hat is flatly not true. We cannot go up against an entire Summon Clan (or even a single Boss!) With S-rank sealing and shitty Athletics and Alertness, Hazou will just get killed. Better to wait a couple years and then try.
Strong disagree, first being S-rank is more about your tricks then about your stats. With Sealing 70+ we can create the tricks we will need to take them down. I will fully admit that developing those tools will take some time but once we there we can make them. Second we def shouldn't send Hazou in alone to deal with this. We can use Kei, Ruri and, Akane (if acquire the scroll for her) as our main combat group. With Kagome, Hazou and, Noburi as support. Third we have SC and Noburi with infinite chakra from Leaf. So we can just launch wave after wave of SC from different locations. This opp is def doable within a year.
I do think it's worth noting that S-rank Sealing would only mean that we can create powerful seals (though the speed at which we do that would still be severely hampered by Hazou's Calligraphy stat). If we fail to with the Initiative roll, then we may never get the opportunity to use those powerful seals. Or if Hazou's Physique isn't high enough, then he could die before has enough time to use them.
Sealing is a powerful thing, but it also scales with prep time. Something Hazou may not always have, or he might bring the wrong loadout for the situation.
S-rankers aren't S-rankers on big stats alone, and having one big stat doesn't instantly make Hazou an Itachi.
Couple things. First in 4 months we can have sealing 72 and calligraphy 48 to support it (We can actually have this done in two months if we want to wait on ES but that doesn't seem like the vibe people want to do). Second I def agree that we will require prep to pull of this op. But since we control when it would happen we can make sure we have everything prepped and the initiative. Def agree that we aren't Itachi as soon as we hit Kage level sealing but it let's us build the tools to turn our primary combatants into people who can handle S-level missions
It's also taking a long time to research seal and we usually underestimate time needed to be spent. It's unrealistic to expect that we can knock out a seal or two in two weeks, unless we want to die.
We can spend one day on prep to find out how difficult the seal will be. If it's anything less than Jiraiya level we can safely knock it out in under a week at worst
I do think it's worth noting that S-rank Sealing would only mean that we can create powerful seals (though the speed at which we do that would still be severely hampered by Hazou's Calligraphy stat). If we fail to win the Initiative roll, then we may never get the opportunity to use those powerful seals.
FYI, the high-level Sealmaster battles we've seen so far have all featured a ton of reactive defense seals. Once we get S-rank Sealing, I will strongly encourage the creation of such seals. Nothing says "I have S-rank Sealing" like "my combat suit automatically stores enemy attacks into an extradimensional space and returns them to sender", or "yeah my belt automatically absorbs fire and hurls it back at you with a homing function".
FYI, the high-level Sealmaster battles we've seen so far have all featured a ton of reactive defense seals. Once we get S-rank Sealing, I will strongly encourage the creation of such seals. Nothing says "I have S-rank Sealing" like "my combat suit automatically stores enemy attacks into an extradimensional space and returns them to sender", or "yeah my belt automatically absorbs fire and hurls it back at you with a homing function".
The hardest part is implementing the seals such that it doesn't get in the way of limbs. One of the reason why we don't use explosive armor is because of the risk of using it when we're awkwardly positioned(like on the ground) or that our limbs might be in the way.
Strong disagree, first being S-rank is more about your tricks then about your stats. With Sealing 70+ we can create the tricks we will need to take them down. I will fully admit that developing those tools will take some time but once we there we can make them.
Second we def shouldn't send Hazou in alone to deal with this. We can use Kei, Ruri and, Akane (if acquire the scroll for her) as our main combat group. With Kagome, Hazou and, Noburi as support.
Third we have SC and Noburi with infinite chakra from Leaf. So we can just launch wave after wave of SC from different locations. This opp is def doable within a year.
I think we'll still be too weak in a year. This starts to look very doable in 2-3 years. That gives Hazou a long enough time to develop truely S-Rank seals and integrate them into his combat style and that of his clanmates. It also gives everyone (except Noburi) time to catch up on combat skills.
Orochimaru's remains were still on their feet. The wound across Orochimaru's side pulsed like a beating heart, even though his real heart was lying on the ground. Then a new half pulled its way out of the wound, covered in goo like an insect emerging from a chrysalis. Apart from the torn uniform, it was like he'd never been hurt at all.
Blade met hand, over and over. Zabuza's swordsmanship just didn't seem to matter against this man, who blocked his attacks bare-handed and refused to take any damage. It was tiresome.
"Non-ablative armour," Zabuza grunted. "Haven't seen that in a while."
Looking purely at canon without considering the rules in MfD, S-Rank ninja generally have some kind of bullshit that allows them to slaughter - for example - entire monasteries of chakra using monks at once. Particularly useful are super healing or defensive techniques. Nearly everyone we see with a solid defensive technique is S-Rank, and a lot of S-rank nin have a defensive technique. Kabuto has his super self-healing, as does Tsunade and Orochimaru has his own special flavour. Hidan regenerates from almost anything, Kakuzu requires you to repeatedly hit his weak points for massive damage and has his diamond hard earth skin technique. Tobi regenerates as well as being untouchable when he wants to be, and zetsu is his own special brand of bullshit with healing sprinkles on top. Naruto obviously regenerates as well as being his own army. Pein has the ultimate defensive technique of not actually showing up to the battle in person, instead sending his 6 spare bodies. Sasori is a fan of this method, it takes quite a lot to get through his army of puppets. Konan heals her everything by turning into paper, because fuck physics, and also she can fly. Deidara and Oonoki can also fly away and hit you from out of your range with their massively powerful offensive techniques. Itachi and Kisame don't bother to show up in person either most of the time, instead they send fakes from long range. Gaara has his ultimate defence, Jiraiya has his spiky hair jutsu thing, Danzo has his eyes for cheating death.
S-rankers without defensive techniques like Kakashi seem to survive on a knife edge simply by killing people so fast and so definitively that they don't have time to die themselves. They rely on quick, powerful offence. The problem being if they're ever caught by surprise, then they're as mortal as everyone else. I suspect this is why Kakuzu is the oldest of them all at the ripe age of 91: his earth defence makes him proof against all but the strongest attacks, and it takes 5 of those to actually kill him. His highly redundant biology means he will always have multiple chances to kill his attacker back, or to run away. I suspect if he knew undergound fish technique as well then he could have just as easily retreated with only 1 or 2 hearts left and left the Konoha force feeling rather blue balled.
Gaara is a particularly good example because without his ultimate defence he'd be pretty easy to kill in theory. Well not easy, but he also wouldn't be S-Ranked without it. He'd be jounin.
The exceptions are all interesting in their own way. Hiruzen has shadow clones and a huge variety of elemental techniques. Minato and A use the idea of being so ungodly mobile that they're never actually in a place to be stabbed. Similarly Itachi, Sasuke and Kakashi abuse their sharingan to dodge absurdly well, while also attacking with extremely quick, deadly moves. Zabuza... kinda gets the short end of the stick here. Which makes sense, since he dies to Kakashi before Kakashi awakens his mangekyou. Victim of power creep I guess. The jinchuuriki are generally capable of razing an area to the ground, which works since their enemies can often be found in "an area".
I'm sure there are others that I've forgotten, but the general idea is that a whole lot of S-rankers complement their extreme deadliness with bullshit defensive techniques that elevate them from being deadly but solvable problems, to being legitimate army killers.
And that's a reason not to go for it? PEA is incredible. Being merely incredible instead of perfect doesn't stop it from being a trick S-rankers can be built upon.
S-rank biosealing is indeed on the table for us, but it is unclear if we would replicate Orochimaru's research without years of research, or independent insights.
And that's a reason not to go for it? PEA is incredible. Being merely incredible instead of perfect doesn't stop it from being a trick S-rankers can be built upon.
I was noting its weakness, which means we should have a trick that covers it. For eample, a way to make an anti-lighting exclusion zone around us, which would either negate or mitigate any anti-armor lighting moves against us.
I just made a spreadsheet to calculate and visualize our sealing speed based on the mechanics described above.
tl;dr it looks like SSA + Prep is only faster than raw SSA if the project is so fiendishly difficult that we expect to spend over three months on the project either way.
S-rank biosealing is indeed on the table for us, but it is unclear if we would replicate Orochimaru's research without years of research, or independent insights.
Ehh, while we won't have years of trial and error, we DO however have Summoning Scroll Acolyte, so in combination with FOOM it shouldn't take all that long for Hazou to get a WAY higher sealing stat then Oro has.
So that way we'll be able to surpass Oro's bullshit by sheer dint of Hazou becoming 100-stat man.
In an age when the world was not as we know it, in a place that is long since dust…
"No, no, no! A bō staff is a weapon for defending the faith—from any angle and at any time. Don't clutch it tight to your body like it's your lover's manhood!"
"Yes, Grandmaster! I'm so sorry, Grandmaster!"
On a cold, sunny winter's day, Raiyoke Hazuka watched (and cringed) as warrior monks who could lift her wizened grandmother off the ground with their little finger hunched their shoulders in shame, as if huddling to protect themselves from the biting wind of her words. Every morning, Hazuka praised the Sage that her heir training started before dawn, when nobody was around to hear the things Grandmother had to say to her.
"What was that tiny tap supposed to be, Munō? If you thrust in bed like you do in the field, you should save us all some time and go take a vow of celibacy!"
Hazuka winced at the burst of uproarious laughter, which she reckoned was half amusement and half relief that they weren't the ones who'd caught Grandmother's eye. There was no pleasing Grandmother—according to her, she'd met exactly one man in her life whose mastery of the staff satisfied her, and that man had been Hazuka's grandfather. Hazuka had never dared ask for details.
Fortunately for them all, a moment later Grandmother finally finished her yak's milk herbal tea (which she claimed to be good for the sinuses, and which Hazuka was half-convinced was what had caused her to shrivel up like an old fig to begin with).
"Don't just stand there, girl," Grandmother barked. "I've got dozens of documents to prepare for the big meeting, and if you think these old bones are going anywhere near the high shelves, you've got another thing coming."
"Yes, Grandmother," Hazuka said wearily (it was nearly noon, after all). "Why is this such a big deal, anyway? How enlightened can a barbarian really be?"
Grandmother gave an undignified snort. "Oh, I've got no real interest in those Hagoromo radicals. We'll argue back and forth over some points of doctrine—arguments I'll win because I've been running this abbey since their oldest sage was in his mother's belly—and then I'll send somebody to seduce whichever horny old goat they've picked to lead their delegation this time, and then in the morning they'll be putty in my hands for the trading and then they'll go home.
"No, the big meeting is with one of the fellows driving the carts." Grandmother winked.
Hazuka thought for a few seconds.
"You mean a man with a long shadow."
"Oh, yes." Grandmother chuckled. "I hope it's Shinobu again. Very long shadow, that man. Long and dexterous."
"I did not need to know that," Hazuka muttered, even as she knew Grandmother's selective deafness would filter out any complaints.
-o-
It had been a long time indeed since Nara Shinobu last made the long, gruelling, perilous journey to the Land of Lightning and the Sacred Peak where the Raiyoke Abbey perched precariously on the edge of a cliff (and the Raiyoke made a point of having visitors like him stay in dormitories with windows facing directly onto the abyss). While the last leg of the journey followed a well-trodden pilgrim route, and of course Raiyoke territory itself only contained the chakra monsters the Raiyoke wanted it to contain, everything else was horrible. The paths were labyrinthine, the monsters had unfamiliar powers, the Hagoromo "masters" were insufferable, and while Shinobu of course didn't share the biases of the more barbaric clans, having to pretend to be a commoner himself still set his teeth on edge.
After all of that, Raiyoke Chacha was nothing but a balm to his tattered soul. A little more stooped with age, maybe, and with a few more lines on her brow than he remembered, but the spark in her eyes was every bit that of the wildfire beauty who'd opened Shinobu's eyes to whole new worlds on his first journey abroad as part of the Mission.
"I see you haven't changed at all," he began once they were both seated and the harried-looking young woman by Chacha's side had fled after serving them both tea. "I suppose it's true what they say about the yak butter."
"Flattery will get you everywhere," Chacha cackled, "but for a change, let's put business before pleasure. The little dear's chambers are down the corridor from mine, and it wouldn't do to miss the opportunity to scandalise her when she gets back this evening."
Shinobu gave a sagely nod.
"Haven't changed at all," he repeated.
He reached into his travel sack. "I brought a souvenir for you from the heartlands of Fire. Perhaps we might enjoy it together tonight?"
Chacha picked up the hefty clay jug and listened to the sloshing inside. "Planning to get me drunk and take advantage of me, Shinobu?"
"Yes," Shinobu said seriously. "That is exactly the plan. I'm glad to see you're as sharp as ever.
"This is the literal fruit of one of our projects," he explained, "a vineyard in a little place called Tanzaku made with the aid of the Senju Clan and their growth ninjutsu. We had the usual series of tragic inevitabilities, of course, but once those were out of the way, we got four different clans to sign ceasefires with the Senju in exchange for a stable supply. The Akimichi are brokering more even as we speak."
"Senju?" Chacha raised her eyebrows. "The tree-eaters? The last Nara I talked to said they were a C-rank clan at best, bound to get extinguished within the century."
"That's what we thought," Shinobu said. "Their Bloodline Limit is terrible. You can tell it's not one of the originals. But it turns out that it comes with extraordinary vitality. Their powers may be laughable now, but our prognosticators believe that, if we can buy them time, the Senju will develop Wood Element ninjutsu that uses massive chakra investiture to achieve tactical-scale effects or even more. It might even become a consistent counter to the Uchiha's precision combat."
Chacha nodded. "Which you need because the Uchiha absolutely can't be allowed to become a dominant clan with that ideology."
"The Yamanaka are on it," Shinobu said. "Bringing them in is the biggest risk we've taken in the clan's history, but it's paying off magnificently. They cover our weaknesses and amplify our strengths. Being able to reshape alliances and start or end vendettas here and now takes a great deal of pressure off the long-term."
"In other words," Chacha concluded, "they do the work so you don't have to."
"I wasn't going to say it."
Shinobu took a sip of the tea before it grew cold. Lightning tea was horrible. It was the vilest drink Shinobu had ever had, and that was including Aunt Shibi's experimental cold medicine. However, he also knew that he would be less of a man in Chacha's eyes if he didn't swallow every drop with panache.
"Between the Yamanaka and the Senju, we're finally getting back on track," he said. "Two hundred years optimistically, which means three hundred years when you factor in plagues, famines, chakra monster hordes, and the rest of the usual."
His smile faded as he remembered the next part.
"That's all of the good news," he said. "The bad news is very bad."
Chacha's grin at his suffering disappeared too.
"The Tama's experiment has failed disastrously," Shinobu said. "That mega-clan they assembled didn't last three years before factionalism and paranoia tore it apart. Several clans were extinguished in the final power struggle, and the Tama's credibility is in tatters."
Chacha cursed under her breath, which was a sign of how badly she was taking it (usually, she'd curse at the top of her voice).
"We warned them they were being too hasty," she spat. "We said they needed to line up all the secondary factors."
"You know the Tama," Shinobu said. "Once they start getting obsessed with an idea…"
"Five in harmony surpasses one in perfection," Chacha recited regretfully. The creed of the Sage's true heirs, but also a reminder that any one of them alone was less than perfect, that each needed the others to compensate for its fatal flaw. (Shinobu did not intend to tell Chacha that, knowing that these words could never be spoken in the outside world, his clan lord had seen fit to plagiarise them for his new alliance.)
"You do have this generation's backup, right?" she asked.
"Fortunately," Shinobu said, "it didn't come to that. Still, it will be at least seven generations before the Tama can be taken seriously as a regional power.
"What about you? Anything before we get started on the documents?"
"We're having trouble with the latest project for Lightning," Chacha admitted after a second's reluctance. "We've appointed a Champion of the Faith for the entirety of Lightning several times now, and while the first couple brought a measure of coordination to the clans, the last two have both been raging egomaniacs who've prompted actual schisms from their enemies. Our religious authority is our primary tool. If we lose it, we lose centuries."
Shinobu frowned in thought. It was the opposite problem to Fire, where unplanned unity of thought was a disaster to be avoided at all costs (because 100% of the time it was the wrong thought).
"What if," he began after a minute of sipping the appalling tea (which did have the side effect of stimulating cognition as one's brain desperately sought to focus on anything but the taste), "you made it a precondition of the role that they surrender the original identity in which they are so invested? You could start by stipulating, say, that they symbolically replace their name with something utterly bland—a number, or perhaps a mere letter…"
Great stuff. Really interesting to see that the Five were actually coordinating (to an extent) long before the village system was a thing.
Also, it must feel terrible to finally get your Wood Element guy only for him to
Fail to produce any children with Wood Element
Do the "unity of thought" thing you've spent centuries avoiding
Here's hoping the "unity of thought" that created Fire was a thought the Nara liked, and not just something they went along with out of necessity. Otherwise I really do feel bad for them.
[x] Action Plan: While You Were Agonising Over Condors, I Was Studying the Bladehorrors
After Hazou has (with permission) ferried the condors to arachnid territory (if considered safe/agreeable, just desummon and let the arachnids ferry them):
Time to do some sealing! Finish our current project.
Kagome goes and examines the site of the afterlife rift and gather the data. They then try to research the seal intended to open the rift, with Hazou working as Kagome's assistant.
"Actually," Nara said in a flat pedantic voice, "it originated with Murakumo no Hisashi, an early Fire Country daimyō. The Senju looted his writings during the sacking of Hakujō in the Warring Clans period."
"You mean a civilian came up with the Will of Fire?" Yamanaka demanded. "No way."
"Of course," Nara went on, "he was just some minor philosopher without any real influence, so when he died his writings were lost for centuries. Then when the First Hokage was founding Leaf, he decided to make the Will of Fire its foundation. He thought that uniting the Fire Country clans into one village would allow them to protect what was important instead of constantly fighting with each other."
"Good job, Shikamaru," Sarutobi said. "Didn't expect a history lesson out of you."
Shikamaru would know this history.
Just how many civilian daimyo happened to "come up with it and then disappear"? Methinks when the Senju started using these writings as their philosophy, many Nara received messages and darted to small abandoned castles to destroy a couple books.
Lightning religion making no sense is also now explained
Suboptimal framing if you want to have this conversation.
I recommend "Hazou is on the warpath against Pantsaa for tricking his family into enabling genocide. He's not prostrating himself before people he's harmed, he's uniting with allies with whom he shares a common cause — getting justice against an enemy who wronged both of them."
"I feel just terrible for helping to murder your people. Please don't hate me. I promise I didn't mean it." is a lot less compelling than "Viva la resistance! Now let's plan how we're going to fuck over that genocidal bag of dicks."
