Cosmos Quest (Naruto/Lupin III)

[Redon]

[X] playing shogi with Asuma

 

[Jans]

[X] playing shogi with Asuma

 

[Scia]

[X] chatting up Tsuruhiko - maybe he knows what's up with Nabiki

 

[Tetsurō]

[X] stargazing with Kiba and Ami

 

[FurikoMaru]

[X] So many squares where you can go, so many promises*

"Check!" Asuma says with considerable satisfaction.

You try not to smile, but duh, jounin, he notices right away.

"One day," he declares, examining the board for whatever it was he missed, "you're going to have a student smarter than you, and this is going to seem much less funny."

"Ya think the Hokage would let me have a job that has anything to do with kids?" you ask, sceptical.

"Konohamaru might."

You make your move. "Aww, so I have to wait until Hokage-kun grows up to start corrupting the warriors of tomorrow?"

Asuma's eyes flick in your teammates' direction. "Apparently not."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He takes a pawn. "When I spoke to Tsume-san about Kiba's little hobby she said he picked it up from you."

"I didn't expect him to get so into it," you say. "I just asked him to help me test out some modifications I'd been making and it sort of grew from there." Click. "Anyway, what's so wrong with making guns actually combat-viable?"

"There are people who'd argue it opens the door to an arms race between the villages," Asuma says neutrally. "And that, when the ratio of destructive power to level of experience and training in each individual shinobi becomes unbalanced, the overall standards for calibre of training drop, resulting in a less effective officer class."

You give him a considering look. In all honesty, you still don't know your sensei very well; unlike Ami, most of your individual training - and Kiba's, of late - has been based around clan techniques, so you only really spend time with him on D-ranks or for group training.

Most of what you know relates to how he plays shogi. He knows all the classic manoeuvres off by heart, and yet seems to dislike actually using them. Even in a situation where something like the Flight of the Turtle would be the ideal counter to your last move, he'd rather spend ten minutes trying to come up with another way to handle the situation.

What he comes up with usually sucks.

Okay, granted, that's not fair, you learned the game at the knee of freaking Nara Shikaku; lots of totally legit moves look lame compared to what that guy can do. Even so, when Asuma improvises, half the time he ends up hamstringing himself and leaving you free to carry on.

But when it comes to shogi partners, you wouldn't call him a step down from Shikamaru. Far from it. Games with Asuma are always fun, because you genuinely don't always know what he's going to do next.

"And what do you think?" you ask, watching him.

Click. "I think if someone's main concern is escalation, they know nothing about shinobi history at all," he says flatly. "Setting aside the true geniuses of each generation, in a fight between a given member of your graduating class and a member of my graduating class at the same age, you guys would wipe the floor with us."

"What?" you ask, startled. "Even Naruto?"

He considers this thoughtfully. "That would actually be one of the more even matches; I don't know the kid well, of course, but he seems to be about the same general strength level as the middle of the pack from back then."

"... Naruto didn't know what chakra was until Sasuke told him two weeks ago," you say, as calmly as you can manage.

"I didn't say he was a good student," Asuma says, "just that he seems to meet the essential criteria we used back then."

"How the hell did we win two world wars?!"

"War isn't like a back-alley slapfight, kid; it's less about what each individual person can do and a lot more about how-"

"No, I mean, I get that stuff, but we were the- you know," you gesticulate awkwardly, "the clan kid class. All of us ended up there either because we're from shinobi families or because we have special talents, like Ami's. Aren't we expected to be the leaders and elite jounin of Konoha in another ten or fifteen years? Like you said people worry about with the whole gun thing, our level of education has to be held to a higher standard."

"It is. I'm saying that Uzumaki Naruto meets it," Asuma says bluntly.

"He can't even produce a basic bunshin!"

"And he strikes you as the kind of guy who'd be sent on missions where bunshin are in any way useful?"

... hm. You take one of Asuma's rooks, and think for a bit.

"Did you know that before the village system came into being, the henge was a secret technique?" your sensei asks.

"... I did, actually." Your mind makes connections you're honestly surprised it hadn't before. "So you're saying that the relative stability that the Hidden Villages provide gives us the opportunity to devote more time to chakra-related research, which means that even if I gave up researching guns, my grandkids and their enemies will still be better at tearin' shit up than we are, so the arms-race argument falls apart?"

"Yes," Asuma says simply. "That, and chakra just gets weirder and more prevalent the more uses people come up with for it."

"Hm." You frown. "That's... comforting is the wrong word. At best this just means that I won't get blamed for upping the bodycount."

Your teacher laughs darkly. "Well, not by shinobi anyway."

[X] Ask about Nabiki. Indirectly, of course, but still.

[X] Ask something else

[X] Skip to tomorrow evening and your arrival in Tanzaku Gai

-----

* Anyone who can name the song this lyric is from gets an instant Zantetsuken. It's obscure enough to be worth three points.

In this update, Furiko pretends she knows anything about the military at all! Whoo! Base-brats represent!

 

[Scia]

[X] Ask about Nabiki. Indirectly, of course, but still.

 

[useless101]

[X] Ask about Nabiki. Indirectly, of course, but still.

Chess by Weezer.

I will end up never using a Zantetsuken on my own. I'll just hold onto it forever and ever and ever and ever and...

 

[FurikoMaru]

How did I know it was gonna be you that guessed it? XD

 

[Guile]

>"... Naruto didn't know what chakra was until Sasuke told him two weeks ago," you say, as calmly as you can manage.
I lol'd.

[X] So what've you been teaching Ami lately? 'Cuz she was already scary with a bokken back before she graduated.
[X] Kinda been wondering what are specialty's supposed to be, boss. I mean, obviously we're all awesome, but we've got a hunter, a swordswoman and... me. We're kind of all over the place, you know?

 

[hunter09]

[X] So what've you been teaching Ami lately? 'Cuz she was already scary with a bokken back before she graduated.
[X] Kinda been wondering what are specialty's supposed to be, boss. I mean, obviously we're all awesome, but we've got a hunter, a swordswoman and... me. We're kind of all over the place, you know?

 

[Jiven]

[X] So what've you been teaching Ami lately? 'Cuz she was already scary with a bokken back before she graduated.
[X] Kinda been wondering what are specialty's supposed to be, boss. I mean, obviously we're all awesome, but we've got a hunter, a swordswoman and... me. We're kind of all over the place, you know?

 

[Hymn of Ragnarok]

[X] Ask about Nabiki. Indirectly, of course, but still.

 

[R.A.G.]

[X] So what've you been teaching Ami lately? 'Cuz she was already scary with a bokken back before she graduated.
[X] Kinda been wondering what are specialty's supposed to be, boss. I mean, obviously we're all awesome, but we've got a hunter, a swordswoman and... me. We're kind of all over the place, you know?

 

[FurikoMaru]

[X] Parent-Teacher Night

"So can I ask what you and Ami have been up to? You seem to be giving her a lot of your attention."

"Aw, and I thought you didn't like me. Does this mean you and Kiba want some teacher-student bonding time, too?" Asuma asks, amused.

You bite your lip and wait until the urge to laugh has passed. "... never, ever use that phrase in front of Ami."

His brow furrows. "She did seem kind of put off by it. Do you know why that is?"

Oh, god, this is so not supposed to be your job. How is this your life?

"Sensei..." You try to think of a way to phrase this subtly, then finally give up. "Are you familiar with a certain series of light novels written by a certain Sannin?"

"... no."

You wince, and nod. "Yeah."

"No."

You pat his hand. "Yeah."

Asuma stares at Ami for a long moment, then turns back to you with a carefully neutral look on his face.

"Yeah."

"... I see."

"She and her dad mostly avoid each other," you say. "It's not as bad as it could be."

"I see," Asuma says again, calmly lighting a cigarette. You become very conscious of the sweat on the back of your neck.

Noticing the anticipatory gleam in your eye, he immediately tucks the rest of the pack back into his pocket. "Forget it, spacecase. Good hustle, though; nice to see a genin taking an interest in narrative conventions."

"What the hell does that mean?" You swear, he's always dropping little hints like this and then never following up on them.

"Ami's been working on her chakra control, to answer your question," he says.

"All right," you grumble, "if you're not going to resolve one jounin mystery, can you at least clear up another?"

He grins around his cigarette. "Depends what it is."

"Why'd you get assigned the three of us? Why are we all on the same team? What's our speciality?"

He smirks. "Why should we have a speciality? You're a bunch of genin."

[X] He's obviously trying to gauge your observational and analytical skills here, so have at it.

 

[Scia]

[x]We have shown that we can be quite adapt at thinking outside of the box of typical Shinobi behavior.

 

[FurikoMaru]

For those of you who care about the deets, Ami is working on her control because she's been wasting about thirty percent of her chakra-output when it comes to using her sword-enhancement stuff, and that number goes up dramatically when she uses elemental chakra for it.

 

[Hymn of Ragnarok]

I'd work at cracking this, but I have other things to work on so don't expect anything from me unless divine inspiration strikes.

 

[FurikoMaru]

Wouldn't dream of rushing you. Playing a character with 5/5 INT should require lots and lots of thought.

Oh, and if you ask me questions, I'll tell you anything you would know in-character.

 

[Guile]

(x) Way I see it, we're all awesome in pretty complimentary ways. We've got Kiba the ranged support, Ino the rogue-type, and Ami the warrior. Or we have a tracker, a mastermind to predict where a target's headed and Ami both understands the yaks and serves as a rear-guard for if we get counter-ambushed. We could be a honey-pot team - bad boy for the young girls to love, the yamato nadeshiko with just enough danger to keep it interesting, and I think Ino qualifies for the manic pixie dream girl/bossy boots - but Kiba's not really a good enough kisser for that.

That last one is really just to screw with Asuma.

 

[Torgamous]

Oh, and if you ask me questions, I'll tell you anything you would know in-character.

Click to shrink...

What do we know in-character?

 

[FurikoMaru]

What do we know in-character?

Click to shrink...

Nice try.

 

[Scia]

How much do we do that is considert a out of box aproach by the others?
How rare are sensors /people that can use a elemental meditation here?

 

[FurikoMaru]

Elemental meditation is, on paper, a thing that anyone can make use of; the Yamanaka didn't invent it, and in its land of origin, Earth, it's a standard part of the Academy curriculum.

In practice, scrolls on the matter are ludicrously hard to come by even in Earth Country, and for the most part it's passed down via the oral tradition. Furthermore, the Throne at the Heart of the Mountain as a structured discipline - as opposed to a collection of coping mechanisms and memory aids and full-on batshit insanity - is practised only in Fire Country and only by dedicated enthusiasts, most of whom aren't ninja.

Sensors are much less rare. Even the smallest hidden villages have at least a handful, and each of the largest villages has one or two clans with some form of sensing as their shtick (except Kiri. You think. Who even knows with those guys anymore? Shit's nuts). Your tenketsu-hearing thing is nearly - nearly - unprecedented, but don't sell your potential opponents short. Things like your ability to figure out who has it in for you or others, or lie-detection, or people 'just knowing' what someone else's mission objective is are pretty commonplace.

Out-of-the-box... well, it isn't off-the-wall by jounin standards, but you do go with the flow a lot more readily than people would expect from a genin. Also you don't think of violence as your first resort; you're more likely to throw out diplomatic or trickery-based takedowns in a brainstorming session. That's what caught your teachers' attention and how you ended up getting noted as possible officer material; most kids, even clan kids, become ninja because they want to bust heads. But again, that isn't interpreted as you being weird, that's interpreted as you being mature, by ninja standards.

 

[Hymn of Ragnarok]

My best guess was Ino is meant to be leader material, Kiba needs to level out some, Ami too. Oddly enough, I can see Ino as something of infiltration/forward scout, with Ami and Kiba to be sneaked in to strike hard and fast. Or just as muscle/tracking.

It's really hard to guess what's expected of the team. Ino's skills are so diverse and versatile that with good enough back-up there's not much they can't feasibly accomplish with ingenuity.

 

[Pipeman]

My best guess was Ino is meant to be leader material, Kiba needs to level out some, Ami too. Oddly enough, I can see Ino as something of infiltration/forward scout, with Ami and Kiba to be sneaked in to strike hard and fast. Or just as muscle/tracking.

It's really hard to guess what's expected of the team. Ino's skills are so diverse and versatile that with good enough back-up there's not much they can't feasibly accomplish with ingenuity.

Click to shrink...

More or less my thoughts, as well.
Ino is supposed to become somewhat of a leader and already has a lot of versatility and Kiba and Ami add the raw muscle Ino lacks.

As they are now they'd probably make pretty good mooks, which would allow Ino to hone her leadership skills, and are probably supposed to pick up some of her diversity, so they aren't just mooks/muscle anymore.

Would this somewhat fit Ino's impression or am I totally off?

 

[Scia]

Kbi also has the change to have versatility. Sharp senses that are usefull for a tracker, maybe a bit of charm if he grews older and surpsring ranged capabilitys which are not detected as a chakra attack even if his close combat is stronger.
And Ami is going for the Infiltration/Kenjutsu build..

 

[Hymn of Ragnarok]

Kind of arrogant to assume this team is built around us, but we really are stupidly good. Smart, fast, genjutsu, and we're probably better at planning than a seasoned chunin, experience be damned. We are all that and a bag of chips.

Kiba's developing range, has tracking, and is good for a brawl. Ami will be straight up melee madness. But neither are probably good enough to carry a team, even if us as genjutsu is good support. Straight combat is kind of a waste of Ino's talents, so scout plus muscle seems feasible.

I'm totally missing something though.

 

[Guile]

Amusingly, Akamaru will be large enough to ride in a few years, which makes Kiba a cavalry/horse archer.

This team is going to be VERY mobile.

 

[Pipeman]

A lot of the arrogance probably comes from the stuff in Shikaku's report, but the main reason I'm assuming this, is that I can't come up with another reason for being put on the same team as Ami and Kiba, except that they are more or less the ones best suited to being our subordinates.
They are both likely to listen to us, but would also grumble and say something whenever they think we're being stupid and thereby maybe help us rein some of our worse tendencies in.

Hinata and Sasuke would probably just be talked into going along with almost anything and we are likely corrupting these two too much already for some people's taste.
Naruto is probably way too stubborn to get along with easily and Chouji has already expressed problems with the way we do things.
Shika is the other one being groomed for leadership, so he's out as well.

So all in all, if we're going to be prepared for command, we need these two.

 

[FurikoMaru]

[X] Now don't have me break this thing down for nothin'...

"Well," you say speculatively, "that's the thing I don't get. We seem like we could go in a bunch of different directions. Straight-up fights we have melee and ranged support covered - or we will, if and when Kiba and I manage to design a gun that can fire more than two shots without needing to reload." You wince at the memory of a blacksmith taking one look at a design of yours, laughing his ass off, and going back to listening to his radio soap opera. "Ninjutsu was the one thing Kiba was better-than-average at in the Academy, though, so even if that falls through we should be okay.

"Maybe... are we maybe infiltration-based?" you ask, talking more to yourself now than Asuma. "After all, I am the omniscient Empress of Let's Pretend who can talk to alleycats, and Ami comes from a civilian background anyway. But that leaves out Kiba. No, wait," you correct yourself, "Kiba makes sense if we're a seduction squad." At Asuma's poleaxed look, you elaborate: "I know, I know, he has no game. But go easy on the guy, he's only twelve. I'll whip him into shape in no time, don't worry."

"Forgive me if I don't trust a twelve-year-old to tutor another twelve-year-old in seduction," Asuma says flatly.

"So that is what you meant by student-teacher bonding!" >

"Got any other guesses, or can I return to a world where I don't have to think about my students having sex?" -_-

"There's always tracking," you say, shrugging. "Kiba's family is famous for it, my dad's no slouch at it from what people tell me, and Ami's there for additional muscle."

Asuma cocks an eyebrow at you. "Well, that's an awful lot said about Kiba and Ami, and your dad, who isn't even on this team. What about you?"

"Oh, I'm your sidekick," you say, a cheerful blend of matter-of-fact and welcome-to-hell. "I'm here to anticipate your orders, improvise when you aren't around, keep the other two from killing each other, and basically be the brains behind their brawn."

He smiles. "Never occurred to you that they're here to keep you from getting too high on the smell of your own shit?"

You blink. "Isn't that what teammates are supposed to do for each other anyway?"

Asuma snorts. "You'd be surprised. Not everyone grows up in a preselected trio, spacecase; most kids are free-range."

"... so? How'd I do?" you ask, eager to get back on topic. You're happy enough working with Kiba and Akamaru and Ami, but you'd be lying if you said you weren't still getting used to the last-minute shakeup.

Asuma shakes his head. "This team has Ami on it because I'm a master of weapons ninjutsu and she has a natural aptitude for it, and Kiba ended up with us because one of your classmates graduated at the last minute and we had to reshuffle a few names. You're here because I requested you."

"Seriously?!" Whatever you were expecting, it wasn't that.

Asuma shrugs. "Like I said before, you're a bunch of genin. Why should you be specialized already?"

"Why would you ask for me?" You think back, but you can't remember ever meeting Asuma before he showed up in class to pick you guys up.

Unless...

You can just shut up, you tell yourself. Stop hoping. They don't even look that much alike.

"And not Shikamaru and Chouji along with you, you mean?" Asuma asks, his voice much gentler than before.

You flinch. "... it's a legitimate question," you say, defensive. "A Sarutobi is supposed to teach the Ino-Shika-Cho."

"Do you always do what you're supposed to?"

Click.

"Check," you say quietly.

The game goes on.

=

Timeskip to arrival in Tanzaku Gai?

[X] Yes

[X] No

If no,

[X] Back in the carriage again, you engage Nabiki in conversation.
-> [X] About what?

[X] Up front with Tsuru. Get the goods from him; what the hell is Nabiki's deal?

[X] In the front seat with old man Katsuhiro. Maybe if you ask he can fill you in on this civilian taijutsu-freak subculture you've stumbled across?