"Keiko, Noburi," Hazō said quietly, beckoning them over as he left off making seals in order to step to the designated latrine area. His pseudo-siblings followed him without comment.

"Yes?" Keiko asked as Hazō turned away and attended to natural affairs.

"OPSEC discussion," Hazō said. "I want to make plans with the others and I don't want to say anything I shouldn't. Noburi, I'm not going to say a word about your bloodline unless you raise it. Keiko, same for you about your bloodline, but I wanted to ask you about the pangolins. Anything there that you want to keep secret?"

"Everyone knows that I am the Pangolin Summoner," Keiko said. "During this event I have called upon, and thereby revealed the existence of, Paneru, Panashe, and Panjandrum. It's public knowledge that Paneru is an engineer, Panashe is a scout, and Panjandrum is a melee combatant. I would prefer to keep all other aspects of my summoning abilities private, as well as not going into detail on what those three are capable of."

"Done," Hazō said, nodding. "We'll want to keep some of the seals secret as well. We've shown Air and Earth Dome, as well as Five Seal Barrier, Lesser Barrier Formation, and of course explosives. Let's keep the rest of it secret, unless we really need to fight. Especially the one Noburi used against Hyūga."

Keiko nodded. Noburi frowned in thought. "The one I used...oh, not Neji, the girl. Agreed."

"Great," Hazō said. "In that case, I've got a plan—"

"Duh," Noburi muttered under his breath. Hazō manfully ignored him.

"—and I want to check it with you guys before we run it by the rest of the group. I'm thinking...."

o-o-o-o​

"...and then we leave through the tunnel and head straight to the rally point. Any comments?" Hazō asked.

The Leaf genin exchanged glances. Those glances were complicated and Hazō couldn't entirely read them. Suspicion from Neji, but that was to be expected. The others seemed to have a strange mix of confusion, surprise, and uncertainty. It was clear that these teams weren't used to working together in such close alliance—not unusual, since genin teams typically were sent on lower-risk missions and by definition lower-risk missions didn't require more than a three-genin cell plus their chūnin- or jōnin-sensei. Still, he felt pretty confident; Keiko and Noburi had already checked the plan over and it was unlikely that anyone here would find issues, with the possible exception of—

"Your plan is to cower in this death trap of a fortress, and then tunnel out of the swamp so that we don't have to fight?" Neji said in disbelief. "How do you expect the judges to react to running away like that? That's no way to get promoted!"

"The event is about points, not combat," Hazō asserted. "The fact that we found a way to achieve the mission with no risk to ourselves should make us more likely to get promoted, not less. Being a good ninja isn't about winning fights, it's about completing your assigned missions quickly and efficiently so that you can go on the next one as soon as possible."

"The plan seems generally sound," Nara said, triggering a betrayed look from Neji and a notable degree of relaxation from the rest of the audience. Hazō found himself mildly envious, and wondered how long it would be before the other Leaf ninja had such trust in his intelligence and insight.

"The tunnels will offer a good place to hide the bodies," Nara continued. "My team and Neji should be in a central position, with the rest of you spread out along the perimeter—"

"Hang on," Hazō said. "What bodies? The whole point of the plan is to avoid combat."

"And won't that look good on our evaluations," Neji said under his breath.

Keiko ignored him and nodded as though suddenly realizing something. "Of course," she said to Nara. "We don't have enough seals, do we? Not nearly."

"Indeed," Nara said. "It would be best if Leaf could not simply lead the event but utterly crush it. It would be far too troublesome to have to come back next year."

"You can say that again," Haruno muttered.

"Plus, my mother would undoubtedly hound me to train harder if my performance does not satisfy her."

"I can make more seals," Hazō offered.

"Based on your rate of production thus far, you will not be able to make enough to matter. You have thus far made four hundred and thirty-two seals, plus contributed twenty-four more that your team and Ishihara were already carrying. We then traded away fifty-one of those—"

"Stupid," Neji muttered.

Nara turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "Stupid?" he asked.

"Yes, stupid. He's been trading glowing seals for dead ones! We're being graded on the number of glowing seals we turn in, so why give them away? Especially since you're saying that we don't have enough."

Nara sighed. "Allow me to clarify. The rules of the event are that we are in the swamp for forty-eight hours and that we can obtain glowing Night Light seals from the proctors—by 'proctor' I am, of course, referring to the Mist ninja who are referees and judges for the event. At the end—"

"I know what a proctor is!" Neji growled.

"Of course you do. As I was saying, when the event ends we will each receive one point quote 'for every glowing seal' endquote that we turn in to the judges at the rally point outside the swamp. Gōketsu Hazō has created or contributed a final total of four hundred and five seals to our group as well as disseminating fifty-one to contestants from five other villages. Therefore—"

"I was there for all of this," Neji growled. "You don't need to repeat every detail of the last two days."

"Apparently he does," Noburi said helpfully. "It's okay, though. If you listen reeeeally closely to the smart guy, maybe some of it will rub off on you! Wouldn't it be great to be able to tie your own shoes?"

"Listen—"

"The exact rules," Nara cut in, "were that we would receive one point for each glowing seal that we turn in, but that was clearly intended to mean the Night Light seals that the proctors have been distributing. Those seals, as you yourself found when you went to the proctors before joining us here, have two important characteristics: their light has a distinctive appearance and, unlike most seals, they require a large amount of chakra to activate. The Party Trick seals that Gōketsu has made require a negligible amount of chakra to activate, but they are visibly not the same as the Night Light seals, so Mist would be within their rights to disqualify them. However! Due to the trading there are now three major and two minor villages whose contestants are carrying the Party Trick seals. The Kage from those villages would object most strenuously were Mist to attempt such a thing and thereby disadvantage the students from those five villages. The trading was an insightful and effective strategy that significantly reduced the risk of this exam while giving us a notable advantage over the other contestants."

Neji blushed. "You said yourself that we don't have enough," he grumbled. "Not nearly."

"Yes," Nara said patiently. "Gōketsu has graciously agreed to divide his supply among us evenly. That means each of us will receive thirty-three seals with nine left over, since four hundred and five divided by twelve is slightly over thirty-three. The extra nine seals should be divided among Ishihara and the Gōketsu—I would suggest two each with Gōketsu Hazō receiving three since he scribed the vast majority of them."

"I was actually going to suggest we divide them evenly," Hazō said uncomfortably. "I can make a few more so the numbers come out."

"That would be good," Nara said, nodding thanks. "However, if there are any leftovers they should go to you and yours since you are the ones who supplied them. Regardless, this is a side issue. Based on Gōketsu Keiko's estimates of the number of proctors in the swamp and the number of seals that Neji said the proctor was carrying, there are on the order of four thousand seals available. They require a comparatively large amount of chakra to activate and all contestants will need to keep a a supermajority of their chakra available for combat or escape. I would estimate that most candidates will acquire between ten and fifteen seals from the proctors; there are approximately three hundred candidates in the Exams, so the entire pool of seals is likely to be in play."

"Ten or fifteen? We've got more than that," Akimichi said, speaking around the brick of cheese he was nibbling.

"Seals will not be distributed evenly," Keiko replied. "Teams will have been taken out and looted by stronger teams. Some of those teams will in turn have been taken out by yet-stronger teams. It is reasonable to believe that the top three to five teams have acquired on the order of fifty percent of the available pool. That is two thousand seals divided among twelve to fifteen people, or approximately one hundred and seventy seals each. It is likely that at least half of those will have been acquired on the first day, before anyone knew that they would expire. In that case they are now expended, reducing the likely total per person to only eighty or ninety each, or perhaps even as low as seventy. Regardless, we need to do some looting of our own."

"Troublesome," Nara grumbled.

"Okay," Hazō said reluctantly. "So, first trick is going to be finding people to loot. Yesterday Nara said that there's a 'Ring of Death' around us, with other teams waiting to loot us or anyone who comes to trade with us. We could go stomp some of them." His stomach felt like he'd swallowed curdled milk; he had been so sure that he'd found a different path through the exam, that he would be able to win without having to hurt anyone. But no, the world of ninja was never so kind. It would always find a way to make everything horrible...was he going to have to literally beat the idea of peace and cooperation into everyone's heads?! Some days it seemed like it.

"I believe your original strategy to be superior," Nara said. "We exit through a tunnel and go to the rally point. The proctors would likely object to us fighting at the rally point, but we can set an ambush a short distance away and attack those who take a straight-line path." He turned to Neji. "The ones who take a straight-line path are either the most foolish, who don't think of the possibility of ambush, or the most powerful, who do not fear one and view it as an opportunity to acquire yet more seals. The former are no risk and the latter will have the most seals."

"Yes, thank you," Neji said.

"I nominate Nara as group commander," Hazō said. "We need someone in charge to coordinate among the teams."

"Seconded," Haruno said.

"Now, wait—" Nara began.

"Thirded!" Yamanaka said firmly. "Suck it up, Shika."

"Gōketsu would be a better choice," Nara said desperately, gesturing towards Hazō. "He identified the exploit in the rules and found the way to ensure that Mist would need to go along with it."

For just a moment, Hazō wavered. It would be satisfying to command the group and, assuming things went well, it would be a good way to cement their respect and trust. If he was going to achieve his goals of imposing peace on the world he would need respect, trust, and authority from important people such as clan heirs, friends of the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox, and ninja skilled enough to have been assigned jōnin as their squad leaders.

"Thank you, Nara," he said at last. "It's a generous offer and I would like to say—"

What does Hazō want to say?

Vote time! What to do now? Options include:

Accept the leadership. Pro: You get to plan the plan for the next update and if you do well your status among your peers goes up. Con: If things go badly you could end up destroying the relationships you've been working so hard to build. Refuse the leadership. Pro: Low risk. No matter how things go with the ambush, you're not going to be blamed. Con: Low reward. Your relations with the other Leaf genin will improve slightly when they see your practicality and lack of ego, but you'd gain a lot more by taking the lead and succeeding.

If you choose to take the leadership you'll want to come up with a battle plan that allows you to locate and defeat at least four and possibly as many as eight other three-man ninja teams with unknown abilities—that's Keiko's assessment of the minimum number you'll need to take down in order to ensure your teams come out ahead in the event. Your resources are:

Hazō, Noburi, Keiko Ishihara Akane, Haruno Sakura, Yamamoto Haru Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chōji Hyūga Neji, Tenten, Rock Lee

(Leader of each team listed first, although Akane's team hasn't quite nailed down whether Akane or Sakura are in charge.)

Based on what you saw as you circled the Swamp of Moderate Inconvenience two days ago, there are three places between here and the rally point that would make decent ambush sites:

The very edge of the Swamp where you will emerge if you take a straight-line path from your fort to the rally site. It leads into a moderately forested area about half a mile wide. Pro: There are some reeds and bramble bushes that you could hide in, as well as the trees. Pro: You could jump people just as they were getting to the edge of the land, meaning they were still water-walking and vulnerable to chakra drain. Con: You can't usefully employ Syrup Trap or Goo Bombs on a liquid surface. Con: The water table is just beneath the surface so you won't be able to hide in a hole without drowning. Midway through the forest. Pro: There's a small creek that would provide a water source for jutsu and, again, a potential option for chakra drain if you could force enemies to stay in it. Pro: The land slopes up from the edge of the Swamp so you would have more options for digging. Con: The forest is relatively open and it's winter, so there's no leaves on the trees. Concealment will be more difficult. On the open meadow between the forest and the rally point. It's grassy and open. Very few of the plants will try to eat you. Pro: Long sightlines so you'll see people coming. Pro: Concealment is possible although not trivial. The grass isn't more than knee high at the highest, plus it's dried out and brown. Moving through it will leave a trail unless you move very slowly and carefully. Pro: There's a small hill at the edge of the meadow; the rally point is about fifty yards on the other side. The hill will serve as a good backstop to ensure no misaimed shots landing on the proctors. Con: Long sightlines so people will see you coming. Con: Some of the plants will try to eat you. Con: I had one more but have forgotten it. It wasn't more severe than the others listed above and I'll add it back if I think of it.

Voting ends on Wednesday, February 7, 2018, at 12pm London time.