Fwiw, I'm reluctant to separate Team Uplift even for Goketsu's sake, and I don't think we can afford to prioritize the Clan above our odds of being able to deal with X-risks. Goketsu will still have a bunch of capable ninja, Jiraiya's reputation, and the Hokage's goodwill- the Uchiha were comparatively better established in Leaf but they were also only left with one ninja when Itachi did his silly fun time family gathering and Sasuke managed alright. I don't think that Goketsu will be ruined.
There was nothing impinging on Sasuke's honor and his Clan wasn't a thorn in anyone's eye afterwards. They were also an honored founding Clan, which traditionalists didn't want to lose. And they have one of the best Bloodlines, so keeping them around is an investment into Leaf's future no matter your politics.
The Gokētsu in contrast will be a bunch of ninja who were Clanless until yesterday, might never even have personally spoken to Jiraiya and were adopted by the traitors twice over who pulled the wool over Leaf and should have been kicked out long ago instead of being allowed to debase Leaf's sacred moral principles (of heteronormativity and social hierarchy), drag the religious authorities through the mud, facilitate a Clanless rebellion, corrupt the youth that had to inherit leadership too early (probably in part due to Gokētsu machinations) and have one of them elected Hokage (who luckily wasn't as easy to manipulate after all which led to them all running away like cowards).
Let's be honest. Who will protect Clan Gokētsu as an entity? The Yamanaka and Nara will feel a mix of heartbreak and ideologically driven rage, with the Akamichi singing I told you so. The KEI and the Kei will have to save their political capital after their founding coordinators turned out to have always been nothing more than dirty missing in traitors from Mist after all. Naruto will himself have political issues by association. The remaining Gokētsu ninja have no social spec beyond Haru (who didn't think much of Team Uplift anyway) and may well be better of donating all assets to the KEI and rejoining it for protection and to distance themselves from the foreign traitors. They won't even have any Bloodlines to give them concrete value. And the Gokētsu civilians will be ripe for long overdue Yakuza retaliation.
EM rune nuke the rift site, hopefully without anyone noticing us set up I guess?
I thought the current plan was to somehow magically relocate the Rift. A frontal assault won't be feasible no matter how much of Team Uplift we bring. Except if we coordinate the attack with a Naruto-led Leaf assault. In which case the rest of Team Uplift will be present anyway.
Also Mari and Yuno can't even reverse summon. I don't see how the whole group is supposed to evade Akatsuki any better than one made up of just summoners. Because the most feasible strategy for that which I saw was remaining mostly on the 7th Path.
I maintain that the Gouketsu-as-a-clan is going to be destroyed if we leave and that fighting against that is futile and wasteful. Instead, we should set up a dead man's switch which offers the Nara a deal where they get all of our assets and a bunch of secrets (Earthshaping as a way to generate infinite money? notes on lithosealing?) in exchange for adopting all our civilians and leftover ninja, maintaining their standards of living, and continuing whatever Uplift projects we had in motion.
This is clearly the best way forward if we actually care about our people and projects, rather than the ephemeral "Gouketsu" label.
Why not just give it all to the KEI/Kei instead? They'd have to agree anyway, otherwise the Nara won't have the adoption tickets.
As for the Gokētsu being doomed even if just Hazō (or Hazō and Kagome) leaves, there's the option of successfully faking our death. Naruto won't be incentivized to investigate
too deeply. Just enough to maintain appearance and not make Akatsuki grill him.
I mean, we could ask Cannai to echo what the Snakes said about Orochimaru, when we thought he had died: "we are not accepting Summoners at this time."
Wasn't that done when someone tried to summon a Snake? IIRC Orochimaru left the Scroll behind on Nagi Island. But in our case a) we won't be leaving the Scroll anywhere and b) everyone has embassies with everyone these days.
Also, how are we going to convince the Pangolin and the Toads to do something similar? We'd need full buy-in from Gamabunta, Shima and Fukuzaku, which will only happen of Naruto confirms to them that he's in on it. And the Pangolin Empire, which hosts the Conclave and 7th Path trading network, has no reason at all to cover for Kei on this.
Adoption tickets aren't required for interclan adoptions, only clanless to clan
That would be sensible. Sadly Mari and Asuma somehow bungled it so hard that even inter-Clan marriages need adoption tickets.
By the way, wouldn't it be really easy to fix that through a Clan Council vote? Sure, it weakens the KEI, but there is no reason they should have this power. And who would vote against that weakening of the adoption ticket stranglehold? The Kei, the KEI, maybe the Nara. I guess Naruto might both vote against it and veto the whole thing, but again, it doesn't make sense that they got that power in the first place.
@eaglejarl @Velorien @Paperclipped I forgot. Why did Asuma let adoption tickets remain necessary for Clan-to-Clan adoptions/marriages after he gave the monopoly over tickets to the KEI?
Pffft. Fair. And I bet Naruto has accumulated a lot of adoption tickets over the last few years...
Heck, I'll vote for it. Jiriaya approved of Naruto, and Naruto is Kei and Noburi's friend. I trust their judgement of character enough. Besides, we'll (hopefully) be back, eventually.
I'm down.
Didn't Naruto say he didn't want to become the Gokētsu Clan Head, for various reasons? Would naming the whole thing Uzumaki and doing the adoptions in the other direction really change that calculus? I think I have to read the relevant chapter again.
