Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

ProperAttorney · Apr 23, 2023

Would Flame Aura breaking cause that sort of damage to Akane if her stress track was already partially filled?

T_of_A · Apr 23, 2023

RIP Akane, who is very captured. I expect the Genin's corpses were entirely cremated.

[X] TRAINING HAZOU: EARTHSHAPING 50
"EARTH SHAPING COSTS 50 XP WE HAVE EARTHSHAPING 50 NOW"

Does Hazo have the time to train? No.
Would it be great to get a grief-induced powerup or anger-induced insight ? Yes.

faflec · Apr 23, 2023

ProperAttorney said:
Would Flame Aura breaking cause that sort of damage to Akane if her stress track was already partially filled?

Not to the extent of there being "a lot" of charred flesh.

Iris-Iven-Ibis · Apr 23, 2023

My personal specs for this is the color cable as the CC was recently introduced in an interlude and would make sense to use as they'll still be on are minded

Inferno Vulpix · Apr 23, 2023

[X] TRAINING HAZOU: EARTHSHAPING 50

faflec · Apr 23, 2023

[X] Action Plan: One, Two, Three
Word Count: 298

Pause.
- Dispel.
- Breathe. Calm.
- Silently pray to Jashin for Team Akane's safety.
Hazou's thoughts:
- If they're dead, this is where this trail ends. won't get anything here.
- Let's follow some other leads.
  - Team Akane had Skywalkers, and every reason to use them; but not enough to make it all the way back to Leaf.
    - It's possible they're on a Skytower, unable to get down. Or holed up in a forest somewhere.
  - The ambushers followed partway into their mission; can we backtrace to find their entry site or a camp?
- Consider gathering scent trails in storage seals, for future detection.
Optimize everything with Mari et al.
Hazou checks in with Asuma & Cannai before leaving.
- Breathe. Calm.
- Asuma:
  - (If he's not available, update Enma & schedule a check-in for later)
  - Describe your interactions with Ruka - Ritsuo may be upset. Apologize for the difficulty; you lost control.
    - We're furious, but we trust Leaf justice to settle the matter.
  - Listen to his orders & advice.
  - Did Ruri or Kagome give any updates from Leaf?
  - Send an update to Leaf via Seventh Path while you're here.
- Cannai:
  - Thanks for connecting us with Canvass. She's fantastic.
  - Does he have any advice or suggestions?
Go.
- Return to the ambush site; set up camp if it's too dark to continue.
  - If needed, distract yourself with Earthshaping - it's relaxing.
- Tracing Team Akane:
  - Skywalk and trace paths they could have taken. Investigate Skytowers above, and villages/forests below.
    - It's plausible they were disoriented and went the wrong way. Plan accordingly.
  - Lend Neji our telescope.
  - Detonate Earbusters/flares to signal for her (have Banshee Slayers available ).
  - Additionally, ask Ruri (via Seventh Path) to send a Condor scout searching.
- Tracing the Fuckers:
  - Follow the trail, see where it leads.
If we find something, follow it.
- Otherwise...go home. Report in.
Breathe. Calm.

Dictator4Hire · Apr 23, 2023

Iris-Iven-Ibis said:
My personal specs for this is the color cable as the CC was recently introduced in an interlude and would make sense to use as they'll still be on are minded

If any organization would be a red herring from the QMs to throw us off it would be one with color in its title.

Of course it could be a double bluff, etc. etc...

I think it would be best to act only on information Hazou has personally. Meta knowledge utilizing plans never end well for us.

Sir Stompy · Apr 23, 2023

T_of_A said:
RIP Akane, who is very captured. I expect the Genin's corpses were entirely cremated

How could she have been captured? The three enemies did not leave with her, and only dead people fit in storage seal. She's almost certainly dead.

Shrooms · Apr 23, 2023

I will vote for anyone who includes getting help from Jashin or Hidan in their plan (just asking e.g. Ami about talking to Hidan to get him to check her blood works for me.)

We need to be sure she's dead, can't have EM on the loose

Sir Stompy · Apr 23, 2023

faflec said:
Akane was injured, but escaped via Skywalkers.

In that case, she could be stuck on a Skytower, unable to get down due to injuries. Or landed and is holed up elsewhere

If this is the case we should signal her with Earbusters. We can expect her to hear them and to be able to signal us back with one.

faflec · Apr 23, 2023

Sir Stompy said:
If this is the case we should signal her with Earbusters. We can expect her to hear them and to be able to signal us back with one.

Not here: we're far outside the bounds of where Akane could have plausibly run off to. I can add it in once we backtrack, though.

Shrooms · Apr 23, 2023

Also, Hazou should still ES the battlefield to sense/dig up any kunai, seals, or equipment. We could possibly determine the culprit from there.

RandomOTP · Apr 23, 2023

@faflec Feel free to yoink from my plan!

RandomOTP said:
[X] Action Plan: Saving Akane
Words: tbd

No blood, that could mean...

...lightning or fire jutsu. (Does the smell of burnt flesh follow the trail of enemies, or does it linger?)

...dimensional travel (like Summoning).

...or could also mean air travel.

Akane carried skywalkers and skytowers on her. She also knows a bit of medical skills. With some work, she could escape with her genin and keep everyone stable.

All Trackers: can you track through the air? Neji, use our telescope.

We could activate Banshee or Earbuster seals, and listen for a return call?

Check in with Asuma. Give full update.

_The_Bomb · Apr 23, 2023

eaglejarl said:
Chapter 589: In Which Hazō Has Measured and Prosocial Interactions

bounces in anticipation

the Paint fr*cturing very sl!ghtly and RealitY whispering in his ear as one of his two anchors to the physical tore free and slid towards the edge.

Oh. Oh no. It's nervewracking enough to see this when he is dealing with the DRAGONS but to see it while fully on the Human path? What that implies is bad.

Akane is much more central to our mental stability and Out!Resistance than I thought. She's far more than just a grounding excercize and light back to the path if we get lost. She's apparently constaly keeping us from the abyss.

as one of his two anchors to the physical tore free and slid towards the edge. It stopped, balancing on the cliff of madness.

Given how close this was to the edge....

If we hadn't opened our relationship up to Ino, we would have broken here. Losing one out of two anchors already took us to the edge. If that anchor was all we had?

I guess we can say that monogomy was objectively the wrong choice in our case.

"Could you repeat that, please?" he asked, a small and very calm smile creeping across his face.

This is as close to Out!Hazō coming back as we are ever going to get, I suppose. Or as close to Jack Napier.

Hagoromo's lip curled in disgust at Hazō's expression. The still-unnamed male ninja leaned back in obvious alarm.

She doesn't realize what this means for her or her clan yet.

"She...was sent on a mission to the Wakare Woods. Herself and her three genin. The Woods are maybe half a day's travel west from Leaf and she's a week overdue. She's...uh...it's very likely that she's no longer with us, My Lord."

He at least was professional. Though, he's very obviously afraid of us right now.

Hazō nodded. The world was far away, on the other side of thick glass. Somewhere in the back of his mind a volcano rumbled. Or perhaps it was an animal? Unclear. What was the best way of representing one's internal desire to commit genocide?

Ah yes, disassoication and murderous rage make quite the pairing.

As for his hypothetical question.... I suppose we should ask Pandā what he thinks. He'd get it. All of their kind would, unless we can dig up another Pasafutsu.

Her eyes narrowed as she saw the trap. "You are not in my chain of command, Gōketsu. I have no obligation to answer your questions.

OliWhail said:
Similarly to Mist, the military hierarchy goes: Hiruzen => Jiraiya => jōnin commander => jōnin team leaders (only to their team) => random jōnin (to chūnin / genin) => chūnin => genin, with seniority within rank based on graduation date from the Academy or special assignment from Hiruzen, and with ANBU as a separate spec ops force reporting directly to the Hokage (who then sometimes makes Jiraiya do the work of orgainzing them).

Let's fix that, shall we? We are hilariously overqualified to be considered a sealing special jōnin.

No one is ever going to be able to stop us from saving our family again.

"KEI ninja?"

"Yes, M'Lord."

Yeah, I kind of figured.

"Very good. Am I correct that the things I named are among Ruka's duties?"

"Don't you call me—!"

I'd say "Fuck you" but calling someone by their first name already kinda implies being lovers and even the thought of that is discusting

"Yes, M'Lord. Hers and mine both." He paused and then hastened to add, "We divide the missions between us. Your girlfriend's mission was in her stack."

It's okay. We only know about this now because of you. Haggy would have delayed us even further with the "protocal" she cited if you hadn't taken over. We're furious, but even now we wouldn't let an innocent be a casulty of our aggression. Not with our Resolve stat. And you, my boy, aren't just innocent. You may have made saving her possible.

"Gōketsu, you need to leave," the bullseye said firmly. "We have important work to do and you are delaying it. Out." She pointed decisively at the door.

She really doesn't understand. Ha ha h a h a a a a

"—to assume," Hazō said, refusing to be interrupted or d!stracted by the cr4cks he cold freel in spine his, "that her Clan Lord is among the people you would notify regarding an overdue ninja?"

Oh my. That sentence is quite broken.

"The war ended because the Hokage gave explicit orders, to both myself and your herd diRector, that all conflict was to stop for the good of Leaf. I now find that you have been derelict in your duties in a way that has likely c#ntributed to the death of my girlfriend. So far as I am concerned, the Hagoromo have defied the Hokage's orders in order to launch an unprovoked assault on a Gōketsu n1nja and we are completely justified in defending ourselves in whatever way I see fit.

Yeah I see it like that too.

"You will go to Ritsuo," Hazō said, jabbing his longest right-side phalange at the center of the bullseye and stopping half an inch from its surface.

wat

Wha-- why are sending her to her clan?! She should be detained until Asuma can be contacted.

If Ritsuo turns out the resources of the Hagoromo to aid in the search, if he makes a sincere and convincing effort, then I will ask only that you be disciplined and I will thank him for his aid.

This is an extremely generous offer given what happened. They don't even have any special abilities that would help us find her. I know it's "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" time but seriously?!

iterally. Your head, chopped off with a dull axe and served to me on a polished silver platter. Anything less than that and the Hagoromo will discover what it truly means to have the Gōketsu as an enemy.

That's the bare minimum that Asuma would demand for a Tower employee commiting treason in this fashion. It's not nearly enough for us to be satisfied.

"Hello, Yamato," said HazōInoGet. "I'm afraid I can't wait. Please get her out of that meeting."

Yep. There is something fun about hitting the Godzilla threshold and going all out on everything.

Yamato shifted uncomfortably. "Sir, the meeting is with—"

Hazō put his hand on the older civilian man's shoulder and met his eyes.

"Yamato," he said, "you're an excellent steward, and Ino is lucky to have you. I respect the world out of you and I don't want you to think otherwise. That said, get Ino out of that meeting or I'm going to carve a path through the walls of this house until I get to her. This is not a joke, this is not figurative." He glanced to his left, pursed his lips in thought for a moment, and then pointed. "I'll start right there. I'm fairly sure that one isn't load-bearing."

Yamato studied him for a moment, then bowed and quickly withdrew.

Anyone here seen The West Wing? This is the moment when Charlie uses the "it's about an old friend" emergency phrase to immedieately get the Chief of Staff to drop everything and come to him.

I advocated for making similar contingencies for situations like this after the Orochimaru incident, but nothing came of it. Perhaps now everyone will see the utility in having an emergency phrase to use with allies a little more clearly.

Two minutes later, Ino came through the door, fury sparking off of her every step.

"Hazō, don't you ever—"

Appropriate response from her. We should have made contingencies so we wouldn't have to terrify her subordinates into compliance. Seriously, a code-phrase would have neatly avoided that.

Also, @eaglejarl, situations like this really show that the Intimidation mechanic needs a rework to account for situational factors. Hazō has an Intimidation of 5. If you had rolled (and you arguably should have) he very well might have lost to even a civilian secretary. That said, no civilian in the EN would not be intimidated by a furious ninja. Similarly, most stewards would be shitting their pants if someone credibly threatened to do that. You should at least allow power-disparity to affect Intimidation rolls.

Yes, I am fully aware that this would make Orochimaru even more Intimidating, which is impressive given that he can Legendarily take Hazō out with ease. Resolve is literally our whole thing.

DM me if you want to discuss this further.

"Akane is a week overdue."

She froze. "What was the mission?"

And instantly she's in serious mode the same way he is. All is forgiven as she sees the necessity.

"Animal extermination mission in the Wakare Woods. It's about half a day west of here. Her and her three genin. They're a week overdue."

She stared at him in horror for several seconds and then her face melted and she went to wrap him in a hug.

Yeah, she's problably terrified and devestated in equal measure right now. She probably failed her Resolve roll to instantly pull herself into action-mode.

Actually, come to think of it, shouldn't we have had a roll like that of our own? We likely would have passed it even with circumstances giving it a really high TN, because Resolve is our whole thing, but it still should have happened.

C'mon, EJ! We player's love it when we get to use our stupidly-higher-than-it-should-be Resolve stat. You should show us using the skill more. Learning Akane is likely dead and needing to hold himself together to act on the miniscule chance he can save her? Boom, Resolve roll. Our beautiful girlfriend Ino joins us in the hotsprings and washes herself off completely nude right next to us. Boom, Resolve roll to not peek. Effortless pass, obviously, but that's exactly why we like seeing these rolls. Resolve is our shiny toy and you should bust it out whenever anything gives you an excuse!

He stopped her with an upraised hand. "I'm a shadow clone and I can't risk too tight a hug. Prime made four of us. We're pulling in you, the Nara, the KEI, and the Tower. He stayed at the mission desk to ream out the Hagoromo who ignored her being overdue. We're going to organize a search party and I need you to come to the estate right now to help figure out how. Can you do that?"

Oooof. Stopping the hug. The pragmatic choice but it's emotionally hard.

"I..." She glanced towards the out of sight room where she had been having her meeting and bit her lip. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Hazō," she said, "and yes, I know you aren't my Hazō. That doesn't matter. If she's a week late then it really doesn't matter if the search party leaves now or tomorrow." She eyed his recalcitrant face for a moment. "Have you...have you never lost anyone before? I know you had a handful of branch family die during the war, but is Akane the first one that you were close to? People die on missions, Hazō. It happens, and you need to be ready for it.

Speech time!

(Also we literally just talked to Ino about how we lost our comrades for the first time a few weeks ago. It happened at the hotsprings visit I just brought up. So, small inconsistency in her dialogue here.)

"We don't know that she's dead," HazōInoGet insisted. "Right now we only know that she's overdue. We're going to find her."

"...Okay," Ino said, as comfortingly as she could. She put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly in support. "But I want you to brace yourself for the fact that we're almost certainly not going to find her alive." She glanced at the wall that stood between her and the meeting room she had been dragged away from, then back at HazōInoGet. "Give me ten minutes, okay? It took me three weeks to set this meeting up and I can't afford to just walk out. I'll go put it on ice until tomorrow and then we can go."

Yeah. We know. Also, damn, that meeting must be incredibly important (since I trust Ino to have good reason + all the clues EJ threw in about this). I'm a little curious who it's with.

"So, what's so important that you needed to get in here right now?" Naruto demanded.

Yay! Naruto time. We could really use our help.

The temporary Hokage was in Asuma's office, perched at the desk that had served every Hokage since the beginning of the Village Era. He was also at nine different smaller desks that had been scattered around the room, and all of him were staring at paperwork with varied expressions of despair. As HazōTowerExplainer walked in they had looked up with the expression of a prisoner seeing salvation.

Heh, nice. Maybe we should build an additional office with this set-up at our new Estate so that we can mass-SC our paperwork when it piles up to high. I'll make a note to bring it up with Gaku. Hmm. Maybe we should ask Naruto for advice on other ways of using SC to help with our duties. Or have Mari (who also has SC do it). He probably can offer us a few useful ideas.

"First off, I'm a shadow clone," HazōTowerExplainer said. "Just in case that matters.

You're talking to the person in the world whom it would matter to least.

Naruto Prime (presumably, or at least the one behind the desk) blinked. "A week overdue? What in the Sage's name was her mission, a mapping trip to Bear?"

Yep. Being a whole week overdue is crazy. That clerk "failed" at her job in such a monumental manner that Asuma would probably have wanted her executed even if actually was incompetence instead of maliciousness. Yeah. She's 100% getting executed. I don't see Asuma doing anything other than that.

"Animal extermination in the Wakare Woods, half a day west of here."

I have had this at the bottom of my screen while I typed so I wouldn't spoil Naruto's reaction to hearing this. I bet it's explosive. At the very least he's going to immedieately want to know everything.

That clerk is so totally fucked.

Sympathy crept over Naruto's face. "Hazō—sorry, what's your name?"

Ah. That's pretty sweet of him. Both the immedieate sympathy when he thinks Akane is long dead (and ouch that hurts to see) and because he wanted to get the SC's name right. He's probably the only other guy that truly gronks SC culture.

"HazōTowerExplainer." Unsurprising that the foremost user of the Shadow Clone technique would remember to acknowledge the separation of identity among clones.

That's what I just said!

"HazōTowerExplainer, you're talking about a 'search party', as though we're going to find her and save her. If Akane is a week overdue then I'm afraid she's dead and this is a body recovery mission."

Hazōpilot is firmly in Denial mode right now. Zero chance he accepts that.

"We don't know that," HazōTowerExplainer said stubbornly. "All we know is that she's missing—overdue, rather." He could feel his face trying to break open and spill forth the tears. He wished desperately for the Iron Nerve and its ability to maintain a polite and concealing mask regardless of inner turmoil.

And I'm suddenly glad we sent a SC here so that we didn't have the Iron Nerve. This single conversation is going to do more to make Naruto see us as a person than literally anything we could have planned.

Also, is that a little bit of the Sadness stage I see slipping through?

Naruto studied him for a moment, then nodded. "Okay," he said. He made a cross with his fingers. "Shadow Clone Technique."

Even if he's just humoring the grieving boyfriend, this is much appreciated. He might make a big difference.

Three Narutos poofed into existence. Two of them nodded politely to HazōTowerExplainer and hustled out. The fourth met his progenitor's eyes and nodded. "On it, boss." He looked back to HazōTowerExplainer. "C'mon, buddy. Those three are going to go check with the Hyūga and Inuzuka to see about their availability for a recovery mission. Meanwhile, let's you and me go see what we can do to get you some closure."

Wow. That's really appreciated. It's much better to have the Hokage try and get those two clans involved than to try it ourselves. Much faster, certainly.

And damn, no way is Naruto seeing us as a categorically bad walking treason-machine after this. He's going to have to start think of us as a real person. The horror.

Huh.

"I am," said HazōScarySisApproacher. "How could you tell?"

DON'T STOP TO SMELL THE ROSES DURING AN EMERGENCY. YOU CAN ASK THIS LATER.

Shikamaru looked at his wife in surprise. "Your perceptiveness and analytic abilities are superior even to what I had thought, wife."

"I am grateful for your compliment," Kei said. "It was appropriate to the situation and it felt sincere. Also, it related to my skills, which are earned, rather than my appearance or other factors that are mere happenstance. However, the appending of the term 'wife', while undoubtedly intended as moderate endearment and a reminder of our connection, has a connotation of property that I disprefer. In future it would be more effective to use my name, or omit the referent entirely."

Shikamaru nodded in thought. "I see. 'Wife' places your identity in a category defined by your relationship to me instead of yourself as a unique entity. I shall remember this in future and I thank you for the information."

Huh. Neat. Odd that they haven't addressed this specific term in the long time they've been doing this feedback process. You'd have think it would have come up pretty early.

ALSO FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HAZŌ INTERRUPT THIS IS AN EMERGENCY

"Akane is a week overdue," HazōScarySisApproacher said impatiently. "I want you both at the Gōketsu estate for a planning session."

Oh thank goodness.

Kei was on her feet immediately, tea and breakfast forgotten. Shikamaru stopped her with an upraised hand.

Yay. Glad to see the instant shift. Also interested in why Shikamaru did that, considering he must be extremely concerned about EM right now.

"What is your cognomen?" he asked their visitor.

HazōScarySisApproacher hesitated. "Please, feel free to refer to me simply as 'Hazō'," he said after a moment.

Huh. Wasn't expecting him to also ask.
Heh. Yeah, now that people are asking you might want to think of names that don't convey things you don't want people hearing. I probably would have just went by "Hazō" here as well, but I'm afraid your hesitation probably gave the game away little buddy. She'll probably bring it up once she's out of emergency mode.

"Very well. What was the nature and location of Akane's mission?"

"Animal extermination. Wakare Woods, half a day west of here."

"In this case, I am very sorry but you will need to accept that she is dead. I am, and I believe it to be clear that Kei is, happy to go with you and help you plan a recovery mission in order to avert any potentially problematic elements of such a plan, but I wish it to be clear that we are at best going to recover her body, not rescue her. Even that much is unlikely."

Yeah, that's the response I would give in his shoes too. State upfront that you'll do everything you can to help so you don't establish yourself as an obstacle in the current "Us vs. Them" mode, and then start trying to help a friend with his grief.

It's sad to see he also thinks that. It does not bode well for her chances at all.

Kei looked at her husband with a frozen expression. The air chilled around them. "Husband..." She shook her head and let out a slow breath, allowing the patio to once more warm. "Come or stay, it is of no importance to me."

Hmmm. I guess she wasn't ready to hear that yet.

Shikamaru stood, wiped his mouth, and dropped his napkin on the table. "Of course I will come, Kei. However, I wish to ensure that no one has false hope. Hazō's demeanor is of fear and urgency. There is no place for those things in this context and harboring them will lead only to bad decisions and later consequences. As a salient example: the fact that Hazō sent a shadow clone here strongly suggests that he has sent multiple clones to other places. Based on this Hazō's presentation I suspect that all instances of Hazō are making their approaches with a bluntness that may harm the Gōketsu relationship to other clans going forward." He looked to HazōScarySisApproacher and his words were gentle. "The forests of Leaf are large and finding something as small as a person is a tremendous challenge. After a week it is unlikely that we can even locate her body. It will have reentered the cycle of the wilds."

We really don't care. Also, we have Canvass. IRL bloodhounds can follow trails that are over 300 hours old (twelve and a half days) for 130 miles. Canvass is a sentient, chakra-using, super!bloodhound that is an accomplished specialist in tracking on top of her natural talents.

Credit to EJ for telling me those facts. I didn't actually know them off the top of my head. Those details are ridiculous. How on Earth do they do that?!

"We don't know she's dead," HazōScarySisApproacher said, his voice made of knives of sharpened ice. "Until we know for certain, we're operating on the assumption that she isn't."

Shikamaru tipped his head in an 'I will humor you' way. "As you say."

We'll take being humored as long as it means that everything is being tapped to find her. Nothing else matters right now.

"Kei, would you mind giving me a moment with your husband?" HazōScarySisApproacher asked.

EM-discussion time.

She raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "Very well. I shall see you at the house." She looked down at Shikamaru. "I was untruthful in my earlier statement. I would appreciate your attendance." Miraculously, the words were merely informative and not loaded with extortionate implications.

Awww.

"I suspect that your question relates to my awareness of, and analysis of implications related to, Akane's unusual utility as a member of the Leaf military," Shikamaru said, skirting very widely around the words 'the fact that she is capable of destroying entire cities on a whim.'

"Yes, that," HazōScarySisApproacher said. "You're being brought in as a primary strategic advisor to this mission. I'm assuming you'll leverage appropriate resources?"

Shikamaru nodded. "In turn, I assume that an instance of you has spoken to the Tower?"

HazōScarySisApproacher nodded. "Yes. HazōTowerExplainer got done a couple minutes ago. A Naruto will be at the meeting and he's approaching the Hyūga and the Inuzuka for us."

"This will help," Shikamaru said. "Shall we?" He moved towards the door.

Awesome. This is exactly what I wanted.

Memories flooded in as the last of his clones dissolved into the aether and their worldlines returned to Hazō. Moments later, he had reverse-summoned to the Conclave

Perfect. Time to do the part of this that I actually thought of. Hopefully it works and we can get ahold of Asuma even slightly faster.

"Enma!" Hazō called, moving down the steps at the fastest speed that likely wouldn't be interpreted as an attack.

The Monkey Lord's head jerked up and he stopped pacing. "Hazō? What's going on?"

Glad to see that someone can identify an emergency promptly and react accordingly.

"I need you to get a message to Asuma," Hazō said, a little out of breath. "Here." He held out the folded note that he had hastily scribbled out upon reaching the estate. "You know he's at the Chūnin Exams with some of the Leaf Summoners, right?"

"Sure," Enma said, taking the note. "You want me to give this to whichever of them shows up next?"

Hazō nodded gratefully. "Exactly."

Perfect.

"And yet, I just did," Hazō said, glancing over at her for a moment before turning back to Enma. "It's in the note, but just in case: Akane is a week overdue on a mission only half a day west of Leaf. We're organizing a search party to find her."

Enma's simian face dropped. "I'm sorry, kid," he said.

Yeah. Sympathy point for days. Dead or alive, this is going to change our relationship with the people we interacted with.

The meeting was happening outdoors on the Gōketsu estate and there were no chairs. Hazō didn't want people comfortable, he wanted them looking to get moving as quickly as possible.

Amen!

The arrival of Team Gai and the Inuzuka jōnin had been a pleasant surprise.

Hell yeah!

Who's pumped to see who come out ahead between the best the Inuzuka have to offer and the sentient superbloodhound that is Canvass.

The Gōketsu were on the hook for the cost but it was a pittance compared to what Hazō was willing to spend.

Don't care in the slightest.

"You are suggesting that it might be an attack from Rock?" Shimamaru said. "Although I grant it as a possibility, it seems improbable. They have no more interest in violating the AMITY accords than we do."

It's a real concern with Akane. Less so now that we cleared up the confusion over the mission location.

"It could also be that someone is attempting to bait me out," Hazō said grimly. "I'm the Dog Summoner, a Clan Head, and a sealmaster. After the Chūnin Exams I've got a very high profile even internationally, and that definitely includes the fact that Akane and I have a relationship. It wouldn't require a genius to guess that if they took her then I'd be close behind."

Yeah. I'm quite glad we have another jōnin coming with us. Mari certainly helps a lot but having Yamato with us as well makes things much safer.

Inuzuka Yamato snorted in grim amusement. "If so then I can almost pity them...they must have expected you much sooner and they've been sitting around wondering what's taking so long."

Right when they think we didn't find out until too late to find them, the full force of our wrath shall decend upon their wretchedness. I have a feeling that Canvass is going to actually end up with chakra metal dentures after she pulls off what everyone thought was impossible.

Hazō glared down the man and his canine partner. "I want your help and I'm happy to pay your rates. That said, you're a small clan who was hit hard in the Collapse and the war. The Dog Clan is tens of thousands; they have a much wider pool of talent to draw from and Canvass was recommended to me by the Alpha Dog as one of the their best trackers." He let one hand fall to the dog's head where she sat beside him.

"We'll see about that," Inuzuka grumbled. His canine partner huffed agreement. Canvass looked smugly amused.

Pretty much exactly what I said to EJ last night. Guess we'll see if I'm right.

"I think we're safe enough," Yuno said, gesturing at the group that was definitely going: herself; Mari; Team Gai, three of the most dangerous senior chūnin in Leaf; the irritated Inuzuka and the ninken who sat next to him. The dog was an enormous mastiff, his shoulders coming up to his human partner's hip.

"Hazō, Noburi, you should come with us," Mari said. "For a variety of reasons."

Done.

Naruto nodded. "You do, yeah. Maintain OPSEC, use them appropriately, blah blah blah. Still, recovering the remains of four Leaf ninja is a highly valid reason." He snorted. "Plus, I'm not even sure why we're still trying to keep a lid on, but that's Asuma's policy and I'm not overruling him in the general case."

Thanks.

"I believe it should be emphasized that this is a recovery mission, not a retaliatory strike," Shikamaru said. "No matter who or what is found to be responsible, the team should not cross any of Fire's borders and should avoid combat. The emphasis must be on gathering intelligence and ensuring that it reaches Leaf so that the village can organize an effective response. In addition, in the unlikely event that you intersect with ninja from an enemy nation, it is critically important that Hazō not be captured. His own summation from earlier should make clear why. Aside from that, I believe that we have covered all relevant details. Kei?"

Yeah fuck you Color Cabal. If this is a trap we're all bracing for it.

"Indeed!" Rock Lee shouted. "And if we cannot find their bodies before sundown, I will run to the Land of Tea and back on my hands twenty times as a punishment!"

"Shut the fuck up, Lee," Hazō said. "I don't have the patience for your usual bullshit right now."

The green-clad ninja jolted back as though he'd been slapped.

Yowch. Sorry Lee. We'll apologize later.

"Thank you," Kei said. "There is a correlation between your well-being and my level of happiness on most days. Although empathy is not my greatest skill, your words make it seem that you have similar experience and therefore I should not like to inflict disaccomodation upon you."

Damn. This marriage ended up far better than the thread's wildest hopes.

Naruto gaped at the exchange. Noburi facepalmed. Inuzuka snorted.

"You two are amazing," Inuzuka said. "That was the worst 'I love you' ever exchanged."

Heh. Poor Naruto. Guess he isn't used to their particular flavor of insanity yet.

"We're leaving," he said firmly. "Canvass, lead on."

"Akaryōken, go," Inuzuka said, offense in his voice at the idea that another dog might lead.

The massive ninken loped off, Canvass lolloping beside him with a smug grin on her face.

My money is on Canvass, for the reasons stated earlier.

Hazō had included the canine tracker solely as an afterthought, assuming that it would be impossible to track someone by scent across a busy road a week after they had gone by. As it proved out, it wasn't an issue. Canvass sat beside the road, watching in amusement as Akaryōken cast about immediately outside the gate, looking for the relevant scent.

"Ahem," she said after a couple minutes. "Over here." She turned and jogged off into the woods and the rest of the party scrambled after her.

smiles

"That dog is bullshit," Inuzuka grumbled, glaring at Canvass.

Yep! And this is an Inuzuka jōnin saying this. Turns out we have an untapped talent that can do what Leaf currently can't. Shame it's in the hands of someone who can't share it and has to have other priorities most of the time. This could have been a real game changer for search and rescue, recovery, or just general inteligence gathering missions. Still might be, but probably restricted to extreme cases that actually demand Hazō leave the village.

A week had passed since Akane and her team had been through this area; Akaryōken the ninken was able to catch only occasional whiffs. Canvass the Dog Clan bloodhound, on the other hand, had been asking her Summoner why she even needed to be here; with a trail this obvious, surely the humans could follow it on their own?

Complete and utter bullshit. Fully simulationist, too. Do you see why a summoning scroll is such a power up now?

Mari had quietly remarked to the fulminating Inuzuka ninja that there was no shame in having different specialties; Inuzuka dogs were bred for intelligence first, combat second, and tracking third; were the group to be ambushed, Akaryōken would be far more of an asset than Canvass, and therefore he should be willing to let her shine in her own area. Both man and dog had seemed mollified.

Yeah, glad she's here.

"They paused for lunch here," Canvass said, ignoring the humans' quiet conversation. She sniffed at a tree bole whose roots grew into something appropriate for sitting on. "Hm. Akane had pastrami, one of the others sat next to her and ate rice and fish." She sniffed again and made a face. "Ugh, flounder. And it was going off." She snuffled around a bit, then raised her head. "They went this way."

Lol that probably made him self-concious again.

"I'm getting other humans," she said. "Three of them. Lots of greenery overlaid in their scent, but not of any type in this immediate area. I think they probably had it attached to their clothes to help with camouflage. Also, their base scent is unlike the people in your Leaf. I suspect they aren't from the area and their food has a very different spice profile."

Damn that's a lot of intelligence that can be gathered this late in the game. Canvass is OP.

Who do we know that has spicy food?

"Akane's trail ends here," Canvass said. She had been sniffing around the perimeter of the clearing for three minutes, the longest by far that she had needed to search for the trail. "Also, I smell blood. A lot of it, but faint. Pretty sure it's just the kids', not Akane's."

Fuck. She's going to be devestated if she survies this. Remember why she held off on taking a team for this long? This is going to be a disaster for her psyche. Good thing the head of the therapist clan is her girlfriend.

"I smell woodsmoke along with more of that slightly spoiled fish," Canvass said. "I think the team had made camp." She snuffled around the eastern side of the clearing, moving deeper into the woods for a minute as the humans trailed alon. "Yep. Two of the outlanders waited here, the third one went forward and spied on the clearing, then he came back and joined up with the other two and all three of them went forward again, this time into the clearing."

No one spoke. Everyone looked ready to kill.

Yeah. This paints a pretty clear picture. Also, the outlanders might have just left a trail that leads right back to their village. They really weren't expecting what Canvass can do.

Canvass traversed the clearing once more, nose down in the leaves. She moved back into the woods a short distance, occasionally standing up on her hind paws to sniff at a tree trunk. Finally, she returned and sat down. "The three foreigners were here for a bit, then they moved off this way," she said, nosing to the northwest. "They're hopping from tree to tree in order to break trail, which makes it a lot harder to follow the scent. It's getting late; are we following them or making camp?"

"Following," Hazō said in a tone that brooked no argument. Yuno, the putative mission commander, raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly but said nothing.

Full march.

Finally, Canvass sat down and shook her head. "They're gone. I've been over every tree within a hundred yards, twice. There's no trace to be had."

"Where are we?" Hazō asked.

TenTen had been carrying the map and compass, tracking their progress across the day. Wordlessly, she held up the paper and pointed.

Everyone crowded close except for Kei, who could not stand the proximity, and Neji, who simply activated his Byakugan and observed without taking up space in the scrum.

"Well, this sucks," Noburi said, staring at their indicated position.

It's not over yet. She got this party quite far. The objective might be close enough for us to find again at this point.

"I could throw a rock into Waterfalls, Iron, or Rice," Mari said, her eyes soft as she focused on the implications. "If they're from Iron then they're missing-nin, or they are passing through in order to look like missing-nin before turning for wherever home might be."

Hmmm...

"No," Hazō said. "Spies want to pass without notice. These people trailed Akane and her team for miles, scouted their camp, and then attacked. The team was still moving away from Leaf when they were hit, and they had been moving at the same pace all day. They didn't stumble over a foreign spy team and escape only for the bad guys to catch up. This was an unprovoked attack."

"Canvass, there's no chance that the bad guys were carrying anyone, right?" Noburi asked. "Like, for example, a captured Leaf ninja being taken in for interrogation as part of an especially aggressive espionage effort?"

The dog scoffed. "No. Not a whiff of any of your friends. I would have smelled them. They weren't there."

"They weren't at the attack site either," Neji noted.

Ah, that's actually really good news. It strongly implies they went up on Skywalkers and managed to escape.

"Clearly, their most youthful bodies were placed into storage seals," Rock Lee said. "But for what reason?"

Ah. Yeah, that's an unfortunately likely possibility too.

Silence fell across the group as everyone digested the implications of ninja from a foreign nation stalking and murdering Leaf ninja so soon after the end of the latest World War.

"Now what?" Canvass asked.

Good question. At least we have the group's full support?

It is now about 8pm. It's pitch black out and you're about 60 miles from Leaf.

Vote time! What to do now?

Well shit. We might be able to get additional tracking bullshit if we go to Cannai. It might also be time to go back to the Conclave and talk to Asuma about what to do. He might be able to help, plus this information is going to be really important for him to know at the Chunin exams. Someone who eats spicy food just shattered AMITY.

Alright, I'm calling my reaction post here. It's possible Akane is still alive and escaped on Skywalkers (would explain why there wasn't much of her blood at the ambush site) and the genin team are dead, or possibly injured and with her. That might be a way to explain why she isn't back at Leaf yet.

GRRR. Imagine how much further Canvass could have gotten us if we did this a week ago.

END OF REACTION POST
2374 WORDS TOTAL

charlesrwest · Apr 23, 2023

@Velorien @eaglejarl @Paperclipped

1. If macerator contents emerge 3 cm from the macerator/storage seal (word of faflec), is there anything preventing us from putting a cover over the seal but less than 3 cm from it to protect it from the contents/environmental effects?
2. If so, is there anything preventing us from loading the macerator with extremely hot sand and using the covering to prevent damage to the macerator (basically making a flamethrower)?
3. If the hot sand macerator is practical, would it have a weapon rating similar to an explosive tag but be reusable?

For reference, that would be dumping out about 70 liters of red hot sand.

Historical precedent from Wikipedia:
Hot oil was considerably less common than boiling water or heated sand, which were cheap and extremely effective; even "dust from the street" could be used. These would penetrate armour and cause terrible burns.[72] Sand, especially, could work its way through very small gaps in armour.[21] The Phoenicians at the Siege of Tyre (332 BC) dropped burning sand down on the attacking Greeks, which got in behind the armour and burned the flesh.[78]

They built copper and iron shields, put sand into them, and heated them over hot fire so the sand became red-hot. By means of some mechanism they threw this sand at those who had fought bravest and subjected their victims to most severe suffering. The sand penetrated through the armour into the shirts, burned the body, and it could not be helped [...] they died, going mad with horrible pain, in sufferings piteous and unquenchable. — Diodorus Siculus, on the 4th century BC Siege of Tyre[73]

faflec · Apr 23, 2023

Edits made:

faflec said:
[X] Action Plan: One, Two, Three
Word Count: ???

Let people optimize.

2 options:

Akane died in the ambush. We lost the trail; it's unlikely we'll find it. We...

Akane was injured, but escaped via Skywalkers.

In that case, she could be stuck on a Skytower, unable to get down due to injuries. Or landed and is holed up elsewhere.

Hazou thinks we should return to the battle site, and search from there.

Hazou reports in to Asuma before leaving.

Apologize for the...way we've been, today.

Listen to his advice.

See if Ruri checked in via Seventh Path (hope against hope she staggered in after we left).

Go. Search.

Skywalk up from the battle site, and trace probable movements towards Leaf.

Search for a Skytower in the air, or villages/forests below us.

Can trackers track through the air?

Lend Neji our telescope.

Detonate Earbusters to signal for her (and give everyone Banshee Slayers in advance).

If we find something, we find something.

If we don't...We go home.

Shrooms · Apr 23, 2023

faflec said:
Edits made:

Shrooms said:
Also, Hazou should still ES the battlefield to sense/dig up any kunai, seals, or equipment. We could possibly determine the culprit from there.

faflec · Apr 23, 2023

Wouldn't Neji have noticed them with his Byakugan?

MrRobot · Apr 23, 2023

acidshill said:
Hazōpilot, what are you doing? You were supposed to be our boy. Our sweet boy...

The truth always was that Hazo did not belive himself to be a good man.
I don't think he would go over the edge but he have very litle reason to play nice.

acidshill · Apr 23, 2023

_The_Bomb said:
Yep! And this is an Inuzuka jōnin saying this. Turns out we have an untapped talent that can do what Leaf currently can't. Shame it's in the hands of someone who can't share it and has to have other priorities most of the time. This could have been a real game changer for search and rescue, recovery, or just general inteligence gathering missions. Still might be, but probably restricted to extreme cases that actually demand Hazō leave the village.

Come to think of it, I'm surprised that Inuzuka was so surprised. Wouldn't Kakashi have had dog trackers? Were there capabilities just unknown to other Leaf ninja?

faflec · Apr 23, 2023

eaglejarl said:
"There are a trio of damaged trees buried here," he said. "Localized burns on them, the kind of thing you would see from a jutsu."

eaglejarl said:
"There are faint impressions over there that match those 'portacabins' Motokazu mentioned," Neji said, pointing.

eaglejarl said:
Hyūga waved at the seal from which his extra-wide, extra-deep, extra-full bento box had come. "The food. The chakra water for long-distance endurance. The...tents." He gestured to the Gōketsu mini-cabins. Six feet long, three feet high and wide, heavily built, with a thick mattress inside, Jiraiya's Awesome Daybright Lantern seals on walls and ceiling, slidable windows with heavy clasps to keep out attacking animals and insertable wire mesh to keep out insects when there were no attacking animals, and storage seals inside for storing snacks, water, empty bottle for when nighttime visits to the facilitree were disincentivized by beasts roaming the camp, and a variety of other amenities. They were carried in pieces across several storage seals and then slotted together in seconds with steel bracings inside.

@eaglejarl @Velorien @Paperclipped Why did the enemy ninja elect to bury the damaged trees but took the time to reseal all of the components of the portacabins, which contain cloth, metal wire, and other things which would have needed to be sealed to avoid notice from Neji's Byakugan?

EDIT: Am I being stupid, and these things are made of cloth and not wood?

Dictator4Hire · Apr 23, 2023

_The_Bomb said:
If we hadn't opened our relationship up to Ino, we would have broken here. Losing one out of two anchors already took us to the edge. If that anchor was all we had?

I guess we can say that monogomy was objectively the wrong choice in our case.

Hazou going mad with grief over losing a single girlfriend is... less than optimal when politics play such a major role in his personal safety.

As morbid of a reason as it is, maybe we should consider getting ALL the romantic partners so Hazou has plenty of shoulders to cry on whenever one of them dies? Yeesh... that's bleak but if that's what it takes to keep our boy (mostly) sane, I would seriously consider it.

_The_Bomb said:
I advocated for making similar contingencies for situations like this after the Orochimaru incident, but nothing came of it. Perhaps now everyone will see the utility in having an emergency phrase to use with allies a little more clearly.

I'll vote for a plan that includes such updated contingencies.

coldcutconvict said:
Follow the trail of the enemy team in reverse to see where it fades. Any teams from Waterfall, Iron or Rice at the Exam? Try asking Asuma for food samples to match "spice profile??

Narrowing down possible food sources would be a good way to help identify, or at least build a profile of, the intruders. This is a good angle to follow up on once we return to Leaf and if our Bloodhound nose is extra super OP we should also try to obtain fabric, paper, and ninja tool samples from other villages to see if any match in an olfactory manner.

faflec · Apr 23, 2023

...how many portacabins were there?

acidshill · Apr 23, 2023

Dictator4Hire said:
Hazou going mad with grief over losing a single girlfriend is... less than optimal when politics play such a major role in his personal safety.

As morbid of a reason as it is, maybe we should consider getting ALL the romantic partners so Hazou has plenty of shoulders to cry on whenever one of them dies? Yeesh... that's bleak but if that's what it takes to keep our boy (mostly) sane, I would seriously consider it.

gf supply getting dangerously low. ask out Ami immediately

kitkatnacho · Apr 24, 2023

faflec said:
Related: Kagome is going to be pissed that he's not on this mission.

I assume Mari would have caught that. R-r-right?

Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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In doubt there's always the Sun!