Author's Notes: I'm going pause a bit here from the main plotline, and bring in something more distant. This interlude chapter is the first of three or four that will leave Ise and Yi behind and tell something about the history of Mist and the world of Naruto as a whole. In particular I'm going to gradual illuminate, through the stories of Akai and Mizukage, the nature of the bloodline purges that were mentioned early in the show regarding Haku and Zabuza. Now, I have something of an axe to grind regarding certain aspects of the Naruto universe, so fair warning, but hey, I think an explanation is needed anyway. Besides, I'm including stuff about Saki, so that should be interesting.
To reviewers: Thanks for the comments and I hope for more. I appreciate that my original characters are interesting. If people have questions about any of them, go ahead and ask.
Interlude 1 – The World that WasSilence has gathered in a small clearing, laden with fog, as all waits.
The sound of feet in motion broke out. Swift movement flowed, cutting up ground.
Another gait, off-tempo, eerie and irregular, then made itself known.
A singular moment passed, two sounds came together, then joined, a second instant has finished, a moment of decision.
A soft voice called.
"Death."
With swift force feet smashed the ground, propelling a body upward.
Silent reaction followed, and then a distinctive noise, the sharp noise of metal striking metal.
The soft voice spoke once more.
"Death."
Now a sound changed abruptly, skidding heard clearly, as movement stopped with unsteady haste.
There was a swift reaction beyond this, a move made to strike. "Water Element: Wave Crest Smash no Jutsu!"
Formed of chakra, the smashing crest of a wave descended to sweep down and level all before it, a steamrolling wall and also a barrier.
The wave crest met its target with great force, leveling a giant's blow upon the land it struck.
But nothing other than dirt and plant matter felt that force.
A grunt of confusion was heard audibly, with no small undercurrent of fear.
A third time the soft voice is heard.
"Death."
"Enough!" a far more potent voice roared. "This session is over, stand down Saki."
"Yes, Warlord," the soft voice belonged to a thirteen year old girl. It was a voice free of malice, but it held the word 'death' with a fearless familiarity that could not properly belong on anyone so young.
"You chuunins," Akai turned to the three lying sprawled on the ground in simulations of dead ninja. "That's all I need from you, but study your memories of this fight carefully, you could all do well to learn from it."
"Yes Warlord," they replied, and stood up and walked off. As they left the three muttered amongst themselves. "How does she move like that? It's unnatural…is she some kind of monster? Whatever she is, it isn't normal, genin aren't like that…"
Saki turned to watch the backs of the chuunin as they left. She said nothing, and her face revealed nothing else. One who did not know her would have thought nothing amiss, but Akai could see the disappointment in her eyes. She doesn't want to be a freak, Akai knew well by now. Too bad Saki, there's no normal life for you. Akai made no move to comfort the girl from the harsh remarks. Let them fester in her, they will only drive her further on, make her more potent. That was his plan. Beyond this, Akai knew, as Saki did, deny it though she might, that the words of the chuunin held nothing but the truth.
Looking at the battlefield only confirmed again the assessment of the Warlord's trained eye. He glanced at Saki for a moment. She was only a small, shorthaired girl, her body held an image of compact power, but she appeared in all other ways perfectly average. That is, she appeared so only until she made a move. Then she revealed what this battlefield, as all the other matches before it, had made perfectly clear to Akai. This girl is not a human being, she is a killing machine made in human form. The Warlord actually came close to feeling regret when he recalled that it was his task to shape her into the perfect weapon for Mist.
"What is the next task Warlord?" Saki asked, her voice simple and empty of emotion, as always.
Akai had long thought he was past the time when a young ninja could teach him anything, but that had ended the day he began training Saki. Then he had learned something important indeed, he learned that there were ninja alive who surpassed him in ruthlessness and mercilessness. I may have sent the boy Ise off to become a heartless weapon or die in the attempt, but I don't think I could have created something like this. What do I do with this girl?
"Warlord, do you have another task for me today?" Saki asked again when Akai paused.
To Akai it was uncanny, how empty Saki was. She never displayed even a glimmer of what could be described as enthusiasm, but neither did she ever show reluctance or regret. She simply did as she was told, like a machine. She never questioned why an instruction was given, simply whether or not it was feasible or acceptable for her. Her body had been altered from nearly the day she was born to create the changes in bone and muscle necessary to allow full expression of the Stomatoa style, something never done before. Akai knew that much had been a great success in Saki. She was already a master of the strange taijutsu art of the Stomatoa, the Mantis Shrimp family, the emulation of that most ferocious and potent of crustaceans. Inhuman motion, unbelievable strength and speed, and a set of movements that could not be countered save by memorization by the opponent, he had never seen a ninja this young with such strength. She has been a genin only a few short weeks, but her taijutsu is already close to jounin level, and given its strange nature, she could defeat almost any jounin in the first encounter. Which is the only important one, after all.
Training Saki for tactics, strategy, or anything military was not proving to be a challenge for Akai. The girl's mind was quick, and though her perspective was unusual, she would work incessantly to understand principals and methods. Her defeat of three chuunin today, all of who were skilled, proved this. Yet this did not satisfy the Warlord. She is progressing well in this way; her skills will grow with incredible speed if I simply continue to have her fight skilled ninja. He already insured this, he made certain she fought both he himself and one of the other seven (now five) swordsmen of Mist everyday, as they were the only ones who could challenge her without using potentially lethal jutsus. In a year or so he expected to schedule her first match with Mizukage. But there is more for her to know, she is not complete like this.
So this day, Akai decided to do something different. Empty as you are Saki, perhaps there is something in you to build upon. I will try to find that thing, or provide it if it does not exist. The best swords do not simply cut flawlessly, they hunger to be wielded, to be set loose.
"I wonder, Saki," Akai began. "If there is a question you wish to ask me?"
"A question Warlord?" Saki thought for a moment. "I have some questions about my technique…"
"No," Akai cut her off. "Not a question like that, a question about something other than combat. Whatever it is, ask, and I will attempt to answer it."
Saki thought for a moment, and Akai looking at her, could not resist a predatory smile. Saki was one of the few people who was not intimidated by that all-consuming visage splitting Akai's fearsome dark face, though she had to look far up to see it. She is not without some curiosity at least, good.
"I have been taught our history, Warlord, but there is something I do not understand," Saki spoke slowly, her voice slightly different than Akai had ever heard before. Is this a facet of her that lies buried beneath the carapace of the mantis shrimp girl? He wondered, curious and concerned.
"Our instructors teach that twenty years ago Mizukage won the title, but that those who ruled Mist would not step down as they ought, and so Mizukage led a war that toppled them and took his rightful place," Saki paused for a moment, and then hastily continued. "We are also told that this war was when the bloodline purges began, because those who opposed Mizukage bore the powers of bloodlines, but I don't understand why this happened. Our teachers have tried to explain it to us better, but I do not believe anyone really understands. Perhaps you know the true answer?" There was only curiosity in Saki's voice, not pleading, but Akai could sense that his answer would indeed mean something.
"A dark topic," The Warlord told her, saying precisely what he thought. "Dark, but suitable. I do not know if there is any true answer behind those times, but I do know my answer, since I lived through them," Akai breathed deeply. "Indeed I share much of the responsibility for what happened along with Mizukage, with him, and with the dead." Akai looked closely at Saki. "I will not tell you the story of the war and purges now, since that is not what you asked. You asked why it happened, and to understand that you must understand the world as it was before that war, before the purges. Perhaps that is what you have not been taught, and I can explain that much to you." Akai gestured to the ground around them. "This will take some time, sit."
Saki sat down, but not as a regular person would. She held her knees bent steeply, her legs close in to her body, leaning forward for balance. It seemed unnatural to Akai, but he knew that this position was comfortable to Saki, even as a normal sitting position made her feel awkward and vulnerable.
"There is something you must understand Saki," Akai began. "Twenty years ago the world of the ninja was a very different place. Today few true bloodline limits exist, perhaps two or three per village, and most of those are in decline. Our Hoshigake bloodline has not had a new child born in the past five years, and many others are the same in the other ninja countries. Twenty years ago," here Akai's voice grew dark and angry. "Bloodlines ruled the ninja world. Of the five great shinobi countries only the Leaf had a Kage who did not command the power of bloodline ability, and that country was still heavily influenced by the power of the Hyuuga and Uchiha clans. In the other countries it was far worse, most jounin possessed bloodlines, they ruled committees, and they dictated everything. The bloodlines were extraordinarily potent; they controlled more than just the ninja. They intimidated the rulers and the people as well. I remember well that it was bloodline imbued leaders who determined who would be sent on missions, and they would send those without bloodlines on the deadly ones and take the safest for themselves, regardless of ability. It was folly, and it was weakening the countries, which is why the Leaf, where this was less prevalent for so long, was such a strong country for years afterward."
"This was the world we lived in, I recall wars on the islands with the Lightning when I was as young as you Saki, and there our bloodlines and their bloodlines would order subordinate ninja into battle against each other as if we were their slaves. Then they would pick off the wounded and exhausted later on. It was not the way ninja are meant to fight. To me it means nothing if the individual ninja choose to be slovenly and lazy, but when they are rewarded for it, and others die when they could have far better served their country, things must be changed."
Akai knew that another student would have asked a question by this point, but not Saki. She watched carefully, her eyes shifting constantly, holding danger, but also digesting his words with care. So Akai had little choice but to keep going.
"I became a jounin at seventeen, having been a chuunin for six years. By that time almost all those who had been my comrades as genin and chuunin had died in battle, wasted by their superiors. Have you ever wondered why three of the Seven Swordsmen are older than Mizukage or me? This is why; few could survive to reach any strength, no matter their potential. It was a sickening world, and there seemed no way to change it, for though the bloodlines were in many ways weak enough remained strong that it seemed they could not be beaten. For no matter how strong you might become in the skills of this country, a bloodline bearer could know all those and have more as well. Someone trained as you are Saki might have hoped to match them, but no such person existed then."
"So you know, yes, it would have been possible for us who had no bloodline to defeat those who bore them, if we all stood together, the numbers alone, and the weakness of many, would dictate it, but that would have been rebellion. Never would I have stood for rebellion, and many others likewise. Despise the bloodlines, yes, I did that, every day I was a jounin I hated them, and for many reasons, but I would not have rebelled against the Mizukage, for though a bloodline limit, he was rightly the Mizukage then, and a ninja who is not loyal to his proper master is not a ninja at all. So it seemed hopeless, for there was no way to topple the bloodline leaders of the countries short of rebellion, and until one fell no rebellion would ever succeed."
"It was twenty years ago when our 6th Mizukage, who was then the jounin Hiramitsu Osamu, found a way to change the world. However, that is a different part of history," Akai concluded. "Do you have a greater understanding now?"
"Yes Warlord," Saki replied, her voice emotionless again, leaving Akai with no clue at all what the tale might have meant to her. I will need to find out soon enough, the Warlord knew, I must pry the secrets out from behind the mantis shrimp mask, before no one can anymore. The Warlord found that thought was both encouraging and discouraging at the same time.