(34 Years Old)
Kazeshini collapsed into bed, absolutely exhausted.
The debates had lasted hours, and Kazeshini had unsealed a massive oak table and chairs for her guests.
There had been many requirements given to the Hatake clan to live by and follow if they were to settle in Taiyo, and one of the stipulations had been that they were all required to take classes at the academy.
That little stipulation had pissed quite a few of the Hatake clansmen, but Kazeshini had required it and the Hatake clan head had agreed to it. They were all required to take classes that the academy required unless any of the clansmen or women tested out of the class. She had also given the clan head a designated month long settling in period before she personally began splitting the clan into the different guilds, groups, and services of Taiyo. Many of the civilian Hatake women would be forced to pick up useful hobbies and jobs that would help Taiyo, especially as Kazeshini wouldn't suffer anyone acting lazy within Taiyo.
Now, she just wanted to sleep, which was starting to be difficult with the massive migraine pounding at her temples.
The one stipulation the Hatake clan had given to her, however, was that they wanted to know the strength of their new 'leader.' Until they knew if Kazeshini was strong enough to lead them, they wouldn't truly be citizens of Taiyo and only be biding their time till a better option came around. None of the Hatake clan wanted to have to bend the knee to a weak or incompetent leader.
The fight between Kazeshini and the Hatake clan head would take place later that very day, and it would be a no holds barred fight.
With a sigh, Kazeshini slipped off her bed and walked slowly towards her closet, the same closet which was filled with tons of different outfits for any occasion.
This time, she chose her regular armor, armor which she had practically remade from high quality metal, leather, and silk. Her armor was still the same, she had just made it so much better than it had been when she had first created it. With some help from a clone, Kazeshini undressed from her layered kimono and slipped into simple pants and a shirt. Then, with careful consideration, each piece of armor was strapped on and tightened or tied properly and with great ceremony.
Finished getting dressed, Kazeshini carefully walked out of her rooms and towards the throne room once more. Half of the Elements had been waiting patiently for her just in the hallways outside of her rooms while the other half stayed waiting with the Hatake clan, keeping an eye on the large group of shinobi.
Once in the throne room, Kazeshini grabbed Issen Amimasu from where it was resting behind her throne. The large nodachi practically hummed to her at the thought of being used once again, not having seen much action in the last few years.
"Come, Hatake-san. We will go outside of the village for our fight." Kazeshini stated, Issen Amimasu being carefully carried against one shoulder.
"Of course, Kazeshini-dono."
~~~oOo~~~
White Rain Interlude
Torren Itade had simply been a civilian merchant when he had met Kazeshini-sama. She had saved him and his family from bandits, and then she had guided them to Taiyo. Taiyo where he and his family had learned how to read and write, where his family had been able to have a good life.
He had never been a warrior or fighter, but he had been chosen by Kazeshini-sama to help the village create treaties with other villages be they simple small farming villages or great cities housing lords or daimyo's.
Kazeshini-sama had seen his work when negotiating with potential buyers and had given him a uniform (a uniform which consisted of formal light grey hakama pants with a dark grey kosode top) and a white silk haori that had a gold stitched rain pattern as the heraldry with the symbol of Taiyo on the back of the white haori. Kazeshini-sama herself had forged a beautiful and intricate haori himo that connected either side of the haori closed which resembled the symbol of Taiyo.
Itade's son had taken over the family business, which had boomed exponentially with the increase of invaluable silk, paper, and alcohol. He had been sent out on missions, normally astride a horse that Kazeshini-sama herself had somehow created from some sort of mix of an actual horse and actual elements.
(Kazeshini knew that any ambassador needed to utilize speed if they weren't already able to use chakra. Since her chosen White Rain was far too old to learn chakra, she had taken upon herself the challenge of creating for the man a ride that could travel at shinobi speeds. With careful planning, she had bought a young filly who she then used fuinjutsu to change. With careful experiments, the horse had grown strong and powerful with a body made of soft but heated ash, hooves made of metal, teeth made of white porcelain, and bones made of granite. Kazeshini had commissioned a saddle for the exquisite mare, a creature more powerful than any normal horse, that was befitting the ambassador of Taiyo.)
Being called the White Rain of Taiyo, a designated position of power within the village, made him incredibly grateful. He had always been a simple merchant, not having the funds to raise his station too high in life before coming to Taiyo, but now he was one of twelve men and women who were of most importance to Kazeshini-sama.
Having brokered a deal with the Hatake clan for Kazeshini-sama, he felt great pride in his station as the White Rain of Taiyo. He had brokered plenty of deals and treaties beforehand, mainly with lowkey agricultural villages and minor lords, but the Hatake clan would bring great strength to Taiyo and his name as the White Rain would be the lynchpin for helping to bring in the clan.
Sitting astride his horse, given to him by Kazeshini-sama, he was able to keep up with the fast-paced running of the shinobi clan. Once in Taiyo, he had helped Kazeshini-sama iron out all the trivialities of the pact between Taiyo and the Hatake's which would hopefully result in the Hatake clan's permanent stay in the village.
There was only a single detail that the Hatake's could not be persuaded from, and it was a fight between Kazeshini-sama and the Hatake clan head.
He followed shortly behind Kazeshini-sama when she had come out dressed in armor that he had never seen her wear before, as she had rescued him and his family from bandits while dressed in her travel outfit which consisted of a simple breastplate covering a blue top and a half haori with tiger print at the bottom. Itade watched practically in awe as Kazeshini-sama had carried a nodachi, a weapon that was taller than she was, with practical ease as they walked out of the city.
He had detoured quickly to the stables just before the bridge across the lake in the great cavern of Taiyo and rode his horse across the bridge to catch up to the shinobi and warriors who were still walking and talking politely. He was a civilian, and he knew every single shinobi and samurai around him knew it, so it was simply practical for him to use his horse to keep up with the men and women who could beat him at any physical contest with both hands tied behind their backs while blindfolded.
They had traveled down the cliff road, the one that had beautiful carved rails and support pillars which zigzagged down the cliff face, until they crossed the river bridge. From there, they began a steady run following Kazeshini-sama out of the small valley, away from dozens of acres of drying rice mulch (which was naturally being bleached by the sun for an entire year before being turned into paper) which a handful of workers were flipping sheets of the mulch to continue drying, away from the mulberry groves, away from the hop fields, away from the vineyards, away from the rice fields, away from practically everything to hit the outer training fields.
Itade had been in Taiyo practically since the beginning. He had watched Kazeshini-sama invite new people in from all over the elemental nations. He remembered the great catastrophe of the rice workers and the silk farmers, the rice workers having been mad that the silk worms were destroying their crops. He could still see the one time that an outsider had tried invading by first burning down their mulberry tree grove, and he remembered how the rice workers had picked up their scythes to fight the few bandits who hadn't been immediately routed by the samurai guards.
Taiyo was a relatively small village, it wasn't very large at all for the amount of people that could live there. Every single building in the great cavern of Taiyo proper was multi-tiered: businesses and shops were interspersed everywhere on the ground floor through to the upper floors, with homes and families living practically on all levels. Bridges, walkways, and staircases were everywhere to allow for ease of travel from place to place all desperately needed because the buildings were tall and squished together to allow for the larger population in an underground cavern. This meant that the most of Taiyo's major agricultural product yield had to be grown outside of the caverns.
Yes, there was a few massive caverns that were used for growing crops, however the mulberry trees could not be grown underground less they grow sickly and die. The rice needed mud fields to properly grow, and unless carefully sanitized, mud could easily breed sickness within the caverns that could devastate Taiyo. The hop fields and vineyards had come quite a few years later so none of the crop caverns had been designated for such permanent plants.
The training fields weren't quite numerous in Taiyo either, the track running through the stone of the earth in a circuit around Taiyo being one of three indoor training fields (though the track wasn't actually a field but just a very enclosed running trail that was twisted and filled with places needed to be climbed, gaps to jump, and sometimes even traps to detect for the academy students). The second field was for the academy students in the warrior track, it was small and actually placed on the roof of the academy so that students had the space to learn their beginner's katas and other basic exercises. The final training field was on the palace grounds.
The palace training ground was actually in an adjacent building to the palace proper, the training ground being a room that was two square acres wide and with a ceiling at two stories in height. The rest of the training building was used for a few other purposes that he wasn't quite sure what they were for, but Kazeshini-sama allowed for its use by any of her warrior inclined Elements such as White Storm or Black Sun.
This meant that most of Taiyo's training fields were located in the surrounding lands around the village. The various fields for a good monetary yield were located closer to Taiyo itself, the training fields having been shoved further out to allow for the needs of Taiyo itself to come first. This was also a good defense for Taiyo because if any enemies came towards Taiyo, the people in the training fields could react quite easily which didn't even take into account the dozens of different outposts surrounding Taiyo itself.
Once they finally arrived at the training field, Itade watched Kazeshini-sama prepare herself against the Hatake clan head.
As a civilian, it was an amazing spectacle to watch true warriors fight.
Then, within a few seconds, the two ninja clashed.
Itade couldn't keep up with the two fighting. He heard the clashing of metal against metal, he saw the aftermath of elemental 'spells' at work, but he only saw blurs.
Still, in less than five minutes, Itade could suddenly see Kazeshini-sama holding her unsheathed nodachi at the Hatake's throat (not that he had actually been able to see Kazeshini draw her weapon). Slightly disappointed that he hadn't truly been able to watch the fight, Itade clapped politely for Kazeshini-sama as she helped her opponent off the ground.
Once they were back in Taiyo proper, he (as the White Rain) showed the Hatake clan to their new home. The Hatake clan would be settling into a new clan compound which consisted of five different floors instead of spread out across sprawling lands like they had lived in before being excommunicated from the Land of Iron. Itade had even shown that the large roof of the building they now resided in was a place where they could grow their own food if they wished,
With the day over, Itade gave his short report to Kazeshini-sama before heading home.
He had to climb three sets of stairs, cross a bridge, walked past a handful of pretty good restaurants (one which he entered to pick up dinner) and other business, stopped and said hello to a few residents just outside the front doors of their homes, and finally opened his own front door.
With a grin Itade gave a call, "I'm home!"
~~~oOo~~~
White Lightning Interlude
As the White Lighting of Taiyo, he oversaw Taiyo's defenses which was an astronomical challenge that he was quite grateful to live up to for Kazeshini-sama.
He had been a clanless shinobi when Kazeshini had nearly killed him. He had been picked up by a ruthless slave trader as a young boy and sold for a barely a few thousand ryo to a shinobi clan. He had been trained ruthlessly, he had been brainwashed within the year and nothing but a mindless slave to do the work of the shinobi.
One mission he had been given was to guard the clan from attack, and that was exactly how he had met Kazeshini-sama and nearly been killed by her.
She had attacked his 'owners' and had killed them all, so disgusted was she at the thought that the shinobi clan was basically brainwashing meat shields to do their dirty work for them. He had defended his clan, at least he had tried to defend them. She had mopped the floor with him in barely a few seconds, having used her sword to nearly cut him in half.
Luckily, he had what she called a 'kekkei genkai.' It was what made him so valuable to the shinobi clan. It was what allowed him to survive the attack.
Kazeshini-sama had taken the children, killed every single adult, and torched the compound to the ground when she breathed out a dragon made of fire.
Bleeding out, his intestines practically falling out of his stomach, he had tried attacking her once again.
She had knocked him out.
When he had awoken again, he had been mostly healed. Seeing her again, he had attacked. She had simply beaten him black and blue.
That was when he met the man who would become the Black Sun. That man had been a fanatic, pure and simple. As a former brainwashed slave, practically mindless and without any sort of self-identity, that fanatic had somehow helped change him.
It had taken quite a few years of careful rehabilitation, though Kazeshini had also used him as a training tool for the Black Storm which he admitted was slightly odd, before his allegiance was shifted to Taiyo and Kazeshini-sama. The Black Sun having made his goal in life to convert others to becoming as fanatical as he was towards the Lady of Taiyo, not that he (White Lightning) would ever be as vocal in his fanaticism towards Kazeshini-sama.
His skills had then been given quite the upgrade by the Lady of Taiyo herself (though it was only a clone), and he had gained strength in leaps and bounds. He had been given a uniform consisting of black shoes, tan pants, a black sleeveless turtleneck, and a dark blue high collared jacket with a removable hood. He personally had been given a white haori with gold stitched lighting on the chest for heraldry with the symbol of Taiyo on the back. With his uniform, he was given command over a handful of men and women who were all charged with keeping up with the defenses of Taiyo as well as working with the new fuinjutsu barrier that Kazeshini-sama had created and practically just handed them the keys to the fuinjutsu seal.
Looking back, he only saw his time with the shinobi clan as dark and not worth the time and effort to even try thinking about anymore. His life at Taiyo was so much better, though he was often confused with emotions and reactions of other people because of the large number of years being a brainwashed slave/puppet/meat shield.
With the arrival of the Hatake clan, he had actually been quite nervous and wary. It was only the assured confidence of Kazeshini-sama that had quelled most of his worries about inviting a shinobi clan into Taiyo.
Being the White Lightning and the protector of Taiyo, he mainly focused on defense against threats coming from outside of Taiyo while the White Cloud focused on both man power and conflict within Taiyo itself. He was actually twitching at every barrier and defense the Hatake clan were able to pass while entering Taiyo, the place that he guarded religiously. It had aggravated him that he had been required to go towards his guild of White Lightnings to collect an entire box of the special bells which were created so the residents of Taiyo could find the village and live in it without the barrier rejecting and deflecting them.
The fight between Kazeshini-sama and the clan head was extremely satisfying after having to cater to the Hatake clan to even allow them within Taiyo. He would admit that he was probably quite biased against shinobi clans because of his bad history and that it irritated him that this shinobi clan was allowed to practically waltz around within Taiyo which was his territory to safeguard.
With a grin, he watched as Kazeshini-sama prepared herself for the fight against the Hatake clan head.
He watched as she gripped the hilt of her sword, a sword that he remembered singing with chakra as it nearly split him in half, and used her thumb to free only a centimeter of the blade from the sheath.
Then, as the wind blew across the training ground, the two fighters clashed.
Kazeshini-sama used a quick draw technique that the Hatake barely blocked with his own sword, though the ken'atsu (literally: 'pressure of the sword.' The power moved by the blade cutting through the air) left behind a wide gash on the Hatake's armor. Kazeshini-sama then quickly stepped back from the blade lock, forcing the Hatake to disengage lest he become unbalanced.
With a bare handful of hand-signs, Kazeshini-sama spat out a massive ball of mud towards the Hatake which the man jumped to dodge. A quick fuuton was followed by another doton then a katon. The Hatake used a quick suiton and then a raiton to try counteracting Kazeshini-sama's own attacks which she only responded by using a raiton herself followed by another fuuton. With the fuuton jutsu, Kazeshini-sama ran just behind the gale force wind blades of the technique and used her nodachi to attack the Hatake.
They clashed blades, the fuuton cutting through the Hatake's armor as he was forced to choose between blocking Kazeshini-sama's attack or deflecting the fuuton jutsu. With a quick build-up of chakra, Kazeshini-sama used her nodachi to create a genjutsu that had the Hatake stumble back with a green face from nausea. With only a single doton technique that shifted the ground beneath the Hatake's feet, combined with the perception altering genjutsu, the Hatake lost his footing which Kazeshini quickly took advantage of.
The fight was over the second that Kazeshini-sama had her blade poised at the Hatake's neck.
Once they walked back to Taiyo, he (White Lightning) quickly explained the reason behind the bells that the Hatake were require to now wear at all times like every single resident of Taiyo currently wore. "These trinkets, no matter how you wear them or where you keep them, allow you to find Taiyo. The barrier normally makes the area around Taiyo uninteresting and deflects people around the village so nothing 'interesting' is discovered. Wear these at all times unless you want to forget all about Taiyo."
One of the Hatake's dared to give him lip, which quite annoyed him since he was the White Lighting of Taiyo, his standing above everyone else's because of his position as an Element of the Lady of Taiyo. "Do we have to wear this woman's jewelry even within the village?"
"If you don't wear the 'woman's trinket' within the village, the White Clouds will find out and you will be fined at a minimum of five thousand ryo for the first offense. The second will be ten thousand, the third will result in you personally speaking with the White Cloud captain himself for the offense. These charms are a matter of village security, not just because if you step foot outside of this village you will forget it exists."
Once he was done speaking with the shinobi clan, and just the thought of being buddy buddy with a shinobi clan gave him hives, he left the White Rain to guide them to their new home. Emotionally exhausted, which meant he needed to meditate and speak a bit with his friend the Black Sun to help discern his emotions, he left for home.
Home was the guild hall, a small little set of rooms built into the cavern walls of Taiyo. It had the main room fill with tons of cushions and plush carpets in shades of blue and tan, and dozens of white silk banners hanging all around the main room with the gold symbol of lightning. His office was off in a small little side room next to a locker room where most of the White Lightnings in the guild placed their 'civilian' clothes while on duty. The barrier room, a room which held the key of the barrier around Taiyo which they used for maintenance, was behind a false wall which was behind a white silk banner.
With a sigh, he collapsed on a blue futon he had dragged into the guild hall, blue pillows practically burying him within feathered fluff. One of his lightnings walked into the hall laughing with another lightning, and just the sight of his feet sticking out from the pill of cushions was enough to shut them up and have both ever so slowly back away.
Day Guard
xXx White Sun - head of hospital, ran medical classes
White Cloud - head of the police, set guard rotations around Taiyo and the valley
xXx White Rain - mediator and ambassador
xXx White Storm - combat expert
xXx White Lightning - oversaw village defenses and surrounding defenses
White Mist – banker, financer, and illusion expert
Night Guard
xXx Black Sun - best assassin/hitman, head of the assassination/seduction division
Black Cloud - strategist (Nara-like), plotting and the meticulous planning for physical attacks
Black Rain - head of infiltration, supervise all other spies and infiltrators
xXx Black Storm - head of T&I
Black Lightning – head of the research and development
Black Mist – information gatherer