Ah, while we may not have given EJ a punchy update, at least we can offer him conversations with stakes involved.
Why do we need to do so many stakes-free conversations? If the outcome of the conversation is not in tension... can we find some way to skip them?
May 18, 1070 AS, 12:30pm
"Wow. You look like a walking corpse," Noburi said, dropping into his seat and crossing his legs, right ankle on left knee, and spreading his napkin full of snacks on the arm of the chair.
Hazō leaned his elbows on his desk and rubbed his face with both hands. "Love you too, Nobby. We sealed up the cabins at dawn, ran for five hours, and I got back thirty minutes ago. Had a quick wash and stuffed down some sushi while Gaku read me in on what's been happening. I'm a little tired but there's a lot to do."
Sometimes, I wish this were like The Waves Arisen, where Shadow Clones share their physical state with their progenitors. Sure, it would suck for actual fights, but we'd be able to have Shadow Clones start sleeping immediately, then pop throughout the day for bursts of energy.
Well, TWA SCs were busted, so perhaps it's for the better that this wasn't the case.
"Yeah?" Noburi leaned back and tossed a nut into his mouth.
"How the hell are you losing fat, gaining muscle, but every time I see you you're stuffing your face?"
Fun fact: Noburi is not the buffest Gouketsu chuunin -- that honor is taken by Kei (tied with Akane).
"Clean living. Why am I being graced with a summons, O Fearless Leader?"
"Training plans. You said you wanted to learn Earth Element so you can learn MaRI so you can build roads."
"And, judging by the fact that I'm sitting here while you're dead on your feet, you think it's a bad plan."
Ah, yes. Considering that Earth is in the works for Akane, it could be vastly faster to have her and Noburi work together on it, never mind how XP-bounded Noburi is.
Hazō sighed and glugged down another cup of wakemoss tea. It was foul stuff, brown and stinky, and too much of it loosened the bowels. Still, it was the second-best thing for keeping you awake and Hazō wasn't quite willing to step up to Shikamaru's level of using dilute Akimichi stimulants.
I continue to wonder if there are substances we could use to temporarily remove the effects of Mental Consequences, or perhaps even boost the performance of mental skills. That seems like a plausible thing to exist mechanically, and we can fairly freely abuse substances with Shadow Clones.
"I think that there's a limited number of hours in the day and you've got a lot of things you've expressed interest in," he said, yawning. "Whatever your top priority is, I want to help you get there as efficiently as possible. Learning a new chakra nature is an all-consuming thing that takes months, so if you go for that then you're not making progress on other things. I also think that if you want to build roads then you could have one of your toads learn MaRI and start on it tomorrow, instead of spending months learning a new element in order to do it yourself. So. Medical skills so you can save lives? Combat skills so you can be deployed in the field? Earth Element so you can build roads?"
Yep, Toad Road is also an option. Combat skills has a greater use than just "be deployed" though... it impresses the Toads, improving status as a Summoner (and maybe moving towards Sage Mode), and attaining jounin rank gets him closer to Shadow Clone.
Noburi hesitated, then deliberately tossed another trio of nuts in his mouth. "You're saying I shouldn't study the new element."
"I'm saying you shouldn't chase after the latest shiny thing that's going to make you feel like you're making a difference. I'm saying you should figure out what's going to let you make a difference."
"'Chasing after the latest shiny thing'? That's a bitch way to put it, bro."
Well, it is true, at least from what I can tell. We brought a cool idea to him, he decided he liked it enough that he wanted to control it wholesale, even though that's not the best for him or for others. It's shiny, it happens. Not sure if this is the best phrasing to get him out of it, though.
"Is it wrong?"
A muscle in Noburi's cheek jumped as his eyes narrowed. He chewed his nuts silently, eyes locked on Hazō's.
Always a good idea to have your mouth full if you think you might say something rude: good manners might save you.
Hazō sighed. "Noburi, I don't mean to be rude but I need to talk to Asuma in an hour and before I do that I want to make sure I've lined up instructors for you and ensured that your schedule has room at times that work for you and for them. Now, you can get pissy with me if you want, but right now either choose something or tell me that you want to think about it and then go think about it. Those are your options, so pick one."
I, uh, notice that there's no actual decision made here. Not even a "Yeah, I need to think about it."
(I know what Noburi actually picked since
@Shrooms told me, but I imagine this was terribly confusing when the chapter was published)
o-o-o-o
May 18, 1070 AS, 1:30pm
"Welcome back, Hazō," Asuma said, settling back into his chair with a sigh. "Enjoy your trip?"
As always, a reminder of trust and vulnerability, but not too much. A reminder that Asuma is human and gets tired, but not that he's weak.
"I did, sir. Thank you."
"I'm assuming that you'll be resuming your Tower-mandated instruction of young Hagoromo, which you have been ignoring for the last two weeks?" The words were snarky but there was a trace of amusement in them. Only a trace; Asuma was only mostly joking.
Bah, he's already infused a seal. What more is there to teach him?
I wonder if the instruction will end at strictly 1 year, or if we'll need to continue until we've provided 365 days of teaching?
"With respect, sir, I cleared it with the Hagoromo before leaving and gave them the option of sending Harumitsu with us. They declined. I also left him with substantial study materials and arranged for Aburame Manjirō to check in with him twice a week. Aburame is damn good. Seal students fight to get lessons with him and I had to promise a major trade to make it happen. He's got ten favor tokens that he can call in to have either me or Kagome-sensei guest lecture to his students."
Screw all these other teachers. If we can get him up to Sealing 10, we can hand him Jiraiya's notes and let old J-man take over from beyond the grave.
Asuma smiled. "Does Kagome know that he's going to have to do this?"
"I...may have left that conversation for a future date."
A bit of procrastination. Would Kagome really mind getting to lecture about sealing theory to eager youngsters? One of the things we bribed him with when we were trying to get him to join our party was the thought of him becoming a world-famous sealing teacher...
The smile turned into a chuckle. "Oh, to be a fly on the wall for that meeting. Anyway, Isobe said that you had something to show me?"
Hazō nodded. He reached into his satchel and pulled out a leatherbound, stained, and heavily dog-eared journal with pages rucked up by inserted notes. He held it out; Asuma leaned forward and took the journal from Hazō's extended hand, frowning as he did. He looked at the cover, then flipped it open and studied the piece of storage-seal-equipped paper that had been tucked inside. He looked back at Hazō. "The Fourth's notes on the jinchūriki seal?"
Oh hey, we're handing it over immediately? I'd have figured we should make some positive progress before we give him anything. Though, if it's true that no one else has made any progress on the seal, then knowing about the code seems immensely valuable for Asuma... this will probably earn us some serious good will.
I searched through some past chapters and found this:
"Crazy. Utterly bonkers. Still, I've seen a lot of weird stuff, the kid says you're not apt to lie, and the consequences of being wrong are high enough that I'm willing to go along. I'm not going to burn my credibility on this, but I'll talk to Pantsā. I can probably get him to send a Condor to scout out what's happening, and once there's some evidence I'll go in with him on calling a conclave of rulers. I'll show up and say that I'm not sure I believe it but that we should still go check it out. And I'll agree to go myself, to verify it and fight if it's real. That's about the best I can get you."
The Condor scout confirmed the Dragons. Ruri confirmed the Dragons. Asuma and Enma should both have recieved adequate confirmation that it's real, or at least enough for Enma to follow through and travel to Arachnid to witness the Dragons.
Scouting the Great Seal with Kagome and Enma scene, anyone? Obviously can't take Monkey King onto the butte for oath reasons (unless we add him to the polycule??), but we can manage.
"Yes sir." He checked his voice to make sure it wouldn't shake. Between the wakemoss tea (which was finally kicking in, and it was possible he'd overdone it) and the fear of how Asuma might react to this conversation, Hazō was feeling wonderfully awake. "That's the first journal, the other nine are in the seal. The journals belong to Leaf and I'm offering them back if you wish to reclaim them. I'm also notifying you of some discoveries we've made."
Asuma's eyebrows shot up. "You made discoveries about the notes?"
Okay, so this is
very notable. I suppose Asuma could reclaim them now, but given that Kagome was supposed to be among the best sealmasters in Leaf, the only other person Asuma would plausibly give them to to learn the seals would be Orochimaru, and I doubt he wants to empower the Basement-dweller any further.
"Yes sir. As head of Clan Gōketsu, I am notifying the Hokage that the notes are dangerous. Sections of them are intentionally incorrect, designed to cause failures if followed." He shrugged. "The Fourth was extremely concerned about another village gaining access to these notes. After looking through them, I can understand why. The final seal, the jinchūriki seal itself, is ridiculously complicated. The notes are a chain of seals, a pedagogical series. Many of the seals do essentially nothing—they simply create a chakra construct that dissolves after a few seconds, the only point being to teach a particular technique that's necessary for the final seal. Some of them, however, are useful. All of them, useful or not, are massive traps. Instructions that are designed to kill you, sections out of order, localizations that are the inverse of what they should be, excess elements in the blank, false blanks...when was the last time someone worked on these before me?"
Hm... The jinchuuriki seal is that hard, huh? Sure, Minato's version is fancy, but how the hell did they ever manage to seal it those suckers during the Warring Clans era?
Asuma thought about that. "Eight, nine years ago? Maybe?"
"What happened?"
Asuma leaned back, hefting the journal thoughtfully. "I wasn't closely involved, but Dad was pretty stressed. There were a couple of weeks of absolutely horrific weather across everything within a hundred miles. Firestorms on one side of a farm while the other side was suffering torrential rain. Houses flattened and covered in ice by winds that screamed with human voices. A month later a swarm of fire ants ate a good chunk of the forest population east of Leaf."
Within a hundred miles of what? Not Leaf, I hope...
Wow, this civilization is a few good sealing failures away from the stone ages.
"Fire ants?"
"Ants made out of fire." He shrugged. "There was a third incident and then the investigation stopped."
Has Hazou ever heard of water ants, growing up in Mist?
"Huh. Figuring these seals out would make a sealmaster's career, and being able to produce the jinchūriki seal is important to Leaf's security. I'm surprised whoever was doing the research was willing to give up."
I'm surprised he didn't mention the other prize: figuring out the jinchuuriki seals could lead to better understanding
other parts of Minato's legacy (Flying Thunder God
cough cough).
"Oh, they didn't give up. The third incident was the Moritaka estate dissolving into smoke and everyone with a drop of Moritaka blood exploding, the researchers going last."
Hm. Let's not fuck around with these seals until we're confident we can handle them, yeah?
"Ah. Yes, that sounds like a good reason to stop."
"And you're telling me that this wasn't incompetence or misfortune on their part? It was intentional sabotage by the Fourth?"
"Uh..." Crap. What did you say to that? "Sir, all I can say is that I suspect the Fourth thought about this a lot. Also, these are working notes from when he was doing the research. He probably intended to clean them up for final publication later, and remove the traps in the process. Am I right that he died the night the Fox attacked?"
Were these notes ever meant to be shared? I had figured they were personal notes that Leaf "reclaimed" after his death. He wasn't sabotaging Leaf ninja any more than anyone who cares about their own ninja secrets would -- and given the Clans, I suspect few of them would shed a tear at someone else dying while trying to figure out their Clan secrets.
Asuma studied him for a moment, then nodded. "It's not bandied about, but it's not actually classified either. His wife, Kushina, was the previous jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox. I never learned the exact details, but my understanding is that jinchūriki seals weaken when the bearer is pregnant—something about having another chakra system inside your own, I think. One of the reasons that the Fourth was working so hard on inventing a new seal was to eliminate that weakness."
Hmm... so maybe the old set of seals were biosealing based in some way? And the new one bypasses that by not having a tattooed seal on skin, but directly on chakra systems?
He sighed and shook his head, then rolled himself a cigarette and lit it. He leaned back in his chair, hands folded on his stomach and the cigarette dangling precariously from his lips. "Dad never talked about it much—it didn't really come up—but I remember him saying a few things that made me suspect there might be other weaknesses to Kushina's seal that the Fourth wanted to correct. I don't know the details.
Iiinteresting. If the notes describe those weaknesses, we could exploit them against other jinchuuriki...
"Anyway, when Kushina was actively giving birth, the seal broke and the Fox escaped. The Fourth sealed it into his just-born son but the process killed him and Kushina bled out from a bad birth before anyone could get to her." He smiled sadly. "The power of human sacrifice indeed."
As simple as that? Same story as canon, just no malicious actor involved... I wonder if all was fair play here.
Hazō nodded thoughtfully. "No one in Leaf knows the seal right now, true?"
"True. No one has wanted to touch it since the Moritaka Clan died. I had rather hoped that you would learn it. That's part of why I let you study the notes."
Quick check: does Asuma think we're better at sealing than the Moritaka? Sure, we know how to decode the notes, but this would provide a good outside view estimate of how skilled we'd need to be to attempt the notes.
"Sir, I've discussed this with my advisors and we aren't quite sure of the best way to handle it, so I'm bringing the question to you."
"Oh?" Asuma's eyebrow went up. "This sounds like it'll be fun."
Hazō laughed, the sound escaping against his will before being cut off by a spike of nerves. "This is more us needing to clarify some points of law, sir."
"Hazō, before you say anything else, I assume that you're not going to try to claim that the jinchūriki notes are now your clan's secrets?"
Oh. I see why this conversation is high stakes now. This seems very, very tough to do.
"No sir. The notes belong to the Tower—or maybe to Naruto, I don't know, but definitely not to the Gōketsu. They were loaned to us and we understand and appreciate that. That's why I brought them back." He gestured to the journal on the Hokage's desk and the seal that it contained. "Kagome-sensei and I haven't finished decoding them, although we've made significant strides. We have not copied them. If you choose to return the notes to us then we'll continue our research, taking care to keep the research site well away from Leaf proper. If you choose not to return them to us then we will focus our efforts on other things."
"All right...?"
Okay, so we're establishing one side of things: Asuma can always take the Gouketsu out of the equation if he wants to. Or, he could get our help with the bijuu seals, and...
"Sir, the notes belong to the Tower but the discoveries we've made do not. Anyone with the relevant skills could replicate what we did, given the materials and the effort and the same amount of luck that we had. I've informed you of the key item, the fact that the notes are trapped and that it's important to locate the traps before proceeding. That right there"—he gestured to the journal and the storage seal inside it—"contains everything necessary to duplicate our investigation and our results." Including the poems that had been the key, but he wasn't going to mention that. "If you allow us to continue the research and we eventually learn to create the jinchūriki seal then we will be happy to put it on anyone the Tower directs us to whenever we're told to do so. Hopefully there won't be the need for a very long time, since that would mean something had happened to Naruto.
Or the One/Two/Three Tails came back, or another jinchuuriki died (in war or otherwise) and Leaf wants to opportunistically snatch their Beast.
The key point is that this isn't an urgent issue. If you don't want the Gōketsu to have this information then there's plenty of time for other people to make the same discoveries that we did and go beyond them.
"The jinchūriki seal itself belongs to Leaf, but the specific nature of the security measures in the notes does not. The progress that we've made on the intermediate seals belongs to us." He smiled, wry and thin. "For the record, said 'progress' is almost nil. We've figured out what some of them do, but that's it. In addition to his security measures, the Fourth was very cagey about what he wrote down. There seems to be enough there to figure out what they all do and how to make them, but he didn't write down the details of their function or even give them names."
Bold. I suppose Asuma could compel us to hand over the work you did on Tower resources, but that seems like it would violate some part of the ninja ethos. If he
paid us to hand it over, treating it like an A-rank mission to be generous, I feel like we would have little recourse, though.
"You said that some of them only produce chakra constructs. Sounds like you know what they do."
"Yes sir," Hazō said, nodding. "Some of them. There's thirty-one seals in the chain, with the jinchūriki seal itself making thirty-two. We have what amounts to a one-sentence explanation of eight of the first ten seals. No clue what the rest do." He fell silent, watching Asuma and struggling not to sweat.
So the 10 journals we handed over are the 10 seals that we currently have access to? And we have a one-sentence explanation of the first 8, but the last 2 are indecipherable?
For his part, Asuma slouched back in his chair, studying Hazō calmly. He drew on his cigarette, then reached up and took it from his lips so he could blow a smoke cloud at the ceiling. Hazō waited silently as the older man watched the bluish plume roil and dissolve.
"You sure you want to go here, Hazō?" Asuma said calmly.
I can practically feel the rising tension! I like how Asuma's friendly demeanor breaks down into a slow, deliberate one -- it's clear that he's always in control.
"Sir, I've returned the notes and I've given you the key information. That's more than we had going in and if you give it to someone else with the right skills then they can repeat our investigation. Without the notes we can't pursue this line of research any farther—well, we could, but it would be insane and we're not going to. This stuff is way too dangerous to do without the notes. The Fourth was a genius and neither Kagome-sensei nor I have the slightest hint of a belief that we're on his level. Good enough to follow where he leads? Yes, I think so. Good enough to carve the path ourselves? No.
Don't sell yourself short Hazou, we're betting on you figuring out 3D sealing and fixing the Great Seal (though maybe the best way to do so will simply be to resurrect Minato...)
If you don't want the Gōketsu to benefit from the work we've done, I understand and will respect that position without complaint, although I think letting us continue our work would benefit Leaf in the long run.
What a heavy spin! Is this Mari's hand at work here, helping him with the framing?
I'm simply saying that what we're doing is difficult, and dangerous, and the Gōketsu should benefit as well. The jinchūriki seal belongs to Leaf and the notes belong to Leaf. If we figure it out then we'll put the seal on anyone you like, we'll give the notes to anyone you think should have them, and we won't make copies without your express permission. Beyond that, what we create using those materials belongs to the Gōketsu. We're a new clan and we need our own advantages, same as any other clan does."
So, we're saying that the notes belong to him, and the final jinchuuriki seal, if we figure it out, belongs to him, but everything else is ours?
Also: haha not mentioning all our advantages already. So many awesome seals, and now with MARS...
"One might suggest that three Summoning Scrolls should do as an advantage. Especially given that the Arachnid Scroll was obtained for you by the military efforts of Leaf." He tossed one hand. "Since it belongs to your married sister, I'll be generous and not count the Pangolin Scroll which is the key to Leaf's trade network and therefore provides tremendous economic leverage."
Well yes, that too. Though hopefully we don't stop at 3...
There had been a roiling, burning ball of terror chewing at Hazō's insides ever since he left the estate to come to this meeting. The ball slowed its roils by a smidgen; Asuma's voice was measured and chilly, but it was calm and there was no tension around his eyes. Hazō was probably going to walk out of the room on his own two feet and be allowed to go home instead of to a killbox.
And he's also arguing back, rather than just overriding!
Really, Hazou had a good shot here. Even if he was over-ambitious, he left himself some good lines of retreat. Killboxing as a result of being ambitious here was unlikely. At worst, we lose goodwill and also the notes.
Well... there's always the odds that the foot meets the mouth, yes.
"True, one might suggest that, sir," Hazō agreed. "On the other hand, the Toad Scroll was our inheritance from Jiraiya, which we earned by contributing skywalkers to Leaf. The Dog Scroll was given to us by the Tower as thanks for when we donated our founder's sealing notes. Those documents were the most precious possession that we had, the biggest advantage we had compared to the other clans, and we willingly gave them up without being certain that we would get anything in return."
These are advantages, to be sure, just fairly earned ones. Which I suppose is what Hazou's trying to argue that Minato's notes are.
Asuma took another drag on the cigarette and blew a smoke ring. "And the Arachnid Scroll?"
"Given to us by the Hokage's decision and for sufficient reason. As to the Leaf military action involved, it was performed using tactics and capabilities supplied by the Gōketsu that allowed Leaf to eliminate an enemy stronghold with no losses. Well, no losses of people we like."
It required a lot of capabilities working together, but it certainly would never have happened without the Gouketsu. (Or the Hyuuga or Orochimaru, but let's not mention those).
Asuma laughed. He tossed the butt of his cigarette into the bucket of sand next to his desk and rolled himself another one.
We need to get Asuma a fancy ashtray. Simple gift, shows attention to detail.
"Sir, the Gōketsu are loyal," Hazō said. "We aren't taking anything that's not ours. We're providing a warning that will give other Leaf sealmasters a better chance to survive reading those notes. If we manage to figure out the jinchūriki seal—which we may not, and it's years out even if we can—then we'll use it as the Tower directs. I'm simply saying that everything else belongs to us. If someone else wants to do the research and learn the same things we learn, more power to them. I simply don't think we should be obligated to hand it over ourselves."
Again, I think Asuma could reasonably make deciphering the notes and learning the seals an A-rank mission, assign Hazou and Kagome to it, and pay them generously for their work. Hazou and Kagome would get the benefit of the seals by learning them, but the Tower would keep rights over the spoils.
Asuma twisted his cigarette shut, lit it, and then leaned back in his chair. He placed his feet up on his desk, legs crossed at the ankle, and studied Hazō calmly. He took a deep drag on the cigarette, burning up a quarter of it in one pull.
Hazō couldn't help swallowing nervously, but he rigidly suppressed all other reaction.
IN tension probably looks weird to outsiders. Being completely locked up, rigor-mortis style. What do we gotta level to look more natural here, Deceit? Is Hazou's easy-to-read manner an asset here, in that it makes Asuma understand our motives better?
Asuma studied him.
Hazō's stomach roiled faster.
Asuma blew a long trail of smoke to the ceiling, then studied the tip of his cigarette thoughtfully.
He did all that studying with a lungful of smoke? Crazy guy.
"All right," he said at last.
"Sir?"
"It's a fair point. Make copies of the seal notes and send the originals back to the Tower. I'm sure I don't have to share my thoughts on the priority of that?"
Success! Though we clearly burned through a lot of goodwill to make it happen.
Let's stay on Asuma's good side for a while, maybe bring him some wins (and avoid bringing him headaches) until we're back to normal.
"You do not, sir, although I note that copies of blanks shouldn't be trusted if they weren't made by the original sealmaster. Having them will be better than nothing but people really should work from the originals." He hesitated, sensing that he had only seconds before this meeting ended. "One last thing, sir. It would be helpful if we could study the actual seal, the one on Naruto, but I'm not sure about how this works. Do you object to that? Do you think it's a bad idea to talk to him?"
Oh no.... we'll be working from copies, not originals? Surely we can arrange to take out some subset of the originals at a time -- say the first 10 for now? And keep copies in the Tower until we need to swap 'em out, Orochimaru style.
Asuma laughed. "You intend to ask Naruto to stand patiently while you poke and prod at his seal?"
"Yes sir. If he'll let me."
I wonder if Kagome's chakrascope will be useful here, or what tools they'll be using and what readings they'll be taking...
"I'm given to understand that the two of you have a somewhat...exciting relationship."
Well, he didn't mention our threatening-Hiashi treason, so Naruto probably kept his mouth shut on that?
"A bit, sir. Still, he's loyal to Leaf and he's smart. Leaf needs that seal available and we're the ones working on it."
Asuma shook his head in amusement. "Dad always said that there was never a day without a surprise." He thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Ask him. If he says no...have him talk to me."
Well, that's a good sign. Hopefully we'll get some small bonus as a result of having an example seal to study (even if it's horrendously complicated).
The knot unclenched a tiny bit more. "Thank you, sir."
"Anything else?"
"No sir."
"Dismissed."
Well, Asuma seemed to return to his friendly demeanor by the end of the conversation, so our relationship with him is very far from bungled... but we definitely stretched the limits of his generosity here. Again, I think a few months of keeping our heads down and not causing problems is probably in order.
o-o-o-o
May 18, 1070 AS, 7:30pm
Naruto opened the door and paused, surprised. "What are you doing here?"
Oh hey, we're just gunning for it, huh? All in one day.
"And a fine how-do-you-do to you as well," Mari said, smiling. "Do you have a minute?"
Naruto studied her for a moment, then shrugged. He conjured and dispelled a clone, then stepped back and pulled the door wide, gesturing Mari towards the sitting area.
...when he does things like this on a regular basis, I'm astonished that not literally everyone knows about SC memory transfer. Also, the fact that the cost of making a clone is trivial to (what I assume to be) a clone is concerning...
Mari swept inside with the grace of a dancer and settled herself primly on an overstuffed and much battered couch, a horrific green thing that made up for its ugliness by being uncomfortably lumpy. Naruto lounged in the midnight-blue armchair opposite her; a moment later another Naruto came in with a tea tray and set it on the low table between them before taking a seat in another armchair.
The couch! Poor Minato's dad, living life out on a uncomfy couch. At least he managed to curse his descendants with it.
Naruto is trying to 2-v-1 Mari? Interrogation tactics?
"And whyfor do you grace my humble abode this fine day?" the first Naruto asked.
Mari chuckled and cocked her head. "Is it actually your home in particular? I know that Snowflake got legally recognized as an individual with legal rights separate from those of her Prime, but I'm suddenly realizing that I don't know if that was a general policy or a special case."
Is joint ownership of property a thing in Leaf? The home could be owned by all his Shadow Clones at once.
"What makes you think I'm a clone?"
Mari gave him a Look. "Really?"
"You're not an idiot."
"What?"
"First, Naruto Prime makes constant use of his clones for all sorts of things, so it's hardly surprising that he'd have one answer the door. Second, he's not an idiot. Answering the door has security risks when you live in the middle of town like this, without a wall or guards. Why would he have his physical body do it?"
Naruto looked amused. "I learned a long time ago that once someone has decided I'm a clone there's no way to prove it to them aside from stabbing myself or letting them punch me, and I'm not masochistic enough to do that for no good reason. For the sake of this conversation, let's assume that I am in fact Naruto Prime."
Well, he certainly didn't try to claim he was Prime. Yeah yeah, "neither confirm nor deny", but he's almost certainly a clone. I wonder how life is like, psychologically, when you only have your clones around for 90+% of the time-- indentical, perfectly subordinate copies of you.
"As you say." She shifted on the couch, trying to find a more comfortable spot. "In that case, you're the person I need to speak to."
"Oh? Why me in particular?"
"Because, as I understand it, only Prime has an actually functional seal on those impressive six-pack abs of his."
Though, perhaps the clones have non-functional copies of it, which could be worth investigating as well.
Let me just say that I'm
very excited about the idea of Hazou downloading
the active bijuu seal that is currently holding the Nine Tails. One of the few seals that I think could still give us more TYS, depending on how nice the Nine Tails is.
Naruto rubbed at his forehead briefly. "I'm going to roll on past the implied innuendo from a woman old enough to be my mother."
"Hey! I am not! You can't have children at te—at eight years old."
Naruto thinks she's >30. Rude, she's clearly twentymumble.
Naruto snorted. "Sure. Anyway, why does my seal matter?"
"Has Asuma read you in on the fact that Hazō has been researching the Fourth's jinchūriki seal? Your jinchūriki seal?"
"He did. Why?"
Many, many months ago now, in @@, did we get those notes. I fear it may be many months yet before we can even attempt the first seal in the chain, given the apparent difficulty of those seals.
She crossed her legs and leaned forward, fingers interlaced around her knee. "Naruto, I'm sorry to put it like this, but that seal is a matter of national security for Fire. My lips to the Sage's ear: may it not be something that Leaf needs for many, many years. Still, there will come a time when we do. Either because something happens to you, or because you kill another jinchūriki and their bijū is rampaging around needing to be contained. It was the masterwork of a genius sealmaster and it's going to take a long time to puzzle it out. We can't afford to wait until it's needed to start working on it, we need to have it ready in advance."
Nice, laying on the flattery for Minato ("Your dad was brilliant and we're all trying to follow in his footsteps") as well as hitting Naruto's desires ("You're the kind of person that cares about national security, right?")
"Tell him that familiarity with his seal might help us figure out the Great Seal and how to prevent it from falling apart," Hazō had said.
Well, they're both seals that contain powerful creatures. We should pair this research with understanding what exactly Tailed Beasts are.
This type of thing -- knowledge -- might be something to get from Orochimaru. If the Dragon parts trade has concluded, we can try selling him the pieces on a permanent basis. Ideally, we do that while we're handing over the last part, so as to make things convenient for him....
Though maybe we don't want to draw his attention to Minato's notes?
"Wrong approach," Mari had said, shaking her head. "He's got no way to judge the importance of the Great Seal or the probability that it exists. It's easy for people to believe a comforting denial over a truth about looming disaster that they can personally do nothing about. Better to keep it to patriotism and preparedness."
Asuma can confirm it, via the jounin he chose to recieve a Summoning Scroll? That seems like something Naruto would take seriously.
"You're the expert," Hazō had said, in a way that made her smile in delight at the trust. "Work with a light touch. It's more important that we not pooch the relationship any more than it already is than that we get access to the seal in the immediate future."
"Did you always try to teach your grandmother to suck eggs or am I special?"
"I never knew her, so I guess you're special."
She had blown a raspberry at him and then went to talk Naruto into being a test subject for dangerous seal-related experiments.
I do like these cutaways.
"Aside from disaster preparedness, think of the military implications," Mari said. "A large fraction of the S-rank ninja in the world died recently. Many of the ones who remain are jinchūriki. My understanding is that your father's seal was intended to allow transplanting a jinchūriki from one person to another, right? Suppose we could steal the jinchūriki from the other villages and turn them into Leaf assets?" His eyes widened but before he could speak she waved a hand to cut him off. "Oh, I definitely see the explosiveness of the plan, and the issues about making ourselves a target by stealing such an asset but not being able to field it for a decade while the new host grows up. I wouldn't advocate it as a proactive strategy, but if Rock got pissy again? It would be a good tool to have in our toolbox."
Once we have the power to do so, it would be nice to reverse-Hashirama and quickly snag everyone else's bijuu in one fell swoop. Ideally, they wouldn't have the chance to even contest us.
Unless there was some Deep Lore reason why Hashi wanted to scatter the bijuu and keep them scattered...
Naruto closed his mouth. After a moment he smiled in amusement and leaned back, lacing his fingers over his stomach. "And you're here talking to me about this because Hazō knows that I know that you're not the Gōketsu treason bunny, so you're more likely to convince me than he is."
Hazou's more of a treason dragon than bunny, but yes. Though it would be nice to parlay this into helping repair our personal relationship...
She chuckled. "The thought occurred, yes. Point of information: he got the Hokage's permission before doing anything, and he ordered me in no uncertain terms to, quote, use a very light touch, unquote. If you're not comfortable with the idea, that's totally fine. He and Kagome are working through the Fourth's notes; there's probably enough there for them to figure it out. Being able to study the seal itself would be useful but it's not essential."
"Hm." Naruto nodded thoughtfully. "Asuma said yes?"
"He gave Hazō permission to approach you. He did not give any orders."
Interesting that she doesn't note Asuma's general approval ("Tell him to talk to me if he says no" sure sounds like he'll bat for us -- but only a little). Trying to mend fences with Naruto by convincing him that this is his own choice, not orders? Foot-in-door, I think.
"Hm." He chewed on his lip. "What exactly does he need me to do?"
"I'm afraid it will be a tremendous challenge for you," she said, shaking her head dolefully. "A tremendous challenge indeed."
"Uh-huh. Cough it up."
"I'm afraid you will need to...lie still. Oh, and take your shirt off. Not in that order."
Well, and maybe ignore Hazou having a seizure on the ground. But that's fine, right? This isn't exactly a
Sage-made seal. It just holds a Sage-made(?) being.
"Well, that's a relief. I wasn't quite sure how I would have done it the other way. And why exactly is this a tremendous challenge?"
She gave him another Look. "Really? You and your absurd energy levels and endurance? Just watching you move around is exhausting. I suspect that the Nara run when they see you coming."
"That is so not—! Hm. Actually, you might have something there. I hadn't noticed it before, but...hm."
Hah! Poor Nara. I wonder how many of them breathed quiet sighs of relief when Naruto left on missions (back when he did missions). Sadly, his SC radius covers all of Leaf... Prime is probably off in some long forgotten training ground right now.
"The light dawns," she said, grinning. "So, what do you say?"
"Before I commit to anything, when and where? And maybe a little more detail on what exactly is going to happen."
"We're at your disposal. You name the time and place, we'll be there. As to what exactly would happen...you can get the exact details from Hazō, but my understanding is that it will involve lying still for half an hour or so while he and Kagome take measurements, trace the design, that kind of thing."
Well, that seems easy. There's little cost to him and we've framed it as great upside. The only risk is 1) exposing Prime, which his clones were
very touchy about in the Basement (especially around Kagome), and 2) his own personal feelings about Hazou.
"Hm. I'll think about it."
She nodded. "That's all Hazō was looking for. Thank you." She rummaged in a belt pouch and brought out a storage seal. "On a different topic, this might interest you." She leaned forward and set it on the table. "I saved it until after the seal conversation because I didn't want you to feel any sort of reciprocity pressure."
Naruto looked at the seal, did not touch it, and then looked back at her. "What is it?"
Always a good idea to not touch unknown seals.
"Your father's papers. Not the seal stuff, personal things. Poetry that he wrote, diaries, even some random non-classified work papers and shopping lists. Hazō lost his father when he was quite young and he remembers valuing any scrap of his father's handwriting or personal effects that he could find. The poetry has marginalia from your mother, too. He thought it would be meaningful for you."
The second Naruto, who had been sitting silently in the chair this entire time, disappeared in a puff of quickly-dispersing smoke. Moments later another Naruto came into the room and crossed straight to the table. He knelt down and opened the seal; a box of neatly-ordered papers appeared and he stared at it without moving.
Oh hey, Prime is in the house somehow.
Also, wow, no one else gave this to him? Damn. Jiraiya, why not?
Mari stood up and bowed. "I'll leave you to it," she said quietly.
Well, hopefully that makes him like
Mari somewhat more, at least.
Author's Note: Hazō did not share Kagome's theory about the jinchūriki seal being a chakra construct written onto Naruto's chakra coils, either with Naruto or with Asuma. After discussion with Mari and Noburi it was determined that there was no advantage in doing so; either it's true and it becomes a Gōketsu clan secret or it's not true and sharing it simply makes you look bad for being wrong.
Well, that's good. Managed to keep some important stuff secret, cleared ourselves permission to study the notes and extract substantial personal value from them, and got an in with Naruto, as well as maybe an advantage on the jinchuuriki seal chain. Very exciting stuff. Studying the notes and working on them probably pairs well with the keeping-our-heads-down for a couple months that we should probably be doing to get back in Asuma's good books.
Ah, who am I kidding? I've read the most recent couple of chapters. We're fucked.
Great chapter as always.
