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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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eaglejarl said:
PSA: Voting is extended another 2 hours, to 3pm Eastern.


This was delightful! Thank you for writing it. It's got a few places where it wanders from past tense to present tense. If you'll clean those up and put a title on it, I'm happy to threadmark it as an omake.


Done.

Welcome! Lovely to have you. How did you find us?


I apologize. I was mostly memeing about the "don't have meetings about meetings" thing and not thinking about the fact that there was actually a plan being discussed, so making the joke meant that I was weighing in on the plan. I really shouldn't have done that.


It's nuanced. When I signed up to write MfD I was expecting to have ninja punching each other with fireballs, with 'build a village' as a framing device around it. That rapidly turned into 'small band of missing-nin', which I was 100% onboard with because fireballs + small cast + high-pressure environment = fun and win. It's not the only way to have fun, but it's a reliable one.

Projects designed to make money are generally not "punching each other with fireballs" type of fun, but they can be fun. I've been kicking around some interlude ideas related to the NOBURI roads, or maybe trade missions where Hazō's gems are being sold as part of a 'make money / hurt Rock / gather intel' scheme. Meetings, on the other hand, need some seasoning in order to be fun to write. The meeting in chapter 124 where Jiraiya became Hokage was super fun. The one in chapter 243 where Hazō told Jiraiya about ideas on how to retrieve Naruto was fun. The one in chapter 509 where Hazō sold Noburi on the idea of NOBURI was fun.

Meetings (which require seasoning in order to be fun) about monetary projects (which also require seasoning) can work, but in general I would prefer that the meeting get offscreened in favor of taking active steps towards whatever the project is, or else put a hook into it. This is going to benefit the Gōketsu, great. Is it going to hurt someone else such that there are political implications and the characters can vent their feelings about the target? Is it going to transform the world in a specific way? Is it going to forward a specific action item on the family's agenda? Something like that. I haven't looked back to see what your plan was actually proposing so this is intended to share my thinking and not as critique of your plan.


I'm sure I'm being a cheese brain, but when did QMs say that toilets and skysliders wouldn't move forward without player intervention?


Yes, you can vote in the seal exam. I've extended voting a couple hours so you have time if people want it.
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It's possible that I misunderstood this section?
Velorien said:
There were too many projects happening that he needed to check on. The skyslider project had stalled from the sound of it, and Hazō needed to find a couple days to understand their progress, identify why they were stalling, and come up with new directions for them to explore. The sanitation team claimed to be making progress, but Hazō could see no substantial changes personally, and all their reports indicated that their pipes were still getting blocked on the regular. They were partially limited by "throughput".
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Thank you. I guess I overreacted (apologies) since that post that you gave XP for was a criticism of the crux of my plan. I will try to make it more exciting and/or character driven. As is it's essentially calling the major people in the clan (including Gaku/Haru, which I consider important) and trying to involve them in the decisions about how best to use our new found wealth to drive uplift/clan empowerment with a list of possible focus areas (such as funding a major PR push or a big push on NOBURI).
 
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charlesrwest said:
(including Gaku/Haru, which I consider important)
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Personally I'd like to include Atomu more. Atomu has been there for a long long time and Haru is only getting more attention because he's been on a mission with us and then did some ethically complicated things.

...Okay, that's not quite true. Haru has shown more of a different kind of initiative and has probably more talent (= daily base XP gain) than all other adoptees (minus Snowflake). But it still feels like we have all these "family members" that we give zero opportunity to shine and become even recurring characters instead of warm bodies with backstories. The chūnin at least should get involved more.

Speaking of all that, what's the plan for expanding FOOM to some of them? Would it be possible to find reasons to explain why they too would make Leaf better if they had SC? Our new chūnin sealsmith maybe, for blank drawing or something?
 
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Rafin said:
Personally I'd like to include Atomu more. Atomu has been there for a long long time and Haru is only getting more attention because he's been on a mission with us and then did some ethically complicated things.

...Okay, that's not quite true. Haru has shown more of a different kind of initiative and has probably more talent (= daily base XP gain) than all other adoptees (minus Snowflake). But it still feels like we have all these "family members" that we give zero opportunity to shine and become even recurring characters instead of warm bodies with backstories. The chūnin at least should get involved more.

Speaking of all that, what's the plan for expanding FOOM to some of them? Would it be possible to find reasons to explain why they too would make Leaf better if they had SC? Our new chūnin sealsmith maybe, for blank drawing or something?
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Fair. We have to get permission, sadly. There are a few players who are FOOM expansion focused, such as Black King.
 
eaglejarl said:
Adhoc vote count started by eaglejarl on Jun 3, 2023 at 3:08 PM, finished with 200 posts and 25 votes.
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Voting is closed.
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This tally will also be used for the Conclave plan.
 
[draft] Action Plan: Economic War Council

Word Count: ?
  • Sanity-check with Mari/Kei.
  • Scene: Meeting with Mari/Kei/Noburi/Gaku/Kagome/Haru/Atomu
    • We have a way to get a ton money. How can we best use this to help uplift and/or our clan?
    • Caution:
      • We have to be careful not to wreck Leaf.
      • Economic growth:
        • In peacetime, economic power lets us more or less order ninja to do till and fills. How do we turn this into prosperity?
        • Finish the road quickly using Noburi, lots of chunin and mobile force walls to level MARI roads after casting?
        • Use the fertility jutsu on all the farms near the road?
        • Setup storage seal banks that rotate their contents regularly between cities (cargo and mail)?
        • Hire crafts/business people/KEI ninja to work with TH people to make jutsu for peaceful applications?
        • Can we use our economic power to get food and jutsu from the 7th path? Make market research to talk with summons?
        • We have cheap ore. Would it be useful to expand metals production?
    • Information warfare:
      • Start our own large scale propaganda efforts to get people onboard with Uplift?
      • What is the reaction to the Akane seal bank?
    • Grow ninja power:
      • Are there other supplies that would be useful to provide via the seal bank?
      • Should we hire sealing masters and start a sealing school for seal smiths that focuses on safety?
      • Is there a way we could use money to increase to power/survivability of current clan members? Are there holes in our current capabilities lineup?
      • Should we bid more for adoption tickets?
    • Offscreen:
      • Hire TH to work on improving the fertility jutsu for large scale use.
      • Continue Minato seal chain.
  • Scene: A Hazo shadow clone to goes fishing with a Naruto shadow clone and they talk about loss.

[Draft] Action Plan: I am Iron Man

Word Count: ?
  • Optimize with Mari/Kei/Snowflake
  • Iron
    • Give Iron ore to the Tower to help with the iron shortage.
    • Master Blacksmith
      • Ask him to try ES-iron ore and give feedback. Make it clear we can get him more.
      • Commission a new spear from him, for Yuuma.
        • (Meta-Goal: A spear so good that it has invokable Aspects related to its craftsmanship)
  • Atomu
    • You're an experienced ninja. Draft up a list of top five items every ninja should have in the field, get it approved by Mari, and then work with Mio about incorporating care packages containing those items into the Akane Seal Bank
      • (intent: care packages will be available upon request).
  • Mari:
    • What are the first impressions about the Akane Seal Bank?
    • In your opinion, as an experienced jonin, how can we leverage our money to improve the survivability of our (Gōketsu in particular and Leaf more generally)?
    • ninja? We're already commissioning Yuuma a better spear, but what else? Buying more of a THer's time? Buying training from other jonin? Buying jutsu from other clans? Getting a THer to make a good suicide attack jutsu for the FOOMers?
  • Continue working on Minato's Seals

[Draft] Action Plan: Money CAN win elections
Word Count: ?
  • Scene: Meeting with Mari/Haru/Kei
    • We have a way to get a ton money. How can we best use this to help get the average ninja onboard with uplift?
    • What's the reaction to the Akane seal bank?
    • Should we hire a theater trope? More than one?
    • Could we make an uplift festival with prizes for civilian and ninja contributions to common good?
    • Is there something we could do with the Nara printing presses?
    • Is the church of Youth successful enough/aligned enough to be helpful to work with?
    • Could we successfully influence other villages in an uplift direction?
    • Should we bid more on adoption tickets?
  • It's possible to share ninja magic. What would this mean to people?
    • The Akane seal bank was founded on the principle that the right seal can help people do what they otherwise could not.
    • What would be the ideological impact of a civilian usable storage seal?
    • Burning sand macerators are as deadly as directional explosives, but they can be used over a hundred times. Could this make civilian trappers actually useful for chakra beast reduction efforts if we scaled up supply?
    • It's possible the trigger could be used to make civilian usable explosive seals. Should we be worried about civilian sucide bombers if we make civilian usable seals?
  • Scene: A Hazo shadow clone to goes fishing with a Naruto shadow clone and they talk about loss.
  • Offscreen:
    • Continue Minato seal chain.

[Draft] Action Plan: Every Dog has it's day
Word Count: ?
  • Sanity-check with Mari/Kei.
  • Scene: Dog summons/Gōketsu get to know each other
    • (fate point retroactive?) Hazo lets the Gōketsu know in advance that they are getting some very special guests.
    • Hazo summons as many dogs as he can and lets them wander around the compound talking with people.
    • The Gōketsu are encouraged to get to know the dogs/the 7th path and vis-versa.
    • A competition is held, with prizes for the dogs and people with the best ideas for how the Gōketsu clan could help the dogs and how the dogs could help the humans.
    • If it goes well, similar events are planned (to happen later) for the Toads, Condors and possibly Pangolins.
  • Scene: Cannai
    • The human path is very different than the 7th path.
      • The smartest humans think that there are less humans each year. You think the lack of hope is part of why ninja life is so brutal.
      • Most ninja spend most of their time fighting mindless, chakra empowered beasts. It's by far the thing that kills them the most.
      • It's even worse for civilians. When asked what would help civilians the most, the great healing sage immediately said more or less "wall to keep them from getting eaten".
    • How can we make this better?
      • Are there any jutsu that the Dogs would be willing to share that might help fight these monsters?
      • You can't learn Dog jutsu, but you know someone who could.
      • We have jewels and can get gold. Are there any clans in the 7th path who might be able/willing to trade for jutsu that could help?
      • If we can get food, we can have people live closer together behind walls. Is there any clan that we could trade with for food?
    • Offscreen:
      • Continue Minato seal chain.

[Draft] Action Plan: Talking to Toads
Word Count: ?
  • Scene: Dinner with Ma, Pa, Noburi, Hazo, Kei, Mari in the Gōketsu compound
    • Have a nice meal together. Make the food as good as possible and get Noburi's advice on what to serve.
      • Eventually point out that they are super powerful, respected in their clan. They have access to the 7th path trade network and are probably rich enough to buy just about anything they want.
      • You would like to know what drives them. What is at the core of what they do?
      • The human path is very different than the 7th path.
        • The smartest humans think that there are less humans each year. You think the lack of hope is part of why ninja life is so brutal.
        • Most ninja spend most of their time fighting mindless, chakra empowered beasts. It's by far the thing that kills them the most.
        • It's even worse for civilians. When asked what would help civilians the most, the great healing sage immediately said more or less "a wall to keep them from getting eaten".
      • We are driven by "uplift"
        • We want a future where things get better instead of worse.
        • We want to keep our people safe from the monsters.
        • We want civilians to become treated as well as ninja.
      • Do they have any advice on how we can make our world better?
        • We are trying to build those walls (and roads), but our method is strongly limited via the chakra pool of the caster and how much chakra they can get.
        • Most of our civilians spend all of their time farming to get enough food not to starve. However, a jutsu was published recently that make crops grow much better. We are trying to fund it's use as much as possible so less people starve and more people can stay behind walls.
        • They are extremely wise. Do they have any ideas?
    • Scene: A Hazo shadow clone to goes fishing with a Naruto shadow clone and they talk about loss.
    • Offscreen:
      • Continue Minato seal chain.
[Draft] Action Plan: Finding Allies
Word Count: ?
  • Scene: Go to Rock Lee's church of YOUTH
    • Listen to the sermon
    • Ask Rock Lee if he would be willing to have a meal with you. You would like to understand what YOUTH means to him.
    • Sound out how compatible YOUTH doctrine is with uplift.
    • Are the Hags giving him a lot of trouble?
    • If there's enough overlap, ask how to help him do more
      • Convince more people
      • Help more poor
    • How does he feel about till and fills, the fertility jutsu and the MARI walls?
  • Scene: A Hazo shadow clone to goes fishing with a Naruto shadow clone and they talk about loss.
  • Offscreen:
    • Hire TH to work on improving the fertility jutsu for large scale use.
    • Continue Minato seal chain.
 
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charlesrwest said:
  • Sanity-check with Mari/Kei.
  • Scene: Meeting with Mari/Kei/Noburi/Gaku/Kagome/Haru/Atomu
    • We have a way to get a ton money. How can we best use this to help uplift and/or our clan?
    • Caution:
      • We have to be careful not to wreck Leaf.
      • Economic growth:
        • In peacetime, economic power lets us more or less order ninja to do till and fills. How do we turn this into prosperity?
        • Finish the road quickly using Noburi, lots of chunin and mobile force walls to level MARI roads after casting?
        • Use the fertility jutsu on all the farms near the road?
        • Setup storage seal banks that rotate their contents regularly between cities (cargo and mail)?
        • Hire crafts/business people/KEI ninja to work with TH people to make jutsu for peaceful applications?
        • Can we use our economic power to get food and jutsu from the 7th path? Make market research to talk with summons?
        • We have cheap ore. Would it be useful to expand metals production?
    • Information warfare:
      • Start our own large scale propaganda efforts to get people onboard with Uplift?
      • What is the reaction to the Akane seal bank?
    • Grow ninja power:
      • Are there other supplies that would be useful to provide via the seal bank?
      • Should we hire sealing masters and start a sealing school for seal smiths that focuses on safety?
      • Is there a way we could use money to increase to power/survivability of current clan members? Are there holes in our current capabilities lineup?
      • Should we bid more for adoption tickets?
    • Offscreen:
      • Hire TH to work on improving the fertility jutsu for large scale use.
      • Continue Minato seal chain.
  • Scene: A Hazo shadow clone to goes fishing with a Naruto shadow clone and they talk about loss.
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Scattershot thoughts...

Too many things, even for a meeting. It's a meeting, which is a lot of talking, but no doing. I suggest doing the things, but doing that will stretch the plan overlong into far too many scenes. This will likely necessitate several action plans over the course of several voting cycles.
  • Haru, Kagome, Atomu, and Gaku may not have been read into the infinite money glitch.
    • Let's not invite Kagome. His OPSEC skills are horrible and the QMs have said it's impossible to train him out of it.
    • Haru... check with Mari. She's been Haru's mentor/sensei, and he's been her lieutenant. Haru's results at the chuunin exam weren't great, but he's had some time to grow since then, and his Deceit may be high enough to protect clan secrets. It would also be a nice show of trust from Hazou to Haru. I'd be okay with it, pending Mari's approval.
    • Gaku... I'm unsure. He's a civilian, so he could easily be pressed about it. I'm not sure he needs to know the specifics, just that "we have a mountain of money again. How should we best spend it, from a civilian's perspective?"
    • Is there a reason to have Atomu there?
  • "Economic power lets us order ninja to do Till'n'Fills" is factually incorrect.
    • There's only a certain amount of ninja that Asuma will allow to work on non-military missions. The Tower heavily taxes non-combat missions to help incentivize going on combat missions for that reason.
    • Asuma is a dictator, the spiritual embodiment of Leaf's religion, and his word is law.
    • Best not to get into the mindset that we can do whatever we want. That way lies killboxes.
  • Do NOBURI Roads quickly
    • I doubt Asuma will allow us to hire as many ninja as you're thinking. For one, I doubt there are that many Earth Element ninja available (only 10% of Leaf ninja are Earth Element, iirc, and that's assuming they've all taken the time to learn MARI). And for two, I doubt Asuma will allow us to monopolize all (or even a majority) of Leaf's Earth Element populace.
    • I'm all for leveraging our money to increase the speed, but I want to temper your expectations. This is still a project that will take years.
  • Storage Seal Banks in other cities
    • You need to be a ninja to access a storage seal, and all of Fire Country's ninja are in Leaf (unless they're on a mission or on vacation)
    • You could pay ninja to be escorts for mail caravans or something, but Leaf's military is crippled right now.
      • Even restricting it to genin would be a cost that Asuma may not be willing to pay.
      • And if you restrict it to just genin, then the genin becomes vulnerable to stronger chakra beasts that the mail caravans might encounter (thus defeating the original purpose of "protect the mail")
    • The regularity/consistency of the mail caravans increases its vulnerability to attack from foreign agents, thus disrupting the mail system and anything that would grow to rely on it.
      • Could hire out escort missions, but that runs into the same problem as the above.
  • Hire various people to work with THers to make jutsu for peaceful applications?
    • I like the general idea, but you'll want to come up with examples for the QMs to build off of, otherwise the QMs are left shouldering the cognitive load.
      • Do you mean something useless but fun, like a Fire Jutsu version of the Party Trick Seal?
      • Do you mean something useless but creative, like the Ice Sculpting jutsu in the Player Known Jutsu Doc?
      • Do you mean something useless in combat, but civically-useful like MARI?
    • Are these jutsu meant to be released to the public after they're researched, or are they intended to be kept in the Goketsu Vault until a Goketsu Ninja decides to learn them?
  • Food/Jutsu from the 7th Path
    • I like it. The 7th Path Trade Network already exists, and Leaf has lots of Summoners. We could meet with the Summoners and ask if they'd be willing to facilitate a trade for food or jutsu with their Summoning Clan. The various Summoning Clans may not be interested in trading with a human who isn't their Summoner, but it doesn't hurt to ask.
  • Cheap Ore
    • I like this. I suspect Asuma will have the Tower buy all the iron they want, and that they'll take care of the rest.
    • I still say we toss a lot of iron to the Master Blacksmith that the Goketsu Clan has on retainer and see what happens.
  • Information Warfare
    • I feel like this can all happen offscreen, tbh.
    • It hasn't been very long since the Akane Seal Bank has been established, so I doubt we'll get an accurate read. Still, I suppose it would be good for seeing what the first impressions are.
    • Starting to spread propaganda about Uplift runs into some problems. Namely...
      • We have never really defined Uplift's core tenants, nor its code. It's more of a "vibes" based ideal. Clarifying the Uplift Philosophy and then writing down an Uplift Manifesto seems uninteresting and that it would drain a lot of spoons.
      • It feels like it would run into conflict with the Will of Fire.
        • The Church of Youth was officially endorsed by a Hokage, and Asuma can't crush it without undermining the very authority that his reign relies so heavily-upon.
        • Uplift is not endorsed by Asuma, and seeing Leaf become riddled with different religions would weaken the source of the Hokage's religious authority. I think Noburi or Mari may have said something similar back when we first went to war against the Hag. Something about nobody taking Toadism seriously, and that's why its preaching was temporarily allowed, but that Uplift wouldn't be?
        • I do not see a world where we successfully get Asuma to endorse Uplift, and I haven't the spoons/inclination to try
  • Ninja Power
    • Seal Bank: I know Velorien said that a startup care package (bandages, rope, etc) would provide a minimal benefit, but I think that benefit is still worth pursuing. Might be better as a straight-up actionable than as a plan.
    • Sealing School: this would take time from Kagome and/or Hazou to set up and teach, which is time they're not working on the Rift Seals. I would not vote for anything that includes this because it would hamper our speed on the Rift Seals by a great margin. No.
    • Increase Survivability: I like this. It's checking to see if we're missing anything. Maybe we can spend money to get our genin trained under a solid jonin sensei, or buy useful-but-not-groundbreaking jutsu from other clans (Akimichi?)
    • Adoption Tickets: IIRC, the QMs have said that other clans are going to be clutching their adoption tickets tightly this year, since KEI is reluctant to print out any new ones. It could be worth exploring, but I doubt anything would come of it.
  • Offscreen: Approve of the seal research and the project. May want to tell the person to take their time (idk if TH rules have a Time Ladder or Prep, in the same way that Sealing does, but I would encourage the THer to take their time and be safe, since this would be a long-term project, anyway).
  • Scene: I really don't care about this scene, honestly, but I would be obligated to vote for it, since it has a Minato Seal Research Scene

Suggested Edits, Made More Actionable (rather than meetings)

  • Optimize and Sanity Check with Mari/Kei/Snowflake
  • Meet with Leaf's various Summoners, see if they'd be willing to set up a trade negotiation between the Goketsu and their respective Summoning Clans (jutsu for clan, or even just food for Food Bank). We'd pay the Summoners for their time, and would be willing to share the results of whatever trade comes about.
  • Iron
    • Sell ES-sourced Iron to the Tower to help with the iron shortage.
    • Master Blacksmith [insert name, and link his mentioning here]
      • Give a shocking amount of ES-iron ore for his own use.
      • Commission a new spear from him, for Yuuma.
        • (Meta-Goal: A spear so good that it has invokable Aspects related to its craftsmanship)
  • Atomu
    • You're an experienced ninja. Draft up a list of top five items every ninja should have in the field, get it approved by Mari, and then work with Mio about incorporating care packages containing those items into the Akane Seal Bank
      • (intent: care packages will be available upon request).
  • Mari:
    • What are the first impressions about the Akane Seal Bank?
    • In your opinion, as an experienced jonin, how can we leverage our money to improve the survivability of our ninja? We're already commissioning Yuuma a better spear, but what else? Buying more of a THer's time? Buying training from other jonin? Buying jutsu from other clans?
  • Continue working on Minato's Seals

As you can see, there are no less than four scenes in this... maybe three if the QMs are nice and offscreen the Mari meeting. Maybe only two if they're exceedingly generous and offscreen the Atomu meeting as well.

However, I could also see the QMs counting the "Iron" Segment as two scenes (Tower and Blacksmith scenes), and that would bring it up to a total of 5 scenes. Which would be bad for everyone involved.

This plan has the benefit of actually doing things, which is better for QM spoons, but suffers from too many scenes. I suspect that some combination of them would work for a single plan, with the rest regulated to a second plan.

My preference would be the Iron segment (since it gives the Tower Iron, but also gets Yuuma his better spear) and the Summoner meetings, with Hazou continuing to work on the Minato Seals.
 
Thoughts in green, inline.

Man, I wish that there was another good colour to use, but bright green really just shows up well.
RandomOTP said:
  • Optimize and Sanity Check with Mari/Kei/Snowflake
    • This can probably be cut to just 'optimize with Mari/Kei/Snowflake'. We're not doing anything wild; sanity checking isn't necessary.
  • Meet with Leaf's various Summoners, see if they'd be willing to set up a trade negotiation between the Goketsu and their respective Summoning Clans (jutsu for clan, or even just food for Food Bank). We'd pay the Summoners for their time, and would be willing to share the results of whatever trade comes about.
    • If someone asked us to set up a jutsu exchange with the Dogs, we'd look at them funny, at the very least. Clans in general don't like their jutsu getting out (that's not just a Pangolin thing, AFAIK) and a Summoner wants to keep their hands on all the jutsu their Summon clan is willing to share. They're also probably working very hard to get jutsu etc. out of their clans - 'hey, we'll cut you in on any deals we facilitate with your Summon clans' is just...not something I think would be successful or appreciated?
      • If we want to throw our resources behind them, maybe that would be useful, but honestly it's about trust and relationships, not transactions.
    • The clans already trade resources with Leaf etc. The thing to underscore here is that we'd like to find out which clans, if any, have access to resources on scales which aren't available on the Human Path and what they are. If we can bulk trade food or raw materials, then that might be worth going for, but otherwise this doesn't seem very interesting.
      • Moreover, again, Summoners don't want Goketsu involved in their highly-personal relationships. This would need to be pitched differently.
      • It's also unclear to me what bulk resources beyond food (which we already get a good deal on from the Dogs) we'd be interested in.
  • Iron
    • Sell ES-sourced Iron to the Tower to help with the iron shortage.
      • Simply selling it seems like a wasted opportunity. We should arrange for a long-term deal wherein Asuma purchases the chakra for us and we provide metal at a steady rate. We're already going to be doing a fair quantity of Earthshaping to get the sapphires we need, and we're going to be doing that on a regular basis. Might as well get him to subsidize it.
    • Master Blacksmith [insert name, and link his mentioning here]
      • Give a shocking amount of ES-iron ore for his own use.
        • This, specifically, might need a sanity check and/or optimization pass. Dumping a lot of iron on him all at once is not necessarily going to impress (if he's a master, he's used to top-quality stuff and he likely doesn't worry about supply shortages) and it opens up OPSEC risks re: ES.
        • If we want to court a blacksmith, we should engage him in the conspiracy. Clan Goketsu has made a discovery: we humbly request that he assess the quality of this ore. Properly processed, would it be suitable for use by Hidden Leaf's smiths? Would he be interested in partnering with us to ensure it is processed correctly? We lack his years of knowledge and close relationships with the metalworking community.
        • That way, he's on the payroll and he's got plenty of incentives not to screw up his new gig by leaking that we're sitting on a huge mine or whatever.
      • Commission a new spear from him, for Yuuma.
        • (Meta-Goal: A spear so good that it has invokable Aspects related to its craftsmanship)
        • Fuck it, we ball: corundum spear. Corundum-reinforced spear? It'll be heavier than wood but there's also no way that the shafts of ninja spears are just made out of wood.
  • Atomu
    • You're an experienced ninja. Draft up a list of top five items every ninja should have in the field, get it approved by Mari, and then work with Mio about incorporating care packages containing those items into the Akane Seal Bank
      • I like this. No real notes other than 'care packages' sounds like soap and tea whereas this is more 'some extra kunai' and 'some really strong, light rope'. I'd like to sniff out partnerships with other clans while this is happening, as well: if we want some really nice rope, who controls the rope trade? Can we talk to them about this, looking for a deal/discount, or a relationship?
      • (intent: care packages will be available upon request).
  • Mari:
    • What are the first impressions about the Akane Seal Bank?
    • In your opinion, as an experienced jonin, how can we leverage our money to improve the survivability of our ninja? We're already commissioning Yuuma a better spear, but what else? Buying more of a THer's time? Buying training from other jonin? Buying jutsu from other clans?
      • I'd be more specific: do we want to increase the survivability of all ninja, or just Goketsu ninja? Where's our priority?
  • Continue working on Minato's Seals
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FaintlySorcerous said:
Man, I wish that there was another good colour to use, but bright green really just shows up well.
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Quick reactions:
  • I prefer sanity checks, honestly. They serve a purpose and keep us from doing anything too stupid on accident. Hazou-pilot hasn't done a good enough job catching things in-character for me to be comfortable dropping the sanity checks completely. He did good work catching the Neji/Great Seal thing, but that stands out as an exception, rather than a rule... but we're not here to debate Sanity Checks, and I don't really have the spoons for a full conversation about it. Onward to the rest!
  • Good call on the Summoners. Highly personal relationships, outsiders unwelcome (see Kagome and Kumo shooing Hazou out of their first meeting) and unlikely to go anywhere, besides.
    • Maybe we could turn it around and focus on the Toads and Arachnids?
    • They both seem pretty cool, and would be willing to trade in good faith.
    • Arachnids may be more focused on the Dragonwar than trading for jutsu, though... which is fair. Might also give us the Good Shit(tm) as a result!
  • We can make diamonds... I say we shoulder the cost. That way, Asuma doesn't even think about us buying chakra, and we have a secret reason for buying chakra that can serve as cover for the real reason we're buying chakra. Underneath the underneath, and all that.
  • The master blacksmith is already on our payroll from the Rainbow War arc. He sells exclusively through the Goketsu Clan, and we take a cut (iirc). We pay for all of his resources and etc, etc. He's basically a Goketsu in all but name, iirc.
    • I like the idea of a corundum-infused spear, but worry that it might take a long time.
    • We could give him two commissions? One for a bog-standard Very Good Spear, and then another for a Corundum-infused spear/spear-haft? That way Yuuma gets his first upgrade soon (which helps survivability), and then Yuuma gets an even better upgrade later on! ^.^
  • Maybe change "care packages" to "survival kits?" Talk to Kei about KEI helping supply it? A joint Goketsu-KEI project to help ninja? The Goketsu provide Arachnid Silk Rope (stronger than hemp rope, quieter when brushing against things), and the KEI provide... other things? Idk, we can suggest stuff to Atomu but let him take leadership of it. Try not to micromanage, shows genuine trust in his capabilities.
  • Survivability of our ninja was what I meant, but we could probably poke her about Leaf ninja in general, too.
  • Optimize and Sanity Check with Mari/Kei/Snowflake
  • Noburi/Kagome do you think the Toads/Arachnids would be willing to trade for jutsu for gems? If not, what are they interested in?
  • Iron
    • Sell ES-Sourced iron to the Tower to help with the shortage.
    • Master Blacksmith [insert name, and link his mentioning here]
      • Show him ES-Sourced iron. We humbly request that he assess the quality of this ore. Properly processed, would it be suitable for use by Leaf's smiths? Would he be interested in partnering with us to ensure it is processed correctly? We lack his years of knowledge and close relationships with the metalworking community.
        • If he asks, deflect by moving on to the next point.
      • Commission two new spears from him, for Yuuma.
        • One made of high quality ES-iron, and other such very good/expensive materials (Meta-Goal: A spear so good that it has invokable Aspects related to its craftsmanship)
        • One made with a corundum-infused haft (Meta-Goal: an even better spear with invokable aspects related to both craftsmanship and material makeup).
  • Atomu
    • You're an experienced ninja. Draft up a list of top five items every ninja should have in the field, get it approved by Mari, and then work with Mio about incorporating survival kits containing those items into the Akane Seal Bank.
    • Idle Suggestion: meet with Kei to negotiate a joint KEI/Goketsu project on supplying these? For example: Goketsu provide Arachnid Silk Rope in these kits (more durable than hemp, quieter if brushed against something). Ultimately, you've been a ninja for longer than we have. We trust your judgement.
      • (intent: care packages will be available upon request).
  • Mari:
    • What are the first impressions about the Akane Seal Bank?
    • In your opinion, as an experienced jonin, how can we leverage our money to improve the survivability of Goketsu ninja? We're already commissioning Yuuma a better spear, but what else? Buying more of a THer's time? Buying training from other jonin? Buying jutsu from other clans?
  • Continue working on Minato's Seals
 
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Chapter 599: Hazō's Special Jōnin Exam
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    • "Good morning, Lord Gōketsu," said Aburame Manjirō, rising from his seat as the waiter bowed Hazō through the door. "The Hokage has retained me to serve as your invigilator for special jōnin status in sealing."

    Aburame Manjirō was eighty years old. He walked with a cane and, if you were discreet about your spying, he could be spotted attempting to rub the pain out of his knees whenever the weather got even slightly damp or cold. His hands were starting to gnarl and his vision wasn't what it had been; his peripheral vision was gone and he had trouble recognizing faces from more than twenty or thirty feet. Despite that, he was still a dangerous soft-style martial artist and widely known as one of the best sealmasters in Leaf.

    "I am delighted," Hazō said, smiling sincerely and bowing. There were a whole lot of sealmasters that he had been desperately hoping would not be chosen. Aburame was tight-fisted with his praise and short of patience but he was honest and had no grudge against anyone that Hazō had ever noticed.

    "May I ask your age and lineage, Lord Gōketsu?" The words were polite. Perfectly, intentionally, utterly polite.

    "I am sixteen, sir. Gōketsu Hazō, out of Gōketsu Kagome by Gōketsu Jiraiya." Jiraiya had given Hazō barely enough instruction to be counted as an 'also taught by' in Hazō's sealing lineage but Aburame was certainly not going to quibble. It would be the height of rudeness.

    "You began your studies at what age?"

    "Thirteen, sir."

    "Hm. You are certainly...driven. Most students put in at least a decade before they feel comfortable testing, but here we are already." The word 'already' creaked like a branch in battering wind.

    "I believe myself capable, sir," Hazō said. "I hope to demonstrate that to you over the course of this interview."

    "Let's get to it," Aburame said, taking his seat and waving Hazō into the one opposite him.

    They were meeting in a private room at Aburame's favorite tea house and the staff had brought in brazier after brazier to render the room sweltering. A large table sat between their two chairs, loaded down with nibbles and noshes and tea things. A narrower but taller table sat at each man's elbow. Aburame's side table already had a steaming cup of tea on it, which the old sealmaster lifted to his lips immediately after settling.

    "Of course," Hazō said, nodding. He sat down and poured himself a cup of tea from the pot that waited on the table between them. He lifted the teapot and an eyebrow towards Aburame, asking if the older man wanted his cup topped off; Aburame shook his head, so Hazō set the pot down. He sipped his tea and waited politely.

    "List and define the lunar particulars," Aburame demanded, his voice a staccato rap.

    Hazō raised an eyebrow; this was literally first-week stuff, so much so that the question was almost insulting. "Really?" He shrugged. "Waxing, waning, full, gibbous, crescent, slivered, jellicle, tosurent. Respectively: whether the disk is increasing or decreasing, whether it shows its entire face, most of its face, little of its face, or but a hint of its brow, whether it is approaching or departing from the Traveller."

    "Define chirality."

    "Some seal elements come in a left- and right-handed version," Hazō said patiently. "The chirality is relevant when calculating chakra flow intersection."

    "Define localization."

    Hazō cocked his head in surprise. "Wait, are you doing Jiraiya's Fundamentals of Sealing, page by page? Let's skip ahead." He closed his eyes, bringing the image of the book to mind and walking through the pages with his hands. "Pages one through three are the introduction, four through twenty-seven are the warnings—although..." He paused, counting. "Ten of those pages are stories from Jiraiya's studies used as examples of why you don't ignore the warnings. Twenty-eight through forty-one are the list of terms and their definitions. Forty-two—"

    "Wrong," Aburame said, leaning forward, his beaky nose protruding. "The list of terms stops at page forty."

    "Oh, you have a first edition?" Hazō asked. "Cool. He only made four of those that I'm aware of. In the second edition he used a slightly wider margin for readability and it pushed the term 'valequa' onto page forty-one. Valequa measures the ramping of chakra turbulence during flow intersection.

    "Page forty-two is a caricature of a horse. Jiraiya liked to include amusing asides in order to provide the student's brain a momentary rest. He also liked to refer to things as 'two pages after the horse' or 'four pages before the honey jar' instead of giving page numbers, because he was difficult that way. Page forty-four—"

    "I believe we can stipulate to your recollection of the fundamentals," Aburame said. "Although I admit myself not best pleased with your casualness regarding the Scholar."

    Hazō smiled slightly. The titles 'First', 'Second', and so on had a specific meaning in Leaf: they referenced the Hokage. Leaf's sealmasters had therefore needed to find other titles to use when referring to their defining figures. Jiraiya was not the first of Leaf's sealmasters, but he was the first to actually collect all the available sealing lore, strip out the garbage and erroneous parts, organize what remained, and publish it in a form that other sealmasters could use for teaching. Before him, seal instruction in Leaf had been done using whatever random notes your clan's lineage of sealmasters had cobbled together. The quality varied a lot, as did the organization. Many of the terms used in Leaf's modern seal theory had been standardized by Jiraiya, as had the standard template for research notes. As such, there had been no more appropriate title that Leaf's sealmasters could bestow upon him than 'Scholar'.

    "With respect, sir," Hazō said. "Unless you ever shared a roof with him, I think I'm better qualified to judge. Jiraiya was a brilliant sealmaster—brilliant at everything, which is a really huge damn shadow to have to step out of, let me tell you. He also had a sense of humor that could best be described as 'puckish'. One time, he stole all the cups in the kitchen and left clues as to where he'd hidden them. When we confronted him he said that he was 'helping with our training as a good Clan Head should do.' Yes, sometimes he could be difficult."

    Aburame did not, or perhaps could not, unbend enough to smile. No, it was undoubtedly just coincidence that when he raised his cup to his lips he held his hand in such a position that it blocked sight of his cheeks and the lower half of his face. And those definitely were not twinkles of amusement in his eyes.

    "I shall grant your point," Aburame said, once more somber as he lowered his cup. "Moving on, let us consider a potential design. You have a Sogabe Slide connected to a half-W splitter. Testing has indicated that a vortex forms within the squinch. What is the optimal way to modify the design in order to deal with this situation?"

    "I suspect you want me to say 'use a blitter along the right-hand fork', which would be the textbook answer. However, if the flow is widdershins then you would be better off with a third-chord harmonic line with opposing localization. It will provide better smoothing and will stabilize flow rates while being quite compact."

    "And if it's deosil?"

    Hazō wobbled his head in a so-so gesture. "It's debatable. A blitter will work, obviously, but it takes a lot of space in the design. With a deosil flow you would need a second-chord harmonic line and those can generate disharmony if you get the feathering wrong. It's a choice between size and simplicity."

    "Hmm." Aburame studied him. "Very well. A different scenario, then. Suppose..."

    For the next two hours, Aburame grilled Hazō on scenario after scenario, each one more complex than the one before. The first half were well within Hazō's capacity, but towards the end he was having to struggle. It was when Aburame finally caught him out on an actual mistake that he decided to, as Mari liked to say when she was training them, 'stop dicking around and do it.'

    "If the weather was less than perfect, that would cause an inversion on your secondary channel," Aburame said. "You would collapse your field."

    "That's true," Hazō said. "I hadn't considered the tempestuous influence when I said that. Would you give me a moment, please?"

    Aburame nodded slightly and sipped his tea.

    Hazō took a cleansing breath and let his eyes drift closed. He slowed his pulse, centered himself, and reached into the depths of the Ir.n Nerve to where lay the mmemories of the Pangloin Scr-ll and, deeper still, those of eht Gre4t S##l aND the DR4gθn5 7h4! !t !!mpris0n.d.

    His vision orbs uncovered themselves and he apprehended his surroundings. Before his line of sight was another human. A tall one. The tall one's orbs dwelled upon him intensely, like a hawk watching for the mouse to stay still a moment.

    "The tempestuous influence a discordance brings," he said. "Alignment mode across first, second, and third chords is preferred. Alignment dampens interference, reinforces septimal linkage, and entrains supply."

    "That's not...you're supposed to use a Diwala interpreter."

    "Diwala interpreter would perform, true. Chord alignment has elegance and also is superior. Chakra flows are properly smoothed, supply is entrained for efficiency maximized, and hardening is placed against both tempestuous interference and lunar phasing without need for prior haruspex investigation."

    "Yes, but..." The human broke off and thought. "Would that work?" it said slowly, its tone rising at the end. Its lips bent down and lines appeared on the top of its face. "You want to align all three chords? Yes, it would enhance the chakra linkage across the seventh node bridge, but how would you do it?"

    He studied the human curiously. Was it damaged? Could it not feel behind the Paint?

    "Celestine overline on third, lightly cthonic line second on, grounded on third. Violet infusion on first and third, blue on second."

    The human's vision orbs occluded themselves several times in rapid succession. It reached into its jacket and pulled out a blank scroll and some charcoal upon which it started scribbling frantically.

    He waited calmly while the apparently-damaged human made multitudinous messy marks. It took several minutes to do so.

    "It looks like this would work," the human said, sounding irritated. "But how in the world did you come up with this? It's bizarre."

    "It is the truth," he said.

    The human snorted. Probably in the way that signified humor, but he wasn't entirely sure. Humor was heavily rooted in the Paint, and it was hard to keep track of while keeping one eye Out.

    "Very well," the human said. "Let's move on. Propose a design for the following..."

    Hazō needs to make a series of rolls in order to pass this exam. Specifically, he needs:

    • TN 45 x3, 3 chances. Basic theory.
    • TN 50 x3, 5 chances. Advanced theory plus basic design issues for hypothetical seals.
    • TN 60 x2, 3 chances. Complex seal design questions.
    (EDIT: I meant to put Calligraphy checks in there as well and forgot. They would have been TN 40 and he's got an effective score of 43, so we'll assume he passed them.)

    He's going to try to do it without SSA to start, using it only at the end for the rolls he can't make without it. SSA is his S-rank trick, and the first rule of S-rank tricks is that you don't talk about your S-rank tricks. The plan calls for Hazō to talk with Kagome in order to acquire tags, but there are no tags to be had. Hazō's training with Kagome is the foundation of this test, not an advantage in it.

    Here we go. I'm listing the rolls with dice included unless shown otherwise.

    • Basic theory #1: 53. Pass!
    • Basic theory #2: 53. Pass!
    • Basic theory #3: 47. Pass!
    • Advanced theory and basic design #1: 56. Pass!
    • Advanced theory and basic design #2: 50. Pass!
    • Advanced theory and basic design #3: 50. Pass!
    • Complex seal design #1: 77. Pass!
    • Complex seal design #2: 71. Pass!
    Hazō has successfully completed his exam.





    XP AWARD: 1 The update was only a few hours.

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