Chapter 33- Warpath

A sunny, Tuesday morning in the Land of Lightning's Capitol.

Two men sat at a table, facing one another with stony masks of indifference.

The younger of the two was extremely muscled and had a tall frame. His dark brown skin, though uncommon throughout the world, was somewhat more common in the Land of Lightning.

The young man was the fourth Raikage, and his hitai-ate was prominently displayed on his forehead, broadcasting his allegiance to the Village hidden in the Clouds.

The other person at this meeting was fairly old, perhaps a few years beyond 70. Wrinkles were prominent on his face, but his long, gray hair still had a few streaks of color in it.

The two sat for a couple minutes before the older man finally spoke. His voice was gravelly and low. Even though it was somewhat quiet, it was a voice with an iron edge that commanded respect.

"Why don't you explain to me, Raikage-dono, exactly why you have called for a complete information blackout and isolation of my country?

I awoke this morning to a report that all my ambassadors have been recalled and all forms of travel in and out of the country are locked down.

Furthermore, almost every foreign ambassador has requested to leave and bypass the lockdown.

A most curious event, no?"

A, the Yondaime Raikage, was new to his seat, his father passing away somewhat recently,

Though he was young, he was unflappable, and his father had groomed him particularly well.

He did not wither nor flinch under the gaze and accusation of the Lightning Daimyo

With an even tone, almost unbefitting of such a large and violent man, the Raikage replied.

"Daimyo-sama, I am most willing to tell you, however, the information is extremely sensitive.

May I bring in a few of my guards to seal the room?"

The Daimyo waved his hand before he picked up a bell on his desk and rang it.

"Very well."

Within seconds, several guards ran into the room before kneeling down and addressing the Daimyo.

One of them brought his head up from looking at the ground and spoke.

"Your orders, Daimyo-sama?"

"Let the Raikage bring his men in for a sensitive discussion."

The guard frowned before steeling his face.

"My lord, I believe this action most unwise, if the Raikage were to..."

The Daimyo harshly rebuked the man.

"Silence! I order you, and you obey. Now go."

The guards quietly filed out of the room and soon enough, several shinobi were led in.

The Raikage gave them a few signs and gestures, non-verbally ordering them to seal the room.

They saluted before wordlessly creating the barrier around the Daimyo and Raikage.

The non-shinobi guards that accompanied the ninja were on edge, and rested a hand on their swords.

The Daimyo looked around at the barrier that locked him in with the Raikage.

It was translucent, and flickered a light, electric blue.

The Daimyo turned his attention back to the Raikage.

"I apologize for the insolence of my soldiers.

They have dishonored you by their implications."

The Raikage politely responded.

"They only worry for your safety, Daimyo-sama.

Indeed a shinobi is a dangerous person."

The Damyo barked a harsh laugh out.

"You could kill me before they could even move.

You could kill me in the dead of night with no one the wiser.

The Shinobi of Kumo are excellent, and well worth the money I spend to support them."

The Raikage nodded at the unsaid implications.

The Daimyo controlled the vast majority of the country, and used his enormous wealth to subsidize Kumogakure.

At the end of the day, Shinobi were uncommon, and simply did not have the manpower to control an entire country.

True control relied on soldiers, samurai, and police in numbers unfieldable by a hidden village.

With Daimyos controlling the country and the resulting tax income, Kumogakure, and by extent all other hidden villages, served at their pleasure.

The Raikage could assassinate the Daimyo, yes, but what would happen after?

Someone would replace him. The civilian government was a hydra, and someone would always be able to step up and control the beast.

Maybe the Raikage could assassinate the next Daimyo as well.

Well then there would be another replacement, and a very suspicious one at that.

Sooner, rather than later, the civilian government would start to mistrust and suspect the ninja forces in a string of assassinated Daimyos.

Then they would hire a different villages ninja to protect them.

At that point, it would be evident that Kumo had been betraying them, and all support would be withdrawn, and civilian armies supported by foreign ninja would march on Kumo.

Kumogakure would not be able to withstand such an assault.

The world was a complicated place. There were no eternal alliances, only eternal interests.

The world had reached an uneasy balance for now, but how it got there is a long and complicated story.

The Warring States Period had only ended within living memory.

It lasted hundreds of years, but the story started long before that.

History is missing many details, but the easiest place to start is with Hagoromo Otsutsuki, the Sage of Six Paths.

The Sage, who was born with ability to form chakra by melding his physical and spiritual energies, created ninshu.

Ninshu was a systematic way to teach and learn how to connect one's spiritual energy to another person's.

Through ninshu, everyone would understand one another, ushering in true peace, was what the Sage thought.

The Sage taught and spread ninshu to everyone he could as he traveled the world.

Some took to his teachings while others did not.

The people that did follow him became the Shinobi Sect.

The Sage became despondent though. No matter how he tried, there were those who refused to learn ninshu.

It became evident to him that human nature precluded peace.

However, he had an idea that could bring all people together, and it is here that we note that the path to hell is paved with good intentions.

Hagoromo was blind to the evils of the human heart, and the world paid dearly for his mistake.

Using the chakra transfer technique, he connected all living beings to one another through his chakra.

He thought that once people were imbued with chakra, they would have no reason to not learn ninshu.

While he had once failed to spread ninshu, there was now another opportunity.

Hagoromo gave this opportunity to his second son Asura, naming Asura as the second head of the Shinobi Sect.

Hagoromo then split the ten-tails into the nine Bijuu using the Creation of All Technique, entrusting them to watch over humanity and guard against the reformation of the ten-tails,

After he created the Bijuu, Hagoromo lived just long enough to watch the gift of chakra be abused by his eldest son Indra.

Indra was talented and had fully absorbed the teachings on ninshu, but when his father gave him chakra, it opened doors that he never knew existed.

It was like showing a blacksmith, who had only made horseshoes and nails, how to make a sword.

Indra, using the teachings of ninshu, formed increasingly large amounts of chakra and created ninjutsu, weaponizing his father's gifts.

Most can guess where the story goes from here. The first and second son fought one another.

This forced the second son into also learning ninjutsu.

The two passed down their teachings, leading to more fighting.

The silver lining was that ninshu was difficult and esoteric.

If one wanted to learn ninjutsu, one would have to learn ninshu first.

This limited the spread of ninjutsu. Only those that dedicated their lives to its study would ever hold those powers.

Many years passed on, and ninjutsu was almost forgotten by the majority of the populace.

They lived their lives with their minute amounts of inherent chakra, never thinking or reaching above their station.

Ninjutsu was just a fairy tale or legend, only pertaining to secluded monks and hermits that had spent their whole lives dedicated to its study.

Indra and Asura reincarnated again and again, fighting each and every time.

During one incarnation though, there was a watershed moment.

Indra, always the genius, finally improved upon his father's teachings rather than bastardizing them.

He created the twelve basic hand seals.

It may not sound like much, but creating the 12 basic hand seals greatly simplified ninshu.

What had once taken years to learn could now be learned in days. What had taken decades to master now took months.

This was the start of the Warring States Period.

Ninjutsu and chakra, now greatly simplified and much easier to learn, spread like wildfire.

Who could withstand the allure of easy power?

The spread of chakra created the samurai, and the spread of ninjutsu created ninja.

The samurai and ninja segregated themselves into clans, guarding their newly found power and knowledge jealously, halting the spread.

Now that clans of people with superhuman abilities roamed the lands, the governments that predated the Warring States Period were caught in a Prisoner's Dilemma.

The best case scenario would be that no one hired these chakra-enhanced clans to fight wars.

But who could withstand the allure of easy power?

Traditional wars were fought with non-chakra enhanced soldiers, normal people so to say.

History does not record who first hired samurai and ninja as mercenaries, but someone brought them into the world of war.

As soon as they were hired on, the other side had to hire ninja and samurai as well.

Every war in the warring states period was then fought with soldiers against soldiers, ninja against ninja, and samurai against samurai.

You needed all three to be competitive on the battlefield.

Without massive amounts of unenhanced soldiers, you could be overwhelmed by your enemy, no matter how many elite chakra mercenaries you hired.

Samurai would act as heavy assault troops, and without them, your vanguard would collapse as the enemy samurai chewed through your own unenhanced soldiers.

Without ninja, you would be harassed, sabotaged, and ambushed. You needed your own ninja to counter them.

As the Warring States Period progressed, several more watershed moments occurred.

Maybe a hundred years after it started, another incarnation of Indra created genjutsu.

Like any good weapon, it spread to all corners of the globe.

Perhaps two hundred years into the Period, ninja started to outclass samurai as assault troops.

Ninjutsu continued to develop using the new 12 basic hand seals, and more powerful, more efficient, and more deadly jutsus were developed.

The average samurai and the average ninja were still somewhat evenly matched, with the samurai edging the ninja out in open battle.

However, the most gifted of ninja started to greatly outclass the greatest of the samurai.

It was almost impossible for a man who fought with swords to combat someone who could shatter and destroy entire landscapes with their jutsus.

The samurai did not completely disappear though, but they slowly faded into obscurity, surviving as bodyguards and peacekeepers, segregating themselves into the Land of Iron.

Maybe a hundred years after that was the end of the Warring States Period.

Many civilian historians say that the creation of the hidden village system was what ended the constant wars.

If there were any ninja historians, they would disagree.

That being said, there were no, or at least very few, ninja historians, so only those who lived through it and those of the highest echelons knew the truth.

Senju Hashirama ended the Warring States Period when he captured the Tailed Beasts and distributed them.

The tailed beasts had remained bystanders to the conflicts of man, staying true to their father's teachings.

They could have used force to end the warring states period, but what worth is peace bought with death, destruction, and fear?

So the Bijuu simply lamented and watched.

Until Senju Hashirama that is.

When he captured and distributed the Bijuu, he allowed humans to harness their destructive power.

He broke the balance between ninja and unenhanced soldiers.

Soldiers could use human wave tactics to tire out and wear down ninja to death.

It could take up to 25 soldiers to kill a genin, up to 100 to kill a chuunin, and up to a thousand to kill a jonin.

The Third Raikage, who fought against 10,000 ninja for three days and three nights, killed less than 1,000 of them. They rotated in and out against him until he died of exhaustion.

If he instead faced an army of 10,000 soldiers, he might kill 8,000, but he would tire just the same.

In a world where armies were measured in the millions, ninjas could kill until they ran out of chakra, but there would still be soldiers leftover.

Ninjas were just there to give the advantage to one of the larger armies, whether it be through attacking supply lines, assassinating commanders, or acting as shock troops.

Until Senju Hashirama that is.

Senju Hashirama was a man strong enough to end all wars by himself. He could kill entire armies, and he forced peace through overwhelming power.

But he knew that he was mortal, and when he died, the cycle of violence would begin anew.

So, he gave the major villages Bijuu, and they created jinchuuriki with them.

With the stamina, endurance, and power of a jinchuuriki, it would take untold amounts of soldiers to kill a single jinchuuriki.

The ninja would then just seal the Bijuu into a different sacrifice, and the dead soldiers would have been for nothing.

It was like every village had their own army-killing Sneju Hashirama.

And so was the "Era of Peace" ushered in.

There were 5 Great Shinobi Nations, each allied with a hidden village that owned at least one Bijuu.

Takigakure was allied to the Land of Cliffs which was small enough that it could not field an effective army, so it was considered a minor nation, but maintained its independence since it would cost to much to invade.

The 5 Great Shinobi Nations could no longer wage conventional war against each other.

They were caught in a deadlock.

If any nation invaded another with a conventional army, that army would be subject to a jinchuuriki's wrath.

The only way they could wage war were proxy wars using ninja, and if a country lost its jinchuuriki in a proxy war, they could then be invaded.

However this created more problems.

Without any large wars to support the ninja as mercenaries, the hidden villages were losing too much money to stay afloat.

But the Daimyo couldn't afford to lose its jinchuuriki, and by extension its hidden village.

So the Nations had to subsidize the villages.

This situation created a codependency where villages and nations can only survive with the other.

There were essentially 3 focal points of power, the Nation with its armies, the Kage and the hidden village, and the Jinchuuriki and their bijuu.

The Nation supported the Kage and the Hidden Village.

The Kage and the Hidden Village protected and controlled the jinchuuriki.

The Jinchuuriki protected the Nation from mass invasion.

If any of the three was missing, all three would fall.

Which brings us back to the discussion between the Fourth Raikage and the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning.

The Raikage opened his mouth.

"To answer your questions,

Last night, we discovered that all nine of the Bijuu have escaped their seals without any chance of recovery.

However, one of our Bijuu has decided to stay with its jinchuuriki as they have a good relationship.

The Bijuu in question has provided the information to us. It had already escaped its seal, so if it had malintent towards us, it would've rampaged and destroyed the village.

To hide this information from other nations, we have decided to lock down the country to stop any information from getting out.

As such, we also took precautionary measures to recall all of your diplomats.

Our lockdown included foreign diplomats, and we wish to avoid a situation where you are pressured into a prisoner exchange that can then lead to an information leak.

We were not expecting the reaction from all the other countries however.

After our lockdown and recall, all the other nations and villages copied our action, leading to scenario where the diplomats of all countries have been recalled and each nation locked down.

We believe that their response further confirms that they too have lost their Bijuu, corroborating the eight-tails story.

We are reestablishing contact with our spies and sleeper cells as fast as we can, but we will be in a total information blackout for at least a month or two due to foreign lockdowns.

The Daimyo mouth twitched the slightest bit.

"You're telling me that we are the only nation with a bijuu? How sure are you?"

"We are over 99% certain of that information."

"How long can we hide that fact?"

"If the village and your standby forces deploy to the borders immediately, up to six months potentially."

"Then do so. I want our country without any leaks for as long as possible. I want full wartime shinobi deployment with a reduction of all non-wartime related missions."

The Raikage's lips slightly downturned.

"I can do that, but I would like to hear your reasoning."

The Daimyo smiled before looking off into the distance and starting his story.

"Before I took the throne, I watched my father unite this entire peninsula into the Land of Lightning.

He quelled the warlords, killed the bandits, and ushered in relative peace as he reigned.

He was a magnificent Daimyo, and I idolized him.

More so than idolizing him, I wanted to surpass him."

The Daimyo clenched a fist, before relaxing and slowly exhaling.

"And then that damn Senju came around.

He gave our country the two-tails and the eight-tails yes, but he killed my dream.

The only way I could ever surpass my father was to expand the Land of Lightning, and Hashirama Senju killed that.

I will never conquer another land with these measly Shinobi Wars. These last three proxy wars might of well have been nothing.

I have seen bloodier fights over a girl's board game in the imperial harem.

Now, you come to me, in the twilight of my years, having already resigned myself to death, and tell me,

'Daimyo, your one dream in life is finally a possibility.'

You can't expect me not to take the opportunity and grasp it as hard as I can."

The Fourth Raikage was clenching his teeth in anger, and the following words came out bit by bit.

"I fought in the 3rd Great Shinobi War.

My father died in that war.

You mock him and my village with your dismissal."

The Daimyo leveled a gaze against the young Raikage, and the Raikage almost killed the man.

The older man was looking at the Raikage like he was a child, and the only reason that A didn't immediately behead the man with his lightning cloak was that single glint in the Daimyo's eyes.

A had seen that glint in his father's eyes, and towards his later years, the third Raikage had that look in his eyes more and more as he raised A and groomed him for the position of Raikage.

The Daimyo continued to look at the young man. He admired the boy more than the boy would know.

The boy was tough, war hardened, loyal, and an eminent and inspiring leader of men. The perfect right hand.

His only problem was that he was a little naive. That would be fixed in enough time though.

The Daimyo replied to the young Raikage.

"You have seen battles that lasted days.

You've seen men die in front of you.

You've seen a hundred men die to capture a stronghold.

I have seen sieges that lasted for years.

I've seen entire armies laid to waste.

I've seen a thousand men die for an inch of land.

Have you seen the rivers run red with blood?

Have you seen vultures and ravens following you in such numbers they black out the sky?

Have you seen a field so full of bodies you could walk from one end to the other without touching the ground?

My boy, you have seen battles.

I will show you war."

The Raikage met the flashing eyes of the Land Of Lightning's Daimyo.

They locked gazes and neither broke eye contact for a few seconds more.

The Daimyo broke the tense silence.

"Buy us as much time as possible while we raise the army and build the navy.

Lock down everything as completely as you can. I authorize you for any means necessary, within reason of course, even on our own citizens.

It has been over half a century since ninja have been integrated into the army.

Send me a small portion of your commanders on rotations to learn how to effectively combine our forces.

I will get you more details and more clear orders as the plans develop, but for now, keep the borders locked."

The Raikage nodded and stood up.

"Very well, Daimyo."

The Daimyo then stood up to match the young man.

A signaled to his guards to break the barrier, which quickly disintegrated.

He then strode from the room with all his ninja following him.

After he had left, the Daimyo looked to his guards.

"Assemble my ministers for an emergency meeting."

When the Daimyo was young, he planned out a full invasion of the entire continent.

After the Bijuu were handed out, the plans were left to gather dust.

Every couple years, either for whimsy or fancy, the Daimyo would go back to his old plans and refine or update them.

Until today, he had never thought they could be used.

In Iwagakure.

Onoki the fence sitter slammed his fist on the table.

His advisors, a group of 3 retired men, were less than useless.

They represented the various interest groups of Iwa, one was his ninja commander, another the head of the production guild, and the last the head of the trade guild.

Iwa was a village for one thing and one thing only, Ninja.

The Production Guild was in charge of providing equipment for ninja while the Trade Guild was responsible for acquiring anything that the Production Guild couldn't make like specialty goods and raw materials.

Onoki had not yet heard a single good idea from any of his advisors.

Last night, he had lost the village's two bijuu, and before the dust could even settle, somehow Lightning had recalled all its ambassadors and diplomats.

As soon as that had happened, Onoki knew that Lightning and Kumogakure were up to nothing good, and ordered the exact same, a full lockdown and recall of all ambassadors of Earth.

It was just that he had no idea what that fossil of a Damiyo was doing over there. It was most worrisome, especially considering that the new Raikage was an unproven and hotheaded young man.

Onoki was worried that the Raikage would go along with anything that Daimyo wanted.

And here came these three idiots, and all they were complaining about was the lockdown,

How are we going to make more Kunai?

How are we going to acquire coal and iron?

How are we going to equip our men?

These idiots were so blind that all they saw was the short term, not understanding that the questions they should be asking are much more subtle.

How did both Bijuu escape on the same day?

That question was what bothered Onoki the most.

He had no idea how it could happen unless it was a coordinated effort between Bijuu. but how would they coordinate?

The only conclusion that he could come to is that the Bijuu have some ability to share thoughts or communicate, negating seals and distance.

Han and Roshi were not friends and wouldn't be caught dead in the same room if they could help it.

Speaking of Han and Roshi, while Roshi was severely injured, Han was untouched.

The best news Onoki had got all day was that Han was completely healthy.

Furthermore, Han had claimed that he had not lost his abilities in totality.

He was still able to use the Boil release and his reserves were still massive, but he had lost his increased regeneration, both chakra wise and injury recovery.

A blessing to be sure. With the bijuu gone, perhaps Onoki could start to reintegrate Han into village. It would take a while though. Same for Roshi, if he survived.

And then there was Konohagakure.

His spies had gotten some preliminary reports to him so far, and they said that over a week ago, the Kyuubi escaped its seal and injured the Yondaime, who has not appeared in public since.

Why would they lose the Kyuubi tight now of all times?

Perhaps the Kyuubi discovered how to escape seals?

Onoki suddenly felt all the pieces fit together in an instant, and it felt like a spool of wire was being ripped from out his head.

The coordination aspect.

Why would the Yonbi and Gobi do that?

Only two reasons were possible.

To increase chaos, or the two bijuu found out at the same time how to escape their seals.

Increasing chaos was good if they wanted time to run away and escape, but that didn't make sense.

If they could break out of their seals once, they could do it again. They wouldn't need the extra time to escape.

It would take at least weeks to create new methods of sealing, and the hours of chaos bought by escaping at the same time weren't really worth it.

Also, they couldn't have predicted how the countries would respond, creating the worldwide lockdown and freezing each and every village.

Furthermore, the fact of the matter is that neither the Yonbi nor the Gobi killed anyone. Roshi was injured yes, but not a single person died.

Chaos was obviously not the goal, so the two bijuu must have both figured it out at the same time.

There were only two ways for that to occur, absolute coincidence, or the Bijuu could communicate their escape method across seals and distance.

Onoki didn't believe in coincidence,.

The Bijuu must be able to speak with one another.

Which means...

All Bijuu found out how to escape at the same time and then escaped.

The Kyuubi must've figured out how to escape first and then told the other 8 bijuu.

With how the Five Great Nations and each hidden village reacting, Onoki was sure that every village lost its' Bijuu.

However, there would be no reason for Kumo to react the way they did based on what happened in Kumo alone.

Kumo or Lightning must've recalled their ambassadors almost instantly after their Bijuu escaped.

But then Onoki remembered that Kumo has a perfect jinchuuriki of the Hachibi.

The Hachibi must've told them exactly what was going on.

But why recall the diplomats? They wouldn't have done that unless they were planning on going to war, and would they really go to war right after losing their Bijuu?

But they wouldn't be able to plan for the war unless the Hachibi told them before hand.

If the Hachibi was willing to tell them before escaping, then its relationship with Kumo must be impeccable.

If the relationship is good, and Kumo is recalling diplomats like a war is starting, there is only one possible conclusion.

Kumogakure still has control of the Hachibi, and they are preparing for war to take advantage of that fact.

Onoki's eyes flew open and he started barking out orders at the three nincompoops in front of him.

They jumped to his orders, and as they started scurrying about, Onoki started drafting a letter to his Daimyo.

If Lightning was the only country with a Bijuu, bad things were going to happen, and civilian and shinobi alike had to prepare for the worst.

On the off chance that Onoki was wrong, being prepared never hurt.

The best option was to sit back and confirm what was going on before acting.

But always be prepared for action before sitting back.

In Kirigakure, Sunagkure, and Takigakure

There were smart people all over the world, and with the political upheaval on the same night as the loss of Bijuu, someone in each village came to a similar conclusion.

All Bijuu were lost.

However, they did not know Lightning and Kumo like Onoki did, so they missed out on a few of the finer points.

In Konoha,

Another council meeting was called in late morning.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked around the room.

"Reports?"

A young Shikaku Nara stood up before speaking.

"We were still somewhat on a war footing following the Third Shinobi war.

Thus, we expect our return to wartime standard to take less than a month.

We are in the process of recalling all Shinobi afield."

Shikaku sat back down.

The Sandaime Hokage rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"That is good news, but can anyone tell me what is going on?

Why did the other countries lock their borders?

Why are their no foreign diplomats in the Land of Fire?

Why did none of our diplomats return upon their recall?"

The members of the council looked at each other for a moment, but no one had the courage to stand up and speak.

Shikaku Nara stood up again and mumbled 'troublesome' under his breath.

"Hokage-sama.

Our best guess is as follows;

Something occurred somewhere that caused a country to recall its diplomats and lock its borders.

In response to that, another country took the same actions.

That then started a chain reaction, and we were the last to react.

Which means that we were the last to lock our borders, and the last to recall diplomats.

Thus, all foreign diplomats were able to leave prior to us locking the border, and all other countries locked our diplomats in before we recalled them.

The Fire Capitol kept track of the order of diplomats leaving, so we do know a little.

Kumo acted first, followed by Iwa, then Suna, Taki, and Kiri. Then the minor countries followed suit.

Thus we theorize that whatever happened, happened in Kumo, and Iwa reacted."

Sarutobi was frowning.

"Yes, but what happened in Kumo?"

Shikaku was impassive.

"We have no idea."