video | 003

[ura_no_ura]

[Video]

[ When the video first goes on, the screen is covered by a glove-covered hand, but after a slight shaky moment as it's set down on some sort of ledge, the hand retreats, revealing Kakashi standing outside. A few trees, still droopy with melting snow, can be seen in the background. Those familiar with the terrain might recognize it to be near Flame Building. ]

Hello, Luceti.

[ Kakashi dips his head in greeting, since he's addressing all of Luceti. ]

My name is Hatake Kakashi. Some of you may be familiar with me. For those of you who aren't, I'm a shinobi from a village called Konohagakure -- or Konoha for short -- in a country called "Fire Country." I am also the Commander of the Third Division, which is primarily a short-to-mid-range combat division, of the Allied Shinobi Forces. Many of you may be acquainted with or might recognize my comrades, amongst whom include Uzumaki Naruto, Nara Shikamaru, and Rock Lee. [ The names Kakashi lists aren't at random, but selected based on his observations of how recognizable those names would be. ]

The reason why I reach out to all of you today is simple. While things in Luceti currently are peaceful, and it appears we have nothing to worry about, the ever-present threat of the Malnosso and the Third Party remains. Kidnappings still occur, with seemingly no conceivable way to stop or fight them. Should there be an attack on the enclosure, at present, there is no organized force that can fight in concert to protect the enclosure and ensure the safety of civilians who might not be able to fight back. While some of us may be used to working together due to missions and drafts, as far as I am aware, no formal training or maneuvers are ever held to ensure all parties working together are using the best tactics and strategy. And from what I know, there are no formal safety measures in place to protect civilians or evacuate them to safer ground should a fight break out, as it did a few months ago.

On behalf of Konohagakure and Fire Country, by order of Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage-sama, I would like to formally extend an invitation to anyone who has military training, unique or magical powers, or immense skill in battle strategy, espionage and intelligence-gathering, field medicine, hacking, or other specialized skills to join us in forming an alliance. This alliance would not only give those of us from different worlds a chance to meet and discuss our shared interests in protecting Luceti's inhabitants, but would also give us the opportunity to learn and adapt how to fight with and against those with different training or powers. By conducting shared training sessions, maneuvers, disaster simulations, and taking missions together, we can share resources and power, as well as develop strategy.

As for who's in charge... seeing as we're all from different worlds, it would make much more sense for us to establish a council of leaders from different worlds. We invite leaders from other worlds who might have similar shared interests to contact us, and open a line of dialogue.

We look forward to hearing from you all.

[ Speech finished, Kakashi bows to the camera again, then reaches out and turns off the feed. ]


[Action | Flame Building | Afternoon ]

[ Yup, that sure is Kakashi walking vertically up the side of a wall. Just strolling along like it's no big deal. ]


[ Text | Filtered 100% to fellow ninja, written in extremely formal language ]

By order of Yondaime Hokage-sama, the Konohagakure Jounin Exams will soon be held for all qualified Chuunin. If you are interested in participating, a sign-up form has been placed on the door of Yondaime-sama's place of residence. Direct any questions you might have to Hatake Kakashi.

[ Text | Filtered 100% to Shikamaru ]

Shikamaru, I've nominated you for jounin promotion to Yondaime. Though we've decided to hold jounin exams, I've requested a special exception for you. However, if you would like to take the exams in the interest of fairness, you are still welcome to do so. - Kakashi

[ Text | Filtered 100% to Naruto ]

Naruto, I just wanted to let you know that I nominated you for jounin promotion. However, because you are still genin, it will be necessary for you to take the exam. - Kakashi

[ Text | Filtered 100% to Sakura ]

Sakura, I've nominated you for jounin promotion. Usually, this means immediate promotion, but because your peers don't have anyone to nominate them, we've decided to hold exams this year. Let me know if you would like to compete in them. - Kakashi

KONOHA JOUNIN EXAMS	LUCETI ALLIANCE DISCUSSION		ACTION
Kushina & Lee Kushina & Kakashi Kushina & Ino Kushina & Minato Temari Sakura Sasuke Lee Neji Naruto Ino Mikoto Shikamaru	Aang Adela Billy Bones Deadpool Eleytheria Elizabeth Gai Ginia Ikki Iroh Jean Johanna Karla Kirk	Law Loki Luke Masaomi Minato Peggy Riku Rogue Saleh Saori Steve Teddy Thor Vegeta Yuffie	Erwin Lea Sasame Trunks

((ooc: Since this is a call for discussion, feel free to thread-jack and hold your own conversations throughout the post. Kakashi will try his best to answer all comments. Also, feel free to comment on this post even it's super late. As long as we're within the 3 month bracket, we're cool!))

Comments

[ura_no_ura]

Negative. Fountain, 8PM.

[ The Battle Dome is under surveillance, after all. ]

[Written] -> [Action]

[whiskytraitorfirefight]

[Completely open, neutral ground.]

Fountain, 8 PM.

[There's not much that needs to be said after that. By 8, Ginia will be up in the plaza, pacing around the plaza with all the restlessness of a caged tiger as she waits for Kakashi to arrive. The openness of the plaza makes her anxious, but it's a good meeting place to start at and move elsewhere after.]

[action forever]

[ura_no_ura]

[ Kakashi arrives a good twelve minutes after the predetermined time. He has a terrible habit of being late, you see.

Spotting Ginia from across the way, he raises a hand in greeting, then crosses over to close the distance between them, nodding slightly as he comes to a stop. ]

Ginia-san. It's nice to meet you in person.

[whiskytraitorfirefight]

[He's late, and she finds it notable and annoying. Annoying because she's a punctual person and it feels too often like someone's yanking her chain. She values her time and values other's people time.

When he arrives, her expression is collected as always. She nods at him in greeting and pulls out her cellphone, a message written up in advance.]

Nice to meet you as well, Kakashi.

[ura_no_ura]

[ Yeah, it's a bad habit, but not one he's managed to break.

At least, he's on time when it really matters. Most of the time. ]

I was thinking we could go somewhere a little more private to talk. Do you have any suggestions?

[whiskytraitorfirefight]

[Ginia quickly types out another message on her phone.]

Good Spirits, HQ, or Seventh Heaven. Take your pick.

[ura_no_ura]

You're sure those places aren't monitored by the Malnosso?

[whiskytraitorfirefight]

[Hm. Point.]

I can't speak for Good Spirits or Seventh Heaven, but HQ was recently built.

[ura_no_ura]

If you don't mind, we could go up to a rooftop and I can light a fire so you can stay warm.

[ After all, it's freezing. But at least, on a rooftop, Kakashi can ensure that they won't be recorded. Especially if it's the rooftop of a building he's familiar with and has scoped out. ]

[whiskytraitorfirefight]

As long as there's easy access or you help me up, rooftop is fine. I don't need a fire.

[She's been in colder weather less prepared before.]

[ura_no_ura]

Mm, very well. Let's go, then. Flame Building's roof is unmonitored.

[ The walk to Flame Building doesn't take long from where they had met, and soon they're on the rooftop. For most of the walk, Kakashi hadn't really talked much, instead simply sliding his hands into his pockets and heading towards the building.

He figured it'd be easier to save conversation for later, especially considering that Ginia would have to type and walk at the same time. ]

[whiskytraitorfirefight]

[Flame building seems to be where everyone is. Ginia accepts and walks along in silence. She can walk and type just fine, but it's nice not having to. Up on the rooftop, Ginia takes a brief moment to admire the view before taking a seat. She'll let Kakashi lead the conversation as he was the one who wanted to meet.]

[ura_no_ura]

[ It doesn't take long for them to get to the rooftop, but once they do, and Kakashi's sure no one's listening, he turns to face Ginia. ]

Thanks for meeting me out here. I didn't want our conversation to be on the record.

[whiskytraitorfirefight]

[Ginia nods, swiftly typing out her next message on her phone.]

Understandable, or at least no more than already is.

Are you setting up an alliance - one the Malnosso would be aware of - or is there something else in mind?

[ura_no_ura]

Well, the situation is this. I don't see how we could create a secret alliance without the Malnosso's knowing, assuming the alliance is on the scale that I hope it might be.

If we have more than thirty or even forty people organizing and training in a given place at any given time, it stands to reason that the Malnosso would realize what we were up to, which is why I chose to make a post on the public network.

This way, what they'll assume is that we're organizing to protect the inhabitants of Luceti.

[whiskytraitorfirefight]

[If the Malnosso were watching every move, even a group of twenty suddenly gathering together to train would gain attention. It's true there was no way to keep things a secret, not with so many people involved. All it took was one person being careless anyway.]

Is there a private network? [She's found the laptop down in the tunnels and suspected there was some reason for it. But sometimes playing dumb was the best way to get more information.]

And while they assume one thing, what are we really doing?

[ura_no_ura]

To answer your first question, yes, there is a private network.

[ Since she doesn't seem to know where it is, Kakashi's glad that he posted to the public one. ]

I'll show you it in a moment. But as for your second question, the cover story isn't entirely a lie. But, I think our real aim, at the end of the day, is to try to find a way to defeat the Malnosso. I understand many have tried and failed before, but perhaps if we work together, we may be able to find a way out of this place. Or at least, secure better living conditions.

[ Which means, no more experimentations. ]

[whiskytraitorfirefight]

[Defeat the Malnosso, find a way out, the usual answer at the end of the day. It's a good goal, a good reason to call for an alliance of the capable and trained in Luceti.

And it's all good thinking about the success, but failure comes at a high price. All it would take was one failed mission for the Malnosso to retaliate. They could even strike sooner; all it took was someone leaking their plans. It was the sort of thing that could end up with a lot of dead and injured people if they weren't careful.

Ginia weighs the goals against the potential for losses and sacrifices. A number game.]

You mentioned failures. What do you know about them?

[ura_no_ura]

From what I know, there's been a few attempts at organizing in the past, but each time, the organization has fallen apart due to the leadership leaving. If we were to create a better structure to anticipate turnover, we could perhaps mitigate that threat.

[ That is what Kakashi means by failure, anyway. ]

[whiskytraitorfirefight]

[A good reason for failure. Remove the leaders, watch the organization crumble. Ginia wonders if leaders being sent home was intentional on part of the Malnosso.]

Three to five leaders at the top level. Two subordinates for each leader. Handwritten instructions, encoded, left in a secure location, with the cipher memorized by everyone.

One idea.

[ura_no_ura]

Mm, that could be a plausible solution, but the issue is that if we really want this to avoid conflict and represent the interests of many worlds, we may need to have more than just five leaders...

[whiskytraitorfirefight]

Numbers to be adjusted depending on the amount of people involved. Seven, nine, eleven, whatever. Odd number to avoid ties in voting.

[Ginia's mind is already ticking away as she mulls over things. There should be adequate representation for each world, but what about the cases where there's only one person from a world? And if there's a larger number of people from one world, having one person representing the world may not be adequate. Yet having more than one would give them more power...

Politics. It was always easier dismantling groups than building them.]

I presume people from your world will be making up the bulk of this alliance.

[ura_no_ura]

There are sixteen of us here, including me. But of those sixteen, only fifteen are combat-ready. I think we may be one of the larger groups here.

[ Working out the difficulty in structuring leadership will be just one of the many hurdles they'll have to overcome, but at this stage, Kakashi doesn't think that they really need to make a decision right away. ]

In any case, the reason why I wanted to meet with you in person was because what we had been discussing was becoming a little too sensitive. [ Ammunition, after all. ] In terms of ammunition, I was thinking we can establish storehouses that are guarded by patrol to ensure the wrong people don't get their hands on it.

[whiskytraitorfirefight]

[Ginia nods, shifting gears to the new topic. Storehouses with guards via patrol. Her mind begins dismantling because that's what she does. People are fallible, the weakest part of any security system. People can be distracted, tricked, knocked out, killed.

And ultimately, if someone wants to get into something badly enough, nothing can stop them.]

Where will the storehouses be? How will the guards be selected? Who are the "wrong people"?

Also don't worry about storing ammo. The less ammo in the village, the better.

[ura_no_ura]

I never said anything about storing the ammo in the village.

[ They do have quite a lot of terrain around them, after all. ]

To answer your questions, I think we'd need to do a bit of recon work to determine the best strategic places to store ammunition. As for how we select guards would probably require a larger conversation with others, to ensure all those in the alliance are in agreement...

[ As for "the wrong people" he can get to that later. One thing at a time. ]