Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

[eaglejarl]

Chapter 661, Part 2: The Grind Never Stops​

"Have you made progress on the time-shifting runes?" Kei asked.

Hazō looked up from where he had been ladling beans into his bowl before scurrying back to his calculations. The calculations that sprawled messily across two dozen pages and thirteen scraps of paper pinned under a rock near Hazō's workspace.

"Hm?" he asked, beans dribbling from the side of the ladle as he looked up in surprise. "What? Oh. Yeah, I have." He dropped the ladle and started spooning the beans into his face, eyes looking blankly into the distance.

Kei waited. After a few seconds she cleared her throat.

"Huh? What?"

"On the knoll, you mentioned a time-shifting rune and said we would discuss it later. I confess that my surprise at the topic of discussion caused me to be distracted to the point that I did not remember to pursue the issue at the time. Tell me more about your progress on the time-shifting rune, please."

"Oh...right. Um...so, right now I'm looking at the latest iteration of the Temporal Rune and yes, that is what I have finally decided to call it." He brightened. "I had this cool idea actually, regarding an extended naming pattern. I haven't decided if I actually like it yet, but it was interesting. See, a lot of times something gets called 'version 1', 'version 2', and so on, but I was thinking I could name it by the percentage. The first version was about a 3% speedup so it would be the T103 rune, and the next one will hopefully be the T125, and then after that—"

"The nomenclature pattern is clear, thank you. I note that the purpose of this expedition is weapons research. I suppose the temporal rune is intended to give you more time for researching the things that will actually be fit for purpose?"

"Exactly! Plus, they'll be even more useful once we've dealt with Akatsuki. Free training time that no one else gets except the Gōketsu and their allies."

"My concern is that the effort invested must more than repay itself or it is a poor choice of investment."

"It will."

"...Very well. You are the expert and I shall trust your assessment. So long as you are pursuing this path, have you considered reversing the effect? If you could trap Akatsuki in a region of sufficiently slow time we could simply ignore them from then on."

"I have, yes. It's on my list, a couple items down, and I expect to get to it in a few days. And yeah, sticking them in stretched time sounds great. I have so many ideas." His eyes began to shine with a demonic fever as he looked off into imagination. "We could set up explosives around the perimeter and detonate them in series. Can they dodge the blast of an explosive tag at short range with their stupid S-ranker bullshit? Probably."

Sitting across the fire with his own bowl of beans, Kagome-sensei stopped chewing long enough to grunt in dissatisfaction at Hazō impugning his preferred problem-solving technique.

"On the other hand," Hazō continued, "can they dodge a thousand explosive tags, one after the other, each coming what seems like a fraction of a second after the last one and from a slightly different direction? They'll be in slow time so they won't be regenerating chakra, but we can sit out here throwing whatever we want through the boundary, then go off and have a nap and regen some chakra before going back to it. How do you feel about being known as the woman who killed Itachi with a shuriken through his stupid cheating eyeball? I bet we could get you ten or fifteen thousand shuriken and you could spend a couple of days filling the entire area with an absolute wall of steel."

"I grant that the idea is appealing, yet I suspect there will be some practical challenges."

Hazō waved dismissively. "Eh. It'll be fine."

"I find your confidence both charming and well supported by the historical record. I strongly urge you to commence a newsletter, which I feel certain will be filled with wit and insight."

"Awww, thank you!" Hazō said, surprised. "That's one of the nicest things you've said to me in months."

Kei closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

o-o-o-o​

"You look like crap."

"Thank you, Noburi. Your concern is touching, and I'm fine." The sharp words were given the lie when Hazō was suddenly overtaken with a jaw-cracking yawn.

"Crap that's been run over by a wagon, shoveled up, and thrown onto a bigger pile of crap. Seriously, Hazō, get some sleep before you destroy the world."

"I've been pushing a little hard to get some of these calculations done, that's all. Don't worry, I always make sure to be well rested for infusion day. The work is pretty interesting stuff, actually. I came up with a new theorem that proves the maximum number of connections between two field tensors of opposing localizations is three, but if you introduce a third tensor at the halfway point then it increases to twelve. I'm working on extending it to an arbitrary number of tensors; I think it's going to turn out that the maximum in higher-level interactions is the square of the number of tensors plus the number of tensors but there are other possibilities that I need to rule out. If I'm right then—"

"Hazō."

"—it would revolutionize the study of—"

"Hazō."

"...I was nerd dumping, wasn't I?"

"Little bit, yeah."

"Sorry." He glanced at the barrel. "Um."

"It's okay," Noburi said, sliding his arms out of the barrel's straps and setting it on the table of the house in Toad that had been arranged as quarters for the Horizon Chasers and a meeting point for the human summoners. "I got you, bro." He dampened a finger and touched Hazō's wrist for a moment, then dipped out a cup of water and started to pass it over, then pulled it back when Hazō reached for it.

"Before you drink up and vanish on me, I've got a juicy bit of gossip for you."

"Oh?" Hazō struggled not to fidget. His calculations would wait. His brother was important. His calculations would wait. His brother was important. His calculations would wait. His brother was important.

"Yeah. Word just came that there's a new Kage over in Sand. Apparently Tō Fura just got chosen as the Sixth Kazekage. Get this: she's clanless!"

"Whoa, really?"

"Yup. Tō Fura, clanless jōnin of Sand. Her bingo book is pretty out of date but it says she's a weird blend of jutsu and weapons. Created the 'Severing Winds Style' of jutsu-enhanced swordmastery, whatever that means."

"'Jutsu-enhanced swordmastery'," Hazō mused. "Maybe something like that Cloak of the Wind God jutsu that Orochimaru gave us? Wrap wind chakra around a weapon to make it cut better, fly farther."

"Could be, I guess. Seems like there's got to be more to it than that. The intelligence report says that it 'emphasizes mobility and invisible attacks' but there weren't any more details about the combat style. There were, however, details about her. Want to guess?"

"Tell me," Hazō said, struggling not to seem impatient. His brother mattered, and being interested in what Noburi had to say was important. The calculations would wait. Tensor field arrays weren't going to change their maximal connection numbers, not even if he didn't finish creating his masterwork of nonspace mathematics for a few extra minutes.

Noburi could clearly see the insufficiently-hidden impatience in Hazō's eyes, because a grin spread across his face. "Wellll," he said, dragging the word out. "Turns out to be quite the barn-burner. Really impressive, you know? I mean, sure, it's a little thin on details but who would have thought the intelligence department would use language like that in a formal document? It's like imagining Mari volunteering for dish duty. Oh, hey, speaking of: did you by any chance take the blue mug with you? Mari was looking for it, and—"

"Noburi!"

His cruel, thoughtless, mean, ugly, nasty brother cracked up. "Yeah, yeah. The jacket said she is Sand's Hatake Kakashi, less the Dog summons and plus social skills. Which, granted, doesn't say a damned lot on the social front since Hatake was about as social as a mudsnake, but in this case it actually means something. She's quite capable of just slicing up anyone who got in her way to the hat but instead she was unanimously elected and it doesn't even look like it was grudging on anyone's part. Who'da thunk it?"

"A Leaf intelligence briefing said 'who'da thunk it'?"

"Yeah. I don't know for sure, but I think Mitarashi might have written it." He finally passed over the mug of chakra-rich water.

"...That tracks." Hazō accepted the mug and knocked it back, feeling the energy flood back into his body. "Thanks for this, bro. I needed it to infuse this second rune."

"No worries, man." Noburi clapped him on the shoulder. "Go save the world."

"Doing my best."

---

Author's Note: @Paperclipped might write the conversation with Canabisu or it might get offscreened.

Happy Memorial Day to our American players! I hope you have a good holiday filled with delicious food and good fellowship.

XP AWARD: 79

Brevity XP: 10

"GM had fun" XP: 0 No strong feelings

Spoiler: Rune research

Day 1
Prep Temporal Rune 125.
Prep Time Stretch.

Day 2
Prep TR125.
Prep Time Stretch.

Day 3
[Hazō buys 1 FP, bringing him to 3 FP.]
Infuse TR125:

Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 18 + 25 (crossover bonus from SSA-boosted Sealing) + 4 (prep) + 0 = 47
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 4 (prep) - 6 (timeladdering down) - 6 = 42

Hazō thinks he's just a little bit away from finishing this rune. Another cycle should do it.


Infuse Time Stretch:

Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 18 + 25 (crossover bonus from SSA-boosted Sealing) + 4 (prep) + 3 = 50
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 4 (prep) - 6 (timeladdering down) - 9 = 39

Hazō completes the Time Stretch Rune! It works identically to the Fast Forward Rune, except time within the radius flows 3% slower, and this rune lasts for 1 week instead of 1 month. There are no noticeable boundary effects.

Day 4
SSA recovery.

Day 5
SSA recovery.

Day 6
Prep TR125.
Prep Runic Air Dome. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks this rune is well within his capabilities.

Day 7
Prep TR125.
Prep Runic Air Dome.

Day 8
Infuse TR125:

Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 18 + 25 (crossover bonus from SSA-boosted Sealing) + 4 (prep) + 0 = 47
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 4 (prep) - 6 (timeladdering down) + 3 = 51

Hazō completes Temporal Rune 125! He thinks that, contrary to his expectations, reducing the duration has increased the difficulty.

This rune accelerates time by 25% for objects and creatures within its AoE. This is very visible – a clone within the rune's area of effect moves and speaks noticeably faster. There is no partial acceleration of a single target – as long as a target's center of mass is within the AoE, it's accelerated. Hazō thinks that trying to cheese this (e.g. by tying a string to a lead weight to extend the time acceleration very far from the rune) could cause a runic failure.

There are no unusual boundary effects (e.g. red/blue shifting of light, weird air pressures, etc). It works in roughly the way Hazō-the-character would want and expect it to work. If you think physics should have it work a different way, feel free to make your argument for why that should be the case, but chakra may simply raise the middle finger.

Hazō won't get any benefit from this rune in this update, as he'll be safety-testing it with clones and miscellaneous lifeforms collected from around the island. If you want him to start using the time runes in the future (while that term still has meaning), you'll need to vote in a plan specifying how you're using them.

The area of effect is 3 Zones in every direction of the central rune (so if Zones are laid out in a square grid, a 7x7 of Zones). Assuming a sufficiently open area, that's around 100 meters from the central rune in any direction.


Infuse Runic Air Dome:

Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 18 + 25 (crossover bonus from SSA-boosted Sealing) + 4 (prep) + 0 = 47
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 4 (prep) - 6 (timeladdering down) + 0 = 48

Hazō is making progress on the Runic Air Dome! He thinks he's a quarter of the way through with this rune.

Day 9
SSA recovery

Day 10
SSA recovery

Day 11
Prep TR150 (Temporal Rune 150 = 50% time dilation). Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks this rune is beyond his capabilities.
Prep Runic Air Dome.

Day 12
Prep TR145. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks he could maybe do this rune.
Prep Runic Air Dome.

Day 13
Prep TR140. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks he could maybe do this rune.

Infuse Runic Air Dome:

Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 18 + 25 (crossover bonus from SSA-boosted Sealing) + 4 (prep) + 0 = 47
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 4 (prep) - 6 (timeladdering down) - 3 = 45

Steady progress. Hazō thinks he's a bit less than halfway.

Day 14
SSA recovery

Day 15
SSA recovery

Day 16
Prep TR135. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks he could maybe do this rune.
Prep Runic Air Dome.

Day 17
Prep TR130. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks this rune is well within his capabilities.
Prep Runic Air Dome.

Day 18
Prep TR130.
Prep Runic Air Dome.

(the first day of prep on Runic Air Dome is nullified as Hazō can only take 2 prep days with Primordial Sealing 18, but Hazōpilot would rather waste that clone-day and get full prep on the Temporal Rune)

Day 19

Infuse TR130:

Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 18 + 25 (crossover bonus from SSA-boosted Sealing) + 4 (prep) - 3 = 44
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 4 (prep) - 6 (timeladdering down) + 6 = 54

These runes are definitely getting hard, especially with Hazō's strict limitation on how long the rune can last. Still, thanks to his steady buildup of veterancy on the time-related runes, things are starting to come together. Hazō thinks he's a little over halfway done with this rune.


Infuse Runic Air Dome:

Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 18 + 25 (crossover bonus from SSA-boosted Sealing) + 4 (prep) + 0 = 47
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 4 (prep) - 6 (timeladdering down) + 12 = 60

Progress continues. Hazō thinks he's over halfway done. Two more cycles should do it, maybe one with Jashin's luck.

Day 20
SSA recovery

Day 21
SSA recovery

Kagome has finished the Scenery Clone Seal Array and has started work on the Silence Shell Seal Array.

Spoiler: Seal scribing

Hazō has spent so long working on seals massively below his Sealing score that seal scribing hasn't been an issue. Luckily, Reusable Rocket Boots fixes that. He'll timeladder 3x for Sealing (making infusions take 10 minutes) and 2x for Calligraphy (making scribing take 30 minutes). Thanks to the Iron Nerve, he only needs to make the Calligraphy check once, as long as he does his infusions with Prime hours.

Hazō (Calligraphy): 47 + 3 (IN) + 12 (2x timeladder) + 3 (Dampeners) + 3 = 68

He'll make 9 sets – 3 for each of the 3 team members. If someone gets in more than 3 combats in a day, there's no helping them. That's 18 seals.

Hazō (Sealing): 51 + 24 (SSA) + 24 (3x timeladder) = 99

Hazōpilot will reroll -9 and -12:
18xFudge Dice = [3, 9, -3, 3, 6, -6, 6, -6, 0, 3, -3, 6, 9, 6, 6, -6, 3, -6]

Lowest roll: -6 = 93

No rerolls used. No sealing failures hit.

The Light Relay seal can indeed output visible light when the input is tuned to past-blue and exposed to a past-blue HOWS. Hazō tests a variety of output colors across the rainbow and finds they all work, so long as the input tuning matches the tuning of the relevant HOWS.

Hazō has purchased 1 FP and refreshed 1 FP, and is now at 4FP.


A huge thank you to @Paperclipped for doing all the seal research rolls.

Vote time! What to do now?

Voting ends on Wednesday, May 29, 2024 at 7:00 AM .

 

[Velorien]

Interlude: The Opposite of Coming Home​

A profoundly drenched Kei ducked under the tarp covering Hazō and his work desk, which he'd decided to move outdoors to take advantage of the nice sunny weather less than an hour ago. Hazō wordlessly unsealed the changing screen, towel (not the lavender-scented one–he wasn't that insensitive), and mug of hot chocolate.

"What news, Hazō?" Kei greeted him as he urgently turned away from the screen on general principles. (That Kei was willing to trust him this far was stunning progress, but "don't invade Kei's privacy" was the same kind of family rule as "don't startle Kagome-sensei with loud noises" and "don't touch Satsuko without her explicit permission".)

"I noticed that your eyebrows have returned well ahead of schedule," she commented. "Also, is that piece of avant-garde art the product of a self-inflicted haircut?"

"Yeah," Hazō said. "The time rune prototype glitched out a bit. Suddenly I was dangerously starving, sleep-deprived, and with longer nails and hair than a hardcore mountain ascetic. I had to do some emergency maintenance work before Noburi turned up and took the story back to Mari and the others with his usual embellishments."

"It would seem to have considerable non-lethal incapacitation potential," Kei said approvingly, "as well as bypassing most standard defences. Sasori might perhaps be unimpressed, but I doubt Hidan's immortality will be of much service when starvation and sleep deprivation have left him as weak as a kitten."

"That still leaves him as a lethal threat to commoners," Hazō noted. "Anyway, I think it happened because I forgot to carry the two while the moon was in its third phase, so I'm in no hurry to try it another day in case next time it comes out still user-targeted and less friendly."

"That would be unwise," Kei agreed, stepping out from behind the changing screen in a red-and-green uniform she wouldn't normally be caught dead wearing outside a Gōketsu formal occasion. "Especially when your other hairdressing options are to trust me to wield a blade around your face during a period of extensive physical contact or to rely on Kagome's personal grooming expertise."

"I think I'll play it safe and stick with turning the laws of nature inside out in a large area, thanks."

"Blessed am I to be on another plane of existence during your infusion days," Kei said. "Is that the productive activity to which the nature kami have taken very reasonable exception?"

"Actually, no," Hazō said. "I figured I needed a little time off after that disaster, so I've been tinkering with the Imagawa converter. It's such a generically useful piece of kit, and I'd feel bad if the runecrafters of future generations never had a chance to use it because they didn't get much training in paper sealing, so I'm trying to create a rune version."

"I see. Well, it is an improvement on those square grid number puzzles that have Shikamaru so entranced. However," she said, wringing out her clothing onto the grass with a grimace, "considering the vast differences in format, can it truly be said that much of the original would survive even if analogous functionality is attained? It seems to me it would be more of a Gōketsu converter at this stage."

"Don't say it!" Hazō exclaimed. "If you say it, the power of kotodama might make it catch on–that's very important in sealing, just like sprinkling your notes with moth dust if you're going to infuse on a Tuesday–and I'm saving it for something really amazing that I want history to remember me for."

"Other than reinventing the entire discipline, you mean."

"Right. Trust me, you have to take control of these things in advance, before it's too late. There's nothing I can do about the Hazōlators anymore, not short of a clan head direct order, and if I start coming down on the research teams for creativity, I'm afraid that they might retreat back into their 'keep your head down and don't anger the scary ninja' shells and that'll be the last bold innovation I see out of them."

Kei nodded.

"On a more pessimistic note," she said, "I did not in fact take a stroll in the bracing weather for the good of my health. Today there is a matter I wish to consult you about."

"Gee, thanks," Hazō said with mostly mock petulance.

"It is the matter that is inviting of pessimism," Kei clarified," not your utility of consultation. In that respect, in fact, you are more qualified than any being in existence–perhaps even more than Ami, though that of course is by virtue of her lack of engagement with the subject, not lack of capability."

"I'm mostly honoured and a bit alarmed," Hazō said. "Hit me."

"I wish to reprioritise my training in the direction of improving my excruciatingly feeble social skills, at least for the moment."

"We can do that," Hazō said. "Not easily, maybe, considering your options are training in the middle of nowhere with two sealmasters who are too busy to be of much use and training on the Seventh Path with pangolins whose own social skills you're apparently unimpressed with. Still, I know this is your secondary specialisation, after combat and Frozen Skein stuff I'm not allowed to optimise for you, so it's not like I didn't already have a few thoughts."

"Hazō," Kei said almost pleadingly, "why are social skills my secondary specialisation? I do not mean to gainsay you, for indeed my balance of blissful paperwork versus wrangling recalcitrant humans collapses further every day, but I am a logistician by training, a flatfish by natural aptitude, and the girl who spent her lunchtimes reading alone in the library by inclination. Where did my life go wrong?"

The correct answers, of course, were Mari, Jiraiya and Lord Shikaku, and Ami, in that order, but two were dead, one was above reproach, and the other had only reconciled with Kei less than a year ago and Hazō would sooner try to infuse a rune without a single lucky dance than deliberately put strain on that relationship.

"Sometimes these things just happen," Hazō said vaguely. "Could anyone ever have imagined Noburi spending his life faithful to a single woman?"

"Considering that his originally intended woman was myself, and that I have since been cornered into extensive polyamory, I suppose you have a point."

"Anyway," Hazō asked, "what brought this on? Just the other day you were complaining about your combat skills getting rusty."

"Something I only wish I could expect of my socials," Kei said. "Hazō, in the unlikely event that I survive not only this mission but its immediate aftermath, I am to travel to Mist… on a diplomatic mission."

Thunder rumbled ominously in the background.

"Well, quite," Kei muttered, looking at the darkened heavens.

"A diplomatic mission?" Hazō repeated in the hope that he'd misheard and she was about to correct him.

"A diplomatic mission," Kei confirmed in the voice of a liberal atheistic polyamorous lesbian of foreign birth announcing her engagement to Hagoromo Ritsuo.

"I know Naruto said Leaf is hard up for diplomats right now, but no offence, Kei, are you sure you're the best choice? Did you maybe feed a fox to Jūchi Yosamu in front of him or something?"

"I take better care of my familiar than that, thank you," Kei said scornfully. Hazō was unclear on what made the yellow-eyed mass of alternating apathetic indolence and simmering, barely-contained destruction a familiar rather than a mere pet, but he and Kei were in agreement that one was strictly superior to the other.

"No," Kei went on, "this is, allegedly, a task only I can perform. In Ami's ongoing and likely long-term absence, it has been decreed that I must travel to Hidden Mist to reaffirm our bonds of friendship and, more pertinently, explore the extent of the influence Ami's legacy can still exert on the Mizukage and the AMI. My main qualification, other than being Ami's sister, is not being Ami–or, differently put, the expectation that I will use any influence achieved to the benefit of Leaf and not in service of my own power maximisation. I confess this latter part is a touch optimistic on the Hokage's part, for when power begets responsibility, responsibility also begets the need for additional power. My priorities are Uplift, my family, and the people in my care. All benefit from the welfare of Leaf, but it exists in their service, not vice versa."

Thunder rumbled again.

Kei looked up, glaring.

"Not being my brother, I am aware when I am arguably speaking treason, thank you very much. Kindly do not interrupt."

"Uh, Kei, are you sure it's a good idea to provoke the weather kami? We are currently on a small island."

"Reverence only encourages them," Kei said. "If need be, we can reverse-summon and wait on the Seventh Path until they have exhausted themselves.

"Now, this is the actually important part, Hazō. While none of the aforesaid lacks utility as a data-gathering exercise, I confess I am inclined to view it realistically.

"Hazō, I am prepared to grant you an immense amount of trust, but I require your word that this next information will go no further, not even to the family until matters are settled and I judge it appropriate."

"Obviously," Hazō said. "Nary a syllable will pass my lips."

"The actual reason Shikamaru and I proposed this to the Hokage," Kei said after an anxious second, "is that while the Mori teachings as filtered through a mediocre genin have been of some value to the Nara, it has been judged time to implement a proper program of intellectual exchange, the shadow of an ancient bond weakened by space and time and then weakened again by the demands of the Village Era."

"And this isn't treason how?" Hazō couldn't help asking.

"No clan secrets are being exchanged," Kei said," nor village secrets, nor ninjutsu or seals, nor material goods of any significant value. Recall that we are speaking of clans renowned for their intelligence, caution, and having written the majority of their respective villages' laws.

"Nevertheless, the Hokage might perceive matters differently, which is why, on paper, this is but a brief personal diversion, even as it features a much more challenging, much more terrifying task.

"Hazō, I must face my birth family."

She paused, waiting for the thunder, but it did not come. In fact, the rain appeared to be easing off.

Kei looked pleased with herself.

"OK," Hazō said, "I'm starting to see why you want all the social skills you can get."

"In fact," Kei said, "it is worse than that. I must also introduce Snowflake to them. She, too, is their creation in her own way."

"And that isn't treason how? Kei, I want to be supportive, but Snowflake is a walking Shadow Clone Technique OPSEC failure."

"I fear to say," Kei said, "that ship has not merely sailed; it has returned from a lengthy journey to the eastern continent, laden with exotic goods from a dozen countries, and also trailing a school of chakra koi which will be a hazard to shipping in the region for decades to come. Hazō, I am a person of interest in Leaf. This is certainly true for the general public, for whom I have been a reliable source of piquant gossip ever since Shikamaru dramatically announced our entirely consensual engagement before the eyes of every power in the world, displaying himself to be hopelessly lovestruck and establishing us as either star-crossed lovers in a Tears of Red fashion, save that we were successfully defying our destiny, or the most successful act of seduction by a foreign agent in the Village Era and perhaps beyond."

"Hold up," Hazō protested. "What about Mari and Jiraiya?"

"There are indeed proponents of that argument," Kei said, "considering that Jiraiya was a prize an order of magnitude greater than the Nara heir. Perhaps two. On the other hand, Mari outed herself as an I&S jōnin in the process–the absolute worst failure mode, short of treason, for a seduction mission–and failed to ever secure a wedding.

"However, more relevant is that I am naturally a person of interest to every faction across the world with a stake in Leaf politics. As an inescapably public figure, I may be under more scrutiny than even yourself, and I assure you that the Nara and, to a lesser extent, the KEI, are beset by optimistic civilian infiltrators no less than the Gōketsu.

"In other words, every spymaster in the world is by this point aware of Snowflake. Certainly, I will eat Lord Hagoromo's beard if Mori Ryūgamine is not. Nor can it be claimed that the basics of the Shadow Clone Technique are not public knowledge, considering Naruto's extensive application of them during the Great Collapse and also since his accession. Besides, the Mori are the most likely in the world to understand that cognitive Bloodline Limits suffer from unpredictable interactions with cognitive ninjutsu, and that broader inferences from the data point of Snowflake may be unproductive.

"No, our concern is everything else. Will the Mori exalt her as I do, as the path to freedom and true humanity that we have sought in vain for centuries? Will they reject her as an abomination whose very existence perverts that which they hold holiest about themselves? How will my parents treat an additional version of a daughter who was already surplus to requirements?

"And, even as Snowflake fights her own battle, what of me, the child they never reached out to over all these years, the child they reared in a way that I am coming to understand could have been different, the child their choices shaped into this… this?

"Hazō, I am afraid."

The clouds parted, as if in celebration, as she finished speaking, and the sun's rays descended on them like a mocking parting shot.

"I hate to say this," Hazō said, "but this is really a job for Mari. Remember how she helped us prepare for more or less this exact scenario before the Chūnin Exams?"

"She may not be trusted with the truth," Kei said, "and I doubt my ability to explain the personal element of the situation while fully concealing the part which is actually important from a woman of her skill. I was able to persuade Shikamaru to obtain your assistance only because he recognises your capacity as a trainer–doubly so since he observes my progress, yet is unaware of WHOOSH–and I would waste months of potential preparation time if I failed to train effectively while on this mission."

She hesitated.

"You could also consider it an olive branch of sorts. While his personal relationship with you is complicated, he is aware of the additional tension between our clans due to the conflict between our duty of secret-keeping and your voracious hunger for dangerous lore. I believe that it is his hope that trusting you with a Nara secret of the modern day, a secret which will eventually serve Uplift indirectly, through advancements in human understanding, will strengthen a spirit of cooperation that does not violate aforementioned duty.

"I dearly hope for this to be the case, though I recognise that such simple wishes tend to be naive at best.

"To conclude that mess of an explanation, Hazō, will you help me?"

"Well," Hazō said after feigning extensive thought, "my original plan was to take my sisters who were both out to face one of the greatest emotional challenges of their lives, all while handling diplomatic objectives that could have an impact on world peace and the good of the village I live in, and who'd just gone out on a limb because they trusted me, oh, and there's some Gōketsu-Nara relationship stuff in there as well, and just leave them hanging, but you know what, maybe I could take a little time out of my research and see what I can do."

"Thank you," Kei said. "Truly. There has been a part of me that sees our inevitable death at Akatsuki's hands, before my journey can commence, almost as a blessing."

"Don't worry," Hazō said. "You help me send Akatsuki back to Naraka where they should have stayed, and I'll help you put your past to rest once and for all."

-o-​

What do you do?

Voting ends on Jun 1, 2024 at 1:00 PM

 

[eaglejarl]

Chapter 662: Final Exams​

"Morning, Gaku," Noburi said tentatively.

"Hm? Oh, yes. Good morning, My Lord." The older man turned back to what he was doing: supervising a tradesman and a trio of children who were busily setting up a rope harness in order to hold a long stone pole perfectly upright.

"Whatcha doin'?" Noburi asked.

"Indulging— Following Lord Gōketsu's instructions in order to perform a scientific experiment." Gaku studied the pole and ropes. "I presume, anyway. Either that or undergoing a particularly bizarre form of hazing."

"Yeah, I was wondering about that," Noburi said. "When he gave me the pole and the envelope I started to ask him to explain it and then I remembered that I had things to do today and didn't want to get sucked into the vortex of bizarre that is my brother. Did he tell you what it's about?"

"No, My Lord. He merely stated that I was to ensure the pole was precisely vertical, then to precisely measure the length of its shadow, and to do so precisely at noon. Ah, thank you. That will be all." The last words were to the team that had been checking the support ropes on the pole; they bowed quickly and hustled away.

"Uh-huh. How are you determining what 'precisely' noon is?" Noburi asked, ignoring the byplay.

Gaku shrugged helplessly. "I am using the waterclock from the Lord's office, which has been canonical time for the Gōketsu since we moved here. However, since he emphasized the word 'precisely' I did not dare to move the clock out here as that would have distorted its rate of flow. Instead I have established a signal relay who will tell me when to take the measurement. I am going to take measurements twice per minute for five minutes on either side of noon."

"What are you using for your signal relay? Explosives?"

Gaku shook his head. "No, My Lord. On any other estate that would be an excellent choice, but on ours it would be dangerously ambiguous. I am instead using a gong."

As though illustrating his statement regarding ambiguity, a trio of explosions went off nearby as one of the clan children chopped firewood The Gōketsu Way. The Gōketsu Way, of course, involved piling a bunch of logs inside a stone hut, tossing an explosive tag into the center of the pile, and slamming the door. It did a wonderful job of processing chunks of tree into fuel, kindling, and tinder all at the same time, and the process was then repeated until the desired ratio of fuel to kindling had been achieved. (It had, upon several occasions, been pointed out that the Force Wall sawmill was a far faster and cleaner way to achieve the same effect. The clan children had deployed weaponized puppy dog eyes in order to buy themselves enough time to bring Kagome-sensei to their rescue, and thus had firewood processing continued in the traditional Gōketsu fashion instead of being abandoned for some newfangled system that might happen to be more efficient but was definitely far too dangerous for young children. Trusting them with hundreds of lethal explosives was one thing, but sharp edges? Never!)

Noburi looked up at the sun, which was almost overhead. "I'll have to ask—"

The sound of a ringing gong spread across the estate and Gaku quickly bent and inserted a small flag with a '1' on it into the ground precisely at the end of the pole's shadow.

"The other challenge, of course," Gaku said, "is that he specified the measurements must be precise. After some consideration I have decided to simply send him strings of the appropriate length rather than a numeric account of handspans or strides. Do you suppose this will suffice?"

"Gaku, I think he'll be delighted."

o-o-o-o​

"Not like that!" Shima yelled, thumping Hazō on the head with her spatula. "What do you think you're doing, blundering through the consolidation like that?"

"What do you think this is, boy? A sparring match?" Fukasaku demanded. "Do you treat your Ino like that? You don't punch chakra into doing your will, you seduce her! Cozen her, treat her nicely! Like I do with Ma!"

These words, of course, led promptly to a marital spat in which Shima objected that Fukasaku never treated her half as well as chakra needed to be treated. Said spat soon devolved into something rather more physical than a sparring match, which made their instructions seem more than a little hypocritical.

Hazō forced himself not to glare at his teachers, nor make any comment about the hypocrisy. It had required only a handful of examples to determine the unwisdom of giving side-eye, saying 'geez' at their pronouncements, or in any other way expressing a dislike of physical correction or other Toadly training techniques.

Instead, he reminded himself that he was just about done. This was his final exam and, if he passed, he would be an acknowledged jutsu creator, capable of bending the world to his will in yet a third way. He breathed, centering himself and clearing the kinks from his chakra to ensure that it would flow without hitch or hesitation.

With delicate 'fingers', he pulled the energy up from his hara, led it through the necessary twirls and spins within his chakra coils, (gently!) consolidated it, and flicked through a chain of handseals: Snake to raise the power, Rat to form it, and Ox to grant it purpose. He felt the moment when it all came together and the chakra construct burst forth from his lips, pushing ahead of it the words "Earth Element Technique: Furrowed Brow of the Earth Mother!"

In front of him, the ground flipped itself over in a long, neat, and most importantly straight furrow. It had taken an embarrassing number of tries to get it to that point; when he first created the jutsu it had tended to wander off in loops and swirls that, while quite artistic and beautiful, would likely be considered anti-helpful by a farmer.

The Toad Sages watched with narrowed eyes. Hazō held his breath, waiting for their judgement.

After a minute, Shima sniffed. "Not completely awful, I suppose."

Hazō grinned. "So is that it? Do I qualify?"

The Toad Sages looked at each other.

"I suppose if we qualify him it would get our afternoons back..." Fukasaku said.

"True. And he probably won't kill himself in the next couple of weeks."

The two nodded to one another and turned back to Hazō.

"By the power vested in me—" Fukasaku said.

"And me," Shima interjected.

"Yes, yes. By the power vested in us by centuries of experience with chakra manipulation and jutsu creation, and having trained and thoroughly examined your ability at such activites, we, the Sages of the Toad Clan, impart upon you the title of jutsu creator. Go forth into the world, Hazō of Clan Gōketsu, and speak to chakra in tones of both reverence and partnership. Lead it to your will and use your power always for the betterment of your clan."

Hazō could feel his grin about to split his face.

The toads let the moment hang solemnly in the air for no more than a pair of seconds before Shima nodded firmly and said, "Right, that's enough of that. Come inside and have some of my pie. It's a new recipe."

Hazō followed her inside, feeling like he could walk on air without the need of skywalker seals.

o-o-o-o​

"What's wrong?" asked Kagome as Hazō settled down next to him. His student was re-reading the letter that he had been holding when he returned from the Seventh Path a few minutes ago. Re-reading it for at least the third time, based on what Kagome knew of his student's reading speed.

"Letter from Naruto," Hazō said, distractedly.

"Well?" Kagome demanded after a moment. "He wants a progress report, or what?"

Hazō looked up, his face serious, and waved the paper. "He wants a progress report, yes. Because Orochimaru is almost done with the rift runes. He's been working on one that will open it and then a constellation of three others that move it. The first decouples it from its spatial location, the second pushes on it, the third pulls on it. He estimates he'll be able to move it somewhere between five and twenty miles with one set of runes."

Kagome swallowed as the world's maw stretched open beneath him. The power of the afterlife in the hands of the Snake? The psychotic murderer, traitor, biosealer, and general crazypants bad guy who cared for nothing and no one, who had already tried to murder Kei and Hazō once. What might such a man do with the ability to bring people back from the dead, or imprison his foes in a place that could not be escaped? That would eat away at them slowly, leave them desperate and willing to do anything in exchange for their jailor extracting them from the slow mind-death of the beyond?

Worse, everyone else clearly thought this was a great idea.

---

Author's Note: Still not excited about the Canabisu / Cantelabra scenes, so we'll assume those happened offscreen.

Update duration: 12 days – 1 day for moving site, 11 days for research. I (ed: 'I' in this case means the inimitable and never-sufficiently-thanked @Paperclipped) only did four research tracks as I don't think Hazō can sustain 5 at the moment. If I'm wrong, please explain so that I can get it right for the following updates, but no additional prep days will happen in this update. Prep days take a lot of thought and discussion from the QMs. In the future, you shouldn't expect more than 10-12 prep days to get done (except perhaps in circumstances where a lot of the prepped seals are straightforward variations of each other) in a single update.

Prep day notes:

• Prep day on Wormhole was done on the runic component, on the assumption that the hard part was opening the wormhole rather than giving out a signal.
• Prep day on Time Twister was skipped due to the rune spec not being in the linked post.
• Prep day on Balefire Bomb was skipped as I could not understand what rune was supposed to do from the linked post.
  • While "this rune smites the surrounding region of The Paint with a blast of eldritch fire (if it could even be called such), scouring it down to the metaphorical canvas" is very evocative, it doesn't help me understand what is happening or what the end result is.
• Prep day on Substrate Rune was done on the extrusion version described first in the linked post.
  
  Spoiler: Seal and rune research

  Day 2
  Prep for Army of One.
  Prep for Force Blades.
  Prep for CATEARS.
  Prep Unchained TR150. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks he could maybe do this rune.
  
  Hazō thinks that pushing this series of runes as far as he can currently take it (i.e. infusing the highest TR he can manage) would remove a Sealing stagnancy barrier.
  
  Day 3
  Prep for Army of One.
  Prep for Force Blades.
  Prep for CATEARS.
  Prep TRA200. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks this rune is beyond his capabilities.
  
  Specifically, Hazō has no clue how one might make an array of multiple runes working in concert. He does not think he has nearly enough experience in runecraft to invent this.
  
  Day 4
  Prep for Army of One.
  Prep for Force Blades.
  Prep for CATEARS.
  Prep RARS. Difficulty Result: Chūnin
  
  A single seal won't have the oomph to activate a rune, but Hazō can conceive of a design where dozens of seals work in concert to activate a rune remotely (via MARS). As Hazōpilot would know that the single-seal version wouldn't work, he directly prepped the multiple seal version.
  
  Day 5
  Prep for Army of One.
  Prep for Force Blades.
  Prep for CATEARS.
  Prep Mirror Dragon Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks he could maybe do this rune.
  
  Hazō decides that 'attacks' is too generic, and limits the scope of the rune to solely reflecting ninjutsu (not storing, as storing ninjutsu seems like a totally different research pathway). Hazō thinks doing this rune would remove a Sealing stagnancy barrier (though this is no guarantee that the rune is doable).
  
  Day 6
  Prep for Army of One.
  Prep for Force Blades.
  Infuse CATEARS.
  
  Hazō (Sealing): 51 + 8 (prep) - 3 = 56
  Hazō (Calligraphy): 47 + 8 (prep) + 3 (Dampeners) + 6 = 64
  
  
  Prep Space Stretch. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks this rune is well within his capabilities.
  
  Day 7
  Prep for Army of One.
  Prep for Force Blades.
  Prep for CATEARS.
  Prep Wormhole Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks this rune is beyond his capabilities.
  
  Day 8
  Prep for Army of One.
  Prep for Force Blades.
  Prep for CATEARS.
  Prep Flashlight. Difficulty Result: Jiraiya
  
  Hazō notes that directionally constraining seal outputs without dropoff in power is pretty hard – even Kagome's directional explosives chose to constrain the effect by sealing a part of the output rather than by shaping the explosion directly.
  
  Day 9
  Prep for Army of One.
  Prep for Force Blades.
  Prep for CATEARS.
  Prep Magnifying Glass Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks he could maybe do this rune.
  
  Day 10
  Infuse Army of One.
  
  Hazō (Sealing): 51 + 24 (SSA) + 16 (prep) - 3 = 88
  Hazō (Calligraphy): 47 + 3 (IN) + 10 (prep) + 3 (Dampeners) + 3 = 66
  
  As per usual with seals that Hazō has notes on, the Sealing component is relatively easy, and the Calligraphy component is harder by the lack of discount. Hazō thinks he's a sixth of the way through this seal. He'd be happy to shave off ~2 prep days, as they don't increase the Calligraphy bonus.
  
  
  Infuse Force Blades.
  
  Hazō (Sealing): 51 + 24 (SSA) + 16 (prep) + 3 = 94
  Hazō (Calligraphy): 47 + 12 (prep) + 3 (Dampeners) 0 = 62
  
  As far as jōnin-level seals go, this is pretty easy. Hazō thinks he could no-prep this seal (with SSA). As it is, Hazō thinks he's a third of the way done.
  
  
  Infuse CATEARS.
  
  Hazō (Sealing): 51 + 6 (prep) - 12 = 45
  Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
  Hazō (Sealing): 51 + 6 (prep) + 0 = 57
  Hazō (Calligraphy): 47 + 6 (prep) + 3 (Dampeners) + 9 = 65
  
  This pace is pretty comfortable. Hazō thinks he's three-quarters of the way done.
  
  
  Prep Substrate Extrusion Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks this rune is beyond his capabilities.
  
  Day 11
  SSA recovery.
  
  Day 12
  SSA recovery.
  
  After a couple days of jetlag timelag, Hazō has adapted to his new schedule inside the TR125. I believe player calculations have this work out to ~3 hours a day, so you may use this extra time to have Hazō conduct extra reading of his various XP lootbox notes. That's 10 training blocks worth.
  
  
  XP AWARD: 36 This update covered 12 days.
  
  Brevity XP: 10
  
  "GM had fun" XP: 0 It's getting harder to find fun stuff to write during lighthousing. Fortunately, Ma and Pa are always fun.
  
  Vote time! What to do now?
  
  Voting ends on Wednesday, Jun 5, 2024 at 7:00 AM .

 

[Paperclipped]

Chapter 663: Deadlines​

"Ypolochagos Nara."

"Lochagos Panado," Kei said, intertwining her fingers as she stood before her superior. For every day she had thus far attended the matutinal briefing on the Pangolin-Hyena border, the Lochagos had expeditiously granted her dispensation to tend her own affairs. Today, however, he failed to immediately dismiss her.

"The Hyenas are growing more aggressive with their troop movements," the Lochagos said after scrutinizing her hands for a moment. "They will soon overextend themselves. You will take your squad and travel to the village of Chūkū to aid in its defense."

"I request additional mission-pertinent information, Lochagos," Kei said. "Is Chūkū a village of strategic relevance, such that my presence is particularly important?"

"On the contrary, Ypolochagos," the pangolin replied. "Chūkū has minimal strategic relevance, compared to a number of other similar border fortress-villages which guard key passes and keep Hyena from gaining access to the plains where they will have an advantage in strategic positioning. As a result, Chūkū is relatively under-defended, and the Hyenas have never held back from striking at a soft target. Your mission is to ensure that Chūkū's people are not harmed by Hyena savagery.

"An additional goal is to give your squad combat combat experience. It will not be battle-hardened Hyena skirmishers who attack Chūkū. Given that your squad has not fought any battles together yet, the relatively undisciplined raiders will be a better whetstone for your team's claws. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Lochagos Panado," Kei said, standing stiff.

"Then go. Your squad is ready to march."

o-o-o​

Hazou SandPincher looked up to see Kagome-sensei walking towards him in slow motion. The older man crossed an invisible boundary and stopped abruptly, looking around. After a couple moments, he continued forward at normal speed, grumbling all the while.

"Stinking rune messing with the flow of time, going to pull open the folds of the timestream and let the chrono-reavers out so they can eat our faces. Are you sure you should be spending so much time in here, Hazou?"

Kagome glanced around at the other four Hazous and their storage-seal-manifested research stations that surrounded the glowing, humming rune on the island's wide beach. The Hazous were arranged in a ring, each about sixty meters apart from the others, all affected by the time acceleration provided by the central rune. Near the rune, a squat and sturdy MEW hut gave Hazou Prime a dark place to sleep when the time acceleration forced him to sleep during the day. Spent Daybright Lantern seals scattered around showed the price of Hazou working through the nights.

"Time is the only thing I need more of, Kagome-sensei. Do you think the rune is secretly poisoning me?"

"No…" Kagome said. All their tests with various flora and fauna had shown no harm from being within the rune's effect.

"Do you think the rune is going to fail?"

"No…" The rune didn't do anything dangerous when it ran out of power. The time acceleration just gradually faded away to zero and the rune turned back into an ordinary rock.

"Then I can't afford not to use every advantage I can get to win the rift war."

"Hmph," Kagome said, crossing his arms and quickly surveilling the field. "You're still going to the proper facilities for any infusion?"

"Of course, sensei," Hazou said. "Given what the rune infusions do to the environment, I wouldn't want to expose our actual camp to any risk. I really don't want to risk any infusion failures affecting the time rune while it's running, too. This is all only prep work."

"Fine," he said. "I just woke up. I saw what you're working on. Those are the copies I made of the Hokage's seal notes, right? From when he put the Fox in his kid's body."

"That's right," Hazou said. "Akatsuki took the originals, but we're lucky that Asuma had us make copies to give back to the Tower. I needed to decode them again, but it was faster the second time."

"I thought we gave up on those notes because they were full of face-on-fire gibberish," Kagome said. "Let me guess, now that you can make ninjutsu, you're trying to figure them out again?"

Hazou nodded. "I think… Kagome-sensei, I think I can figure it out."

Kagome's eyes went wide. "Show me," he said.

"I don't know if there's anything to show you," Hazou said, turning the notes around for Kagome-sensei to see. "You already read the decoded versions. You remember when I went over them with Asuma? He said that the technique hacking stuff was gibberish too – just weird exercises and ways of stretching your chakra that didn't actually achieve anything."

"Then what is it?"

"I think it's a manual," Hazou said carefully. "Look, you know how you have a chakra system, and by pushing and twisting chakra in just the right ways, you can cast a ninjutsu? Well, when you're pulling a ninjutsu apart or putting it together, you can't always keep the chakra entirely contained within the regular, easy-to-control parts of your chakra system. Sometimes, you make these weird little channels of pure chakra to redistribute chakra from one part of your system to another directly, when you normally wouldn't be able to transfer it because it would cause a counterflow or make the technique trigger prematurely or something.

"Well, those weird little channels of pure chakra? I think what the Fourth Hokage did is use those channels of chakra… to make seals."

Kagome-sensei frowned. "I don't get it."

"I don't think I fully get it either. But the channels basically let you move your chakra around with direction in a constrained flow. It's the same as chakra ink, and it's the same as the cave crystal used for runes. Well, pretty different given that it's maintained only by your willpower instead of any physical medium, but it's at least theoretically something that you could make seals out of."

"Sounds stupid. Like, really, monumentally, damnbeasts-eat-your-face-off stupid. You said you need to be focusing the whole time on maintaining the seal's structure? How hard is it to manage each of the chakra channels?"

"Well…" Hazou said. "I can make one channel and keep it stable. I can imagine a couple of reasons why I would need to manage two at the same time, but that would be really tricky. Maybe if I were a bit more skilled, I could try, but I'd probably fracture my chakra system. I bet a good technique hacker could handle it though."

"But each channel is like the stroke of a paper seal, right?"

"Right…" Hazou said.

"And there are thirty-six strokes in just the first seal that the stinking Hokage made!" Kagome said. "You can't do this Hazou. You'll just die. And then you need to keep it all stable while you're infusing it? Bioseals are deadly because the patterns change over time after you infuse it, but even biosealers are smart compared to the kind of dummy it would take to try to infuse a seal whose patterns can change while you're infusing it. How would you even infuse a seal if it's made of your own chakra? You can't touch it like a normal seal, and you can't push your chakra through it if it's already made of your chakra. And what happens after you infuse it? You just need to keep focusing on it forever until you eventually need to sleep and then the seal fails and your chakra all gets sucked into a rift and one of the whispering schemers starts piloting around your body since you're gone and then it starts secretly killing us all one by one until-"

"It's not that bad, Kagome-sensei," Hazou said quickly. "That's what I meant when I said there's a manual. Those weird exercises that Asuma talked about? They're exercises for improving your ability to maintain those chakra channels. And the seals are apparently kinda stable once they're infused. You can't just ignore them, but if you can apply a little bit of… 'pressure', they'll just keep their shape and stay anchored to your chakra system. There's exercises for that too, to teach you how to maintain the 'pressure' to keep the seal stable even when you sleep. As to how you infuse it… I don't know. I tried to read that part, but I don't think I really got it. There's more complicated stuff in here, but I don't think it's completely unachievable."

"This sounds stupid, Hazou," Kagome said seriously. "Insanely, fantastically, pants-on-head stupid."

"Yeah, probably," Hazou said. "Honestly, I have no clue how the Fourth Hokage figured this out. The exercises aren't written like a pedagogical tool – like 'you need to be able to do this skill, so practice this until you hit this benchmark.' It's all first person. 'I tried this, and it didn't work out,' or 'After three days of this exercise, I was able to stabilize two more channels than before.' I don't know how he had the idea, chased it, and mastered it without killing himself in a chakra fracture or a sealing failure or some unholy combination of the two."

"The Sage cheats, Hazou," Kagome said. "You can't trust him. You should put those down for now, Hazou. You said you can't waste time? From the sound of it, that stuff is a giant stinking time-wasting mudslide with a fully-armed killbox at the bottom."

"I suppose so," Hazou said, setting the pile of notes down. "What are you working on today, Kagome-sensei?"

As Kagome-sensei started to talk about his latest adjustment of the trap arrays to account for the Scenery Clone and Silence Shell seals, even the growing brightness of dawn couldn't keep Hazou's tired mind from wandering. He'd been working day and night on seals and runes of every type to try to find one that could credibly oppose Akatsuki, to little avail. But if it did work out, his work would look like the Fourth Hokage's. The Fourth's notes were the path that did work. Hazou would never know how many dead-end research pathways the man had explored. If Hazou found something, would anyone but him remember the hundreds of ideas that had died on the pyre to make the one critical rune work out?

Or maybe Hazou's work wouldn't end up like the Fourth's. The Fourth had made these seals over the course of years of research in peacetime. Hazou, on the other hand, had weeks or months at most. What would happen if Hazou's hands were still empty when Naruto finally gave word that Akatsuki had opened the rift?

o-o-o​

Kei looked over the village of Chūkū. Doing so required no great feat of athleticism – the Pangolin settlement boasted barely ten dozen pangolins of various ages and subspecies, though only two of them stood above her shoulder. The corresponding earthen domes of the village's denizens, arranged in neat, honeycomb rows, were barely taller, and two minutes at a civilian's walking pace up the village's eastern acclivity sufficed to observe the miniscule colony in its entirety.

At the surface, it was an ordinary Pangolin settlement. Hardworking laborers heaped wet grasses and wood chips into the termite mounds, artisans huddled around the community board to read the local authority's latest decrees, and even a few pangopups were rolling through carefully-chosen streets far from the watchful eyes of those who might report them for their lack of discipline.

Still, any dullard would be able to tell that the village was not ordinary. Even a Hagoromo would have seen that in the sky, barely a half-dozen miles away, the Pangolin brown faded to a Hyena yellow: a sign of the land's recent conquest. Hyena had halted the Pangolin advance in the mountains, but the fertile fields had been claimed.

And claimed they had been. The treeline had receded perhaps thirty meters from logging, and deep troughs in the ground marked where they had been dragged to sit in the stream so that their wood might be softened to more easily appeal to the termites' palate. The scythed grasses and bare roots of the forest beyond revealed additional fodder fed to the termite piles – inadequately, Snowflake had noted yesterday, as the piles were approximately thirty percent larger than optimal. The typical comestible termites from the Pangolin heartlands were not thriving with their new food source, and the settlers of Chūkū were attempting to resolve a problem of quality with additional quantity.

Even the village looked bare. The painted earthen domes only bore colored splashes on their bottom two rows at most, indicating particular honors or service to the community performed by the occupying family. Compared to the multifarious colors she had seen in larger settlements, it was clear that Chūkū had no storied history in Pangolin's annals.

Yet, the pangolins believed they owned it all the same. She would certainly never second-guess the Ministry of Doctrine's claims of the supposed alliance between Hyena and Condor (excepting of course the extent to which the story justifying Hyena's persecution had led Conjura and the Wings of Liberty to fight on Hyena's behalf for years), but unlike the Condor lands supposedly owed to the Pangolins, the Ministry made no ancestral claim on Hyena lands. The land had been claimed and settled purely as restitution for Hyena treachery.

And now she was required to fight to defend it. From her vantage point, she could easily mark the three burly pangolin warriors she had been assigned to command. Two were aiding with tasks around the village, but Panga, on lookout, noted her gaze and swiftly crossed his claws together for his Ypolochagos. Kei quickly returned the salute so the pangolin warrior would redirect his attention.

Would she defend the village? She knew she needed to, if she wished to keep the Pangolin Scroll, but perhaps the moral compromises required by the contract outweighed the potentially-diminishing utility of a clan finally coming to terms with her lack of loyalty to the regime they all unquestioningly obeyed.

Word had come through the chain of command that Hyena had finally broken the truce, attacking a seemingly under-defended battlegroup camping in disadvantageous terrain. Those hyenas had discovered that they'd pounced directly into a claws-out ambush by a fully armed subterranean platoon. Distantly, the fighting had resumed in earnest, with hyenas killing pangolins and pangolins killing hyenas. The conflict would soon spread parasitically, even to this nearly-idyllic corner.

She would defend the village. In the short week that she had watched over it, she had come to know its inhabitants. They wholeheartedly endorsed Pangolin's colonial expansion, of course, but they were no part of it. They had left to the newly-conquered lands because they knew they would find easier work, better resources, and more readily-assigned breeding licenses. They were not at fault for the war that she and Pantsaa had instigated any more than Condor was.

She looked down at the kunai she held, checking once again that the various tags were appropriately affixed. If she was going to fight for the pangolins, she would be fighting against hyenas.

Kei's hands were stained as red as anyone's could be (bar a few extravagantly evil exceptions such as Hidan or Orochimaru), and she did not deny the extent of the harm, suffering, and death she had caused. Yet, foolish as it was, she had still found comfort occasionally in a shallow, irrational moral observation: for all that she had done, she had yet to end the life of a sentient creature by her own hand.

She had certainly tried to do so, so this false freedom was one granted solely by her own incompetence as a shinobi, but it was still the case that she had not killed human or summon. When the unending torrents of blood spilling forth from the Pangolin war machine kept her from sleep, she had at least been able to lie to herself. It was not I who did this, she would tell herself. The foot-soldiers and warriors, who know nothing but following orders, who are nothing more than gears in a machine, are the ones to blame. I, who set everything in motion, never held the knife.

How would she sleep without such lies? Similarly poorly, she suspected. In Kago, she had traded the life of five condor slaves for her reputation, and then at the Conclave, she had traded the life of another for her freedom. How many hyenas would she kill as the price of her conceited conception of justice?

The wind shifted.

"Hyenas!" Panga called out, nose going up in the air and sniffing rapidly. "Coming in from the south."

Her training overrode any moral inclinations and Kei substituted into the town. An additional substitution brought her into the south-facing blind. She could see movement in the grass, but she couldn't see how many hyenas there were. A dozen or less.

Kei started to make handseals to prepare the Ghost Scales technique, only to freeze as the first of the hyenas broke out of the tall grass onto the dirt strip surrounding the town. Another followed, then another, until six stood on the town's outskirts. They gazed atop a dome where Snowflake stood.

Snowflake threw a kunai. The hyenas tensed, but the weapon flew short by a dozen meters and landed in the dirt. A single tag fluttered in the gentle breeze.

The hyenas watched the tag as the trio of bulky pangolin warriors stepped forward from the domes, spreading into the dirt-covered no man's land between the grasses and the village.

One by one, the hyenas slinked back into the tall grass.

"No," Snowflake's voice called out sternly, and Kei turned to see one of the pangolin warriors preparing a ninjutsu to strike at the fleeing hyenas. "They're too far, and striking now would prematurely reveal tactical information about our ninjutsu."

"We should hunt them down," Kei heard Panga tell Snowflake, and knew already that Snowflake would refuse. "They will be back."

And when they returned, they would be prepared for a summoner.

Perhaps Kei would require additional explosive tags.

---

While this update lasted 10 days subjectively to Hazou, it only lasted 9 days on the calendar. In future long/research plans, please list the intended subjective and objective duration. You may list this at the top with the wordcounter, so that it doesn't penalize your overall word count.

Naruto has a response for your questions. He says the ideal attack scenario is against the rift site as you suggested – take out whichever subset of them are guarding the rift and clean up whatever Jashinists and Rain ninja are present, then close the rift to trap and kill any rift explorers via the afterlife's chakra drain before moving the rift to a more secure location. Consequently, the expected scenario is against a static target where you're unlikely to get on-site prep time.

He expects Leaf's surveillance/tracking capabilities to be minimal, as Itachi will be aware of many of Leaf's tricks. He thinks that they will try to avoid being predictable if possible – for instance, they likely won't sleep on-site at the rift, but might instead pick a location a few miles out in a random direction. Still, they probably will need to visit the rift site at some point, which may be observable (e.g. by tunneling Hyuuga).

He does not think finding a pair at random is a particularly viable path, much less finding two pairs in quick succession, except perhaps when they cluster up at the rift site to pull Pain out. He doesn't expect them to have any noteworthy long-distance communication abilities, so if you manage to kill a pair, then the others probably won't be alerted for at least a couple weeks (except Itachi/Kisame, who will probably quickly notice the other's absence on the Seventh Path).

Finally, he has cajoled certain limited information about the abilities of the Sharingan out of Sasuke: As far as Sasuke is aware, the Sharingan is doing "true" precognition, instead of making predictions based on what Sasuke knows. In practice, its useful predictions are usually within three seconds or less. It can theoretically see farther – perhaps half a minute – but predictions beyond a few seconds quickly become so hazy as to be mostly useless. It can be sustained for a long time – minutes easily, but hours will start substantially digging into one's chakra reserves, and it can be activated and deactivated near instantaneously.

Hazou writes a letter to Sasha congratulating her on her graduation. It is set to be delivered on the 25th of August (5 days from the end of this update) when she graduates. Mari has been pulling the strings of sensei assignment on her behalf for months. A party has been ordered.

Spoiler: Seal and rune research

Day 1
Prep TR75. Difficulty Result: Hazou thinks he could maybe do this rune.
Prep Runic Air Dome.
Prep Runic HOWS.
Prep Draconic Decay Explosive. Difficulty Result: Hazou thinks he could maybe do this rune.
Prep Air Leadening Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazou thinks this rune is well within his capabilities.

Day 2
Prep Force Blades.
Prep Runic Air Dome.
Prep Runic HOWS.
Prep Telescope Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazou thinks he could maybe do this rune.
Prep Hotbang Seal. Difficulty Result: Jiraiya.

Day 3
Infuse Force Blades.

Hazou (Sealing): 51 + 24 (SSA) + 2 (prep) + 0 = 78
Hazou (Calligraphy): 47 + 3 (IN) + 3 (Dampeners) + 2 (prep) - 9 = 46
Hazou spends a FP to reroll!
Hazou (Calligraphy): 47 + 3 (IN) + 3 (Dampeners) + 2 (prep) - 3 = 52

Progress is slower without all that prep, but this is still a nice steady pace. Hazou thinks he's over halfway done.


Infuse Runic Air Dome.

Hazou (Primordial Sealing): 19 + 25 (crossover bonus from SSA-boosted Sealing) + 4 (prep) - 6 = 42
Hazou spends a FP to reroll!
Hazou (Primordial Sealing): 19 + 25 (crossover bonus from SSA-boosted Sealing) + 4 (prep) + 3 = 51
Hazou (Earthshaping): 50 + 4 (prep) - 6 (timeladdering down) - 3 = 45

Hazou thinks another cycle should do it.


Infuse Runic HOWS.

Hazou (Primordial Sealing): 19 + 17 (crossover bonus from non-SSA Sealing) + 4 (prep) + 3 = 43
Hazou (Earthshaping): 50 + 4 (prep) - 6 (timeladdering down) + 6 = 54

Perhaps if he'd been using SSA, Hazou would have finished this. Instead, he thinks he's nearly done.


Prep Hotbang Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazou thinks he could maybe do this rune.
Prep TR50. Difficulty Result: Hazou thinks this rune is beyond his capabilities.

Day 4
SSA recovery.

Day 5
SSA recovery.

Day 6
Prep Force Blades
Prep Runic Air Dome.
Prep Runic HOWS.
Prep Jinchuuriki Chain Seal #9. Hazou gains access to a new stunt, details forthcoming.
Prep Icarus Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazou thinks this rune is well within his capabilities.

Day 7
Prep Force Blades
Prep Runic Air Dome.
Prep Runic HOWS.
Prep Atmospheric Collapse Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazou thinks this rune is beyond his capabilities.
Prep Anti-Reverse Summoning Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazou thinks this rune is beyond his capabilities

Day 8
Infuse Force Blades.

Hazou (Sealing): 51 + 24 (SSA) + 4 (prep) + 0 = 80
Hazou (Calligraphy): 47 + 3 (IN) + 3 (Dampeners) + 4 (prep) - 6 = 51

Hazou is nearly done with Force Blades. With decent luck, he thinks he will be done in one more research cycle.


Infuse Runic Air Dome.

Hazou (Primordial Sealing): 19 + 25 (crossover bonus from SSA-boosted Sealing) + 4 (prep) + 0 = 48
Hazou (Earthshaping): 50 + 4 (prep) - 6 (timeladdering down) - 6 = 42

Hazou completes the Runic Air Dome! Over the course of ~30 seconds, the rune forms a dome of solidified air fixed in place relative to the surface of the earth with the rune at the center of the dome. At infusion (not activation) time, the diameter of the dome can be varied between ~60 meters (the rune's Zone and every surrounding Zone) and 1 kilometer. Lasts ~1 week.

Can displace or destroy some matter to form the dome (e.g. trees will be bent or broken) sufficiently sturdy material (e.g. solid stone buildings) will disrupt the dome's formation.

The dome has Durability 10 (TN100 to damage, 10 stress boxes) and reduces its stress by 1 every 30 seconds. If the dome's stress track is exceeded, the entire dome is destroyed for 1d4 hours, after which it reforms.

Hazou thinks it may be possible to research a rune with even greater range and durability, perhaps by using pure force instead of compressed air.


Infuse Runic HOWS.

Hazou (Primordial Sealing): 19 + 17 (crossover bonus from non-SSA Sealing) + 4 (prep) + 3 = 43
Hazou (Earthshaping): 50 + 4 (prep) - 6 (timeladdering down) + 9 = 57

Hazou completes the Runic HOWS! Within the rune's Zone, everyone is effectively blinded by intense omnidirectional light. The light is white by default but can be tuned at infusion time just like seal-based HOWS. Outside the Zone, the rune's Zone is perceived as a white sphere, providing bright illumination for around 5 zones in every direction. The rune lasts indefinitely.


Prep Chakra Drain Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazou thinks this rune is beyond his capabilities.
Prep Lesser Runic Prison. Difficulty Result: Hazou thinks this rune is beyond his capabilities.

Day 9
SSA recovery.

Day 10
SSA recovery.

Hazou is not entirely confident in his ability to prepare a scroll of Furrowed Brow of the Earth Mother, given that he's only just created it and the technique hasn't fully stabilized. It will be hard to accurately describe the technique in a scroll such that anyone can learn it when he has only 1 level in the technique.

Hazou offers Tenten Rocket Boots in exchange for her help on the Rocket-boosted kunai project. Kei thinks the odds of Rocket Boots being stolen and reverse-engineered in the next couple months before she is able to return to Leaf and resolve the ambiguity in the Concubine Laws in her favor to be minimal, especially given that Tenten is generally quite discreet. Tenten accepts, with the caveat that she won't interrupt her regular mission schedule.

Cannai says that border skirmishes with Leopard are increasing in frequency, but the most impactful combat available to the Dog Summoner would be in Hyena.

Kagome reports within a couple of days that a number of Arachnid jutsu exist to manipulate silk, though the silk isn't suitable for runecrafting on account of not being chakra conductive. He didn't find any such jutsu adapted to human use, though he says that the relevant Arachnids are willing (or would be, on Kumokougou's orders) to work with a human technique hacker to adapt the techniques.

Kagome has finished the Silence Shell Seal Array and will start using them in his defense formations. By default, he'll go back to working on the rift seals. He's willing to do so from within the time acceleration rune.

For this update, I'll award brevity XP based on subjective rather than objective time, but we don't have a policy one way or another.

XP Award: 25 + 10 (brevity) XP

Vote time! What to do now?

Voting ends on Jun 8, 2024 at 1:00 PM .

 

[eaglejarl]

Chapter 664: Trumpets Lifted​

"Your timing is interesting," Cannai mused.

"Oh?"

"Yes. I have a military mission that would be perfect for you. I had in fact been thinking about requiring you to go, but since you are, quote, feeling antsy and wanting to be useful so is there anything I can do on the military side, end quote, I believe I shall indeed send you on this mission."

"Cool," Hazō said with a smile. "What's the mission?"

"A punitive raid against the Leopards. Cross the border, murder twelve of them, urinate on the corpses, and leave them to rot in the sun. Do not kill cubs. Leave one parent alive if you can do so without losing your own people."

The smile fell away. "Oh."

Cannai's jaw dropped slightly open and he panted very slightly in amusement. "You were expecting that I would send you on a lovely trot along the border, looking across rolling vistas in hopes of spotting a stroppy young kitty that you could chase back home with their fuzzy little tail between their legs?"

"I...don't know? I guess I hadn't thought Dog was going across the border."

"This will be the first time. Until now, we have held our borders while the leopards have raided us. We have intercepted many raiders, killed those we could catch and chased the rest off."

"...And? What changed?"

"What changed is that they refuse to take the hint, and they have been stepping up their raids. The leopards have two advantages over dogs: first, they are more powerful fighters on an individual basis. Second, they are vastly better at stealth. They do not come across the border in a massed charge, battle howls leading the way. They began by slinking across in ones or sometimes in twos, hiding in the grass until they find a vulnerable group. They have recently escalated to larger groups, but their tactics remain the same. They kill, they mark, and they leave. They do not respond to diplomatic outreach. I am tired of this."

He looked across the wide grass between where they stood and the border where the nearest leopard might stand. "I am so tired of this," he murmured.

He turned back to Hazō and his voice was firm once more. "I have committed Dog to the defense of Hyena against Pangolin. I cannot afford to have Leopard, in alliance with Pangolin, flanking me on the southeast. More importantly, I am not willing to continue having my people killed.

"A certain amount of raiding can be accepted. It could even be argued to be a good thing—it keeps our skills sharp, and military weakness is a thing that no clan can afford. Unfortunately, they have gone well beyond the acceptable amount of raiding. It is happening along the entire border, multiple times per day in multiple locations, and they are doing more than harassing a few warriors."

"And so we're taking the fight to them," Hazō said.

"No. We are driving Hyōhakken to meet with me so that we may find a way to make peace."

"And if he doesn't want to...?"

"Then Dog will devastate Leopard."

"...Excuse me?"

"They have been raiding across our mutual border and also through the southwestern edge of Hyena. Yesterday, they murdered the Winding River pack to our west—whether by intent or as collateral damage, I neither know nor care. They also killed one hundred and thirteen other dogs across several hundred miles. This is not raiding, this is war. At least, it is about to be unless Hyōhakken is able to see reason."

"And war means...what, extermination?" Long experience with the Pangolin clan made Hazō jump straight to the worst option.

"Not literally. We will not kill cubs and we will try to leave one parent alive from any pairing. Aside from that, we will kill or drive off all potential combatants and claim at least a third of their territory." Canine jaws dropped open, teeth showing. "For a Clan Lord, it is extremely painful to have territory taken. Rather like having part of your body torn away."

"I see." He licked his lips, trying to decide if he should continue. "Okay. Where am I going?"

"You have an objection."

"No sir."

"Hazō."

"I..." He fell silent. "Call it what you want, but what you're talking about is the next best thing to exterminating the Leopard Clan. Leaving aside the moral implications, which I am not, is that even a thing we could do?"

Cannai laughed. "Oh yes. Yes, we could. Hazō, Dog is one of the largest Clans in the world. Leopard is a fraction of a Clan, and they broke off from Feline quite recently. Yes, the average leopard is equally matched to two or perhaps three dogs. I have two or three dogs for every leopard. I have ten dogs for every leopard. If I wanted to empty Leopard and claim every pawspan of it as my own, I could do it. It would cost far more lives than I would wish to sacrifice, but if this raiding were to continue then it would eventually cost even more."

"Wouldn't the other Clans have a major problem with you—with us exterminating the majority of a Clan and claiming their land?"

"Most likely."

"So...would it be a good idea?"

"It is debatable. Is it better to be seen as weak, unable to protect my own against a constant niggling drain, or to be seen as potentially aggressive towards neighbors who have not yet harmed me?" He cocked his head in the canine version of a shrug. "I would like to believe that clear communication with my new neighbors, plus their awareness of their own strength as compared to that of Leopard, would prevent the spread of hostilities. Still, this is why I wish to speak with Hyōhakken. He risks his people being devastated by Dog. I risk my people being warred upon by multiple enemy clans at once."

He snorted in amusement. "Plus, were I to conquer all of Leopard I would suddenly share a border with Pangolin. I have no desire for close connection to imperialist warmongers who apparently justify their ambitions through religious fervor."

"You could hand off some of the land to Hyena, or Rat," Hazō said.

"True, although I doubt either polity would wish to extend their borders with Pangolin. Regardless, the preferred option is for Hyōhakken to pull back his people. The first step in that is to convince him to speak with me. The second step is to convince him that he should either accept the alliance I previously offered, or at the least close the border between us to raids, as doing otherwise risks the death of most of his clan's military force."

"Would it have to involve killing such a large fraction of them? If having land taken from you is so painful, wouldn't it be sufficient to simply do that?"

"Perhaps, but I am not willing to bet my clan's safety on 'perhaps'. With the threat of the Pangolin on the horizon I cannot afford a second front, which means I need Hyōhakken to stand down. Unfortunately, leopards tend to share a few traits, arrogance among them. It is difficult to convince them to back down and, if we are being completely honest, I do not expect this negotiation to work. I fully expect that Hyōhakken will either increase his raids in response to this push or will come to the meeting only to curse and insult me.

"I will give him ten days to meet with me," Cannai said. "If he will meet and suspend hostilities then I will spend as long as necessary negotiating a peace between us. If he refuses to meet within ten days then Dog will begin the destruction of Leopard. If that campaign begins, it will not stop even if the Leopards attempt to yield. Aside from cubs and some parents, they will either flee the portion of their homeland that I claim or they will die."

"That's...extreme."

"Indeed. It is also practical. I am sending a message, and only incidentally does it go to Hyōhakken. The message is primarily for Pantsā and the rest of the clans east of the mountains; Dog is a peaceful neighbor with no interest in conflict. We are slow to rouse and we will negotiate in good faith if given any opportunity, but if you push us too far then the response will be catastrophic. We make far better allies than rivals, and far better rivals than enemies. It is my hope that if I make this demonstration once then I shall never need to make it again."

"And so I kill twelve of them?"

"You and a troop of dogs, yes. Yesterday they killed six dogs in this area, so we shall kill twelve in response. Repeating what I said before: do not kill cubs. If you encounter a mated pair with cubs then, if at all possible, leave one parent alive." He considered Hazō for a moment before continuing. "I am not perfectly clear on human morality and approaches to warfare, so I shall spell this out and hope you will grant pardon if it is obvious: the highest priority is to preserve your own lives while completing the mission. I expect you to fight intelligently, keeping yourself and your troops alive and able. Ambush your enemies, use deceit, stack the odds in your favor. Do not charge in like an idiot. There is no concept of 'fair' when teeth are reddened, and you should put such notions aside if you hold them. If a fight is too difficult, pull back and find an easier one.

"If for some bizarre reason it is completely impossible to avoid killing a cub, or if you do it by accident, I will understand. I will understand, but I will be ashamed. It will be a stain on the honor of Dog, one that will never wash away, but I do not expect you to prioritize the life of a leopard over that of yourself and your troops."

"Understood."

"Excellent. Mount and I shall take you to your troop. Along the way I shall brief you on Leopard."

o-o-o-o​

"So, what should I expect?" Hazō asked as the team crossed the border, the eight dogs running in a loose cluster with Hazō at the center. "From the leopards, I mean."

"All leopards are cowards!" Cansaku shouted from the left edge of the cluster. The junior dog on the mission, the brown-and-tan Cansaku came up to Hazō's knee but moved with energy and seemed to vibrate even when standing still. Add a green outfit, sprinkle in some homoerotic innuendo, and he would have been a perfect canine model of Rock Lee.

"Shut up, brat!" hissed Cancurunchu, the leader of the troop. "Ignore him," he said to Hazō. "I have no idea how the kid has stayed this naive this long, but somehow he has. The leopards aren't cowards, they just fight differently than us. They tend to be solitary, although it seems like their Boss has been trying to change that lately, forcing them to live in larger groups. More relevantly, he's been forcing them to fight in larger groups. Used to be that they would come across the border alone, or maybe with a mate. Find a dog who was off on their own, kill 'em, retreat. Now we're getting groups of three and four on the regular."

"Get to the important part, boss," Canzappu said. The short-haired ninjutsu specialist was tiny, perhaps six inches at the shoulder and only a few pounds. He had giant ears that seemed too large for his snub-nosed face.

Hazō had been fighting hard not to show how cute he found Canzappu. He had a feeling it would not be appreciated. He had this feeling because upon their first meeting the dog had greeted him with, "I'm Canzappu, long-range ninjutsu specialist, and if you don't take me seriously I'll burn your guts out. Only warning." Hazō had nodded solemnly but had needed to make an extra effort when he was putting Canzappu's combat harness on and it turned out the little dog was ticklish. Watching him dance around, back leg thumping involuntarily at the ground, had nearly broken even the Iron Nerve's ability to keep a straight face.

"What's the important part?" Hazō asked, forcing his face to say sober as he jogged along, rather than grinning at the adorable little piping squeak that was Canzappu's voice.

"They put a heavy emphasis on stealth," Canzappu squeaked. "In combat, at least. They're usually too arrogant to bother when they're just going from A to B. As soon as the fighting starts, they'll disappear and come at you from your blind spot. It's a total pain in the ass." He puffed up his chest. "Fortunately, you've got me along."

"Pttthbt!" Cansaku said, blowing a remarkably good raspberry considering that canine jaws weren't terribly well suited. "You're such a braggart."

"I swear on the soul of the Alpha," Cancurunchu said tiredly, "if you don't keep your voice down, I will end you. How are we supposed to get to grips with the kitties if they know we're coming from six miles away?"

"Oh please," Cansaku said. "Like they won't see us coming with this giant wheatstalk running alongside." He nosed towards Hazō, whose upright build was in fact visible from farther away than the comparatively low-slung dogs.

"...We'll manage," Cancurunchu said, his voice failing to conceal the fact that he clearly felt Cansaku had made a valid point.

"By the same token, I'll see them from farther away too," Hazō said. "Speaking of which. I've got my skywalker seals with me. If you'd like, I can go up a few hundred feet and use a telescope to spot the kitties."

"Nope," Cancurunchu said. "They'd see you too and then we'd either never get close or we'd get jumped by a couple dozen curious kitties all at once. Let's keep it low and take a few at a time, yeah?"

"You're the boss," Hazō said. "Going back to the previous topic for a sec; you said that they tend to attack from stealth. Does that mean melee fights, claws and jaws?"

"Mostly," Cancurunchu said. "Most of them do the shadow thing, then jump out and bite your face off. Some of them use ninjutsu at long range. Mostly to lock you down so they can come in and bite your face off. Still."

Hazō nodded thoughtfully and the conversation petered out.

They had been running for maybe half an hour when they met their first prey.

The meeting was a surprise for both sides. The land had been trending upwards for the last hour, its rocky and sandy nature meaning that there was little undergrowth and most of what was there was low grasses unsuitable for concealment. Hazō and the eight dogs of the raiding troop ("Not a pack," Canfuwumpu had said when Hazō mistakenly used the term. The heavy-jawed bulldog yawned in the middle of the words, then continued, "dogs from two different packs here, we're just working together for this raid because the kitties were"—he yawned again—"raiding on the border between us so we've both got a leg to bite.") had been following a shallow ravine upwards, occasionally ducking up to the skyline to look around before continuing over the next ridge.

Canchō, a six-year-old husky with bright blue eyes, had checked the ridgeline not five minutes ago while the rest of the team waited below. He pronounced it clear and waved the rest of the troop up; no sooner did Hazō crest the ridge then he caught motion below.

"You dimwit!" yorped Canhachi, Canchō's brother. "You said it was clear, so what's that?!" He pointed with his nose.

Dogs are not capable of blushing, but Canchō did the best imitation of which one was capable. "They weren't there, I swear! They must have just come over the ridge!"

"Don't be—" Canhachi started to say, only to cut off with a panicked yorp as the leopards were suddenly on top of them.

They were ridiculously fast, crossing the intervening several dozen yards before Hazō could react. Worse, they had vanished from sight the instant he had noticed them. It was as though shadows rose up from the ground and wrapped around them like cloaks, blending them into their surroundings so well that it was hard to identify even which direction they were in.

The shadows broke for just an instant as a leopard the size of a pony went past Hazō so close he could have reached out and touched it if only his stupid human reflexes could keep up. The cat ignored him in favor of Canrippu, a dog of no particular type who had groused about the harnesses the entire trip until Cancurunchu said what everyone had been thinking: "Shut it!" Canrippu had obeyed...mostly. The griping at least dropped to an ignorable mutter.

"Dog Clan Technique: Strength of the Pack!" Canrippu yelled, panic in the words. A blue aura flickered to life around him and for just an instant Hazō imagined he heard Cannai's voice on the wind, although he could not pick out words. The aura spread outwards with welcoming arms, wrapping itself around the other dogs.

Canrippu dove away from the leopard's attack on chakra-enhanced paws...that weren't fast enough. He managed to twist enough that the teeth missed and he only got hit with a shoulder block, but it was enough to send him skidding across the ground; the road rash from the rocky soil cost him several chunks of fur and left him with seeping scratches.

The cat touched down from its leap and gathered itself to spring, ready to finish its fallen prey—and then it pivoted and vanished into the darkness as Cancurunchu was between them, the strength of the packbond on his lips and its aura blazing brighter around him. The cat's mocking laughter drifted back.

To his left, Hazō caught a brief flicker of motion as another cat appeared at the top of the hill. It allowed its cloak of darkness to fall away just long enough that they could see its gape-jawed mocking smile, and then it was once more shrouded and it had disappeared into the shadows. Presumably to wait for some weakened prey.

"Sun Element: Blinding Aura!" called tiny Canzappu. Light burst forth from the dog, rendering him into a tiny sun come to earth. The effect was to light up the entire area around them, but simultaneously throw the shadows of Hazō and the troop outwards like the long fingers of a giant. The shifting light and darkness caught the cats by surprise, revealing them for just a moment before they shifted into the new areas of darkness, disappearing back into stealth again.

"Dog Clan Technique: Strength of the Pack!" Canzappu cried. More connections sprang forth, binding the dogs together more tightly, their combined power building into something greater than the sum of its parts.

A cat lunged from the darkness to Hazō's left and another from his right. The dogs split, turning to face the threats, but the leopards were only feinting. They vanished back into the darkness before anyone could react.

"Leopard Clan Technique: Fangs from Afar."

The air above them suddenly glowed with yellow mist which collapsed in on itself like a campfire burning out in reverse motion. It condensed into a massive pair of feline jaws, easily the length of Hazō's forearm with fangs the size of his fingers. The massive construct lunged down at Canrippu, snapping at him with sound that Hazō at first feared was the dog's leg breaking.

Amazingly, it was not. Canrippu had seen the construct coming and leaped, chakra empowering canine muscles to let him soar past the attack, low to the ground, muscles rippling as he prepared to leap anew.

He almost made it.

The construct spun in place, faster than anything made of flesh could have done, and lunged forward, teeth slapping together on Canrippu's left rear leg with a bite that should have snipped the limb off. Instead, the blue aura of the packbond solidified, holding the teeth back just enough that Canrippu wriggled free and rolled aside. He was limping and leaving droplets of blood on the ground, but he was still a quadruped so Hazō was calling it a win. Still, Canrippu's chest was heaving as he sucked in great gasps of air, and his aura had diminished to the faintest of flickers, its power expended in the process of protecting him.

"Plant Element: Entangling Vines," came a feline voice.

Chakra boiled up from the earth around Canzappu, solidifying into clutching vines of blasphemous purple and sickly gray-green that squeezed crushingly tight around the tiny dog—

Who casually stepped aside with a dismissve, "Pfft" and continued to scan the darkness for a target.

"Goodbye, foreign meat," came a whisper from the shadows, seeming to come from atop Hazō's shoulder so that he whipped around in surprise and shock. "Soul Element: Crushing Fear."

Ahead, the shadows were pressed back by twin lights that opened, and opened wider. No, not lights. Eyes. Eyes that drank the wan light of the Seventh Path, magnified it, and sent it forth as the yellow of sickness, the promise of rot. The eyes were huge, predator's eyes that whispered of all the things that had kept endless generations of humans awake, huddled around their fires with pointy sticks in hand as they jumped at every tiny noise and waited for death to take them.

Hazō laughed, brushing the effect aside. It was a good try, certainly, but no one who had been trained by the sadistic genjutsu mistress Gōketsu (née Inoue) Mari would be bothered. Leopards were many things, but subtle was not among them.

"Get fucked, cat," he called back as he brushed a finger across the seal on the underside of his left forearm.

The Chakra Adhesion Triggered Enhanced Activation Relay Seal was a masterwork. Most seals would not activate unless the user threaded their chakra into the seal in a specific and delicate pattern, a pattern that took a full second or two to manage, even for the best-trained ninja. Hazō's invention, on the other hand, could detect and respond to the heavy and unfocused pull of chakra adhesion that every ninja used for wallwalking. Chakra adhesion was quick and dirty, something that required no thought whatsoever. You just reached out and pulled, nothing precise or delicate about it. The seal would detect the brush of chakra adhesion and would activate, triggering a second seal that had previously been paired to it.

When Hazō had shown it to her and explained how the seal worked, Kei had been very much of two minds. On the one hand, it was brilliant and incredibly useful and would give the Gōketsu a much-needed combat advantage against the rest of the world. On the other hand, the acronym was CATEARS.

Hazō pushed amusing memories of his sister aside to focus on the current moment. This particular CATEARS seal was paired to the first in a chain of Multiple Activation Relay Seals that activated Banshee Slayer sound protection on Hazō and all the dogs, then triggered a frankly ridiculous number of Hazō's new Force Claw seals, then fired off a Rocket Boot seal.

The Rocket Boot seal was in a pocket at the center of Hazō's back. Also in the pocket, in front of the seal, was a palm-sized steel plate with a second seal on the outside. When the Rocket Boot activated it blasted the plate out and sent it bouncing to the ground several yards away. It tore a massive hole in his shirt in the process, but that was a problem for future Hazō and his sewing kit to deal with. Probably a shadow clone of future Hazō, actually; Shadow Clones had no problem doing tedious and boring stuff when so ordered.

Back on topic: the ejection of the steel plate was important, because the final thing that the MARS chain did was to trigger the seal on that steel plate: a Banshee Fucker.

The Banshee Fucker seal emitted a sound so loud that it was only barely a sound instead of an explosive shockwave. The first time Hazō had tried it he had set it off in contact with his body; fortunately, Tsunade had been in attendance. She had examined him and then been reassuring and gentle. Which was a really bad sign, actually. If you had a problem with your leg it was much better to have Tsunade say, "Walk it off, you slacker!" instead of "That looks a little uncomfortable. Let me get you some willowbark tea." The former meant that your leg was broken but it was a clean break and you probably wouldn't even have a limp as long as you did your physical therapy. The latter meant that your leg was gangrenous and you should start deciding who you wanted to give your eulogy.

The Banshee Fucker went off and even the protection of the Banshee Slayer sound-muffling seals on Hazō's collar were not sufficient to completely block the effects. He could hear it, very vaguely, but more importantly he could feel it in his chest, great slamming waves that made him feel like he was getting punched at half strength, over and over again.

The cats, lacking hearing protection and possessing a far better sense of hearing to start with, screamed and staggered. Their protective shadows flickered in and out, showing the leopards in freeze-frame images that made them look like a flipbook being turned too slowly, rendering them into disparate images instead of a smooth flow. They staggered drunkenly, screaming and whimpering at the sheer sonic impact.

Cankamu, the heavy-jawed bulldog who somehow managed to keep up with Hazō and the others despite having legs that barely reached the ground, raced forward to where the largest of the leopards stutter-stepped near the top of the ridge. It saw him coming and gathered itself, jaws gaping wide in a feline scream of threat and pain mixed together. It raised a paw, claws the size of Hazō's thumbs suddenly appearing as it slashed at—

Cankamu dropped and slid under the paw smash, barely evading the clashing jaws in the process. He got his jaws into the leopard's front leg and chomped. The cat screamed in pain and jumped back but Cankamu lunged to his feet, coming up under the cat and biting into its underbelly.

Cankamu's jaws would have been dangerous enough were he fighting alone. He wasn't. The strength of his pack surged through him, the blue aura strengthening and speeding him to make his blows more dangerous, to let him slide barely past blows that should have clipped him. Perhaps more importantly, however, Cankamu had a sealmaster on his side.

The Force Wall seal used two elements to generate a 4-meter by 4-meter wall of insanely sharp and completely transparent force. The Force Claw seal was Hazō's turn on it; it used only one element and it generated a blade of transparent force four inches long. A blade that was so sharp it could carve sunlight.

Every single one of the dogs had a Force Claw seal attached to a pad on their heads, the blade projecting forward in parallel to their eyeline. They also had a variety of other Force Claw seals at various angles on their backs and sides, but that wasn't relevant at the moment.

The blade sank into the leopard's guts and carved its way back out without slowing down. Blood and bile poured from the wound and the cat gasped as one of its lungs was punctured. It leaped, off-balance and graceless, and vanished into the shadows of a nearby rock. It left a trail of blood behind that would have made it easy to locate had there not been more pressing issues at hand.

"Life Element Technique: Dance of the Butterflies!" Canchō called from behind Hazō.

Chakra swirled forth from the dog, condensing into colorful butterflies that glimmered and gleamed in shades of blue and green and gold. They fluttered and danced, diving into every shadow within a dozen yards of Canchō. Where those shadows contained leopards, the butterflies collected around them, their faint lights outlining the cats and obscuring their vision.

"Soul Element: Chakra's Bite!" Canchō said, continuing his signature one-two punch.

Across the battlefield, every chakra construct began to heat up and throw sparks. The sparks were small to start, painful but not dangerous, but their power increased rapidly. Most importantly, the sparks were bright and 'every chakra construct' included the butterflies that were faintly outlining each of the leopards. The animals were now covered in coruscating sheets of lightning, their chakra-created protective darkness struggling to expand outwards in order to encompass and conceal the betraying pseudo-insects.

Canrippu, eager to get his own back after being slapped around earlier, raced towards the nearest of the now-revealed leopards. The animal was still trying to get its feet under it from the sonic assault of the Banshee Fucker; it was off-balance and foggy, but it was also an experienced warrior. It went to meet Canrippu, jaws wide. It moved with almost all the characteristic speed of its kind, closing the distance faster than Hazō could blink.

At the last instant, Canrippu juked aside. He ran down the length of the animal, so close that their fur almost touched.

Their fur might not have touched, but the five Force Claw seals sticking sideways off of Canrippu's harness sure did.

Canrippu passed the leopard and kept going to a safe distance while his enemy stumbled to its knees, blood leaking from long gashes along its sides. It turned its head, snapping at Canrippu's heels and catching only air.

The Claws are too sharp, Hazō thought. They don't tear the wounds open the way a kunai would.

Dogs were pack animals, accustomed to fighting as a team, and this group knew their business. When Canrippu charged, Canhachi had followed, keeping the larger dog positioned between himself and the leopard so as to remain unseen. When the leopard turned to attack the already-passed Canrippu it left its neck wide open to Canhachi.

Canhachi, a muscular husky with a bright pink splotch on his nose and a cheery attitude when he wasn't mocking his brother, bit down on the leopard's neck and ripped its throat out halfway to the spine. The monster flopped to the ground like dropped meat, blood spraying out in a fountain that instantly drenched its killer.

"Life Element: Eye Spy," Canafuwumpu said with a yawn. White light condensed around the dog's head and was sucked into his eyes, causing them to shine faintly. "Hey, kitties, come nap with me! Dog Clan Technique: Baddies Go Fwump."

A ring of chakra pulsed out of Canafuwumpu, spilling across the battlefield in a lightning flash. Canafuwumpu yawned widely and looked around. Hazō followed his gaze, surprised to see that the leopards' darkness was once more flickering, the leopards once more staggering, except this time their eyes were drooping in exhaustion. The view lasted only an instant, the cats stumbling away from where they stood, struggling to pull their protective darkness back around themselves once more.

"Pangolin Earth Armor," Hazō said, twisting his chakra through the patterns of a jutsu that he had obtained years ago, practiced assiduously for weeks, and then never actually used. Chakra boiled out of him and crystallized, encasing his body in protective chakra-construct stone which promptly started to spark and crackle under the effects of Canchō's still-running Chakra's Bite jutsu. The blue-gray construct flowed and bent with his every motion, slowing him only slightly even as it protected and strengthened him. He shifted, allowing his newly increased mass to pull him forward into a run towards the nearest of the cats even as he slipped on his pangolin-gifted metal gauntlets. Time to show them what a Gōketsu could do!

Cancurunchu was faster, flashing past him to slam into the leopard Hazō had been heading for. The dog-team leader's massive jaws bit and tore, the Force Claw on his head gouging out slabs of meat, his weight smashing into the leopard and sending it flying into a nearby rock. It hit with a pained yelp, bounced, and rolled back to its feet.

That was enough for the leopards. As one, they turned and fled for their lives, running like a demon army was nipping at their tails. Their darkness melted away as they ran, either because they were too distracted to maintain it or because they needed the chakra for greater speed.

"Oh no you don't," Canzappu muttered. "Sun Element: Focus Blast."

The world went dark for an instant as all the light in the region collapsed into a beam that lanced through one of the fleeing leopards. It went in just behind the leopard's hip, burned through a rib, came out through the side of the belly, and converted a handspan of short grass and sandy dirt into glass and ash. Fortunately for the victim, the beam somehow managed not to be fatal. The leopard collapsed, pitch-poled helplessly, came back to its feet, and ran on three legs into the distance.

"Let 'em go," Cancurunchu said. "We got two and that lot will notify the rest. Some of them will run but some will come looking for us. Saves us the hunting."

"Didn't you say before that you didn't want dozens of them jumping us?" Hazō asked.

"Ssshh," Canfuwumpu said, yawning yet again. "Don't argue with him or he might change his mind and make us run after them. Wake me up when they get here." He turned in a circle three times, lay down, and put his tail over his eyes. Within moments he was asleep and snoring little doggy snores.

Cancurunchu sighed. "He's right," he groused. "We should catch them. Split up, two teams, let's go. Summoner, you're with me."

Spoiler: combat

Dogs are social animals, leopards are not. Ordinarily members of Leopard live alone, coming together only to mate and raise cubs. This doesn't work well when you are surrounded by clans of social animals who can't overpower you one-on-one but who travel in groups that can. As a result, Hyōhakken is attempting to shape his people into more social creatures. He is requiring them to live in groups of up to several dozen and work together. There is a problematic degree of infighting and even the occasional intra-Clan murder but it hasn't broken down completely.

Yet.

Hazō has been placed in technical command of a combat troop of eight dogs, although in practice Cancurunchu is still the actual boss. These dogs were drawn from the border they are assaulting across, as they wish to have vengeance for their murdered kin. Being drawn from a local area means that they are drawn from a fairly small pool; this group is competent but not the best that Dog can put forward, and Hazō is expected to make up the missing combat power. (Cannai's original plan had been to hold this particular part of the raid for a day or two until he could get some stronger fighters in.)

They are assaulting an area of hilly prairie, similar to what Hazō faced when he went through Hyena but not as steep or barren.

They have encountered a raider group of leopards consisting of 1d6+1 members, on their way to the border of Dog. How many leopards are there?

*the dice, they are rolled*: There are 6 leopards.

Okey-dokey. Six leopards on eight dogs and Hazō isn't a great match; Hazō is really hoping for an easy win on his first combat so he'll try to let them go past. No one is willing to burn Fate Points on it.

Dogs, worst Stealth - 6 (dice): ouch

Kitty, best Alertness: yeah, never mind.

They have spotted you!

Hazō doesn't know leopards well enough to read their age and experience except in the grossest sense, but we can from our extradimensional viewpoint. In any group, some raiders will be experienced fighters and some will be newbies being trained up. What do we have here? 1 = newbie, 2-4 = experienced young adult, 5-6 = grizzled veteran. Sorting the results:

• 5: Hyōtsume
• 4: Hyōsupotto
• 4: Hyōrōbā
• 3: Hyōfajī
• 2: Hyōtsumaranai
• 1: Hyōkamumono

Not great but could have been a lot worse. Speaking very approximately, it's a leopard jōnin leading two experienced chūnin, one newish chūnin, and two genin.

The team is currently in a hilly area with low brush and not a lot of ground cover. We'll use a 3x3 grid of zones with:

small copse of trees	grassland	especially flat grassland
grassland	mildly hilly, rocky	mildly hilly, rocky
mildly hilly	mildly hillyy	grassland

​

Unless stated otherwise, zones are always assumed to have sufficient terrain features that it's possible to dive for cover from an explosion. (And yes, this refers only to land-based zones, not air or water zones, since that is in fact a question that came up in thread! ) People can reposition freely within the zone on their initiative so it's usually not possible to take cover from a single-target attack if someone wants to get you. This is the default unless stated otherwise.

'Grassland' means essentially flat and little ground cover. Everyone is in sight of everyone in the zone at all times unless they have some specific ninjutsu or etc to change that.

'Especially flat grassland' means that there isn't even enough cover to avoid an explosion.

'Mildly hilly' means that there is sufficient up-and-down to the terrain that it's possible to break LOS to someone in another zone. Someone in your zone can, during their initiative, reposition within the zone to see you if they desire but it's possible to be out of sight of at least some combatants for at least a moment.

'Rocky' means that there are boulders ranging from 'pebble' to 'small hut' lying around, probably deposited here by an earlier ice age, or perhaps . Anyone in this zone is assumed to have concealment from all other combatants unless one of them is explicitly making an effort to locate the other or is choosing to forego concealment. Either of those can be done trivially, simply by running along the tops of the boulders. If someone is explicitly trying to hide then the rocky zone will give them a +AB tag on their Stealth. I don't know enough about explosive propagation to decide exactly how the effects would be reduced or channeled/concentrated, so I'm going to say that it gives a free +AB to dodge but does not reduce the attack strength on a hit.

Initiative!

The Leopard Clan has a racial stunt, "Leopard's Strength". It's completely bullshit, giving the owner +AB to all physical skills, +1/2 Alertness AB to initiative, and 2 shifts for a Supplemental move instead of the usual 1. It's been factored into all the numbers below.

1. 63: Hyōtsume, Leopard raid leader
2. 61: Cancurunchu, Dog troop leader
3. 58: Hyōsupotto
4. 57: Canzappu
5. 51: Hyōkamumono
6. 49: Cankamu
7. 49: Hyōrōbā
8. 49: Cancho
9. 49: Canrippu
10. 48: Hyōfajī
11. 47: Hyōtsumaranai
12. 46: Cansaku
13. 41: Canhachi
14. 40: Canfuwumpu
15. 36: Hazō

The teams are two zones apart when they spot each other.

Round 1:

Hyōtsume:

• Chakra boost: 7
• Supplemental (actually Reflexive, but that doesn't matter here) "Shadow Element: Shadow Blend" at Effect:5
• Supplemental: move to the zone with the dogs
• Standard: Attack! Time for some face-eating!

Who gets attacked? I'm numbering it by initiative order so Cancurunchu is 1 and Hazō is 9.

1d9 says: 5. Canrippu takes the hit.

Unfortunately, the good guys have not had a chance to get themselves up and running. This is where Reflexive actions come into play, and I'm going to take a quick sec to refresh everyone on those because I'm a didactic jerk who wants to keep you from getting to the exciting stuff.

Combat starts on round 1 and every round you get one Standard and two Supplemental actions. Normally actions are taken only on your initiative, but 'Reflexive' actions are an exception. Reflexive actions are taken off-turn, on any initiative, in response to some action. In order to use a Reflexive Supplemental action you must have left one of your Supplementals unused on your previous initiative. (There is a notional 'round 0' which represents the time before combat started; you are generally assumed to have both Supplementals available from round 0.)

Of course, you can't use them willy-nilly. You know how us QMs feel about willy-nilly. (Us QMs? We QMs? Your brilliant and much-admired QMs? Grammar is hard, let's eat Wildberry Skittles.) No, Reflexive actions are only usable in response to a threat against yourself. Usually a single target attack like a leopard trying to eat your face, but it could also be an AOE attack like a mage throwing a Twinned Quickened up-casted Fireball into your zone. (Wait, sorry, wrong system.)

Point is, Canrippu is being attacked so he can Reflexively use his two round-0 Supplemental actions and when his initiative comes up he'll have his full actions. The other dogs can't act Reflexively because they aren't being attacked. Unfortunately, the same thing applies to Hazō; his CATEARS seal will allow him to trigger another seal reflexively, but he can't do that unless he is the one being threatened. This is a tentative interpretation of how to handle chakra-adhesion-activated seals. CA is normally a free action but the idea of activating infinite seals as a free action is problematic, especially since Konan and Sasori would undoubtedly have figured out the trick and neither QMs nor players want those guys activating an unlimited number of legendary-tier seals the instant the fight starts.

Anyway, the 'you must be the one targeted' is basically saying that seeing your friends get their faces nommed doesn't punch the ol' lizard brain quite as hard as seeing yourself about to get your face nommed.

Also, point of information: the Leopard Clan's version of Taijutsu is called 'Face-Nomming'. Don't blame me, they chose it. Dogs use the much nicer 'Jaw and Claw'.

Also also, a reminder: everyone does chakra boost at the top of the round before anyone starts moving. I'm listing it on each person's entry for convenience but for everyone except the first person it actually happened earlier.

On with the show!




Canrippu: Holy shit, dude! There's a leopard about to eat my face and I never voted for him! Gimme some of that go-juice!

Canrippu: chakra boost 6
Canrippu, Reflexive Supplemental #1. Dog Clan Technique: Strength of the Pack, Effect 5. Keep 2 tags, give 2 to Cancurunchu, give 1 to Canfuwumpu.
Canrippu, Reflexive Supplemental #2. Dog Clan Technique: Strength of the Pack, Effect 5. self:2, Cancurunchu:2, Cansaku:1

Dog Clan Technique: Strength of the Pack

Every dog in the zone gains the Aspect "Packbonded" if they don't already have it. The jutsu lasts for 30 seconds and while it's active you get (Effect) tags on this Aspect each round; the tags can be used for anything that involves physical rolls or resisting negative emotions. ('Protecting the safety and unity of the pack' is the theme.) Upon casting and at the start of each round (i.e. before anyone acts) you may distribute these tags as you like among the dogs in your zone. If you keep X tags for yourself then you must give at least X tags to at least one other dog.

At most 3 of these tags can be used on any given roll.

The jutsu will stack but no one can hold more tags than the number of dogs in the zone.

If a dog leaves the zone or dies after the jutsu is cast, they lose all tags from the jutsu and every dog still in the zone loses one tag.

​

Hyōtsume, Face-Nomming (76) + 5 (AB of Shadow Blend) + 7 (chakra boost) - 3 (dice): 85
Canrippu, Jaw and Claw (54) + 18 (3 Strength of the Pack tags) + 6 (chakra boost) + 3 (dice) = 81

Canrippu takes 2 stress. He fills the first two boxes on his stress track.

​

Cancurunchu:

• Chakra boost: 7
• Supplemental: Strength of the Pack at Effect: 6. Six tags, distribution is self:1, Canzappu:2, Canhachi:1, Canrippu:1, Cansaku:1. The goal is to protect the weaker members of the troop while keeping a little boost for himself
• Supplemental: Strength of the Pack at Effect: 6. Six tags, distribution is Cankamu:2, Canrippu:2, Cansaku:2. Give the taijutsu fighters a boost
• Standard: establish a Taijutsu Block "intercept anyone melee-attacking my troop"

Hyōsupotto:

• Chakra boost: 7
• Supplemental (actually Reflexive, but that doesn't matter here) "Shadow Element: Shadow Blend" at Effect:5
• Supplemental: hold for Bounding Evasion
• Standard: move to the top of the ridge

This little kitty figures that why should he put his skin on the line when Hyōtsume is so gung-ho? Best not to get in his way, right?

​

Canzappu:

Canzappu would very much like to shove a face full of focused solar death ray through the face of the bad kitty that just now tried to kill his friend. Sadly, he can't do that unless he can spot the beasty where it's lurking in the shadows. First he'll throw a little light on the subject, then he'll take his best shot.

• Chakra boost: 7
• Supplemental: Sun Element: Blinding Aura
• Free action: try to spot the cats who have entered the zone: FAIL (see below)
• Supplemental: Strength of the Pack, Effect 5. Five tags, distributed: self:1, Cancurunchu:4. The goal is to let the most powerful dog perform an alpha strike that will eliminate one enemy instantly, while keeping a little protection for himself
• Can't target the leopards, so use a Standard in place of a Supplemental: Strength of the Pack, Effect 5. Five tags: self(1), Canchō(4). Same as above but different dog

Canzappu's Blinding Aura makes him glow like the sun. This lights up the zone but also casts shadows everywhere; on balance I'll say that it reduces the benefit of the leopards' Shadow Blend jutsu by 5 if they are lurking in the shadows and completely negates their stealth if they are making a melee attack. It does not negate their stealth when someone else is trying to make a melee attack on them.

Canzappu, notice kitties: Alertness (57) + 3 (dice): 60
Hyōtsume, don't be noticed: Stealth (59) + 23 (Shadow Blend) - 5 (Blazing Aura) + 6 (dice) = 73
Canzappu does not notice the leopard raid leader
Hyōsupotto, don't be noticed: Stealth (59) + 23 (Shadow Blend) - 5 (Blazing Aura) + 6 (dice) = 73
Canzappu does not notice the leopard second in command. Also, what is with the leopards' dice?!

There are no other kitties around to be noticed as they have not yet had their initiative to move to the zone.

​

Hyōkamumono:

• Chakra boost: 0
• Supplemental: Shadow Blend, Effect 5
• Supplemental: hold for Bounding Evasion
• Standard: move to the zone

Little brother of Hyōtsume, Hyōkamumono has basically the same build as his older brother but isn't as good at it. As such, he's going to wait until there's some wounded prey to pick off.

​

Hyōrōbā:

• Chakra boost: 7
• Supplemental: Shadow Blend, Effect 5
• Supplemental: move to the zone
• Standard: "Leopard Clan Technique: Fangs From Afar" at Effect:3

Hyōrōbā, Fangs from Afar (61) + 5 (bonus based on Effect) + 3 (dice): 69
Canrippu the unlucky, Athletics 52 + 18 (3 tags on SotP) - 3 (Mild Consequence) - 3: 64

Canrippu takes two stress. It won't fit on his stress track so he soaks it with a Mild Consequence ("Limping"). His third stress box is still available.

The jaws remain and will attack Canrippu again on the next two rounds as long as Hyōrōbā is in the vicinity and alive.

I rolled to see who Hyōrōbā would attack and got Canrippu again. I guess there's something bitable about him.

​

Hyōfajī:

• Chakra boost: 6
• Supplemental: Shadow Blend, Effect 5
• Standard: move to the zone
• Supplemental: Plant Element: Entangling Vines

Who does mah dude target? [rolls] Canzappu. Makes sense since he's the smallest.

Hyōfajī, Entangling Vines (56) - 3 (dice) = 53
Canzappu, Athletics (61) - 3 (dice) = 58.

Ghostly plants manifest and try to grab Canzappu, who casually skips aside without even needing to use his SotP tags.

​

Hyōtsumaranai:

• Chakra boost: 6
• Supplemental: Shadow Blend, Effect 5
• Standard: move to the zone
• Supplemental: Crushing Fear on (rolls for it...) Hazō. That's hilarious.

"Soul Element: Crushing Fear" is a nasty Block-type jutsu. It hits the user with debilitating fear which acts as a Block against that person doing anything, with the Block having the same strength as the initial roll. It is defended with Resolve. If it lands then the user needs to roll their Resolve against the Block again every time they want to perform any voluntary action—attack someone, run away, etc. It must be sustained and can be broken by injuring or sufficiently distracting the caster.

Hyōtsumaranai, Crushing Fear (47) - 12 (dice) 1 FP to reroll!
Hyōtsumaranai, Crushing Fear (47) - 3 (dice) : 44
Hazō, Resolve (63) + 0 (dice) = 63

Hazō brushes the jutsu aside almost without noticing it. It's amazing that the dice had Hyōtsumaranai target Hazō for this; the dogs all have Resolve:20 like normal people who don't need to worry about genjutsu and they would have been taken down instantly. Without intending to, the cats done did a dumb.

More importantly, the leopards did a super-duper dumb! Because Hazō was attacked, he gets to use his two round-0 Reflexive Supplemental actions. That means he gets to use his CATEARS seal to activate a MARS chain that includes:

1. Banshee Slayer sound protection on himself and all the dogs
2. A stupid number of Force Claws seals. Among other things, the dogs all have a frickin' Force Claw on their heads. Mechanics of the Force Claws seal listed below
3. A Rocket Boots seal in a pocket on the center of his back with a thin steel plate in the pocket and in front of the Rocket Boots. Attached to said plate is a Banshee Fucker (BF) seal. The Rocket Boots seal triggers, flinging the plate (and the BF) away from Hazō. His shirt gets ripped in the process but eh
4. Remember that Banshee Fucker seal? It gets triggered and makes a noise so shatteringly loud that it causes damage if set off in contact with your body, hence the trick with the Rocket Boots launcher

Force Claws: These are a 4"-long, one-seal variant of the larger Force Wall seal, intended to be attached to something like a gauntlet or a sword. The fact that the blade is invisible provides an excellent surprise advantage. If a target does not know that you have them, Force Claws add +6 to Taijutsu or equivalent close-combat skill, or +3 if the target is aware of them. They are Weapon:4.

We don't have explicit mechanics set up for Banshee Fuckers yet. I'm going to say that if you are in the zone with the BF or any adjacent zone and you don't have Banshee Slayer protection then:

1. Your Alertness is cut by 1/3 because you can't hear a damn thing
2. You gain the Aspect "Deaf", which expires 10 minutes after you leave the AOE. Note that this does not prevent Seventh-Path natives from communicating, since their 'speech' is actually mind-to-mind
3. You must roll Resolve vs TN 40 or
   1. You lose your balance and stagger. Your Athletics is reduced by 5 until your next initiative. So is any other skill the QM determines to be appropriate
   2. You lose track of what you are currently doing, causing you to drop any jutsu you were sustaining or botch any process that you were working on
4. On the second round after the BF was triggered (i.e., not the next round but the one after that) and every round thereafter you take 1 shift of sonic damage while you remain in the AOE. The damage is applied immediately after your initiative, giving you the chance to flee before it hits

We might do it differently next time.

Rolls: Not necessary. None of the cats have Resolve high enough to even potentially beat a 40. There isn't much need for it since genjutsu and other mind-affecting jutsu are rare among them and their neighbors.

All cats FAIL their Resolve rolls. They are staggered and take -5 to Athletics, physical combat skills, and Stealth until their next initiative.

​

Cankamu:

• Chakra boost: 6
• Supplemental: Strength of the Pack, Effect 6. Distribution: self:2, Canzappu:2, Canfuwumpu:2
• Supplemental: Strength of the Pack, Effect 6. Distribution: self:2, Canhachi:2, Canchō:2
• Free action: attempt to localize the kitties enough to make a melee attack
• Standard: Bite Hyōtsumaranai in half

Can he spot the kitties? Answer: no to everyone except probably Hyōtsumaranai.

Cankamu, Alertness (49) - 9 (dice): 40.
Hyōtsumaranai, Stealth (44 after modifiers) - 9 (dice): 34. Wow. Okay, here we go.

Cankamu, Jaw and Claw (59) + 18 (SotP tags x3) + 6 (bonus from Force Claw when the opponent doesn't know you have it) + 6 (dice) = 89
Hyōtsumaranai, Athletics (57) - 5 (staggered by BF) + 11 (Bounding Evasion) - 3 (dice) = 63

Wow. Poor old 'tsuma is having a bad day. That's 12 shifts of damage (8 from the hit, 4 from the Force Claws). 'Tsuma soaks 9 of it with a Severe ("Gutted"), Medium ("Concussion"), and a Mild ("Cracked Shin"), then fills his stress track with the remaining 3. He's alive, technically.

I'm ruling that his Stealth is now 0.

​

Canchō

• Chakra boost: 6
• Supplemental: Dance of the Butterflies
• Supplemental: Strength of the Pack at Effect 5. Distribution is Canhachi:3, Canrippu:2. Canhachi is Canchō's brother and Canrippu seems to be drawing aggro a bunch
• Standard: Chakra's Bite at Effect 4

Dance of the Butterflies attacks every hostile in the zone, regardless of whether the caster can see them.

Canchō, Life Element: Dance of the Butterflies (56) + 6 (attack advantage innate to the jutsu) + 6 (invoke "Veteran Borderdog") + 6 (invoke "Specialist First Class") + 6 (invoke "Succeed or Die") + 0 (dice) = 80. Canchō is out of Fate Points.
Hyōtsume: Athletics (65) - 5 (staggered by BF) + 0 (dice) = 60.
Hyōsupotto: Athletics (65) - 5 (staggered by BF) - 3 (dice) = 57.
Hyōkamumono: Athletics (54) - 5 (staggered by BF) - 3 (dice) = 46
Hyōrōbā: Athletics (54) - 5 (staggered by BF) - 6 (dice) = 43
Hyōfajī: Athletics (65) - 5 (staggered by BF) + 0 (dice) = 60
Hyōtsumaranai: Athletics (57) - 5 (staggered by BF) - 21 (wounds) + 0 (dice) = 31

Canchō comes in clutch! The leopards are all surrounded in a cloud of glittering butterflies that makes them easier to target, applies the Aspect "Distracted and Partially Blinded", and gives Canchō two tags on the Aspect. (That's two total, not two per target.)

Canchō passes both tags to Canrippu, who is up next.

"Soul Element: Chakra's Bite" causes all chakra constructs in the zone to start heating up and throwing off sparks. They have a Power of (Effect), which increases by Effect every turn. The way it works is:

• Construct-based attack jutsu (e.g. Fangs from Afar or Water Whip) have their level increased by Power
• Construct-based non-attack jutsu (e.g. a MEW that was created out of something other than the ground) will start throwing off sparks that attack everyone in Melee range with Power vs Athletics or a variety of other options.

The sparks are very bright and therefore stealth-defeating. The cats are all surrounded by the butterfly constructs from Dance of the Butterflies. The sparks from the butterflies reduce their Stealth by Power/2.

​

Canrippu:

• Chakra boost: 6
• Supplemental: do nothing and conserve chakra
• Supplemental: do nothing and conserve chakra
• Free action: can he spot the cats through their stealth?
• Standard: bite a kitty

Even with all the debuffs in play, it's very unlikely that Canrippu can beat the stealth on anyone except Hyōtsumaranai (whose stealth is currently 0) but let's check. All normal modifiers are factored in for the stealth numbers. Also, Canrippu has a Mild Consequence right now. I'm not sure whether or not the penalty should apply to a passive Alertness check so for now I'm choosing to say that it does not.

Canrippu, Alertness (49) + 6: 55. Huh, maybe I'm wrong and he can do this.
Hyōtsume, Stealth (58) - 5 (staggered by BF) - 3 (dice) = 50
Hyōsupotto, Stealth (58) - 5 (staggered by BF) + 9 (dice) = 62 Hyōkamumono, Stealth (54) - 5 (staggered by BF) + 0 (dice) = 49 Hyōrōbā, Stealth (69) - 5 (staggered by BF) + 3 (dice) = 67 Hyōfajī, Stealth (67) - 5 (staggered by BF) - 6 (dice) = 56

Ohhhkay then. Canrippu can tell generally where a couple of the cats are, at least well enough that he can move to attack them. He'll pick Hyōtsume as the most dangerous enemy. He runs over to him and makes another Stealth check to localize the cat well enough to actually bite him. This is a much easier roll than the previous one.

Canrippu, Alertness (49) + 0: 49
Hyōtsume, Stealth (15). Yeah, never mind.

Time to get chompin'!

Canrippu, Jaw and Claw (54) - 3 (Mild Consequence) + 18 (SotP tags x3) + 6 (surprise Force Wall seal) + 12 (Dance of the Butterflies tags x2) + 0 (dice) = 87
Hyōtsume, Face-Nomming (76) - 5 (staggered by BF) + 6 (dice) = 77

Total of 7 shifts (3 base + 4 from Force Claws). Hyōtsume soaks 2 with a Mild Consequence ("Lacerations"), 3 with a Medium ("Carved Up"), and fills his first two stress boxes.

Canrippu gets a tag on each of those Consequences. He passes the both tags to Cansaku who is coming up next.

​

Cansaku:

• Chakra boost: 6
• Supplemental: Strength of the Pack, Effect 5. self:2, Cankamu:2, Cancurunchu:1
• Supplemental: do nothing
• Standard: bite a cat's face off

Alertness to successfully target a cat: 46 + 5 (someone else just now successfully attacked the cat) - 3 (dice) = 48
Hyōtsume, Stealth (51) - 5 (staggered by BF) + 0 (dice) = 46
Hyōsupotto, Stealth (58) - 5 (staggered by BF) - 3 (dice) = 50
Hyōkamumono, Stealth (54) - 5 (staggered by BF) + 3 (dice) = 52
Hyōrōbā, Stealth (69) - 5 (staggered by BF) - 3 (dice) = 61
Hyōfajī, Stealth (67) - 5 (staggered by BF) + 3 (dice) = 65
Hyōtsumaranai, Stealth (0) - 5 (staggered by BF) + 6 (dice) = 1


Got the general location, can he get it exact enough for melee? Answer: yes. No need to roll.

Cansaku, Jaw and Claw (56) + 6 (chakra boost) + 18 (SotP tags x3) + 12 (Canrippu's tags x2) + 6 (Force Claws) + 9 (completely gratuitous dice) = 107 (holy heck!!!)
Hyōtsume, Face-Nomming (66 after normal modifiers) + 7 (chakra boost) - 5 (staggered by BF) + 0 (dice) = 68

Wow. This cat isn't just dead, he's DRTTT. (Dead Right There and There and There...)

​

Canhachi:

• Chakra boost: 6
• Supplemental: Strength of the Pack, Effect 5. Five tags, self:1, Canchō:2, Canrippu:2
• Supplemental: Strength of the Pack, Effect 5. Five tags, self:1, Cansaku:2, Canrippu:1
• Standard: Hit a kitty with Effect:6 of bee stings

Can he spot a target?

Canhachi, Alertness (41) + 3 (dice) = 44. Nope, can't see anyone except the guy with Stealth 0.
Hyōtsumaranai, Stealth (0) + dice that I'm not bothering to roll.

Okay, let's finish this one off.

Canhachi, Rage of the Hive (58) + 6 (chakra boost) + 6 (Effect; innate bonus of the jutsu) + 4 ("Chakra's Bite" Power) - 6 = 68
Hyōtsumaranai Athletics (51 after everything) + 11 (Bounding Evasion) + 6 (invoke "Feline Predator") = 68

Hyōtsumaranai takes 1 stress. He dies.

​

Canfuwumpu:

• Chakra boost: 6
• Supplemental: Eye Spy, Effect 5
• Supplemental: hold for Instant Den
• Standard: Baddies Go Fwump

Life Element: Eye Spy gives the caster the Aspect "Omni-Aware", an Alertness bonus of (Effect x 2), and (Effect) tags. It extends a web of invisible chakra that connects the caster to up to (Effect / 2) willing targets in the zone. The tags can be passed to anyone who is connected and used on Alertness rolls. Up to 2 tags may be used on a given roll. Canfuwumpu connects to Cancurunchu, Canzappu, and Cankamu since they are at the top of canine initiative. He keeps two tags for himself and passes 2 to Cancurunchu and 1 to Canzappu.

Dog Clan Technique: Baddies Go Fwump causes all hostiles in the zone that the caster can see to get very tired, along with the caster. Who can Canfuwumpu see?

Factoring in the BF penalty and all other modifiers from now on because I'm tired of writing it over and over.

Canfuwumpu, Alertness (40) + 10 (Eye Spy flat bonus) + 10 (two Eye Spy tags) + 3 (dice) = 63
Hyōtsume. Not bothering. FAIL
Hyōsupotto. Not bothering. FAIL
Hyōkamumono. Not bothering. FAIL
Hyōrōbā, Stealth(65) - 6 (dice): 59. FAIL
Hyōfajī, Stealth(62) + 6 (dice): 68. SUCCESS
Hyōtsumaranai: is dead.

Wow. Canfuwumpu is rockin' it.

Baddies Go Fwump (51) targets Resolve and the kitties all have the normal 20 resolve that sensible people buy in order to get their mental stress track to 3 boxes but don't bother increasing because dogs don't really use genjutsu so there's no need for me to roll.

Hyōtsume, Hyōsupotto, Hyōkamumono, and Hyōrōbā all get the Aspect "Sleepy" and an (Effect x 2) penalty to Athletics and physical skills. In this case that means -10.

Canfuwumpu also gets the "Sleepy" Aspect but as the caster the penalty is only half as bad, so just a -5.

​

Hazō!

• Chakra boost: 5
• Supplemental: hold for Substitution
• Supplemental: hold for Substitution
• Standard: Pangolin Earth Armor, Effect 2

Hazō gains the following effects from PEA: Armor:2, non-ablative. Physique + 6, making it 43. Athletics - 3, making it 37.

​

Round 2

The Power of the Chakra's Bite jutsu increases to 8, giving a stealth penalty of 4.

All tags expire.

Yeah, the kitties ain't having it. They are bailing out as soon as they can. Sadly, Cancurunchu goes before anyone else.

Cancurunchu:

• Chakra boost: 7
• Supplemental: Strength of the Pack, Effect 6
• Supplemental: Strength of the Pack, Effect 6
• Standard: munch on a kitty

Cancurunchu still has two SotP instances running from last turn, both at Effect:6, meaning he has four sets of 6 tags to distribute. He does so:

• self: 3, Cankamu:3
• self: 1, Canfuwumpu:5
• Canzappu: 2, Canchō: 2, Canrippu: 2
• Cansaku: 2, Canhachi: 2, Canzappu: 1, Canchō: 1

Now he wants to spot a kitty to eat. Unfortunately, he can't get the tags for Eye Spy until Canfuwumpu's initiative, which is last except for Hazō's. If he waits that long then the kitties will have run for it. Stealth rolls include the BF staggering penalty which expires on the victim's initiative.

Cancurunchu, Alertness (61) + 6 (dice) = 67
Hyōsupotto, Stealth (51) - 3 (dice) = 48
Hyōkamumono, Stealth (47) + 6 (dice) = 53
Hyōrōbā, Stealth (62) + 6 (dice) = 68
Hyōfajī, Stealth (60) - 6 (dice) = 54


Cancurunchu has his choice of targets. He randomly picks Hyōfajī.

Cancurunchu, Jaws and Claws (64) + 7 (chakra boost) + 21 (SotP tags x3) + 3 (Force Claws now that the bad guys know about them) + 0 (dice) = 95
Hyōfajī, Athletics (54) + 6 (chakra boost) + 14 (Bounding Evasion) + 6 (dice) = 80

Like his fellows before him, Hyōfajī is having a bad day. That's 9 shifts of damage (5 base, 4 from the Weapons Rating of the Force Claws).

Poor 'fajī sinks 2 into a Mild Consequence ("Slashed Paw"), 3 into a Medium ("Gashes in my Sides"), and 4 into a Severe ("Butchered"). His stress track is untouched.

​

Hyōspotto:

• Chakra boost: 7
• Supplemental: run! (2 shifts of movement)
• Supplemental: run! (2 shifts of movement)
• Standard: Sprint! He gets 6 shifts

Spot is now 10 zones away and not an issue.

​

Canzappu:

• Chakra boost: 7
• Free actions: try to spot the kitties so he can blast them
• Supplemental: hold to save chakra
• Supplemental: hold to save chakra
• Standard: Burn a kitty's face off with Sun Element: Focus Blast at Effect:4

Canzappu: Alertness (57) + 3 (dice) = 60
Hyōkamumono, Stealth (47) + 6 (dice) = 53
Hyōrōbā, Stealth (62) - 3 (dice) = 59
Hyōfajī, Stealth (44). You're screwed.

Canzappu, "Sun Element: Focus Blast" (62) + 7 (chakra boost) + 7 (innate bonus of +AB) + 3 (dice) = 79 (save those FP!)
Hyōrōbā, Athletics (49) + 7 (chakra boost) - 3 = 53


Yowch. It's a total of 11 shifts of damage—8 from the roll, plus it was cast at Effect 4 so it's got Weapon:3. BadKitty soaks 2 into a Mild ("Scorched"), 3 into a Medium ("Sun Poisoning"), 4 into a Severe ("Burned like Tater Tots You Forgot Were in the Oven"), then marks off his first two stress boxes.

​

The cats have the next 3 slots in the initiative. They all run for it, scattering in all directions.

I'm very disappointed. Hazō had put harnesses on all the dogs when they set off on the journey, with Force Claw seals affixed to the harnesses in various positions such that anyone attempting to bite the wearer had a chance of carving themselves up on the invisible blades. I never got a chance to show that off! He activated them with his CATEARS+MARS chain but the combat was over before any of the cats landed a melee attack. He also didn't get to use his new Reusable Rocket Boots seals. Oh well.

Just so that it's clear to everyone:

• Cannai very much wants to avoid war
• The only reason he is considering war is because:
  • Cannai is allied with Hyena to help defend them against imperialist Pangolin, who have already shown their willingness to commit cultural and/or literal genocide. It is more than reasonable to believe that if Pangolin takes over Hyena then they will continue on to attack Dog.
  • Leopard is allied with Pangolin and is attacking Dog's flank while Dog is busy in Hyena
  • Leopard has shown their willingness to wipe out entire packs instead of confining themselves to primary combatants. Neither Cannai nor Hazō know if it was an intentional wipe or collateral damage from a battle, so they don't know if the Leopards are actually going scorched-earth or maintaining some level of decency.
• If there is a war, Cannai is hoping that making a statement by devastating Leopard will prevent the need for future bloodshed against Pangolin and/or their allies, much the way (NB: fraught real-world comparison coming) America (supposedly, and yes there is debate) thought that using nuclear bombs on Japan would ultimately save lives by ending the war sooner
• If there is a war then Cannai will not kill cubs, will try to leave at least one parent of every litter alive, and will happily let combatant-aged Leopards abandon their homeland instead of being killed, as either outcome will make a sufficient demonstration of his willingness to go hard
• He is actively doing everything he can to prevent the need for war
• If an option comes along to achieve peace or secure an equivalent degree of safety for his people then he will take it

This is intended to be a morally complicated situation that gives Hazō multiple courses of action. Not even Cannai is claiming that what Cannai is doing is morally right.

---

Author's Note: After Cancurunchu said 'let them go' it turned out that the two leopards with Severe wounds weren't making particularly good time, so the team captured them. You killed two leopards, captured (and will soon execute) two, and two got away. Cancurunchu was angry and battle-jazzed at the end there and there's a good chance that he will change his mind on the 'let them come' position pretty soon.

XP AWARD: 16 This update covered 4 days.

Brevity XP: 4

"GM had fun" XP: 1

• Cannai rules, so 1 for that
• It was fun to write punching again but holy god that was exhausting. There's so much more to keep track of than there used to be and 15 combatants is a lot

It is now about 4pm.

Vote time! What to do now?

Note: I'm going to be at a games day on Sunday, so my current plan is to post an interlude. I'll leave voting open until next Wednesday. If either @Paperclipped or @Velorien are excited about writing for Sunday then I can edit this to close voting Saturday as usual, but I doubt very much that will happen as both of them are super busy.

Voting ends on Wednesday, Jun 19, 2024 at 7:00 AM .

 

[eaglejarl]

Interlude: Sasha's Build Meeting​

"Hey there, squirt," Noburi said, smiling at her and then turning aside to busy himself with unsealing two lawnchairs, a side table, and a basket of noshies.

"Hi, Sasha!" Honoka called, waving so hard she almost flipped herself over.

Gōketsu Sasha, veteran genin of the Leaf (a month counted as veteran, right?), struggled not to let herself be distracted by the interlopers on her training field.

"Don't lose it," Reo said. "Distractions happen in the field. You need to keep focus. Fly through the hoops."

"All of them, sensei?" Sasha asked, dismayed.

Reo smiled. "Yup. All of them. If I told you that you only had to do one then you wouldn't be able to do two. So do all of them."

She took a deep breath and focused, pressing her chakra down into a tiny ball just behind her hara. She went through the appropriate imagery one careful tick at a time, formed the pattern, held it in frantic balance so that she could check it over quickly, and pushed the chakra up and out of her mouth with a loud cry of "Fire Element Technique: Hotaru no Jutsu!"

(It was a bit silly, if you asked her. After all, 'whatever no jutsu' was simply an alternate way of saying 'whatever technique', so why had Reo-sensei told her to say both? Adults! So ridiculous.)

The chakra wobbled and bobbled as it bumbled up her throat and out into the world, but it held together long enough to collapse into a tiny yet incredibly hot pinprick of flame. She tethered it to her right index finger and raised the finger. Sure enough, the little firefly rose as well. It kept moving after she stopped raising her finger, skidding to a halt a few inches farther on as her will clamped down on it.

Moving the spark up and down, left and right, was easy. Relatively. Tie it to the finger, move the finger, the spark moves. Moving it closer and farther needed to be done purely with chakra control and she didn't even remotely have the hang of it. She didn't even have the hang of it enough to move the spark in smooth curves, the way Reo-sensei had repeatedly demonstrated. He had demonstrated with five sparks at once. He could make them weave smoothly around one another in elegant and high-speed curves that left trailing lines of light in the air. He could even overlap them on one another, concealing the number of sparks he was running until an opportune moment to surprise an enemy.

Sasha, on the other hand, could manage only one spark and could move the spark on only one axis at a time. Even that was clumsy, which made the hoops exercise an absolute nightmare.

Which, of course, was the entire point of the exercise, she thought with a sigh. She started the spark moving through the first fragile paper hoop.

"You can do it, Sasha!" Honoka shouted in her obnoxious little-girl voice. Honestly, didn't Honoka realize that Sasha was much too grown-up to have tea parties where they chatted about the gossip on the estate, or to climb around in tree forts playing Kill the Rock Ninja? Besides, wasn't it illegal for a veteran genin such as herself to share details of her training with a youngling? The Hokage would probably have her executed.

There were ten hoops, the total intended to match the ten sparks that she would eventually be able to control. They were made of delicate paper and, because teachers were all giant meanies, they were soaked in highly flammable oil. If the spark brushed against the hoop, the hoop would cease to exist a few moments later. Sensei was being nice and using the biggest hoops, meaning their inside diameter was about the same as his full-stretch handspan.

"Go Sasha, go Sasha!" Honoka shouted. "You've got this!"

Of course she had this! Honestly. The implication was offensive, suggesting that she couldn't thread the spark along a complicated path and through all ten hoops without brushing any of the hoops. Which, okay, maybe wasn't the easiest thing in the world, given the angles of the hoops and the short distances that Reo-sensei had set between them.

"Sensei, is this really necessary?" Sasha asked. "You said this wasn't going to be my primary combat jutsu. Wouldn't it make more sense to jump straight to that one?"

"Nope." His grin was insufferable.

"Sensei, are you making fun of me?" she asked after a moment of suspicious surveillance of said insufferable smile.

"Not at all! The Hotaru Technique is one of the best methods for gaining mastery at controlling chakra constructs. The jutsu that I intend to teach you for your primary technique requires excellent control. It's very powerful and very flexible, but it needs to be tightly controlled or it could be dangerous." He smiled a little bit at the last words, suggesting there was some joke she had missed.

Over Sensei's shoulder, Sasha could see Honoka perking up. For a moment, Sasha couldn't help but be amused. She remembered what it was like when she was Honoka's age, when every detail or even hint of a detail about jutsu or ninja training was the most fascinating thing in the world. Powerful techniques that were also dangerous? That was simply catnip.

"Dangerous how, Sensei?" she asked, choosing her tone carefully so as to sound adult, mature, interested but not overly interested, and not at all like she was trying to get out of the work.

He gave her a raised eyebrow, looking deliberately from her innocent face to the spark that was hovering in place instead of wobbling forward towards the hoop. He switched his disapproving eyes back...and then shrugged.

"Fine," he said. "The technique I want you to learn is called Fire Lash. Lord Gōketsu recommended it, actually. It creates a long, flexible whip made of fire. It causes a lot of damage and it can be used defensively to hold off multiple opponents."

"The problem is that it's not properly a chakra construct," Noburi said from the ground a couple yards away. He stood up, brushed off his pants and came to join them.

"Water Element: Water Whip!" Water appeared from thin air, binding itself into a long cord. He snapped his wrist and the whip snapped out, the end popping loudly at a notional opponent's eyes.

"The Water Whip is a physical construct," Noburi said, holding the construct in question out so that she could run her fingers along it. They came back wet, and she marveled at the way the water circulated along the length of the whip, around and around again, even as it hung limp across Noburi's palm. "I control it partially with my muscles and partially with my chakra control. When I was first learning it, I smacked myself in the face multiple times. That's fine with the Water Whip—you get wet and that's it. Fire Lash, on the other hand..."

Sasha gulped; behind Noburi, Honoka's face had gone white as she realized the implications.

"I could hit myself with it in practice," she half-said, half-asked.

"Right," Reo said. "So, you need to learn Hotaru no Jutsu first to get the chakra control you need."

Sasha just barely managed to keep her disappointment from showing. Sadly, Honoka had no such control.

"Aww!" the little girl said. "Isn't there anything good you can teach her, Mr Reo? There's gotta be something that isn't a waste of time like the silly butterfly jutsu!"

Reo chuckled. "Fireflies, not butterflies, Honoka. And don't underestimate the little fireflies. They are quite useful. For example, suppose you want to restrain someone." He twiddled his fingers and suddenly Noburi's throat was encircled by eight burning hot points, none of them closer or farther than an inch from his skin. The final two hovered just in front of his eyes. They stayed in place for a moment and then all ten sparks zipped away, hovering over Reo's head in a steadily-spinning halo of gold-red light.

"How come I have to be the test subject?" Noburi grumbled.

"With respect, My Lord, which of the girls would you have wanted me to use? I doubt either of them has your self-control in the face of a potentially dangerous surprise."

"Yeah, okay. Fair point."

"Ptthbt," Honoka said, blowing a raspberry at the older ninja. "That's no good! You aren't going to be able to—"

"Honoka!" Sasha snapped, appalled. "Do not speak to your elders like that!"

Reo ruffled Honoka's hair in amusement but gave Sasha a grateful bow of the head. "Thank you, young lady. In any case, the fireflies are very versatile. They can apply controlled amounts of heat in order to burn an enemy, or burn through bindings, or light things on fire at a distance, or many more uses. They are a good tool for assassination if you catch your target unawares. Send a firefly up their nose and into their brain; there will be no evidence it was murder aside from some scorched nose hairs. Contrast that with Fire Lash; yes, it's an excellent weapon but it lacks the versatility the fireflies bring."

"More importantly, the fireflies are a great way to not burn your face off when you start practicing with Fire Lash," Noburi said.

"I see. Thank you for explaining this to me," Sasha said, bowing deeply. Fire Lash? That was a melee attack. Wasn't the point of being a ninjutsu master the ability to destroy your enemies from far away?

"Of course, good as it is for a melee jutsu, Fire Lash is just that: a melee jutsu," Reo continued. "We'll want to get you some ranged as well."

Eeeeee!

Noburi laughed, probably at the expression of delight that Sasha had failed to keep from her face.

"I'm a little torn," he said, rubbing his sparsely-haired chin. "On the one hand, I could send you to Mari for emotion control training so that you aren't so easy to read. On the other hand, you're just so cute—whoa!" He raised his hands to ward her off. "Scary! I meant scary. Yup. Very scary and mature. Absolutely."

Sasha wasn't certain, but she got the feeling that maybe he wasn't completely sincere about that last part. That wasn't the issue to pursue, however.

"Do you think I could?"

Noburi and Reo frowned. "Think you could what?" Noburi asked.

"Study, um, study with Lady Mari? A little?"

The men's faces curved back into smiles as their confusion fell away.

"I don't see why not," Noburi said. "What did you want to learn from her?"

Sasha thought about that. What did she want to learn? She wasn't super interested in politics per se, but she liked the idea of understanding what her opponents would do before they did, of being to read their every intention in their faces. She liked the idea of being able to conceal her own thoughts and intentions so that no one could laugh at her, or anticipate her attacks. How did one encapsulate that though? She struggled for the words.

Noburi raised a hand to stop her. "Doesn't matter," he said. "You and she can figure it out and I don't need to know. Shall we go find her? I'm sure she'd be glad to show you a few things." He caught himself and glanced to Reo. "Sorry, my bad. After you guys are done. I didn't mean to crash your session."

"It's fine, My Lord. We were about done anyway, and I desperately need some lunch. If you wish to take her that will be fine."

"Thanks, man. For being so cool about it, I mean. I didn't mean to step on your toes."

"No trouble at all, sir. My young student, young mistress Honoka, Lord Noburi, I shall take my leave." He bowed, florid and overdone, and disappeared into a Substitution. A chunk of rock dropped to the earth where he had stood.

"Right!" Noburi said. "Let's make this happen. I'm pretty sure Mari will be in the hot springs right now, so let's check there first."

Sasha's eyes went wide. She had never dreamed that Lady Firehair might be willing to actually devote time to her! Surely they weren't going to go right now? She hadn't thought that Lord Noburi meant he would take her to Lady Mari now. At some point in the future, once Sasha had demonstrated her competence, perhaps. But not now.

Noburi smiled and offered her his hand. "I promise, she won't bite." He held out his other hand to Honoka, who took it promptly and with confidence.

There was no way Sasha was going to be upstaged by a third-former.

"Thank you, Lord Noburi," she said, bowing deeply. "I am very grateful. Shall we?" She gestured in the direction of the hot springs, making it clear that a veteran genin such as herself did not need to be lead by the hand.

"You are most welcome, Lady Sasha," he said with a grin. He swooped Honoka up without warning and plonked her onto his shoulders. "Onwards!"

And thus Noburi galloped off in search of a legendary heroine, one young girl squealing with delight on his shoulders and a very mature and experienced young woman jogging beside him while trying not to be obvious about neatening up her hair and clothing.

---

Voting remains open.

Voting ends on Wednesday, Jun 19, 2024 at 7:00 AM .

 

[Paperclipped]

Chapter 665: Claws From the Dark​

"Cancurunchu, the two leopards we injured are falling behind," Hazō said, watching the fleeing leopards. "Why don't we-"

"Fine," Cancurunchu said sharply. "Canrippu, Canzappu, keep an eye on sleepyhead. Everyone else, time to claim two more on our kitty quota."

Hazō and the five remaining dogs of the raiding troop quickly gained on the wounded leopards. No surprise there – one of the survivors was spilling blood by the pint across the terrain from a Force Claw gash.

The dogs had no difficulty encircling and taking them down the isolated leopards. Cancurunchu clearly wanted to shake his head and snap their necks, but Hazō stopped him. Instead, Hazō pulled a brazier from a storage seal and immediately dug kunai into the burning charcoal.

"Summoner," Cancurunchu said, "Could explain to a humble dog why we shouldn't kill these kitties while we can, instead of leaving our pack spread out in hostile territory?"

"Well, no need to leave ourselves vulnerable," Hazō said. "Let's get Canfuwumpu, Canrippu, and Canzappu up here. We're going to kill the leopards of course, but we should interrogate them first."

Cancurunchu cocked his head. "I'm glad we haven't forgotten the mission the Alpha sent us on, but what will the leopards tell us?"

"The location and makeup of their other hunting groups. Their special senses, if they have any. The locations of any encampments or lairs, if they have them. And more. I'll make them talk."

Cancurunchu barked. "I see. Well, if we get all that, I'll call it a worthy delay. I'll wake Canfuwumpu and bring the others here."

"You'll never break the will of a Leopard Clan warrior!" called one of the leopards, the one who Cancurunchu had mauled before the kitties' will had broken and they'd fled.

"We'll see about that," Hazō said. "But you're bleeding far too much. You'll die soon at this rate. Let's take care of that."

He donned his blacksmith's gloves and reached for the kunai he'd left in the brazier, now barely glowing a faint red at their tips. The leopard hissed, and Cankamu leaned forward, pinning the kitty down slightly harder as Hazō approached to cauterize the leopard's wounds.

o-o-o​

Once the leopards were suitably stabilized and restrained, Hazō set about refreshing his seal loadouts. He paired a dozen new MARS seals, swapped in a new Banshee Fucker (and a new shirt to go with it), and made sure everything else was working to standard. He offered chakdar to the dogs in his party, but they refused after he explained how it worked, saying that without any familiarization, it would be more distracting than helpful to them.

Eventually, Cancurunchu came up to Hazō.

"I realize I said that we'd wait for the leopards to come to us, but we fucked up the last set of kitties pretty hard. I'd rather not face down the warriors they dig up that have the guts to fight a group like ours. Lets get a move-on soon to find a softer target. What's the plan for getting information out of the kitties here?"

"I was thinking about that," Hazō said absentmindedly as he double-checked his seal loadout. "I'd offer to torture them, except I really don't know anything about torture. I thought I could try to catch Kei since her girlfriend apparently knows the T&I catalog back-to-back, but their devices probably wouldn't work too well on quadrupeds. I could try to improvise – after all, that leopard was whimpering and crying by the time I finished with the kunai – but I figure if it was as simple as just inflicting a lot of pain, Leaf wouldn't have a whole department about it."

"I'm going to pretend like I understood more than one in three of the words you just vomited at me," Cancurunchu said. "What's the final answer? Can you squeeze information from the kitties, or should we just kill them and keep moving? I don't think asking them questions will get us more than hissing and spit."

"Right, sorry," Hazō said, putting his seals away and turning his attention fully to Cancurunchu. "Since we'll kill them either way, we give them both the same offer – whoever cooperates more gets to die easily and painlessly. Whoever provides less information dies hard instead."

"What do you mean, die hard?" Cancurunchu asked. "We can't stick around playing with them like a Cat. We need to get a move-on."

Hazō wracked his brain. Growing up in Hidden Mist, he'd attended many a public execution in his life – they were sometimes like festivals, with candies and games for the children while the adults enjoyed the traitor getting their due. Still, they didn't have days to drag out the execution, even if Hazō somehow found the requisite skill and equipment to perform the Circles of the Bloody Mist. Still, Mist had plenty of executions even if they didn't all have drama of Yagura's chosen destiny for traitors.

"I have an idea," Hazō said. "I have a big cauldron in one of my seals. We can set it up on a skytower so other leopards can't interfere. We fill it up with water, tie up the leopard's head so that it can't drown itself, then light a fire under the cauldron. The water will slowly heat up and boil the leopard to death. They'll get to feel the water slowly going from cool, to warm, to boiling. Even when the water gets boiling, it takes a long time to die, so the leopard will spend a long time feeling their skin melting and their organs slowly cooking."

The dogs around him had gone silent during the explanation. Canchō had shuddered. Wimps. With water instead of oil, the smell wouldn't even be that bad.

Cancurunchu barked again in laughter. "Brutal. Well deserved, too, after what they've done to ours. We'll tell the bards what we did to avenge the Winding River pack. No one will mess with Dog after that. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from you humans!"

o-o-o​

Spoiler: rolls

Faced with the choice of slow death and fast death, are either of the leopards coward enough to prioritize their own comfort over the good of the clan?

Likely, yeah. They're pretty self-centered, not particularly group-focused. I'll give them each a 1d6: 2 or less means they talk. Otherwise, they're obsessed with their warrior discipline/already in enough pain that they figure it can't get worse/don't buy that the human wimp would do that/lie through their teeth/etc.

2d6: [6, 2]

Poor Hyōrōbā, your honor (and Hyōfajī's lack of spine) has earned you a painful death.

"I would never defile the honor of Leopard like that. I will die either way, at least I will die now knowing I have lived better than any of my kin, and hunted more of yours than you ever will of mine."

o-o-o​

"...and then, after hours of agonizing suffering, your heart will finally start to slow down again as the heat cooks it to the point where it can no longer beat, and you'll finally die," Cancurunchu said. "Unless you answer our questions, of course."

The leopard didn't answer.

Hazō and Cancurunchu let the leopard sit for a minute. Hopefully, imagining his soon-to-be-gruesome death.

Eventually, the leopard spoke.

"What do you want to know?"

o-o-o​

"Well, that was pointless," Hazō said.

"It's unsurprising," Cancurunchu said. "Leopards are loners. It's not like Dog, where we have packs and pack leaders. I should have guessed that their raids weren't organized. The attack patterns were too different. Some raids hit combatants, others went after dens. It was just a bunch of individuals making decisions following Hyōhakken's order to nip at our sides."

"But shouldn't they know more about the other raiding groups?" Hazō complained. "If they're territorial, shouldn't they know everyone in their territory?"

"They can't, their brains are too small to count higher than four!" Cansaku said.

"That's just a myth," Cancurunchu said. "Leopard scholars can reach as high as nine. But no, why would they? No one wants territory right on the border, and raiding groups passing through will mostly want to stay out of each others' noses. If they run into someone, they'll turn around and walk away, not exchange information and future plans."

Hazō looked down at the pad of paper. The leopard he'd just executed, apparently named Hyōfajī, had recited his best-remembered counts of all the other leopard groups their little kitty-party had encountered in the past week.

• Ran into a group two days ago resting below the three big rock spikes east of here. There were five of them, two older and three juvenile.
• A group passed by us while we were sleeping five days ago in the south fields with all the antelope. There were three of them, but they were all strong because they moved silently. Hyōtsume barely noticed them approaching, and when he noticed, they all backed away.
• We spotted a big group a week ago. Four cubs, two immature adults, six adults. They were moving south.
• …

Those and a half-dozen more entries were all that Hazō had to show for his efforts. On the one hand, they knew more than they had an hour ago. But it was far from what he'd wanted. Their movement patterns, their strengths, their senses, their ninjutsu, their preferred fighting styles; the leopard had nothing that would have actually helped Hazō. Hyōfajī had known the location of a tribe's encampment… But try as he might, Cancurunchu hadn't been able to force that location out of the condemned leopard, since there were apparently cubs there. Even the spineless Hyōfajī wasn't willing to share that, and Hazō's reassurances that they weren't there to kill cubs hadn't helped. Their threats had made them too brutal to be trusted in Hyōfajī's eyes.

The paucity of information almost made Hazō regret what he'd had to do to the other leopard. He glanced up to the skytower a hundred feet off the ground – high enough that even if another leopard hunting group came to inspect the site of the battle, they wouldn't be able to interfere. The water in the cauldron was probably barely lukewarm now. It would be an hour before it would start to burn.

Hazō didn't want to torture the leopard to death, but he needed his commitments to stay meaningful. The leopards wouldn't tell the difference, but with the social specs he regularly dealt with, he needed the ability to keep his own commitments even when he didn't want to. Then again, he found it easier to condemn a prisoner to death, even a painful death, now that Akane was gone. Plus, Hazō had to admit he didn't see the inhuman predators the same as his fellow humans. Hazō didn't think he'd be having nightmares about this.

"So," Hazō finally said, sensing Cancurunchu growing impatient with his ruminations. "I think we could do three things now.

"One, we retreat to Dog to rest and recover chakra. We can leave behind traps to catch Leopards as they come. I have a seal that makes an area look exactly like it did when the seal was activated. If we set up some of those, then put some skyslicers – infinitely sharp blades – inside the area, the leopards might run into the area and get sliced to ribbons, and their friends won't know what happened. I can keep some clones out to do recon on whatever force makes it past the traps, and once we're recovered, we can head back in."

"First thing's first," Cancurunchu said, "how are we doing on chakra?"

Various calls of "doing good," "half-full," and "could do another fight like that," went around the group.

Cancurunchu turned on Canzappu. "You're sure you're good to go? Your ninjutsu burn chakra fast."

"They would," Canzappu said, tail high in the sky, "if the kitties stuck around long enough to take them. They fled in five seconds, I barely burned anything."

"Right," Cancurunchu said, turning back to Hazō. "Sounds like we're at about half capacity. We should rest a bit in case we end up in a longer fight. Your traps sound interesting. You said they make an area look like whatever was in there when you turn the seal on, right?"

"That's right."

"So how about this: we take Canfuwumpu and a couple others and have them pretend like they're sleeping inside the seal. Stupid kitties'll can't resist an easy kill. They'll stalk right up to the edge and shred themselves for us hoping to catch a couple dogs unaware."

"That's brilliant, Cancurunchu," Hazō said. "We can definitely do that if we go with the first option. The second option is to just dig in here and fortify the location. I can deploy lots of seals to harden a perimeter, and we'll kill up to our quota in leopards just sitting here."

"Not a fan," Cancurunchu said. "Staying static is inviting trouble, and surrounding ourselves with traps means that if things go bad, we don't even have an exit."

"There'll be a safe route through the perimeter – I'll walk everyone through it before we settle in," Hazō said.

"And everyone's going to remember it? In the middle of a battle we're losing, when the traps you're packing seem to all be invisible death? No thanks," Cancurunchu said. "Besides, running from Leopards in a battle is like howling at your prey. They're too fast in a tactical engagement – our relative strength is that we can outpace them over distance. Let's stick with something that keeps us mobile."

"Understood," Hazō said. "In which case, the only other thing I think we should consider is to go hunting for a Leopard camp with some softer targets. If we can identify it from a distance, we can tunnel under, get all our ninjutsu ready, then pop out with surprise and start killing."

"That's the plan," Cancurunchu said. "We keep a move-on until we find where they sleep. Like I said, we're faster over land than the kitties, so if leopards catch our trail while they're in the area investigating the fight, they won't catch up to us. And that's assuming that any of them are smart enough not to get themselves sliced."

"So what do you think we ought to do?" Hazō asked.

"Let's head back to Dog and rest for a few hours. We gotta keep this all as one raid though, so we'll come back into Leopard in the afternoon and find one of their camps to finish this before nightfall. Let's set up a couple of these traps first though, and see if we can't slice up some bonus kitties…"

o-o-o​

"Well, would you look at that," Canchō said.

"That's gotta be two leopards, right?" Canhachi said to his brother. "There's way too many chunks for that to be just one."

"Maybe it was one really big leopard," Cansaku said.

Apparently, eight hours had been enough for the Leopard response to return to the site of the battle and try to pounce on the sleeping forms of the dogs fabricated by the Scenery Clone Seal Array. The trap wasn't active any more – whichever Leopards hadn't jumped through the skyslicer had burned the area down, destroying the seals, the skyslicer, and the corpses of their fellows.

"If we wanted, we could root through the pile and try to identify the sliced up bones," Hazō said. "If we find two skulls, or two pelvises, that means there's two."

"No, we shouldn't wait here longer than necessary," Cancurunchu said. "I'm marking that down as two juveniles, so we're at six. Let's move west and try to find a soft target to make our way to twelve."

o-o-o​

The raiding pack was loping through the plains when Canhachi abruptly stopped, ears going up in the air and tail going stiff. The rest of the dogs stopped short and turned to look at Canhachi, who was sniffing the air.

Hazō opened his mouth to say something, but stopped as he caught a glare from Cancurunchu.

"I smell leopard," Canhachi said. "And fresh kill. I think we crossed a trail."

He started pacing back and forth, nose to the ground.

"...and I think it goes this way. To their den."

o-o-o​

Somehow, it was Canchō's stupid brother who had found the leopard's trail. It was just like the time when the Hyenas raided their pack and Canhachi had been the one to find their forward base and got all the credit for wiping them out, even though Canchō had killed three and Canhachi had only killed one.

At least Cancurunchu had paw-picked him to help scout the Leopard base. They wanted to tunnel under the base and pop up in the middle to kill as many of the kitties as they could, but to do that, they needed to know exactly where the base was. They crept forward little by little, while the rest of the team followed a hundred yards behind – hopefully far enough that the Leopards wouldn't notice the summoner snapping every twig and knocking every pebble he could.

Cancurunchu crept forward a tiny step more, then stopped. Slowly, he shuffled to the side, tail wagging ever so slightly to tell Canchō to come up beside him.

In the middle of grassy, broken earth, the leopard camp sat against the base of a thirty foot tall cliff. Outside the mouth of a small cave, an irritated-looking leopard played with a half-dozen cubs, while a couple other leopards sat here and there, dozing on sun-warmed boulders deposited near ridges in the earth. Canchō saw skulls, ribcages, and bones scattered on the ground – the signs of several successful hunts. The leopards must have been staying here for nearly a week. They'd been lucky to find the camp now, as the leopards would surely move on soon.

Cancurunchu flicked his tail slightly, tapping Canchō's side. Time to head back, get the others, and get to tunneling. Hopefully, that human's vibration-sensing ninjutsu would let him detect the tail-swishing of some of the sun-dozing leopards. He'd rather start the fight by burning up one of them, instead of popping up in the middle of the cubs.

The pair of dogs turned around and picked their way back through the underbrush as slowly as they'd come. The rear team was following them, so they'd meet in the middle, then hopefully-

Canchō heard a rustle of movement that some part of his mind immediately classified as Leopard pounce. Chakra pumped through his body as he called out for the packbond between himself and Cancurunchu that gave him strength and speed, then dove to the side.

Canchō felt Cancurunchu moving too as claws cut through his flank, and he turned to see a wispy, dark shadow coming at his face like an inverted lightning bolt. Darkness filled his vision except for a pair of ivory fangs that closed around his head.

The fangs sank in and the leopard shook its jaws. Canchō's neck snapped.

o-o-o​

Hazō and the raiding troop started as Cancurunchu burst through the underbrush at chakra-boosted speed.

"They spotted us, Canchō's dead, we-"

"What!?" Canhachi cried out.

"-have company!"

"Strength of the Pack!" called a half-dozen voices in unison, as the blue glow of the dog's packbond brought them together. They sank into their combat stances as Hazō heard the faintest rustle of movement in the woods where Cancurunchu came from.

The rustling immediately faded away.

"Shit," Cancurunchu said. "It's going back. To warn the others."

The leopards were going to be ready for a fight. They needed to run away and find another leopard base – this one had barely taken twenty minutes to find, so there was no point engaging here.

"Should we-" Hazō started.

"Jutsu up and move in!" Cancurunchu roared. "Avenge Canchō!"

"For Canchō! Strength of the Pack!"

"Sun Element: Blinding Aura!"

"Life Element: Eye Spy!"

Hazō swore internally as he made hand seals. "Earth Element: Pangolin Earth Armor! Earth Element: Living Roots!" Solid stone clad itself around Hazō. Now wasn't the time to second guess Cancurunchu.

The dogs were already racing ahead by the time Hazō finished his second ninjutsu, but they slowed to let Hazō catch up.

"The woods clear up ahead," Cancurunchu said as he ran. "The camp's at the base of a cliff – they won't be able to run except to the sides. Once we're winning, spread out to hem them in."

They didn't pass Canchō's body. Smart, Hazō thought in the tiny part of his brain that could be spared. Cancurunchu couldn't afford to let the troop get distracted now.

"Seals going on now," Hazō called, making his decision. He couldn't wait until the fight broke out to trigger his seals – the dogs would need every advantage they could get running into a camp of prepared leopards. "Careful, the Force Claws cut allies! Sound going out now!"

He tapped his MARS chain and bounced forward as his Reusable Rocket Boots activated. The dogs listened to his armor-muffled words and spread out so that the Force Claw seals on either side of their combat harnesses wouldn't cut their fellows, and the world went quiet as their Banshee Slayers activated. Hazō reached into his pockets and started grabbing Banshee disks. He activated one, hanging it from his belt, and started throwing the others ahead of him.

The woods cleared, revealing a pair of ridges and a short uphill slope to the mouth of a cave where four adult leopards were standing with the hair on their backs raised, clearly ready to make their stand to defend the cave. Above them, dozens of gold-glowing rocks orbited the cave mouth.

Canzappu and Canhachi slowed, starting their ninjutsu as the other dogs raced ahead through the shallow gulch up to the cave mouth. Hazō and Canfuwumpu slowed as well, watching as Cancurunchu turned his head, then stopped, pointing with a paw up one side of the gulch. Hazō followed the line and saw twisting forms of black shadow, barely visible poking out around a crook of rock.

Cancurunchu had tried to call it out, but the Banshee Slayers kept anyone from hearing him. That's why everyone was facing the wrong way when the other leopard jumped down from the opposite side of the gulch. It was a massive thing, double the size of even Canhachi, and it knocked Canrippu over in its leap. Canrippu swelled with blue power and tried to get up, but his injured rear leg buckled under the leopard's weight. In an instant, the leopard had Canrippu's throat raised above its head while the dog's blood spilled out onto the mossy boulders.

Hazō crouched low and pulsed chakra to his Rocket Boots again, jetting forward. Two dogs had died in a matter of seconds. This wasn't nine of them against four leopards – now, their seven barely had the advantage against the leopard's six.

The black shape leaped back up to the top of the gulch, dropping Canrippu's torn-out throat to meld back into the shadows of the sparse trees above. Cancurunchu started in that direction but stopped himself – it would take him too long to climb the ridge the way the leopard had, and it would leave the rest of his team exposed.

The world went dark for an instant as Canzappu completed his technique, and a beam of compressed sunlight lanced towards the leopard that had distracted Canrippu. The beam cut through a tree trunk as the leopard bounded towards the gulch and cut a deep gash across its hindquarters – but not enough to slow it down. It leapt down towards the dogs as the floating, glowing rocks in the distance finally descended, racing like meteors towards the group of dogs in the gulch.

Cancurunchu and Cankamu took passing hits but quickly rolled to their feet as the younger Cansaku darted around the falling stones. Immediately, the trio was dancing around the leopard that had jumped down, covering each other's openings with attacks and feints. Encircled by blue-glowing dogs, the leopard tried to leap back up the gulch wall, only to be tackled by Cankamu. That tactic would only work once.

Hazō raced past the brawl as Canhachi's chakra-bees started drilling into the flesh of the pinned-down leopard. They couldn't spread out too far without breaking the packbond, so that meant that dealing with the ranged ninjutsu user at the head of the cave was Hazō's job. Even distracting them would mean giving the rest of the dogs that much more room to maneuver.

His vision distorted and stretched as Canfuwumpu fed him the sight of the whole pack, focusing in on a single brown-spotted leopard that was wriggling as if casting a ninjutsu. That had to be the one. As Hazō closed in, he pulsed his Rocket Boots one more time, giving him a burst of speed through the leopard. As he expected, it dodged to the side, and he shot a granite macerator after it. The macerator's velocity added with his own, and-

-the leopard somehow put on a burst of speed, turning in the space of a ten-ryou piece, and easily evaded the granite chunks. Okay, these cats were fast.

Hazō landed on the rock just above the mouth of the cave and turned to see a giant, glowing set of jaws racing towards him. He tried to pulse his Rocket Boots to drop to the ground, but misjudged the angle and went right through the jaws. He felt them cutting and crunching at him. The Pangolin Earth Armor chipped and broke, and he felt the Pangolin Conditioning Technique break, sparing his shoulder from a dislocation.

He finally hit the ground on his opposite shoulder and rolled to his feet as earth flowed back up to encase him again. The last two leopards that had been guarding the cave mouth were spreading out to pounce on him from either side.

Leopards, using teamwork?

They might have pinned him if they'd picked a fight a month ago, before Hazō had his new Rocket Boots. Instead, Hazō leaned to the left, pulsing chakra and getting under the leopard as it leapt. One swipe left a trio of slashes through its ribcage, and the second-

It dashed away before Hazō could secure the kill, and Hazō flipped midair and bounced back towards the second leopard as its pounce landed hard on the stone. Before it could recover, Hazō's Force Claw cut through its face, tearing away its nose, an eye, and half its jaw.

The glowing rocks lost their light and dropped, disintegrating into golden dust as they fell. Hazō turned to see the fight he'd left behind– Cansaku was bleeding as he tore out a leopard's throat and Cancurunchu was disappearing into the forest after Canrippu's killer, while Cankamu had moved up beside Hazō and torn a vicious gash through the side of the meteor-thrower.

The leopard that had hit him with the chakra-construct jaws was wriggling its way through another ninjutsu. Hazō dashed towards the leopard, Force Claws outstretched to cut it to ribbons, only to find himself barely too slow to land the strike. The leopard completed its ninjutsu, sending another cloud of claws racing towards Cankamu and catching the dog with a silenced whimper, while the previous set of chakra-construct jaws turned on Hazō. He punched through it, letting the grinding energy break itself against his stone armor.

He pushed himself through the jaws and saw the paired leopards moving in behind the energy construct for a last-ditch attack. They had been too slow before Hazō had maimed them, and now Hazō dismantled them easily. One swipe severed a leg. Another cut through neck and spine, leaving the leopard's head flapping as its momentum finished its leap. The other, whose face Hazō had mauled, Hazō simply knocked out of the air with an elbow. A pulse to his Rocket Boots let him drag the Force Claws along the full length of its spine, nearly cutting the whole beast in half.

Hazō felt the air ripple at an incredibly fast movement. He turned, seeing Cancurunchu attacking a leopard cloaked in black shadow by the cave mouth, above Cankamu's savaged body. As he watched, the shadows wrapped around Cancurunchu. An instant later, Cancurunchu stumbled out of the darkness, a trio of claw marks trailing blood down his face.

Hazō's blood ran cold. If Cancurunchu couldn't land a hit on the leopard even going all out, who could?

The world dimmed again as Canzappu fired his ninjutsu into the cloud of shadow, but the concentrated sunlight failed to break the darkness. Hazō pulsed his Rocket Boots again as an arc of glowing white energy cut through where he'd been standing, but as he turned to the enemy, Cansaku was already tearing the offending leopard to shreds.

Chakra-construct bees raced towards the jaw-hurler, and Hazō decided to deal with the weaker leopard first. He didn't need to be anywhere near the fight with whatever passed for a Leopard jōnin. Canhachi's bees distracted the ninjutsu-user just long enough for Hazō to land a slice halfway through the leopard's foreleg, then he was surrounded by the chakra-construct jaws again.

His stone armor protected him. He pushed forward through the buzzing, grinding claws as they tried and failed to cut through the Pangolin Earth Armor, and closed in on the retreating leopard. He feinted to the left, it dodged right – and its injured foreleg buckled. It rolled to its feet a hair too slow, and Hazō punched his Force Claws right through the top of its head.

It dropped, and Hazō turned, pulsing his scarily-low chakra once again to rush back towards the mouth of the cave. If he arrived at a bloodbath, he wouldn't be able to fight the leopard off himself. He'd have to unsummon and tell Cannai that the whole team had died, and he'd-

Hazō arrived to see Cansaku panting atop the body of the massive black leopard. The Dog was in the process of dragging the Force Claws on the side of his harness through the dead leopard's body.

Canfuwumpu shook his head, making his ears flap silently on either side, and the ground opened up and spat out a collapsed Cancurunchu. A moment later, the grizzled veteran pushed himself up to all four paws.

They all waited a long, silent second for any other leopard to burst from the forest and kill their weakened squad. No Leopard came. They had won.

o-o-o​

Hyōosore was the eldest of the cubs, and he was quaking as the footsteps entered the cave. The unearthly screaming had stopped a few minutes ago, which had given them the slightest bit of hope that the bad times had finished. But the adults didn't come, and the footsteps that were approaching weren't in fours – they were in twos. That meant it was a human, a summoner, the Dog Summoner approaching them. The adults were all dead, and Hyōosore wasn't strong enough to fight off the human. But he had to try, for his sister and his cousins and-

He flinched away as a light suddenly lit the cave, and he heard his sister gasp and back up to the wall as well. He felt a trickle of urine spray down to the ground.

"We mean you no harm," the human said. "The other adults of your pack will soon be here to take care of you. But know this – we have killed twelve of your kind today in payment for the six dogs that your people killed on the border just north of here yesterday. Dog will continue to retaliate in kind, taking two Leopard lives for every dog that dies until the raids stop, or until Hyōhakken comes to meet Cannai at the border to discuss peace terms."

Hyōosore's eyes had gotten used to the light barely enough for him to see the human brandish the thing he was holding. It was the severed head of his grandmother.

"Understand this: today, we took the first of our steps of escalation. You do not want to see our last."

With that, the human dropped the head to the ground and walked out.

o-o-o​

Spoiler: rolls

Trouble on the way out? 1d8: 1 means they get attacked by someone on the way out of Leopard.

1d8: 4

They make it back to Dog with no issues.

"Twelve leopards killed, yes," Cannai said. "But at what cost? Three skilled warriors of mine dead, and three more so gravely injured that they'll be out of commission for months. What went wrong?"

Cancurunchu was among those gravely injured dogs, and Canfuwumpu had begged for the sweet release of sleep, so it was Hazō and Cansaku delivering the report to Cannai.

"The mission started out fine," Hazō said. "We met a medium size hunting group and annihilated them, and killed a couple more with traps. It all went wrong when we found one of their camps."

"Yeah," Cansaku said, enthusiasm dulled by the events of the day. "See, there was this leopard there, a really, really strong one. I killed her in the end, me and Cancurunchu and also Canfuwumpu and Canzappu helped out I guess, but she was crazy strong like you wouldn't believe Alpha, I mean it. On the way back, I talked with Cancurunchu and he said he thought he knew who it was. Apparently, he thinks she was this really strong Leopard warrior named…"

o-o-o​

"Hyōhisan. Is dead. Have I heard correctly?"

"Yes, Lord Hyōhakken," said the messenger, cowering back from Hyōhakken's viridian gaze.

Hyōhakken glanced to the side, where that silver-coated leopard lounged. Or – normally lounged. Now, he was sitting upright, ears perked up and eyes focused directly on the messenger.

"The Dog Summoner. What color was the tuft of fur atop his head?"

The messenger leopard cringed. "I do not know, Lord Hyōkagyaku."

"If he killed Hyōhisan so casually, then who else could it be but my old friend?" the leopard said, rising to his feet. He stretched slowly, impossibly slowly, leaning back then forward and letting every joint flex and relax.

"I wonder what made him remember me after so many years of abandonment," Hyōkagyaku mused. "Forgive me, Hyōhakken, but I'm afraid I must go and see if he wishes to dance with me once again."

Hyōhakken considered Hyōkagyaku. Should he reveal that the new Dog Summoner was but a stripling, not the old man that had spun the song of lightning and death across a hundred Leopard pelts?

No. After so many years of ennui, he should let his brother enjoy a hunt for at least a little while. Perhaps he would even kill that troublesome Dog Summoner.

"I would not stop you, Hyōkagyaku."

"Hyōhakken."

The silver-coated leopard disappeared into the tall grass.

---

Spoiler: rolls

Balance Changes/Things I Will Do Differently Than EJ

• Tentatively ruling that you can't use two Reflexive Supplemental ninjutsu simultaneously when you're attacked (so no double Strength of the Pack) as people in general cannot multithread complex chakra manipulations. You can still use a RefSup ninjutsu and a different RefSup (like activating CATEARS).
• The leopards kind of got embarrassed last time by their clan's +AB (relative to the dogs' +3*AB), so I'm ticking up their racial perk to +2*AB on physical skills and +AB on Alertness.
  • [NB: I am realizing after the fact that I did not actually incorporate the +AB to initiative that the Leopards had. Tragically, this would likely have mattered. Ah well.]
  • I realize this is not how I would rule it if these guys were player-side – I'd probably find a more nuanced way to represent their individual strength. Alas, I do not have TR200, so I will accept that this is imperfect and move on.
  • This is an innate bonus, so it doesn't count towards Leopard buffcaps, if there are any leopards with buffs.
  • [NB: I am also realizing that I forgot to make any buff for the Leopards, even the tiniest +AB for the Leopard jōnin. Tragically, this probably should have happened and would definitely have mattered. Alas.]
• To balance this perk out a little, Strength of the Pack is being buffed slightly:
  • I'm having it affect ninjutsu so Canzappu, Canfuwumpu, and Canhachi don't feel left out. It'll only be 1x taggable there though.
  • Instead of requiring that every dog be in the same Zone, the ninjutsu continues to function as long as every dog is within a Zone of every other. That way, some amount of tactical movement is possible, but the Dogs still need to stay close together.
• The dogs would have bought up to 6 FP before going on the combat mission (have I mentioned that I dislike FP-buying?), and probably should have spent some on the last fight, so I'm setting their FP at 6 - 1d4 + 1 (+1 is for winning the combat, +2 for Canrippu who took a Mild):
  • Cancurunchu 3 FP
  • Canzappu 3 FP
  • Cankamu 4 FP
  • Canfuwumpu 5 FP
  • Canchō 3 FP
  • Canhachi 4 FP
  • Canrippu 7 FP
  • Cansaku 5 FP
• Random leopards aren't passively sitting around at 6 FP because they don't expect a fight. Instead, they're at 1 + 1d4 FP each.
• For simplicity's sake, all the summon combatants have two combat-usable Aspects. Probably this should scale and the genin-ish combatants should have around one and the jōnin-ish around three, but whatever.
• Weapons ratings: The dogs are rocking Weapons:1 on their close-combat attacks, the leopards get Weapons:2.
• Tactics:
  • The dogs will work together tactically and try to take down the strongest enemies first, when possible.
    • They'll flee once they take a Moderate, since they don't want to weigh down the pack, or if the pack is fleeing.
  • The leopards will not work together tactically. They'll try to take out the weakest enemies first, and will avoid attacking in melee if another leopard is already engaged.
    • They'll flee once they take a Mild – they're in it for their own skin.
    • [NB: I realize this didn't happen in the combat – this is because the leopards were defending the cubs, who they were the parents/aunts/uncles/grandparents of.]
• I've been inconsistent in the past about whether summons get chakra boost or not – tentatively, I'm saying that they do.
• I dislike ninjutsu that directly targets secondary stats for balance reasons. Ninjutsu that previously targeted Resolve will now target Resolve + ⅓ CR instead.

Pre-Combat Prep

The team retreats to Dog, rests for 8 hours on a skytower, and gets back into Leopard.

Hazō and the dogs have a few options – they can run into another hunting group, they can run into a non-hunting group, they can find a camp, they can find a trail (which they can follow forwards into a group or backwards to camp), or a hunting group can find their trail and ambush them.

1-6: ambushed by leopards
7-9: find hunting group
10-12: find non-hunting group
13-18: run into a camp
19-30: find trail (and follow to a camp)
31-100: find nothing this hour, reroll (this entry here to determine how much chakra is regenerated over time)

Gut check – this feels right. The chance of finding a camp would be higher if Hazō could use skywalkers + telescopes, but the dogs don't want to risk it. Rolling it out:

Nd100: 27 aaaand we're done, that was quick!

20 minutes after coming back into Leopard, Canhachi sniffs out a trail, which the dogs can then follow to its source. They want to do the "tunnel under, buff up, break through and fight" strat, but need to localize it first – they don't know how far the camp is down the trail, and they can't follow the trail while tunneling.

The camp has 3d10 (2, 4, 10) = 16 leopards, of whom 3d4 (1, 1, 3) = 5 are cubs. Of the remaining 11 adults, 2d4 (2, 3) = 5 are out and about (in small groups, maybe solo), 1d4 (4) are sleeping, leaving 2 awake and keeping watch over the cubs. All adult leopards are combat capable, but some are weaker (think: 20s/30s in their combat stats; just enough to hunt prey by), while others are strong. The two awake ones are equivalent to (2d100 [1-40: genin, 41-90: chūnin, 91-100 jōnin; though these ranges aren't accurate to Human Path demographics]: 65, 97; wow!) a chūnin and a fairly strong jōnin.

Cancurunchu and Canchō are the most confident in their stealth skills. They'll try to sneak forward to pin down the camp location without the leopards noticing. Ordinarily, sneaking up to the camp and back would take 10 minutes. They won't time-ladder it, since they don't want to leave the team alone for so long close to a leopard encampment – a large hunting group coming home could stumble across them at any moment.

Cancurunchu (Stealth): 44 - 3 = 41
Canchō (Stealth): 38 + 6 = 44
Leopard Jōnin (Alertness): hahahaha

The Leopard Jōnin, now named Hyōhisan, sees a pair of dogs trying to sneak up on her. Hyōhisan is a 1d6 (1-3: CQC, 4-5: 'normal' ninjutsu, 6: esoteric ninjutsu): 2 = CQC specialist, but she also has passable ninjutsu skills, of course. She will (1d4):

1: Play it cool until the dogs get closer, then eat their faces once they're in face-eating range.
2: Turn the hunt around on the dogs, and stalk them back.
3: Throw a ninjutsu at the dogs to scare them off – she's not in the mood for a hunt right now.
4: Do the smart thing and wake the camp.

1d4: 2

As Cancurunchu notices the camp and turns back to the pack, Hyōhisan takes note of her new prey. Once his back is fully turned, the leopard rouses herself, telling her junior to mind the cubs for a moment before slipping off into the shadows.

Cancurunchu (Alertness): 61 + 0 = 61
Canchō (Alertness): 49 + 0 = 49
Hyōhisan (Stealth): ?? + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??

The dogs are going slow so as to not disturb the leopards – so Hyōhisan has plenty of time to line up an attack. She'll target the weaker-looking one on pure leopard instinct. Canchō will use Strength of the Pack immediately at Effect:4, spreading 2 tags to Cancurunchu and keeping 2 tags for himself.

Hyōhisan (Face-Nomming): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate Leopard Clan bonus) + ?? (Flat-Footed – bonus increased by a stunt) + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??
Canchō (Athletics): 58 + 6 (boost) + 12 (Strength of the Pack) + 12 (2x Invokes) + 3 = 91

Canchō is instantly dead, taking ?? + 2 = ?? stress.

Cancurunchu immediately realizes that this leopard is going to be trouble, and races out to rejoin the pack. While they're far enough away not to interrupt the stealth mission, they're not actually that far away in terms of Zones, so he gets there in a single Standard, then saves his Supplementals for defensive Strength of the Packs (so he can allocate the tags to whoever needs it).

[NB: I realize I forgot to actually use my ambush rules here – normally, I would have started initiative immediately after the ambushing attack, immediately giving Hyōhisan another turn with which to attack a Cancurunchu since her Alertness is higher than his. While no longer Flat-Footed, Cancurunchu wouldn't have Strength of the Pack available, and thus would have been pretty screwed. Instead, I treated the ambushing attack as Hyōhisan's turn (even though initiative shouldn't have started yet), and let Cancurunchu go right away. Oops.]

Hyōhisan follows with her Standard, and realizes that she's walking face-first into a miniature warparty. She'll immediately about-face and dash back with her Supplementals, probably taking her out of range of most of the party, but Canzappu can take a potshot with Focus Blast (Effect:3):

Canzappu (Alertness): 57 + 6 = 63
Hyōhisan (Stealth): ?? + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??

Focus Blast? More like Focus Miss!

At this point, the dogs need to decide – do they press forward, or do they try to run? As established, Cancurunchu gets a bit battle-heated, and decides to press forward. Everyone gets their buffs up before the fight starts, so this is going to be a pure slugfest.

Meanwhile, Hyōhisan is waking the leopard camp. The four adult leopards that were sleeping were roughly (17, 32, 14, 45): two weaker genin, a stronger genin, and a weak chūnin (in terms of base stats; these Leopards are stronger than their human equivalents). Hazō takes two Standards to cast his techniques before the dog raiders start to run in, so the leopards are all woken and buffed up.

Combat

As a reminder, our cast of dogs consists of:

Name	Approximate skill	Specialty
Cancurunchu	Jōnin	Taijutsu
Canzappu	Jōnin	Long ranged single-target ninjutsu
Cankamu	Special jōnin	Taijutsu
Canfuwumpu	Chūnin	Debuffs
Canchō	Chūnin	Area control. Canhachi's brother.
Canhachi	Chūnin	Short range AOE ninjutsu. Canchō's brother.
Canrippu	Chūnin	Taijutsu
Cansaku	Chūnin	Taijutsu

• Cancurunchu casts SotP:5.
• Canzappu casts Blinding Aura and SotP:5
• Cankamu casts SotP:5
• Canfuwumpu casts Eye Spy:10 (Cancurunchu, Canzappu, Cankamu, Canhachi, Hazō)
• Canhachi casts SotP:5
• Canrippu casts SotP:5
• Cansaku casts SotP:5 and SotP:5 (covering for Canfuwumpu's missing SotP stack)
• Hazō casts Living Roots:2 and PEA:3

35 SotP tags running around, default distribution is: Cancurunchu: 6, Canzappu: 4, Cankamu: 6, Canfuwumpu: 3, Canhachi: 4, Canrippu: 6, Cansaku: 6

Hazō decides it's best to activate the MARS chain now rather than risk waiting for his low initiative, but they're too far from the combat to use a Banshee Fucker effectively – instead, he'll throw Banshees ahead of him as they run to keep the sound-denial up, and keep everyone silenced by Banshee Slayers. He also has his RRBs active, and everyone has their Force Claws (or Force Jaws, as the case may be) active.

Map

Grabbing a battlemap off the internet:


Zone 1: Clifftop. Border:2 to get here. High Ground. Forested.
Zone 2: The Den. The cubs are hiding in a crack in the wall.

• Hyōkutsū
• Hyōkirai
• Hyōsonae
• Hyōuppun

Zone 3: Low Ridge. Big Boulders. Patchy Forest. High Ground to 4.

• Hyōgekido

Zone 4: Watering Hole. Low Ground – Border:1 to get up to 3 or 5.

• Cancurunchu
• Cankamu
• Canrippu
• Cansaku

Zone 5: High Ridge. Cliff Wall. Patchy Forest. High Ground to 4.

• Hyōhisan

Zone 6: Lowland. Dead Trees. Border:1 to get to 7.
Zone 7: Entry of the Dogs.

• Canzappu
• Canfuwumpu
• Canhachi
• Hazō

Hyōhisan and Hyōgekido are hiding, trying to catch the dogs unaware with a flank:
Hyōhisan (Stealth): ?? + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??
Hyōgekido (Stealth): ?? + ?? + ? = ??
Cancurunchu (Alertness): 61 + 3 = 64
[not rolling the rest of the dogs as they have no shot of noticing Hyōhisan]

Cancurunchu notices Hyōgekido and calls him out as they enter Zone 4, starting the battle. Hyōhisan is hidden.

[NB: all Leopard dice were replaced with + ?, even the negative rolls they had.]

Round 1

Initiative:

1. ?? Hyōhisan
2. 63 Cancurunchu
3. 57 Canzappu
4. 49 Cankamu
5. ?? Hyōkutsū
6. 46 Cansaku
7. 46 Canrippu
8. ?? Hyōgekido
9. 41 Canhachi
10. 40 Canfuwumpu
11. 38 Hazō (no chakdar benefit, as everyone is already boosting around him so it's just buzzing constantly)
12. ?? Hyōkirai
13. ?? Hyōsonae
14. ?? Hyōuppun

Hyōhisan
Hyōhisan, again, is not particularly tactically minded. She'll burn her surprise going after the weakest link she sees in front of her: Canrippu, who is limping slightly thanks to his Mild. Supp jump down, Standard attack:

Hyōhisan (Face-Nomming): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (Pounce from High Ground) + ?? (innate Leopard Clan bonus) + ?? (Flat-Footed – bonus increased by a stunt) + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??
Canrippu (Athletics): 52 - 3 (Mild) + 6 (boost) + 18 (Strength of the Pack) + 12 (2x Invokes) + 15 (5xFP ½ invokes) + 0 = 100

?? + 2 = ?? stress, Canrippu is instantly dead.

With that done, Hyōhisan will jump back up onto the Zone 5 ridge (she can do this with a Supplemental, thanks to her Leopard Clan perk).

Cancurunchu
Just saw another one of his pack members die. He has no tolerance for that – he would immediately jump on Hyōhisan… but he can't with the Border:1 needed to get up to her! He'll Block against any Leopard attacking.

Cancurunchu (Jaw and Claw): 64 + 7 (boost) + 21 (3x tag SotP) + 9 = 101

Canzappu
Need to kill Hyōhisan, but she's too agile to be targeted now that she's back in the shadows. Hyōgekido is getting ready to jump down. Canzappu will target that Leopard before it can deal any more damage.

Canzappu (Alertness): 57 + 12 (Eye Spy) - 3 = 66
Hyōgekido (Stealth): ?? + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??

Canzappu (Focus Blast): 62 + 7 (boost) + 7 (innate) + 7 (tag SotP) + 7 (1x invoke) + 0 = 90
Hyōgekido uses Bounding Evasion!
Hyōgekido (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Bounding Evasion) + ?? (2x invoke) + ? = ??

Attacker wins on a tie, so Canzappu deals 3 stress.

Cankamu
Likewise, Hyōhisan is a bit too strong to deal with right now. He doesn't want the Leopards playing keep away, so he'll specifically Block against any Leopard running away after their attack. Together with Cancurunchu, they should be able to trap any Leopard that comes into the Zone.

Cankamu (Jaw and Claw): 59 + 6 (boost) + 18 (3x tag SotP) + 9 = 92

Hyōkutsū
He's got his meteors ready, it's time for a lightshow! He'll send in six meteors, sending them at (Cancurunchu, Cancurunchu, Cankamu, Cankamu, Cansaku, Cansaku). This isn't 6 attacks – it's 2 attacks per target, and he gets to choose the better roll.

Hyōkutsū (Meteor Shower): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ? = ??
Hyōkutsū (Meteor Shower): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ? = ??
Hyōkutsū (Meteor Shower): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ? = ??
Hyōkutsū (Meteor Shower): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ? = ??
Hyōkutsū (Meteor Shower): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ? = ??
Hyōkutsū (Meteor Shower): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ? = ??

So ?? on Cancurunchu, ?? on Cankamu, ?? on Cansaku.

Cancurunchu (Athletics): 63 + 7 (boost) + 7 (SotP) - 3 = 74
Cancurunchu is fine!
Cankamu (Athletics): 59 + 7 (boost) + 6 (SotP) + 0 = 72
Cankamu takes ? stress!
Cansaku (Athletics): 50 + 6 (boost) + 18 (SotPx3) + 6 = 80
Cansaku is fine!

Cansaku
Has nothing to do immediately, so will take Full Defense, since the two Leopards are on high ground on either side of him.

Hyōgekido
Jumps down to attack Cankamu, who seems weak since he just took a hit. Unfortunately, Cancurunchu is Blocking, so Hyōgekido needs to beat the Block to get an attack in:

Hyōgekido (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Leaping from High Ground) + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??

Pretty good, but doesn't beat a 100. He can't make it to Cankamu, and he doesn't want to tangle with Cancurunchu because Cancurunchu looks too tough – Hyōgekido is gonna get his face eaten. He'll just try to jump back up, which is when Cankamu finally moves in to pin him down:

[NB: There was a brief QM discussion about whether Blocking with a melee skill should make an attack when enemies fail to beat the Block. Balance aside, I could see narrative logic either way, but in this case, I ruled that Cancurunchu could not make an attack. For balance reasons, I probably wouldn't apply an attack in the future.]

Hyōgekido (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Bounding Evasion) + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??

Hyōgekido can't beat Cankamu's Block! He's pinned down in Zone 4!

Canhachi
Time to kill this pesky, pinned-down Leopard.

Canhachi (Alertness): 41 + 10 (Eye Spy) + 0 = 51
Hyōgekido (Stealth): ?? + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??

He can hit.

Canhachi (Rage of the Hive): 58 + 6 (boost) + 6 (innate) + 6 (SotP) + 12 (2x invoke) - 9 = 79
Canhachi spends a FP to reroll!
Canhachi (Rage of the Hive): 58 + 6 (boost) + 6 (innate) + 6 (SotP) + 12 (2x invoke) - 6 = 82
Canhachi spends a FP to reroll!
Canhachi (Rage of the Hive): 58 + 6 (boost) + 6 (innate) + 6 (SotP) + 12 (2x invoke) + 3 = 91
Hyōgekido (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Bounding Evasion) + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??

Hyōgekido takes ?? stress! That's a Mild and a Severe!

Canfuwumpu
He doesn't have much useful to do – but his teammates are taking fire in Zone 4, and he can't let that keep happening. Moving closer also makes him more likely to do something tactically useful eventually, and keeps the Dogs moving forward. He'll run forward into Zone 4, then take Full Defense while acting like bait. Hopefully that soaks some hits away from other members of his party.

Hazō
The Dogs can't run forward to deal with the meteor user, since that would break their Strength of the Pack bond. It's Hazō's responsibility to deal with that. They're a ninjutsu user, so Hazō needs to actually neutralize them, not just Goo Bomb them, so he'll attack with Taijutsu.

Supplemental: RRB-boosted Sprint to cross two Zones into the den Zone. [NB: Is this how this should work? This is extremely strong. Tentatively ruling that yes, RRBs let you cross two Zones in one Supp (assuming no border) for now, but will come back to this later.]
Standard: Attack (saving a Supplemental for emergency Substitution)

Hazō (Alertness): 36 + 2 (Living Roots) + 10 (Eye Spy) + 3 = 51
Hyōkutsū (⅓ Stealth): ⅓ * (?? + ?? (Shadow Blend)) + ? = ??
(This is so easy I'm going to skip any Alertness checks against Shadow Blend in melee)

Hazō (Taijutsu): 43 + 6 (boost) + 6 (Macerators v3) + 9 (RRBs) - 1 (PCJ) - 3 = 62
Hyōkutsū (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Bounding Evasion) - ?? (Banshee) + ? = ??

Nowhere near close enough to hit.

Hyōkirai
This summoner running into the Zone is interesting – but not in a good way. Flee, then kill him.

Supplemental: Run into Zone 3.
Standard: Attack Hazō.
Hyōkirai (Fangs from Afar): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (Fangs from Afar, Effect:?) + ?? (2x Invokes) + ? = ??
Hazō (Athletics): 40 + 6 (boost) + 10 (Substitution) + 9 (RRBs) - 1 (PCJ) - 3 (PEA) + 0 = 61

Hazō gets hit for 6 stress! PEA negates 3 of that stress, PCJ breaks soaking 2 more stress, and Hazō takes 1 stress in his stress track.

Hyōsonae
Hazō's right up next to the cubs – he needs to die. (also he doesn't seem tough, since he missed his attack and Hyōkirai hit)

Hyōsonae (Face-Nomming): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (2x Invokes) - ?? (Banshee) + ? = ??
Hazō (Taijutsu): 43 + 6 (boost) + 9 (RRBs) - 2 (Substitution disorientation) - 3 = 53

Hazō deals ? + 4 = ? stress counterattacking! That's a Mild and a Moderate on Hyōsonae!

Hyōuppun
Same as her mate. Kill the strange human!

Hyōuppun (Face-Nomming): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (2x Invokes) - ?? (Banshee) + ? = 42
Hazō (Taijutsu): 43 + 6 (boost) + 9 (RRBs) - 2 (Substitution disorientation) - 6 = 50
Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Taijutsu): 43 + 6 (boost) + 9 (RRBs) - 2 (Substitution disorientation) + 3 = 59

Hazō deals ? + 4 = ?? stress, that's a Mild, Moderate, and Severe!

Round 2

1. ?? Hyōhisan
2. 63 Cancurunchu
3. 57 Canzappu
4. 49 Cankamu
5. ?? Hyōkutsū
6. 46 Cansaku
7. ?? Hyōgekido
8. 41 Canhachi
9. 40 Canfuwumpu
10. 38 Hazō
11. ?? Hyōkirai
12. ?? Hyōsonae
13. ?? Hyōuppun

Hyōhisan
Attacking Cankamu didn't go so well for Hyōgekido – Cankamu is still on Hyōgekido, so let that guy figure it out for himself. Go for Cansaku instead. Cancurunchu will try to interpose:

Hyōhisan (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Leaping from High Ground) + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??

Hyōhisan narrowly evades Cancurunchu's Block! But, it's at the cost of her High Ground bonus.

Hyōhisan (Face-Nomming): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??
Cansaku (Jaw and Claw): 56 + 6 (boost) + 18 (SotPx3) + 12 (2x Invokes) + 6 = 98
Cansaku spends a FP for ½ AB, check total is 101.

Cansaku takes 1 + 2 = 3 stress, filling his stress track. How lucky.

Hyōhisan bounds back into the shadows.
Hyōhisan (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Bounding Evasion) + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??

Easily evading Cankamu's Block.

Cancurunchu
They need to deal with Hyōhisan! But Cancurunchu is almost out of chakra! He can't move to Zones 2 or 3, because he'll break the packbond, so he instead Standard moves into Zone 5, hoping that this baits Hyōhisan into attacking him.

Canzappu
Moves forward to Zone 4 to give the packbond some more breathing room. Hyōhisan is a problem, but does Canzappu have a shot of landing a hit? It may be better to target the meteor-thrower.

Canzappu (Alertness): 57 + 10 (Eye Spy) + 9 = 76
Hyōkutsū (Stealth): ?? + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??

Nope, Canzappu can zap him!

Canzappu (Focus Blast): 62 + 7 (boost) + 7 (innate) + 7 (SotP) + 7 (1x invoke) - 3 = 87
Hyōkutsū (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Bounding Evasion) + ? = ??

That's another miss! But Hyōkutsū is out of Bounding Evasion RefSups momentarily, if some dog can take advantage of that…

Cankamu
Supplemental: move into the Zone with Hyōkutsū, breaking the packbond.
Supplemental: Strength of the Pack:4, making a new bond with Cansaku and himself.
Standard: Attack Hyōkutsū.

Skipping Alertness check as it's trivial.

Cankamu (Jaw And Claw): 59 + 6 (boost) + 14 (SotPx2) + 6 (1x invoke) + 3 = 88
Hyōkutsū (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (2x invokes) + ? = ??

With the Force Claws, that's ? + 4 = ? stress, a Moderate.

Hyōkutsū needs to make a TN(stress * 10) Resolve check or lose Meteor Shower.

Hyōkutsū (Resolve): hahaha

Nope, the meteors go dull.

Hyōkutsū
Unfortunately, the meteors are a full-round action to get active, something he can't afford right now. He'll back up into Zone 3 (with Hyōkirai) and use a secondary attack on Cankamu, keeping one Supplemental for Bounding Evasion. He'd go into Zone 6, except the elevation doesn't work out for him to keep being able to target Cankamu.

Hyōkutsū (Starlight Slice): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) - ?? (Moderate) + ? = ??
Cankamu (Athletics) 59 + 6 (boost) + 0 = 65

[NB: in retrospect, this attack was much weaker than it should have been, due to me forgetting about the crossover bonus. Oh well.]

Easily evaded.

Cansaku
Finish off Hyōgekido.

Cansaku (Jaw and Claw): 56 + 6 (boost) + 18 (SotPx3) + 12 (2x Consequence tag) + 0 = 92
Hyōgekido (Face-Nomming): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) - ?? (Mild+Severe) + ?? (3x FP half-tag) + ? = ??

That's ? + 4 = ? stress, he's shredded.

Canhachi
Supplemental: Move forward into Zone 4.
Standard: Attack Hyōkutsū, who is dangerous and injured.

Canhachi (Rage of the Hive): 58 + 6 (boost) + 6 (innate) + 6 (SotP) + 6 (tag Moderate) + 3 = 85
Hyōkutsū (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Bounding Evasion) - ?? (Moderate) + ?? (invoke "Hiding Behind a Tree!") + ? = ??

Hyōkutsū dodges with a touch of luck, but he's barely keeping ahead of the attacks, and is now out of Supplementals…

Canfuwumpu
Debuffing Hyōhisan is priority number 1.

Standard: Follow Cancurunchu into Zone 5, hopefully to get the debuff off next round.

Hazō
Hyōkutsū is a weak target, but Hazō's attacks are rolling low enough that he doesn't think he's likely to hit even an injured Hyōkutsū. Instead, he'll attack Hyōkirai, taking a Supplemental to move into range before attacking:

Hazō (Taijutsu): 43 + 6 (boost) + 9 (RRBs) - 3 = 55
Hyōkirai (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Bounding Evasion) - ?? (Banshee) + ? = ??

Hyōkirai narrowly dodges!

Hyōkirai
Gets an autoattack on Hazō at the start of the round:

Hyōkirai (Fangs from Afar): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (Fangs from Afar, Effect:?) + ? = ??
Hazō (Athletics): 40 + 6 (boost) + 10 (Substitution) + 9 (RRBs) - 3 (PEA) + 0 = 62

Hazō takes 2 + 1 = 3 stress, of which PEA soaks all of it.

This summoner is annoying, but there's another dog now in the entryway to the clutch, ready to attack the cubs. Supplemental Sprint away (into Zone 6), then Fangs from Afar onto Cankamu.

Hyōkirai (Fangs from Afar): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (Fangs from Afar, Effect:?) + ? = ??
Cankamu (Athletics): 59 + 6 (boost) + 0 = 65

Cankamu takes ? stress.

Hyōsonae
He's injured and will probably die, but better to go out fighting for the cubs than to die being hunted like prey.

Hyōsonae (Face-Nomming): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) - ?? (Mild + Moderate) + ? = ??
Hazō (Taijutsu): 43 + 6 (boost) + 9 (RRBs) + 10 (2x Consequence tag) - 2 (Substitution disorientation) - 3 = 63

That's ? + 4 = ? stress, super dead.

Hyōuppun
Same logic as above, plus the emotions of the human just killing her mate.

Hyōsonae (Face-Nomming): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) - ?? (Mild + Moderate + Severe) + ? = ??
Hazō (Taijutsu): 43 + 6 (boost) + 9 (RRBs) - 2 (Substitution disorientation) + 15 (3x Consequence tag) + 0 = 71

Hazō deals ? + 4 = ? stress, which would kill two Leopards.

Round 3

1. ?? Hyōhisan
2. 63 Cancurunchu
3. 57 Canzappu
4. 49 Cankamu
5. ?? Hyōkutsū
6. 46 Cansaku
7. 41 Canhachi
8. 40 Canfuwumpu
9. 38 Hazō
10. ?? Hyōkirai

Cancurunchu overdraws for a Moderate! Canzappu overdraws for a Moderate and a Severe! Canhachi overdraws for a Moderate and Severe!

Hyōhisan
Well, these Dogs are annoying. Moreover, there's one in particular that's hanging out by the entry to the den, and all the old defenders there have been taken down or scared away. That can't be allowed.

Supplemental: Sprint to Zone 2.
Standard: Attack Cankamu.

Hyōhisan (Face-Nomming): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ?? (2x Invokes) + ? = ??
Hyōhisan spends a FP to reroll!
Hyōhisan (Face-Nomming): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ?? (2x Invokes) + ? = ??
Cankamu (Jaw and Claw): 59 + 6 (boost) + 18 (SotPx3) + 6 (1x Invoke) - 3 = 86

Cankamu takes ?? + 2 stress and dies.

Cancurunchu
He is sick of seeing his people die. He goes in for the attack on Hyōhisan.

Cancurunchu (Jaw and Claw): 64 + 7 (boost) + 21 (SotPx3) + 14 (2x Invokes) - 6 = 100
Cancurunchu spends a FP to reroll!
Cancurunchu (Jaw and Claw): 64 + 7 (boost) + 21 (SotPx3) + 14 (2x Invokes) + 0 = 106
Hyōhisan (Face-Nomming): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??

Hyōhisan wins with a bit of Jashin's luck, inflicting 1 + 2 = 3 stress onto Cancurunchu.

Canzappu
Now's the time to take down Hyōhisan!

Canzappu (Alertness): 57 + 12 (Eye Spy) - 9 = 60
Canzappu spends a FP to reroll
Canzappu (Alertness) 57 + 12 (Eye Spy) + 0 = 69
Hyōhisan (Stealth): ?? + ?? (Shadow Blend) + ? = ??

Canzappu gets to take the shot:

Canzappu (Focus Blast): 62 + 7 (boost) + 7 (innate) + 7 (Strength of the Pack) + 9 = 92
Hyōhisan (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Bounding Evasion) + ? = ??

She dodges! Burning through the last of her resources, she's out of Supplementals. But who else can land a hit?

Hyōkutsū
Supplemental to back into Zone 6, then attack the summoner. Some energy damage should cut right through that armor…

Hyōkutsū (Starlight Slice): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) - ?? (Moderate) + ? = ??
Hazō (Athletics): 40 + 6 (boost) + 9 (RRBs) - 3 (PEA) + 6 = 58

Or not!

[NB: again, this attack should have gotten a crossover bonus. It would have dealt stress. Oh well.]

Cansaku
Take down Hyōkutsū while he's weak!

Cansaku (Jaw and Claw): 56 + 6 (boost) + 18 (SotP) + 6 (invoke Moderate) + 0 = 86
Hyōkutsū (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Bounding Evasion) - ?? (Moderate) + ? = ??

With Jashin's favor, ? + 4 = ? stress is barely enough to kill.

[NB: I know I said the Dogs would focus on taking down the strong enemies, so Cansaku should have gone after Hyōhisan here. This was more tactically optimal I think, but my mistake nonetheless, as people shouldn't always be optimal (see: the Leopards).]

Canhachi
Attack Hyōkirai to take down the weird jaw-swarm things!

Canhachi (Rage of the Hive): 58 + 6 (boost) + 6 (innate) + 3 = 73
Hyōkirai (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Bounding Evasion) + ?? (invoke "Boulder Beats Bee") + ? = ??

Hyōkirai takes ? + 1 = ? stress!

Canfuwumpu
Okay, so things are clearly going south. Time to make the baddies go night night.

Supplemental: Sprint into the Zone with Hyōhisan
Standard: Baddies Go Fwump (Effect: 6)

Canfuwumpu (Baddies Go Fwump): 51 + 6 (boost) + 6 (SotP) + 3 = 66
Hyōhisan (Resolve): ?? + ?? (⅓ CR) + ? = ??

Jashin's favor has turned against our bloodied Leopard jōnin. Hyōhisan is now taking a -12 to physical skills, and has a new Aspect "Sleepy" that Canfuwumpu can pass tags around on. Half of the dogs are from Canfuwumpu's pack, and have taken the appropriate combo stunt to exploit this with SotP.

[NB: Oops, I forgot I was going to coinflip for each dog to see if they could combine with SotP, and just let everyone use it. Oh well.]

Hazō
Finish off Hyōkirai?

Hazō (Taijutsu): 43 + 6 (boost) + 9 (RRBs) + 5 (invoke "(Formerly) Marked for Death") - 3 = 60
Hyōkirai (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) - ?? (Banshee) + ? = ??

Hazō hits for ? + 4 = ? stress, inflicting a Moderate!

Hyōkirai
Well, this shit's bad. First, autoattacks:

Hyōkirai (Fangs from Afar): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (Fangs from Afar, Effect:?) - ?? (Moderate) + ? = ??
Hazō (Athletics): 40 + 6 (boost) + 10 (Substitution) + 9 (RRBs) - 3 (PEA) - 9 = 53

Hazō takes 3 stress, of which PEA soaks all of it.

Another autoattack on enemies in Zone 2, let's send it to Cancurunchu instead of Canfuwumpu since Cancurunchu is more threatening to the cubs.

Hyōkirai (Fangs from Afar): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (Fangs from Afar, Effect:?) - ? (Moderate) + ? = ??
Cancurunchu (Athletics): 59 + 7 (boost) + 18 (SotPx3) - 3 = 85

Not a chance.

What's Hyōkirai doing? Gotta get out of dodge, but there are too many damn Dogs. Let's target this annoying-ass bee-user.

Hyōkirai (Fangs from Afar): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (Fangs from Afar, Effect:?) - ?? (Moderate) + ? = ??
Canhachi (Athletics): 46 + 6 (boost) + 15 (SotPx3) + 6 = 73

No dice. Should really be focusing on the summoner.

Round 4

1. ?? Hyōhisan
2. 61 Cancurunchu
3. 54 Canzappu
4. 46 Cansaku
5. 41 Canhachi
6. 38 Hazō
7. ?? Hyōkirai
8. 35 Canfuwumpu

Cancurunchu, Canzappu, and Canhachi take their overdraw Consequences! Cancurunchu overdraws for a Severe!

Hyōhisan
Debuffed, how annoying. The rest of her allies are dead, but she's still strong enough to kill these Dogs. Starting with the annoying Canfuwumpu.

Hyōhisan (Face-Nomming): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Shadow Blend) - 12 (BGF) + ? = ??
Canfuwumpu (Athletics): 52 + 6 (boost) + 18 (SotP) + 6 (tag "Sleepy") + 12 (2x Invokes) + 6 = 100

No luck. Now she's getting worried. Is she going to win this?

Cancurunchu
Time to put it all on the line…

Cancurunchu (Jaw and Claw): 64 + 7 (boost) + 21 (SotPx3) - 7 (Moderate) + 7 (tag "Sleepy") + 0 = 92
Hyōhisan (Face-Nomming): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Shadow Blend) - 12 (BGF) + ? = ??

Jashin smiles on Cancurunchu, and he barely deals ? + 4 = ? stress, inflicting a Mild Consequence!

Well, that was underwhelming. He's taking a Severe next round, all his strong dogs are Severe'd up, so this fight is lost. He's gonna call the retreat and back up a Zone so as to not let Canfuwumpu out of the packbond.

Canzappu
Retreat! Breaks the packbond running away.

Cansaku
He's young, he's impulsive, he's going for the kill.

Cansaku (Jaw and Claw): 56 + 6 (boost) + 18 (SotPx3) + 6 (tag "Sleepy") - 6 = 80
Cansaku spends a FP to reroll!
Cansaku (Jaw and Claw): 56 + 6 (boost) + 18 (SotPx3) + 6 (tag Mild) + 6 (tag "Sleepy") + 3 = 95
Hyōhisan (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Bounding Evasion) - 12 (BGF) - ?? (Mild) + ? = ??

Jashin's favor has turned against the leopards! Hyōhisan takes ? + 4 = ? stress, dealing a Moderate and a Severe!

Canhachi
Took a Severe! Runs away!

Canfuwumpu
Shove Cancurunchu into the Instant Den, now that he's Severe'd up.

Hazō
Kill Hyōkirai, if he can.

Hazō (Taijutsu): 43 + 6 (boost) + 9 (RRBs) + 5 (invoke Moderate) - 6 = 57
Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Taijutsu): 43 + 6 (boost) + 9 (RRBs) + 5 (invoke Moderate) + 3 = 66
Hyōkirai (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Bounding Evasion) - ?? (Banshee) - ?? (Moderate) + ? = ??

Hazō deals ? + 4 = ? stress, barely enough to instantly kill Hyōkirai.

Round 5

1. ?? Hyōhisan
2. 46 Cansaku
3. 38 Hazō
4. 35 Canfuwumpu

Hyōhisan
Neither of the Dogs in her Zone are injured, and the two injured ones have ran off! She can't go running around willy-nilly – she'll fight to the death to defend the den. Still, any attack is probably insta-death, so she takes Full Defense.

Cansaku
Attack Hyōhisan.

Cansaku (Jaw and Claw): 56 + 6 (boost) + 18 (3x SotP) + 12 (tag Moderate+Severe) - 9 = 83
Hyōhisan (Athletics): ?? + ?? (boost) + ?? (innate) + ?? (Bounding Evasion) - 12 (BGF) - ?? (Mild+Moderate+Severe) + ? = ??

Cansaku barely secures the kill!

[NB: I forgot to apply Hyōhisan's Full Defense, which would have let her survive this attack given Cansaku's bad roll, and Cansaku's future attacks would be much weaker without the double tag. Canfuwumpu doesn't have a direct attack technique, Hazō's not hitting high enough numbers to hit an injured jōnin, and the whole Dog team was ultra-low on chakra, so Hyōhisan might legitimately have won or at least stalemated from this point had I actually remembered…]

Combat is over!

Hazō has spent 5 FP (1 on the Declare for Scenery Clone seal array, 4 in the fight) and gained 1 FP for winning a major conflict, leaving him at 3 FP.

Hazō is back in Aisu Bay Murderland (now featuring time acceleration and 24/7 lighting!), and has unstagnated his combat domain. After the full explanation of how things went, Cannai had no objections to any decisions made and praised the team's perseverance in the face of adversity (but Hazō suspects that Cancurunchu will be privately admonished later for charging into unknown danger when a safe retreat was likely possible). Unless the Leopards quiet down after this, Cannai might request another mission of Hazō in a couple weeks' time.

Hazō will need to do a few days of scribing to make up the ridiculous amount of MARS and Force Claw seals used.

XP Award: 5 + 0 (brevity) XP
GM-fun Award: 3 XP

Vote time! What to do now?

Voting ends on Jun 26, 2024 at 7:00 AM .

 

[Velorien]

Chapter 666, Part 1: The Blasphemer​

"It occurs to me," Snowflake mused, "that our present situation is an excellent metaphor for… well, our present situation."

Hazō gave her a questioning look as he poured them both freshly-unsealed hot chocolate. He was using a mug he had received as a birthday present from Yuno, an order-made vessel with an inscription that read, "I have every dog in this race", as well as a portrait of Cannai by an artist who had never seen the Alpha, based on the guidance of Yuno, who had also never seen the Alpha. Yuno had been highly offended when Kagome informed her it was the finest rendition of a sky squid he had ever seen. (Snowflake's own mug was a gift from Shikamaru from when her Fire Country citizenship was made official, and was decorated simply with the Leaf symbol. You belong.)

"How's that?" Hazō asked, staring closely at the mugs in order not to over-pour in the dim red seal-light (the brightest they were willing to dare at night, even with precautions).

Was it not obvious?

"Here we are, enjoying comfort and companionship while one false move away from plunging to certain death; higher than any other shinobi has ever risen, yet with the stars no less out of reach.

"The metaphor is only enhanced," she added, looking down at the skytower, "by the fact that our survival rests solely on your seals."

"Where does the hot chocolate fit in?" Hazō asked, passing her a mug.

Snowflake paused to think.

"It is evanescent pleasure–for you, another research success. For Kei, another day in which no innocents fall by her hand. For Kagome, another day in which his precautions have proved sufficient to protect his family. Yet already, you can feel the warmth in your hands fading into the cold night, and know that the victory you taste now will in no way dull the challenges of the morrow."

In the metaphor, there was no hot chocolate for Snowflake herself, unless the evanescence of her entire existence qualified.

"Wow," Hazō said. "That's… depressing."

"I apologise," Snowflake said. "As I have yet to secure permission from the Polemarch to exist upon the Seventh Path in an independent capacity, my opportunities to perform actions other than brooding are limited, and so I am ever refining the art whether I will it or not."

"What do you mean?"

"Human beings may only enter the Human Path via a contract," Snowflake explained. "This law is not recorded anywhere as far as I am aware, but considering even summoners are tolerated only for the benefits they bring the clan, we believe it would be taken for granted. As I lack such a contract, and have yet to earn Pantsā's approval, a single misstep on my part, including the tiniest conflict with a representative of the Holy Pangolin Empire, could lead to my formal exclusion–in which case Kei would be denied the use of the Shadow Clone Technique. She is already denied the Frozen Skein, and I cannot have her survival tools whittled down further. Thus, on the Seventh Path, I must constrain my activities to those acceptable for a temporary ninjutsu effect."

She kept her tone even–what were her trivial complaints next to the pressures Hazō was doubtless under?–but she could not help her hands tightening around her mug.

"I'm sorry, Snowflake," Hazō said. "I should have figured this would be even harder on you than on the rest of us. For what it's worth, I'm glad you're here. I'm around 24/7–in fact, rather more than 24/7–and more of that time than I'd like ends up going to thinking about the family that's still in Leaf. I miss them. I'm glad I don't have to miss you as well."

"Indeed," Snowflake said. "This mission has made me realise anew how many people I have become connected to. How has someone like me been blessed with so many connections, so many people who actually enjoy my company and actively seek it out? How have I, in no way less solitary by nature than Kei, found myself with so many people whose company I miss as well? It is quite preposterous."

She felt her grip soften. It was unaccountable for. Incomprehensible. Most of those people already had Kei, who surely satisfied most of the same needs and had the advantage of a pre-existing bond. Snowflake should have been redundant, lacking competitive advantage to justify having time and emotional resources spent on her when a satisfactory version already existed. So why…?

"I hope I can see them again," Snowflake said, "implausible though it may be. After all, it is not as if I will be reunited with them in the afterlife." Kei would presumably be unable to use the Shadow Clone Technique in the Pure Land, after all, and when she passed on to her final destination, Snowflake would simply disappear from existence. Shadow clones had no souls.

"You do know we're going to win this, right?" Hazō asked. "I mean, I know the deadlines are pressing in as well as anyone. Believe me, it's not lost on me that the fate of the world depends on me figuring this out, and figuring it out fast. But I have plenty of promising research directions, and all it takes is for one of them to work out. One. Heck, it doesn't even have to kill all of Akatsuki. If I can take out half of them, that already puts Leaf on even ground, and I have plenty of ideas on how to do that much. In the worst-case scenario, I give up on my cooler ideas for the time being and just whip up a mini-Akatsuki killer or two, and we suck it up and accept that Leaf will have casualties–but that's not the same as saying we'll never see our loved ones again."

His optimism was almost offensive. How could he sit here, in the darkness above the abyssal depths of Gaikotsu Bay, and pretend, so casually, to her face?

"The worst-case scenario," Snowflake said, aiming for cold but finding only emptiness, "is that Akatsuki find us using some means we have failed to account for and kill us all here, something they can accomplish with ease in defiance of a dozen Akatsuki-killers so long as they possess the element of surprise. Even should we successfully reverse-summon, that will merely leave your current runes in Akatsuki's hands and yourself trapped in a place where runic infusion, and thus further research, is impermissible.

"The second-worst is that Akatsuki abandon or forgo their efforts to locate us and instead assault Leaf, aware that our superweapons will be of little efficacy if they can force us to deploy them on grounds of their choosing, without Leaf support. Kidnapping and torturing our loved ones would likewise be a strategically advisable move, whether to seek information or on the off-chance that it will provoke us to emerge, and can be done with or without Leaf's destruction.

"That my brooding time has been limited does not mean Kei has not repeatedly enumerated and refined countless catastrophic scenarios, together with estimated odds. Were I so inclined, I could list which of our loved ones Akatsuki would torture, and in what order, accounting for political considerations versus utility. Can you promise me that a clan council that was willing to sacrifice land, clan secrets, and its pride in order to avoid conflict with Akatsuki, even as the Hokage's blood was still soaking into the floor, would choose annihilation over surrendering the likes of Tenten and Miyuki?"

Hazō gave a heavy sigh. "No, Snowflake. I can't. All I can do is work as fast as I can, and hope that it's enough."

A gloomy silence settled over the tiny platform hanging in the darkness. Snowflake had, naturally, ruined everything through the simple expedient of being herself.

"Again, my apologies," she said eventually. "You did not invite me here for this. I believe it is time I took my leave."

"Snowflake, wait!"

He just barely made it in time, as Snowflake was carefully putting down her mug before she dispelled.

"I'm sorry too," Hazō said. "I didn't mean to make light of the situation. I just… Snowflake, I have to keep telling myself that I can do this, that my runes will be enough, that I'll make it in time. It's the only way I can keep going. I'm afraid that if I stop to weigh the odds, if I start questioning whether I'll succeed or thinking about all the ways things can go wrong… I'll just shut down. If that happens, we lose. No probabilities needed."

Of course. Now she heard his feelings, it made perfect sense. No one could actually be as relentlessly determined, as invincible, as Gōketsu Hazō appeared. Surely anyone with a gram of sensitivity should have perceived that much without needing to be told, instead of piling additional pressure onto him.

But Snowflake was not even that strong.

"I… I understand," Snowflake said. "I am sorry. She is as well. It is not as if we do not understand that doomsaying is unproductive. It's just… how else do you cope with this overwhelming fear? This sense of powerlessness? Everything about our futures rests on your research, even as we waste our time on meaningless conflict on the Seventh Path, our agency limited to the occasional sanity-check."

She hesitated, looking away. This was not the time to confess her true feelings. This was the time to swallow them and smile, encourage, be supportive.

Nevertheless, she could not hold back.

"Hazō, the truth is, I would… I would even take the dice roll of Pain's utopia, even a hegemony of the insane, if it meant the people I love could live in peace, and I could live by their side. It's blasphemous. It's a betrayal of Uplift. But that is how weak I am in the end. I'm sorry."

She waited for the condemnation she deserved. Even if she did not possess the courage he needed from her, she could at least manage to face the consequences, however desperately she wished to dispel herself this very instant.

Instead, Hazō did something utterly unexpected. Something that could have been suicidal, especially on this narrow platform at a lethal height.

He reached out and placed his hand over hers as it rested on the floor.

She nearly jerked away. He was doing it wrong. Her hand could not be at the bottom, trapped under his. It was intolerable.

But she controlled herself. Whatever Hazō was attempting to convey with his touch, she somehow instinctively felt it was more important, in this moment, than her ultimately irrational instinct to escape. She could handle this. For a little while.

"Hey," Hazō said gently. "You are not a traitor. You are not blaspheming. That's ridiculous. There's nothing wrong with wanting the fear to go away. There's nothing wrong with wanting peace. That's the whole point of this, the end goal. I'm sorry I can't give it to you yet."

"Of course there is," Snowflake said, wiping her eyes with her free sleeve. She could feel her other hand trembling. "You need confident, courageous people who will support you. You need people who believe, people like Kei, not people who are weak and scared and unable to make sacrifices. Just look at tonight. You invited me here. You offered me hot chocolate. And all I did was complain and undermine your resolve. I could be the distraction that delays your research and results in all our deaths. Even if you would ordinarily enjoy my company–even if you can still enjoy my company after what I said–I am a liability on this mission. I should restrict myself to providing practical utility for Kei and allow you to determine my future without interruptions.

"Also, could you please let go now?"

Overwrought as she was, she lacked the endurance for extended contact. She did not even understand why Hazō was extending this gesture of intimacy. Was it meant to express forgiveness? Reassurance? Surely it could not be romance? No, that was unimaginable. Not only did it make no sense in context, but Snowflake and Kei were both under the impression that to Hazō, Akane remained an active member of the polycule. If so, it was inconceivable that he should pursue another woman without her approval. (It was, separately, inconceivable that he should pursue Snowflake.)

Hazō released her hand sheepishly. She endeavoured not to allow her relief onto her face.

Then he gathered himself.

"Snowflake, you are absolutely not a liability. That's even more ridiculous. I want you here. I need you here. You're an important part of my life, and that doesn't change just because you feel scared or weak the way everybody everywhere ever does when things get too much for them. I don't need Kei here."

He winced. "Uh, I mean I don't just need Kei here. Kei, please don't get angry when you remember this. I mean I don't just need people because they're devoted to Uplift or whatever. I need you because you're family. I need you because you're you.

"Maybe I've done a poor job of communicating that. It's only after losing Akane that I've realised that I haven't been doing very well at actually telling people that they matter to me. I don't want to ever take anyone for granted."

Snowflake shook her head rapidly. "No. I am not questioning your feelings. I apologise if I implied it. You have been consistently, constantly, inexplicably affectionate and supportive, since long before I had the opportunity to earn any such treatment. In many ways, you are responsible for the person I am now. I may not understand your feelings, but I recognise them."

Or at least, he had successfully forced her to recognise that she held some kind of importance in his eyes. Well, more precisely, Kei had forced her to recognise it. She had been scathing about Snowflake's self-doubt in a particularly Kei way, which was to say that she had presented three annotated graphs of Hazō's behaviour towards Snowflake, applying two Mori statistical analyses and one Nara. Although they spent some time debating methodology, and Snowflake was able to persuade Kei that a handful of incidents were outliers and should not be counted, there was too much Mori in her to defy the ultimate conclusion.

The notion that he needed her, however, much less because she was herself? It was incomprehensible. Incoherent. Perhaps Kei would be able to identify some unconventional definition of the words that covered Hazō's usage.

"Then can you stop beating yourself up?" Hazō asked. "I'm happy with you just as you are. I'm glad to have you in my life just as you are. I want you to keep being in my life, and that includes this mission–and if you ever feel like your feelings are too much for you and you need to complain, big deal. You should hear Kagome-sensei every time the tertiary trap array gets triggered by a seagull."

Snowflake gave a tiny laugh.

"I suspect I will grow out of the habit of self-flagellation the day after Yuno and Noburi enter a polyamorous relationship." She paused. "I don't mean to imply causality! That would be terrifying."

It was not that Yuno was necessarily unattractive, but Snowflake and Kei had long since concluded that that way lay only madness and bloodshed, even if–perhaps especially if–she was latently bisexual. Besides, the polycule's "heavily-traumatised but sanguine axemistress" slot had since been satisfactorily filled.

"Nevertheless, thank you, Hazō," she said. There were probably perfect words for this situation, eloquent words that would adequately respond to his feelings, express her own, and conclude this exchange with a sense of closure and satisfaction. Perhaps she should conduct research in the Nara Library in order to learn them for next time.

"I… also wish you to keep being in my life just as you are," she said awkwardly instead.

"Now, to clumsily change the subject before I am dispelled by sheer embarrassment, is there any more hot chocolate?"

Hazō reached for another storage scroll.

"Always."

-o-​

Voting is closed.

 

[Paperclipped]

Chapter 666, Part 2: The Inquisitor​

Hazō rested under the wide beech tree, whose twisting, sweeping boughs reminded him of a calm fall day. Dog's seasons weren't as extreme as anywhere on the Human Path – just a slightly colder period and a slightly warmer one – yet he still found his thoughts coming to the autumn leaves. They changed from vibrant green to the colors of flame, then fell in sweeping motions, tracing a zig-zag path to the ground to meet their fate beneath the heel of a passerby. The branches overhead seemed to sweep out and down in the same way that an autumn leaf fell.

Hazō was alone, then suddenly Cannai was there.

"Summoner," the Alpha said in greeting, as Hazō realized this dog was a little less Cannai and a little more the Alpha. "Forgive me for skipping the pleasantries this time, but Dog needs me elsewhere. I am told you intended to deliver a strategic report on the Leopards' capabilities."

"That's right, sir," Hazō said, standing to face the Dog Alpha. It felt right.

"Please begin."

"You know the Dog Clan's strengths," Hazō said. "We have greater numbers, better coordination, and can outrun leopards over distance and track them when they flee. Based on what we heard from the leopard we interrogated, they're moving in groups of five or six combat-capable adults, sometimes more. Even with our advantages, groups of eight dogs can't reliably overpower such large Leopard raiding groups without casualties. I propose we instead send groups of twenty or thirty dogs at a time and harry the leopards – engage in favorable circumstances, and stay just out of reach otherwise. Chase them until they get tired or until they have to go back to where they keep their cubs, so they don't run."

"All true, summoner," Cannai said. "And I would use such tactics if a war between Dog and Leopard indeed came to pass, rather than send underprepared groups to the maws of our enemies. However, Hyōhakken will not see twenty or thirty dogs as a targeted, retaliatory raid. If those dogs are all seasoned, blooded warriors? That is a warparty."

"I see," Hazō said. "And you did not want to escalate yet."

Cannai gave a low woof of affirmation. "Cancurunchu and Canzappu are both excellent warriors – strongest in their respective packs – and the remainder of your group were all mature fighters who had fought leopards previously. This should have sufficed against the groups of two or three leopards I was anticipating, and it would apparently have sufficed even against the five or six you found had you not encountered one of Leopard's stronger warriors – a cut above even Cancurunchu in strength and notoriety.

"You have no fault, summoner. Cansaku insists at every occasion that you form a contract with him so that he can get more of those Force Blade seals, and his every account emphasizes the importance of your support. But, as you say, I do understand Dog's strengths, and I do know what we will need to do if war with Leopard is inevitable."

"And is it?" Hazō asked.

Cannai looked east, and Hazō followed his gaze. He saw only the endless plains and scattered forests of central Dog, but with the Alpha by his side, he somehow felt the cool chill of the mountains where the pangolins and hyenas were killing each other. Where Kei might be fighting.

"No," Cannai said at last. "I would not be standing here talking, if it were. But my hopes for peace grow narrower by the day, as Hyōhakken refuses my offer of peace talks and accelerates his raids on our border and in Hyena. I suspect his intent is to accept any losses to keep Dog's forces spread out, so that Hyena falls quickly and Pangolin is able to reinforce Leopard against us.

"He is wrong. Even without Conjura's support, Hyena will not fall quickly enough to save him if I turn my gaze towards crushing Leopard beneath my paw, not unless the Pangolins have found some warmaking invention comparable to your skytowers. Yet, I cannot force Hyōhakken to see sense.

"I hope, for his sake, that he does."

o-o-o​

"...and after Sasha's graduation party, Shinji also shared with us that he'd been promoted to chūnin. We applauded appropriately, of course, but we all knew he basically didn't care about it at all, right? Turns out he had a talk with Naruto, who realized that he was dramatically underpromoted, so he signed a quick order and bam! Chūnin. Not that it matters now that he's been reclassified as a full-time sealsmith, but I guess it's some prestige for the clan, right?"

Hazō nodded, accepting the latest part of Noburi's report. Something was missing. The news from the clan had all been mundane, but Noburi was subtly bouncing back and forth on his heels in excitement.

"Sounds good," Hazō said. "Was there anything else?"

"'Was there anything else?' he asks, so casually, not understanding the power he holds in the palm of his hand," Noburi muttered. "Yes, there's something else, Hazō! Remember that seal you gave me the other day, the one you said the Fourth Hokage made?"

"Yes, the one which visualizes chakra around it in that weird way, right? The fifth, seventh, and eighth seal in the chain do something like that. The Fourth had a note that the seals might be medically relevant." Hazō asked.

"Medically relevant!?" Noburi said. "It's a Sage-damned medical miracle seal, you know! I figured out it basically lets me look into a patient's chakra system and see exactly what's going on inside them. There's a bunch of medical ninjutsu that gets super complicated by interactions between your chakra and the patient's chakra, and someone that knows how to read these seals can basically make all those problematic interactions go away."

"That sounds amazing," Hazō said.

"Amazing? It's fucking fantastic! I can see chakra! It's like having a Hyūga medic in a seal! Or half a Hyūga medic. Or a quarter. Man, those guys are busted!"

"Shut it!" Fukasaku's voice called from the Toad Sage's low, squat swamp house where Hazō and Noburi met on the daily to exchange news and chakra.

"Sorry sir!" Noburi said, but apparently his outburst had attracted the elderly toad's attention, and Pa came out onto the porch, waving his thick, gray stick at the both of them.

"You need to keep your damn voice down if you're gonna be hanging out here outside when we're training you boy. Ma's making tea, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna be jumping every other second because some fool's outside my house yelling at the sky for not being purple.

"And you!" he said, turning on Hazō. "Don't you think you're overstaying your welcome? Ma invited you to dinner, not to come crawling back here every damn day to have your shadow clones crowding around everywhere. And you've left a pack of stinky dogs in our back garden, running around and barking and making a nuisance. We're done teaching you, shouldn't you go out and do some great things before you come back begging for more?"

"Get back in here, you dilapidated old dingus," Shima's voice called from the house. "Your tea's getting cold and you're getting grumpier than you usually are."

Pa shot them both a death glare, then hopped back into the house.

"...anyways," Noburi said, "you're lucky I wrapped up with Tsunade before I actually had a chance to try this out, since if she saw me using it and figured out what it was, she'd demand you be chained up in a seal sweatshop making more of these for the hospital non-stop, clan secrets be damned. Speaking of which, is this a secret?"

Hazō remembered his conversation with Naruto, where the Hokage had explained that he wouldn't necessarily back Asuma's decision to assign Minato's seals as Gōketsu clan secrets.

Hazō wobbled a hand. "Maybe. Why?"

"I just want to know how much I can use them at the hospital before I need to worry about people getting the idea to snatch a spent seal or copy it somehow. I took a day checking out some easy patients that they let me work on solo, so no one but the Hyūga saw it yet. I'm not gonna be back in the hospital for a while, but I'm gonna need you to make me like thirty more of these," Noburi said, handing a spent seal to Hazō.

Hazō looked the seal over. "That's the eighth one in the chain. Why this one?" Hazō asked.

"It was better than the others," Noburi shrugged. "I think it was giving me the most accurate reading of what was going on inside the patient. If you think one of the others is better, then give me a few of those too so I can compare and decide."

"Extra scribing work? With my schedule? I'd sooner drink Shima's spicy tea," Hazō said. "I'll get you a dozen."

"That'll do, I suppose," Noburi said, picking his barrel up off the ground. "Very well, Hazō, back to your sealing mines. The protagonist has to do his training."

o-o-o​

Canope saw Hazō pivot and dodged left. The Iron Nerve switched Hazō into a new movement track, extending his arm awkwardly to catch Canope's leap with the edge of his Force Blades. Red lines split the dog's side.

"Hold on, break," Canope said.

Hazō backed away and unhooked his gauntlets with the mock Force Blades – lightweight wood roughly whittled to the right length, then slathered in thick red lipstick (from Mari's makeup cabinet and apparently 'hopelessly out of fashion') so that the slightest touch would leave a mark.

"What's the matter?" Hazō asked.

"I think this whole effort is misguided," Canope said, as she turned around to inspect the ostensibly-lethal marks along her side. "Yes, we managed to manufacture this little situation with your bloodline where you're guaranteed to land a hit. That's not gonna work on anyone else, who has a different size and strength and decision making process and all. And unlike you humans, who all have a pretty similar combat style that lets you predict what other people are gonna do before they do it, random leopard number three hundred and forty two isn't gonna know what you're telegraphing with your movements. They're just gonna back away or jump on you and eat your face before you reach them."

"You're saying that Roki won't work on the leopards?" Hazō asked.

Canope stood up again. "I don't think so. Your human combat sounds like an elegant dance of attacks and counterattacks. I don't think you'll find that on the Seventh Path unless you for some reason fight someone a dozen times – and even then, you're going to have such asymmetric capabilities from your opponent that you might not get the reliable block patterns for you to feint your way past."

"Okay," Hazō said. "Let's test it out in a more organic scenario then. I'll jog in from that way, and you jump on me when I reach about here, and I'll see if I notice any place where I could build a Roki trap."

"Sure thing," Canope said as she settled into the grass. "Why would I say no to a roll around with the summoner? On your mark!"

o-o-o​

The thick clouds and new moon had made the night pitch-black, and so Kagome-sensei had cautiously approved a campfire, so long Purifiers caught all the smoke and Darkness Domes caught all the light as it left the Earth Wall fire pit from above. Game from the island – burrowing rabbit-mosquito creatures that Hazō did not want to think about – roasted above the fireplace and filled the vaguely square enclosure with inexplicably delicious scents.

While Kagome-sensei turned and seasoned the unthinkable meats, Hazō scribed Light Relay seals. He'd originally wanted instantaneous long-range communication. Set up underground tunnels in Leaf with a chain of the seals, then a light on one side would near-instantly appear on the other side. Unlike summoner communication, which needed a scroll and even then only worked with prearranged check-ins, anyone could use this. Sadly, he'd never gotten around to testing it, so in the single hour that he'd budgeted for relaxation today, Hazō had decided to set up a small prototype of his communication tunnel.

He was mid-infusion when a puff of smoke signaled Kei's return from the Seventh Path, and his chakra shifted slightly more chthonic than he'd intended.

Kei opened her mouth to say something, but stopped as Hazō dropped the seal and hopped back to the wall. Everyone recognized a sealmaster's horror and backed away, Kagome-sensei going for his explosives.

But nothing happened.

Before Kagome-sensei could blow up their dinner, Hazō quickly adjusted his stance to a relaxed one. "Sorry, false alarm, everyone. I thought Kei's arrival messed up my infusion, but it's fine."

Kagome-sensei's eyes narrowed and Hazō sighed.

Fifty-five questions later, Hazō had convinced Kagome that a secret sealing failure hadn't eaten Hazō's brain, and the underside of the spitroasted… things had been considerably blackened by the campfire's heat.

"Really, it's just a normal Light Relay," Hazō said, walking over and picking up the seal from beside the campfire. He turned the receiver towards the cheery flame and the emitter face of the seal lit up a rich orange. "Just like normal."

"What concerned you to such a great extent?" Kei asked as she settled down on her halved log, eyeing the suspicious meats with the caution they deserved as Kagome hurried to get them off the flames. "My admittedly mediocre understanding was that sealing failures generally made themselves evident to the sealmaster rapidly and violently, rather than granting you seconds to gape at the failing seal in horror."

"Well, I thought I messed up my chakra in the infusion in a particular way, maybe moving the receiver's tuning beyond red," Hazō said. "I did something like that when I was teaching Harumitsu, and there was a sealing failure then too. I thought I'd accidentally tuned the receiver to an impossible color and caused another sealing failure, but it's stable and there's no weird effects."

"I see," Kei said, extending a hand to examine the infused seal. Hazō handed it over. She held it closer to the fire to light up the seal, then pulled it away to darken it. Kagome tried to offer her food, but she shook her head. "I saw too many corpses today for my appetite to be counted amongst the survivors. Mere companionship will suffice to prepare me to return to Pangolin."

"That bad? Do you want to talk about it?" Hazō asked.

"There was another Hyena raid," Kei said. "The most deadly yet. Two pangolin civilians were slain before we noticed their presence, and two more perished before our approach prompted the Hyena retreat. They still refuse to engage with my tessera while I am present, and I do not wish to learn what they intend to do with the town if they overpower the tessera in my absence, so my presence here will be brief… but I do require additional comfort, yes."

"What can we do?" Hazō asked, starting to saw the blackened bits off his dinner.

"I do not know," she said, slightly exasperated. "Were you Tenten, you would know better than I how to ameliorate my emotional turmoil, and perhaps even were you Miyuki would you be able to make a passing attempt. Instead you… well, I suppose you and Kagome provide emotional support in different ways. Tell me, how you would resolve my current predicament, apart from the obvious."

"The obvious?" Hazō asked.

Kei closed her eyes and sighed. When she reopened them, she reached for another of the Light Relay seals. "The town I am defending is of no strategic relevance, hence why the Hyenas will not invest deeply in an attack, and why Pantsā will not allocate additional resources to its defense. The obvious solution to the townspangolins being chipped away by one attack at a time is to petition Pantsā to evacuate the town to a safer location so that its people might survive. However, this would all but cede the associated land to Haikari, so Pantsā will refuse."

"You can't let the stinking Hyenas kill your people, Kei," Kagome said. "They're not gonna face you straight up because their strategy is working. Can you build a larger perimeter that they can't cross? They can't fly, right?"

"I have considered this," Kei said, voice marginally more deadened than usual. "Indeed, some hyenas have already committed suicide against traps of your creation, Kagome. However, they have grown wise to the existence of trap perimeters and have begun to pelt them at range from ninjutsu, triggering seals prematurely and creating holes in the perimeter. This type of raid is obviously less lethal to the community than the ones in which the pangolins are exposed to the hyenas' attacks directly. However, the associated cost – the loss of the deployed seals – is unacceptably high."

"Seals are cheap, Kei," Kagome said. "Paper's cheap! Ink's cheap!"

"Commercially-available goods have not been our primary production bottleneck for years, Kagome," Kei said. "For all the value associated with a bandolier with hundreds of explosive seals, I cannot actually use hundreds of seals daily without incurring an unacceptably high cost to your time.

"I have observed the raiding groups to contain eight Hyenas on average, who fire two to three ninjutsu each before our response forces their departure, where each ninjutsu destroys one seal in expectation, accounting for explosives destroying adjacent seals and frequent ninjutsu misses. These ninjutsu need not be powerful, as they are merely triggering traps rather than attacking an enemy, so this raid may happen twice or thrice a day.

"Explosive seals and storage seals aside, as your former students provide a near-limitless supply of them, I shall conservatively call the number of seals destroyed per day at around fifty. Scribing these seals would require every other day of your time, Kagome, and you are engaged in a seal-research race with Akatsuki for the fate of the Elemental Nations. Whatever my opinions on the townspangolins' right to life, the logistician in me clearly sees that this cost is absolutely unacceptable."

While Kagome-sensei processed Kei's words, Hazō spoke. "If you can't wait the hyenas out as they come, can you instead take the fight to them? Dog has been punishing Leopard for their raids with small-scale counterattacks, hopefully just enough to dissuade them from attacking without forcing Leopard to counterattack."

"I suppose that must be the solution," Kei said, resigned, as she held the two Light Relay seals together. "If Hyena is made aware that the Pangolin Summoner is a lethal force not to be trifled with, yet is spending her time guarding a nameless village far from any theater of importance, I think they would ecstatically leave me alone. I had hoped that I might-"

"Kei?" Hazō asked.

"This Light Relay is slightly different," Kei said evenly. To demonstrate, she held both seals together, pointing toward the fire. Slowly, she brought them closer. The one Hazō thought he'd misinfused activated. Seconds of slow movement later, the other activated.

Kagome jumped to his feet, preparing weapons to destroy the anomalous seal, but Hazō stood as well. "Wait, Kagome-sensei! The seal didn't fail. It's working exactly according to the specification, isn't it? It's just more sensitive than it should be."

A quick test confirmed that the other Light Relays Hazō had infused under normal conditions activated at roughly the same distance as each other, while the anomalous one activated farther from the light. Hazō spent five agonizing minutes scribing another Light Relay and infusing it just chthonic enough for its receiver to be red, only for them to find out that even a red receiver wasn't as sensitive as the misinfused one.

"I think the fire is just emitting a spread of colors – yellow, orange, red, and past-red," Hazō said, after a quick debate. "I guess I can tune a receiver to receive past-red, but the Light Relay's emitter is just like HOWS, so tuning the emitter to past-red might cause a sealing failure again. Still, we should test it. I could scribe another Light Relay and try tuning the receiver more chthonic than red and see if it shows the same behavior. We could do that now, and if it produces the same result, we-"

"No seal experiments at dinner!" Kagome said, waving his hands in Hazō's face to break him out of the fugue. "If you want to test this, you do it tomorrow, with a fresh night's sleep to think it over, after doing all the proper dances, at a proper facility, with a shadow clone, when we're all ready to reverse summon and behind six meters of granite." His teacher shoved another roast spit of something better left unknown in front of Hazō's face. "For now, eat!"

"Sorry Kei," Hazō said, once he'd gotten a couple bites in to mollify Kagome-sensei. "You were saying?"

Kei glanced to the side. "Actually, on reflection, I believe I exaggerated the extent to which the day's carnage diminished my appetite. Kagome, may I partake in the food you've prepared?"

Kagome quickly handed her food. Kei started to pick it apart, and with everyone occupied by their meals, Hazō put thoughts of conversation aside and let his mind start to swirl with ideas.

o-o-o

​

"...and we expect to see no further Leaf ninja in reallocated territories for any reason, regardless of whether those territories are currently possessed by Rain, or else we shall consider such actions to be AMITY violations.

"Finally, Sasori is pleased with the seals he has received, so that component of our agreement is complete."

"'Agreement'?," Naruto said stiffly. "I never agreed to it."

"The agreement between Akatsuki and Leaf," Itachi replied, "consisting primarily of a substantial weregild paid by Leaf for the AMITY-violating murder of a member of Akatsuki and high-ranking officer of Hidden Rain. That agreement was made between myself, representing Akatsuki, and Tsunade, representing the office of Hokage and thus Hidden Leaf, and later affirmed by members of AMITY. When the title of Hokage is passed on, all agreements and contracts made by former Hokage remain in place unless explicitly broken, so this agreement binds you as a primary party. Unless you wish to renege on this agreement?"

"Whatever," Naruto said.

"Whatever?" Itachi repeated. "Let's be clear. Are we agreed that you consider yourself bound by the aforementioned agreement?"

"Yes, fine."

"Good," Itachi said. "Then, that leaves only one component to discuss: Leaf's research on dimensionalism. Where is Gōketsu Hazō?"

"On a research mission," Naruto said.

Itachi blinked for a moment, and Naruto took a moment to glance at his tormentor. The Kinslayer was sitting there across from the Hokage's chair with his eyes closed, as if he didn't fear any retaliation Naruto could bring to bear. Which was probably true, since Itachi was certainly a shadow clone, and Leaf didn't have a genjutsu specialist that could inflict enough psychic damage before the clone would dispel and Itachi would know Leaf had made a direct attempt on his sanity.

Then Itachi opened his eyes again, and Naruto found his gaze forced away.

"You sent him on a research mission?" Itachi asked.

"He asked for one himself."

"Where is Gōketsu Hazō located?"

"In the southern isles," Naruto said. "He said he fancied a beach trip on one of the little islands off the coast of Tea. His mission papers have his exact location, but of course we won't provide these things to a foreign ninja that may well wish him harm."

"This is relevant to the agreement," Itachi said. "Do you believe Gōketsu Hazō is researching dimensionalism?"

Naruto shook his head. "No. He said he wanted to do weapons research. I dunno if that's true, maybe he wanted an excuse to get out from under the paperwork and lie on the beach for a while. Whatever, he said it was clan secrets so I didn't ask too many questions."

"'Clan secrets' does not suffice," Itachi said. "Is he researching the rift?"

Naruto shook his head, making sure that his gaze never crossed into eye-contact with Itachi. "I gave him strict orders not to work on anything rift-related."

"Hm. You're in contact with him via the Seventh Path?"

"Minimally," Naruto said. "He's busy, and doesn't take many of my messages."

"I see. You will require his immediate return so that I may confirm that he has produced no new work on dimensionalism."

"You're not-!" Naruto said, turning to face Itachi. He met the man's gaze and immediately, instinctively flinched back to the side, heart racing and vision darkening as his torturer met his gaze, unspoken words crossing the gap between them.

My gaze is dangerous. Yours is powerless.

I control every aspect of your mind.

Your resistance only causes you punishment.

"-the one who gives orders to Leaf ninja," Naruto finished half-heartedly.

Itachi continued to look at him, black eyes drilling in while Naruto's mind ran rivers of red. He refused to make eye contact.

"You will send a message to Gōketsu Hazō via the Seventh Path, ordering his immediate return to Leaf, so that I may confirm that he has not produced new work on dimensionalism in violation of Akatsuki's recent agreement with Leaf."

…

"Fine," Naruto said. A 'go fuck yourself' manifested itself in his mind, but Naruto knew he would never be able to verbalize it. If only shoving a Rasengan through Itachi's face would have solved a damn thing…

"Good," Itachi said. "I will confirm that you have done so. I suspect Hidan will also be curious about those mission papers. Now, I wanted to ask you about Orochimaru..."

o-o-o​

Noburi had looked shaken, and for good reason. He wasn't just delivering an urgent message from the Hokage. Uchiha freaking Itachi had apparently visited the Gōketsu main house late at night, politely waited to be escorted through the trap array by a bewildered Kazushi before coming to see Noburi. Only then did the Kinslayer clearly and firmly tell Noburi that Hazō needed to return to Leaf 'at his earliest convenience'.

Ordinarily, a family member confronting an Akatsuki member would be at the front of Hazō's mind, but Naruto's message had included a line that had struck him. "The mission's over Hazō, so stop screwing around in the sand and get back to Leaf immediately because Akatsuki wants to talk to you."

Sure enough, in the stack of thin envelopes Naruto had handed to Hazō via the Seventh Path, one of them was marked "Screwing around in the sand".

Scenario:

• Akatsuki has figured out that you're working on something to oppose their control of the rift, and suspects Leaf involvement.
• We don't have rift technology sufficient to open the rift and pull our people out in less than two weeks.
• Akatsuki probably hasn't opened the rift yet, and so is mostly spread out or based in Rain.
• No substantial changes on the Orochimaru front.

Action:

• If you have defenses that can deter Konan + Deidara's offense indefinitely, or weapons that can kill at least two Akatsuki members reliably, return to Leaf immediately.
• Otherwise, open the envelope marked "Kurohige".
• If you have research bandwidth, start to develop rift technology in parallel with Orochimaru. I don't trust that he won't take the rift for his own, but it's still better that he selfishly sit on another immortality source than Akatsuki do who-knows-what with it. Still, I'd rather it be in your hands than his.

In the envelope marked "Kurohige", Hazō found a longer missive, again in Naruto's sloppy scrawl.

'Cause Kurohige left Mist for a long time, but eventually came back to help it out, right? I've been learning a bit of Mist culture recently and I think I nailed the reference.

If you're opening this letter, you need to go missing for the good of Leaf. I'll send Akatsuki on a wild goose chase so you have a head start on them, but you need to drop out of contact indefinitely, and not return to Leaf until you have game-changing defenses (can neutralize Konan + Deidara's offense) or offenses (can reliably kill at least one Akatsuki member at a static, well-defended location [rift or Hidden Rain]).

I wish I could have some way to contact you to tell you to return, but if I can do it, Akatsuki can do it. I have to trust your judgment on this. If you come back, Leaf will fight to defend you from Akatsuki. That could spell the end of Leaf if what you bring back isn't good enough. Come back too late, and we might have already observed Akatsuki at the rift site, waited as long as we thought we could afford to, attacked, and lost. It's a trade-off.

Ideally, you bring back runes and tools ready-to-go and we immediately attack Akatsuki at O'uzu, but who can tell what the future will bring?

Everyone's going to be looking for you. Akatsuki's spy network is strongest in the minors, in Sand, and in the near parts of the Eastern Continent, but they could have someone anywhere. Staying out of contact on the Human Path should be easy. I'll keep Leaf off your ass as much as I can manage (which is not much – I need to act like I really want your head). Roughly speaking, I'm going to have Leaf focus on the southern isles for around two months, then Iron and Snow for two months more, then the Eastern Continent. I can't predict what'll be happening six months out.

I leave it to your judgment how to deal with the Seventh Path. I recommend: don't go anywhere except limited sites in Dog and Arachnid, interacting only with dogs and arachnids strictly under oath not to carry any messages to you from the outside, and have the Dog and Arachnid bosses spread far and wide that this is the case (but obviously not the locations of the sites), including sending messages to Crow and Shark so they can't possibly miss it. Akatsuki will try to get to you via the Seventh Path, and you can use Seventh Path honor as a shield, kind of.

For anyone you take with you – if you tell them that 'going missing' is a sham and that I agreed to it, make sure they also know that they must not return to Leaf with this knowledge. If Akatsuki learns that I suggested you go missing to beat them to the rift, things are going to be real bad for us. I recommend trying to convince them without mentioning my approval and only saying it if they join, but I leave it to your judgment.

If you need them: here are three assets from Jiraiya's spy network that Asuma judged as not very useful and never reactivated. I'll go through the books and make sure any mention of them is expunged.

• Suzuki Yūka is a carpenter's wife in the village under the big mossy cliff twenty-five miles north of Otafuku Gai. She is a former chūnin from an unknown (non-Leaf) village. She wants to live a normal life, and Jiraiya blackmailed her with the threat of sending a Hyūga sweep through her village, which would discover her as a ninja, or worse, identify her children as chakra-capable and thus future Leaf ninja. Jiraiya mainly used her for top-secret message runs and for generally keeping an ear on the pulse of trade through Rice and Hot Springs (though the small size of the village limited that utility).
• Syōma is an information broker and priest of some weird religious order on the Eastern Continent. Apparently he's a straightforward guy – put ryō in, get answers out. Jiraiya said he once tried to force answers out of him, but he resisted Jiraiya's killing intent better than most jōnin. Jiraiya half-shit himself thinking he'd overextended himself pissing off a powerful ninja at arm's length, but the guy apparently didn't even notice that Jiraiya had done anything! His intel on the Elemental Nations is mediocre, but Jiraiya says he sometimes knows stuff that no civilian has any right to. Go to Red Moon Inn in Marsh's capital and ask for an 'iron nail stew'.
• Yamada Saki is the wife of the biggest business magnate in Kanmuri, the Land of Earth's biggest city outside of Hidden Rock itself. She's an incurable gossip with an incredible memory – apparently she remembers the names and descriptions of ninja that her friends' friends hired decades ago. Jiraiya seduced her, so I don't know exactly how you're going to reactivate the asset, but maybe some promises around Jiraiya's return might get you a little bit of progress? If your questions are innocuous, she might just answer them anyway out of habit.

I hope that's enough.
​

---

Hazō has set a HOWR (light-emitting rune) next to a fresh Five Seal Barrier in an Earthshaped room 10 meters underground so as to not give away his location to the entire Elemental Nations, with a reference 5SB in a similar room 100 meters away. Both 5SBs were infused by Kagome back to back, so hopefully the astrological conditions of their infusions were identical. Hopefully, the HOWR-adjacent 5SB runs out of energy faster.

A later test of past-red receiving Light Relays reveal that they can be stably infused and reliably activate when exposed to flames of various sizes and sorts.

Spoiler: Rune research

Day 1
Cleaning up camp, moving to Gaikotsu Bay.

Day 2
Prep Icarus Rune.
Prep Space-Stretch Rune.
Prep Storage Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks he could maybe do this rune. Accordingly, Hazō aborts research on this rune.
Prep Capacitor Rune.
Prep Pocket Space Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks he could maybe do this rune. Hazō also thinks the Space Stretch Rune and similar things would build useful veterancy here.

Day 3
Prep Icarus Rune.
Prep Space-Stretch Rune.
Prep Capacitor Rune.
Prep Remote-Explosion Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks this rune is well within his capabilities.
Prep Storm Rune. Hazō thinks a full thunderstorm would be needlessly challenging as it is composed of many different effects (heavy clouds, rain, wind, etc.). Instead, he simply preps a rune that calls down loads and loads of lightning in the rune's area of effect. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks this rune is well within his capabilities.

Day 4
Prep Icarus Rune.
Prep Space-Stretch Rune.
Prep Capacitor Rune.
Prep Kagome-Sensei-Satisfying Explosive Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks this rune is beyond his capabilities
Prep Jiraiya's Awesome Dawnbuster Legacy Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks this rune is well within his capabilities.

Day 5
Infuse Icarus Rune.

Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 20 + 25 (crossover bonus from SSA-boosted Sealing) + 6 (prep) + 0 = 51
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 6 (prep) - 9 = 41
[NB: Getting sketchy… Still high ES relative to PrimSeal, so no reroll, but it's getting close.]

Hazō makes progress on the Icarus Rune.


Infuse Space-Stretch Rune.

Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 20 + 25 (crossover bonus from SSA-boosted Sealing) + 6 (prep) + 6 = 57
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 6 (prep) + 0 = 50

Hazō handily completes the Space Stretch Rune! Expands space in a moderately-sized area by a minor amount. Exact details TBD.


Infuse Capacitor Rune.

Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 20 + 17 (crossover bonus from Sealing) + 6 (prep) + 0 = 43
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 6 (prep) - 3 = 47

Hazō makes progress on the Capacitor Rune.


Prep Explosiver Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks he could maybe do this rune.

Prep Landmine Rune. Hazō thinks that instantaneous rune activation is nearly impossible given the amount of power runes need to channe, so he prepares a rune which is primed over the usual ~30s and then remains dormant until a triggering condition happens, at which point it takes about 3 seconds (read: one combat round) to activate. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks this rune is well within his capabilities.

Hazō expects some trigger conditions will be more difficult than others – "a human with ninja levels of chakra is running past" would probably be relatively difficult but "a thing hit the rune with X force" would probably be relatively easy. He thinks the "seal-activation levels of chakra applied to the surface of the rune" trigger condition that he tried to make here is on the easy side, although it should be noted that this delayed-activation functionality is never going to be trivial to add in.

Day 6
SSA recovery.

Day 7
SSA recovery.

Day 8
Prep Icarus Rune.
Prep Capacitor Rune.
Prep Canary Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks this rune is beyond his capabilities.
Prep Portable-Explosive Rune. Difficulty Result: Hazō thinks this rune is beyond his capabilities.

Day 9
Prep Icarus Rune.
Prep Capacitor Rune.

Day 10
Prep Icarus Rune.
Prep Capacitor Rune.

Day 11
Infuse Icarus Rune.

Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 20 + 25 (crossover bonus from SSA-boosted Sealing) + 6 (prep) - 3 = 48
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 6 (prep) - 3 = 47

Hazō is making steady progress on the Icarus Rune. He thinks he is around a third of the way finished with the rune.


Infuse Capacitor Rune.

Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 20 + 25 (crossover bonus from SSA-boosted Sealing) + 6 (prep) + 0 = 51
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 6 (prep) - 3 = 47

Hazō thinks he is barely inches away from completing the Capacitor Rune.

Day 12
SSA recovery.

Day 13
SSA recovery.

This update covered 13 days for Hazō and 11 days objectively. It is currently the morning of September 5th in-character.

XP Award: 48 + 10 (brevity) XP
GM-fun Award: 2 XP

Vote time! What to do now?

Voting ends on Jul 6, 2024 at 1:00 PM .

 

[eaglejarl]

Chapter 667: Disciple of the Beyond​

HazōNoDomes4U (yes, he had been very clear about the childish spelling) was working on a rune to prevent the formation of Air Domes within a wide area. This, of course, would shut down skywalkers in the affected area, thereby causing anyone using them to experience, as Gōketsu Michiki might have stated it, 'a rapid unplanned terrain interaction causing dispreferred levels of cranial widening.' Translated from engineerese: plummeting into the unforgiving bosom of Mother Earth and spreading the contents of one's skull over a twenty-foot radius. Given that at least some members of Akatsuki used skywalkers for aerial mobility, this was a potential assassination option.

HazōEvenBiggerPackRat was working on the Storage Rune, an upscaled version of the normal storage seal that would have a vastly larger weight- and volume limit. Hopefully, although perhaps not with this version, it would be possible to get around the other limitation of storage seals: the inability to store anything with chakra. With luck maybe they could put a living person into a time-locked storage space, thereby eliminating them as a threat. Again, a useful tool against arrogant demigods who were too strong for Hazō to attack head-on.

HazōJuiceUpGuy was working on the Capacitor Rune, something that Hazō figured was going to need very careful presentation to Noburi. It would gather a huge amount of ambient chakra...and do nothing. Hazō could almost hear his brother's reactions, and the most likely was mockery over the uselessness of the rune, followed by sharp-edged demands about whether or not Hazō was trying to make Noburi obsolete as a chakra source. The answer to that was, well, yes. Eventually, he wanted a rune that would pull in ambient chakra, prepare it for human use, and then allow any ninja to pull the chakra out and into their coils. No more of that pesky drinking necessary. Hazō was definitely going to need to talk to Mari about how to present this to Noburi. Regardless, having a way to charge up allied ninja in preparation for ambushing Akatsuki was obviously useful.

Hazō Prime had reserved the best rune for himself. He was working on the Space Stretch Rune, a rune that would do to space what his Time Runes had done for time: extend it for those within the effect. Someone inside the affected area might measure it as being fifteen yards across while someone outside the area might measure it as being ten yards across. He didn't have an explicit anti-Akatsuki use in mind but he was sure he could figure one out. Or Out, as the case might be.

He chuckled under his breath, drawing a quick glance from Kagome-sensei who was scribing seals a short distance away. Hazō shook his head to say that it was nothing; his teacher gave him an annoyed glare that carried with it an entire sermon on the dangers of letting one's thoughts wander while doing chakra work on seals (or, in this case, runes), but he went back to his own task with merely a sniff.

The silent lesson was well taken; Hazō pushed his distractions aside and focused on the rune he was working.

He wasn't actually trying to infuse the thing, merely working chakra manipulations to check the effects of calculations he had made yesterday. He could see how the chakra structure of the rune would work...or, at least, sometimes he could see it. The chakra construct that embodied a rune was a complex thing, the simplest explosive rune existing in no less than seventeen dimensions. Visualizing something like that in a normal human brain wasn't feasible. You could model it mathematically, you could encode multiple dimensions into a condensed and approximated form the same way "250 miles that way" specified the path to Leaf in a more condensed form than the full directions which would take into account things like terrain obstructions. No, a normal brain could not capture the true form of a rune's chakra construct in one go.

Hazō's brain, of course, was not normal.

Years before, he had gazed upon the Pangolin Summoning Scroll and allowed his Iron Nerve bloodline to store a mental copy of the scroll's seal the way it stored a copy of every other seal he came across. Summoning scrolls, however, were no mere seals. They were something more, something no living person understood or could create. The attempt had cracked his mind, very slightly and in a very useful way. That crack had been torn gapingly wide when he gazed upon the mountain-sized Great Seal in Arachnid, the one that held b4ck the Drag0ns.

He reached through that crack, pressing his awareness into the hyperreality that lay beyond the Paint that was the quote real unquote world. It was a place of madness, of sonic ankles and searing velvet that scoured at the rude intrusion of human awareness with bristles of daydream and spoiled milk.

He pressed aside the silent din with the skill of long practice and took hold, spinning out a tendril of madness and weaving it into a preliminary form, a notiona1 basket that would provide the general structure of his rune's construct. The basket twisted as he built it, spinning through twelve dimensions of apple and sour and dirty hair and sweat-soaked sheets. He enc0mpassed all of it, widening his gaze to perceive all of the basket at the same time, and began to feed ch.kra through it.

The nonworld around him continued to leer and chant and susurrate with charcoal strength in an unguided(?) attempt to break him down and pull h1m ap@rt..

Wait.

Long discipllln3 held the rune's construct stabl3 as Hazō considered what he was perceiving around himhimhimmmself.

The distractions weren't entirely unguided.

Across the Paint, he blinked in shock.

There was S̶͈̯̘̹̰̈̂ō̵̘̖̰ṃ̶̻͈͍̻̌e̶̦̤̾͝ẗ̵̹̅̃́͘͜h̴̛̯̠̪̽̅̋̍i̴̧͌̈́̈̓n̴͊͜g̸̰̹̝̯̜ ͂there. Not an ent12ty, not a being like hE was, but an awareness nonetheless. The movement of n0nࠓêäl1ty around him was clearly not that of random chance. No, it wasn't thaaat there saw S̶͈̯̘̹̰̈̂ō̵̘̖̰ṃ̶̻͈͍̻̌e̶̦̤̾͝ẗ̵̹̅̃́͘͜h̴̛̯̠̪̽̅̋̍i̴̧͌̈́̈̓n̴͊͜g̸̰̹̝̯̜ ereht was S̶͈̯̘̹̰̈̂ō̵̘̖̰ṃ̶̻͈͍̻̌e̶̦̤̾͝ẗ̵̹̅̃́͘͜h̴̛̯̠̪̽̅̋̍i̴̧͌̈́̈̓n̴͊͜g̸̰̹̝̯̜ there, there was S̶͈̯̘̹̰̈̂ō̵̘̖̰ṃ̶̻͈͍̻̌e̶̦̤̾͝ẗ̵̹̅̃́͘͜h̴̛̯̠̪̽̅̋̍i̴̧͌̈́̈̓n̴͊͜g̸̰̹̝̯̜. As in, all of 'there' was the S̶͈̯̘̹̰̈̂ō̵̘̖̰ṃ̶̻͈͍̻̌e̶̦̤̾͝ẗ̵̹̅̃́͘͜h̴̛̯̠̪̽̅̋̍i̴̧͌̈́̈̓n̴͊͜g̸̰̹̝̯̜ and the S̶͈̯̘̹̰̈̂ō̵̘̖̰ṃ̶̻͈͍̻̌e̶̦̤̾͝ẗ̵̹̅̃́͘͜h̴̛̯̠̪̽̅̋̍i̴̧͌̈́̈̓n̴͊͜g̸̰̹̝̯̜ was all there was.

Hazō's m1nd shredded as something came from the S̶͈̯̘̹̰̈̂ō̵̘̖̰ṃ̶̻͈͍̻̌e̶̦̤̾͝ẗ̵̹̅̃́͘͜h̴̛̯̠̪̽̅̋̍i̴̧͌̈́̈̓n̴͊͜g̸̰̹̝̯̜. It wasn't sound, or smell, or touch. S̶͈̯̘̹̰̈̂ō̵̘̖̰ṃ̶̻͈͍̻̌e̶̦̤̾͝ẗ̵̹̅̃́͘͜h̴̛̯̠̪̽̅̋̍i̴̧͌̈́̈̓n̴͊͜g̸̰̹̝̯̜ w4s aLl of r3al!ty; i7 couLd nO moer touch Hazō than cOuLd rElaality. He felt h1mmms3l c min a p a r t @7 7|-|3 7|-|3 7|-|3 7|-|3 7|-|3 s{R4 s{R4P s{R4Ping T0V{|-| of—

Unreality blinked around him and softened as nothing and everything changed. The petrichor color of the madness that swaddled him now seemed familiar and logical. Something̸̰̹̝̯̜ stood between him and the hyperreality, shielding his fragile humanity from the grinding tastes of F4# and the plunging heights of starlight that carried him along the river of ideation and reification, his runic construct bobbing lazily beside him.

His perceptions had sharpened, and weakened. His awareness ('sight' was entirely the wrong word) stretched farther and penetrated what had previously been stygian pits of irony and dazzling rafts of blind indifference. Shapes moved around him, most of them vastly larger than himself, so large that they could grind buildings or planets to dust with a casual bump, but some so small they seemed able to slip between the fibers of his combat vest without noticing that the vest existed. They weren't anything that a mind from his side of the Paint could have perceived; they existed in too many directions and their composition defied language. He couldn't tell if they were hyperreality's inanimate icebergs or genius denizens or blind and hungry animals—indeed, there were undoubtedly all of those things and more besides. Only now, with the intercession of the S̶͈̯̘̹̰̈̂ō̵̘̖̰ṃ̶̻͈͍̻̌e̶̦̤̾͝ẗ̵̹̅̃́͘͜h̴̛̯̠̪̽̅̋̍i̴̧͌̈́̈̓n̴͊͜g̸̰̹̝̯̜ did he realize that those things had always been here.

Sage's name, how arrogant could one be? He had thought he understood this 'place', that he could come and go as he pleased, using the madness of it to enhance his abilities with seals, his power to test them against the cracks in the Paint in order to find how they would best fit. He had never thought that there were Things here, eating away at his brain for every instant he worked. Every time he had used this power he had suffered a blinding headache for days, one that got worse every time he even thought about anything related to sealing. He had believed it was simply part of what it meant for a puny mortal to be exposed to the Out, but now he knew better.

They had been eating him.

Every time he had come here to practice the best ways of cracking open his reality and rendering it more easily accessible by these...Things, they had been there. Their passage had buffeted and battered him constantly as they crowded close, swimming through his brain and defecating ideas and understanding while pressing obscene and defiled bodies against the crack in his mind that almost but not quite gave them entrance to his home.

Now, he was hidden from them, and for that he was more grateful than anything.

Thank you, he thought as loudly as he could. Hyperreality made no reply.

He turned his attention away from the Things and focused it back on the runic construct. It made more sense now, the willow snow dimension connecting clearly and cleanly with the fruit whirlwind kick. It made sense, in the same way that a kata made sense after you had practiced it a thousand times. In fact, runes seemed far more logical than seals. He was mapping dozens of dimensions down into something that could fit across the Paint; why make the extra effort to fit it into two dimensions when he could use the third as well? Honestly, it made so much more sense that he could barely remember how he had done the two-dimensional squishing in the first place.

Far away, on the other side of the Paint, his body snorted in amusement. Here, in this nonplace, his mind focused on the rune that would twist space like taffy.

It was well.

---

Author's Note: Good news! Hazō has exchanged his 'Summoning Scroll Acoylyte' stunt for the 'Disciple of the Beyond' stunt! This is an exchange, so there is no XP cost. The change increases Hazō's Primordial Sealing skill (the one used for runes) at the cost of reducing his Sealing skill (the one used for paper-based seals).

Better news! After much discussion, the QMs have decided that the crossover bonus between disciplines (e.g. Sealing and Primoridal Sealing) is innate, not a buff. As such, it does not require a 100 XP combination stunt in order to work alongside Disciple of the Beyond. You may rejoice now.

XP and Brevity award: 0 The vote was for an interlude, not a plan.

"GM had fun" XP: 5

It is now about 8pm and your check-in with Noburi is in an hour. This update covered 1 day.

Vote time! What to do now?

Voting ends on Wednesday, Jul 10, 2024 at 7:00 AM .