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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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I like how this quest stayed grounded even when you discover a nuke. It's not laughed off and has powerful implications involved, and not just grossed over.

And it's not faked groundiness like A Song of Ice and Fire either.
 
Paperclipped said:
Adhoc vote count started by Paperclipped on Dec 5, 2022 at 7:02 AM, finished with 263 posts and 20 votes.
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Some brief comments as the runner-up.
  • I respect @FaintlySorcerous' plan. I'm not convinced it's optimal, but I love that it's earnest and pointed in a good direction, and that it deals with things I value.
  • I think this is the closest that science has been to a winning plan, which is pretty damn cool even if it fell short and probably wasn't the primary appeal of the vote for most people.
  • It would have been great to have a tie vote, which is one of the few pieces of blatant metagaming I'm always excitedly eager for. Tie votes go great.
  • I have no idea how 'You aren't your father. You are his son. You're, forgive us if we overstep, a good man.' is going to translate.
 
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Chapter 563: Time and Again
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    • "Sir, could I have a private moment with you?" Hazō asked.

    "If you wish, Hazō," Asuma said. "Akane, you're dismissed."

    Akane didn't look at Hazō as she stood, bowed to Asuma, and left.

    Hazō looked to Goat. "I'd prefer that this were private, if you could allow me that."

    Goat looked to Asuma and after a nod from his Hokage, the ANBU agent made a quiet exit as well.

    "What's the matter, Hazō?" Asuma asked. "You have a look like you've got a lot to say."

    "A few things, sir. First, why are we going to Gaikotsu Bay when that's nearer to Cloud, who we know have skywalkers? Aisu Bay is nearer to Rock, where the risk that we get discovered in mid-air is much lower."

    Asuma blew another puff on his cigarette. "First, Rock does have skywalkers. They don't use them as much as Cloud does, so they either have lower production or some other reason for reluctance. I chose Gaikotsu Bay because my impression is that it's larger, so it would be easier to find a location with no nearby landfalls, as well as because my current understanding is that the main shipping routes to Snow go through Rock and Waterfall. The odds we run into a merchant ship, given the season and that it's Snow, are negligible, but I thought it wise to avoid taking even small risks. Do you think the odds of Cloud having skywalking scouts in Gaikotsu Bay are higher than the combined odds of Rock having skywalking scouts in Aisu Bay and the odds of running into a merchant ship by accident?"

    "I can't give you numbers or anything, sir. I just wanted to understand the reason for the choice."

    "I see," Asuma said. "It makes sense. We could choose Aisu Bay and it might be marginally more secure – there's not much we could do about skywalking scouts, but if we saw a merchant ship, we could just sink it. I'm aware of your and Akane's mission history, so I thought it would be wise to minimize the chance of needing to sink a ship of innocents for the sake of preserving secrecy. Again, the odds of a ship being there in this season is abysmal. Do you think it would be smarter to test in Aisu Bay overall?"

    Hazō felt a squirming discomfort in his stomach at the reminder of the Sunset Racer. "No sir, Gaikotsu Bay will be fine, I think."

    "Very well. The plans are tentative, and I'll get Goat or Panda to spend some more time working out our routes before we leave, but I'll take your thoughts into account. I have to say, Hazō, this is hardly what I expected when you asked for a private chat."

    "It wasn't the main topic I had in mind. I have one more brief question before that. Is it fine for me to discuss the Shimura claim on our estate with my clan?"

    Asuma took a final drag on his cigarette, then tapped the butt out into his ashtray. "I don't see any problem with doing so. I expect moving your estate will take quite a while, so you'll probably want to start the preparations earlier if you can. Though… Overall, I think it could afford to wait a couple days while we complete the tests. Yes, I think you should hold off on that for now. The few days' gap will also give us time to complete OPSEC protocols for all the people on your estate that know about Akane's possession of Elemental Mastery."

    Asuma reached for the small box on his table and grabbed another sheet of rolling paper. "The events today have given me a wonderful headache. I'm incredibly grateful for you for bringing the situation to me, even belatedly, and for cooperating throughout it. I hope you aren't offended that I'm smoking a little more than I should." Asuma smiled at Hazō. "Nara Shikaku hated smoking, you know? At some point, Shikaku even earned enough of my father's respect that he'd put out his pipe just for meetings with Shikaku. Still, I'd gladly snuff out my cigarettes if I could have him back for a day to give his advice on this problem.

    "So, if those were the brief questions, what's the main one you have to ask me?"

    "Sir, I want to talk about Akane and the Will of Fire."

    Asuma raised an eyebrow as he finished rolling his new cigarette. "A promising start. Go on."

    "Do you remember when Jiraiya first brought us into Leaf, back when we were missing-nin with only the faintest idea of how we could make the world a better place? I was curious about the Will of Fire that I heard disparaged so much in Mist, and you were the one who explained it to me.

    "I knew there was something meaningful and important there even then, but it took time for me to really understand how it all fits together. The Will of Fire is the will to protect. Thanks to the Will of Fire, Leaf managed to defeat Pain and Akatsuki, and the Will of Fire is driving AMITY and keeping the world at peace."

    Asuma raised an eyebrow. "How is the Will of Fire driving AMITY? We accept AMITY because the Will of Fire demands peace and protection for all the people of Fire, but AMITY is a collection of villages that hate and fear the Will of Fire, dreamt into existence by a jōnin of Hidden Mist and enforced by Akatsuki."

    "It's like you said, sir, the Will of Fire promises peace and prosperity. By accepting AMITY, the other nations have to accept a part of the Will of Fire themselves."

    "I don't buy that, Hazō," Asuma said. "Mist and Sand supported AMITY because they're weak, Cloud accepted it because they got brutally struck down by Isan's ninja, led by Orochimaru, and Rock only stopped fighting us under threat of Akatsuki killing them to the last man. Not even Hashirama would think that they're not using the time they have now to sharpen their blades."

    "You're right, sir," Hazō said, as thoughts flitted through his head to try to get the conversation back on track. "AMITY wasn't founded with the Will of Fire, but it is the Will of Fire that drives it. When we create trade deals that improve both sides' lives, it gives everyone something to protect. When we exchange diplomats to understand each other better, it makes it easier for us to find ways out of conflict that aren't war. If AMITY is successful, it will be because we spread the Will of Fire to the other villages."

    Asuma tapped away a bit of ash and took another drag. "Interesting view. I'm not sure that I agree, but continue."

    Hazō sighed internally in relief. "I apologize in advance if I end up misunderstanding the Will of Fire. I'm still trying to learn exactly what it means.

    "Anyway, this is also about Akane. Thanks to our travels, Akane has had the chance to meet civilians around the world. Civilians in Fire have the Will of Fire, but others around the world never had the chance to know it. It's just a matter of luck, of whether you happen to be born on one side of a line on a map or another. She knows that people from outside of Leaf can have the Will of Fire. After all, she's seen us accept it when we were given the chance. She understands it much better than I do, so she knows that anyone who is sane and who has the chance to fully experience it will accept it. So, whenever someone dies before they've had a chance to experience and accept the Will of Fire, she sees it as a tragedy.

    "When Akane razed that town in the Land of Earth, it almost broke her. There were so many people that could have been one with the Will of Fire that instead were doomed by her hand. She understands the importance of protecting our ninja. She knows that the Hokage is closest to the Will of Fire of anyone in Leaf, and that his orders guide Leaf's ninja to the fullest realization of the Will of Fire that's possible. Still, even if she does what she has to do, the sheer loss of potential is agonizing to her."

    "I see," Asuma said. "I can understand that. Leaf exists to protect the common people, and this is the purpose that our ninja are trained to perform. But just because the Will of Fire drives us to protect people, that doesn't mean that we can afford to never harm anyone in order to protect what really matters. Does she take any comfort in knowing that she did the right thing, in the end?"

    Hazō considered that for a moment. He didn't think Akane had ever thought that she'd done the right thing. The reason she had been hurt so badly was that she knew she hadn't done the right thing. It had been a great evil, but she did it anyway because of her orders and the chain of command that ultimately ended at the Hokage.

    "Not really, sir. At least for her emotions, the tragedy of someone that could have held the Will of Fire dying before they find the spark outweighs the knowledge of how their death is necessary."

    Asuma had raised an eyebrow, but he didn't interrupt.

    "You are not your father," Hazō continued. "You are his son. You are, forgive me if I'm overstepping, a good man. You know that-"

    Asuma held up his palm, and Hazō stopped talking. A distant alarm in Hazō's head started to scream that he'd made a mistake.

    Slowly and carefully, Asuma set his half-burnt cigarette down on the edge of his ashtray, leaving the burnt end pointed upward. The orange-red ring around the end of the cigarette faced Hazou. It continued to slowly burn as Asuma lowered his palm and laced his fingers together.

    "Hazō," he said. "Please imagine that you were in my shoes. If you were me, how would you react to what you just said to me?"

    The alarm was getting louder, and Hazō knew there had to be endless wrong answers to this question, but he couldn't see the right one. He had insulted Asuma somehow, and he hoped that Asuma wasn't considering taking a page out of Yagura's booklet of punishments for insubordination.

    "I apologize for any insult, sir, and I don't want to misrepresent your thoughts."

    Asuma nodded. "I understand you don't want to do that. I am asking you to do so anyway. If you were me, what would your interpretation be of your own words?"

    Hazō felt sweat starting to seep its way into his shirt under his arms. "I suppose I might be irritated, sir, that a subordinate suggested that he had the power to judge me and find me to be good. And I maybe would be doubly irritated at that subordinate mentioning my father and making an old wound hurt unnecessarily."

    Asuma shook his head. "Not quite. Those are factors, yes, but not dominant ones. Take it by parts. What does the first part imply?"

    You are not your father. You are his son. "I'm not certain, sir. It is true at the surface level. I suppose the implication is that there's a difference between you two?"

    Asuma nodded calmly, eyes fixed on Hazō's own. "And in context, what would the relevant difference be?"

    Hazō felt a rising tension in his chest. "Well, I suppose it… might imply that the difference is regarding the Will of Fire."

    "Therefore…?" Asuma said.

    A cold hand started to squeeze Hazō's heart. "Therefore, it implies either that you don't understand the Will of Fire as well as your father did, or that your father didn't understand the Will of Fire himself."

    Asuma nodded. "That's the main implication of what you said, yes. There are other ones. For example, that I'm too weak to do the right thing rather than the easy thing, in a way that my father wasn't. You understand how implying that your Hokage is weak and doesn't understand the Will of Fire is a bad thing, correct?"

    Hazō nodded stiffly.

    "Good. Now the second part. What does that imply?"

    You are, forgive me if I'm overstepping, a good man. "I was presuming that I could judge you as a good man, right after insulting your experience with the Will of Fire." Hazō felt his voice wavering as he spoke. "It's wrong for me to put myself above the Hokage like that."

    "Yes, that's correct," Asuma said. "And in the context of the comparison to my father?"

    The hand gripped tighter on his heart, and his heart struggled back, threatening to beat its way out of Hazō's chest. "It implies that your father wasn't a good man, but you are."

    "Correct, Hazō. And you've already understood how I might still feel sensitive about the death of my father, who spent more of his time and sweat and blood building this village than anyone, so I trust you can see how that is doubly insulting."

    "Sir," Hazō blurted out, "I didn't mean any of that, I just-"

    Asuma raised his palm again. Hazō cut himself off.

    Asuma waited a long moment, holding Hazō's gaze, then reached for the cigarette that he'd set aside.

    "I know you didn't, Hazō, which is why I'm trying to explain this to you calmly. I would like to say that I'm not offended, but frankly, I am. I'm not nearly as offended as if I had thought you meant to call me weak and foolish and spit on my father's grave, but I am a little hurt. However, I am not going to take offense at this. I am not going to become hostile to you because you insulted me by accident. The problem is that others in Leaf will.

    "If you can insult someone so deeply with an accidental turn of phrase, you will struggle to integrate your clan into Leaf as a whole. This is a real problem for you, Hazō. The extent of your meaningful relationships with other Leaf clans is your marriage-connection with the Nara and your personal relationship with Ino."

    "The Amori-"

    "The Amori trade with you because it is profitable. If you want to make them actually like you, then a good first step is not grossly insulting them. You won't be able to know what insults them unless you understand them.

    "I am aware you didn't have much time for Jiraiya to train you as a politician, and I'm aware that Mari's specialty is not politics. So, if you care to learn, please actually try to make connections with the rest of Leaf. It is a shame that you can't keep the compound you built, but its distance was one of many factors alienating you from the rest of Leaf. Surely you can see how it's not acceptable for the lord of a clan on the council to only really be known for clever trade schemes, catastrophic sealing failures, and the occasional gross insult to Leaf propriety, especially when so many of the clans haven't let go of your past as a missing-nin or Mist ninja?

    "Once we build you a new compound within the walls, I really would appreciate it if you found the silver lining and took the opportunity to actually build connections with the other clans of Leaf. I won't ask you to befriend them all – Sage knows that's impossible – but at least try to understand them. Learn about how they think, what they care about, and see from their perspective. I am sorry that you never had the chance to train as a politician, but it's far better to try and embarrass yourself with a few faux pas than to isolate yourself and only talk to them when you need them and roll the dice on irreparably damaging your relationship with them every time you do so. Is that clear?"

    "I understand, sir," Hazō said. "And I'm sorry."

    "Good," Asuma said, taking a drag on the cigarette again. "I'm sorry if it sounds harsh, Hazou, but you just cannot afford accidents like that. I can handle it, but not everyone will. I'm saying this for your own good." He exhaled another cloud of smoke toward the ceiling. "Leaving that aside, let's get to the point. What's your request for me?"

    Hazō swallowed. "I'm worried about Akane's safety and sanity. She is loyal and will obey orders, even if that destroys her. I'm sure you've seen plenty of people struggle with the consequences of being a ninja. I would appreciate if you could speak with her. You don't need to do anything to help her accept things or convince her that what happened was any less of a tragedy. Just… given the circumstances, would you let her know that you understand her grief and that it matters to you?"

    Asuma sighed, looking again out to the storm that raged to the west. "If I get the chance to leave my desk this week, I'll try to find the time to do so. If she needs time, I can take her off the mission rotation for a month or two, but she will need to go on missions eventually to keep up the cover that she's a normal chūnin with nothing to hide. I'll pick things with minimal risk of enemy ninja contact or kidnapping. Anything else?"

    "No, sir. I'm sorry again for my foolishness and poorly-chosen words. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me."

    "Dismissed, Hazō."

    o-o-o​

    Hazō kept his expression troubled as he walked across the Gōketsu estate. As expected, the hellstorm had subsided a bit before sundown, and while it was still cold the next morning, the unnatural chill and western wind had faded.

    He'd successfully dodged his clanmates' questions about the hellstorm last night, but he would need an answer soon, and probably a better answer than "I can't talk about it," since anyone who knew that he and Akane were going out to train Elemental Mastery (and maybe enjoy a date) might put two and two together by accident.

    "Lord Gōketsu!"

    Hazō looked up to see a young man jogging across the estate wearing the blue armband that marked him as one of the Tower's messengers. He stopped and bowed as he came close to Hazō, then handed over a scroll.

    "A message for you, sir."

    Hazō glanced over the scroll. It had a message clearly written on the front: "CLASSIFIED MISSION DETAILS WITHIN, REVIEW IN SECRET."

    Hazō thanked the messenger and went to prepare for a new day of problems.

    o-o-o​

    Hazō raised an eyebrow as he walked towards Leaf's main gate, then bowed shallowly.

    "Sarutobi, I wasn't expecting you."

    Sarutobi Fumi, the well built, elderly sealmaster bowed back. Around her, a small team of chūnin also bowed to the Clan Lord, much more deeply than Fumi. "Lord Gōketsu. I understand this is short notice, but did your briefing not contain any details?"

    Hazō nodded. "Many details, but apparently not all the relevant ones."

    Fumi laughed. "Well, I'm sure you'll have fun with your 'special orders' and all. Shall we get going?"

    o-o-o​

    Hazō walked forward through the clearing, just beyond where Sarutobi Fumi had left him so that he could carry out the "special orders" he'd been given. From the shadows on the edge of the clearing, the Goat-masked ANBU agent revealed himself.

    "Lord Gōketsu. Sarutobi Fumi brought you here?"

    "Yes," Hazō said. "I assume she is not going to be involved with anything concerning this mission?"

    Goat shook his head and gestured at Hazō to follow him deeper into the forest. "No, she will wait there for you to return, then go back to Leaf at sundown. Sadly, you'll be stuck in the woods with me for a couple days. Lord Hokage believed it would be best to stagger our departures, and having your departure be the earliest made sense as you could be called upon to investigate the sealing failure. Lady Akane should join us tomorrow morning after she is assigned a brief chakra beast suppression mission, then Lord Hokage will be joining us tomorrow night."

    Hazō raised an eyebrow. "The Hokage wants me to sit in the woods for two days rather than manage my clan?"

    Goat nodded. "Regrettable, but necessary to preserve secrets. With luck, Lord Hokage will be noted going on a three day mission, you on a six day one, and Lady Akane on one that lasts over a week, all with different departure and return dates. Hopefully, no connections are made."

    o-o-o​

    "Hello, Hazō, Akane," Asuma said as he entered the clearing where Hazō, Akane, and their two ANBU minders waited. Sundown had passed hours ago, but the sky was clear and the moon was full enough to see by. It was almost nostalgic to see Asuma wearing the plain olive jōnin's vest over blue garb that he had been wearing when Hazō had first visited Leaf. Asuma pulled a waterskin off his belt and drank from it.

    "Courtesy of Noburi," he explained. "Are you both ready to go? From here, we should be able to get to the northern tip of Iron tonight."

    Hazō and Akane murmured their assent and started to pack their things up.

    "Hazō, when we travel, it may be good to keep a dog on your person if you can summon one and keep him or her present. In the event of trouble, it's probably best for you to be able to return to the Seventh Path immediately. After all, that's why I have Sarumato here," he said, reaching over to scratch the monkey perched on his shoulder under the chin.

    "Oy, I'm more than a free ride to… Mmmm, a little higher," said the monkey.

    Asuma laughed and gestured to the clearing. "We'll move tonight, sleep around sunrise, then try to find an uninhabited spot tomorrow before sundown. If the duration remains the same, we should finish all our testing tomorrow night without any issue."

    o-o-o​

    The odds of getting an enemy on this table that is even remotely dangerous to Asuma and three ANBU are abysmal, but the spirit of it insists that I roll.

    ??, ??, ??, ??, ??, ??

    No encounters.

    Hazō looked out over the ocean from the edge of the skytower. The weather this close to Snow, this high up in the air was brutally cold. Even when the sun was high in the sky he'd felt freezing. For once, Hazō and Akane weren't massively overprepared compared to the team's outsiders – the masked ANBU used the village's seal stipends well and were themselves bundled up in layers and layers of coats and furs.

    Hazō examined the two ANBU that Asuma had left on the skytower with Hazō and Akane. Owl was a Yamanaka, and there were few enough senior Yamanaka left after all of Leaf's tragedies, so he had to be Inumaru. It had taken him a little longer, but eventually he'd pieced together the voice, build, and mannerisms of Panda – he had to be Hyūga Motokazu. Asuma had spared no expense in ensuring that the two of them would be monitored as thoroughly as possible. Hazō hadn't yet determined the identity of Goat, but the man was also a little larger and better built than his fellows. If he could manage to do the research discreetly, he could probably figure that out too.

    Hazō felt a small pit of worry in his stomach. Some part of him feared that Asuma had arranged this whole mission to quietly dispose of him and Akane in order to bring the power of Elemental Mastery fully under the control of the Hokage. There were plenty of reasons for Asuma not to do so, not the least of which was that if the Gōketsu clan ever learned, they would revolt.

    Still, what could he do about it? Hazō couldn't run, either on the Human or Seventh Path, and he couldn't refuse orders. Now that he was on the mission, any ability he had to influence his survival had passed. Even if he and Akane managed to attack and overpower Owl and Panda before Asuma and Goat could return, what then?

    If Asuma meant to kill them, the best time would be just after the test of Elemental Mastery. Once he was sure that simple skill with the technique was all that was needed to cause the hellstorm, Hazō and Akane might well have outlived their usefulness.

    Hazō tried to clear the thoughts away as Asuma approached the skytower, ascending step by step with Goat following close behind. "We found a spot with no land for twenty miles in any direction, and the nearest islands are uninhabited. It's the best chance we'll get. Are you ready to go, Akane?"

    Akane nodded stiffly and stepped forward.

    "Good," said Asuma. "Make your shadow clone and let's go."

    Hazō read the hesitation on Akane's face and the realization he should have had days ago hit him like an Earth Bullet.

    "Lord Seventh," Akane said, "I don't think I have the chakra for that. Even if I made only one shadow clone, I don't think I could power Elemental Mastery fully."

    Asuma frowned. "Okay. How long exactly did it take for the ninjutsu to reach full strength?"

    Hazō stepped forward. "Sir, I was there. We had the distance afforded by the Shadow Clone Technique and we only barely made it out alive."

    Asuma flickered his skywalkers off as he landed on the skytower and tapped storage seals to pull out a paper and brush. "We're not going to call it off that easily, Hazō. Even if we can't operate through shadow clones, this is worth testing. Let's figure out whether we can cast it in person and still escape from it."

    Hazō glanced at Akane. Asuma would certainly use a shadow clone to accompany Akane's real body when they did the test. If anyone died because of bad calculations, it would be Akane.

    Akane met Hazō's eyes and nodded.

    "So, how long would you say it was that the technique charged up for?" Asuma asked.

    o-o-o​

    Asuma and the trio of ANBU stared out over the edge of the platform at the new hellstorm that had broken the clear moonlit night over the frigid oceans near Snow Country. This one was smaller than the last, and despite the lack of clouds to consume, it had made some of its own. New strands of thick, wispy, white fog drifted up from the ocean to make a new stormwall that billowed farther and farther out as the frigid wind carried them along.

    Asuma and Akane ran on air as they fled the icy hellstorm with the wind to their back. They stumbled onto the platform and Hazō embraced Akane as she collapsed into his arms. Blessedly, she didn't feel cold.

    "It's real," Asuma's shadow clone said, breathlessly. "Elemental Mastery makes storms. It's not a tactical weapon by any means, we made it away easily, but it's…"

    "No ninjutsu should be this powerful," Asuma said. "Who made this technique?"

    "Sir, could the technique be useful for ambushes?" asked Goat. "The initial effect is innocuous, and if my understanding is correct, once the storm actually starts, it is much too late to flee. Setting aside the problem of collateral damage, of course."

    Asuma shook his head. "Maybe, but the collateral damage problem can't be set aside that easily when the radius of the storm is measured in miles," he said, gesturing out to the growing storm in front of them. "And besides, the sort of ninja we would want to deploy this against would probably recognize the initial rising storm as a powerful wind-style ninjutsu charging up, and ninja of that caliber rarely make it to that level of strength without an appropriate amount of caution. I'm sure there are situations where it could be useful, but the day for those situations is far, far out. Certainly not while we have any semblance of secrecy around the technique."

    Hazō couldn't help but listen to the conversation as he held Akane and pulled her closer to one of the hibachi that they had set up to keep the skytower comfortable. He wrapped her in another layer of furs, but her body already felt warm. Why, then, was she shivering?

    Asuma turned to Akane. "I'll take my clone and return to the storm to investigate. Once you've recovered some more chakra, I'd like to run the test again from cloud level."

    o-o-o​

    Hazō almost sighed in relief as he woke up not in the Naraka Path. If there were a time for Asuma to kill him and Akane, it would have been while they were sleeping after Akane expended her chakra reserves with two full-power casts of Elemental Mastery in one night.

    He turned to Akane in the small skytower tent that they shared. Her eyes flicked open.

    "How did you sleep?" Hazō asked.

    "I… didn't," Akane said.

    Hazō sat up. "I'm sorry, Akane. I… I don't know what else we can do. Do you want to talk about it?"

    Akane shook her head.

    Hazō nodded and bent down to give her a hug. If there were words that could fix this, he couldn't find them. All he could do right now was give her time.


    This update covered one week. Timeline for this update:
    • Day 1: Conversation with Asuma
    • Day 2: Hazō called on a mission.
    • Day 3: Akane/Asuma go on a mission. Travel through Iron.
    • Day 4: Travel into Gaikotsu Bay. EM tests.
    • Day 5: Travel back into Iron.
    • Day 6: Return to Fire. Asuma goes to Leaf, Hazō and Akane stay out.
    • Day 7: Hazō returns to Leaf. Akane remains on a "chakra beast suppression" mission with ANBU Panda for a few days longer.

    While returning through Iron, Asuma had a private conversation with Akane. Her demeanor did not change substantially as a result. Hazō continues to be forbidden to speak with anyone about Elemental Mastery in any capacity. Asuma has encouraged him to prepare Gōketsu for a move by the new year.

    XP Award: 14 + 7 (brevity) XP
    GM-fun Award: 1 XP     (In its own way, the Asuma scene was fun to write.)

    Vote time! What to do now?

    Voting ends on
     
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    • faflec said:
    SC XP:
    Kei SC XP: 14*1.7 = 23.8XP
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    Added.

    faflec said:
    @eaglejarl @Velorien @Paperclipped I left out any SC XP for Hazou and Akane because they were on a mission most of the time, but am unsure if they did manage to get any SC training done during the time they were in Leaf.
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    Hazou left Leaf too early the first day and Akane didn't do SC training under the assumption that she would be closely watched in the immediate aftermath of the EM-event.

    For notes XP, I suppose it's worth saying that Hazou could have dedicated as much SC time to the various notes as he wanted (though the more SC time he spends, the more noteworthy that becomes to the observers he was around).
     
    Blerg. Suicide watch for Akane? It wouldn't do anything to stop the existence of EM Nuke, but... Yeah. Maybe we can ask Kei to talk to Akane? She has firsthand experience with propagating genocide under someone else's orders. At least the Jiraiya/Hazou parallels hold true?
     
    I was hoping that "You aren't your father. You are his son." and "You're, forgive us if we overstep, a good man." would be understood by Asuma as two separate statements 🤷‍♂️

    Regardless, I got the impression that our shiny new compound is not intended as a house arrest thing, it really is a !bribe
     
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    I'd like to increase her base stats. She has really shitty Ranged Weapons, and that reeeeally isn't great for her.
     
    Paperclipped said:
    "You are not your father," Hazō continued. "You are his son. You are, forgive me if I'm overstepping, a good man. You know that-"
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    Would Hazou have said this line verbatim if it wasn't in the plan? If the plan was written in a different way, would Hazou's social skills have enabled him to avoid the insult?

    Paperclipped said:
    Hazō read the hesitation on Akane's face and the realization he should have had days ago hit him like an Earth Bullet.
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    Oh, was the first EM Nuke achieved with extra chakra from Noburi?

    Paperclipped said:
    It's not a tactical weapon by any means, we made it away easily,
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    How/why did they pull that off without the Shadow Clone distance? From Chapter 561, it sounded like only a few seconds elapsed between Dahlia completing the technique and the start of the explosion.
     
    Speakin' of use cases for the technique, I wonder if (despite the risk of nuke-proliferation) you could catch an S rank ninja in it by making a 'circle' of EM-casts, mile(s) or so in diameter, so that the storms would spin up to cover the area around the tar'et and cut off escape before closin' in and killin' them.
     
    acidshill said:
    How/why did they pull that off without the Shadow Clone distance? From Chapter 561, it sounded like only a few seconds elapsed between Dahlia completing the technique and the start of the explosion.
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    A combination of the lack of a hellstorm making things worse and ninja speeds. Also the fact that they knew to run immediately.
     
    acidshill said:
    Would Hazou have said this line verbatim if it wasn't in the plan? If the plan was written in a different way, would Hazou's social skills have enabled him to avoid the insult?
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    He would not have. Also, if the plan were scaffolded differently, there would have been more leniency with choosing wording that was less blatantly offensive. However, the plan was unambiguously conversational with the lines meant to be spoken basically as-is. Picking and choosing lines from the plan and working them into Hazou-speak was going great until that point, and Hazou's numerical social skills are limited enough that I didn't feel comfortable changing the rule that I was writing by by giving a Hazoupilot interrupt.

    There's pros and cons to picking words specifically. It can make writing much easier or lead to better outcomes than just giving us the rough things you want to happen and letting us run with it. It also has risks.

    acidshill said:
    Oh, was the first EM Nuke achieved with extra chakra from Noburi?
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    Yep, they tanked up Dahlia before they left. She wouldn't have been able to cast otherwise.

    acidshill said:
    How/why did they pull that off without the Shadow Clone distance? From Chapter 561, it sounded like only a few seconds elapsed between Dahlia completing the technique and the start of the explosion.
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    Just by running. The time is closer to a minute (yes, even though the EM start-up time is 6 seconds). HDK why.
     
    I can only say that it feel right not leave akane side any time soon. We already did the give time bit when she acess her beliefs, now she just need an anchor. Hazō is unfortunately the best cadidate.



    On another note i could see the Assuma nega quest understanding Hazō now and going:

    Oh shit he is just an kid wanting to do the right thing AND uchiha madara 3.O that have no intrinsic connection to the will of fire. This complicates things.
     
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