- Roleplay Description
- The Hidden Leaf
- The Hidden Cloud
- Hidden Mist
- Hidden Sound
- Hidden Sand
- The Hidden Stone
It is only in the aftermath of tragedy that we are truly reborn, severed from what we were once were only to become something unrecognizable. Such is the tragedy of Naruto Uzumaki, the man who several generations ago brought peace to the Shinobi world. The world he made was beautiful in all of its essence; a world where all armed conflict simply ended. Scholars once wrote that it was a golden era, bound to reign for all eternity. Little did they know that their lands were about to be engulfed by the largest war in history
Eight long years ago Naruto’s teachings were tossed aside, and the world plummeted itself into the ignorance and chaos of war once again. This war however, was unlike any other witnessed, its flames burned hotter than any prior. Thousands if not millions of lives were lost, each drop of blood splitting the shinobi world further from the teachings of Naruto Uzumaki.
The war was caused by years of politics and aggression that had been repressed during the golden era of peace, border disputes were just an excuse. While Naruto may have been a great leader, sadly he could not resolve all of the politics of the five Great Nations. When war between the land of Fire and Lightning struck, the other three saw it as opportunity to gain land, and joined in. Others small nations saw it as opportunity to strike down their foes, and they entered into the conflict, allying with larger nations. Soon no nation was left out of this conflict. Every country (With the exception of the land of Iron, due to constant neutrality) became a battlefield in some way. However, most of the fighting took place over the smaller nations, as they were often gateways between the great nations.
Only one nation saw little fighting in it's own lands, and that was the land of Lightning, the dominant military force throughout much of the war. After-all, they were the ones who started the war by storming the land of Fire's borders and aggressively occupying the smaller nations of the Sound, the Frost, and the land of Hot Water. Much of the war itself was a series of extremely harsh, bloody battles, and then periods of long standoffs. Each nation had large periods of activity, and long periods of defensive standoff. After eight long years of battle, when Konoha forces launched a major counter-assault against the Land of Lightning and liberated their occupied countries, that an armistice was finally signed and almost a decade of fighting had finally come to an end.
Eight years have passed since the great war scorched the lands. With the ashes of war finally settled, the time has come for a new generation of Genin to step into this recovering world and leave their mark.
Out of all the Hidden Villages, Konohagakure, or the hidden Leaf looks the most familiar as it did in the past, only on a larger scale. Since Naruto's time, the village has grown to cover an area that is roughly 2.5 times larger than the years of Naruto. In spite of it's size however, it still maintains that home-like architecture that it became so well known for. In reality, in the rough 100 years that have passed, Konohagakure still looks more or less the same, just larger and a more carved out Hokage rock. But what's more surprising is that in spite of all the years that have passed, the will of fire still burns strong in the Shinobi of Konoha.
When war came, Konoha was unwillingly in it from the get go. It all started when Kumogakure, the Land of Lightning, stormed their way through the land of Sound and Hotwater and attacked the Land of Fire's North Eastern border, gaining an impressive amount of ground before finally being halted by Shinobi forces. Then after that the Hidden Mist, Kirigakure quickly joined in and stormed the beaches of the land of Fire's eastern border, gaining foothold before finally being halted by Konoha forces. The land of Wind and Earth didn't get the chance to gain a foothold into the land of Fire, as Konoha forces consistently intercepted and held their forces in the surrounding smaller nations, creating many innocent casualties in the process. Very little of Konoha's wartime was spent making any offense and mainly sticking to defense, a tactic implemented by the Hokage himself.
It was only seven years later that the war would finally end for Konoha, with devastating results. Many shinobi were lost in the war, thousands, maybe even millions all perished to the flames of war. The land of Fire may never truly trust any of the Great Nations after that all tried to attack.
Leader wise, after Naruto there really are none worth mentioning as none really did anything of noteworthy until current times. As of now, the leader of Konoha is none other than Soruto Uzumaki, descendent of Naruto Uzumaki. His reign has been a controversial one to put it slightly. The first of these controversies arrived when he was selected as Hokage, as he was one of two canidates primed for the role. Atsushi Masuno was the other canidate, and he was by far the more popular candidate due to both his experience and morals. While he had experience, Soruto had the namesake as well as the skill set, as though he may have been younger than Atsushi, he was a much stronger shinobi. The council for the first time had a split decision, and if Konoha wasn't in the political turmoil that it was then Atsushi surely would have been selected. But alas; he wasn't. Soruto's second flop with the public occurred at the end of the war, when the armistice that he agreed to sign had very little punishment for the Land of Lightning's actions against them. Another major controversy of the leader is his personal life, bearing one illegitimate child that is officially known to be his, Soruto doesn't always follow Hokage standards...
The Hidden Cloud has gone through a number of changes throughout the years, mainly politically. The once previously mighty empire laid down their arms after Naruto for a number of decades, before suddenly deciding to make a major transition back to military strength when tensions between the five greats began boiling once again. Their main goal was to build up a military force that could not be trifled with, and that many nations would cower at the sheer sight of. This goal unfortunately was met by Kumogakure, and can be pointed for the main cause of the war. A large military between supposed 'Allies' is a major recipe for mistrust afterall.
No one really knows what made the land of Lightning mount it's blitzkrieg-like offensive that triggered the 5th Shinobi war. While most historians agree that it was in fact an age-long border dispute, years of propaganda makes it hard to pinpoint the true cause. Most will agree however that the order dispute was just an excuse for war, and before the world knew it the land of Lightning had already marched their forces through the surrendering Land of Sound, Frost, and Hot Water, and were attacking the Land of Fire, setting the countryside ablaze. If not for the quick response of Konoha forces, the war might have turned out very differently for the land of Lightning. Once the war was started, a domino effect was triggered and all the great nations were at war with another. Of all the nations, the Land of Lightning remained dominant throughout the war, only being pushed back at the very end. All they had to worry about were three fronts, and two of which they would only fight defensively, which is what allowed them to become such a successful fighting force. Seven years they dragged out the war in a series of successful offenses against the Fire, Water, and smaller nations. Nothing lasts forever however, and their first defeated costed them much more than the losses of their enemies, loosing all grounds they had gained in the Frost, Sound and Hot Water.
When Konoha was at their borders along with the freshly reestablished forces of the Sound, along with threats of possible strikes from the Mist and Earth, the time to make peace had arrived. By then everyone, even the dominant force throughout the war was sickened of war after an embarrassing loss. A message was sent to all the great nations asking for peace talks, and within a day all the nations agreed. Just a week later the armistice was signed, and the only conditions for the land of Lightning was that it would return any lands they had gained through the war back to the original owners...and that was all. No lump sum of money to pay, no embargo...nothing. Afterall, having the strongest army allowed the land of Lightning to have the most negotiating power.
Now that the war is over, many of the Kumogakure shinobi walk with an arrogance to their step. Many believe they were the victors of the war in spite of gaining nothing simply because of their dominance, and many support their leader's decision to end the war once their own borders were threatened. It's an odd belief, but it goes to show the dedication the people have to their own village.
Kirigakure's transformation over the years is one of the most unique in that it reverted back to their old ways, while also keeping newer values. Over the hundred years that passed, the Blood Mist ways seemed to make a comeback in the village, mainly due to a desire to make their Shinobi the most feared in the land again, once it became clear that peace was not going to last much longer. Programs that hadn't been used for almost a hundred years had been restarted, and Mist shinobi once again became more and more infamous for ruthlessness and their assassin-like ways. Even the seven swordsmen program was revived to make Kirigakure a feared village. All this was decided by the village elders and Kage, who had their own desires for the village. They decided that mist ninja should act, think, and feel very much different than any other shinobi from the great nations, and to this day Hidden Mist shinobi are infamous for doing anything they can to complete objectives, gain power, and retain honor.
One cannot speak about the Hidden Mist without mentioning their now infamous war crimes...genocide against the Hyuga and Uchiha clans. This was a crime that was decades in the making. Roughly 50 years ago, the Hidden mist began a project to make a clan of their own that would be feared if war would ever strike. It was common knowledge afterall, that if war ever did strike Kumogakure would be at a major disadvantage against Konoha due to their lacking of prominent clans, and so they made the Iseya clan. Iseya, that's a last name that can only be spoken in hushed tone now-a-days due to their crimes. The Iseya's were breed into their Kekkei Genkai with only one purpose: Infiltrate enemy lines or battlefields, and destroy all Hyuga and Uchiha to demoralize Konoha forces.
The results of such a campaign were stunning; both Hyuga and Uchiha suffered a staggering amount of casualties. Their numbers suffered so much that their clans were actually completely pulled from the war due to fear that they could all die out. As for the rest of the war, the Mist played an ever changing war. Kirigakure and Konohagakure constantly exchanged both large and small offenses, while the Mist failed several large invasions into the land of Lightning with high casualties. Only two fronts to the war, yet the forces were so split up that in the end they couldn't effectively launch offensives. They didn't have the numbers to push through the lightning's defense, and they didn't have the firepower to push through the Leaf's lines without completely focusing on one target and leaving themselves venerable.
They couldn't keep it up forever, no one could. When the land of lightning offered peace, along with every other great nation, they grudgingly accepted. Little did they know that they would suffer the harshest of the terms of the armistice. Once light was shed upon their war-crimes to the other nations, only the most severe punishments were delivered. The Hidden mist owed a very large amount of money to compensate both the Hyuga and Uchiha clans, a higher tariff on goods must be paid, and furthermore the entire Iseya clan must be put to death for their crimes. These were the terms laid out, and if the Land of Water would not accept these terms then they would remain at war with the land of Fire in spite of the major peace.
About a year has passed since then, and a slight change in attitude of the village has risen. The leaders now strive for a more progressive approach with their politics, while trying to keep the blood mist style alive. In short, they're mixing progressive views with blood mist tactics. A code of ethics was instated, and many safety measures to ensure the lives of their own shinobi were put in place. Such actions weren't without controversy however, and for the first time in years the generations of Kumogakure was split in their beliefs. The older generation believed that the mist should retain their blood ways, and should have never accepted such a bias treaty. Meanwhile the middle generation of adults believe a more progressive approach is needed after witnessing war. Then there is the youth, who believe in a combination between the blood mist and progressive ways, afterall they were fed war propaganda much of their life but their peers strive for change.
Though it may be a smaller village, the change the hidden sound has gone through is so significant that it must be mentioned. For those who do not know, Otogakure was originally established by Orochimaru, who united many different clans to form the sound. Originally the sound simply existed to serve Orochimaru...however once Orochimaru passed they all decided to take a vastly different path. Rather than remaining a series of hidden, separate bases connected by a long network of message routes, the remaining Sound Shinobi united their forces into creating one village at the center of the Land of Sound, officially becoming a legitimate hidden village.
The newly established village then dedicated themselves to Orochimaru's original, untainted, goals of scientific pursuit, and of jutsu creation. With access to Orochimaru's records (Though they belonged to a darker time) Otogakure became an epicenter of learning and discovery within just decades, and unlike many nations they were willing to share most of their discoveries with the rest of the world. Primarily they shared their advancement in medicines and biology, however for security measures they kept many of their jutsu creations and chakra advancements to themselves. This ensured that if under a foreign threat the small nation would hold some advantages against a larger adversary.
However, in spite of all the good the nation did, the very name of Orochimaru still tainted the village's reputation. So in order to prove they were a peaceful nation, the village elders made a pact of neutrality similar to that of the land of iron. What this meant is that no matter what happened, the land of Sound would always remain peaceful and would never attack unless to defend itself. While most of the world saw change and hope in the pact, as well as the many scientific advances, others saw weakness. Not even a decade ago, the land of sound was invaded in a blitzkrieg style attack by the Hidden Cloud, striking faster than the village could ready its defenses. It was only seven hours before Otogakure surrendered to the land of Lightning, and would begin an almost decade-long occupation.
The rules of occupation under the land of Lightning were simple. Otogakure would supply all of it's scientific and jutsu knowledge with the hidden cloud, give shelter and medical aid to its soldiers, assist the Cloud in the war, and in return they could remain the Hidden Sound. Life under the grasp of Kumogakure was easy at first. There was plenty of food, citizens and shinobi were allowed to go about their day normally, and oppression was minimal. On the surface the Sound seemed more than cooperative with the demands of the Cloud. However, behind the scenes Sound shinobi and researchers were frantically burying and transferring all of the documents that they could to try and keep the land of Lightning from getting their hands on their most precious techniques. This movement became known as the army of shadows, and their goal was simply to resist the land of Lightning by hiding valuable information as long as possible. Unlike what most think, their goals never were to openly fight against the lightning as it was a well known fact that they would loose if attempting such an operation. For the most part they succeeded, though in the later years of the war they could not prevent all information from entering the hands of the lightning.
Towards the later years of the war, roughly five or so years in, life changed dramatically for the land of Sound. Food was rationed at an increased rate every month, sometimes taking rationing to the extremes. Financial tribute taxation became a law, in which all sound citizens had to pay an extra tax to help support the land of Lightning's war efforts. The final change was that some shinobi were even taken out of their homes and forced to fight on the front lines once the Hidden Leaf began to finally push back against Kumogakure. Quality of life took a dramatic shift, hunger plagued the village, and many were put out into the streets once Lightning soldiers began kicking citizens out of their own homes. Something had to change, and this was when the army of shadows became violent. Contact was established with Konoha forces, and they began actively assisting the Leaf by relaying them intel about enemy forces. In the end it paid off, as in the seventh year of the war Konoha forces stormed through occupied lands in a major counter offensive, liberating the Hidden Sound as well as the land of Hot Water and Frost. After liberation the sound gathered what forces it could, and assisted the land of Fire in pushing back their common foe.
Now that the war has ended, the now scarred village of Otogakure has started up business as usual. Embarrassed by succumbing to a foreign power so quickly, the leaders now seek to not only thrive in scientific research, but to make the Sound the envy of the shinobi world.
Sunagakure, in spite of its small population and military, was one of the few hidden villages that actually thrived during the chaos of the last few decades. Originally sticking to its traditions and values, over the years there was very little change across the deserts of Sunagakure. Wether this was due to the geographic isolation of the deserts spanning the land of Wind, or the stern but fair laws that the fifth kazekage Gaara implemented to ensure that foreign influences could not interfere with the ways of the sand. However, once nations began building up their arsenals it became very clear that both Sunagakure and Iwagakure sat over very large reserves of precious metals. Both economies would come to thrive, though it would be Sunagakure that would see the most change.
Over three decades ago, one orders came in from the land of lightning for mass amounts of precious metals, the once stale economy of Sunagakure exploded. Everything improved, the roads, the buildings, even the electrical systems. GDP rose exponentially, and suddenly the once traditional hidden village became a modern trade empire and all who inhabited the village reaped the benefits. Things were going well, but then decades later the war would begin and all would change.
Originally the Land of Wind was neutral along with the Land of Earth when the war started. Both nations were receiving quite a bit of income from the great nations demanding materials for weapons. They had the perfect ploy to remain out of the most devastating war to strike the land...but soon disaster struck Sunagakure. The Kazekage was assassinated, by a very complex assassination plot traced back to none other than their trade competitor Iwagakure, hoping to cause turmoil that would sabotage their trade. The people were outraged, and war was soon declared on Iwagakure. However, such an act of aggression did not go unnoticed by the other great nations, and all the other three did not hesitate to declare war on the Land of Wind.
The sands of Sunagakure would turn blood red. Both Iwagakure and Sunagakure launched major offenses on each other that would clash in the desert. Whether it was the sandy highlands, or the rocky deserts, both armies never saw the other's hidden village, but rather smaller towns scattered throughout the land. In the earlier years of the war the hidden sand saw it's scattered towns pillaged to ruin by Iwagakure forces. Then in the later years however the Sand seemed to organize its forces by emphasizing its specialty in desert warfare. Higher ranking shinobi decided to make it a war of attrition, and rather than directly attack the enemy they would use protracted warfare to destroy enemy supply lines, then quickly fleeing before any major battle would occur. What this did was deplete the Land of Earth's supplies, and crush moral. This tactic only needed to happen for just three months before the feeble and malnourished Iwagakure armies were completely wiped out by the advancing Sand. After a series of stunning losses on the battlefiled, Iwagakure would find their towns burned to the ground. Sunagakure's advance would go on a few more months before the much more rocky terrain would be taken advantage of by the enemy and they would be forced to retreat. During this time it should be noted that Sunagakure did launch small invasions into the land of Fire. However, they were quickly fought off by the more unified land of fire forces.
Like all nations, the war eventually came to an end. Sunagakure's terms for peace were relatively light. A small teriff would be placed on their future trade goods, and they would be forced to make peace with Iwakagure as well as compensate for damages to their countryside. Now a days the Sand is back to it's normal groove, traditional yet modern. However, they bear a great grudge against Iwagakure.
The final major village that will be discussed, for now. Iwagakure, the Hidden Stone played a major influence in the lead up to the war. Long before the Hidden Sand was in the ore business, it was Iwagakure the supplied all of the resources to the nations preparing for war. Prior to this major selling, Iwagakure had one of the larges villages as well as one of the largest armies. Their army rivaled that of even the Hidden Cloud...however their goals were not imperialistic like that of the lightning. Their desire was simply to become the best; and needless to say their attitudes reflected this. A deep burning centered in the village, everything they did was to put themselves above the competition. That's why they so willingly entered trade agreements with multiple nations for raw materials that could be use to stockade weapons, armor, etc. While the world was willingly preparing to kill each other, Iwagakure was making vasts amounts of money. They ran a gigantic monopoly...until Sunagakure came around. Once competition came Iwagakure stopped making their major profits. There was still money being made, but it was nothing compared to what they had. Meanwhile Sunagakure was thriving from it....people grew envious. Village elders decided something needed to happen, and that's when the assassination plot was made.
Using ANBU, Sunagakure was infiltrated and the Kazekage was poisoned. This plot took months of planning, and was executed flawlessly. However, once the Kazekage was dead all foreigners in the city were rounded up and questioned under genjutusu. It wasn't long before the Iwagakure special forces broke under pressure...and war broke out between the two nations.
At the start, the war was successful for the Land of Earth. They had a few early victories in the desert, and even had managed to destroy a few small towns in the process. Iwagakure forces knew that they couldn't take the Sand village itself, so rather than launching a straight forward attack their plan was to choke out Sunagakure by destroying the towns that surrounded it and forcing them into submission. Things were going so well for them that they actually took a fair amount of shinobi out of reserves and launched a small invasion at the land of fire. This invading force however would be intercepted by Konoha forces before they could reach the land of lightning, and instead would battle it out and completely destroy the countries of the Grass, Rain, and even Rivers. Before finally being pushed by the Sand's war of attrition strategy, roughly 40% of the land of winds small towns were burned to the ground, and the villages of the grass and rain were completely leveled to the ground, while the land of rivers remained an active warzone for all three nations of Earth, Wind, and Fire.The civilians trapped in the fighting...treated as Prisoners of War. Most received proper care as prisoners, however there were a few crueler divisions that would much rather torture their POW's than waste resources on them. It would be these reports that would headline news at Sunagakure, and would make their shinobi bitter with anger.
After three years of war passed, Iwagakure found their major forces slaughtered in the deserts of the Land of Wind, many succumbing to dehydration and starvation, while the rest were finished off by bitter Sand Shinobi. The Hidden Stone soon found themselves on the other end of the blade, as the smaller, much more experienced Sunagakure launched a series of quick offenses into their lands. All of Iwagakure's experienced shinobi had either fallen in the desert, or were busy fighting the land of Fire in some foreign small nation. The only shinobi that could be spared were inexperienced when it came to war, and thus for second time in the war Iwagakure suffered devastating losses. Towns would be completely burned to the ground. Their citizens, slaughtered and abused like animals completely stripped of honor. Sunagkure's harsh treatment of Earth citizens was their shinobi's view of justice for the bloodshed they caused.
All seemed like a lost cause for the land of Earth, who was making no progress against the land of Fire and loosing more and more shinobi to the Sand. A hasty decision was made, to pull away from fighting the land of Fire in hope that they wouldn't try and counter attack, and focus completely on Sunagakure. Remarkably the plan worked, as Konoha was still focused on defending their homeland from the seemingly unstoppable land of Lightning. Now Iwagakure could focus all of its efforts on the land of Wind, and their troops were fueled by revenge. 'Death to the sand!' was a common war cry that rallied the veterans from the eastern front to push back the sand, using the rocky terrain to punish Sunagakure forces by creating multiple series of rockslides that would devastate their lines before launching a stunning barrage of attacks. It wasn't even a month before the Hidden Sand was out of the land of the earth and now fighting the enemy back in the desert.
At this point both nations had exhausted themselves of all resources. Their shinobi were now tired of war much like the rest of the world, and both sides called out for peace. When the armistice was reached, Iwagakure faced a similar price that Sunagakure did. A tariff was placed on their goods, much like Sunagakure's, and they were forced to compensate the Sand for the damage to their villages. Now in times of peace, a new national rivalry has been created between Iwagakure and Sunagakure, much like the rivalry between the Leaf and Cloud. Both nations competing to prove their dominance to the other.
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