Remove ads

Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

Reader mode
Trying to advance getting Sage mode a little bit and get back on track to setting up a 7th path chakra farm so can do zoo rush and or summoner army strategies when all of the Goketsu summoners are in the field

word count: 279
[X] Action Plan: The best use of limited time

  • Check plan with Mari.
  • Meet with Asuma:
    • Scribe and deliver Kagome's skytowers and skywalkers.
    • How can Hazou be most useful in the war?
      • Make more tactics like Zoo Rush?
        • If so, access to recovered intelligence would help.
        • Hazou can make more "creative" plans with more information access, improving the odds that one of them is good.
      • Train the Arachnid Summoner candidate?
        • Hazou, injured, is the least useful Leaf Summoner and knows Arachnids personally.
        • Home-front Noburi could as well.
      • Coordinate Gouketsu for Mist diplomacy?
      • Coordinate Gouketsu for seal production?
    • If Mist allies with us, a home-front Wakahisa could chakra-fill a summoner, then Noburi can retrieve that chakra from the Seventh Path and distribute it to summoners anywhere in the EN.
      • Allows a summoner to have all their summons out at once and still fight at full capacity.
      • Wakahisa traded us a jutsu that corrects overhydration. Noburi needs to learn it.
      • Works with Noburi and Wakahisa flipped.
      • OPSEC concerns?
  • Hazou and Noburi meet with Tsunade
    • With the realization of how powerful the combination of Noburi and summoners can be we've been looking into ways to set ways to safely drain chakra on the 7th path
    • Since we have 3 summoners on our team it would be crazy valuable if Noburi could fill us up when we are all in the field
    • However we keep hearing things about nature chakra and how it's dangerous..
      • Does she have any advice on how we can do this safely?
      • Also Hazou has concerns with how nature chakra might interact with his plans to contain the Dragons
 
Last edited:
Oneiros said:
Wakahisa traded us a jutsu that corrects overhydration. Noburi needs to learn it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I don't think overhydration and electrolyte imbalance are the same thing. I'm pretty sure the jutsu won't solve the lack of vitamins and minerals caused by drinking all that water. It needs to be tested before we know if it solves the current issue.

Oneiros said:
If pressed, insist that she can't be deployed for a week.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This is just going to get us yelled at for daring to assume we can dictate how war resources are allocated. Even Oro couldn't refuse assignment to Isan. Also, we don't want to look like cowards by trying to get out of every mission. Political capital is important.
 
Pharos said:
I don't think overhydration and electrolyte imbalance are the same thing. I'm pretty sure the jutsu won't solve the lack of vitamins and minerals caused by drinking all that water. It needs to be tested before we can make claims that it solves the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We can still bring it up. Is something that will be helpful. Though with summoner army we have already solved it with SC nonsense

Pharos said:
This is just going to get us yelled at for daring to assume we can dictate how war resources are allocated. Even Oro couldn't refuse assignment to Isan. Also, we don't want to look like cowards by trying to get out of every mission. Political capital is important.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Sure took that out
 
[X] Action Plan: The best use of limited time
[X] Action Plan: Good Uses of Limited Time
[X] Action Plan: Good Uses of Limited Time
[X] Do not capture and torture Mochiaki and Rin for information

The discussion about training academy washouts for FOOM had me thinking about growing our own influence among trainees. Could the Goketsu offer to help train academy students? Either as an official Leaf-approved thing or as a free tutoring service.

I'd expect only clanless students will accept free training from another clan, and I have confidence that our training methods will beat those of other clans. By training clanless and having them match up to or outcompete clan students, we gain favor with clanless ninja and get our opportunity to slowly teach Uplift.

Are the KEI already doing something like this?
 
Remove ads
Interlude: Dissonant Values
  • Threadmarks
    • Interlude: Dissonant Values​

    "Hazō," Yuno said hesitantly, her fingers running along Satsuko's haft as if for reassurance (hopefully for reassurance). "Clan Lord. I wanted to thank you for the ceremony. You bribed the Hokage to permit it, and you took a whole day off at a critical time, and you crafted the Thrice-Bound Cage yourself even though it meant permanently sacrificing some of your soul experience."

    What?! Oh, Noburi would pay for this.

    "It meant more than I can say," she went on. "Not just because now my life path is a little closer to how the teachings say it should be, but because you care. This past year has been the best of my life, between being allowed to make friends, and Noburi, and having people smile when I come down for breakfast, and only act a little bit like I could kill them at any moment without a good reason, which isn't true at all, and do things they otherwise wouldn't do just because they want me to be happy. I can't ever forget everything you've all done for me. That's why…" She gave a brave smile, but didn't look him in the eye. "If you have to sacrifice me, I think I can make my peace with it. You won't have to wait until I'm not there or tell me it's part of some clever scheme where I'll be OK in the end. Just… please give me a little time first, if you can. And look after Satsuko. It would be sad if she stopped being a Gōketsu just because I died."

    Through pure strength of will, Hazō managed not to facepalm. It would have been insensitive.

    "Yuno, nobody is sacrificing anybody. Nobody did sacrifice anybody. Mari came up with the best solution she could to make sure everyone was safe, the rest of us built on it, and we managed to run rings around Orochimaru without losing anyone or anything except a whole lot of sanity, points with Tsunade, and a marker the size of the Hyūga compound owed to Shikamaru. The Gōketsu can, will, and do work miracles if that's what it takes to protect our family."

    "Hazō, Mari isn't here," Yuno said. "You don't have to lie to spare her feelings. Or sugarcoat things for me, if that's what you're doing."

    "I'm not," Hazō said patiently. "Mari did the very best she could. If you want to challenge that, you have to prove you could have done better, with so little time and under so much pressure, and without the benefit of hindsight. That's not possible, not for any of us. And on top of that, if she'd really wanted to sacrifice Kei, she wouldn't have immediately put herself in the line of fire to save her."

    "I'm not stupid, Hazō," Yuno said. "There are legends about people who manage to trick asuras. Nobody expects a mortal to be able to do it twice, even if they're as cunning as Mari. But what she did instead was wrong. Kei only survived because Orochimaru didn't get suspicious, and didn't get impatient, and didn't go look himself at ninja speed, or send a shadow clone or a summon to look for her, or leave one with you in which case you couldn't have warned her, or run right after you the second he realised he'd been tricked instead of hurting Mari and going home, or come by first thing in the morning and kidnap Kei on her way to the Tower, or on her way out, or use one of the powers of the Serpent that Consumes All It Does Not Understand to do things we can't even guess at because there's only one person in Leaf who knows him at all and I bet even she doesn't know half of what he can do!"

    She paused to catch her breath. Her grip around Satsuko was tighter.

    "I know you had plans. Some of them put you at risk, and that's very heroic. But Mari didn't know in advance what you'd come up with, and nor did you, and neither of you knew they'd work. If you'd picked the wrong one, or if the Hokage had sent Tsunade out of Leaf on a mission first thing after the meeting, or any one of a thousand ifs that even someone as smart as you can't estimate how likely they are, Kei would be dead. How different is 'sacrificed unless everything works out just right' from 'sacrificed for real'?"

    "There was no perfect solution, Yuno!" Hazō exclaimed. "If there was, Mari would have taken it in a flash, and so would I. Sometimes you just have to face awful, difficult decisions where there's no right answer. Having to learn how to deal with those, and live with the consequences, is a part of ninja life that none of us get to escape."

    "Hazō," Yuno interrupted, "I know you are very intelligent while I'm only about average, but please don't patronise me. I've been a ninja longer than you, and I've been on many hunts where things go wrong and you can't save everyone and you're a bad person no matter who you pick—not to other people, because that tapir has long since fled, but to yourself."

    "Then what's your answer, Yuno?" Hazō demanded, throwing his arms open in frustration. "If you know that sometimes there are only bad choices, and you don't think Mari could have come up with some amazing trick to send Orochimaru packing altogether, then what do you want her—us—to have done?"

    Yuno looked down at Satsuko for a few seconds, as if conferring.

    "I think…" she said slowly, "that even if you don't recognise the Pangolin Summoner as holy, it is proper for a person who can consent to sacrifice themselves for a person who can't, and for a brother to sacrifice himself for a sister, and for a leader to sacrifice himself for the people he's sworn to protect. I think there is a difference between being faced with a choice and inventing one. I may not understand right and wrong the way other people do, but I think that wrong doesn't become right just because the kami smile on you in the end."

    "Yuno," Hazō said, aghast, "are you saying I should have let Orochimaru take me?"

    "It was your right," Yuno said. "Mari took that from you. You would never have thrown your sister to the wolves to save yourself just because she was within reach, but Mari did, and told everyone that it was moral as long as her death wasn't guaranteed. Whatever choices she made after that, whatever risks she took, none of it changes the fact that Kei's life was not hers to give away.

    "I can tell you disagree." She bowed her head. "You can punish me now."

    Hazō didn't punish her.

    But what did you say to someone who told you that you were worth dying for in one breath and then told you to die because it was the right thing to do in the next?

    Huh.

    Maybe he understood Kei a little better now.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Velorien said:
    Interlude: Dissonant Values​

    "Hazō," Yuno said hesitantly, her fingers running along Satsuko's haft as if for reassurance (hopefully for reassurance). "Clan Lord. I wanted to thank you for the ceremony. You bribed the Hokage to permit it, and you took a whole day off at a critical time, and you crafted the Thrice-Bound Cage yourself even though it meant permanently sacrificing some of your soul experience."

    What?! Oh, Noburi would pay for this.

    "It meant more than I can say," she went on. "Not just because now my life path is a little closer to how the teachings say it should be, but because you care. This past year has been the best of my life, between being allowed to make friends, and Noburi, and having people smile when I come down for breakfast, and only act a little bit like I could kill them at any moment without a good reason, which isn't true at all, and do things they otherwise wouldn't do just because they want me to be happy. I can't ever forget everything you've all done for me. That's why…" She gave a brave smile, but didn't look him in the eye. "If you have to sacrifice me, I think I can make my peace with it. You won't have to wait until I'm not there or tell me it's part of some clever scheme where I'll be OK in the end. Just… please give me a little time first, if you can. And look after Satsuko. It would be sad if she stopped being a Gōketsu just because I died."

    Through pure strength of will, Hazō managed not to facepalm. It would have been insensitive.

    "Yuno, nobody is sacrificing anybody. Nobody did sacrifice anybody. Mari came up with the best solution she could to make sure everyone was safe, the rest of us built on it, and we managed to run rings around Orochimaru without losing anyone or anything except a whole lot of sanity, points with Tsunade, and a marker the size of the Hyūga compound owed to Shikamaru. The Gōketsu can, will, and do work miracles if that's what it takes to protect our family."

    "Hazō, Mari isn't here," Yuno said. "You don't have to lie to spare her feelings. Or sugarcoat things for me, if that's what you're doing."

    "I'm not," Hazō said patiently. "Mari did the very best she could. If you want to challenge that, you have to prove you could have done better, with so little time and under so much pressure, and without the benefit of hindsight. That's not possible, not for any of us. And on top of that, if she'd really wanted to sacrifice Kei, she wouldn't have immediately put herself in the line of fire to save her."

    "I'm not stupid, Hazō," Yuno said. "There are legends about people who manage to trick asuras. Nobody expects a mortal to be able to do it twice, even if they're as cunning as Mari. But what she did instead was wrong. Kei only survived because Orochimaru didn't get suspicious, and didn't get impatient, and didn't go look himself at ninja speed, or send a shadow clone or a summon to look for her, or leave one with you in which case you couldn't have warned her, or run right after you the second he realised he'd been tricked instead of hurting Mari and going home, or come by first thing in the morning and kidnap Kei on her way to the Tower, or on her way out, or use one of the powers of the Serpent that Consumes All It Does Not Understand to do things we can't even guess at because there's only one person in Leaf who knows him at all and I bet even she doesn't know half of what he can do!"

    She paused to catch her breath. Her grip around Satsuko was tighter.

    "I know you had plans. Some of them put you at risk, and that's very heroic. But Mari didn't know in advance what you'd come up with, and nor did you, and neither of you knew they'd work. If you'd picked the wrong one, or if the Hokage had sent Tsunade out of Leaf on a mission first thing after the meeting, or any one of a thousand ifs that even someone as smart as you can't estimate how likely they are, Kei would be dead. How different is 'sacrificed unless everything works out just right' from 'sacrificed for real'?"

    "There was no perfect solution, Yuno!" Hazō exclaimed. "If there was, Mari would have taken it in a flash, and so would I. Sometimes you just have to face awful, difficult decisions where there's no right answer. Having to learn how to deal with those, and live with the consequences, is a part of ninja life that none of us get to escape."

    "Hazō," Yuno interrupted, "I know you are very intelligent while I'm only about average, but please don't patronise me. I've been a ninja longer than you, and I've been on many hunts where things go wrong and you can't save everyone and you're a bad person no matter who you pick—not to other people, because that tapir has long since fled, but to yourself."

    "Then what's your answer, Yuno?" Hazō demanded, throwing his arms open in frustration. "If you know that sometimes there are only bad choices, and you don't think Mari could have come up with some amazing trick to send Orochimaru packing altogether, then what do you want her—us—to have done?"

    Yuno looked down at Satsuko for a few seconds, as if conferring.

    "I think…" she said slowly, "that even if you don't recognise the Pangolin Summoner as holy, it is proper for a person who can consent to sacrifice themselves for a person who can't, and for a brother to sacrifice himself for a sister, and for a leader to sacrifice himself for the people he's sworn to protect. I think there is a difference between being faced with a choice and inventing one. I may not understand right and wrong the way other people do, but I think that wrong doesn't become right just because the kami smile on you in the end."

    "Yuno," Hazō said, aghast, "are you saying I should have let Orochimaru take me?"

    "It was your right," Yuno said. "Mari took that from you. You would never have thrown your sister to the wolves to save yourself just because she was within reach, but Mari did, and told everyone that it was moral as long as her death wasn't guaranteed. Whatever choices she made after that, whatever risks she took, none of it changes the fact that Kei's life was not hers to give away.

    "I can tell you disagree." She bowed her head. "You can punish me now."

    Hazō didn't punish her.

    But what did you say to someone who told you that you were worth dying for in one breath and then told you to die because it was the right thing to do in the next?

    Huh.

    Maybe he understood Kei a little better now.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    "OK but did u like the friendship bracelet tho"
     
    I think an important reminder is that child soldiers probably don't have the best mental health and should not be expected to make well reasoned decisions
     
    Shrooms said:
    "OK but did u like the friendship bracelet tho"
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Actually, this didn't make it into the update, but Isan coming-of-age ceremonies don't feature gifts. Those are left for other rituals which Yuno also hasn't had but which are harder to fit into her Leaf life--for example, celebrating her first kill of an adult-tier chakra beast (of which she has at this point killed dozens).
     
    It's hard when they're both right. A member of the family potentially dying later with time to prepare is preferable to one dying right now with no way out.
    That said, yes, it is immoral to sacrifice other people.
     
    Velorien said:
    Actually, this didn't make it into the update, but Isan coming-of-age ceremonies don't feature gifts. Those are left for other rituals which Yuno also hasn't had but which are harder to fit into her Leaf life--for example, celebrating her first kill of an adult-tier chakra beast (of which she has at this point killed dozens).
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Can we give it to her as not-part-of-a-ceremony or is that a faux pas
     
    Velorien said:
    Interlude: Dissonant Values
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    oh hey bonus update
    please be shipping chart OMAKE please be shipping chart OMAKE please be shipping chart OMAKE
    Velorien said:
    and you crafted the Thrice-Bound Cage yourself even though it meant permanently sacrificing some of your soul experience."
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    looks at Hazō spreadsheet
    THRICE-BOUND CAGE
    -10% to all XP gains (cannot be removed)
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    fuck
    Velorien said:
    "I think…" she said slowly, "that even if you don't recognise the Pangolin Summoner as holy, it is proper for a person who can consent to sacrifice themselves for a person who can't, and for a brother to sacrifice himself for a sister, and for a leader to sacrifice himself for the people he's sworn to protect. I think there is a difference between being faced with a choice and inventing one. I may not understand right and wrong the way other people do, but I think that wrong doesn't become right just because the kami smile on you in the end."

    "Yuno," Hazō said, aghast, "are you saying I should have let Orochimaru take me?"

    "It was your right," Yuno said. "Mari took that from you. You would never have thrown your sister to the wolves to save yourself just because she was within reach, but Mari did, and told everyone that it was moral as long as her death wasn't guaranteed. Whatever choices she made after that, whatever risks she took, none of it changes the fact that Kei's life was not hers to give away.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    …
    Velorien said:
    But what did you say to someone who told you that you were worth dying for in one breath and then told you to die because it was the right thing to do in the next?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    huh
     
    Velorien said:
    That depends. How well do you trust Noburi to give you the correct protocol for giving friendship gifts?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    We can trethen to trow his medical tools to fifi if it becomes another problem.

    Velorien said:
    But what did you say to someone who told you that you were worth dying for in one breath and then told you to die because it was the right thing to do in the next?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Say nothing put into a box and turn in another bullet point of the list/rant "reasons that you suck sage version".
    Hazou is moved by spite agains reality at this point, and love, but mostly spite.
     
    I wonder if there's an upper limit to the number of words that can be counted in a Google Doc, and what would happen if you tried to go beyond that.
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top