- Location
- The Void
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Since Jashin is both the God of Death and, the God of Life the most common time when Jashin is struggling to defeat Jashin is during childbirth
Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
- Start date
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- Tags
- naruto rationalist romance armageddon is looking better and better damn you kishimoto explosions everywhere explosives solve everyone if in doubt surrender to the mercy of zabuza it seemed like a good idea at the time looks like a really bad case of being a jōnin my god. where does the lore end? precommitting is the winning plan screaming in kagome screw the rules i have explosives something bad might still happen sometimes you gotta sociopath stabby zabby subsection c of paragraph 9 should include we can weaponize this so hard
- Location
- Yes.
WE'RE ALL GONNA DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Noumero
Omit Needless Words
Usually one can read that as a vacuous statement, of the "everyone dies eventually" variety. But today?
- Location
- Yes.
[X] ARMAGEDDON INITIATIVE
Chapter 534: Blood and Ash
- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"Fire Element: Heavens-Licking Pyre Technique!"
Plans flicked through Hazō's mind faster than lightning, ideas created and discarded in an instant. Hazō brought his hands together and clapped them to the floor.
"Earth Release: Multiple Earth Wall!"
A granite wall rose from the ground in front of him, cutting off enemy lines of approach. Hazō backed up, calling out to his team. "Reverse formation!" Yuno and Akane, take point and Substitute him to the back of the group so he can summon Cantelope. "Whirlpool Black!" Fight with fully lethal techniques; let no one escape. "Snake Killer!" Focus fire on the leader, then by order of decreasing strength. "MARS!"
The Multiple Activation Relay Seal activated two nearby, previously-chosen seals. Those two seals could themselves be MARS, which would then activate four seals with a nearly imperceptible delay. And of course, those four seals could be MARS. With this one seal, Hazō could activate his entire team's combat arsenal in an instant, filling the air with Flashbangs and Banshee wails while flooding the enemy with macerated glass, Goo Bombs, and worse. Just a tap, and his team would have all the might of Hazō and Kagome's best work on their side.
Hazō reached for the root MARS seal in the pocket on his chest as a shadow fell over him. He looked up. The machete-wielding man had flipped over the wall and tapped it with his hand, using chakra adhesion to whip a devastating axe kick down at Hazō's head. Hazō blocked and the kick impacted his forearm with the force of a sledgehammer. Hazō grunted and reached for the MARS with his other hand, only to have to spin and whip his hand away as the machete lashed down for his wrist.
Hazō could barely track the older ninja's speed. He spun the machete around into a rising strike to split Hazō open from groin to throat; raw instinct let Hazō flip backwards out of the way of the slash, only for the man to tear a chunk off the granite wall with chakra adhesion and hurl it at Hazō's head. It hit him in the underside of the chin mid-flip and the world went white for an instant.
He came to as the man flickered next to him and drove an elbow into his gut, slamming Hazō to the floor. Hazō's diaphragm seized, refusing to let him breathe, and he forced the Iron Nerve to twitch his head out of the way as the machete slammed into the ground by his head. He rolled on the ground, trying to open up the distance as he forced his lungs to breathe.
The man dashed over to him, ducking as a pair of shuriken passed through the space where he used to be. He swung the machete down at Hazō's gut and Hazō raised his forearm to block, angling it at the last second so the blade glanced off the bone in a spray of blood, rather than carving off his hand. Akane was still too far away, Kei and Snowflake were reaching for their next round of weapons, and the senior ninja outclassed Hazō in close quarters more than even Mari.
The man stomped at Hazō's head. Hazō got his good hand up in time to stop his skull from being caved in, but the stomp pinned his hand to the side of his head and to the ground. The man raised his machete to slash through Hazō's neck. Hazō reached his injured arm to the pinned hand, forming the handseals for Hiding like a Mole, but he could tell he wouldn't finish the ninjutsu in time.
The world went quiet.
The machete fell.
Through a sudden flash of light, Hazō barely saw the machete-wielder disappear in a pink flash. Hazō flipped to his feet in dead silence. Yuno and the machete-wielder were more streaks of color than people, one pink and one grey. They danced through the forest, and where they met, sparks flew and trees fell.
Hazō backed away as his diaphragm started again and he sharply inhaled. He could see a counter-flare in the distance, and the enemy genin were fleeing in that direction. He barely caught Snowflake desperately pointing behind him, mouthing something before she turned to run. He ducked low, preparing to sprint as he saw the grey-haired woman grimacing and flickering through handseals.
She mouthed a technique name, then cut short as Yuno's axe cut through the upper part of her head – no, she had Substituted away. The machete-wielder, freed from Yuno's pursuit, suddenly appeared by Hazō's side and Hazō reached for his seals again, only to be yanked away by Akane's Substitution. She traded blows with the machete-wielder and danced around his blade with a fiercer expression than he had ever seen her make.
Snowflake drew her kunai and Hazō dabbed at the blood streaming from his forearm for the Summoning technique, then whipped his head around as he noticed the grey-haired woman flanking them. She glanced out from behind a tree as she finished a long chain of handseals and mouthed another silent technique through grit teeth.
In an instant, flames welled up in a wall around them, then suddenly twisted into streamers that joined above their heads into a single growing mass that hung in the air like a snake about to strike. Hazō saw Kei Substituting away behind a thick tree. The mass of flame started to accelerate downwards. He brought his hands together again.
"Earth Release: Multiple Earth Wall!"
He couldn't hear his own words, but the wall rose at an angle to shelter him from the flames overhead. A moment later, Akane and Snowflake joined him under the shelter as fire rained down around them with the force of a monsoon. The world outside was washed in crimson light, and the forest burned.
Hazō remembered something from long, long ago: when jōnin fight, the very land suffers, and lesser ninja, too slow to find cover, die.
He and Akane moved to let Snowflake into the center of the shelter, where the flames licking at their feet would be least likely to pop her. Snowflake had a look of sheer desperation on her face as she mouthed, "What do we do?"
Hazō could barely keep up with the speed of the battle around him. "I'll Summon," he said, exaggerating his words as much as he could. "Support Yuno," he said to Akane, then turned to Snowflake. "Find Kei and-"
All three ninja looked up as the roof of their shelter started to glow. Akane and Snowflake whipped their heads around and disappeared in two pops, replaced by a boulder and a burning log, but Hazō couldn't see anything to replace himself with in the hellscape beyond. The Earth Wall shattered and Hazō dived away from the wave of molten rock, into the firestorm outside.
He screamed as he burned, and the fire responded back with a roar as it forced its way down his mouth and into his lungs. The intensity of the heat leached the water from his eyes, forcing him to squeeze them shut, and he could feel his skin cracking and peeling all over his body.
He collapsed as the roar grew quiet, then forced himself to his hands and knees. Dust – no, the ash of his burnt skin and clothes streamed off of him. He could hear the awful wailing of the Banshee seals as Akane fought the machete-wielder. Her uniform was smoking but she had somehow evaded any burns, while the senior ninja was mysteriously untouched. He outclassed her in reach, weight, and raw skill, and Hazō watched as he steadily pushed Akane back towards the lingering wall of crimson flames that trapped them all in a narrow circle with the grizzled, gray-haired man.
Akane broke out of the melee, jumping back so close to the wall that loose strands of her hair started to smoke. She tapped a seal on her chest to release a flash of light, then brought her hands together and screamed "Pantokrator's Hammer!" The man lunged forward through the flash, slashing at her throat in her moment of vulnerability as she cast the technique.
The machete made contact. Drops of Akane's blood flew through the air. She moved faster than he could react, and the machete barely sliced along her neck and swung through empty air as she stepped inside his guard. He raised a knee to kick her away and through the wall. She planted her knuckles against his chest.
CRACK!
Akane's blast rings blew a conical hole through the man, and gore flew through the air. She stepped away from the flame wall that the man had nearly forced her through. Her eyes flicked to Hazō as she raised a palm to the narrow scratch on her neck.
"Dad!"
Through the wall of flame, Hazō saw one of the genin, the girl, turn from running to reach out a hand to her father's collapsing corpse. Kei threw a kunai towards the group of genin, but she chose the wrong target, and the kunai thudded firmly into a log as the young boy Substituted away. Snowflake had already thrown her kunai at his predicted landing spot, but a second Substitution caught her attack.
Two of the genin had escaped, no longer visible through the wall of flame, but the last was drawing a pair of shuriken to aim at Akane's back. Akane ran towards Hazō, eyes searching the side of the flame wall where the gray-haired woman had been. He reached out a hand to warn her, but he choked on the ash still thick in the air. The fire had burned his voice away, and he pulled his hand back to cover his ears against the approaching wail of the Banshee.
The genin threw her weapons. Akane saw Kei's gesture and turned just in time to catch one spinning shuriken straight in her side, instead of through the back of her spine. Blood sprayed everywhere as the spinning weapon tore through her side below her ribs, and a second shuriken caught her in the back of the hamstring.
Akane collapsed to one knee, clutching her side. The wall of flame started to subside as the genin drew another shuriken to strike down the woman that had killed her father. With Akane's injury, this one would be lethal.
Hazō heard Kei and Snowflake rushing forward, but he could already tell they'd be too slow to take the attack themselves. They would need to strike first and kill the genin before she could kill Akane.
Kei and Snowflake grabbed kunai in identical motions as the genin drew her hand back to throw.
The genin's eye flicked off of her target to the side. She fell in half, cleaved from shoulder to opposite hip, and Satsuko sent her blood in a fountain into the air.
Yuno looked at them with a beaming, blood-splattered smile on her face. She gestured to one side, mimed running her hands through shoulder-length hair, then dropped low to the ground and became a pink streak of movement once more.
Kei and Snowflake shared a glance. Kei drew a seal and threw it at Akane, who grabbed it and nodded. She started slotting the Skywalkers into her sandals. Snowflake looked at Hazō and mouthed "Go" under the Banshee's screech. Hazō understood clearly. Get out of here, and let them track down the survivors.
Hazō's fingers were covered in burns and he grit his teeth to force the Iron Nerve to make the motions of the Hiding Like a Mole Technique. He formed the chakra, then dipped below the blessedly dark, blessedly cool earth, holding his breath against the pain of dirt and rocks and twigs digging into every part of his burned skin.
Hazō emerged from the ground a short distance away. The roar of flames and the wail of the Banshee seals had long since grown quiet, and Hazō could almost make out the sound of wind in the leaves through the ringing in his ears. Through the scent of smoke and ash, he could just barely smell his own cooked skin.
Their fighting had annihilated the nearby patch of forest. In a massive circle, the trees had burned almost to their roots by the intensity of the fire. The flames had licked outwards and charred the area around that circle, even starting some small, smoldering fires in the scattered trees that Yuno's dance with the machete-wielder had felled. Luckily, the area was wet enough with the recent rains that the fire didn't want to spread.
He looked down at his skin, which was blackened and dirt-stained where it wasn't bleeding red in torn patches.
"Hazō!"
He looked up to see Akane stepping down from above the treeline. She had taken her shirt off, leaving just a simple bandage wrap on her torso, and torn strips of cloth from it to bind the wounds on her side and leg. She moved gingerly.
"Are you stable?" she asked as she came down to eye level.
"I—" The sound was smokey and hoarse and he cut off in a fit of coughing. "I- I'm okay." It hurt to talk, but he managed. It was just pain. He noted that the bandage around Akane's leg seemed to be working, but the blood staining the one around her side continued to spread.
"I think," he coughed, "my clothes and seals had the worst of it. It's worst on my hands and face, but," he pulled his sleeve back, ignoring the screaming, burning pain to reveal skin that was merely scalded red, not blackened or bloody, "I'm mostly fine."
Akane nodded and activated a seal she had already prepared. A tub of ice-water sloshed to the ground.
Hazō nodded and gratefully plunged his arms into the water up to the shoulders. The sudden cold burn helped him focus, and he dunked his face in too. "Thanks," he said when he arose. "We need to decide what to do."
In the distance, a Banshee activated. Hazō and Akane both turned their heads, but it was too far to see anything. Akane sealed up the tub and they waited, but after a moment, the Banshee went silent again.
"Hazō," Akane said patiently, "I'm bleeding a lot from my side. I think she got my kidney. I'm not going to be able to run—"
"You're alive!"
Hazō and Akane turned to see Snowflake skywalking in with one of the genin hanging below her, ninja wire wrapping his ankles. She descended and her quarry hit the ground first. Hazō and Akane tensed as he twitched, but he did not move further. Looking closer, he was covered in dozens of precise cuts around various key ligaments. He was clearly conscious, but too terrified to do much more than stare at them wildly.
"I feared—" She cut herself off. "No. We are fortunate enough to have not only all survived a battle with a pair of special jōnin in both close quarters and a disadvantageous formation, but to have done so while disabling every enemy. I need not test the Fates by speaking aloud the various failure modes they seem to have overlooked."
Snowflake came down to eye level with Hazō (so, half a foot above the ground), and he raised an eyebrow.
"Akane killed the man and Yuno got one of the genin. You got one more. How do you know the others didn't get away?"
"Hazō," Kei's voice called down from above, "I will be the first to admit that my combat abilities are naught but feeble in a world with Orochimarus and Hidans, but if you think nonlethally incapacitating a single genin on the verge of chakra exhaustion is beyond my capabilities, I am afraid I will have to enroll you in remedial education on the subject of my abilities in thrown weapons."
She lowered her captive, likewise tied up and rendered immobile. He was the stout boy from earlier, the one who had sent up the flare.
Akane smiled at the two of them, but she held one hand tight to her side to slow the blood flow. "Kei. Snowflake. I'm glad you made it."
Hazō nodded and turned to point in the direction that they had seen the counter-flare. "If that was the nearest patrol, they're still quite a ways away. I'd guess we have maybe twenty minutes before they're on us. Akane and I really shouldn't be moving in our current conditions."
The two sisters nodded. They shared a glance, then Snowflake spoke. "We will seal the bodies of the enemies on the battlefield and use explosives to erase traces of our techniques, but we will not be able to conceal the site of the battle."
"Kei, could you use a Pangolin-"
"No, I do not have the chakra to summon the larger ones we would need to tear up the ground sufficiently. Beyond that, assuming that those ninja were of a single clan, they would almost certainly recognize the burned-out hemisphere as a signature of their jōnin's Fire ninjutsu, and given the relative humidity and constant rain, we are unlikely to be able to initiate a fire that will adequately conceal that distinctive shape."
"Furthermore," Snowflake said as Kei started towards the battlefield to seal the corpses, "there is the possibility that the signal had a specific meaning attached to it, such as that this was an ninja attack, or even that we are dangerous. I expect that even a modestly acceptable cover-up will still lead to substantial investigation, especially as we likely just killed two of the more senior members of their clan."
"We don't know yet if they're dead, but—"
The corpse of the grey-haired woman slammed into the ground behind Hazō. She was barely recognizable, with a slash across her guts spilling gore everywhere and the upper right corner of her head shorn straight off.
Yuno dropped, flickering her skywalkers to control her speed. Her clothes were soaked through with blood and the pink of her hair was only visible on her offhand side. She had a giddy, almost blissful expression on her face. "Well, that was fun. Satsuko and I haven't had someone like that since the jōnin from Cloud." She sobered slightly as she took stock of Akane and Hazō. "You two clearly need some help. What are we doing now?"
Hazō is at 179 CP. He has spent 5 FP. He has taken the Mild Consequence "Lightly Charred Lungs" and the Moderate Consequence "Fire Really, Really Hurts". He gains 2 for taking Consequences, and 1 for winning an encounter, for a net of -2 FP.
Akane is at 246 CP. She has taken the Mild Consequence "Damaged Hamstring" and the Moderate Consequence "Not Quite Gutted". She also has netted -2 FP.
Kei is at 84 CP. She has spent 4 FP and gained 1 for winning an encounter. She has netted -3 FP.
Snowflake is at 4 CP.
Yuno says she's at around half her chakra.
Hazō estimates that if the patrol was running straight at them this whole time, they're probably around 15 minutes away.
You have two conscious captives. The three other ninja are dead and sealed.
You have received 1 + 1 (Brevity) = 2 XP.
QM/N: Strictly speaking, you've already received 4 + 1 = 5 XP for today, so this is a bonus.
-o-
What do you do?
Voting closes at .
Plans flicked through Hazō's mind faster than lightning, ideas created and discarded in an instant. Hazō brought his hands together and clapped them to the floor.
"Earth Release: Multiple Earth Wall!"
A granite wall rose from the ground in front of him, cutting off enemy lines of approach. Hazō backed up, calling out to his team. "Reverse formation!" Yuno and Akane, take point and Substitute him to the back of the group so he can summon Cantelope. "Whirlpool Black!" Fight with fully lethal techniques; let no one escape. "Snake Killer!" Focus fire on the leader, then by order of decreasing strength. "MARS!"
The Multiple Activation Relay Seal activated two nearby, previously-chosen seals. Those two seals could themselves be MARS, which would then activate four seals with a nearly imperceptible delay. And of course, those four seals could be MARS. With this one seal, Hazō could activate his entire team's combat arsenal in an instant, filling the air with Flashbangs and Banshee wails while flooding the enemy with macerated glass, Goo Bombs, and worse. Just a tap, and his team would have all the might of Hazō and Kagome's best work on their side.
Hazō reached for the root MARS seal in the pocket on his chest as a shadow fell over him. He looked up. The machete-wielding man had flipped over the wall and tapped it with his hand, using chakra adhesion to whip a devastating axe kick down at Hazō's head. Hazō blocked and the kick impacted his forearm with the force of a sledgehammer. Hazō grunted and reached for the MARS with his other hand, only to have to spin and whip his hand away as the machete lashed down for his wrist.
Hazō could barely track the older ninja's speed. He spun the machete around into a rising strike to split Hazō open from groin to throat; raw instinct let Hazō flip backwards out of the way of the slash, only for the man to tear a chunk off the granite wall with chakra adhesion and hurl it at Hazō's head. It hit him in the underside of the chin mid-flip and the world went white for an instant.
He came to as the man flickered next to him and drove an elbow into his gut, slamming Hazō to the floor. Hazō's diaphragm seized, refusing to let him breathe, and he forced the Iron Nerve to twitch his head out of the way as the machete slammed into the ground by his head. He rolled on the ground, trying to open up the distance as he forced his lungs to breathe.
The man dashed over to him, ducking as a pair of shuriken passed through the space where he used to be. He swung the machete down at Hazō's gut and Hazō raised his forearm to block, angling it at the last second so the blade glanced off the bone in a spray of blood, rather than carving off his hand. Akane was still too far away, Kei and Snowflake were reaching for their next round of weapons, and the senior ninja outclassed Hazō in close quarters more than even Mari.
The man stomped at Hazō's head. Hazō got his good hand up in time to stop his skull from being caved in, but the stomp pinned his hand to the side of his head and to the ground. The man raised his machete to slash through Hazō's neck. Hazō reached his injured arm to the pinned hand, forming the handseals for Hiding like a Mole, but he could tell he wouldn't finish the ninjutsu in time.
The world went quiet.
The machete fell.
Through a sudden flash of light, Hazō barely saw the machete-wielder disappear in a pink flash. Hazō flipped to his feet in dead silence. Yuno and the machete-wielder were more streaks of color than people, one pink and one grey. They danced through the forest, and where they met, sparks flew and trees fell.
Hazō backed away as his diaphragm started again and he sharply inhaled. He could see a counter-flare in the distance, and the enemy genin were fleeing in that direction. He barely caught Snowflake desperately pointing behind him, mouthing something before she turned to run. He ducked low, preparing to sprint as he saw the grey-haired woman grimacing and flickering through handseals.
She mouthed a technique name, then cut short as Yuno's axe cut through the upper part of her head – no, she had Substituted away. The machete-wielder, freed from Yuno's pursuit, suddenly appeared by Hazō's side and Hazō reached for his seals again, only to be yanked away by Akane's Substitution. She traded blows with the machete-wielder and danced around his blade with a fiercer expression than he had ever seen her make.
Snowflake drew her kunai and Hazō dabbed at the blood streaming from his forearm for the Summoning technique, then whipped his head around as he noticed the grey-haired woman flanking them. She glanced out from behind a tree as she finished a long chain of handseals and mouthed another silent technique through grit teeth.
In an instant, flames welled up in a wall around them, then suddenly twisted into streamers that joined above their heads into a single growing mass that hung in the air like a snake about to strike. Hazō saw Kei Substituting away behind a thick tree. The mass of flame started to accelerate downwards. He brought his hands together again.
"Earth Release: Multiple Earth Wall!"
He couldn't hear his own words, but the wall rose at an angle to shelter him from the flames overhead. A moment later, Akane and Snowflake joined him under the shelter as fire rained down around them with the force of a monsoon. The world outside was washed in crimson light, and the forest burned.
Hazō remembered something from long, long ago: when jōnin fight, the very land suffers, and lesser ninja, too slow to find cover, die.
He and Akane moved to let Snowflake into the center of the shelter, where the flames licking at their feet would be least likely to pop her. Snowflake had a look of sheer desperation on her face as she mouthed, "What do we do?"
Hazō could barely keep up with the speed of the battle around him. "I'll Summon," he said, exaggerating his words as much as he could. "Support Yuno," he said to Akane, then turned to Snowflake. "Find Kei and-"
All three ninja looked up as the roof of their shelter started to glow. Akane and Snowflake whipped their heads around and disappeared in two pops, replaced by a boulder and a burning log, but Hazō couldn't see anything to replace himself with in the hellscape beyond. The Earth Wall shattered and Hazō dived away from the wave of molten rock, into the firestorm outside.
He screamed as he burned, and the fire responded back with a roar as it forced its way down his mouth and into his lungs. The intensity of the heat leached the water from his eyes, forcing him to squeeze them shut, and he could feel his skin cracking and peeling all over his body.
He collapsed as the roar grew quiet, then forced himself to his hands and knees. Dust – no, the ash of his burnt skin and clothes streamed off of him. He could hear the awful wailing of the Banshee seals as Akane fought the machete-wielder. Her uniform was smoking but she had somehow evaded any burns, while the senior ninja was mysteriously untouched. He outclassed her in reach, weight, and raw skill, and Hazō watched as he steadily pushed Akane back towards the lingering wall of crimson flames that trapped them all in a narrow circle with the grizzled, gray-haired man.
Akane broke out of the melee, jumping back so close to the wall that loose strands of her hair started to smoke. She tapped a seal on her chest to release a flash of light, then brought her hands together and screamed "Pantokrator's Hammer!" The man lunged forward through the flash, slashing at her throat in her moment of vulnerability as she cast the technique.
The machete made contact. Drops of Akane's blood flew through the air. She moved faster than he could react, and the machete barely sliced along her neck and swung through empty air as she stepped inside his guard. He raised a knee to kick her away and through the wall. She planted her knuckles against his chest.
CRACK!
Akane's blast rings blew a conical hole through the man, and gore flew through the air. She stepped away from the flame wall that the man had nearly forced her through. Her eyes flicked to Hazō as she raised a palm to the narrow scratch on her neck.
"Dad!"
Through the wall of flame, Hazō saw one of the genin, the girl, turn from running to reach out a hand to her father's collapsing corpse. Kei threw a kunai towards the group of genin, but she chose the wrong target, and the kunai thudded firmly into a log as the young boy Substituted away. Snowflake had already thrown her kunai at his predicted landing spot, but a second Substitution caught her attack.
Two of the genin had escaped, no longer visible through the wall of flame, but the last was drawing a pair of shuriken to aim at Akane's back. Akane ran towards Hazō, eyes searching the side of the flame wall where the gray-haired woman had been. He reached out a hand to warn her, but he choked on the ash still thick in the air. The fire had burned his voice away, and he pulled his hand back to cover his ears against the approaching wail of the Banshee.
The genin threw her weapons. Akane saw Kei's gesture and turned just in time to catch one spinning shuriken straight in her side, instead of through the back of her spine. Blood sprayed everywhere as the spinning weapon tore through her side below her ribs, and a second shuriken caught her in the back of the hamstring.
Akane collapsed to one knee, clutching her side. The wall of flame started to subside as the genin drew another shuriken to strike down the woman that had killed her father. With Akane's injury, this one would be lethal.
Hazō heard Kei and Snowflake rushing forward, but he could already tell they'd be too slow to take the attack themselves. They would need to strike first and kill the genin before she could kill Akane.
Kei and Snowflake grabbed kunai in identical motions as the genin drew her hand back to throw.
The genin's eye flicked off of her target to the side. She fell in half, cleaved from shoulder to opposite hip, and Satsuko sent her blood in a fountain into the air.
Yuno looked at them with a beaming, blood-splattered smile on her face. She gestured to one side, mimed running her hands through shoulder-length hair, then dropped low to the ground and became a pink streak of movement once more.
Kei and Snowflake shared a glance. Kei drew a seal and threw it at Akane, who grabbed it and nodded. She started slotting the Skywalkers into her sandals. Snowflake looked at Hazō and mouthed "Go" under the Banshee's screech. Hazō understood clearly. Get out of here, and let them track down the survivors.
Hazō's fingers were covered in burns and he grit his teeth to force the Iron Nerve to make the motions of the Hiding Like a Mole Technique. He formed the chakra, then dipped below the blessedly dark, blessedly cool earth, holding his breath against the pain of dirt and rocks and twigs digging into every part of his burned skin.
-o-
Hazō emerged from the ground a short distance away. The roar of flames and the wail of the Banshee seals had long since grown quiet, and Hazō could almost make out the sound of wind in the leaves through the ringing in his ears. Through the scent of smoke and ash, he could just barely smell his own cooked skin.
Their fighting had annihilated the nearby patch of forest. In a massive circle, the trees had burned almost to their roots by the intensity of the fire. The flames had licked outwards and charred the area around that circle, even starting some small, smoldering fires in the scattered trees that Yuno's dance with the machete-wielder had felled. Luckily, the area was wet enough with the recent rains that the fire didn't want to spread.
He looked down at his skin, which was blackened and dirt-stained where it wasn't bleeding red in torn patches.
"Hazō!"
He looked up to see Akane stepping down from above the treeline. She had taken her shirt off, leaving just a simple bandage wrap on her torso, and torn strips of cloth from it to bind the wounds on her side and leg. She moved gingerly.
"Are you stable?" she asked as she came down to eye level.
"I—" The sound was smokey and hoarse and he cut off in a fit of coughing. "I- I'm okay." It hurt to talk, but he managed. It was just pain. He noted that the bandage around Akane's leg seemed to be working, but the blood staining the one around her side continued to spread.
"I think," he coughed, "my clothes and seals had the worst of it. It's worst on my hands and face, but," he pulled his sleeve back, ignoring the screaming, burning pain to reveal skin that was merely scalded red, not blackened or bloody, "I'm mostly fine."
Akane nodded and activated a seal she had already prepared. A tub of ice-water sloshed to the ground.
Hazō nodded and gratefully plunged his arms into the water up to the shoulders. The sudden cold burn helped him focus, and he dunked his face in too. "Thanks," he said when he arose. "We need to decide what to do."
In the distance, a Banshee activated. Hazō and Akane both turned their heads, but it was too far to see anything. Akane sealed up the tub and they waited, but after a moment, the Banshee went silent again.
"Hazō," Akane said patiently, "I'm bleeding a lot from my side. I think she got my kidney. I'm not going to be able to run—"
"You're alive!"
Hazō and Akane turned to see Snowflake skywalking in with one of the genin hanging below her, ninja wire wrapping his ankles. She descended and her quarry hit the ground first. Hazō and Akane tensed as he twitched, but he did not move further. Looking closer, he was covered in dozens of precise cuts around various key ligaments. He was clearly conscious, but too terrified to do much more than stare at them wildly.
"I feared—" She cut herself off. "No. We are fortunate enough to have not only all survived a battle with a pair of special jōnin in both close quarters and a disadvantageous formation, but to have done so while disabling every enemy. I need not test the Fates by speaking aloud the various failure modes they seem to have overlooked."
Snowflake came down to eye level with Hazō (so, half a foot above the ground), and he raised an eyebrow.
"Akane killed the man and Yuno got one of the genin. You got one more. How do you know the others didn't get away?"
"Hazō," Kei's voice called down from above, "I will be the first to admit that my combat abilities are naught but feeble in a world with Orochimarus and Hidans, but if you think nonlethally incapacitating a single genin on the verge of chakra exhaustion is beyond my capabilities, I am afraid I will have to enroll you in remedial education on the subject of my abilities in thrown weapons."
She lowered her captive, likewise tied up and rendered immobile. He was the stout boy from earlier, the one who had sent up the flare.
Akane smiled at the two of them, but she held one hand tight to her side to slow the blood flow. "Kei. Snowflake. I'm glad you made it."
Hazō nodded and turned to point in the direction that they had seen the counter-flare. "If that was the nearest patrol, they're still quite a ways away. I'd guess we have maybe twenty minutes before they're on us. Akane and I really shouldn't be moving in our current conditions."
The two sisters nodded. They shared a glance, then Snowflake spoke. "We will seal the bodies of the enemies on the battlefield and use explosives to erase traces of our techniques, but we will not be able to conceal the site of the battle."
"Kei, could you use a Pangolin-"
"No, I do not have the chakra to summon the larger ones we would need to tear up the ground sufficiently. Beyond that, assuming that those ninja were of a single clan, they would almost certainly recognize the burned-out hemisphere as a signature of their jōnin's Fire ninjutsu, and given the relative humidity and constant rain, we are unlikely to be able to initiate a fire that will adequately conceal that distinctive shape."
"Furthermore," Snowflake said as Kei started towards the battlefield to seal the corpses, "there is the possibility that the signal had a specific meaning attached to it, such as that this was an ninja attack, or even that we are dangerous. I expect that even a modestly acceptable cover-up will still lead to substantial investigation, especially as we likely just killed two of the more senior members of their clan."
"We don't know yet if they're dead, but—"
The corpse of the grey-haired woman slammed into the ground behind Hazō. She was barely recognizable, with a slash across her guts spilling gore everywhere and the upper right corner of her head shorn straight off.
Yuno dropped, flickering her skywalkers to control her speed. Her clothes were soaked through with blood and the pink of her hair was only visible on her offhand side. She had a giddy, almost blissful expression on her face. "Well, that was fun. Satsuko and I haven't had someone like that since the jōnin from Cloud." She sobered slightly as she took stock of Akane and Hazō. "You two clearly need some help. What are we doing now?"
-o-
Character autopilots reject having Pangolin peppers on everyone's MARS chains, since there's too much collateral damage risk in real scenarios.
Charging an FP from Kei/Snowflake to have a clever MARS idea: Directional Explosive wrapped around the ring of the kunai pointing to the tip, with a stupid-box containing storage seal on the hilt. Use MARS to finagle the delays, then trigger it on a hit. Stupid box pops out, directional explosive blows it into the opponent while the kunai is stuck in their leg. Mechanically, this is Weapons:4 but single target. No friendly fire risk. I anticipate this will be useful. [A/N: Now that combat is over, it was not useful. Oh well.]
Round 1
Initiative
Kishigami Seisen +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Yuno +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Kasai Senpū +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Akane +6 boost 290 CP, 6 FP
Kei +6 boost 120 CP, 6 FP
Snowflake +6 boost 34 CP, 6 FP
Kishigami Kohoshi +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Hazō +5 boost 245 CP, 6 FP
Kasai Tomotsune +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Kasai Hirotora +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Kishigami Seisen
He sees the counterflare: nearest patrol is far. No reinforcements coming. If he does not stop these Leaf ninja, they will kill him and all the genin. He cannot afford to stall: if summoners summon, they will bring multiple jōnin in and kill all of them. Beyond that, as Westerners, they likely have better ninjutsu than he does – buffing up probably puts him at a disadvantage in future rounds. He'll attack immediately and with overwhelming force, if he can.
Free: Order the genin to run.
Supplemental: Prepare Relentless Onslaught
Supplemental: Move into the Zone with the enemies
Standard: Attack Hazō, the only Summoner who is not ambiguously a clone. As always, save a Fate Point for the worst.
Kishigami Seisen (Melee Weapons): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (dice) = ??
I'll be generous and let Hazō use MEW reflexively to get a tag. Against a peer opponent, this wouldn't give him an advantage worthy of a tag, but in this case, it's about slowing an offensive rush that he has no chance of resisting otherwise (if he rolled at base + boost, he'd take ?? stress and die instantly). This costs 23 CP, leaving him at 222 CP.
Does he get Roki?
Hazō (Deceit): 24 + 3 (Roki) + 3 (dice) = 30
Kishigami Seisen (Deceit): ?? + ? (dice) = ??
He does. Can macerators be used defensively? As this opens a can-of-worms (why can't Hazō put MARS on his hands and use that defensively?) I'll rule no. Macerators and blast rings cannot be used outside of your turn.
Time to search Hazō's character sheet for applicable Aspects. "(Formerly) Marked for Death" and "Team Uplift" for sure. "Lists and Plans", as staying out of the way of this guy is in the plan for the chapter. "Lord of Clan Gouketsu" is a bit of a stretch, but I'll allow it, both because he's representing and acting for the clan here, as well as because as a Clan Head, he's become less intimidated of much more powerful ninja (even if they're still very, very deadly to him).
Hazō (Taijutsu): 43 + 5 (boost) + 5 (Roki) + 6 (Shoryuken) + 5 (tag "Mr. MEW") + 5 (invoke "(Formerly) Marked for Death") + 5 (invoke "Team Uplift") + 5 (invoke "Lists and Plans") + 5 (invoke "Lord of Clan Gouketsu") - 1 (PCJ) - 9 (dice) = 74
Hazō spends a FP to reroll.
Hazō (Taijutsu): 43 + 5 (boost) + 5 (Roki) + 6 (Shoryuken) + 5 (tag "Mr. MEW") + 5 (invoke "(Formerly) Marked for Death") + 5 (invoke "Team Uplift") + 5 (invoke "Lists and Plans") + 5 (invoke "Lord of Clan Gouketsu") - 1 (PCJ) + 3 (dice) = 86
Impressively, Hazō somehow doesn't take a Consequence. He takes ? + ? = 4 stress. PCJ breaks and he is left with 2 stress in his stress track. Relentless Onslaught activates and he gains the fragile Aspect "Overwhelmed" and Kishigami gets a tag on it.
Yuno
Hazō's plan has her attack the commander, but she has tactical sense. The commander has overextended by coming into their Zone and Kei/Snow should be able to hit him with something. On the other hand, the other jōnin-tier combatant here is about to whip out some ninjutsu, likely AoE given the way everyone is clustered up. She's going to ignore Hazō's orders and attack the other senior ninja.
Supplemental: Activate MARS for everyone. Everyone gets Banshee Slayers, a moment later Flashbang, a moment later Banshee. The world going silent is all their cue for the Flashbang, so there should probably be an Alertness check to prevent there from being collateral Flashbang damage. Unfortunately, the Flashbang mechanics don't support this.
Supplemental: Sprint to the other senior ninja.
Standard: Combination attack with Satsuko.
She has no time to activate any of her jutsu. Sealwise, she has Rocket Boots. She can get into Melee (mechanically, you can always get into Melee with an opponent in the same Zone – they can leave it by winning the Athletics check to dodge your attack), so she has Banshee (with two tags). She has the Flashbang.
She'll Invoke as much as she can to complete the alpha strike. She really wants to inflict a Consequence with this attack, even if it means burning her FP supply for following rounds. Unfortunately, she only has two applicable character Aspects.
Yuno (Melee Weapons): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (Shoryuken) + ? (Flashbang) + ? (Banshee) + ? (invoke "Killing Makes Me Feel Alive") + ? (invoke "With Special Grooves for the Blood") - 1 (PCJ) + ? (dice) = ??
Kasai Senpū (Athletics): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (Substitution) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (dice) = ??
Unfortunately, there's not much Senpū can do at this point… there aren't any good environmental Aspects to tag, and she won't reroll. She'll spend her last FP on half bonus, bringing her total to ??. She takes ? + ? stress. 2 gives her a Mild: "Slashed Forehead," and the remaining ? goes into her stress track.
Kasai Senpū
She Substituted out of the Zone that Yuno was in, so she's in a different adjacent Zone to the one everyone's clumped up in. She will still belt out her AoE attack in the hope that it catches someone, but if that doesn't go exceptionally well, she'll call the retreat. This pink-haired woman is too much to handle.
Given the circumstances, she'll use Sin-Shattering Hammer so that Kishigami needn't dodge and to trap the enemies in if they prove to be too much.
She's still disoriented from the Banshees: Yuno got up close with her to hit, so that's within the 3-tag range. She still has 2 tags on her. Those tags will be used by Hazō and Akane. Kei and Snowflake will Invoke that disorientation.
Kishigami will pass her the tag on "Overwhelmed" on Hazō – she'll use it, but I'll apply it as a -? on his roll so that she makes a single roll.
Standard: Cast signature ninjutsu (?? CP). Shape it so it doesn't hit Kishigami (?? CP).
Kasai Senpū (Sin-Shattering Hammer): ?? + ? (boost) - ? (Consequence penalty) + ? (dice) = ??
Hazō will use another MEW (23 CP). Yuno passes him the tag on "Slashed Forehead".
This is a fairly busy forest, and there are a fair few Substitution targets within 50% of Kei/Akane's body weight, but there's limited time and lots of people Substituting. On the other hand, they had Hazō's whole speech to mark their targets. Let's give them all a Fair (TN15) Substitution check to find targets in time.
Akane: 28
Kei: 26
Snow: 17
Akane (Athletics): 48 + 6 (boost) + 11 (Substitution) + 5 (Banshee) - 1 (PCJ) + 5 (invoke "MEW 2") - 3 (dice) = 71
Kei (Athletics): 50 + 6 (boost) + 10 (Substitution) + 6 (invoke Banshee) - 1 (PCJ) + 0 (dice) = 71
Snowflake (Athletics): 50 + 6 (boost) + 10 (Substitution) + 6 (invoke Banshee) + 6 (invoke "MEW 2") - 1 (PCJ) + 12 = 89
Hazō (Athletics): 40 + 5 (boost) - ? ("Overwhelmed") + 5 (tag "MEW 2") + 5 (Banshee) + 5 (tag "Slashed Forehead") - 3 (dice) = 57 - ?
He could reroll, but I don't think it would be likely to change the outcome. Count your lucky stars, Hazō, that she used Sin-Shattering Hammer and not Heaven's Scythe, which is Weapons:? and would have left him with a Severe. Hazō takes ? + ? = 8 stress, filling his stress track and leaving him with a Mild and a Moderate. Akane and Kei take ? + ? = 1 stress (energy damage, so it doesn't affect PCJ), and Snowflake dodges with a nice +12.
Welp. Didn't even maim the main summoner, and now he'll get away. Rest are uninjured. Crazy pink lady is still out here with her. Fuck that. She'll run.
Supplemental: Sprint away from the Zone (and Yuno)
Supplemental: Substitute to get farther.
She's now 3 Zones away from anyone.
Akane
Hazō's orders were to support Yuno, but she's trapped in the Zone by the residual Sin-Shattering Hammer flames. She is forced to attack Kishigami.
She will use Pantokrator's Hammer (Effect: 2, 16 CP) and trigger another Flashbang (Kishigami wasn't being targeted by anyone when the first round went off, so it didn't create a tag). She'll use Rocket Boots and Wide Angle Blast Rings, since there's no one else in Melee with him right now (no friendly fire risk). She'll take advantage of the Banshee tags, same rules as before.
Can she get Youthful Fist?
Akane (Physique): 33 + 4 + 0 (dice) = 37
Kishigami Seisen (Physique): ?? + ? (dice) = ??
Nope. Akane's learned from the time she nearly died against the Cloud jōnin not to fuck around and instead go all out immediately. Hazō's injured; she can't afford to lose this one. She'll invoke "YOUTHFUL Taijutsu Star", "Equals at Last", and "Team Uplift".
Akane (Taijutsu): 54 + 12 (PKH) + 6 (Shoryuken) + 6 (Banshee) + 6 (Flashbang) + 6 (Wide-angle Blast Rings) + 6 (invoke "YOUTHFUL Taijutsu Star") + 6 (invoke "Equals at Last") + 6 (invoke "Team Uplift") - 1 (PCJ) + 3 (dice) = 110
Unfortunately, Seisen burned all his Supplementals approaching, so he cannot Substitute. He is forced to use MW, and unbuffed, he'll be in trouble. He has to pray for good dice here.
Kishigami Seisen (Melee Weapons): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (dice) = ??
Kishigami takes ? + ? = ? stress. 4 in stress track, 2 for a Mild, 3 for a Moderate, 4 for a Severe, and ? extra means he's chunky salsa.
Kei
Kishigami is dealt with, and the other one seems to have turned tail and run. Yuno will deal with her. Time to clean up the genin. She doesn't want to summon, as it'll cost a lot of chakra and the battle's probably won now. She'll target the Melee Weapons one. He probably leans more on his MW stat to get out of situations than his Athletics.
Because there's a wall of flames in the way of her and the targets, she won't be able to use seals for the fear that they'll be damaged in flight. They're too far from a Banshee/Flashbang user to get bonuses for that.
Supplemental: Draw weapon.
Supplemental: She uses Pantokrator's Hammer (Effect 3: 22 CP), for the extra tag in case the ninjutsu user comes back.
Kei (Ranged Weapons): 40 + 10 (PKH) - 1 (PCJ) - 6 (dice) = 43
He will try to Substitute:
Kasai Tomotsune (Substitution): ?? + ? (dice) = ??
Kasai Tomotsune (Athletics): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (Substitution) + ? (dice) = ??
He dodges.
Snowflake
When in doubt, focus fire? He's only Substituted one Zone away… She is supposed to "Maintain Supplemental to substitute with an ally in danger of taking a serious hit," but also "Pick off enemy support." Since she would need to make both a Standard Block to bodyguard someone with Substitution, as well as save a Supplemental, she'll instead opt to shoot. The main threat to Hazō is gone and Yuno is dealing with the other major threat.
Supplemental: Draw weapon.
Supplemental: She uses Pantokrator's Hammer (Effect 2: 16 CP).
Snowflake (Ranged Weapons): 40 + 10 (PKH) - 1 (PCJ) - 6 (dice) = 43
Incredible. He Overdraws for a Mild (+?? CP) and Substitutes again.
Kasai Tomotsune (Substitution): ?? + 0 (dice) = ??
Kasai Tomotsune (Athletics): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (Substitution) + ? (dice) = ??
Not even remotely close. He's made it two Zones away with his subs, so he's well on his path to run away.
Kishigami Kohoshi
She just saw her dad get blown up in front of her! While she is perfectly capable of attempting (and probably succeeding on) a killing blow on Hazō right now, I think she's going to try to hit Akane instead.
Supplemental: Draw weapon.
Supplemental: Deadshot.
Standard: Kill the woman who murdered your father
Kishigami Kohoshi (Ranged Weapons): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (tag ????) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (dice) = ??
Akane is out of Supplementals for dodging! She also unfortunately used PKH 2 instead of 3 (assuming the genin were no threat) and doesn't have a spare PKH tag, nor does she have boost since PKH burned it out of her! She's burned her Rocket Boots and she's too far for Banshees to provide tags. She will invoke "Mr. MEW", the other MEW that Hazō erected in the initial onslaught.
Akane (Athletics): 48 + 5 (invoke "Mr. MEW") - 1 (PCJ) - 3 (dice) = 49
She only has 1 FP left, and if she rerolls, she could get a substantially worse outcome. I think she takes it. She takes ? + ? = 9 stress (shame this village doesn't have a sealmaster to make explosives). She soaks 2 into PCJ, 2 into a Mild, 3 into a Moderate, and 2 into her stress track. She is pretty beat up.
Hazō
He can't leave the Zone by foot to support Akane. He is also beat to shit. He has to leave.
Supplemental: Draw MARS Sandbomb and toss it into the sky
Supplemental: Trigger MARS, creating the Aspect "Sandstorm Skies" in his Zone.
Standard: Hiding Like a Mole.
Exits the combat.
Kasai Tomotsune
Just legging it. Exits the combat.
Kasai Hirotora
He could probably hit Akane with a ninjutsu if he overdrew, but then he'd be dead as soon as that finished. Nah, his team leader said to retreat. He runs, exiting the combat.
Round 2
Initiative
Yuno +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Kasai Senpū +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Akane +6 boost 246 CP, 1 FP
Kei no boost 84 CP, 3 FP
Snowflake no boost 4 CP, 3 FP
Kishigami Kohoshi +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Yuno
Absolutely murder the fuck out of the person that tried to hurt Akane. Enemy has no Sub (all Supplementals used) and no FP.
Yuno (Melee Weapons): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (Banshee) - 1 (PCJ) + ? (dice) = ??
Kishigami Kohoshi (Athletics): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (dice) = ??
? + ? = ? stress is another enemy killed.
Kasai Senpū
Flee some more, exiting the combat. Use Gentle Hand to speed her escape.
Akane
Full Round: Put on skywalkers.
Kei
Chase after Kasai Hirotora, the Ninjutsu user.
Snowflake
Chase after Kasai Tomotsune, the MW user.
Round 3
There are three ninja now, going in 3 separate directions. There are 3 pursuers: Yuno on the chūnin, Kei on the Ninjutsu user (reasoning that since ninjutsu could pop Snowflake easily, she's better suited to the task), and Snowflake on the MW user (who should be easier to capture, since he ought to be low on chakra after Substituting and boosting away).
Each enemy may choose to either make an Athletics contest to get away, or use Stealth against Alertness.
Kasai Tomotsune (Stealth): ?? + ? (Time Ladder: he got pretty far away before the pursuit started) + ? (dice) = ??
Snowflake (Alertness): 40 - 6 (dice) = 34
He's caught.
Kasai Hirotora (Athletics): ?? + ? (dice) = ??
Kei (Athletics): 50 + 9 (dice) = 59
He's also caught.
Kasai Senpū does not need to make a check: with the additional movement provided by Gentle Hand, she can get away from Yuno, who has no noteworthy movement enhancing techniques. Yuno spends two rounds burning Substitutions (-56 CP) before realizing she can't catch up and slowing down. She is at ??? CP.
Yuno decides to stop dealing with the forest and sprint over the open sky. She is at a ? Zone disadvantage, meaning she catches up in just a couple rounds after she dons her skywalkers inserts (wow, these seals are OP). She climbs up above the treeline and follows in the direction of the target, dipping down and back up to follow the trail. She deactivates her Banshee + Banshee Slayers while she is doing this. Kasai is more focused on running than obscuring the trail, as she no longer hears pursuit. Kasai is similarly making noise as she moves, and is really not that far away. Yuno pursues her, and eventually catches up.
Yuno
Supplemental: Trigger the MARS attached to her Banshee + Slayers again.
Supplemental: Trigger a Flashbang
Yuno (Melee Weapons): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (Banshee) + ? (Flashbang) - 1 (PCJ) + ? (dice) = ??
Kasai Senpū (Athletics): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (Substitution) - ? (Mild) + ? (dice) = ??
Yuno wins. There's no realistic way that Kasai can land a hit on a boosting, skywalkered Yuno, and Yuno can hit back harder than she can afford to dodge. Kasai takes ? + ? = ? stress. That's a Severe. She's dead within the next round.
Kei and Snowflake drag back (using ninja wire) the two ninja they knocked out, reconvening with Hazō from the earth and Akane and Yuno from the sky (Akane, covered in her own blood, Yuno covered in other people's).
Somehow, a total victory for Team Uplift.
Charging an FP from Kei/Snowflake to have a clever MARS idea: Directional Explosive wrapped around the ring of the kunai pointing to the tip, with a stupid-box containing storage seal on the hilt. Use MARS to finagle the delays, then trigger it on a hit. Stupid box pops out, directional explosive blows it into the opponent while the kunai is stuck in their leg. Mechanically, this is Weapons:4 but single target. No friendly fire risk. I anticipate this will be useful. [A/N: Now that combat is over, it was not useful. Oh well.]
Round 1
Initiative
Kishigami Seisen +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Yuno +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Kasai Senpū +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Akane +6 boost 290 CP, 6 FP
Kei +6 boost 120 CP, 6 FP
Snowflake +6 boost 34 CP, 6 FP
Kishigami Kohoshi +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Hazō +5 boost 245 CP, 6 FP
Kasai Tomotsune +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Kasai Hirotora +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Kishigami Seisen
He sees the counterflare: nearest patrol is far. No reinforcements coming. If he does not stop these Leaf ninja, they will kill him and all the genin. He cannot afford to stall: if summoners summon, they will bring multiple jōnin in and kill all of them. Beyond that, as Westerners, they likely have better ninjutsu than he does – buffing up probably puts him at a disadvantage in future rounds. He'll attack immediately and with overwhelming force, if he can.
Free: Order the genin to run.
Supplemental: Prepare Relentless Onslaught
Supplemental: Move into the Zone with the enemies
Standard: Attack Hazō, the only Summoner who is not ambiguously a clone. As always, save a Fate Point for the worst.
Kishigami Seisen (Melee Weapons): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (dice) = ??
I'll be generous and let Hazō use MEW reflexively to get a tag. Against a peer opponent, this wouldn't give him an advantage worthy of a tag, but in this case, it's about slowing an offensive rush that he has no chance of resisting otherwise (if he rolled at base + boost, he'd take ?? stress and die instantly). This costs 23 CP, leaving him at 222 CP.
Does he get Roki?
Hazō (Deceit): 24 + 3 (Roki) + 3 (dice) = 30
Kishigami Seisen (Deceit): ?? + ? (dice) = ??
He does. Can macerators be used defensively? As this opens a can-of-worms (why can't Hazō put MARS on his hands and use that defensively?) I'll rule no. Macerators and blast rings cannot be used outside of your turn.
Time to search Hazō's character sheet for applicable Aspects. "(Formerly) Marked for Death" and "Team Uplift" for sure. "Lists and Plans", as staying out of the way of this guy is in the plan for the chapter. "Lord of Clan Gouketsu" is a bit of a stretch, but I'll allow it, both because he's representing and acting for the clan here, as well as because as a Clan Head, he's become less intimidated of much more powerful ninja (even if they're still very, very deadly to him).
Hazō (Taijutsu): 43 + 5 (boost) + 5 (Roki) + 6 (Shoryuken) + 5 (tag "Mr. MEW") + 5 (invoke "(Formerly) Marked for Death") + 5 (invoke "Team Uplift") + 5 (invoke "Lists and Plans") + 5 (invoke "Lord of Clan Gouketsu") - 1 (PCJ) - 9 (dice) = 74
Hazō spends a FP to reroll.
Hazō (Taijutsu): 43 + 5 (boost) + 5 (Roki) + 6 (Shoryuken) + 5 (tag "Mr. MEW") + 5 (invoke "(Formerly) Marked for Death") + 5 (invoke "Team Uplift") + 5 (invoke "Lists and Plans") + 5 (invoke "Lord of Clan Gouketsu") - 1 (PCJ) + 3 (dice) = 86
Impressively, Hazō somehow doesn't take a Consequence. He takes ? + ? = 4 stress. PCJ breaks and he is left with 2 stress in his stress track. Relentless Onslaught activates and he gains the fragile Aspect "Overwhelmed" and Kishigami gets a tag on it.
Yuno
Hazō's plan has her attack the commander, but she has tactical sense. The commander has overextended by coming into their Zone and Kei/Snow should be able to hit him with something. On the other hand, the other jōnin-tier combatant here is about to whip out some ninjutsu, likely AoE given the way everyone is clustered up. She's going to ignore Hazō's orders and attack the other senior ninja.
Supplemental: Activate MARS for everyone. Everyone gets Banshee Slayers, a moment later Flashbang, a moment later Banshee. The world going silent is all their cue for the Flashbang, so there should probably be an Alertness check to prevent there from being collateral Flashbang damage. Unfortunately, the Flashbang mechanics don't support this.
Supplemental: Sprint to the other senior ninja.
Standard: Combination attack with Satsuko.
She has no time to activate any of her jutsu. Sealwise, she has Rocket Boots. She can get into Melee (mechanically, you can always get into Melee with an opponent in the same Zone – they can leave it by winning the Athletics check to dodge your attack), so she has Banshee (with two tags). She has the Flashbang.
She'll Invoke as much as she can to complete the alpha strike. She really wants to inflict a Consequence with this attack, even if it means burning her FP supply for following rounds. Unfortunately, she only has two applicable character Aspects.
Yuno (Melee Weapons): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (Shoryuken) + ? (Flashbang) + ? (Banshee) + ? (invoke "Killing Makes Me Feel Alive") + ? (invoke "With Special Grooves for the Blood") - 1 (PCJ) + ? (dice) = ??
Kasai Senpū (Athletics): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (Substitution) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (dice) = ??
Unfortunately, there's not much Senpū can do at this point… there aren't any good environmental Aspects to tag, and she won't reroll. She'll spend her last FP on half bonus, bringing her total to ??. She takes ? + ? stress. 2 gives her a Mild: "Slashed Forehead," and the remaining ? goes into her stress track.
Kasai Senpū
She Substituted out of the Zone that Yuno was in, so she's in a different adjacent Zone to the one everyone's clumped up in. She will still belt out her AoE attack in the hope that it catches someone, but if that doesn't go exceptionally well, she'll call the retreat. This pink-haired woman is too much to handle.
Given the circumstances, she'll use Sin-Shattering Hammer so that Kishigami needn't dodge and to trap the enemies in if they prove to be too much.
She's still disoriented from the Banshees: Yuno got up close with her to hit, so that's within the 3-tag range. She still has 2 tags on her. Those tags will be used by Hazō and Akane. Kei and Snowflake will Invoke that disorientation.
Kishigami will pass her the tag on "Overwhelmed" on Hazō – she'll use it, but I'll apply it as a -? on his roll so that she makes a single roll.
Standard: Cast signature ninjutsu (?? CP). Shape it so it doesn't hit Kishigami (?? CP).
Kasai Senpū (Sin-Shattering Hammer): ?? + ? (boost) - ? (Consequence penalty) + ? (dice) = ??
Hazō will use another MEW (23 CP). Yuno passes him the tag on "Slashed Forehead".
This is a fairly busy forest, and there are a fair few Substitution targets within 50% of Kei/Akane's body weight, but there's limited time and lots of people Substituting. On the other hand, they had Hazō's whole speech to mark their targets. Let's give them all a Fair (TN15) Substitution check to find targets in time.
Akane: 28
Kei: 26
Snow: 17
Akane (Athletics): 48 + 6 (boost) + 11 (Substitution) + 5 (Banshee) - 1 (PCJ) + 5 (invoke "MEW 2") - 3 (dice) = 71
Kei (Athletics): 50 + 6 (boost) + 10 (Substitution) + 6 (invoke Banshee) - 1 (PCJ) + 0 (dice) = 71
Snowflake (Athletics): 50 + 6 (boost) + 10 (Substitution) + 6 (invoke Banshee) + 6 (invoke "MEW 2") - 1 (PCJ) + 12 = 89
Hazō (Athletics): 40 + 5 (boost) - ? ("Overwhelmed") + 5 (tag "MEW 2") + 5 (Banshee) + 5 (tag "Slashed Forehead") - 3 (dice) = 57 - ?
He could reroll, but I don't think it would be likely to change the outcome. Count your lucky stars, Hazō, that she used Sin-Shattering Hammer and not Heaven's Scythe, which is Weapons:? and would have left him with a Severe. Hazō takes ? + ? = 8 stress, filling his stress track and leaving him with a Mild and a Moderate. Akane and Kei take ? + ? = 1 stress (energy damage, so it doesn't affect PCJ), and Snowflake dodges with a nice +12.
Welp. Didn't even maim the main summoner, and now he'll get away. Rest are uninjured. Crazy pink lady is still out here with her. Fuck that. She'll run.
Supplemental: Sprint away from the Zone (and Yuno)
Supplemental: Substitute to get farther.
She's now 3 Zones away from anyone.
Akane
Hazō's orders were to support Yuno, but she's trapped in the Zone by the residual Sin-Shattering Hammer flames. She is forced to attack Kishigami.
She will use Pantokrator's Hammer (Effect: 2, 16 CP) and trigger another Flashbang (Kishigami wasn't being targeted by anyone when the first round went off, so it didn't create a tag). She'll use Rocket Boots and Wide Angle Blast Rings, since there's no one else in Melee with him right now (no friendly fire risk). She'll take advantage of the Banshee tags, same rules as before.
Can she get Youthful Fist?
Akane (Physique): 33 + 4 + 0 (dice) = 37
Kishigami Seisen (Physique): ?? + ? (dice) = ??
Nope. Akane's learned from the time she nearly died against the Cloud jōnin not to fuck around and instead go all out immediately. Hazō's injured; she can't afford to lose this one. She'll invoke "YOUTHFUL Taijutsu Star", "Equals at Last", and "Team Uplift".
Akane (Taijutsu): 54 + 12 (PKH) + 6 (Shoryuken) + 6 (Banshee) + 6 (Flashbang) + 6 (Wide-angle Blast Rings) + 6 (invoke "YOUTHFUL Taijutsu Star") + 6 (invoke "Equals at Last") + 6 (invoke "Team Uplift") - 1 (PCJ) + 3 (dice) = 110
Unfortunately, Seisen burned all his Supplementals approaching, so he cannot Substitute. He is forced to use MW, and unbuffed, he'll be in trouble. He has to pray for good dice here.
Kishigami Seisen (Melee Weapons): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (dice) = ??
Kishigami takes ? + ? = ? stress. 4 in stress track, 2 for a Mild, 3 for a Moderate, 4 for a Severe, and ? extra means he's chunky salsa.
Kei
Kishigami is dealt with, and the other one seems to have turned tail and run. Yuno will deal with her. Time to clean up the genin. She doesn't want to summon, as it'll cost a lot of chakra and the battle's probably won now. She'll target the Melee Weapons one. He probably leans more on his MW stat to get out of situations than his Athletics.
Because there's a wall of flames in the way of her and the targets, she won't be able to use seals for the fear that they'll be damaged in flight. They're too far from a Banshee/Flashbang user to get bonuses for that.
Supplemental: Draw weapon.
Supplemental: She uses Pantokrator's Hammer (Effect 3: 22 CP), for the extra tag in case the ninjutsu user comes back.
Kei (Ranged Weapons): 40 + 10 (PKH) - 1 (PCJ) - 6 (dice) = 43
He will try to Substitute:
Kasai Tomotsune (Substitution): ?? + ? (dice) = ??
Kasai Tomotsune (Athletics): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (Substitution) + ? (dice) = ??
He dodges.
Snowflake
When in doubt, focus fire? He's only Substituted one Zone away… She is supposed to "Maintain Supplemental to substitute with an ally in danger of taking a serious hit," but also "Pick off enemy support." Since she would need to make both a Standard Block to bodyguard someone with Substitution, as well as save a Supplemental, she'll instead opt to shoot. The main threat to Hazō is gone and Yuno is dealing with the other major threat.
Supplemental: Draw weapon.
Supplemental: She uses Pantokrator's Hammer (Effect 2: 16 CP).
Snowflake (Ranged Weapons): 40 + 10 (PKH) - 1 (PCJ) - 6 (dice) = 43
Incredible. He Overdraws for a Mild (+?? CP) and Substitutes again.
Kasai Tomotsune (Substitution): ?? + 0 (dice) = ??
Kasai Tomotsune (Athletics): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (Substitution) + ? (dice) = ??
Not even remotely close. He's made it two Zones away with his subs, so he's well on his path to run away.
Kishigami Kohoshi
She just saw her dad get blown up in front of her! While she is perfectly capable of attempting (and probably succeeding on) a killing blow on Hazō right now, I think she's going to try to hit Akane instead.
Supplemental: Draw weapon.
Supplemental: Deadshot.
Standard: Kill the woman who murdered your father
Kishigami Kohoshi (Ranged Weapons): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (tag ????) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (invoke ????) + ? (dice) = ??
Akane is out of Supplementals for dodging! She also unfortunately used PKH 2 instead of 3 (assuming the genin were no threat) and doesn't have a spare PKH tag, nor does she have boost since PKH burned it out of her! She's burned her Rocket Boots and she's too far for Banshees to provide tags. She will invoke "Mr. MEW", the other MEW that Hazō erected in the initial onslaught.
Akane (Athletics): 48 + 5 (invoke "Mr. MEW") - 1 (PCJ) - 3 (dice) = 49
She only has 1 FP left, and if she rerolls, she could get a substantially worse outcome. I think she takes it. She takes ? + ? = 9 stress (shame this village doesn't have a sealmaster to make explosives). She soaks 2 into PCJ, 2 into a Mild, 3 into a Moderate, and 2 into her stress track. She is pretty beat up.
Hazō
He can't leave the Zone by foot to support Akane. He is also beat to shit. He has to leave.
Supplemental: Draw MARS Sandbomb and toss it into the sky
Supplemental: Trigger MARS, creating the Aspect "Sandstorm Skies" in his Zone.
Standard: Hiding Like a Mole.
Exits the combat.
Kasai Tomotsune
Just legging it. Exits the combat.
Kasai Hirotora
He could probably hit Akane with a ninjutsu if he overdrew, but then he'd be dead as soon as that finished. Nah, his team leader said to retreat. He runs, exiting the combat.
Round 2
Initiative
Yuno +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Kasai Senpū +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Akane +6 boost 246 CP, 1 FP
Kei no boost 84 CP, 3 FP
Snowflake no boost 4 CP, 3 FP
Kishigami Kohoshi +? boost ??? CP, ? FP
Yuno
Absolutely murder the fuck out of the person that tried to hurt Akane. Enemy has no Sub (all Supplementals used) and no FP.
Yuno (Melee Weapons): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (Banshee) - 1 (PCJ) + ? (dice) = ??
Kishigami Kohoshi (Athletics): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (dice) = ??
? + ? = ? stress is another enemy killed.
Kasai Senpū
Flee some more, exiting the combat. Use Gentle Hand to speed her escape.
Akane
Full Round: Put on skywalkers.
Kei
Chase after Kasai Hirotora, the Ninjutsu user.
Snowflake
Chase after Kasai Tomotsune, the MW user.
Round 3
There are three ninja now, going in 3 separate directions. There are 3 pursuers: Yuno on the chūnin, Kei on the Ninjutsu user (reasoning that since ninjutsu could pop Snowflake easily, she's better suited to the task), and Snowflake on the MW user (who should be easier to capture, since he ought to be low on chakra after Substituting and boosting away).
Each enemy may choose to either make an Athletics contest to get away, or use Stealth against Alertness.
Kasai Tomotsune (Stealth): ?? + ? (Time Ladder: he got pretty far away before the pursuit started) + ? (dice) = ??
Snowflake (Alertness): 40 - 6 (dice) = 34
He's caught.
Kasai Hirotora (Athletics): ?? + ? (dice) = ??
Kei (Athletics): 50 + 9 (dice) = 59
He's also caught.
Kasai Senpū does not need to make a check: with the additional movement provided by Gentle Hand, she can get away from Yuno, who has no noteworthy movement enhancing techniques. Yuno spends two rounds burning Substitutions (-56 CP) before realizing she can't catch up and slowing down. She is at ??? CP.
Yuno decides to stop dealing with the forest and sprint over the open sky. She is at a ? Zone disadvantage, meaning she catches up in just a couple rounds after she dons her skywalkers inserts (wow, these seals are OP). She climbs up above the treeline and follows in the direction of the target, dipping down and back up to follow the trail. She deactivates her Banshee + Banshee Slayers while she is doing this. Kasai is more focused on running than obscuring the trail, as she no longer hears pursuit. Kasai is similarly making noise as she moves, and is really not that far away. Yuno pursues her, and eventually catches up.
Yuno
Supplemental: Trigger the MARS attached to her Banshee + Slayers again.
Supplemental: Trigger a Flashbang
Yuno (Melee Weapons): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (Banshee) + ? (Flashbang) - 1 (PCJ) + ? (dice) = ??
Kasai Senpū (Athletics): ?? + ? (boost) + ? (Substitution) - ? (Mild) + ? (dice) = ??
Yuno wins. There's no realistic way that Kasai can land a hit on a boosting, skywalkered Yuno, and Yuno can hit back harder than she can afford to dodge. Kasai takes ? + ? = ? stress. That's a Severe. She's dead within the next round.
Kei and Snowflake drag back (using ninja wire) the two ninja they knocked out, reconvening with Hazō from the earth and Akane and Yuno from the sky (Akane, covered in her own blood, Yuno covered in other people's).
Somehow, a total victory for Team Uplift.
Hazō is at 179 CP. He has spent 5 FP. He has taken the Mild Consequence "Lightly Charred Lungs" and the Moderate Consequence "Fire Really, Really Hurts". He gains 2 for taking Consequences, and 1 for winning an encounter, for a net of -2 FP.
Akane is at 246 CP. She has taken the Mild Consequence "Damaged Hamstring" and the Moderate Consequence "Not Quite Gutted". She also has netted -2 FP.
Kei is at 84 CP. She has spent 4 FP and gained 1 for winning an encounter. She has netted -3 FP.
Snowflake is at 4 CP.
Yuno says she's at around half her chakra.
Hazō estimates that if the patrol was running straight at them this whole time, they're probably around 15 minutes away.
You have two conscious captives. The three other ninja are dead and sealed.
-o-
You have received 1 + 1 (Brevity) = 2 XP.
QM/N: Strictly speaking, you've already received 4 + 1 = 5 XP for today, so this is a bonus.
-o-
What do you do?
Voting closes at .
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- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Please join us in offering an enormous 'Thank You!' to the amazing and inimitable @Paperclipped for putting this update together for us. @Velorien and I helped a bit with planning and did some light editing of the final product, but Paper is the one who specced out the various enemies, did all the rolls, and wrote the actual update.
Unaligned Player
Agony that desires to meet Extinction
- Location
- Adrift between sanity and madness
- Pronouns
- Shrug
Adequate victory.
- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
Holy heck what a tense fight. I was honestly expecting one or more of us to die here.
Despite what the Consequences may say, I'm worried about Akane. Aspects are True and that Medium of hers doesn't sound nice and stable like Hazou's. If she's actively losing blood and suffering organ damage then we need to prioritize finding healing for her. Going back home would take a lot of time, but on the other hand it'd be... tricky to get mednin help from the locals.
Despite what the Consequences may say, I'm worried about Akane. Aspects are True and that Medium of hers doesn't sound nice and stable like Hazou's. If she's actively losing blood and suffering organ damage then we need to prioritize finding healing for her. Going back home would take a lot of time, but on the other hand it'd be... tricky to get mednin help from the locals.
MrRobot
In doubt there's always the Sun!
Regarding akane we can probably get a summon doctor to look into it and stabilize her wound. If this is unfeseble there's the village that may have some sort of healer we can treaten.
Well time to pack our shit ad leave. I don't believe people are willing to unleash panshee on the genin for info or that Hazõ and akane can take another encounter like this.
I sugets hide in the sky, 15 minutes is enough for it.
Well time to pack our shit ad leave. I don't believe people are willing to unleash panshee on the genin for info or that Hazõ and akane can take another encounter like this.
I sugets hide in the sky, 15 minutes is enough for it.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Let's fuckin GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Team uplift bitch fuck around and find out
praise jashin!
praise jashin!
Bahahaha that's amazing. GOD IS ON OUR SIDE
We could ask Noburi what he thinks. The amount of time it'd take to get home with two fairly injured ninja is like more than how long Mediums even last
- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[looks at randomly-generated patrol stats] Ahhahahahahaha.
- Location
- The Void
- Pronouns
- She/Her
also Fuck yeah @Paperclipped!
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Can you blame a god for testing his 'loyal' subjects? Maybe this will teach Hazou some proper respect
MrRobot
In doubt there's always the Sun!
A worthy chalenge. But at least we have confirmation.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
Thank you to everyone involved, and also how dare you, and also bravo.
Threnodist
occupying Haudenosaunee & Osage land she/her/hers
- Location
- Pittsburgh
Thank you @Paperclipped ! I really enjoyed the combat and could feel the danger! You did a great job!
- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
*QMs watching us escape yet another fight with no lethalities*
"They can't keep getting away with this!"
- Location
- The Void
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
@Velorien and @eaglejarl, do the characters think that exfiltrating with either of the captives (alive) is an option?
Potential answers:
Potential answers:
- Yes, Hazo believes that you could carry one of the captives and make a relatively clean getaway.
- Yes, Hazo believes that you could carry both of the captives and make a relatively clean getaway.
- No, Hazo is certain that trying to carry either one or both captives would slow you down enough that you'd run a significant risk of being caught by a patrol.
- Carrying one captive incurs risk - you'll be slower - but it's a risk, not a sure thing.
- Carrying both captives incurs risk - you'll be slower - but it's a risk, not a sure thing.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
*QMs kneeling at the feet of the RNGod of the Machine*
"Please m'lord. May we kill one of the characters?"
It Rumbles, " N̵̯̆o̵̟͊,̴̬̚ ̴̺̉I a̴̧̿m̵̹̐ ̴̳̓t̷͓̎o̷͎̔ỏ̶̞ ̸̼́i̵̞͝n̶͒͜v̸͚̐e̸̺͝s̵̲͠t̴̥̚e̵͙͂d̷̖͝ ̸̮̈́in t̴̯̀ḧ̸̪́e̶̳̐ỉ̴̜r̵̲̎ ̷̨͒c̶̖͊h̵͑͜a̷̻̿r̵͔̽a̴̹͒c̴͓̒t̸̜͘e̸̩͊r̶̮͂ ̵̺̄a̵̤͂r̸͇͝c̴̏ͅ.̷̙̂ "