
- The total population is about 300,000 people
- Konoha is the largest city, at around 30k
- There are three other major cities (see map), each around 20,000
- The rest of the population is in small hamlets and farming villages ranging from a few hundred to the low thousands
- It has the largest shinobi population in the Elemental Nations; the Mist intelligence department puts it at 1k to 1.5k, with the best estimate being around 1200 or 1300
- The land is mostly old-growth forest, the primary exceptions being the cleared areas around population centers and a very few naturally open areas
- It's known for being very chakra-rich and therefore having a larger than normal population of abberations (read: monsters)
- Ninja can travel about 20mph at a sustained rate.
There are some important implications here that relate to your swamp-living and/or contact with the town. Discuss.
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- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Note: I'm compiling important posts into post #2 for easy reference. If there are things you want included, link me and @eaglejarl me.
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