It's impressive and/or concerning that you thought to include this. Impressive because it's a great 'show' of the 'show and tell' of Mari's character and approach, concerning because now we have to read ~social/experienced ninja scenes even deeper.
Thank you, EJ.
In return, I'm going to name the internal chakra engine after you, and have you suffer the ignominy of having your own name in your story without making things too awkward!
With regard to expanding the wall we shouldn't burn to much energy bike shedding on it. Just include a line about delegating it to Gaku. Anything he decides will probably be just as good as whatever we could come up with
Wonder if there are any useful use cases from superheating or supercooling things with EM
Also, how far are we on safety procedures on how to use EM nuke without killing the user
EM only works on gasses. Kinda difficult to superheat or supercool them with only +/- 100K to play with.
We have no procedures for safety for EM nukes. I imagine casting from underground would work pretty well as long as the caster got the fuck away from the affected Zone at ninja speed, through a tunnel several meters underground.
Plot twist: the "Nara Bullshit" is just "watch as Hazou does what comes naturally."
Side note: does anyone else mildly suspect that this is a plot wherein Shika is playing cupid, trying to get Snowflake and Hazou together? [Edit: and Shika's just giving them a little nudge? I could see it.]
Hazō… that's brilliant. It's an amazing idea. In fact, it's an amazing idea with no obvious ways it can go horribly wrong, which is clear evidence you've been lupchanzed."
Yeah, we'll need to make sure they don't leave the safety of Leaf/the Gōketsu compound, but that shouldn't be too hard since civilians generally don't do that anyway if they can help it.
We'll also need to have strong consequences for them spilling the beans to other people or people trying to get them to spill the beans. Clan secrets and all that.
Alternatively, we could just let people keep OPSEC and instead explain things more generally during therapy sessions.
Yeah, we'll need to make sure they don't leave the safety of Leaf/the Gōketsu compound, but that shouldn't be too hard since civilians generally don't do that anyway if they can help it.
We'll also need to have strong consequences for them spilling the beans to other people or people trying to get them to spill the beans. Clan secrets and all that.
Is there a reason we're worried about this? I imagine it's going to be mostly civilians talking to other civilians. The occasional ninja speaking to a civilian counsellor isn't going to breach OPSEC.
I don't think that 'let' enters into the equation here. They get to talk about what they talk about. If this takes off, I expect that sort of thing to be handled by Noburi/Gaku/whoever organizes it.
Put another way, how many strategically-relevant civilians do we think exist in Leaf, how many are we adding to that number, how do we think that's currently handled, and is there a reason that we don't think that would transfer well to our civilian counsellors?
Is there a reason we're worried about this? I imagine it's going to be mostly civilians talking to other civilians. The occasional ninja speaking to a civilian counsellor isn't going to breach OPSEC.
Fair. I was thinking we'd have Hyuga, Akimichi, etc. ninja talking to them and they'd have to worry about clan secrets and high OPSEC missions. If it's mostly civilians and Gōketsu ninja talking to them, that greatly reduces the OPSEC problems.
Put another way, how many strategically-relevant civilians do we think exist in Leaf, how many are we adding to that number, how do we think that's currently handled, and is there a reason that we don't think that would transfer well to our civilian counsellors?
Also, if we can make her feel listened to, that'll help her appreciate that this is a clan where we listen to each other, so maybe you should try and think of some issues on which you really want her opinion."
Maybe we can give Yuno a minor leadership position within the clan? Training the branch family Goketsu in combat? Not necessarily forcing Yuno to pass along her axe style of combat (that's a precious thing that only Yuno can do, and feels more like a "mother to daughter" sort of thing), but just general combat... Maybe in the form of a generalized/warm up group PT or something, before everyone splits off to train their focus for that day?
I suggest this because Yuno approaches ninja life from a different point than Mist or Leaf does. Mist dehumanized ninja into pawns, Leaf tells them that their suffering is for the WoF. Isan teaches that ninja are human and to embrace their feelings. That's important. Maybe we can get some of that internal validation to rub off onto the other Goketsu? It is my hope that doing so will lead to better mental health in the Goketsu.
Kagome teaches Sealing, helps Hazou with projects, is a founding administrator for GED.
Mari is our sanity-checker, growing a spy network, tutoring Haru to be her lieutenant, making the Merchant Council dance to her turn, spinning narratives with the wives of the clan heads, and other social projects.
We know that Akane, as a civilian-born ninja, is the touchstone for the Goketsu civilians. We know that she and Noburi help troubleshoot/filter out problems before they get to the point where Hazou has to fill out paperwork about it.
Yuno needs a similar responsibility, other than helping Kagome cook dinner. We need to show Yuno we trust her, and that we don't see her as a mindless killing machine.
If this is too much, too soon, we could have Akane lead it for a few weeks while Yuno shadows her, and then have Yuno take the group over afterwards. And Yuno will, obviously, have all of the Uplift Family on call for advice.
Fair. I was thinking we'd have Hyuga, Akimichi, etc. ninja talking to them and they'd have to worry about clan secrets and high OPSEC missions. If it's mostly civilians and Gōketsu ninja talking to them, that greatly reduces the OPSEC problems.
I very specifically only recruited from the Goketsu for a few reasons and this was one of them.
Other clans can talk to us, sure, but a) I expect them to do so with a clear sense of interclan boundaries (presumably, people from different clans are already friends, but they know what to share and not to share) and b) I don't think that we're going to see a lot of ninja uptake. If we do, I expect it to be - at least initially - limited to Goketsu ninja and maybe some clanless and friendly-clan nin. However, again, any clan nin that shows up is going to understand that they're talking to someone Goketsu. I imagine it's possible that enough ninja could talk to a single civilian long enough for them to use those isolated, innocent facts to put together intelligence resources, but at that point we have a spy or a genius.
If this does prove to have legs and other clans show interest, we can open-source the program architecture ('okay, so take a bunch of your good listeners, build them offices, let them decorate the offices however they want, and then, and this is key, rent a bar out for them once per month and let them drink as much as they want...') and hand it to whoever wants it, or we can give it to the Yamanaka or the Tower or whatever.
For now, worrying about that is probably borrowing trouble.
Maybe we can give Yuno a minor leadership position within the clan? Training the branch family Goketsu in combat? Not necessarily forcing Yuno to pass along her axe style of combat (that's a precious thing that only Yuno can do, and feels more like a "mother to daughter" sort of thing), but just general combat... Maybe in the form of a generalized/warm up group PT or something, before everyone splits off to train their focus for that day?
I suggest this because Yuno approaches ninja life from a different point than Mist or Leaf does. Mist dehumanized ninja into pawns, Leaf tells them that their suffering is for the WoF. Isan teaches that ninja are human and to embrace their feelings. That's important. Maybe we can get some of that internal validation to rub off onto the other Goketsu? It is my hope that doing so will lead to better mental health in the Goketsu.
Kagome teaches Sealing, helps Hazou with projects, is a founding administrator for GED.
Mari is our sanity-checker, growing a spy network, tutoring Haru to be her lieutenant, making the Merchant Council dance to her turn, spinning narratives with the wives of the clan heads, and other social projects.
We know that Akane, as a civilian-born ninja, is the touchstone for the Goketsu civilians. We know that she and Noburi help troubleshoot/filter out problems before they get to the point where Hazou has to fill out paperwork about it.
Yuno needs a similar responsibility, other than helping Kagome cook dinner. We need to show Yuno we trust her, and that we don't see her as a mindless killing machine.
If this is too much, too soon, we could have Akane lead it for a few weeks while Yuno shadows her, and then have Yuno take the group over afterwards. And Yuno will, obviously, have all of the Uplift Family on call for advice.
The more I think about this idea, the more I like it. Let's do it? We can fold it into the "Yuno, we need to talk about that dinner" conversation. We can use the leadership position as a way of softening the reprimand and give Yuno a tangible expression of our trust in her.
And if we explicitly mention the part about how we want to try and absorb the Isanese perspective about "Ninja being Humans, too," then that further exhibits how we value her way of life, even if we don't quite grok it. It validates her traditions and perspectives, which will mean a lot to her (a stranger in a strange land, where nothing makes sense and the ways you are surrounded by are not your ways).
It'll be a good thing. Sanity check and optimize with Mari, of course, but I'm feeling pretty good about this.
The more I think about this idea, the more I like it. Let's do it? We can fold it into the "Yuno, we need to talk about that dinner" conversation. We can use the leadership position as a way of softening the reprimand and give Yuno a tangible expression of our trust in her.
And if we explicitly mention the part about how we want to try and absorb the Isanese perspective about "Ninja being Humans, too," then that further exhibits how we value her way of life, even if we don't quite grok it. It validates her traditions and perspectives, which will mean a lot to her (a stranger in a strange land, where nothing makes sense and the ways you are surrounded by are not your ways).
It'll be a good thing. Sanity check and optimize with Mari, of course, but I'm feeling pretty good about this.
I'd be okay with that, after Yuno gets used to the position. That way she can gain familiarity with leadership on easy mode (first with Akane, then with the Goketsu Branch Family) before giving her something a little more challenging (like the KEI).
Yuno hasn't had much leadership or social experience (fuck Isan), and I'd rather not throw too much at her at once.
I'd be okay with that, after Yuno gets used to the position. That way she can gain familiarity with leadership on easy mode (first with Akane, then with the Goketsu Branch Family) before giving her something a little more challenging (like the KEI).
Yuno hasn't had much leadership or social experience (fuck Isan), and I'd rather not throw too much at her at once.
Absolutely, yeah. Mostly I mean it as a cool way to get in on that whole 'offer training to KEI nin in exchange for adoption certificate/other KEI-disbursed goodies', as well as both exposing Yuno to Leaf and Leaf to Yuno.
The more I think about this idea, the more I like it. Let's do it? We can fold it into the "Yuno, we need to talk about that dinner" conversation. We can use the leadership position as a way of softening the reprimand and give Yuno a tangible expression of our trust in her.
And if we explicitly mention the part about how we want to try and absorb the Isanese perspective about "Ninja being Humans, too," then that further exhibits how we value her way of life, even if we don't quite grok it. It validates her traditions and perspectives, which will mean a lot to her (a stranger in a strange land, where nothing makes sense and the ways you are surrounded by are not your ways).
It'll be a good thing. Sanity check and optimize with Mari, of course, but I'm feeling pretty good about this.
And, of course, with Yuno being specced for hunting chakra beasts, that can be the theme of what she's teaching. Raising more chakra beast hunters, one of the most pro-social ninja professions out there.
And, of course, with Yuno being specced for hunting chakra beasts, that can be the theme of what she's teaching. Raising more chakra beast hunters, one of the most pro-social ninja professions out there.
And, of course, with Yuno being specced for hunting chakra beasts, that can be the theme of what she's teaching. Raising more chakra beast hunters, one of the most pro-social ninja professions out there.
I actually really like this idea. Maybe have her train some new genin that want to be adopted into the Goketsu in her axe style? We could have a corps of mini-Yunos
I actually really like this idea. Maybe have her train some new genin that want to be adopted into the Goketsu in her axe style? We could have a corps of mini-Yunos
I'd rather not ask her to give away her combat style. It's hers, and something that she should pass on to her children or her favorite students.
How to hunt chakra beasts, sure, 100%. Giving up her axe style to someone? Nope. I'd really rather not leverage our authority as her Clan Head in such a way.
Brain mutated this from the grief counseling talk. Give shinobi dosiers they have to act out to the counselors. Counselors do not know about the dosiers. Monitor to see if any of the fake information gets leaked. Works as infiltration training for shinobi. Maybe a small benefit if any problems from the dosier accidentally touch on real problems they or anyone they know are experiencing. Do not see a good way to transition from this to real grief counseling.
"Have a seat," Hazō said, waving towards the visitor's chair even as he let himself sag into his own with a long groan.
"You are too young to have up and down noises," Mari said, laughing.
"Up and down noises?"
Her face and posture shifted, becoming those of a much older woman. She dropped into the chair with a sigh. She let herself settle back for a moment, then leaned forward, hands on her thighs, and levered herself to her feet with a grunt. She smiled and shifted again, becoming once more the young and vital woman who had charmed her way into a position of influence throughout the most important city in the world.
"Up and down noises," she said, sitting down silently and fluidly.
Hazō chuckled. "What's the line? It's not the years, it's the mileage?"
"You might be light on years, but you're a little light on mileage too," she shot back.
"I'm really not," he said, jagged lines of miles and misery carving themselves across his face for just a moment. They vanished as quickly as they had come, replaced with a casual smile. "Anyway, this meeting's not about that. I wanted to thank you for your help at the ritual."
"You're thanking me for burning your brain to ash?"
"Hey, it was only a little bit of ash!"
Sea-green eyes rolled like marbles. "You're welcome. What's next? Should I set you on fire?"
Hazō pretended to consider it for a moment, then shook his head with a somber look. "No, on balance I think that would be counterproductive."
"Well, that's a relief."
"Heh. Yeah, I suppose. Anyway, I wanted to talk with the best political expert in Leaf about what our next moves should be. Specifically, I wrote up a report for Asuma and I want to know if and when I should turn it in." He scooped a sheaf of pages off the top of the rightmost pile on his desk and passed it over.
She flicked through it, spy's eyes recording the information quickly, and then shuffled back to the second page to check something. Finally, she looked up.
"You're going to tell him that your plan is to pry open a scar in space and time, break into the Naraka Path, scout around until you find our people, and pull Jiraiya and Hiruzen back to the living world."
He shrugged. "I mean...yes? That's the plan. We've had trouble in the past caused by keeping secrets from Asuma." He paused. "And Cannai. And—"
"Yeah, yeah, lesson learned, good job," she said, waving him to silence. She thought for a moment. "Hazō, have you ever heard the parable of the cat?"
"Tell me."
"Cat sits on a hot griddle, gets its butt scorched and runs for the hills."
"And it never sits on the griddle again. Sure."
"Right. But it also never sits on a cold griddle."
"You're saying this is a cold griddle?"
"I'm saying there's nothing in this document that Asuma needs to know. You made the strange decision to have yourself psychically attacked. You then had a hallucination about a man you respect, who you wish was doing your job so that you can do the fun things that you aren't currently getting to do."
"I saw that whole Toad Thrust thing. That's new information that Naruto confirmed is real."
"Which, if shown to Asuma, will make him go to Naruto and say 'hey, is this real?' to which Naruto will reply 'maybe, or maybe they are lying' to which Asuma will say 'hm, good point' and start thinking bad things that we don't want him thinking. So, yes. You had a hallucination that we can't prove was real."
"But we know the afterlife is real. I pulled Daizen—"
"Off a beach. Which could have been on the Seventh Path, or even on some other part of the Human Path."
"Lots of seas of acid on the Human Path, are there?"
"We've seen grass that drinks blood, ants made out of acid—"
"They weren't made of acid, they just excreted it."
"And somehow did not damage themselves but were able to melt holes in metal."
"It wasn't the Human Path!" he said, throwing his hands in the air. "It drained chakra out of my seals!"
"Or your seals were improperly made."
Hazō eyes narrowed.
"Okay, okay," she said, raising her hands. "Your seals are never improperly made."
"No seals are ever improperly made," Hazō said. "You either have a failure when they're created or they work reliably." He hesitated. "Well, occasionally if a seal gets destroyed in a weird way you get a failure, but that's not down to the seal being invalid. What they don't do is simply stop working because there's no chakra left in them. Not here, not on the Seventh Path. Only in that place on the other side of the portal. The afterlife."
"You don't know that," she said, stubbornly demanding he face reality. "All you know is that it happened, you have no idea why. Maybe that place was the afterlife, but what does that have to do with no chakra? Or maybe it was one of the other Paths. There's essentially nothing known about them, so why shouldn't they drain chakra?"
"Hang on, how do you know there's nothing known about them?"
She tipped her head in that archly superior way that (presumably) every parent trains a big sister to do the moment their little brother is born. "Because I've asked? Duh? You've been going on about exploring the Naraka Path for months. Obviously I'm going to try to find out whatever I can that will help you." A cloud of frustration tripped momentarily across her face. "Not that I've been able to find a damn thing that's stronger than spit. Even the bedtime stories are inconsistent."
"Thank you, Mari," Hazō said, his smile soft and real. "I didn't know you were doing that."
She mimed a curtsy without moving from her chair. "I'm your spymistress. It's my job to support you on the things you care about, O Mighty Clan Lord."
"Yeeeaaaah...right. Going back to the earlier subject: you said I shouldn't turn this report in to Asuma yet?"
She shook her head. "There's nothing here that's actionable for him and nothing that relates to politics, domestic or international. The absolute best that would result from him seeing this is that he laughs and thinks you're a bit barmy. More likely, if you say that you want to resurrect the Third it's simply going to remind him of his loss and cause him pain. Hold onto it until there's something solid. If you get the rift open, we report that but we leave out words like 'afterlife' and 'resurrection'. We simply say so far as we can tell it's virgin territory that Leaf might be able to extract resources from and that we're informing him as a courtesy since, as the Gōketsu did all the work, we are laying claim to the portal and the territory beyond it."
She shifted in her chair, gazing up at the endless vista of intuition that concealed itself on the ceiling. "He'll respond that that's wonderful, but the possibility that the portal opens to somewhere else in the Elemental Nations means that the Tower needs to be involved in order to prevent geopolitical issues resulting from hostile first contact with ninja from another nation. We'll counter by saying that the chakra-draining effect makes it clear that this is nowhere on the Human Path and therefore there are no geopolitical implications, so us developing it is no different than if the Hyūga dug a new gold mine or the Aburame developed a new breed of insect that produces huge amounts of honey.
"He'll come back by saying that the Tower needs to have people involved in the exploration for purposes of tax assessment." She frowned. "That one will be harder to deal with, but we can get some traction from the idea that the Tower doesn't send tax assessors on mineral exploration teams. They send them in after the clan in question registers the claim, and therefore the same should happen here."
"Hm." She cocked her head, thinking. "We should lay some groundwork, get some laws preemptively passed. We can disguise it as sparring with the Hagoromo...we'll find some new product or market that they're looking to expand into and we'll put forth a proposal that, in order to ensure taxation is fairly distributed, the Tower should have tax assessors deployed along with all economic development teams, with appropriate ninja bodyguards to ensure their safety. The clans will hate the idea of having bureaucrats peering over their shoulder, the Hokage will hate the idea of tying up our limited ninja manpower on babysitting missions, and the idea will get knocked down so hard it will leave a crater. Of cou—"
"We don't want to look like we're stirring things up with the Hagoromo," Hazō interrupted. "Thin ice there, and lots of potential blowback."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "As I was saying, of course we don't want to be the ones floating the idea ourselves, because it could look like we're stirring things up with the Hagoromo. No, we'll launder it through the Uchiha. It's to their advantage for such a law to pass, since it would mean every exploratory mission they send out would get a ninja escort attached without them having to pay for a C-rank mission. Given that their Clan Head is also their only functional ninja and their finances are still not what they were before the Massacre, that's obviously something that they would want." She thought for a moment. "Give me Gaku for a week or two? We can work out a proposed legislation and propose it to the Uchiha as though we were building a coalition. The tax assessors will be a sacrificial line item but we'll get something real in there for them that will pass in exchange for killing the tax assessors clause."
Hazō laughed. "Your brain is a twirly whirly place, isn't it?"
"Bucket o' snakes, refreshed daily," she agreed with a smile.
"In that case," Hazō said, "put some of those twirly whirls to work on my next thing: I want access to the Nagi Island seal and the weird metal array that went with it. No idea what it did, but studying it would be interesting and it's the only example I have of a sealing array of that size that was created by modern humans. It might give me some ideas for fixing the Great Seal, or at least coming up with a better patch."
"Hm." She frowned. "I'll try, but I'd be very surprised if the thing is even still there."
"Why n...oh." Hazō sighed and slumped back in his chair. "Because every Kage would have wanted their people to study it and every Kage would have wanted everyone else's people to not study it." He grimaced. "And this is why we can't have nice things."
"In fairness," Mari said, shrugging, "it does seem like the thing was going to destroy the world as we know it. Rewrite people's brains or get rid of chakra or blow up anyone who raised a hand against another person, or...who knows? Those guys were nuts."
"I suppose."
"Look, I'll approach Asuma on your behalf," she said. "I just want you to brace yourself for a no."
"Yeah, yeah. Well, do your best. And, as long as you're talking to Asuma, here's another thing on your docket: I want him to authorize Shadow Clone for Kagome-sensei and Noburi. Tell him that Kagome-sensei needs it for safety during our investigation of the Great Seal and Noburi needs it in order to improve his ability to serve as a medic-nin trainee. He can be in multiple places that way."
"I'll try," she said, after thinking a bit, "but I don't see it happening. Shadow Clone is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, secrets of Leaf. As far as I know, the memory-sharing aspect of it isn't widely known, but the fact that the clones are intelligent and as skilled as their user makes it something that every village in the world wants. Kagome is a walking information leak and it's already well established that medics aren't considered to be inside the compartment or else every doctor would already have it." She shrugged. "I haven't spent that much time at the hospital, but I don't remember ever seeing two Tsunades running around and you told us that she has it. If she's not using it to work on multiple patients at the same time then she agrees with it staying that tightly compartmentalized and she's not going to go to bat for Noburi to have it. She might even oppose it, since him getting it when no other medics have sounds a lot like nepotism."
Hazō rubbed his jaw in thought. "Do you think we could buy it?"
"Say what now?"
"You already made the point that when we pry that rift to the afterlife open, the Gōketsu are going to be the sole owners of an absolutely enormous amount of resources. Suppose we told the Tower that we would sell them...I dunno, as much land as there is in Fire along with all the mineral rights and help developing it, in exchange for all senior Gōketsu ninja being granted Shadow Clone."
Mari leaned back in her chair, stunned. She said nothing for several long seconds. "I think..." she said at last, before trailing off. "I think that would need to be a very careful negotiation. There are so many ways it could go wrong—it could look like we were trying to bribe the Hokage, or like we were more concerned about the Gōketsu's power than the security of one of Leaf's greatest secrets, or like we had this vast territory that we could simply disappear to if we weren't given enough lollipops and brightly-colored ribbons. One wrong word could absolutely destroy every scrap of goodwill we have with the Tower. Plus, the other clans would learn about the deal soon enough and they would go ballistic at the idea that Leaf's security compartments are open to anyone with deep enough pockets."
Hazō very carefully did not say 'Shadow Clone training is increasing our rate of growth so much that in a few years you, Akane, Kei, and I will all be S-rank badasses who can tell the clans to go eat dirt if they look at us funny.' Not only was it the sort of thing that would be disastrous if word got out that he had even thought it, but it wasn't that simple.
Everyone who had access to Shadow Clone from the time of Tobirama to the current day knew that it could speed up training of certain things. Make a Shadow Clone and have it practice throwing kunai alongside you for an hour. When the clone popped and its memories reunited with your own, you would have the experience of practicing for two hours. The Shadow Clone technique, as Jiraiya had once confirmed to Team Uplift, was the reason that Leaf's jōnin tended to be moderately more powerful than their peers from other villages.
Moderately more. Not infinitely more, not even exponentially more.
There were two limits on Shadow Clone training, the first being the immense chakra cost. Not only did it require a large amount of chakra to create even a single clone, but whenever a clone appeared or disappeared, chakra rebalanced itself between the caster and every Shadow Clone they currently had, thereby cutting their reserves in half after taking a huge bite out of them to start. It meant that even with jōnin-level chakra reserves, creating a single clone left you too low on chakra to practice jutsu or even chakra-boosted combat. It was really only good for training physical combat skills, stealth, and similar things. Not the jutsu and chakra-integrated taijutsu that most ninja depended on for combat. Well, it was good for that and for doing paperwork and other Clan Head duties, but it was likely that the only Clan Heads in Leaf with access to Shadow Clone were Sarutobi Asuma (the Hokage), Senju Tsunade (grandniece of the technique's inventor), and Gōketsu Hazō (brilliant weapons designer at a time when the scent of war had been on the wind).
The chakra limitation went away the moment that Noburi became a Leaf ninja. His ability to transfer chakra from random non-busy ninja into his family meant that Akane, Kei, Mari, and Hazō were able to have as many clones training each day as they desired.
The other limitation of the Shadow Clone was more insidious: clone sickness. Human brains were not designed to handle experiencing multiple simultaneous worldlines. When a clone popped, its experiences hit like a brick. The pain grew based on how many clones one had out and how long they had existed. It was quite possible to damage yourself via clone sickness—indeed, it had happened. Senju Chikashi, one of the first ninja to learn the technique after its creation, had overdone it and suffered seizures and temporary paralysis that took months to heal. Refusing to learn the lesson, he later killed himself through overtraining with Shadow Clones.
That limitation was rapidly being disproven by one Gōketsu Hazō. It was possible to train yourself to handle clone sickness better—all you needed to do was learn to keep your focus on who you were and which of your worldlines belonged to your original self. The problem was that training the necessary focus involved creating lots of clones and having them sit around meditating or doing painful and exhausting exercises while staying concentrated on a single idea. While they were metaphorically navel-gazing they were not working on combat skills, or paperwork, or anything else useful. It made the entire effort somewhat pointless; why should you suffer pain and boredom and be constantly low on chakra if there was no extra skill gain from it?
Hazō's realization was that if one could have dozens of clones practicing all day then one's skill growth would be astronomical. So astronomical, in fact, that it was worth investing a few years of practicing nothing but resisting clone sickness. The time would pay itself back in spades once he and his clan mates could actually handle having dozens of Shadow Clones training all day without the caster's brains exploding out their ears when the clones popped.
To him it seemed so obvious that he couldn't understand why it wasn't standard for every trusted Leaf ninja to train this way.
"Because, Hazō," Kei had said all those months ago, "no one except a god or perhaps a jinchūriki has the chakra to power such a training regimen."
"Sure," Hazō said. "But now that Noburi is here"—he nodded respectfully to his brother—"everyone is going to see that this is possible and be knocking on our door. If we handle it right this will be the single biggest asset our clan has. Noburi, absent a direct order from the Hokage, I'm never going to order you to supply chakra to anyone outside the clan. That means you'll be the gateway to massive power. Everyone in the village will need to keep your goodwill or you don't supply them." He hesitated and looked to Kei. "Unless...can the Hokage simply order him to do it?"
Kei hesitated. "I am uncertain," she said at last. "It would depend on some very specific interpretations of law. On the one hand, the Hokage has the power to order any Leaf ninja to engage in any mission. In theory, he could class recharging other Leaf ninja as a C-rank mission and assign such missions to Noburi. On the other hand, 'mission' typically implies something that happens outside the walls of Leaf. Well, aside from the D-rank missions that are essentially chores inside the village and are used as teambuilding exercises for new genin and punishment assignments for more senior ninja. Noburi is a bloodline holder and a member of a voting clan. The other clans might not be comfortable with the precedent—no Hyūga would wish to be involuntarily assigned to police patrol inside the village, no Aburame would wish to be assigned to ridding another clan's housing of insect infestations, and so on. There is also the question of specificity. To the greatest extent possible, the law and Tower policy are supposed to treat all ninja equally. Noburi is the only Leaf ninja with his bloodline and therefore any law or policy related to forcing him to use it would be specific to him. It would set the precedent that the Tower can set rules for individual ninja that are different from the general body of ninja."
"Yeah," Noburi said, "but it's not like anyone could stop him, right? He's the Hokage. He can do what he likes. The Clan Council is just an advisory body."
"Yes and no," Mari said. "Yes, in theory the Hokage is an autocrat. No one can countermand his orders and he is not answerable to any legal proceeding. On the other hand, societies only work with the consent of the governed. Become too awful and the number of missing-nin starts to increase. People don't tell you bad news, so you end up with a distorted view of what's happening. The clans work against you in subtle ways—dragging their feet, or simply not volunteering. Yagura was willing to accept those costs but the Hokage have historically been different. I don't think any of them would have been willing to engender that level of opposition."
"There is a more straightforward reason that others are unlikely to think of this," Kei said. "They are not us. The Gōketsu are new to Leaf and we have little to no actual loyalty to it. We are here because our interests align; should our interests diverge far enough, it is entirely plausible that we would depart again. We lack the generational investment in Leaf's success that the other clans have. Part of that investment is a sense of patriotism and duty. Most of the other clans could easily sustain themselves on their various income streams—land ownership and the taxes that result from it, merchant caravans, and so on. There is no need for any Aburame ninja to ever take the field, nor any Hyūga, nor Hagoromo, and so on. And yet, they do. Every ninja in Leaf goes on missions as often as they are physically capable of so doing. They see it as an honor to risk their lives, even knowing that they will almost certainly die young. As a result, they are not going to spend a moment thinking about any training regimen that involves investing years in skills that do not aid their field performance.
"We, on the other hand, lack that sense of obligation. If we are frank, Team Uplift would undoubtedly be fine to sit around and do nothing while other ninja take care of defending the city and preserving the sanctity of Fire's borders."
"That's a little unfair," Hazō said, shifting uncomfortably. "I'm great with the idea of defending the city and the borders and all that. I simply want to do it efficiently. If we can turn our entire clan into a bunch of S-rank ninja, that's going to contribute a lot more to Leaf's safety than a handful of chūnin and one or two jōnin would."
Mari nodded. "Sure. But Kei makes a good point. I doubt that any other clan, not even the Nara, is going to see it that way. If taking missions is a badge of honor then cowering at home is shameful, even if one pinky-promises with syrup on top that you're only doing it to get stronger so you can be more effective later, no really we swear!"
Hazō's lips compressed in frustration. "Fine. Whatever. I don't care about their idiotic nationalism. I don't want you guys dying, so we're going to train efficiently. That means everyone is working on managing clone sickness until I say otherwise. Three or four or five years from now, when we can all go toe-to-toe with Orochimaru and Tsunade, we'll take all comers regarding whether or not the Gōketsu are an honorable clan. Until then, fuck 'em."
Hazō shook his head to bring himself back from the fond memory of days when the team was united and comparatively drama-free. He took a moment to reorient.
"Okay," he said. "It's a fraught conversation, fine. On which subject, how is your own training going?"
"It's going fine," she said, frowning in puzzlement.
"No no. Your training. You know...WHOOSH!" He made a gesture like a bird taking off: linear movement, then curving up into the air.
"Oh, right. Yeah, that's going fine too."
He waited a beat to see if she would expand on that; she'd always been very cagey about what she was training and how. When she simply smiled innocently back at him he gave it up. "Fine. Back to Kagome-sensei and Noburi. Buying Shadow Clone for them might perhaps be feasible given giant piles of money, but that's a ways out and very risky. Is there another way to get it for them?"
Mari grimaced. "Honestly, not that I can think of. Nothing that doesn't come with catastrophic risks, anyway—for example, you could teach it to them without Tower approval and hope that they can keep it secret. I recommend against that in the strongest terms. If you want to do that, better if we all go missing again right now."
"Wouldn't work," Hazō said. "Us going missing would draw an absolutely cataclysmic response. Not only do we have Shadow Clone but I've got a head full of highest-security strategic information and intelligence details. Plus, Noburi is a lynchpin of Leaf's new tactical doctrine. We'd barely clear the gates before there would be a dozen teams of hunters after us, each of them with Hyūga, Aburame, and Inuzuka trackers."
"I'm not sure if I'm more alarmed that you've clearly thought about this or relieved that you've realized it's impractical," Mari said with a smile.
Hazō didn't return the smile. "I'm the Clan Head, Mari. It's literally my job to think about worst-case scenarios and how I can keep you all safe if things go absolutely to crap."
"Uh, right. Okay, well...I don't currently see any good way to get Shadow Clone for Noburi or Kagome. I'll try to come up with something, but I wouldn't hold your breath." She paused. "If you do in fact get that portal open and there's huge and exploitable resources behind it then we can revisit the idea of buying it for them. Until then, keep that idea completely under wraps, okay?"
Hazō nodded, the smile slipping out again. "Believe it or not, I can learn from past mistakes."
She dragged her hand dramatically across her brow as though wiping away sweat. "Phew! What a relief!"
He flicked a blob of sealing wax at her head and blew her a raspberry. She swatted the wax aside and danced out of the room, laughing.
Other segments of the plan happened offscreen, specifically:
Ami style training: use max strength Banshee Slayers for a day. Communicate with gestures, facial expressions, and body language.
4x SC read Sealing notes for 7 days.
Level Sealing to 29. Day 8, attempt MARS. (Multiple Activation Relay Seal, a seal that can be paired with 0-2 seals and, when MARS is activated, will cause its paired seals to activate.)
Request Kagome's assistance.
Invoke "Kagome Certified Research Facility", "Promising Sealing Student".
Mild Burnout okay.
Author's Note: After leveling Hazō's sealing to 29 his Summoning Scroll Acolyte stunt (SSA) gives him an effecting Sealing skill of 51, meaning a +6 Aspect Bonus (AB). You can gain benefit from at most AB days of prep, each of which gives you +2 to your Calligraphy and Sealing rolls. In other words, you don't benefit from the 7th day of prep. On the other hand, SSA inflicts a Mild Consequence on Hazō after he makes a research roll and that Consequence takes 2 days to clear. The plan calls for the update to be 8 days long, so that's what I'll do. You did 6 days of prep, made the roll on the 7th day, and you will be halfway through your recovery period instead of right at the beginning of it.
XP AWARD: 30
Brevity XP: 8
Ami-style training: 1
"GM had fun" XP: 0 No strong feelings about this plan.
Hazō, Sealing (51) + 12 (prep) + 6 (invoke "Promising Sealing Student" personal Aspect) + 6 (invoke "Kagome-Certified Sealing Lab") + ? (Kagome-sensei's Sealing AB from his assistance) + 6 (dice): 81 + ? Safe!
Hazō and Kagome had an excellent time working together and made incredible progress. They feel like they're close; with a little luck, another session like that could finish the seal.
