I feel like the thread is currently on the giving end of the anger and shaming Hazou always get's from everyone else. The anger at making morally questionable but rational decisions, and the shaming for not being godly strong enough to make entirely moral ones. A response I've been historically weary of from Team Uplift.
I feel like the thread is currently on the giving end of the anger and shaming Hazou always get's from everyone else. The anger at making morally questionable but rational decisions, and the shaming for not being godly strong enough to make entirely moral ones. A response I've been historically weary of from Team Uplift.
Thank you for your more clear statement. While I disagree with your reasoning, I have no desire to argue this in my current state, and simply ask that in future you post your reasoning as you have done here and not as you had previously.
Remember there are no things to do about this situation. It is not in our power to fix anything. We just have to soldier on. What actionable things can we do right now to advance any plots? Is there anything we can do to find out more about sage mode? Any other secrets that we want to try for? Maybe we could spend some time working on political relationships or improving our economic situation. Let's focus on what we can actually impact.
"Okay, fearless leader, what are we doing here?" Noburi demanded, covering a yawn as he spoke. "And why are we here barely past the buttcrack of dawn?" He waved vaguely towards the morning-orange sunbeams barely lumbering over the tree line. "I wanted to sleep late today."
"Morning, Nobs," Hazō said around the jaw-cracking yawn that Noburi's had induced. "'Buttcrack of dawn'? It's nine o'clock and I've been awake for three hours already, so I don't have a lot of sympathy. I talked to Asuma earlier about how the Gōketsu can best help, and he put me on Kagome-sensei training duty. Need to get him signed on as the Arachnid Summoner as soon as possible but you and the other summoners are more field-ready than I am so he doesn't want to spend your time on teaching. I'm also doing relay work for Cannai, checking in with Kumokōgō to make sure everything is okay with the Dragons and the Great Seal, and running clan stuff, so I've got absolutely no time. Still, there's a thing I've been wanting to do for ages so I figured I'd squeeze it in."
"Yeesh. That sounds intense, bro. Any way I can help?"
"Actually, yes. The clan is a social disaster right now. Kei won't even look at Mari, Yuno is angry at Mari for endangering Kei and at me for not throwing myself on the tag instead of letting Kei be endangered, Haru—"
"Hang on, what was that about Yuno?"
"She thinks I should have sacrificed myself to Orochimaru instead of letting Mari distract him with Kei. I'm not sure if she's lost respect for me or what, but it's definitely not good. Oh, and she was fully expecting me to punish her for speaking her mind, so that's fun."
"Uh..."
"Yeah. Anyway, I'm about done with this shit. Yes, what Mari did bothers me on an instinctive level. On a rational level I recognize that Mari was under field conditions with no time to think, but she still came up with a great plan that saved everyone. And she put herself in harm's way in order to keep the rest of us safe. Are there other things she could have done? Sure. Would those things have worked? Who knows. If Mari had offered any of her own techniques or knowledge—Truth Lost in the Fog or whatever—then Orochimaru would have had both of us standing right there in front of him, so why wouldn't he take both? Could she have lied straight to Orochimaru's face and completely made something up? Not the way to bet, and I trust the infiltrator jōnin to know whether she could pull it off.
"Kei and Yuno are having lots of fun playing after-action commander, tearing Mari down with all these ideas that they are coming up with under calm conditions with plenty of time to think. Of course, they don't come up with the things that we could have done, like reverse summon to the Seventh Path for a couple of days while you and Shikamaru went to Asuma and asked him to field-deploy Orochimaru. No, it's only the things that Mari should have sacrificed, or that I should have sacrificed. And, of course, I can't say that to either of them because it will just make things worse."
He shook his head tiredly. "Honestly, Noburi? Your wife is beautiful, and an incredible fighter, and has tremendous integrity, and I'm glad she's here because she makes you happy. That said, there are times when she and Kei are just infuriating."
Noburi chuckled. "Of course I do not share these sentiments, because I recognize that my wife and sister are both perfect in every way. That said, I can understand how you might have those feelings."
"Suck up."
"Survivor. Anyway, what do you want me to do?"
"Whatever you can to keep things calm. If you can find a way to put the eggs back together, do it. Otherwise, keep things from getting any worse."
"You got it, boss man. Now, what are we doing here today?"
"Right, sorry. This won't take but a few minutes. For a long time, I've been wanting to do some research into chakra quantization. I feel like it's something we should be able to measure and I want to take a shot at that."
"Measure chakra? Hazō, chakra isn't like water. You can't pour it into a mug to see how much you've got."
"Just go with me on this, okay?"
Noburi shrugged. "Whatever, boss. What can I do?"
"I've already dumped my reserves doing Substitutions. I came here as soon as I woke up, when my reserves were pretty much full, and I was able to do it sixteen times. I want to refill and try that a couple more times, then try doing the same with Multiple Earth Wall."
"Why? You've already done the Substitutions thing, why do you need to do it again?"
"Maybe it will be different this time. Seals are like that—the phase of the moon is relevant when you're making storage seals, so if you do something on Monday it might not work on Wednesday. Jutsu might be the same."
"Seems dopey but then again it's you. Here you go."
"Thanks." Hazō took the proffered cup of chakra water and glugged it down, feeling the inner roar of chakra surging back into his channels. "Okay, here we go." He flickered away, bouncing around the field as he swapped back and forth between the various logs and boulders that he had placed around.
"Seventeen," he said, collapsing to all fours on the frozen ground, retching as his body protested against the demands on his suddenly-emptied coils.
"I counted eighteen," Noburi said.
Hazō moaned and let his head hang in despair for a moment, then looked up. "Are you serious or are you screwing with me?"
"Serious. I would never."
"Uh-huh. Okay, let's try it again."
Hazō drank once more and then repeated the exercise.
"Nineteen? Nineteen?! What the fuck?!"
"Hey, I told you that chakra wasn't something you can measure."
Hazō sighed. "Fine, whatever. Let's try it with MEW. I'm going to do the smallest one I can, at normal speed instead of combat speed, and I'm going to conjure them on top of those logs so that they're chakra constructs." His fingers twitched as he wrote those words into the air. He would use the Iron Nerve to replay them onto paper once he got back to the estate.
"Think you could do it quick like?" Noburi demanded, amused. "I didn't eat yet."
"Yeah, yeah." He flexed his fingers, shaking them a bit to get the blood moving so that they wouldn't be too stiff to form handseals, and then flicked through the technique until the trickles of chakra left in his coils were not enough to continue.
"Ten times," Noburi noted.
"Yeah, and I'm not as utterly flattened as I was with Substitutions. Okay, one more refill and let's try that again."
"You know you're burning through my supply, right? Much more and I'll have to post some refill missions if I want to do anything today, and that's half my day gone." Despite the protestations, he held out a cup full of water brimming with chakra. "Also, you're getting close to what Tsunade decided is the safe limit on how much of this you can drink in a day. Two more and you're done."
"Will do. Thanks." He drank the water and promptly dumped all the chakra it provided him into conjuring masses of granite that rose up from nowhere, fell over because the logs they had been cast atop were not stable enough to support them, and disappeared half a minute later. "Nine times. Damnit, why can't things be consistent?"
"The universe hates you? Here, drink up so you aren't more useless than usual, then let's go get some food."
o-o-o-o
"Hazō? What are we doing here?" Ino asked. She looked to Akane for an answer but the green-clad girl shrugged in amusement.
"Hm?" Hazō said, from where he was shuffling through storage seals. "Oh, right. I was realizing that there is a special thing that I've done with Akane but I've never done with you, and I thought it was time you had the chance to enjoy it too."
Ino's expression became guarded. "Oh?"
"Yeah. Don't worry, I've had a lot of practice and I'm good at it. You'll love it. Akane, I thought it would be even better if you were with us. I'm sure you'll love the expression on Ino's face when it happens. And this time I remembered to bring a couple mattresses so we'll all be comfortable."
Akane, Deceit: 8 - 6 (dice) = 2
Ino, Deceit: Beats that, even if she rolls -12.
Akane was trying desperately to keep her face serious so as not to ruin the joke. Sadly, the Junior Goddess of Youth was terrible at lying, or even at pretending.
"Akane," Ino said. "What is he talking about and are my clan elders going to get mad at me for it?"
"It depends," Akane said. "Do the Yamanaka put a strong priority on chastity?"
"Akane." Ino's voice was sharper now, but there was a trace of amusement layered in with the uncertainty.
"We're going for a sunset picnic, honey," Hazō said, grinning. "No hanky-panky."
One blonde eyebrow rose in scathing rebuke. "A picnic? Here?" She looked around the random chunk of muddy ground near the north end of the Gōketsu estate. "Not to be a bitch, but couldn't you find someplace a little more romantic?"
"Wait for it," Akane said, moving forward to help Hazō with the skytower platform elements that he had had finally produced from the relevant storage seal.
With three of them working together it was easy enough to stair-step the two platforms up into the sky. The routine was familiar, straight out of the Leaf Advanced Ninja Tactics handbook, Ninety-Third Edition:
Remove skytower components from storage seal. Contents to include:
Frame elements, wooden, (4), labeled Fa1-4
Frame elements, wooden, (4), labeled Fb1-4
Pins for attaching frame elements, wooden, (8)
Ninja wire, coil, 50', (2), labeled C1 and C2
Ropes, 3', clips on both ends, (4)
Camouflage blanket, (1), wrapping other items for storage
Arrange contents neatly on ground and verify that you have a complete set of elements. Fa1 (top left element) and Fa4 (bottom right element) should have a tab extending from two sides. Fa2 (top right element) and Fa3 (bottom left element) should have corresponding slots
Connect frame elements Fa1-4 by sliding tabs on elements Fa1 and Fa4 into corresponding vertical slots on elements Fa2 and Fa3. The result should be a square wooden grid 10' per side consisting of 20 rows of 20 posts 1" diameter with connecting rods for rigidity
Combine frame elements Fb1-4 in the same way
Ensure that all tabs are firmly seated and both grids are stable
Insert wooden pins through holes in slots to prevent tabs from lifting out
Thread C1 (ninja wire, coil, 50') through the holes in the posts of the Fa grid starting from the top left corner, moving to the right, then down and left through the second row of posts.
...
The protocol went on for three more pages but in essence it was simple: Assemble two lifter platforms, each one a wooden grid with a continuous piece of ninja wire looped through it. To each lifter platform, attach the central seal of a Five Seal Barrier to the wire and the four support seals to the frame, ensuring that they were not in contact with the wire, since the Five Seal Barrier would not activate if a support seal was on the same object as the central seal.
With the lifter platforms ready, raise the first one overhead and activate the Five Seal Barrier, thereby freezing the platform in space. Climb atop the platform and freeze the second lifter platform just above it, attaching the two with ropes. Climb onto the upper lifter platform, reach down and deactivate the seal on the first one so that it swung freely. Pull it up, freeze it in place above the one you are standing on, climb atop it, and repeat this procedure until you are arbitrarily high in the sky, unsupported by anything that an enemy might spot or sabotage, with no trace left on the ground below of where you went. It was the perfect way to evade enemy pursuit when skywalkers were unavailable. It also made for an excellent military logistics and intelligence gathering post.
Or, in this case, a lovely picnic spot.
Ino had been up skytowers during practice, as had every chūnin and jōnin in Leaf and even some genin. During practice the instructors typically took their charges through five or six repetitions of the "raise the next platform, climb up, pull the previous one up" cycle, meaning that the people atop the platform only ever got twenty or thirty feet up. That was very much not how Team Uplift rolled.
"I gather they're working on a new system," Hazō said as they climbed. "The lifter platforms will be bolted together with these rotating beams, so instead of having to haul them up manually you can just turn a wheel to spin the bottom one up above you, then you lock the top one, unlock the bottom one, climb up the support poles, and continue."
"I heard about that," Akane said. "They're testing to see if it's actually faster, or at least less tiring for the users." She was lying on her back, her feet chakra-locked to the platform she was on even as she did an extreme backbend to reach down to the prior platform. She chakra-adhered her hands to it, unlocked the central seal, and flipped the entire thing up with a casual demonstration of inhuman core strength. "Personally, I'm not sure what people find so tiring about this."
Hazō laughed, first at Akane's words and then at Ino's expression. "Sweetie, I think you sometimes forget that things have weight."
"You do that deliberately, don't you?" Ino demanded, lips twisted in amusement.
Akane looked up with a frown. "Do what?" Sadly, her deception skills had gotten no better since they left the ground, and thus her attempt at a look of puzzled innocence failed.
"Hah! I knew it! You're showing off!"
"Perhaps a little," Akane admitted, grinning. "Although I might comment that your appearance is unusually youthful tonight."
"I'm sure I have no idea what you mean."
"Oh? So the few delicate wisps artfully escaping from your elegant French twist hair style in ways that beautifully frame your face...that's just an accident?"
Ino touched her hair self-consciously. "This old thing? Oh, I just put it up to get it out of the way."
"And the subtle traces of kohl above your eyes, and the encarminement of your lips?"
"I deny everything. Also, 'encarminement'? Who are you and what have you done with Akane?"
Hazō, until now watching in silent amusement at the byplay, chuckled. "It's one of Mari's favorite words when she's being silly and overdramatic. It means 'made red', because 'carmine' is—"
"I know what it means, you goof," Ino said, poking him lightly and sticking out her tongue.
Hazō moved with ninja speed, one hand coming up from below to tap a finger on Ino's tongue before she could pull it back. The heiress eeped and jerked away, then glared at him reproachfully while her two sweethearts laughed.
"You're mean," Ino said, turning away and putting her nose in the air.
Hazō looped his arms around her from behind and kissed the side of her neck. "Your forgiveness I pray, most noble of ladies. However may I atone?"
Ino made a pleased-kitty noise and rubbed her shoulders back into him. "You could do that again."
Hazō obliged, this time kissing the other side before giving her a gentle nibble and standing up. Ino grumbled her displeasure at the departure of her warm backrest.
"Hold that thought," Hazō said. "We aren't high enough yet and we don't have much time."
Ino looked over the edge, then up at her partners in disbelief. "We're not high enough? Are you kidding? I can see halfway across Leaf!"
"I know!" Hazō said. "Not nearly high enough! Come on, help us."
"It's worth it, I promise," Akane told her, smiling.
o-o-o-o
"Okay, this is worth it," Ino admitted.
They were half a mile in the air and Leaf was a far-off dollhouse below them. More importantly, the sun was a burnt umber fingernail on the horizon, the last of its rays about to vanish. The three sweethearts were lying atop a pair of mattresses and underneath a pile of blankets heavy enough to crush eggs. All three of them were propped up on their elbows, blankets tucked in tight around them so only their faces were exposed as they watched the sun set and the night reclaim the earth. Hazō was in the middle, Ino and Akane pressed tight against his sides both for contact and for body heat in the frozen air.
Hazō was barely aware of the sunset. All he could think about was the feel of Ino's right hand in his left and Akane's left in his right. In fact, not just their hands. Their shoulders and hips pressed in on him and both of them had put their freezing-cold feet on his toasty-warm calves in an effort to siphon all his body heat away. It was absolutely worth it. Oh, and Ino's hair was tickling his nose.
He tried to puff the hair away but succeeded only in blowing straight into Ino's ear and drawing a startled yelp.
"What was that?!"
"Sorry," he said, smiling in amusement at her outraged expression. "Your hair was tickling my nose." He let go of both of their hands so that he could rub the itch away on the back of his forearm, then roll onto his back and arrange his pillow for better neck support. Akane curled up next to him, her head on his chest, and it was the easiest thing in the world to slide an arm under her neck and around her shoulders. She made a happy noise at the contact and he stroked her arm in reply.
Ino had gotten over her very minor snit and, after a moment of arranging blankets for minimized heat escape and pillow for maximized comfort, she followed Akane's example and cuddled up to Hazō on his other side. Unlike Akane, she did not simply wait to be arm-circled; she picked his arm up and draped it around herself before settling down. Hazō chuckled and squeezed her close for a moment.
"This is nice," Ino said quietly. "When I'm at home at night, I'm always inside practicing or doing clan paperwork. I forget to look at the stars."
"Same, although not the paperwork part," Akane replied, her eyes locked on the heavens. "There are so many."
"Kagome-sensei says that they are lanterns, hung by the kami so that we may guard our loved ones through the night."
Ino's smile was a complex thing...admiration, a step-removed affection, and a soupçon of sadness. "That sounds like him, yes. He's an interesting guy."
Akane and Hazō both chuckled. "You have no idea," Hazō said. "Have you seen the dances?"
Ino shuddered. "My eyes! My delicate eyes! They buuuurrrrnnnn!"
Hazō bapped her on the bicep lightly with his fingertips. "Be nice. That's my teacher you're talking about."
Ino laughed quietly. "I regret nothing."
"It occurs to me," Akane mused, "that standard procedure states operatives are not to attempt descent from a skytower at night."
"Oh dear," Ino said. "I suppose we have no choice but to stay the night up here in the freezing cold. However shall we survive? I suppose we shall have no choice but to huddle for warmth. Hazō, you are a terrible person for not anticipating this problem and stranding us all up here."
"I regret nothing," Hazō said happily, pressing a kiss to Akane's temple and then turning to give a similar one to Ino.
Author's Notes: The plan called for you to have Kei and Noburi try to schmooze the Leopard and Rat representatives with an eye towards getting a location on their Scrolls. Sadly, Leopard and Rat are not attending the Conclave.
This update covered about 24 hours. The kids will sleep on the skytower and wake with the dawn.
XP AWARD: 3
Brevity XP: 1
"GM had fun" XP: 2
+1 for scene: Chakra measurements
+1 for scene: Smooching on the skytower
Vote time! What to do now?
Voting ends on Wednesday, December 1, 2021, at 12pm London time.
"
"Oh? So the few delicate wisps artfully escaping from your elegant French twist hair style in ways that beautifully frame your face...that's just an accident?"
MfD is a translation from the language of the Elemental Nations to English. @Velorien and I do our best to prevent translation difficulties but sometimes, as in this case, there's an idiom being used that doesn't have a good English translation and the literal version would be far too wordy. In those cases we go with a "best fit" approach, which is what Velorien did here.
Author's Notes: The plan called for you to have Kei and Noburi try to schmooze the Leopard and Rat representatives with an eye towards getting a location on their Scrolls. Sadly, Leopard and Rat are not attending the Conclave.
"I talked to Asuma last night, and the Conclave is still not finished."
Gaku looked up from his notes in surprise. "Ah. So, when you said 'exciting' you were in fact being sarcastic, sir?"
"Indeed. Pantsā is provisionally willing to help but Nezuni and Hyōtauni, the reps for Rat and Leopard, aren't willing to let anyone pass through their land.
Hazō shrugged. "It would have been nice, but they didn't attend. I don't know if they weren't willing to go because it was being held in Pangolin or just wouldn't have gone regardless. Still, we got Monkey, Pangolin, Condor, Toad, Otter, Rat, and Leopard. That's more than I expected."
Interpreting the French thing as the Out pushing Frenchiness into Hazou. Also Out is close to the French for "yes". Also also one French translation plus a letter substitution allows for the watchers to become girders. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
I don't know about you, but it's hard to imagine a goal that I'd willingly put an immediate family member in danger of imminent death in order to accomplish. Or that I'd even consider using a family member's life to substitute my own.
*shrug* I can think of a few. And I know that if I can live, I'm pretty much taking an option. Especially if the person put in 'danger' is more....possible danger than immediate danger. Like how Hazou/Mari did.
That's a very good point, you know. We'll need to check the others for lupchanzen afterwards. Sky squids are the one Kagome-unique bit of Forbidden Lore we have firsthand confirmation of, and it's probably no-joke sensible to be careful around everything connected to it. Like, maybe they indeed drop some sort of parasites.
A thought, but can you train a stat without XP? Like if Hazo straps 2 ton weights to his body and trains with them, does his strength/speed/athletics raise? Or is it more XP in general?
Or if he does chakra reserve training (expending it constantly and having Noburi fill him up), does his CR go up? Or is it again, just XP?
