Cosmos Quest (Naruto/Lupin III)

[Guile]

Oh my~

You know, this could be a really good opportunity to goad others into revealing more tricks. Have such an outrageous, over the top, stylish victory, and then imply that anyone who can't match our accomplishment is a lesser shinobi or so weak they have to hoard their tricks rather than show them off.

Not with those exact words, but if we can browbeat people into showing off or admitting they're not good enough to show off, and I suspect Gaara may back us on this declaration, we might peer pressure everyone into showing more than they want to.

Or at least the monsters of the exam. Be a shame to force our allies into overextending themselves, but the people who can afford to show off? If we make style the standard of above-and-beyond skill in this chunin exam....

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Heh. Ino pulls it off... then just looks at the foreign teams and smiiiles~

 

[Hymn of Ragnarok]

Heh. Ino pulls it off... then just looks at the foreign teams and smiiiles~

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I can dig it.

 

[uju32]

Pride in his style, maybe.

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Possibly.
Probably even.

Heh. Ino pulls it off... then just looks at the foreign teams and smiiiles~

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Lol.
Wonder how many would fall for it.
Here's hoping none of our guys are that dumb (I'm looking at you, Kiba).

Wait, when has Ino stated it's her goal to improve on Lupin? I definitely see Ino aiming to be the best, but nothing about surpassing Lupin. Particularly because Lupin is herself, they're different aspects of the same being.

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I claim no outright statements, just subtext and interludes.
I mean, one of the first OOC statements post-Awakening is Ino criticizing Lupin's fashion choices.
Aspects they may be, with the same root motivations and such, but decidedly different in upbringing and life experience.
Which leads to different MO.

 

[FurikoMaru]

I mean, one of the first OOC statements post-Awakening is Ino criticizing Lupin's fashion choices.

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Dude, boldtext with no colour-alteration is me, not Ino.

 

[Hymn of Ragnarok]

I claim no outright statements, just subtext and interludes.
I mean, one of the first OOC statements post-Awakening is Ino criticizing Lupin's fashion choices.

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That's....pretty weak, truth be told. Especially when Ino was essentially growing into Lupin Mk II. Disagreeing on fashion? People do that all the time. Their vibe has been pretty mutually supportive so far, mixed with friendly teasing and, unsurprisingly, a whole lot of shared interests.

And Furiko has chimed in with something more specific.

Aspects they may be, with the same root motivations and such, but decidedly different in upbringing and life experience.
Which leads to different MO.

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Eh. Different views, yeah, but they're pretty united in what they want to do so far. Lupin being on the chivalrous side, Ino more cavalier about murder, but I've yet to see them disagree on what they want to do with their life.

They seem pretty united in their goals.

 

[uju32]

Dude, boldtext with no colour-alteration is me, not Ino.

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Ah.
Gotcha.

 

[FurikoMaru]

Eh. Different views, yeah, but they're pretty united in what they want to do so far. Lupin being on the chivalrous side, Ino more cavalier about murder, but I've yet to see them disagree on what they want to do with their life.

They seem pretty united in their goals.

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Ino's got a bit of the pre-Miyazaki days to her. Not quite as sociopathic as manga-Lupin, but she's definitely got that edge. It's something they have in common, actually; they can temporarily adapt their morality to the situation at hand in order to stay functional, even if they don't personally approve of what they have to do to survive.

With him, it was going from being the light-hearted young master of his grandfather's household to a wanted fugitive with a price on his head just for having the name Lupin, all before he was even out of his teens; with her, it was transitioning from living in the modern world with its expectations like 'human rights' and 'don't be a murdering dickbag' to a shinobi household, all while still just being a kid trying to figure things out.

The contrast between them is like the contrast between rough-and-ready early-days Lupin and Castle of Cagliostro Lupin.

Plus, ya gotta understand the position Ino's in here; she loves her family and Konoha, but she has confirmation now that not only is the world in her dreams real, she belongs there. She's trying to find a balance between the daydream life that's suddenly in living colour and her 'real' life, and it's still early days on that.

 

[FurikoMaru]

[X] The Cosmos Blooms

You have an amazing idea.

Well, what are we waiting for? It's showtime.

Dashing backward, preceding Tenten's crawlspace rush, fingers scraping the ground before you, working in tandem, you etch the first line into the ground in hasty but legible calligraphy.

Hanano ame

You leap to the ceiling.

-BOOM-

The dust and shrapnel rises in curls just to the feet of the observers on the catwalks. Sayuri and Sakura skitter back a step, but the field shinobi recognize that the force of the explosion isn't sufficient to do them any harm.

Tenten is tossed up to you like a ragdoll, a small squawk escaping her, but you're done the next line before she's even halfway up, and you move on.

Haretsu issui

-BOOM-

Below, you complete the poem, and dance out of the way of the falling ceiling tiles.

Amenogawa

The word glows to life.

"Lee-sempai!" you call cheerfully as Tenten flails, dropping like a wet rock, "catch!"

-BOOM-

You hear a voice yell "Woo!", and you aren't sure if it's Gaara or Kiba.

Tenten goes flying again at just the right angle to pass over the handrail. Lee hops and scoops her out of the air. He frowns at you, but his attention turns back to Tenten when she scrambles unsteadily out of his arms.

"Tenten, are you-"

"Ino!" She climbs shakily over the railing and drops back down again, gasping in pain as she lands on what has to be a twisted ankle.

"Wah! Wait," you say, waving your hands, all pretence of coolness forgotten. How is she still conscious? "You look like you're about to keel over; I don't want to hurt-"

"Shut. Up." Tenten bends over, wobbling a little. There is a crackling sound, like fat frying, and just like that she's popped her ankle back into place. "It's not for you to decide who gets hurt! I said I would defeat you and that's what I'm going to do!"

She charges.

[X] Welp, time to do some hopping. Just like back at the Academy. She has to drop sometime.

[X] Genjutsu-time!
-> [X] False Surroundings (what of?), then nick her with a kunai on the back of the neck to both release her from the genjutsu and win the match
-> [X] Double-False Surroundings (what of?), etc.
-> [X] Paradise-Viewing, etc.
-> [X] Hell-Viewing, etc.
-> [X] Bringer of Darkness, etc.

[X] You are now watchin' the Throne, don't let me into my zone...
-> [X] Sasuke?
-> [X] Lupin?

[X] Tessen-time!

[X] Write-in?

-----

Rain over a blooming field

Explosive flood

The Milky Way

Sorry, Hymn, haiku don't normally have titles. And before someone gets on me about the lack of a verb, you try coming up with an appropriate haiku for this situation in a language not your own that follows the rules in time to make an update.

So basically the implication of the poem is that flowers in the field and stars in the sky, while both beautiful and both symbols of autumn, do not inhabit the same world, and if a flower tries to drink the heavens (a stupid rain/heaven pun, since the word for Milky Way is Amenogawa) to gain beauty, they will taste only destruction. A very cruel sentiment in context, but then, teenage girl.

Interesting things I found out during research for this update:

- you can have more than one seasonal word in a haiku as long as one overpowers the other. Thought it was appropriate.

- the central line in a haiku is meant to emphasize the contrast between the two lines on either side of it. It's the cleavage of the poem, if you will.

- on and syllables are not the same thing. I always knew Japanese 'syllables' work differently, but it was a surprise to me that they don't use the syllable as a unit of speech at all. Anyway, that's why the second line has six syllables instead of seven; issui is two syllables but three on.

 

[Selias]

[X] Genjutsu-time!
-> [X] Bringer of Darkness, etc.

Might as well make use of our genjutsu, since we've almost maxed it out.

 

[katreus]

Wow. Good thing we didn't catch her. That girl is really mad at us.

[X] Double false surroundings
-- [X] First one appears to be a motion sickness / vertigo (feels like the landscape is tilting, maybe as if Tenten is on a boat)
-- [X] When / if she kais, the second one is one of Ino fighting her but gradually getting slower and losing until she's fallen and at Tenten's mercy
[X] Nick the back of Tenten's neck to break the genjutsu and win the match when she demands surrender

I dunno if this is too mean. :-\

 

[shaderic]

Wow.

Ten-Ten either hates our guts, or has some serious pride issues.

Given the twisted similarity between this and her canon battle, I actually think it's both.

And given the lengths she went through in that, I don't think hopping around is the best solution exactly.

We need a clean, decisive victory.

To the end, Furiko?

Can we simulate sound with our Genjutsu, and effectively conceal our presence?

If we can, I have a shell game I'd like to propose.

We use the False Surroundings Genjutsu to conceal our presence, and to create a couple of bunshin. One goes to the right, another to the lest, and the last one moves to circle around to attack from the rear. The one attacking from the left should make sounds, or seem more real then the others.

Ten-ten should see through our 'ruse', and confidently defend against the supposedly 'real' one.

We, meanwhile, have just gone vertical over her and take advantage of the fact that she's entirely focused on the 'real' us, to discreetly place a kunai at her neck, hopefully getting the proctor to call it in our favor.

Maybe a bit complex, but is it within our ability to perform?

 

[Selias]

Naruto wiki for Bringer of Darkness:

This technique exerts an hallucinatory effect upon the eyesight, effectively blinding the opponent. No matter how skilled an opponent may be, they are forced to wait helpless in this world of darkness, as this technique allows the user to attack unseen. Although it negates sight, it does not stop the other senses.

Honestly, I don't see much reason not to use this.

 

[The Nobody]

@ Moegara Sen: But Cinderella isn't a Japanese tale. And what's the "sen" mean there?

@ Ten-ten: I agree with people who noted that "toying" with Ten-ten (or anything she sees as such) would be a bad idea. One of the things that might seem fair, and she might not expect it...

[x] Let's tessen!

 

[Guile]

Oh man, Lupin and Ino reinforce each other! That was either the best idea, or the worst.

Not sure what I'm voting yet (except I know I don't want to bring out Bringer of Darkness yet), just some Z-slash stuff:

The last update is pretty much a gimme, *chuu* being the Japanese onomotopeia for 'cute kissy noises'. Somebody's probably done cosmos already? I mean, it's in the name of the quest. The link being between the cosmos as the astrological body and the pretty little white cosmos flower pulls double-duty between the dimensional-jumping Lupin and the pretty little flower he's found himself in. Plus, as I recall Japanese fireworks are often called flowers – hanabi, I believe? – with a blooming/exploding simile.

And it doesn't count, but the Kanye West song is pretty obvious. (You are now watching my Throne…)

 

[iamnuff]

Naruto wiki for Bringer of Darkness:

This technique exerts an hallucinatory effect upon the eyesight, effectively blinding the opponent. No matter how skilled an opponent may be, they are forced to wait helpless in this world of darkness, as this technique allows the user to attack unseen. Although it negates sight, it does not stop the other senses.

Honestly, I don't see much reason not to use this.

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because we don't want people to know we can use it, and specifically the moment Neji sees us use it, we can be sure that it will never work on him again.

Considering that all of our useful attacks are Genjutsu, its probably the only way we could win against someone who can see through them.


honestly, that's been the reason not to use it since the written portion.

Tessen will probably make us lose.


she's better with weapons than we are, she's probably better with a tessen than we are.

[X] hell viewing.

you want to be taken seriously? here you go.

enjoy.

plan futher down.

 

[Selias]

@ Moegara Sen: But Cinderella isn't a Japanese tale. And what's the "sen" mean there?

@ Ten-ten: I agree with people who noted that "toying" with Ten-ten (or anything she sees as such) would be a bad idea. One of the things that might seem fair, and she might not expect it...

[x] Let's tessen!

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Tessen? Against the weapons specialist?

because we don't want people to know we can use it.


honestly, thats been the reason not to use it from the very first task of the exam.

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Why? Even if they know we can do it, there's not much they can do to stop us. It has to be waited out, and we have 4.6 on hand seals.

 

[iamnuff]

Tessen? Against the weapons specialist?Why? Even if they know we can do it, there's not much they can do to stop us. It has to be waited out, and we have 4.6 on hand seals.

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probably because "it works on anyone, no matter how skilled" sounds like bullshit.

any genjutsu can be broken, if you are skilled enough.

more importantly, we have word of GM that we can hit Neji with this jutsu exactly ONE time before he becomes immune.

considering we don't have any non-genjutsu attacks except our rather sub-par melee and Neji is immune to all of our other genjutsu AND a melee specialist?


it's probably our only hope against him.

Wow. Good thing we didn't catch her. That girl is really mad at us.

[X] Double false surroundings
-- [X] First one appears to be a motion sickness / vertigo (feels like the landscape is tilting, maybe as if Tenten is on a boat)
-- [X] When / if she kais, the second one is one of Ino fighting her but gradually getting slower and losing until she's fallen and at Tenten's mercy
[X] Nick the back of Tenten's neck to break the genjutsu and win the match when she demands surrender

I dunno if this is too mean. :-\

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frankly i think "trying not to be too mean" is only going to piss her off more.

that said, i have a slightly different version of your plan that might work better.

[X] Double false surroundings
-- [X] First one is crazy psychedelic flashes of colour and sound, to nauseate and disorientate.
-- [X] second one (the one hidden beneath the first one) is a perfectly normal scene of us charging her from the side with our tessen.
---[X] when she turns to react to our "attack" we take her from behind with our tessen, go for a disabling strike/forced surrender, no messing around.


if she attacks our fake with a bladed weapon, then we could convice her that she cut us, that might make her freeze for a moment, give us a slightly bigger opening to get a blade at her throat.


this one feels a lot less like "i'm playing with you" and a lot more like "yeah, OK, I'm taking you seriously now, goodnight"

 

[The Nobody]

Tessen? Against the weapons specialist?

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Against a weapons specialist with lower speed and a hurt ankle. Saying stuff like "I see you're angry at me for some reason, so maybe if you hit me a few times we might become friends" might be therapeutic.

 

[Torgamous]

Why? Even if they know we can do it, there's not much they can do to stop us. It has to be waited out, and we have 4.6 on hand seals.

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It only blinds them. If we demonstrate this ability a month before the finals, you can bet the people we might actually need it against will put some extra time towards training to fight blind.

Against a weapons specialist with lower speed and a hurt ankle.

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Also we stole her weapon scroll, so she's limited to whatever she had out at the time.

 

[iamnuff]

yeah, she seemed to be expecting us to go for the weapons scroll, we might want to ditch it somewhere out of her reach. it may be about to explode.


also, didn't we launch her out of the arena? won't she get disqualified?

 

[Hymn of Ragnarok]

Awww. It wasn't a fight ender.

Yeah, no Bringer of Darkness, it's not worth it and we don't want people training to fight blind.

This is some pretty maniacal determination. We either need a decisive win, like putting a kunai at her throat, or maybe figure out what the hell is driving her. She dislikes us, yeah, but seriously we just blew her around like a ragdoll. Is beating us really that important? Why is beating us so important?

 

[hunter09]

[X] Genjutsu-time!
-> [X] Paradise-Viewing Ten Ten defeating Ino and winning the fight.
->[X] Having a kunai at her neck while she is under.

 

[Guile]

Awww. It wasn't a fight ender.

Yeah, no Bringer of Darkness, it's not worth it and we don't want people training to fight blind.

This is some pretty maniacal determination. We either need a decisive win, like putting a kunai at her throat, or maybe figure out what the hell is driving her. She dislikes us, yeah, but seriously we just blew her around like a ragdoll. Is beating us really that important? Why is beating us so important?

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At a guess? I'd say that all of Gai's youthful little ninja have issues with hard work one way or another.

Ino is, to use the vernacular, bullshit hax.

You don't think that'd grate on one of the paragons of hard work?

So yeah,
[X] Tessen-time
She clearly won't be satisfied until she sees our GUTS spill out over the ground!

 

[Hymn of Ragnarok]

At a guess? I'd say that all of Gai's youthful little ninja have issues with hard work one way or another.

Ino is, to use the vernacular, bullshit hax.

You don't think that'd grate on one of the paragons of hard work?

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I don't doubt that for a second, especially when she's probably put tons of work into her weapons and earth jutsu respectively and we sporked those well and good. I'm sure that's pissed her off, plus us being the only girl she couldn't beat. And not because of skill but because we're just stupid fast.

I get why she doesn't like us.

This though? This seems like it's more than that. I mean we are approaching Lee levels of continuing to fight despite being unconscious. Does Hard Work Hardly Works really account for all of that?

 

[Torgamous]

She doesn't seem to approve of our attitude either. Not only are we beating her with (relatively) little work, we're being incredibly flippant about it. She might even think that we're only here because it's more fun than not being here, and I'm not sure that's entirely untrue myself.

 

[uju32]

[X] The Cosmos Blooms

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Guile already grabbed the references, so there isn't much here to talk about.
In order
-That was a fucking flashy display.
Mucho style points to Ino.
But that was needlessly cruel poetry, mocking not just Tenten but Lee as well.
Almost canon!Nejiesque.
Apologies are probably in order after the fight.

-Shouldn't Tenten have been disqualified for being knocked out of the ring?

-She reset a dislocated ankle?
That's fucking bullshit.
Gai should have knocked her over the head and carried her out at that point; even with bullshit chakra healing she's risking serious injury.
Possibly permanent.
And Lee is supposed to be the crazy one.

-We are going to have to Throne her; not in this fight, but after it, we're going to need to track her down, Throne her, and yell at her in the privacy of our own head.
One way or the other we need to figure out what her problem is IC.
Is it just resentment of our skill, or is there something more?
Boy trouble? Girl trouble?
Teenagers are drama llamas after all.

-The question here is whether we should give her what she wants by drawing tessen, or just straight up genjutsu her into compliance.
I lean towards genjutsu(Double False Surroundings or Paradise Viewing) myself, but am willing to entertain alternative arguments.

-The genjutsu are arranged weakest to strongest, I believe.

 

[FurikoMaru]

Can we simulate sound with our Genjutsu, and effectively conceal our presence?

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Yeah. The other stuff too.

@ Moegara Sen: But Cinderella isn't a Japanese tale.

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Which would be a problem, if you were in Japan prior to the story being imported.

And what's the "sen" mean there?

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Thousand. Ella means 'completely' or 'all'. Couldn't find a name that literally meant that in Japanese, so I used a common idiom; thousand or ten thousand is a way to say 'a whole fuck of a lot' or 'eternally'.

Somebody's probably done cosmos already? I mean, it's in the name of the quest. The link being between the cosmos as the astrological body and the pretty little white cosmos flower pulls double-duty between the dimensional-jumping Lupin and the pretty little flower he's found himself in.

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Actually, no one has pointed that out yet. 's why I used that title. That, and the canon tagline about the Reverse Lotus.

also, didn't we launch her out of the arena? won't she get disqualified?

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There isn't really an 'out'. It's a ninja fight, you're supposed to think laterally. The people watching aren't allowed to attack your opponent for you, and you'll get severely reprimanded/disqualified if you hurt them, but generally, ninja expect people who want to be chuunin to understand the concept of getting the hell out of the way.

 

[uju32]

There isn't really an 'out'. It's a ninja fight, you're supposed to think laterally.

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Huh.
If I'd figured on that beforehand, I'd have proposed we catch her after the third explosion and put the kunai to her neck.
Pity.

 

[Hymn of Ragnarok]

Huh.
If I'd figured on that beforehand, I'd have proposed we catch her after the third explosion and put the kunai to her neck.
Pity.

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I did think of that; a kunai or the edge of our tessen. I forgot to add it as an option though.

Kinda kicking myself for that now.

Well, I have thought of one thing that might actually get Tenten to properly air her grievances, but it's not very IC for Ino in any way but sarcastic and I don't think sarcastic would work.

We can, in fact, decide who does and who does not get hurt. All we have to do is forfeit and the match is over.

Tenten doesn't want that. A pity victory? She may hate that even more than losing. And I can't see Ino giving up her victory and chance to shine for Tenten's health. It wouldn't be a genuine offer. At best we act like it's genuine or be sarcastic.

 

[uju32]

Well, I have thought of one thing that might actually get Tenten to properly air her grievances, but it's not very IC for Ino in any way but sarcastic and I don't think sarcastic would work.
We can, in fact, decide who does and who does not get hurt. All we have to do is forfeit and the match is over.

Tenten doesn't want that. A pity victory? She may hate that even more than losing. And I can't see Ino giving up her victory and chance to shine for Tenten's health. It wouldn't be a genuine offer. At best we act like it's genuine or be sarcastic.

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Nah.
Giving up would be insulting; we've already demonstrated that we could beat her with that fuuinjutsu trick.
Nor do I see Ino giving up without more reason than she has been shown.
Whatever's biting Tenten will have to wait till this is over.
Do her the respect of taking her seriously, and put her out with carefully calibrated force.