I actually came up with something meaningful we could ask Oro for:

A jutsu that makes it so Hazou doesn't need to sleep, as a training/time management/shadow clone management (the latter of which we obviously don't mention to him) thing.
We can ask but there's a decent chance he modified this need with biohacking and surgery rather than a jutsu
 
How would this work? Prime gets sleepy. A well-rested clone pops. Hazo doesn't feel refreshed. Memories transfer but the physiological effects of being tired would still be in effect, and those are what forces him to sleep.
Memories change brain. So could change brain physiology. Dunno if sleep change body physiology. And if it does I imagine it initiates from brain physiology change. Although replacing brain initiation change across long time with instant brains change when spike may have different consequences on body change
 
Memories change brain. So could change brain physiology. Dunno if sleep change body physiology. And if it does I imagine it initiates from brain physiology change. Although replacing brain initiation change across long time with instant brains change when spike may have different consequences on body change
Sleep impacts hormone levels, blood pressure, breathing, your cardiovascular system, and a bunch of other stuff which is beyond the ability of simple memory to effect.

I think we should assume that SC is not going to transfer any physical changes, both because this is what's explained in the rules doc and because poking at SC will get it grue'd.
 
Even a jutsu that made it so you only need 4 hours of sleep would be extremely helpful. This seems more in the realm of medical ninjutsu than typical jutsu though, so Hazou may end up needing MedNin to do it after all (assuming Oro didn't achieve it through biosealing)
 
Sleep impacts hormone levels, blood pressure, breathing, your cardiovascular system, and a bunch of other stuff which is beyond the ability of simple memory to effect.

I think we should assume that SC is not going to transfer any physical changes, both because this is what's explained in the rules doc and because poking at SC will get it grue'd.
The entire concept of Shadow Clone: ==> walk upstairs
it is dark. you are likely to be eaten by a grue.
 
Even a jutsu that made it so you only need 4 hours of sleep would be extremely helpful. This seems more in the realm of medical ninjutsu than typical jutsu though, so Hazou may end up needing MedNin to do it after all (assuming Oro didn't achieve it through biosealing)
Tsunade was able to directly manipulate Mari's brain chemistry to temporarily (as: "a few moments" levels of temporary) knock Mari out of her depression so that they could discuss what was wrong. Tsunade said it was "extremely addictive."

Tsunade likely knows how, but there probably severe drawbacks that keep it from being used with any meaningful amount of regularity.
 
I just hurt my own feelings. I was thinking about the sheer amount of social shunning Harumitsu must have gone through. Bastard son of a Hagoromo; raised by a single, civilian mother; stutter and nearsighted, meaning he was likely ignored (because he'd be an obvious future corpse) or tormented by his peers in the Academy (children can be cruel to those obviously different)... And Harumitsu was only adopted into the Hagoromo Clan because Lord Hagoromo didn't want to risk any "real" Hagoromo ninja being influenced by Hazou.

Imagine the first time Harumitsu genuinely believes Hazou when Hazou says that he's proud of him. Harumitsu's going to bawl, and poor Hazou's not going to understand that the thing he gives out freely (respect and acknowledgement) is the very thing that Harumitsu has been craving for as long as he can remember.
 
Last edited:
Aburame slacking on glasses. Use Noburi's mednin to make lenses from beast eyeballs.

Scary Mednin Speech
Got called to T&I, yes distateful, but when the village needs you it needs you. Rude intel piñata, sorry term of art, rude detainee told me 'loyalty to Konoha tainted my judgement.' Scoff. 'Could not possibly see the world for what it is without walking a mile in his entrails.' Took the barb to heart, long story short, availed myself of many detainee perspectives since then. Iwa shinobi specs are pink tinged. Still a long way to go before seeing eye to eye, but it is a guilty pleasure to review classified documents with Infiltrator reading glasses.
 
Various comments have been made throughout the story (I think) which reference the fact that the Hagomoro aren't a single, monolithic, hate-fueled entity. They have more and less moderate factions. I'd be shocked if literally everyone in the clan treated Harumitsu like garbage.
Trust me reasonable moderate people are super capable of shunning and isolating people. Also does anyone else think Harumitsu might be queer?

Edit: would be nice to have more AMAB non-villainous representation
 
Last edited:
Various comments have been made throughout the story (I think) which reference the fact that the Hagomoro aren't a single, monolithic, hate-fueled entity. They have more and less moderate factions. I'd be shocked if literally everyone in the clan treated Harumitsu like garbage.
Yeah, I've explained before that I fully the Hagoromo to replace Ritsuo as their Clan head.
 
Trust me reasonable moderate people are super capable of shunning and isolating people.
Oh, certainly - bystanders are often worse than instigators, but I'd be shocked if his entire life experience was social misery. He's privileged on at least a few axes and a nice enough kid. Going from statistics, he probably has a few friends and people he's friendly with, even if 'the lady that runs the bakery who sometimes gives me a leftover tart' is high up on that list.
 
The real question is how high our Deception needs to be leveled before we can instigate this or provide resources to the moderate faction.
Have Akane be her naturally friendly and supportive self, keep training Harumitsu around Kagome while also introducing Harumitsu to Noburi (more positive masculine role models for Harumitsu), have Mari be around enough that Harumitsu becomes familiar with her ("she's not an evil she-witch, like Ritsuo said... She's Mari?"). Keep being supportive of Harumitsu while he gains confidence and becomes Uplift Aligned (we're his mentor and Uplift is contagious). Eventually, Harumitsu's status as the Hagoromo's only sealmaster will allow him to affect positive change within the Hag Clan. That internal pressure, combined with external societal pressures (Kei, KEI, Goketsu, Nara, and secular marriages breaking their monopoly) will reshape the Hag Clan into a more tolerant and benevolent force for Leaf.

All in-character for Hazou, no deception required. ^.^
 
The real question is how high our Deception needs to be leveled before we can instigate this or provide resources to the moderate faction.
I proposed an idea a while ago that would let us begin doing this. What we lack the most isn't deception, it's information. We don't have any solid information about the inner workings of Hagoromo or other conservative clans.

So the most important thing to do before we can start working on changing their internal politics is to get that information. We can either get it out of Harumitsu ourselves, or we can bring him on an excursion outside of the Hagoromo compound and have Mari 'just happen to drop by' and pump him for information. He doesn't seem to have particularly high socials, so she should be able to get a solid picture of their internal politics without tipping him off.

Then we can use that information to find levers to pull. What is the state of the moderate faction? What do they need the most in order to gain power? What is the state of the conservative faction? Are they just about ready to replace Ritsuo due to incompetence, or are they supporting him with religious fervor as their last remaining hope against the vile depredations of the Gōketsu? All of these questions need answered if we're going to interfere with Hagoromo politics, otherwise we could very well make things worse or get caught.

If we misjudge things badly enough the moderates themselves may very well rat us out to Ritsuo or Asuma.
 
Why do you think so?
Vague memory that hag head said they treat haru well. In a way implying that most clans woulda treated him worse.
And that haru was chosen to learn sealing implies favor. Is possible that he has aptitude for sealing that makes ability trump favor for the choice. But if so we haven't seen anything suggesting Hags knew such an ability.
 
"Don't you hit me, you crazy old bat!" Fukasaku said, rubbing his head. "Nine, ten, whatever! I was rounding!"

"You rounded nine to ten?"

"It's easier to remember!"

"You round to the nearest eight, you idiot!" said the angry and four-fingered toad matron. "Tens are for those freaky humans and their squiggly hands!" She went to thwap him again but he parried with an inside block and jabbed her in the arm with two fingers. She twisted with the attack, robbing it of much of its force, and lashed out with an open-hand slap, which he ducked under before snapping a straight kick that she flowed around, dropping low and rising up on the opposite side with the grace of the greatest festival dancers.

Noburi sat back in his chair, legs crossed at the ankles, and sipped his tea as the two ancient Sages fought their way up and down the room. He'd get his answers once they tired themselves out, but for now he wasn't going to miss the show.
Kinky Toad rp is pretending to be Frogs.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVF5ZCbFZs0
 
Various comments have been made throughout the story (I think) which reference the fact that the Hagomoro aren't a single, monolithic, hate-fueled entity. They have more and less moderate factions. I'd be shocked if literally everyone in the clan treated Harumitsu like garbage.

We have a big post about them:

Investigative Report: the Hagoromo Clan

And they Hagoromo also lost a Jonin.

Hagoromo Gen - jōnin - KIA

Harumitsu being a good sealmaster might convince them that the "Old way" has to go or they just use him to make some money.

Or finding them actual Sage Lore. Good that were asking for some stuff, might as well tell them some of what we find.

The real question is how high our Deception needs to be leveled before we can instigate this or provide resources to the moderate faction.

Hazou doesn't even have to talk to anyone in person. That's what other people can do (Ino, Mari, Nobby, etc), they don't even have to be part of the clan, as long as they can be considered allies.

Ritsuo isn't going to get kicked out until he fucks up. But:
  • We started a war with them after they complained that we violated their religion. And lost.
  • Destroyed a heirloom
  • Shikamaru attacked him
So even the "moderate" faction will not look at any of us very favorably.

The best argument that we have is that more "forward thinking" has pretty much won the war. But the Hagoromo could just change their stance that technological progress is acceptable, but "degenerate behavior" is still bad.

Other conservatives might also feel that way. Realistically the other conservatives will also influence them like the Hyuuga, Kurusu, Kyosho and others. So Ritsuo has allies on his own.

And I doubt Mari and/or Ami can just "Social combat" this. The current situation is probably the best they could achieve without total focus (or they don't care, or it's a test for Hazou, or whatever). So we should ask the right questions and not just focus on the Hagoromo alone.

TLDR: Ally with Hinata, give her a scroll, make Hyuuga great again and secretly take over the conservative faction. We do owe her for sending Oro after Cloud and saving Kei.

edit: lot's of edits.
 
Last edited:
Investigative Report: the Hagoromo Clan
Wait, this exists? That changes everything.

Younger Hagoromo are divided between the orthodox faithful, those enjoying the moral superiority while only paying lip service to the actual ideals, and those earnestly (and quietly) struggling to reconcile teachings from centuries ago with a reality that no longer quite fits, though it's hard for an outsider to tell which is which.
We'll still need deeper information if we want a direct dialogue with the moderates. Have to figure out which ones legitimately are trying to reconcile teachings, and which would sell us out if we try to talk to them.

However, multiple comments from those with long-term ties to the Hagoromo suggest that the events of the past year have been pushing the Hagoromo towards greater fanaticism.

The Hagoromo used to make an excellent living as scribes, with sidelines in bookbinding, illumination, and papermaking. That crashed with the invention of the printing press, which they believe to have been an act of economic warfare against them from the Nara. Relations have been strained ever since.
Similar to irl, worsened economic conditions for them have increased their conservatism.

They still have the papermaking business, but it's a sideline. You have identified their sources and the location of their papermill.
… and we made it worse. Well, this is awkward.

Their primary business is textiles. They have their own fields from which they source raw materials, and you have located those fields and the farmers that work them. (About 100 acres divided among 3 fields, each one a few hours outside of Leaf.)
Pretty sure we haven't collapsed this entirely, yet. Our spider silk trade is going to strain them even more, though.



We should identify the strongest moderate leader among the Hagoromo, and make overtures towards him/her, offering to set up a deal to route more of the spider silk trade through the Hagoromo's textile workers. The conservatives will undoubtedly refuse point blank as a matter of pride, which will give moderates the chance to not only paint conservatives as harming the clan's economic prospects, but also the chance to offer a visible and immediate way back to prosperity if they were in charge. Once the moderates gain control, we should work out more deals with them to increase the Hagoromo's income, thus cementing the moderates' power while at the same time tying the Hagoromo to us.

In the meantime, we should continue training Harumitsu, and accelerate his sealing training to make him a primary source of their clan's income as soon as possible. Maybe have him learn a bit from the Jiraiya notes that we released whenever we aren't around? We should obviously continue to get closer to him and get him to become friends with Mari, Snowflake, Kei, etc. Basically what we were planning to do already. But we can also get information on who's in the moderate faction by asking him about his friends in the Hagoromo, or at least who's the most tolerable. If we could influence him to increase his Rapport, that would be invaluable to helping him influence the Hagoromo from within.

TLDR: Ally with Hinata, give her a scroll, make Hyuuga great again and secretly take over the conservative faction. We do owe her for sending Oro after Cloud and saving Kei.
And we should absolutely do this as well. Hinata would be an extremely good person to have on our side, especially because if she's against us she can simply undo a lot of our hard work by enriching the Hagoromo herself.

…And because she just seems to be a really nice person and I want to be friends with her.
 
We should identify the strongest moderate leader among the Hagoromo, and make overtures towards him/her, offering to set up a deal to route more of the spider silk trade through the Hagoromo's textile workers. The conservatives will undoubtedly refuse point blank as a matter of pride, which will give moderates the chance to not only paint conservatives as harming the clan's economic prospects, but also the chance to offer a visible and immediate way back to prosperity if they were in charge. Once the moderates gain control, we should work out more deals with them to increase the Hagoromo's income, thus cementing the moderates' power while at the same time tying the Hagoromo to us.

Can we just not engage with this line? Dealing with Homophobic Assholes just isn't fun. Especially in a making friend way
 
Back
Top