(45 Years Old)
With a tired sigh, Kazeshini rested her cheek against her hand. She sat in her throne room with a massive line of petitioners wanting help or even just to ask for advice. She offered her citizens this opportunity to see and speak with her for an hour every day. A ticket booth had to be installed one day by a handful of workers because people would get into brawls over line placement.
Honestly, she loved her village and she loved the citizens with all her heart, but they sometimes came to her with the pettiest of problems. Now, she was nearing the end of her hour and was ready for some dinner, already she could feel drool pooling in her mouth from the thought of going to a nice little sushi joint within Taiyo that served her favorite tarantula roll with its soft-shelled crab and eel sauce.
"Kazeshini-sama, I wish to petition for the right to bring family allies into Taiyo."
Kazeshini looked upon the older man who had given a respectful bow and was now looking at her with a serious look. "Why did these allies not come with you when you came to Taiyo?"
"They were a clan of shinobi but they were prospering well enough compared to us. They wouldn't have been able to support us as we were falling into decline, but we still communicate through messengers frequently. They have recently been approached by shinobi from a hidden village called Iwagakure and they were being threatened to join the village or be exterminated."
"What is happening now with this allied clan of yours?" Kazeshini asked while sitting up to draw up some papers to send to her guard captain, the White Lightning, and to her head ambassador, the White Rain.
The man stood straight, tall and proud now that he saw that Kazeshini was beginning to draft some sort of form and paperwork for him. "The last I got from them was that the head of the Ayazaki clan were planning on leaving as soon as possible. I had sent them the information to go to Masao village which is nearby if they ever were in trouble especially with the formations of all these new hidden villages. If they haven't already arrived, they should be on their way. I did tell them a bit about Taiyo but not enough to jeopardize the security of our home."
Kazeshini nodded and began writing down some information before whistling for one of her little messengers. A young boy, who still lived in the palace, ran up to her to grab the two scrolls. "Bring these to my White Lightning and Rain. Don't dally and hurry back."
"Yes ma'am!" the young boy rushed off past the still long line of people waiting to speak with Kazeshini.
The older man smiled and seemed to deflate as if all his worries were suddenly lifted from his shoulders.
"Stay here, I wish to speak with you more about this Ayazaki clan later." Kazeshini stated before ordering another young boy to grab a chair for the older citizen to sit down while he waited for the petitioners to finish.
Kazeshini had seen more and more instances of different hidden villages forcing the many shinobi clans to join or die. Many clans did join, but others ran in fear. Kazeshini had sent out dozens of her own warrior teams each assigned with a blood clone to find these clans as well as more people for Taiyo.
Taiyo still only had maybe two-thousand people living in it and it could fit so much more since one of the exercises for the academy students was to dig out more caverns. Many adult shinobi did this as well to help build their chakra pool or to simply gain better skills with earth chakra. This meant that more space was cleared out which meant more people could live here.
Taiyo had originally been just the one cavern that Kazeshini had personally created but in time, a second level farther in the earth had been built. There, sunlight could hardly be reached even with a mirror system so Kazeshini had created a series of seals that created sunlight that lit up the cavern. More buildings had popped up and plenty of vegetation grew alongside the people that lived there. One person had even introduced animals such as birds, rabbits, foxes, deer, and other woodland creatures to give life to the underground utopia.
Kazeshini had gone over and shown a few civilians who had wanted to become builders how to make the designs for her building schemes and everyone was hard at work making a better life for themselves.
With the arrival of new clans and many orphans, Kazeshini's palace was open as a halfway house/ orphanage until the either the new adults could have their own home or an orphan grew old enough to own a home if they weren't adopted. With all the teams out inviting the different shinobi clans from around the elemental nations to Taiyo, the population was on the rise.
Taiyo was well known for their silk, paper and spirits but they weren't known very well for their warriors yet. Kazeshini was fine with that for now because she didn't have the personnel to support a large clientele yet. The bulk of the missions that came in were either from the few surrounding villages that were slightly in the know of a hidden village nearby and the rest of the missions came from the citizens of Taiyo. Those missions were for allies and friends of the citizens that lived all around the nations and Kazeshini would send out teams to help the allies and friends of her citizens because they were the only concrete information/trading network she had at this moment.
The cities that would eventually spring up because of the settling of the hidden villages weren't around yet and the hidden villages themselves were too new to trust her own village for any sort of alliance or trade agreement. Everyone was looking out for only themselves so Kazeshini and many of the citizens of Taiyo were just waiting for everything to settle down before they could extend out the knowledge of Taiyo to more than just the few outer villages.
Kazeshini was mainly worried that if Taiyo became well known that they would be drawn into the shinobi wars that would eventually spring up, and that would cost her many of her warrior's lives. They would die for her and for Taiyo, yes, but she didn't feel as though she wanted to choose any sides.
She had turned forty-five only a few months back and she felt old. She didn't look it, she still looked as young as when she had finished her immortality seal, but she felt old nonetheless. Forty-five years ago she had been reborn. Forty-five years ago was when she last read the manga for Naruto. She had written everything down that she could remember as a child in this world, but she had forgotten a lot of small details she hadn't bothered writing down thinking she would remember them.
Luckily, she remembered a lot of other stories, though still not in too great of detail because she had written them down and then published them here in Taiyo. Many of those stories were great successes such as the Harry Potter series or Bleach series. She had written down the plots and some interesting tidbits when she was still living in Uzu but had only seriously written them down within the last few years as Taiyo had settled down from its own infancy stage.
However, she was feeling morose. The last time she had visited her parent was few years back because she had been so busy. She still sent a clone with the occasional gift for her baby brother but she personally hadn't had the time nor the energy to spend a few hours just watching her family without her. In truth, she hadn't wanted to visit.
It was depressing watching her parents dote on her baby brother while he worked for the clan and was now betrothed to a pretty little Uzumaki who would probably give him plenty of kids. Now, Kazeshini knew she would love her little nieces and nephews to bits, but she was wanted that.
But that was the kicker. She wanted someone to lay all her worries on, someone to give her a child or two. But she was immortal. Kazeshini didn't want outlive her husband. Plus, what person (other than her crazy Black Sun who was scarily devoted to her) would actually believe that she was a reincarnation who had known about the world they currently lived in as a fiction book. So, Kazeshini continued to wait.
She had plenty of plans to tide her over for now, and she could always slip away if she needed to run around and stretch her legs while a clone did her job for a day or two.
Once the petitioners were done coming into the throne room to speak with her, Kazeshini turned to the old man that was sitting at her side patiently waiting with a book he had apparently brought to pass the time. Kazeshini almost laughed when she saw it was a book she had published named Dealing with Dragons she had based off the same book she had read in her first life.
"What can you tell me about this Ayazaki clan."
The old man startled before looking up at Kazeshini and putting his book away. "I don't know too much about shinobi affair, Kazeshini-sama, but I do know that they live with mongoose. Apparently, they fight with them? I don't really know too much but some of the mongoose that I saw were really big, almost as big as a medium sized dog."
"Hmm, that is interesting." Kazeshini thought for a second and remember about a clan of dog users that fought alongside their canines. "This will be interesting since the Hatake clan has a summon contract with dogs. I wonder how things will go."
The old man nodded and gave a simple smile, "I am very grateful that you are allowing them the chance to come here to Taiyo."
Kazeshini gave a smile back, "This is no problem, you being here and asking for them is giving them the chance to be here. It is up to them to stay in Taiyo."
With a groan, the old man got up from his chair and gave a bow to Kazeshini before turning to walk out of the palace. Kazeshini watched him go and called to one of the children living in the palace. "Make sure he gets home alright and then bring me a Hatake member."
A young girl gave a snappy little salute which made Kazeshini chuckle before running off. Kazeshini leaned back into her throne and drew her fingers through her hair, messing up the coiffed style she had put it up in. With nothing better to do for now, Kazeshini got up and walked to her massive window to look out over the expanse of Taiyo and the lake.
Everything was calm for now so Kazeshini wasn't too worried but she had a room she had dedicated to her plans where she had written everything down. She had dozens of names charted down and now that the Hatake's were a part of Taiyo and wouldn't go to Konoha, she had to draw up plans for people such as Sakumo or Kakashi who she knew would both play major parts later on down the road. However, Sakumo was yet to be born and Kazeshini didn't know if Kakashi would be born at all.
She turned around to see a member of the Hatake clan running up to the palace and through the front doors. He came to a stop in front of where she was standing and gave a deep bow, "You called, Kazeshini-sama."
"Yes, we are soon going to see another new shinobi clan who uses mongoose as nin animals. Will that be a problem with the Hatake canines?"
The Hatake member shook his head, "No, there will be no problems."
"Good, I would hate to have to mediate some sort of feud between the Hatake's and the Ayazaki's." With her subtle warning said aloud, Kazeshini turned back towards the window dismissing the man from her sight.
The Hatake clansmen nodded and gave another bow before running out of the palace to give the news and subtle warning to his clan.
Kazeshini sighed again and looked to Issen Amimasu which rested behind her throne most days. She walked over to her sword and caressed the handle gently before gripping it firmly and pulling it from its sheath. The blade sung as loudly as the day Kazeshini had first forged it and the sentience of the weapon seemed to pout at Kazeshini for letting it sit and idle. "Hold on dear friend, war is coming and soon, you will bath in blood again."
The blade seemed to quiver in her hands and Kazeshini resheathed it. No one else could feel it yet, but she could, it was the calm before the storm. She was collecting her own forces in the scramble that was the creation of the hidden villages and she had the blacksmiths making weapons even when they felt as though the stockpiles were growing beyond the capacity for need. They couldn't feel the calm as the storm slowly began building its strength, but Kazeshini could. She could see the signs of the first shinobi war.
All she had to do was wait. Wait and watch and prepare.
~~~oOo~~~
Black Mist Interlude
She was a noble's daughter living in a manor presiding over a small village of common folk. Her family hadn't been overly rich but Hirai Sachiko had been unhappy living where she was. She hated her family because they spent more money then they actually had and grew fat on the hard work of others. Sachiko's family had been fat and stupid, and she felt herself to have been completely different.
Sachiko knew that she stuck in her life as a noble, no matter how glamourous it may seem to others. Plus, she had a betrothal with a horrid swine of a man who already had a harem of concubines waiting in the wings. She wanted no part of any of that.
Then, one day, she had decided enough was enough and decided to run away.
It didn't work out too well when another noble house found out she was in the area and picked her up like some errant child. Well, one thing that Sachiko hadn't realized was how much blackmail she actually knew. The noble who had picked her up had a mistress heavy with child and his actual wife didn't know. She had overheard many such conversations and now she had the power.
Able to blackmail the noble, she left and went on her merry way, able to pick up gossip and new information wherever she went so that she was left alone but with suitable power so she wouldn't starve. She fell in love with a commoner, one who was hardworking and loved her without restraint.
They had been traveling on word that a new village had sprung up but Sachiko was curious about it because everything she had heard was sparse and hush-hush. When she had arrived, a massive information network still giving her new information about the nobles and even the different clans, Sachiko had seen Kazeshini-sama in the flesh and had been awed.
This woman, dressed in blues and silvers was what being a noble was meant to be. It meant hard work and building something with your own hands, it meant being fair and just with no thoughts of exploitation of the common folk.
Sachiko kept up with her information network and continued building it by providing favors to those who whispered secrets to her by requesting missions such as a bandit removal or flood prevention. Living practically in the middle of the elemental nations even with borders being redrawn by the creation of all these new shinobi villages was a great boon because it allowed for her informants to spread out equally all across the land.
She was annoyed that the valley they lived near, since they actually lived inside of a mountain, often flooded because of the nearby area that always raining. This was great for the crops but sometimes, she would like to see a nice river flowing smooth like glass and not with debris from further upstream. Plus, the river would flood and no matter the fact that Kazeshini-sama had made the bridge indestructible, sometimes the water would flood over the banks and make the entire area impassible. Then, it took forever for the information from around the elemental nations to get to her.
Still, she loved what she does, and she always brings this information in a nice little to Kazeshini-sama herself to disseminate the information wherever it is needed most. Eventually, her talents were formally recognized, though they had already been informally recognized by plenty of people, and Kazeshini-sama herself had given her a black haori with a stylized silver mist on the front and a big silver Taiyo eclipse on the back. Sachiko was politely shown a guild hall where dozens of people of all ages and background had come together. They all were different with very little similarities between them all except the fact that every single one of them wore a bell.
The bell didn't make a sound unlike all other Taiyo residents, it was simply a symbol that no one would know unless they knew about Taiyo.
Within weeks, and then months, Sachiko had an information network that was spread so much further than she could have built by herself in the same amount of time. Now, not only was she giving information to support her new home, a home she loved dearly, but she was able to continue supporting it as The Black Mist of Taiyo.
Day Guard
White Sun - head of hospital, ran medical classes
White Cloud - head of the police, set guard rotations around Taiyo and the valley
White Rain - mediator and ambassador
White Storm - combat expert
White Lightning - oversaw village defenses and surrounding defenses
White Mist – banker, financer, and illusion expert
Night Guard
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
Black Storm - head of T&I
Black Lightning – head of the research and development
Black Mist – information gatherer
