"Is bloodline theft a fancy word for kidnapping?"

"It's considered more severe if the kidnapped has a notable bloodline power."

"I mean, I suppose it implies a higher likelihood that they've been kidnapped specifically to force them to have children? Since bodysnatching in particular is niche?"

He nods. "Stealing body parts is also bloodline theft. It's more - about keeping that power in the village or clan. Probably making mindless bodies with a bloodline is technically bloodline theft, but I really don't care."

"What does one do with a stolen body part, how's that useful? Can you clone them or something?"

"Some bloodlines you can use them if you graft them onto someone living's body. For mine - someone could take my eyes and have some of the powers, though they wouldn't work as well."

"That's really weird - is there a chakra thing to make the eye go in properly, that's medically difficult - why wouldn't they work as well - is this all very short-term-thinking, I assume people with stolen eyes don't pass the eyes on to kids?"

"Yes, and because you need different brain and chakra structures to support it fully, and yes it's very short-term and usually people who are optimizing for their own gain."

"Your world sucks," Cam opines.

"I noticed." He's weirdly amused by that.

Maybe because someone who isn't Naruto actually noticed that the world is fucked up.

"You have freaking magic and you're spending it all on short term negative-sum conflict! Do you know enough history to have an idea of how things got this way? Who's doing things like inventing computers, is there some nonmagical civilization somewhere that exports technology and makes sure it doesn't have any ninjas in it so they get left alone..."

"I know some history going back - two, three hundred years? But that was hard to find. There's a lot of information suppression." History, fortunately, is like swords and is one of the things he can actually talk about. 

"We used to have a feudal empire covering the continent, that was more stable. There was a war, and the last emperor died without heirs, and then the feudal lords started fighting. Two hundred years later, we were still in the Warring States period. Shinobi were in small mercenary clans."

"Sixty three ago, the two most powerful shinobi clans in the Land of Fire decided to band together. They formed the Hidden Leaf, which I think was initially kind of like the old artisan's guilds or worker unions? They convinced other clans to join, and other clans in other nations copied them. That and a wider trend towards consolidation of smaller nations forced the constant small wars to stop, though the wars that did happen later were bigger. The Hidden Leaf - under I think the third leader - started to become less a guild and more its own state within a state. They're on the fifth leader now."

"And I think the computers are foreign, yes. I've been oversees once to somewhere with better technology. The Land of Snow. They have a thing that gives them temperate pocket climates, but I don't know how it works. They stay out of everyone else's politics, mostly. The leader might remember me, since I helped install her on her throne when I was still a Leaf shinobi."

"Okay. I kind of want to, like, bring you along as a native guide and then go park in the Land of Snow."

"To do what?"

"End scarcity without being constantly distracted by escalatory short-term ninja conflict. I mean, figuring out the short-term ninja conflict stuff also sounds important for the no-scarcity endgame but in the meanwhile maybe you also have lots of civilians dying of diseases I can cure or something like that."

He nods. "It'd also be - a diplomatic position."

And not involve Orochimaru. That's a bonus. They can just steal his notes. Probably Orochimaru will come after Sasuke again anyways but Sasuke's a lot scarier now than he was at thirteen.

"I don't know much about different diseases, sorry."

"I'm hoping the Land of Snow knows where I can find disease-related information. Do you have a general idea of how Orochimaru will try to track you down? My default plan is to fly away in a little shuttle under cloud cover, but if it's likely to be necessary I can go in the wrong direction for a few hours too, or go straight up and proceed through space assuming you're not about to tell me the planet is flat or something?"

"Why would the planet be flat? And he has a sensor whose range can cover the continent. Karin - she likes me well enough, but is loyal to Orochimaru first."

"I don't know why the planet would be flat but I also don't know why you can do chakra stuff and it's the sort of thing I'd like to check before attempting to exit the gravity well. Is the Land of Snow on the same continent? How does the sensor work?"

"It's on a continent to the north, but this nation is on the northern edge of this continent, so Karin wouldn't have to go far to notice me. There's three territories - Land of Iron, in the middle-south, Land of Snow on the north-east edge, and then some tribal land. Karin's never explained it, but she can track people, make predictions about what someone usually does with their chakra, and tell if two people are related."

"I could send mindless copies of you - optionally without any eyes - in a few other directions? And... leave one in geosynchronous orbit to be extra confusing maybe? Depending on what exactly she senses."

He shakes his head. "She'd notice. Normal chakra's got a mental and physical component."

"Are there any materials that block her? Lead or something?"

"I don't think so. But - she's assigned to guard the Eastern Prison by herself. That's fairly far, so I could talk to her before Orochimaru catches up if you can get me there quickly. She'd be warned I'm fleeing, but..."

"But what, what's your contingency here?"