IIRC Akane's socials are pretty weak. It would be nice to find some time to raise those.
I think it's because sealing arrays (like on Nagi Island) got grued.
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 open voting
[X] Let eaglejarl write what he wants, we trust him
Chapter 588: Late
- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Chapter 588: Late
Nanao had never imagined he'd fall for his chūnin instructor.
It was crazy. Beyond the pale. Who'd ever heard of a genin falling for their instructor? It was one thing to get a crush on Michiko from the year above, or Yuri who he thought liked him back before he saw her with Ryūkichi, but Akane-sensei, the team leader, the mature adult who probably had grown men throwing themselves at her every day? He couldn't imagine what would happen if anyone found out.
Still, what could he do? It was fate. Destiny. It was probably the Will of Fire itself. Akane-sensei just wasn't like other women, never mind the girls he'd known at the Academy. Bad enough that she was slender and fit and had those amazing perfectly-toned muscles and a chest that bounced just the right amount when she got into her kata. It wasn't like Nanao had never seen a female taijutsu expert before. No, all this was the fault of that one conversation, back when Mami was trying to nail Manato with the new techniques she'd just learned and Manato was running for dear life, while Nanao was sitting it out with a twisted ankle (and had absolutely refused to be taken to the hospital because the rest of the team would just think he was a wimp).
Akane-sensei had teased him for pushing himself too far, saying he'd never become Hokage if he wasn't more careful about knowing his limits. He'd told her, stiffly, that he was never becoming Hokage anyway. Even if his own skills weren't so average (and the Academy instructors hadn't hesitated to point to him as proof that the extra help they were supposed to give the clanless was a waste of time), the next Hokage was going to be Lord Uzumaki, and he was a jinchūriki and a prodigy and already a veteran ninja and a beloved war hero, and on top of that he was so young that he'd never retire in Nanao's lifetime. Dangling the impossible in front of him was just pointlessly cruel.
Akane-sensei had refused to be pushed away. She told him that the shinobi world was a dangerous place, and Leaf would be in terrible trouble if anything happened to Lord Uzumaki (with whom she was on first-name terms!) and there weren't powerful, reliable ninja standing ready to shoulder his burden. She told him that being outperformed by his fellow Academy students didn't prove anything, and that all the Gōketsu elders, including herself, had only flowered after graduating, and she could tell that he would too.
Then came the part that bowled him over. Why did he want to become Hokage, she asked. Was there something specific he wanted to accomplish? Was there an ideal that he needed to be Hokage to live up to? Was he trying to be like a particular past Hokage or trying to follow a career path somebody had suggested to him?
Nanao suddenly realised he had never really thought about it.
When he admitted it, wishing the ground would open up and swallow him, Akane-sensei didn't make fun of him, even though he'd just confessed that the thing he saw as his reason to be a ninja was completely hollow (not that he had any chance of getting there anyway).
Instead, she told him that all the things the Hokage did—protecting the village, making the Fire Country a better place, embodying the Will of Fire—were incredibly easy things that anyone could do, to the point that he could do them now, without even becoming a chūnin, never mind Hokage. Protecting the village? Every chakra beast extermination did that, because the reason chakra beasts needed exterminating was that they killed citizens of Leaf and the Fire Country. In fact, every mission protected the village, because genin taking care of D-rank and some C-rank missions freed up stronger ninja to do harder ones, taking on the village's enemies in battle and defending it against more subtle threats.
Making the Fire Country a better place? Even easier. She told him about till'n'fills, which for some reason hadn't been covered at all in his Academy classes, and said there was so much still to do that a single ninja could personally save dozens of lives every day if they took the time to find out what was needed—maybe even without ever seeing combat. That had been really hard to get his head around. He'd been taught that there was a limited list of ninja specialisations, and if he wasn't good enough to master one of them, he wasn't going to survive, much less be useful to Leaf. Akane-sensei flipped the whole thing on its head. She said being a good ninja was about being willing to put in the time and hard work to make the world a better place, and what particular skills you had only mattered because it helped you figure out where you could make the biggest difference.
As for embodying the Will of Fire… Akane-sensei said everybody had their own path to embodying the Will of Fire. She warned him not to try to embody the Will of Fire by copying somebody else—even past Hokage, even Lord Uzumaki—because discovering your own way to do it, step by step, was how you grew as a ninja and as a person, and it was by starting now, as a genin, that he'd eventually figure out the answers he needed to reach a Hokage's wisdom.
Nanao was still struggling to absorb half of what she meant. He was horribly afraid that it would turn out that he just wasn't smart enough to understand Akane-sensei's wisdom, and that he'd let her down and end up being a second-rate shinobi despite her best efforts. But the last thing Akane-sensei had said in that conversation, before Mami and Minato came back and ruined everything, was that he didn't have to try to figure it out all at once—she was his instructor now, and she was going to be there for him until he found his own way of the ninja.
How had he been supposed not to fall for her after that?
-o-
January 8, 1071 AS (Day 4 of Hazō's Conclave activities).
By a happy quirk of cosmology, though Hazō had returned from the Seventh Path after the sky grew dark enough for the diurnal summons to retire, his aetheric journey spat him out in his office shortly before Human Path sunset. That left him with a few hours of glorious personal time before he had to go to bed and restore his energy for another round of schmoozing with Rat Clan diplomats who were inexplicably convinced that all humans were incapable of holding their liquor, and that this was a weakness to take advantage of at every opportunity, and Pangolin merchants trying to offer him wholesale prices on wood from the former Condor lands (in front of Kei).
By an unhappy quirk of Gaku, his demon chancellor was ready and waiting with a stack of forms and reports big enough that Shikigami-sensei could have used his paper arts to build a new ninja village out of them. Any attempts to evade responsibility were foiled by Gaku's subtle implication that this was the concise set, which Gaku had spent the whole day collating and curating for his clan head's benefit while taking care of everything he could himself. Even a Kage would fall flat on his face after such a professionally-executed guilt trip.
It was for this reason that Hazō's spirits soared when there came an unexpected knock on his office door. At his invitation, the door opened, and in glided Snowflake, his rapturous angel of salvation, complete with snow-white kimono and golden halo of ribbon.
"Snowflake!" Hazō exclaimed. "Come in! What can I do for you?"
"Good evening, Hazō," Snowflake said. "You as well, Gaku. Have either of you perchance seen Akane?"
"Sorry," Hazō said. "I've been trapped—I mean stuck—I mean diligently carrying out my clan head duties in this office ever since I came back."
"I'm afraid not, My Lady."
Snowflake tsked. "We were due to spend the night together in the Pleasure Quarter, but she was not at our arranged meeting place. If we do not make haste, the orgy will commence without us. Truly, I should have followed my original intuition and not worn these clothes."
Hazō and Gaku both stared before Gaku went red and turned away.
"I-I didn't realise you'd made so much progress," Hazō stammered, unsure how to react.
Snowflake looked at him blankly. "It is lack of progress that is the issue here, which is why I urgently require Akane. Do you know where I might find her?"
"Lady Akane is late returning from her mission," Gaku muttered, looking anywhere but at Snowflake. "She has not yet graced the estate with her presence."
Snowflake sighed.
"Well, then, Hazō, perhaps you might accompany me instead? It would be a regrettable waste of a ticket were I to attend alone."
Wait, what?
"It's on a ticket system?" Hazō seized on an irrelevant detail that would buy him time to think.
"Of course it is," Snowflake said. "We were supposed to see The Orgy of Errors, a comedy originally banned by the Third Hokage for inappropriate content, then unbanned by Jiraiya alongside numerous other works in the so-called Great Release, one of his more noteworthy non-Naruto-related acts as Hokage. Tonight is the only guaranteed performance, since, depending on the content, the Seventh might ban it again. Please decide swiftly, as I have just been vividly reminded that women's kimonos are not for running, and there is little time."
Hazō did not facepalm, because that would have been ungentlemanly.
He looked between the sanitation research team's thirty-page report on possible materials for sewage pipes less than ten centimetres in diameter and the beautiful woman wishing to spend the evening watching an intriguing-sounding play with him.
"I'm sorry, Gaku," he said with as much regret as he could fake, "but a family emergency trumps non-urgent business. Snowflake, I'll meet you at the entrance in five."
Ninja speed had him out of the door before his chancellor could come up with a retort.
-o-
Mami had never imagined she'd fall for her chūnin instructor.
She still hadn't, and she'd stab anyone who said otherwise. They were both girls, after all.
And anyway, the whole situation was Akane-sensei's fault. Mami had been prepared to spend That Day as she did every year, wandering around Leaf looking for ways to distract herself until it got dark and she was sleepy, then heading home, burning incense, and going straight to bed. Auntie Tsugumi always went out drinking until the early hours of the morning on That Day, so she wouldn't know. Mami never said anything to Akane-sensei, because it wasn't Akane-sensei's business, and besides, she might try to console her.
But no, Akane-sensei had picked up on it anyway, even though Mami was an expert at putting on a brave face. Then instead, of the comfortable routine of their scheduled daily training, she'd told the other two to do conditioning exercises and taken her off to the Nara estate of all places. The Nara estate, for special lessons. Mami was a KEI ninja now. She didn't get special lessons from a clan.
It made even less sense when she talked to the serious-looking kunoichi browsing documents on a bench, and the kunoichi put everything down and went straight to change into training gear. Just who was Akane-sensei, anyway?
Still, Mami liked the serious kunoichi. Mami just wanted to be left alone on That Day, and the serious kunoichi was the next best thing. She didn't ask any questions. She didn't try to do small talk at her. They just trained together in silence, and occasionally she stopped Mami and gave her clear, concise pointers.
Then, when they were both tired enough to stop, another kunoichi came out and even more silently brought them a tray with tea and cookies, and when Mami saw the way the two were looking at each other, suddenly she realised who the serious kunoichi was. Mami had been training with Lady Nara, the KEI coordinator, the Pangolin Summoner, the (in)famous open lesbian with a harem of a dozen women. She didn't know whether to ask for an autograph or run for the hills.
That Day was nearly over by then. Mami wasn't going to say she'd had fun, because it wasn't possible to have fun on That Day, but it was a better distraction than wandering around the village, and the cookies were nice, and those pointers she'd got would make Manato weep next time they had a practice duel.
Only then it turned out it still wasn't over. Akane-sensei asked her if she was busy (and Mami couldn't exactly claim she was), and asked if Mami could keep her company for a bit, and considering Akane-sensei had just got her special training from Lady Nara herself, Mami didn't feel she could turn her down. What she didn't expect was that keeping Akane-sensei company would mean being taken to a restaurant for the first time in years and treated to the nicest meal she'd had for… well, since before there were That Days (because Auntie Tsugumi loved her very much, but that didn't mean she could cook to save her life).
Akane-sensei didn't ask her about That Day, even though by then it was obvious that she'd noticed. All she said was that she wanted to get to know Mami better because they were a team now, and Mami could talk about whatever she felt like, even random things she didn't think anybody would be interested in. For example, what was the most interesting tip Lady Nara had given her?
It should've been small talk and annoying, but Akane-sensei didn't really talk after that. She just sat there and listened, and Mami kept talking because someone was listening to her, and somehow eventually she ended up telling Akane-sensei what That Day was, and even then Akane-sensei didn't interrupt and just listened to her talk. Mami couldn't remember half of what she'd said anymore, but she did remember that afterwards she'd come back and fallen straight asleep, and that never happened on That Day.
Now, she talked with Akane-sensei every chance she could, at least when Mami wasn't busy wrangling Nanao and Manato (which she knew was too much for any one person, even Akane-sensei) and Manato wasn't trying to hog Akane-sensei's attention, the jerk. She trained extra-hard to impress Akane-sensei. She drew little pictures of Akane-sensei in the scrapbook Auntie Tsugumi bought her for her birthday. Normal things people did when they had a ninja they admired.
Except that she asked Akane-sensei the other day, and apparently she and Lady Nara were sisters. That meant she was into girls as well. It was called heredity.
Mami had some things she needed to think about.
-o-
January 10, 1071 AS (Day 6 of Hazō's Conclave activities).
Hazō was performing his morning stretches in the courtyard in front of the main building—which was as much training as he had time for right now, the demands of the Conclave being what they were—when Yuno found him.
"Hi, Hazō!"
"Good morning, Yuno," Hazō said, rising from his crouching position.
"Do you know if Akane is back from her mission yet?" Yuno asked.
"You mean she isn't?" Hazō asked. "That's… actually worrying. She's four days late now. You don't think something went wrong, do you?"
"I wouldn't worry," Yuno said perkily. "Back in Isan, I came back several days late all the time when they sent me after a particularly tough chakra beast. Tracking difficulties, bad weather, injuries that make you go slowly because you can't risk getting into another fight… it all adds up. Often they'd tell me to take my time coming back, especially if I was heading into a hazardous area."
Hazō frowned. "I guess you're right. It still worries me, though. It's not like she's out there clearing the Swamp of Death—she's supposed to be leading a team of fresh genin, so I'd expect her missions to be milk runs for a while.
"Why were you looking for her, anyway? Anything I can help with?"
"She was supposed to cover for me this morning," Yuno said. "I've got a mission scheduled and I don't want to cancel my class."
"What do you mean?" Hazō asked.
"You know," Yuno said, "my weapons training class, the one you suggested I run."
"That was for the estate genin, though," Hazō said, "and those are all… well, dead. Who are you training now?"
"Whoever turns up," Yuno said as if it was obvious. "Even when it was just the estate genin, some of them asked if they could bring their teammates. These days, it's mostly KEI ninja. We do regular classes, and I take promising students on chakra beast extermination missions with me—as well as the ones who need culling because they're not taking the classes seriously enough."
"You're that committed to teaching people?" Hazō asked. "I remember how nervous you were when I first suggested it."
Yuno smiled shyly. "I was, and it took some getting used to. But I've found that it's nice—being called 'sensei', and having people listen to me like I'm someone whose opinion matters, and being impressed by how I wield Satsuko instead of running away just because they can't handle a little bloodlust or because I get excited about killing things or because they think there's something strange about having an evil-looking black axe with special grooves for the blood as your best friend. I mean, there are people who run away, but that just keeps class sizes down, so it's fine.
"No," she said after a second of studying his face, "really, there's more than that. There's something Akane said after watching one of our classes that really hit me—she said these people were here because they wanted to be more like me, even if it was just in very specific ways. She said that means everything I went through in Isan wasn't meaningless. It wasn't just people being cruel. Those experiences have value because I can offer them to others and it'll help keep them alive. When I think of it that way, it makes me want to give more to them. Hunting chakra beasts is wonderful, and I'd keep doing it even if the Hokage didn't tell me to, but what if I can make it part of something bigger?
"Maybe it's a little early to tell you, but Fujisawa and I have been talking. You know how she's the master of the Falling Star Style now her family's dead? She's worried that the school will die out with her because she can't exactly teach the way she is—but I can. We've had the idea of opening a dojo, maybe in Fujisawa's old home now the KEI has a bigger and better compound, and teaching a syncretic style based on the Falling Star Style, the Mountain Cleaver Style, and my chakra beast-hunting experience. I know that doesn't mean much on the scale of the Uplift you talk about, but it's not nothing, right?"
Hazō shook his head. "No, Yuno, that sounds amazing. If there's anything I can do to help, just let me know."
Yuno beamed. "Then you can start by giving us your opinion. You agree that 'Bloody Cleaver Style' would be the perfect name for it, right, Hazō?"
Hazō struggled to choose between a future in which he explained what a terrible name that was, and hurt Yuno's feelings right after she opened up to him, and a future in which Kei murdered him because he encouraged Yuno to use the terrible name, and hurt Fujisawa's feelings when her clan's legacy was on the line.
"Oh, it's later than I thought!" he exclaimed. "Sorry, Yuno, I'm late for a meeting on the Seventh Path!"
In the event, the escape wasn't as effective as he'd planned, as the puppy he'd summoned couldn't read social cues and didn't realise Hazō needed reverse-summoning immediately. Fortunately, Hazō was a certified genius, and distracting Yuno by letting her play with the puppy was even better than his original plan.
-o-
Manato had never imagined he'd fall for his chūnin instructor.
He'd been so excited about graduating and finally joining the KEI, and the next thing he knew, he'd been given a clan ninja as a team leader, with the coordinators' own blessing. One of the people who got all the good missions and all the good training while families like his had to struggle to get anywhere at all. One of the people the KEI existed to protect him from. One of the people who'd decided to sacrifice Yuki because she was clanless and therefore expendable. It had been maddening from the start, and now it just made his head ache to think about (to say nothing of his heart).
Obviously, Manato did his best to keep his guard up from the beginning. Akane-sensei was beautiful and friendly and charismatic, and she would definitely use all of those weapons to brainwash his team into being her willing tools. She was a clan ninja. Exploiting the clanless before discarding them was in her nature. He'd been respectful and polite—obviously—but he'd deftly sidestepped all her efforts to "get to know" him. She'd teach him as she'd been contracted to, and he would obey her instructions and serve as her subordinate for the duration, and that was the best kind of relationship the two of them could have.
Manato was alarmed when he realised Akane-sensei had somehow turned Mami through a combination of bribery and (reading between the lines) a deceitful performance of kindness and compassion. He was horrified when she turned Nanao practically before his very eyes, as he came back from a sparring match to find Akane-sensei dispensing sagely advice and Nanao lapping it up like a fresh convert to a heretical cult.
Manato resolved there and then that he would be the one to stay standing, to protect Nanao and Mami from Akane-sensei's manipulation even if they would never thank him for it. They were his teammates before she got her claws into them, and his classmates before that. It was his responsibility to look out for them. That was why he stayed on constant guard against both her emotional manipulation and her attempts to shape his worldview. He couldn't let her in for even a second, or they were all doomed.
For a while, he'd succeeded masterfully. Her most cunning tricks bounced off him as if he was a stone wall. He'd thought he could keep going this way forever… until that night.
They'd been sitting around a campfire, out in the wilderness after a D-rank herb-gathering mission. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Akane-sensei posed them a question. What was the right thing to do if you caught a missing-nin?
At first, they'd just stared at her, confused. Eventually, Nanao gave the obvious answer, which was to bring them back to Leaf for interrogation and execution. Then she asked more questions. What if that missing-nin had run away after being tricked into a crime by a real traitor? What if they'd run away because they thought they'd been sent on a suicide mission and it was the only way to survive? What if they'd run away without committing any crime because they (incorrectly) thought their life would be in danger if they stayed?
Manato, Nanao and Mami argued about the answers, fiercely and inconclusively. Then, before they could reach a conclusion that satisfied all three of them, Akane-sensei started asking harder questions. Was it acceptable to sell weapons to foreigners, for the benefit of Leaf, with which they would kill other, innocent foreigners? How many innocent civilians was it acceptable to kill to indirectly protect Leaf's security? Was there a number at which they changed their minds? What if it didn't affect Leaf's security, and they were killing innocent civilians purely in order to harm an enemy village? Was there a number that was right then?
The more they talked, the more issues that should have been obvious became blurry. Manato, who'd scored so high in the philosophy classes where they learned about the Will of Fire, found himself growing ever more frustrated. In the end, Akane-sensei didn't even try to give them the right answers (which would have been a clever form of manipulation, but not clever enough to get him). All she did was tell them that in time, they would be forced to make those kinds of judgements for real, with people living and dying according to their decisions. She said they needed to figure out their answers in advance, because there'd be no time to do it on the spot, and if they failed to make a choice that was true to their principles, they'd regret it for the rest of their lives. The look in her eyes when she said it chilled Manato to the bone.
A sleepless night later, Akane-sensei told them that her sister's husband knew his philosophy, and if they were interested, she could get him to recommend some beginner-friendly texts on ethics. The others were still off-balance, intimidated, but Manato was ready to rise to her challenge. He demanded (well, politely asked for) the best this mysterious husband could throw at him. He'd had no idea what he was getting himself into.
They would argue for hours after training sessions were over, long after Nanao and Mami gave up on them and went home. If the mysterious husband had recommended another book, then they would argue over that. If no book was available, they would argue over the broadsheet, or other recent news, or on occasion about the ethical implications of particularly popular gossip. Akane-sensei refused to give him any answers—in fact, she denied having any answers—but she also wouldn't let him rest, constantly cutting through his best justifications with her simple yet razor-sharp common sense.
At first, he argued out of frustration and a refusal to let her win. Then he argued because he enjoyed it, and because bit by bit, things that had hopelessly confused him that first night started to become clearer. Before he knew it, he began to look forward to their conversations. Then he began to miss them when Akane-sensei was away or busy. Then he began to miss her.
That was when he realised he was in trouble.
Akane-sensei was supposed to be, if not evil, then at least a force of greed and corruption like your typical clan ninja. She was supposed to be selfish and exploitative. Why couldn't Manato see her that way anymore? Bit by bit, her hypocrisy began to look sincere. Her manipulation began to look like kindness. Her deceptiveness began to look like straightforwardness. Her beauty and friendliness and charisma didn't go anywhere. Manato no longer knew what to believe. All he knew was that his heart had already figured out its answer.
-o-
January 14, 1071 AS (the next day after Enma's arrival at the Conclave).
She still wasn't back.
Hazō had done his best to focus on Conclave business over the last few days and trust Akane to take care of her responsibilities while he took care of his, but there were limits. Today, he was going to march right to the mission desk, demand her mission details, and find out for himself what could possibly be making her take so long.
"Gōketsu Akane… she's one of the new genin team leaders, right?" the man at the desk asked him.
"That's right," Hazō said. "Do you have the file for her current mission?"
"You'll want Hagoromo Ruka," the man replied. "She's in charge of assigning training missions for the genin. Corridor to my right, second door down."
Of course it would be a Hagoromo. A clan well-known for its facility with documents and its skill in handling sensitive information, Hazō knew from Jin that they were well-represented in the Tower bureaucracy, especially whenever it was time to reject a KEI ninja's urgent paperwork for trivial reasons.
Hagoromo Ruka turned out to be a scarecrow of a middle-aged woman, wearing a lacy black dress more elaborate than any clerk would normally bother to wear at work in some random back office. She sat at her desk reading a broadsheet, while in the background a younger ninja with an eye-catching red bandanna and a sheaf of documents in front of him seemed to be doing all the work.
"Good morning," Hazō said briskly. "I'd like to examine the file for Gōketsu Akane's current mission, please."
Hagoromo snorted. "And I'd like to be twenty years younger. Records for scheduled and in-progress missions can only be viewed by authorised personnel for security reasons that should be obvious."
"Don't be an ass, Hagoromo," the young man said as he rose from his desk. "Lord Gōketsu isn't here so he can sell out his girlfriend to Hidden Rock."
He headed over to a cabinet by the window and began to flick through the folders inside.
"You know, Lord Gōketsu, my cousin says you're the reason he passed his sealing certification last month."
"Oh," Hazō said. "Is he someone I know?"
"Probably not," the ninja said. "He says if it wasn't for you sharing Lord Fifth's notes with the village, he'd still be stuck trying to tell the difference between a flux creeper and a flux capacitor. That's why I'm just going to leave this file open here on my desk so I can see it more clearly, and if you happen to glimpse anything over my shoulder, well, that can't be helped."
He laid out several sheets of paper in front of Hazō. Hazō skimmed them quickly.
"Where are the Wakare Woods?"
"West of Leaf, not far from Shinjū," the ninja said distractedly, his attention focused on some other part of the documents. "Hagoromo, the estimated completion date on this was a week ago! Why haven't you already flagged this?"
"Oh, was it?" Hagoromo asked. "My mistake. These genin missions all start to blur together after a while."
Hazō felt a chill go down his spine. "How bad is her being a week late, by Fire Country standards?"
The ninja was silent for a few seconds before answering.
"Lord Gōketsu, the Wakare Woods are less than a day's travel from Leaf. If your girlfriend is still out there after a week… she's not coming back."
-o-
What do you do?
If you wish to respond to Enma's arrival on the 13th, make sure to do so before planning anything for the 14th, otherwise the rest of that day will go to the Hazōpilot.
Voting closes on
Last edited:
- Location
- Yes.
[X] Action Plan: WWV
Word Count: hahahhahaha
Word Count: hahahhahaha
- Conclave:
- I'm not writing this part because I don't know what we should do beyond "follow Enma's lead". Suggestions welcome.
- Go to Asuma immediately. Key points:
- Akane and her team are missing. For a week past the estimated completion date.
- Their mission took them to the NW border of Leaf, between the Swamp of Death and the Rock border.
- The worst-case scenario: Rock kidnapped Akane, and may have tortured EM Nukes out of her.
- Hazou is requesting an immediate search party to locate her and figure out what happened.
- Location
- Yes.
It's not perfect, sadly. I don't think this is Hazou/Akane's 9th anniversary.
- Location
- France
Unless he gets really good with necromancy, they'll probably never have a 9th anniversary yeah.
Let's go snowflake! Living her best life.
Ordinarily it wouldn't work this way for adoptive siblings, but the Gōketsu do seem to transmit their idiosyncrasies to one another... Also, Akane and Kei are considering each other sisters? Doesn't that mean Akane is also... Hazō's... sister?
Did Yuno just casually admit to taking subpar ninja on chakra beast extermination missions to get them killed? What?
She's going to have some questions to answer when Asuma gets back. Or at least, she'd better.
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Grab Yuno, Grab Kagome, Grab Kei, Grab Shikamaru, Grab Ino, Grab Noburi, Grab Sasuke... hell, grab Naruto (he's Akane's friend).
We're getting Akane back.
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
@faflec Contingent upon Asuma's approval, would you mind adding a thing about getting the above mentioned people to join in on the mission? We just got a windfall of millions of Ryo... it was supposed to be slated for the estate rebuild, but I'm more than willing to toss it at others (such as Naruto) if it means we'll get Akane back.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
Actual reaction post later, I was too busy being floored by everything there was here. Every character save the two of Snake Crib gets kisses.
I think it's a memetic effect. Ren has no sealing knowledge at all, there is no meaning or even an inkling of sense to what her brain downloads, to her. "Can't be harmed by the necronomicon if you can't read the words of madness and power" type shit?
OROCHIMARU: "Oh, you know how kids are at that age. Messing with the fabric of time and space..."
RYUUGAMINE: *sipping on his tea quizzically*
OROCHIMARU: "... still having 'morals' and feeling responsible for every event he didn't expect..."
RYUUGAMINE: *nodding in agreement*
OROCHIMARU: "... looking like a perfect dissection specimen."
RYUUGAMINE: "Oh, I have a few of those if you'd like to trade."
"Yes, it is just a matter of time before we can unite the world against the Five, promise peace everlasting, and bring humanity beyond"
All other ninja clans: "We learnt about unity on our own-"
Thinkers: "gotcha"
AONC: "this gives us superior strength and survivability through mutual protection"
Thinkers: "yes..."
AONC: "and since we're the only ones to think of that"
Thinkers: "wait, what"
AONC: "we're going to conquer everyone with it, dumber shits that they are."
Thinkers: "nooooooooooo"
If Ren doesn't remember it, that'll be cause for concern. Even then, maybe Jiraiya will, for all we know being dead might help evade a grue.
... Holy mackerel, a new chapter before I'm done replying? I'll just have to double-react when spoons do the thing when they are
Wouldn't do to show favoritism
Indeed.
Remember question-time-with-Snuncle? We should ask Ami for help contemplating in Jashin.
Technically he wants her memory. So... she might survive this. Unless he knows that secret Yamanaka jutsu that extracts all knowledge from someone in exchange for destroying their brain?
Heirlooms probably, not made by him certainly.
Does it matter to him if he can stare at us passively and we'll abort everything? It's not like we can even reach Konan's level of destruction, I think it was she who killed him? That said it's not even necessarily Snuncle who lost memories. "Nagato had access to lost memories" is a viable sentence to mutter-
Orochimaru, Intimidation: 1 + 56 (tag "I Know What Makes You Tick") + 35 (Master of the Basement) x2 because it makes narrative sense +3 (FD that aren't cursed) = 130
We do know seals get carved, for instance into bone, that is one of the few tidbits from biosealing we know: sometimes they're carved in bone. But that's not 3d alignment of the elements.
Yeah, people would have noticed Ren Kurosawa becoming useless during the fight *snerk*
I think it's a memetic effect. Ren has no sealing knowledge at all, there is no meaning or even an inkling of sense to what her brain downloads, to her. "Can't be harmed by the necronomicon if you can't read the words of madness and power" type shit?
We know there has to be more types of sealing than Hazō has learnt, because Naruto's seal, because bioseals in general etc. Maybe precision chakra tools imbue the surface of the stone with chakra-highways where it breaks it, maybe they added something in the holes...
RYUUGAMINE: "By the way, how is the kid that my Ami will marry doing?"
OROCHIMARU: "Oh, you know how kids are at that age. Messing with the fabric of time and space..."
RYUUGAMINE: *sipping on his tea quizzically*
OROCHIMARU: "... still having 'morals' and feeling responsible for every event he didn't expect..."
RYUUGAMINE: *nodding in agreement*
OROCHIMARU: "... looking like a perfect dissection specimen."
RYUUGAMINE: "Oh, I have a few of those if you'd like to trade."
*spits tea* SNUNCLE WARCRIME I'm wheezing
OROCHIMARU: *unrolls a ten-foot tongue* it can roll of that one, nephew.
Snuncle Capture-And-Torture, or SCAT for short
The Five Thinker Clans: "so have you seeded local philosophers with ideas of unity and protection?"
"Yes, it is just a matter of time before we can unite the world against the Five, promise peace everlasting, and bring humanity beyond"
All other ninja clans: "We learnt about unity on our own-"
Thinkers: "gotcha"
AONC: "this gives us superior strength and survivability through mutual protection"
Thinkers: "yes..."
AONC: "and since we're the only ones to think of that"
Thinkers: "wait, what"
AONC: "we're going to conquer everyone with it, dumber shits that they are."
Thinkers: "nooooooooooo"
What, don't you trust eaglejarl?
My take is mostly "it was after one of the greatest battles ever, everyone was reeling, Pain's array was stupendously full of over-powered things all around, everyone was also pumped full of adrenaline and chakra boosts,"
If Ren doesn't remember it, that'll be cause for concern. Even then, maybe Jiraiya will, for all we know being dead might help evade a grue.
... Holy mackerel, a new chapter before I'm done replying? I'll just have to double-react when spoons do the thing when they are
Wouldn't do to show favoritism
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Unless the Hag ninja deliberately left the mission unflagged.
In which case, I'm going to want their head on a pike... facing the direction of the Hagoromo Estate.
- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Action Plan: Search Party
Word count: 299
Word count: 299
- The Past:
- Asuma:
- Inform him ASAP Orochimaru may kidnap/interrogate Kurosawa Ren. Justify this: explain Orochimaru's understanding of our bloodline. Mention that it's inaccurate: Orochimaru may be upset with Hazo upon his return. Don't divulge bloodline secrets.
- Enma:
- Follow his lead.
- Hand him (good) booze.
- Establish yourself as his associate: you have his ear/can (partially) shield friendly clans from his ire.
- Corroborate his experiences. Discuss the Great Seal's cracks.
- Asuma:
- The Present:
- Shadow Clones to Nara (Kei/Shikamaru), Yamanaka (Ino), KEI, and Tower (Naruto).
- Team Akane is a week late returning from a standard mission.
- You're organizing a search. Request their assistance.
- Request an audience w/Naruto, Shikamaru ASAP.
- Prime returns to Goketsu.
- Optimize all with Kei/Mari/Yuno.
- Get word to Asuma via the 7th Path (leave message w/Enma? for chuunin exam Summoners?) ASAP.
- Search party:
- Defer to Shikamaru if Tower orders conflict with your goals.
- Yuno, you're leading the search.
- The clan's resources are at your disposal.
- Locate Team Akane if they're within Fire. Report back if not.
- This may be bait to lure out Goketsu: stay alert.
- Leave within the hour. Assemble your team.
- Mari, we want you there in case this is a trap or kidnapping.
- Bring Noburi for medicine and chakra. Alternately, could you Summon the Sages?
- Arrange Summon communication.
- Which trackers/sensory types do you want? Aburame, Hyuuga, Inuzaka?
- Should we come? We have tracker Dogs but might be more valuable coordinating in Leaf.
- Get Skywalker/Skytower permission.
- Mari, privately:
- A Hagoromo clerk potentially ignored the mission's overdue status.
- Vengeance is secondary, but please preserve any available evidence.
- Shikamaru, privately:
- Tone: referencing EM proliferation without violating OPSEC.
- Please confirm you're leveraging resources commensurate with the potential consequences.
- Naruto:
- Let Shikamaru lead.
- Request village resources - manpower, chakra, trackers/sensors, whatever Shikamaru recommends.
- Shadow Clones to Nara (Kei/Shikamaru), Yamanaka (Ino), KEI, and Tower (Naruto).
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Spector29
It Only Gets Worse From Here
Well, this is probably as close to a five-alarm fire as we'll get that doesn't involve our immediate death or the end of reality.
The nice thing is that I /doubt/ this is an assassination attempt by Asuma since he's on board with the Dragon Extermination and probably wouldn't want to damage our emotional state.
If Akane is dead that would be tragic, and probably add an edge of desperation to the Necromancy project. If Akane has been /kidnapped/...
Well, hey, what's another war?
The nice thing is that I /doubt/ this is an assassination attempt by Asuma since he's on board with the Dragon Extermination and probably wouldn't want to damage our emotional state.
If Akane is dead that would be tragic, and probably add an edge of desperation to the Necromancy project. If Akane has been /kidnapped/...
Well, hey, what's another war?
- Location
- Fifth Dimension
Hagoromo definitely did that on purpose.
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Yeah, if it turns out to be the case, I want the maximum punishment Asuma is willing to give. Drain her of all her chakra for half a year, and set her to working with civilian construction crews. It's a fate worse than death (as stated by everyone who hears of it), and will shame the Hag Clan.
I am also now against interacting with the Hag Clan in any way other than Harumitsu. Let them drown in their bigotry, let them fade away as the March of progress leaves them in the past. If Harumitsu can redeem them? Great. But I no longer want to expend the time and effort to Subtly drag them into the present.
Spector29
It Only Gets Worse From Here
Almost certainly. Is this treason? This feels like treason.
Might be a good idea to explicitly specify 'without divulging IN secrets', idk how the QMs would read that.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
They're sisters because Akane and Hazō are practically married, I think.
She'll want to be one week younger, definitely.
Finally, it's someone else's turn!
I think EM nuke considerations should be more explicit here.
She's not a special jounin yet, I don't think we should say that, it weakens Hazou's argument by distracting the listener with false information. You could say "special war asset" here and convey essentially the same thing.
- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Asuma is out of the village so I've just cut this section. I don't think making EM explicit is wise, but I can add in a 'tone: make sure they understand you're referencing EM nuke' when it's discussed.