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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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OliWhail said:
"I'm sorry to do this to a bunch of kids, but my sources tell me you're trying to take over the world and starting to actually succeed, which let me just say is fucking wild. But I have to eliminate you regardless. I did warn you" Jiraiya dropped into the first stance of the Frog Kata, focusing his mind in preparation for entering sage mode.

Hazou raised a hesitant hand. "Would it help if we said you could you do the actual ruling? Or some person or set of people whose nomination was subject to your veto?"

Jiraiya blinked. "Yeah, no, that's a pretty shitty ruse kid."

"No, it isn't. None of us want to rule the world. That sounds like a lot of work, frankly, and we have better things to do with our time. We've actually been looking for you the last couple weeks hoping you could recommend someone for the job."

"...You're serious. How can you possibly be serious? If you don't want to rule the world then what was the point of building your floating fortress of terror, or forcing the Kazekage and Mizukage to swear fealty to you?"

"Ah, see, about that. They were the first two we approached with requests to end their scorch squad policies on the condition that all the other nations did too. They told us to go do various anatomically impossible things and that they wouldn't do it even if everyone else did, so we had to resort to plan C."

"What happened to plan B?"

"Asking them was plan B. Plan A was to become a big enough threat that all the elemental nations had to unite to fight us, thus fostering international cooperation and brotherhood, but someone-" he glared at Akane "-convinced the rest of the team that was a bad idea."

"And what the hell is on your agenda that you have better things to do with your time??"

"The complete elimination of involuntary death and suffering. Duh."
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"Also, just to be clear. It isn't a 'Floating Fortress of Terror'. It's the Village Hidden in the Heavens Conference Center and Resort Complex. The black and red color scheme is just a side effect of how we make it float, from above it looks like a tropical island."
 
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OliWhail said:
"I'm sorry to do this to a bunch of kids, but my sources tell me you're trying to take over the world and starting to actually succeed, which let me just say is fucking wild. But I have to eliminate you regardless. I did warn you" Jiraiya dropped into the first stance of the Frog Kata, focusing his mind in preparation for entering sage mode.

Hazou raised a hesitant hand. "Would it help if we said you could you do the actual ruling? Or some person or set of people whose nomination was subject to your veto?"

Jiraiya blinked. "Yeah, no, that's a pretty shitty ruse kid."

"No, it isn't. None of us want to rule the world. That sounds like a lot of work, frankly, and we have better things to do with our time. We've actually been looking for you the last couple weeks hoping you could recommend someone for the job."

"...You're serious. How can you possibly be serious? If you don't want to rule the world then what was the point of building your floating fortress of terror, or forcing the Kazekage and Mizukage to swear fealty to you?"

"Ah, see, about that. They were the first two we approached with requests to end their scorch squad policies on the condition that all the other nations did too. They told us to go do various anatomically impossible things and that they wouldn't do it even if everyone else did, so we had to resort to plan C."

"What happened to plan B?"

"Asking them was plan B. Plan A was to become a big enough threat that all the elemental nations had to unite to fight us, thus fostering international cooperation and brotherhood, but someone-" he glared at Akane "-convinced the rest of the team that was a bad idea."

"And what the hell is on your agenda that you have better things to do with your time??"

"The complete elimination of involuntary death and suffering. Duh."
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Also, mind giving it a proper title for future threadmarking? TYVM.
 
I go to shower and you make another omake?!

e: Great job, by the way :p

e2: I wonder if Jashin prefers voluntary sacrifices and how much he does. We could petition him with math supporting the exponential growth that the cessation of voluntary death would provide, and that he would inevitably find those willing to die for him in greater number than otherwise. Maybe we can get his support too.
 
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Updated plan with pangolin questions, details on some methods, minor contingencies, and Hazou mentioning some of his seal ideas to Kagome + asking about feedback from seals

There's roughly an hour left by my clock, please vote for training plans and criticize the action plan if you haven't already!

OliWhail said:
I'll throw one up I suppose?

[X] Action Plan: Every Day is Leg(work) Day
Goals:
  1. Stay alive and anonymous
  2. Continue recon for our infograb
  3. Lay groundwork for a couple of possible routes in and out
  4. Acheive 2 and 3 on a short timescale, ideally before the rumored important client shows up (in case of an info handoff or powerful opponent)
Methods:
  • Come up with one or more consistent stories about who the client we're scouting for is
  • Using a similar strategy to the initial info gatherings, Mari and Hazou scout out the resort, claiming to be e.g. potential guests or an advance party for a noble. In addition to info from just talking to the person at the front desk, try and get a tour, during which they they try to spot the target and keep an eye out for other guests of interest, defenses, and internal layout (esp. choke points, ambush points, dog kennels)
    • Couple physical disguises and henge
      • If henges are pierced, pretend everything is fine and compliment the staff on their security measures
    • Hazou is along to check out the men-only area and should try taking point, as this is in part a training mission
    • If an opportunity comes up, mention that we've heard some very impressive things about the people who choose to stay at this inn, framing it as a compliment towards the establishment, and see what extra info can be gleaned (who's the important person supposedly on their way, and when will they be showing up?)
    • If an opportunity comes up, make nice with the guard dogs; plead naivete if chastised (don't do this if already outed as shinobi)
  • Meanwhile, Kagome and Akane scout the surrounding area and plan potential routes of egress for when the run goes bad
    • Act under henge and disguises, minimize conversation with pretty much everyone, if confronted they're part of a security team for a potential client making sure things are up to their standards
    • Identify a couple locations for non-infiltrating party members to hide during the mission, and a couple we might be able to booby trap in advance if coming out hot to try and break pursuit before meeting the rest of the party
    • Ideally these will be fairly close to the resort
    • Optimally, identify a good place for interrogation, just in case
    • Optimally, identify a place we could store a prisoner (could be the same as interrogation spot)
  • Noburi and Kei continue to gather information locally.
    • Act under henge and disguises, if questioned they're part of a security team for a potential client
    • By following people around, snooping, chatting them up, and analyzing the results, see if they can find any pressure points for the resort employees (housekeeping, bartenders, reception, security) or employees from the newer supply company
      • Are there any commuters we could kidnap on their way to work and then imitate, especially people who work night shifts?
      • Family members we can treat (or threaten)?
      • Debts we could offer to clear up?
      • Does the pregnant proprietess' daughter ever leaves the property? If we can offer either abortive services or med-nin prenatal care we might get her in our pocket. Make contact if the chance arises, don't make any offers without as much info as we can get (don't want to prematurely reveal ninja status, nor insult her by offering an abortion she doesn't want, nor insult her by offering care she already has access to somehow)
    • Stake out the newer supply company and a delivery of theirs to get a better idea of how to imitate them to do if we need to take that route to infiltrate
  • Misc/offscreen:
    • Hazou and Kagome discuss the seal ideas Kagome mentioned putting aside in the past. Bring up some of Hazou's tamer ideas, and ask about tactile feedback from seals. ("Hey Kagome, have you ever heard of a way for a seal to provide tactile feedback to someone it's attached to? I've thought of having the seal vibrate, but others might be able to hear that, or having the seal warm up or cool down, but that's hard to feel and slow.")
    • Kei continues her pangolin cultural exchange program
      • Summoners obviously have some value to the summon realms - the favors that are contracted for? Trade goods? Being given missions in the human realm? Get a clearer idea of what that value consists of, so we can maximize it.
        • What sorts of things can we do as tokens of friendship for Pandaa specifically? Do the pangolins celebrate birthdays?
      • More pangolin ettiquitte, ideally in a more organized way and in small chunks
        • What was the issue with the Mori bloodline? Is this an issue with bloodlines in general?
      • Inter-summoner etiquette, e.g. if the pangolins are allied to a clan whose summoner is a Mist hunter nin, what do?
        • Are there any of the Pangolin Clan's allies which are currently interested in taking on a new summoner?
        • How much info do the clans share about their summoners to other summon clans and their summoners?
        • Is it okay for the summoners to bring their allies into the summon realm? Is that even possible?
      • Is the pangolin economy currency-, barter-, and/or favor-based? What do elite Pangolins have that lower status Pangolins lack?
      • Can we get historical info that the village was denying us? (e.g. what happened to Ui/what are the last interactions the pangolins had with him?)
      • Any way to boost chakra reserves through summoning, just on the off-chance?
      • Does time run 1:1 in here and the Summoning Realm?
      • Summons that are not combat specialists that might be useful
        • Sealmasters
        • Medics (Make sure it'll work on humans first)
        • Various ninjutsu teachers - ideally do some survey of what techniques exist, even if Kei isn't allowed to share with the party
          • Communication/coordination jutsu
          • Technique Hacking
          • Sensory jutsu
            • What are the other elements Pandaa mentioned? (could lead to nature chakra/Sage Mode Stuff)
        • Therapist?
        • Sensory specialist/scout (Kei didn't like this idea? Pandaa even agreed with us!)
        • Engineers and craftspangolins
    • Drilling PMYF and Youthful Fist in our team tactics
    • Talking about what to do after this mission (getting medic min training, spying on Hydra to mollify Jiraiya, what area of the world to focus on next for our network and who to try and incorporate)
E: Incorporated @Twofold's suggestions
E2: Added pangolin questions, details on some methods, minor contingencies, and Hazou mentioning some of his seal ideas to Kagome + asking about feedback
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Consider looking into, for instance, using a sack of dirt or something as the kawarimi target; this way they are single use as they fall to ground and spread out, so we can't be followed when using them. Also practice picking the PMYF kunai up immediately after throwing it. No need to leave traces of our sealwork around.
 
Oh, right. I was going to mention it earlier... while we're in a DMZ, this might be a good opportunity to look for other missing nin to use as contacts. If either of the 2 that are staying at the hot springs are, then the other probably is too; either that, or this is a much stricter DMZ than we thought.
 
Cariyaga said:
Also practice picking the PMYF kunai up immediately after throwing it. No need to leave traces of our sealwork around.
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I'm not sure what you mean here. Catching them in the air will likely require a high wep or tai roll. If you mean picking them up during combat, we probably can't afford to waste precious moments, and after combat we pick up what we can anyway?
I agree in principle, leaving our seals around is bad. Just not sure what the suggestion is about?

Sack of dirt tho, that's a fine idea. We should get onto that, assuming Kagome doesn't find something terribly wrong with it :D
 
MadScientist said:
Goals:
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me_IRL

Also @MadScientist here are some seal ideas that I missed including in my quotes post and that I didn't see in the tree:
Seal-equivalent of clones (golems?)
Anti-chakra (personal and AOE)
Chakra beast control (note: make waterproof for megalodons)
Mental backups
Painkillers of varying duration, including permanent so we can precommit to it
Sensory modality seals (detect a thing and cast genjutsu on the wearer)
E: also a stealth branch - invisibility, muffled movement
 
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OliWhail said:
[-] Training Akane: Only Thing You Need Is Punch

I will be so mad if our plan implodes because Akane lets something slip. We need to up our goddamn opsec.
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Well, learning to lie real well just doesn't seem like something Akane would want to do. Who are we to make her, you know?

To be honest, I feel kind of funny how much the QMs have let us delegate training for people who are not our PC. Who in the hell is Hazou to tell them what to train in? It's so weird. I'd much prefer it if the QMs took that power back and had the NPCs train according to their own personalities and interests and then we just have to deal with the results.
 
I'd like to do a quick poll of the player base/QMs. Do people prefer having long plans split into multiple updates with no voting between, or would they rather have the chance to vote on another plan even if it invalidates the incomplete portion of the previous plan?

[X] Player Poll : Split Updates

This seems easier on the QMs and less stressful for us. But we also don't get to recalculate as frequently. Of course, we could just ask to continue the previous plan. This also incentivizes our creation of shorter term plans that won't require a split update.

[X] Player Poll : More Voting

It's more stressful for everyone, but allows us to recalculate more effectively. It also doesn't disincentivize long-term plans as much, and makes it easier for us to use plans as a long term coordination mechanism rather than having to do that out of band. I'm imagining a world where we have logarithmic detail plans, and new plans will drop the accomplished components of previous plans while also adding more detail or new goals.

At the moment I'm fine with either.
 
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Briefvoice said:
Well, learning to lie real well just doesn't seem like something Akane would want to do. Who are we to make her, you know?

To be honest, I feel kind of funny how much the QMs have let us delegate training for people who are not our PC. Who in the hell is Hazou to tell them what to train in? It's so weird. I'd much prefer it if the QMs took that power back and had the NPCs train according to their own personalities and interests and then we just have to deal with the results.
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Hazou is being low key groomed to be the leader of the group by Mari, and he makes sensible suggestions. As far as Akane goes, lying isn't the only thing deception is. It's also basic ninja social skills, like remembering your cover story.
Muer'ci said:
I'm not sure what you mean here. Catching them in the air will likely require a high wep or tai roll. If you mean picking them up during combat, we probably can't afford to waste precious moments, and after combat we pick up what we can anyway?
I agree in principle, leaving our seals around is bad. Just not sure what the suggestion is about?

Sack of dirt tho, that's a fine idea. We should get onto that, assuming Kagome doesn't find something terribly wrong with it :D
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You pop in next to the kunai; assuming everything retains momentum, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to grab it when you're going at the same speed as it is.
Jello_Raptor said:
I'd like to do a quick poll of the player base/QMs. Do people prefer having long plans split into multiple updates with no voting between, or would they rather have the chance to vote on another plan even if it invalidates the incomplete portion of the previous plan?

[X] Player Poll : Split Updates

This seems easier on the QMs and less stressful for us. But we also don't get to recalculate as frequently. Of course, we could just ask to continue the previous plan. This also incentivizes our creation of shorter term plans that won't require a split update.

[X] Player Poll : More Voting

It's more stressful for everyone, but allows us to recalculate more effectively. It also doesn't disincentivize long-term plans as much, and makes it easier for us to use plans as a long term coordination mechanism rather than having to do that out of band. I'm imagining a world where we have logarithmic detail plans, and new plans will drop the accomplished components of previous plans while also adding more detail or new goals.

At the moment I'm fine with either.
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[X] Player Poll : Split Updates
Kind of prefer this, it seems to be easier on the QMs and I don't mind having a little less control if it means less stress, as long as Hazou is given leave to modify the plan intelligently as things progress. The only problem with this is that it seems to make us a little more lax and slow in creating plans when we DO need to.
 
Briefvoice said:
Well, learning to lie real well just doesn't seem like something Akane would want to do. Who are we to make her, you know?

To be honest, I feel kind of funny how much the QMs have let us delegate training for people who are not our PC. Who in the hell is Hazou to tell them what to train in? It's so weird. I'd much prefer it if the QMs took that power back and had the NPCs train according to their own personalities and interests and then we just have to deal with the results.
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Deception is not just lying. It's also knowing when others are lying to you, and both are important ninja skills. No one is trying to make Akane the second coming of Mari, but some basic ability is a must have.

And QMs already handle NPC training, observe Keiko's summoning 10 for example. That they (teammates) follow our suggestions is a feature, and I can't believe you'd ask for less control for us and more work for QMs >_>

[X] Player Poll : More Voting

We do our best under duress :>
 
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[X] Player Poll: Split Updates
Listen man, I have slept three and a half hours in the last month and spent the rest of my time on this quest, I'm happy for the occasional break in the frantic avoidance of death.

Cariyaga said:
You pop in next to the kunai; assuming everything retains momentum, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to grab it when you're going at the same speed as it is.
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I believe this is explicitly part of the PMYF V2 strat. @ChronOblivion?
 
ChronOblivion said:
Yep. Throw, sub, catch, throw, sub again, etc. We need to either break the single-object restriction of storage seals or figure out how to put multiple storage seals that are connected by the same release mechanisms.
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Then in that case I'd rather start practicing that now, so we don't have timed release storage seals of our sealing style floating around.
 
OliWhail said:
me_IRL

Also @MadScientist here are some seal ideas that I missed including in my quotes post and that I didn't see in the tree:
Seal-equivalent of clones (golems?)
Anti-chakra (personal and AOE)
Chakra beast control (note: make waterproof for megalodons)
Mental backups
Painkillers of varying duration, including permanent so we can precommit to it
Sensory modality seals (detect a thing and cast genjutsu on the wearer)
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Hehe oops.
This is what I get for copy-pasting.

I'll update the tech tree in a bit, right now I'm a little busy.
 
Well, either way, @OliWhail you should note that in conflict, diplomacy is our first recourse, E&E our second, and fighting a distant third. No need to blow up Hot Springs.

And yes, someone please vote for Akane to get Deception! D:
 
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