Well, OP! Been waiting for you like a madman! And can't wait to find this Red Headed League and kick their shit in, but I believe we were doing some studying of dead bodies.

But before we start, I went over the threads and I -think- I have an up to date character sheet - at least I -think- so, not sure.

http://pastebin.com/9Bvfbmmc - Detailed
Brackets are the possible point allocations. We never really talked about our last...two or three point spread, so some of those upgrades were made before we changed the leveling rules, not sure how you want to do that.
http://pastebin.com/r3r7aSqM - Simple

Now, there are a few things I was wondering, from a play tester standpoint: What does 'Strong Bond' or 'Broken Bond' do? There's a few other's, but I'll ask those as I find them.

>>16501928
YES IT'S TIME
GONNA NEED BOTH HANDS FOR THIS POST

>>16502055
You are a gentleman and a scholar! Outstanding work you've done and I'll be happy to answer any questions you have.

We'll handle the spare points with the current leveling rules as a way to stunt our already absurd scaling.

What you have listed as Strong Bond is Bond's effect. Strong Bond is the exact same, except you CAN achieve extra effects.

Broken Bond is reversed Bond, in a way. When you activate Broken Bond your Broken Bondmate cannot activate Extra Effects or receive failures on dice against you. He has the same with you. It represents the true struggle that you both are putting forward into a fight, rather than letting luck decide the day.

>>16502178
Thank you, sir. ANd, I did add our Katon that we learned - at least you said we had learned it durning one of our Swordman Montages. Well, made reference to, but that's abotu the same.

Erm, questions so far:
What do all our 'Skill Mastery' bonuses give us? Is it just 'Spent one point of Determination to remove a 10'?
What is Natural Affinity (Water)?
Did you intend the full squad of Seven to be insane? Because - as far as I've gotten in eding - facing us will will drop Determination down by at lest 4.

My suggested point spread, -if- we have nine points to fiddle with, which is what I think we have.

http://pastebin.com/0c6Qv9mj

>>16502302
You're straight on the Katon.

At the moment, yes, that's all that Skill Masteries give us. If the level scaling proves to be too harsh I'll give a bigger incentive to reach max skill.

Natural Affinity (Water) just means that we can use water elemental Jutsu. We need to add fire to that.

I did indeed. Shinobi who practice as a unit like the Seven Swordsmen are like a war-machine. They operate well separately, but together they are an orchestra. I promise you that I have equivalent foes for the assembled Seven.

>>16502344
No, no, the 'Natural Affinity (Water)' is something that Mangetsu has. I didn't think that meant what his Charka nature was water.

Another question: You didn't note what Tetsuo Injury or Chakra pool was. Have you corrected this?

>>16502415
Oh, sorry. Hang on, lemme go find Mangetsu's stats.

Alright, so here's what it does. Natural Affinity gives the user a +1 damage bonus to a single Ninjutsu of the selected element, once per encounter.

>>16502434
Tetsuo injures 7/14/28
His chakra pool is 8.

And I'll be preemptive on this one. Laziness lets you recover an additional wound for both medical jutsu and natural rest, but forces you to spend a point of Determination to ever go anywhere other than last in combat.

>>16502459
>>16502483

However, I need to strike that from Mangetsu.

Instead he'll get
Heritage (Second Mizukage)

Ok, just a few more questions, and I am sorry I'm stopping plot for this.

What does Handsome do? (Tetsuo)
What does 'Subject of Hatred (Hidden Mist Village)' do? (Yuki)

In addition, let's get started, I believe we were studying a dead body of one of these Scarlet Squad Ninja and the village surrounding it.

Ah, crap, I also meant to ask if the money calacuation seems right. I never actually noticed what the price for the flak jackets were, sadly.

>>16502595
Don't sweat it. I'm glad to get thse outta the way now.

Handsome gives him an automatic success when dealing with women in a fashion where he can use his physical appearance, usually Deception or Investigation checks based off Genjutsu.

Subject of Hatred makes Yuki automatically fail all social checks with members of the Hidden Mist village if they recognize her for what she is and do not have a reason to ignore their Hatred.

>>16502595

As you run your eyes and hands over the body to try and detect anything of note about it you can't seem to find anything. This was a normal shinobi male who was killed by an impaling wound in the neck, specifically, one of his own kunai. He possesses no Kekkei Genkai to your immediate detection and his gear is nondescript blackened metal.

The village seemed to be just a normal farming village, one of the few in the Land of Water. The target seemed to be almost at random if it weren't for the fact that these assailants were clearly professionals.

>>16502625
Oh, can you save left over Skill points?

Ask Tetsuo if he sees anything else. Can we identify their numbers, or direction, from left over Chakra, weapons, or the way the town was damaged?

>>16502659
I'm going to say yes, otherwise we wouldn't be able to buy those higher levels of skill without a supremely hard mission. For now it's a yes, it may change.

>>16502668
Tetsuo puts his hands together and breathes in slowly as he speaks, "My senses tell me there were...around ten to fifteen at the absolute most. They were not above Chunin in level, but there were two or three who were Jonin-level, I would say two. Their chakra signatures are still burned into the ground where they used jutsu." he says as he focuses and shakes his head, "It wasn't elemental jutsu, just plain old ninjutsu, I can't detect what it was." he says and looks around, "One thing is for sure, this was not a fair fight in the least."

>>16502678
"No. We will remeady that." If he can direct us, go after them. See if we and Tetsuo can sense ahead of ourselves to see if there's a trap coming, but we shouldn't be going slower.

>>16502687
Tetsuo's sensing is far beyond your own as he spent many years honing his talent. Though he never opens his eyes once he keeps stride with you and guides you towards them before stopping you, "I just detected a few hundred more chakra signatures!" He hisses at you as he suppresses his chakra with practiced ease and crouches down, transforming himself into a rock to avoid suspicion.

>>16502694
Let's suppress our chakra and hide in a puddle

>>16502711
Not a trick you really have down pat. In fact, it's a rare and very difficult talent to be able to do competently.

Roll Rank+Chakra Control.

Well, lets see if we can do the same, and keep an eye on Saito. He's still a bit green. I hope three of the Seven will be able to handle fifteen - we -should- be able to, but overcofidence is not a Professional Trait.

>>16502719
Are we using my suggested skill spread, or not?

rolled 2, 9, 6, 3, 4 = 24

Lets see if this works.

>>16502731
We are indeed.

rolled 3, 7, 7, 2, 9 = 28

Oh yes, are we wearing our Not-Quite-ANBU Mask and Cloak and, side question, did we actually pick up Kisame's headband? And did we keep that Large Book that had the village's stats in it?

>>16502741
Nicely done.

With a surprising show of control you mask your chakra and slip into a puddle waiting for Tetsuo to talk to you. Inside your mind you hear his voice, "This is too many for us...we need to slip away or let them pass." He says, but in the distance you hear a very familiar laugh, a high-pitched laugh in the distance, a blur of conversation quickly masking it.

rolled 7, 6, 10, 2, 1 = 26

>>16502804
"Where's Saito. And is that Gendo?"

>>16502804
How familiar is this laugh (i.e. any hints on who it is?)? And how close are the other signatures?

>>16502804
Time to spy on our old friend and get an idea of what he's been up to.

rolled 5, 2, 4, 2, 7 = 20

>>16502867
"Wait, Sempai?"

Now, does an honest man hide...

>>16502862
"Saito is beside me. He's a squirrel at the moment." Tetsuo says as Satio calls out his agreement.

The laugh comes again, and this time it fills you with a cold shiv of recognition, Kisame Hoshigaki. The laugh is so familiar to you it's like you've heard it a million times. "Easy, Shimaru..." Tetsuo says, reading your surface thoughts, "He's well reinforced. Everyone is close to him, hell he seems to be the center of attention, with a chakra signature even more powerful than his own."

How close are the rest of the Seven? Can we contact them via our Battlenet?

>>16502885
Can we get closer? And >>16502876

>>16502897
"Approaching any closer would be dangerous. We have no idea if they have sensors or how strong said sensors are..." He warns you, hesitance in his voice as Saito speaks, "I can slip closer ethereally, but I radiate chakra like that...they'll detect me coming instantly if they have a sensor." he says with concern.

>>16502886
The other Seven are miles away. Your Battlenet's effective operational range is about a half mile at best.

>>16502913
Is there any way to send like a bird or something to spy on their conversation while we hide here?

>>16502913
Well, cut the chatter and see if we can over hear Sempai. Can we burn anything on 'listening'?

Also, resist running in like an honest man and killing our way to Sempai and that Snake.

>>16502938
If you had a summon or something of that nature to do the spying, yes. At the moment the best you could wrangle would be a water clone, and that risks giving away that you are here.

>>16502946
You can roll Rank to try and listen in closer.

rolled 1, 5, 8, 3 = 17

>>16502971
We're rank 4 right? Here goes.

rolled 7, 10, 3, 3 = 23

>>16502971
I so want to run in, but we should be professional. We need some way to make amends.

(And if our Nindo allows for out of combat stuff to happen, we should be getting a blow to it now.)

>>16503017
Oh yeah, we're targeting our best stat, so yeah, we got it.

You lock out Tetsuo from your mind for a little as you strain to listen, and hear your old friend and teacher's voice.

"My lord, it would be foolish of us to turn on our contract holder. Besides, despite his deceit of us, are we not honest men?" Kisame says and a deep magnanimous voice, like an angelic choir of men speaks, "Yes, Kisame Hoshigaki, we are. You and I, as well of the rest of Akatsuki, are the only honest men in the world." He assures Kisame who chuckles again. The voice then speaks again, "Brothers and sisters, we come here not because we wield our strength like a brand to cause fear and damage, we instead bear it as a light in the darkness, a call, to all our fellow shinobi that they can rise above the petty village politics and stop serving selfish Kages who only use their subjects' skills to increase their own personal power." He says and you feel something tugging at your mind as you resist and keep listening, "Akatsuki, the Red Clouds, heralds a new dawn in the shinobi world, an era of honestly and truth, of vision!" He says, the last word so powerful you almost want to rise up to embrace it but instead close your eyes and knuckle down, your Battlemind opening to Tetsuo roaring at you, "...LISTENING TO HIM!! IT'S DANGEROUS!"

>>16503066
"Why?" The fact that Tetsuo is yelling at us makes me angry, but we shouldn't be angry. Find out the 'why's before shooting Tetsuo down for yelling at a commanding officer.

>>16503108
Anyway, sleeping. Hope this is going on when I awke. Take care, OP! Glad Five Nations is making me want to rewatch Naruto.

>>16503108
>>16503121

I'm sure it will be going on stronger tomorrow when the usual people are actually on. Good to have someone interested, see you later, Anon!

>>16503128
Well there is one other person here but yeah it might be best to put it on hold when more people have a chance to see this.

>>16503144
A surprising amount of people show up in the early morning to early afternoon. So I guess we'll recess til then.

>>16503144
make it at least two other people.

>>16503158
Continue! I am just being a good Anon and saying that I sleep now, and wishing OP well for such a awesome thread.

>>16503159
>>16503144

Well with two people I could justify continuing.

>>16503170
If you are then let's find out how Tetsuo knew listening would be a bad idea. And at the least, we can now confirm who's here.

>>16503176
Well he's a better sensor than us, maybe there's some genjutsu going on we aren't noticing.

>>16503177
Worth double checking than just assuming. It'll make fighting this guy hard in the future if his mere voice can influence us.

>>16503170
Make that three. Maybe this is a really strong genjutsu? Maybe this isn't even Kisame?

>>16503177
>>16503176

"Sorry, Captain..." He says apologetically, "However, as soon as you blocked me out I sensed another chakra washing over you, not a Genjutsu, more like a malevolent eye. We need to get out of her, right now...or else." He says but is cut off by Saito screaming out, "I'M FOUND HELP ME!!" The small squirrel jumps up as black rods of metal smash through the earth from above where he was. Saito returns to his human form and draws his sword as he blocks two more blades, trying to become intangible as he gets hit by the last one his tangibility fully returning as he hits the ground and gasps in pain and surprise, "Help...help..." he mutters, unable to move, his muscles visibly tightening forming a living straightjacket of his own muscles. In the trees above you see a figure with Akatsuki robes on and a face shrouded by shadows, however, you can see odd protrusions from his back and extremities.

>>16503212
Crap. At this point, Tetsuo should try to get him out of here while we stay behind I think. If we can grab Kisame's attention, I'm hoping he'll make enough of a ruckus to fight one-on-one that the other two can get away and maybe we can find a way out.

That or tell Tetsu to take him and run while we hit the guy we see and then escape.

>>16503212
Let's bring up our mist and then pop out of our puddle and get this guy's attention off Saito and onto us.

>>16503243
You aren't even actively sensing chakra and you can detect the roughly two hundred chakra signatures all facing you like a field of flames, their attention locked on you before the voice speaks, "Relax, my brothers and sisters. They are not a threat to us, rather they are as children who listen at the door, simply curious and secretive. Bring them to me." He orders and the figure above you drops down to face you, his face pale and covered with metal bolts through his face, a bald head and a long tattoo of a circle with an arrow through it on his forehead as he reveals his hands, both of them clenching the odd metal blades that are impaling Saito.

Tetsuo calls out, "Captain! What are your orders, sir?"

>>16503282
Ah hell. Tell Tetsuo to grab Saito and escape. We'll follow and cover the rear of anyone that follows. Put up a mist to hopefully help cover our retreat and then let's try to make sure whatever happened to Saito doesn't happen to us.

>>16503309
Agreed, let's GTFO before that guy tries to indoctrinate us.

rolled 4, 1, 2, 8, 10, 3, 2, 4 = 34

>>16503309
Tetsuo calls out his confirmation as he picks up Saito and bolts. Your fingers come together to form the Hidden Mist, but as soon as they do the figure stabs forward with the odd weapon.

>>16503340
Is he attacking us or Tetsuo/Saito?

>>16503374
Attacking you guys.

>>16503387
Taijutsu and greatsword then for the roll or are there other modifiers like speed in this case?

>>16503392
Rank+Taijustu to get out of the way. Normally you couldn't block, but you have a seal, lucky you, so you can summon up your sword to try and parry his attack. I subtracted the dice from my attack to account for your superior speed.

rolled 10, 10, 9, 1, 3, 2, 4, 8, 4, 1, 7, 8, 3 = 70

>>16503420
Rank+taijutsu it is.

rolled 6, 4, 7, 9, 7, 8, 4, 3 = 48

>>16503420
Rank 4 + Taijutsu 4
Shouldn't this be Shinobi Movement though?

>>16503462
Oh, it was taijutsu knowledge? My mistake. First time following this.

>>16503429

6 vs 9 in your favor.

The blade shoots over your shoulder as you slip around the attack, finding it to be elementary in its execution. It was fast and strong, but lacked technique. The mist gushes from around you and as it does so you see the eyes turn to purple and rings form around the pupil as the mist rises between you both. "Why do you try to blind yourself, my brother? My truth knows no bonds nor veils." The voice fills the air as you hear a loud clap, the person in front of you signing a single seal as he breathes out and blasts the mist apart, his metal rods slipping up into his sleeves as he looks at you with those eerie eyes of his.

>>16503462
>>16503429

Normally yes, you're just trying to do a melee range evasion, not a leaping one, you're trying to dodge the attack while maintaining the seal, which involves knowledge of Taijutsu to get out of the way when the attack is best dodgable.

>>16503509
Alright.
Don't respond to him.
Has Saito gotten Tetsuo up on his feet, and are they on their way out of here?

If there's enough nearby water, we could create 4 clones and have them shoulder both of them to get us out of here at our increased speed.

rolled 10, 1, 8, 8, 8, 7, 10, 5, 2 = 59

>>16503499
"I'd be more willing to believe that if you hadn't disrupted the mist."

Seal our sword into our hands and cut this man in half. Rank + greatsword skills

>>16503534
Tetsuo and Saito have enough distance to be considered safe. No Akatsuki members are after them, and you only seem to be against this single member, and that voice.

>>16503499
Alright, let's make like a shinobi banana and get the fuck out of here.

>>16503544
Then it's time we got out of here.
Retreat, using a Water Dragon to cover our escape.

>>16503554
>>16503549

2 for Run

>>16503539
1 for Attack.

>>16503567
Definitely run. There are like 200 other people around.

>>16503571
Yeah, heh, I'm probably the only one who was hoping we could use this as an opportunity to get some info about these guys by asking them directly and then escaping like a boss. Running from this situation isn't a bad idea but holding the line against an overwhelming force has a dramatic appeal too.

>>16503613
Dramatic but likely going to end in death or capture. Not worth the risk. I won't lie, the dramatic appeal is there for me as well though.

>>16503613
Th information we got about their name, and that their leader has some kind of mind-controlling not-genjutsu, is vital to getting back to Intelligence with.

We also need to return to that village to pick up that shinobi's body for Intelligence.

Welp, time to bolt it.

>>16503571
>>16503613

The man seems to be watching your every move, his expression blank and unreadable. When you throw up a water dragon at him as a means of covering your escape he is waiting with a wall of stone which takes the hit, but he doesn't pursue. "My brother, one day, you will come to us." The voice says and suddenly its malign influence flees your head, but an image is seared into it.

Kisame kneeling before a tall thin man in Akatsuki robes. He has his forehead pressed against the man's hand as a sign of fealty, much like how samurai used to swear to their shogun. When Kisame withdraws the man is holding a headband with a sun on it and the word "Truth" emblazoned on the metal as Kisame wears it with pride.

In short order you, Tetsuo, and Saito return home. Once there Tetsuo removes the rods from Saito who gasps in horrified agony and discomfort as even his neck muscles were choking him down to a trickle of air. He is rushed to the hospital and later that evening you are called to present your report to the Mizukage.

After hearing the report and thinking about it she decides to send a political envoy to the Hidden Leaf and Stone. Gen and Aya, as well as two other Chunin, were dispatched to the Leaf, while you and another shinobi of your choice are to head to the Hidden Stone and talk to them.

>>16503639

Tetsuo already sealed the body into a scroll as he passed it, knowing how thorough you like to be, he presented it to the examiners who will have fun cutting and picking at it.

>>16503651
Well we have those metal rods right? Seems like there's something up with them so hopefully they can get some intel on those.

Who should we take to the Cloud with us? I'm tempted to say Yuki just because I believe it was mentioned awhile back we were close to getting a bond with her. We might want to get as many bond's as we can with the team ASAP.

>>16503651
Hmm ok, I wasn't expecting to be sent so far off with such major threats right next to us. What do you guys say who should we choose to come with? I'm thinking Yuki, so we can train up our arm while we travel and make the most use of our time.

>>16503676
going to agree with this suggest so far.

>>16503685
>>16503689
>>16503676
I agree with taking Yuki due to bond.

>>16503651
Hmm...who among the 7 should we take along?
Saito's out of it, so not him.

That leaves Yuki, Mangetsu, Gendo, Waraji, Tetsuo.

>>16503689
We'd also have the dual roles of Sensor/Melee and Medic/Ranged to use.

Or Leader/(melee or sensor) + Medic/(melee or ranged).

>>16503676
>>16503685
I agree. We need to learn from Yuki how to better use this Kekkei Genkai we have now.

>>16503698
>>16503689
>>16503676
>>16503685

In a few hours you are saddled up and ready go with Yuki, who has prepared herself for the long journey, "We're going a really long distance away. On the otherside of the continent..." She says pensively before speaking, "I have prepared everything for our long journey, and Lady Mizukage was kind enough to give us extra supplies." She said and held a small red scroll close to her forehead before putting it in a scroll-sleeve. "Anyway, whenever you are ready, Captain."

It takes almost a fortnight, but you finally arrive at the great mountain pass the leads into the Land of Earth from one of the neutral nations, narrowly avoiding the Land of Iron. You are a powerful shinobi, but the samurai of the Land of Iron are rumored to be fearless warriors against shinobi, something that perhaps you want to test one day, but today is sadly not that time.

As soon as you cross over the border a small mob of twenty or so shinobi appear from nowhere, their signals flaring up in your mind all of the sudden. "State your business here." One of them says, a common theme amongst them all being the rather burly and short look they all seemed to share, these men at the borders.

>>16503706
If we're going for bonuses, it would be better to have Melee/Tactician and Sensor/Medic

>>16503718
"Shimaru Yamada, Kirigakure, and Yuki Endo, of same. We're here on a diplomatic mission from the Mizukage to meet with the Tsuchikage."

I assume we brought along two of our 3 ANBU cloaks and our 1 ANBU mask, right?

>>16503741
We better have. Those things are too valuable not to use while out of the village.

>>16503741
It's safe to assume so. You're fully decked up and Yuki has the cloak on.

"Alright, that checks out. We've been following you for a while now, and you guys seem legitimate." The man says as he speaks, "I'm Domaru Hako, Noble-Captain of the Hidden Stone. These are my men, the Eyes." He says and the men show their recognition to you with a nod before he offers, "Lord Tsuchikage is busy, at the moment, he's in meetings for the next several days, however, the Grand-Ardent would be happy to see you in his stead. He's the second in command of our village." The man says as he walks with you away from the village down a long path as he chats with you idly to pass the time as you all wander down to a gorge where he unleashes a whistle.

From deep within the gorge a roar is heard and the sound of heavy footsteps approaches as a massive black bear with white fur around its nose appears and sits down in front of you. On its backside, front paws on the ground, it's probably a good two feet taller than you are. The bear sniffs you and growls before a cloud of smoke fills the area and a man is suddenly standing behind the bear.

He's a giant of a man, tall enough to even give Kisame pause. He is also built like a light-house and is dressed in one of the most ostentatious fashions you've seen. He wears a full suit of samurai armor, covered in gashes and cuts, with a massive cape of fur draped around his shoulders. A headband with the Hidden Stone symbol merges with a heavy helm that covers everything except his eyes, a thick rebreather on his face and filters over his ears as well. In his hands he grips a thick naginata and when the smoke clears he speaks, "I am Kyouku Fuyo, the Grand-Ardent of the Hidden Stone." He says and the name rings a bell, he has a massive bounty on his head issued from the Hidden Sand village. They call him the Bear Sage, or the Terror of the Mountains

>>16503791
"An honor."
Did the Mizukage give us a diplomatic scroll? If so, offer it up now.

>>16503791
>he has a massive bounty on his head issued from the Hidden Sand village
I wonder if we have a bounty on our head yet.

>>16503821
He glances at the scroll and opens it, reading over it and passing his hand over it once before scrolling it back up and putting it in the folds of his gauntlet as he grabs your arm and squeezes for a second a small bear-paw symbol appearing as he speaks, "You don't need the scroll anymore, you've got a passport. Now, let's talk somewhere private." he says and claps his hands together, a huge dome of earth appearing around you, Yuki, and himself as all sound and light is locked out of it. Additionally, the chakra outside the cave is hidden to your senses, and you guess that your chakra is equally hidden. He sits down and removes his helmet revealing a shag of black hair and a scruffy beard under that as he lays out a map. "We've been attacked by agents in black and red cloaks, black cloth and red clouds." he says shortly pointing to the locations, "They've been attacking at our weakest locations or when we've been moving around. They have a lot of guidance and they seem to be attacking with vindication, strange considering we have no record of their existence. Additionally, they make a point to kill our Kekkei Genkai shinobi, any of them that they can find." He says and speaks, "I hear that you and those fops in the Leaf have been having similar issues."

>>16503857
Are you kidding me? We killed the Raikage.

Let's forget about the bounty on this guy. Iwagakure is one of Kirigakure's buddy villages, let's not piss them off.

>>16503857
In a couple month's time a new Bingo Book will be issued, and I'm willing to bet someone's getting some ranking and a few bounties.

>>16503875
Were we ever able to cross-reference a Sand shinobi by the name of Sasori?
That would be important intel to give to be able to offer.

"That is correct.
"We learned that they call themselves Akatsuki, and have confirmation that the missing-nin Kisame Hoshigaki and Orochimaru are within their membership."

Point out on the map places in the Land of Water where the Akatsuki have attacked.

>>16503875
"Indeed, they seem to refer to themselves by the moniker 'Akatsuki' and we have reason to believe they are composed of missing-nin from at least Kirigakure and Konohagakure." Pause to think for a moment, then continue, "Perhaps missing-nin from your own Iwagakure have joined as well, considering these attacks."

>>16503876
Agreed.

>>16503875
"This group is quite subversive. If past encounters are anything to go by, they've made it a point to recruit S-class missing-nin into their folds. It wouldn't be surprising if they have missing-nin from the stone feeding them key information."

>>16503875
Additionally: "Their fervor does not surprise me. They have some sort of philosophical line, and I have encountered one of the proselytizers. His sway was unnatural, but my team could detect no genjutsu."

>>16503921
>>16503918

He nods and considers your word, "While we don't have the same reputation for abandonment as is unfortunately attached to Kiri, we don't have as high a retention rate as Suna." He notes with frustration, cracking his knuckles as he mentions this. With frustration he connects all the points of attack you guys have and shows a vague area for a point of origin, "Either Suna or Konoha are harboring them, or they are based in a neutral country and receiving support from the only country behind them." he said and circles the Cloud Village, "Kumo. He spits the word out with hate as he looks at the map, "What do you think? This sort of massive force, and you described at least two hundred active, cannot possibly survive on an independent village's supplies, no matter how dedicated the populace is. They just can't feed and keep ready this sort of a host. It would take a whole nation, or a large sum of cash." he says before putting his palm on the ground and summoning a little bear cub with copied the map down by inking his nose and drawing quickly before saying, "I'll show Bishamon-samma." He informs Kyouku before vanishing as he looks at you, "If it is Kumo, what do you suggest we do, Shimaru-dono?"

>>16503918
Shortly. Don't worry.

>>16503956
"We would need iron-clad evidence that it is Kumo, but to fight off such a dedicated and skilled force, could require a shinobi alliance.
"But, that is for our Kage's to decide.
"For now, as you said, we should look into the money trail. Such a large number of supplies must be bought from somewhere, and then it must disappear somewhere. Find it, and find Akatsuki.
"Also. The Akatsuki leader; he has some kind of mind-control technique. It is not genjutsu, so it is hard to detect. Be careful."

"I'm no politician, and I've already demonstrated the lengths I'm willing to go to when confronted by the cloud. Fortunately the decision of how the mist should deal with the cloud is the for Mizukage to decide."

>>16504000
Hmm speaking of the leader, do we have any idea what was up with those eyes?

>>16503956
It is possible there is a connection to the Cloud. Even their iconography is similar. Although if the Cloud wanted to form a clandestine group, wouldn't they try to hide that connection? With S-rank nukenin performing mercenary work, how hard would it be to fund such a movement independently, or from a smaller nation? I don't think we have enough evidence to say anything with certainty.

>>16504000

"I will distribute this information among my men, thank you." He says before he taps his helmet, "Hopefully I will be safe from that." Once you establish that vague plan of tracking the money he tells you he will put what shinobi he can on it, but their primary duties are to be attending to the immediate security of his homeland.

The conversation is going well as a huge explosion rocks the ground and he doesn't flinch, "Don't worry, it's just the Tsuchikage training with his student." The man noted as he focused in and the bear cub appeared again, "Bishamon is ready for the next course of action." He says and Kyouku nods and dismisses the creature, "Alright, with my Kage's permission and your own, I will accompany you. We need to find the exact extent of their reach and see how far the tendril reaches from the beast." He says and looks at Yuki, "However, I will have to request you stay here. Security and protocol aside, we deeply need medics. Our village is not gifted in that department." He says and faces you, "You are a man of great status in your village, is this plan acceptable to you?"

>>16504029
I'm thinking we should agree.
The Stone is on good terms with the Mist, so it would be important to maintain our working relationship.
Also, if we're going to be moving around in Hidden Stone territory, it would be best to have someone who is a native.

>>16504029
I say use the battle net and get Yuki's opinion, but I don't see a problem with it.

>>16504065
Whilst she expresses her professional concern for the safety of her Captain going off with the second-strongest shinobi of the Stone, she trusts your judgment and of course defers to you. However, you can sense that she is leery about this man.

>>16504068

Look at Yuki and nod before agreeing, "Yes, that is acceptable."

>>16504072
"Excellent." he says and drops the stone wall and rising, putting his helmet under his arm as he calls a few of his men forth and asks them to escort Yuki to the hospital. Once she's taken care of he looks at you, "The Land of Stone is unlike what you are used to. Whilst I would get lost in the mires of your home lands the treacherous rocks and winds can fool even the most experienced shinobi of our lands, I would advise you follow behind me and trust in my movements." He says and puts his helm on and begins shinobi running towards the gate, moving at extremely slow speeds by your standards. In fact, by even average shinobi standards he's slow. Even Waraji for all his bigness isn't as slow as he is.

That slowness, however, proves to be a lifesaver as you scale up numerous mountains and sheer cliff-faces with the most extreme delicacy as he helps you and guides you up. Finally you reach the top of a tall bluff and he points out where everything is. "The First Tsuchikage stood up here and declared that all he beheld was his to own, and that all who claimed it were foes of the Stone. Because of this belief many of my countrymen find frustration in the defensive policies of our current Tsuchikage." He tells you as he removes his helmet and sniffs the air intensely, "Something, or someone, is here." He notes as he looks at you, "You're a sensor nin, aren't you? Tell me, can you detect anyone?"

>>16504068
>>16504072

Before we leave we should encourage her to find out what info she can about the situation between this guy and his kage. We could very well have just been intercepted by a faction working against the Tsuchikage either due to the village's own politics or akatsuki itself. Assure her we'll be on our guard if the worst situation should come to pass.

>>16504102
She consents and after your assurances departs.

>>16504097
Let's sense it up but stay on guard.

rolled 7, 4, 5, 6, 9 = 31

>>16504097
Okay, is that a Rank 4 + Chakra Detection roll?
Do we get bonuses for Advanced Chakra detection?

>>16504112
Agreed. How vulnerable does active sensing make us?

>>16504112
Your scanning reveals a small squadron of shinobi moving along one of the lower roads. By their dress it's evident to see that they are Akatsuki agents, though from their chakra signals they aren't anything too impressive.

Kyouku notices them as well as he puts his hands together, "Well....let's get rid of the problem, one worm at a time." he says and makes three fast seals as the stones above them form into a giant bear head which suddenly lunges down and crushes them all between its stone teeth and spits the remains out with a snarl.

>>16504122
Your eyes are closed, but since you can sense chakra you're basically at an advantage when it comes to everything except mundane attacks. You wouldn't sense a thrown weapon, but you can see someone coming close.

>>16504131
Hmm... am I the only one finding this a little suspicious?

>>16504147
You're not. Let's play along for now, though, but keep an eye on him.

>>16504131
Let's check out the bodies. See if there's any intel we can recover from them. And collect some of the headbands; we did promise to our fence that we'd collect the headbands of shinobi we kill. Besides, taking a few for analysis is always good; we might be able to learn where they're buying the materials for their clothing, or analyzing it for where they might have been spending a lot of time.

>>16504163
Agreed.
>>16504147
"Well done Grand-Ardent dono. Shall we see if there's anything left?"

>>16504163

Time passes and eventually you leave the Land of Stone, entering the Land of Wind briefly as he looks across the vast sands. "I have a report of Akatsuki I didn't want to talk about in the village." He says and produces a scroll and passes it to you, "Inside I have six members identified. Kisame of your village is one of them. Konoha has one, Suna has one too. Only Kumo and Iwa don't have one." He says, stopping himself from saying yet.

>>16504178
>>16504172
This happens right after he kills them.

"Sure thing, let's." With a slight amount of effort you plod back over to where the shinobi were. It's clear that they indeed were Akatsuki from their headbands and robes, they certainly weren't anyone important. You collect the headbands none the less, and you even find a single sealed scroll in one of their pockets.

>>16504212
Can we break the seal without compromising the contents? Or should we let an actual Intelligence operative do that?

>>16504221
The implication from the secrecy out here and the way he hands it directly to you implies that he wants you to read it personally.

>>16504229
I'll bet
>>16504221
was refferring to the akatsuki scroll, but let's crack the Grand-Ardent's and see what's up. That's three new Persons of Interest.

>>16504229
I think he meant the Akatsuki scroll. In any case, let's open the one Kyouku gave us.

>>16504229
I think he was talking about the scroll on one of the dead mooks op.

actually it could be a fucking trap with plausible dependability in enemy territory

>>16504212
>>16504250
>>16504248

Kyouku's scroll reveals pictures and a brief blurb of data on Kisame, Orochimaru, a Sunagakure Shinobi named Sasori, a shinobi from the Hidden Waterfall village named Kakuzu, and lastly three different pictures of bodies that all share the same features as the man you fought. Bald with the same tattoo and the same piercings and rods on their face and body. The word written was, "God?"

>>16504259
deniability*, but anyway, is there anyway we can check for explosive runes?

>>16504248
And even though it may look awkward or weird we should have our fleshy hand on our sword grip, maybe we nonchalantly imbed it in the ground first as if we were a little tired of lugging it around, just in case of genjutsu shenanigans.

>>16504257
>>16504248
>>16504221

The Akatsuki one is sealed, you would need to be a reasonable Fuuinjutsu artist to open this thing up without ripping the scroll to shreds.

>>16504229
I meant the scroll taken off of the Akatsuki shinobi.

>>16504264
>>16504269
>>16504269

The Ardent notes your actions and comments, "It's good to see you are ready for treachery. I have no reason to trust you either, short of the spirit of camaraderie from our mutual dislike of the Cloud." He says with crossed arms before he admits, "Despite appearances, I am not only a trustworthy man, I am a loyal one."

>>16504262
"This last one. Any ideas?"

Also, the scroll thing clearly tells me I'm too tired to go on properly. We'll pick this thing up when I wake up, probably around 11 or 12 board time.

As always, question time for the late night.

>>16504281
"Loyalty and vigilance are both virtues of a shinobi."

>>16504289

"I have three different trustworthy men saying that they each encountered one of the men pictured. They said he spoke with a rich voice that flooded them with emotion, and when they refused his offer, he set upon them with black swords of a strange material that weakened their bodies with the slightest graze."

>>16504291
So about how far off are you from collecting all the changes and placing them into a v0.2 document?

>>16504324
I'm at a toss up whether or not to just make a v0.2 patch document, like the errata sheets WotC does, or just to update the core book itself and reissue it. Thoughts?

However, as far as material goes, we've made significant strides towards the improvement of the sourcebook.

>>16504332
I think you should update the core book; there's too much that was changed to fit in just an errata sheet.

>>16504332
I think it'd be a better idea to update the core. I prefer having one main document to reference as opposed to the original + errata. Maybe even flesh it out in addition to the patch elements. Tweak the formatting a bit maybe. An important part is to include some more guidlines for creating jutsu.

I'd also suggest touching on how to handle the bloodline limits and other unique abilities, though I'm not sure if you're at that stage yet.

>>16504342
Noted. I've been making small touch ups to the core book over the course of the game, but I'll just have to sit down and write down all the rules we've ad-libbed.

Now, are there any rules that come across as stupid or silly?

>>16504366
I can't think of any that haven't been brought up in past threads.

>>16504391
Wonderful. And now, OP to sleep, I've been up for too long. See you in a few hours, Anons!

So, would people say this is accurate? I've also got a second one with the Sniper instead of Big Boss.

>>16502055
Oh my, I made one too, not so detailed and a bit late, though:
http://pastebin.com/5LFtERH7

>>16504281
"Good, Fuyo-dono. All Ninja should be." Look, despite our creepy and taciturn face, slightly happy before looking down and melancholy. Recall, but do not say, that Sempai was the most trustworthy man we knew, but he still betrayed the village. Look up. "I hope to give you reason for your trust." Hand him the Akatsuki scroll. "Do you know a skilled Fuuinjutsu artist?"

>>16504301
"I am an honorable man. I have seen this man too." If there are any differences, note them immediately. Then look concerned. "Rods of metal that weakened their bodies? How much? Is this reversible." If Saito is weakened, the Seven are weakened.

>>16504366
The only question I have is 'What are the stats for Avatar of the Sea'. That and I'm a little confused at what 'Mastery' allows. Does it change for each technique, or are you using the 'You can do one of the following changes. You can make the cost become X and reduce one of the other variables by 1 and then add X. You can make the cost 0 if the Jutsu cost 1. You can increase the damage by 2 and the chakra cost by 1. You can allow yourself to spend 1 Determination to activate it as a counter. A Jutsu can only have 1 Mastery applied to it.' as listed in the book?

>>16504609
Sniper...who just uses sword, rather than jars of urination, or a gun. That or we could just use one of the awesome arts we have.

>>16505987
hmmmm I wonder if we can get a ninja with a bow or something like that later on? Think of all the shit we can pull with arrows (Look up green arrow and hawkeye)

Oh, another question. When we first made the Iron Wind, you said that we had a Chakra Control of 3. Now that that we've become a Jonin we have a Chakra of 4 and we recently put points into the stat 'Chakra Control'. Does this mean we have a Chakra Control of 5 for Iron wind? If so, does this mean we now have a base range of 7 rather than 5?

>>16506030
Gen is Engineer + Lelouch. That kinda has 'Green Arrow Ninja' beat. But, hey, if you wanna stat out an Archer-nin, by all means go ahead.

OP, here is the updated character sheet. Please confirm the information in it.
Also, we need the actual mechanics of Avatar of the Sea, and whether it allows us extra actions, damage reduction, other effects, as well as weaknesses (such as against earth jutsu's, similar to how the Third Raikage's lightning armor was vulnerable to wind chakra).
Finally, the full mechanics of Massacre of the Mist as well as whether it's a Perk or a Signature Technique.

http://pastebin.com/nFRiB2w0

I've been thinking that we should buy some kunai that we can tie the explosive tags to. Maybe have a water clone throw out explosive kunai like a sentry turret while we go around and kill people?

And when did we learn "Avatar of the Sea"?

>>16506212
Right before the fight with the Raikage, I think.
We were trying to develop a lightning rod jutsu at the time, and I think the Avatar of the Sea was supposed to be a part of that.

More skills
Dry Land Adaptability + Chakra Control + Water Style
Withering Grip
"You absorb water from choked enemy with frightening speed, until only withered husk stays in your hand."
Grappled enemy takes damage equal to his Injured threshold for every turn he is grappled after first turn. You are vulnerable to other attacks as long as you stay in grapple. Might be used as interrogation technique. Costs 1 determination per turn to maintain.

Avatar of the Sea reminds me, someone mentioned making a summoning contract with the sea so our summon-boss would be a giant water kaiju. It would be a departure from canon, but I could imagine there being elementals in a setting like this. It could actually explain some kekkei genkai as genasi-like effects (Hozuki clan, I still think it's in your blood). It also brings into question how summoning contracts work. Is it just with that 'Boss' or the whole species? Does Jiraiya/Kisame really have a monopoly on all frog/shark services, or just those from that group? Getting the Spirit of all seas/oceans seems like an epic quest, but just the local sea the Land of Water resides in seems more achievable; I kind of like Muhokai as a name for it, if you don't have one.

Also, my usual kanji dictionary has gone down, anyone have any favorites to suggest?

>>16506278
Actually, I'm the one that suggested this, but I'm also wondering if we should get Dolphins, as they are the natural enemy to Sharks, although if we do kill Sempai we have to tearfully change contracts.

Although, having BOSS SEA would be so badass.

>>16506278
I usually use Jim Breen's.
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C

Anyway, the one problem I'm wondering about using a Kraken for Summon is: can we still use him on land? We're pretty dependent on water as it is, and we don't have the massive chakra reserves that Kisame has to be able to just create lakes of water whenever we want.

I realise I'm late to this party, but why haven't we considered Giant Enemy Crabs as a summon yet?

Picture very much related.

>>16506383
Because they will attack the weak point for massive damage.

>>16506414
If the ninjas you've seen so far are anything to go by, not before they get bisected cleanly by a giant claw. If that doesn't fit the theme I don't know what does.

>>16506273
But we didnt have a perk, or training, or even a chakra control to develop unique technique.
>>16506144
Not OP, but:
Shouldnt Injury be 9/18/36?
If Blitz 2 grants speed rank 2, what is a genin speed rank is? 0?
Yuki brewed 2 doses of chakra leaking poisin, we used only one, right?
Im this >>16505294 guy, lets try to keep track of things together.

>>16506276
More perk/Signature Jistu ideas:
Letting the mist wield our sword.
Upgrade the mist so it's able to form images.
Upgrade our mist to block chakra signals.
Flicker Swordmanship.
Secret Technique: Mist Rain - which is a chakra-draining rain.
High Pain Tolerance
Unhuman Pain Tolerance

And one Summon Suggestion:
We could try to make it so that sea type summons could swim in the mist.

Talking about the mechanics for a sec, I do have a slight problem with something- namely the way health is worked out.

I was just looking over the main ruleset with its given characters, and it seems a bit wrong for Kakashi to have half the health of Guy if they're supposed to be equals- particularly as Guy just flat-out dominates in CC anyway.

Just what I think.

>>16506451
Yeah, the Injury should be 9/18/36.
I thought I fixed that.

Here's the corrected version:
http://pastebin.com/fXMdeVvh

As for the poison, yes, I remember there being two vials, but I thought we used both in one massive single dose. We'll need OP confirmation if we still have a dose of it left.

>>16506451
We only have Blitz 1, which increases our Speed Rank by 1, and since the base speed is Speed Rank 1, we have a Speed Rank of 2. Genin would have a Speed Rank 1, since that's the base speed.

>>16506451
Jonin and Genin all move at Speed 1. Those with Blitz move at Speed 2.

And, wow. I'm amazed that I didn't notice the Injury change, good eyes. And your right, it would go up, if we're following the source book.

Huh. Just noticed something, but what does Kekkei Genkai (Weak Inheritance) do?

Oh yeah, are we sure we've used 17 exploding tags, or just 19?

And when did we get the Bond(Mangetsu Hozuki)? I didn't see OP note that.

>>16506573

We got it after the Kinkaku force fight, I believe. He shook our and and stuff.

>>16506573
We can use kekkei genkai with Chakra based Chakra Manipulation (skill) roll. Our mastery over it is limited, compared to Kaguya guys, who use it naturally.
No sure about exploding tags, we used one when faced Kakashi and co.
We got a Bond after slaughtering of Kenkaku force, and after Mangetsu sidequest it should be Strong Bond, I think.

>>16506573
The Kekkei Genkai (Weak Inheritance) is for the Kaguya bone hand and forearm that we got from Yuki to replace the ones we lost in the fight with the Kinkaku Force. Apparently whatever medical ninja chakra tricks Yuki did to graft the bone onto us, also assimilated the relevant portions of Kaguya DNA that code for their Kekkei Genkai. It only works with the bone arm, though, which is why it's weak.

As for the tags, it might be 19. I think we've only used the 1 back in that escort mission so far.

>>16506489
I did have a bit of trouble working out how to make health work in this game. The way I see it, it's not just the amount of damage you take until you die, but it's also your exhaustion and endurance. When your chakra hits 0 you automatically drop to Injured if healthy and drops you to wounded if Injured. Injury should probably be called Conditioning or Endurance or something, but that's what it's supposed to represent on the whole. Hope that helps your question. Also, we've seen Guy take beatings, quite admirable beatings. Kakashi tends to start wussin out early.

>>16506144
I think we'll make the Avatar of the Sea do this, as we barely glanced over it as we entered our Raikage fight. On a trial basis let's give it the following stats.
(C:3;R:-;D:-)
When using the Avatar of the Sea you have a damage reduction of two vs all non-chakra based attacks and a reduction of five vs fire based attacks. However, if an Earth-source strikes you while you are in the Avatar the water becomes thick and muddy and reduces you to 1 action a turn, rather than the normal two. Finally, for the cost of 1 point of Determination, you can take an additional action due to the arms of water sprouted by your Avatar form. This cannot be activated while being tainted by Earth-style. To escape being weighed down by the Earth-style you have to make a successful Rank+Shinobi Movement (T) test.

>>16506525
You are correct on the injury. Our training and physical toughness made us more conditioned and difficult to finally bring down.

>>16506278
Jiraiya, almost certainly, is the only one with control over those frogs. Now, whether or not there are other shinobi toads, I cannot say, but what I say is that for Myobokuzan, which appears to be the only source of shinobi toads, he's the one who holds the contract scroll, on his back. As for Kisame, we have no reason to believe, short of for convenience, that he's the contract holder. We could make a side-quest out of it, if you'd like, and go find ourselves.

>>16506894
Okay OP, before I update the character sheet with the Avatar of the Sea stuff, can you confirm if we still have a dose of the chakra leak poison?

>>16506092
That's correct. At the moment all techniques with variable numbers scale, rather than being fixed at the level of your stats at the time of acquisition.

>>16506894
Can more time be spent to improve what the avatar can do?

>>16506953
Absolutely. Just cause we missed the first swing doesn't mean that the poison dries up suddenly.

>>16506966
Mastery can be taken to improve it in one of the listed ways in the book, or, as a signature technique, we can discuss as Kage and Players what we want it to do extra and if that's possible.

>>16506958
Oh! What variable do we have, so I can update our Jitsu lists.

Also:
>>16505987
for continuging the plot.

>>16506674
Ok, someone's listing 17 on their list, a bit confused. But I mean Kekkei Genkai is a feat that's listed bonus is "You receive the bonuses of your Kekkei Genkai". I was wondering if 'Weak Inheritance' changes that, or does something different.

http://pastebin.com/gyNkTrCb
Another updated charsheet. What did I miss?

>>16507051
The skills are supposed to be:
Greatsword Skills: 5
Shinobi Movement: 5
Taijutsu Knowledge: 4
Ninjutsu Knowledge: 5
Water Style Talent: 5
Martial Arts: 4
Genjutsu Knowledge: 3
Fuujutsu Knowledge: 2
Fire Style Talent: 1
Chakra Control: 1

Also, we specifically didn't pick up Kisame's headband.

Iron Wind's Range should be 7.

>>16505987
"Lord Tsuchikage is fairly skilled in that. I myself am quite capable of opening most seals." he says and grips the seal and makes signs before making the chakra moulding sign and then opening the scroll, the seal vanishing in a rising whisp of dust. The map lays out the Land of Earth and marks several areas. After glancing over it he notices something, "I know this handwriting. It's very familiar to me." He says and gives you the paper, "Lord Tsuchikage's student...is selling us out." The he nods, "Yes, the rods removed the body heals itself, unless the rods have been in for more than 24 hours in which case your chakra coils are too exhausted and you wind up dead."

>>16507051
Why only one Akatsuki? There were a few of them, and OP listed 'headbands'.

Our not-maxed stats are as follows:
Taijutsu Knowledge: 4
Martial Arts: 4
Genjutsu Knowledge: 3
Fuujutsu Knowledge: 2
Fire Style Talent: 1
Chakra Control: 1

I still think we should not what Reputation and Bonds do. Mostly because Reputation is damn amazing.

I like the Double Elemental Affinity, but we should run it by OP first.

>>16506894


Hmm, I still can't say I'm entirely satisfied with the disparency, but I'll keep schtum. The way I figured it, it was simply that Kakashi doesn't have that much chakra, but physically speaking he's still up there and great at conserving it/knowing what techniques to use.

So that's stuff I'd hope would be reflected in his playstle and perks anyway.

>>16507118
"This is not my village, but I believe that," Pause, quite reflection on Sempai. "Any Ninja that sells out his village is worthless. Should go kill this worthless tool?"

>>16507096

You know how we can share skill points and such with the whole village due to our rank- If we apply ourselves to getting as much face time with the people of the village, could we get some kinda special bond outside of the conventional bond system?

To be clear, I want Shimaru to be a herald of change- Not as a result of preaching his ideologies to the masses, but by making a more meaningful connection with the mist. I want Shimaru and the rest of the swordsmen to take an active role in making new traditions for the mist to follow and amending old one to have less negative impact on the village.

If we get bonded with the other six swordsmen, will we be able to accelerate progress towards the above suggestion?

>>16507118
"Should I help you to detain a traitor? Would this letter and your word be enough evidence to Tsuchikage?"

>>16507120
The double elemental affinity is what we got when we asked OP to randomly roll for them.

>>16507118
"Possible deception, faked handwriting to create internal conflict? Maybe talk with your ANBU first about this."

Sorry about that, mean to inculde this in last post.

>>16507096
Are you sure we didn't pick it up? I was checking and ther were just two posts and both were 'either or', but OP didn't mention which one he picked.

>>16507189
We can't and don't affect the entire Village in the Jonin level of skill distribution.
It's within a team, and our team is the 7 Swordsmen.

Besides, that level of change should only be available at the Kage level.

>>16507196
I mean, listing Double Affinity as a Feat and what it does for us.

And I think I get what 'Weak Inheritance' means. Is it the Perk form of a normal Kekkei Genkai?

>>16507215
No, it's not. We can teach anyone rather then use the skills ourselves.

>>16507215
>>16507189
Id prefer him staying old school hardcore shinobi, while shinobi world around him starts to change. Ninja Ways getting more mild, Hidden Villages being less paranoid and all.
This might be a reason for Akatsuki appearence in the first place btw.

>>16507189
The skill and perks sharing was only for that time period with you and the Seven to represent training them on the mission. Unless you want to take up a full-time job as a trainer in Kiri, I don't think we can do that.

>>16507140
I hope to have reflected those in his character sheet, (which is heinously out of date), but definitely in his play style. Guy will block or counter you 9/10 times, but Kakashi will almost always evade. Small difference, but one of many.

>>16507195
>>16507162
>>16507196
"Deception like this is not unheard of, but I am fairly certain that this his genuine writing. Plus," he notes and points at the I's, "He does always mark his I's with little explosive clouds." With frustration he puts his helmet on and speaks, "I will talk to the ANBU, they can discover the truth in this writing. If they find it to be so, we'll make an arrest."

>>16507203
>>16507222
>I set water at 1 and what water beats, fire, at 2. So we have Elemental Nature Water/Fire. Go us.

We do have an affinity for two elemental types, so the text of Double Elemental Affinity is correct.
Granted, it doesn't need to be listed as a Feat, it can be inferred by having two Elements listed under our Elemental Affinity.

>>16507235
But that still requires that we specifically be training people, rather than going on missions or doing anything else.
And the more people we'd be trying to train simultaneously, the less time and effort we'd be able to devote to any single person, resulting in less skill points and perks overall.

>>16507254
Nod. "What now?"

Yay! Pre-Vengence for Non-Existant Sunagakure!

>>16506894
Does this mean we can use our Avatar of the Sea to cast Katon?

>>16507279
Well, it just seemed fitting, just like a kekkei genkai entry.
I think OP should edit a charsheet before starting new thread, and create one to rule them all, lol.

>>16507254
"Will you talk with your ANBU first, or shall we continue?"

>>16507317
>>16507222

"They can check him out after he's detained. Speed and time are of the essence." He says and makes seals before summoning up a bear and saying, "Koji, tell Banburo to summon me back to the village." He says and grabs your sleeve after dismissing the bear. You feel a tug on your neck suddenly and then you appear in the village again, a bear relaxing his paws as Kyouku thanks him and moves with you, "He's just leaving his training now." As you move with him through the thick crowded streets he suddenly reaches out and grabs a young man, about 10 or so with a long blond ponytail and a metal object over his right eye. "Stop right there, Deidara." Kyouku says in a deep voice as the boy looks up, "What's wrong, Grand-Ardent-samma?"

>>16507313
I'll get right on that!

>>16507363
Get ready to take this guy down. Go for the arms or the lefts first but if the Grand-Ardent is sure, I don't want to loose our -other- arm.

Chakra detection up, and see if we can contact Yuki via battlenet.

>>16507363
We shouldn't say anything, and let Kyouku handle it, since it's an internal Stone Village affair.

>>16507377
Yuki responds to you but tells you she's currently mid-surgery and cannot leave to help you for at least another twenty minutes.

The boy himself isn't very chakra powerful, his signal is quite low and nothing on his body seems to really be that chakra intensive. He's largely harmless, it seems.

Is there a seperate level of skill for S-Ranked ninja/Jonin who are on Kage level, but aren't Kage themselves?

To cap them at the same point as other Jonin seems a bit mean. Also, it seems that if you play the game for long enough, you can get 5 skill in pretty much everything- what if when you get up to a certain point, you have to 'maintain' that skill-level by investing a point or two into it every time you get given some, thus meaning if you want to be good at everything, you can't be GREAT at something?

>>16507363
> summoning up a bear
> imagine a bear "boss"
> flamestriking, mountain splitting, fuckhuge boss bear
How do you fight things like that?!
And let Kyoku handle it for now.

>>16507394
Is there anyone else nearby who's Chakra feels 'strange'? But yes, Stone Affairs aren't ours - but we need to be ready to disable this kid.

>>16507400
A very good idea. However, if you keep skill point rewards low and use skill scaling, I hope to keep it controlled more tightly. If it still proves to be a problem we'll undergo something like what you said. Also, I've considered making a Kage-Level rank for a while now. Pretty sure it would be a good idea.

>>16507415
All seems normal.

Kyouku talks to him for a while as Deidara puts his hands down in his pockets before nodding, "Well....I don't even know who to contact outside the village for that sorta stuff, eh?" He says and shrugs, "Sorry, but I've got no idea, Grand-Ardent-samma." He says and turns to leave, Kyouku watching him go before sighing, "He's legitimately telling us the truth. Maybe he was framed up."

>>16507400
May be handled with "advanced" skill points, I think. Putting those in skills to reach "grandmastery" or using those to develop unique jitsus or simply evolving basic ones. Will be pretty much like perks, though.

>>16507447

I'm just concerned that eventually there won't be any use in doling out skill-points as there'd be nothing to spend it on other than gathering them together for perks...in which case, you'd be better off just handing out perks.

>>16507447
Relax grip on sword. "If you are sure, then you should go to your ANBU." Pause, and look at him. "How do you know he was telling the truth?"

>>16507473
>>16507450
Honestly I never planned to get this far this quickly. With advancement being as rapid as it was we hit the upper echelons of gameplay at record speed. Hell, I almost want to try picking up a second story to give our first one time to rest and settle as I plan for High-end gameplay.

>>16507488

"Scent." He admits and taps his nose, "I can smell distress and I could hear his blood's movement. He didn't seem to be any more alarmed than usual. Perhaps that itself is alarming, though..."

>>16507491

I think keeping it at the high-end would be smart, as this is where systems start to break down. For the moment you should stick it out.

>>16507499
"We should still report on the scroll, it is an important piece of evidence. Do you believe the Tsuchikage will give it due diligence, or turn a blind eye since it is his student?" If he doesn't think the Tsuchikage will take it seriously, we could investigate ourselves.

>>16507499
Nod. "I do not know the ways of Rock well, but are your youth often uncaring that they have been framed in selling our their whole village?"

>>16507499
"So what do we do now? Just let him go? He might be innocent, but what if he was somehow controlled by Them?"

>>16507540
>>16507543

"Deidara is a special boy. He seems to have his mind elsewhere always, and when he's home he tries painting, sculpting, and other art, but the only thing he seems to like doing is playing with clay. His shinobi works are lazy, but he shows a penchant for earth style, as is expected. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact his father was Onoki-san's best friend before his death, Deidara would probably be flunking out right now." Kyouku says with a shrug, "Anyway, Lord Tsuchikage will hear us out, I'm sure." He says and in short order you are admitted to the Tsuchikage office.

You are brought before a short old man who speaks rather bluntly, "Fuyo, what is it?" The Grand-Ardent explains what he found up and Onoki slams his hands down on the table, "Damn that boy and his stupidity. I don't know what he got himself caught up into this time, but we're going to find out." he said, rising up and getting his hat, but before he did the door flies open, "Lord Tsuchikage, Satami Natso was found dead!" He says with a look of fear, as Kyouku starts to growl deeply in anger, the Tsuchikage bursts out, "What!? She was the last inheritor of the Explosive Clay Kinjutsu! What killed her!?" He asked and the man coughs, "She was found dead in her room with her throat slit. Looks like a truly skilled assassin."

>>16507532
Alright, I'll start thinking of some ways to remedy this system. Maybe I do need to give out more UA's as a way to increase our flexibility with our determination to represent our veterancy.

>>16507617
Chakra Sense for that kid! He should know something, if he's working for these bastards.

>>16507617
"Was the body still warm? Or cold? If warm, the killer couldn't have gotten far.
"The Deidara boy?"

>>16507637
Deidara isn't immediately discernable to you, after all, it's difficult to find one gnat in a swarm of them, but eventually you find him heading towards the village gates at great speeds.

>>16507617
"Slitted throat? Its hard to pull off such clean kill on skilled shinobi. Looks like assassin caught her off guard, so he must be really skilled, or she knew him and didnt expect an attack. Did you both mentioned clay?"

>>16507731
"She was warm. It couldn't have happened more than five minutes ago. Some shinobi heard a struggle and checked on her."

>>16507738
Who's with us? But call out for the boy to stop. If he doesn't, stop him.

>>16507743
"It's classically called that, what it really does is allow the user to imbue their chakra into any material for various reasons. The first user had clay and made it scout and fly, gave it sentience. She used mostly metal and gave it earth properties for petrification."

>>16507738
>>16507748
"Tsuchikage-dono, Fuyo-dono, I am detecting Deidara moving at high speeds towards the Village Gates. If we act now, we could catch him."

They have to take the initiative when catching him, not us, since he's their problem for right now.

Yeah, but we are a fast motherfucker, and if we hurry we might be able to catch him before he gets anywhere.

>>16507766
"Thanks for sharing your secrets, but was Deidara close to her? Kyouki-dono mentioned boy was playing with clay. We have to find him, no time to spare."

>>16507789
Any ninja that betrays there village are trash.

Also, we should ping out Battlenet again, to see how Yuki is doing.

>>16507820
Why are you disrupting her when she's in surgery?
Really, what's the point?
If we get into a fight, we have the Tsuchikage and his second-in-command by our side.
If to catch Deidara, we're faster, and that's assuming that an ANBU squad can't get there faster than either of us.

>>16507820
Yuki is just leaving the operation theater and is ready for your commands.

>>16507803
>>16507789
"Deidara? Not particularly." The Tsuchikage said as you tell him about where he's going he snaps, "Fuyo." With a sigh the man drops his heavy fur cloak which makes a loud sound as it hits the ground and he drops his helmet and weapons, dropping on all fours he starts to glow bright blue before an aura of blue chakra in the shape of a bear forming around him as he jumps out of the window and sprints towards the gate.

You can see him moving with your chakra sense almost as clearly as if he were right in front of your eyes, of course his shape is a gigantic bear of chakra, but you recognize him. When Deidara hears him unleash a roar that shakes the room the boy reaches down and suddenly his chakra levels increase about a hundred fold as he throws a super-loaded item at Fuyo who doesn't move, takes the hit and the explosion releases an incredible amount of chakra. The blast consumes Fuyo who is thrown to the side as he gets back on his feet and charge Deidara who keeps throwing explosives. However, you also detect a chakra signature moving towards their location, this one foreign to you, but very powerful.

>>16507802
We can use our superior speed to catch Deidara, but only if the Stone make the first move to catch him. We can't go unilaterally making decisions concerning their shinobi when we aren't even allies.

>>16507889
"Tsuchikage-dono, I am sensing another large chakra signature on an intercept path. If Deidara really is working for Akatsuki, this could be another Akatsuki member.
"I request your leave to intercept this newcomer."

>>16507889
Give Yuki all information as quickly as possible, don ANBU cloak and try to ambush new target. Stay in reserve for now.

>>16507889
Via Battlenet: "Yuki, we just had an incident." Direct her to Fuyo.
"Tsuchikage-dono, The Deidara has just attacked Fuyo-dono. There is an even stronger Chakra reading approaching. Should we move to intercept?"

>>16507920
>>16507931

"Go. Fuyo is powerful, but Akatsuki is smart, Fuyo is not. Seize Deidara if you can, if you cannot, end him." He orders.

Once you arrive you see Fuyo's Bear Aura growing more and more as he this time dodges a few explosion as he charges the fleeing Deidara. The other signal is so close you know they will drop in at any second.

Fuyo slams his palms into the ground, a huge dome of earth rising up around Deidara before a blade of lightning cuts it apart. From the other side of the dome you can see a tall man with his face fully obscured save for green eyes. He wears the Akatsuki cloak and he has a chakra signal to rival Kisame's. What's more, and even more confusing to you, he seems to have 5 independent systems working to feed his body. "Deidara, go. I will hold them off."

>>16507975
Blitz+Shunshin to materialize in front of Deidara and kick his shit.

>>16507975
Let Fuyo handle the newcomer.
Have Shimaru intercept Deidara, and keep him in place long enough for Yuki to arrive on the scene.

Also, I check back through the archives:
We got 2 Cloud ANBU masks and 1 Cloud ANBU cloak, not 2 Cloud ANBU cloaks as listed on the most recent character sheet. Please correct as needed when updating the charsheet.

rolled 4, 5, 6, 2, 5, 3, 9 = 34

>>16507998
Your extreme speed puts you right in front of Deidara, however his guardian appears behind you and smashes at you with a straight punch.

>>16507975

AWWW SHEEEET IS THAT KAKUZU?

We are so pro-bono'd. Still, hopefully he's focusing on bear-san right now, and the priority for us is Deidara. Try to slip around him with the ANBU cloak and get to the boy.

>>16507998
Yeah, do this.

>>16507975
Did he detect us? If yes:
"Yuki, priorities just changed. This guy should have more information then Deidara. Im initiating attack, and from the look of things, Im going to need your support."

>>16508019
Are we using Taijutsu Knowledge or Shinobi Movement to evade?

>>16508019
6 successes.

>>16508019

"Naive..."

Willow's whisper with chakra poison on newcomer to disrupt his massive chakra system.

>>16508019

Dodge that shit, if we can, and throw our blade at Deidara. He's not getting away from us.

Naturally, tell Yuki to back us up.

>>16508034
You're using Shinobi movement this time. You can move a few feet and still be in striking distance of Deidara.

rolled 4, 2, 8, 6, 5, 5, 9, 4 = 43

>>16508019
Rank 4 + Taijutsu Knowledge 4
Using Taijutsu Knowledge since we're in close combat range, and want to stay here to attack Deidara.
Is that right?

>>16508042
Willow's whisper is disabled for exactly this reason. No.

>>16508048
She confirms to you that she's inbound.

rolled 5, 7, 2, 1, 9, 8, 4, 9, 5 = 50

>>16508051
Rank 4 + Shinobi Movement 5

>>16508057
Yep, that's a parry. So without moving you negated his attack and can activate L2 Extra Effects. If you want.

>>16508068
>9 successes
>Critical Defense
Haha!
Can we use an Extra Effect to make Kakuzu lose his next turn?

>>16508019
What can we dodge with?

>>16508077
Can we seize initiative and flurry cleave them?

>>16508093
You aren't in formation, so no flurry-cleave. But yes, you can seize initiative for 2 Determination.

>>16508061
Then we need to hurry up with the replacement op, we probably can't afford to have an unused slot when fighting the likes of Akatsuki. Revising it so it just gives a rolled counter attack after dodging may be a sufficient nerf.

>>16508104
Wait, are we using >>16508057
or >>16508068
for our dodge?
The former is Taijutsu Knowledge, and the latter is Shinobi Movement.

>>16508135
First done is first taken. We used Taijutsu Knowledge to dodge the man's punch and we're primed for a counter attack.

>>16508104
Then Injure extra-effect, and attack Kakuzu with greatsword at our turn.

>>16508169
Auto-injury is only for an offensive action. You dodged. You can seize the initiative, heal yourself, disarm him, flank him, or move 2 squares. Those are your options, in addition to the level 1 choices.

I'd actually rather knock out the kid first as he might be easier to knock out and rip the memories from.

And then everyone can focus on plant killing.

>>16508188
Is he attacking with something we can disarm?

>>16508188
I'd say we move over towards the kid. Stopping his escape was our priority.

>>16508169
Or we could do water clone/avatar of the sea and water prison Deidara while our main body attacks Kakuzu.

>>16508188
Use the Clone Technique to flank an opponent.

Seize initiative so we get a round to disable the kid without interference from Kakuzu.

>>16508188
Is there enough water in the gourd that we could take initiative, create a water clone flanking Deidara, and have it create a Water Prison to keep him from escaping, assuming we can keep Kakuzu from destroying the clone?

>>16508238
We still have our 1 water clone worth of water in our gourd.

>>16508238
>>16508253
This is all true and possible.

>>16508202
>>16508238

If we do this and succeed in putting Deidara in the water prison we should shout to the Ardent to summon our clone and Deidara back to the Tsuchikage while we confront Kakuzu.

>>16508270
Nobody can summon us because we haven't signed a blood contract. The Ardent got a bear to summon him back, and brought us with him.

>>16508285
Well yeah, I meant for him to drag the kid and clone with him. We have backup on the way and there have to be some fodder nins that are on their way to die heroically against Kakuzu.

>>16508269
Seize initiative, throw sword on Kakuzu and punch Deidara.

>>16508302
And if he can't do that then he can just haul them both bodily to a secure location. He's got the strength for it I'm sure.

>>16508270
>>16508285
Ok, Determination drops by 1. You create a Water Clone, chakra drops by 2. Your clone snares Deidara in the water prison and holds his sword in his free hand, ready to try a one armed defense against Kakuzu.

Fuyo puts his hands together and summons up four pillars of crystal that surround you and the two Akatsuki members. As soon as he does so rock clones rise from the ground and put their hands on a crystal as he does to the one in front of him. His bear aura fades away immediately as he tries to capture the members.

(Ok, Rank only testing Chakra Control to remain standing.)

Your clone pops immediately as its chakra is emptied, fortunately, however, Deidara is is no position to escape or resist and his mouth lolls open and his chakra is vaccumed away by one of the crystals.

Kakuzu feels his chakra draining and makes a flash of hand signs before a blast of lightning runs up and cuts in half both the crystal trying to restrain his chakra and the clone maintaining it, his chest heaving.

>>16508269
Alright then.
Voting for the plan in >>16508238

rolled 6, 7, 9, 5 = 27

>>16508330
Rank 4

>>16508330
Time to Mist it up, I think. Set up Mist, use UA2 if Kakuze uses technique.

>>16508339
You hit the deck as the chakra is almost entirely ripped from your system.
(Chakra drops to 0, but you don't go to injured. Using chakra will drop you to injured.)

Kakuzu tries to move forward but this time feels his chakra getting leeched again as he throws off his cloak and in the flash of movement smashes Fuyo in the face, sending the man rocketing away into a tree as he gathers up Deidara and begins to leave. Yuki, however, drops in front of him and runs him through his stomach with her bones, or tries to. The bone at the end of her blade chips just a little as Kakuzu and she get into a taijutsu exchange.

rolled 4, 6, 10, 4 = 24

>>16508330
rollan

>>16508365
Get over there, use our chakra/water draining ability on Kakuzu to drain up to 3 chakra.
Can we then use it to power our water buzzsaw until our next attack?

>>16508365
Can we get back up and hit Kakuzu from the back with our sword?

I know we're out of Chakra, but we can't let Yuki fight this jerk on her own.

>>16508365
>>16508369
derp.

Well, looks like we'll have to rely on our Taijutsu. I suggest we use the opportunity while he's distracted against her to grab the kid out of his hands and use our speed to disengage.

Or we pop our soldier pill.

>>16508365
Use Soldier Pill, charge to Kakuzu.

>>16508393
You feel your chakra coils sigh a collective sigh of relief as you run up behind Kakuzu, forcing him to be mindful of you there as Yuki attacks again.

This time her blade swings past his head as he throws a series of elbows, kicks and punches to try and knock her around. When one of his stone-black fists catches her in the face her neck cranks around but quickly whips back into place as she hits him back hard. It seems both of them are unable to hurt the other.

>>16508393
How much does it cost to activate our steam buzzsaw? This could be a good time to use it if we can get enough chakra.

>>16508412
Okay team, Dehydrate him or Sword him.

He seems to be good against physical damage, so Dehydrate has my vote.

>>16508412
Whelp time to do direct damage to him without leaving a scratch. Drain him dry.

>>16508424
>>16508428

Rank+Taijutsu to get a grip on him.

rolled 3, 5, 3, 2, 2, 10, 2, 10 = 37

>>16508438
Rank 4 + Taijutsu Knowledge 4
Do we get extra dice for flanking him, or does he lose dice for being flanked?

>>16508412

Well, bonus points to having flexible bones, I guess...

If we can try and use the draining move on him, do so, otherwise just work in support of Yuki and try and grab Deidara.

>>16508452

We get an extra. New thread.

rolled 75, 15 = 90

>>16508448
Oh yeah, has he lost the three - or more - Determination from facing down us, Yuki and Bear-sage?