Against the World
"The soil of the world is soaked in blood."
-x-
Many felt there was barely a pause between the second and third war, and on top of that the third went twice as long as the other two before it.
It seems the fourth was destined to surpass it in all ways.
-x-
i
(The Square Root of Negative One)
The fourth war officially commenced nine years after the end of the third, shortly after the death of my mother, but everyone knew it was coming for years beforehand.
It started with a peace treaty, not even half a decade after the end of the third war. While the war was officially over at that time, the purpose of the treaty was to ensure the continuation of the non-aggression policy between the Village Hidden in the Leaves and the Village Hidden in Clouds.
At least that was the pretense. In truth, Cloud proposed the treaty in order to gain entrance to Leaf, to attempt to steal the Byakugan.
The details of what actually happened are up for debate, and I'm not too clear on them, even now, but what is known is that the head ninja from Cloud attempted to kidnap the Hyuuga heiress, but was caught in the act, and as a result of the ensuing scuffle, both the head ninja and the heiress were killed.
Cloud claims that it was obviously a misunderstanding, the head ninja was surely not attempting to kidnap the girl, perhaps she'd just wandered out and he was returning her home, and the hasty actions of the Leaf ninja are what resulted in the death of the heiress and the head ninja. As such, Cloud felt that Leaf was responsible for the unjustified death of their ambassador and owed them reparations.
What Cloud didn't know was that their head ninja didn't die in the ensuing skirmish, but shortly afterwards—by which point Leaf already had a Yamanaka read his memories, and as a result Leaf knew for certain that the peace treaty was a pretense for bloodline theft from the very beginning. Unfortunately, the Yamanaka's jutsu put too much stress on the injured ambassador, which is what killed him. Leaf couldn't admit to essentially killing the head ninja outside of battle, however, as it violated accords signed to end the third war and would reflect poorly upon them.
It was a messy situation, all around. Not that I remember it of course, I was only a year old at the time.
The head of the Hyuuga clan was up in arms—his heiress, his daughter, had been killed in an attempt at bloodline theft, and he was adamant Cloud had to pay. The other clans rallied around him, thoughts and fears of 'it could have been us' racing in their minds.
Things were tense, neither side ready to give in, and since it was just a few short years since the end of the third war, the samurai from the Land of Iron stepped in to act as peace keepers, hoping to avoid another violent war when no one, especially civilian settlements, had yet to recover.
Neither Leaf nor Cloud had any intentions of settling things peacefully, but both humoured the samurai, offering pretty words and making token efforts to work things out. No, despite the interference of the samurai, war was coming once more, Leaf and Cloud were just using them as an excuse to delay it.
It was five tense years before the official start of the war. Both villages had used the time to build up their forces and strengthen defences. Behind the backs of the naive samurai who believed progress was being made, alliances were forged between nations in preparation for battle. The samurai and civilians may have believed peace was possible, but every ninja village across the continent was well aware that was a fool's dream.
Despite their animosity during the third war, Cloud and Rock put aside their differences in the face of a common and greater enemy, and forged a strong alliance. The damage Cloud did to Rock was nothing compared to what the Yellow Flash did to them.
Things were more complicated for Leaf, however. Despite the formal alliance with Sand, the ninja from the Land of Wind refused to stand by their word.
"We just ended a war," I'm told the Kazekage said. "We have no interest in fighting another."
Leaf ninja were furious, and I can't blame them, but the Hokage was well aware there was little they could do. Indeed, they could not make Sand fight with them, and any attempts at retaliation would only lead to Sand siding with Cloud and Rock. Sand ninja were persona non grata in Leaf, and would be for years to come.
It was a betrayal, a deep one, considering Leaf wasn't the one at fault for the conflict.
Fortunately for Leaf, they were approached for an alliance by Mist. Apparently, Cloud had a "treaty" in the works with Mist as well, and it wasn't hard to guess how Cloud intended for it to end.
The alliance was tense at first, but during the Preparation Period as it would later be called, Leaf and Mist established a close, mutually beneficial relationship. The Leaf discreetly sent medical ninja to Mist, as medicine was an area they were sorely lacking in, and in return Mist shared their poisons and brought over many exotic, deadly plants for the Leaf's greenhouses.
Trade boomed between the two villages—Leaf had exclusive contracts from mining companies in Mountain Country, and the ore was passed on to the expert weapon smiths in Mist, who forged blades sharper and more durable than the Leaf could ever hope to.
The two nations were lucky—there was only Red Bean Country and a few island nations separating them. Trade routes were long, but discreet. Supplies were sent south down the Yamato river in Fire Country until it joined the ocean. Then they sailed around the main land and up the Kurokono river in Water Country to Mist. Of course, once the war officially started and Rock and Cloud were aware of the alliance, the route was altered to prioritize speed over secrecy.
And of course, Leaf also had a hidden ally in the Land of Rice Fields, positioned half way between Lighting and Earth, keeping an eye on the comings and going of their enemies.
-x-
It was a waiting game for Hidden Leaf. The village had never eased up on war time protocols, and so the academy was churning out graduates in large batches every six months. Enrollment was highly encouraged, even among civilian families. If one had a ninja in their family, after all, they received more rations when the war started.
And unlike when the nation was actively at war, there was time to train the fresh graduates adequately. Most jounin in the village had taught a team of genin during the Preparation Period, if only until their chuunin promotions. The jounin who weren't occupied training new recruits were busy running A and S rank missions, boosting the village's income so there was a nice nest egg when the war started.
Similarly, less experienced ninja were working the farm land south of the village, their use of chakra increasing the efficiency of harvesting and growing. Crop yields were at an all time high, the excess stockpiled in the village.
The Village Hidden in the Leaves was ready for war, but they could not be the ones to abandon the peace talks—they were already able to largely portray themselves as the victims, and being the ones to officially start the war could turn sympathizers against them. No, they had to wait, and while they did so, they grew stronger.
Eventually, Cloud moved. Again, I hardly know the details, but from my understanding they accused one of the samurai leading the peace talks of being a spy for Leaf, though their evidence was circumstantial at best, and attacked. The Leaf ninja present jumped to the defence of the remaining samurai, and thus the first battle began.
Personally, I'm willing to bet the samurai accused of espionage truly was guilty. That, or dead and impersonated by a Leaf ninja on a suicide mission to kick off the war. The fact that despite the samurai's own skill and combat and the defence the Leaf ninja provided, the only survivors of the battle were ninja didn't help my suspicions.
Like I said, Leaf may appear to be the nice village, but it's only because they're the best liars.
-x-
Notes: This... was intended to be an intro scene. But after 500 words it grew too long for one, so it's an interlude, hence my decision to use the number i to number the chapter. Complex numbers seemed a fun way to number things outside of the main chapters, don't you agree? The fact that the intro scene turned into 1K+ words meant I had to go and write an actual intro scene for chapter five though. Bah.
Thanks for reading,
The Mathemagician