- Location
- Liverpool
I generally like the idea of the plan, but would still rather get to know members first, and it still pitches Atomu for diplomat, which I don't think it the best fit.
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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
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I'm not sure it's a good idea to fill positions with people who aren't a natural fit. We have few clan members, and each position is (if I understand correctly) a full-time job.
I think, especially for Treasurer (which could be filled by a civilian — maybe one of Gaku's people?), it would be worth it to take our time shopping around and seeing if we can find people with talents for the post.
These positions are prestigious, and if we choose wrongly, we might not be able to easily fire our councillors without drama or upset.
I think, especially for Treasurer (which could be filled by a civilian — maybe one of Gaku's people?), it would be worth it to take our time shopping around and seeing if we can find people with talents for the post.
These positions are prestigious, and if we choose wrongly, we might not be able to easily fire our councillors without drama or upset.
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- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
The Goketsu have survived this long without those positions being filled. I'd be okay with maintaining our current status (only Leader, Spymaster, Administrator, and General filled).
@Pharos , @Lysbeth Succubus, @Shrooms, @Halberdier, @faflec: What do you think?
If I don't hear back, then I'll maintain the current status (Assigning Akane and Fuyuki), since that was what y'all voted for. I don't want to change the content of the action plan too far beyond what was voted for, not without given consent.
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Notice:
I will cease content changes in ~4 hours (or 2pm CDT) as of posting this. After that, it will be word count optimizations only.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
Yes I also think it's better to wait for natural fits who also want it
- Pronouns
- He/Him
By this same logic it's not super important who's in a given role, because it was fine when it was empty.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
Where's your spirit? We have to win at everything and that includes being the best clan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I have not submitted any names I don't think suit the roles and I think consulting the rest of the clan on it and having them vote people in is the most sensible way to get people who would be good for the job.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
Maybe prevent drama and make it clear from the get-go these positions might be switched to others in time
- Pronouns
- He/Him
A good suggestion. I'll add it.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I'll keep it, then
Good idea, I'll add it
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Added inquiry about asking comfortability with nomination, and disclaimer about possible staff changes.
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I'll admit that I vastly prefer Akane as the Ambassador. Within the narrative, she's already the person that civilians and first generation ninja go to. And most everyone (from Asuma, to Ami, to the KEI ninja) seem to like Akane --or at least find it hard to actively dislike her.
I'll reiterate that it's just where game's mechanics don't quite align with the story's narrative. I'd be okay with Boosting her Deceit and Rapport stats more (Deceit because opsec, Rapport to better reflect the narrative).
- Location
- Pacific standard
[x] Returned to Home and Hearth, the Bottled Bile
[x] Returned to Home and Hearth, A Wild Snowflake Appears
[x] Returned to Home and Hearth, A Wild Snowflake Appears
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
SHIKAMARU: "Necromancy is impossible. But sure, I guess. If you somehow manage to make meaningful progress, and do what literally no one else has done before, in the entire history of the world, then the Nara will run projections and help you."
HAZOU: "Hey Shika! Remember what you told me last year? Well, I've figured out a way to do it. Going to be a bitch of a time sink, but I've got it all mapped out."
SHIKAMARU: [PikachuWhat Meme]
Kei: "Welcome to my world. Also, you owe me 30 ryo."
HAZOU: "Hey Shika! Remember what you told me last year? Well, I've figured out a way to do it. Going to be a bitch of a time sink, but I've got it all mapped out."
SHIKAMARU: [PikachuWhat Meme]
Kei: "Welcome to my world. Also, you owe me 30 ryo."
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Unfortunately seems like she's as pessimistic as him. So perhaps they both owe money to tenten or something
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Scalpel: "You both owe me so much money."Unfortunately seems like she's as pessimistic as him. So perhaps they both owe money to tenten or something
- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
Ami: *grins, pushes a game piece one space closer to the edge of her board*
Interlude: Adoption Interviews – Murai Misa
- Location
- USA
Interlude: Adoption Interviews – Murai Misa
April 23, 1070
Procrastination, Noburi thought, was definitely something he should try to avoid. He knew that his laid-back attitude lent him much of his natural charm, but he really needed to keep it within limits when it came to fulfilling his clan responsibilities. He even remembered his dad yelling at him to "fish or cut bait" when he was procrastinating on his chores as a kid, nevermind that Wakahisa, if ever they went fishing, certainly didn't need any kind of bait.
Unfortunately, his procrastination had finally come back to bite him. He'd meant to get around to wrapping up the interviews at some point or another, even if he never really had a time in mind for it. Sure, maybe he'd delayed the interviews with the Murai twins a little extra because they were attractive young girls of the exact sort that tended to invite axe-born retribution. But still…
"Gōketsu Noburi, step forward."
Noburi followed the instruction of the Hagoromo priest and grabbed a pinch of powdered incense. He marked his forehead with it, then leaned forward and cast the rest over the body of Gōketsu Misa, where she lay within her open coffin on the unlit funeral pyre.
Noburi stepped to the side and found his place to wait as Akane stepped up to do the same. He resisted taking a glance at Mio, Misa's twin. While her eyes were reddened, she didn't cry. Her face looked blank and expressionless, not the carefully controlled mask of a woman hiding a storm of emotions within, but the look of someone so utterly destroyed that she couldn't bear to feel anything at all.
He closed his eyes for a second, then reopened them, looking forward. One by one, the rest of the clan was coming up to pay their respects for the two fallen ninja.
Two fallen ninja. All things considered, Clan Gōketsu had done quite well through the war. Of the dozen or so ninja they had, only ten had been deployed on missions. Misa had died in one of the war's larger battles, the Battle at Akaitani Pass. Rock had caught an infiltration team in the area, both sides signaled for their reinforcements, and all the local ninja converged to a bloodbath. Leaf won the battle, thanks in part to Misa's sacrifice, taking down two Rock ninja for every Leaf ninja felled, and managed to take control of one of the Land of Earth's most fertile farmlands (which, given the rest of the barren country, had forced Rock to split their forces even further).
Mai, on the other hand, had been mostly kept in Leaf with the other partially crippled ninja. Only at the very tail end of the war, when Leaf was strapped for chūnin-power, had she been deployed. It was a mission that suited her limited capabilities, a quick and dirty flushout to get rid of a Rock border post that a scouting team had found. From the reports, she and her support team had emptied out the fortified cave with Gōketsu-standard levels of ordinance, then Mai had sniped down the fleeing genin before returning to Fire. A total success… until Rock's tracker squad caught up with them just past the border. From the survivors of Mai's team, it sounded like she realized she wouldn't get away with her limited mobility, and decided to stay back and stall the trackers so that her allies could escape. By the time Leaf reinforcements arrived, all that was left of her was scattered gore and a blood-splattered forehead protector.
Noburi shook his head slightly, prompting Akane to look over at him. He made a small gesture to say "I'm fine," then turned back to the proceedings. It would take a while before everyone would be done with the incense. Misa and Mai had both been on the estate since it was first founded, and Gōketsu, being who they were, didn't restrict civilians from paying their respects to the fallen ninja. From the looks of it, they had touched many, many people's lives.
Misa in particular had been an adoption target because of that, Noburi thought. She'd done more till-and-fill missions than any of the other ninja in Clan Gōketsu. When Noburi went around to the Tower to get more official records, he'd found something even more impressive – of all the ninja in Hidden Leaf, fifteen hundred to Clan Gōketsu's dozen, Murai Misa had done the most till-and-fill missions of everyone. Now, he'd never get the chance to ask her why.
He played through the adoption interview in his head. He knew enough to fit the pieces together.
What's your name? Murai Misa.
And what is your element? Fire, sir.
She was shy, so she'd probably not talk too excessively. He'd have to bring her out of her shell.
Do you know any Fire-style ninjutsu? Just what the KEI has taught me, sir. Some signal flares and a few basic offensive jutsu.
So you're a ninjutsu specialist? No, Lord Noburi, I use shuriken and kunai mainly, like he didn't already have enough young attractive female ranged weapons users with strong and similarly attractive overprotective older sisters in his life (if he had a ryō for every time that happened, he'd have two ryō, which was not a lot but it was still strange that it happened twice). The explosive tags that your clan provides have been very useful.
So, any hobbies? Nothing worth noting, sir. She'd probably not want to reveal too much about herself and keep it professional.
Are you sure? In Gōketsu, we all have our various little interests. Well, you don't have to share now. How come you're the only ninja in Hidden Leaf with over three hundred completed till-and-fill missions?
Well, sir, I wanted to show my worth to the Gōketsu so that you would adopt me and protect me like you would your own, but you clearly didn't do that, did you?
To be fair, he had given her the best chance he could have. When he realized he was delaying the twins' interviews, he asked Hazō to adopt them first and sort out the issues later (given their mission records, Noburi didn't anticipate any real issues). Misa had been given access to the clan's seals and techniques. They just hadn't been enough.
The last of the mourners cast their pinch of incense over the corpse and joined the rest of the clan at the right side of the pyre, now representing the rising sun. The priest, a young man named Hagoromo Uta, turned away from the audience to face the bodies. Unlike the mourners, dressed in the brilliant white that symbolized purity so as to not weigh down the spirits of the dead, the priest wore only blue. He had an elaborate headdress and layers upon layers of clothing, tied together by dozens of knots and beaded strings and ribbons, each of which probably had a symbolic meaning that Noburi had never bothered to learn.
"Rikudō Sennin iwaku, ninshū ni sugureru mono nomi…" The priest started to speak a prayer for the deceased in that ancient, incomprehensible scholar's tongue. Fortunately, the Hagoromo had the right idea when it came to ninja funerals – in the event that the body couldn't be recovered, the forehead protector carried the full spiritual weight of a ninja's presence. Hopefully, this would be enough to see Misa and Mai both safely to the afterlife.
Noburi took a quick glance at Hazō, who had been second after Mio to greet Misa's body. Noburi could tell that Hazō was using his bloodline to look calm and composed, but his Clan Lord was watching Hagoromo like a hawk. Noburi considered the merits of telling Hazō to knock it off, but decided to let it go. For all that the Hagoromo could be self-righteous pricks at times, and for all they had a general dislike for Hazō and the Gōketsu, this was bigger than a petty feud. In Leaf, the Will of Fire reigned supreme, and the honor and respect due to those that died in its service could not be denied.
Perhaps Noburi should have been glad that Hazō even let the Hagoromo onto the estate. He'd been prepared to argue with his brother to make it happen, as the rest of the Leaf-born ninja would have nearly revolted otherwise. Hazō (and Noburi (and Kei (and Mari (and Yuno (and definitely Kagome))))) might not have cared much for the Hagoromo's traditions, but for the rest of the clan, knowing that their soul would find peace in the afterlife was of existential importance. The expected ninja lifespan, even as a clan ninja, ensured that.
The priest finished the prayer abruptly, cutting himself off at the point of beseeching the spirits of the ancestors for mercy. Given Clan Gōketsu's eclectic and very recent origins, that wouldn't be necessary. He brought his hands together to form slow hand seals and cast a technique. On a nearby table, four dozen candles, each made of a black wax hand-carved into the shape of a lotus bud, flickered alight.
Mio stepped forward at Hagoromo's instruction. She took a candle and raised it above her head.
"To my sister," she said. "May you find the peace you were always searching for."
She knelt by the pyre and placed the candle at its base. As she placed it, the flame of the candle suddenly grew in size and started to sway as if moved by a gentle breeze.
Hazō stepped forward, taking two candles. He raised one, then the other.
"To Mai. May your next life treat you better than this one. To Misa. May your spirit be lightened by the lives of those you saved."
He set down his candles by Mio's, forming the start of a circle around the pyre, and they too flared to life. One by one, the clan's ninja proceeded, taking a candle or two, and saying a brief message for the deceased. Everyone offered a candle for Mai, but few offered one for Misa. She had been a shy girl, and the cultural prejudice against twins hadn't helped her much. Hazō got away with his offering as the Clan Lord, and Akane somehow knew the girl, but no one else knew her well enough to light a candle for her.
Well, it didn't matter how many other ninja they knew now that they were dead. As Mari had grimly joked this morning, they would be in good company. Once their urns had been prepared (only Misa's filled with actual ashes, of course), they would become the first (and with luck, the last for a long time) to join Jiraiya of the Legendary Three in the Gōketsu shrine.
Another thing he should be grateful for, Noburi thought, was that Hazō hadn't mentioned his intent to somehow bring them all back to life. Though on the other hand, Hazō had built the Gōketsu shrine in his standard style as a solid, rectangular brick of granite, so his merits and misdeeds balanced out and Noburi wouldn't have to thank him afterwards.
Jin, the last of the ninja to light a candle, stepped away from the pyre. Now, the clan's ninja ringed around the pyre, just like the candles they had placed. With every candle, the flames had grown brighter and taller, and now they danced wildly.
Hagoromo Uta approached the pyre. Out of the corner of his eye, Noburi saw Akane slipping away as gracefully as she could. Given her recent mission, he didn't blame her for not wanting to witness this part of the funeral. He certainly wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere near a Mist traditional send-off after the Sunset Racer.
"The Will of Fire burns in all of us. It is dimmest in those that reject it, and turn away from its warmth. It is brighter in the people of the Land of Fire, who accept it and cherish its protection. And it is the brightest in those that fight to protect it, the ninja of Hidden Leaf.
"Yet, the candle that burns the brightest burns the fastest. Those who love their country and their people the most, those that have most fully accepted the Will of Fire, they are the first to pass out of the Human Path. The Will of Fire is the will to protect those you love. The Will of Fire is the light which brightens your trail. The Will of Fire is the light which gives guidance to your family and strength to your comrades and warmth to your soul.
"Gōketsu Misa, Gōketsu Mai. In life, you served the Will of Fire. In death, you are shown to embody it. Your last actions were to fight for your Village and for the lives of your comrades, and the flames of their souls only continue to burn today because you were brave enough to shield them. You have brought death to your enemies and life to your comrades. There is no truer service to the Will of Fire than this.
"So, let it be known! The souls of these two are tired and weary. They have given all they had to give for the Will of Fire. Let their sins be cleansed! Let their burdens fall away! Let their spirits rise away from the world of mortals and join with the Flames themselves, so that they will guide us forever more!"
With Hagoromo's words, the candle flames jumped higher and higher, and at his final pronouncement, they twisted and formed into a ring surrounding the funeral pyre. Suddenly, the pyre started to burn from within, a powerful blaze erupting with a belch of smoke.
The funeral was silent, but for the crackle of flames as they spread outwards. As the fire reached the forehead protector and the coffin, Noburi braced himself for the scent of burning flesh, but it never came. Instead, Hagoromo reached out and threw a handful of powder that made the fire around the coffin burn pure white for an instant.
With the spirits purified, Hagoromo sank to his knees and bowed his forehead to the ground before the fire. Around Noburi, the rest of the procession did the same. After a moment, he followed them, bending his head to the ground and shutting his eyes tight, trying desperately to forget the melting face of Gōketsu Misa, a sister he never met.
Damn straight.
Clan Overview updated.