Prologue
Cries of men and seagulls mixed together in a confusing barrage of sound echoing throughout the docks as hundreds of ships attempted to navigate in to the harbor. The ships varied greatly in size, the biggest of which could hold hundreds of men at once while the smallest could hardly be called anything other than a glorified rowboat. Dragonmouth Port was a sight to behold, operating at a scale unparalleled throughout the known lands. Breakwaters and jetties outlined the harbor haphazardly, giving the city and port its moniker: the sight of the Port from the highest towers in the royal palace resembled the wide open jaw of a beast with long jagged teeth. The noon sunlight shone on the banners that danced from the majority of the docked and newly-arriving ships – a bright azure dragon painted on a sea of green. These were the colors of Dragonmouth, capital of the Eastern Kingdoms.
Soldiers clad in steel from head to foot marched from numerous gangways, setting foot on land, their boots drumming a rhythmic clang which drowned out the sounds of the busy neighboring marketplace. A young boy with long blonde braided hair was amongst the soldiers, standing out due to his absence of armor and weapons. He wore a bulky brown travelling cloak which was obviously inadequate for the current weather. The captain of the soldiers, who showed his rank by having a brighter emerald trim on his armor accompanied him away from the rest of the group as they talked in low voices. The boy reached from deep within his cloak and dropped a small grey sack on the captain's hand, who was alarmed by the sound that the sack made as it rang with the distinctive jingle of coins.
"Careful boy! Who in the world taught you your spy craft anyways? To hand this out to me in broad daylight, in the center of the port for everyone to see. Are you mad?" The Captain hissed angrily as he unadorned his helm, his brow shining with perspiration. The man reached for his queue from behind his shoulders and picked out a small piece of parchment sealed with blue wax. He shoved it in to the boy's hands before uttering "Now go, Kuzu, before someone else notices your idiocy. Notify your brother of what you learned immediately."
Kuzu smiled softly at the balding man, who was muttering about hair loss at his age and how it reflected poorly on the state of his queue. Men in the East never cut their hair, as the length and strength of a man's queue was considered equal to his own strength and worth. "Thank you Sesha for all your help, I would not have made it without you. I will make sure my brother adequately rewards you." Kuzu uttered as he bowed deeply, before setting off at a fast pace towards the market.
Sesha's men called out to him from behind him, eager to find respite from the summer heat and the weight of their uniforms in the cool shade of their barracks. The old man's wrinkles grew deeper in to a scowl as he watched Kuzu run towards the main road which connected the port and market to the rest of the city's trade and royal districts. With a last look, Sesha donned his helm once again and joined his group.
Green curtains billowed from the sea wind in a large sunlit room. The room was richly decorated with detailed maps of island chains and archipelagos with very thin threads of different cultured fabrics connecting various dots etched on the parchment. The largest concentration of threads found themselves connecting in one single point: the city of Dragonmouth. The city's label on the map was however ruined thanks to the long steel dagger which was firmly lodged in the parchment and through the wooden base of the map's frame. A young man sat by a desk cluttered with parchment, navigation tools and bowls filled with an assortment of food. His face was dark and in deep contemplation, gazing intently at a small emerald ring on his thumb. He wore rich silk robes of azure with ornate emerald waves trimmed on his sleeves. A soft knock on the door seemingly woke him from his trance as he straightened himself on the chair and said "Enter".
Kuzu entered the door shedding his long travelling cloak while peering intently at the map. He whistled as he saw the dagger lodged in the map. "That bad is it?" He queried before reaching for an apple from the bowl of fruits that was on the man's cluttered desk.
"Worse. We are at full naval warfare with the West, who are raiding our easternmost holds. If we lose them we would miss out on precious supplies which we can't spare to lose if we want to stand a chance at posing a suitable threat to the North. I'm hoping your little trip to that retched hen's nest gave you some valuable information."
"My king, you shouldn't use such words when speaking about foreign royalty. People might think you have no respect for monarchy." Kuzu replied with a mocking tone. He passed the man the parchment that he had obtained from Sesha and added "Suzaku of the South sends you her regards. Oh and before I forget, Sesha went to many lengths to aid me, as he likes to say. All he did really was divert some attention so I could act freely. He still thinks of me as a child, the poor fool. Please make sure you reward him somehow, will you?" Kuzu interrupted the progress he was making on his apple and reached instead for the dagger, pulling it out effortlessly. Twirling the dagger expertly, he used it to skewer a chunk of meat from a platter next to the bowl of fruit and began to eagerly bite off bits of beef. "Ahh, nothing like good old tough northern beef. We should look in to bringing in a few of them and domesticating them over here."
"It's not the quality of the cattle that give the meat its taste, but the mountain grass that they eat. It is exclusive to the northern lands and would not grow down here." The man absent mindedly replied before drawing a sharp breath, his eyes fixed on Kuzu's eyes with fierce attention. "Is this true?"
Kuzu saw his own sapphire eyes reflected in the King's murky brown. Something inexplicable flashed in Kuzu's eyes before he replied with an impish grin "Yes brother, Mikado of the Shinju Kingdom has married Kaguya Otsutsuki two weeks ago."
The King sprang from his chair, crumpling the parchment in his hand, edging closer to the map and whispering "This changes everything, Kuzu."
Kuzu rose up as well, still smiling. He flung the dagger at the center of the map, where a single dot stood next to a detailed depiction of a massive tree. "Yes it does, Seiryu. War will break out once again and Kaguya will be at the very root of it all."