Epilogue – Red Cloud Spoils
Fire Country: Hidden Leaf Village
Ninja Controlled Territory
One Week Later
"What is this about?" the fifth Hokage demanded.
"There's a letter on the box you should read first." Enmiura Sadakaze replied, hiding his smirk behind his fan. "We should start there."
"Grrr…you Cloud ninja…" Tsunade yanked the envelope off the top of the rather large wooden box Sadakaze had brought with him.
Jerking the letter open she found the following words in the Raikage's precise and straight hand:
To the Fifth Hokage: I recognize that these circumstances are somewhat irregular, but I have duly sent Enmiura Sadakaze, a jounin under my command, to meet with you an open discussion regarding potential modifications of the trade, land, and resources rights set down in the Blackmarsh Treaty (this being the document that concluded hostilities in the conflict twelve years ago if you don't recall). Sadakaze is duly empowered to make all appropriate discussions and statements as a representative of Hidden Cloud. Also, about the box I have had delivered to you. Well, purely by fortuitous circumstance it happens that Hidden Cloud came into possession of four pieces of property belonging to your village. Therefore, in an effort to be courteous, I have duly sent them back to you to keep. My apologies for the poor condition some were retrieved in.
-Respectfully, Kato Naotaka, Seventh Raikage
After reading the letter Tsunade wrenched the wooden box open in impatience.
Sadakaze had to stuggle with all his might to resist laughing at the look of shock she assumed thereafter. In that moment all the jounin could think was how lucky he was to be chosen to observe this.
Inside the box, carefully preserved in jars of alcohol, rested the heads of Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Itachi, Yakushi Kabuto, and Orochimaru.
"Now then, shall we get down to business?" Sadakaze requested of the dumbstruck Hokage.
END
Afterword
Finished! And fast too, I seem to have written this whole thing in less than three months. That's rather creepy. Well, at this point I'll go through the process of listing some of my own thoughts about the piece, and how things went.
Ultimately, this story is a novel-length rant about all my anger with what Naruto has become and the flaws in the world. Though, I suppose I'm hypocritical in that I write so much using it even so. This story grew out of a much smaller piece called Ranged Applications, in which I considered the ninja sniper idea for the first time. I then decided to take the idea further sometime later, I'm not precisely sure why, I just wanted to do it, so this story came to be.
This was my first time writing a truly epic scale piece with a large cast. My previous long works have all been very focused on a small number of characters and their own fairly personal problems. It was interesting to use the epic format, and a real challenge. I'm happy with some of the things I was able to do and not as happy with some of the others. Some of the characters never got the time they deserved, and I felt the various Shinobi-Ite members didn't get to differentiate out that well. Part of the problem is how this entire piece is basically all ending, the beginning and middle parts are borrowed from Naruto. So, just like you never get to know the people in the cavalry in an old western, you don't really get a full chance to see the Shinobi-Ite.
I felt I did a better job with the other characters, such as the Raikage, Togawa, and Kurame. I'm particularly proud of Kurame, who was a huge challenge to write for as sort of the 'only sane person in the asylum.' It was incredibly important to use her as my own character, and not borrow an actual Akatsuki member for the purpose; the story just wouldn't have worked out that way. It's a pity I didn't get to have her truly show off her real abilities.
As far as the action in this piece I have somewhat mixed feelings. I feel I did the 'classic' Naruto-style battles (i.e. the ones with Togawa or the Raikage) quite well and the sniping ones not so well. Unfortunately, I discovered well into this piece that sniping people to death really isn't all that interesting, especially when it's repeated over and over. Yadome vs. Zetsu in particular seemed repetitious and is the fight I'm the least proud of in here.
I do know that the Akatsuki look rather 'weak' in a lot of this, which was partly the point I was trying to make with the whole methodology thing, but is also a consequence of attempting to approach the fights strategically. As Sun Tzu once wrote: "A victorious army wins its victories before seeking battle; an army destined to defeat fights in hope of winning." All the keys to the various battles happened before anyone did any fighting, which is why I had all those long planning discussions in the story. I tried to make this clear, especially in the buildup to the final engagement, but I don't know how well I succeeded.
One of the unfortunate things that colors this story is the nature of technology and Naruto. I had to make a number of compromises in this regard, and really wasn't happy with most of them. This is an aspect of the setting unfortunately beyond my control, but writing this story really highlighted to me how ridiculous Kishimoto's irregular application of technology to the story is. For example: I chose radio as the preferred means of communication, even though there may very well be cell phones in Naruto. I had to make similar guesses about the religious elements, and simply chose to go full bore with the mystic Buddhism (because I find it more fun). Still, I dislike having to make such assumptions. Oh well.
My favorite character in this story is decidedly Kato Naotaka, who I pulled out of Behind Killer's Eyes to be my Raikage once again. My favorite moment is Togawa using fork on Itachi. My favorite line is one I put in Zetsu's mouth: Nobody kills me twenty-seven times without being able to do something this crazy.
I believe that's all, hope everyone enjoyed! I would please ask everyone who did bother reading this to please leave some comment, any kind at all, at the end. It's very hard to know you have readers and yet here nothing from them.
