Emerging from the fugue of visiting California, I bring you!:
Skywalkers (or, for that matter, rocket boots) placed on the palms mean you don't have to choose between skywalkers and rocket boots.
It also means you can develop a sick kickboxing taijutsu style where you hang from places overhead unexpectedly, and can create invisible barriers at will, and fuck people up with a rocket-powered kick at any time.
Hidan literally saw the rift open and thanked Jashin for the chance to get to kill people multiple times... he thinks Jashin gave us the rift (which might actually be true...)
That's a hilarious phrase and I'm glad you were here to make it -- but I'm more thinking spiderman-esque, using them held above you and using the very way that they work -- that you chakra adhere to activate them -- to hang onto them.
I suggest people go read this essay: Aztec Bronze: Metallurgy in Mesoamerica, then reflect on the fact that while Earthshaping can't do metal, it can do obsidian. A retired shinobi who just forms obsidian then fractures it into blades can produce incredibly sharp blades incredibly cheaply while never infringing on any trade governed by the Merchant Council.
I suggest people go read this essay: Aztec Bronze: Metallurgy in Mesoamerica, then reflect on the fact that while Earthshaping can't do metal, it can do obsidian. A retired shinobi who just forms obsidian then fractures it into blades can produce incredibly sharp blades incredibly cheaply while never infringing on any trade governed by the Merchant Council.
Not that we can't do this, it just isn't a good idea to spread knowledge that ES is useful.
It's not a Clan Secret and it's making us an absolute fuckton bazillion dumptruck of ryo right now.
Couple other INFOSEC unrelated points, retired ninja are extremely rare and lots of them can't make handsigns or aren't Earth Element (IIRC only about 10% of Leaf nin are Earth natured). There are probably only two or three ninja that meet these conditions in all of Leaf.
In addition, this absolutely infringes on MC business. Any time you use ninja powers to make a good that could infringe on an extant civvie business the MC has jurisdiction over it.
I imagine smiths and cutlers are going to be pissed if they start losing knife business to ES'd obsidian.
Again, Mari has not been forthcoming with all the TLtiF with anyone afaik. Probably due to Mari having ptsd of using it as a spec social join in the past.
So the question is kinda moot unless Mari agrees to this.
Again, Mari has not been forthcoming with all the TLtiF with anyone afaik. Probably due to Mari having ptsd of using it as a spec social join in the past.
So the question is kinda moot unless Mari agrees to this.
I do not recall her actually telling us that in person. I remember a chapter where she imply hazou some details of it, then mindwipes hazous afterwards. I don't recall any tearing off a piece of her soul tho, I remember it more of a "lose part of her personality everytime, not tearing her soul off". I be happy if you could provide the chapter for that.
Regardless, my point stands, afaik Mari has not shared details of the technique or how it works to us. It's pointless trying to develop a safe version of the technique (if it's even possible), if we don't know much about it outside of implied information.
Enma slipped back into the Hokage's office before setting his mask on the table.
"Message delivered. Man, you should have seen his face; it's like he can't take a joke."
Enma's usually jovial face turned grim.
"On second thought I probably shouldn't have done that. The kid needs to go into this deadly serious. A chakra plague that infects ninja? I'm not even sure if summons would be safe from it. If it got back to the seventh path it would be bad."
Asuma warmed a pot of tea with a small fire jutsu, then proceeded to pour he and his friend a drink. "Relax Enma, at least a bit. The Gouketsu may be lacking in several key ways but they live up to Jiraiya's legacy of doing the impossible. They'll be gone for two months and come back with a new summoning scroll for a clan neither of us have ever heard of, that Ami was immediately able to somehow sign. It'll be great for Leaf, though a headache for myself." The Sarutobi took a sip of his tea before continuing, "Besides, we have to act as if they can solve the problem since any other action sets Leaf to break AMITY. We have a threadbare excuse to send this large of a force to 'visit family'."
Enma took the offered tea and sat back on his tail before pulling out a note the clan head of Gouketsu scribed before heading back to bed.
"I request to bring Ami along as a guide to help navigate Mist's political climate. If you prefer to keep her here, I strongly request that you keep her off of Gōketsu property, as our people would be too easily swayed by her."
Rolls:
Hazou: Presence. 20 + 3 Invoke creative idealist. + 3 Invoke Open Mouth Insert Foot. +3 Invoke The Hokage Was My New Dad. +3 Invoke temporary tag At Least He Tried. +6 Dice. Total, 38.
Enma: Presence ??? +0
Asuma: Resolve ??? -6
A decent showing for a young Clan Head! Asuma defends the roll, but Hazou is asking for something Asuma would be delighted to give him. He'll voluntarily be taken out.
The two heads of state shared a glance before chuckles broke their stoic demeanor.
"How do you stay mad at that?" Enma wondered. "He's like a kitten politically. I know he'd kill and die for his beliefs, but man is it hard to remember sometimes."
Asuma sighed, a small smile tugging at his mouth. "Did I ever tell you that the first time we met he accused me of enslaving his clan to write books for Leaf?"
Enma snorted. "That seems strangely in character. What happened?"
"Shikamaru had the bright idea of wowing the now-Gouketsu with Leaf's public library. Not even the jutsu library, just the stories our culture thinks important to write down."
"And?"
A chuckle wrestled its way free of Asuma, "And he lost his shit! He saw the neat, orderly, similar rows of characters in our books and freaked out. Apparently some side effect of his bloodline makes his clans handwriting all look really similar, and thought that clearly meant Leaf had a full contingent of Kurosawa frantically copying Jiraiya's smut! Ah, I feel bad for it now, but the kid caused such a big scene that Jiraiya felt the need to remind his deniable asset he was deniable. Sage damnit Jiraiya, I can't killbox him anymore because of you, it's meaningless now!"
The monkey king thought for a moment, "I'm not sure that tracks, if both of you killboxed him on-"
"Say another word and I'll stop supporting the drum circles you keep trying to set up here."
"On another note, should we send some ANBU with them? Even a single team would help, right?
"No. It'd be one thing if it were just the manpower, but with Akatsuki sniffing around we really can't do anything that smells hostile. The most we can get away with is sending Gouketsu." Asuma glanced at the note, breaking into a full smile, "And Ami, I guess."
Enma downed his tea in one gulp before nodding at Asuma and heading for the door. "I'll go deliver her summons then head back to the 7th path. There's an early morning drum circle and I need to get some sleep before it. The elders are bringing their A game, so I need to as well. See you later kid, don't die on me."
A moment later the monkey king slipped back into the night, leaving the Hokage nursing his tea, dreading the mountains of paperwork waiting for him before bed.
Ūhū shifted uneasily. Something in the currents was wrong. The energy that passed through him tasted zrgnyyvp, with a desperate twist. It was the desire to return home - no, that was wrong. He supped again, and recoiled. This was *qvfthfg*. Disgust at their surrounds, and a desire for punatr.
And the will to enfbepr vg.
He decisively sealed himself off, flashing *DISEASE DISEASE* as he did.
Ūhū was the guardian of his reef, and his light could usually be felt reflected across the entirety of his reef. This often resulted in moments of confusion and alarm if he hadn't spoken for a while.
Ūhū barely felt his second.
He took a hold of his Flow and tried again.
DISEASE. SEAL. DISEASE.
CLEANSE. DISEASE. CLEANSE.
Ūhū felt a smattering of weak confirms, though far fewer than he had expected. Worry shook his concentration.
He shifted through his reef to his fourth, his nearest fellow to not respond.
He let the grip of his Flow slack, pouring some of it into his fourth's open technique and took stock.
"pAIN"
"hERE"
With a vicious strike, Ūhū excised the stone that was blocking his fellow's consciousness. He could taste the foul, pbeehcgrq pheeragf Sybj plucking at his fellow still. He pulled away, his Flow spinning in a fruitless desire to be productive.
He shone, *FOURTH. PEARL. GONE. DISEASE. SEAL.*. WIth a confused shimmer, fourth obeyed. His seal failed to close, a trickle of energy dripping in regardless of his efforts.
Ūhū shone with worry, *STAY. SEAL, TIGHT; POSSIBLE. SLEEP.*
He repeated the process as quickly as he could. Shift, Pour, Strike, Seal, Sleep. Shift, Pour, Strike, Seal, Sleep. Shift, Pour, Strike, Seal, Sleep. Faster! Ūhū was finding two, three stones a piece. His further fellows may suffocate before he finishes at this rate. Ūhū pulled his Flow to the edges of his shell, cutting through the current with rotating sawblades of light.
Ūhū's perspective shifted from that of one watching the moment twist by to that of one watching a completed task slowly unraveling itself, his shell merely an agent of the process. By the time he finished, even his fellows that had initially heeded him had opened themselves, and needed to be broken from their afflictions.
With all of his fellows asleep, he took a deep breath of his Flow and focused, filtering out errant sensations until his perception was pinned to the steady shifting of his reef. To his concern, he still felt a slow, reluctant current of energy pulling more and more of vgfrys- Ūhū shifted his awareness. The currents tasted of death; which by itself is little worry. He and his fellows could survive for months without more energy. They'd weaken, and some of his fellows would grow sick, but even that was still within the bounds of his reef. Normally, however, it was a simple matter to cleanse the taint and seal the current away.
Ūhū felt his reef sway, and his resolve firmed. This was beyond even him; so he'd do what he taught his fellows to do. He'd ask for help.
In the early morning, a searing beam of light erupts from Linnsmouth Bay. It cuts across the sky, leaving burning shapes floating heaving in the clouds. There is no one to witness them, for now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kei, Noburi, Snowflake, Mari, Yuno, Kagome, Ami, and Hazou hit the road. For the next day or so, if you think of someone you could get into Mist, Asuma can send them after you. You are constrained in party choices by those with a plausible reason to visit Mist; one the person would be willing to repeat to a grumpy essie. Technically this is a humanitarian mission, but Leaf only knows about it because they broke some rules.
You guys left Haru in charge. This is hilarious and will have no downsides.
Tsunade is somewhere in Fire.
Hidan and Kakuzu are off hunting Akane's killers
??? is ???
Orochimaru was last seen reverse summoning in front of his compound two days ago.
What do you do?
[X] Push yourselves. Hazou gets 1 research action, trip takes three days total
[X] Sedate pace. Hazou gets 3 research actions, trip takes 5 days total
[X] Treasonously relaxed. Hazou gets 8 research actions, trip takes 7 days total.
[X] Go bowling with Sasuke instead. Hazou gets 20 research actions, trip is delayed, narrative consquences.
[X] Write-in
RESEARCH SHOP: trade research actions for seals. CURRENT BALANCE: 4 research actions
1 research action:
refresh Gouketsu seal loadouts
2 research actions:
retroactively design and invent a genin or lower seal.
3 research actions:
Edit any one aspect of a known genin or lower seal, prepare copies of new version
4 research actions:
retroactively design and invent a chunin or lower seal.
5 research actions:
Edit any one aspect of a known chunin or lower seal, prepare copies of new version
6 research actions:
Retroactively design and invent a jonin or lower seal. Requires an "aha!" moment explaining how Hazou got the idea for the seal.
8 research actions:
Edit any one aspect of a known jonin or lower seal
Make progress on a Jiraiya+ seal. Requires narrativium.
Hazō Prime and Hazō WhatTheFuckWorld and Hazō SureWhyNotTryThisToo sat seiza, facing and ignoring one another. Every so often one of them would twitch slightly. Not for any useful purpose, not with any requirement. Purely so that the other two could practice maintaining focus in the face of distraction.
Beside each of them was a pile of bricks. Each brick was as identical as Hazō Prime's skill with Earthshaping could make it: a thumb joint thick, a thumb wide, and a handspan long. It was the right size for the very simplest of the seals in Jiraiya's pedagogical series. The seal was only a single stroke, almost straight and with almost no feathering, but it was still a seal.
The goal today was to determine that it was possible to create a three-dimensional version of that seal using materials that could be manipulated with the Earthshaping jutsu.
Hazō WhatTheFuckWorld had already tried pressing chakra into granite using basic chakra repulsion to see if it would stick. It did not. It poofed away like a fart bubbling out of the bath.
Hazō WhatTheFuckWorld had then tried pressing chakra into granite using the Earthshaping jutsu. Ordinarily, the jutsu required that you spend some time completely suffusing the working material with your chakra, but it was agnostic as to what route you used to accomplish that. Hazō WhatTheFuckWorld had tried pressing his chakra through in the exact form of Jiraiya's seal and then ending the jutsu prematurely in the hope that the chakra would remain fixed in the granite. Doing so hurt like hell as the chakra snapped back and exploded the fragile chakra construct that was a clone's version of chakra coils. Hazō Prime grunted as the brief memory of pain hit and then drifted away. He picked up the block that WhatTheFuckWorld had been working with and cast Earthshaping, tracing his chakra into it in hopes that he would find traces of HWTFW's. He did not.
Hazō SureWhyNotTryThisToo held a block of corundum and a chunk of white marble pressed tightly together. The first experiment involved pulling the marble into the corundum, spreading it around in the shape of the seal, then fusing it all together. That done, he executed some of the most basic sealing exercises, the ones he had used so very long ago while Kagome-sensei was first initiating him into the art of cracking the world open like an egg and frying its tasty tasty innards on the griddle of your will.
Reality refused to crack open. At all. Like, not even a smidge. There were no channels for the chakra to explore, no sense of localization to identify, nothing. In fact, the chakra stubbornly refused to move through the 'channels' he'd laid down in much the same way that a toddler stubbornly refused bedtime.
"Gah! You suck, you stupid hunk of rock!"
Hazō Prime ignored him.
With a sigh, Hazō SureWhyNotTryThisToo tossed the brick aside and picked up the next one and the next chunk of marble. He pressed them together and recast the Earthshaping jutsu. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, his chakra spread into the material, saturating every particle of both. This time he pulled a single particle out of the marble and moved it into position at the start of what would have been the brush stroke had he been working in his normal oeuvre. He pulled a second particle and fused it to the front of the first, then fused in a third and a fourth. The process became familiar and he started going faster, a steady line of marble ants marching through the corundum only to throw their bodies onto the steadily growing brush-stroke-imitating line. He reached the bit at the end where the brush would be lifted, resulting in slight feathering at the end of the stroke. Without pause he split the line of marble, sending it down the path of every tiny line produced by each individual hair of the brush that he normally used. They were stored in the Iron Nerve, as was every part of every seal his bloodline had ever gazed upon. He literally knew them better than the backs of his own hands, and he reproduced them as faithfully as his Earthshaping skill allowed. Which was pretty Sagebefucked good given how much effort he had put into the damn thing.
Finally, it was done. Hazō SureWhyNotTryThisToo gazed in satisfaction through the clear coating of his corundum brick, embedded in which was a tracery of marble in the form of his adopted father's most basic seal. He studied it carefully for long minutes, verifying it as though it were a blank he had drawn on paper. So far as he could tell, it was perfect.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, slipping into the familiar meditative trance that apprentices were taught and masters usually didn't need. For long minutes he breathed, eyes closed, feeling out every bit of chakra in his body. He stroked metaphysical fingers through his chakra coils, calming the flow and linearizing it, cleansing any faint disruption that might cause the slightest wobble in his infusion efforts. There was no way of knowing what would happen if he failed while infusing his first-ever three-dimensional seal, but the odds were against it involving rainbows, puppies, or fresh bottled honey.
He was ready.
Eyes still closed he placed his forefinger against the pinprick of marble that was the very end of the 'brushstroke'. His chakra was still laced through the corundum and the marble, but that was fine. He went through the entire brick, regulating every morsel of the chakra into perfect harmony and equalizing the density everywhere. By the time he was done there was no difference between the chakra in the rock and the chakra that hung everywhere in the environment. Well, actually, there was a hell of a lot more chakra in the brick than in the air and it was actually more equalized than what would have been found in the environment, but surely that was to the good.
Right? It was to the good. Definitely.
He breathed out and pressed his chakra into the marble in the pattern that began every infusion.
Nope, said the universe.
With a faint gritting of his teeth, he cast the brick aside and tried again. This time he started by purifying the marble down into the essence of itself. The result was a silver-white bar with just a hint of iridescence. It looked unlike anything he had ever seen and he only hoped that he hadn't produced some arcane material that would at some point eat his soul. He wasn't done yet; with the stone purified he compressed it down as dense as he could make it, then smoothed it internally, clearing away every tiny fracture or weakness, aligning every particle together. Once he was sure the marble was ready he repeated his earlier practice, threading the marble into the corundum in a single unbroken line, clarified and regularized the chakra, and so on. He meditated, calming and centering himself. And then he laid his finger against the exposed bit of marble at one end of the brick and pushed his chakra in, searching for the localization potential that would have been there had this been a regular seal blank.
He found it.
His eyes flew open and he nearly jumped to his feet in excitement, but he caught himself. The fact that there was potential there didn't mean this was actually a viable seal blank. It was a necessary element but not a sufficient one.
He pressed his chakra forward, tracing it through the marble threads that formed what he desperately hoped was a workable seal blank.
It flowed.
Well, 'flowed' was a strong word. 'Stumbled like a drunken sailor leaving the whorehouse' might be a better analogy. The channels were rough, everything misaligned and chaotic. It wasn't the material that was the problem—no, the material was perfect, which was the only reason the sailor could move at all. There was something else, some absent metaphysical seasoning, that he had never noticed with paper and ink seals. The feeling was like running your hand sensuously through your beloved's hair only to find she was made of spikes and nettles.
He pulled his chakra back without actually trying an infusion, shut the jutsu down, set his brick next to Hazō Prime, and dispelled himself.
The experiences and discoveries of Hazō SureWhyNotTryThisToo slammed into Hazō Prime with the familiar thunk of clone sickness. He brushed the feeling aside like the tiny fly it was and examined the experiences carefully. With a corner of his mind he sustained the Earthshaping jutsu he had been holding all this time.
He went through the memories four times, wringing forth every tiny detail, every jot and tittle of useful data. And then he turned back to the block of crystal he had been studying for the last hour.
The crystal was one of the fragments that the team had brought back from the cave in the Land of Honey. It took to the Earthshaping jutsu easily, running eagerly to his mental hand and shifting the moment he made his desire known. The process was still slow, yes, but it was far easier than with any other material he had tried before. Hazō had been trying various experiments with it—gross manipulations such as bending and straightening, more subtle ones such as smoothing it internally and changing its density. He had tried to purify it and found nothing to do; the material was already a single thing with not the slightest hint of other material aside from a few specks of dust on the outside.
Not allowing himself to hope, he held the crystal in his left hand and picked up one of the blocks of marble in his right. He prepared it the same way that SureWhyNotTryThisToo had done and he drew the marble into the crystal, building it piece by continuous piece into the single stroke that was Jiraiya's seal. He verified the blank, prepared himself, and reached out to it with the gentlest touch he could manage, seeking the localization of the blank.
It was there.
The blank thrummed with potential. It colored itself in his mind, a warm blue with a faint scent of apples behind it and a note that sounded suspiciously similar to Jiraiya's chuckle. The blank existed in a plane that was divorced from physicality yet somehow 'above' it, a textbook case of mildly celestine localization. The 'seasoning' that SureWhyNotTryThisToo had discovered was present and Hazō could identify it now that he had the correct version to compare to the memory. It was a simple yet incredibly delicate chakra manipulation, a supportive matrix that twisted around and through the marble 'ink' that formed the seal blank. He picked up SureWhyNotTryThisToo's abandoned brick and felt his way into it. He could see the missing chakra twist now that he knew to look for it. He reached in and tried to build it up, checking it against the correct version that lived in the crystal.
It was like trying to thread a needle while wearing leather mittens. After several frustrating minutes he gave up and set SureWhyNotTryThisToo's blank down, turning back to the Honey crystal blank he had built for himself. His chakra had drifted around very slightly, resulting in a few spots of altered chakra density. He balanced them out again and threaded his chakra into the marble of what was in fact a seal blank.
For a moment, Hazō balanced on the precipice. Should he do it? Should he attempt an actual infusion? Everything was ready—his chakra was in place and all he needed to do was give it a tiny little twist, just like he had done thousands upon thousands of times. The Out burned in his mind, reassuring him that this was right, that the pattern and the blank were correct. He could twist his chakra and be the first person in a thousand years to create a seal in three dimensions.
No.
He broke the blank in half with his mind, then slowly drew his chakra out and shut the jutsu down. He wasn't going to leave an uninfused blank lying around. He was going to take this slowly. He would write down every detail of the experience. The precise nature of the weather, every astrological influence and how they had changed across the course of the experiment, the time of day, everything. He would figure out the math that defined it all, he would discuss it all with Kagome-sensei and have his teacher check the math. He would make certain that everything was correct before he actually took that final step.
He stood up, his face splitting in a wide grin as he went to tell Kagome-sensei the news.
New stunt available!
Stunt: Earth Infusion
Cost: 125 XP
Prerequisites:
The Sealsmith stunt
Sealing: 40
Earthshaping XX or another source of infusable material. The crystal from the cave in Honey is infusable. (We're obscuring the exact level of Earthshaping required as it is information Hazō does not have access to; nonetheless, he is confident he can imbue stone with the requisite quality for making 3D seals given greater skill in Earthshaping.)
Someone to teach you OR sufficient 3D seal reference material (see below)
Effect: Grants the double-cost skill 'Primordial Sealing' at level 0. This skill allows the creation of three-dimensional seals. Hazō is confident that there is sufficient overlap with regular sealing that some of his existing knowledge will be useful with three-dimensional seals. (In mechanical terms, part of the Sealing skill will be applied as a bonus to Primordial Sealing.)
Note: Hazō has a great deal of seal knowledge and a copy of the Great Seal stored in his bloodline. The QMs are debating if this counts as "sufficient reference materials" to buy the stunt. We'll get back to you in the next day or two. [EDIT: Yes, it is sufficient. Hazō is cleared to buy the stunt.]
XP Award: 1
I originally said that this would be an interlude, which normally wouldn't get XP, but I ended up writing it as a chapter and I based it on draft plans the players wrote up so I'm going to split the difference and give it 1 XP as a base award.
Hazou already knew it took to Earthshaping easily in this chapter, what he hadn't tried was infusing it like an actual blank (which he still didn't do here either, he just verified that it would probably behave as such)
