There was discussion in Discord as to whether Hazō is a jōnin or a special jōnin. I stated that he is a special jōnin,
@Sir Stompy believed that he was a full jōnin and demanded that I back this up "Gotta be in the thread and signed off on by the other QMs"
Hear ye, hear ye. On this 24th day of February, 2024, I hereby officially and with the full weight of QM voice and consensus among other QMs make this official announcement with all the power of my QM-ness: Gōketsu Hazō, Lord of Clan Gōketsu, is a special jōnin in the art of sealing, not a full jōnin. These are distinct military ranks.
When the clan roster was previously posted we accidentally miscategorized Hazō. (Yuno was not miscategorized; Watsonian, she did not understand the difference between 'special jōnin' and 'jōnin'; Doylist we added it as a joke to freak y'all out.) Roster has been updated correspondingly:
This is your clan's current ninja roster:
Jōnin:
Mari
Special Jōnin:
Yuno
Hazō
Hey EJ, @Velorien, @Paperclipped, a question came up regarding this in the Discord. For jutsu like Strength of the Storm which are reflexive supplementals, would we be able to cast them at the beginning of combat before our turn or do we have to wait to be attacked/our turn to come up?
You can cast it before your turn without being attacked (i.e., you can cast it at any initiative), though obviously any tags generated as a result will expire when your turn starts and you get a new slate of (Effect) tags.
@Paperclipped @Velorien @eaglejarl
What names are signed above Hazō's on the Dog Scroll? Assuming he only rolls it back far enough to not be concerned about the risk of seeing the first name.
There are quite a few names. Shame that we can't be bothered to come up with them all.
@eaglejarl @Velorien @Paperclipped
Have Kei's thoughts on this matter changed after the Orochimaru deal?
Cloak of the Wind God and Whirlwind Barrier both have incredibly potent defensive capabilities.
Does she still think Shadow Guardians and Shadow Visage are good priorities for her to develop afterward?
Does Kei consider it realistic to ensnare someone like Hidan using Shadow Imitation?
If so…What level of skill would be required to pull it off?
Is it something she could train to do, especially with her bloodline aiding her?
Shadow Guardians and Shadow Visage both remain strong, though Shadow Guardians in particular may be hard to juggle with the host of other strong defensive techniques she has access to (read: require combination stunts/run into the buff-stacking cap).
If you're solely asking if it's possible – yes, but it would require jounin-level skill. As always, she would train it if Hazou suggested she do so.
@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?
Clan-to-Clan adoptions and marriages are quite rare because of the potential clan secrets leaks. Mari suggested that such marriages/adoptions would require tickets because she wanted to signal alliance to the KEI. Asuma supported it because he was a relatively weak Hokage; the clans are always the biggest check on the Hokage's power, so it was to his advantage to downgrade the power of the clans and weld the KEI more firmly behind himself. (Also, it helped him pry some measure of control from Ami, the foreign nin with a bad habit of causing problems for Kage.) The clans objected in the moment but the issue got dropped as other things took over the conversation. Once it had been officially decreed no one actually made a fuss since no actual adoptions or marriages were happening and therefore it wasn't worth burning political capital on with the Hokage.
My first thought is "within a certain radius, ensure ink flows with perfect consistency and brush-hairs never clump or misalign". It's not clear how much those problems tend to bother sealmasters, but it seems at least a reasonable guess that supernaturally-precise brushes and ink would translate to easier calligraphy-work and thus better numbers. No diverting attention to ensuring the ink didn't clump, no subtle twists of the hand realigning the brush so the hairs don't stray out of place, etc.
@eaglejarl @Paperclipped @Velorien
Does Hazou think something like this would provide a bonus to his Calligraphy? I'm not asking how difficult a rune like this would be to research, just if Hazou thinks the issues it solves are worth pursuing solutions to.
Seems like it could provide a minor bonus. Probably in the range of 1-2 points but we would assess that when it came up.
My second thought is something related to the hyperbolic time chamber rune chain. If we can get a rune that slows down time but not our perception of time (perhaps its raidus is small enough our hand is inside the effect while our head is not) then Hazou can take all the time in the world to adjust his brushstrokes, in essence allowing us to time-ladder down on the research roll. I could see this one encountering complications, but I could also see it working swimmingly.
How about this idea QMs? As far as I know, research rolls are already maximally time-laddered down by prep days, so it's not clear that this would provide a benefit to Calligraphy.
Similarly, a minor bonus. Both of these sound like they may or may not be compatible with ultra-slow, ultra-careful craft checks like research checks and +2*AB time-laddered checks -- we're not going to rule either way for now.
Hazou, unironically, deserves a Primordial Sealing-related Aspect or Stunt to the effect of "I Discovered This Shit"
After discussion, we've decided that this won't be happening. Hazou has already received a mechanical benefit for being the first to invent Primordial Sealing/Lithosealing/Runecrafting/Hazousealing – namely, he removed a stagnancy barrier. He also gained the narrative benefit of access to a new and powerful version of sealing that
no one else has is only possessed by himself and the most psychotic serial killer / Dr Mengele expy in the world.
Didn't we tell Itachi about the Great Seal, and report our conversation to Tsunade?
Hazou has drawn Akatsuki's attention to the Great Seal at several points. Naruto believes keeping them from inspecting it is a lost cause, and instead wants to know if they can be prevented from rediscovering the art themselves, or from learning that Hazou has done the same.
It is not possible to learn Primordial Sealing without access to either a teacher or "sufficient reference materials". Hazō knows that Sasori is an expert sealmaster and that for such a person extensive study of the Great Seal is
probably enough reference material. Therefore, Sasori could probably learn Primordial Sealing if he went to Arachnid and either married Kumokōgō or fought/snuck his way past all of the Arachnid Clan and the Dragons in order to spend substantial time looking at the Great Seal. This of course requires that he have a way to reach the Seventh Path, but Kagome-sensei has already told you that Sasori is the Golem Summoner so this appears to be no issue.
[Asking Cannai to convince the Bear Lord to join the Crusade] was voted in a while back, in the plan after it was suggested to us by Kumafuwafuwa, can we confirm we passed it along to Cannai at least?
Yes, you told him. During the month-long intermission, Cannai visited Bear and convinced Kumafuwafuwa to join the Crusade. Kumafuwafuwa is now traveling to Arachnid.
Also, QMs, are we allowed to use banked XP earned before the Orochimaru deal to invest in Cloak of the Wind Gods?
No. Accordingly, Kei has only put one level into the ninjutsu with the current training plan. Please spend her current XP before leveling Cloak of the Wind Gods.
Are we keeping our lootbox notes on the Seventh Path while not actively in use and requiring people to check them out if they want to look at them?
Orochimaru's lootbox notes, Jiraiya's everything, and anything on lithosealing are kept on the Seventh Path. Hazō's office only contains bare basic notes for training apprentices (e.g. lesson plans, glossaries, etc). All of it needs to be checked in and out via Hazō (or Gaku, for the office stuff). Apart from the people whose training you manage, current check-outs are sets of sealing notes to Kagome and Kazushi, and a set of medical notes to Yuno.
@Paperclipped @eaglejarl @Velorien Does Hazou know if the various mechanisms that stop seals from working when obstructed (e.g. Air domes not forming if there are obstructions, force walls not forming if there are obstructions, etc) are safety mechanisms so that the operator doesn't accidentally kill themselves, or are they intrinsic to sealing (say a sort of manton effect analogue)?
It's complicated. Chakra effects that directly intersect a living being (i.e. something with substantial chakra) are difficult to reify, so forming the Air Dome such that it intersects a living being is basically impossible. The 'it's complicated' part comes in because chakra effects that are fully formed can in fact affect humans without too much trouble, hence why a Force Wall can cut a person in two. It is also true that "don't activate if you would intersect a living thing" restrictions are built in as safety mechanisms. Removing them might be possible but Hazō thinks it seems extremely unwise to attempt it since when the seal attempts to form its effect and finds an invalid obstruction, the results would be unpredictable. Most likely it would simply burn out the seal without accomplishing anything. That's the most likely option; the others are…bad.
We have three unspecified utility ninjutsu from the Wakahisa trade deal, yeah. I assumed they're going to be around the level of the ninjutsu we gave them, right @eaglejarl @Paperclipped @Velorien?
Do you know if these were part of the Wakahisa deal and if we ever received them? There's some confusion in the Hivemind about what happened there. The informational post seems to indicate we received these jutsu from there, but I don't think it was ever mentioned again in the story after that. Or at least, no one I've asked has remembered it.
The
original Wakahisa deal had not yet been finalized and approved by the Wakahisa clan (visible, for example, by the hilariously lopsided list of "The Wakahisa give:" compared to "The Gōketsu give:", and that the original deal let you keep 25 koi, yet Lord Wakahisa unilaterally amended it to be 40 since he was only able to ship a small number at once due to logistical constraints). While the full negotiation details were off-screened, the Wakahisa were ultimately not obligated to hand over any ninjutsu in the final agreement.
How do Jutsu 'rank' scale with technique difficulty? Is an A rank jutsu 'simply' more customized and minmaxed than a C rank jutsu? Does an A rank jutsu have more 'points' than a C rank jutsu?
A-rank jutsu are seen as more powerful than lower-ranked jutsu by their creators and/or the Tower experts who formally assign these ranks. "More powerful" is a subjective thing, and there's probably some cases where things got classified high based on politics.
In worldbuilding terms, rank represents both the power and the difficulty/complexity of a technique. For example, your typical genin wouldn't be able to use an A-rank technique, just like canon Naruto wouldn't have been able to use the Rasengan without the help of shadow clones. You'd need either a particularly gifted genin (like Sasuke with Chidori) or an exceptionally simple ninjutsu relative to its power. The Fated to Die rules, however, downplay this, as they generally allow you to use any ninjutsu as long as you've been trained in it, without regard for complexity – the only exception are techniques that have special requirements such as [FOO] Element Apprentice/Journeyman/Master. Generally, the point is moot because OPSEC prevents junior ninja from learning a clan or village's best techniques.
Can we get an official ruling on this cheese?
From my perspective, Hazou Prime reintegrates with his clones every night, and he is copied to them every morning, so it makes sense that right before the Calligraphy roll is made, the clone can reintegrate with Prime, Prime draws the blank, and then makes another SC to continue on with the attempt. Or just does it himself.
Petition to let Prime scribe seals with the Iron Nerve for shadow clones' seal research denied.
Recall that Shadow Clone memory integration is not perfect. The last day of sealing research is the most important (as evidenced by the fact that sealing research can be done nearly as effectively with only the last day and skipping all prep), so the SC would need to integrate at the end of the research day, then Hazou Prime would need to spend an unknown amount of time ensuring that he had received all the relevant memories and received them all accurately. This would mean reviewing the SC's physical paperwork, plans of action, memories of the fiddly little details that need to go just right for a research infusion, and so on. In essence, Prime would need to do sealing research.
It has come to my attention that Reflexive Supplementals, when used before your initiative in Round 1 are essentially free in that you go back to having two supplementals once your turn in the initiative begins.
- Is this true?
- If it is, does it hold for Reflexive Standards as well?
- This would allow Hazō to use a "free" Geode Coffin attack R1 before his initiative, and then make another once his turn begins.
- This cannot be right…can't it?
Most of the time, you will start combat with 2 Supplementals and 0 Standards. When your turn in the initiative order comes up, you refresh your action economy to 2 Supplementals and 1 Standard.
So:
- Yes.
- No, as unless you're specifically wary of something happening, you won't have a Standard when combat starts.
- This would not be possible anyway, as Geode Coffin can't be used as an attack reflexively. See the earlier post we made on this topic for clarification.
- Yep, it's right.
Minor aside: You may notice the lack of macrons in most of the above. This is because
@Paperclipped has been the one gathering all the questions and suggesting answers so that
@Velorien and I only need to sign off on them. He is absolutely amazing and we all owe him a big thank you.
Thank you, Paperclipped!
