- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
She mentioned the money literally within the same conversation.
What you're suggesting is about as plausible as 'Tsunade had a stroke and it made her very nice for an hour'.
Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
- Start date
-
- Tags
- 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
What you're suggesting is about as plausible as 'Tsunade had a stroke and it made her very nice for an hour'.
yes and i think despite that it's likely she just didn't think to charge for the extra time, just like I didn't think of it. Especially with the distraction of how important shika thought this was.
edit: unrelatedly, i think tsunade is very nice. she's just tough.
edit2: although i suspect you are using a different meaning of nice. i'll rephrase to she cares about people.
edit: unrelatedly, i think tsunade is very nice. she's just tough.
edit2: although i suspect you are using a different meaning of nice. i'll rephrase to she cares about people.
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- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
More like 'utterly refuses to tolerate without being paid a mountain of cash'.
The only times we've seen her not doing hospital work have been paid gigs, the Hokage's orders, and family stuff. @faflec?
- Location
- Yes.
Mostly this and helping civilian villages, yes. She does have a drinking reputation, but I don't know how much of that is from before she fucked off.
And taking care of Hazopilot.
- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
She got drunk with Mari but they discussed Jiraiya so I'm counting that as a family thing.
We paid her for that. A lot. (And then we were in the hospital.)
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- Location
- Yes.
If she has "a usual" she's a regular. Or was, I dunno.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Oro and Sasori have already collabed (Oro was in Akatsuki for a while remember), plus we already know paper sealing is a dead end for S Rank power, given that we were told as much when Hazou reached S rank skill in Sealing. I don't think there's much there for Oro to get massively stronger from.
The only thing I would find potentially problematic is that Oro could find Sasori's notes on the rift and take over the project when we may not want to include him. We could potentially get around this by getting Tsunade on our side. Would be preferable to just avoid it though
Iris-Iven-Ibis
Interested-Idiot-Immortal
- Location
- You know
Chapter 612: Sage Advice
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"Thanks for coming in, Jin," Hazō said, dropping into his seat with a sigh. Jin didn't immediately move, so Hazō waved impatiently at the chair opposite him until Jin sat, ramrod straight.
"Thank you for making time for me, sir," Jin said. "I'm sure you're busy."
"I really am," Hazō said. He didn't add 'and so are the other half dozen instances of me.' "Which has led me to the twin strategies of prioritization and delegation. I'm prioritizing the things that matter, and this matters. You matter." He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a scroll, leaning across the desk so he could place it carefully in front of Jin.
"This is that scroll you gave me," Hazō said. "I'm not signing it. I'm not signing it because I'm withdrawing my request for the technique. I may or may not negotiate with the KEI for it at some point in the future, but I will not have you breaking an oath. The Gōketsu are better than that, and I'm sorry I put you in that position."
Jin blinked. "Yes sir. Thank you, My Lord."
"Next question: how do we prevent this from happening again?"
"Sir?"
"How do I motivate people to come to me before it's an issue? How do I get you and everyone else to knock on my f"—he caught himself—"freely available door when you're bothered about something? I'm not some ancient dictator sitting in a tower far away, over the horizon, beyond the Mountains of Doom, guarded by the Dragons of Death. I'm Hazō. I eat in the cafeteria with everyone else. My office is right here, every day. Gaku, or someone, knows where I am every second of every minute of every day. Knock on my cursed door when you have a problem, Jin. Tell other people to knock on my cursed door when they have a problem. That's what a Clan Head is for."
Jin smiled. "Sir, with the greatest respect: you aren't 'just Hazō'. You have the power of life and death over all of us. And, with even more respect, you don't eat in the cafeteria that often. Usually, someone fetches your food and brings it to wherever you are. Which is exactly as it should be, sir, because you do important work that protects all of us."
Hazō grunted. He rubbed both hands over his face and forced himself not to say out loud that he didn't have time for this one-ryō bullshit.
Hazō tipped his chair back, fingers interlaced and hands in his lap as he studied his guest. "Jin," he said after a minute, "do I need to have a regular audience where I force every single member of this clan to file through my office and pinky-promise that they don't have any issues and they aren't grumpy about anything? Maybe I should make them promise that they aren't having a tummy ache and they're eating all those vegetables that the medics say we should eat and they aren't having too many sweets?"
Jin laughed. "'Need' might be a strong word, sir. Still, couldn't hurt."
Hazō found that he was gritting his teeth and forced his jaw to relax. He thought for a moment, then tipped his chair forward and slapped the table with both hands, pushing himself to his feet. Jin jumped up, visibly uncertain.
"This is no longer my problem," Hazō said. "This is now your problem. Jin, you're a smart man and highly motivated. From now on, you're the liaison to the clan. Find problems before they get big. Fix them if they're easy to fix, bring them to me if they're not. If you can't find me, bring them to Gaku. In the wildly unlikely event that you can't find the most organized and predictable man in the entire world before the issue blows up, talk to Mari, or Noburi, or leave a letter with the Home Guard. If you somehow cannot find any of those people and you forget how to write...figure something out."
"Sir...I'm not..."
Hazō took Jin by the arm and led him towards the door. "You are now. Figure it out. Thanks for coming in."
o-o-o-o
The paisley cloud dispersed, leaving Ma and—leaving Shima and Fukasaku looking around with interest. They had appeared atop the long table, leaving them only slightly below Hazō's eye level while he was standing up. He quickly sat down on one of the wooden benches, putting himself slightly below them. He wasn't sure if it would matter, but it wouldn't do to offend these two when he was trying to sweet talk them out of important information and assistance.
"Sir, ma'am," Hazō said, bowing deeply. "Thank you for coming. Would you like some tea? Or sake? I have snacks also."
"Hah!" Fukasaku said. He jabbed his cane towards Noburi. "See, boy? This is how you greet a Sage!"
Noburi failed at not rolling his eyes. "I've offered you tea and sake and snacks basically every time I've summoned you! Mr Mew beat me to it, that's all." He laid a storage seal on the table and tapped it open, revealing a large bento box filled with small dishes of various finger foods. "He may have been faster, but I brought stuff that you actually like." He picked up two of the small bowls and held one out to each of the Toad Sages. "Honeyed nuts for you, ma'am, and candied cockroaches for you, sir."
"Ooooh!" Shima said, grabbing the bowl from his fingers and tossing three of the nuts into her wide mouth. She chewed thoughtfully, then nudged her husband. "Isn't he a good boy? So thoughtful!"
"He'll do," Fukasaku muttered around a mouthful of candied cockroach. The sight of the things, oil-crisped legs splayed in death, made Hazō sick to his stomach.
"So," Shima said, tossing another nut in her mouth. "Noburi told us you wanted to chat?" She gestured around at the granite hut they sat within, and the rings of sigil-covered barriers and arcane equipment that could be seen outside. "This doesn't look like any part of Leaf that I'm familiar with."
"No, ma'am," Hazō said. "We're at one of the Gōketsu seal research facilities, a mile outside of Leaf. This meeting is private."
"Hah!" Fukasaku said, poking Shima with his cane. "I told you!"
"Oh, hush up! He hasn't said what he wants yet."
"It's going to be the standard pitch and you know it. Don't try to welch on our bet, you old bat!" The cane swiveled, aiming straight between Hazō's eyes. "We're not giving you any of the Toad Clan techniques! No freebies, even if you are our summoner's kid brother."
"Actually, I'm older than him," Hazō said. "And I didn't invite you here to ask for techniques. I wanted to ask for a consultation on a couple of things. You are widely known as two of Jiraiya's wisest advisors, and I was hoping you would be willing to give me some advice."
Fukasaku preened, running green fingers through his beard. Shima laughed.
"Hah! Well done, boy!" she said, jabbing a finger at him. "You really know how to spread the butter. Just look at this old goat getting all puffed up!"
"I was not getting puffed up, you old bat!" Fukasaku said, slapping her hand away. "I was simply appreciating the boy's perceptiveness!"
"You were preening and you know it!"
"Look, you—!"
The two cut off when Noburi coughed lightly into his fist. They glared at him, then turned to glare at Hazō.
"Fine, fine," Fukasaku said grumpily. "What was it you wanted help with, boy?"
"Necromancy," Hazō said, as though it were the most normal thing in the world. He went on to explain all of it—the fight with Daizen, the creation of the rift, Daizen's rescue from the afterlife, the trip to O'Uzu with Sasuke and Hyūga, the seance that they had conducted to locate Jiraiya in the afterlife, and the sight of him using the Toad Thrust.
When he eventually ran out of words he stopped and waited, trying to suppress his nervousness.
The Toad Sages stared at him intently for a solid minute. Sparks tremored across both of them and Hazō felt the air press in upon him as though he had been captured in a giant webbed hand. The pressure was light, restrained, and unlike the various human auras he had experienced. It was also, he feared, vastly more powerful and utterly alien.
At last, the Sages spoke.
"Jiraiya was our friend for forty years," Shima said quietly. "If you try to take advantage of our feelings for him, I will rip your limbs off and bake you in a pie crust."
"You had best hope she gets to you first," Fukasaku said. "There are worse ways to die."
Hazō raised his hands in placation. "I'm not lying and I'm not joking. Everything I've said is true to the best of my knowledge and I have every intention of bringing Jiraiya back if it's within my power. It might not be. Perhaps resurrection is impossible in the general case, with Orochimaru and Pain being outliers. Still, I think there's a very good chance. If we can get that damn rift open then it's a simple search and rescue mission."
"'Simple' is a stretch," Noburi said, his voice serious. "The chakra draining effect means that seals will be unreliable, especially skywalker seals. Still, it's doable."
The Sages considered that. They held a detailed conversation conducted entirely with facial expressions and finger twitches, the efficient communication enabled by hundreds of years of marriage.
"What do you want to know?" Fukasaku asked at last.
"First off, I'm aware of dangers resulting from this," Hazō said. "Akatsuki is the obvious one. People resurrecting monsters such as Yagura is another. A world war, fought over control of the afterlife, is quite possible. There are others, all of them rooted in the human world—politics, economics, religion, that sort of thing. What I would like to know is if there are any metaphysical issues that I should be watching out for—is it possible that I could..." He shrugged. "I dunno. Damage the Paths somehow? Interfere with the Summoning Scrolls? Violate the Sage's rules for the Seventh Path, or taboos of the Toads or any other clan? Something. Anything esoteric that you can think of?"
Fukasaku scratched his head for a moment, then exchanged looks, and shrugs, with his wife.
"Nothing comes to mind," the tiny toad said. "Ma and I will think about it and do some reading. There might be something. Give us a bit."
Hazō nodded. "Thank you, sir, ma'am. I appreciate it."
"You said there were two things," Shima reminded him. "What was the other?"
"Right," Hazō said, reaching into his belt pouch. "I wanted to get your take on a seal-related matter. You were Jiraiya's teachers for decades and I thought this might mean something to you." He laid one of the cave crystals on the table between them. "Please be careful. It's fragile and I only have three of them left."
Fukasaku nudged at the crystal with his cane, making it spin slightly. The afternoon sun, trickling in through the open doorway of the hut, touched the crystal and shattered into rainbows that twirled and danced.
"I showed these to Cannai, Alpha of the Dog Clan," Hazō said. "He said that they had a special property unlike normal crystals, but he wasn't able to describe it because I lacked the sense necessary to understand."
"Aw," Shima said, patting Hazō on the head. "Good for you. Too many children don't realize they have no sense. Don't worry, it'll come as you get older."
"Not that kind of sense!" Hazō snapped. He caught himself and nodded an apology. "Excuse me, ma'am. I meant a sensory ability, like sight or hearing."
"Hrmph." Shima sniffed in disgruntlement. "Pretty lacking in sense if you ask me. Rude little child, snapping at his elders. This new generation..." She trailed off, bending down to peer into the crystal. "Huh."
Fukasaku scooped it up with one webbed foot and tossed it into the air, catching it easily and bringing it to his eye. "Interesting."
"Give it here, you old goat!" Shima said, grabbing the crystal from her husband. "I was looking at that!"
"Oh, please!" Fukasaku retorted, yanking it back. "Like you know anything about minerology!"
"I know plenty! Who do you think—"
"Excuse me!" Hazō said, raising both hands nervously. "Could you please be gentle with that? I've only got three of them and they're very hard to get."
"Where'd you get it?" Shima demanded. "And what do you want it for?"
"We found it at the bottom of a cave system in the Land of Honey," Hazō said. "It was very deep and there was a lot of dangerous wildlife. When we got to the bottom we found a massive crystal, far larger than a human. It didn't object when we picked up some broken-off pieces, but it reacted badly when I tried to commune with it using the Earthshaping jutsu. It conjured up what I can only describe as two rock golems, which immediately tried to kill us. Akane and Yuno were able to retreat but Kei and I were cut off from the exit. We reverse-summoned and waited a time for things to calm down. When we returned we found that either the caves had been reorganized around us or the crystal somehow had the ability to redirect an incoming unsummoning, because we appeared somewhere other than where we departed from. Fortunately, we were able to make our way out without too much difficulty."
"And you want it because...?" Fukasaku demanded.
Hazō licked his lips nervously, then took a deep breath and plunged in. "I've discovered how to make three-dimensional seals," he said. "With enough practice and a lot of luck, this might be the key to fixing the Great Seal and getting rid of the Dragons."
"Ha!" Fukasaku said, poking Hazō in the shoulder with his cane. "A likely story! Little Jiry puttered around with three-dimensional seals for years, off and on, and never managed to get so much as a hint of progress."
"I'm not Jiraiya," Hazō said. "I am an extremely competent sealmaster, and when it comes to three-dimensional seals I have advantages that he didn't."
Shima snorted. "'Extremely competent sealmaster' at your age?" Shima demanded. "Hah! What are you, twelve?"
"Sixteen, ma'am. I recently obtained the rank of special jōnin at sealing, a process which required testing by one of the best sealmasters in Leaf. In fact—"
Hazō pulled a tome out of a storage seal and laid it gently on the table in front of Shima. He placed a second and a third on top.
"These are Jiraiya's books on sealing," Hazō said, staring the old toad down. "Not only do I understand everything that's in them, I've spotted three separate mistakes. I can go into detail if you want, but I don't know what your background is in sealing."
Shima's eyes narrowed. "You have quite a mouth on you, brat."
"I have an accurate understanding of my own abilities, ma'am. I also have, as I said, advantages that Jiraiya didn't have. First, Jiraiya was not only one of the best sealmasters to ever live, he was also one of the best teachers. He had to learn all this on his own, whereas his journals"—he pointed to the tomes—"let me run down the path that he already carved. Basically, I get to start from where he finished.
"Second, I have the luxury of time. He was Leaf's spymaster for decades. He didn't have time to be doing research on the regular and he was frequently on the road and therefore away from his tools and facilities. I, on the other hand, am able to stay in Leaf and focus. The issues with the Great Seal mean that I've been prioritizing seal research over nearly everything.
"Third, the Earthshaping technique appears to be a critical component of three-dimensional sealing. That technique became widely available in Leaf less than a year ago. I don't know if he had it, but I doubt very much that he spent as much time mastering it as I have. It requires a great deal of expertise in order to be able to do what's necessary to make seal blanks.
"Fourth, that crystal"—he pointed to the object that Fukasaku still clutched, forgotten, in one green hand—"is unlike any other material I've ever seen, and I very much doubt that Jiraiya ever had access to it. It accepts the Earthshaping technique more easily than anything else and it has an inherent internal chakra structure that makes it possible to create something that could potentially be a three-dimensional seal blank."
Hazō needs the Toad Sages to see him as someone worthy of a modicum of respect, since otherwise they are going to simply dismiss his outlandish claims about three-dimensional seals. Three-dimensional seals are the in-universe equivalent of leprechaun gold, so Ma and Pa aren't likely to buy in, especially since Hazō can't yet actually make said seals.
Empathy and Rapport are Hazō's best offensive social stats, but they aren't going to cut it here—he needs respect, not amused compliance or tolerance. On the other hand, this isn't an actual combat—the Sages are not actively opposing him, they simply need to be convinced. As such, this will be a simple TN check.
The check is of Good difficulty, meaning somewhere in the 30s. For the duration of this conversation, Hazō doesn't need more than the minimal willingness to take him seriously, so we'll say the TN is literally 30.
Hazō, Presence (20) + 3 (tag "Crystal Prop") + 3 (invoke "Lists and Plans") + 3 (invoke "Exploiting Your Feelings About Jiraiya") + 3 (dice): 32
Success! The Sages are willing to treat Hazō as minimally competent.
Empathy and Rapport are Hazō's best offensive social stats, but they aren't going to cut it here—he needs respect, not amused compliance or tolerance. On the other hand, this isn't an actual combat—the Sages are not actively opposing him, they simply need to be convinced. As such, this will be a simple TN check.
The check is of Good difficulty, meaning somewhere in the 30s. For the duration of this conversation, Hazō doesn't need more than the minimal willingness to take him seriously, so we'll say the TN is literally 30.
Hazō, Presence (20) + 3 (tag "Crystal Prop") + 3 (invoke "Lists and Plans") + 3 (invoke "Exploiting Your Feelings About Jiraiya") + 3 (dice): 32
Success! The Sages are willing to treat Hazō as minimally competent.
"Sir, ma'am, I really need more of this stuff," Hazō said, gesturing towards the crystal. "Have you ever seen anything like it? If not, is there any chance that you could, and would, create a technique to reproduce it?"
"Hrmm," Fukasaku said. "Three-dimensional seals, huh? You really think you can make these things?"
Hazō nodded. "I really do. If I absolutely had to, I could probably make that chunk of crystal into a seal right now. I'm not going to because there's a lot more research that I want to do first in order to minimize the chance of a seal failure. Which, I suspect, would be absolutely catastrophic."
Many people, if asked, would agree that the universe has a sense of humor. A nasty, cruel sense of humor, but a sense of humor.
There has been a seal failure! Hazō has several Shadow Clones researching several different seals. Hazō PreserverGuy is over at Gōketsu Research Facility #147 (1) working on the Fourfold Seal of Preservation, the seal that Asuma hired him to create. The seal is intended to create a protective barrier around an area. It has failed, and Hazō is going to have to cope with the outcome. Specifically:
All things considered, I'm going to take a middle ground: the Consequences are not in effect when Hazō gets hit but he does end up taking all three and therefore ends up with two Milds and a Medium. The Milds take 48 hours to clear, the Medium takes a week. This is the best case. If Hazō fails to resist the attack then he may take additional damage or even die.
Here's how I'm handling the clone shock attack:
Intensity, 1d4: 2
Strength of clone shock caused by this seal failure: 70
Okay, all the Hazōs are eating a strength 70 attack to start.
Hazō Prime, Resolve (62) + 7 (tag "Kagome-Approved Research Facility") + 7 (invoke "Promising Sealing Student" (2)) + 0 (dice): 76
Hazō Prime tanks the attack with aplomb, taking only the basic damage instead of having his brain turned into soup the way most sealmasters probably would have.
Hazō NotASub is working on the Substitution seal, which swaps the positions of two objects.
Epic-level clone shock caused by a seal failure: 70
Hazō NotASub, Resolve (62) + 7 (tag "Kagome-Approved Research Facility") + 7 (invoke "Promising Sealing Student") + 0 (dice): 76
Success! Hazō NotASub does not pop and therefore does not pass on the attack.
Hazō ItsDampInHere is working on the Dampener seal, which helps reduce hand tremors and thereby improves Calligraphy and surgery.
Epic-level clone shock caused by a seal failure: 70
Hazō Resolve (62) + 7 (tag "Kagome-Approved Research Facility") + 7 (invoke "Promising Sealing Student") + 3 (dice): 79
Success! Hazō ItsDampInHere does not pop and therefore does not pass on the attack.
Hazō ZappyZap is working on the Electrocution seal, which sends a surge of raiton energy (which works exactly like electricity except in cases where that would make the QMs lives difficult, at which point it works differently) into whatever it is attached to.
Epic-level clone shock caused by a seal failure: 70
Hazō ZappyZap, Resolve (62) + 7 (tag "Kagome-Approved Research Facility") + 7 (invoke "Promising Sealing Student") + 0 (dice): 76
Success! Hazō ZappyZap does not pop and therefore does not pass on the attack.
Hazō Prime was scheduled to do the Reusable Rocket Boots and the conversation with the Toad Sages is a short break. Ergo, no clone and thus no attack here.
Hazō RiftyRift is working on the Rift Zero seal, the first in the chain that will hopefully end up prying the rift open in aid of necromancy.
Epic-level clone shock caused by a seal failure: 70
Hazō RiftyRift, Resolve (62) + 7 (tag "Kagome-Approved Research Facility") + 7 (invoke "Promising Sealing Student") - 9 (dice): 67
Ouch! Failure Hazō RiftyRift pops. All of the other Hazō instances get hit with a strength 64 attack.
Fantastically powerful clone shock = 64
Hazō Prime, Resolve (62) + 7 (invoke "Toughened Mind") - 3 (dice) = 66
Success!
Hazō NotASub, Resolve (62) + 7 (invoke "Toughened Mind") - 6 (dice) = 63
Ouch! Failure Hazō NotASub pops. After the current round of attacks, the survivors are going to get hit with yet another attack, this one at strength 58.
Hazō ItsDampInHere, Resolve (62) + 7 (invoke "Toughened Mind") + 6 (dice) = 75
Success!
Hazō ZappyZap, Resolve (62) + 7 (invoke "Toughened Mind") - 3 (dice) = 66
Success!
Superbly powerful clone shock = 58
Hazō is out of Fate Points!
Hazō Prime, Resolve (62) + 3 (dice) = 65
Success!
Hazō ItsDampInHere, Resolve (62) + 0 (dice) = 62
Success!
Hazō ZappyZap, Resolve (62) - 3 (dice) = 59
Success! Barely.
(1) The Gōketsu do not actually have 147 research facilities. Kagome assigned the numbers somewhat randomly to disguise how many such facilities there are.
(2) We really should update Hazō's "Promising Sealing Student" Aspect to something more advanced, like "Accredited Sealmaster" or "Sealing Prodigy" or something.
- Hazō Prime takes a Mild Mental Consequence, no save. This will go into effect at the end of this scene.
- Every instance of Hazō must resist overclocked clone shock when his clone is eaten by the seal failure. Exact strength of the attack will be determined below.
- The area around the failure experiences some...changes. Fortunately, it happened at a seal research facility way out in the woods with no meat-based people around, and the effect was relatively localized. No one dies from this aside from (perhaps) various instances of Hazō.
All things considered, I'm going to take a middle ground: the Consequences are not in effect when Hazō gets hit but he does end up taking all three and therefore ends up with two Milds and a Medium. The Milds take 48 hours to clear, the Medium takes a week. This is the best case. If Hazō fails to resist the attack then he may take additional damage or even die.
Here's how I'm handling the clone shock attack:
- The level of the shock will be based on the intensity of the failure. I'm going to use a base attack strength of 50 (Superb) and then roll a d4 to choose the intensity of the failure, with each point adding 10 to the attack strength.
- If a clone pops as a result of the attack then the attack will be sent back out to attack all remaining Hazō instances. I'll be nice and say that it gets reduced by 2 shifts (6 points) each time it's relayed.
- I'll also let the Shadow Clones benefit from the same invokes that Hazō makes in each generation of the attack. As always, an Aspect or tag can only be used once per scene.
- Consequences, if there are any, will be processed after each round of relays.
- We might do this differently next time. I'm making this up on the spot and we're not going to be bound by it in future.
Intensity, 1d4: 2
Strength of clone shock caused by this seal failure: 70
Okay, all the Hazōs are eating a strength 70 attack to start.
Hazō Prime, Resolve (62) + 7 (tag "Kagome-Approved Research Facility") + 7 (invoke "Promising Sealing Student" (2)) + 0 (dice): 76
Hazō Prime tanks the attack with aplomb, taking only the basic damage instead of having his brain turned into soup the way most sealmasters probably would have.
Hazō NotASub is working on the Substitution seal, which swaps the positions of two objects.
Epic-level clone shock caused by a seal failure: 70
Hazō NotASub, Resolve (62) + 7 (tag "Kagome-Approved Research Facility") + 7 (invoke "Promising Sealing Student") + 0 (dice): 76
Success! Hazō NotASub does not pop and therefore does not pass on the attack.
Hazō ItsDampInHere is working on the Dampener seal, which helps reduce hand tremors and thereby improves Calligraphy and surgery.
Epic-level clone shock caused by a seal failure: 70
Hazō Resolve (62) + 7 (tag "Kagome-Approved Research Facility") + 7 (invoke "Promising Sealing Student") + 3 (dice): 79
Success! Hazō ItsDampInHere does not pop and therefore does not pass on the attack.
Hazō ZappyZap is working on the Electrocution seal, which sends a surge of raiton energy (which works exactly like electricity except in cases where that would make the QMs lives difficult, at which point it works differently) into whatever it is attached to.
Epic-level clone shock caused by a seal failure: 70
Hazō ZappyZap, Resolve (62) + 7 (tag "Kagome-Approved Research Facility") + 7 (invoke "Promising Sealing Student") + 0 (dice): 76
Success! Hazō ZappyZap does not pop and therefore does not pass on the attack.
Hazō Prime was scheduled to do the Reusable Rocket Boots and the conversation with the Toad Sages is a short break. Ergo, no clone and thus no attack here.
Hazō RiftyRift is working on the Rift Zero seal, the first in the chain that will hopefully end up prying the rift open in aid of necromancy.
Epic-level clone shock caused by a seal failure: 70
Hazō RiftyRift, Resolve (62) + 7 (tag "Kagome-Approved Research Facility") + 7 (invoke "Promising Sealing Student") - 9 (dice): 67
Ouch! Failure Hazō RiftyRift pops. All of the other Hazō instances get hit with a strength 64 attack.
Fantastically powerful clone shock = 64
Hazō Prime, Resolve (62) + 7 (invoke "Toughened Mind") - 3 (dice) = 66
Success!
Hazō NotASub, Resolve (62) + 7 (invoke "Toughened Mind") - 6 (dice) = 63
Ouch! Failure Hazō NotASub pops. After the current round of attacks, the survivors are going to get hit with yet another attack, this one at strength 58.
Hazō ItsDampInHere, Resolve (62) + 7 (invoke "Toughened Mind") + 6 (dice) = 75
Success!
Hazō ZappyZap, Resolve (62) + 7 (invoke "Toughened Mind") - 3 (dice) = 66
Success!
Superbly powerful clone shock = 58
Hazō is out of Fate Points!
Hazō Prime, Resolve (62) + 3 (dice) = 65
Success!
Hazō ItsDampInHere, Resolve (62) + 0 (dice) = 62
Success!
Hazō ZappyZap, Resolve (62) - 3 (dice) = 59
Success! Barely.
(1) The Gōketsu do not actually have 147 research facilities. Kagome assigned the numbers somewhat randomly to disguise how many such facilities there are.
(2) We really should update Hazō's "Promising Sealing Student" Aspect to something more advanced, like "Accredited Sealmaster" or "Sealing Prodigy" or something.
The chakra twisted in his fingers, bursting through the wall of the chakra channel that Hazō PreserverGuy had so carefully drawn. The prototype Fourfold Seal of Preservation, product of days of careful calculation, practice, and prognostication, tore itself apart and was swallowed by a screaming hole in the fabric of space.
Agony clawed at him as the entire research facility collapsed into dust and pain and shrieking terror. His chakra-created body exploded into dust and his consciousness fled, seeking all the other instances of himself to reunite with.
Hazō collapsed, slamming his head on the table as waves of clone shock washed through him once, twice, thrice, each new instance a shrieking stab of white-hot pain in his brain. Hazō PreserverGuy, the Shadow Clone assigned to researching the Fourfold Seal of Preservation, had screwed up the infusion. The resulting seal failure had destroyed PreserverGuy and then echoed through Hazō clone network, popping two of his other clones and hitting Prime each time. His extensive training at resisting clone shock let him survive, but he was going to be feeling it.Agony clawed at him as the entire research facility collapsed into dust and pain and shrieking terror. His chakra-created body exploded into dust and his consciousness fled, seeking all the other instances of himself to reunite with.
"What's wrong with you, boy?" Fukasaku demanded, poking Hazō in the shoulder with his cane.
"Would you excuse me, please?" Hazō said, standing. "There's some urgent business I need to tend to."
Author's Note Oof. Had a handful of obligations this weekend and then wasn't perfectly efficient with my time on Sunday, so this is coming out super late. The final results of the seal failure will come out tomorrow, hopefully as a bonus chapter or else as a simple infodump. No meat person died as a result of this failure. There is a brief summary of it at the very bottom of this update so that you have something to use in planmaking.
Offscreen stuff:
- The Sages left shortly after Hazō. They took the crystal with them for study. They'll return it in a couple of days, along with an answer on whether or not they think they could find or create a way to source more of it.
- You spoke to Mari and Kei about Mio. They told you that:
- Mio may or may not try to leave the clan. They can't tell.
- If Mio left the clan, it likely would not cause a literal civil war in the streets of Leaf, but...
- ...the results would be highly explosive and even more unpredictable than whether or not she's going to leave.
- She is unlikely to literally cut her own throat but she is definitely going to be more reckless and more confrontational, thereby greatly increasing her chances of dying in the field.
- You should not discuss necromancy with her.
- Mari sought Hazō out in private in order to point out that at some point, someone:
- ...is going to ask Hazō something related to the EM nuke, and...
- ...the person doing the asking might be from Leaf or might be from Akatsuki or etc, and...
- ...the question might be related to 'hey, what was that hell storm in Leaf?' or it might be 'any idea how Isan got wiped off the map?' or 'any idea who wiped Isan off the map?' or something entirely else.
- HAZŌ NEEDS TO HAVE AN ANSWER PREPPED FOR SUCH QUESTIONS
Remember how we said that we were increasing NPC agency and that periodically the NPCs might suggest issues that could logically come up that Hazō / the players might not have thought about? Behold, we are testing that idea using big red letters. Hopefully it was made attention-getting enough that no one says 'why didn't the NPCs warn us about this?!?!...What's that? Oh, I don't read the author's notes.'
XP AWARD: 33 This update covered 9 days.
Brevity XP: 9
"GM had fun" XP: 2
- +1 for scene: Ma and Pa
- +1 for a seal failure!
FP Award: 2
- +1 for beating a significant challenge (the sealing failure clone shock attack)
- +1 for general refresh
All of the research notes for the Fourfold Seal of Preservation are gone. 'All' means the ones that Hazō PreserverGuy had on hand for reference, plus the ones that Hazō had back in his office, plus the copies that Asuma had in the Tower archives. It's possible that they are somewhere in this new cave system, or perhaps they have simply been destroyed utterly.
Vote time! What to do now?
Voting ends on Wednesday, .
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- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Actually, they're white and surrounded by broken tags.
Motherfucker.
Please tell me Hazo made his own copy so it's in the Iron Nerve?
- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
I'm pretty confident we still have the seal itself to research from, though it won't be as easy as with the notes. Delving the cave might be worth it but there's no telling how strong the monsters there are. Fortunately, we have Shadow Clones to take point in any hypothetical exploration and reverse summoning as a panic button.
But one way or another we kinda have to finish the seal now, I feel. It's one thing to not make more of them, but we've made a mess out of our first Jounin mission and it's up to us to set things right. If we retrieve the notes from the dungeon, or make new notes ourselves, then we can put copies back in all the right places and it'll be like nothing ever happened.
EJ: He did! Relatedly, Hazou's nervous system is now at the bottom of the cave.
- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] [EM nuke] The Obvious Answer
And the plan below needs tweaking but I want to see if I can get the fancy tally to work.
[X] Action Plan: Reaching Out Again
Word count: <300 (298)
- Hazo throws explosives at the person asking him questions and doesn't stop until they're dead.
And the plan below needs tweaking but I want to see if I can get the fancy tally to work.
[X] Action Plan: Reaching Out Again
Word count: <300 (298)
- Yuno
- Include Noburi.
- Hazo's sorry. Last time, he was off-balance/worried and wasn't as direct as he should've been.
- Hazo believes:
- Murdering innocents is wrong.
- Jashin exists/favours Hazo.
- He needs Hidan's favour.
- Hazo prioritizes Uplift. He doesn't want balance. He wants Birth/Life/Humanity to win, conclusively.
- His relationship with Jashin is largely transactional, not based on shared morals.
- Let that settle.
- His worry came from fear - not of, but for Yuno.
- Death causes pain/suffering - everyone has families/dreams.
- Jashinism could crush Yuno's kindness/loving nature.
- Hidan's alone - no family, children, real friends.
- Hazo wants every child to grow up happy and safe - hence, Uplift.
- What does Yuno want? What legacy does she want to leave?
- Genuinely solicit/consider Yuno's beliefs/values.
- Asuma (offscreen?)
- Make the case for ANBU retrieving Mareo:
- He's a massive asset and could spend most of his time on the Seventh Path with occasional Goketsu (Mari, Sunny Days?) escorts into town.
- Visit Mareo
- Apologize for being absent. He's been stretched thin.
- The Conclave: Pangolins are nuts, Rats are too sane, no one wants to cooperate.
- The Goketsu hit a massive windfall. Give him a sapphire Bear. More money, different problems.
- New compound work - share designs, get his thoughts.
- Some of his clanmates and a chunk of the village were angry with him.
- It's mostly blown over.
- He's still not used to Leaf and its norms: he's getting better, but they're weird sometimes.
- Akane - his girlfriend, who reminded Mareo of his niece - is missing presumed KIA.
- He missed Mareo. A lot.
- Talk, vent, laugh. Mareo's fun - try to relax.
- Has Mareo thought about coming to Leaf?
- Leaf isn't perfect, but it's pretty nice. Mareo would be in good company with other outsiders in Goketsu.
- Asuma's the Monkey Summoner. Hazo could arrange a meeting.
- Apologize for being absent. He's been stretched thin.
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I see what you did there, Hazou.
You can tell he's feeling extremely 'do I have to do everything myself around here?' which, understandable tbh, but on the other hand signals pretty clearly that he sees dealing with people as an inconvenient chore. Which maybe isn't the best attitude to have, although I hope everyone will understand it under the circumstances.
BASED
Jin, you've shown you're compenent, congratulations on your new responsibilities!
It's easy to forget their first names when they're the platonic ideal of crotchety grandparents.
You see, the difference between Jiraiya and I,,,
Damn you.
Well uhh umm I guess we can ask Asuma what the official story is?
Also, I thought Mari wasn't officially read in on EM Nuke? How does she know Isan has been destroyed?
The QMs giveth, the QMs taketh away.
@eaglejarl @Velorien @Paperclipped can we assume Hazou will now do this without further intervention?
Well, that was a good run folks. We made it almost 2 full research cycles before another (maybe?) crisis! Woo yeah.
- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
I must say, I also quite appreciate how the other seals we were working on got brought to narrative attention, just a little, in a smooth dynamic way by bringing up each Hazou clone and what they were working on. When it comes to the sealing research I always think a little about the lurkers who don't see anything that doesn't make it on-screen, and I like it when mostly-offscreen stuff like this gets a little bit of spotlight on it.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Tobirama, the Second Hokage, invented it but he never got very far. Orochimaru took his work and improved on it.
Let me save you some trouble:
At every step of this conversation, you have been wrong about Orochimaru and the people you have been talking to have been correct.
Orochimaru is a terrible person. Orochimaru is a villain, not someone to be admired or used as a role model. His role in this story is to provide a moral quandary: does his pragmatic value outweigh the risks and moral horror of temporarily cooperating with him and, if not, how do you prevent him from causing further harm? 'Cooperating with him' might refer to using his military power to capture the Arachnid Scroll, or to fight in a world war, or to have him assist with fixing the Great Seal, or to have him collaborate on the development of Primordial Sealing, or any number of other things.
(EDIT: Note that this was written at 3:25 in the morning. Please do not read too much into the phrase 'his role is'. This is not the only reason, or even the primary reason, that he exists in MfD. It is simply one of the practical effects of his existence.)
Yes, more details will be shown. Probably tomorrow, but I really need to go to bed right now.
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- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
Here's a variety of assorted truths and half-truths that may or may not evade a Deceit check:
- Regarding Isan: "I don't know what happened to Isan" (we weren't there. we strongly suspect the broad strokes of what happened, but we don't "know what happened")
- Regarding the storm: "I don't know what caused the storm. As a sealmaster I know more than most the catastrophic scale sealing failures can have, especially when the failure causes other seals to themselves fail." (we "know what caused the storm" if you mean what jutsu creates the storm. We don't know what "causes the storm" in any meaningful physical sense, though. It's not what the jutsu is designed to do, after all, and Hazou sorta thinks that the air spirits might really hate cold air but that's just a wild guess. The sealing failure line is true but wholly unrelated.)
- Regarding the storm: "I was out there doing research, but the storm actually wasn't a sealing failure! The actual details of what and who I saw there are classified, though." (creates the impression that a rogue actor with nukes might exist. Probably a bad idea, but we could say it and not strictly be lying)
- Regarding Isan: "I'm rather out of the loop about Isan these days. I haven't been there since before I joined Leaf, and even the mission my clanmates had there was before the war. Kagome's been pen pals with a sealmaster there but I don't make a habit of reading his mail. I haven't even had time to attend AMITY's chuunin exams and meet them there. If you're looking for news about Isan, there are far better people to ask than me." (I'm sure Hazou has felt out of the loop recently with how Asuma and Shikamaru didn't bother to tell him how the anti-proliferation was going until it was already clearly failed. And even if Hazou would be unexpectedly good as a news source due to knowing about EM nuke, Asuma and Shikamaru are surely still more in the loop than he is.)
- Regarding Isan: "I swear, I'm up to my eyeballs in work trying to save the world from one apocalypse already. If some idiot's decided that world peace isn't to their liking and decided to start destroying villages for fun, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I really hope it's not that." (This would indeed be pretty sucky if it was what was happening.)
"Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy?"(do not say this)- Regarding the storm: "Asuma recently classified all of my sealing failures. I'm afraid I can't tell you anything more about it." (Would need set-up with Asuma, but he'd likely be willing to cooperate.)
Dramatically fall to the ground in sorrow and anguish: "Isan's gone? All the people there, dead?!"(do not say this)- Regarding Isan: "Isan's culture suprises me at every turn. I'd say it's mad for an entire village to pack up and leave like that, leaving no traces behind, after centuries of staying in place, but Isan's been through a lot of religious and political upheaval recently. I'll go ask Yuno if she can think of any scenario in which they might do something like that" (we probably don't want to put even more eyes on Yuno here, but it's a thing we could say)
- Regarding Isan: "When you put your ear to the ground and hear hoofbeats in a prime number cadence, think chakra horses instead of chakra zebras. What's more likely: that Leaf turned on its ally, or that Leaf's enemies saw a chance to remove one of Leaf's allies from the board, removing all evidence so nothing could be traced back to AMITY? A new era of war is upon us, and isolation is a weakness to be exploited." (a bit niche, relies on someone already supposing that Leaf might be behind it. Chakra zebras also might ruin the metaphor by not existing)
- Regarding the storm: "I barely made it out with my life. I wasn't in a position to make any detailed observations sprinting away at full speed. It was very very cold, and the winds were insanely harsh, but anyone in this half of Fire could tell that just by looking." (ignores the detailed observations we made before the storm hit, of course)
Not just the men, but the women and the children too.
Oh no, another sealing paradigm? Now we have to level zebrashaping.