"To anyone who may find this in the future,
I write this letter from a carriage heading south to Akihiko Village. As I look back now, I can still see the flames rising high above the forest. The screams are growing faint, but the monster's roars seem to only be getting louder.
Konoha burns. The Nine-Tailed Fox lays waste to it. Earlier tonight, it appeared as if out of thin air and attacked. To anyone who does not believe me, I understand. Until this very night I thought it was a myth myself. But now I know: there are such things as demons in this world.
Its claws are the size of houses, its breath destroys mountains, and every thrash of its tails causes the earth to quake beneath its might. The Fourth Hokage, our leader, was engaged with the monster. But news soon came that he and his wife had been killed, and the fox still stands. The rest of the shinobi are still fighting now, the village certainly painted in their blood.
I have no one to whom I wish to send this letter, but if any survivors should find it, please know this: I am so sorry. I should be fighting alongside you. My parents both stayed behind to help in the battle, and all I can do is pray that they somehow escape. But I have little hope. They sent me out to look after my little brother, only five years old. Were it not for him, I would have stayed. Surely, I would have died for my village.
But as I look back now, watching the end of the world, I cannot help but feel how meaningless all of it is. Village, shinobi: what good is any of it when monsters such as that exist? We are only human, made of dust and shadow—but, no. I will hold my pen. To entertain these thoughts any longer would be disrespectful to the people who gave their lives for us.
I will protect my little brother with my life. It is my parents' dying wish. We will go south to Akihiko, then perhaps East to the Water Country, or perhaps even south, to the farthest reaches of this land—wherever the wind takes us.
It feels futile to run. There is no one alive who can stop the fox. Still, we will survive for as long as we can. We must. For our parents.
For Konoha, the village that is no more."
— Anonymous, October 10, Year 65.
Prologue
The Empty Years
Like a flash of lightning, the Nine-Tailed Fox was returned to this world. Its tails shattered mountains, its roar split the sky—and in a single night, the village of Konoha was wiped off the face of the earth.
Finally, after days of endless fighting, a group of survivors managed to quell the fox, and it was sealed away once again. The world was safe; but the other Great Villages, seeing the destruction that had occurred, decided that they could no longer afford to be isolated from one another. The four remaining Kage put aside their history and their differences and banded together to create a new path forward, one that shunned the hatred and violence of the past.
And so, the Shinobi Union was born: an alliance between the Four Great Nations built on peace and understanding. Its sole mission, it said, was to protect the world from any other threats it may encounter.
But as time passed, the Shinobi Union only grew more powerful—and with the creation of the Allied Shinobi Forces, and with four Kage controlling everything from above, the Union's strength—and their authority—could no longer be challenged. The minor villages were quickly absorbed, and eventually, all who disagreed with the Union's control were hunted down, and silenced.
As for the survivors from Konoha, they fled. Retreating to the south of the Land of Fire, the civilians found new towns to settle in while the once great shinobi clans formed their own villages, out of the reach of the Shinobi Union and the ASF.
And just like that, fifteen years have passed: the world is at peace; and Konoha is nothing but a memory…
