Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
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- naruto rationalist romance armageddon is looking better and better damn you kishimoto explosions everywhere explosives solve everyone if in doubt surrender to the mercy of zabuza it seemed like a good idea at the time looks like a really bad case of being a jōnin my god. where does the lore end? precommitting is the winning plan screaming in kagome screw the rules i have explosives something bad might still happen sometimes you gotta sociopath stabby zabby subsection c of paragraph 9 should include we can weaponize this so hard
The thing is, if he did it, he did so for damn good reasons. Reasons I would endorse if we didn't know and care about Akane.
Kinda makes deciding what to do about it really damn hard, even if we get confirmation.
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EDIT
Well, "Resurrect Akane, then have stern and threatening words with Shikamaru" is the obvious answer.
Kinda makes deciding what to do about it really damn hard, even if we get confirmation.
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EDIT
Well, "Resurrect Akane, then have stern and threatening words with Shikamaru" is the obvious answer.
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- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
While it's definitely not the way I wanted it to happen, I must say that I like how Hazou and Ino's relationship has been getting more direct focus. Beforehand, people tended to agree that Ino's relationship with Hazou didn't get much attention, and she often felt overshadowed by Akane, but with their relationship temporarily downgraded to monogamy we're seeing a lot more development on that front. It's kinda nice, and I think will keep their polycule feeling more balanced even after we bring Akane back.
Noumero
Omit Needless Words
All I see is an opportunity to forcibly extract the Nara forbidden lore by bringing this to Asuma combined with our speculations of the Thinkers' ongoing collaboration and conspiracy to cover up existential threats. If Shikamaru did this, they've been doing this systemically, ever since Leaf's conception. The whole clan will look rotten in Asuma's eyes, and we can crack it open like an egg.
Delicious, delicious forbidden lore~
@eaglejarl @Velorien @Paperclipped do you think you guys could link your Patreon pages in the informational post at the head of the thread?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Made a poll because I'm curious about the general vibe
strawpoll.com
Did Shikamaru kill Akane? - Online Poll - StrawPoll.com
What's your opinion? Vote now: Yes, No...
strawpoll.com
Noumero
Omit Needless Words
No, no. After the Hidan/Kakuzu meeting, invent a pretext for Mari and Shikamaru to be both present at the debriefing with Asuma, and tell her to subtly probe Shikamaru. He isn't beating that Deceit roll.
Iris-Iven-Ibis
Interested-Idiot-Immortal
- Location
- You know
The song for today is : this excellent cover of flower of hell
Yeah, I'll bet Shika would think that.
That's what I said!
I thought we didn't know who assigned the mission because the Tower didn't keep a record of it?
Yep. It's Shikamaru.
Didn't realize their relationship had reached that stage yet, but I'm in favor.
- Location
- Pacific standard
Oh my god, we turn the war machine of leaf against the fucking 5 conspiracy. Could we actually have the pull with Asuma to do that now?
Noumero
Omit Needless Words
If the next chapter doesn't ruin everything, I'd say so. Even more so if the next chapter goes well.
- We've confirmed the existence of the Dragons and the existential threat they represent, and he'd taken it seriously enough to basically give us carte blanche.
- We're the best or the second-best sealmaster Leaf has, working on important projects such as bijuu containment seals.
- We've brought him a village-destroying superweapon, made him aware of its proliferation risk, and brought useful ideas for minimizing said risk.
- We've been enmeshed with him in a conspiracy that ended with him destroying Isan, and we've behaved in a measured and disciplined manner around it, despite our heavy objections to the idea.
- We've brought him an economic superweapon, going beyond what's expected of us as a loyal Leaf ninja.
- We've shown interest in burying the hatched with the Hagoromo.
- We've gone a few months not committing any deliberate treason visible to him at all.
Like, who's he going to trust on this, over us? Ami? Kei? They'd all be tainted by association with the Thinker clan cluster. Oro? Ha.
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I still find it hard to believe Shikimaru did it. Asuma would and could definitely do it, but would Shikamaru be so callous as to act perfectly innocent afterward?
Quick thought: I remember that one of those blood trackers from Hot Spring got our blood (after the "terrorist incident" IIRC) and seemed very willing to go full revenge on us. It could be possible for them to notice Akane's moving away from Leaf thanks to their bloodline. No informant needed. It's not a smart move, acting on so little information, but if they really wanted revenge. . .
Noumero
Omit Needless Words
... That was so long ago. Surely the universe forgot, by now?
- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
I don't think so, given that Asuma's hiring them to track down Akane.
Cariyaga
Handsome Gentleperson
- Location
- United States
Actually, it was specifically Akane's blood that was gotten there. It's at the top of my list of suspects outside of Leaf, followed by the Color Cabal.
- Location
- Europa, Jupiter Orbit
It hurts to think that people Ino loves since she was an academy graduate might be the only possible culprits left remaining. I thought maybe she'd come to that conclusion herself, but she actually has near zero reason to suspect them because she doesn't know about EM.
Typo:
Wait, what? There's Patreon exclusive chapters? Or would this one have been the first?
Typo:
without knowing whether
Hazō told Shikamaru to kill Akane by the way
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- Location
- Europe
At minimum, Naruto, Tsunade, Kurenai and Enma.
And proving that Shikamaru killed Akane isn't going to give us any Forbidden Lore, he will likely just commit suicide and take the full blame.
And that's bad how? If he's going to meddle with our actions to the point where he is killing our family just because its a longterm risk to the world according to his cold-headed analysis, then its a net positive for us if he's gone.
Its probably the best outcome that can happen out of finding out Shika's the killer. Like, if it turns out it was him then what would you want done about that, realistically? Can't exactly get anything better than his head as far as justice served is concerned, and its a reassurance that we're not going to get murdered in our sleep by someone who should have been an ally. What are the alternative "punishments", really? How do you even punish a killer that will continue to kill your friends for their self-proclaimed Greater Good, other than by making it certain they never will be able to do so again? Well its that and find out who he colluded with to make it happen. Regardless, this is still speculative, and while I believe there is a major chance that the death of Akane was Shika's doing based on his actions around the incident, we do not really have sufficient evidence yet.
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- Location
- Europa, Jupiter Orbit
This is a distraction. Akane's (and Jiraiya's) resurrection is more important than a war against the conspiracy that protects against existential threats. The only way doing things in this order is if we somehow incorporate the ensuing chaos as a vital part of operation A-day. Which is even harder to thread the needle through since Ami is a 5 Clans jōnin and probably knows more about these secrets than Kei.
Except said conspiracy most certainly will meddle with the resurrection. You think Shika won't try to get us killed if he figures out we're opening gates to the Afterlife and can potentially bring back literally anyone from the dead, plus who knows what horrors dwell there? Sounds like a bigger existential threat to me than Akane, a loyal Jounin-tier combatant having a jutsu that can wipe out a village but is kept under extremely heavy OPSEC and is also known to Asuma too, at the very least, so the knowledge is not lost with her gone, and Hazou + anyone in the know could easily recreate it too. Not to mention countermeasures against EM are just a year or two, if not mere months away, depending on when we start working on them.
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I'm not sure. Would Ami help us with necromancy if the conspiracy was THAT opposed to the idea? She and Kei weren't afraid to warn us they'd give us the Lord of the Ring treatment because of our love for the Out. So I don't think she'd leave us be if Necromancy was a big no-no according to the thinkers.
Remember that Ami is largely a Mori reject just like Kei, and she isn't exactly into the whole Thinkers alliance to such a degree that she would sacrifice her own goals and aspirations for it - and resurrections are world-changing. Ami's ultimate goal is something akin to world domination, not the preservation of humanity via rational minimization of risk like Shikamaru. Plus Shika seems to be obsessed with reactionary damage control with questionable moral implications... without actually accounting for the fact that some of the risk factors he identifies have massively positive potential consequences if they do not go haywire.
As far as the accuracy of his models is concerned, please consult the Nara Rock War Reports on Leaf's remaining manpower including the vital jounin count. Frankly, he does math on very, very, very incomplete data, which is a bad idea in general, and the way I see it he's doing more harm than good. He'd be doing more good than harm if he was omniscient, but he is not.
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- Location
- Europa, Jupiter Orbit
This, but also I trust our OPSEC to not be that bad that Shikamaru will know the depths of our plans without us deliberately telling him. And us telling him anything will go through Kei if it happens at all. And Ami will know we told him through Kei and Kei will make sure Shikamaru knows Ami knows.
I guess Shikamaru might convince Ami to abandon her path and kill Hazō, but any other violent option would become a murder-suicide for him and much of his Clan.
Provided we don't do something really dumb and try to rope Shikamaru into something that appears to him like treason if he thinks about it. Because then Asuma just has us all killed.
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