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to lose sight of the shore
Actana Silvers land on Chaos' Narutoverse
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Air. If anything at the sea level they had too much of it. It’s allegedly a problem on a mountain, but those don’t tend to have air thinner than the moon.

Earth. Never missed so much being able to stay still. Not having to swim or fly all day and night, even without the need to sleep.

Fire. They don’t need it for the cold, but Phelix’s flames are useful for cooking fish.

Water. With his weather powers, they can get rain water whenever they want. Too bad it's hard to make an iceberg in the open ocean. It would give Temperance some rest from carrying Phelix.

Life. Fish and turtles, they got sick of it pretty fast, but Temperance says that the marine life is common enough to imply a shore nearby, which is just as important.

Metal. No vessel, nothing to maintain or fix besides the clothes on their backs. A compass is useless without knowing anything about this world. Though it was a fitting part of the list in the original fable.

Mind. They definitely lack any idea where the spell landed them, except it’s an ocean in a world that presumably has lands that they can’t currently see. His own and Phelix’s counterparts at least are still back home, so they have that as a resource. They even got that unicorn if they ever need a translator.

Magic.  Well, the tricky part. They have the greatest surviving ritualists in the world, and Temperance has an unbounded Empowering gift. In theory, they shouldn’t be more than a few days away from returning home.

But a ritual going haywire is the reason why they are here in the first place. Maybe they shouldn’t trust magic too much.

Specially, because they finally spotted land.

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The island is low lying, sloping gently from the waves. It seems to be forested, and overall fairly damp, cloaked in thin mists. There's a bay that's had a boating pier added, but no signs of houses here.

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They are flying. Dalfereon by himself, he clears some fog and helps their descent towards the pier. He flaps large green-golden wings. He looks mostly human, specially if the people can't see his pointy ears from a distance.

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Temperance is currently in their natural form. So they look like a large blue reptile with a long tail and bat-like wings.

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Phelix holds tight with Temperance using three of his arms, the fourth covering his eyes against the sunlight that Dalfereon is bringing to the area.

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No one's at this little stretch of shore, though as they approach the fog pulls back enough to reveal a few intrepid fishermen out and about on small wooden boats. They all look human.

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Since Dalfereon is less threatening-looking than Temperance he will be the one taking point. He approaches, making himself visible to the fishermen and telegraphing his approach. He shouts a greeting to catch their attention.

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They seem wary, but not panicked. One waves back. "Ho! Who goes there!" she shouts.

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Dalfereon plays attention and sends that to Pherikles who reports to their translator.

"My name is Dalfereon! I don't speak your language, but I am in contact with a translator! May I approach?" If allowed, he will land on the boat.

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"Sure." She backs up to give him a bit of room. "I'm Ami."

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"Dalfereon or just Reon. Sorry for dropping in on you, but we have been at the sea for a few days now. Is there someone around that with the responsibility of dealing with interworld visitors?"

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"Interworld? That'd be the Alliance's business. International, Tazuna manages the bridge. He knows some Alliance shinobi, too."

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"Where is the bridge? Is Tazuna there at this moment?"

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"Other side of the island. It's day, so he should be. It's big. Red. Hard to miss. Goes all the way to the mainland."

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Pause to listen and get the translation, his head tilts like he is trying to hear someone. Nod. He reports this mentally to Pherikles.

"Thank you." Reon says. "Should I go there now then? Is there anything you think I should know?"

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"Now, maybe." And she shrugs. "Don't steal, don't attack people? I don't know what your world's like."

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Translation pause. Nod. "Those are not considerable acceptable behavior in my world too. Thank you, gain. If you don't mind, I should go."

He flaps his wings and takes flight, something that surprisingly doesn't rock the boat as much as it should.

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She waves, and returns to her work.

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Up in the sky, Phelix waves back and gets Dalfereon to wave back as well.

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Temperance's lack of hands means they have to give a tail wave. They find the brige and land a short distance from it, somewhere where Temperance can shift and arrange their veil from a dragon-serpent scarf into a human-sized toga.

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An old man with a bit of a pot belly comes out of a small wooden building near the bridge, standing there watching them. There's a few people pointing and staring on the bridge, but most are ignoring them.

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Phelix waves his two right arms at them trying to look friendly, he is ten feet tall, there is no point in trying to look normal.

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Reon approaches. "Greetings, we are looking for Tazuna."

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"You've found him," the man says, sighing a bit. "You got business here, shinobi?"

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"We are not shinobi. We are from another world and accidentally landed on your ocean a few days ago. We have no desire to be inopportune to you, but that's the nature of our business."

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He grunts. "Eh. Other worlds - that's super not my business, though I can get you a place to rest if you've been stuck out on the ocean. Or a shinobi to talk to."

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"We would deeply appreciate both of these things, please. Sorry for the inconvenience."

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He grumbles a bit. "Eh, suppose I signed up for this. Come on, port's this way."

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This is far better than greeting them with open hostility.

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Far better than another boring day in the ocean. Temperance gets a translation.

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The lodgings are fairly plain, basic wood and rice paper, futons instead of beds, rice and fish for food, but it's a roof and a bed and a warm meal.

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It's glorious, and dry, Temperance is outright aquatic and they are sick of the ocean. They start devouring a bowl of rice.

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Phelix sits on a futton, probably too small to fit him, but he is getting used to that.

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Pherikles and Dalfereon are getting a list of common and useful phrases from the unicorn. They couldn't get that ready before hearing a sample of the language, but they had a list of what they would've wanted. He absently eats the provided food and sits next to Temperance.

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And soon enough there's a knock on their door.

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They make themselves more presentable, which isn't much without a bath or a new set of clothes.

Reon answers the door, leaving a space so whoever may come through.

"Greetings."

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"Hey! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, a shinobi from Konoha. Tazuna said you guys just got here?"

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"Hey!" Says the giant standing up and consciously aware of the ceiling.

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Temperance just waves.

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"We did just arrive on this island. We got to your world a few days ago. I am Dalfereon Dawn-seed-wind, that is my kin Phelix Firey-path-guard and Needs temperance against the temptation of curiosity. Or just Reon, Phelix and Temperance."

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"Cool names! Pretty much everyone who isn't, like, a court person or super formal calls me Naruto." To Phelix: "Would you be more comfortable out in the woods or something? So you're not bumping your head."

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Pause. Translation. "Thanks, I picked it myself. And for the moment, I would rather stay close to Reon and Temps."

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"More meant we could all move there. And picking your own body's cool! I can only kind of sort of do that with a transform..."

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Another pause for translation. "He meant he picked his name, but he did pick that body to a degree. We can move that, if you prefer."

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Phelix nods. "Temperance is a shapeshifter. Also, I don't think we mentioned it in a way it would get back to you. But me and Reon are mentally connected to people back in our world and that's how we are getting translations. Temperance isn't."

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"Cool, I don't think our telepathy can go inter-world yet. And yeah, I like the outdoors. There's a cozy clearing nearby."

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Phelix whispers a translation to Temperance who agrees to go.

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"So, what are the Shinobi?"

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He leads the way. It's a very cozy clearing, away from the mists, with a few stumps and logs that work for sitting on. Naruto sprawls on the grass.

"We're people who use chakra and aren't monks or samurai - there's some kind of politics and history thing with the types but I don't really keep track of that. I think samurai are mostly nobles, monks are mostly, like, peaceful isolationists, shinobi are mostly ex-mercenaries. Samurai used to rule, shinobi do now. How'd you get to this world?"

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This is far more informal than what he expected from someone from the ruling class, but they will sit on the grass, sure.

"Our we were trying a world-crossing magic ritual and underestimated a few things. Luckily, we were the only ones that actually got transported."

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Temperance sprawls as well. In fact, they will hug the grass. Glorious, green grass.

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"Yeah, that happens with testing new techniques." He bounces a little. "Uh, gotta ask this for security reasons, does the word 'Ootsutsuki' mean anything to you?" He's scanning their emotions, so he should feel if they manifest any ill intent or probably if they lie...

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Reon and Phelix shake their heads. And after being translated to Temperance does the same.

They appear to be sincere in not recognizing the word. But after translating to Temperance, Phelix says. "Is that a name? And did you just read our minds?"

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" - Yeah, and I can sense the emotions people put off? It's not, like, intrusive, I'm looking at what emotions do to nature chakra."

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"... Just wanted to put this fact out there."

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"It's a somewhat hostile, but defensive move. At any rate, we are not familiar with the word. To the best of our knowledge, we have never interacted with your world."

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" - Huh, people here don't consider it hostile. Just a useful ability. And Ootsutsuki - they're a clan. We've only met one of them. She came from another dimension, nearly destroyed - at least this continent, dunno if she was also aiming for the world."

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Nod. "That's sure a reason to fear interworld interlopers. We are not planning to destroy anything.  Our goal is either seek refugee or get out your way as soon as we can."

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"We definitely have the space for refugees, and might be able to help with returning to your home dimension, I know there's been a lot of research on getting dimension-hopping of our own."

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"Yay| A mutually beneficial trade."

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"What is the... state of your world? I got the sense there was a recent revolution?"

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"Eh, not really a revolution - the woman I mentioned took out a lot of people, and the samurai started with less, and when alliance talks were happening after the war, shinobi had the bigger bargaining position? Is I think what happened. Currently - we're recovering from getting a lot of cities wiped out. We have plenty of food, but not enough people, especially like farmers and artisans, and there's I think concerns about harvests rotting in the field? The nations are also talking about forming a proper empire, since most places don't have their original leading families anymore, and it'd give us a better position for catching up with the rest of the world. This continent just like a decade and a half ago made contact with other continents, the world's pretty big, and most places have better technology than us."

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"Tough... our situation might be conveniently complimentary." Phelix says resting his head on the chin of his hand, which that hand being supported by his arm. His other two arms are being used to propping himself against the ground.

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"We have people that should be able to learn new technology faster than you. In our case, the problems started a long time ago with a steady decline in fertility, which affected magical beings first. It wasn't the best of times but only got bad when it started affecting humans and then animals too. Then a few months ago the world was covered in darkness and several people got covered in this black crystalline substance. They proceed to attack and covert everyone else. We lost a lot of people in the first few days. It turns out that the entire thing was orchestrated by powerful magical beings that were imprisoned a long time ago and the entire process was used to empower their release and then suicide. The fertility problem is gone, but most of the population is now mindless shades - the crystal beings - and aside from a few areas the world is still covered in darkness."

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" - We might have some people interested in helping with that? Just, trying to fix mindless beings or rescue refugees is a good thing to do with bored soldiers. And, yeah, I can't make promises but we have lots of room. - Are the shades technically still alive."

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"Some are. Some starved inside the crystal husks or died in there from other causes. It appears to be random and not affect them externally."

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"Thank you, for even just offering."

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"I'm asking cause there's this guy with a mass-resurrection technique. It's time limited, but, uh, 'kill and then see if they get brought back normal' might work? To help people?"

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...

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"It should help. How time limited and how many people can he bring? We have resurrection magic but at best we can get eight people a day with the right power set."

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"Three days after someone dies. He can grab - I think about a city's worth? Though there might also be a range limit... And it does kill him, but we have other resurrection magic, which's why this continent isn't empty. He just. Wasn't able to grab hundreds of millions of people in three days, but if we're controlling the rate - and you guys could help put him back each time - "

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"Assuming that our resurrection works normally with your kind of magic person, worth testing. Our kind was affected by the infertility thing as well, but appears to be working normally.  Its main restrictions are that not every healer knows how to resurrect people, that they usually need the body and that bringing a person back knocks them out for eight days."

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"We can improve upon that last one. Reon and other people have the power to make the tiredness go away in a single day and I can speed up someone's time, so it takes three hours from an outside perspective."

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"That's not as fast as we can manage in an emergency, we were flipping it like every few minutes after the war, but if we're strategically going through it should be fine. And that saves us a few kind of - logistics problems? Is I think the word."

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"If you have the corpses of people that could do it but have been dead for too long, we could bring them back too." Phelix points out. Then he starts giving Temperance a translation of this conversation.

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"Yours doesn't have a time limit?"

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"Not quite, it takes a certain level of skill to do it if the corpse is too deteriorated, but if a person can do it all they should be able to figure out how to do it out of just the bones. But there were semi-reliable accounts of healers who could do it with just a person's name."

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"We got back everyone within last thousand years who we know of with the thing, because of shenanigans. But there's also a lot of technique researchers who'd be really valuable who didn't get brought back in the course of shenanigans." Like his parents.

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Phelix intuits there is something emotion beneath that comment, but doesn't know how to approach it. Instead, he asks. "Technique researches being relevant to your magic system?"

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"They're the ones who develop new stuff, yeah."

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"How does your magic system work?"

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"Uhhhhh I'm not the best person to explain that. There's this energy? Inside everything. And it's really, like, clumped in people. And you can make it do stuff, and that does other stuff when it interacts with the world."

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Frown. "That doesn't sound that different from ritual magic, does it involve a lot of chanting, burning herbs or writing in special inks?"

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"Nope. No burning herbs, sometimes it helps to memorize a motion-set if you name a technique and call it out but you don't gotta, and inscribed techniques need special ink I think? But those're like a weird field almost no one uses."

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"The things I mentioned are pretty standard ritual components. Even if just because the extra bit of potency they give." Reon thinks for a moment. "Besides the ritual magic, we have species magic which is restricted to about sixty-four powers. There are eight elements, there are eight categories based roughly on what the power is supposed to do, and eight original species associated with one element and one category, so each species has fifteen powers available."

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"That's a lot. We pretty much just have chakra stuff."

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"You just have humans?"

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"Humans, spirits, and chakra-beings which I think are just the Tailed Beasts. Spirits don't live in this world, usually, they're from a kind of - parallel place?"

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They pause for a long moment. "Huh, translation is getting weird. We have something that the translation wants to call Spirits, but they are not the souls of the dead. But as we mentioned, there is eight magical species, plus humans. Is it possible to go to the parallel place?"

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"Spirits aren't souls of the dead here either. That's something else usually. They're - like, a really old tree, or a mountain's... Essence? Or a river. Or an umbrella that got super old and started kind of... Living. And you can't really get there super intentionally, humans have trouble getting there and spirits have trouble getting here. Spirits are in the Spirit World, the dead are in the Pure Lands, this is usually just called the Impure Lands if you're talking about the living and the Human World if you're talking about, well, humans."

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"I see. People used to believe that our kind of spirits are the essence of things and places. But it would be more correct to say that they adopt a place and just stay there until disturbed."

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Temperance has been talking to Phelix and getting translations. Finally they have a question.

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Which Phelix translates. "Are you human? We have been assuming. But none of us are."

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"I am. Most everyone you'll meet will be."

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They nod. "We all happen to be part dragon. I am a quarter dragon, three quarters faen. Phelix is a quarter dragon, three quarters giant. And Temperance is half-half sea serpent and dragon."

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"Neat! What're dragons like? Or faen, or giants, or sea serpents - "

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"Dragons' base shape is that of a large reptile with six limbs including wings. Young adult ones are this size." He manifest a dragon shaped fog cloud, it's forty or so feet long with a forty feet wingspan, with the body is elephant sized. "But some dragons can shapeshift and their current form is hereditary, so in practice they can look like anything." He illustrates this by changing the dragon into various animals, finally settling into a humanoid shape. The same is true to a sea serpent, except they are shaped like this." He reshapes the fog into an enormous serpent shape-

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A demonstration that Temperance decides to interrupt by shapeshifting themselves. They are about the same size of the dragon, but obviously lacking limbs, but they frilly fins along their blue-scaled body.

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"Neat. I can turn into stuff near my size, but nothing like that."

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"It's easier for Temperance to do that, but they sort of push to bigger sizes. That said that was kind of frivolous, if illustrative." He speaks a few words in their language.

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Temperance-the-serpent nods, touches and reaches Reon with the end of their tail.

And then changes again, now they have the upper body of a green-haired woman (covered for modesty with their veil) with the lower parts of a horse-like creature. Pointy ears poke out of the green hair.

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"Faen can look like pointy-eared humans, but they may have animal parts, like my wings or Temperance's current centaurine body, or an animal head and so on."

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"Turning into a girl's fun sometimes; that's usually the most I do. Chakra constructs can look like anything - like, the Nine Tails looks like a giant fox with some humanoid stuff? And nine tails."

Kurama's grumbling about strangers knowing his name, so Naruto's decided not to share it.

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Temperance gets a translation and grins at Naruto. They sit next to Reon, still part-horse.

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"Temperance sure agrees. Moving on, we have giants, who look also look human, but twice as tall and eight times as heavy, sometimes with a metallic hue in their skin and hair."

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Phelix stands up to his full height and flexes all his four arms. "And giants can have more or less human parts, meaning that they can have more arms like me, extra heads, or extra torsos, and even fully hermaphroditic giants. But also the opposite, like giants without heads and faces on their torsos."

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"Huh. That sounds like some of the weird you hear in spirit-tales..." He shrugs. "Though I guess some bloodlines might also have that - we just have humans, but some humans look really different from others. Like, humanoid shark."

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"I think a ritual could give you that, but it's a sufficiently complicated that I doubt that even one in a thousand merfolk is technically a human - merfolk is the catch all term for Faen, Serpents, Dragons and hybrids with aquatic somewhat humanoid forms."

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"Are bloodlines common?"

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"Like, they exist? And some kind of bloodline is decently common in, like, the shinobi, though I don't know about samurai or monks. But most've them are like - you can use special techniques, or certain techniques are easier, or you have a sensory power, ones that change how you look are less common."

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I was asking more in the sense of how likely we are going to meet one."

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"Regardless, I just realized we omitted something from our explanation. The different's species power associations. Sea Serpents are water and defensive powers. Dragons are magic itself and also the strongest powers of the other species, like shapeshifting or healing. Giants are metal and enhanced skills. Faen are associated with life and companions, which is the ability to create one or two members of a magical species that's telepathically connected to you."

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"Was that hard to understand? Because, I am actually a companion myself. And also sort of my own creator and Reon's twin."

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"That's kind of nothing like ours and I really didn't understand it, but I bet the nerds would love it. And I've actually got a bloodline? If you're meeting any shinobi you'll probably meet someone with one."

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"It's a bit complex, luckily practice will make the explanation go smoother. Anyway, there are still three other magical species. Though, they are somewhat easier to summarize. Phoenixes have fire powers and sensory powers. They look like this," fog construct the size of a swan. "Thunderbirds have wind and movement powers and are like this," dragon-sized eagle-like bird. "And unicorns are basically horses with crystal horns, they have earth powers and blessing powers, which is a term for this... usually passive lesser powers. They do stuff like cleaning or repairing objects. Spirits have mental powers and powers of basic elemental manipulation."

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"Can species do each others' stuff?"

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"Yeah... Do you have paper and writing utensils? It's a bit easier if we use a visual medium."

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"Uh, yeah. Notebook paper and fountain pen and all work?"

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They need a longer translation pause to get the concept of "fountain pen", but then nod.

Presumably, the objects are handed over and Reon starts sketching a grid. The letters might be blocky but precise.

"It should be easier to visualize it this way. Each line belongs to an element, and each column to a... category. The different magical species have access to any power in a specific element or specific category. Nearly all powers overlap, for example, the power to repair objects is both considered a blessing and a metal power. Unicorns have access to blessings, Giants have access to metal powers, so either can have said power."

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" - That's a lot of weirdly specific stuff. Uh, we have like a bunch of special ways of doing chakra stuff? And I think someone who knows like academic things could probably make a chart..."

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They nod. "What can chakra do? Does it have any hard limitations?"

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"Uh we thought so and then we found someone who broke those, so we're not - there might be stuff we're not thinking of, but..."

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"But there might be a way to do it and you have yet to figure it out?"

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"Pretty much! Lots we don't know."

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Temperance asks something.

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"Is the local kind of magic learnable and how long does it take to learn it?"

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"Yeah! Dunno if you guys can learn it, but everyone here can. Usually - uh, a year to five for the basics? For teaching kids. Dunno how fast adults can go."

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"Expect Temperance to be the best friend of anyone that teaches them the local magic. They should be good at it."

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"Before that maybe we should - if you are willing - talk details on interworld diplomacy and contact."

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"Yeah. You'll have to talk to someone more official than me to get solid promises - I'm in the diplomatic corps but not in the executive branch."

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"How long until we can get in touch with those?"

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"I sent a messenger hawk when I heard about you all. We should have a response saying if they're coming or we're going tomorrow morning."

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"Uh, not worth trying to summon us back home and then go ourselves to them in that case."

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"What should we do until then?"

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"I'm not good at explaining chakra... Or politics... But I can try doing a bigger 'welcome to this world,' especially if we like sit down with a map and you guys don't mind something less structured?"

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"That sounds good. Temperance will like take the time to figure out translation for themselves."

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"Good! Wanna head back to the village, or I can bring stuff out here?"

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They are impartial about it.

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Eh, he likes being outside, and this's a good place for everyone to be able to stretch out. He'll send a few clones to head back.

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"That's an extremely cool power."

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Temperance will start the process of enchanting themselves with translation magic. This apparently involves drawing some geometric forms on the ground.

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"It's fun! Most people don't have enough chakra to use it casually, though."

Their nerds are definitely gonna think the geometric thing's really cool.

The clones come back soon enough, with maps and a folding table and some journals and pens, plus snacks.

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Ooh, snacks.

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Oooh, geopolitically important information.

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Okay so here are the big five nations... Here's where they are, the Land of Waves... Here's some major minor nations...

The Big Five are:

The Land of Fire. Currently led by the Madoka samurai family. The shinobi organization in Fire is Konoha. The leader of the shinobi is Senju Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage.

The Land of Water. Currently led by the Senjin samurai family. Their shinobi organization is Kiri. Kiri's leader is Terumi Mei, Godaime Mizukage.

The Land of Wind. Currently led by the Kousa family. Their shinobi are Suna, led by Gaara, the Godaime Kazekage.

The Land of Earth. Led by the Yamauchi. Their shinobi are Iwa, led by the Yondaime Tsuchikage, Kurotsuchi. 

The Land of Lightning. They don't do clans like the other nations. Their current daimyo is Yuusei. Their shinobi are Kumo, led by the Yondaime Raikage A - all the Raikage take that name, Lightning also does personal names a bit weird.

The main notable smaller nation is the Land of Rice Fields. Their daimyo is Ueda Kyoku. Their shinobi are Oto, and their jounin commander is Uchiha Sasuke; smaller nations don't have Kage.

The leader of the Alliance right now is Haruno Sakura. The one that the newcomers will probably have to talk to first is Sasuke, who's more mobile than most. Sakura will probably be really interested in meeting them in person though.

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Are the five nations better at using magic of their respective elements? What are Sasuke and Sakura like?

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Kind of but not strongly; that's, like, what most people have as their afinity but it doesn't apply to everyone.

Sakura's nice in her own way. She likes helping people. But she's also scary if you make her mad.

Sasuke is kind of unfriendly, and dislikes talking, but he's also the most protective of random strangers out of every shinobi Naruto knows. Like, refuses to kill people unless someone's way over the line. Good at policy, bad at diplomacy.

They're both magic nerds in different ways, and Naruto's been friends with them since childhood - a complicated thing happened with Sasuke ending up in a different nation, both Sakura and Naruto are from Konoha, though Sakura's sworn not to hold any one loyalty in her heart above the continent.

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What kinds of magic nerds? Do you think both of them will want to help?

 

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"Sakura likes - math stuff, numbers stuff. Sasuke likes motion, and history, and swords. They'll both want to help, I'm pretty sure. Sakura's more likely to have political stuff she needs to think about."

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"There is always more political stuff to think about."

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And then Temperance finishes the ritual (in the past while she has been doing a lot of complicatedly geometric motions). There is a green tint around her for a bit, and the ground vibrates ever so slightly.

"Did it work? It worked!"

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"It worked! That's really cool!"

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Temperance wobbles on her feet and makes her way towards Reon, which holds her hand, this by itself steadies her.

Also, she turns into a humanoid form, but with blue-gold feathered wings.

"Have you stopped talking about politics? And, more importantly, can you teach me magic?"

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"Yup! And I can, though I might not be really good at explaining, I'm more a by-feel type."

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"The best way to learn." She bounces.

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"Definitely."

And he can scatter-shot explain the basics of chakra manipulation. There's a Stuff inside your belly, and it's warm or cool or some sort of other synesthetic sensation (sharp, minty, ringing...), and you push it around by focusing on moving it, or on what you want done, or on visualizing. Finding the Stuff is hard, but he remembers his own teachers letting them feel someone else's molded chakra to get them familiar with the odd sensation?

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Temperance is fascinated and manages to drink the scatter-shot explanation with enviable focus. Oooh, odd sensations.

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Reon and Phelix are curious about the odd sensation if Naruto is offering, but mostly they are going to spend that time meditating and catching things up at home.

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He's offering!

His chakra feels like a hot wind, tastes like salt, and curls in a friendly manner around anything poked into the small cloud he gathers around his hand. It's golden in color, glowing - "Most people's isn't visible like this, except maybe as a bit of a shimmer, mine's weird."

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"Odd, our magic is comparatively more visible, but harder to feel." She demonstrates by creating multi-colored sparkles for him to touch. "Does all chakra feels the same or is there variance?"

The sparkles do feel less intense than chakra, and they feel like his skin is expanding or heavy, except not quite that. There might be some texture variance in the colors.

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"It changes, even with the same person. Their affinity, their mood, their heritage, their experience... And kind of - like what their soul's been before? Especially with kids they sometimes still feel a bit like their last life."

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"Oooh, so cool. Ours is usually pretty static and more about the magic that the person is trying to work with, though really skilled people or people that can sense magic directly are usually able to notice those things."

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"Everyone can kind of sense chakra a little, especially with training, though doing that over distances or when there's a very small amount or if you're trying to like actually interpret it is hard."

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"How much information can you get from reading chakra?"

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"Kind of a lot, but I'm one of our best sensors. Emotions, hostile intent, truthfulness, chakra amount, chakra control, certain old injuries, bloodlines, elemental affinities, heritage, distance from me... I can't get reincarnation lines off of adults consistently, though."

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"Wow, that's so much. What are reincarnation lines?"

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"Like, person A dies and comes back as person B, who comes back as C... B and C are part of A's reincarnation line. My last life was as Hashirama; my first was probably Ashura, so I'm in the Ashura-line - people don't keep memories usually but it's something some sensors can pick up on."

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"Oooh, I wonder if you can do that in our world? Back in ours that's hard enough to do that people debate if reincarnation is actually a thing."

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"Dunno. It relies on chakra a lot - there's these echoes? So if you guys don't have chakra very obviously... But after we do the world-saving I can point one of the people who can do that reliably at you."

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Temperance bounces and wants more magic lessons.

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More magic lessons can be provided! They can definitely get up to 'identifying the warm spot and making it move' today, possibly even 'sticking leaves to your skin' and assorted variations on that.

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Yay!

Temperance is a really quick learner.

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Reon and Phelix take this time to cast the translation ritual themselves.

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Naruto only kind of registers when it starts getting late; he doesn't seem to get tired. Though once the sun starts setting he'll ask if they want to return to the village. (He did have clones fetch snacks, so they don't really lack for food.)

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Reon literally doesn't need to sleep, and he can make people not need to sleep. ...But they should get back and give the other two some rest.

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(Temperance halfheartedly protests, but she has been missing beds for the past few days.)

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Magic will still be there in the morning, and they might even have someone more qualified to teach it, so.

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That's entirely reasonable, and they only have to endure a bit of pouting from Temperance.

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Reon doesn't sleep, instead he just spends the night making notes and thinking.

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And the next morning, there's someone else with Naruto, waiting in the common area. He's dressed far more simply than the blond, with a clean white shirt and black pants and a straight sword at his waist. 

His eyes turn to them when they emerge, but he doesn't say anything.

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"Hey guys! Morning! This's Uchiha Sasuke - Sasuke, these're Temperance, Phelix, and Reon."

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"Hi!" Temperance says brightly. He is looking entirely human today.

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"Morning, it's a honor to meet you."

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That's guy sure is sure himself. Phelix will smile brightly. "Hello. I hope we didn't disrupt your schedule too much with our sudden appereance."

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"You didn't." A pause. "It's good to meet you. You're from - another dimension?"

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"Correct, we were trying to find a world to travel too and the magic got out of control, landing us here."

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"There's weaknesses around our dimension. We're easier to fall towards. Why were you trying to find a world?"

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"Entities that have often been referred to as deities decided to cover it in darkness and monsters, after several centuries of steadily worse fertility problems, all for the sake of powering a ritual that allowed them to commit suicide."

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"Weakness? What weakness?"

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To Temperance: "Worlds have natural barriers that make travel between them harder for our magic. Ours were pierced."

To Reon: "And I suppose you want to seek asylum, then?"

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"Huh, that's has fascinating implications. Was it done on purpose? Or maybe it's a natural phenomenon?"

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Phelix's answers in Reon's behalf. "Yes. At least we need is a place where our population can mend and recover. We are hoping that, given time, we should be able to find more worlds or even fix ours."

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"We don't know where the barrier came from. The piercing was the result of someone's technique."

And to Phelix: "We do have empty lands, and a need for people to work."

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"What sort of resources do you have to transport and settle people?"

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"In massive numbers? We're working on building trains, which could carry large numbers. Our roads are in good shape, and cars have been easy to import and implement. Both cars and trains are mechanical ways of moving things and people. For settling - it depends on the region. My nation is one of the more fertile, and has settled refugees before, but is small. Fire is large, and their current administration is competent, and they might be able to repurpose their internal refugee systems."

"Interdimensionally, I can open portals, though only a few at a time."

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"A few total? Are they permanent?"

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"Fascinating. We have ways to improve crop fertility and growth rate, though we don't have the actual land to do that. Would you say that given the current state, they would prefer permanent settlers or temporary ones?"

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"I have to actively hold them open. My nation would prefer permanent settlers, and I suspect the same of Fire - our problem is a population crash, a few temporary workers to stop the crops from rotting would help but not solve the underlying problem, though people who plan to stay twenty years then leave would fill the same need."

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"We are made aware of the population problem, yes. I am sure most would rather move once and stay than move twice in a short period."

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"We want to find other uninhabited worlds for the sake of resources and also as a potential bribery to get surviving rulers to cooperate nicely and get their vassals to do the same. Of course, things are sufficiently wrecked that the benefit of doing that might be minimal."

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"Then we'll start setting out a call. There's some precautions we'll want to take - mostly around disease."

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Nod. "We understand there are a lot of logistical challenges to overcome, thank you."

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"Right."

He brought a medic with him - who's also a more powerful sensor than Naruto, and should be able to suss out any magical conflicts.

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Oooh, does the medic mind answering Temperance's questions? As far as they can tell there hadn't been any obvious magical conflicts. They also tend to bathe on extremely purified water and/or use purification rituals on themselves to keep them free from infection.

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She'll come in when it's indicated she should do so, and introduce herself as Uzumaki Karin. She doesn't mind answering questions in general, but might not answer everything. And those are good precautions, but it won't catch all diseases, especially anything blood-born... And there's minor illnesses that might slip past that, be caught by native immune systems, but devastate their foreign ones. She'll want to check that both ways, actually, and possibly set up immunizations for any immigrants.

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Reasonable, there is a power that sort of does immunizations of many sorts but doesn't scale all that well. And their kind of magic appears to have some difficult getting rid of internal parasites.

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Internal parasites are one of many concerns! 

She'd like to check them now; she can explain what her scan does if needed, but it's a bit technical in full detail...

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She can go ahead with the scan and they don't mind technical detail.

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She has to touch each of them. It passes a wave of her chakra lightly through their bodies, not really set to interact much more than just walking through the air does. Her results are enhanced by her sensory powers, since she's better able to interpret what she's seeing, but mostly - different tissues and structures react differently with the chakra wave. Inflammation is obvious, macro parasites are obvious, and most medics would have to spend longer scanning them for other pathogens but she's also pretty fast at that...

She declares them free of anything liable to spread, though she'll want to get them some vaccines, there's local stuff they're probably not robust against, but she thinks that the differences in origins and magics have made their pathogens incompatible with each others' biology - local pathogens interact heavily with chakra networks, for instance.

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Is Temperance going to need to stay in the same shape for more than a few days for that to work? They hate that.

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She'd actually like to test that, it sounds likely to have fascinating results!

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Oh, that sounds interesting enough to make Temperance significantly less worried. Largely, being sick and injured makes shifting hard and shifting around while less than healthy makes the recovery process take longer.

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Vaccines, especially when overseen by a medic, usually don't make you more than mildly sick, but, yeah, there's some diseases they just have first-phase vaccines for that're like that.

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Temperance will endure those, though, the will take a few minutes tweaking a nice humanoid-but-winged form beforehand.

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The vaccines are a bit of a long course, and a bit of a pain - and Karin's runs medical chakra through them a bit afterwards. Temperance doesn't feel immediately sick, at least.

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Great! Then he will only bother her about medical chakra until Reon and Phelix pulls her off.

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She's not very good at explaining it, but doesn't try to conceal what she's doing and will at least attempt to explain what she's doing while she's doing it.

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Her efforts are appreciated!

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Reon wants to know their preferences for portal placement and/or if they should to bring in a few more people to this world.

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"Here's not bad for trade, and Wave would like the economy boost. But it's bad for refugees. Wave is a small nation, and I can only authorize portals in my own nation. Would other people have better fitted skills?"

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"Some have skills like Karin who want to be sure this world is safe. But It's more a combination of that and people with more official authority. And Temperance's father being overprotective."

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"Weird how falling into another world can worry people."

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"We would need to check everyone. But for small groups we do not have a problem, and it might be good to have - different groups handling magic or diplomacy."

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"Yes, exactly. And we didn't exactly come prepared for a trip. Or with relevant reference materials. We don't need to open a portal to bring the smaller group, it can be just a one time thing while we figure out portal placement."

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He nods. "You'd want to check with the rulers here to bring more people in, maybe."

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"Of course. We can have a list for approval. Sending people from here to check things there is also an option."

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"That'd be ideal, yes." He's the best candidate for it, given his portals, and he's decently sure this is unlikely to be a trap.

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Nod. They are still sorting candidates, but they will come up with a list. Are there any protocols or traditions relevant to diplomatic envoys? Customs like bringing gifts or even not bringing gifts? Apologies if he is breaking a custom about not asking about customs.

Among the people that they might bring:

- Temperance's dad, Sevet. He is a shapeshifter like Temperance, with two additional powers: one grants him longevity, resistance to harm from metals and resistance against being changed, the other is enhanced water and social skills, making him naturally talented at dealing with social situations. Limited in that he can only ultimately do things that could be done without a magical gift but with a lot of talent. Oh, and the same power also makes him a great swimmer.

- Either the Queen or the Princess of Themarcia. They are giants. They both have enhanced skills like Sevet's, but in multiple areas. The Queen's also has water and social skills, plus skill in air and movement (improved speech, understanding of acoustics and anything about moving herself or transportation in general) and metal and engineering (metallurgy, the creation of complex mechanisms, better use of metal tools in general). The princess has air and movement like her mother, but also enhancements with wood and biology (carpentry, botany, herbalism, use of wooden tools in general, etc.), and fire and combat (understanding how things burn or explode, tactical aptitude and also pretty good at sports). The princess is currently pregnant. Either would represent Themarcia politically.

- Yoono, Reon's grandfather, though he would come entirely as a representative of the Storm Court a Faen political group. A Faen-Dragon hybrid with telekinesis strong enough to lift small houses and the ability to adapt against biological threats (long exposure to his touch allows for people to gain his immunities, so there is that additional use for him coming).

- Leon. A Faen with enhanced wood and biology skill plus the power to sense life itself, both powers are extremely useful combination for diagnostics on anything living.

They are still trying to figure out who, but at least one translator. Also, bodyguards, but that depends on how many their hosts will be willing to put up with.

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Shinobi don't bother with gifts. Samurai do. Gifts of cloth, artwork, or pottery are traditional. The courts of the Great Nations will expect more pomp; his own nation, the daimyo will honestly prefer things that're potentially useful to her people, like knowledge or seeds - she's known for being flexible around ceremony, and the people of Rice Fields are a straightforward folk. Shinobi also usually come visibly armed to diplomatic meetings - samurai do too, but samurai will ceremonially disarm before entering the daimyo's presence, while shinobi value everyone present being able to defend themselves and their delegations. It's not traditional for foreign envoys to meet with the samurai and shinobi governments together, but with the nations tentatively uniting under a shinobi that's extremely subject to change. It used to be, foreign envoys would meet the daimyo, and then specialists would speak to the shinobi commanders separately. If a matter concerned the shinobi specifically, they would meet alongside the daimyo. Now, Haruno Sakura has been taking the right of first meeting for intercontinental trade. She follows samurai courtly procedures, despite being a shinobi, so it's effectively like meeting with a daimyo, though.

He'd recommend against someone pregnant coming, since pregnancy presents different challenges medically, including changed sensitivity to disease and toxin, but it's their risk to run.

The protocol he'd suggest is that his nation acts as an initial port, so they're the ones taking on the risk of interplanetary portals. As an initial port, the daimyo of Rice Fields would have the right of hosting initial meetings. Haruno Sakura will likely send a delegation to Rice Fields, formally inviting the foreign delegation to the capital for initial talks on continent-wide policy, as a prelude to multiple-party talks. Starting the process in a minor nation like his rather than a larger nation does benefit him, he'll admit, but it also means the smaller nations are less likely to be locked out of the process, and it's the smaller nations who were hardest hit in the war and would have the greatest need for immigrants.

They're used to the people from other continents sending very large delegations, including body guards, ambassadorial staff, scientists, engineers, sociologists, story-tellers... Initial delegations are often small - both summit and initial meetings tend to be restricted to one to five people (usually explorers, rather than diplomats, for first meetings), but this group they have counts as an initial delegation well enough, so it wouldn't be unusual for them to send a decent sized contingent of body guards, servants, and such, especially with multiple polities being represented.

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Taking notes. Specially on the various procedures. He asks some clarifying questions about the topic and notes them down.

(Reon declines to comment on anything about on how politically problematic that the princess' pregnancy is. Which, is apparently enough that they would be willing to risk sending her here.)

They like the idea of setting up a first contact and portal in a smaller nation too. As long, it is understood that it won't be a complete political disaster if they decide to close portals and leave. Or if they are forced to by a larger nation. Of course, they are motivated to keep good relations with places that want to take immigrants more.

There is so much going on, that they will have to be economical about bodyguards and servants, but they appreciate that they are willing to be accommodating.

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He wouldn't consider them leaving a slight, and he doubts the daimyo would; that happens.

The locals have their own bodyguards, as well, to protect general assemblies from outside parties, and some of the diplomatic houses have servants assigned to the wider quarters.

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Good. Reon has had enough of dealing with non-reasonable people. In that case, they just need a place and a time to set up the interworld portal.

They appreciate the existence of local bodyguards, and local servants. Specially because some representatives were not collaborating before the world ended and... outside incentives can be weirdly comforting.

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Quarreling heads of state are the same everywhere, who knew.

"How quickly can you all travel?"

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"Me and Temperance can fly. I can create favorable winds and make beings not-tired. Phelix can accelerate the time of any being by eight."

They come with a figure in local units... about 800-1000 mph total.

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Impressive; the usual maintenance speed for jounin is around 160 miles per hour. The port city he's intending they enter into (which is on the far end of the country, but formalities are a thing) is around twenty hours away at that speed - so it'll take them around three to four. Sasuke can manage that on his own easily enough, but he's about the only one in the Elemental Nations who can.

The other option is Sasuke portals them, which would be faster but tiring for him. He'd rather they be at the very least in said port city before they summon anyone else over.

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Reon untiringness can't prevent people from becoming magically tired, but can make people recover eight times faster from it.

That said they don't mind flying as an option and need time to set up the sending ritual anyway. 

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They don't know that'll work for chakra; it's not fully tiredness. And they'll want to test with someone with less going on than he has.

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Indeed, as much as it is a worthy experiment it can be done with someone less crucial.

Updating on their diplomatic envoy list: It appears that Queen Hermalita will come instead of her daughter. Reon's grandfather Yonno will come along too. And the rest of the already mentioned people. Both nobles will have translation artifacts, but their group will bring two translators as well. Five bodyguards total. The advisors and servants bring the group to a total of sixteen.

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That's fine.

Anything before they leave?

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Is Karin coming along? Do they want to be time dilated during the journey, thus making it subjectively longer? Phelix is going to need to be in constant contact if so, but they have experience with making that comfortable.

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Karin will come; her endurance is good, even if Sasuke's faster in immediate combat. They'd rather not be time-dilated. 

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Great. Temperance will shift into a flying form that's comfortable to travel in. With comfortable seating and everything. Then flight.

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Naruto, having cleared his schedule to his own satisfaction, tags along, officially as a representative of the Imperial court.

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They are glad to have him onboard. He can get an extra fluffy seat.

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And then Karin will start issuing directions, being the one best suited for navigation.

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Temple follow thoses instructions dilligently and the ground zips pasts beneath them.

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And with the good winds, they should arrive there without much trouble.

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That seems to be the case! 

Arrival procedures are sufficiently pompous as to be flattering to diplomats without being so tedious as to be horrendously boring to people who aren't trained to sit through state dinners.They have actual nice quarters here, for one, the large port town having a special area for receiving foreign envoys. (There's a few in residence, from the other continents, who recently arrived themselves).

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Reon, being the one with actual claim to authority here, takes point on anything that needs to take point.

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Phelix checks if the quarters are sufficiently sized for giants.

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Temperance shifts back into humanoid form and wants to find a spot to open the portal.

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The quarters are sized appropriately, and for the portal - there's a currently unused part of the dock, or a fallow field outside the town, or a short cliff overlooking the ports, the top of which will likely hold up better to foot traffic and is less likely to be missed since it's not suited to agriculture.

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They will go with the short cliff. Sounds less disruptive and easier to work with.

(Also, if someone in Actana tries to hijack it, the positions is more visible and more defensible by their hosts.)

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Once directed, Temperance casts a beacon ritual to signal their location. 

After a short while a portal opens.

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It swirls like a whirlpool made of green-purple smoke. People step through it, causing ripples and poofs of energy that is quickly assimilated back into the portal.

At a point the portal contracts and expands, spitting an enormous twenty feet man, not counting the feathered wings. He then adjusts something in his belt and becomes human-sized.

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Reon formely greets his grandfather, Yonno. When Queen Hermalita steps through he greets her the same way.

Queen Hermalita has the characteristic ten-feet tallness of a giant, her body is on the female side of androgynous and she sports a golden flowing beard.

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Sasuke and Naruto are there for formal greetings of their own. They've blended Actana traditions and local ones, which Sasuke's sticking to more closely, though Naruto seems friendlier. 

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Both Queen Hermalita and Lord Yonno are polite and formal.

They formally present their gifts. Doing so as a group, which signals unity in their side.

The gifts include:

A beautifully intricate scroll meant to be hung on a wall that's a diagram of a 8x8 grid detailing the sixty four gifts that Actanians magical species may have. Beautifully complex, but legible and informative.

A decorative wooden shield, it doesn't look like the sort of thing one brings to battle, but it's enchanted to be magically durable while still looking pretty and light.

A crystal globe, about a feet wide, displaying Actana's landmasses. It's also magically durable and glows slightly.

Then a wide variety of seeds, plainly presented, but who the delegation is offering to grow magically into adulthood and shape into useful or pleasing shapes.

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He's appropriately polite and thankful. He has some questions about ideal soil for the plants - the ones that do well with coastal soils (rocky and sandy) would be a good expression of unity in the port, while ones that do better with more farmland soil would be well presented in the capitol. 

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They have two experts, a Giant and a satyr-like Faen that will gladly provide such information on how to maintain the plants and their general use and meanings. That one produces vivid orange and yellow flowers who are considered to be good to plant coastally, their roots have a way to not disturb stone paviment while also making the shore resistant against the waves. They symbolize the safety of home. This one produces wood that's good to carve art with and this one is good for construction both have a remarkable purple color and are often used together, both are more farmland kind of plants. Oh, and this one is flower technically a tree parasite, but it kills things that would harm it's host plant and it's good against infection... there is no scarcity of plant facts.

"Enthusiasm towards one profession," Queen Hermalita says with slight smile, "is considered a virtue among my people. But it's also known to outshine everything else. If one of us get too much momentum, please feel free to remind us that there are other things in the world."

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"We can direct them towards our own botanists; they'll be excited. Come, let's get you somewhere comfortable - we established quarters here, for anyone managing the portal, but there's a better reception area in town."

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"Yes, thank you." Yonno says. "Our end of the portal is underground and out of the way. There shouldn't be any problems from people crossing."

"Safety was a major concern," Queen Hermalita says, following Sasuke, "even if the crystal monsters on our side are unlikely to get that close."

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"It's appreciated. This area's unlikely to be invaded, but we do have a garrison within an easy response range, and should have warning of anything from our side they can't handle."

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"Don't hesitate to call me if any help is needed." Yonno offers.

"Being prepared is a virtue, but don't make our hosts too on edge." The Queen says lightly. "Your grandson described what sounded like a reasonable system."

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Sasuke hums. Diplomacy: is tiring. "Security's a concern of ours."

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"Reasonable," Queen Hermalita says with a smile.

Yonno very pointedly does not answer.

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Temperance briefly reunites with his father and half-sister Phaidra (who also came along and is taking notes of everything). He detaches from his father and goes to Naruto. "Are you also supposed to be there when the crowned heads start talking?'

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"I'm kind of representing Fire? But there's assorted weird diplomatic stuff around upstaging Sasuke. Supposed to wait to present my case until we're somewhere ambassadorial. Sakura'll probably be annoyed at me for tagging along to this... And I'll probably not be doing the talking once it gets to actual crowned heads. Like, the daimyo and all."

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Giggle. "Is this the sort of thing you couldn't have attended outside an official capacity?"

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"Being unofficial then official also gets weird! And I'm kind of here unofficially, anyways?"

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Shrug. "I can't say an envy you either way. I wanted to ask what are the fun things to do around here."

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"Don't know this town, unfortunately? I'd guess they have neat food you don't have at home, though."

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"Aww. I wish you could tell me what to try then, but that requires knowing about my world first."

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He'll list a few things, then.

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Great! Temperance is grateful and hopes they can go just have non-diplomatic-sanctioned fun soon enough.

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Yeah, definitely.

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And soon enough, they're at the diplomatic reception area. It's nice, simply and elegantly appointed, and there's offers of refreshments and other courtesies.

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Their guests are accordingly impressed and thankful. The nobles eat polite amounts. Various servants and experts have varied levels of courtesy (but are quietly oriented).

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Sasuke does make clear he's primarily the welcoming committee - somewhere between an heir, a second-in-command, and a general. His main concerns here are making sure everything goes smoothly for the full diplomatic get-together. Security, formalities between heads of state - he'd like to get the head of his daimyo's guard properly liasioned with the head of their guard, for instance.

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Their head of guard is of similar mind then. She was briefed on the general capabilities of the local magic, but does not have as much information as she would like.

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The head of the daimyo's guard is a woman in late middle age, hair steel grey and eyes hard, dressed in sleek armor.

The most likely problems would involve assorted means of stealth and self-enhancement, which are easier to run down - stealth tends to be a combination of using chakra to silence movements, using illusions on guards, using a chameleon technique to visually blend in, taking atypical routes like 'crawling on the ceiling', and of course infiltration. The most common infiltration technique is the transformation - it's easier to spot mistakes and incongruities than to see through it for most people, though he can demonstrate it and walk the guards through the minuscule tells even a professional will leave. If someone's voice, diction, personal grooming, uniform, or what-have-you is even slightly off, get a ninja to check them for transformations. You can disrupt most illusions on yourself or others with a chakra pulse, which fortunately is an easy technique to learn - the main issue is noticing you're in an illusion. Pain tends to also disrupt most illusions. 

If it comes down to a fight, most ninja self-enhance in the direction of 'speed', while samurai tend to favor 'strength', but both will be moving faster and hitting harder than someone unenhanced. A thing to watch for with bladed weapons is invisible edge techniques, where a weapon's actual edge extends past the metal. Assassins are usually ninja.

There's no one openly opposed to contact, and no active terrorist cells in the country, so assassins are unlikely and would probably be aimed at the daimyo or Sasuke himself, in which case they'd rather be left to their own guard procedures rather than receive help, to reduce chances of miscommunication between the groups. 

Procedures of relevance for if there's an open attack or natural disaster focus on evacuating persons of interest; the paths and destinations (and pass-codes) are as follows...

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Their head of guard nods and makes comments. They have some people that can sense life directly, and they would expect it to trump illusions and disguises. Of course, it's worth checking if they can. Is the extended blade some kind of telekinesis or illusion? Does anyone here knows it so they can test how it interacts with elemental weakness? Are the procedures such that they should avoid going back to their world? They really don't have anything to gain from attacking their hosts, but it is reasonable to want people to stick around for further investigation. Not to mention the possibility of attackers infiltrating Actana that way.

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That'd be good to test, yes.

The extended blade is usually wind manipulation - wind-natured chakra forms cutting edges easily.

The procedures are mostly for short-distance evacuation, so they can work into getting the Actana people back to their own world if something happens here.

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Good, they can schedule that test.

Invisible blades sound sufficiently magical that it might be worth testing them on a dragon or part-dragon, luckily they have those around. Since it's wind they might also test it against a Thunderbird, either later or by sending someone to Actana for that purpose.

The guards will diligently familiarize with the procedures and teach them to whoever needs teaching.

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Magical interaction tests can be scheduled for all of the security-related concerns. Illusions are more common, so more urgent... And of course it's best to get these out of the way before the daimyo's procession arrives...

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Of course, Temperance will definitely be interested in magical testing of any sort. They can get (the head of guard looks to confirm the gender today) him easily enough. And Leon is their designated life-sensor for the trip.

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The the daimyo's head guard and Sasuke's second can arrange most of the testing, while Sasuke attends to diplomacy until they need him for illusion testing.

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Perfect, Temperance is on board with it.

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Temperance isn't harmed by wind blades, but is affected by illusions. The person who can sense life, Leon, is capable of noticing and easily dismissing any illusion Sasuke can cast.

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Ooh, fascinating. Temperance (predictable) wants to figure out a way to deal with illusions, but the head of guard quietly guides him out of the way to do that away from people practicing politics.

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And, soon enough, the local daimyo's procession arrives. She's not much older than Sasuke, dressed relatively modestly for someone of her position, and she moves like someone who's at least been trained in combat. 

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The Actana contingent assumes a formal stand to receive the Daimyo. Both Queen Hermalita and Yonno observe the way she moves and make mental notes about it. They wait until the formally polite moment to acknowledge and thank her.

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"It is our pleasure to receive you. Come, let us retire somewhere more suitable for speaking."

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"Of course, our honorable host." Queen Hermalita says.

They follow.

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The stateroom is as grand as before. She's exceptionally polite, more indirect than Sasuke (who'd often been blunt), and otherwise a delightful host. Just funny enough, just friendly enough, just clever enough - quickly adjusting past any social misses.

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The queen quickly falls in a rhythm with her, similarly appropriate levels of humor and friendliness. Yonno requires some slightly smoothing from both of them, but only things that stand out because Hermalita and Kyoku are there for contrast.

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Good; they're off to a good start for negotiations, at least.

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Negotiations, they were concerned with the matter of logistics of transporting and housing people.

Another concern is a matter of law, they can hardly say that they deserve the loyalty of their people if they simply eschewed their responsibility as rulers.

(Which is just a veiled way of saying that Queen Hermalita would rather still be some kind of nobility by the end of the day. Yoono, appears to be more genuinely concerned with actual order.)

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There's unclaimed lands to the north, if they don't mind being cold, but the lands are unclaimed because they're poor even as pasture-land. The Mountain's Graveyard is also unclaimed, and temperate, though she has no guarantee it isn't haunted. Kyoku has the right to set them up as nobility if they wish to stay within this nation, and is willing to negotiate that.

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Queen Hermalita is interested in the details of being nobility, succession, tributes and what have you. Yonno is also curious, though he asks more questions about the northern lands.

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Those are easy enough details to provide. (They haven't done a thorough survey of every nook and cranny of the northern continent, but she can talk about the two nations - Iron and Snow - and the nationless nomads who wander through some parts.)

Nobility have some privileges but not a ton. The court system's different, is the big thing, though because they're a modern nation with equity of law this mostly means the nobles get judges with more time on their hands to look at the case. You have to inform the daimyo who your successor is but individual noble houses can set their own rules for who succeeds whom. There's one noble house that works purely on adopting meritorious orphans into their line of succession. They have taxes, which nobles aren't exempt from, though unlike farmers or artisans nobles get to choose how to defray their taxes - military service of themselves or a representative, monetary support...

Most farmers own their own land, by the way. That's been a very important part of reconstruction. So mostly their nobility has ended up as hereditary bureaucrats and warriors (which is why some houses are moving to non-hereditary systems), not as landlords or such. 

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Why the nobility didn't keep their old roles and traditions? (Yonno does not appear to care about the relevant privilieges.)

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"Humans change quickly. The old roles were dependent on them owning the land, and with the farmers owning the land, there was less room there, but more opportunities elsewhere, so they changed, and then changed themselves to better fit the new opportunities."

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"I am mostly concerned that this might not be a stable model. Though, I guess that's an inherent problem when one is shorter lived."

Queen Hermalita suppresses the flinch. "Dear, dear. Don't be impolite to our hosts. If anything, they showed that humans can flourish without the meddling of outside factors. Even after the terrible events of recent history."

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"I suppose it's inevitable we would seem unstable to anyone longer lived. Still, we have done well enough for ourself, and recent events were started by non-humans."

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"And you're building yourselves right up." Queen Hermalita says. "Honestly, we - longer lived species - have the drawback that our stability can also be bad stability. The wars dragging between the Faen courts being the example that comes to mind."

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"Yes. I think our longest conflict in history was the Warring States period, which wasn't even a single conflict but a series of them. Our longest single conflict lasted a decade."

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"Oh, I am jealous." Queen Hermalita says with a lot of sincerity.

"I don't think we have that many decades long conflicts."

"One is one too many, and I got personally involved in three. Not to mention the effects of longer-lived grudges."

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"It does mean we sometimes repeat mistakes we really shouldn't - there are benefits and drawbacks to both. Perhaps our peoples can learn from one another there."

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Smile. "Ah, yes, that's the unifying Giant philosophy, anything can be learned with the right sort of effort."

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"We often find that as well, though sometimes you must be a bit indirect in your effort."

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"Of course, of course. The right dosage of influence and passivity for everything."

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"I more meant some lessons are better learned not on the straight path. It is often easier to go around walls than through them, even for shinobi. But yes, sometimes it is also best to wait."

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And of course, Queen Hermalita's initial statement doesn't comment that "the right sort of effort" is broad enough to include that.

They go back discussing political details.

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Things can be wrapped up to everyone's satisfaction fairly quickly thereafter - Kyoku herself is the leader of a fairly small nation, if one with an out-sized political weight lately, and can only make so many promises.

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They understand that! They sure can't complain about complicated political situations, given that their world ended and that affects diplomacy tremendously.

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Good.

Do they need anything while they or any representatives stay here, or are the present diplomatic suites sufficient?

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The diplomatic suites are lovely, and even the larger guests can't complain.

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Good!

She makes a few last polite remarks, and then the meeting can be formally concluded.

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Which means that they can retire for the evening.

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They're informed that evening the Shinobi General, who is the de facto leader of the continent right now, will be arriving in time for a noon lunch meeting tomorrow.

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They will prepare themselves accordingly in that case.

Most of their preparations is already taken care of, they just need to get ready in the morning.

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And then a meeting between the Shinobi General, de facto leader of the continent, and the representatives can be arranged.

Haruno Sakura is young for her position, no more than seventeen, but her expression is well schooled and her body is one of a fighter, even in slightly more formal and diplomacy-appropriate clothes (which are made so they'd still be perfectly functional battle clothes, though she's not wearing obvious armor).

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The delegation is there to formally receive them. Like before, they have ceremonial diplomatic gifts.

A set of an actanan board game. It involves various tiles, each representing a actanian gift. One must place matching tiles next to each other, once per turn, until their hand is empty. Then they win. WIth a (literal) tome of alternative rules, because Faen like complexity. Speaking of complexity, the tiles are brass and unfold into intricate representations. Just one of them is quite intricate and beautiful. There is a total of 128 tiles.

A small flowering bush, who will grow into a tree, people who have touched it a few hours before sleeping have remarkably better dreams and little to no nightmares.

Several sets of tapestries, most extra durable, many with mild magical effects to make them look prettier, one has a mild purification effect, which mostly means it keeps a small radius of itself from getting clean, but is known to help with some maladies as well.

And, like before, several sets of seeds to be shared and grown.

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She's appropriately grateful and courteous! There's a few rough edges - this isn't a girl who was raised to be nobility - but she's a fast learner. She seems especially interested in the game and the planets, and makes arrangements for sharing of botanical and agricultural knowledge so everything will flourish properly.