Content warning: torture and violence

-O-

The journey of the bottle of wine, once it reaches Cloud, is clear – it was a gift to the Raikage from a senior diplomat. Due to a variety of internal factors, the backlog of items needing security checks was at around nine months, and as a result the bottle was left in the metaphorical 'in-tray'. Rather than being tested for poison, it was misplaced about six months later to the outgoing gifting section of the diplomatic corps. The label 'For A' was removed and instead it was passed to a visiting dignitary from Stone. The resulting fallout was a small but significant factor in the escalating tension that led to the Second Shinobi War. The source of the assassination attempt was never established; ironically, it is suspected by modern scholars to originally be from Stone, meaning in a roundabout way they assassinated one of their own.

Excerpt from Paperwork, a matter of life and death, a pamphlet widely attributed to the granddaughter of the Second Mizukage.

-O-

It was dark in the room, save for a single pool of light illuminating the bound man. He was sitting at an empty table and as far as he could see, the space around him was bare too. Blood ran in a trickle down his temple and in a steady drip...drip...drip to the floor. The prisoner's headband had been removed but his uniform was distinct enough to identify him as one of Kumogakure's ANBU. The shabby condition it was in meant that, most likely, the word 'former' should be added to his job description.

Orochimaru, standing in the shadows, cleared his throat. The man pretended to still be unconscious, but after the second throat clearing he realised he wouldn't get away with it. Behind his back he was working at the bindings, but that was fine. Even without them, he had no chance of leaving the room alive.

"Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in?" he asked, straightening up. "I'm–"

"Unless you're planning to tell me your real name, I wouldn't bother," Orochimaru interrupted. "I'm not going to address you by some silly pseudonym."

The man grimaced. "I'm a member of the ANBU division of Kumogakure. I was kidnapped by foes of my village, but if you return me you will be paid the standard bounty. I'm more valuable to you alive than dead."

"A would try to kill me on sight even if I brought him a long-lost son or daughter, let alone a single errant jounin," Orochimaru said. He was enjoying himself, and the effect of a disembodied voice would be unnerving his target even if he was a hardened ninja. The best kinds of mind games worked even when they were recognised for what they were. "Before you go fishing for more information, there's something you should know. It's your other employer that has landed you here."

That led to a shudder of fear going up the man's back. It was one thing to cross a ninja village, and quite another to deliberately pick a fight with–

"What do you want with Akatsuki?" he asked. Then he stopped and thought for a second. "And why does it start with kidnapping a member?"

"Akatsuki have nine members, each with a ring on their finger. Once there were ten, but when one left and took his ring with him, he could not be replaced. You have no ring; in fact, you have nothing of value on you. You are not a member of Akatsuki," Orochimaru lectured, feigned anger entering his voice. "You are scum working for the highest bidder, a mercenary with no loyalties other than to your purse."

"You make a good point," the man said, deadpan. Behind his back, he had finally broken the bonds around his wrists. He held his hands perfectly still, ready to seize the chance to escape. "I shall repent of my wickedness, give all my wealth to a monastery, and lead a life of solitude and prayer."

That got a chuckle out of Orochimaru. "I like you, you know."

"I take it that means I'm free to go?"

Orochimaru stepped into the light and smiled wider than a human mouth could possibly smile. "Unfortunately it's not quite that simple." He watched all light leave the man's eyes, as the last shreds of hope he must have been clinging onto faded away.

It was flattering, in a way. Orochimaru had earned his reputation and it was nice to have his skills recognised.

"There's no information I have that's particularly valuable, but if you do have something you want to know, just ask. I'm not particularly interested in getting tortured, especially if I'm going to be dying anyway." The artifice was gone now, and the man just looked exhausted from years of double-dealing and subterfuge. He lay his hands flat on the table, no longer pretending they were still tied together.

For a moment, Orochimaru considered it. Part of him was moved by the stoicism of the man, could empathise and understand. On the other hand, it would take time and effort to get a replacement, and there were more interesting games afoot than one sympathetic (and pathetic) jounin. "I don't have any questions for you. The reason I had you taken was because I need Akatsuki's attention. I'm going to place a mutilated corpse somewhere they will find it, and when they investigate what happened to you, it will draw them where I want them to go."

"That's the first bit of halfway good news today. At least it'll be painless," the man said. His face was pale but he sounded jovial. It lasted until Orochimaru shook his head, and the man flinched as if struck.

Orochimaru had always been of the opinion that people who are going to die should know why beforehand, if at all possible. He did a lot of killing and sometimes he forgot, but in moments like this there was no hurry.

"These are some skilled ninja I am trying to fool, and the only way they will believe that I tortured you to death is if I do exactly that. There are marks that are only present if the body is exposed to enough pain. Faking it well enough to fool the likes of Konan or Sasori is beyond me. I'm sorry," he said, and meant it.

The man gulped. "Could I at least have a glass of water beforehand?"

"You might try to drown yourself and speed up the process. It would be too much of a risk, and I don't want to have to retrieve a second Akatsuki-affiliated mercenary," Orochimaru explained. Delaying would add signs of stress so there was no harm in taking his time and creating a more thorough final product.

"Can you give me anything at all?" the man begged. There were tears prickling the corners of his eyes. If Orochimaru concentrated, he could hear the man's heartbeat go crazy from stress and fear.

"Feel free to scream," Orochimaru told him gently. "Some people find it helps."

He didn't need tools, but a disposable apron made the clean-up easier afterwards so he took one out of a drawer and pulled it on. The man was babbling now, making desperate pleas and promises, and Orochimaru's earlier sympathy was evaporating fast. Letting the victim wallow in emotional distress would add to the overall picture he was painting – when the scene was discovered later, the body would be the part examined most intensely. But as the victim made a run for the door, Orochimaru decided he had waited long enough.

There was a lot of screaming, and then some gurgling, and then silence apart from the wet sound of flesh moving in ways it was not supposed to move.

-O-

"Did you sleep well?" Orochimaru asked, hiding his laughter behind an exaggerated hiss.

The man stared forward, stoic as always, refusing to rise to the bait.

Orochimaru's right hand was ready to serve, waiting two steps to the side and one step behind the great stone chair that Orochimaru himself sat on. Recently returned from a long mission, the man looked ill at ease in the depths of the Sound stronghold. Coming out of deep cover was never a trivial process. On the other hand, he had gotten used to much bigger changes lately.

Orochimaru grinned again. "It's good to have you back, even if I had to get a little creative in extracting you safely. And now we know Project Samsara was a success." At that, the man shuddered.

"Is there any way I can assist you?" he broke his silence. "Perhaps something should be done about the destruction of your laboratories and safehouses?"

"That won't be necessary," Orochimaru said. He wondered how much to reveal – even in the heart of his domain, with his most loyal subordinate, trust was scarce. There was nothing like playing the great game against real opponents, but he would make do with this pale imitation if he must.

It was only temporary, anyway.

"My lord, if I am to be of use, I must know at least some of what your plans are."

That much was true, at least. Orochimaru considered matters for a moment longer, then spoke. "The attacks are a distraction. I am being rather transparently deceived into believing Akatsuki is coming for my head, and I believe the aim is that I mobilise against them. It is a foolish plan, but it is being carried out with great skill, and therefore worth investigating."

"Who is behind the Little War then, if not your former allies?"

"We shall see," Orochimaru said, stretching out on his throne. He had his suspicions, but no more than that. "All shall be revealed in time, and I lose little from the wait."

Everything important to him was sealed away, stowed in secret caches that nobody in his organisation knew of, or existed only in Orochimaru's own memory. Losing material wealth and prestige was a temporary blow and the point of having his own ninja village was to make use of it. Having a power base that you spent more time defending than you gained from possessing it was a mistake, and not one that Orochimaru intended to chase. Everything around him – the resources, the researchers, the ninja, even the buildings – was temporary.

Given his failures in Sand, the immediate value of Orochimaru's makeshift army had declined, and in the longer-term he had no interest in it. The draconian security restrictions and frequent purges of suspected spies and potential traitors would take their toll in the long run, anyway. Otogakure was living on borrowed time, even if none of his followers knew it yet.

The same could be said of the mystery foe, whose identity was a delightful mystery. The bait set out for him was juicy, and he intended to bite, but only on his own terms. Orochimaru was not some fresh-faced genin giddy with the success of his first mission. He had spilled an ocean of blood and swam through those ruddy waters to see the bright new day on the other side. 'Forsaken' they called him, and forgot that the root of the word meant 'one who is alone'.

No other had crossed those same depths, he was sure.

"What appointments are left for the day?" Orochimaru asked.

"Tayuya has lost a safehouse that held some discretionary funds. This one was due to Jiraiya's meddling. She wants to discuss the finances of her sector of Otogakure."

Splitting the village up to be ruled by his subordinates had seemed like a good idea at the time. More opportunities for intrigue, less day-to-day administration required by Orochimaru himself. In practice, it had proved to come with as many downsides as upsides. Still, the diversion was interesting enough that Orochimaru was willing to let it continue for the moment.

The collapse of Otogakure would be mildly embarrassing but anything short of the end of the world was only a passing concern. One day, when his projects bored him and none of the people set against him could keep him entertained, Orochimaru would leave. He'd take the few things he valued and set up again elsewhere, perhaps under a new name. Whether it took months or centuries to reach that point, it was coming. For an immortal, life brought a whole host of new challenges.

Perhaps his teammates would come to the same realisation in time, and join him. The thought did not displease him.

"The Little War is an interesting name," he said idly. "Is it in common use by the ninja of Sound?"

"It has been for several weeks now, my lord."

"How intriguing."

Names were a curious thing. The reign of the Second Hokage of Konohagakure was remembered as a time of rough but fair diplomacy abroad, in large part because of the concerted propaganda efforts the man had led. The War of Hawks could easily have been called the War of Donkeys instead, and that would have been a far harder sell to Konohagakure's populace.

By the time it ended, Orochimaru expected this particular scuffle to have a new appellation. He would personally ensure it, if necessary.

"Tell Tayuya her request for funds has been granted," Orochimaru ordered, suddenly seized by a desire to witness these attacks for himself. "Use some of the money earmarked for Project Adharma. With Samsara's success it's no longer a priority. Project Marionette can begin, and we'll fold the resources from Samsara into it. There's enough overlap that it shouldn't be an issue."

"Will you assign me to Project Marionette, given my history?" the second-in-command asked.

The suggestion was brushed aside. "You've given them all the knowledge you were able to gather, and I took a sample in the one confrontation I had. What's left is mostly experimentation and a lot of dead ends. We have loftier goals to pursue. Come."

It was truly a shame that the Akatsuki were nowhere nearby. Many of Orochimaru's former colleagues were interesting, even unique, and he relished the thought of crossing paths again. Perhaps when his current great work was finished, he would have the time and energy to track them down two by two.

-O-

The shape of the battle had been carved into the landscape by blood and bodies and the shattered remnants of the laboratory's defences. Then, of course, the perpetrators had covered their tracks as thoroughly as possible, but to one skilled at reading the signs, some information could still be gleaned. Orochimaru strode through the marsh that had once been a Sound outpost and peeled back the layers in his mind's eye.

Water was a good way to mess with the aftermath of a skirmish, as it erased tracks and hastened the decay of any bodies left behind. It had been used during the battle as well, though. Given that none of the nine men and women defending the outpost had been fond of water techniques, that implied it was likely used by the attackers.

Both guards on duty had been killed from ambush, Orochimaru decided, running a finger along the exposed and shattered ribs on one of the corpses. Flesh was rotting off the bones, but the ragged edges of the wound could still be seen. Whatever had inflicted the injury was long, extremely heavy and not very sharp. Something like the blunt side of an oversized sword.

"We are supposed to deduce that Kisame was behind this," Orochimaru announced. His guards had kept their distance while he worked, but now they moved forwards again.

"My lord, shall we attempt to recover anything from the wreckage?" his right hand asked.

Orochimaru shook his head. "There will be nothing of use, and I guarantee they will have placed traps. We'll collapse the tunnels and then sink the whole complex into the ground so that any second-rate meddlers can't recover information on our tunnel layouts and defences. I doubt Jiraiya will show up in person but he's seeded enough informants in the Land of Rice that one of them is bound to investigate."

The Sound ninja drew back to a safe distance as Orochimaru set to work. There were a handful of techniques for a large-scale working of this kind, but they were inefficient and not thorough enough besides. A known technique was easier to cast in concert, but since Orochimaru was working alone he simply pushed vast quantities of earth chakra into the ground. After ten minutes enough of the area was saturated with his chakra, and he could move onto the second step. A twist of will and another large drain on his reserves – and a square mile of forest and swamp clenched, as though the hand of a god had squashed it together and pressed it down.

It was messy and inelegant, but most of all it was thorough. "Let's see someone sift through that," Orochimaru laughed as he rejoined his guards.

Rather than return to Otogakure, the group set off for the border with Earth Country. Given the amount of collateral damage in Rice Country, there were bound to be ninja from Iwagakure investigating, and Orochimaru wanted to monitor how many came and where they searched. He would set up an outpost near the border to keep an eye on things. Half his guard team should suffice in the short term, and later on a schedule of sorts would be arranged.

He was left to his own devices on the way. His people knew better than to interrupt him when he was deep in thought.

Orochimaru had always been a little odd, set apart from others, but the degree of separation had grown into a vast gulf. He was, after all, now immortal. This was not common knowledge, as such, but a handful of higher-ups in each of the major villages would know, or at least suspect, that this was the case. They thought it made him less of a threat; there was, as far as they were aware, no reason for him to risk his life when he could just wait for his enemies to die of old age. They were wrong.

He had struck recently, after all. The plot with Sand could have led to the destruction of Konohagakure, or to open warfare between two former allies. In the confusion Orochimaru would have had the chance to seize land and money, or establish Otogakure as a real ninja village. For most renegades that kind of revenge would be motive enough, and so none had divined the real reasons for his actions.

There was no need for clever schemes or grand designs if Orochimaru just wanted to hurt the village of his birth. His many experiments were kept secret for a reason. Plagues that, if seeded widely enough, would cripple a kingdom. Vaults full of secrets that could up-end the social order of the world. Legendary treasures, incurable poisons, illusions more real than reality itself, the methods for binding a lesser god such as the Nine-Tailed Fox. Orochimaru was not the only person with access to such weapons, but he had the fewest reasons to keep them leashed. He had never used any of them because they would not have won him the game – they would have broken the board. The last survivor in a world of ashes would be a dull part indeed to play.

Part of his unique condition was that Orochimaru thought in the very long term – perhaps he was the only person in history to do so. The world of ninja villages, of treaties and laws and so very much order, was one where society calcified. It had already begun – a newborn would have four generations of ancestors who'd never known the all-encompassing war before the founding of the villages, and the changes in culture had been slow but steady. Stability was the new watchword and it was boring. Peasants were less likely to wind up dead as part of a border war, merchants could move goods over long distances in relative safety, factories were sprouting like mushrooms but underneath it all was a sickness that had set in. There had been no real changes in the shape of the world for almost a century. Borders were static, or near enough. Wars were fought behind closed doors, with dozens dead rather than thousands and over stakes far smaller than ever before.

Larger, steadier states were swallowing up all the buffer regions, the soft edges where influence waned being built into something much firmer. A time was coming without cracks for Orochimaru to slither through, and without any way for him to stir the pot. Boredom without end wasn't the kind of eternal life he wanted.

And so the truth at the heart of Orochimaru was this: he wanted to end all the ninja villages and bring back the Warring Clans Era, as it was now so poetically known. It wouldn't even take that much work. A push here, to start another war and drag in all the major villages. A nudge there, so that smaller players would break free when they saw an opportunity, and then feast on the scraps when one or another greater power was broken. The spy networks that riddled every village were the spark that would light civil war in every home, once too many sons and daughters didn't come home from battle. Discord and paranoia, mania and horror would do the rest, with a helping hand to ensure that when tensions between the clans rose, there would be no calming influence. Once the first stone falls, the rest follow, Orochimaru knew, and there were oh so many stones teetering on the edge already.

Sand had been a failure. But he didn't need to win every time. He just needed to land a single solid blow, somewhere where the instability was greatest. After that the cracks would spread and it would be too late to repair the damage.

Orochimaru stopped and his guards came to a halt around him. He scooped up a few pebbles from the ground while he came to a decision.

"Kabuto," he called out, and the man in question came to his side. The untested resurrection technique he had gone through had left marks deeper than just the ash and mud on his face, and when Orochimaru peered closely enough he could see the wounds on his soul. No matter; that was the whole point of a prototype. "I have orders that you will need to take back to Otogakure. There are other fires I must tend."

"Of course, my lord," his right hand said. "What is your command?"

Orochimaru of the Sannin, known to some as the Forsaken, to others as the White Snake, and to no-one still living as the Broken Devil, tossed a pebble to the ground. It bounced, tumbled, and then knocked a dead leaf into a puddle of stagnant water. He had made his choice. "Send Kidoumaru to Kirigakure. He can weave some of those webs he loves so much and keep us informed of the happenings there."

"Why Kirigakure, Lord Orochimaru?"

He smiled a smile that was the ruin of nations. "I suspect that the Bloody Mist will live up to its name soon."

"Your will be done," Kabuto said, bowing deeply.

-O-

They were almost at the border when things went wrong. The two ninja at the head of the procession suddenly vanished, and when Orochimaru called a halt it turned out the rearguard had disappeared too. Three veteran chunin missing was bad enough, but some summoned snakes sent out to scout the area found a party of a dozen Stone ninja blocking the road ahead. Most likely, there were more lying in wait nearby who were better hidden.

There was, to be blunt, about zero chance of that happening naturally. Someone had set them up. Six guards were left to him, and in a split second Orochimaru evaluated how best to make use of them.

"All of you, run back to Sound as fast as you can. Try to escape, but if you think you would be captured, don't be taken alive," Orochimaru instructed. Not a single man or woman dared to protest. They'd seen him like this before, and knew better than to challenge him.

"No backup at all?" came a voice from the trees. "That might turn out to be a tactical error, although I applaud you for valuing the lives of your subordinates."

"Well, if it isn't my old friend coming for a visit again," Orochimaru hissed, a grin splitting his face. They both knew the real reason the guards had been sent away – against a foe of this calibre, they were walking bags of information just waiting to be picked up and wrung out. Only one man would bother teasing him like this.

Jiraiya leapt down opposite Orochimaru, and a trio of Stone jounin took up flanking positions. They were working together, and openly so, which was a new development. The implications were immense but a proper analysis would, unfortunately, have to wait until there weren't so many battle-hardened ninja out for Orochimaru's blood.

"This is perhaps the most dangerous ninja you'll encounter on the field of battle your whole lives," Jiraiya warned his unlikely allies. The stench of their fear was near-imperceptible, but to Orochimaru it lay thick on the air. Soon it would be replaced by blood and shit and the other unsanitary smells that colonised a battlefield.

"Hadeki Kurosawa, Gerikai 'Gek' Tsou, Rai Saipu," he identified each of the Stone ninja in turn. This was going to be fun. "Heavy hitters, all of you, and smart as well as strong. I'm flattered. If any of you tell me what Jiraiya offered you to get you here today, I promise to let you live after this fight is over."

"You were right," Gek said, her face hardening. She was rumoured to be one of the Tsuchikage's chosen successors, with all the talent that implied. "It's all a game to him." Rai spat on the ground then drew his sword. He was a young man still, but he'd already racked up an impressive body count. Behind him, Hadeki sank into the ground. That one was the most concerning – people who crossed him didn't wind up as public spectacles, they just disappeared one day and were never spoken of again.

"When you attach your strings to people, you do a thorough job," Orochimaru congratulated Jiraiya. "One day I'll figure out the trick myself."

"There's no trick," Jiraiya replied. It was an old argument of theirs, and Orochimaru was happy to get into it again. The longer they spoke, the greater the chance that Orochimaru's subordinates would escape. In exchange, the Stone ninja were setting up some technique or other. Whether the gamble proved worth it, only time would tell. "We have a common goal and common strategy for reaching it. Interests aligning has always been a foreign concept to you, because in your heart you are a despot and a tyrant."

Currents of chakra in the earth below Orochimaru's feet gave him ample warning to avoid the spikes of rock that burst forth. They were too slow to kill someone with his abilities, so presumably the plan was to force him to move. Orochimaru could have shattered the spikes, or torn the chakra constructs apart before they even reached the surface, or countered in one of a million other ways, but he wanted to see what the plan was. The risk to him was minimal, and perhaps some insight could be gleaned from the process.

He leapt away, allowing the technique to graze the soles of his sandals as he hissed in fake displeasure. Rai jumped to meet him, shrouded in layered illusions courtesy of Gek, and Orochimaru was impressed at the combination technique. He brushed the strike aside and countered with a whip-fast cut that was blocked. It was almost enough to allow Jiraiya up close, but rather than get bogged down in taijutsu Orochimaru gained some distance.

With the first volley out of the way, it was time to see what he could glean from his foes through their choice of strategy. The greater the coordination, the more trust it would signify between Jiraiya and the Stone ninja. If this was more than a temporary partnership, that had serious ramifications. And it was a total shock. Jiraiya had always had a pragmatic streak when it came to politics, but Stone?

The approach was one that Orochimaru was familiar with. Jiraiya stayed in the middle distance, far enough that any attack could be dodged but close enough to threaten Orochimaru with a bout of taijutsu. Hadeki launched earth ninjutsu from underground, keeping Orochimaru's footing unstable and interrupting any attempts to use larger techniques to counterattack. Rai and Gek did most of the work, cutting through the snakes that Orochimaru threw out and hurling kunai and lesser ninjutsu his way. Gek's illusions in particular were impressive; they nearly matched the quality of Iwagakure's famed Grey Pearl, a genjutsu specialist of mythical skill.

It took two full minutes of combat for Orochimaru to notice what was wrong with the scene in front of him.

Despite the pressure he was under, he managed to stay one step ahead of Jiraiya the whole time. His former teammate didn't bait him into another argument, didn't pull a new trick to get up close and personal, didn't even add his own ninjutsu to the mix. Acting more on instinct than any plan, Orochimaru let him get close on the next exchange. Jiraiya fumbled the approach – fumbled it – and that was the last piece of evidence Orochimaru needed. He stopped and took half a second to suppress all his chakra, a risky move in a battle that the real Jiraiya would have punished him for, but which was the only way he could guarantee a full purge of any genjutsu placed upon him.

The three Stone jounin were real, but Jiraiya was revealed to be a middle-aged lady with a severe bun and a slight limp.

"I suppose I should be flattered the Grey Pearl herself came out to meet me," Orochimaru said with a grin. All was right with the world again; the odds of Jiraiya working with Stone were almost nil, after all. And four jounin of Iwagakure, regardless of how skilled they were, didn't qualify as a real threat. That counted double now that Orochimaru knew to watch for illusions. And every exchange gave him more knowledge on their fighting styles, knowledge which he could analyse and disseminate as needed.

"Consider it a compliment all you like, before the year is through I'll have made a corpse of you," she replied.

Orochimaru laughed and drew his sword. He would capture whoever struck at him next, for interrogation purposes, then let the others flee when they realised he outmatched them. "I believe there's a traditional response to claims like that. Ah, yes – let's fucking go."

The attack never came.

"We've got what we came for," the Grey Pearl called instead. As one, the Stone ninja turned and left. Orochimaru watched them go, more confused than angry.

Stone was provoking him, seemingly without reason. Akatsuki still wanted his head, and he'd kicked the hornet's nest himself by abducting and killing one of their underlings. Some mystery third party was also taking a swing at his power base. Kidoumaru was about to go stir up trouble with Mist, and the Leaf was apparently getting ready to move against the Akatsuki as well. Sand hadn't taken his assassination attempt lying down, and the silence from those quarters was concerning rather than reassuring.

So many factors and so many factions were all being pulled into his little corner of the world. Everything was coming together. Orochimaru leapt away, mind flooding with new plans and strategies. He was going to be kept very busy.

-O-

A/N: A note on the geography and politics of the Spire version of the Naruto world. As perhaps befits a story which reworks a lot of the Naruto setting, I have quite a few changes relative to canon. I'll go into some detail below on what's different, and why I chose to design things that way. Some of this will be plot-relevant later on, but if you're not a fan of dry world-building you can skip this – anything important (and plenty that isn't) will wind up in the actual narrative.

The five great ninja villages, and the countries they are located in, are the big powerhouses. They control most of the land, and more importantly almost all of the land worth having. The Land of Fire has fertile farmlands and a thriving wood export industry. The Land of Wind controls key overland trade routes and some very lucrative mines, as well as the biggest industrial hub on the continent. The Land of Water dominates naval trade routes and also plenty of port cities on the mainland, along with a large slice of all fishing. The Land of Earth exports food and metal goods, although its traditional diet is heavier in meat and dairy due to lots of available grazing but less land suitable for intensive agriculture. The Land of Lightning is the odd one out – most of it is empty as the northern three-quarters suffer from truly brutal winters. It's the most industrialised of the five great nations but all that industry is clustered along the southern border, where it's accessible for the main trade routes but also vulnerable to enemy action. That permanent danger is what has shaped the character of Cloud ninja.

Lesser nations exist either as client states, buffer states or aren't worth the effort of seizing (or some combination). I won't be using the full roster of countries that are described in canon, since there's way more than I'll need and I don't want to clutter the story with thirty unnecessary country names. Wave is a client state to Water, although it's poor and out-of-the-way so usually left to its own devices. Rice is a buffer state between Earth and Fire, Rivers is a buffer state between Wind and Fire (although parts of it have been annexed given the long-running Leaf/Sand alliance, so the two countries do share a direct border now), Whirlpool was a buffer state between Fire and Cloud although it allied with Fire and, after its ninja village was destroyed, the land was claimed by Water.

Orochimaru spent a lot of time in the buffer zone between Earth and Fire, because a) Konohagakure throwing a load of ninja into finding him will look like preparation for war to the Tsuchikage, and b) there aren't any local ninja who might cause issues for him either. As a result he's set up his village there, although (as you might have gathered from this chapter) it's not really a traditional ninja village. Unlike most ninja villages it also doesn't have any formal links to the ruler of the country it's situated in, but Rice is desperately poor so the man who rules it doesn't get any respect from anyone anyway.

Water isn't a country in the proper sense of the word. It's very feudal in the sense that there are a lot of mostly-independent nobles ruling small islands or stretches of the coast, and most of them obey the Daimyo to some extent. Kirigakure is in the Isles, which are the administrative heart of Mist but not the wealthiest part. This political setup is the reason for the frequent civil wars, and apart from the first Mizukage no leader has ruled over the entirety of the Mist ninja community. Water also has a habit of growing or shrinking as territory is gained or lost, although one reason the country is misliked is that it claims all lands that have ever theoretically taken orders from the Isles.

Rain was a client state of Wind, then Earth provoked a proxy war between it and Grass (a Fire client state) before promptly invading. The ensuing mess led to a lot of dead ninja, the devastation of most trade and industry, huge numbers of refugees fleeing, and no changes to any country's borders. Outside of Rain few remember the conflict. It's a not-uncommon example of what happens to the lesser nations during a full-on ninja war.

Earth hasn't moved its borders in a long time. It sits between two mountain ranges and any attempt to project force through those forbidding peaks is doomed to eventual failure. When it gets involved in a war, it's aiming to cripple its enemies, seize wealth and information, and gain soft power by pulling smaller countries into its sphere of influence. It's the complete opposite of Lightning, which wants to grab as much land as possible along its southern border so that the core cities are better-protected.

Fire and Wind are pragmatic in that they don't usually seize land outright. Instead they negotiate for customs exemptions for their merchants, the right to recruit ninja (and regular soldiers), and the demilitarisation of those lands. As a result any territory they're awarded becomes dependent on Fire and/or Wind for protection and is too economically reliant to try to break free and ally with another country.