Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

faflec · May 5, 2023

[X] Interlude: Enma's Arrival at the Conclave

Inferno Vulpix · May 5, 2023

[X] Interlude: Enma's Arrival at the Conclave

Shrooms · May 5, 2023

FaintlySorcerous said:
Tower bureaucracy

The timelines here imply a leak. It's implausible this was a sheer coincidence. Ambushes require intelligence.

Did Shikamaru investigate from that perspective? Can we get Kagome access?

If Asuma is in on it bringing it to his attention that Hazou knows may not be a good idea, at the very least we probably should talk it through with Mari - though I really don't think he is in on it, it is possible.

Also, you may want to link to the bomb's timeline post for QM clarity.

Sample chunk:

Mari
- Hazou doesn't want to descend into conspiratorial delusions. On the other hand, there are reasonable levels of paranoia.
- Canvass' timeline indicates ambushers were deployed before Akane's mission began. They knew her mission before she left, so the intel must've leaked. It seems like she was deliberately sent on a mission that would get her captured or killed.
- Is it plausible Asuma or Shikamaru arranged something like this? Or some other Tower faction?

Noumero · May 5, 2023

Shrooms said:
Mari

Hazou doesn't want to descend into conspiratorial delusions. On the other hand, there are reasonable levels of paranoia.

Canvass' timeline indicates ambushers were deployed before Akane's mission began. They knew her mission before she left, so the intel must've leaked. It seems like she was deliberately sent on a mission that would get her captured or killed.

Is it plausible Asuma or Shikamaru arranged something like this? Or some other Tower faction?

Note that we've already told Mari about our inferences regarding the Five (last scene here; summary of what we told here). I suggest linking to that to tie it all together narratively, plus point out what Shikamaru just said about "the preservation of civilization" being their clans' first priority.

Shrooms · May 5, 2023

(paraphrased) reposting convo from discord:

SHROOMS:
i really wish we'd asked Asuma about Hidan before Shikamaru ngl. I feel like Asuma is more inclined to give it serious thought

KNOWLEDGE:
I actually think Asuma would say yes. I know, unusually charitable from me. but he doesn't seem to mind using Hidan

SHROOMS:
Yeah I think Asuma would really dislike the idea but consider it feasible. given that Akatsuki is supposed to uphold AMITY and also he can track blood anywhere, and Asuma already knew that Hidan was favorably inclined toward hazou

INFERNO VULPIX:
Yeah, like, Shikamaru got sidetracked with the whole 'Jashin bad' thing and didn't even circle back to the merit of the question.

SHROOMS:
I think at the least Asuma would mull the question over. Shikamaru is just scared of the eldritch implications

KNOWLEDGE:
I think Shikamaru was like "Why would Hidan help?" and stuck on that

INFERNO VULPIX:
But yeah Asuma already knows the 'why' and might actually answer the question for us.

All this to say, I would also like to talk to Asuma about this, given that Shikamaru was not very helpful and got hung up on the wrong things, not even really discussing why Hazou brought it up in the first place besides "stay away from spooky guys". Hidan is pretty much our only route (that I can think of beyond seance maybe) to verifying 100% that she is dead. (I guess not even then if Color Cabal did some dimensional shit or whatever...) But like, we also need to know who violated AMITY and he is incentivized to figure that out as well. And I expect Asuma is much more likely to actually consider the question before freaking out and telling Hazou to avoid these things at all costs. I get the impression Asuma is a lot more invested in solving this than Shikamaru tbh...

Also, we still need to test the spices of various countries to see if we can tell where the team came from.

Sir Stompy · May 5, 2023

[X] Interlude: Enma's Arrival at the Conclave

acidshill said:
Who wrote this plan? Wait a minute, I voted for this plan. Damn it.

Relatable

_The_Bomb · May 5, 2023

@eaglejarl you mentioned on discord that you didn't understand why people were so furious with Asuma for his handling of the situation, so I've broken down a few thoughts on why "the way [he] see it" is so personally enraging to me.

eaglejarl said:
Ruka didn't notify you that Akane was overdue, but she also didn't notify the KEI coordinators or the parents of three young genin that their people were overdue. The way I see it, your little clan war spilled out and affected other people, so both of you can help make that right while also developing some closer ties."

- Asuma acknowledged this was an action of our "clan war," and thus acknowledged that the Hagoromo have violated his direct order. What is the sentence for that normally?
- We have been playing nice with the Hagoromo since Asuma gave his order. If this was a "little clan war" like Asuma said, it was a new one that was launched unprovoked against us. Insisting that we are somehow responsible for the collateral damage of that strike is as nonsensical as it is infuriating.

Velorien said:
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.

Oh, and let's not forget something. The Hagoromo already abuse their Tower positions to hurt KEI ninja whenever they can! This was nothing new. What happened didn't "spill out and affect other people" and is just another in a long line of instances of their active maliciousness and hatred towards their fellow Leaf ninja merely for being born clanless. One that Asuma thinks we are somehow equally responsible for.

Hope this helps, @eaglejarl! Out of curiosity, how do you, personally, feel about what Asuma said? Do you think it is fair? If so, why?

Rafin · May 5, 2023

Velorien said:
Kei blinked. "Hazō, are you proposing to discuss the details of our clan secret seals with Shikamaru?"

Hazō fell silent for a moment.

"No, sorry, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking. No offence, Shikamaru."

I think we should though? Not so lightly to just drop it on him, but planned and with secrecy backed by contract. Yes, knowing that seals like ours are possible is a big step towards daring to research similar and it would mean that in a hypothetical future violent Gokētsu vs Nara conflict we'd lose an advantage and that if we were to go missing again Leaf could deal with us much easier, but I still think that, given our current position and long term plans, it's the right move. Leaf must be prepared against the chance of stolen Gokētsu seals being used by its enemies. And the Nara are both our most closely allied Clan and, at the very least, dedicated to the continued survival of humanity.

If we had a stronger relationship with the Akamichi I would feel even better about this. Good enough to share actual seals with little reservation, not just descriptions of their capabilities. But the latter is the kind of trust we should in fact extend IMO.

Velorien said:
Noburi has declared that the next gaming night, a week from now, will be replaced by an Akane night. Everyone who knew Akane even by name is invited to come and share their memories of her over tea and cake. GED students will be writing everything down verbatim (with permission), and the finished collection will be edited for legibility and shared with everyone who wants a copy.

That's perfect, especially considering Kagome's current theory on afterlife soul decay.

FaintlySorcerous said:
Did Shikamaru investigate from that perspective?

This seems like a bit of an insult towards all investigators involved. Of course they did.

Zampano · May 5, 2023

_The_Bomb said:
We have been playing nice with the Hagoromo since Asuma gave his order. If this was a "little clan war" like Asuma said, it was a new one that was launched unprovoked against us. Insisting that we are somehow responsible for the collateral damage of that strike is as nonsensical as it is infuriating.

I think this sentiment bears repeating: Asuma's rhetoric puts the responsibility for collateral damage on the target of the Hagoromo's attack. I vaguely remember an inflationary attack on the Goketsu's fiat-currency that resulted in Asuma scolding Hazo, instead of dropping the hammer on whatever conspiracy was manipulating the economy.

Black King · May 5, 2023

Rafin said:
I think we should though? Not so lightly to just drop it on him, but planned and with secrecy backed by contract. Yes, knowing that seals like ours are possible is a big step towards daring to research similar and it would mean that in a hypothetical future violent Gokētsu vs Nara conflict we'd lose an advantage and that if we were to go missing again Leaf could deal with us much easier, but I still think that, given our current position and long term plans, it's the right move. Leaf must be prepared against the chance of stolen Gokētsu seals being used by its enemies. And the Nara are both our most closely allied Clan and, at the very least, dedicated to the continued survival of humanity.

Note that even the Nara Clan head's wife doesn't want to do this. Might be a disconnect of the setting or something else, but we absolutely should not be sharing clan secrets with others. They will not do so for us and clan secrets are considered sacred enough to literally leave a village over or to riot/depose a Kage over.

_The_Bomb · May 5, 2023

eaglejarl said:
Not only was the stone now the shape of that very trivial seal, he had molded the internal structure of the stone into curves and lines that mapped to the pattern of the chakra flows within the paper. He wasn't even trying to modify the design to have a vertical component. The patterns he was creating were all in one plane and as thin as they could be in order to mimic the patterns of ink on paper.

Of course he knew why it wasn't working. The stone was too diffuse, too impure. It needed to be denser and made of only one material. He had tried multiple different kinds of stone but none had been suitable. He had tried to fix it himself with Earthshaping and failed every time. No matter how much he pushed at the jutsu, no matter how carefully he attempted to comb through the stone in order to filter the intrusions, it wasn't enough. His metaphysical fingers were too fat, his metaphysical eyes too blurry. They had improved as he practiced with the jutsu—when he first learned it he had barely been able to tell anything about the internals of the material whereas now it was as though he was looking through a thick gauze blindfold.

So, uh. This seems quite doable now.

coldcutconvict · May 5, 2023

Velorien said:
she asked, hoping he wouldn't make another joke about unfortunate axe-idents, because she wasn't in the mood.

Great couple. But calling their kids happy little axe-dents is how Yuno becomes a single mother.

Velorien said:
Noburi was silent after that. Yuno hoped he wasn't pitying her again. She loved him, but that was the one thing she refused to let him do (that didn't involve other girls, anyway). Pity was for people who'd given up fighting. It was a way of saying you didn't think the other person was a warrior anymore.

Oh, Yuno.

Velorien said:
Satsuko offered to remind him before he got any ideas, but Yuno shushed her. There were times for armed violence, many times, in fact, but she'd learned early on in their marriage that in bed usually wasn't one of them.

Smh. Marriage changes a woman.

Velorien said:
"So what?" Yuno demanded. "Are you saying everyone was feeling like this, every time somebody died, and nobody ever told me?"

So glad we adopted Yuno. She deserves a family to do right by her.

Velorien said:
Actually… It wasn't that unbelievable when she thought about it. The Kannagi taught her weaponmastery because she was talented and it made the clan stronger, and other people taught her things like baking and bee divination because she paid them from her savings and because making sure useful skills were spread across the whole village was one of Akio's most important teachings, but nobody taught her about feelings. Maybe real grieving was one of those inner secrets you had to be initiated into, like tapir soulbonding and beekeeping.

What kind of monster makes a girl pay for beekeeping classes? Yuno would get along great with Shino.

Velorien said:
"So what?" Yuno asked, subdued. "This is normal and I've lost the Akane part of my heart and I'm just supposed to keep hurting like this? Forever?"

"I don't know," Noburi said. "Not really. I wasn't even close to my brother, but after all these years, I can still feel him missing. Losing Akane's on a whole other level. For me. For you. For everyone."

"I–I don't want this." Yuno clung tight to Satsuko, not even minding the cuts, which would heal. "I don't want to lose a piece of my heart every time somebody I care about dies. With how many people I care about now, there'll be nothing left of me.

Satsuko needs a 'mouthguard' for her love bites.

"I should never have left Isan," she whispered, but quietly, so that nobody but Satsuko heard.

Heartbreaking. This whole scene was pure gold. Would love to see the Toad Sages dispensing more wisdom to these precious kids.

Velorien said:
She had endured the loss of the Tachibanas. She had endured the loss of Shion, of Yumiko, of Karin, of Shika, of Shigehiro, of Rumi, of Mikako, of Yamato… her instructors in the Nara arts, her students in Mori ones, her councillors and assistants and genin who scoured the library for scrolls she needed and then traded their laboriously-earned Kei hours to shuriken specialists who wanted to learn her rumoured techniques of non-lethal incapacitation. They and more might have survived their missions, might have survived the war, if she had only been more competent, more industrious, a worthier second-in-command.

Did not realize how many people Kei has lost. Must have helped a lot to have Ami looking after her.

Velorien said:
She had endured the loss of KEI shinobi by the dozen, most unknown to her beyond the dossiers she had memorised, but others familiar faces that would never again greet her as she arrived in her office in the morning, never again ask inconvenient questions at KEI meetings or bring wildly unrealistic proposals which nevertheless brought a secret smile to her face for the sheer hope they represented. All of this was standard, the cost of business when one was familiar with too many shinobi. She had believed herself inured.

The clan head experience. Not as inured as she thought?

Velorien said:
Akane had been her light. Not quite the safety and warmth of Tenten. Not the playful shimmer on the water's surface of Fujisawa. Not Snowflake or Mari or Ino or Ruri or… or… or any of the others she had yet to lose. Akane had been the light in the distance to reach towards, the promise of someday being not this, her pillar and her foil and her guide. Such clumsy, inaccurate words for someone with a vocabulary maintained like a samurai's armour.

... just going to tell myself that his will make the reunion all the sweeter.

Velorien said:
It had been crafted to hold a map of the Elemental Nations that most clans would kill for, and the lamp of unique design suspended over it—a remarkable feat of wrought metal and glass that illuminated down instead of up—had the sole purpose of leaving Leaf's enemies nowhere to hide.

"WHERE WERE YOU DURING THE TIMES OF WHIRLPOOL-HERE TO WHIRLPOOL-GONE-OCLOCK??" The Nara asked calmly.

Velorien said:
Shikamaru led them to be seated on the imposing, high-backed chairs that were designed less to provide comfort over long hours of work and more to bear the weight of grim decisions.

The lord gives his highest chairs to his grimmest boys.

Velorien said:
"It is what it is," Shikamaru replied

Blinks. Shikamaru could work on his condolences. It must be hard for Nara to balance empathy, emotionally exhausting themselves and reacting to threats in times like these. Hours of napping to recharge.

Velorien said:
Kei never ceased to marvel at the three-dimensionality of the Nara artistic tradition: who would believe that simple iron could so convey the texture of animal fur, or the angular hostility of a bared fang?

Hint that there is an ES50 Nara?

Velorien said:
It was where they had invaded Akane's life, plunged her into danger, and forced her to flee with them or die. It was known that some missing-nin had survived the purge–would Akane have been among them, were it not for Team Uplift's intervention? Would she be alive even now?

For my friends, anecdotes; for my self recrimination, statistics.

Velorien said:
and threaten Rice into granting us this tiny favour that will be repaid a thousandfold, somehow all without admitting that Akane is worth more to us than the average chūnin, even deceased."

The village is less safe without Akane. In hindsight, Asuma must be kicking himself for losing her and paying the costs he was trying to save by keeping her on the mission roster.

Velorien said:
"I don't need your sister worship right now, Kei!" Hazō snapped, his eyes igniting with a sudden dark flame. "I need your actual help, not wishful thinking!"

Uncalled for.

Velorien said:
The instant before the volcano erupted, Mari, the mother she had chosen, caught her eye, and in her eyes was not an instruction, not a request, but a question. An undefined question, to which Kei's memory granted definition.

What do you want your Youth to be, Kei?

Wow. Mari is amazing.

Velorien said:
The second time, a look withering enough to undo all of Senju Hashirama's creation.

Chapter 2β! Chapter 2β! Chapter 2β!

Velorien said:
being placed on the DO NOT GO TO list alongside Bear

Bear was not placed on a DO NOT GO list. One day DO NOT GO lists appeared and Bear was on all of them.

Velorien said:
Onsenkage

HAHHAAHAAHAHAhhahaa! Shadow in the onsen. Jiraiya fuming he missed the chance to be called this.

Velorien said:
She was not even a candle next to the sun, for candles shone with their own light.

Kei feels she only shines with reflected light?

Velorien said:
Ami. Every day she was absent was a day too long. That was true by default, of course, but here and now… it would mean the world for Kei to be with her sister. The Gōketsu were already suffering sufficiently without Kei inflicting her emotional fragility on them, whereas Ami was at least invincible.

No. Better to be fragile together.

Velorien said:
"Ami appeared out of nowhere, with a jōnin's power, trained in traditions of which the Hokage has little knowledge. She then seized so much temporal power that the Hokage must distrust her simply as a matter of policy, regardless of her personal virtues, lest by lowering his guard he imperil Leaf's political stability. Then she joined Leaf.

Then, like most stories go, she opened an afterlife portal.

Seeing some parallels...

Velorien said:
"Regardless," Shikamaru said, "I do not believe it is within your means, or mine, to persuade the Hokage to invite Ami into the non-proliferation conspiracy. Prove me wrong if you will, but appreciate that the price of failure is loss of trust from a Hokage who must already deem the close association between Leaf's two most dangerous wildcards to be a source of concern."

Keep your cards close and your wildcards closer. Not sure Ami is less dangerous alone.

Velorien said:
"I do have another idea about someone we could involved. Bear

Did not go where my mind thought it would.

Velorien said:
Thirty games. Fifty-fifty odds. Two out of three. Kei frowned.

She gets it.

Velorien said:
"Hazō," he said patiently, as if to a small child, "the fact that, on one occasion, Hidan chose to threaten your life with a, shall we say, level-appropriate challenge instead of murdering you himself is not proof of such affection that you should expect interacting with him to be safe to you or your allies, much less actively beneficial."

Died at level appropriate.

Velorien said:
Kei looked at Shikamaru. Shikamaru looked at Kei.

He gets it.

Velorien said:
"No," Hazō said. "I'd never do something so obviously dangerous and heretical. Give me some credit, Shikamaru."

...

Velorien said:
"Has Jashin communicated with you in any way?" Shikamaru interrupted. "Words spoken in your mind, meaningful dreams, objects in your path rearranging themselves to spell out a message?"

otter scroll otter scroll otter scroll.

Velorien said:
"It is essential that you avoid all contact with both Jashin and Hidan," Shikamaru told him. "I cannot overstate the danger you–and, indirectly, all of us–have been exposed to. I do not wish to be unnecessarily alarmist, but in the event that Jashin is real and not merely a charismatic madman's obsession, it is far more dangerous than you know. All beings of that order are, and none of those remaining consider humanity's welfare to be relevant to their considerations unless it is in the active negative. The notion that the Blood God, patron of one of the guarantors of the present world order, deity of the cultists who took my father's life, is real and possesses tangible power over causality…"

Or, hear me out, Blood God good...? Interesting lore.

Velorien said:
Shikamaru trailed off, as if unable to imagine a conclusion worthy of that introduction.

Someone needs a Satsuko plush. Keep calm and Phtagn on.

Velorien said:
"Not at all," Shikamaru said. "The fault is mine for failing to realise how much you were overexerting yourselves. I will have a servant escort you home."

Do you think he noticed...

Velorien said:
Noburi knew that was an unhealthy way to think. If he heard one of his family say something like that, he'd request a mission on the coast just so he could find a fresh herring to thwap them with. Death was nobody's fault. Even Akane getting killed by foreign ninja was, in the end, purely the shinobi world's fault for being so broken. That was basic Uplift (though neither Noburi or Hazō were saintly enough for that to keep them from brutal revenge if they got the chance). Blaming himself just meant he'd have less strength to lend the people who counted on him.

Noburi is great.

Velorien said:
cycling through a thousand different action plans in his head

Well...

Velorien said:
In the kitchen, Mari was silently drinking hot chocolate, her thoughts darker than her drink, darker than she was willing to share. Somewhere else, Kei was beating herself up with mastery of the art that made Noburi's guilt look like a tadpole to her Gamabunta.

Mari lost a daughter. Do not want to let her go through that alone.

Velorien said:
He couldn't fix this. He couldn't fix any of this. Even Akane couldn't have done that. But she'd also never have let that stop her–and with Akane gone, somebody had to take up the mantle.

!!! Big damn hero moment?

Velorien said:
"Yuno?"

Yuno didn't reply, except to burrow into him a little further.

"I think I know what material you use to repair a heart."

What is it? In such suspense.

Velorien said:
Naruto SnaketySnake

Naruto CorrectHorseBatteryStaple. Naruto Hunter2. Naruto Narutobackwards.

Velorien said:
unholy

Still hope Naruto can see the light of Jashin.

Velorien said:
Rock Lee waved Hazō's apology off as unnecessary and instead told him he'd be presenting a special sermon in Akane's honour at the Central Church of Youth, entitled "The Spirit of Youth: Eternal and Undying". He emphatically encouraged the Gōketsu to attend, promising they would have difficulty walking away once they experienced the hard truths of Youth filling them up from bottom to top, followed by the sweet release of understanding. Hazō told him he'd think about it.

Come one, eternal and undying. Make a prophet out of this kid.

Lee's answer to how to heal a heart? Semen.

Velorien said:
Noburi has declared that the next gaming night, a week from now, will be replaced by an Akane night. Everyone who knew Akane even by name is invited to come and share their memories of her over tea and cake. GED students will be writing everything down verbatim (with permission), and the finished collection will be edited for legibility and shared with everyone who wants a copy.

Proud of you, Noburi. Loved the chapter!

Velorien said:
P. S. Paper condolences unsatisfactory. Expect in person.

Paper does not deserve that /j. Hold Ami to delivering it to Akane in person.

eaglejarl · May 5, 2023

Only briefly awake, but obviously I checked my phone...

_The_Bomb said:
eaglejarl said:

The way I see it, your little clan war spilled out and affected other people, so both of you can help make that right while also developing some closer ties."

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Asuma acknowledged this was an action of our "clan war,"

After reading this and a few other things you've written, I don't think I'm going to be able to change your mind about Asuma. For the benefit of other people reading this, I will note that the actual meaning I had in mind here was:

"Hazō, you and the Hagoromo had a clan war, which ended because I said so. There is lingering resentment because of that war. Ruka was a petty and sloppy woman who let her personal preferences inform her actions. AS I STATED EARLIER IN THIS CONVERSATION, there is zero evidence that she ever acted maliciously. She did not say 'haha I shall do something terrible to those dastardly Gōketsu!' She simply allowed herself not to put in the effort for people she didn't like, which includes the Gōketsu because of the clan war that you had a bit ago which is over because I said so. I shall repeat this: the evidence says that this was NOT an intentional action taken in pursuit of a clan war. The evidence shows that your clan war caused this woman to dislike you and she was negligent in her treatment of people she did not like."

I acknowledge that your version is an understandable reading of his words, but I think it's uncharitable and ignores the surrounding context of the conversation.

Zampano said:
I vaguely remember an inflationary attack on the Goketsu's fiat-currency that resulted in Asuma scolding Hazo, instead of dropping the hammer on whatever conspiracy was manipulating the economy.

"Bob, I am scolding you for building an incredibly rickety structure which collapsed, slid down the hill, plowed through a bunch of houses, and killed several people."

"It only collapsed because someone leaned on it!"

"Absolutely true and it's safe to assume that if I find that person then I will be angry at them too. The fact that someone else pushed on your incredibly rickety structure does not get you off the hook for building an incredibly rickety structure on top of a hill where if it collapsed it would kill a bunch of people."

This has been an ongoing issue for the hivemind: the presumption that Hazō is 100% innocent of everything and 100% correct about everything and if anyone else objects then they are just being stupid or unfair and everything is always 100% black and white. I feel certain that there are times when y'all have acknowledged being at fault or things being complex, but my sleepy brain is not pulling up examples. Regardless, my point stands as the default. The fact that someone else was the proximate cause of something does not mean you have no blame for the outcome. IRL words like "contributory negligence" and "attractive nuisance" come to mind.

Y'all can feel free to blame Asuma for everything and hold that you are the wronged party with no fault and so on. And yes, he's not perfect and not perfectly just and he has frustrations and blind spots. Still, the truth is that life is complicated, the Gōketsu helped create the current situation, and that malice is not required to make terrible things happen.

Have to admit though...it gives me a pleasant tingle to know that people are sufficiently invested in the characters to be this angry at them. Thank you for reading our little fanfic and being so engaged in the community that has grown up around it.

Rafin · May 5, 2023

Zampano said:
I think this sentiment bears repeating: Asuma's rhetoric puts the responsibility for collateral damage on the target of the Hagoromo's attack. I vaguely remember an inflationary attack on the Goketsu's fiat-currency that resulted in Asuma scolding Hazo, instead of dropping the hammer on whatever conspiracy was manipulating the economy.

I'm sorry, but that one was almost completely the Gokētsu's fault. They were printing fiat currency as fast as the pressed could spit out bills. That's insane and I had called it before it happened.

Black King said:
Note that even the Nara Clan head's wife doesn't want to do this. Might be a disconnect of the setting or something else, but we absolutely should not be sharing clan secrets with others. They will not do so for us and clan secrets are considered sacred enough to literally leave a village over or to riot/depose a Kage over.

Clans trade jutsu some times. One of the first big acts of Asuma as Hokage was the competition that encouraged sharing, among other things, secrets. Yes, Clan secrets are considered sacred and everyone makes a big deal out of it. Yes, trying to steal them is unacceptable. But sharing them voluntarily and with no pressure to do so is not. And choosing cooperation and power sharing over insular monopolies of force is kind of one of our long term goals.

I am not saying we should feel obligated to share. I'm saying that it might be in our best interest and a good idea. Because we have invested quite a lot into Leaf. Our most closely allied Clan, which is also Leaf's chief strategic advisor, knowing what capabilities we might have leaked to future enemies has a lot of value. Enough, IMO, to counter the extra exposure towards the ISC specifically.

And yes, Kei and Mari are both appalled at the idea of Hazō unthinkingly sharing this stuff. Obviously. He has a history of doing this crap. But doing it deliberately and through negotiation and contract would not be that. It would be a legitimate decision that a Clan Head might deem necessary.

Lysbeth Succubus · May 5, 2023

Velorien said:
Yuno, Satsuko, and Noburi lay in bed together, her arm nestled under his shoulders while her other hand held Satsuko close to her chest. Normally, Noburi objected to letting Satsuko into bed with them, complaining about how she left the bedclothes full of tears and was always on the verge of drawing his blood, but tonight, by unspoken agreement, the three of them sought comfort together.

Did I say lately how much I love these cute weirdos? Also, wow, that's a sharp blade.

Velorien said:
"How do I deal with this ache in my chest that I've had ever since I found out about Akane?" she asked

;-;

Velorien said:
I asked Yūma, and he just gave me this weird, uncomfortable look. I asked Fujisawa, and she didn't write anything and just hugged me for a while, which was nice, but it didn't really help.

Oof. Yeah that's... yeah.

Velorien said:
"Of course not," Yuno said. "I know what grief looks like. People who are feeling grief cry–if they're men or young girls, I mean, otherwise they just anoint themselves with a mixture of oak tree sap and tapir tears–

Velorien, so you chose to break our hearts and then tried to distract us with cultural shock. ... It worked on both counts.

Velorien said:
She was careful to hold Satsuko so she wouldn't cut the bedsheets.

It's heartwarming how considerate they are to each other though

Velorien said:
There were times for armed violence, many times, in fact, but she'd learned early on in their marriage that in bed usually wasn't one of them.

How did Mari shut up long enough for her to learn that? Ah wait, she did say usually. Rescinded.

Velorien said:
They and more might have survived their missions, might have survived the war, if she had only been more competent, more industrious, a worthier second-in-command.

There'll be nothing left of us, either, if you keep doing this. I mean thank you for doing it, but it does hurt. You monster-slash-genius.

Velorien said:
wildly unrealistic proposals which nevertheless brought a secret smile to her face for the sheer hope they represented

This. Kei is scary, but it's just (mal)adaptive. She's a big softie at heart 💜 our little meow meow

Velorien said:
the promise of someday being not this, her pillar and her foil and her guide. Such clumsy, inaccurate words for someone with a vocabulary maintained like a samurai's armour.

Somehow, the samurai simile is fitting given where they found Akane.

Velorien said:
She had failed to protect Akane–she, who first realised the danger, had done nothing. She had merely transferred responsibility to Mari and Hazō, then washed her hands of it. She had not sought a way to appeal to the Hokage, to maximise Akane's utility or impose unacceptable consequences for her murder. She had not risked sharing her concerns with Shikamaru and accepting the potential price of accusing his beloved teacher of treacherous intent.

Okay, ouch, and also she seems to be quite certain this was on Asuma's orders. Granted, it might have been. I'm not convinced he would, but any Kage would at least consider it.

Velorien said:
Or perhaps Mari was correct. Only a fool would trust their own objectivity when in so much pain.

Depression and grief can make you feel like everything is clear when it's really not. I wonder how that feels to a Frozen Skein user?

Velorien said:
even if Akane's death was unrelated to Elemental Mastery, it had been a monstrous act to transform her into a weapon of mass destruction

She was transformed into a ninja, so...

Velorien said:
"It is what it is,"

Five words to express that you're in distress but nothing can be done. Eat your heart out, Hemingway!

Velorien said:
"The Nara clan head awaits the next report, until which time your brother-in-law is grateful for the opportunity to be of use."

Best man ever.

Velorien said:
the population is actively hostile to hunter-nin and their equivalents, especially towards those of Leaf–one of the aftershocks of the Liberator incident

And Hazō had that thought, that only Hazō and Steve Urkel could have-

Velorien said:
an army is what we have sent, at least in tracking terms.

So at least 12 ninja?

Velorien said:
Kei thrust out her arm in front of him, interposing. Shikamaru shrank back in shocked silence.

Before she could allow herself to think, because Kei's thoughts ruined everything, she stood, stepped over to Hazō, pulled him to his feet, and embraced him.

She could not keep from trembling. Any second now, he might place his arms around her. Trapping her. Leaving her helpless. At his mercy. She was not ready. Vulnerable. Fragile. In danger. She should flee. Escape. Hide.

She stayed.

Holy shit.

Velorien said:
Which is not to say that potential side effects of her success will not include Hot Springs being on fire, undergoing a cultural revolution, being placed on the DO NOT GO TO list alongside Bear, or declaring Ami their new Onsenkage."

She's kind of looking further than Onsenkage, so sure why not, but also... We shoulf ask Ami about Bear. If the answer to "what is up with Bear?" is "Ami," this is just awesome.

Velorien said:
she and I have had occasion to speak of the duty of the Mori. The preservation of civilisation comes first, however radical our disagreements on its preferred form.

Oooh, gesture of trust from Shikamaru here, to tell us Five stuff.

Velorien said:
"Has Jashin communicated with you in any way?" Shikamaru interrupted. "Words spoken in your mind, meaningful dreams, objects in your path rearranging themselves to spell out a message?"

... Oops.

Velorien said:
"It is essential that you avoid all contact with both Jashin and Hidan," Shikamaru told him. "I cannot overstate the danger you–and, indirectly, all of us–have been exposed to. I do not wish to be unnecessarily alarmist, but in the event that Jashin is real and not merely a charismatic madman's obsession, it is far more dangerous than you know. All beings of that order are, and none of those remaining consider humanity's welfare to be relevant to their considerations unless it is in the active negative. The notion that the Blood God, patron of one of the guarantors of the present world order, deity of the cultists who took my father's life, is real and possesses tangible power over causality…"

Eep.

Velorien said:
"Because the Iron Nerve can–"

"HAZŌ."

Yeah no, he knows.

Velorien said:
"I think I know what material you use to repair a heart."

Ominous.

Velorien said:
Noburi has declared that the next gaming night, a week from now, will be replaced by an Akane night. Everyone who knew Akane even by name is invited to come and share their memories of her over tea and cake.

Less ominous.

Lord Marshal · May 5, 2023

I don't want to be that guy, but we should have probably sanity checked with Kei and Mari the rant at Shikamaru. I remember there was a discussion about not being fun for anyone, but if we don't and then we have multiple OPSEC breaks in a chapter(Some of which thankfully covered by Kei)...
At the end of the day, Shikamaru is our friend, but there is a reason if Jiraiya told us to treat the Nara as allies and not family.

Also, i'll be honest, we need to steer Hazou into a more productive mood.

Dictator4Hire · May 5, 2023

[X] Action Plan: Refocus and Reform
Word Count: 254

Quick sanity check with Team Uplift at our estate
- Apologize to Mari and thank her for covering clan secret OPSEC
- "Here's what I plan on doing, speak now if you believe any of these ideas to be unacceptable..."
ES50 Testing
- Lean on Cannai for emotional support
Offer Asuma an alternative:
- Private ideological debates between Hazou and Ritsuo with Asuma acting as an absolute mediator would better help mend the rift between our two clans because it would address the source of our disharmony
  - Ask for a schedule for Asuma to tutor Hazou on being a clan head
    - Hazou needs background information for a productive debate
  - The three of us will have preparation time to collect our thoughts and deliver respective our arguments with only interruptions allowed from Asuma
    - Asuma goes last to keep our results honest
  - Once we establish what each of our respective positions are (and those positions we still cannot compromise on), Asuma can then assign Goketsu and Hagaromo mixed teams to test which systems of belief actually work in practice without telling the participants which ideology suggested which tests
  - Of course, Asuma as Hokage can declare what is and isn't part of the Will of Fire throughout this entire process, not just results becoming impasses.
- Thank him for being so understanding regardless
(If spoons permit for additional scenes or offscreened)
- Spend time grieving with Ino and the rest of our family
- Prep work for future updates:
  - Send a runner to the Inuzuka to retrieve spice samples for Canvass to later use

Edits in Cyan

coldcutconvict · May 5, 2023

Could we be allowed to split the science section into its own <300 post?

Sir Stompy · May 5, 2023

Dictator4Hire said:
Asuma and Kagome approved

Why Asuma approved? Let's not spread the word around.

coldcutconvict said:
Could we be allowed to split the science section into its own <300 post?

@Velorien @Paperclipped @eaglejarl

eaglejarl · May 5, 2023

coldcutconvict said:
Could we be allowed to split the science section into its own <300 post?

That's fine. Just make sure the actual plan says "Do Earthshaping science" and links to the other post.

coldcutconvict · May 5, 2023

eaglejarl said:
That's fine. Just make sure the actual plan says "Do Earthshaping science" and links to the other post.

Thank you.

Dictator4Hire · May 5, 2023

Sir Stompy said:
Why Asuma approved? Let's not spread the word around.

Velorien said:
"Hazō, if you had come to me and sought permission before experimenting with blowing up chunks of my territory, I could have helped you choose a location that was both safe for our village's people and assets and reasonably hidden from prying eyes in a way that 'random spot in the wilderness' just isn't in an age when inter-clan and inter-village espionage is on the rise. I could have given you permission to proceed, in full knowledge of the risks, and then you and I would share culpability for whatever happened. Or I could have not. That is a Hokage's prerogative, as you apparently still haven't learned.

We may or may not have killed people with our last test and Asuma already told us not to do such experiments again without Tower authorization.

ProperAttorney · May 5, 2023

I think that no matter how many times it happens, the Hivemind will not pick up on every instance of cultural dissonance. It's all well and good for the QMs to point out after the fact how obviously this is taboo/bad idea/just not done, but it's become clear that we the player base are just not able to simulate proper ninja military expectations, proper clan secret compartmentalization.

I don't exactly have a solution for this, but you can only read "Oh, Hazō is an idiot who doesn't know he's supposed to [insert cultural norm here]" so many times.

No it's not the QM's fault we vote for these things. Hazōpilot doesn't cover everything. I suppose we're just doomed to keep repeating these mistakes year after year.

Velorien · May 5, 2023

In response to @_The_Bomb's feedback, minor edits have been made to the chapter. Kei now uses the Frozen Skein to calculate the odds of Jashin intervention instead of doing so immediately, and the plan line about Hidan liking Hazō is referenced explicitly in the dialogue.

Please don't take this as encouragement to continue posting in the same tone. Legitimate feedback is not an excuse for uncivil behaviour.

Sir Stompy · May 5, 2023

Dictator4Hire said:
We may or may not have killed people with our last test and Asuma already told us not to do such experiments again without Tower authorization

So what? This test isn't dangerous. We knew the EM nuke had the potential to be very bad. It was legit dumb not to tell Asuma beforehand.

That doesn't mean we need to tell him every time we do anything interesting. We aren't investigating a physics disaster this time. It shouldn't be any worse than regular sealing, and probably much much safer.

Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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